A/N: Oneshot that is placed well after 8x16, going on an AU path, with implied information about the past. May continue into a chapter fic if enough people are interested.

A drop in the ocean...

…a change in the weather.

This is all it took for one bumpy and dusty road to the path that Bonnie was taking on a Tuesday evening.

Every traffic light seemed to have been stagnant on red, no greens letting her fly through, no yellows giving her a few seconds of luck. Only the bright blinding red at the top that screamed STOP.

When faced with the roadblock on her usual way home and the endless stream of red lights, Bonnie had chosen to take the long way, the back roads. The unlit, dirt roads of the backwoods.

She wasn't exactly going home; she didn't have a home. Two suitcases and a purse full of crinkled pamphlets was all she had. The car she drove was a rental. She'd been stuck in the same town, two weeks, unable to decide where to go next. Bonnie had a plan; but, that plan had turned into endless unanswered questions.

Sighing heavily, she tapping the fingers of her left hand on the steering wheel.
The windows were rolled down, blowing her curly hair around her head. Bonnie could feel the raindrops on her forearm before she could see them on the windshield; but, a moment later it was pouring. It was insane, the rain had come so quickly she was damp before she could get the window rolled up. The road was getting harder and harder to see as she drove.

Bonnie's eyes struggled to see in front of her. A blinding light came hurling towards the car, and she could feel the pain surge through her body before it even happened. The darkness, mixed with a burning glow, blazing heat, and cold wetness.

She couldn't breath. It felt as though water was filling the car, creeping from her ankles, all the way to the top of her head. Submerged completely, her neck felt tight, she couldn't move. Everything was still, yet waving at the same.

Bonnie screamed, but no sound came out. She was so afraid.

"It's okay" she heard; and suddenly realized, she hadn't been alone.

She couldn't feel the hand on her hand, she couldn't open her eyes. Everything was stuck; but the light, it shone, the warm damp feeling.

Bonnie in the midst of her numbness, heard once again "It's okay."
Like a searing blaze along her skin, suddenly it was there, the truth. This was not reality; but, a memory.

The reality came flooding back to her, flickering playbacks, flashing so quickly it was hard to catch them.

The light, the pain, it had come sooner than her memory registered.

The wet drops along her skin had not been rain, it had never been rain from the window; but blood from her own person, and dripping from the body beside her. A hand on her hand, crimson, and still. Behind her idle eyelids played a fantasy as the blood loss caused hallucinations, and the pain caused her to fade in and out of consciousness.

With a quick, and startling inhale, Bonnie's emerald eyes shot open, and she sat straight forward. The blurry panicked haze slowly faded, and the scene of the room that contained her came into reality. The chair underneath her body was real, and touching her arms, and running her fingers along her face, confirmed she was real. As were the bruises still on her body, the stitches.

A fimilar, and steady beep filled her ears, and it was almost more daunting than it was hopeful. Bonnie's eyes flickered to the hospital bed sitting a few feet away. She slowly stood up, and stepped closer to the bed, looking down at the night haired man lying there. His skin paler than it had been even when he was a vampire.

"Damon." Bonnie whispered, and lifted a hand. She brushed her fingertips along his left hand, her own hand tingled. The ache in her chest intensified as her fingers found the IV line.

Her eyes instantly got a bit teary as she looked at the wedding band on that same hand, and the one on her own. Swallowing hard, Bonnie then took a deep breath, and slowly crawled over the metal security rail, and settled herself in the small space inbetween Damon and the rail. She carefully moved his arm along her shoulder and back so she wasn't lying on it.

Bonnie's head found it's way onto his shoulder, and she closed her eyes. Focusing on the real sound of his heart, and not the beep of the machine that she wanted to club with a bat.

Her tears dripping from her eyes and onto his dark shirt as he remained still but for his breath; and she whispered.

"It's okay."