Forgetfulness

Bonnie McCullough looked out the window and sighed, a deep, emotional sigh that still wasn't enough to relieve her of her miserable feeling of being trapped.

She was engaged to Zander, and they were going to get married in a week. But she couldn't shake the fact that she just didn't want to marry him. She wished she had the guts to tell him, because the closer it got to their marriage, the more anxious she was getting to escape this situation.

Zander wouldn't make an interesting husband. He was boring. In college he had played interesting sports like soccer; now he played golf. He worked as an elementary school science teacher and watched game shows on TV. He insisted on having parties with his boring college friends, and never wanted to travel. He tried to live everyday exactly the same, or at least that's how Bonnie saw it: wake up, visit Bonnie, go to work, come home to Bonnie, watch TV (this season Wheel of Fortune was his thing), order pizza for dinner, then go to his own house and go to bed. Forget being a werewolf; he'd quit the pack. He just wasn't the right match for Bonnie. She wanted an adventure.

But they were engaged and there was no getting out of it.

….

Damon Salvatore was alone.

More alone than he had ever before been in his life. And not only was he alone… he was homeless.

When Damon had been brought back to life with the drippings from a Star Ball on that far off planet in the Dark Dimension, he hadn't been the only one to be granted the gift of life (well… sort of life. He was still a vampire) again. Shinichi had been brought back as well.

And Shinichi had been angry. He hadn't much appreciated being beaten by Damon and his friends. He wanted to make them regret ever crossing him. And after a year or so of careful consideration, he'd decided just how to do it….

He'd gotten back in Damon's head. No malach required this time; he didn't possess him, just taking a memory every now and then. At first Damon didn't even notice; he and Elena had been together then, and he was happy as can be. But soon the memory stealing got out of control.

Now Damon had almost no short-term memory: it was like he had anterograde amnesia. Shinichi took away his memories of events almost as soon as they happened. Not only that, but Shinichi had taken away all his memories of Elena as well.

Damon had woken up one morning next to Elena, and could not for the life of him remember who in the world the blond lump under the covers was. Of course, this was no problem: as far as he knew then, she was just an incredibly beautiful human, and he was an expert at dealing with incredibly beautiful humans. Very quickly, though, he realized he was missing something…

He waited for her to wake up and when she did, he started Influencing her.

"Just imagine yourself in far off castle with me," he said softly and at first she'd played along, but eventually, when he was clearly trying to feed off of her, she slapped him.

"DAMON!" she shouted. "Stop that."

"How do you know my name?" Damon had asked. No doubt Shinichi was watching them from afar, laughing his little head off at all this.

"What do you mean, how do I know your name?" Elena demanded. "Damon, what's wrong with you?"

Damon had gotten out of the bed and walked over to the window then to look outside as he tried to figure out what was going on. But as he stared out at the strange scene of a waterfall, Shinichi took some more memories and BAM, it was like Damon had just woken up all over again.

He stared outside, perplexed, then turned around to catch a glimpse of the most beautiful woman in the entire world… standing up, awake and out of bed so he could see her whole face, he was positive he recognized her.

"Katherine?" he'd said carefully, wondering how he'd gotten himself here with this gorgeous and dangerous vampire.

"I'm not Katherine!" Elena had screamed. "How can you not recognize me? I'm Elena! Damon, what's wrong with you?"

"Elena," Damon said, tasting the name and realizing that she was a human. "Elena, can you come here for a moment?"

Probably thinking, as Elena was prone to think, that she could heal Damon by simply kissing him and staring into his eyes, she walked up to Damon and put her hands carefully on his shoulders.

"Damon," she said softly, and he looked down at her.

"Katherine," he sighed.

At this, Elena jumped back and ran out to the kitchen of their expensive room. Damon ran after her, and found her at the phone, quickly punching numbers in and looking panicked.

"What's the matter, Katherine?" Damon said, looking around for anything that could be bothering this angel-like being in front of him. She looked scared. "Are you okay?"

