Sacrificial Love

"Let us out! Help us!" Bonnie Bennett woke up panting. She had been dreaming about that those vampires trapped in the tomb again. It had been 2 weeks since she had followed her Grams's advice and returned to the cursed, rotting grounds of old Fell's Church. 2 weeks since she had fallen through the decaying land, down to the entrance of the tomb and heard the agonizing cries of the vampires who had been trapped inside. 2 weeks since Stephen had shown up and rescued her. 2 weeks since she had a restful night's sleep. Well she couldn't blame her not sleeping on the incident 2 weeks ago. In truth she hadn't had a decent night's rest since Caroline had given her that necklace that had led to her first encounter with her ancestor, Emily. That stupid necklace had shattered Bonnie's safe, cocoon of life that she had built around herself. Now, partly because of that necklace, she knew without a shadow of doubt she was a witch, and thanks to Emily possessing her body that first night at Fell's Church, she knew that vampires really did exist (she still had fading marks on neck to prove it). That night had led to Bonnie temporarily losing her powers due to her fear, thus leading her to go back to the scene of the crime to overcome that fear and regain her powers. Bonnie buried herself under her covers, thinking "Why me?" After about 20 minutes of failing to go back to sleep, Bonnie sat up in bed and looked at numbers of the clock saying 4:48am. "Great, I may as well get started on that research paper," she said to herself as she got out of bed. Feeling a tad claustrophobic, she went to open her window, and noticed a crow sitting on the branch, looking directly into her bedroom. Bonnie propped her arms on the window ledge and spoke to the bird, "So you can't sleep either? I know the feeling. What's your reason? Can't find enough worms or bread crumbs? Some other crow flew off with your lady bird? My reasons, you ask? Well, birdie, you wouldn't believe me if I told you." Just then a cold wind blew, chilling Bonnie, forcing her to close the window. She went over to start up her computer, unaware that the crow was still staring at her.

The next morning Bonnie pulled into the school parking lot of Mystic Falls High School, with sunglasses and a venti caramel macchiato. She was not in a mood for school today, but neither was she in the mood to stay home with her father, who was working from home today. So she chose the lesser of the two evils: a day of high school and thanked God it was her senior year. As she got out of her cherry red Mustang convertible (a gift from her father to bribe her into forgiving him for going out of town and forgetting her birthday last year), she saw one of her two best friends, Elena Gilbert, pull up in her SUV. Knowing she would want to walk to class together, Bonnie waited for Elena on the sidewalk. Elena walks over to Bonnie, immediately recognizing Bonnie has had another bad night. "Hey, did you sleep at all last night?" Elena says as they begin to walk toward the doors of the school.

"A few hours, I woke up a little before 5am, and couldn't go back to sleep. But on a good note, I started my history paper," Bonnie answered with a small smile.

Elena looked at Bonnie shaking her head, "This is no time to joke. I'm worried about you. You have to get some sleep. This is all Damon's fault; if he hadn't attacked you none of this would be happening. I swear one of these days I'm going to…….."

"Do what Elena? Kill him? I think he can take you. Seriously though, as much as I would love to, I can't lay this round of nightmares at Damon's door. It was my fault for going to that church alone. I'm just glad that Stephen found me before those screams drove me crazy," Bonnie said, as she and Elena stopped at their lockers. "It's funny, after all these years of thinking my Grams was weird, even crazy, for saying we were witches, I couldn't stand to be without my powers. I went to that church to get back my powers, and I was willing to do anything for them. I felt so incomplete without them, like I wasn't Bonnie anymore."

Elena puts an arm around Bonnie, "That's because your powers are a big part of you now. Just promise me you won't do anything as stupid as going to the church alone again. I couldn't bear if anything happened to you. Now c'mon before we're late for English."

As they begin walking down the hall, Elena's boyfriend and vampire, Stefan Salvatore caught up to them. "How are my favorite girls today?" he asked, kissing Elena's cheek.

"Morning, Stephen," Bonnie answered, taking off her sunglasses as they entered the classroom. Stefan noticed the dark circles under her eyes (even though she had tried to hide them with makeup), as well the fact that she looked like she could pass out at any moment. As they took their seats, Stefan decided to test out a little trick, to see just how strong Bonnie was.

"Bonnie," Stefan, said in his mind, projecting his thoughts to her.

Bonnie jumped, hearing Stefan in her head. She looked over to Stefan, who had raised a questioning eyebrow to her.

