Chapter Two. Happy Birthday, Bonnie Bennett
The room was thick with magic, the enchantment heavy in the air as the Gemini leader intoned the words of the spell. She and Jeremy sat cross-legged on the Salvatore living room floor, fingers interlocked. Jeremy was frozen, the glazed look in his eyes indicating that he was far away from there.
Damon had left, claiming that the tension of anticipation was unbearable. Elena was right at his heels. Only Alaric waited, sitting at the bar with a beer in hand, watching the two tensely.
And he was the only one who stood to defend them when Enzo strolled into the boarding house.
"A bit late for the party?" Alaric asked, giving Enzo a cautious glance. He didn't know the other vampire too well. Just that he and Damon went a long way back.
Which could mean practically anything knowing Damon.
"Yeah," Enzo murmured, smiling easily. "My invite came late." He nodded at Jeremy. "Wanted a word with baby Gilbert there."
Alaric shrugged. "You have to wait."
Enzo gave Jo and Jeremy a glance, then turned back to Alaric with the same easy smile, and shook his head. "Sorry, mate. Not going to."
Before Alaric could register the words, the vampire had grabbed him by the neck and smashed his head into the counter.
Alaric fell onto the floor in a heap.
Enzo smirked, then made a bee-line for Jeremy Gilbert.
"Hello Jeremy, where's your mate, Matt? I've been meaning to chat with you two blokes."
He shoved at the boy, but the boy was still, frozen in the trance. Enzo frowned, then turned to look at the dark-haired witch who was casting across the boy.
"Huh," he muttered, walking around the two figures. He could feel the magic prickling against his skin. It was clear that they were completely oblivious of his presence, to their entire surroundings in fact. A look of sheer mischief streaked his face, and he strolled to the fireplace.
"It's no fun if they can't feel you torturing them," he muttered and he drove a poker through the witch.
The weight of magic ceased immediately as Jo's eyes flew open, her mouth stretched into a scream.
Enzo, Damon and Elena battled it out in the wreckage of the living room while Alaric, whom Elena had managed to revive, carried the doctor in his arms to the kitchen, Jeremy at his heels.
"Ask Damon or Elena to come quickly. We need blood!" Alaric cried as he tried to prop Jo up, his fist hard on the hole in her chest.
"I already did. They need to get rid of Enzo first," Jeremy said distractedly, his hands reaching for Jo. "Jo," he said urgently. "The spell. Bonnie…"
Alaric turned on him in anger. "Are you crazy? She's half-dead!"
"Bonnie's going to kill herself!" Jeremy shouted.
Something wavered in Alaric's face for a moment. "Jo needs to heal herself before she do any more magic. It was already draining her as it was."
"There's no time! Jo…" He grabbed at her shoulder.
Alaric shoved Jeremy off. "I said NO!" Jeremy was on his feet at once. Alaric rose to meet him. The two men glared at each other, eyeball to eyeball.
"Yes."
They both spun, turned to look down at Jo. She had pulled herself up, her own hand pressed hard against her wound. Her eyes were glazy, and she shook her head twice as if she was trying to clear it. But she was stretching out her other hand.
Alaric tried to take it, but she shied away – and it became apparent that she was reaching for Jeremy.
Jeremy was at her side at once, clinging. "Jo, please… Bonnie needs help…"
"Jo," Alaric said urgently. "You can't do this. You're too weak."
"She's going to kill herself," Jo whispered.
"Just wait!" Alaric cried.
"No time. We've waited too long already…"
And before he could stop her, he could feel the veil of magic falling again, sweeping her and Jeremy away from him.
Jo had got blood from Damon in the end, swallowing life seconds before it had slipped from her completely. He and Elena were filling Alaric in about what they did to Enzo at the moment. Other than getting reassurance that he hadn't been there for her in particular and wasn't returning soon, Jo hadn't stayed for the debrief, going to a bathroom to do something about her blood-soaked clothes and the stench of death that still hung over her.
Elena had given her a new shirt and Jo had even taken a quick shower, but she could still smell blood on her skin. Her entire body shook with exhaustion, magic still trembling over her. She tied her wet hair into a bun and peered into the mirror.
Creamy, pale skin – a bit too pale for Spring but nothing a little sun won't fix. High cheekbones. Deep blue eyes beneath long lashes, behind dark circles. Tired. She clearly needed a vacation.
Jo caught her own gaze, and was locked in it. Staring at her eyes, as they became darker and darker and darker…
"Jo, are you OK?"
Elena's voice jolted her. Jo blinked rapidly, watching her pupils contract back to normal.
"Yes, I'm almost done."
She did her makeup automatically and stepped out of the bathroom.
And right into Elena's embrace.
"Thank you so much for what you did for Bonnie. I don't know how I'll ever repay you."
Jo stood stiffly in Elena's arms and waited until it was over.
Elena looked at her, clearly surprised at the hug that wasn't returned.
"You don't have to thank me," Jo said coolly. "Sheila Bennett was my mentor. It was the least I could do. I just wish you had thought to ask me for help earlier. I've had the Ascendant all this while. She should never have stayed there a day longer than Damon."