"Are YOU?" she had shrieked, causing Damon to become extremely confused and worried. He blinked, and when he opened his eyes, he was suddenly in a room with the most physically perfect female in the world, and she was talking on the phone, turning her face away from him. Instinct told Damon to act like he knew what was going on, even though he couldn't remember how'd he'd gotten himself here, so he leaned against the counter and acted relaxed.

The girl on the phone sounded very upset. "Please, I know I broke your heart," she was saying, "but Stefan, I need you–"

Stefan! Damon's brother! Damon felt that if he could just see someone familiar he'd know what was happening. But by the time he'd walked over to the girl on the phone, he'd forgotten about Stefan and was trying to figure out why the heck he'd walked over to her.

The girl looked at him with wide, scared blue eyes. Damon gasped in surprise relief. It was Katherine! But before he could say anything to her, Stefan burst into the room and ran up to them.

"Elena!" he said first, to Katherine. Then he turned to Damon. "Are you okay, Damon?"

"I think so," Damon said. Stefan stared at him with narrowed eyes.

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to take Elena with me now," he'd said quietly. "You've been scaring her."

Damon felt horrible that he was scaring this wonderful girl who was apparently not really Katherine, so he let Stefan grab her and carry her out of the room, talking to her soothingly. The door shut behind them with a loud BANG and Stefan and Elena exited his life and his memory.

Damon blinked… how had he gotten in this kitchen? Where was he?

Now, in present time, each day was the same. He had no way of knowing if he'd been living in the streets for an hour or a century: to him every minute felt like the first.

Feeding was more difficult now: he'd find himself forgetting things in the middle of a drink, and he'd ended up killing countless girls because he wouldn't remember how much blood he'd taken from them and ended up drinking them dry.

Today, Damon had been wandering the streets of a strange town, surrounded by homeless people. The thought drifted through his mind that maybe he was homeless too. A man limped by him, wearing a parka and waving trash bags through the air as he mumbled things to himself. Damon smirked, glad that he wasn't crazy like that stupid human.

But the way people were looking at him right now, you'd think he was.

He sat down, leaning against a dumpster, reminiscing about times where he'd lived in luxury with sexy women and wondering why that life eluded him now.

…

Zander kissed Bonnie good-bye that morning, having paid her a quick visit before going to work. "See you tonight," he whispered, looking at her with his dreary blue eyes.

"See you," Bonnie said, and she pushed him out the door, wishing it could be the last time she ever saw him.

Bonnie worked as a teacher for morning kindergarten, and when she got home from work later she decided that there was one thing that could keep her mind off her miserable life: shopping. She hadn't gotten new clothes for… a week.

It was okay to use so much money, though: Zander had won the lottery two years ago and given everything to Bonnie as a "lasting tribute to our love". She took out a couple twenties from her swear jar (Zander's friends swore a lot, averaging about forty times per visit, and Bonnie charged them for it), threw on her jacket, and left the house.

She and Zander lived very close to town, so she didn't have to drive. As she walked there, her cell phone rang. She answered it. It was Elena.

"Hey," she said, picking it up.

"Hi!" Elena trilled. "How are you? Excited about the wedding?"

"Yeah," Bonnie lied, not wanting to tell Elena about her qualms about Zander. It wasn't fair: Elena had gotten married to Stefan just a year ago, and they were madly in love. How come Elena got to be in a happy relationship while Bonnie was stuck with a man that ate greasy, fatty pizza for dinner every night and would probably die of a heart attack at the age of forty-five? "Yeah, I'm great."

"I can't wait to see and Meredith!" Elena said. "It'll be a great reunion for all of. Even Matt and Alaric are coming, right?"

"Yeah," Bonnie said. She frowned. It wouldn't be a complete reunion. Not without… Damon. "Elena, I want Damon to be there, too."

There was a long pause on the other side of the line, which Elena broke by saying, "Nooo, you don't."

