"There's one little flaw in your logic, Professor." He wrapped his arms around the man's neck, already anticipating the satisfying crack of his snapping bones. "I don't give a crap about Bonnie Bennett."

Bonnie Bennett never wanted to get out of bed. The morning sun was hitting her comforter just right, bathing her in warmth as she drifted in a haze that spanned the gap between sleeping and waking. She hadn't slept like this in a long, long time.

A week had passed since that ridiculous night on the island.

Ridiculous was the only word she could think of to describe all that had happened. She dazedly tried to conceive of another word for it, lost amidst a dream and the beams of sunlight hitting her bed.

Sudden movement across her legs yanked her firmly onto the side of daylight and consciousness.

Damon was sprawled at the foot of her bed, his arms wrapped around her blanketed ankles.

"Damon, what the hell!" she hissed.

His eyes blinked open contentedly. "Good morning, beautiful witchy goddess."

She kicked him, hard. He rolled off the bed and onto the floor with what she felt was a rather satisfying thud.

"Get out of my bed! No, get out of my house! Ugh. Damon, seriously, that's every morning this week. Just get out of my life!" She clutched the sheets to her chest as he climbed to his feet.

He was still smiling at her. She hated that he was still smiling at her. "But it's so nice here, in your life, your house," he paused to waggle his eyebrows suggestively, "… your bed." He fell onto the mattress with a whoomph, causing her to bounce from her place beside him. "I think I'd much rather stay."

With a growl, she tossed the sheets in his face. She jumped out of bed and stomped to the bathroom, giving the door a dramatic slam for good measure.

"Pancakes or waffles, Judgy?" she heard him calling from the other side of the door.

She didn't answer, turning the knob that drowned out his voice in a rush of cold water.

Damon Salvatore had died. Well, died again. He was already dead, but then Shane cut his heart out as the final blood offering to raise Silas, so it was supposed to stick this time.

These were the thoughts that ran through Bonnie's head that night, and if she hadn't been so hopped up on magic, she might have wondered why she was parsing semantics while her ally, her supposed frenemy, was dying.

Bonnie did feel more than a twinge of regret to see the light fading from those eerily blue eyes. Some amount of the rage she felt then for Shane, the man who had betrayed her in so many ways, was because of what he did to Damon. Though she wasn't about to shout that out from the rooftops.

Still, when it all went to hell (as they probably should have predicted it would, in hindsight), she wished that Damon could have been there to have her back. That's what made her think of it, in fact.

Silas was what you might call the definition of false advertising. Shane had been an idiot to believe in the darkly seductive words of his hallucinated wife, and the rest of them had been idiots to believe in Shane. There was no vampirism cure, no raising of the sacrificial dead.

Just a billion year old man-witch who had a bone to pick with Bonnie, of all people.

Obviously. Because she had too many people in her corner, it made sense to throw an evil immortal monster on the other side of the balance. Bonnie honestly had the urge to roll her eyes when he started his shambling advance towards her, moaning about revenge against Qetsiyah's line. Still pumped full of power, she threw Silas against the wall with a lazy wave of her hand.

As if anything was that easy for Bonnie Bennett. She wasn't the only one juiced to the gills with death magic.

With a cruel laugh, Silas flicked his wrist, and Bonnie screamed as she felt every single bone in her left hand snap simultaneously. It was agony. She wasn't some vampire whose innards would cheerfully knit back together. Before she could even think to heal herself, Silas was volleying his next attack and it was all Bonnie could do to block him.

Vaguely she heard her friends shouting from somewhere behind her.

But truly she was alone in this. In the end she would always be alone, with her power and loyalty and responsibility, and she knew that beyond any glimmer of doubt.

And then all she could think about was that time she hadn't been alone. When Klaus was trying to kill her, and Damon had been there, pushing her, helping her, fighting to keep her alive despite every contradictory declaration of intent. All she could think of was how it might have helped to have him there, backing her up.

So, in a disorienting cloud of blood and magic, she realized that was the only thing to do.

To put Silas back in the box, she'd have to revoke that sacrifice Shane had so elatedly, so carelessly, made. Like a refund, or a return to sender or something.

She felt the long bones of her leg fracturing in tiny, torturous increments, but her mind was fixated instead on the cartilage and sinew and blood that remained in the gaping cavity of the lifeless vampire's chest.

