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There's a moment of surprise, her eyes widening and her mouth falling open slightly when she sees him. She's just walked into The Grill and he's sitting at the bar with Ric. As usual. His life – or existence, really – is just going on like it usually does and no one, not even the former vampire hunter, has enough decency to stay mad at Damon for more than five seconds for what he did to her. She shouldn't be surprised and she honestly isn't. That doesn't mean that her chest doesn't seize with their betrayal. She's stood still too long, staring, and Damon must feel her eyes drilling into the back of his head because he looks at her over his shoulder.
Her eyes harden as they meet his and her lips purse as if by that simple movement she can keep the tirade she's prepared for him in. Her pulse is racing with the need to do something. He can feel his brain cells prick in preparation for the aneurysm she's sure to inflict on him. He holds his breath, a tense moment of anticipation. Beside him, Alaric looks back at Bonnie only to guiltily look away a moment later. Her jaw tightens and Damon thinks she might just forgo the witchy migraines and go straight for barbecuing his nuts.
And then her face slackens. Her pinning gaze slides from his but he doesn't move an inch. Bonnie walks toward her usual table and sits facing away from him. She takes a calming breath and slowly flips through a menu he knows she's read a thousand times. All of them know it by heart. He sighs exasperatedly. As much as he doesn't want to be set on fire today or any other day, he'd rather it be done when he was expecting it and when someone, namely Ric, could snap Bonnie out of her rage before she ends up killing him. Besides, Judgy and he work together more often than not lately. He'd never admit it but he'd even started to count on her seeing as how aside from him and Alaric, she's the only useful member of the Scooby Doo gang.
His chair scrapes across the floor when he stands up. He has to confront her now so they can move past this and go back to being… partners.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Alaric says deliberately.
"And why's that?" He shrugs and downs his shot.
Damon waits for a moment and when it becomes clear that Alaric isn't going to enlighten him, he saunters over to her table and slides in across from her. He expects her heart rate to spike again but it actually decreases until it's below the normal rate. He stares at her, waiting for her to ask him what he wants, tell him to leave her alone or go away like she always does. It's their thing. But the only indication she shows that she's aware of his presence is the brief stiffening of her back before she relaxes and lays her palms flat on the table.
"I'm sorry." Though he says this impatiently, his eyes are narrowed in concern. Her pulse shouldn't be that low especially around him. Even when they're on the same side, it was always just an octave higher than her normal rate which he knows from when he was stalking her and trying to get his necklace back a year ago. He puts his elbows on the table and leans in until when he speaks, she can feel his breath on her face. "We tried to find another way," he explains softly because the fact that she is refusing to meet his gaze now is unnerving. "But it failed and there wasn't time."
She takes a breath and looks up at him with emotionless eyes. He is so used to them being filled with shocked anger, pure hatred and that condescending amusement she's leaned towards around him lately that it stumps him. He stops talking and stares back. For a moment, it seems as though she's searching him for something but then she's pulling her purse back onto her shoulder and getting out of the booth. He grabs a hold of her wrist before she can walk away. She doesn't even clench her fist or try to twist away. She just stands there.
xx
Matt watches from across the room. He saw Bonnie as soon as she walked in, saw her stop and watch Damon before she sat her usual table. He hadn't seen her in weeks. Caroline told him what Stefan and Damon did to save Elena. He had wanted to stop by and help in whatever way that he could but Abby is vampire. That basically makes him food and Bonnie doesn't need to worry about her mom attacking anyone she's friends with. But seeing her now, looking so exhausted, defeated and… He doesn't know how to describe it but that look on her face is telling him he should have taken the risk and gone to see her anyway. He should have stopped by when she refused to answer his calls or tried to catch her at the market or something. She had to eat, right?
His face scrunches into a frown when he sees Damon grab her. Why can't he just leave her alone? He starts toward them with an irritated scoff. He is so sick of Damon thinking he can manhandle the girls. Every other week, he's doing some asshole thing to piss one of them off and intimidate them. Usually, it's Elena or Caroline. He's too good at self-preservation to take things too far with Bon when he knows that she's only keeping him alive for Elena but, apparently, he wants to try his luck today and Bonnie – he usually tries to stay out of the supernatural business but she's still his friend and she shouldn't have to deal with any of this. None of them should.
He keeps thinking back to after Bonnie saved him in the pool, how she told him in that pleading voice that he was the only one who gets to be normal. It isn't fair that Bon will never get to just be Bonnie anymore.
"Let her go, Damon," he says when he's right in front of them. He sets the bin he uses to bus the tables down. His muscles are getting ready for a fight that he knows he'll lose but can't back down from.
"Back off, QB. The witch and I are having a discussion," Damon retorts in a deadly tone.
"I'm sure with your extra vampire senses you can see she doesn't want to talk to you, man. Just leave her alone." Bonnie, who had been staring straight ahead, lifts her eyes up to his then. She has this tired, forlorn expression and he's thinking of something to say that will help, maybe ask how she is, when she whimpers. Like a kicked dog. Bonnie actually whimpers.
Damon is about a millisecond away from doing something violent to get Matt to leave them alone when he hears that soft, guttural cry of agony he would never have expected to come from Bonnie Bennett. It shifts his focus entirely. He is filled with an overwhelming urge to comfort her and protect her, to safeguard her like she were the most precious being he had come across in all of his existence. Matt is simply there, an insignificant bystander, until he lifts his arms to pull Bonnie into a hug. An inhuman growl rumbles in Damon's chest causing Bonnie to finally look at him, her face half-hidden in Matt's chest and her wrist still in his hand. Though she doesn't move to take her hand away, he tightens his grip on her anyway. He doesn't know what he's feeling – there are too many conflicting emotions and thoughts in him right now – but he does know that he absolutely cannot let her go.
