Disclaimers: Vampire Diaries belong to L. J. Smith and the CW. I do not own them. I'm only taking the characters out to play.

Bonnie Bennett had turned 17 a week ago and while her family and friends had thrown her a party the weekend before, Grams had insisted on having a quiet dinner to discuss her inheritance. Bonnie figured that Grams wanted to try to talk to her again about being a so-called witch. Bonnie still thought Grams had been taking her text books far too seriously but she loved her grandmother so she'd humor her.

Bonnie walked in the door of her grandmother's spacious, warm home and inhaled the delicious flavors wafting from the kitchen. "Grams?" she called.

"In here, Baby," Sheila Bennett called back from the kitchen.

Bonnie strolled into the kitchen with a smile on her face. "Is that what I think it is?" Bonnie asked peaking under the lid of a pot simmering on the stove.

Grams lightly swatted the girl's hand away from the pot. "Brunswick stew and buttermilk biscuits." She said proudly. Teaching a full course load at the college often left Sheila with little time to cook more than pasta and sauce or grill something outside so she was always tickled that she did indeed know how to cook.

"Chicken?"

"What do you take me for?" The older woman tried to look insulted. "Rabbit. There's also marble cake for dessert."

"Grams, you didn't have to go to so much trouble. I would've have been just fine with a burger out on the grill." Bonnie chided her grandmother. With her mother going awol when Bonnie was just a toddler and her father being out of town on business so much, Bonnie relied on Grams for a nurturing environment. "What can I do to help?"

"Nonsense. It's been too long since I fussed over a meal and tonight is very special." Sheila handed a stack of plates, cloth napkins and silverware to Bonnie. "Would you set the table in the dining room?"

"Sure" Bonnie took the stack then noticed that there were three of everything she was handed. "Are we expecting someone else?"

"Yes," Sheila turned to the oven and checked the biscuits that were baking, purposely avoiding her grand-daughter's eyes. "I've invited an old friend of mine to join us and help me explain a few things."

Bonnie rolled her eyes while setting three spots at the table. "Another professor?" Just what I need, Bonnie thought, another crackpot who believes fairy tales.

"No," Sheila answered. "I've known Damon since long before I started teaching."

Just then the doorbell rang causing Bonnie to jump just a little. "He's right on time, as always," Sheila exclaimed. "Baby, would you let him in?"

Bonnie went to the door expecting to see older gentleman, perhaps in tweed. Instead, the man standing at the door was maybe 24 years old with messy dark hair and startling blue eyes. This could not be Grams' friend. The divorcee next door was a bit of a cougar and this hottie must have turned up the wrong walk. Bonnie quickly checked him out. The cougar's taste was definitely improving. He was dressed in boots, snug jeans and a tailored black dress shirt unbuttoned enough that the girl got just a hint of the chest underneath. He wasn't extremely tall but still a good bit taller than Bonnie's 5'2" frame. He had a bottle of wine cradled in the same arm that was also holding a grocery sack that a mixed bouquet peaked out of.

The man in question smirked softly when he realized that he was being scoped. "You must be Bonnie." He said with a tilt of his head. "I'm Damon."

Bonnie's jaw dropped. "You're an old friend of Grams?"

"An older friend than you can imagine." Damon chuckled lightly. "May I come in? I think the ice cream might be melting."

Sheila appeared behind Bonnie, wiping her hands on a dish towel. "Since when do you need an invitation into my home, Damon Salvatore?"

Bonnie stepped aside and watched as Damon stepped close to Sheila and handed her the bottle of wine. "Never, I hope." He then swooped Sheila into a bear hug. "Cara mia, you are as gorgeous as always."

"Flatterer." Sheila pulled away from Damon to swat him playfully with the towel. "You never change."

"And neither do you." Damon countered. "Hitting the man bringing presents." He gestured toward the bottle and to the bag now apparently holding ice cream as well as flowers. "Shall we go open the wine?

With that Damon walked into the kitchen with the Bennett ladies at his heels.

Bonnie could only watch mutely as Damon navigated her grandmother's kitchen with ease. He slid the carton of fudge ripple ice cream into the freezer then opened a cabinet to retrieve a vase for the flowers. He also seemed to know exactly where Sheila kept her cork screw and wine glasses.

As she transferred the stew to a tureen, Sheila eyed Damon pouring three glasses of wine. "Corrupting my grand-daughter already, are you?"

