Bonnie Bennett was not having a very good day. First it was raining, than her umbrella broke, and she couldn't get a taxi to stop for her. She missed her train so she had to wait on another one. It's her birthday, and she hates her birthday. And because it's her birthday she received countless obnoxious phone calls from her friends wishing her a happy birthday.

Caroline had called a minute after midnight to sing happy birthday, and Bonnie had hung up twice and Caroline had called back twice. Enzo had even dared to call her, which she had contemplated not answering but ended up answering anyway. She always ended up doing something she didn't really want to do when it came to him. They had broken up a month ago because their 'long distance' relationship was too much for her but mostly for him. They would be back together in another month, she was sure of it especially since her trip back home to visit her grams was coming up. Elena had called, and she hadn't answered and instead let her leave a message. Stefan called, and she answered, because out of her tiny group of friends he was the only one tolerable.

The only 'friend' to not call and wish her a happy birthday was Damon. It hadn't really surprised her considering no one had heard from him in almost three years. She honestly didn't care. Their relationship hadn't exactly been good long before that.

Her day was only getting worse. Because of her bad luck earlier she was late to an interview, which resulted in her not being picked for a job after spending months waiting for the position to open up. Finally she made a decision to simply head home before her bad luck resulted in her getting struck by lightning, run over by a bus, or hell, maybe a piano would fall on her. Anything was possible with the luck she was having.

The twenty-five year old trudged back to her apartment letting the rain drench her. She rented a downstairs apartment from an old woman named Cathy, who was never home and always wanted Bonnie to feed her eleven cats. Bonnie usually just leaves the bag of cat nip open and lets them fight it out.

Cathy's place is actually far back in an alley and Bonnie hate's walking through it to get to her apartment. It was dark and usually smelled like crap. She hated… So, she held her breath gripped her pepper spray and headed down the blackened ally.

She got her key out halfway down and was ready to put it in her keyhole when a moan made her jump out of her skin and trip over her own feet landing on her butt. The young woman could just make out a crumbled body on the ground, pressed against the side of her building. He was wearing a ratty old hoody which was over his head, concealing his identity. She had walked right over him.

Bonnie was torn between thinking this was some creepy drunk outside her door and a guy who truly needed help. Either way, she very slowly got on her feet, not forgetting to pick up her pepper spray. She never took her eyes off him as she tried to unlock her door.

"Please…" the guy groaned and looked up at her. She gasped her keys slipping from her grasp. There was something wrong with his face; it looked like it had a thousand scares over it. His skin was rough and distorted.

Her reaction had him shying away, tugging his hood over his face as he gently sat up.

Bonnie was attempting to find her keys and finally found them. "Don't come near me. I'll scream…" She was so relieved when her door finally was unlocked.

"Please…" the guy begged again, his tone was deep and croaky. "I need your help."

Bonnie ignored him and was quickly sliding into her apartment, very intent on slamming and locking her door.

"Please…" The guy called again, his voice was so pleading and desperate it actually made her stop herself from closing her door.

(S)

What in the hell am I doing?

Bonnie never dropped her pepper spray. She trained on the wet male currently standing in her living room. He was hunched over and still had his hood on, he looked afraid and stiff. His face was still covered by the hood but the young woman was certain something was wrong with it.

"I'm warning you. You try anything and I…"

"Thank you." He interrupted tugging at his hood.

"I'm crazy… I wanna end up a story on 48 hours." Bonnie mumbled under her breath.

He moved around uncomfortably. "Can…"

He ended up taking a shower and Bonnie made certain to curse herself a thousand times as she managed her pepper spray, and her phone. The woman had given him Enzo's old clothes to wear but the weirdo had kept his filthy, wet hood on, still shielding his face from her. When Bonnie made a point to point it out, his whole body grew stiff.

"I don't wanna scare you." He told her. "My face isn't very…"

"Pretty?" Bonnie finished for him. "Yeah, I sort of saw that earlier. Now remove the hood for I can see the face of my murder."

"I'm not going to hurt you." He told her quickly, sounding sincere and almost offended.

Bonnie only raised an eyebrow. The man slowly removed his hood, his eyes focused on the floor. It was much worse in the light. His whole face was covered in tiny deep scares and has a curtain of long, shoulder length hair.

"Well…" Is all Bonnie could say. His face wasn't very pretty, but he did have a pair of beautiful blue eyes.

He quickly tugged his hood back up, shoulders stiff. "I told you it was bad."

Bonnie made a face, pretending it was no big deal, and shrugged. "You're hungry, right?"

He looked up a little and she took that as a yes. She made the sandwiches, making it a point to show him the large blade by her side.

The young man only sat on the bar stool near the counter and watched the counter. Not really saying anything. When Bonnie finally slid the food to him, he literally devoured it in minutes. Bonnie not really hungry slid her half-eaten sandwich to him. He ate that as well.

(S)

He hasn't murdered her yet, that was a point for humanity she guessed.

The young woman eyed the man sitting on her sofa staring at the wall blankly as she left her bedroom. It had been a day and a half since the woman had taken in the man. She realized she was growing soft and dumb by letting a stranger into her home and sleep on her sofa.

