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Scene 3

More weeks passed and Damon didn't see much of Bonnie. School was out. She was an official high school graduate but she didn't attend the ceremony. Everyone tried to pretend that was the most normal thing in the world smiling at the camera, while steadily craning their necks through the crowd hoping to see her. Caroline of course did some snooping and found out that Bonnie had requested her diploma be mailed to her.

The after party took place at the boardinghouse. The booze flowed freely. Strangers infiltrated all corners of his house while Damon kept a careful watch to make sure no one traipsed upstairs to his room, or got into his good liquor. Bonnie's friends try to pretend they were enjoying themselves but it was written over their faces that they were worried about her. Her cell phone had been disconnected, and no one answered the door whenever someone stopped by her house to check on her.

It was like she vanished into thin air.

"We have to find her," Damon walked in on Elena talking to Stefan.

"If Bonnie wanted you to know where she was going, she would have told you."

Two sets of eyes glared at him and Damon backed out of the room, no longer in the mood to put in his two cents. He never shared with them the conversation he had with Bonnie right before she fell off the face of the earth. In a lot of ways Damon kind of felt like a therapist and if he told he'd be violating Bonnie's patient confidentially trust. But in all honesty, what would telling Elena and the rest of the bunch that Bonnie felt like their slave, do? Everyone would feel guilty. Everyone would then to go out of his or her way to refute her claims, but it would only serve to annoy the crap out of Bonnie. If someone called you on your shit, don't try to cover up the shit with false thanksgiving for having that person in your life. Bonnie would have seen through the act and blasted them all to kingdom come.

Later that night, after he kicked the last guests out of his house, and was up in his bedroom, Elena knocked on his door and strolled in.

"Stefan and I were talking about Bonnie. We thought getting into contact with Lucy so she could do a locator spell would help us find her. We just want to make sure she's all right."

"So why are you telling me?"

Elena stared at him perplexed. "I know you and Bonnie have never been close, but I thought as her friend you'd like to know."

At that Damon snorted and snapped the book he had been reading closed. "Bonnie and I were never friends so please don't pretend we were."

"So you don't care either way if we go through with this?"

Damon studied Elena for a moment trying to figure out why she was here, and what she was hoping he'd say or do. "What I'd like to know is why do you need proof of this so-called friendship you've built up your head that I shared with Bonnie? Our only connection was you. Other than that," Damon hunched his shoulders, "we stayed out of each other's way."

"But I'm not in the way anymore."

Damon was really getting confused by this conversation. Was Elena trying to imply that he had a secret crush on her friend? If she was, where did she get that silly little idea from?

"Elena…"

She was standing in front of him in an instant, pulling one of his moves, crowding his space. "You've been different since she's been gone."

Had he?

"And?"

"Well…you haven't been flirting with me like you normally do and it seems you stopped since the night I saw you sitting across from Bonnie at a booth at The Grill."

This surprised Damon. Immensely. Elena was of the nosy breed so if she had empirical proof that he and Bonnie shared words, it was in her nature to dig for answers and not stop until she got them.

When Damon focused his eyes on Elena they were downcast. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough." Pause. "She hates us."

Sadness dripped from Elena's words causing Damon to take a step away from her.

"We're the reason why she's gone. Why she wants nothing to do with us." She made eye contact with Damon once more. This time her eyes were filled with tears. "I'm the reason why my best friend left."

Here we go, Damon thought in terms of Elena's endless guilt. He could placate her and tell her it wasn't her fault and that she shouldn't blame herself for someone else's decision, but he was too sick and tired of having this conversation with Elena. Again, he wasn't his brother. Stefan was who she should be having this little chit-chat with, not him. What transpired between him and the witch always stayed in that context. It was one of the rare relationships Damon had that if he stepped out of line, he was slapped back into place.

"She'll come home. Eventually. One day," Damon went with optimism.

Elena wasn't so sure. "I heard what she said, Damon, and I saw how sad she looked when she said it. She's not coming back. I won't have the chance to make things right between us."

And there she goes, Damon thought as Elena tried to make someone's else misery about her.

He sighed. "If it'll make you feel better I'll go look for her."

Elena brightened considerably. "You would? But I thought she's not your friend."

"Maybe you didn't hear me," Damon reiterated. "I said if it makes you feel better, I'll look for her."

"Don't do this for me. Do it because Bonnie would do the same for you even if it went against her instincts, preference, or choice."

A look of understanding passed between them, and Elena left.

Scene 4

It took Damon six weeks to find her. Or more specifically she found him. He was in Pennsylvania, deep in Amish country and had pulled into a gas station. The pumps were old school so he couldn't swipe his credit card at the pump. He had to go inside to pay. Along with the gas, Damon purchased a bag of red licorice. He loved licorice in his formative years and was feeling nostalgic. Just as he was leaving, he ran into a small bodied person, almost knocking the person backwards. He felt a spark, immediately identified it as being supernatural—more specifically—a witch and tensed expecting an inevitable showdown.

His eyes dropped to the hooded person and when the person lifted their head, his eyes came into contact with chartreuse eyes.