Her leg completely mangled, she was leaning precariously against one of the jagged walls of the cave. Silas' eyes glowed with a mad excitement, too caught up in the glorious sensation of mauling the body of Qetsiyah's descendant to question why the girl wasn't attacking him back.

With singular focus, Bonnie wove together the fragile tissue, rebuilding that definitively vital organ, Damon's heart.

She felt the grip of Silas' magic squeezing at her lungs as she finished her work, and his gleeful cry of triumph signaled that he was preparing to finish her off. Offhandedly she considered that that moment must have been nice for him despite the evident insanity that had come from being trapped alone for thousands of years. He believed then that after all of his waiting his vengeance was finally at hand.

Instead, he found himself flying backwards, his spine crashing hard against the cold rock that had kept him entombed for millennia. Bonnie heard a distant hacking gasp as she drew all of her power together for a final surge of energy, knowing that the wordless spell was successful before it had even completed.

Damon's eyes flew open. In a flash of motion, he was by her side.

Silas' growl was swallowed by stone as he was drawn back into the wall that had encased his body for so long. A thunderous rumble surrounded them, and Stefan was shouting something about aftershock and crumbling and cave-ins.

Bonnie was completely drained, barely hearing his words.

She felt herself being lifted and watched the panicked eyes of Silas as they floated farther and farther into darkness.

When she finally woke, she was bobbing over choppy waves, the group of them piled into one of the inflatable rafts and skipping across the surface of the bay.

She moved to sit up before realizing that there were arms wrapped around her. She looked up, and her confusion only grew to see icy blue eyes peering back at her.

She was cradled in Damon's lap. His arms tightened around her frame and he pulled her into his chest as relief filled those ethereal eyes. He murmured words into her hair that she couldn't quite make out. Stefan glanced at them suspiciously, his vampire senses having better luck.

Outstretching her arms to push him away, Bonnie scrambled out of his grasp, almost toppling with the rocky motion of the craft. The others realized she was awake then, and Elena asked how she was feeling as she settled carefully against the side of the raft.

"Woozy, but okay I guess." She was distracted by Damon's fingers in her hair, drawing down the side of her neck soothingly. Swatting at his hand, she edged away from him and turned to face Elena. "So, it's really over then?"

Elena nodded. Yes, it was all really over. There was no cure, there would be no resurrections, her sire bond was broken when Shane killed Damon, and Silas was locked away once more. Even Bonnie was back to full health, after Damon had fed her his blood. After explaining all of this, the brunette sighed.

Bonnie placed a hand on her friend's knee. They had all hoped to the point of delusion for a cure, all for different reasons. Still, Bonnie hoped that with the dissolution of the sire bond, Elena would have an easier time adjusting to being a vampire. As Elena eyed Stefan and Rebekah canoodling at the opposite end of the raft while at the same time diligently avoiding looking towards Damon, Bonnie wondered if that would be the case.

She took a quick inventory of the gang to make sure no one needed healing, when she realized Shane was missing. Not missed but still missing, she thought bitterly.

"What happened to Shane?" she wondered aloud.

Damon looked at her with concern. "You don't remember?"

Bonnie raised an eyebrow. "I'm asking, so it's safe to assume I don't."

"He died, Bonnie. The spell you cast to revive Damon killed Shane." Stefan's forehead wrinkled as he watched her reaction, as if worried she might break.

"Oh." His anxiety wasn't merited, though she probably should have felt bad. Shane was the only full out human of them. But after everything he did, it seemed sort of a fitting end for him. She wondered if practicing Expression had changed her after all.

Rebekah drew Stefan's attention back onto herself soon enough, and Bonnie was free of his brooding but well-intentioned gaze, though she caught him glancing over to Elena more than once. Elena meanwhile grimaced and turned away from them, resting her head on her brother's shoulder as he maneuvered the raft.

Damon's twisting fingers were still playing in Bonnie's hair. "What the hell is wrong with you, Damon? Stop touching me."

He didn't look put out by her words. Actually, he didn't seem fazed in the slightest, though he removed the offending hand.

Instead, he leaned his entire body towards her, and she shivered involuntarily as his lips brushed against the shell of her ear.

