For a moment, she wasn't entirely sure if it had worked. She'd seen a bright white flash of light, then felt like she was falling upward, and then it was gone. Her feet were on the ground, and it was dark again as she slowly opened her eyes to see where she was.
She was alone. The video camera had gone black in her hands, but she glanced down only briefly at it before she started to walk. It was as if her feet were leading her. Her brain was whirring, but she couldn't settle on one solitary thought.
She had to know if she'd finally made it home.
The trees were familiar, but she'd spent almost a year in Kai's prison world. Those trees were familiar to her now too. She couldn't judge by that. She needed something else.
Her ear infection stung, making her hearing muffled out of that ear, and her broken toes throbbed horribly with every step, but she kept going. She had to keep going. She'd promised herself she would keep going.
Finally, she broke from the trees, met with the sight of the Salvatore boarding house. She paused for only a moment before she half-ran, half-limped to the front door. Reaching out, she shoved the door handle and almost fell into the house in her haste. Hurrying inside to the warmth, she glanced from side to side, trying to find any sign of life. This was home; she'd finally come home.
The familiarity of the fireplace blazing caught her attention first, and her heart beat quicker, leaping into her throat. She could smell the familiar potpourri of bourbon and a smell she could only associate with vampires. It was a sweet, almost sickening aroma to her now that she had her magic back. She was more attuned to those sorts of things, but even the super-saccharine scent of vampirism couldn't deter her.
Ignoring the fireplace and the great room, she went straight for the kitchen. She'd spent almost a year in that kitchen. That would be her only solid clue that she had finally returned to present day.
Bursting in through the entryway, she caught herself in the opening, panting as she looked around the room. The tiles were newer, the decorations had changed in twenty years, and tears welled in her eyes.
Home. She was finally home.
Her heart was beating faster than she could remember it having beaten, and she limped into the kitchen to lean on the countertop. Relief flooded through her. Even if there was no one in the house, she no longer felt alone. There was life in the world besides her. She could feel it vibrating around her in the air just as she could feel her magic coursing through her nervous system. Even entirely alone, she could feel the life the earth finally had in it again.
Then she realized something she'd been missing had returned to her as well: hope. Hope and excitement intermingled within her, and she excitedly put down her bag and the camera and headed to the refrigerator. She was starving, and she knew what she wanted.
Pancakes.
She wasn't sure if Damon or Stefan would come home first, but it didn't really matter. She knew where everything was in their kitchen since, like the old men they were, they hadn't moved things in twenty years. Grabbing the milk and the pancake mix, she almost dropped them on the counter in her haste. Popping the top off of the milk container, she mixed it together with the pancake mix and then shoved everything back where it belonged as the pan heated up.
Nervous excitement welled up within her so she almost bounced, but she stuck to biting her bottom lip instead. She barely saw the pancakes as she flipped them (she didn't really need to see them since she had so much practice with this by now; she could cook pancakes in her sleep).
Lost in a daze of relief, she blindly scooped the pancakes from the pan and placed them on a plate before turning off the stove. She didn't even eat them. She just stood there, staring off into nothingness, the sweet smell of the breakfast food wafting slowly up to her. Her relief at the realization she had finally made it overwhelmed her into silence, and her lips parted as she just enjoyed breathing the air.
Distantly, she heard his voice, and for a moment, she thought she was dreaming. She couldn't deny she'd heard voices in her daydreams while she'd been away. She'd wanted to hear someone else's voice for so long that she'd imagined them on several occasions.
But this was real.
Staring at the pancakes, she listened carefully. Damon. It was Damon.
"Call me back," she heard him say as he materialized in the entrance to the kitchen. She was leaning on the island for support, her broken toes throbbing as the heat of the house got to them, and she slowly turned, looking up to see him for the first time in more months than she cared to count.
He looked up at the same moment, his face open and questioning as he looked at her, having noticed the pancakes before being drawn to her standing still in front of the stovetop. For a moment, he looked like he wasn't sure she was real, and she couldn't find her voice to speak. She hadn't spoken to another living (or undead) person in months. She rarely used her voice at all except to talk to her video camera.