"Elena–"

"Bonnie, how many times do I have to tell you, he'd not Damon anymore! I found him again last year. Did you know that? And he didn't recognize me. He's lost his mind. He's absolutely, completely insane!"

Tears came to Bonnie's eyes, as they did whenever Elena said this. "But," she said. "A vampire can't just lose their mind like that, Elena… it's gotta be something curable. We can find the answer."

Elena laughed sharply and cruelly. "There is no answer," she said. "Damon's gone. You should forget about him, Bonnie. You've got Zander."

But I don't want Zander, Bonnie thought. "Elena, I don't believe you. How can you just give up on Damon like this–"

"It was hard, Bonnie," Elena said, "but I could do it because I'm strong. Aren't you strong, Bonnie? Just let him go."

And she hung up the phone.

Bonnie wiped tears out of her eyes and continued towards the town, no longer looking forward to her shopping trip.

It was snowing in Fell's Church now, and she shivered. To get to the dress shop she wanted to go to, she had to pass by the bad part of town, where there were hookers and vagabonds, homeless people with diseases….

They were almost scarier then all the monsters she'd faced in the past right now, because though she was walking as quickly and purposefully as possible, she was shaken after her conversation with Elena and just felt so exposed…. This had been the spot of some pretty nasty attacks the last year, people getting murdered in the middle of the street….

She almost made it safely to her dress store, but suddenly, someone grabbed her wrist and pulled her into forcefully into an alleyway.

She started screaming as loudly as she could but a hand was pressed over her mouth. She bit down on it, hard, and began kicking. She had to get away!

"Stop!" the voice of the attacker commanded her, and she froze, not because they'd told her to but because that was…

"Damon!" she gasped, twisting her head around and catching a glimpse of his face. She stared. He was still pale and more attractive than any other man in the world, but his once clean face was covered with dirt and his dark hair was greasy and matted.

He stared at her with those mind-blowing black eyes and suddenly, miraculously, let her go. "Bonnie?" he said.

"Yes, oh yes, oh God, oh Damon, I've missed you!" she said in a rush, and she pulled him back over to her and hugged him. He smelled like dirt. "What are you doing here?" she asked him.

He paused for a brief moment before shrugging.

"You were hunting, weren't you?" Bonnie said. "That's okay, I don't mind."

"Yes, I was hunting," Damon said, sounding grateful. "Look, Bonnie, why are you here? You can't imagine how good it is to see you…."

Bonnie smiled. "I was just going shopping, Damon," she said. "I'm glad you're here, too." But then she remembered all Elena had told her about Damon in the past year, about how he forgot who she was and called her Katherine and stuff, and she looked at Damon standing here, dirty and looking disoriented, and she was frightened.

"Damon, come on, I'm taking you home," she told him. "Let's go."

He frowned at her, but followed anyway, and as they walked they got many stares from everyone on the street. One man even stopped her.

"You know this guy?" he asked her.

"Yes," she said fervently, "he's my friend."

The man's eyebrows shot up and he backed away, giving Bonnie a look that was somewhat close to pity. Oh no, Bonnie thought to herself. Is Damon dangerous?

Of course, that was a ridiculous question to be thinking. Damon was dangerous; he always had been… just never to her. She glanced back at him nervously. He was still following her, a look of concentration on his face, like he was thinking about something. She wondered what he'd been doing all these years.

When they got to her house, Damon made a soft noise of appreciation. Bonnie smiled. One thing seemed the same about him: he liked a life of luxury, and, admittedly because of Zander's gambling habits, Bonnie had that. She invited him in and took her up and it, and she led him to her kitchen.

Bonnie's kitchen was small and frilly, and everything was decorated with limes. They were Zander's favorite things, apparently. From lime curtains to lime wallpaper, Bonnie had it all, and on the center of her mahogany table was the best lime of all: it was huge, as big as a grapefruit, and it was a brilliant shade of green.

Damon leaned against her stove casually, and their eyes met yet again.

"So," he said.

