This story is post 6x22 and set a slightly during the timeframe of 7x01 when Alaric, Damon and Bonnie are all in Europe. It does not follow any of the plot of season seven, except for the heretics wanting the phoenix stone, and the armory wanting Bonnie to open the vault, almost everything else is completely different. I have been sitting on this idea for a while, it was originally two separate story ideas, but I figured out a way to blend them in one epic story.

Part 1

"No, I can't do this anymore!" Bonnie screamed at the night haired man before her, his piercing blue eyes glaring into her face.

"Damon, I can't. I've tried to help you cope, I've done so much to make sure you don't go completely off the rails, but I can't do it anymore." her breath hitched, her hands trembling at her sides.

Damon took several steps closer, "I didn't ask you to do any of that. I didn't ask you to care!" he growled.

"No, but I did it anyway, because for some reason, I give a damn about you." Bonnie huffed, tears licking at the edges of her eyes.

"Then stop giving a damn, Bonnie!"

"I can't!" she yelled back at him, eyes wide.

Bonnie gasped when suddenly, he sped over to her, slamming her backwards into the wall with his hands gripping her shoulders tightly.

"You won't, is what it is." Damon spoke gruffly, clenching his jaw in anger.

With shallow breath, her emerald eyes met his as she looked upwards at him..

"I just can't. When I look into your eyes, and I see how tormented you are...I just can't. You're my best friend." Bonnie whispered, and his eyes softened a little.

"Bonnie…" he spoke quietly, bringing his hand up to slowly caress her face.

When his lips parted as he attempted to speak, he only heard his own breath. Damon's words had escaped him.

"I can't do this anymore." Bonnie repeated, her tears starting to spill over on her cheeks and she slipped around him; running out the open door until she was on one of the dark hazy Amsterdam streets, surrounded by blinking neon lights and clouds of cigarette smoke.

Leaning back against a brick wall, she wiped at her face.

This was it...the end of their trek around Europe. Bonnie's attempt to keep Damon grounded was failing miserably. She could not make him happy, even she knew that. The only person that could keep Damon from his mindless drinking, and brooding was Elena Gilbert. Bonnie felt as lost as Damon, but, not for the same reasons…

When bonnie's eyes had finally adjusted to the dim light, she stiffened as she saw a familiar figure walking towards her. One with the same startling blue eyes that were burned into her memory.

With only one thing on her mind, Lily Salvatore stopped in front of Bonnie; with an effortless grace. She mimicked the same devious smirk that Damon often wore; or, perhaps he'd gotten that from her?

She was the last person Bonnie wanted to come face to face with in the middle of a crummy street at one in the morning.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Bonnie questioned, as she balled her hands into fists at her sides. She was not in the mood to deal with another heavily complicated Salvatore.

Lily blinked, wearing her usual expression of mock concern.

"My son ran off without a word, what were you expecting?"

"I was under the impression you couldn't care less about your sons." she replied, looking to the side past Lily as she tried to think of a possible escape route.

"Clearly you carry a torch for him, or was that little scuffle in the townhouse just for show?" Lily asked, with a small smirk pulling at the edges of her pink lips as she scanned the dampness of Bonnie's cheeks.

Bonnie's brow furrowed, she crossed her arms over her chest defensively.

"Just tell me what you want." she said bluntly.

"Clearly I am not here to socialize." Lily mused, as she took another step forward; the space between them growing smaller.

Bonnie tightened her jaw, putting a hand on Lily's shoulder sending a sharp jolt of power into her body, causing her to back up several paces.

"One, you need to back off. Two, if you don't explain to me why you're here then I'll just act without asking questions, or waiting for answers." she huffed.

Lily smiled, still unfazed by the Bennett witches threats, "The reason I am here Bonnie, is for the relic. I know it's here."

Bonnie furrowed her brow, "I have no idea what you're talking about?"

Relic? she thought.

"They did a locator spell, those are quite handy you now." she placed her hands in front of her body.

"By they… Do you mean your family?" the hairs on the back of Bonnie's neck stood on end as she thought about the heretics.

"Why, yes she does." a accented female voice came from the other side of the street.

"Valerie, so glad you could make it." Lily chimed, her hair ruffling as she looked behind her shoulder.

