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

A/N: I was really amazed by the positive response I got for this! Thanks so much to those who read and/or left lovely reviews!


"If you drink much from a bottle marked 'Poison',

It is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later."

-Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass


After her run-in with Kol, Bonnie eventually stumbled her way back to Caroline's home where the blonde vampire and Abby were waiting for her. It took only one look at Abby to confirm that she wasn't going to make the transition and Bonnie honestly couldn't blame her for it.

"Uhm…I'll just give you guys some alone time…" Caroline said, backing out of the room uncertainly.

"Thanks Caroline," Bonnie replied with a small, sad smile.

"I called Jamie. He's on his way, but he won't be here for a few hours," Abby told the younger witch after Caroline was gone.

Bonnie nodded silently. Of course she would call Jamie. Abby was more of a mother to Jamie than she ever was—ever will be—ever could be—to Bonnie.

She quickly pushed that resentment down. What did it matter anymore? Jamie deserved his chance to say goodbye more than she did.

With a heavy sigh, Bonnie sat down next to Abby on the bed.

"I'm so sorry this happened," Bonnie told her, trying to blink back the tears that welled in her eyes again. "If I hadn't let Stefan distract me, then maybe I could have—"

"No," Abby said, shaking her head and taking ahold of her daughter's small hand. "It's not your fault. There wasn't anything you could have done."

"I don't suppose I can say anything to change your mind about transitioning," Bonnie said quietly, using her free hand to pick at some of the loose threads on her shirt.

"Would you ever agree to make the transition?" Abby asked her daughter.

"No," Bonnie replied instantly. "I mean, I guess it's okay for some people. Caroline did just fine…but I couldn't ever picture it for myself."

They fell into silence, neither knowing what to say.

"Do you…do you need me to get you anything?" Bonnie asked, moving to stand up.

"No," Abby replied, grabbing onto Bonnie's arm to keep her put. "No, can you just stay here and talk to me? I know it's too little too late, but please just talk to me? Tell me about yourself."

"What do you want to know?"

"Everything, anything…just tell me what you want to tell me."

So Bonnie told her about the time she broke her wrist when she was five after jumping off a swing, ignoring Elena's warnings. She talked about her first boyfriend, Scott Jones, even though that was in the eighth grade and didn't exactly count. She told her how scared she was when she first started high school and how Caroline roped her into joining the cheerleading team. She told her how Grams taught her how to drive because her dad was too busy to do it, but she doesn't tell her how he was never around and that she always thought that it was because she looked too much like her mother and it hurt him.

While she was telling her mother about when she started becoming a witch and how scared she was and how Grams helped her to get through it when she hears Caroline open the door and talk in a hushed voice to who she assumed was Jamie.

"I'll just leave you two alone," Bonnie said when Jamie entered the room.

"No," Abby said. "You're both my family. Stay."


Abby's funeral was an extremely low-key affair in the Bennett family plot in Salem, Massachusetts with just Jamie and Bonnie in attendance.

She did her best to help Jamie with the arrangements, having some knowledge of all the necessary things that needed to be taking care of from when Grams died. She left most of the choices like the inscription on the headstone up to him, though.

Abby Bennett-Wilson

1970-2010

Beloved Mother

She couldn't even find the strength to be bothered by the words 'beloved mother'. Abby may not have been her beloved mother, but she had been mother to someone else. Someone who was in much more pain than her.

Abby's last words were still haunting her, repeating themselves over and over again like one of Grams' old records that had broken.

"I'm sorry I was never the mother you deserved, Bonnie."

"I'm so sorry," Bonnie told Jamie, tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. "I never meant for any of this to happen."

"Of course, you didn't," he told her softly. "She didn't blame you and I don't, so don't blame yourself."

I don't, she said to herself silently. Not entirely, anyway.

She was still mulling Kol's preposition over in her head. Every time she thought about, she could feel the trepidation heavily settling in her veins like lead.