"Where've you been, Damon?" Bonnie asked, shrugging of her jacket and kicking off her boots so that she was standing in her fuzzy pink socks.

"I–" Damon started, but he didn't seem to be able to finish. Instead he said, "Did you straighten your hair, redbird? You look older."

"I did straighten it," she said, "and I am older. I'm twenty-five, Damon."

His mouth dropped open slightly as he looked at her, and he ran a hand through his messy hair. "Oh," he said finally.

Bonnie grabbed one of his filthy hands and pulled him over to her bathroom. "Here," she said, "you should clean up. You can use my shower; there are towels for you, too, and I've got some of Zander's old clothes that you can wear."

"Thanks," said Damon slowly. Bonnie found him Zander's clothes, and then closed him in the bathroom, breathing hard.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Damon was back. Bonnie wanted to scream she was so excited. Thoughts were racing through her mind about his return: he remembered her (OH MY GOD!) when Elena had said he'd forgotten who she was; he had been homeless! (how could Damon have been homeless? He was DAMON); he was really dirty and seemed confused but absolutely gorgeous nonetheless; and right now, he was in her house, in her shower, and they were all alone and Zander was at work and it was Damon.

She needed to call someone to let all of this out. Meredith, she decided, because Elena would probably just be a jerk about it.

"Meredith!" she shrieked when her friend answered the phone. "Meredith, Damon's back! Meredith!"

"I'm here," Meredith said calmly. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm better then okay," Bonnie said in a rush. "You know how Damon's been missing for like, two years or something crazy like that and we haven't seen him and Elena said he went crazy–"

"Yes?"

"He's back; he's in my house right now and I'm letting him take a shower because he was a mess and he was homeless."

"Homeless? Damon?"

"I think so," Bonnie said, leaning against the bathroom door so she could listen to the noise of the shower that was currently cleaning Damon Salvatore. OhmyGod.

Meredith was quiet on the other side of the line for a moment.

"You know," she said, "Elena didn't say he was crazy, exactly, but that he had forgotten who she was. Does he–"

"He remembers me!" Bonnie said. "He does!" And when she said it out loud like that it made her feel so glad, so excited, but at the same time, she'd never really expected him to forget her.

She could hear Meredith laughed in pleasure. "That's great, Bonnie!" she said. "So he's okay? Should I call Elena and tell her?"

This made Bonnie paused. She thought about how disoriented Damon seemed– about the slightly lost look in his eyes. And she thought about all the horrible things Elena had said about him. "Don't tell her," Bonnie said. "I'm not really sure he's okay. But he does remember me."

"What could have made him forget Elena?" Meredith said, voicing the question that had been on Bonnie's mind for years. "I mean, it's not normal for vampires to just suddenly forget people like that, I looked it up. To forget anything, really, they've got minds like steel traps. As far as I can tell this is the first time anything like this has happened."

Bonnie gasped.

"No, Meredith, it's not the first time! When Shinichi was possessing Damon, he kept stealing his memories, remember? Just to torment him or something."

"You guys said Shinichi was dead, though," Meredith said.

"Damon died on that same planet and he came back."

"But that was because the Star Ball was leaking all over the planet… Oh my God, Bonnie, are you trying to say that when Damon came back to life, Shinichi did, too?"

Bonnie clapped her hands. "Yes! And he'd want to strike back, wouldn't he? And who better to do it on than Damon?" Yes, that was it! That was the answer Bonnie had been searching for. Damon didn't have some weird form of vampire insanity. Shinichi was stealing his memories.

"Wow," Meredith said. "Wow. I'd better go talk to Alaric about this."

"Yeah," Bonnie said. "Maybe he'll know what to do."

She was about to say something else when the door to the bathroom opened, and Damon came out, soaking wet but clean and dressed only in a towel that was wrapped around his pale waist. "Oh! Meredith, gotta go, bye!" Bonnie said, hanging up. She ran over to Damon. "Are you alright?"

His eyes widened as he looked down at her. "Oh– I, yes, I'm fine, Bonnie?"

