Summary: Kol and Bonnie are roommates, Bonnie is depressed because she's broken up with her boyfriend; so Kol decides to surprise her with a new friend.

Apparently there were 5 stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

Bonnie Bennett was certain there was a sixth stage, right between depression and acceptance. Numbness. Feeling like time had stopped and everything wrong in life was staring her in the face and there was nowhere else to go. Maybe people never got to that stage of acceptance. Maybe you just had to feel this way for a while to eventually to find a way to move on.

Anyhow, that's how Bonnie felt right now. Numb. She sat on the couch, with her favourite beige snuggie draped around her shoulders, flicking absent mindedly through the channels.

Expression blank. Mind blank.

It had been exactly, 3 weeks, four days and seven hours since Jeremy had left New York.

He was an art major, and she was studying photography. They were at separate universities but luckily they were close by. Jeremy lived on campus and she had gotten an apartment near to school but unfortunately for her, the rent was sky high. So Jeremy had come up with a creative solution.

His friend Kol, who was doing computer science at the same college, was looking for an apartment and if they moved in together they could share the rent. It was a win win for everyone.

Except for the fact that Kol was a royal pain in the ass. A dirty dish leaving socks all over the floor singing in the shower pain in the ass; that she'd had to put up with for four years. Luckily for him, she had the patience of a saint evidently, or this time, four years ago she'd be on the six an o'clock news and he'd be lying in a body bag.

When they both graduated the plan was that she and Jeremy would get jobs in the city and eventually have a place of their own minus Kol.

Fate, however, had other plans and apparently so did Jeremy. Who decided, that he wanted to go travelling while he was still young and that he was worried about getting tied down and making too many commitments before he was ready.

When she had demanded what the hell that meant, he'd gotten all defensive and explained that this is was why he was worried about telling her because now she was upset (like seriously what else had he expected) and he'd even had the audacity to ask her last minute if she wanted to tag along with him.

It was like a slap in the face. A guy tells his girlfriend he's leaving the country indefinitely and then asks her to go with him at the last minute and treats her like an afterthought. Like she didn't have a life and plans of her own.

She'd told him to stick his world tour up his ass, he'd left and she hadn't seen him since. According to Kol, he'd landed safely somewhere in the middle of Mexico. Whatever.

She hoped she didn't get to the stage of acceptance, in fact, she'd like to make a U turn and head straight back to anger, it was certainly a lot better than feeling like this.

She picked up her phone to check it again:

No missed calls.

Jeremy was a prick. Don't get him wrong, they were mates. But that didn't mean he wasn't an absolute prat sometimes.

When they'd first met they'd bonded over a love of Halo, computer software and baseball. Kol had been surprised when Jeremy had suggested he and Bonnie move in together; after all, Kol was sure Jeremy knew his track record with women. And Bonnie, well she wasn't exactly hard to look at. In fact, she was gorgeous (she seemed a little out of Jeremy's league if you asked him) but Jeremy completely trusted them in the same living space together and Kol soon understood why.

Bonnie and his best friend were perhaps the most sickening, lovey dovey couple he'd ever encountered and that included his oldest brother and his beloved wife, Sage. No wonder Jeremy wasn't the least bit worried about Kol making a move on Bonnie, the two of them were practically attached at the hip. Besides, Bonnie would have shut him down faster than he could say 'darling' if he had tried anything. She went crazy on him if he left so much as a fork unwashed in the sink.

But it wasn't awful living with her, quite the opposite. Now he understood why girls loved living together: they were clean; they cooked and every cushion, towel and curtain in the apartment smelt like a fruit or some variation of flower. The only downside was when Jeremy and Bonnie wanted some alone time. That's when he made sure to quickly make himself scarce.

If he was honest he didn't think Jeremy deserved Bonnie. She was probably one of the smartest people he'd ever met, she was driven and loyal and Jeremy minus his art skills was mediocre at best.

But he was his best friend and he'd gotten him a shared rent place to live so he kept his mouth shut.

Then halfway through the spring semester, Kol noticed Jeremy googling flight prices. Thinking he was looking at holiday destinations he joked about them going for one last boy's trip for spring break.