"WTF," Bonnie thought. "Did I just hear Stefan call me in my mind?"

"Bonnie, can you hear me? Concentrate on me and send me an answer with your mind." Stefan projected again.

"Y-y-yes, I can hear you. What's going on, why can I hear you in my mind?" were the thoughts Bonnie sent to Stefan, following his instructions.

"It appears your psychic powers also enable you to communicate telepathically," Stefan answered, still projecting his thought to her.

"So does this mean you can read all my thoughts?"

Stefan smiled, "Not at all, only the thoughts you project to me.

"Are all v-v-vampires telepaths," Bonnie sends to him.

"Most are, but it's a power that has to be cultivated over time and there are a few vampires who never get the hang of it. If you're asking about Damon, specifically, then yes, he is telepathic. But he can only hear your thoughts if you project them to him. We can't read minds, only thoughts projected to us. "

"So can anyone who's a telepath hear our conversation?" Bonnie projects, nervously looking around the classroom.

"No, in order for anyone to hear us, we would have to be projecting our thoughts toward them. No one can hear your thoughts, unless you want them to. Besides, most humans aren't telepaths; the ones who are typically are witches, psychics, mediums, or a person who is a descendent from someone with those powers. In other words you have to have some supernatural genes in order to be telepathic, but the power is dormant, until it's tapped into, and just because you have the genes doesn't automatically make you telepathic. You tapped into your telepathy when you started fully embracing your powers as a witch." Stefan assured her.

"Does Damon know I'm telepathic?"

"I don't think so; otherwise he would have tried to contact you by now. I just did it on a hunch because I had forgotten Emily was telepathic."

"How do you know for sure he didn't know about Emily?" Bonnie sent to Stephen.

"Because when Katherine turned us, we hadn't been vampires long enough to cultivate our skills as telepaths, just like humans, vampires have to tap into their telepathic powers in order to use them, it takes time to do that. It took me about 50 years to develop my telepathic powers. Katherine told me about Emily, but she swore to me she hadn't told Damon because she had promised Emily she would never reveal that aspect of her powers. Katherine never saw Damon, or anyone else for that matter, after she told me, because the townspeople came to take her to the church shortly after I had left her.

"Maybe Emily told him the night they made their pact about her helping get Katherine out of that tomb and him protecting her family."

"I doubt it, Emily may have made a pact with Damon, but I don't think she trusted him with all her secrets."

"Miss Bennett, are you going to answer the question?" the English teacher asked, breaking Bonnie and Stefan's concentration.

"Oh, I'm sorry Mrs. Kilpatrick, I didn't hear your question," Bonnie said to the teacher.

"Maybe if you paid closer attention, you could hear. Now let's move on to documentation styles," the teacher said, continuing her lecture.

Bonnie sends a thought to Stefan, "Maybe we should continue this later, I'll call you tonight."

"Sounds good," he sends back. Neither is aware of the black crow nestled deep in the tree outside the classroom window, staring intently at Bonnie.

At lunch that day Elena decided to the library with Stefan to get some materials for a project for school. That left Bonnie free to have some much needed alone time with her and Elena's other best friend, Caroline Forbes. As usual they would be meeting in the courtyard for lunch, only today they would be minus Elena (and Stefan, now that he usually ate with them) Upon first meeting Caroline most people would classify her in one word: BITCH, but having known Caroline (or Caro, as Bonnie called her) since birth, Bonnie knew underneath that "mean girl" exterior, was a nice person. Oh, Caro could get on her last nerve, of course, and throughout their life-long friendship they had their share of arguments, but when all was said and done, they loved each other like sisters. "Hey Bon, what's going on?" Caro said as she sat down at the table.

"Hey girlie, how was class today?" Bonnie answered, with a bright smile.

"Uhh, the usual homework and boredom. I can't wait until graduation," Caroline said rolling her eyes. "So where are the lovebirds, in a broom closet making mini Stelenas?"

Bonnie can't help but to laugh, one of the many things she loved about Caro was her wicked sense of humor. "You really are crazy, you know that? Stefan and Elena are in the library working on some school stuff. "

"So will you tell me what the big secret is the three of you have, now that they're not here?" Caroline said.

Bonnie looks startled, "I have no clue what you're talking about. "

"Oh, be real Bonnie, I know you guys are keeping something from me. Whenever I walk up on the three of you, you are engrossed in some deep, intense conversation, then when you see me all conversation stops. I may be a pretty blonde, but I'm not a dumb one."

