"Bonnie..."
She could hear a squeaky voice whined into her ear. Her brows furrowed. A child?
"Bonnie, wake up. Tubby is wet and I think he's going to cry – he's making that face. Bonnie..." She felt small hands press into her shoulders and shake her. "Mommy and Ray will be mad..."
What? She remembered the light and the other side collapsing. She remembered taking Damon's hand. They were suppose to be dead.
Slowly, Bonnie eye's opened. Her eyes landed on a chubby faced toddler leaning over her, stringy brown hair hanging from her head, staring at her with wide green eyes.
Bonnie froze. Why was there a child leaning over her? An unfamiliar child. She frowned.
"Bonnie," the child whined again, looking awfully worried for someone so young. "Tubby needs-"
Before the child could finish a loud wail filled the air. Bonnie sprung forward, startled, nearly knocking the child next to her over. Her eyes instantly landed on a red faced, screaming baby. He was sitting up on the bed opposite the one she was apparently laying in, chubby little arms outstretched towards her, big blue eyes wet with tears.
"What the hell?" The startled cry drew her eyes to the body behind the child, who had sprung forward in alarm.
Bonnie stared.
Well... She didn't have to wonder what happened to Damon anymore... sort of.
On the bed, behind the shrieking child, was Damon. Sort of. Same hair, same eyes... but, he was noticeably younger, much younger. He looked fifteen, maybe sixteen at the oldest. He was skinny, no muscle, with cheeks slightly rounded with still lingering baby fat.
His horrified eyes found hers before falling to the crying child. He stared.
He was noticeably darker too, at least not as pale as he normally was. He was tan. Like he wasn't a vampire and spent a lot of time outside in the sun.
No way...
Bonnie was brought out of her musings when the child that had been leaning over her rushed over to the crying baby and began to shush the child. "Shush, Tubby, Shush, you're going to wake mommy!" She danced from one foot to another nervously before beginning to make funny face trying to appease the child. The child continued to wail.
With wide eyes the little girl looked back at her. "Bonnie..." She whined again, glancing at the bedroom's door nervously.
What? What was she suppose to do about the crying child?
"He's wet, I think," the child said. "Mommy is gonna be mad if she has to wake up!"
Oh. She thought, although she still didn't understand. She hesitantly moved pushed the light pink comforter off her body and swung her bare legs off the bed, feet settling on beige carpet. As she stood her eyes found Damon's again.
He seemed less startled now but still confused. "What in the hell, Bonnie?" He shouted over the child's crying, which made the child cry louder. "Where are we? And who in the hell are the munchkins?" He pointed a finger at the crying child.
She frowned. How in the hell was she suppose to know? Her mind whirled. Her eyes went back to the children in time to catch the older child's bottom lip begin to tremble.
Oh no...
She quickly moved forward, not wanting another child to start crying. She picked up the crying child, who quickly latched onto her, pressing his wet face into her neck. The baby whimpered. She could smell urine coming from the child and feel it seep through a soiled diaper and onesie and onto her arm. Her face scrunched up in disgust as her eyes met Damon's again.
What was going on?
"Here," the little girl, now dry eyed, held out a diaper and a light blue onesie to her. The child stared up at her expectantly. Bonnie blinked before slowly accepting the offered items.
"I'm human..." Damon's astonished voice brought her attention back to him. He was now standing on the other side of the bed, staring at his hands. "And short..." He observed, voice slightly detached. Then his hand flew to his neck. "My voice..."
She noticed it too, the way his voice squeaked with adolescence. Long gone was his deep, grown up voice. Damon Salvatore really was a child again.
"I...noticed," Bonnie offered unhelpfully, her own confusion clear. The young child stared at them oddly, green eyes bouncing from Bonnie to Damon.
"Why in the hell can't I get a fucking peaceful nights sleep in this damn house!" An annoyed male voice shouted through the closed door, causing everyone in the room to flinch. The baby in her arms whimpered again while the little girl sprung onto the bed, scrambling over it to hide behind a frowning Damon.
Heavy footsteps moved down the hallway outside. Bonnie stiffened, not sure what to expect.
"Come back to bed, Ray," a tired woman's voice answered the angry man's, "I'll handle it."
A loud scoff. "You better, Beth, they're your gotdamn kids, not mine!" The heavy footsteps began up again, heading away from the door. "I'm sick of them!" A door slammed.