"I didn't hear you complaining when it was you I was corrupting." Damon pretended to be affronted. "And as I recall you were younger than 17 and the alcohol was a bit harder than pinot noir." He handed two glasses to Sheila and one to Bonnie. "I'll carry the tureen in."

Sheila led the way into the dining room followed by Damon, leaving Bonnie to grab the basket of warm biscuits.

Arriving at the table, Damon seated Sheila at the head of the table but Bonnie beat him by seating herself. "Okay, I'm confused." Bonnie looked between her grandmother and Damon. "You two act like Damon is the older of you."

"That's because he is, Baby." Sheila responded.

"Much," was Damon's comment as he took the seat opposite Bonnie.

"Either that's really good plastic surgery and a lot of moisturizer or you're pulling my leg." Bonnie was not pleased with this joke.

"Bonnie," Sheila began, "I told you that you and I were different , that in some ways we were more complicated than most humans. Well Damon is even more complicated."

The teenager was growing impatient. "So what is he? Let me guess, a warlock or something."

"Not exactly." Sheila began. She hadn't rehearsed or planned how she would tell Bonnie about the supernatural and now she was at a loss.

Damon could see his old friend starting to unravel and decided he better step in. "Actually, I'm a vampire."

Bonnie let out a bark of laughter. "Now I'm certain you're pulling my leg."

Damon looked at Sheila as if silently asking her a question. Sheila shook her head. "The child won't believe till she sees with her own eyes."

Damon gave a curt nod and turned back toward Bonnie. What Bonnie saw had her gasping and pushing back from the table so fast that she nearly toppled her chair. Damon's eyes had turned blood red with black veins protruding around them. His mouth was slightly open and his teeth were jagged and the canines elongated.

As her chair teetered, Damon suddenly flashed around the table and was steadying Bonnie to keep her from falling. His face back to its handsome countenance.

"yooouuuu...oh god, what are you?" Bonnie stuttered.

Sheila stood up and placed a hand on Damon's shoulder. "It's okay, Baby. Damon is no threat to us." Damon took Sheila's hand and kissed her knuckles before returning to his seat. "In fact, he's been guardian to our family for generations."

Bonnie took a healthy swallow of wine as Sheila began to dish up the stew. They ate for a moment in silence, at least the older two of the party did, to allow Bonnie a moment to digest this revelation.

"So," The girl finally said after calming her heart rate. "If you are a vampire," she looked out the window at the setting sun, "shouldn't you only be able to come out after dark?"

Damon smiled. "Normally that would be true but your great grandmother Emily was a rather gifted witch." He raised his hand up showing off a large ring with a blue stone. "The ring has a spell attached to it to allow me to walk in the sunlight."

"And the other stuff in books and movies? I mean you're eating but what about crosses, holy water, silver and stakes." Now that the world stopped spinning Bonnie was amazed.

Damon buttered a biscuit and took a bite before answering. "A stake through the heart is a sure way to kill a vampire but you better be strong enough to fight the vamp while driving it."

He touched is sternum. "You have to make it through solid bone before piercing the heart and unless the vampire is already starved near the point of desiccation, you won't be able to sneak up on him or her before being attacked yourself. Crosses, holy water and silver also don't affect us." He took another bite of his biscuit chewing thoughtfully. "As to food, my body pretty much acts as it was when I was human so long as I keep a healthy diet of blood in my system."

"Human blood?"

"Usually. Animal blood does in a pinch but it's not as vital. A vampire who subsists solely on animal blood is weaker than a vampire that feeds off humans and is more likely to be unstable around human blood."

Bonnie cocked her head. "What do you mean?"

"I feed off humans regularly. I'm able to take just what I need and leave the donor alive. I'm also able to be around someone who is bleeding without feeling the need to attack them. I might go into game face for a moment but would be able to regain calm in seconds. A vampire who feeds strictly from animals might not be able to control himself around human blood and could seriously hurt or kill the human." Damon looked down at his plate for a moment as if thinking of something that made him terribly sad.

"Did you ever kill someone while feeding?"

"Yes" Bonnie's eyes opened wide at the vampire's admission. "I'm not proud of killing or even hurting someone. In the beginning I had no one to teach me how to drink without going too far and since then I've lost my temper on more than a couple occasions and did things I regretted."

Sheila took Damon's hand and gave it a squeeze before addressing her grand-daughter. "We all have our own demons that we face but Damon has always looked out for our family and we can trust him."