She only lets Matt hold her for a moment before she pulls back because being comforted might make her fall apart completely and she can't afford to look weak right now. She's never let herself before and she refuses to start in front of Damon, or at the Grill where any vampire could walk in and find her vulnerable.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Matt asks, ignoring Damon now completely even though he snarls ferociously at his words. Bonnie looks down at Damon and shakes her head.
"I'm fine," she says. Her voice is raspy with disuse as if she hadn't spoken in days. Damon stands up and encroaches on their space.
"Get back to work, busboy," Damon spits.
Matt opens his mouth but Bonnie speaks first, "I'm leaving anyway." She gives him a wan smile and walks away. Having never let go of her wrist, Damon lets her lead him away by it, shooting Matt a smug look as he passes.
xx
They're at her car door. She's in front of it and she wants to set his skin on fire or just yank her arm away from him but she also doesn't want to engage at all. She doesn't want to address him. He's beneath her. He doesn't deserve a milliliter of her energy. So they stand there in silence with Bonnie staring straight ahead, aware of his presence but refusing to acknowledge it, and Damon's eyes fixed on her, willing her to give him just one more look. He needs her to forgive him. No, not just that. He has to make it up to her, show her how much he cherishes and values her. Cherishes? Whatever. It doesn't matter that he doesn't understand it or that it came on so suddenly. It feels as if he's wanted her for centuries.
"Please talk to me," he says. His voice is filled with regret, agony and longing. She doesn't care. She will not engage. That is what he wants. He wants her attention. He wants her to give a shit about his worthless life after he gave not one about her Grams, hers or her mother's. This is the game he plays with Elena: do something unforgivable and act wounded until she forgives him. But she's not like Elena.
She opens up her car door which pushes her back into Damon's chest. He emits a grown and she begins to get in. She looks from her wrist to him with hate-filled eyes. She's not going to forgive him. She wishes he'd go back to pretending he didn't care what she thought like he usually did. By the time she registers that he has let her arm go, he's sitting beside her with a hand on her cheek, his cheek against hers in a caress.
"What are you doing?" she can't help but ask. She expected him to try to gain her forgiveness as he's done that before in the past but this level of attention is strange, even for him. To touch her like a lover and so persistently, this isn't like him at all. He doesn't answer, just cradles her face in his hands so reverently that tears prick her eyes. One slides down her cheek and he catches it on his lips. They stare at each other intently and his mouth is only a millimeter from hers. One move forward from either of them and their lips will finally embrace each other.
Her phone rings and she leans back in her chair away from him as she fishes it out of her pocket. He moves back as well but does not release her. He cannot.
"Hello?"
"Have you gotten your gift yet?"
"Who is this? What gift?"
"Lucy and if you have to ask what, then you must not have spoken around a supernatural creature yet. Funny because aren't all of your friends supernatural? Please don't tell me you're hiding out in your house."
"I'm not. I'm – I'm with Damon now. Do you have something to do with how weird he's acting?"
She can practically hear her smiling through the phone. "I'd hoped you'd get an Original but whatever. He'll protect you now. That's what matters."
"Lucy," she warns. "What did you do?"
"What you wouldn't do yourself for whatever reason. You're a Bennett witch, Bonnie. If you refuse to protect yourself, the rest of us will find a way to do it for you. Now," she drops the censuring tone. "Enjoy your present."
"Explain."
"He'll do whatever you tell him to do but most importantly, he'll protect your life with his own."
Bonnie spares him a disgusted glare. "What if I don't want him?" She asks.
"So kill him and choose your next one more wisely."
The call ends with a click and Bonnie clutches it in her hand, considering Damon, who is still looking at her like… like she's… loved, she forces herself to finish the thought.
"Keep your hands to yourself," she says and watches as he quickly obeys. He keeps his patient gaze on her and she sighs. She doesn't want this. Not at all. But can she really just kill him? She sucks her bottom lip between her teeth. He'd do it. He'd kill her without a second thought. He's tried to kill her before, and he would have let her die for Elena. Hell, he'd have killed her in Abby's place if it had come down to that. People die around him, the people she loves, and it doesn't matter to him at all.
She takes a deep breath and steels herself against the guilt threatening to silence her. "Tell everyone you care about what they meant to you." She speaks slowly, her voice low. "Spend all day tomorrow with Stefan. Tell him you're sorry for everything and that you love him." She almost wants to taint his last day especially considering Stefan had an equal part in Abby turning, but she won't because she's better than that, better than them. "Be the best brother you know how to be. When he goes to bed, drive a stake through your heart." He nods and steps out of the car only to turn back.
He bends over and she lowers the window. She gives him a questioning look. He shrugs nervously and says, "I don't want to leave without you know how sorry I really am. You may not believe me, Bonnie, but I admire you. I respect you. And I never wanted to hurt you but it seems like that's all I end up doing." He exhales. "I would never tell you normally," he frowns, unsure of why he is saying all of this now, "but I like you. You may be a judgmental, little witch but you're also smart and brave. You trusting me after everything that happened - me attacking you and your Grams - means a lot to me. I, I care about you." She gasps as the last words are spoken and he disappears.