Bonnie pushed her hood off her head, looking pissed and fierce. "I knew it was you."

Damon leaned casually against a pile of chopped logs allowing a cocky smile to grace his lips. "I'm glad I didn't disappoint."

"What are you doing here?" Bonnie asked tersely.

"I should be the one asking you that question," he quickly looked around the parking lot fully expecting to see her Prius but it was nowhere in sight.

As he brought his eyes to Bonnie once more and ran them over her attire, he noticed her jeans were caked with dirt as well as her shoes suggesting she had spent a great deal walking along a dirt paved road. She could definitely use a shower and a fresh change of clothes because she was dressed as if she had been traipsing around post-apocalyptic America. It was the summer after all, but it was cooler here.

Bonnie was scowling at him.

"Everyone has been in a tizzy since you left. You deprived me of the opportunity to give you a graduation card, balloon, and stuffed teddy bear."

"As you can see, I'm fine," she spat.

"Yeah, right," countered Damon.

Bonnie wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. She said nothing else to Damon, but turned in her boots and marched off.

Gas forgotten, Damon hopped in his car and started following her down the street. "Get in the car, Bonnie."

"I don't want to go back."

"Okay, cool. But you're not taking another step on this isolated road. Someone who's not as nice as me might try to pick you up."

"I can take care of myself."

"You've been walking all day. I can tell. And where the hell is your car?"

Bonnie sighed and stopped. If she walked to New York Damon would keep pace with her. She had been walking for the last six hours since she had gotten it into her head to pull a Forrest Gump and see how far she could go before getting tired.

"I sold my car."

"Why would you do that?"

"Are you dense? I needed money."

Damon stood corrected. "How much do you have left?" From her appearance alone and the fact she was walking and not on a plane or bus suggested if she wasn't broke already, she had mere pennies left.

Suddenly feeling like a child, Bonnie kicked a few rocks along the road. She had enough to pay for a hotel room, after that, she wasn't sure what she'd have to do. When the idea came into her head that she needed to get out of Mystic Falls, Bonnie didn't plan. She didn't think how long she'd stay gone for, where she'd go, and what she would do once she reached her destination. She knew she needed cash and her only source was her car. She had six hundred dollars in her personal checking and savings account combined, but that wouldn't set her up anywhere, not even temporarily.

So she went to the first available car lot she could find, and sold her car since it was already paid off compliments of her father.

For the first few weeks of her excursion Bonnie lived and ate like a queen. But staying in luxury hotels ate up her funds faster than overdraft fees.

"Enough," was all Bonnie would admit.

Damon didn't believe her of course. He swung open the door to his Camaro. "In. Now."

"Damon…just go back to Virginia, please."

Cutting the engine to conserve his last quarter tank of gas, Damon was out of the car and standing in front of Bonnie. He wasn't beyond manhandling her by this point. She picked the most impossible times to be difficult.

"Get in the car, Bonnie."

"I'm not getting in your car, and I don't want to hurt you, Damon. Just leave me alone."

"I am so sick of hearing those empty words from you. Leave me alone, Damon you suck," he mimicked her voice. "When have I ever listened to you?"

"That's the problem because you never listen to anybody! You just do whatever the hell you want and you seldom get punished for it. Oh, sure you might bleed a little, but you're always good as new in the end. You know…I never should have called Elena and told her you were being held by Klaus and Rebekah. Of all the stupid things I've done this year that by far was the stupidest decision I made. I should have just let them kill you."

Well, if that wasn't the meanest thing Bonnie had ever said to him, Damon couldn't recall anything else that flowed out of her mouth that stung so badly.

He glared at her slightly. "You know what…forget it. Good luck out here in the wilderness."

Bonnie's eyes widened before they narrowed. She shook her head and continued off on foot as Damon got back in his car, did a three point turn, and blew past the gas station.

He banged his hand against the steering wheel as he warred with what to do next. The old him would just let her march herself right off the edge of the earth, but the semi-new and improved Damon knew he'd feel guilty as hell if something did happen to her and because he let his temper get the better of him, he did nothing to stop it.

Stomping on the brake, Damon zipped through his options. "Fuck," he cursed, turned around yet again and sped down the highway until a dark figure came into his sight once more.

"Bonnie!"

She ignored him and kept walking. Fed up, Damon sped up and then cut her off by parking his car across the two lane highway. He was out and walking towards her.

"You just don't know when to give up do you?" Bonnie asked.

"You hate me for what I did to your mother, I understand that."

"I don't want to talk about Abby with you."

"No," they were now less than five feet away from each other. "You need to get it out of your system because you've been holding it in for too long." They now stood toe-to-toe. "I snapped your mother's neck like it was nothing. I fed her my blood and I did it all to save Elena."

Fury was smeared across Bonnie's face. Fire danced in her eyes.

"All everyone ever does anymore is try to save Elena's life," Damon continued. "We wake up in the morning, and go 'hey I wonder how I'm going to be forced to come up with some clever way to save Elena's life today.' All of our lives revolve around that one individual and you are fucking sick of it. I hurt people over her, for her, because of her, however you want to look at it. I took your mother away from you and I joked about sending you a lasagna in lieu of an apology."