"Caro, really, nothing is going on that you need to know about," Bonnie answers, hating to lie to her friend.

"Is it about Damon? Is he dating someone else? Because if it is, you don't have to worry, I am totally over Stefan's big brother."

Bonnie cracks a smile, "I know you're over Damon and I know who helped you get over him."

It was now Caro's turn to look startled, "What are you talking about?"

"You and Matt is what I'm talking about. Elena may be totally oblivious to the two of you, but I'm not. I've seen the looks you've been sending him on the sly, and the fact that he sneaks a peak at you during cheerleading practice, while he's supposed to be practicing."

"Oh alright, we hooked up a couple of times and we're trying to see if we can build some type of relationship. I mean, Matt and I have barely tolerated each other since kindergarten, and now we're semi-dating, it's weird, but it's a good weird. I wanted to keep it a secret until we knew for sure what was going on between us and whether or not it was something worth telling Elena about," Caro says to Bonnie.

"Well, I'm happy for you both. I think this could be the start of something good for both of you," Bonnie says, clearly giving Caroline the best friend blessing. "And don't worry about Elena; I'm sure she'll be fine with it. She's completely over Matt and head over heels in love with Stefan. What will make her angry is hearing this bit of info from someone other than you."

"I know, I'll tell her soon. I promise."

Tell you what, my dad is going out of town on business tomorrow, and he'll be gone until the middle of next week; you know how much I hate staying alone, I was just going to crash at Grams's, but instead let's have a girl's weekend at my house. We'll do mini makeovers, hit the mall, go out for Karaoke at Mystic Grill, watch some movies, and have some serious girl talk," Bonnie suggests.

Caroline face lights up, "Count me in, girlie."

The two girls continue planning under the watchful gaze of a blue eyed crow, sitting on a window ledge, just above their table.

After school, Bonnie was leaving cheerleading practice. She was waving goodbye to Caroline when she got a text. "Had to leave early, l'll call you when my flight lands. I left hotel info and cash in the usual place. See you when I get back. Dad." Bonnie sighs as she walks over to her car. She didn't even rate high enough on her father's priority list to get a phone call. It had been that way all her life, she supposed she should be used to it by now, but she wasn't. She knew that he cared about her, but she never felt the genuine father/daughter connection with him. She often wondered if he was her real father, but when questioned her Grams had assured her that he was. It was times like this Bonnie really missed her mom. Belinda Grayson Bennett had been the perfect mother for 14 years, until ovarian cancer had taken her away from her daughter. Despite her father's coldness, her mother had loved him dearly, and her father had truly mourned his wife. Belinda had been the only person Winston Bennett had ever loved besides himself. The only reason they had Bonnie was because Belinda wanted a child and Winston had never refused Belinda anything. Bonnie had overheard him and her mother talking one night, about a year before Belinda died; her mom had been trying to get her father to spend more time with his daughter and Bonnie would never forget the words her father had said "Belinda, I care about her, I really do, but I don't have those fatherly feelings for her that you want me to have. I never wanted a child, you know that. When we agreed to have a baby we agreed to certain things. Bonnie will never want for anything, I will always take care of her, but as far as being father of the year and wanting to spend "quality time" with her; that will never be me, I told you that from the beginning, and it's never going to change. All the unconditional love and support has to come from you, because she's never going to get it from me. The only thing I can give her is a comfortable life." Bonnie still got tears in her eyes remembering those words from her father. She never let on that she had heard him that night. From then on, Bonnie tried to be the perfect daughter in order to gain her father's love, and after her mom died, she tried even harder. Then when he left her on her birthday last year, not even bothering to call or leave her a card, Bonnie finally realized she was never going to be loved by her father. Luckily she had her Grams to fill some of the void left by her mom. Sheila Grayson loved her granddaughter, and Winston was more than happy to let Sheila spend as much time with Bonnie as she wanted. Sheila had even wanted Bonnie to move in with her when Belinda had first died, but Bonnie had refused because she was still trying to gain her father's love. Had she known then, Bonnie would have packed her things and never looked back, but hindsight was 20/20. Bonnie let out a breath, after tucking her phone in her pocket she reached into her purse for her keys when she heard a voice behind her. A voice she had been trying to forget. "Hello, little witch." Bonnie turns around and looks up into the ocean colored eyes of Damon Salvatore.