It's dark tonight, Bonnie notes, turning up her collar to brace herself from the wind. New Orleans is always dark, especially at this time of night, but tonight there's something that makes her eye each dark corner warily. She walks carefully, measuring each click of her stilettos on the pavement below. Her coat covers her sequined one shoulder dress, but the majority of her legs are on show. She's not worried. She adjusts the silver bangle on her bare arm and is safe in the knowledge that she has the power to murder anyone who makes her uncomfortable.
But the night is silent as it usually is, especially when she takes the back streets to the club, as she always does when she is late. The Mikaelsons' club is in a more upper class district of New Orleans, which may be good for her safety, but it means Bonnie has much longer to walk to get to the club, and she is nearly always almost late. She has never even met these famed Mikaelsons'- she only knows that their empire is so wide it stretches overseas, and everyone at the club speaks of them with so much reverence that you would think they were gods.
She smiles to herself then, reaching the back entrance. There are no gods, only witches like her, and vampires and werewolves. She tosses her coat to Rob at the door, flashing him her usual smile.
"You're late," he growls as he always does, and her smile widens as she walks past him and into the dressing room where her backup singers wait for her, worrying about the time and their hair as they always do.
"Come on," Alicia urges, pulling her to the staircase in the corner of their dressing room which will transport them directly backstage.
There are two floors to the Mikaelson club- the lower level is that of any high class club. The upper level is where important people go to network- a meeting place for businesses, but very selective of whom they admit. Bonnie sings on the upper level, on a little stage with the mic turned down. She is there to entertain, but no one is there to lose their heads over her.
It is packed tonight- the Friday night rush, Bonnie thinks as she surveys her audience from the wings of the stage. The sequins chafe her arm uncomfortably, but she forces herself to think nothing of it and instead focus on where Tysha is finishing up her set. The polite yet detached claps signal Tysha's departure and Bonnie's arrival. She steps up onto the polished wood of the stage with three quick clicks, averting her eyes so as not to be caught by the full glare of the spotlight on her.
Then the music starts and she loses herself to it.
The black sequins on her dress catch the light and turn her into a living disco ball, she thinks as she sings. Out of the corner of her eye, she watches as the girls slide onto the stage for the next song. Her second song is always Cold Case Love.
We opened up a cold case love, she sings, forgetting to keep her voice down as she always does when she sings this song. Most of these faces are alien to her, business women and men in cold crisp suits and below the knee dresses.
There is a man, sitting by the bar, watching her. He is alone, Bonnie notes, and he's wearing a sweater and jeans. His face is young- boyish- she thinks, as her eyes rake up his form to meet hers.
She holds eye contact for a few seconds before looking away and back to her backup singers. The lights dim as Cold Case Love finishes and the rest of her nondescript set begins. Bonnie seats herself at the piano and begins to play.
Her shift is three hours long, Thursday to Sunday. She should be home by one, if she finishes up fast enough. She has an appointment with the witches tomorrow at twelve, for lunch. She can't miss that. Not if she wants to end the war that's been waged for so long here. It ends with her, she knows. It has to.
"How's your mom?" She leans across the counter and accepts the water bottle Paul presents her with, spinning it into the air before catching it. He's her favourite bartender- his mom recently fell ill and so she played babysitter for his three year old. His wife died one year ago, caught in the crossfire. It's another name Bonnie adds to her list of innocents murdered, and it's another name she will fight for.
He's next to her, she notices when Paul turns away to serve another customer. Up close, she can see the material of his sweater is dark and thick, and clings to the flat planes of his stomach. He offers her a tentative smile which she returns, running one painted fingernail over the opening of her bottle before raising it to her lips.
"You sing…well," He says, and she smiles politely.
"Thank you! Do you happen to know what the time is?" She eyes the heavy Rolex on his wrist and chews her lip gently.
"Around one," He says, and she thanks him and makes for the exit, picking up her coat from Rob before she leaves. Her phone is vibrating in her coat pocket, which is never a good sign.
"Hello?"
"Bonnie?"
"Grams?"
"The Mikaelsons are back in town."
