A/N: 17 reviews and just two chapters! Thank you guys so much! I'm loving your reactions to the chapters. Nkhen, I don't absolve Bonnie either, lol. She's a very logical person, so she needed some way to make her actions okay.

I'm so excited about this story. I literally think about it every day, and I've been working on it every day. Literally, when I have nothing to do at work, I pull it up and type. I decided that it was finally time to start posting, since I'm way ahead in the chapters and don't see an end yet.

Btw, I'm creating a playlist for this fic. It's kind of hard since it's not done yet, but I have some songs down for the big moments. If anyone is interested, the theme song for Forwood is Drake's Doing it Wrong. I'll reveal the theme song for Tonnie's heart to hearts when they start getting more frequent, which I think kicks off in the next chapter.

Enjoy!


Part 3: Like Glue

"And last but not least, well not last but not least, but the last of the fun senior activities is prom," said Tikki Watson, President of the senior class. "The prom committee has narrowed it down to four themes: Mardis Gras-"

"Mardis Gras is such a bad idea," Caroline whispered to Tyler like the theme gave her physical pains. "The seniors did it three years ago. Three! Not enough time has gone by."

Tyler looked at her. He wasn't hot about the theme either. He'd grimaced when Marcella had suggested it at the second senior meeting in the fall. Most of the seniors had said no. But she'd apparently pushed it through. It probably helped that she was Tikki's best friend.

Tikki continued, "Pictures of you-"

Tyler looked at Caroline and smiled. He knew that one was hers.

"Arabian Nights-"

"I don't want Arabian Nights," Bonnie whispered from her seat next to Matt. "The idea is pretty, but they want to use pillows instead of chairs, and I don't want to sit on the floor in my dress."

"Me neither," Matt whispered back. "Only, you know, in my tux." He smiled.

Bonnie playfully nudged him with her shoulder. She looked at the bleachers across the gym and easily found Tyler and Caroline. It wasn't the first time she'd looked at them. And this wasn't the first time that she focused on how Caroline had an arm slung through Tyler's and was holding on to his bicep, all but leaning her whole weight on him. Bonnie blinked slowly. They'd been inseparable in the hallways since school opened back up. Bonnie knew, because Matt couldn't reference what part of the school Tyler was in without mentioning Caroline, and Elena couldn't say where in the school Caroline was without mentioning Tyler.

Alright, I have to wait for Tyler. He's coming from the football field. He stopped by to see Caroline during her cheerleading practice.

So apparently Caroline's gonna be a little late. She got roped into helping Ms. D pack up all the crap they tried to sell to the freshmen in the fall. She's calling Tyler to help out.

All of this because Tyler had pulled her to him at the festival? Maybe it wasn't Caroline. Maybe the two really had come to a compromise over winter break.

"And A Bit Whimsical," Tikki continued. "Booths will be set up starting tomorrow, and you guys will have the rest of this month plus all of February to vote for your favorite. Tickets will go on sale the second week of March, and then it'll be graduation! But we're gonna talk about graduation during our March meeting. Our next senior meeting will be on the second week of February, and we'll be talking about the senior trip to Shenandoah National Park. Maybe. On that note, Mr. Hill would like to say a few words before we go."

Tyler looked up from Tikki giving the mic to their principal and found Bonnie. It was officially winter. It was cold and windy enough outside for people to be wearing ugly jackets, but Bonnie stood apart once again. She wasn't wearing anything crazy like a dress that was more fit for late spring and thus might attract suspicion like Caroline was. She wore jeans, a blouse, and a cardigan. It was the color of her blouse and cardigan that made her stand out. The deep orange of her shirt and subdued colors of her cardigan made her look effortlessly warm, like the area surrounding her was on a completely different seasonal cycle. She looked beautiful and ethereal, and every time he looked at her he completely tuned out what anyone holding the microphone was saying. It was like he could not split his attention if she was involved.

She rubbed her lips together, and he wondered if she was wearing lipgloss. He felt Caroline about to look at him, so he surreptitiously averted his eyes to Mr. Hill, Bonnie's father's best friend.

He was connected to the government thanks to his parents; Caroline had law enforcement; Elena had the most useless with the medical world (what, was she not gonna pay medical bills?). Bonnie had the schools.

Unlike the rest of them, she had gone to Amelia Bennett Elementary School, named after her great-grandmother (formerly Amelia Bennett's School for Negro Children back when it was run inside the education pioneer's home in the 1930s and 40s, then transferred to a proper building in the 50s). Amelia died at a ripe 84 when Bonnie was 13, and it had been a tremendous affair.

The principle of Sage Middle School, where he'd officially begun a friendship with Bonnie and the rest of the girls, had been Sheila Bennett's best friend. He wondered if she planned to go to Whittmore College. If her grandmother was still alive, she'd have a connection there, too. Although, judging from the past, she most likely had someone higher than a professor. Maybe the dean or the president. He knew that her father was a Whitmore alumnus, so he more than likely has a few connections.


"Kimberley."

"It's Kim. For the thousandth time."

"But Kimberley is much more sophisticated. For the thousandth time."

"I didn't realize you were out."

"Mmmm, more like awake. And I'd appreciate it if you kept that from my brother. I don't want him to know I'm back until I'm ready," Rebekah said.

"So you followed me to a grocery store," Kim said.

"I know he's not home at this time of day. I've been watching. But I'd also like you to keep this from your Hybrid brethren, too, so yes: I followed you to the grocery store."

"And why me?" Kim had had a sinking feeling the moment she'd looked up from the avocados and saw Rebekah walking toward her.

"I need a favor," Rebekah said and stepped up to her.

At that moment, Kim could feel every bit of hair on her body. They were standing on end, and they were screaming that something bad was about to happen. She knew that "One Step Forward" move well. It was what vampires did right before they compelled someone. Klaus had used it on the more petulant Hybrids, including her, or just when he was especially pissed and wanted to exact even more control over them. And now it seemed Rebekah wanted to have her go.

"Who took the dagger out of you?" Kim asked, fear making her throat dry. Her only option was to get at least one bit of useful information that she could take back to Tyler. Maybe she'd even tell Klaus and get rid of Rebekah that way.

Rebekah made her pupils dilate. "You will go to Mystic Falls High School. At 3:30, you will go to the track field where you will shift into your werewolf form. From there, you will rampage through the library where you will tear the flesh off of Matt Donovan. You will not stop until you are gnawing on his bones. The hows and whys are none of your concern," she said and patted Kim's cheek. "Understood?"

"Understood," Kim responded.

"It's my turn to make a statement."


