Elena's phone call hadn't been what he had expected. Bonnie was back. That's all she had told him and her tone had indicated that something was terribly, terribly, wrong. He cleaned himself up, shaved, showered, and parked his car in front of his house-nervous. He hadn't been nervous ever since he was dead. Plus, Bonnie being back right now wasn't exactly great timing. Like at all. Because Katherine was back, intent on punishing Stefan and Elena for being together. Why? Because she loved Stefan. Always had. Always would. Her own words-words that had him flip his shit. Bonnie, he had told her to leave because of some misguided faith in himself and his love for Katherine… and that bitch's love for him. He had fucked up, royally. And now Bonnie was back and he had a strong feeling of knowing and self-loathing that it wasn't because of him.
He opened the door, bucked up his balls, and put on his trademark façade. With a smirk he threw the door open, tossed his designer duffel in the foyer, and yelled- "I'm home!" He wasn't too surprised when Stefan came down the stairs, arms crossed, brooding.
"What's the matter Stef? Bunnies duck and run for cover? Hungry?"
"We called you a few days ago. Bonnie's been hulled up in her room."
"Yeah speaking of witch, why did you call me exactly? We have enough on our hands-Katherine, a possible unknown supernatural element in our mist, and now we have to baby-sit Bonnie? What's wrong with her anyway," Damon said stepping into the library tossing off his jacket and pouring himself a drink.
"Dean died," came a spitefully dismissive voice.
Bonnie was standing next to the couch, arms crossed over the oversized plaid shirt she was wearing. Legs bare, hair tossed around her shoulders. Practically ready to be fucked. Is this what Stefan called depressed? Damon thought to himself before gulping down the smooth burning whiskey.
"Oh well dangerous line of work that one was in."
"He sold his soul to save his brother-not that you would know anything about that kind of loyalty and commitment. He's in hell."
"Well, I guess he joined the club."
Bonnie tilted her head and smiled-but it wasn't the smile he remembered. This one was dangerous, screamed all sorts of warnings-warnings that sent Damon across the library into a wall, then a bookshelf, then the floor, then back to the bookshelf again. Bonnie held him there, suspended off the ground, pain beginning to pool in his head.
"Why are you here? I heard Katherine doesn't want you. Don't make the mistake of thinking I do. My grandmother's dead because of you, Caroline's a vampire because of you. I am not the same person I was a year ago. All I've got left is Elena and you killed her brother. I've got a lot of anger, hate, and rage coursing through me these days Damon. Don't become the target for my frustrations," with that said she turned on her heels and started back up the stairs, a satisfying thud sounding through the echo of the house as Damon hit the floor once again. She slammed her bedroom door behind her and sighed. It had been almost two weeks. You would think she'd be able to leave the Salvatore Boarding House by now.
"Well at least I got her out of her room," Damon joked as Stefan took a seat on the couch having watch the show unfold with keen interest.
"Is this you trying to pretend you don't care that Bonnie has become this angry, powerful witch? Because it looks as if-."
"Don't say it. What's the update on the Lockwoods."
"Who knows-family secrets. But I was talking to Alaric, he thinks Isabel might've had some research regarding what it is. She did snoop out you."
"Snoop," Damon asked stretching himself, "Look if Alaric thinks Isabel's research will help us figure out what the hell is going on with the Lockwoods then why isn't he over here right now."
"Um…A-did you not see Bonnie? She's pretty much scared the shit out of everybody at this point. It took me twenty-four hours to convince her to make a ring for Caroline. When she first saw me she wasn't too pleased. She's only talked to Elena and it wasn't exactly friendly. Alaric showed up asked her how she'd been-the house started shaking. All this pent-up energy is fueling her powers. And it isn't good. B-Isobel's research is Duke. Elena doesn't want to leave Bonnie right now."
"So take Bonnie with us. Problem solved."
"Us? Elena doesn't want to have anything to do with you Damon. You killed Jeremy. And she hates you. And besides you want Bonnie to go with you to Duke? Really, after what just happened? You think you can spend four hours in a car with Bonnie and make it out actually alive?"
"Stefan, haven't you learned by now not to underestimate me? I'm way too predictable for that?"
"Really? Because the whole piss me off and I'll kill you pattern is really that spontaneous."
Damon smiled and turned, observing the books that had been knocked off the shelf from Bonnie's antics. Well, he always knew she had a temper. So she was angry at the world-been there, did that for way longer than he could remember. He didn't want Bonnie to be like him, four hours in a car on road trip to Duke. He could get to work on calming down Sabrina.