Bonnie slapped him. It stung because Damon hadn't expected that. Hadn't prepared himself. He blinked his eyes, and wondered if his jaw was still attached to his face.

"Why are you doing this?" Bonnie questioned heatedly. "What are you trying to prove? That you're heartless? I already know that. That you'll continue to screw over everyone if it means saving Elena's life? I know that, too. I don't want anything from you, Damon. Not a half-ass apology. Not a ride. Not your help. Just stay the hell away from me and that's the last time I'm telling you this."

Bonnie marched around him, but Damon grabbed her by the arm and pulled her towards him.

That did it. Fists were flying and actually connecting to his cheek, lip, and upside his head. Damon was stunned to say the least, but he was faster and stronger, and managed to flatten Bonnie's arms to her sides, but she used her legs, and tried to kick at him, but Damon got her in the car.

Once in the car, driving became somewhat hazardous since Bonnie's earlier assault had been the warm up. She screamed obscenities at him, threatened to do interesting things to his genitalia that was simply medieval, scratched him, and actually bit him a time or two.

"Calm down!" Damon shouted at her, spittle flew out of his mouth as he tried to keep the car on the road, and not catch a case at the same time. He was proud of the fact that he never hit a woman, but Bonnie was testing him.

Then his engine made a weird sputtering sound before the car rolled to a stop. Out of gas, just perfect Damon thought.

Bonnie took that as her opportunity to make a mad dash out of the car. She was clear across the field, tears flying from her eyes, blood dripping from her knuckles. She wanted to tear the world in half, she wanted to char the earth, and cause endless destruction but even Bonnie doubted it would be enough to close that gaping wound in her chest.

Her energy was depleting and she had no earthly idea where she was going, but it didn't matter so long as she put miles between herself and Damon Salvatore. She hated him. And hate was such a strong emotion but it almost didn't seem strong enough or fitting. Damon had his reasons for doing the horrible things he's done to other people: he was bored, he was angry, his feelings were hurt. So forth and so on. Other than setting him on fire that one time, which she didn't even get to finish because Elena had to get in the way, and maybe giving him a migraine every once a while, those were not offenses serious enough for him to kill her mother.

Nothing on this planet could ever justify that. Yes, she knew perfectly well that Elena's life had been on the line that night. When was it not? But…

She felt him coming up behind her. Bonnie stopped running, and spun around to face him. Why couldn't he just leave her alone? It was simple. Obviously he didn't mind having his ass kicked, and Bonnie wasn't done kicking it. The little bit of pain she had been able to inflict on him had already worn off. That was his advantage and her disadvantage.

Bonnie unzipped her leather jacket, took it off, followed by the thin cotton hoodie tossing both items on the ground. She stood poised before him in a black tank top that had seen better days.

"You're not tired, sweetheart?"

The war cry that was ripped from Bonnie's soul answered that question. She charged forward, clearing the space separating them, and jumped on Damon. Bonnie actually knocked Damon on his back, another surprise. And she didn't waste time, knocking his head from left to right, right to left. If she hadn't broken a knuckle already she certainly would if she kept this up.

Damon blocked one of her punches, grabbed a hold of her wrists and in less than a nanosecond he was on his feet, Bonnie's legs around him, and her back was braced up against a tree.

"STOP IT!"

Breathing heavily, Bonnie noticed their precarious situation not to mention the fact their faces were so close together that when Damon exhaled through his nose she felt it flutter against her skin. Bonnie's eyes were obscured by her hair. There was very little daylight left as night was settling in. His hands felt like bands around her wrists and were cutting off the blood circulation to her fingers.

"I'm sorry, Bonnie. For every foul thing I've done to you and to the people you love. If I could go back and change it, I would. You're one of the few people in my life I actually respect, and what I did, there's no excuse for it. You didn't deserve that and I am so very sorry. I'm sorry."

Unable to look away, Bonnie's left eye narrowed as she tried to gauge Damon's sincerity. He didn't do apologies. So to hear him say he was sorry, she didn't want to believe him, actually couldn't believe him. Because Damon had a way of saying one thing and doing the complete opposite.

She unwrapped her legs from around his waist once she realized that's how he was holding her up against the tree. Blood colored her cheeks, yet she didn't speak a word to him.

Damon let her go seeing that she was calm.

They were standing at the edge of a precipice. Either turn around and go home or take that leap of faith forward and see where it might land you next.

A/N: I don't want to keep rehashing the past in my stories, but I feel in this its necessary in order to get to where this will be going. He-he. I'll say this, I won't really touch on Bonnie going dark because I feel like that's a process. One minute she's honky dory and the next she's Darth Vader, I believe all of that takes time and that several steps are involved. The first being, isolating herself from those she loves and shutting down emotionally. The question is, will she go over to the dark side or will Damon stop her before she does? Keep reading to find out. Your thoughts are most certainly welcomed. Love you!