"Now?"
"They arrived last night…" Her Grams is almost frantic, and Bonnie feels her heart speed up in her chest as she steps out onto the pavement. This was unplanned, and now they have the upper hand. This is an advantage they cannot afford to give them.
"What are we going to do?"
"Exactly what we planned, but child, be careful."
"I always am." She hangs up quickly and stifles a yawn. She's going to have a later night than she expected, and now her heart won't stop thrumming beneath her ribcage. If they find out what they have planned…she stops herself from thinking and takes a deep breath, taking a shortcut through an alley.
She weaves her way around the broken beer bottles and tries not to flinch when she passes the weeping willow, which casts everything in deep shadow. She registers the footsteps behind her when she is halfway through the alley, heavy and evenly spaced. She speeds up, and so do they. The arm that brushes her shoulder is so unexpected she lets out a shrill noise halfway between a shriek and a scream in surprise, teetering on heels as she turns to face him.
It's the guy from the bar. Bonnie's green eyes widen and she notices his eyes are a very pretty brown, before she shoves the compliments aside and focuses on anger.
"What are you doing?" He smiles sheepishly at her and she notices how close they are, almost chest to chest, her hand on his arm.
And she can't feel a pulse.
This time, she does manage to quell the scream that rises in her throat, but she staggers away from him like she's been punched in the stomach. If he's a vampire…he must have heard…he must have felt the power she keeps locked away inside her for her own safety. She gasps and turns, hurrying down the alleyway before he has the chance to get a word in edgewise.
"Bonnie," He appears in front of her and she skids to a stop in front of him. She doesn't want to show him what she can do- it would ruin months of meticulous planning and she won't let that happen.
"How do you know my name?" She's aware that she sounds hysterical, but she's trying to save the situation in any way possible. He shrugs, and she steps back again.
"Why are you scared of me?"
"You're a vampire!" Incredulous as her tone is, she can't quite believe it herself. She doesn't care about him being a vampire- she cares about him knowing that she is a witch. If he has any sense, he will have already felt that she is powerful, but he looks too young to be more than a baby vampire. Let him be stupid, she prays.
"And you're a witch," He murmurs, and she closes her eyes, taking a deep breath. "Please, can I just go home? I won't tell anyone I know!" She peeks through her eyelashes at him, watching as annoyance plays across his face before he sighs and stands aside. "Very well, but we will talk at a later date."
She waits until she is almost to the end of alley before she lets her lips curve into a smirk. She's too good at playing the terrified baby witch.
Sometimes Bonnie thinks she is a freak of nature. Nature never intended for witches to be immortal, but it was always planned for her. She remembered standing with her Grams in front of the mirror, while she brushed her hair- remembers the words she whispered in her ear. You are the youngest Bennett witch and you shall be the greatest. Bonnie hadn't realised, then, that her life had already been mapped out for her. She was to be a hybrid; an immortal witch with the power to bring down any mortal or immortal being. She would be the greatest.
She doesn't feel like the greatest, even though she turned last year on the eve of her nineteenth birthday. Especially not now, sitting at the rough wood table in Grams' basement with the other witches, all of them trying to figure out what to do now that the Mikaelsons are back.
Half an hour later and they have decided to continue as planned. They will need to speed up a few things, but everything shall happen as previously decided. Bonnie excuses herself politely, explaining to everyone that she needs a breath of fresh air.
The planning makes her nervous, she realises as she sits on the park bench a few blocks from her house. She wants to act, to act now and be done with it.
Bonnie's playing with her fingers a few minutes later when he slides onto the bench next to her. She groans internally and wills a slightly scared, slightly wary expression onto her face.
"What do you want?" She spits at him, and he relaxes into the bench, one arm curling nonchalantly over the back of it.
"Wonderful morning, isn't it?"
"What do you want?"
"You're a witch. And a powerful one. I need your help."
"No." She bites, and rises from the bench quickly, heeled boots clicking against the pavement.
"Come on!" He smiles at her, following her. "You haven't even heard what I need your help with!"
"It's still no."