"What's your plan Damon? I really, honestly, I really don't think that Bonnie wants anything to do with you."
"Well, she is living in my house. I'm kind of unavoidable."
Alaric looked at Damon and then in the rearview mirror at Elena, Bonnie, then back to Elena. This was a bad, beyond bad, idea. Bonnie was wearing a black t-shirt, earphones tucked into her ears as she tapped her fingers on her knees. She had been this way since they left this morning. Not even a hello to spare for anybody-well except Elena. She occasionally smiled at her best friend-and checked her phone-he wasn't sure who she was expecting to get a call from. When he first heard that Bonnie was back he-like the concerned teacher he was-rushed over to see how she was doing. Only to be greeted with the fact that Bonnie's powers had gotten stronger and she wasn't exactly in a talking mood.
"How you guys doing back there?"
Neither girls responded and he wished that Damon would just stop talking. Trying to provoke Bonnie and Elena into some kind of conversation was obviously epically failing.
"You know this whole pretending to hate me thing is getting a little old."
"Oh I don't think they're pretending. You did kill her brother."
"Yeah, you forget about the part where he came back to life."
"Yeah, thanks to the ring you didn't know he was wearing."
"How are you so sure I didn't know?"
"Did you?"
"Yes," he said turning to look at the both of them-mainly Bonnie. What was with that? Alaric thought.
"Please Damon, you don't give a shit about anybody but yourself. You didn't have a clue. You just want the world to hurt as much as you do."
"Well, you know what they say. It takes one to know one. Besides, I'm surprised you could even hear me back there."
"My battery died an hour ago. I just like ignoring you."
"Yeah you used to like to do other things to me to."
"Like I said. Selfish."
Alaric looked between the vampire and the witch and shook his head. He might've been just a history teacher but it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what Damon had been implying. So, him and Bonnie. Together. Looking at them now it seemed highly implausible. But a few years ago if someone had told him there would be a vampire in his passenger seat and a witch in back, that would've seemed implausible. He couldn't figure out for the life of him what the appeal was. Cold, dead, the ability to be unfeeling. Who would want to come home to that?
"Wow, this is a beautiful campus," Elena said taking in the nature.
"It's gorgeous. When it snows here," Alaric smiled trailing off.
"Do you miss it?"
"I don't know-too many bad memories. You know what I mean Bonnie," he asked looking at the teenager who stopped walking and took a good look at him. It felt like an eternity passed before she smiled, a tear seeped out, and she touched his arm. He sighed in relief.
"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean."
Elena took her best friend's arm with a bout of happiness and a smile, following Alaric inside the old and classically beautiful building.
"Isobel was employed by the anthropology department considering that supernatural phenomena is rooted in folklore," he told the trio before walking into an office where a brunette in a tweed vest was standing, "Hi, excuse me. I'm Alaric Saltzman, I called earlier."
"Oh yeah," she said moving to shake his hand, "Vanessa Monroe. TA, comparative folklore. I'm just going to grab Isobel's keys."
"Oh I'm sorry-these are my friends Elena, Bonnie, and Damon. I hope this isn't too much of an inconvenience."
"Oh no it's fine. But um, I hope it's okay-I mean I have to ask…has there been any news?"
"No," Alaric said sternly. Yeah, breaking the news that your wife had voluntarily become a vampire was a hard thing to do. Vanessa opened the door to a room full of old musty books. Professor indeed. Damon snorted and made a beeline to a shelf by the window.
"You know Bonnie it's okay to check out my ass."
"Grow up Damon," she said before moving to stand next to Elena. Then the hair on the back of her neck stood up and she turned to see Vanessa moving into the room, "Elena," she called out, sending her best friend in Alaric's direction with a flick of her wrist as Vanessa turned with what she realized now was a crossbow and aimed at Bonnie. A blur of movement halted in front of her and a disgusting sound drew attention to the arrow that was now lodged inside of Damon. He looked down at her and Bonnie for a brief second accepted that the pain in his eyes had nothing to do with the wood piercing his chest. Alaric rushed Vanessa, disarming her and throwing her up against the wall with his arm over her neck-inhibiting her breathing. Bonnie took hold of Damon's shoulders and gave him a quick shove towards the desk in the center of the room while Alaric dragged Vanessa out of the room.
"Could one of you pull this out please?"