"I'm glad you're okay, Witchy."

She turned to look at him incredulously. What the heck?

"And thank you... for saving me." He punctuated the statement with a smile.

She was used to his smirks. She knew all about the way his eyes crinkled when he was feeling smug. And she was far more familiar than she really had any desire to be with the downturn of his lips when he mocked her. But smiling? That was new.

New and weird.

One week later, Damon was driving her absolutely insane.

Everywhere she turned, he was there. She thoroughly regretted ever inviting him into her home, as he began to appear in her bedroom day and night.

One night she caught him standing in the corner of her room staring at her while she slept, which was basically the creepiest thing she'd ever seen. She sent him away pouting, only to find him lying happily on her creaking porch swing the next morning. He sat up and flashed her one of the bizarrely sincere smiles that she was still not quite used to. He had slept in the swing and told her that it wasn't that uncomfortable actually, as if that explained everything.

"Why would you spend the night in my porch swing?" She didn't even have the energy to be surprised at this point. She settled on just glaring at him instead.

He shrugged, climbing to his feet and walking towards her. "Well I had to be sure you were safe, didn't I? "

Her glare softened with equal measures of confusion and some other emotion she couldn't put her finger on.

"Since when do you care if I'm safe?" She snorted, decidedly afraid to put a name to the emotion.

His smile faded, and the earnestness of his features made her take an involuntary step back. "I've always cared if you were safe, Bonnie."

She shook her head, as if trying to clear everything that was happening out of her brain. "I don't have time for this. Damon, go home."

He nodded, and she turned and began to head back into the house.

His arms were around her before she knew what was happening. Her body was taut with confusion, but neither of them pulled back. When was the last time someone had hugged her? It must have been when Stefan had found her, after days of being alone and traumatized by seeing the spirits torture her Grams. This was different though.

This was a less complicated embrace. Stefan had held her with the tense concern of someone who saw a broken thing and realized he had had a hand in breaking it. Damon was no more blameless than his brother, but his embrace was unburdened, unapologetic. Her body relaxed in his arms for a brief moment, and then she remembered she was standing on her porch in her pajamas, hugging Damon Salvatore.

She pushed him away, turned on her heel and fled into the house. From the other side of the slamming door, she heard him say, "See you later, Witchy."

Of course they had been wrong to believe it was all over. Yes, Silas was back in his cage, and yes, with the sire bond broken Elena was starting to seem like herself again despite still being a vampire. But it was far from over.

There was the issue of a thousand-year-old Original vampire trapped in the Gilbert living room, for example, frenzied by grief and hunger and the fact that for once he was completely powerless, invincible Original hybrid or not.

She wasn't sure if having to deal with that was preferable or not to figuring out the other issue plaguing her, the issue named Damon.

She met Elena at the Grill and they shared a basket of fries as they went over everything again.

"I'm serious, he's everywhere. Yesterday he followed me to the hair salon. He sat under the dryers with me and wouldn't shut up about Honey Boo Boo and Kim Kardashian's baby bump."

Elena shook her head. After the sire bond was broken, thinking about Damon was not something she wanted to do. She was livid to know that he failed to free her, when he was the only one who could. The truth was that the very real feelings she had had for Damon before she was sired were now the last thing on her mind, as she considered everything that had happened since she turned. She was mortified at the way she treated practically everyone she loved. The fact that any of them were still speaking to her at all was miraculous, she felt, and she was determined to find that girl that she once angrily claimed had died under Wickery Bridge.

It was confusing to her, even after the bond dissolved. How much of the horrible things she'd said and done was the bond, and how much was her?

She brought a fry to her lips and chewed on it thoughtfully. "He used to show up in my bedroom sometimes, I think it just amuses him to see you jump."

"He's never needed me for amusement before now," Bonnie sighed. "And I really do not want him doing the things to me that he used to do to you. That couldn't be good, could it?"

Elena frowned.

"No offense, 'Lena. But it's Damon."

The brunette shook her head. "Believe me, I'm not offended. To be honest, I don't think I can forgive him for keeping me under the sire bond."

Elena not being able to forgive a Salvatore would definitely be a first. Bonnie knew why he did it, though no amount of loneliness could make it in any way acceptable.

"You'll work through it. One way or another. If your way involves fire, I'll help."