A second later the door across from them opened and an unfamiliar red-haired, green eyed woman poked her head into the room, eyes narrowed, landing on Bonnie instantly.
"It happen again, and your ass is mine, Bonnie!" The unfamiliar woman threatened. Her eyes slid to Damon before returning to Bonnie. "Feed them and keep them quiet and occupied, I assume you two can do that right, right?" She said scathingly.
Bonnie's frown deepened. Who was this woman?
Without another word the woman vanished, slamming the door as she went. They stared at the closed door.
"Who was that bitch?" Damon hissed, he turned his wide blue eyes on her. "What in the hell is going on, Bonnie?" He asked again. He glanced over his shoulder at the child still hiding behind him.
"I don't know, Damon." Bonnie said as she tried sitting the baby she was holding back down on the soaking wet bed, but the child held onto her neck tighter. A sigh left her. She looked around the small bedroom she found herself in. It was messy. Clothes, toys, and other items were strewn across the room. Her eyes fell on the little girl still standing behind Damon.
"What's...What's your name?" She asked softly, feeling that was the right way for them to start getting some answers.
The child cocked her head and frowned at her before the look transformed into a bright smile. "You're being silly, Bonnie." The child giggled scooting around Damon. The child picked up a stuffed hippo from the floor and hugged it to her chest. She continued to stare at the two older people expectantly. "Are you going to change, Tubby?" She wrinkled her nose. "He's stinky."
Bonnie looked down at the baby in her arms as if she had forgotten he was there. "Uh, yeah," she mumbled, glancing at Damon. One of his eyebrows was raised and he was making one of his usual jackass expressions which now looked more oddly adorable and less annoying with his chubby cheeks. Bonnie snorted, lips twitching which instantly had him narrowing his eyes.
Who would of thought Damon Salvatore would have been a cute kid.
"You're finding something funny about our situation, Bonnie?" He asked darkly, which didn't have its usual effect considering his squeaky voice.
"No," she bit her lip to stop from smiling. She moved to a dry part of the bed and successfully removed the child's arms from her neck, laying him on his back. She was thankful for that time she had babysat her cousin and learned how to change a diaper. As she removed the baby's soiled onesie she frowned. "He needs a bath," she looked down at the baby who was patiently waiting for her to change him, then up at the older child.
The child cocked her head again, seeming confused. "No water," the child said after a moment, "remember, mommy didn't pay on time." Damon snorted.
Bonnie frowned.
The toddler dropped her hippo before moving to a dresser that was missing a couple of drawers and picking an almost empty packet of baby wipes off it. She returned to Bonnie and held it out to her, beaming happily.
Bonnie glanced at Damon again. "We needed to figure out what's going on."
"No shit, Bon-Bon," he squeaked. Bonnie snorted in amusement, not bothering to cover her smirk. This was never going to get old. Damon glared at her but didn't speak again.
"You're an adorable child, Damon." She went back to the task of changing the baby. "Who would have thought?" She mumbled under her breath.
"Yeah, and your obviously a dwarf," he shot back.
Bonnie shook her head. "You have no idea how old I am here, wherever here is," she shrugged. "I could be tall for my age."
"Day-Day is fifteen," the child happily said obviously proud of herself, "Nie-Nie is fourteen, Tubby is this many, and Taylor is this many," she held up one finger before holding up her hand. Bonnie assumed that meant the child was Taylor and she was five years old.
Damon stared at the child. Bonnie wondered was he horrified about their ages or the fact that the child had called him 'Day-Day'.
Bonnie began dressing the baby in the clean onesie. "Was that woman your mommy?" She asked the child.
The child stared at her before giggling once again. "You're silly, Nie-Nie." The child picked up her hippo again. Bonnie frowned for the millionth time since waking up in this strange place. "I'm hungry," she told them once Bonnie had finished dressing who she guessed was the child's baby brother. Then were she and Damon related to these children? Wait. Was she related to Damon here?
"Taylor," Damon surprised her by addressing the child, voice calm, although his eyes said he was freaking out. The child blinked at him cutely. "I need you to answer my questions, alright? Am I your big brother?" The child nodded seriously. Damon blinked once. "Is Nie-Nie your big sister?" His lips twitched briefly at the child's nickname for Bonnie. Taylor nodded once again. "That woman, that bi-" he cut himself off and cleared his throat, "the woman who yelled at us, that's our mommy?"