"Why didn't you turn on the TV?" She asked starting to make coffee.

"I didn't wanna wake you." He answered softly, tugging at his hood.

"How very nice of you," The woman rolled her eyes. "Seriously, I rather you wake me then stare gloomily at the wall like your planning how to murder me."

He actually sighed, which surprised her. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"How in the hell… I mean, I can't be really sure of that. I don't even remember your name."

"I told you its Dee. It really isn't that hard of a name to remember."

Bonnie only huffed in annoyance and clapped her hands happily when her coffee finished. "So Dee, why were you curled up like that in the alley the other night?"

"I got beat up."

She frowned at him. "Are you in a gang?"

He actually laughed, which surprised her again. "No, not exactly, Bonbon. Don't be so judgy." She looked up at him quickly, startled. Her mind racing, she bit her lip and shook her head.

"You remin-"She was interrupted by her phone vibrating loudly on the counter. "Don't call me Bonbon," she said before reaching for her phone.

She groaned as she looked at her phone. "What's wrong, Elena?" She answered. She looked away just as Dee looked up. "Yes, Elena in three weeks. I'll be home in three weeks." She hung up. "God, I'm going to be late."

The man got on his feet with her, tugging at his hood. "I guess I'll leave now…"

Bonnie finished her cup of coffee. "Yeah, you will." She wasn't a shelter and she wasn't going to let him freeload off her. It looked like he might have grinned a little behind his hood. "There's a shelter a few blocks from here. You might wanna try that."

He nodded once. "Thanks again, I appreciate what you did for me."

"Yeah," Bonnie told him dryly. "Don't think I'll do it again."

MN

Dee crouched down low behind a graffiti covered wall, his presence hidden by the darkened shadows of the alley. He watched the woman – Bonnie – make her down the nearly deserted street towards her apartment. It was nearly three in the morning and she was alone – he wondered why she was so stupid. Did she have no idea how dangerous it was? Did she have no idea someone was trying to kill her? Of course not, he gently shook his head. She had no idea, yet.

He moved further back in the alley as she moved by, waiting awhile before getting on her trail again. Then it happened, what he was afraid of. A hand shot out from an alley and yanked her in, all he could hear was her muffled yelp.

He instantly ran towards the alley, turning into it he caught the male who had grabbed her, cleaning jumping over the high brick wall at the end of the alley. Growling under his breath, the young man moved forward, also scaling the wall in a bound. He hit the ground on the other side running and ran after the man who was now making his way up a building. Dee followed also shimming up the wall.

The chase ended at a trash dump near the edge of the city. Bonnie's kidnapper had dropped the unconscious woman to the ground and turned to face Dee.

Dee bent his lower back, one leg moving backwards a little, he growled – his hood had long since fallen off barring his scared face for the world could see. The tall blonde male before him growled back.

Dee's jaw clenched. "I don't understand…" He bit out very slowly. "I don't understand why he's after her."

The other male only smirked. "I'm following orders, simply. Something you seem to lack the capacity to do. You were meant to leave your past behind you, Damon. You no longer belong to this world, so I don't understand your actions."

When the woman groaned and seemed to waking up they both stiffened.

"Just let her go, Bass." Dee told the other male. "Let her go, and I'll explain everything to him. I'll take all blame."

The man only shook his head. "You still don't understand. What a shame. Now if you will excuse me I have a package to deliver." He bent and scooped the waking woman up. She yelped and fought against him.

"Let her go." Dee moved forward a step.

Bass wrapped his arm around Bonnie who was fully awake now screaming and cursing. "What are you going to do if I don't?" Bass shouted over Bonnie's screaming and smirked.

Dee moved forward another step, his eyes locking with Bonnie's. Trying to communicate with his eyes that everything would be alright, and she obviously didn't understand.

Then Bass pushed her forward and slammed his hand into the back of her neck, making the woman crumble forward unconscious. "Fucking screaming…" Bass sneered down at her body. He looked up at Dee, "I guess I'll have to handle to you first."

MN

Dee gently dapped at the cut on Bonnie's forehead with a wet cloth, stopping when the girl showed signs of stirring.

Her eyebrows furrowed together and her eyes slowly opened, she instantly jumped backwards and away from him, almost falling from her bed. She watched him with wide confused eyes as he tugged his hood back on and lowered his head.

She winced and touched her forehead and winced again.

"What…" She began groggily. Then it all seemed to come back to her. "You saved me." Her words sounded a lot like an accusation, instead of thanks. She clutched her head and shook it.

Dee glanced up at her briefly. "Do you have a headache? I can go find you something for that." He was already on his feet and limping towards her bedroom door.

"No…" Bonnie groaned stopping him. "Are you bleeding on my floor?" The woman eyes sprang wide upon seeing the trail of blood seeping down his pants leg.

Dee looked down at himself as if just noticing the wound. "I'm sorry… I forgot… I'll clean it up." He turned around halfway, ridged and silent. He waited for her to do something.

"I guess I owe you?" She mumbled softly.