A spark of power tingled along Bonnie's fingertips, she didn't falter in her strength. She knew she could take on Lily and Valerie. Raising her left hand, she caused the two witch-pire's to sink to their knees. With Lily and Valerie clutching onto the sides of their heads in pain, Bonnie chose to take the obvious out, and run for it.

Adrenaline coursed through her veins as she ran… Hopefully, Damon was still at the townhouse.

As she rounded the corner down the street, her face smacked into something solid.

"Going somewhere?" a deep male voice asked, clutching onto her shoulders.

"Let the hell go of me!" Bonnie snapped.

She tugged herself backwards as a wave of pain rolled through her. Before she realized what was happening, the heretic had already siphoned a great deal of her magic.

"Stop!" she yelled, her eyelids fluttering.

Suddenly, she was yanked backwards by the back of her shirt, and out of the heretics clutches.

Bonnie gasped, her heart pounding in her chest as she was pulled up against someone.

"Don't touch her." Damon's voice came from behind her.

Bonnie sighed and realized her back was against Damon's chest.

"Thank God…" she mumbled.

"Beau… I see you caught the witch bitch." Valerie chuckled as she rounded the corner with her arms crossed.

"He's caught nothing." Damon growled, attempting to keep Bonnie close to him but they were both quickly shoved to the side.

Bonnie tumbled out of Damon's hold and to the ground, quickly pushing herself back up.

"Damon, we don't need to fight." Lily said as she entered the scene, Valerie and Beau both on edge as they circled.

"Yeah?" Damon questioned, fixing his tousled leather jacket with a clearly aggravated look on his face.

Lily took a step closer to him, "Yes, please, just give my family a chance, we did not come here to fight."

"Hah!" Bonnie laughed in the background, walking forward and trying to walk past Damon to give Lily a piece of her mind, but Damon put his arm out.

"Umph." she exhaled as she hit his arm, blocked from going any further.

Damon took a step closer to his mother.

"If ganging up on a lone witch is your idea of 'we come in peace', then I'd hate to see your truce." he spoke with narrowed eyes.

When Bonnie ran from the townhouse, he knew he needed to go after her. He had figured letting her cool off on her own for a few would be the best idea, but, he had started to get a bad feeling. Damon was glad he got there as soon as he did, even if it wasn't quite soon enough.

"Listen to your mother." a fourth voice came from the dimness, the male figure strutting on up to them, with something...or..someone, tossed over his shoulder like a sack of flesh flour.

"Malcolm, I see you've found him." Lily spoke, and Damon's eyes flickered over.

Alaric was the man slung over Malcolm's shoulder.

"Alaric?" Bonnie whispered, her forehead creasing.

Alaric had ran off to one of the local pubs, it wasn't unusual, as all he had been doing the last month is ingest copious amounts of alcohol.

"What the hell did you do?" Damon snarled, flashing over to Malcolm grabbing him by his throat.

Alaric's body fell limp to the ground, and Bonnie rushed over, sinking to her knees. She pressed her fingers to his neck.

"For your sake, he better be alive." he threatened him, but was quickly hit with a debilitating burst of flames inside his head.

Damon stumbled backwards and grunted, his fangs aching to come out.

"He's dead." Bonnie whispered, her heart sinking in her chest.

Alaric was not someone she was particularly close to, however, she did not want him to die.

"You mother fuckers!" his veins snaked underneath his eyes, fangs extending.

As soon as the magic injuring him ceased he lurched forward, shoving his fist into Malcolm's chest and ripped his heart out.

"Malcolm!" Valerie cried.

Bonnie stood up quickly from the ground, and send as much power as possible forward as Lily came for her. Lily flew backwards, crashing into a wall. However, before Bonnie could turning around, Valerie was at her throat.

She screamed as Valerie's fangs buried into her vein as she siphoned from her skin at the same time.

Damon flashed over, grabbing Valerie by the back of her strawberry blonde hair and yanked her backwards, tossing her several feet with a guttural growl.

"I warned you!" he yelled, his skin crawling with anger.

"Let's just go, we have the stone to bring Julian back!" Beau said quickly as Damon started to eye him with a murderous glare.

Lily's face was sad as she looked at Malcolm's dead body.

Damon placed his body in front of Bonnie's as Valerie stood up off the ground, wiping the blood off the side of her cheek.

"He killed Mal, we can't just let him go!" she insisted, speeding over beside Beau. Her small, slender pale frame was in complete contrast to Beau's tall, broad dark skinned one.