The sight of that poor girl drinking herself to the point where she could take her life seemed like it was burnt into Jo's memory. She already knew that Bonnie Bennett's beautiful tear-streaked face would haunt her for a long time.
"There was so much going on," Elena said now, her tone filled with apology. "At first, Damon thought she was dead. Then we were trying to stop your brother from getting out. Then he got out after all…"
"I'm on call this evening, Elena. Is there anything else?"
Jo's words were sharp and Elena's blinked. "N-no. I guess not."
Jo smiled thinly. "Please tell Alaric to meet me downstairs. Tell the others I had to leave in a hurry."
She was at the front door, putting on her jacket when Alaric met her with Elena and Damon. His eyes were ever so slightly dilated. Clearly he had taken a few more beers. Jo sniffed.
"I thought we were staying longer," he whispered to her as he hastily tried to help her with her jacket.
"No, we aren't," she said shortly.
She pulled out the small box from inside her coat and gave it to Elena. "Here. I forgot this. Happy Birthday."
"Thank you," Elena said, hesitantly, "but it's Bonnie's birthday actually."
"Yet you're the one that's having a party," Jo said sweetly.
She left them at the doorway, Elena's face filled with hurt and surprise, Damon's eyebrows screwed up comically and Alaric stammering apologies.
He met her in the car and she was already behind the wheel. He opened his mouth to protest and she quelled him with a look. Meekly, he got into the passenger's seat.
After half an hour of uncomfortable silence, during which Alaric opened and shut his mouth in failed attempts at conversation several times, he finally got out the words.
"Are you mad that I tried to stop you from doing the spell?"
Jo was silent.
"Because I won't apologize for that. I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you from Enzo. But I'm not sorry that I wanted Jeremy to wait." He breathed heavily. "You should know by now that I would never want anything to hurt you."
"Oh, I know that."
The tone of her voice made him look at her sharply. "What does that mean?"
"When you stole the Ascendant for Damon…"
He gaped. "That? He compelled me. I'd never have risked Kai getting out."
"My point exactly. So you'd rather Bonnie continue to suffer at the hands of my psychotic brother when you knew she was there alone, without magic?"
Alaric looked confused, slightly annoyed, even. "I was trying to keep you safe."
That snapped her out of her cold feigned calm. "I was safe! Do you know who wasn't? Bonnie! Do you know why Kai got out? Because Bonnie was there with him. A Bennett witch with Bennett blood who knew how to do the spell to get him out. Your 'trying to keep me safe' was the reason why Kai was able to escape."
"You know, I didn't actually stop Damon and Elena from rescuing Bonnie. Kai was already out, and destroyed the Ascendant. I had nothing to do with that."
"No. You had nothing to do with anything, except begrudge the fact that they were trying to bring her back."
"Jo!"
She ignored the hurt and anger in his voice, and went on doggedly, "Bonnie sent her magic back to keep us all safe and you couldn't lift a finger to help her in return."
"I was going to help her," he insisted, pleaded even. "I would have helped her. I just didn't want to –"
"To what? Risk losing me? You shouldn't even have me. You were dead, Alaric. The only reason why you're alive is because of the same girl you couldn't risk me to help."
Alaric recoiled. For a moment, the car was filled with tense, pained silence as Jo stared determinedly at the road in front of her, ignoring the offended look he was now throwing at her.
"You didn't seem to have a problem with this a month ago," he said at last, accusingly. "If I remember, you drove me over the boundary to convince me that Damon had compelled me!"
"A month ago, Bonnie wasn't trying to kill herself because she thought that everyone she loved had abandoned her!"
Her vision was blurred. Angrily, Jo wiped at her face. He reached for her, and she flinched. His hand flailed, then fell to his side.
There was another silence. This one was longer. The car had long passed the 'Goodbye from Mystic Falls' sign, when Alaric spoke again, his voice hoarse and heavy.
"Bonnie is… she's the most resilient person I know. I would never have dreamed she would try to commit suicide."
"She was trapped there all by herself for five months, Alaric," Jo snapped. "She thought everyone had forgotten her, had given up on her, had moved on with their lives and left her there to rot. She could have left there months ago but she was so determined to save us all from Kai that she locked herself up with him. To keep us safe. Fat good it did her," she said the last with a snarl and wiped at her face again.
Alaric looked at her warily and said nothing.
"Her so-called best friends threw a party today and said it was what Bonnie wanted. And do you know the saddest thing? They're right. She would want them to go on with their lives and not worry about her. She freaking died and she made Jeremy keep it a secret for the whole summer so it won't get in the way of Elena and Damon having sex 24/7 for three months."
"It wasn't their fault that she kept it from them. That was Bonnie's choice," Alaric insisted quietly.
"Just as it was her choice to bring you back from the dead. And the werewolf. And Stefan Salvatore. And that waste of space with the English accent. The one who almost killed me and destroyed any chance of her coming back. And just about everybody in Elena's and Damon's circle of friends. Yet not one of you chose to do the same for her," Jo said heavily.
Alaric sighed. There was another long silence.
"I am sorry, Jo."
"Save it. I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."
Next:
Chapter Three. The Exhumation of Lily Salvatore
Just a note. Please this fic is unbeta'd so if you see any typos, etc, please let me know. And, of course, just let me know in general if you like it by reviewing. :)