Then he informed him of what his actual plans were.

"Have you told Bonnie?" He'd asked wondering how the hell she had taken the news. "Not yet," Jeremy had murmured distractedly, not even looking up from his laptop screen. "Well, are you planning to?"

"Uh, eventually yeah, I just don't wanna ruin things in our last year together, you know,"

Now Kol wasn't an expert at relationships, but waiting until the last minute to tell her sounded like the most stupid plan ever. But he wasn't about to get involved so he just said.

"Rather you than me, mate."

At the time, he hadn't realised what an awkward position Jeremy was about to put him in. Here he was, Jeremy's best friend, living in an apartment with his ex girlfriend who hated Jeremy's guts right now. He felt almost guilty on Jeremy's behalf just for being associated with him.

He really hadn't known what to do the first few days after Jeremy left. At first, he gave Bonnie space but when he heard her crying through her bedroom door, he couldn't exactly walk past and pretend he couldn't hear it.

He wanted to go in and comfort her, but he had a feeling she wouldn't quite appreciate that so he did the next best thing he could think of.

Quite coincidently one of Bonnie's best friends was dating his older brother (it was a small world evidently) so he called up Nik and told him to put Caroline on the phone. Once he'd explained what was going on, Caroline immediately promised to be there within the next half an hour and hung up before he could say another word.

It only took Caroline 20 minutes if that; she'd rung the doorbell and barged past him demanding to know where Bonnie was.

"Hello to you too, love."

"Where is she, Kol."

"In her room, she hasn't been out for days."

She put her bag down on the couch and strode over to Bonnie's door and knocked quietly. "Go away Kol!"

"Charming..." He murmured, crossing his arms indignantly. "Bonnie sweetie it's me, Caroline. Open up,"

There was a shuffling noise and slowly the door cracked open a couple of inches.

"What are you doing here, Care?"

She asked wiping some stray tears off of her cheek.

"Kol called me,"

"He shouldn't have bothered you, I'm fine."

"Don't be silly Bonnie. And you should've called me sooner! But I'm here now, let's talk about it,"

As Caroline curled her arm around Bonnie's and led her into the bedroom, Kol couldn't be sure but he thought he saw Bonnie shoot him a grateful half smile before the door shut.

After that, all he could hear was soft feminine voices through the door, he didn't catch much but the was a lot of, "it's gonna be okay" and "what a jerk!" and "you're so much better than that."

He was in the kitchen making a sandwich when Caroline finally emerged, she entered the kitchen and headed straight for the fridge.

"We need ice cream and lots of it."

"Bottom shelf," he mumbled with his mouth full. "How is she?"

"Better, or at least she will be." She gave him a calculating glance. "Have you heard from him?"

"Who, Jeremy? Not since he landed."

"Mmm." Was all she said in response, sounding slightly accusatory as if she believed he had been conspiring with Jeremy to break Bonnie's heart.

Sending Caroline had definitely been the right thing to do; the next morning Bonnie actually got out of bed, had a shower and ate some breakfast.

As for him, he was doing his best to be a considerate roommate what with Bonnie in her current state. He cleaned up after himself, he only played X Box in his room so Bonnie wouldn't accuse him of hogging the TV and he kept the noise level to an absolute minimum at all times. So between him walking on eggshells and Bonnie basically drifting around the apartment like a zombie, the place was eerily quiet most of the time, a constant reminder of the big elephant in the room.

Once Caroline had come over and given her a bit of perspective, Bonnie became determine to not to become the cliché of the weeping, heartbroken, ex girlfriend. She forced herself out of bed every day; washed and dressed; put on makeup and spent the mornings filling out job applications. That was the whole point of rejecting Jeremy's offer to travel the world right? To kick-start her career and make a life for herself right here in the United States of America.

But that's about as far as she could stretch herself in terms of motivation; she'd basically transitioned from her bed to the couch and now spent most of her afternoons alternating between Netflix and re runs of The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

She appreciated the effort on Kol's part to give her space and make life a little easier on her. She'd nearly died of shock the first day she came out of her room and she saw the sink utterly void of dishes and the majority of the carpet visible and not covered by dirty clothes.