She hugged her hippo tightly. "Uh-huh," she shifted from one foot to another, "are we playing a game, Day-Day?"
Damon ran a hand through his shaggy hair. He seemed to think for a moment. "Do you know what amnesia is, short-stuff?"
Taylor frowned. "No," she said slowly, with a shake of her head. "Amsneeza? I don't know what that is."
Damon rolled his eyes, obviously not surprised. "Its when you don't remember things-"
"Are you and Nie-Nie playing pretend you have amsneeza and don't remember nothing?" She interrupted him. "That's weird," she scrunched her nose up. "Why do you want to play something like that? Can't we play patty-cake instead? Or I-spy! We can't play anything too loud because mommy and Ray will get mad at us, so no hide and seek."
Damon sighed a long suffering sigh. "Amazing..." He said under his breath.
"I'm hungry," she repeated.
"Hungry," repeated the baby now, sort of clean as he scooted himself off the bed.
Bonnie sighed. She guessed she had to get the children something to eat before they started crying again.
YW
Baby on her hip, Bonnie stood in a messy kitchen and stared into an empty refrigerator. Damon was going through the cabinets, slamming them shut as he went.
"There's not shit in here!" He growled impressively, considering his squeaky, boyish voice. "How in the hell does she expect us to feed them?"
Bonnie glared at him and shushed him harshly.
"What?" Damon snapped, slamming another door shut. "You don't really expect me to-"
He was cut off by a the sound of a door being slammed open and heavy footsteps moving down the hall. A large, bald man appeared in the opening into the kitchen, face livid.
Bonnie stiffened and eyed the man standing in the doorway, large and intimidating. Taylor quickly hid behind Bonnie.
"What. In. The. Hell?" He gritted out. "Which one of you little no good, money-sucking fuckers is slamming my gotdamn cabinets!"
Warning bells went off in Bonnie's head.
Damon, like the idiot he is, raised his hand, wiggling his fingers like an ass. "Guilty," he confessed, "did you know there's not a damn thing in your so-called cabinets?" He scoffed.
The man sneered. "Who in the hell do you think you're talking to, boy?"
Damon didn't seem to sense the danger she was sensing. "Are you deaf or dumb?" He asked seriously.
Bonnie flinched when the man stalked forward, grabbed Damon, and slammed him into the nearest cabinet. Damon gasped in pain as his back connected with the counter. The large man, Ray, didn't stop there, he raised a large meaty fist and brought it down across Damon's face, before throwing him on the ground.
Behind her Taylor sobbed loudly and in her arms the baby let out a strangled whimper. She stood there in shock.
When the man reared back a foot and sent it flying into Damon's side Bonnie found herself shouted out a useless "Stop!" She was ignored. The man kicked Damon again.
"Stupid piece of shit," the man was growling, "who in the fuck do you think you are? You no good bastard."
Bonnie took a step forward, towards the man beating Damon but then remembered the child in her arms. She sat the child on the ground quickly and turned to Taylor, "Take your brother and hide in your room," she said, breath caught in her throat.
This must not have been the first time this has happened because the little girl didn't hesitate to take her baby brother's hand and drag/carry him out of the room.
Bonnie quickly swirled around. Without thinking she moved forward and took hold of the man's arm and tried to pull him away from Damon. The man pushed her off him like she was nothing, knocking her to her knees painfully. Bonnie didn't allow that to stop as she hoped back up and tried again, this time digging her nails into the man's arms hard enough to draw blood.
The man roared like a beast and threw her off him again, only harder this time. Her back hit the small kitchen table, knocking over a chair. The man whirled around on her, enraged.
"You little bitch," he began to advance on her. Bonnie froze. She didn't have any magic, it was the first time she noticed since she woke up here. She was weak, powerless and six years younger then she had been, so smaller. "Your little black-ass is going to get it now?" He hissed.
"Do-Don't touch her!" Damon's weak voice filled the air. "I swear if you take one more step I'll kill you." The man froze before swirling around to face him. Bonnie couldn't see Damon because of the sheer width of the man in front of her. "Hell, I'm going to kill you anyway," Damon gritted out, completely serious.
The man barked out a demeaning laugh. "What are you going to do with that, boy?" He said, voice mocking. The man scoffed. "The things I put up with. Your whore of a mother isn't even that good of a lay," he sucked on his teeth loudly. He shifted a little, enough for Bonnie to see a hunched over, bloody faced Damon, barely standing, holding up a butcher knife with a shaking hand.