She stood in silence, watching his familiar face, and letting it all sink in. This was real. She wasn't imagining this. She could barely breathe as her heart thumped harder and harder, its rhythm building with the satisfaction that she'd succeeded. She'd been her own hero. She'd saved her own life and her sanity.
Damon frowned slightly in that way of his, his brow creasing between his eyes and his light blue eyes narrowing as if he didn't believe what he was seeing.
"Bonnie…"
The husky, assured way he said her name sent a flare of life through her. This was real. He saw her as clearly as she saw him. She wasn't imagining this.
His lips were parted, feigning breath, as he just stared at her and she let him soak in the sight of her. She was so stunned and relieved, it took her a moment before she could respond.
She intended to say something witty and clever, but her brain was in overdrive. She couldn't express the intensity of feelings that were surging through her, so she stayed leaning on the countertop for support and raised her left eyebrow slightly.
"The one and only," she managed, her voice sounding gravelly in her own ears from lack of use. Tears began burning in her eyes, and she nodded ever so slightly as she drank in the sight of the man who had become one of her closest friends.
She'd spent every waking moment of four months of her life with Damon. She'd shared every single minute of those four months with him. There were times when she wanted to find a firepoker and stab him with it herself. There were times when she wanted to punch him or scream at him, and she had, many times.
But there were also nights spent playing monopoly and drinking various alcoholic beverages around the Salvatore boarding house. There were days spent on the porch of her friends' houses when she would tell him about her shared childhood with Elena and Caroline.
No matter how much she'd tried to deny it before… Damon Salvatore was her friend.
They stared at one another for a long moment, the slight tick of a grin teasing at the side of his mouth as he cocked his head a little. He didn't tear his eyes from her, and she couldn't tear her eyes off of him. They were finally reunited after all of the hell they'd been through together, and all of the torture she'd been through alone. The relief was evident in their eyes as a myriad of emotions played out across their faces in silence.
She blinked, blinking back the happy tears that threatened to spill out over her cheeks. She was frozen in place, unsure what to do next and completely oblivious to the pancakes which remained on the cooktop. They could burn for all she cared.
Damon moved first, his arms slowly opening wide like the grin that broke across his face, and Bonnie's heart fled up into her throat. His grin was so goofy and so unlike any side of Damon she'd seen, and she spontaneously laughed, losing control of the tears in her eyes. Her shoulders shook with the laugh, and she just wanted to cry for an entire night in her joy over finally being home. Her laughter was contagious, and Damon's lips parted as his eyebrows went up, and he released a brief, silent laugh of his own.
Joy overflowed within her, storming through her entire body, and she forgot about her broken toes and her ear infection. In a moment, she was weightless, rushing into Damon's arms like a child seeing Mickey Mouse for the first time in her life.
She leapt, releasing a gleeful yelp as she crashed into him, the impact punching the wind straight from her lungs as she wrapped her arms and legs around him. The impact reverberated through her and around the room as her jacket and shirt bunched up and smashed between them. Instantly, Damon engulfed her in his arms, crushing her against him with as much of his vampiric strength he could muster without hurting her. He released a pleased 'ha ha' and lifted her up, stepping back slightly to absorb the impact of her jumping into his arms.
She clung to him as hard she'd clung to her own life, squishing herself against him so she could barely breathe. He was like stone, granite warmed in the radiant light of the sun, and she squeezed herself to him so tight she thought she might break right through.
He breathed a relieved groan into her jacket, and she buried her head in his neck as she started crying. Tilting his head back, he chuckled pleasedly and rearranged her jacket, his fingers digging into the fabric until it whined and the veins on the back of his hands pulsed from the force of the strain.
Her heart was beating so hard and fast she couldn't possibly speak again, and she felt like her throat may close up completely from the joy that raced through her all the way out to her nerve endings. She squeezed him with her arms and her legs, forgetting all of her own pain as he growled merrily against her shoulder.
"Ahhh, you made it!" he exclaimed, and she threw her head back in silent exultation, rearranging her arms around his neck and pressing her face against the side of his head. He spun her back and forth so her hair fell in her face, and she just kept herself wrapped around him, satisfied to just let him effortlessly hold her for as long as the both of them could bear.
She was home. She was finally home.