She almost wished she'd gone through a major break up sooner if seeing her depressed made Kol this helpful.

As she sat on the couch she tried to remember where Kol had said he was going earlier, she'd been only half listening at the time she couldn't even remember if he'd come back yet. Just then, Kol exited his room with his iPod plugged into his ears, she glanced up at him and then turned her attention back to the TV.

Kol paused and removed one earbud.

"I'm going out to get lunch, do you need anything?" "I'm good, thanks."

Usually, he took no as an adequate answer but this time he lingered and she could feel him staring at her.

"You can't stay on that couch forever, you know," Kol pointed out.

"Hmm, well I pay half the rent and I paid for half of this couch, so maybe you should pick a side

and then I'll pick a side, then you can do whatever the hell you want on your side and leave me to do the same

"Alright fine, I was just saying,"

"Well don't," she growled.

"Why don't you come outside? Remember that? Fresh air, get some exercise, release some endorphins,"

She turned to face him, her eyebrows shooting up indignantly. "Oh, so now I'm fat!?"

"At what point did you those words come out of my mouth," "Well, that's what it sounded like to me," she said, getting up. "Bloody hell, you women are impossible," he huffed.

Wrong move.

"OH WE'RE THE IMPOSSIBLE ONES!? Oh, because I forgot that's how it is right? We're the crazy ones; somehow everything's always our fault even when it's yours. Well, at least I'm not a selfish! Lying! Asshole!"

She was so enraged she didn't even notice Kol loudly protesting and yelling 'ow' as she proceeded to batter him with a cushion.

She caught herself quickly and dropped it.

"I'm sorry, none of this is your fault, I'm taking my anger out on you and I shouldn't," After a minute, Kol nodded.

"It's alright. I suppose, I'd want to beat someone half to death with a cushion as well if I were you,"

Bonnie let out a stifled laugh and sighed resting her head in her hands.

"I'm really sorry, I know you've been making an effort not to be a pain in the ass recently."

"Don't go getting too used to it," he teased. "When you start to cheer up, it's back to the way things were,"

"Oh no, not so fast Mister, now you've actually proven that you're capable of cleaning up after yourself there's no turning back now."

Kol just grinned mischievously, as she rolled her eyes and gave a small smile in return. Kol's eyes softened slightly and he reached out to gently touch her arm.

"You deserved more, love, I don't blame you for being angry but it'll get better soon, trust me."

Bonnie suddenly became aware of his hand on her arm, the feeling of his touch warming her whole body as his thumb traced circles on her skin.

"Thanks," She murmured, hoping her blushing wasn't as obvious as it felt. He gave her a final smile and walked out of the apartment.

Bonnie watched him leave; releasing a breath she didn't know she was holding.

Things had gotten gradually better since the day they sorted things out. Bonnie got off the couch and started getting back into her routine; she finally got some fresh air; started doing yoga again in the mornings and doing Bonnie things, like changing the type of fake flowers that sat in the pot in the bathroom.

Now that things were less tense between them, they now spent a lot more time together instead of just skirting around one another. Doing things like watching TV while munching on cereal or grocery shopping together (although Kol suspected Bonnie had just got tired of him coming back from the store, with just about everything but what she asked for on the list). Honestly, it felt like things were finally getting relatively back to normal.

One evening Kol heard from one of his friends; he had a band who were just signed, so he was having a party to celebrate. Despite the fact that they had no mutual friends in common (Jeremy and Caroline excluded) nor did they run in the same social circles, Kol's first instinct had been to invite Bonnie to go along with him, in an utterly platonic fashion of course.

She'd politely declined, it wasn't really her scene after all and informed him that was gonna stay in with some microwave popcorn and a movie. When he'd hesitated, she promised she'd be fine and told him he should go and have a good time.

He did go in the end, but the party wasn't half as fun as it should've been, as his mind kept wandering back to the smart and wonderful girl he'd left on the couch. Eventually, he left a lot earlier than he would have under usual circumstances. He was feeling anything but normal of late and the longer he stayed at this boozy party, the higher the likelihood of returning home to Bonnie completely inebriated.

