Summer Days: Beremy

The following summer after Bonnie had been successfully brought back from the dead was the day they had finally gotten back together once again.

Although their reunion had been emotional and filled with tears of happiness from both sides, they also couldn't ignore the large holes in their relationship. Jeremy still felt hurt and betrayed about what Bonnie had done before the other side had collapsed...about how she had gone days without telling him she would be disappearing along with it, leaving him to grieve over the fact that they barely even had a proper goodbye. And Bonnie had reluctantly admitted that she still had slight trust issues of her own regarding the ordeal that had happened with Anna.

So they had decided to, for the meantime, to just be friends and work on gaining complete trust in each other before leaping back into their relationship. That is. until very recently.

Bonnie smiled as she snuggled into her boyfriend's strong arms, basking in the happiness that he was her boyfriend again. And this time, they had both promised to never again let the other go...not without a fight anyway.

"What are you thinking about?" Jeremy eventually asked, noting the look of concentration on his girlfriend's face as she stared out the main window of the Lockwood manor.

Bonnie shook herself out of her daze and turned to face her boyfriend, a reassuring glint in her emerald green eyes. "Nothing."

He didn't look convinced.

She sighed. Their relationship was still fresh, and despite the vows they had made to for now on be honest with each other, she supposed it was realistic for him to still worry and wonder over whether or not she was keeping dangerous secrets from him.

"It really is nothing," she insisted honestly, smiling softly. "I'm just...well, i'm happy."

And that was true. This summer had been one of the happiest times in her life that she's had in a while.

Thankfully having been convinced, Jeremy returned her smile and leaned forward to plant a kiss on her forehead. "So am I."

The summer of 2017 was the day he had proposed.

They were sitting in a restaurant...a nice restaurant outside of Mystic Falls that they had discovered together, being that the Mystic Grill had been destroyed years ago. Besides...in a way, Bonnie liked this place better. It was a place that no one else from the gang outside of them knew about. A place that they could go together without any likely chances of interruption.

"Are you okay?" She asked, noting the almost tense stance his body was currently in as they waited for the waitress to bring them their meal.

"I'm fine," he answered a bit too quickly, causing Bonnie to frown in suspicion. She was about to try to further question him on it when their waitress, as if one cue, reappeared, setting both of their plates of food in front of them.

"Enjoy. Let me know if either of you need anything," the young waitress said with a friendly smile. Before she completely walked away, Bonnie could have sworn she saw her shoot a secretive smile in Jeremy's direction. Under normal circumstances, that might have made her blood boil a little but there was something about the air that seemed off...something that was telling her that the smile wasn't intended to be simple flirting.

"Well, let's eat," Jeremy said with a wide smile, and Bonnie had the feeling that he was trying to feign cheerfulness in order to throw her off the trail of why he had been so tense only seconds ago.

Nevertheless, she picked up her fork and began to dig into her Chicken Caesar salad, although she made a mental note to herself to ask him about it again later, when they were driving home.

However, it was when she picked up her glass of water that she felt the clink of metal lightly hitting the bottom of it and with narrowed eyes, she picked the glass further up to inspect it.

At the bottom of the glass sat a ring...a silver band with an emerald in the middle, with what looked like tiny sapphires surrounding the outer middle.

A soft gasp escaped her lips. "Jeremy..."

Jeremy smiled softly. "Why do you think I've been working over time the last few months?"

Bonnie wordlessly pulled the beautiful ring out of the glass of water, holding it in the palm of one of her hands to simply observe and admire it.

"That's why I was so nervous earlier," Jeremy confessed, and Bonnie would have thought the quick pace of his words was cute if she wasn't so shocked. "I really wanted to make it special but...ugh now i'm stumbling." He then stood up from his chair and walked over to stand beside where she was sitting, kneeling down on one knee as he took her hand that wasn't currently holding the ring into his. "I love you Bonnie...and I want to make a life with you. And maybe in the future...a family, if that's what you want. Will you marry me?"