Back in the gymnasium, Mr. Hill continued, "Now maybe graduation is too far away. Maybe the consequence for pranks like spray-painting all of the vending machines should be banishment from all senior activities. Or how about cancellation?"

The gym erupted in protest.

"They can't just cancel everything," Elena objected. "This is so stupid. We're seniors; what is this, their first time at the rodeo? Seniors pull pranks."

"Did you just say first time at the rodeo?" Matt asked.

"Public schools are government property," Bonnie informed her. "That makes what they did vandalism."

"Spray-painting any part of this school isn't a prank. It's vandalism," Mr. Hill continued.

Elena and Matt looked at Bonnie, and Bonnie raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips, smug. Elena smiled and shook her head.

"It's illegal. We have the perpetrators on camera. I know you planned for the football shoulder pads to throw us off track, but we will find you. Everyone on the football team swears it wasn't them."

"It wasn't," Matt whispered. He didn't know their identities, but he knew that two of the four pranksters were girls, and the four hadn't borrowed those shoulder pads from anyone on the football team. They'd most likely bought them for the occasion.

"But it did give me an idea," Mr. Hill continued. "You all have made it through these last four years together. You plan on receiving those diplomas together. So how about you all stay home from prom together? How about you stay in Mystic Falls together and not go anywhere near grad bash?"

A cacophony of gripes spread across the bleachers.

Bonnie sullenly propped her left elbow on her knee. She didn't want anything to get cancelled. She was finally getting into this whole senior thing. Other than planning for the cure and losing her shit the night Elena had thrown Damon in her and Caroline's faces, her life was pretty calm. Then again, there was pretty much nothing that could compare to the absolute hell of her junior year. Starting with her breakup, her life had fallen to the darkest pit in the earth at breakneck speed and then exploded. And then someone had come along and incinerated what was left by presenting her with Elena the vampire at the end of summer.

So compared to all of that, she's been having a pretty easy time the past two and a half months. And she wanted to go to grad bash, and to prom, and then she wanted to graduate and leave.


The assembly was over, and most of the students had filed out. This was one of Tyler's favorite parts about being a senior: on the days that they had meetings, they left class forty minutes before the final bell rang and spent the rest of the day not in class and then they just went home. Beautiful.

Caroline had gone down to the court to speak to Tikki and the rest of student government. Matt was gone, home he presumed, and Elena was off somewhere. This left Bonnie by herself, and she seemed to have decided to start some of her homework on the bleachers.

He was wondering if he'd crossed her mind at all since they'd last seen each other when blood suddenly rushed to his ears. He felt a panic coming on. Before he could wonder where the feeling had come from, his attention was stolen by the sound of someone hurriedly approaching him.

"Kim? What are you doing here?"

Kim sat down next to him. "I'm in trouble, Tyler."

"What's wrong?"

"Rebekah's back."

"What?" He was barely getting questions in, because she was speaking so fast.

"She found me at the grocery store, but I don't know who took the dagger out of her. She compelled me; well she thinks she's compelled me, but I don't know why it didn't work, but she expects me to present her with a mangled Matt Donovan in the library-"

"What?"

"I need your help; what the hell do I do?"

"Kim, slow down," he said, and he put his hands on her shoulders.

"No, I can't slow down! This is supposed to happen at 3:30, and it's 3:15, and if I don't give her a dead boy, she'll know something's up, and guess who she's gonna take that to."

"You need to calm down. It's gonna be okay." He looked across the room to where Bonnie was. He looked back at Kim. "Listen. It's gonna be okay. I promise. Klaus isn't gonna find out about this. Just give me a second."

He started down the bleachers to get to Bonnie, and Kim stood and went to the exit. She needed to be on the track field at 3:30, whether she was shifting or not. She anxiously waited at the door for Tyler to come back with good news.


Bonnie looked up from the long list of ingredients Lucy had faxed her and saw Tyler running up to her.

Caroline saw him, too.

Bonnie closed her notebook and knitted her eyebrows.

"Hey," Tyler greeted as he sat next to her. "How did you desiccate Klaus last time?"

He'd taken a seat on her left, so she had to turn her body to face him. "What?"

"We need it for Rebekah. She's back, and she's compelled Kim to kill Matt, only it didn't work, but we need to get rid of Rebekah before she realizes that."

"Okay, slow down."

"Bonnie."

"I desiccated Klaus by stopping Jeremy's heart; that's not gonna happen again. Um," she closed her eyes and tried to think. "There are other things I can do. Uh, I can trap her somewhere, a room or something: I can put up a seal."

"I was hoping for something where she'd be unconscious and unable to talk."

Bonnie suddenly grabbed Tyler's jacket, though a complete sentence eluded her. "Tyler!" She pointed at the exit, and her notebook and pen fell. Kim was disappearing with Rebekah.

Tyler rushed off the seat. Fuck all the mortals who were still in the gym and littered in the hallways. There was no way he could run at top speed.

Bonnie was hot on his heels, and Caroline, having long dropped her conversation with Tikki and having caught a glimpse of Rebekah when Bonnie pointed, ran after them.


Rebekah took Kim to one of the empty hallways. Now, someone could of course round a corner at any moment, but she could take care of them.

"The gym isn't the track field," she said with an air of perplexion.

"It's 3:18," Kim said in her best dull voice.

Rebekah smiled. "Kim. I was so so so very excited about making my statement that I didn't realize something until after you left."

Kim almost asked what, but she decided that a compelled person would ask no such thing.

Rebekah smiled again. "Your pupils didn't dilate," she said softly. Her hand flew to Kim's throat. "What's going on?"

Kim struggled to jab some fingers between the skin that stretched from Rebekah's thumb to her index and her throat so that she could create space for herself to breathe. It was like losing a limb but still feeling it there. Her heart did not beat, but she still had sensations that felt like breathing.

"Answer me in the next second, or I will pin you to this floor and pummel your lungs. Did you know it was possible for a vampire to-"

"Rebekah!" Tyler yelled as he rounded the hallway.

Right behind him, Bonnie waved her arm to the right and slammed both Rebekah and Kim into the lockers. It was her best chance at freeing Kim from Rebekah's grip.

Tyler took off his jacket and ran straight for Rebekah while Caroline ran to Kim who was trying to move away from Rebekah and clear her mind at the same time. Her throat was dry, and her brain was foggy from the disruption in blood flow.

Bonnie looked at both ends of the hallway and tried to think of a spell that would make sure no one discovered them.

Tyler let go of all reservations, and he straddled Rebekah and punched her across the face. The vampire was more stunned from the act than the impact. She has never been hit. Tyler bared his claws to slash her face, and that snapped her out of it. She caught Tyler's hand before he could make contact. She pulled him down by the collar of his shirt and slammed his head on the floor.