She turns her head, squinting at him, and sees a dark shape behind him that reminds her of someone. "Excuse me," She says in a clipped tone, walking towards the dark sweater.
It's not him. It's never him. He died three months ago, she tells herself, balling her fingers into fists. This happens too often for her to be okay. So she goes home to Grams and sits at the foot of her bed, watching dust get caught in the streams of sunlight.
"Jeremy's gone, Bonnie," Grams hands her the cup of tea and she takes it absentmindedly, closing her eyes and hugging it in her palms. "But it was never going to be easy."
"I thought I'd have more time with him," She says, and her voice cracks. She will not cry. She won't. Grams strokes her hair and offers her a wan smile.
"Child, you're doing fine."
"It's a private audience tonight," Rob says, giving her a warning glance as she enters the club. "They won't need you for long."
Private audience means Mikaelsons. Bonnie's heart thrums with nervous energy as she sweeps glittery silver shadow across her lips. She fights to control it. This her first glimpse of these infamous villains and she must take everything in.
They're normal. Well, as normal as a family of evil vampires can be. The mother and the father seem obviously estranged, and slightly cool towards the rest of the children. Esther Mikaelson is the witch who caused all of this. Esther Mikaelson and her children will soon lie in concrete tombs, with stakes in their hearts. They will not kill them- only leave them for an eternity spent underground with a stake in their heart which can be removed if Bonnie ever feels like it. There's only one girl- Rebekah- blonde and lighter than the rest of them. The other three boys are formidable- the darker ones she identifies as Finn and Elijah seem more intimidating than the hybrid Klaus- but he has the childish immaturity on his features that makes him so dangerous.
They carry on eating as if she isn't there, which is fine by Bonnie.
It's only when her shift is ending that Klaus stands and makes his way to the exit. She does the same, but instead of returning to her dressing room, she follows him out to the corridor which leads to the staircase which connects the two clubs to each other.
The carpet muffles her footsteps but Bonnie holds her breath with each step anyway, watching with bated breath as Klaus growls at someone in the shadows.
"You would do well not to pull something like that again."
"I didn't want to come," someone sulks, and without warning, Klaus slams his fist into that someone's stomach. He staggers back into the light, and Bonnie bites her lip to keep from gasping.
It's the boy from the bar, the boy from yesterday.
"I told you last year, if you ever left us again, if you ever betrayed us once more, I would kill you with my bare hands. That offer still stands, and Kol, you would do well to remember it."
He delivers a swift kick to Kol's ribs with a sickening crunch that makes her wince and she watches him fall to his knees, sinking back against the wall and blending into shadow once more. Bonnie clenches her fists when Klaus passes within in a hairs breadth of where she is hiding.
"Kol," She chokes out as he slumps over with a groan.
"I'm fine," he grunts, pushing himself into a slouched seating position with one hand. She takes a seat next to him, sliding down the wall to rest by his head. "You're not."
"I will be." He says, and manages to manoeuvre himself so he is parallel to her. "I'm a vampire remember?" He says with a grim smile.
"How do you know the Mikaelsons?"
His eyes flit from one side to the other before he is leaning in, and Bonnie thinks for one heart stopping moment he is going to try and kiss her, but instead his lips brush her ear and he whispers-
"I want to kill them."
He shows up outside her house the next morning. She doesn't ask how he knows her address- yesterday, he told her things about the Mikaelsons that make her skin crawl even now. She made sure to ask him to meet her when Grams was out in a neighbouring town, and she opens the door to meet him on the deck now, wrapping a cardigan around herself as she shuts the door behind her.
"Can't I come in?" His lip curves into a smirk that seems to say, I know what you are doing, Bonnie Bennett, I know what you are trying to do, but she ignores him and walks to her Prius without so much as a look in his direction.
They drive until she finds a coffee shop in the business district of New Orleans and Kol stays silent, which Bonnie is thankful for.
"Why?" Is all she says, when they are seated, her hands wrapped around her favourite iced coffee, but he's not listening to her. Kol's eyes are focused on the way her hair spills into the scoop neck of her top, and Bonnie lets him look for a few moments.