He couldn't kill him. As much as Bonnie wanted him too, he couldn't. He was human in this world, and a kid, and there was no way he could cover it up.
"Damon," she said weakly, "you can't."
"Hell if I can't," Damon threw back, "this is what one would call child-abuse, Bon-Bon. Self-defense. Look at me. I snapped. Maybe they'll even put me on one of those crime shows. Snapped or murdering toddlers or something. Temporary insanity."
Bonnie seriously considered it, maybe he could get away with it. No. That's no good. Before she could say anything else though, Damon was rushing towards the man, knife out. The man didn't even flinch. He grabbed Damon's wrist and twisted it until he dropped the knife before twisting Damon around and wrapping his large arm around the boy's neck and squeezing.
"What in the hell is going on in here?"
Bonnie whirled around, eyes landing on the red-haired woman from before. She frowned. She was just now coming, after all of that? She had to have heard what was going on, this house was extremely small. She watched as the woman folded her arms over her shirtless chest, her eyes moving from one person to another.
"Your no good son tried to kill me," the man said angrily. "I don't have to put up with this shit. I want all of you gone! Gone! You hear me!" He let go of Damon roughly, sending him flying to the other side of the room.
"Oh come on, babe," the woman cooed, strutting forward, not paying her supposed, bleeding son a glance. Her hands found the man's chest and she batted her eyes at him. "I'll call my mom and she'll come and get them, keep'em for a couple of days." This was suppose to be there mother?
"I want them gone!" He growled. "Look what that one did to me," he held up his bleeding arm and pointed at Bonnie.
"Oh, poor, baby," she kissed the man's arm. She then turned to Bonnie and stalked towards her.
Bonnie honestly hadn't expected the slap. She especially hadn't expected for it to hurt so bad. Her jaw was on fire.
The woman turned back to the man. "Does that make you feel better, babe?"
The man looked amused. "Its a start..."
"I'll call my mom, she'll watch'em for a couple of days." She said. "To get the child-support from their fathers means they have to live with me. If I gave them to my mother she would be in court the next day demanding the money from them and me, I know her. But I'll call her and she'll watch them for a little while." She lifted her chin and kissed the man, a long and disgusting display. "Go to your room, now." The woman said without even turning around.
It was obvious the woman was talking to them. Bonnie hesitated only for a moment before pushing herself off the table with a silent wince. She quickly moved to a silent, stewing Damon and helped him to his feet before pulling him out of the room with her.
"I'm going to murder them," Damon growled once they were back in the small, messy bedroom. "I'm going to murder them slowly." He limped to one of the beds and sat down.
Taylor darted from underneath the same bed and latched herself to Bonnie's leg, crying. Tubby also crawled from underneath the bed, babbling nonsense as he toddled to a toy car and began chewing on it.
"I think it would just be a better idea to call someone...like the police." Bonnie said logically, awkwardly petting the crying Taylor's head.
"Yeah, for they can dump us in that fucked up foster care system?" Damon questioned, wiping blood from his nose with the back of his sleeve. "Witchy, how could you be so naive?"
Bonnie rolled her eyes. "It can't be worse then being here. Besides, what about them?" She gestured towards the children. "They shouldn't have to live like this."
"They'll split us up, Bonnie." Damon deadpanned. "Then what? How are we going to find away home then?" Bonnie frowned.
"Well, killing them won't work either because you being placed in prison or mental institution won't help us find a way home." She told him.
"They'll never find the bodies."
"You're not a vampire anymore, Damon. You're bone thin and a broke as a joke fifteen year old. How do you plan on doing that? Also, they'll put us in fosters homes anyway with missing parents."
Damon face went blank as he thought about it. She could literally see him mentally curse because of her logic. "What about our so-called fathers?" He questioned. "Fathers as in many baby daddies. Hate to tell you but I think your mother is a whore, Bon-Bon."
"She's also your mother too, Damon."
He scoffed. "I'm obviously adopted."
"Who would let that woman adopt a child?"
His eyes widened dramatically. "Same people who run the foster care system."
Bonnie ignored him and instead started to think. "Do you think this is some sort of alternate reality?"
Damon shrugged. "We just need too find away out of here. I don't think I like going through the whole puberty crap again."
