Disclaimer: I own nothing. All characters belong to CW and LJ Smith.
Summary: It's easier to fight feelings when they aren't staring you in the face. Damon finds this out the hard way.
The police car turns another corner and Damon watches it closely. There's no bloodthirsty vampire sprinting behind it trying to take a bite out of the new sheriff. It's eerily quiet. He knows better than to see that as a good sign. Lily was planning something. Every night that he climbed up here and let Stefan and Matt go their separate ways to patrol he couldn't help but worry they weren't going to make it back.
He listens for his brother and hears him talking to someone. But before he can hear the other side of the conversation there's the sound of her heartbeat. He shakes his head a little in disbelief. "What are you doing here?" he asks not bothering to turn and look at her.
"I could ask you the same thing." Bonnie responds coming to stand next to him.
She looks down and whistles. He gives her a warning look and she rolls her eyes stepping away from the edge. "I can see the entire town. It's easy to keep an eye on everything. Difference is that if I fall off I won't die you however..."
She shrugs tucking her hair behind her ear. She frowns when the wind blows it back out. "Still not a good enough reason to be up here."
He sighs heavily closing his eyes. "I don't want to talk..."
"You want to be left alone and its not safe here and blah blah blah. Yes I know." She takes a seat on the edge and dangles her feet over. Then she places her bag next to her and grins up at him. "I bought snacks."
He eyes the bag warily before giving up and sitting next to her. "Do you ever just do what I ask? Would it hurt to listen to me one time?" He questions.
Bonnie can hear the sharpness in his voice. It had taken a lot of arguing and threats for Bonnie and Caroline to finally agree to leave Mystic Falls. Much to the Salvatore's brothers dismay they were only a few towns over. She's not sure what they expected to happen. "Probably not. I don't plan on finding out though."
"Of course not" He mutters turning his attention to the street again when he hears the police car slow down on the other side of the square. He breathes when it continues on "Did you at least bring drinks?"
Bonnie tugs a bottle of Bourbon out of the bag along with a pair of glasses. "Give me a little credit here." She tries and fails to open it and Damon takes it from her twisting off the top with little effort. She watches him as he ignores the glasses and drinks straight from the bottle. Typical. "You look terrible by the way." She says as he finishes and shoves the bottle into her chest.
He grimaces at the burning sensation as it slides down his throat. "Gee thanks Bon Bon" He coughs.
"No really when is the last time you combed your hair?" She asks shoving aside the glasses and bringing the bottle her lips.
"Why should I bother?"
"So not to offend the eyes of the general public."
"You mean what's left of it." He scoffs gesturing towards the empty streets and boarded up shops with his hand.
"Even the heretics don't deserve to see you like this."
He raises an eyebrow and gives her one of his famous smirks. "You know something you're god awful at cheering people up."
"Yet you're smiling." She sing songs tearing open a family sized bag of chips.
He can't really argue with that. He reaches over snatching the bag of chips out of her hands. "Sharing is caring." He says at her outraged expression.
She purses her lips and waits patiently for him to give them back. "So what's the plan?"
"The plan?"
"To deal with the heretics and your mom."
"The plan is that you and Caroline stay in your apartment outside of town and don't come here unless we say so."
Bonnie folds her arms over her chest and her eyebrows crease in annoyance. "But Matt can drive around in his cop car being extremely human and extremely vulnerable?"
"Exactly!"
Well he's only proving her point as far as she's concerned. "How does that make sense?"
"Well 1) Matt is an ally or whatever but he's not my issue and 2) you are Miss I die every five minutes."
"Okay fine. So what's the excuse for sidelining Caroline?"
"Because she's Stefan's issue." They've gone over this a hundred times. Lily will use whatever she can against them therefore they couldn't give her more to leverage. If Bonnie's expecting him to change his mind she's wasting both of their time. "You and Caroline are in the way."
Bonnie's mouth twists to the side. "Interesting. You know I just want to take a moment to remind you two that Caroline and I can do whatever we want. "
"Clearly seeing how you're up here on death tower even though I told you to stay away from here. "
"Death tower?" She laughs shoving at his shoulder. "Don't be dramatic."
"It's not dramatic. We are right in the middle of the square. It's like a buffet out there. It's a miracle you didn't run into any of them.
"Well actually..." She stops when he gives her the angriest look she's ever seen. Once upon a time that look would scare her but she knows the most he'll do is complain. She shrugs a shoulder. "Relax. I just staked him no biggie."
Damon runs a hand through his hair in frustration, which makes it look even worse. "Are you trying to drive me insane?" He asks his voice low and void of any humor. "This is exactly what I was talking about. And Lily is already pissed off at you, suppose she finds out what you did? "
Again relax. If I can take on an original I can take on a heretic. Besides Caroline had my back."
"You brought her on your suicide mission to bring me a bag of chips?!"
"Umm two bags of chips and bourbon actually." She protests. "We decided we missed you guys so we are here to visit. Deal with it." There's a vain bugging out of his forehead now and she has to bite her lip not to laugh.