It's a nice feeling, being wanted, and one she hasn't had in so long.
"They've killed everyone I've ever loved," He mutters, and she watches the way his hand clenches into the wood of the table. It's as good a reason as the others have, but she knows they will not trust him.
He will be her little secret and she will play with him until she doesn't want him anymore.
His hand shoots out across the table then, reaching to grasp her own. "Come out with me," He says with only the slightest hesitation. "On a date."
"When?" Is all she can say, although she has already drawn up a list of pros and cons and decided on her answer.
"Tomorrow."
"I'll let you know," She smiles at him, already half out of her seat with iced coffee in hand. He will follow her, she knows and she is not disappointed when he rises too.
"Be ready by half seven," He throws a few twenties on the table and Bonnie wonders for a split second what is wrong with him- the two of their coffees combined were no more than eight dollars- but instead she remembers the harrowed workers and decides to leave it be.
She isn't ashamed to admit that she gets dressed up especially for her date, even going as far as to buy a new dress, a gorgeous black satin mini with sleeves that cover her wrists and fabric that clings to her body. Grams smiles at her before the doorbell rings, promising to make herself scarce.
"I brought you flowers," is the first thing he says, brandishing a bouquet of irises and lilacs and her. If she knew him better, she would say he was nervous, from the way he keeps shifting and fidgeting. Bonnie suppresses her smile and goes to put them in a vase quickly before he decides to bolt.
"You look really nice," he mumbles, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly in a way that makes her laugh. They walk to the restaurant, and she would complain, but she likes the fact she gets more time to talk to Kol, but what she likes more, is the fact their hands are entwined for the whole walk.
"Have you had any previous relationships?" She asks while they're waiting for their entrees, and he shrugs in reply.
"There've been a few flings, but nothing serious," his nerves have eased up a fair bit, she notes. "You?"
She wants to start crying when any mention of Jeremy comes into her life, like she usually does, but she forces herself to straighten her back and look him in the eye. "There was one…his name was Jeremy."
"Tell me about him," Kol says, and she doesn't even ask why, just lets the words tumble out.
"We weren't childhood sweethearts, but I knew him for as long as I could remember. He was my best friend's younger brother and I never saw him as anything until he got into high school and it was like, overnight he just turned into this really hot dude." She breaks off to laugh there, and Kol reaches for her hand across the table, skimming his thumb over her knuckles encouragingly.
"We were together for what felt like months, and was a little over a year. And now we're not."
"What happened to him?"
"He died."
She can see the whys and the hows lingering on the tip of his tongue, so she leans forward as their entrees arrive with a little laugh. "Enough about that. Tell me about yourself."
Kol tells her that he was turned by the Mikaelsons to be the family page boy, and try as she might, she can't see him as a servant. He's not a baby then- he's older than any vampires she's ever come across, and she knows she has seriously misjudged him and promises to keep her guard up next time. She decides she will dig deeper later, but for tonight, all she wants to do is let her guard down.
She twists the ring on her finger and wonders how much he knows about her. As if on cue, he leans back in his chair and begins to speak. "Will you help me?"
"Maybe," is all she says, tucking her legs underneath her chair and crossing them at the ankle. "Depends how much I like you at the end of this."
The date goes well enough- Kol is charming and funny but Bonnie finds herself wondering why she chose to let him in. She's walking up to her front door at the end of the night, hand still intertwined with Kol's, when he tugs her back, sending her spiralling into his stomach. She looks up at him and allows her breath to catch in the back of her throat. "So," he begins slowly, "how much do you like me?"
"I don't know," She mutters back, snaking her arms up around his shoulders and leaning up to him, "you tell me."
Kol is a fierce kisser, so passionate and deep that she is almost bent over backwards over his arm when he does kiss her. Bonnie can't help but feel like she's been waiting most of her life for this.
It takes him a little less than a month to worm his way completely into her life. It's only at the end of the month that she lets him plot at the kitchen table with her, but that's mainly because she thought he would keep distracting her (and he does, reaching out to steal a kiss every time she frowns, smiles, or pretty much does anything). He buys her ice lollies and carries her everywhere on her back (mainly because she makes him) and when they lie entangled in each other at night, he tells her almost everything. Almost everything, and Bonnie can sense that something is not quite right about him, so she decides not telling him that she's the most powerful witch on Earth, as of now, is justified.
