A/N - I know the last thing I need another story when I have so many to finish, but I've been wanting to do a Dark!Stefonnie story for a while and it wouldn't leave my head until I did. I still plan to update my other stories and I will plan to have the updates for Refill, Awakening, and Say It done done soon.
As for the story,while it is technically set during Season 4, it's pretty much an AU after 4x02. There will be some plots that I use from canon, but basically I've twisted them to fit the story.
Main Pairing: Stefan/Bonnie
Other Pairings: Bonnie/Marcel, Bonnie/Tyler, Stefan/OFCs, Klaus/Elena, Katherine/Matt/Rebekah, Damon/OFC. Mentions of Stefan/Elena, Damon/Elena, Bonnie/Stefan/Klaus
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The sound of an alarm clock flows through the small bedroom, interrupting the silence that had been prevalent in the room the last several hours. Bonnie Bennett sits up in bed with weary eyes and looks for the source of the sound, her eyes slowly zero in on the clock across the room. Normally she would appreciate the wakeup, but it's Saturday and even if it wasn't she is not in the mood to do much of anything as of late.
Ever since she watched her Grams get tortured because of her decision to help Elena, she's been over it. Over being the magical fix-it, over being punished for doing the right thing. Sure with Stefan's help she managed to fix the situation so her Gram's will no longer be in pain whenever she uses magic, but even that knowledge hasn't snapped Bonnie out of her funk.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The alarm continues echo, almost as though it's mocking her and Bonnie glares at the clock annoyed by its intrusion. Not that she was actually asleep; she did more tossing and turning than anything else. With a slight extension of her hand, a pulse of power is released and the clock explodes leaving a sea of melted plastic in its wake. She collapses to the bed and pulls the covers over her head, trying her hardest to fall asleep, when her phone rings. She ignores it at first, determined to spend the day in bed, but it continues ringing. Resigned, Bonnie picks up the phone, sighing in irritation when she hears the familiar voice on the other end.
"I don't know if asking Bonnie to help with this is such a good idea." Stefan Salvatore says warily as his brother Damon hangs up with the woman in question. "You should have seen how upset she was the other day. Involving her might not be a good thing for her right now." He'd seen her distress firsthand when he'd shown up to ask for her help with a vampire hunter in town. Seen how troubled the witch had been after watching her grandmother being tortured because she tapped into dark magic for Elena.
He'd felt the guilt and shame hit him full force when Bonnie calmly pointed out that he only came to see her when he needed her help. The worst part is that Bonnie hadn't even been trying to make him feel bad about it. She had simply been stating a fact. That made him feel even worse because he had genuinely wanted her friendship when they first met. Instead he allowed his love for Elena to take precedence over everything else and now a potential friendship has been wasted. He's hoping to make up for that now, but knows it will be extremely difficult considering his history with Bonnie.
"So you're saying that you're willing to sacrifice Elena's life as a mortal just spare the feelings of the witch?" Damon looks at Stefan incredulously. "Some devoted boyfriend." He mutters under his breath, knowing Stefan can hear him and will likely take the bait. He knows digging at Stefan this way isn't right, but it's been hard watching the woman he loves with his brother and the barbs sort of make him feel better.
"Of course I want to cure Elena, but maybe there's another way that doesn't involve Bonnie." Stefan suggests with an annoyed sigh. He's getting tired of his love for Elena being questioned, something that has been happening a lot more frequently as of late.
"I'm sorry I can't be the martyr-filled vampire that you seem to want to be." Damon snarls. "Unlike you I'm a vampire of action and we need to fix this problem before Elena gets herself hurt. If this bothers you so much you can leave, but I'm still finding out what Witchy knows. With or without you." He glares at Stefan, the threat present in his voice.