Damon then proceeded to tell Bonnie the story of growing up in Mystic Falls and a beautiful female vampire that came to live in his father's house during the Civil War. The main course was complete and they had moved on to coffee and cake with ice cream. Bonnie was still amazed that Damon ate with gusto, complimenting Sheila's culinary skill.

"So neither you nor your brother realized that you were both in love with the same woman and that she was stringing you both along?" Bonnie asked with concern.

"Not at first." Damon toyed with his wine glass. " My brother was a fair amount younger so I thought he was crushing on her and she was just being polite to him. I was a naive idiot."

"So you asked Emily to help you protect Katherine from the founding families in exchange for protecting her family during the war?"

"Once I became a vampire, I vowed to Emily that I would always look after her descendants."

"And you always have." Sheila added. "Soon it will be time to fulfill Emily's end of the bargain. The comet is to pass over in just a few weeks and we'll be able to open the tomb with the charged amulet."

"If Katherine was such a two timing bitch to come between you and your brother, are you sure you want to open the tomb?" Bonnie could not help her questioning.

Damon sadly smiled. "Once upon a time, I loved Katherine. Then she tore Stefan and I apart. Now I want my curiosity satisfied and I want revenge."

"How so?"

"When I release Katherine from the tomb, make her tell me who she really did love if she even loved either of us, and then I'll rip out her heart." Damon's look was grim.

Sheila sighed. "You're an honorable man, Damon Salvatore but you're letting this need for revenge eat your soul. Its keeping you from moving forward. What will you do after you're done?

"I haven't thought that far." Damon hesitated. "I'll still have Bennetts to look after, I suppose." He winked at Sheila.

"Well," Sheila sighed once more, "There is one more thing that you might need to think about."

"What's that?"

"I didn't ask you to come back to Mystic Falls just to help me convince Bonnie of her heritage." Sheila turned to Bonnie. "The pictures from your party are on the kitchen counter, would you bring the picture I took of you and Elena to show Damon?"

Bonnie stood to retrieve the picture, unsure why she needed to show it to Damon.

"Elena?"

"Yes, Elena Gilbert. She and Bonnie have been friends most of their lives but I hadn't really seen her since last Spring when her parents were killed and truthfully I didn't pay much attention to how she had grown until I saw her at Bonnie's birthday party."

Bonnie returned to the table and handed the snap shot to Damon. The picture contained a picture of Bonnie hugging a girl with long straight brown hair and big brown eyes.

"Katherine," Damon breathed, "how?"

"That's Elena," Bonnie replied.

Still looking at the photo, Damon pulled his wallet from his back pocket and slid out a folded photograph that he handed to Bonnie. The girl unfolded the aged likeness to see what she first thought was a picture of her best friend till she saw the date written in the corner. 1864. "What's going on?"

"I wish I knew." Damon responded absently, stilling looking at the photo taken only a week before. "She's a Gilbert? A member of a founding family?" Sheila nodded. "And you say her parents died recently?"

Bonnie nodded this time. "Her parents were picking her up from a party that was going on in the woods. Elena says she remembers her dad swerving to avoid hitting a deer and they crashed through the guard rail on Wickery Bridge into the river. She remembers the car submerging but doesn't remember how she got out of the car. The news reported that an unidentified male is listed as calling 911 that he witnessed a car go over the bridge and when emergency services got to the scene, Elena was unconscious on shore but no one was with her and her parents were still trapped in the car, drowned. When divers retrieved the bodies, one said it looked like the back door had been ripped from its hinges."

"That is strange." Damon rubbed a hand over his mouth and jaw. "looks like things are getting interesting again in this sleepy town. Bonnie, do you have a cell phone?"

"Uh yeah, why?"

"May I see it for a second?" Damon held out his hand as if assured that that his request would not be refused.

Bonnie fished the phone out of her pocket and handed it to Damon. who quickly typed his number into the phone and handed it back to Bonnie.

"I set my number to speed dial number 9." He told her.

"Why number 9?

"short for 911, of course." Damon grinned. "Salvatore is for savior, remember that. I can usually keep track of you when you're outside or near some windows but when you're at school or somewhere, I want you to call me immediately if you sense anything wrong. Anything at all."

"You can keep an eye on me when I'm outside? Even when you aren't in town?" Bonnie was skeptical.

"Ever notice how many ravens seem to like congregating outside this house, your house and the school?"