"Yes?"

"Is that you?"

On impulse, Bonnie ran up and hugged him. She didn't care that he was wet from the shower and water was messing up her clothes. She just wanted to hold him like that for a moment, just to prove again that he was there. "Yes, it's me!" she cried.

"Oh, dear," Damon said, stroking her hair. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," she said. "Now, why aren't you wearing those clothes I laid out for you, Damon?"

"Oh, yes, the clothes," Damon said, turning back to the bathroom. "Those clothes that I knew were there. Yes. I'll put them on. I mean, if it bothers you to see me like this." He gestured at his toweled body with a smirk.

Bonnie caught herself staring and blushed. "Oh– I… I don't mind, actually," she said shyly.

He grinned, the one side of his mouth going up and crinkling his left eye in that flattering way that only he could do. Oh, Damon, Bonnie thought with a sudden pang of longing that even being in his arms could not satisfy. "Let's go–"

"Is that a lime?" Damon said, staring over her shoulder at the kitchen table.

"What?" Bonnie asked, distracted. She looked over at the table, at the huge, magnificently green lime that was sitting there, and was painfully reminded of Zander. She sighed in frustration and took a step away from Damon. "Yeah. Yeah, that's a lime."

"And what a lime it is," Damon muttered. He strolled over to the table and picked it up carefully. "'May I?"

Bonnie frowned. "You want to eat it? I-it's a lime!" They're gross! she thought.

"No, I just want to hold it," he said, and she couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. She remembered how in the old days he was always stroking and peeling fruits, whether they be oranges or apples. He had a serious fetish there.

"Oh, uh, sure," Bonnie said. "Feel free. But why don't you get dressed now?"

Damon's face flickered with some sort emotion– disappointment, maybe, or annoyance– and he nodded, but did not move.

He stood there for nearly a minute, just holding the lime as Bonnie stared at him, wondering why he didn't make his move. He seemed so… so mentally disturbed, Bonnie thought. She had never seen him like this before, looking confused and out of the situation.

"Are you okay, Damon?"

He looked up, and when he saw her, his face broke into an expression of recognition, and he looked at peace again. This made Bonnie blush with happiness, that she could cause someone to look so relaxed.

"Yes, I'm fine," he said. He set down the lime. Bonnie tried not to look at it.

"The clothes are in the bathroom," she said after a pause.

He looked over his shoulder and saw it, and finally walked back over there. "I'll get dressed, then," he said, shutting the bathroom door behind him. As he changed, Bonnie sat down at the table and held the lime, breathing in long, shuddering breaths as she thought.

She wanted Damon so badly. It had always felt like this around him; he made her knees go weak, her heart pound, and all are senses work extra hard to get all of the wonderful details of him into her system. Of course, she'd always been put on the back burner, after Elena, but they had shared moments, moments together that Bonnie would never, ever forget.

She had never felt this way around Zander. She checked the clock. He'd be home in three hours. She dreaded the time when she would see him again, especially now that Damon was here again.

"Bonnie?" Damon said, coming out of the bathroom, dressed in Zander's jeans and his single black t-shirt (Bonnie had been very careful picking clothes that Damon would like). The pants were too big; Zander was taller. The edges dragged along the ground as Damon strode over to the table to Bonnie. She tried not to look at him. She shouldn't be wanting him like this. It wasn't right, and it wasn't fair to anyone. She was going to be married in a week, and not to Damon.

"Redbird," Damon said desperately, "look at me. Is that you?"

This made Bonnie's head shoot up as fast as a bullet. "Of course it's me, you were talking to me just a minute ago. What, you think someone else could come replace me that fast?"

"I – no," Damon said, backing up.

"Then what? Why are you so confused?" Bonnie was getting worked up now. "You keep zoning out, and I don't know what's wrong with you. Elena said you can't even recognize her even more. Is that true, Damon? Could you forget your Princess of Darkness that fast?"