A look of disgust crossed Bonnie's face. "One in which I'm related to you." She had obviously ignored his last statement.
Before Damon could say anything the red head entered the room. She stared at them, green eyes hard and cold.
"Why do you all always try to ruin my life?" She asked them sharply.
"Its the job of all bastard children, to ruin lives." Damon answered right away with a shrug. He winced softly. "A better question would be, why are you such a whore, mommy?" He asked as if he were truly curious, wide-eyed and blinking.
The woman's face turned nearly as red as her hair. "What in the hell did you say?"
Bonnie wanted to groan, so she did.
"Mommy," a small voice cut through the tension in the room. Taylor still hugged Bonnie's leg but was looking shyly up at her mother. "When can we get food?"
"Foo, Foo" Tubby chimed in.
The woman looked at both children blankly, nothing was there, no motherly gaze, nothing.
"Your grandmother will be here soon," the woman shrugged, "I guess she'll feed you."
"Oh, you're the caring type," Damon spoke up dryly, "so motherly."
She sneered at him. "I'm sick of your mouth. Because of you I came close to losing the best thing that has ever happened to me. You better be glad Ray loves me because if I would have lost another man because of you I would of done more then skin your backside."
Damon scoffed. "I love you too, mommy." He mocked.
The woman ignored him, turning her gaze to Bonnie. "Get them dressed into something clean. I don't want to hear my mother's mouth about them being dirty again." Bonnie stared at her, wondering how someone like her existed. "Did you hear me, girl?" She snapped.
Despite herself, Bonnie flinched. "Yeah, yeah," she nodded.
The woman looked at her as if she was the dumbest thing she's ever seen, before turning to leave, "wait on the porch for my mother, don't even think of letting her inside."
Bonnie watched the woman leave. "Aren't these her kids?" She finally said. "Why is she making me do this?"
Damon rolled his eyes. "The same reason she walked in on her boyfriend choking out her bleeding son and proceeded to kiss the big meanie's boo boos. She's not going to win any mother of the year awards anytime soon."
Bonnie didn't bother to comment as she went to the half broken dresser and began looking through it for clothes. Ten minutes later she had dressed the two children. She dressed out of her own sleeping short and put on a pair of black, very worn jeans and an over-sized white T-shirt. Apparently it was all she had, along with a pair of dusty sneakers.
Damon moaned and complained about having nothing to wear but a couple of over-sized hoodies and jeans. He had wiped his face clean as best he could without water. His lip was split.
"I look like a hobo," he commented once they stepped out of the small home and onto the front porch, "feed the children anyone?"
Bonnie looked around her. They seemed to live in a normal neighborhood. She wondered were they in Mystic Falls still. She shifted the toddler on her hip and stepped out onto the overgrown yard to see if she could recognize the street. Damon and Taylor followed her.
A dark silver Cadillac pulled up in front of the house. The passenger window rolled down and a silver haired woman wearing thick shades leaned across the seat.
"I don't have all day," she shouted at them, "come on children."
Bonnie guessed that was there grandmother. Well, she diffidently wasn't her grams. This was a little wild haired white woman. Disappointment tugged oddly at her stomach, which she felt foolish for feeling.
Bonnie hesitated but Damon didn't. He moved towards the car, Taylor following closely behind him.
"Hi grandma!" The child called out happily.
"What's up, granny?" Damon echoed the child rudely.
Bonnie sighed and followed after them to the car.
"What in the hell happened to your face, Damon?" The woman asked upon seeing him up close as he opened the passenger side door.
"Oh, you know," he waved his hand dismissively, "mommy's mean boyfriend was teaching me respect my elders."
Bonnie sighed in relief upon seeing the car seat in the back of the car. Though there wasn't a booster seat for Taylor. She quickly strapped Tubby in and got into the back of the old car with Taylor.
"That dick," said their new grandmother, "my dumb ass of a daughter sure does know how to pick'em. I should have beaten her more, maybe then she could have found herself a good man."
Damon seemed to find this hilarious while Bonnie was mortified. The woman was obviously serious. The old woman peeled off the curb and onto the street.
"Grammy, I drew a picture of an alligator," Taylor filled in over Damon's laughter. "Day-Day was stupid and thought it was a duck."
Bonnie snorted. Damon turned and glared at the toddler who seemed unaffected. "Maybe your drawing simply wasn't that good, ever thought of that, huh, short-stuff?" Bonnie stared at him, wanting to smack him for being mean to a five year old.