"Tyler!" Caroline yelled. Her face contorted into its monster form, and she rushed at Rebekah. Rebekah used her speed to stand and caught Caroline by the throat and slammed her on the floor like she'd planned to do to Kim.

Bonnie abandoned the plan of keeping them from being discovered and stretched her hand out to Rebekah's head and made up a spell on the spot, "Dormite jam, et mundus transit. De luminaribus, cerebrum quiescit, et recipit vos in mundum…..proxima septimana!" She exhaled in relief when Rebekah slumped over Caroline. It worked.

She ran to Caroline and rolled Rebekah off of her. She looked back at Tyler, and Kim was helping him stand. It was the person at the end of the hallway, however, who made her blood run cold.

"Dad?"

Kim stopped helping Tyler. Her instinct was to run to the man and compel him to forget what he'd just saw, but maybe Bonnie had it under control.

Rudy looked down the hallway he'd come from to ensure no one was coming and then walked to Bonnie who left Caroline to meet him halfway.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was meeting Calvin-"

"Okay, you need to leave. Now." She started to physically move him down the hallway. "Tell Mr. Hill to meet you outside, but you need to go."

"Bonnie-"

"Now, dad. Now!"

Rudy realized he wasn't going to get anywhere with her, so he placated her by leaving.

"Shit," Bonnie breathed when she turned back to the little group. This was not what she needed.

Tyler gave Caroline his attention. "Care, are you okay?"

Still a little dazed, Caroline moaned and touched her forehead.

The head didn't care if the rest of the body was supernatural. Hit it and one would be rendered less than coherent.

"What did you do?" Kim asked Bonnie when the witch rejoined them.

Bonnie looked at Rebekah. "Put her to sleep until two weeks from now. I almost said until tomorrow."

"Nice save."

Bonnie nodded. She kneeled on Caroline's right and asked, "Caroline, are you okay?"

Caroline began to sit up and Tyler and Bonnie each put a hand behind her back to support her. "God I hate her," she seethed Rebekah's way.

"What are we going to do?" Kim asked. Her eyes widened, and she looked down the hallway when she heard four distinct voices approaching from around the corner.

"Shit." Bonnie stood up and moved a little ways down the hallway. Thinking quickly, she stretched her right hand up to the ceiling and whispered, "Ego lux in mea."

She immediately felt strange. The lights in their hallway went off. The rest of the school was still lit, and she heard the students get closer to rounding the corner. She started to panic, but nevertheless took two more steps and threw her fist up at one of the darkened light panels. She heard one of the ones around the corner explode. The students chattered their surprise as shards of glass crashed on the floor.

Bonnie took another step and threw her fist again. A second panel exploded around the corner, and it served to reverse the students' course. She opened her hand and whispered, "Lux mea accipio! Id opus in tenebris!"

An empty silence filled the building as all of the lights abruptly disappeared.

"Nice," Kim commented.

The strange feeling that had come over Bonnie intensified. She shivered. Something delicious caressed every inch of her skin, from her forehead to the skin that covered the little bone that jutted out of the ankles to the pads of her fingers. She was suddenly very sensitive, and she realized the electric energy that powered the artificial lights was now coursing just beneath the top layer of her skin. She licked her lips and tried not to embarrass herself. "Oh my God," she whispered. It might be a losing battle.

"We need to move her," Tyler said of Rebekah.

"Bathroom? Janitor's closet? Empty classroom?" Kim asked.

"We need something close. Bathroom," Tyler decided, and he lifted Rebekah.

"I can put up a seal-" Bonnie cut herself off and gathered her nerve. She let the blissful sensation pass. "Make it so no mortal can walk in."

"Good," Tyler said and led the way to the boys bathroom. Kim ran to the end of the hallway to grab his jacket and then followed.

Walking was very interesting for Bonnie. She smiled the whole way. At the entrance of the bathroom, she asked Kim to turn on all of the faucets and hold the door open. Every seal needed an elemental component, the more elements included, the more powerful the seal and the longer it lasted. Bonnie only needed the seal up until they could figure out what to do with Rebekah. Seals also needed the room to be as open as possible so that the spell could lock it down.

She held her hands out, elbows bent at her waist, palms up, and trembled her way through the spell. "Phasmatos salvis. Qui-qui habitat in terra eademque aqua locus. Hoc enim omnes mor-mortales in carcere extra aqu-qu-quam, ut non possit intrare. Hoc….signum pervadat ad h-hanc portam, et haec dicuntur manere fortis testi-monium in hac esse venefica dixit: Vultis dimittam tenuit….hanc meam."

Magic mixed with the electric buzz. She badly wanted to be naked and touch her skin.

Tyler watched as the faucets turned off all by themselves, signaling the creation of the seal. All of the bathrooms in Mystic Falls High operated on a switch. Students turned them on when they entered and off when they left, so any light that had been turned off during Bonnie's spell was still operable. Caroline had turned this one on when she'd walked in behind Tyler.

Bonnie lowered her hands and stepped inside. She took the door from Kim and closed it. "Now no mortal can come in." She leaned against the door and tried to compose herself. She wished she was alone so that she could enjoy this feeling. Doing magic had only intensified the current, and now it was making it's way through her clitoral hood to touch her clit. She was getting wet in the middle of a crisis. This Blackout spell, that's what she would call it, was a blessing, one she wished she'd discovered sooner.

"Okay, now what?" Kim asked as she walked to the end of the room where Tyler had laid Rebekah.

"Now we dagger her again," Caroline answered.

"We need to fi-figure out who-who woke her," Bonnie tried not to whimper.

"We didn't get to that part," Kim informed the room. "She just said she wanted to make a statement, and she didn't want Klaus to know she was back until she was ready."

"We need to find that dagger," Tyler said. "I'm not comfortable just letting her sleep. I feel like she'll wake up any minute."

"Kim and I can….we can find it," Bonnie sighed.

Tyler looked up at her and frowned. He didn't understand why she was leaning against the door with her back to them.

"You think she just has it lying around her house? She'd know that that's the first place we'd look," Kim said.

"That's if she was planning on getting beaten her first day out," Caroline pointed out.

Kim acquiesced to her point, but she said, "This wasn't her first day out. She's been awake long enough to know Klaus' routine."

"Why is she so concerned about making a statement?" Tyler wondered.

"Because she's embarrassed," Caroline said. "Stefan and Klaus conned her into giving up this important sword that has to do with the cure, and then Klaus put her down."

"And this Matt Donovan dying would've made an impact?" Kim asked.

Bonnie and Caroline gasped, though gasping only made Bonnie short of breath. Her nipples were so hard that the skin around them was stretched to its limit.