"I guess, but they're just birds."

"A talent of many a vampire," Damon bragged, " I can connect with some animals and use them as my eyes and ears."

"Oh, handy." Bonnie glanced at her watch. It was later than she planned. "Class starts tomorrow. I need to go home and sleep. " She stood up and began clearing the table.

Damon and Sheila stood with her to finish clearing the table. Once the dishwasher was loaded and leftovers put away, Damon offered to drive Bonnie home.

"It's only two blocks from here. I can walk, Damon."

"Then let me walk you home and make sure you arrive safely."

"Fine"

Bonnie hugged her grandmother and picked up her purse.

Sheila then hugged Damon. "Thank you. Why don't you stopped back in after seeing Bonnie home. We'll have a night cap."

"Then I shall be back shortly."

As the two walked down the street, Damon could tell that Bonnie was still full of questions.

"So, Damon?"

"Yes, Bonnie?"

"How old was my grandmother when you met her?"

"Her mother introduced us formally when she was 15. Sheila was already showing signs of being quite the political activist. Her mother thought she might need a body guard if any of the rallys got out of hand."

"Did you and her ever..." Bonnie trailed off.

"Did we ever what? Amusement crept into Damon's voice. "Did we date, have sex?" His eyes lit up as he watched the girl blush under the streetlights. "No, we were never intimate in that way."

"Why not? You obviously found her attractive."

Damon sighed. "I'm not a nice person, Bonnie. I'm a downright dick with most people. You're grandmother is a tough cookie. She accepted me as I was and as much as I pushed, she pushed right back. We became friends and while there may have been a physical attraction neither of us were in love with the other. Dating her or sleeping with her would have only made a mess of our friendship and I never want to lose that."

"Is Katherine the only woman you've ever been in love with?"

"Sometimes I'm not so sure if I really loved her or if it was just infatuation. I may never have been in love."

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought up Katherine." Bonnie realized she was treading into the wrong territory with this man. "So, my dad? Does he know what you are?"

"Your dad believed in witchcraft but he quickly decided to turn his back on it. Sheila didn't bother to introduce us. I've kept my eye on him but he's never done anything to catch unwanted attention."

"And me? Why me?"

"You're already growing in power, Bonnie." They had reached Bonnie's house and were standing on the porch. "Sheila was not about to let you deny your gift. So she called in the big guns."

Bonnie laughed at this. "Do you want to come in?"

Damon shook his head. "Rule number one: never invite someone into your home unless you trust them implicitly."

"Grams trusts you. Why shouldn't I?"

"Well if you put it that way, I guess you can trust me." The smirk was back. "But you have school tomorrow and need your rest." Damon picked up one of Bonnie's hand and leaned in to kiss her cheek. "Sleep well, sweet Bonnie. I'll see you soon"

As their hands touched, Bonnie got a sensation of just how lonely Damon really was. There were flashes of anger but mostly she just felt an overwhelming sadness. She quickly tugged Damon into a hug. "Thank you for watching over me. I'll talk to you soon?"

It took a moment for Damon to return the hug. He had not expected her to do it. "I'll check in with you after your done with classes." He finally broke away. "Good night."

Bonnie unlocked the front door and looked one last time at Damon before stepping inside and closing the door. "Good night, Damon."

Listening for Bonnie to relock the door, Damon sped back to Sheila's house. Tapping lightly at the door before letting himself in, he found Sheila pouring two glasses of bourbon.

"Well that actually went smoother than expected." the woman handed a glass to the vampire. "What did you two talk about on the walk home."

Damon took a sip of the whiskey. "She was curious about if you and I had dated."

"And what did you tell her?"

"The truth, of course."

"You could have just exaggerated a bit and let her think that her academically minded grandmother once had a torrid affair with a handsome, bad ass vampire?"

Damon laughed. "No, I'd rather her keep in mind that her awesome grandmother is the best if not only friend of this bad ass vampire." He clinked his glass against hers.

"So" Sheila started, "Why do you think Elena Gilbert looks like your Katherine?"

"I don't know but I aim to find out." Damon's jaw was set, "And before we open the tomb."

"Do you think your brother is involved in this?"

"Maybe. Though if he isn't already, he will be if he ever sees Elena Gilbert. I doubt he could resist."

"Is Bonnie in any danger?"

"Not if I can help it, Sheila." Damon promised, "Not if I can help it."