Taylor didn't seem affected as she shook her head frantically, messy brown hair flying. "No, I'm great. Damon, you're just stupid."
Bonnie was starting to really like this kid. Damon reached back and poked the child harshly in the forehead. "Don't be mean, Tay." He scolded lightly. "I've been beat up on enough today."
"Bonnie, dear, are you excited about starting high school?"
Bonnie blinked in surprise at being spoken too. She hadn't planned on saying much, caught up in her own thoughts. "Uh, yeah," she answered, lacking eloquence.
The old woman hummed. "Now I'm telling you right now, you better not allow some snot-nose little loser to knock you up. Keep your damn legs closed, don't no boy deserve to taste your precious cookie unless he's willing to dish out some serious mula."
Damon howled with laughter. Bonnie stared at the back of the old woman's big hair. Did her so-called grandmother just suggest she become a prostitute? At fourteen?
"What in the hell is so funny, Damon?" The woman snapped. "You better keep them boy's off your sister because if she does get pregnant I'm going to sell you to Mexican sex-traffickers." The woman stressed the word 'Mexican' for some reason. She then made a sharp turn, making them all lean to the left. "I want one of us to be worth a damn. Don't follow in your mother's footsteps and become the biggest whore attending Mystic Falls High. You're better than that."
"Don't worry, gram-gram," Damon continued to laugh under his breath, "I'll keep those bad, no good boys away from, Bon-Bon."
"Now remember don't go picking on any boys bigger than you again," their 'grandmother' said, "not without a little back-up. You still have that pocket knife your no good grandpa gave you, right?"
Bonnie rolled her eyes seeing Damon nod, smile bright. At least someone was enjoying this.
"Grandma, we haven't eaten anything." Taylor spoke up, no longer peering out of the window.
"Fuck that cunt!" The old woman hissed. Bonnie's mouth fell open. "She wants me too feed you too?" The woman sighed. "Okay, baby, I'll get some food in your stomach." Damon was gasping for air, laughing too hard to breathe.
The pulled into the parking lot of a liquor store and peeled awkwardly into a parking spot. The woman threw her car into park and hoped out. "Don't touch my damn radio. I don't want to hear any of that hippity-hoppity rap crap in my car."
Damon wiped amused tears from his eyes as the woman staggered into the store. "I like her," he commented, catching his breath.
Bonnie shook her head. "You would," she commented dryly.
"Our new family is obviously very screwed up, Bonnie." Damon commented as if Bonnie hadn't noticed.
"This is bad," Bonnie whispered, watching the now obviously drunk woman stagger back out too the car, a large bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag in her hand. The woman got back into the car and shoved the bottle into Damon's arms.
"Whoa, female senior citizen, you got the good stuff," he whistled lowly.
"Keep your grubby little fingers off my shit," the woman spat, starting her car, "if I find one more of my bottles half empty of my shit, I'll rip your tongue from your head."
"Violent, much?" Damon rolled his eyes, not bothered at all.
"Bonnie, honey, we're going to swing by your no good father's house. I need you to ask for some money. Say you're hungry. I ain't got no money, I can't feed y'all."
"What?" Bonnie asked, lost. The woman had just bought an expensive bottle of alcohol.
"What?" The woman groaned. "You deaf now, girl? Taylor's bastard of a daddy is in prison again and it'll be a waste of my damn time to ask Damon's shitty mother."
Ignoring all of the other things the woman had said, Bonnie focused on her last comment with a confused frown. Damon also glanced at the woman in interest. "Damon's mother?"
"No good heifer thinks paying a measly one-hundred and fifty bucks a week is enough after pawning off her kid on someone else. I told my air-head daughter that taking in someone else shit-dropping was a dumb-ass idea. But no, Giuseppe loves her and he's going to take care of her and her baby, all she has to do is take in his kid." The woman ranted with disdain. "Where's Giuseppe now after leaving her stranded with his kid? Gone, baby, gone. I told her about trusting those pasta loving bastards. The European version of our Mexicans."
Well, damn, Damon was adopted. And their grandmother was a racist.
They pulled up outside a large familiar house. Bonnie instantly recognized it as her father's. Her heart began to pound in her chest. She stared at the house, frozen.
"Well?"