Tyler was thinking along the same line as the girls. "We need to make sure Matt's okay. If Rebekah's working with someone, they might have him."

"I'll find Matt," Caroline said.

"Rebekah wanted me to tear him apart in the library," Kim told her.

Caroline frowned. "Okay?" What a random location for murder.

"Kim let's go," Bonnie said.

Tyler was about to say something to her when Kim spoke.

"Can we bite her? Just as a little extra precaution?"

"Rebekah hallucinating in her sleep and not able to wake up? Sounds like the perfect idea to me," Caroline said.

Tyler smiled at Kim. She joined him by Rebekah's body, and they each grabbed an arm.

Bonnie turned to look, but she didn't just turn, she slithered, rubbing her body against the cool door.

Kim and Tyler bared their canines and sank them into Rebekah. They concentrated, necessary as they had spent months only honoring their vampire half, and released their poison. Rebekah's blood stung their gums in return, but it was a mild discomfort. Having gotten a taste of vampire skin, they gnawed on her until they touched bone.

Caroline grimaced and turned her head away from the nasty display.

Tyler remembered that he was in more company than just Kim's and unhinged his jaw. He wiped his mouth and felt a little disgusting. The shame disappeared when he looked at Bonnie mid-wipe and saw her staring at him with her mouth open and tongue over her bottom teeth. He licked his lips and then licked his gums to wipe away the blood, and Bonnie's vulva spasmed. She crossed her arms and turned away and closed her eyes. Tyler didn't know what to make of that.

Caroline didn't hear munching anymore, so she turned around. And saw that Tyler's attention was at the door. She looked at Bonnie and saw that her back was turned. She hid her confusion and looked at Tyler. He wiped his mouth again and looked at Rebekah.

"Now we can go," Kim said. She stood and walked to Bonnie.

"I don't-don't think we need the blackout anymore," Bonnie said. She shivered. She couldn't ride in a car with Kim like this. She felt like running to the nearest room, locking herself in it, dropping her pants and underwear and masterbating until she screamed in orgasm.

"We don't," Tyler answered, but Bonnie was already chanting.

"Egomet libera….et dimittam structura in te-tenebris lumen."

The vibrating energy left her like a rude lover, wham, bam, thank you m'am, and she suddenly felt like less than what she was before. It was like the orgasm that never came. She couldn't let the others see that, so she trucked on and opened the door. The hallway was lit.

"Bonnie, are you okay?" Tyler asked.

"Fine," she answered and stepped out without sparing him a glance.

Tyler looked after her and was completely bothered by her strange behavior.

Caroline had enough. She kneeled down, Rebekah's body between them, and touched his forehead. He looked at her like he'd forgotten she was in the room. She frowned. "Are you okay?" She didn't think he and Bonnie had spent any time together over winter break, but she might have been wrong.

"I'm fine," Tyler answered and wiped his mouth again for good measure. "Are you?"

Caroline brought her hand down to caress his cheek. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure, Tyler," she said with a smile. "I mean it hurt like a bitch, but it wasn't like I could do anything else. I told you I had your back."

Tyler smiled. It was small, but it was there.

Caroline pulled him in and kissed him.

Tyler closed his eyes out of habit, but he opened them when his mind stayed completely aware of everything that was happening. It didn't get foggy or hazy; it operated like normal. He pressed his lips against hers, but it didn't go any deeper than that, mentally, physically, or emotionally.

The most unnecessary thought formed in his mind after Caroline ended the kiss: he wondered if Bonnie was okay. Obviously she was okay: she was the only one that hadn't been choked or slammed by Rebekah. Yet he still wondered how she was faring after the ordeal. He should've asked.

Caroline wasn't the type that was turned on by blood, so the smell of it on Tyler's mouth, more than the taste of it, made her cut the kiss short. She licked her lips and tried hard not to wipe it instead. Sex and blood weren't married where she was concerned. Blood was food, nothing more. Now she could get turned on by someone drinking blood or otherwise exposing it in a violent act (the thought of it alone was enough to get her going), but she didn't need it in her kisses or her sex life. Tyler poisoning Rebekah hadn't been savage enough to turn her on, so it had only stirred the part of her brain that processed disgust.

"I'm gonna go find Matt."

"Okay," he answered. "Be careful."

She nodded. She still felt like wiping her mouth after she left the bathroom, but she dealt with the smell, thinking that Tyler would somehow feel it if she wiped it off, and it would give him more reason to look at Bonnie like that again. She couldn't fathom why the hell he'd be looking at Bonnie fresh off of poisoning a vampire.


Bonnie stopped by the gym to collect her things and then led Kim to her car.

"Rebekah's car is here," Kim realized after Bonnie unlocked the doors. "Not here in this parking lot," she amended when Bonnie looked around, "But it's somewhere around the school. I know she drove here. Maybe there's something in there about the person who woke her up."

"Maybe, but Tyler's sitting on a bathroom floor, waiting for that dagger. Text him, and he'll tell Caroline to look for the car," Bonnie said. She entered the car and threw her bag on the back seat. If Mr. Hill was incensed over the vending machines, a knocked out and poisoned Original vampire in one of his bathrooms would send his blood pressure through the roof.

Kim almost said that Caroline doesn't know what Rebekah's car looks like, but then she remembered that Tyler could tell her, and then she remembered that Rebekah was for some reason a student in Mystic Falls High School, so Caroline probably knew exactly what the car looked like.

Bonnie turned on the ignition, and they were off. Her body felt empty without the buzz, but the space between her legs felt heavy. She was horny with no opportunity for release in sight.

She and Kim were silent during the drive. She drove ten miles above the speed limit whenever she had room while Kim gave directions, and they arrived at Rebekah's place.

"What if her partner's inside the house?" Kim asked.

Bonnie looked at her as she parked. What an ugly possibility to bring up now. "We'll just have to deal with it."

They got out and cased the neighborhood. Quiet. They walked to the door, both paranoid that someone was going to see them and ask them what business they had at the house.

"There's an alarm in the house," Kim suddenly remembered.

"Are you serious?" Bonnie whispered. "She can't protect herself from getting daggered by Klaus, but she can safeguard her house? What do we do now?"

"Break in," Kim said like it should be obvious. "And get the dagger before the cops come."

That didn't sound like a good idea at all, as far as Bonnie was concerned. "You don't know the passcode?"

"No. I stand a better chance of knowing Klaus' passcode. And I don't know that one either."

Bonnie sighed. Her stomach was in knots. Setting off an alarm and alerting the neighbors had served perfectly well to kill her arousal. Better than a cold shower, truly.