The two girls exchanged looks. Elena shrugged, her anger resurfacing at seeing Damon in pain. But Bonnie-well, clearly she had never been able to abide it. She moved behind him and touched the arrow. "I can't reach it. Just pull it out please, it hurts."
With a quick tug, she yanked it out and dropped it on the ground. She watched Damon stand up and stretch, "Alright that bitch is dead," he sing-songed.
"Wait a second you are not going to kill her," she told him. He stepped closer and looked in her eyes before giving him that smile that used to make her go weak and horny at the sight.
"Watch me."
"You touch her and I will never speak to you again."
"Yeah because we're on such a good basis as it is. Besides, what makes you think that has any power over me? Because I took an arrow in the back for you?"
"Careful Bonnie. You forget that you're talking to a psychopath who snaps and kills people impulsively."
"That is true but he's not going to kill her-for me. He's not going to do it because I'm asking him not to…because he loves me."
There was a pause as Elena watched Damon step even closer-if that was possible and twirl a strand of Bonnie's hair around his finger. She stood there looking up at him. She almost believed it-the love part.
"You're trying to manipulate me Bonnie, I don't like it."
"If by manipulate you mean tell the truth. Well then I guess I'm guilty. Like I said, you're not going to kill her Damon," Elena watched as Damon struggled, actually struggled, with his decision. Bonnie chuckled and moved past him, knocking his hand away from her hair, "That's what I thought." She followed her best friend out of Isabel's office just in time to see Alaric slam the teaching assistant down into a chair.
"Alright, calm down! I freaked. You would've done the same thing! It is not possible-Katherine Pierce can not be alive and Damon Salvatore died in 1864! And witches-I'm guessing she's a Bennett? Look, I read Isabel's research-."
"Well then you should know just how possible this is," Alaric scolded before looking up at his friends? Students? Whatever.
"I'm Elena Gilbert. Isabel's daughter and a descendant of Katherine Pierce."
"Bonnie Bennett, the witch. And this is Damon Salvatore you just shot. I just talked him out of killing you so-."
"I'd be extra nice to me if I were you," Damon told her.
"We need your help," Elena told her, "we need all of Isabel's research relating to Mystic Falls."
"Fine," she said getting up-avoiding Damon-and handing Elena and Bonnie each a box, "In here is everything Isabel ever found on Katherine. Hop to it."
Bonnie found herself a corner, inviting Damon to finish what she started-if he could. He took the bait, saddled up behind her only to feel a rush of energy push him back.
"Ya' know these I-hate-you-you-love-me-denying-my-true-feelings thing has got to stop."
"I'm not denying anything. I'm not pretending to hate you. I do, I honestly do."
"You don't hate me Bonnie. You asked me why I came back? The question is why did you come back? If you hate me, if you hate Mystic Falls. Why are you here? It's because you've got nowhere else to go, it's because this is home. He's dead okay Bonnie, he's dead. And I'm betting he asked you to come back because he knows he took you from the only home you've ever known. So you don't hate it here and you don't hate me. You're just angry because you want to hate me and you can't."
"If you're trying," she paused, taking a deep breath as he moved close to her again, remembering what it felt like, wishing and praying that it was Dean, "to manipulate me. You have seriously got the situation out of perspective. I don't what we had Damon. We're here for Elena, so Katherine will stop making her life a living hell. Prove me wrong and don't be a selfish fully-functional jackass."
Vanessa and Alaric covertly watched the exchange between the two-keenly aware that everything was not as it seemed with those two.
"Um, are they-."
"I think they used to be but Bonnie she left town, hooked up with this guy who was trouble, and now she's back."
"And Damon Salvatore isn't trouble?"
"Hey guys," Alaric said ignoring her question, "check this out. No werewolves but we got Native American legends-the curse of the sun and the moon. Basically vampires and werewolves and vampires were sources of chaos for the Native Americans-made hunting and farming impossible. An Aztec shaman cursed them, making vampires slaves to the sun and werewolves slaves to the moon. Its why vampires can only come out at night and werewolves only turn on the full moon. When they turn they automatically go on the hunt, seeking out prey. They'll attack anything but years of rivalry give them a preference for vampires. "
"Nope, uh-uh. If werewolves were running around killing vampires I'd know about it."
"There aren't that many left. Vampires hunted them practically to extinction. Legend has it a werewolf bite is fatal to a vampire."
Bonnie and Damon exchanged looks with each other, only palpating the tension more before Damon leaned on his elbows and made this face that clearly said 'FUCK'.