A/N: This was pretty much abandoned but I was feeling inspired today and I decided to work on something I've already got going versus starting something new. I hope you guys like this update. :)

Chapter 2

It seemed like hours had passed with Bonnie and Jeremy sitting side by side on the floor of his bedroom, breathing each other in and wanting to touch but too afraid to ruin the tentative opening their talk had given them. He wanted to hold her hand, thread their fingers together and demand in the quiet way that made her certain that she could confide in him. But he no longer had the rights to demand anything of her, not now. She was here because she needed him and he could only be grateful that she hadn't let him breaking her heart stop her from asking for his help. He knew that for her to even consider coming to him, the spell she wanted to perform was dangerous. He wanted to beg her not to risk her life, to find another way but choosing those other ways would mean she wasn't Bonnie.

Bonnie plowed over stumbling blocks. She took the fastest route, regardless of how precarious it might be, that would protect or save everyone else. Bonnie thought of herself last and he couldn't really blame her for it. He'd had a lot of time to think in Denver. Weeks without someone threatening your life or someone you love's life gives you the time to develop perspective. And he'd thought of Bonnie. A lot. He probed each memory of their relationship, of the past year to figure out what had made him stupid enough to cheat on Bonnie, stupid enough to prefer being with someone he had never felt for this intensely. And in thinking of his own motives, he'd stepped back and been able to understand her in a way he couldn't when he was actually watching her risk her life day in and day out. He understood her need to give out happy endings that she didn't believe she could ever have or deserve. He got it.

And so, he didn't try to talk her out of it. It wouldn't do any good anyway. She'd simply tell him, "If you don't want to help me, don't. I can do this." in that fierce tone of hers that she always used when she would push her body and magic past its limits and expect to succeed by sheer force of will. His arm rested next to hers and he only had to move his pinky a millimeter to the right to touch hers. Wait, he cautioned himself shooting her a sidelong glance under the cover of his lashes. Her brow was puckered, her eyes unfocused and her mouth tight.

"You said no one has to die. Is that true?" he asked.

She startled and turned her head to look at him. Her eyes were big on her face and he couldn't help but remember her before. Before the supernatural stuff had messed everything up, before Bonnie knew that her dreams were prophetic, she would sit at their island with her big beautiful green eyes after another "nightmare." Elena was a heavy sleeper but Jeremy would hear the stairs creak signaling Bonnie's descent downstairs and he would follow. It wasn't this romantic, nightly interlude. They were young and he was just Elena's kid brother to her then. But he would find her there shivering in the dark and sit down on the stool beside her, sometimes bumping her shoulder awkwardly because he didn't know what else he should do, until she would throw him a shaky smile and head back upstairs.

"No one has to die." She sighed. "It's not even dark magic. I just need so much power, so much. It's only through blending life and death that I'll be able to control it. That's why I need you. And Stefan. You're both balancing both planes," she said. She smiled at the look on his face and explained. "There's a reason you were able to see Anna, Jeremy. It's not just a consequence; it's a gift. You can…" She didn't want to tell him that she'd learned he could actually travel the spiritual plane with practice, not with Anna lurking on the other side. Her gaze fell to his hands and found the ring John Gilbert had given him. It was a ring that would have been passed down to him from his father if Mr. Gilbert and his wife weren't dead. And she couldn't keep him from that.

"I could do this spell without you by channeling someone's line. But it's easier with you because you're part of the spiritual plane. It's like you left with a door inside you. You can go there," she said slowly. "You could visit there any time you want as long as you're careful to take care of yourself on this end. Ernestine brought back her children. And even the ones without powers were able to travel between the worlds."

His face was stricken. "You mean—" He cleared his throat. "You mean I could-"

"See Anna."

"See my parents," they finished simultaneously. His eyes lifted to her face when he heard her. "Bonnie."

She shrugged and averted her eyes. "You could visit anyone you want, really. Using that connection will bring Grams' soul back. It's a spell specific to witches though," she finished carefully.

"Wow," he exhaled. "What's the catch?"

"Which one?" She laughed. He raised an eyebrow. "It isn't the healthiest gift to have for either of us. Time works the same over there but everything seems to not matter as much. And if you stay too long, you could just… waste away." She frowned at the thought and their hands placed by each other were suddenly clasped together. "Please be careful."

"I will be. Trust me, I have too much here to live for." His fingers put pressure on hers. "What about you?" he asked not to be distracted.

