Placage: extralegal unions between white men and women of color.

The story takes place in the 1859, during slavery, in New Orleans. Bonnie is a child of mixed race and is free Damon and Stefan are still a vampires just on a different timeline than the show. Caroline in this story is African American and of mixed race.

Seventeen year old Bonnie Bennett lived a life of priviledge, even if she was born in the wrong century. She was the daughter of a wealthy sugar cane plantation owner in New Orleans in 1842. She was well educated, beautiful, giving, loving, and strong. Her only "flaw", her mother was African American. Abigail Bennett was the mistress of Bertrand Batiste. They lived in a nice house on Rampart Street, the place where Jazz was born and Congo Square, where the slaves would set up a market, sing, dance, and play music. She loved her mother and father, but the older she got the more she understood about her parent's flawed relationship. Her father visited them once a month and her mother would turn the house upside down to make sure everything was perfect for him. He was only there for a night or two, then he would go back to his legitimate family. His wife, Margaret and daughter Elena, who was the same age as Bonnie save a few months. Bertrand met Abby at the Quadroon Ball, the place where mixed race women were presented to groups of white men. With marriages between the two groups forbidden, what supposedly resulted was plaçage, a contractual living-together arrangement. They were his dirty little secret and Bonnie was determined that would not be her life. She would hear her mother beg her father to stay with them and his monthly refusals. Her mother crying herself to sleep and not being able to get out of bed for days after her father went back to his family. She was going to marry the man she loved, a free African American man, James Jackson.

They met everyday in secret and she knew he was the one for her. He was of lighter skin than Bonnie with sandy blond hair a product of his white father, but like her he had green eyes. All she had to do was convince her mother and father that he was the one for her. Her father was coming tonight and she was going to let them know Jamie owned her heart and that she was going to become his wife.

"How have you been Bonnie?"

"I'm fine father." She said nervously.

"Bonnie is learning the piano Bertrand. She plays beautifully," her mother beamed.

She played horribly, but her mother wanted her father to be proud of her.

"That is wonderful Bonnie. There is something that I want to discuss with you." Her father said taking her mother's hand in his.

"Yes? " she asked curiously.

"You have grown into a fine young woman, and you are of an age now where it is time for you to enter into society and find a mate."

"I don't have to enter society, I have found a mate,"she beamed greatful they breached the subject instead of her. "His name is Jamie Jackson and he has asked me to marry him."

Her mother froze. "Jamie Jackson, that black boy from the docks?"

"Yes mother! The Black Boy, like us from the docks."

"I can't allow that Bonnie." Her father said.

"What do you mean, I love him."

"You are not meant to be the wife of some shady dock worker."

"I suppose I am meant to be the whore of a white man!"

Her mother slapped her hard.

"I'm sorry mother."she apologized.

Her father cleared his throat and continued, "I have already have several offers for you, Jeremy Gilbert,"

"He's double my age!"

"And," he continued, " Tyler Lockwood."

"I won't do this, I love Jamie! Don't you want me to be happy? I want to marry him and be his wife."

"That is impossible Bonnie. The ball is in 3 weeks, you will meet your suitors there."

And just like that he left the room, shutting the door on her dreams.

/

The weeks leading up to the ball was a flurry of activities, dresses being made and Bonnie and Jamie plotting.

Caroline Forbes her best friend and also a child of placage. Caroline was happy about the ball, she was ready and okay with the idea of placage. She knew that Bonnie loved Jamie, he was older and more experienced than the boys they grew up with. She didn't exactly trust Jamie though, his eyes sometimes lingered on her breast longer than it should and she had also heard rumors of him with other women.

"What do you want to happen Bonnie? The ball is in a week."

"Jamie and I have a plan. We are going to run away and get married, then they will have to accept it."

"Are you crazy? Your father will kill him!"

"He won't he wants me to be happy."

The night of the ball arrived and Bonnie was stunning. She wore a light charcoal dress, that made her green eyes and caramel skin pop. Tonight was the night, she was going to slip out of the ball and meet Jamie and become his wife.