Her eyes darted to the woman's reflection in the rear-view mirror, finding that the woman was staring at her. Bonnie's eyes slid to Damon. Damon stared back at her blankly.
Bonnie dragged her eyes away and fumbled with the car door, somehow managing to push it open with shaking fingers. Her knees wobbled as she shut the door behind her and started across the lawn. She made it to the front door faster than she meant too. She took in a deep breath before she rang the doorbell.
She glanced behind her, at the car. Damon and Taylor waved at her; one cutely, while the other was simply annoying. Hearing the door open had her turning around.
"Dad," she breathed, her heart dropping, tears filling her eyes.
In front of her stood her father, the one she had back home, dressed in a white-button up shirt and loose blue tie, sleeves rolled up. He was alive.
The man frowned at her. "Bonnie," he spoke, eyes going over her shoulder to the car parked at his curb. The man's expression darkened. "What's wrong?" he asked softly.
Bonnie continued to stare at him. The smell of lasagna drifted from inside the house and hit her hard. Her stomach growled, reminding her why she was standing there. Suddenly she felt shy and awkward, ashamed. She bit her lip softly. No. This wasn't her father. This wasn't even her world.
"Bonnie?" He questioned again.
Bonnie cleared her throat and shifted on her feet nervously. "We," she began, "do you think," she felt embarrassed for some reason, "we can barrow money for food."
The man sighed, but didn't seem surprised. "Come in," he waved her inside, "I'll grab my wallet."
Bonnie hesitated before stepping into the house. She followed the man into his living room and stopped short at the sight in the dinning room. She had obviously interrupted family dinner. Her mother, who she guessed wasn't her mother in this world, sat at the table along with who she could recognize as Lucy and Jamie. The scene stabbed at something inside of her. She stared.
"How are you doing today, Bonnie?" Abby asked kindly, she and Rudy shared a long, meaningful, and wordless look. She didn't need to hear them to know what they were thinking and silently communicating. They were pitying her.
Bonnie wanted to leave. She really, really wanted to leave.
Remembering she had been asked a question Bonnie tore her eyes off the family and looked elsewhere. "I'm fine," she answered shortly. She was suddenly angry.
Rudy picked up his wallet from the coffee table before moving back to her, digging in his wallet. Bonnie watched him, throat tight. Her anger made her almost decide to refuse the money, but then she remembered Taylor's wide green eyes and small voice repeatedly saying how hungry she was.
She gritted her teeth and accepted the wad of cash he offered her.
"Do yourself a favor and tell your grandmother I only gave you a fifty." He sighed. "Tell your mother you're suppose to see at least a little of the money I pay every month."
Bonnie plucked a fifty out of the wad and shoved it in her pocket before shoving the rest of it into her bra. "Tell her yourself," she said blankly before turning and making a hasty exit out of house. "Bye," she threw over her shoulder.
She didn't breath easy again until she was outside and moving across the lawn towards the old Cadillac. She got back into the car. Her hands were shaking.
"How much did he give you?" The woman turned in her seat and held out her hand. Bonnie sighed before handing the woman the fifty. She watched the old woman narrow her eyes at her. "He didn't give you anymore?"
"No," Bonnie lied easily.
Maybe the real, fourteen year old Bonnie from here was a bad liar because the woman seemed to believe her and turned back around, starting the car.
YW
Their so-called grandmother ordered bought them a ten dollar pizza and took them back to her duplex. Bonnie didn't see the remaining forty bucks and didn't bother asking the old woman for it.
The woman's home was clean and overwhelmingly yellow. She made them sit at her small kitchen table and threatened them with bodily harm if they made a mess. She then vanished into her bedroom, mumbling something about her shows.
Damon woofed down three pieces of pizza in minutes. He was obviously as hungry as the rest of them.
"Remind me to thank your father for the food," Damon groaned and patted his full stomach.
"That man is not my father," Bonnie said angrily. In her lap, Tubby gnawed on a pizza crust, face and fingers coated in marinara sauce. Damon held up his hands as if to ward off her attack, feigning shock. Bonnie sighed and looked down at her now empty plate. "What's our plan, Damon?" She asked after a moment of silence in which the only sound was Taylor's loud chewing and the air conditioner running.
Damon actually looked as if he was going to take something seriously since they had woken up here. "First," he said, "we need to figure out if you're still a witch."
Bonnie tugged at the ends of her fuzzy hair. "How do I do that?"
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?"