When he returned to the apartment, he could hear the unmistakable)sound of someone crying. At first, he assumed it was the TV but as he drew further into the room he was greeted by the sight of Bonnie huddled up in a ball on the couch, weeping, with wads of tissues surrounding her.

His mind quickly jumped to what seemed to be the likely cause of her distress. What had Jeremy done now?

He quickly stooped down and sat beside her.

"What is it, love? Was it him, what did he say to you?"

Bonnie looked up at him wide-eyed and confused for a minute.

"Who? Jeremy? Wh no, I haven't heard from him in ages, I would've said."

"Well pardon my love, but you can see why I assumed the worse," he said gesturing to their surroundings.

"I was fine," she sniffed. "And then that came on and... I just couldn't stop crying."

Kol furrowed his brows and turned in the direction of the television where she was pointing.

All he could see was that Ryan Goose guy, the various women he'd met over time were always raving about. The blonde woman looked vaguely familiar too. He could've sworn she was the same one in that high school movie his sister had been obsessed with her in teens.

"I'm afraid you've lost me, darling."

She stared at him like he'd grown a second head. "It's the Notebook, Kol!"

When his face remained infuriatingly blank, Bonnie gestured irritably. "You know, only one of the greatest love stories of all time,"

"Better than the three hour boat movie?" Kol jibed. "I've never seen something take so long to sink."

"Don't even go there with Titanic," Bonnie said glaring warningly making Kol chuckle. "And it was a ship by the way, not a boat."

"It's my own fault, guess I didn't realise it but I'm still kind of emotionally fragile after everything that's happened, it was an extremely poor choice of movie," she said wiping her face and trying to straighten up a bit.

"Well, why don't you make a start on cleaning up all this, put on something a little less melancholic and I'll go brew us some tea in the meantime,"

Bonnie grinned and arched her eyebrow at him.

"Is that a British thing? Make yourself a cup of tea and everything will start to feel better?" Kol smiled at her indulgently.

"Well it was certainly my mother's favourite choice of medication."

"Did I ever tell you? One day, my brothers and I were outside, playing a football. Finn denies this with every fibre of his being but I'm bloody certain the bastard tripped me up, so I ended up flying forward and cracking my head open on the pavement. All three of them rushed me inside; Elijah assumed I needed to go to a hospital to get stitches; my mother thought otherwise. She took one look at me and told the housekeeper to put on the kettle and said that I should see how I was feeling after a nice hot cup of tea,"

"That cannot be true," Bonnie stated, incredulously. Kol smirked at her over his shoulder.

"Clearly you don't know my mother, she would've risked sewing in the stitches herself if it had meant saving her the bother of driving me to the Emergency Room "

Seeing Bonnie's shock he added.

"Turns out it wasn't all that serious, it just looks like an awful lot of blood when you're only six,"

"Wow, it must've been pretty eventful growing up with you and your siblings, huh?"

"'Eventful is one way of putting it," he said, dryly.

"Here, I made you a hot chocolate. I figured it would be slightly more preferable to your refined, American taste buds," he teased.

Bonnie rolled her eyes but got up from the couch to accept the drink from him. "Thanks, I appreciate it."

"Made just the way you like it, marshmallows and all."

She beamed radiantly at him and momentarily his breath caught in his throat. As she put the cup to her lips to take a sip, he couldn't help chuckling at something that caught his eye.

"What?" Bonnie said, wrinkling her nose in confusion.

"You have a little... eh... in your mouth," he said, gesturing to her face.

Bonnie gasped and quickly set her drink down and started flailing around madly looking for a napkin. Eventually, she opted to wipe it with her finger accidentally spreading the creamy froth onto the top of her nose.

"There, is it gone? Kol!? Stop laughing and help me," she said, licking her full lips anxiously.

"Here," he said, stepping forward and closing what little space lied between them in their tiny kitchenette.

He took his index finger and gently swiped it against her nose.

"There you are," he murmured, without taking his eyes off of her, his voice low and throaty.

There was a short pause and then Bonnie let out a shaky breath and hurriedly excused herself claiming to be tired out and needing sleep.

She rushed out so quickly she left her hot chocolate on the counter.