"Stay in touch, okay?" He asked her, pressing a small slip of paper into her palm with a phone number written on it. "If you ever need help…"

"Thanks," she replied sincerely. She can't remember the last time when someone who was practically a stranger had been so nice to her.

When she finally got back to Mystic Falls early the next morning, she went straight home to her empty house. Her father was away on one of his business trips as usual. He would never notice that she was gone in the first place. Hell, she could probably backpack across Europe for months on end and he wouldn't question it.

She locked herself in her room, despite the fact that no one else was home and there really wasn't a point and then laid down on her bed, not really knowing what to do with herself.

A quick glance at her phone told her that she had missed dozens of calls from Caroline and Elena and had about a billion unread texts. She shut her phone off and threw it onto the nightstand. She simply didn't have the energy to deal with anybody at the moment.

She felt more tired than she could ever remember feeling her entire life, so she curled up underneath her blankets without bothering to change out of yesterday's clothes and closed her eyes.

Her dreams are filled with angry vampires, the graves of dozens of dead witches, and a tempting offer that she didn't know if she should take or not.


A week later, Bonnie was sitting at the Grille, trying to focus on homework that she had a feeling probably wouldn't get done anyway.

Going to Mystic Falls' one and only hotspot probably hadn't been the brightest idea, but there was just something to be alone but not being alone by yourself.

Matt had been kind, pouring her a cup of coffee and offering his brief yet sincere condolences (Caroline had told him about what had happened to Abby). He also knew her well enough to leave it at that and give her space.

She had blankly been staring at a Trig problem that made absolutely no sense (probably because she either never paid attention in class or simply didn't go to class) when the hairs on the back of her neck raise up and she almost shivers.

When she turned around, she saw Kol standing at the bar. With a wicked grin, he raised his glass to her in a toast before downing it.

She quickly whipped around to go back to staring at her Trig. She would have assumed that he had lost all interest in bringing her into his little diabolical plan since it had been over a week since he first brought it up.

Bonnie knew that he would eventually make his way over to her table to accost her once again. He may have claimed to be fickle, but she had a feeling that he was actually like a dog who didn't know how to let go of a damn bone.

"Hello, Bonnie," his said in that lilting voice of his as he took a seat across from her. He pushed placed a glass of strong-smelling liquor in front of her. "Have you given thought to my…suggestion?"

Bonnie stared at the glass of alcohol. As tempting as it seemed right now, she wasn't planning on drinking it. One glass probably wouldn't make her tipsy, but why risk it?

"I have," she replied quietly. She looked over to the other tables and sees Matt looking at her clearly concerned. She knew that he knew she could take care of herself, though, and he would be better off without intervening and risk the chance of getting his hand crushed once again.

"And?" he probed, clearly impatient for her answer.

She was silent for a moment, still contemplating her answer. It was the same constant battle in her head over and over and over again.

She wanted Damon and Stefan out of her life. Out of everybody's life.

Did she want them dead?

That was the real question. Once upon a time, she did…well, she wanted Damon dead, anyway. She thought she had grown out of it, she had trusted them. They had fucked that up in a matter of seconds.

And it will continue to be a never-ending cycle, Bonnie thought to herself. And maybe it's time to end that cycle.

She could feel herself on the edge of a precipice. It was that moment where you knew you were about to tumble over and you couldn't do anything but hope that the fall wouldn't kill you.

"I just have one condition," she said finally.

Kol raised his eyebrow, waiting for her to continue.

"No one else gets hurt besides them."

She just sat there and watched as a predatory smile formed on his lips while he raised his glass in another toast.

She doesn't bother to raise her glass to meet his. Instead, she took the alcohol down in a few quick gulps and enjoyed the burning sensation while he wickedly smirked at her.


A/N: This is pretty slow-paced and short, I know. That was sort of intentional since I'm still setting the stage, but I'm hoping the future chapters will pick up the pace a bit and be longer (hopefully). See, the small problem is that I know exactly where I want this to go (I have the last chapter written out and everything), but I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to get there…

Thanks so much for reading!