Disclaimer: I don't own the Vampire Diaries nor am I making any profit from this. Characters, etc. all belong to their respective owners.

A/N: Okay, so I'm a derp and the first chapter that I had originally uploaded to this fic was actually the chapter for a Bamon fic of mine, a Series of Sort-Of Love Letters, (thanks to the anon who pointed out my massive goof)! I caught it fairly early, so chances are the last chapter you read was the correct one, but you might wanna take a look back at chapter one and make sure that the chapter that's up now is the one you read.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who's been reading, reviewing, etc.! I very much appreciate it!

Enjoy!


The next time she sees him, she's working on Abby's garden to bring some life back to it. She'd removed the dead plants and bought little sprouts of flowers and herbs. After planting them, she'd do a little magical Miracle-Gro.

She's not stupid enough to think that a few plants are going to miraculously fix everything, but it had to be better than seeing Abby standing in the garden for half an hour every day, wallowing amongst the dead plants…right?

She had just fixed up some blue and white hydrangeas when a large shadow falls on her. She smiles, thinking that maybe Caroline or Abby have decided to come join her. The smiles instantly falls from her face when she lifts her head and sees it's Elijah instead.

Clenching her jaw, she looks away and goes back to focusing on the garden. Maybe, just maybe if she ignores him, he'll go away.

She's never that lucky, though.

"The garden looks lovely."

It's meant to be a compliment, but it just makes her blood boil.

"It looked better before," she says tightly. "I'm replacing all the plants that died when Abby became a vampire."

She sighs and stands up and faces him. It occurs to her just how astounding the disparity between them is. As usual, he's dressed immaculately in a suit while she's in ripped jeans and a t-shirt, covered in dirt, with her hair falling messily out of a bun. He was nearly six feet, but she's barely over five feet. He's a vampire that's over a thousand years old while she's a witch who's barely eighteen.

She spins away from him, intending to make her way to Abby's house.

"Miss. Bennett," he calls out to her.

Despite her better judgement, she pauses and turns around to face him.

"Look," she says. "I really down give a damn about what fake apology you want to push on me to make yourself feel better. I really don't. So, please, leave me alone."

"I assure you that it's not fake," he replies. "But surely, you didn't expect that I would just allow my family to die." He tucks a hand into a pocket of suit pants.

"Am I supposed to care about your family?" Bonnie scoffs. "Because I don't. It's the exact opposite, actually."

"I realize that," he says with a small smile. It just makes her angrier. "But if anyone could understand going to great lengths to keep their loved ones save, it would be you."

She hates how he can always remain so calm…especially when all she wants to do anymore is just scream and cry and break things.

"It wasn't even about your stupid family!" Bonnie snaps before she can control herself. "It was all about Klaus! About finally getting some damn peace after everything he's done to us! You and the rest just happened to be collateral."

Her heart is pounding and she's shaking. As she tries to calm herself down, she sees Elijah's pointed look. She'd fallen right into his trap and she can't help but laugh at how easily she'd allowed it to happen.

"Right," Bonnie says, her mouth twisting wryly. "Fine. So I'm hypocritical. Is that supposed to suddenly make me okay with what happened? And, really, who the hell are you to tell me I'm a hypocrite? You preach about loyalty and morality all the time when you clearly have none."

"Careful, Miss. Bennett," Elijah warns, his look hardening.

She should've stopped. She should have let it drop, told Elijah to leave, and gone back in the house. But she can tell that she's clearly hitting a nerve and she couldn't help but take some enjoyment in that. And part of her is so angry that she can't think or see straight.

"Where was your so-called loyalty when you betrayed us after the sacrifice? Your so-called morality when you used Stefan, and Damon, and your own sister to do your dirty work so you could pretend that your hands were kept clean?"

She gasps and steps back as Elijah suddenly flashes in front of her. She quickly composes herself, though, and squares her shoulders and defiantly lifts up her chin.

"Just go and leave me alone," she says slowly and carefully. "Your family can't be killed anymore, so this idea of forgiveness or understanding or whatever the hell it is you claim to want…it's pointless."

Elijah opens his mouth to say something, but Bonnie whips her head around when she hears yelling coming from the house. Without a second thought, she makes a mad dash towards it.

When she runs in, she finds Abby in the living. There's blood around her mouth and Jamie is on the floor.

"Abby," Caroline says, a firm grip on the newly turned vampire. "Abby, breathe, just breathe. This is Jamie. You don't want to hurt him, remember?"

"Oh my God," Abby whimpers, bringing a shaky hand to her mouth. "What have I done? What have I done?"

Caroline starts to respond, but pauses to stare at something behind Bonnie. Frowning, Bonnie turns to see that Elijah had followed her into the house.

"Like I was saying, whatever it is you want, don't bother. You've obviously done more than enough damage."


"Abby is calmed down and Jamie is healed and sleeping it off," Caroline says, entering the guest room she and Bonnie have been sharing. "So…you wanna tell me what freakin' Elijah was doing here?"

Bonnie sighs, sitting up in bed and running a hand through her messy hair.

"I don't know. He claims that he wants forgiveness or whatever for what happened to Abby. And this," she picks up Ernestine's grimoire off the nightstand, "Was apparently a peace offering from him."

"Do…do you believe him?"

"No. How can I after all that's happened?" Bonnie responds with a sigh. "He probably just wants something from like pretty much everyone always does. But I also have the feeling that he doesn't know how to take no for an answer."


The next morning, Caroline and Jamie join her in working on the garden. She's surprised that Caroline is voluntarily up to her elbows in dirt, but Bonnie finds herself being grateful that the blonde is the ray of sunshine she tends to be.

They had tried talking Abby into coming out with them, but she refused. Her slip up last night had shaken her quite a bit and Bonnie doesn't blame her for it.

"Hey, I'm gonna go grab us some water and check in on Abby really quick," Bonnie says, standing up. Her legs are a little stiff from her kneeling on the ground for so long and she swipes at her forehead to move some stray hair off of it, not caring that she had probably just smeared dirt on herself.

"The garden's coming along really nicely," Bonnie says when she sees Abby in the kitchen. "You should come out and at least s…" She freezes when she notices the duffle bag by Abby's feet. "What're you doing?"

The older woman pauses, lifting her hand up from the paper she'd been scribbling on.

"I can't…I can't be around here right now," the woman says, refusing to meet Bonnie's eyes. "I can't do this."

"Can't or won't?"

Abby turns to look at Bonnie this time.

"I attacked Jamie! I could have killed him!" She snaps.

"Do you think we would have let that happen?" Bonnie asks. "What do you think me and Caroline have been doing here this whole time?"

"I just…I can't," Abby repeats again. She folds the paper up and jams it in an envelope before standing up and picking her duffle bag up of the ground. "I wrote one for you and another for Jamie," she says, gesturing to two envelopes on the table. "I hope one day you can understand," she says softly.

"I still can't understand why you left the first time," Bonnie says. Her voice comes out angry and she can't help it. "So don't hold out on me being able to understand this time around, either."

Abby pauses. She looks as if she's going to say something, but she stops herself and just slings her duffle bag over her shoulder and leaves out the back door.

And Bonnie is left with a strange mixture of anger and emptiness in her.


A/N: Thanks for reading and, as always, reviews are very much appreciated!