Elena met her joking grin with a tentative smile and nodded. "Actually, I know this is awful, but his new obsession with you has helped a lot… I barely even see him anymore. Maybe someday I'll be able to be his friend again, but for now…"

Bonnie sighed. "Well, at least one of us gets some sanity then."

A thought crossed Elena's mind, and the witch watched as her doe eyes widened. "What if he's sire bound to you?"

"What?"

"Like you brought him back to life, the sire bond is about gratitude and rebirth or something, right?"

"I don't know, it seems like no one's really figured out how the sire bond works…"

"It fits though, he suddenly wants to be around you all the time, keeping track of you and keeping you safe and happy. You didn't see how he was freaking out on the island, Bon. He fed you so much of his blood when you wouldn't wake up, Stefan had to make him stop."

Bonnie groaned and rubbed her temples. As karmically appropriate as it might be for Damon Salvatore to be sired to another person for once instead of the other way around, this was not a responsibility Bonnie wanted on her shoulders.

Elena grabbed her arm from across the table. "Hey look, it's okay. I'm probably totally wrong. Maybe he's just normal-grateful that you saved him, and he'll get distracted soon enough."

"Maybe." Bonnie didn't sound at all convinced. She decided to change the subject. "How are you and Jeremy holding up at Matt's?"

The Gilberts had been living at the Donovan house, leaving Klaus to stew alone in his prison in their living room. They knew it couldn't work long-term, but so far they had no idea how to handle the hybrid who was now more intent than ever on killing them all.

"It's been fine. They pretty much spend all day playing video games." Elena rolled her eyes, but Bonnie could tell she was happy for the first time since they'd arrived at the Grill.

Now that it had come to light that the Hunter's Curse and rumor of a cure were nothing more than a trap set by Silas-worshipping witches, they were able to finally move on. Jeremy's mark was complete, and he no longer had the urges to kill vampires that he'd had before. No longer had the urges to kill Elena. Bonnie knew that there was nothing the real Elena wanted any more than for Jeremy to live a normal life, sometimes pushing for it even when it was entirely impossible and not her decision to make. Bonnie hadn't been happy when Elena had Damon compel Jeremy and made him move to Denver, but she understood why she did it. The real Elena never would have put him in the path of an Original vampire with nothing more than a cleaver and the unlikely hope that they could wrangle the white oak stake in time.

Needless to say, having the real Elena back was the best part of everything that had happened, in Bonnie's opinion. It almost made having Damon lose his mind worth it. Almost.

Bonnie took a step over the threshold of the Gilbert's front door and was immediately pulled by her arm back out onto the porch.

Damon's face was inches from her own, his lip curling in some kind of amusement or anger. "And where do you think you're going?

She shrugged her arm out of his grasp. "What does it look like? I'm checking on Klaus."

"So you figured you, the one person who can let him out of there, should waltz in alone for a friendly visit?"

"I can handle Klaus, Damon."

"I'm going with you."

"The hell you are, leave me alone."

"Don't wanna, not gonna."

Bonnie sighed. His eyes were intense on hers, and she knew he had no intention of backing down. She remembered Elena's theory. What the hell, couldn't hurt.

She spoke evenly and slowly. "Damon, listen to me, okay? I want you to forget about me. I want you to go home, live your life, and never come around to see me again. I want you to forget I even exist."

Damon's eyes softened, and he gazed at her in trepidation. He took a step back from her. "Bonnie, I…"

And then he burst out laughing. She frowned.

"You think I'm sire bound to you? Oh Judgy, I ought to be offended. I've told you before, it shouldn't be so hard to believe. I just want to protect you." He stepped into her space again and pushed her hair behind her ear as she stared at him, flabbergasted. He smirked at her expression.

"Last time you said that, I got my throat ripped out."

He tweaked her nose with a wink. "So are we doing this or what?" He walked into the house, and with a sigh Bonnie followed him.

Klaus sat on the sofa, one leg crossed casually over his knee. "Please, by all means, come in."

She ignored him, silently walking from one end of the barrier to the other, ending in the kitchen. Damon stood in the foyer, leaning against the wall and watching them with his arms crossed.

"You know, now that they've stopped visiting, I rather miss the company of Tyler and Caroline. You should ask them to stop by to chat or... grab a bite."