"I can't lose another of you, I want us all to be together for Julian." Lily said slowly, eyes flickering over to Damon.

Damon wasn't sure what they were talking about, or why they needed a damn stone, or even why Alaric dying was a part of anything. He did know, however, that if any one of them tried something else, even his own mother, he would not hesitate to dispatch them.

"So leave." Bonnie spoke from behind him, rubbing at her neck that was covered in a thin layer of blood.

"You came here and threatened us, it isn't our fault we defended ourselves." she continued, trying to keep her eyes off of Alaric's body several feet away.

Damon kept his fangs bared, watching the woman who he used to have fond memories of glance at him like he was nothing.

"Let us leave, we have done enough damage. Beau, please bring Malcolm's body." Lily spoke, stepping over to Valerie.

She grabbed her hand, and they were gone in the blink of an eye.

"Take him and leave." Damon glared at Beau.

Beau picked up Malcolm's body along with his heart, and disappeared into the night.

Damon's eyes shifted over to his dead friend.

"Alaric." he breathed, pain setting over him.

"Dammit, Alaric!" Damon growled, kicking at the ground.

Fangs still bared, he spun around slammed his fist into the wall behind Bonnie, yelling. Bonnie gasped as small crumbles of the bricks scattered to the ground, and she took a small step backwards, back against the wall.

She stayed silent as she watched Damon breathe heavily, fist still on the wall, fangs extended. After a moment, he took a deep breath, retracted his fangs and stepped backwards.

"We did nothing to them!" he ranted, raking his bloody fingers through his hair.

"They're not reasonable people." Bonnie replied, "You're not going to get anywhere trying to rationalize their decisions."

Damon looked over at her, trying to clear his head. He remembered Valerie biting her, and noticed the blood drying along her wounds on her neck. Stepping closer, he reached a hand out, and touched her neck, getting her blood on his fingertips and lifting them up to observe.

"You're lucky I was here." he said slowly, eyes flickering from his fingers to her face.

"I thought you didn't care about me." Bonnie spoke, just looking at his face.

"I said you shouldn't care about me, I never said I didn't care about you." he objected, letting his hand fall to his side.

She chuckled, "What's the difference?"

Damon sighed, "One means you shouldn't care about me, the other holds the ridiculous implication that I do not care for you."

"Ridiculous implication huh?" Bonnie asked quietly.

"Extremely." he replied, and watched her lips pull up at the corners.

Her green eyes moved over to Alaric's body, and her smile fell.

"I'm sorry about Alaric." she furrowed her brow.

"As am I." Damon swallowed hard, avoiding looking to the side, "I'm sorry for earlier."

Bonnie folded her arms over her chest.

"It's not the first time we've pissed each other off. It won't be the last."

Damon gave her a half hearted smirk, "Well, in respect to the future furious Bonnie Bennett, I deny any claims of blame directed at me."

"Of course." she rolled her eyes.

"...but I apologize ten fold, for the future stubborn Damon Salvatore." he continued, blue eyes glimmering.

Bonnie chuckled, and reached a hand out, pressing her palm against his chest.

"I forgive him." she whispered, feeling the warmth of Damon's chest against her skin even through his Henley.

Their time around Europe together seemed like a blurr already. From sharing hotels, townhouses, to dragging Damon to the beaches, and carnivals. The one thing they hadn't gotten in awhile due to Alaric always being around, was alone. Was it so horrible of Bonnie to not feel as empathetic about the man's demise? He did not bring anything new to their table, their adventure, their lives. Damon refused to believe this, but, Bonnie would never ruin his memory of Alaric by speaking ill of him. The man was dead, Damon could think whatever he wanted of Alaric, he wasn't there to dispute.

"I thought you said you couldn't do this anymore." Damon whispered, looking down at her hand.

"I lied." Bonnie mumbled, distracted by his slow dull heart beat.

Damon lifted his hand and placed it over hers gently.

"I d-" he started, but, suddenly both of them were shot in the back with darts simultaneously.

Bonnie gasped her hand pulling away from Damon as pain shot through her back, her vision going blurry. Her body fell to the cold ground.

"Damon..." breathed, leaning forwards trying to find him through her haziness.

Bonnie felt his hair brush against her cheek as her body went numb, and her thoughts faded to pitch black.