Stefan glares back and is about to respond when he hears approaching footsteps from the hall. His gaze moves toward the door and he is not at all surprised when Bonnie walks in, carrying her grimoire. She's dressed casually in a blouse and jeans, but it doesn't stop her from being breathtaking. Nor does it stop his cock from jumping in his pants. There is a part of him that feels guilty for thinking this way of his girlfriend's best friend, but the rest of him wonders what the problem is. She's hot and there's nothing wrong with him acknowledging her beauty from time to time as long as he doesn't act on it.
"It's good to see you, Bonnie." He smiles at her as she makes her way into the room. Despite his protests about involving Bonnie in helping with the cure, he is still happy to see her. Out of his peripheral vision he sees Damon take a seat across from him.
"Witchy." Damon nods out a greeting to the approaching woman.
"Is there a reason I'm giving up my Saturday?" She ignores the greetings as she flops down on the couch next to Stefan. She hadn't wanted to come, but she knew once Damon called and asked — demanded really— that she come to the boardinghouse and bring her grimoire, he would only continue to bug her if she said no.
"Like you had anything better to do." Damon rolls his eyes. "We all know you and Gilbert are over and Blondie is off with Elena trying to get over the wolf." He says referring to Caroline and Tyler's breakup a few days ago. "So you can stop acting like I'm inconveniencing you."
Bonnie glares, even knowing that Damon's not entirely wrong. The breakup only happened a few days ago after Tyler's mother had been killed and Klaus banished Tyler from Mystic Falls. While Caroline wanted to do a long distance thing, the hybrid thought it would be best for him to leave Mystic Falls for good and ended things. That is why Caroline is off with Elena for the weekend under the guise of helping Elena get used to her vampirism. Because of the nature of their trip, Bonnie's presence had been unnecessary, though she suspects, they hadn't even thought about asking her anyway. Still, that doesn't mean she wants to spend the day taking orders from the Salvatore brothers.
"What he means to say is we think we might have found a way to cure Elena." Stefan interjects when he sees Bonnie's jaw clench in anger. "And we were hoping there might be something about it in your grimoire, but you don't have to this if you don't want to." Stefan adds despite Damon's look of annoyance.
"I'm here; I might as well take a look." She shrugs, trying to ignore how good Stefan smells next to her. As unhappy as she is to be here, she can't say that sitting this close to Stefan is the worst thing in the world.
"Thank you." Stefan's lips quirk into a small smile as he watches her carefully open her grimoire. The room is quiet; the only thing that can be heard is the rustling of paper as Bonnie and quickly flips through the grimoire's pages.
"Seriously? You haven't found anything yet?" Damon breaks the silence after an hour of searching, his voice impatient.
"Damon." Stefan warns. Damon rolls his eyes in response, but still decides to keep quiet.
After several more minutes of silence, Bonnie finally looks up from the grimoire. "I think I might have found something." She glances back and forth between the two brothers, making sure she has their attention.
"Well don't keep us waiting all day." Damon prods her. "You may not have a life, but I do."
Bonnie rolls her eyes, pointedly ignoring Damon's most recent outburst. "As I was saying, there's something in here about a potential cure. Apparently thousands of years ago, a witch made a potion for herself and her fiancé that would make them immortal, along with a cure to reverse the effects. Unfortunately, her fiancé had someone else in mind and on their wedding day he ran off with her handmaiden. The witch found out and killed the handmaiden, leaving only her heart for the fiancé to find."
"What happened to the witch and the fiancé?" Stefan asks when she stops talking, completely taken in by the story. He'd forgotten just how interesting witchcraft could be. He remembers encountering Sheila in the past and being fascinated by the stories she told, of the history she knew. Once again he's kicking himself for not taking a real interest in Bonnie that had nothing to do with Elena or helping someone in the group. That could have been something they could have bonded over. It's clear based on the smooth sound of her voice, that she's interested in knowing more about her history as well.
"She had him entombed, along with the cure. Afterwards she was put to death for her crimes."
"So basically we're out of luck. There is no way we will be to find a cure that's been buried for thousands of years." Damon seethes in annoyance.