Sometimes she feels guilty. Sometimes she slips into a huge vortex of Jeremy and he doesn't push her, just holds her until she's calm. And sometimes he grows dark and talks about his mother, something about his 'real mother' and not 'what this one had become'. Bonnie doesn't push him either. They almost love each other.
Grams doesn't like him, and she wonders if that will stop her from becoming fully in love with him. But tomorrow, she thinks, lying on Kol's chest with his arms around her, tomorrow she will be free of the Mikaelson's forever. The thought makes a contented sigh escape from her lips and Kol pulls her into him again, laughing like he always is.
It's a Friday, so they're expecting the bar to be packed. Bonnie chooses her outfit carefully, smoothing her long hair back into a sleek ponytail and selecting a short black bodycon mini with sequined cap sleeves. The family always meet at the upstairs bar every Friday evening, and their plan is to get the innocents out and the witches in.
Bonnie is thrumming with a nervous energy, and by the time she reaches the club she is a nervous wreck. Kol hugs her and kisses her forehead, muttering a quiet 'it'll be over soon' that makes her grab his head and pull his lips down onto hers.
"If either of us die," He says fiercely, "I love you, Bonnie Bennett." It's the first time he's ever said it, and she can't repeat it, so she just kisses him again.
Before she fully realises what is happening, she's on stage for her set and she's closing. The witches are all over the room, and once she sings her finishing song, all hell will break lose. She chose this one specially.
What a shame we all became, such fragile broken things, a memory remains, just a tiny spark.
She watches as Kol moves towards Klaus, his back to her, facing Klaus at the back of the room. Something crawls under her skin and she steps off her stage and moves towards him. Klaus is hers, they decided that ages ago. Kol breaks away from Klaus when he notices her coming, and she hangs back, sure to keep her distance from him for the rest of the song.
She sings the last note and all hell breaks loose.
Somewhere in the corner of her eye, she watches Kol and Klaus move away, into the corridor, hears the snarl that escapes from Klaus' lips as he is ushered away by Kol, but she has no time to think and instead finds herself confronted with a mass of bloodthirsty witches.
The stakes they have prepared will not kill the Originals, only immobilise them, and Bonnie catches the one she is tossed quickly.
"Finn's down!" someone cries in front of her, and she feels an easing of the pressure in her chest she has always carried with her.
"So's Elijah," the voice comes from behind her ear, and then Grams' best friend is gripping her upper arm and telling her to go and finish Klaus before it is too late. She finds herself out in the corridor, and focuses on clearing the fog from her mind and concentrating on the rage- and god, there is so much rage.
An instinct tells her to remain hidden, half concealed by the shadow and strain her ears to hear what Klaus and Kol are saying. "What is this?" Klaus spits, and he is almost as angry as she is.
"I told you- I told you almost everything- I didn't know…" Kol doesn't sound like Kol, this stammering boy begging for forgiveness is not her Kol, Bonnie thinks, tucking the stake carefully behind her back.
"You are my brother!" Klaus explodes, and Bonnie tries not to react, but can't stop the gasp falling from her lips.
"You," He snarls, and his forearm is against her neck, pressing her up against the wall in a way that makes her arm twist painfully into the stake behind her back.
And then she brings her knee up to his stomach and back down again, stepping on his foot and breaking it with a sick crunch that makes her want to giggle hysterically. The movement sends him reeling and she whips the stake out from behind her back and pushes Kol back when he steps forward to say something to her. "Not now," She bites out, arm outstretched to stake Klaus.
He's faster than her, and older, and sends the stake clattering to the floor with a well-placed swipe, clutching at Bonnie's ponytail and connecting their heads until she can't see anything but stars. His foot hurts when it connects with her ribs, and she falls to her knees with a groan.
"Get the stake!" She hears, and once she's cleared her head enough to reach for the stake and stand, she finds Kol barely holding Klaus back.