"Alright. Let's do this." She pushed her right hand forward and threw the door open, breaking the lock in the process. The alarm immediately started to shrill.

The girls ran inside, and Bonnie went to close the door, but Kim sped to her side and grabbed her wrist. She gasped and balled the hand Kim held into a fist when death crawled on her skin.

"Fingerprints. Relax," Kim said. It was her idea to break in, but she didn't want to get caught. She was on edge after this whole thing with Rebekah.

Bonnie rubbed her fingers when Kim let go of her hand, and she used her telekinesis to close the door. "A little tip for the future? Vampires touching witches is not very pleasant for the witches, so you might want to….ease into it."

"It's not just vampires. It's ghosts and zombies and anything that's not alive. You guys are, like, allergic." She paused. "You do know that, right?"

"I missed that class."

"I miss the days when I used to be able to detect anything supernatural. I can't even make out a vampire anymore. My vampire side has killed that sense dead." She sighed and turned from Bonnie to assess the living room, and she realized the task before them. "Please tell me there's a spell you can use to make this go quicker."

"Actually, there is," Bonnie said. She'd completely forgotten. "But it's an ability, not a spell."

Kim sighed in relief and then waited for her to do whatever it was. She lifted her shoulders when Bonnie did nothing.

"What if it's not here?" Bonnie asked.

"Don't do that."

"If I woke an Original, I'd want to keep the dagger as leverage."

Kim dropped her head back. "Do you see Rebekah going for that?" she asked after she righted herself.

"Do you see her having a choice?"

"Okay, well we won't know until you do your thing, so," she gestured at Bonnie, "do your thing."

Bonnie breathed and closed her eyes. She held her hands at her side, similar to when she'd done the seal. This type of locating put no stress on her body. She envisioned a lot of things in order to call the dagger: the dagger itself, to the best of her memory, Rebekah, the fact that it was harmful to Rebekah, the possibility that it might be stored in something, the fact that it's tucked away somewhere. Without a picture of the dagger in it's current state, she had to work with all of that. She felt herself connect to something and pulled. And then her body relaxed.

When she opened her eyes, the dagger was hovering in front of her. She reached out and grabbed it by the handle, and then looked at a smiling Kim.

"Let's get out of here," Bonnie said.


Caroline ran to the library and yanked the door open. She searched around wildly and found Matt pushing a cart nearly empty of books. "Thank God. Hey," she called his attention when she was close enough. "What are you doing here? Since when do you help out at the library?"

"I don't. But April does. I ran into her after the assembly, and she asked me to help her out."

"Did you see anyone else hanging here? Anyone suspicious?"

"Uh, no? Why?"

"Because Rebekah Mikaelson is back, and she put a hit out on you in the form of a compelled Hybrid who was supposed to tear you to pieces."

"What?"

"Yeah. But it's okay. It didn't work, and now she's knocked out in the bathroom and awaiting a comfy little dagger in her heart."

"Who woke her up?"

"No idea. But she wanted to make a statement."

"By killing me." He thought Rebekah liked him.

"Yeah. Guess your looks have their limits," she said sympathetically. She smiled when Matt looked dubious. "Okay, I have to get back to Tyler," she said as she began to walk backwards, "But be careful."

"I will."

She turned then stopped. She looked back and asked, "Hey Matt, where's April?"

"She had a lot of homework, said she had to leave."

Caroline nodded slowly.

"Please don't tell me you're thinking she took the dagger out of Rebekah. She's still wearing the vervain bracelet Jeremy gave her; she wouldn't know anything about any of this."

"Wait, vervain? When did April get vervain?"

"Jeremy gave it to her after you compelled her to forget the Connor thing. What is it?

"I also compelled her to forget a conversation she overheard me having on the phone with Stefan. I'm pretty sure I mentioned where Rebekah was! Are you kidding me?!"

She swung towards the door, blonde hair flying, and left.


Elena was over the day. She was annoyed by Mr. Hill's threat, but the real problem was the emptiness that she felt. Something was missing. Damon was missing. She wanted so badly to touch him and be with him in the most intimate way possible. She would give anything to be in the same room as that abrasive personality that only softened around her; for the wild baby blues and dispassionate demeanor that was his default because years of upbringing by his father had instilled in him a sense of always being judged. The last was her own diagnosis. But she would give anything to be with him. Yet she was barred from giving a single scrap. He'd used the sire bond to make her keep her distance. And now her heart ached and calling him was no use because he'd made up his mind about what he thought was best for her. She was tired of people underestimating her, insisting on covering her in the purest of pure white. She was fine with it when she was human, had even subtly encour-

"Elena."

She froze. Which was a stupid thing to do when an Original vampire was nearby, and she had very much come to associate a British accent with the Originals. This one was male. And lacked the gravel always present in Klaus' voice. She turned and standing across from her was Kol Mikaelson.

"I don't believe we were ever formally introduced," Kol said as he continued to approach her.

Elena swallowed. She hadn't seen Stefan at school today and had no idea where Bonnie or Caroline was. She stood her ground. "We have. You were watching my brother and waiting to kill him in Denver."

"Ah. Life is full of so many more interesting things: I forgot."

"What are you doing here, Kol? Running another errand for Klaus?" It was completely unnecessary for her to antagonize him, especially without backup, but she wanted him to know that she saw the two of them as being on equal footing.

"Rebekah, actually," Kol answered. He looked around the hallway like Rebekah might've left arrows pointing him in her direction.

"Rebekah's lying in a coffin with a dagger in her chest."

He smiled at her. "No. A benevolent someone was so moved by the Christmas spirit that they freed her. After which she called me back to this sad town to help her extract some information out of you, Stefan Salvatore, Caroline, and whoever else she'd corralled into this building."

"You woke her up?"

"You're not listening." With that, he walked around her and continued his search for Rebekah.

Elena turned after him. "Wait! What did you do to Stefan? He's not here!"

Kol smiled at her over his shoulder and continued walking.

Elena pulled out her phone and dialed Stefan. No answer. She dialed Caroline.

In her part of the school, Caroline stopped running and pulled out her vibrating phone and noticed she had a text. She answered the call. "What is it?"

Elena balked at her tone. "What's wrong?"

"Crap's hitting the fan, what else? What's up?"

"I just ran into Kol Mikaelson."

"What? It's a freaking infestation!"

"What are you talking about?"

"I had a nice run-in with Rebekah earlier."

Elena looked behind her. "Caroline, be careful what you say. Kol's still in the building."

"Oh my God. Hold on." She pulled up the text. Maybe the message was a S.O.S. from Tyler.

The text was from Tyler, but it read: Did you find Matt? Rebekah's car is outside. Might find who she's working with. Check it out.