The cynical part of Bonnie's mind couldn't help but list the issues with this. They were too young...she had only recently turned twenty-one after all, and he would be doing the same in a few months time. They were both still in college. Would they even have time to focus on their marriage before they were out of school? And then there was also the fact that she was Bonnie Bennett and he was Jeremy Gilbert...things never worked out or ran smoothly for them.

But after everything they've gone through, didn't they both deserve at least a shot at happiness? And she knew that a good chunk of her happiest moments were with him.

She looked down at the ring sitting in her hand once more before looking back at him, letting out a short laugh. "You know, most of the time the man holds the ring out to the woman while he's on one knee. What was the point of putting it in the water?"

Her words were meant to be playfully teasing but obviously due to his nervousness, Jeremy took them a bit too seriously. His eyes widened a fraction. "I thought it'd be a nice way to surprise you. But i'm sorry if..."

She cut him off with a soft kiss to his lips, her own still arched in happy smile even as she kissed him, letting him know that she had actually loved the proposal.

And when she allowed him to slip the ring onto her finger, it was her way of letting him know that her answer was yes.

The wedding took place on a summer day in the year of 2018.

Although it hadn't really been a wedding. Not a formal one. In the end, they had decided to simply run off and elope in secret. Jeremy had managed to find a place that was willing to marry them legally without the hassle of organizing an entire formal wedding. It wasn't that they didn't love their friends or family, but due to all of the drama that had ensued at the announcement of their engagement, mainly from Elena who believed that they were rushing into marriage, they decided it would be better if it was just the two of them at the ceremony.

Being alone together was when some of their happiest moments took place anyway.

They had said the traditional vows but along with them, some words of their own that they had written. Bonnie had tears of happiness as she listened to Jeremy say his vows out loud to her, and with the way his voice had a slight tremble to them and the way his emotion seemed to radiate from his eyes, he was just as happy as her.

When it was over, they shared one of their sweetest kisses to date, even if there was no one besides the minister to witness it.

Needless to say, there was plenty of pent up passion to be released once they finally reached the location of their honeymoon.

In the month of August in the year 2021 they celebrated their child's first birthday.

Little Sheila Miranda Gilbert was their first born and had been their biggest pride and joys for about half of their young marriage. Jeremy was convinced that she was the spitting image of her mother, with the exception of her eyes, which were a chocolate brown shade that she had inherited from her father.

Bonnie making a cooing noise as she bounced her daughter gently in her arms as they sat in the armchair of the small house she and Jeremy had managed to get together, waiting for her husband to return home. It was his job to get the cake and other needed preparations, while Bonnie had spent the morning decorating the house in ribbons, balloons, and other assortments. Their guests would be arriving in just a few hours.

Just when she was about to pick up her phone and call and ask when he would be home, the door swung open, signaling his return.

"Did you get the cake?" Bonnie asked as she set Sheila down into her booster seat, despite the baby's attempts to prevent her from doing so by grabbing onto her mother's hair. Bonnie laughed after gently detaching the tiny fingers from her hair and then turned to face her husband.

Jeremy nodded in response to her question and, with a small smile on his face, placed a pink box down onto the table. Inside was a decently sized chocolate cake with blue frosting and pink icing spelling out the words "Happy Birthday Sheila".

"I also got candles," he said, pulling out a small box from his pocket and lightly tossing it onto the table next to the cake. "We'll only be using one of them, but unfortunately, they don't sell single candles."

Bonnie let out a small chuckle at that and shook her head. "We can always saves the others for next year. Besides...soon, we'll be having more than one birthday a year to celebrate." As she said the words, one of her hands traveled down onto her still relatively flat stomach, where Sheila's younger brother or sister would eventually grow and develop.

Jeremy took her by surprise when his own hand also went to her belly, resting gently on top of hers. "Yes, I guess we will."

She looked up to gaze into his eyes and when they their eyes locked, she felt such a large swell of peacefulness radiate from both of them.

They had both finally found their places in the world.

The End