Immediately she was introduced to Jeremy Gilbert and she felt ill. He was fatter than the last time she had seen him and he sweat profusely. During their dance he stepped on her foot several times. She danced with several men including Tyler Lockwood, who was not unattractive, he was just spoiled and used to getting his way. She hated them all. These men who were the pillars of society throwing a ball to chose whores. She sat in a chair fanning herself watching the dancing with barely concealed hatred sparkling in her green eyes, unaware that a pair of blue predatory eyes had been following her every move all night.

Her father was treating her like a piece of meat and allowing men to make her a sex slave and bare illegitimate children. She had to escape this cruel fate. Caroline asked her to accompany her to the powder room. The two girls made their way through the crowd when Bonnie glanced up noticed a man leaning over the second floor balcony watching her. He had the bluest eyes she had ever seen. The look he was giving her made her steps faulter momentarily. She boldly held his gaze and he held hers.

"What is it Bonnie?" Caroline asked.

"Who is that man up there?"

Caroline looked in the direction of her gaze and immediately crossed herself. Bonnie looked at her strangely as they continued to the powder room.

"Caro, who was that man?"

"His name is Damon Salvatore," she whispered, " he has a brother Stefan, they recently moved here from Virginia."

"Why did you cross yourself when you saw him?"

"Mistress Toulouis, says he is evil."

"The voodoo priestess?" Bonnie didn't put to much faith in what the voodoo priestess of Bourbourn street said, a few years ago when she was thirteen she had passed her in the streets and the old lady had pointed at her and called her a witch.

"Caro, please voodoo?"she shook her head.

" Magic is real Bonnie, there are things in this world that can't be explained,"she said crossing herself again," why did you take notice of him?"

"His was watching me, and his eyes, they are the bluest eyes I have ever seen."

"He is gorgeous, but I get the feeling he is looking from something more than a tiny bit like you."

"Like what?"

"A meal." She laughed hugging her friend. "We better get back."

"You go ahead, I need a few more minutes."

Now was her chance, she snuck out of the powder room and quietly made her way to the where Jamie was waiting. He was under a lamp post and when she saw him, she ran and jumped into his arms kissing him passionately. He had two horses waiting and they made their way to the pastor that Jamie said agreed to marry them.

"We will have to stop for the night." He explained.

"What do you mean? Why did we come to the swamp?"

"It is too late to try to make it tonight. We can stay in my cabin until first light."

His cabin was small but cozy, but there was only a small bed in the corner of the one room.

" Where are you going to sleep?" she asked.

"Bonnie," he said kissing her face, "we are going to be married tomorrow, we will sleep in the same bed forever."

She smiled shyly, of course he was right. He encouraged her to remove her dress and she lay next to him quietly allowing him to kiss her. After a while his kisses became more demanding and his hands moved all over her body, her breast and finally between her legs.

"Passion," Bonnie thought this is passion. She was going to allow him to be her first. He would be her husband in one day. She let him touch her, she touched him.

He whispered, "Bonnie my love, my wife, I love you."

" Boys only can do what you allow them to," he grandmother Sheila had once told her.

She allowed Jamie to make love to her.

She lay in his arms naked as he slept. This is perfect, she thought, I can stay here forever.

She woke the next morning to an empty bed. She waited for 5 hours for Jamie to appear but nothing. She was growing more and more agitated, she dressed, cleaned the cabin and waited some more. He had taken all the money in her satchel and the second horse. It was all the money her mother had almost 1500 dollars. Jamie had promised he would pay her mother back once they were married. As she cleaned, she also noticed that there were no clothes there or food anything that someone lived there. Last night she had been so happy to be with him, she hadn't taken notice. It was as if he had never lived there. She sat on the small front porch of the cabin and waited. She waited until her father rode up with Tyler Lockwood and Jeremy Gilbert to take her home.