Well, that was going to have to wait. Besides, it looked like they had an answer to that question. Two answers, maybe. She texted Tyler: KOL MIKAELSON IS HERE!

She then copied and pasted the message to Bonnie.

"Caroline," Elena stressed.

Caroline put the phone back on her ear. "What?"

"I think he has Stefan."

"What? Did you call him?"

"Of course."

"Okay, you know what? I cannot deal with this. Call Damon and tell him to get his ass over here."

"He's training Jeremy at the lake ho-"

"Call him! And where are you? We need to stick together."


Tyler picked up his phone when it buzzed, and he read the text. "Shit."

He stood and ran to the door and turned off the light. The seal would be useless in keeping Kol out. He texted Caroline to ask her if she was okay and hoped Kol wasn't doing something stupid like honing in on the minute sounds of fingers typing on a screen. There was no way they were lucky enough to subdue two Original vampires on the spot.


"Shit," Bonnie cursed when she read the text.

"What?" Kim asked.

"Kol Mikaelson's here. At the school."

Kim would've sank into her seat in defeat if she had less dignity. All that was left was for Klaus to show up, and she was a dead girl. A permanently dead girl.

"Okay," Bonnie said, already raking her mind for defensive spells. "When we get to the school, you stay out of sight."

Sounded like a magnificent plan to Kim.

When they got to the school, Bonnie grabbed one of the jackets she could never remember to take out of the car and wrapped it around the dagger. There was no way she was going to risk poking a hole in the precious and expensive cardigan that she was wearing.

She walked inside the school and made a decision. This dagger was for Kol first and Rebekah second. Rebekah was already out of their hair for two weeks. Kol, on the other hand….

She prowled up and down the hallways, ready to bump into him at every turn, ready for him to sneak up behind her, ready to telekinetically send the dagger into his heart. But she saw sign of him. She then nervously made her way to Tyler.


Tyler heard the hurried shuffle of feet coming toward him and hoped it wasn't someone he'd have to kill. He backed away from the door and widened his stance.

At the door, Bonnie looked down the hallway to make sure no one was spying, and then she pushed the door open. She gasped as her heart jumped up to her throat, and she raised the jacket-covered dagger when she saw Tyler just standing in the dark.

"Jesus," Tyler sighed in relief. He turned on the light and pulled her inside and gently closed the door in case her gasp had attracted Kol's attention. He turned to Bonnie. She still looked shocked. The hand holding what he presumed was the dagger was still in its attack position. Hugging her was a no brainer.

Bonnie wrapped her arms around his neck and tried to relax. "I suddenly got so scared. There's no one in the hallways, and I kept expecting him to come up behind me."

Tyler hugged her closer, but it was he who closed his eyes and relaxed against her. He'd been scared too, isolated with an unconscious Rebekah while Kol looked for her. For him.

Bonnie was on the balls of her feet. He almost had her off the ground. And he was strong and soft but hard at the same time and kind of warm for a vampire. Maybe it was the Alpha part that gave him more heat. Maybe being an Alpha made the werewolf part of him more dominant than the vampire part. And he smelled really good.

Tyler lowered one of his arms to her waist, but stopped himself short of picking her up. She was tinier than he was used to. Both of his past serious girlfriends had been taller than him.

He sobered at the fact that he'd just compared Bonnie's height to two ex girlfriends as if he wasn't still with one of them.

He wanted to feel every part of her as she separated from him, so he ended the hug slowly.

Bonnie felt like she'd been interrupted. She wasn't ready for the hug to end. But that didn't matter, because the door burst open and Elena walked in with Caroline. Matt bumped into the seal, and the door closed in his face.

Tyler turned abruptly, his skin prickling, not because he thought Kol was coming in, but because he thought Caroline was coming in. And she was. But thankfully, Elena walked in first. This wasn't something he wanted to halfway explain.

Bonnie was about sick and tired of her stomach twisting itself in knots. She left Tyler and followed Elena to Rebekah, because she didn't want to deal with looking at Caroline and whatever she might've seen, even though she and Tyler had stopped touching when the door opened.

Caroline noticed that Tyler and Bonnie were apparently hanging out in the bathroom while a homicidal Original was stalking the school? She couldn't figure out why they hadn't texted to let everyone know they'd reunited. She'd taken Elena to join Matt and the librarian who was getting ready to lock the doors, and then Elena had gotten impatient and insisted on joining Tyler.

But now wasn't the right time to question Tyler on why he hadn't sent out an alert.

Tyler was trying to figure out why the bathroom suddenly had a hell of a lot more people than before. Not that he wasn't glad to see Matt and Elena safe, but he wanted to know what they knew about the situation.

"I have the dagger," Bonnie announced to the room.

"Where's Kim?" Tyler asked her.

"Where's Kol?" Caroline asked her.

"Uh, guys?" Matt interrupted from behind the closed door. "I'm kind of stuck out here?"

Bonnie hesitated.

"We mainly need it for Kol now, and you said it was only mortals, right?" Tyler asked.

"Oh, right," Bonnie said. She was getting mixed up with the spells. She'd been envisioning lowering the seal so they could pull Matt in before Kol showed up. She walked to the door and opened it. She recited the words to release the seal. "Vultis dimittam tenuit….hanc meam."

The fauces turned on, and she stepped back to let Matt in. Matt tested it by putting his hand over the threshold. He walked inside, and Bonnie closed the door behind him.

Caroline turned the faucets off.

"I told Kim to stay outside," Bonnie revealed as she walked to where the others were huddled. "Kol doesn't need to see her. And I think he left. I went up and down the hallways hoping to drive this into him." She unveiled the dagger. "But I didn't see him."

"That's not good," Elena said and stood up from where she'd been inspecting Rebekah. "He's got Stefan."

"Anybody got Kol's number?" Matt asked with just a tiny bit of sarcasm. Stefan hadn't exactly come to his rescue when Damon had threatened to kill him for Elena becoming a vampire. It was one thing for him to think he was beyond indebted to Elena. It was another for the two people who had killed his sister to be telling him the same thing.

Tyler crossed his arms and asked Elena, "What exactly do you know about what's going on here?"

Caroline chastised him with a look.

Tyler acknowledged it and then waited for Elena to answer.

"Um, I know she tried to have Matt killed. I know you guys stopped her in time. Why?"

"No reason."

Caroline gave him a look that said see?

"Uh, guys?" Bonnie questioned. "May I have the honor?" Not that they had much choice. Only her and Matt could wield the dagger.

"Wait," Elena said. "We need her to tell us where Stefan is."

