"So what are we going to do?" Meredith asked as she scribbled something else down in her notebook.
"What can we do?" Stefan asked, looking at each person in the gathered circle
"We could kill him." Matt suggested hopefully. Everyone gave him 'the look' the one that always made him feel stupid. "What? It would solve the problem." He said. Stefan sighed.
"How do you propose we do that exactly? The last time I fought him he almost killed me." Stefan said dejectedly. It was his brother, he should be doing more to help but instead he was reminded of how much weaker he was every moment that went by. Elena reached over and squeezed his hand tightly. He smiled at her. She had always been good at figuring out his moods.
"Oh" was all Matt said before falling silent again. Elena opened her mouth and then shut it again with a frown. Stefan looked at her, wondering what she was thinking. He knew he could read her mind if he really wanted to, but he didn't want to invade her privacy.
"Maybe..." Elena paused, thinking over her words carefully before she continued "maybe we shouldn't do anything." She said. Everyone looked at her shocked.
Stefan was the first to break the stunned silence that followed Elena's suggestion "Elena, my brother is... doing whatever it is he does - to Bonnie. How can we not do anything?" his voice was shocked, almost disbelieving. Elena shook her head.
"That's it though. It's Bonnie. She isn't exactly helpless anymore and she wouldn't be dating him if she thought he would harm her in any way." Elena explained Meredith looked uncertain but Matt and Stefan both opened their mouths, protests overlapping each other.
"It's Damon! He is older and stronger than any other living vampire today."
"How can you say that she isn't helpless? You're talking about Bonnie"
"What if it were Meredith? Would you be willing to let him have his way with her?"
"It's Damon. The guy who killed Mr. Tanner" Elena and Meredith watched as the two boys started to repeat arguments and then looked at each other. A month ago, Matt would have been protesting just as hard about her dating Stefan and now he didn't even realise that he was backing up everything Stefan was saying.
Damon landed silently in the attic and shifted back to his human form. He heard Elena saying they didn't need to do anything followed by silence. Damon decided he wanted to hear more of this little... discussion. He dropped from the attic to Stefan's room as quietly as he could and padded over to the top of the stairs. From there he watched as Stefan denied the possibility of Damon having any feelings for the little witch. He was surprised when he heard Elena defending him and then he almost laughed as Stefan and Matt tripped over themselves to argue reasons why they had to do something. He heard Matt say that Bonnie was helpless and Damon decided one of these days, the little witch would have to show them all exactly how helpless she was. He rubbed his arm absently before deciding that their argument had gone on long enough.
"Arguing about Me?" He asked innocently as he dropped over the banister and landed a metre from Matt. He felt himself smiling cruelly as Matt cringed away from him. Stefan stood up and placed himself firmly between Damon and the rest of the group. "Please brother – don't insult me." Damon said then leaned in and whispered "if I wanted to kill any of them do you really think you could protect them?" Damon watched as Stefan looked at him in disbelief. They both knew he was right. Stefan was no match for Damon and probably wouldn't even be able to give the others more than a few seconds to get away – nowhere near enough time to even get to the front door, let alone the relative safety of their houses.
Elena stood gracefully and side stepped her Lover. "I for one think he at least deserves a chance." Damon smiled a genuine smile at her, a little surprised that she was siding with him and not his wimp of a brother, but glad for it all the same. "and if he even thinks of hurting Bonnie, she can beat him from here until next month." Elena added grinning back at him. Matt opened his mouth to speak, but thought better of it. Meredith nodded – accepting Elena's word as the gospel. Stefan looked at him suspiciously but stayed silent before leaving to go hunting. Elena was next to go, claiming that she needed to finish a homework assignment. Matt cursed and ran for the door saying he hadn't even started the assignment leaving Meredith and Damon alone. Meredith glared at Damon.
"If you hurt her, I will find a way to kill you slowly." She vowed as she too followed the others out. Damon believed her, but he had no intention of hurting his little witch. Not unless she wanted him to.