"Not necessarily." Bonnie shakes her head before reading the rest of the page "Apparently other witches have used a variation of the potion throughout the years to cure vampirism. It's still very rare, but there are a few occurrences written here in the grimoire."
"How does it work?" Stefan is the one to ask, but Damon has to admit that he's curious as will.
"The gist of it is that if a vampire takes the cure they'll be reverted back to their human form."
"Really?" Stefan looks at Bonnie with interest. He definitely hadn't been expecting that. "Why would any witch perform a spell that would cure a vampire? Why not just kill them?" He knows that witches and vampires typically have an aversion to each other, so it seems unlikely that there would a specific passage about curing vampires.
"I'm not sure; the details in that portion of the passage are kind of vague." She admits to Stefan. "I can only assume it would be a way to return the balance that was lost when that vampire was turned."
"That makes sense." Stefan nods in agreement. "Witches are usually all about keeping the balance. What I don't understand is why it's so rare. You would think a witch would be eager to get rid of the threat of vampires."
"That's all good and well, but let's get back to talking about the cure and how it can help Elena shall we. We don't have time for a witch history session." Damon interrupts the discussion, having grown bored of the back and forth between his brother and the witch.
"The choices are either somehow finding out where the original cure is buried or making our own cure."
"And making it yourself is possible?" Damon shifts in his seat as hope begins to fill his body.
"There are several ingredients for the potion that I would need. Some of them are here in Mystic Falls, but most of the others are harder to get and would mean crossing state lines."
"Stefan and I can take care of that; just tell us what the ingredients are."
Bonnie looks back down at the grimoire when the page flips on its own. A frown appears on her face as she turns it back and the pages begin to flip even more frantically. The last time that happened had been when her Grams came back the first time. Back then the spirits had been trying to send her message and she has the feeling it's happening again.
"Did you do that?" Stefan asks worriedly, having noticed the pages flipping on their own.
"No." She shakes her head and snaps the grimoire shut. "But now that I'm thinking about it, this cure has been around for thousands of years and it's rarely been used. It's not a hard spell to perform at all. Which makes me think something horrible went down the few times it was attempted. Not to mention the spirits are making it clear they don't want me to use it."
"Pfft, it's probably just you witches being self-righteous again." Damon scoffs.
"No, it's a warning. A warning that we should be paying attention to. The spirits stopped talking to me awhile ago. If they are showing up now, it's because this is serious." Bonnie scolds. "I have a feeling if we go this through with this, there will be dire consequences for everyone involved." More than likely she'll be the one to face the consequences, but she imagines it could also be bad for the others as well.
"Fuck the consequences!" Damon snaps, annoyed with Bonnie's reluctance. "We need to get this done."
"Damon, maybe we should wait and do some research." Stefan says warily. As much as he wants to help Elena, he knows firsthand that overruling the spirits doesn't usually turn out well.
"That's all we've been doing for the last few days. Can either of you think of another way to help Elena?"He continues when both Bonnie and Stefan stare at him blankly. "Like I told Stefan before you got here, we need to fix this before Elena ends up hurt or worse. Would you be able to live with yourself if something happened to her and you didn't try everything in your power to prevent it?" He directs the last question to both Stefan and Bonnie, but his gaze is still focused on Bonnie.
"Fine, I'll do it." Bonnie sighs after a brief internal debate. "But you're paying for the ingredients I'll need."
"Fine." Damon gives her a smile that would normally look grateful, but on Damon it just seems smug. "But do me a favor and try not to fuck it up. The last thing we need is you making Elena's situation worse because you made some kind of mistake." Damon remembers all too well what happened when she brought Jeremy back to life and he doesn't want a repeat of that.
With those harsh words, something snaps in Bonnie and it's at that moment she decides that she's done. Done helping ungrateful people, being treated like a servant, and always doing the right thing. Slowly she rises from her position on the couch. The lights start to flicker and magic pulsates in the air.