"Why are you doing this?" She cries, and he half screams at her to hurry up and stake Klaus.
"You," Are his last words as she advances.
"Me," She says, and plunges the stake into his heart.
He falls away from her and slumps to the floor, going as grey and cracked as a weathered statue, but her joy turns to ashes in her mouth and all she can see is Kol in front of her, half propping up his brother's (brother's) undead corpse up with one arm.
Klaus is dead, something dimly clicks in her brain, but she looks at Kol in dismay and finds she can't form words.
"Bonnie-" He starts, and she shakes her head, certain she would cry if she felt anything but shock.
"What have you done?" She whispers, looking at him as if she's really seeing him for the first time (a younger, more carefree Elijah, you stupid fool Bonnie Bennett)
"You have to listen to me, Bonnie! I can explain, I can explain it all, just listen!" She is already shaking her head and turning away, and as she sneaks one last look at him, she thinks that she has never seen a man look so very broken.
He stands outside her house, that night after the witches have all gone, when all the Mikaelson's lie in their cold tombs underground. She looks out through her curtain with the lights off, so he does not see her watching him as the sun sets. I'm here if you want to talk, he posts through the letterbox, and Grams watches Bonnie with wary eyes but will not tell her anything.
She waits until the sky is painted gold before she steps away from the window and crawls into bed, curling up into a ball and refusing to believe she hurts at all. (He lied to her, played her so well none of them saw it coming, and used her for what he wanted without ever letting her in, and none of it was real at all, none of it.)
Bonnie has questions, questions that grow and grow by the next morning, but she will not swallow her pride and ask him for the answers.
"You weren't truthful to him either," Grams says as she clears away breakfast, and Bonnie takes that to mean that she should forgive him.
It's a seed that grows in her mind, the thought of forgiving him and living a Mikaelson free life together, one with no shadows and no secrets. She can't do it- she isn't even sure she has a reason why- she just knows she can't.
He continues to stand outside her window at night. She continues to pretend he does not exist.
"You're against forgiving him because he's the first person you let in since Jeremy died, and you're scared." Grams says one night when they sit at the fire, Bonnie's head in her lap.
Bonnie watches the flames leap across the walls, throwing deep shadows around the room and starts to speak, but Grams carries on, threading her gnarled fingers through Bonnie's hair.
"I'll be gone soon, and I don't want you to have no one. Think about what I've said."
But Bonnie cannot think like that, think of a world where Grams isn't with her anymore, because Grams is all she has left.
"I talked to him yesterday," Grams smiles at her while they're laying the table, and ignores the way Bonnie almost drops the salt shaker. "He's coming over for dinner, so you might want to change."
Bonnie curses, and refuses to do anything more than tug a brush through her hair. "By the way," Grams adds when the doorbell rings, "I won't be joining you."
Sometimes all Bonnie wants to do is tape her Grams' mouth shut, she thinks as she lets Kol in and leaves herself.
They sit at opposite ends of the table and look at each other over the food. He looks sad- his hair is slightly more rumpled than usual and his clothes look like he slept in them, and she spares a thought to think that maybe she's not the only one suffering here.
"I didn't want to lie to you." His words tumble over each other, and he runs a hand through his already messed up hair. She pushes the fact that he looks like a sleepy five year old out of her mind. "I wanted to kill them just as much as you did- stay with Klaus, and you'd be in for some emotional abuse, leave him and you'd be hunted. Rebekah and Elijah stayed and became shells of themselves, I could not. But I needed to be free."
She understands, she really does, but she can't help but feel betrayed. His hand moves to grasp hers across the table and she reflexively moves it away.
"You lied to me."
"I didn't want to, but you would never have let me help you if you knew, and I had to be certain you weren't going to kill them forever. They're my family, and I don't want them dead, but I do want them gone."
"Do you believe me?" He asks when he is finished, standing and stretching a hand out to her. He is giving her the choice, Bonnie realises as he comes to stand before her.
She takes his hand and he tugs her up and kisses her like he did just a few weeks ago, after their first date.