Background: Lily blackmails the Salvatores and Bonnie into bringing back her "family." Jo asks Bonnie to bring Kai back as well, and Bonnie disagrees, but in 1903, something changes her mind.

There is something heartbreakingly beautiful about watching Kai Parker cry.

He is trapped inside a clumsily-built cage, hands bound and mouth gagged. His face is a bloody mess of blue and black, brown and red. His throat - just ripped flesh. He thinks he is alone: she knows it by the way he doesn't conceal the sobs tearing out of his chest. He doesn't hold back, angrily jerking his body and letting out a muffled growl.

Bonnie watches incredulously as a lone tear slips silently down his cheek and falls onto his leg, darkening the fabric of his tattered pants. He turns slightly, twisting his back, and winces. She thinks back to the week before: stabbing the blade into him, twisting it, loving that she was causing him pain. Undoubtedly, she had caused him much more pain than originally intended. And now, they are even. She has nothing else to hold against him.

Bonnie is one to hold a grudge, but never for too long.

Maybe that is why she feels guilt. Regret. Maybe that is why she wants to help him now. God, he is still sobbing, head hung - hope has flew out of his Pandora's box. In that moment it is easy, so easy. And she could do it. Run to him, get him the hell out of there.

So easy to leave these stupid Heretics behind. After all, they had been the ones to do this.

She feels sick looking at this - she knows what it is like to be used by vampires. How is this any different? Bonnie steps out in front of Kai hesitantly. He squints at her, then at his surroundings. The first thing he says isn't very assuring.

"Am I dead?" he mumbles through the cloth that covers his mouth.

She almost laughs. (But what part of this is funny?) "We don't have much time. I'm going to help you, okay?" She mutters under her breath and his restraints disappear.

"Okay, Bonnie, whatever you say." Kai smiles lazily at her, and flexes his fingers. "One question: if I'm in Hell, why are you here?"

"I don't have time to explain, we need to leave right now - "

Her fingers encircle his wrist, and even though the skin is raw and bloody, she doesn't mind. Neither does he. But as soon as they reach their home, back in the present, she lets go.

"Bonnie?" Kai asks. "Thank you."

"Look, I didn't do it for you. It was for Jo, okay?" She sighs and crosses her arms. "I owed her one."

He regards her carefully. "You hate me. You could have said no."

She avoids his gaze.

"You brought me back because you felt bad...about what you did."

Her silence confirms it.

Kai laughs suddenly. The sound washes over her like the winter's icy rain, chilling her to the bone. It is contagious and that is what scares her.

There is something breathtakingly beautiful about hearing him laugh.

A/N: Title - Running Up That Hill, Placebo

Eh, I don't really like how this turned out but whatever. It was irritating, just sitting there in my drafts, so. Please review and give me your thoughts!