Bonnie knew all about the ordeal the pair had with the Original while the rest of them had been on the island. He had attacked Caroline and bitten her, bringing her to the brink of death in some pissing contest with Tyler. Tyler had immediately relented, his pride in no way more important to him than Caroline. Klaus on the other hand seemed perfectly willing to let her die, until she activated his emo switch just long enough to convince him to heal her.

"It's a good thing you amuse yourself, Klaus. What a waste of breath your every word would be otherwise."

He continued as if she hadn't spoken. "Have you ever considered, in fairy tales, why it is that no one tells the story from the wolf's side? If that little girl was too dull to tell the difference between her grandmother and a wolf, doesn't that say more about the girl than the monster?"

Bonnie rolled her eyes, her palm tracing over the edge of the barrier.

"Though I suppose it might say more about the grandmother, really. Perhaps she was simply hideous, and the girl can't be blamed." He fixed his eyes on the ceiling as he pondered the latest development.

Meanwhile, Bonnie noticed Damon's silence, and glanced at him to see his gaze planted firmly upon her. He was frowning, sensing that something was off.

"No matter. A wolf won't much care for what bratty children think of him, so long as he's well fed and has his fun."

Something about the way he said it made her focus on him. He stood from his place on the sofa and with a firm kick sent the couch sliding towards the opposite wall, revealing the mangled body of a man in a bloodied postal service uniform.

"You would be surprised who comes knocking on lazy weekday mornings. And how easily they can be compelled to come in and keep you entertained."

Each muscle in Bonnie's body was suddenly tense as if ready to snap, and her every instinct urged her to rush into the living room and check on the man.

"Witchy... look at me. There's too much blood. He's already dead, don't even think about it." Damon's voice was even, cautious.

Klaus smirked, standing in front of Bonnie in a flash of movement, his body nearly pressed against the invisible barrier. She glowered at him, unwavering. Damon was pushed off from the wall, watching them warily.

"Already dead, that's an interesting theory." The hybrid's eyes widened mockingly as he smirked, staring down into the furious green eyes of the witch. "Is he though?"

As if on cue, the body shifted and Bonnie heard a soft moan coming from the injured man. She reached forward involuntarily, and Klaus' grip was at once wrapped around her wrist, swinging her through the barrier and into the living room. Before she could blink, she was shoved against the wall, his nails digging into the flesh of her neck.

And then he was ripped away, hitting the barrier hard and tumbling to the floor. Catching her breath, Bonnie found that Damon stood beside her in a crouched stance, waiting for Klaus' next move.

A low laugh rumbled in Klaus' throat as he climbed to his feet. "I must say, I never would have expected you to put yourself in harm's way for anyone but Elena, Damon. But I've been out of the loop for a while now, perhaps I've missed some memos."

"You'll be missing a lot more than memos in just a moment if you don't back off the witch," Damon sneered. He motioned for Bonnie to move, and she rushed towards the foyer.

"Leaving so soon?" Klaus snarled, speeding towards her.

Everything seemed to happen all at once then. Damon flew to meet Klaus head on. The force of the Original's attack knocked him backwards, but he managed to sandwich himself between the hybrid and the witch.

Simultaneously, Bonnie screamed as a surge of power rushed out from her body to collide with the advancing hybrid. That was when Damon really went crazy.

Klaus fell to his knees, clutching the arm Bonnie had shattered with her magic. Damon moved in swiftly, his knee connecting with the Original's chin and knocking him back. In a flash, the vampire's arms wrenched Klaus' neck to the side, and the loud crack of his spine was followed by the sound of his body crumpling to the floor.

Damon spoke as he gathered up the wounded postman, ripping into his own wrist to heal the man. "That'll keep him down for a bit. We need to get you out of here, Witchy." There was no response. "Bonnie?"

Damon felt like he'd been punched in the gut when he turned and saw the witch lying unconscious on the floor just feet away from the barrier, her skin drained and pallid.

A/N: Hope you guys are enjoying this! There's just one more part, it's a shorter fic. I'm going to go ahead and upload it now. I really wanted to do something, to make something positive out of the lines Damon had about Bonnie in episode 4x13. Anyway, I hope you guys like it! Please R&R, love ya!