/

Jamie Jackson had run off with all her mother's money and her virginity. Bonnie stayed in bed for a week. She thought of her arrogance, how she thought she was to good to be a place' and her hatred of those men. And how she thought Jamie was good. She was a fool and she was involved in a scandal. Good girls didn't run off in the middle of the night with men and spend the night with them. Caro had come to visit and let her know that her father in an effort to minimize the damage told everyone that Jamie had taken advantage of her young heart but not her body. "Bonnie was still pure."

Bonnie was bathing when Caroline told her and immediately sunk down in the bubbles in an effort to drown herself. Pure? She was so stupid and blind. She let him make love to her. She was ruined. Caroline pulled her out of the water and hugged her close and she told her best friend that she was no longer a virgin.

Caroline said "I am going to help you."

"How?" Bonnie asked through tears.

"You have options Bonnie. Jeremy and Tyler still want you."

"I will not be a place'."

"I have accepted an offer." Caroline said.

"What? Who?"

"Stefan Salvatore, he is a good man Bonnie. I am going to live with him and his brother's on their sugar cane plantation."

"What, that is not allowed. You can't live with him, what about his wife?"

"He is not married and has no desire to be married. He says their home in beautiful and is in the middle of no where on the bayou. No one will bother us there."

"You said his brother was evil and what if someone finds out about you?"

" Stefan assures me that his brother is a good man, though a bit misguided, immature and stubborn. I love Stefan. Bonnie I am truly in love and I am happy."

Bonnie looked at her friend and smiled sadly. "It is your choice Caro, I am happy for you." She was done judging other people's ideas of love and life. She'd gambled with her heart and lost.

When her mother told her that Jeremy Gilbert was still very much interested in her, Bonnie agreed that it was time for her to accept her fate. She was going to be his mistress for the rest of her life. The whole town knew of her and Jamie running off and no other man was interested in a women of priviledge with a wild streak. That signalled she might be trouble and married men with mistresses didn't need more troubles. The contract was drawn up and was to be signed as soon as Gilbert could procure a modest home for Bonnie. The morning he came to let them know he had found a place for her on Rampart Street, Bonnie experienced her first bought of morning sickness.

With red rimmed eyes she stood in front of her father and mother and told them that not only had Jamie taken her money, he had also taken her innocence, and left her with a bastard.

Her mother slapped her so hard Bonnie saw stars. She shook her and screamed, "You have ruined us, RUINED!" and left the room.

Bonnie fell to a heap on the floor and cried until she had no more tears. When she was finished she was surprised to see her father still sitting there.

"Jeremy Gilbert has rescinded his offer."

She nodded her head once and turned to leave.

"I am broke Bonnie. Gilbert was going to give me money to save my plantation but now…you and your mother and all your servants will have to leave this house. I can no longer support you."

"I'm sorry."

"No need to be sorry pet, it is just the way things are. I love you and your mother and I wish the world would have allowed me to do better by you."

She saw the truth in his words and knew that she had been wrong about a lot of things when it came to her parents.

"It's okay poppa."

The next morning Bonnie was awaked by Lucy, her hand maiden and cousin. Lucy was a free Bennett also.

"Bonnie, girl get up and get dressed, your poppa is asking for you there is a man downstairs,I think he may be here to make an offer for you."

Bonnie dressed and trudged down the steps. Maybe Jeremy had changed his mind about marrying a woman pregnant with another man's child. She could hear voices coming from the sitting room. She recognized her mother, her father and the other one was one she didn't know. It was smooth as silk but with an underlying trace of mockery and humor. As if it knew something no one else did, some grand secret yet to be unleashed.

She entered the room with her head downcast.

"Good morning my dear." He father said.

Acknowledging her parents with a nod her eyes fell upon the blue eyes of the man from the ball. He was admiring her with a slight smirk and the same look of mockery and humor she heard in his voice earlier. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and a small voice of warning whispering to her to run. He observed her coolly.

He is looking at me as if he knows what I look like naked, she blushed under his gaze.

Her father 's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Bonnie, I would like to introduce you to Damon Salvatore, he has come to make an offer for you."