Damon blinked at her like what she was saying made no sense, and Bonnie cried out as she stood up to get closer to him.

"What is wrong with you?" she shrieked. "Where have you been all these years!"

He didn't answer, just stood there with his mouth set in an embarrassed grimace. This was all too much for Bonnie. She reached out, grabbed his shoulders, and shook him.

"Please, Damon, tell me where you've been, tell me you remember Elena, tell me you're okay, please."

Quietly prying her hands off of him, he said, "I'd better go."

Tears came to Bonnie's eyes and she turned away from him. She didn't want to see him like this, unable to answer her questions, and she didn't want him to see her crying. She heard him walk away, listened to his foot steps on her tiled floor, and heard a door open as he tried to leave.

"That's the bathroom," she told him, not even having to turn around. "You were just in there, can't you remember?"

"No, I can't," he said.

Bonnie felt her heart shatter into a million pieces.

"You– you can't?" she asked. She had suspected this all along. He didn't answer, but she turned around and the look of shame and fear on his pale face told her everything. Seconds later she was running over to him and grabbing his shoulders again, but this time to hug him rather than shake him.

If she had seen Shinichi at that moment, she would have tried to kill him. She was angry, angry that anyone would ever do this to Damon. Ever hurt him like this. Sometimes physical wounds paled in comparison to the damage that you could inflict mentally or emotionally. She held Damon as tightly as she could, envisioning the pain Shinichi would be in when she was finished with him and channeling that energy into something more productive by looking up at Damon's bewildered face and kissing him hard on the lips.

She had kissed Damon before, and it was the same now, the excitement, the feeling in her body that was like fireworks. Like she and Damon were meant to be like this. To be together. She opened her eyes and looked up and found Damon staring into her face, and for the first time all day, instead of confusion amidst the black irises, she saw peace.

We were made for each other. The thought rang through Bonnie's head, but it wasn't hers, it was Damon's. A rush of love went through Bonnie's body and she kissed him harder. They were made for each other, it was true: Damon was just the right amount of excitement that Bonnie needed in her life, the instability that she thrived on, and though she herself didn't live as dangerously as Damon did she understood him; meanwhile, Bonnie, for Damon was something in his life that could be stable, someone that he could count on to be there for him always, someone that he could take care of. We were made for this.

"I love you," Bonnie said suddenly, and she knew it was true. Damon smiled.

"You too, red bird," he said.

She relaxed in his arms, and they kissed again, and she threw back her neck, ready to give him her blood, when suddenly she heard the back door open.

Oh no. She'd locked it; whoever was coming in needed to have a key. And that meant… Zander.

"I'm home, love!" he called out from the backroom. Bonnie heard him toss his keys onto her washing machine and kick off his shoes. Quickly, she sprung away from Damon, and looked frantically for somewhere to hide him.

"In the bathroom! Quick!" she hissed, pushing a startled Damon in the bathroom and closing the door behind him. She leaned against it nervously as Zander entered the room, grinning like a clown and wearing his same old brown socks that he always wore.

"Hey, Bonnie!" he said, coming in and hugging her. Bonnie hugged him back stiffly, and finally noticed her expression. "Something wrong?"

"Uh, no, nothing's wrong," she said. Except that I don't love you anymore and maybe I never did and the one guy that I really need in my life seems to have memory loss and his currently hiding in the bathroom she thought, but she couldn't tell him that.

"Oh, okay," Zander said. He pushed Bonnie slightly to the side so could get to the bathroom. "Well, I'll just wash up, and then we'll–"

"NO, DON'T GO IN THERE," Bonnie almost screamed, pulling Zander back.

"Why not?"

"Uh… it's dirty… and I don't want you to see it like that," she said, coming up with an excuse on the fly. "'K?"

Zander stared at her. "Oookay."

"Yeah."

The stood there for a long time. Obviously Zander sensed that something was wrong with her at the moment, but he didn't seem to be able to say it.