Beside her Stefan has also managed to get to his feet, anticipating her outburst. She doesn't disappoint when her angry gaze moves to Damon, who wisely takes a step backward.
"If I remember correctly you're the one that asked me to help. Not the other way around. So you want to be an asshole, fine." Bonnie's eyes darken with unrestrained anger. "There are a lot better things I could be doing than taking shit from you. I'm out of here." Bonnie snarls as she gathers her things and begins to stalk angrily out of the room.
"Elena needs your help and you're just going to bail? Some best friend!" He sneers at Bonnie's back.
"Bonnie, wait." Stefan rushes after her, managing to speed in front of her just as she gets to the door. "Please wait. I'm sorry about that. He had no right to talk to you like that."
"No, I'm glad he did." Bonnie looks up at him, her eyes clear with resolve.
"But why?" Stefan eyebrows furrow in confusion and surprise. He can't imagine Bonnie being happy about what just happened.
"Because it proves that my thoughts have been right all along. I'm only a means to an end, someone to clean up whenever there is a problem. I'm not an actual friend to any of you." She says matter-of-factly, her voice neither sad nor angry. "And now that I've finally figured it out I'm making a change."
"Bonnie, what are you saying?" Stefan stiffens, worry flooding his body. He doesn't exactly like the look in her eyes. It's the same look she had right before she faked her death in order to kill Klaus.
"I'm saying that I'm sick of all of this. It's never ending. Elena gets into some kind of mortal danger, I drop everything to fix it only for it to happen all over again a few weeks later. I'm tired of risking my life and having to suffer the consequences. I've sacrificed everything; my family, my powers, my life. Here I am wasting away my life for people who only care about me when they need something."
"Bonnie you have to know that's not true."Stefan attempts to comfort her by grabbing her hand only to back away when he sees the look in her eyes. "You do matter to us. To me." His eyes are sincere when he looks at her. "I know I've been saying this a lot lately, but I am sorry about everything you've had to deal with because of me and Damon. I—"
"Stop." Bonnie holds a hand up to halt his apology. "I could stand here and pretend that it's just you and Damon, but it's not. It's all of you. I'm only thought of when someone is in trouble. When everything's going fine, none of you are anywhere to be found. Let's face it, without my magic I'm useless to all of you."
"Bonnie." He can't believe he didn't realize that she was feeling this way. That she actually believed that magic was the only worth she had to all of them. How could they have all been so blind? He takes another step closer to her. "I'm…"
"I don't want your fucking sympathy!" She flinches away from his pain-filled gaze, her anger flaring up. "Not when you're just as pathetic. You're willing to do anything, kill anyone, sacrifice anything just for her and where has that gotten you? Huh?" She pokes at his chest. "She may be in your bed right now, but for how long? How long until she decides it's him she wants to be with? Yet you'll still be here like an idiot while she fucks your brother, willing to do anything for her." She relishes in the wounded look on his face, knowing that her words are getting to him.
Stefan flinches at the harshness in her voice, realizing that if Bonnie's actually pointing out the flaws in his relationship with Elena, then she is even worse off than he initially thought. Still, he ignores the truth in her words, wanting to focus on Bonnie. "Bon—"
"Don't." Her voice turns emotionless again. "Just leave me the hell alone. Find someone else to do your bidding because like I said before I'm done." She shrugs as she pushes past a guilt-ridden Stefan and opens the front door. Before crossing the threshold, she pauses and turns to face him. Unable to resist, gives him one parting thought. "Stefan?"
"Yeah?" He watches as her gaze softens slightly.
"It's only a matter of time before Damon and Elena go after each other." She gives Stefan a pointed look. "If you were smart you would be done too." She says before turning back toward the door and walking out.
Stefan watches her go, concern flooding him. He debates whether or not to follow after her, ultimately deciding to give her few hours to cool off before going to see her. He already knows she wouldn't be very receptive to any of his overtures at the moment. So for now, he'll deal with Damon and contact the others to let them know what's going on with Bonnie.
