The tiny bucket of a car was no match for the ferocity of nature. The tread bare tires screeched and groaned on wet pavement as rain lashed out like a heavy fist. sheets of metal ground and sparked, while old rust and paint peeled like an onion from what one could only assume was once a very pristine red hondai. As far as Bonnie Bennett was concerned, this would be her last storm, in the middle of the road, 3 miles from Mystic Falls in an old rust bucket 15 years past it's prime. she had $3.39 in her pocket, a groweling stomach, and all the belongings she could fit in an old duffle in the back seat. which happened to include a flyer for a bartending position. Bonnie perked up at the reminder of why she was here in the middle of the night and the middle of a thunder storm on her way to a city she'd never heard of. A job. Globe trotting all around had it's perks, especially if it got her away from men who liked to put their hands on her, but at some point the fairytale ended and one needed to work for the money. Her savings were exhausted and Bonnie had no one to depend on but herself. If only she could make it through the storm.

Jeremy sighed as he watched the sheet of rain from inside the toasty interior of The Grill. The sight of rain, while depressing gave him the excuse he'd been needing to actually work on the account. He felt the headache brewing in the back of his eye at just the thought of it, but owning a business took more than wearing fancy dinner suits and eating brunch with potential investors. He'd let the paperwork pile up on his desk and it was past time he faced it. Over the last year and a half he'd had to give himself a crash course into the business side of running a bar, Anna had usually handled all of that.. Jeremy shut his eyes tight at the mention of her. After more than a year the pain was starting to fade into a dull ache, and that scared him more than anything. He'd been lost of her longer than he'd known her, but at one point in his life he had thought her to be "the one". Fanciful thinking for a man like Jeremy Gilbert, but he imagined that kind of feeling only happened to a man once, if he's lucky, and he'd had that with Anna before her death. No all he had was the faithful Grill, good friends and account books. Jeremy stared out at the rain and prayed. Hoped. For what he didn't really know, but for a while now his life had felt like it was teetering just on the edge of something indefinable, waiting for something, a purpose. staring into the rain so hard, he nearly missed the faint beamlights coming toward him. He squinted to get a better look, but could barely make out the road in the storm. what he did manage to see of the car didn't impress.

"Yeah. we're closed, asshole, keep on going."

The car kept on a steady path right up to The Grill and in fact didn't show any signs of stopping. Jeremy straightened and shook his head at the on coming car.

"Hey! Keep going, asshole, can't you see the nice big building here?"

But the car kept coming. swearing under his breath, Jeremy jumped back from the window and grabbed his jacket from the hook on the door. He'd just see what was up.

"Oh, come on, come on baby."

Bonnie yanked on the steering heel as she pressed her heel even harder into the breaks. God this was not the time for her breaks to fail on her. Banging her hand on the dash in frustration, Bonnie allowed herself a second of utter panic.

"Oh God, oh God. Tell me I'm not living my last moments in a beat-up old bucket, with change to my name, in a town I've never heard of in a state I barely remember? Please, God."

Bonnie squinted in front of her and just barely made out the outline of an approaching building. Great. Panic a hard rock in the pit of her stomach, Bonnie pumped her foot on the gas until she swore her foot bled. she tried jerking to car to the side, but regardless of where she steered there was an approaching building. with nothing in her head but the refrain "Oh God" Bonnie straigtened her shoulders and prayed for mercy. she hadn't known she'd shut her eyes until she heard faint yelling from outside. Bonnie peeked her eyes open and groaned at the sight of a tall figure frantically waving his arms at her. she could just barely make out his disgruntled yelling through the rain.

"Move...damn car! Hell..with you! Building here? Turn around? !"

"Oh, well that's nice."

Bonnie uttered under her breath. with renewed strength, Bonnie pressed down on the breaks and yanked the car into neautral. It came to an ubrupt halt that nearly had her flying out the windsheild, but it had stopped! Bonnie had a moment of pure glee at the very near miss of terrible tragedy, before she was being ripped from her car onto the wet pavement and up against a very angry, and really hard, male body.

"what the hell is wrong with you? Are you drunk? I should have your ass hauled in for reckless endangerment."

The hard body liked to punctuate his words with small shakes, and since he had both hands gripped in her collar, and his, beautifully brown, eyes looked about to bulge out of his skull, Bonnie figured she had to be the level-headed one in this situation.

"It's raining."

For a split second everything seemed to pause. The hard body stared at her in wonderment, even the rain seemed to let up a bit in confusion. Bonnie rolled her eyes to the back of her head, and subtly scratched an itch behind her ear that had been bugging her for the last 15 minutes.

"It raining? It's..It's rain..You nearly run head first into a building, almost kill me and yourself and your response is 'It's raining?'"

Bonnie felt a laugh bubbling up in her belly that she tried desparately to contain. Hard body looked so cute when he was bewildered.

"I suspect I'm in some sort of shock."

"shock? shock...you're in shock.."

Bonnie had to work overtime to keep the giggles in, hard body really was a cutie, but she managed to look deadly serious putting all that a couple of acting classes in college gave her to good use.

"Yeah. And maybe even a good dose of stockholm syndrum because you're actually starting to look really good to me."

Jeremy all but tossed her back into the car, letting go of her like she had burned his fingers somehow.

"This is a joke to you. You nearly run into a building, cause maybe $50,000 in damage, kill two people-"

"Myself being one of them" Bonnie felt compelled to point out.

Jeremy simply rolled over her as if she hadn't spoken, "and you're making jokes. Really? how old are you? 13?"

Bonnie pressed the heel of her palm to her chest, "oh, harsh words. The only time I've been accused of being a child is when there is a child mad enough at me to throw me that taunt. Rather ineffective coming from an adult, I think?"

"Take a look behind you. Only someone with very limited brain capacity would nearly run head-first into a clearly visible building in the middle of the damn road!"

The tauting retort fell down Bonnie's throat when she did as he asked and noticed the sign on the heading of the building.

"The Grill."

"Oh, so you can read. Yeah, that's my bar you nearly ran into!"

Bonnie let the insult roll off her shoulders with the rain as she fumbled in her pocket for the crumbled flyer she'd had close on by for nearly 3 states.

"well, Mr. Hard Body bar owner, today is your lucky day! I'm here to take all your troubles away and be the loyal employee you've searched your whole life for."

And before his confused and angry face, Bonnie thrust the wanted ad right at him.