"Why don't you go watch Wheel of Fortune?" Bonnie suggested wildly. Zander was nodding, agreeing to this, and Bonnie started to sigh in relief, when suddenly the bathroom door opened and Damon burst out, looking perplexed.

"NO, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO STAY IN THERE," Bonnie yelled, the world exploding all around her.

"Bonnie, who's this?" Zander demanded. "Why were you hiding a vampire in the bathroom?"

"Bonnie?" Damon said. "That's you?"

"How do you know he's a vampire!" Bonnie shrieked at her fiancé.

Zander put his hands on his hips and surveyed Damon with disgust. Damon obviously realized that he was in trouble and reacted to this by glaring at everyone and crackling his knuckles threateningly. Zander spoke up. "I'm a werewolf, Bonnie, I know a vampire when I see one. Why is he in our house?"

Yeah, why am I here? Damon shot at Bonnie telepathically.

"I– we're– I was–" Bonnie stuttered. Zander and Damon were both frowning at her expectantly. She couldn't take it anymore. She had to be honest. "Zander, I can't marry you!"

Zander gaped at her, his large pink tongue looking very prominent in his mouth. Damon and was silent. Bonnie shivered, but she had to go on. There was more.

"Ever since we were engaged, I haven't really… felt the kind of commitment to you that I think you deserve. I… used to love you, but not anymore, not in that way. All these years, there's been someone else on my mind… someone that I've want to be with for the rest of my life."

She looked at Damon, and his eyes widened appreciatively.

"So– what– you've been seeing a- a vampire behind my back, Bonnie? You love him? What about– how long has this been going on?" Zander was sweating furiously, and his hands were moving wildly in his panic. Bonnie felt bad for him, but she knew that she'd done the right thing by telling him.

"I didn't find Damon again until today," Bonnie said. "But when I did I knew that I'd never really fallen out of love with him."

"Then your really calling it off," Zander said, his voice breaking as he wiped sweat off his brow. "After all these years together."

"Yes, Zander," Bonnie said. "I'm sorry I've been stringing you along this whole time."

"Okay," Zander said softly, and after a moment, he turned around and silently left the room. Bonnie heard him pick up his keys and put on his shoes, and finally heard the door shut behind him. As it did, Bonnie felt an immense sense of relief. She was free.

Almost immediately, she flung herself back into Damon's arms, and he held her, rubbing her hair tenderly. Together they made it over to the kitchen table, where they sat next to each other, staring not at the huge lime but at each other. Damon's eyes seemed endless, full of brilliant stars and lights that gave Bonnie a strange sense of calm.

But after a moment his eyes became blank, and he blinked at her like he'd just woken up.

"Are you okay?" Bonnie asked him gently, realizing that the change was probably due to Shinichi stealing his memories.

"Yes…" Damon said. "Where are we?"

"We're in my house," Bonnie said simply. "You're okay."

They gazed at each other, for a while, until Damon said, "I shouldn't be here, red bird. I'm no good to you."

"And why's that?"

"I– lately my life's been a confusing mess. I don't want you to get tangled up into it," he told her. "I don't know what's going on with me."

Bonnie thought about that for a moment, and then, grasped by a sudden idea, reached into the pencil holder on the table and took out a Sharpie. She then took the lime into her hand and wrote, purposely, Shinichi is stealing my memories. We will stop him one day. For now, stick with Bonnie.

She handed it to Damon, pressing it into his hands and smiling at him. "Keep this with you, always," she said. "It'll help you remember."

Damon took it, and looked at Bonnie with wonder, before leaning in and kissing her in thanks.

….

Damon Salvatore was not alone.

In fact, he felt less alone than he ever had in his life.

He still seemed to move life in a daze, waking up every few minutes and finding himself in completely new situations. But each time he did, what he saw, who he saw, relaxed him, put him at ease. When he opened his eyes to see Bonnie, it was like he'd just been reunited with her after years. He felt love for her that never got old, never grew boring. And more than anything, with her, he felt like he had a purpose. Like he had a home.

And that was how it would always be.