Bonnie looked at Tyler who said, "No way."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean no way. The guy's been alive for 100 years, Elena; we don't need Rebekah to find him. Besides, Kol's still in town; go knock on his door." He walked to Rebekah's body and kneeled opposite Bonnie and told her with his eyes to do it.

Bonnie held the dagger over Rebekah's heart.

"Bonnie," Elena protested.

Bonnie made the dagger touch Rebekah's chest and then leaned her weight on it. Piercing someone's heart took a lot more force than she expected. Before she could use her power to sink it in to the hilt, Matt came over.

He dropped his backpack. "Here." He added his strength to hers and they drove it through.

"Thanks," Bonnie said with a smile. She had wanted to do it by herself.

They all watched Rebekah ashen as grey veins covered her body.

"Good riddance," Caroline said.

"Now we hide her," Tyler said. He hated that Elena was here. He might as well call Stefan to hide the body for him. He'd planned on telling Caroline and Bonnie that no one could find out about Rebekah waking up. But now there was no point. Elena would tell either Stefan or Damon, which meant Klaus was going to find out. He needed to keep Kim's name out of it. Caroline had kept her from Elena, for which he was thankful. But he still felt like explicitly stating that the others must not know how exactly Rebekah planned to kill Matt.

"We can hide her in the Salvatore boarding house," Elena volunteered. When she looked at Tyler, she knew her idea was about to get shut down.

"I'll hide her," Bonnie said, knowing that Tyler and Kim's secret needed to stay with Rebekah. The chances of that were low if Stefan and Damon could call up Matt or Jeremy to take the dagger out. "And no one needs to know where."

"How are you going to carry her out of the school?" Tyler asked.

"I'll help," Caroline volunteered quickly.

Tyler would rather be the one to help Bonnie, considering Caroline and Klaus seemed to talk more and more lately, but he kept quiet.

"What are we going to do about Stefan?" Elena asked. She barely succeeded in keeping the impatience out of her voice. She had called Damon, but he hadn't been successful in reaching Stefan either. He'd said he was on his way back, but she'd told him to hold off, that she and Bonnie could find him.

"You and I can look for Stefan," Matt said.

"I think we should go to Klaus' place, let him know Kol's here, and he'll find him and find Stefan."

Tyler grabbed his jacket off the floor and walked out. If he stayed for any more bullshit that weren't in his interest or that of his pack, he would go off.

"What is his problem?" Elena asked.

Caroline sighed. "Nothing. Let's get this over with," she said to Bonnie.


Bonnie's solution was to hide Rebekah in the tomb under Old Fell's Church. Caroline carried the unconscious vampire deep inside the tomb, and Bonnie locked her in with two separate seals. Earth would keep vampires and Hybrids out. Fire, which she made by lighting the old torches, would keep humans out. Splitting the elements into two seals instead of combining them in one made the seals weaker, but combining them for a stronger seal also meant a stronger spell needed to be performed which meant more health risks for the witch.

She used her telekinesis to place the door in front of the entrance. Emily's inverted pentagram stared at her.

"That was creepy," Caroline said as she patted her dress. "I've never been inside the tomb before. I felt like I wouldn't be able to get out."

"It certainly has a reputation," Bonnie said and turned to leave.

"Hey listen, are you into my boyfriend?"

There went another knot in her stomach. "Excuse me?"

"Are you…" Caroline asked as she slowly walked up to her, "into...my boyfriend? Are you into Tyler?"

"No. Of course not."

"Good. I really hope not," Caroline said and walked past her. On her way out of the tomb, she said, "If you're really hard up, the creepy professor seemed to like hanging around you."

Bonnie looked after her and blinked faster than she needed to when she realized she'd been insulted two-fold.


She was beat when she made it home. She took a warm shower and explained to her father what had happened. Being honest with him was still strange even after almost a year of it, but as long as he kept himself from physically getting involved, she would tell him almost anything he wanted to hear.

It was now 10:58pm, and she's been ready for bed since she came home at 5:30. She was washing her plate and fork after the second dinner she'd eaten when someone knocked on her door. She paused her soapy hands in the sink and hoped it wasn't Klaus. She'd dropped Caroline off at the school after a very silent ride. Tyler and Kim had left, and Elena had texted to say that Stefan had called her from his front door after waking up from a snapped neck.

So who was at her door now?

She answered it before her father came back down to the television. And then remembered that she was in her sleepwear: an old shirt she'd received as a gift during her summer as a lifeguard and shorts so short that her buttcheeks hung out of them. Her hair was wrapped, and she was wearing flip flops. So of course the person on the other side of the door was Tyler, showered, wearing a different outfit from earlier, but still as hot and actually ready for company. The only thing they had in common was that he looked as tired as she did.

Tyler cocked his head. Here was an unexpected visual.

Bonnie closed her eyes. "Can we please pretend I'm not wearing what I'm wearing?" She thanked God for a small favor: she was wearing a bra.

"Uh, sure. What would you like me to pretend you're wearing?"

Bonnie opened her eyes. She was a little rusty, but she was positive that counted as flirting. She crossed her arms over her chest. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to check on you. Can I come in, or do you make all your guests stand at the door?" The question was out of his mouth before he remembered that he was a vampire, and she might have reservations about inviting him in.

Bonnie didn't need time to ponder his danger level. "Come in." He hesitated, which she appreciated, and she raised her brows.

Tyler smiled and walked in.

Bonnie led him to the kitchen and made sure to keep her hands over her butt. Tyler wasn't looking at that, however. He was interested in the layout of her living room.

"Who is it?!" Her father screamed down.

"Tyler! Lockwood!" Bonnie yelled up. She got to the sink and turned and crossed her arms again.

Tyler put his hands in his pockets. "How are you?"

"I'm fine."

"I just….wanted to make sure you were okay after the whole thing earlier, you know, with Rebekah."

Bonnie smiled. "I'm fine. I'm the only one who didn't get hurt."

"I also wanted to thank you. For everything you did."

"It was nothing," she said with the shrug of a shoulder.

"You saved Kim's life, and you put Rebekah down. You found the dagger. Klaus won't find out what she found out. You saved my entire pack and me. That sounds like everything."

Bonnie smiled, bashful. Apparently instant shyness when a cute boy complimented her magical skills was a thing with her. Her heart trembled. In an effort to snap herself out of it, she asked, "So why didn't compulsion work on her?"

"Because I'm an Alpha. She's not just a Hybrid anymore; she's part of a pack. Werewolves can't be compelled by vampires, and she thinks that because our werewolf side is dominant enough for us to be a pack; it's protecting us from compulsion. I think she's right."

"That's very good. But it could also mean trouble with Klaus since they all still live with him."