"Don't even start.'" Damon says the moment Stefan walks back into the leaving room. He can already tell what's coming based on the look on Stefan's face and he definitely doesn't want to be on the receiving end of one of Stefan's lectures.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Stefan ignores Damon's warning.
"You should get your hearing checked because I could have sworn I just said I didn't want to hear it." Damon says pointedly as he walks over to the bar and pours himself a drink.
Stefan looks on silently, wondering just how damaged Damon's liver would be if he were still human. Once Damon looks at him again he continues speaking. "I told you that she's been dealing with a lot lately so you shouldn't give her a hard time, but of course you don't listen."
"No you only mentioned that asking for her help might not be wise. You said nothing about not giving her a hard time." Damon protests.
"I'm pretty sure telling you that she's going through a lot right now implies that you do the decent thing and not give her a hard time."
"Brother, if you're worried about her bailing on the cure you should stop. She'll be back. It's for Elena and we all know she'll do whatever it takes to help Elena no matter how I treat her. I piss her off and she responds by saying something snarky or throwing me across the room, it's our thing." Damon grins remembering the last time he pissed her off. "Witchy will have her little bitch fit and then she'll be back to helping. So don't worry about it." Damon takes a sip of his Bourbon and claps Stefan on the shoulder as he makes his way out of the room.
"I'm not so sure about that." Stefan murmurs to himself. He has the feeling that Bonnie has finally had enough and is planning on doing something rash. What that means exactly remains to be seen, but Stefan knows he needs to keep an eye on her.
He's broken out of his thoughts when his phone buzzes. He sighs when he sees he has a message from Caroline, already knowing what she says won't be good. It's not; apparently Elena is having trouble controlling her blood intake and has managed to nearly drain someone. As he exits the room, he briefly wonders if he should call Bonnie to let her know what happened, but he quickly shoots down the thought. After what just happened, he knows it only fuel the flame. He'll just have to make sure he goes to see her after he's taken care of this situation with Elena.
Bonnie takes one last glance at her childhood home before closing the door behind her and walking to her car. In her hand is a large duffel bag full of her clothes, her grimoire, and other basic items. Bonnie decided not to take too many of her things, not wanting to be reminded of her time in Mystic Falls. When she left the boardinghouse she hadn't been entirely sure she was leaving town. Leaving everything she has ever known is big deal and there is a part of her that is terrified. Yet she knows if she decides to stay it would only be a matter of time before she got sucked back into being the magical cure all.
That is why the moment she gotten home she packed her stuff and taken the money she gotten from her Grams out of her stash. She'd been surprised when she began going through her Grams things a few months after her death and found box addressed to her with money in it. Since then, she hasn't so much as touched a dime, but she knows that now is the time. Between that and the money she typically gets from her dad to pay the household expenses, she should be okay for while she's figuring out what she does next.
She doesn't bother contacting her parents; her father's been too busy with his job and latest girlfriend to pay her any mind. The last time she talked to him had been six months ago and he'd been in Arizona, something that could have changed. She won't even get into her relationship with her mother. Other than her so-called friends, there is no one to miss her and she wonders how much time will go by before anyone even notices she's gone.
Bonnie sighs as she opens her trunk and tosses the bag into it before slamming it closed. She quickly makes her way to the driver's side and gets in. She makes a brief stop at a gas station to fill her up her gas tank and to buy some snacks for the road.
Fifteen minutes later Bonnie is on the interstate, making her way out of Mystic Falls. The car is quiet, with the exception of the radio. That is until her phone rings, startling Bonnie. She lets it ring, until she hears the indication for her voicemail ding. Unable to resist, she listens to the message and is not the least bit surprised to find messages from Damon, Caroline, and Jeremy informing her of Elena's latest crisis. It's obvious that all of them expect her to drop everything and come to Elena's aid.
Instead of doing that, she slows down enough to toss the phone out of window. The sound of the phone cracking on the pavement is the last thing she hears before she speeds off.