Life or death situations are a lot less amusing when they involve people that matter to him. Somehow Bonnie of all people seemed to think this was all a big joke. Or at least seemed to think she could take on the world all of a sudden. He's sure Caroline didn't help with her ego problem so he'd have to have a word with her. "Where is Blondie?"
"In the square. She distracted Stefan so I could come find you."
"Well that's great. I guess our efforts to take care if this on our own mean nothing to you."
She knows that was their intention in the beginning. To just take care of it before it got out of hand. They were supposed to talk to his mother and get her to agree to move her crazy family somewhere else. Bonnie however didn't think it was fair to just drop a bunch of vampires on another town. Which led to her and Damon having a huge argument because god forbid they help anyone outside of their group of friends. In the end the request for Lily to leave as a favor to the sons she happily abandoned backfired. She felt they deserved to suffer for trying to keep her from her family and thus gave them the go ahead to destroy the town and everything they loved. This is what led to her and Caroline basically being exiled by the panicking brothers. Even Matt agreed with them for once and didn't seem bothered when Bonnie called him a traitor. For their own good Stefan had told her and Caroline with puppy eyes. She refrained from slapping him somehow. "Have you considered that me and Caroline are much smarter than you guys and could have come up with a legitimate plan by now. As opposed to you standing up here doing your best batman impression?"
"Listen..." He starts raising a finger in front of her face but she cuts him off slapping said finger away.
"Your efforts are complete crap anyway since it looks like a post apocalyptic wasteland now. And another thing, the three of you could get killed too. Especially Matt!"
"Yes you mentioned him already." He hisses through his teeth. "He's an adult free to make his own choices alright."
Bonnie nods her head along with him condescendingly. "Oh yeah? Well Caroline and I are badass. If we want to come help or visit then we will."
He blinks at her tempted to threaten to lock the two of them in a basement somewhere. That wont end well for him though. He doesn't miss getting the cold shoulder from her. He also doesn't miss the aneurisms. He really looks at her for the first time that night. Her hair is much longer now and she's dyed it a shiny black color. Gone are the dull earth tones at least for tonight. He tugs on the sleeves of her leather jacket trying to suss out if she's mocking him or not. "Ya know this over confident thing you've got going on now is really fucking annoying."
"Learned from the best."
"Touché" He replies. She lifts her chin slightly as if she's won. The memory of her in that hospital bed bleeding from the gaping hole in her neck courtesy of Lily crashing Jo's bachelorette party flashes through his mind. She needs to leave. "Say can we compromise or something?" He drawls trying a different tactic but she shakes her head taking another swig from the bottle. He pulls it away from her lips and moves closer until there are only inches between them. "Hear me out. " He whispers, his breath brushes over her face. "You guys help out, just for tonight, and then go the hell home. Sound good?"
Bonnie taps a finger on her chin as if deep in thought for so long that it makes his eye twitch. "Hmmmmm we'll see. I mean Caroline is pretty stubborn"
"Yeah she's the problematic one here."
"You really don't get it." She sighs and then places a hand over his. He catches her gaze and her now serious expression. "She's not comfortable leaving Stefan here." She says softly. "She wants to be by his side just in case anything happens because she loves him Damon. And I'm not comfortable leaving you here because..."
"Because?" He implores eyes narrowing at her.
She shuts her mouth and looks to the side avoiding his face. "I ummm…"
It's that moment that a distressed looking Stefan and a giggling Caroline show up. "Yay you found him" Caroline says resting a hand on Stefan's shoulder and squeezing lightly. Stefan on the other hand eyes her sideways before pinching the bridge of his nose.
Bonnie turns towards her roommate and nods. "Wasn't hard." She swallows hard and then puts space between the two of them by sliding sideways. "I know him."
She does know me Damon thinks eyes still glued to her face. She's smiling brightly at Stefan whose on a tirade about Caroline's inability to take his anger seriously. Caroline shouts something back mimicking his voice, which makes Bonnie full out laugh. Damon can't be bothered to listen.
All he can do is wonder is if Bonnie was about to say what he thought she was. Was she implying that she loved him? Was it the way she loved Caroline or the way Caroline loved Stefan? If it was the latter how and when did that happen? The idea makes his head hurt because it's all so sudden. And yet he's not that opposed to it at all because he finds himself caring about her more than any of his other friends. Cared about her more than Alaric, who he was forcing to go to therapy every week. More than Enzo who he had refused to kill even though he was siding with mommy dearest.
He didn't want to think about why that was so he ignored it. He was damn good at ignoring it too...until now. He just knew that no matter what Bonnie had to live and she had to be happy. At first he excused it by telling himself it's what Elena wanted. But when he realized he would die to make that happen, therefore giving up any chance at a happy life with Elena, he knew something else was happening here. It wasn't even about him anymore. He expected nothing in return and that was… well new. It wasn't like his obsession with finding Katherine not because she deserved to be happy, but because he wanted her. It wasn't like his love for Elena, which, he admits stemmed from his hatred for Katherine and longing to be chosen over Stefan. It was a different kind of devotion and he wasn't sure what to do with it.