"I know. She's going to tell the others not to give him any attitude."

She nodded. "So, um, where's Caroline?" she asked with a shrug of one shoulder.

"Uh, home, I think."

"Oh. I'm surprised to see you without her. She's been stuck to you like glue since school opened. Which is probably a bad thing to say considering what happened to her today," she said and rolled her eyes at her inappropriateness. Caroline had gotten slammed so hard on the ground that she'd been out of it for a good minute, and here she was being petty because of the comment she'd made in the tomb earlier.

Tyler smiled.

Bonnie cleared her throat. "Did you hear Stefan's okay?"

Tyler blinked slowly. "Yeah."

Bonnie chuckled. "You really don't like him." The group got annoyed with Damon all the time, but no one spoke a word or displayed any emotions against Stefan as far as she knew. Jeremy was disgusted by him for what he'd done to her mother, and he now really hated him after he'd forced Jeremy to kill a freshly turned convict two months ago. Other than that…..

Tyler said, "He doesn't give a damn about what I'm trying to do, said that what he wants is bigger than me, and then I kept his ass hostage for a little bit because I could."

"When did this happen?"

"The day of the festival."

"Wow. No wonder Caroline was mad at you. He's like her third best friend."

"Yeah, she was kind of there, too. She could've left any time she wanted, but she chose to stick with him." In more ways than one.

Bonnie nodded. "How's Kim doing?"

"She's fine. She found Rebekah's car after you told her to stay outside. The passenger window was smashed. Someone probably grabbed something, and that something was probably Rebekah's cell phone."

"Question is: was it Kol or was it April? If it was Kol, and there's something in there about April, then she's screwed."

"I don't know, but Kol's staying in town."

"What?"

Tyler nodded. "He was there when Kim got back to Klaus'. Turns out he won't bother looking for Rebekah himself, but he will fill Klaus in on what's going on so that he can look for her. He was all set to leave, but Klaus asked him to stay until he figured out what was going on."

"Does he know that Kim…?"

"No."

Bonnie understood now why he looked tired. The crisis wasn't averted. Rebekah was down, but Kol was still around. "He told Elena that Rebekah had hoped to compel her, Stefan and Caroline to get information. I'm guessing Kol was reinforcement. Did Klaus say what he planned on doing to find Rebekah?"

"He came to my house. He wanted to know if I'd seen anything or heard anything. I told him no. I'm positive he didn't believe me, especially since Caroline was involved. Shit."

"What?"

"I need to call Caroline and tell her not to tell Klaus anything."

"He might compel it out of her." Or he might not. She wasn't sure what their common mode of operation was.

Klaus could've tried to compel him. Which is why he had wanted to give him Bonnie. He'd wanted to tell him as much of the truth as he could: Bonnie had incapacitated Rebekah and then daggered her. But he hadn't wanted Bonnie to be blindsided, so he'd taken the risk and lied to Klaus.

"Listen," he began, "This is the worst thing I could possibly ask, and I really hate doing it, but...I need to be smart about this. For the sake of my pack. And smart is you. Remember I told you Hayley had a witch that she wanted to use to help me out with something?"

"Yeah."

"I'm going to kill Klaus. That's the something. That's what all of this is about for me, and the only people who knew were the pack, Hayley, and Caroline, but she went and told Stefan once this whole cure thing came into play-"

"And that's why they told you they needed Klaus: because he has the sword." More than anyone, Bonnie knew how bad it was for a Salvatore to be aware of a secret plan.

"Yeah. They want me to hold off on killing him until after they get the cure, and I still don't care. But this is getting out of hand. Rebekah knows at least one Hybrid can't be compelled, and now Kol's here. We need to move in on Klaus as soon as possible. I still don't trust Hayley." He hesitated. "But I do trust you. I've seen what you can do. Can you please help us?"

Bonnie lifted her shoulders and looked up at the ceiling.

"You don't have to say yes."

"Oh, I'm going to say yes," she chuckled.

"But you don't have to."

"I'm just thinking about how that's going to complicate what I'm trying to do. Going after Klaus is working against the goal of getting the cure; it's working against Stefan, Damon, and Elena, and if I do that-"

"So you can't do it, then."

"I didn't say that."

"You just said that killing Klaus would work against you-"

"Yeah, but I don't need him to find the cure, especially if I get my hands on that sword."

"But you need him alive to have Stefan believe you're looking for the cure for Elena. Even if he does die, you can't have anything to do with it, otherwise they're going to question you."

"What are you doing? You asked for my help."

"Yeah, but I don't want you to say yes just because it's what you're used to saying! I'm not some nameless nobody that you can just say yes to without thinking about it. If you can't do it, then say no. I need your help, but it's not gonna break me or my pack if I don't get it."

"You know what? I think it's time for you to go. Clearly we're at the part of the conversation where you tell me I'm a brainless witch on auto pilot, which means you've said everything you need to say, so let me show you the door." She walked around him and didn't look back to see if he was following. She pulled the door open and put a hand on her hip and waited for him to leave.

Tyler kicked himself the whole way. When he got to the door, he paused in front of her.

Bonnie kept her eyes on the dark and quiet street.

"I'm sorry."

"Deja vu," she responded.

Right. He'd insulted her in detention, and then he'd insulted her at the festival and apologized at the festival. "I know," he acknowledged. "I really am sorry. I just...that's not how I wanted it to come out. That's not how I wanted any of it to come out. It wasn't even what I wanted to talk about. I want you to help me because you can and you're able to, not because you can't help but help. This day turned upside down in the blink of an eye: I almost lost someone else from my pack; we almost got caught; we could still get caught; the others are wondering why I'm not just going with Hayley's plan, and while all of that is going on they are still living with Klaus. And now with Rebekah figuring out that our pupils don't dilate, how long until Klaus figures it out?

I just feel like we're more behind than we were when this all started, and that's what I've been thinking about since I left the school, and it got worse after Kim texted me that Kol was staying in town. But at the end of this stressful ass day, I just wanted to kiss you. We dodged Rebekah, and we dodged Kol, and I just wanted to check on you and kiss you. Just hold you like before, in the bathroom, and just...relax. But I can't. We can't, because you walked away, and I have a girlfriend who's sticking to me like glue. So we're talking about this instead."

Bonnie swallowed. She wanted to kiss him, too. Now that he'd put it out there, she wanted to kiss him, and it would be really nice if he held her like earlier. She'd thought maybe the rest of winter break had cooled whatever he'd been feeling during the festival and even before that. She'd thought that their lack of communication meant the desire had passed. But here he was, telling her she'd thought wrong.

But she let him walk out of the house. He apologized again, and he wished her a good night, and she remained silent, and he left.