Her mouth twisted. "I'll have the power over life and death. It sounds like it'll be great but if I'm not careful, I could bring back or kill someone without meaning to."

xx

It was a little more complicated than she'd wanted to admit. She didn't necessarily have the energy to convince Jeremy that for all appearances, this spell wasn't nearly as dangerous as it seemed. It's just the aftermath, she told herself again. But there was nothing to be done about it. She couldn't leave her Grams there to be tortured for her mistakes. She doubted that she would be able to resist bringing her Grams back even if her Grams had not borne the brunt of her consequences. She was weak. Weak and needy for more than just someone's affection and consideration. She was thirsting for hope.

She cringed internally but there was no way to deny it even to herself. There was a different kind of dying that she'd experienced since her Grams' actual death. The will to fight for her own sake had slowly waned until it was glaringly absent. She hadn't realized how little she'd begun to care for herself this past year until she woke up yet again on the hardwood of the witches' house. It was an unpleasant thought that had crept from her subconscious then until she could no longer ignore it: if I die, they'll care more about losing my power than losing me.

Grams being back would change that. There would be someone who would fight earnestly for her like she had fought for everyone else. There would be someone with not only the wish to keep her safe but the capability of helping her and standing by her side as her equal. She didn't have to be the sole Bennett witch willing to stand against the Originals. She didn't have to do anything by herself anymore once she brought her Grams back. She would be irreplaceable to someone. She would… matter again. Her eyes became wet and she sniffed back her tears. There was no need to be sentimental. She'd have plenty of time to cry later when Grams could hold her.

"Are you ready?" she asked Jeremy. He stood to the side of her living room as far back as he could get from the white basin that she'd conjured. She didn't blame him. She'd masked the smell easily enough but there was no masking the knowledge that in that tub lay her Grams' decomposed body. Stefan's blood was a layer over it, ready to heal it once Grams' spirit was back in there. His eyes flickered to it before fixing resolutely on her.

"I'm ready." He took a step forward. The corners of her lips upturned as she held his hand in hers. She sliced a small, neat line along a vein in his wrist and lifted it to her mouth. Her lips closed around the wound and she tried to focus on anything else but the blood flowing down her throat. She placed a hand on his heart to channel that energy, the doorway to the other side he carried within himself, and felt a shiver run through her. She could feel wisps of the dead gathering around her. She lifted her mouth and cut her fingertip with the point of the dagger. She lifted it to Jeremy's lips and with his energy flowing beneath her palm, the connection was made.

The room was black with only the door in front of her, shining brightly enough to hurt her eyes. She hastened towards it and placed her bloody fingertip on it while she said the words, "Sheila Bennett, expergiscor et factus est leben. Expergiscor et folgen mir til levende verden. Expergiscor!" The door flashed a brilliant red and before she could blink away the spots, her Grams stepped out from behind it.

"You foolish child," she scolded. But her voice was weak and she staggered away from the hands that reached out behind the door. "Come. You've done it now, might as well make sure it's worth it."

Bonnie was faint with relief. There was a roaring in her head that she couldn't place and if her Grams had not nearly toppled into her, she thought she might actually take the time to cry here. Instead, she dragged her Grams behind her toward the thumping organ that she'd used as her entry point. She flung Grams' spirit back into her body and reached out a hand to Stefan who'd given his blood contribution and promptly found a corner to skulk in. Her magic tugged him forward until her fingertips were against his chest. His shirt split beneath her hand.

xx

Stefan groaned and Jeremy looked on curiously wondering why he should be in such pain from channeling. Then, Stefan's chest cracked open and there was covering over his skin and her hand. Jeremy could make out the sharp crack of bone breaking and then Bonnie was stepping aware from a fallen Stefan with a small bound of bones in her hand. Stefan convulsed on the floor. His hands moved uselessly to his chest.

He pulled the sides together and stretched out his arm searching for a blood bag but Bonnie wasn't watching. Bonnie stepped over him and Jeremy followed after her. The energy around her both drew him in and repelled him. He was a part of it though. He could feel her excitement, the anticipation was filling him with energy but death hung around them. The room was overflowing with the dead as if she had turned the volume of his "gift" up. And Bonnie was… iridescent.

Though there was Stefan's blood covering her hand to forearm and splattered on her shoes and a missed drop of his own blood by her mouth, she wasn't bleeding herself. Rather than suffering nosebleeds or having dark veins slither beneath her skin, she was literally glowing. She turned her eyes to him and they were blanketed over a pale yellow. There were the jumble of bones in one of her hands and something gold that radiated a kaleidoscope of colors and warmth in her other. She opened her palms above the basin. The shining mass and the bones floated above it as she chanted. A magical wind blew her hair around her shoulders. His heart beat fast in his chest. The only sounds in the room were Stefan's groans, his own exhilarated panting and the hum of her magic.

And then there was a distinctly feminine gasp.