Chapter 2:

"Rise and shine BonBon," Kol said gently but Bonnie bolted upright completely startled that not only was he in her bedroom but he was watching her sleep. He cried out and fell off the bed as he was jolted by several aneurysms. She had become far more powerful than he had anticipated. Finally the pain stopped and Bonnie peered off the opposite side of the bed.

"What are you doing in my bedroom?"

"Watching you sleep," Kol smirked and Bonnie blushed before making sure her hair wasn't a mess. "Come on, get dressed we had a project this morning before we get started with your detox."

"If I prove to you that I can control this will you leave me alone?" Bonnie sighed flustered.

"Yes I promise," Kol said evenly. It was an easy promise to make. Bonnie hurried to grab a shower and get dressed. When she emerged from her bathroom she was ready for the day and he was scrolling through her iPhone. This earned him another jolt as she grabbed the phone away. They walked around the back way to the Gilbert house and Jeremy let them through the back door.

"I'm not refereeing a fight here," Bonnie growled in warning. She always seemed to be full of so much anger these days.

"No need," Kol and Jeremy grinned at one another and Bonnie was obviously surprised. "We need you to put a new protection on the house to rescind the invitations of all previous vampires."

"Okay I can do that," Bonnie said. "Everyone in the backyard." She closed her eyes and began to chant. Jeremy's eyes grew wide and worried as he saw the black veins creeping up her arms and her eyes the color of onyx.

"What happened to her?" Jeremy worried.

"That's Expression," Kol said and it was obvious that he shared the same worries. Now he really had a point to prove to Bonnie. Closing his eyes he tried to creep into her mind. As expected as soon as he encountered the expression magic Bonnie cried out and then suddenly Kol's neck snapped and he dropped to the ground. As Bonnie finished the spell she snapped out of the almost trance she had been in. She saw Jeremy on the ground with Kol.

"What happened?" she asked.

"You snapped his neck Bonnie. He was trying to help you and you snapped his neck," Jeremy said. Kol opened his eyes a few minutes later.

"Did you finish?" he asked.

"Of course I finished."

"Well let's test it out then," Kol said. Jeremy stepped inside but Kol was stopped by the threshold. "Perfect."

"Well how about it 'mate' would you like to come in?" Jeremy grinned and Kol clapped Jeremy on the shoulder as he walked into the house.

A while later they returned to Bonnie's house. She had been quiet and withdrawn ever since Kol had reawakened. She was in the process of pouring a glass of tea when her anger got the better of her and the glass shattered in her hands cutting her in the process. Kol watched as she stared at the blood a moment. Then she began to heal herself as the lights in the house flickered.

"It's taking over Bonnie," Kol broke the silence. "It broke my neck this afternoon as soon as I tried to get in and see how bad it was. The more you use it the more it's going to gain ground until you can't stop." Tears were slipping down Bonnie's cheeks.

"It's too late Kol"

"I won't take that for an answer. I know how to help you and we're going to get through this, together. It's not too late," his voice was gentle and Bonnie finally turned to look at him.

"How you couldn't get into my mind?"

"My blood Bonnie; it will remove the expression as sure as it was venom coursing through your veins," Kol said. "It won't be pretty and it will probably hurt a great deal but I will be here Bonnie."

"Why do you care so much?" Bonnie growled and he knew the anger was the expression asserting itself.

"Because I care about you Bonnie."

VVVV

That afternoon Bonnie sat on her bed and as Kol had instructed she was trying to talk to the spirits. They had forsaken her and she had turned to Expression magic but she needed them to take her back. She kept trying to light a candle – something that requires light magic. It used to be easy for her but she couldn't get it to light. She felt abandoned once again.

Kol came in after an hour or so and sat on the bed with her.

"Okay, it's time to start cleansing you. Now I'm going to draw the Expression out of your blood and then give you my blood to start cleansing you," Kol instructed. He settled on the bed and tried to pull her close but she jerked away and sat stiffly next to him. "Okay," he sighed. "Here it goes."

He bit into her neck and she cried out. Her blood tasted tainted but Kol knew he would be okay. He drank as much as he could though she began to fight him towards the end. Finally as he heard her heartbeat lessen he pulled away and then he opened his wrist and held it to her. She resisted at first but finally he was able to get some into her. She frowned at the taste.

The real problem began a while later as she began to moan and writhe in pain. Kol had been texting to take care of some business but her moans brought him to her bedside. She was feverish and obviously in pain. It was working. He opened his wrist and fought to get more blood in her. Then he brought her some tea.

She fought the fever all night and even bolted awake in the blackness of night but true to his word Kol was there beside her. Her veins seemed to be on fire as a war raged inside her body. The next morning she felt a little better. She took her coffee and walked out back. The morning was still and beautiful; dew still on the grass. She slipped off her shoes and settled her feet into the moist grass. The grass beneath her feet withered and turned black. She watched in shock as the blackness spread out around her.

Kol had come to check on her and he flashed to her side as he saw the horror on her face. He wrapped his arms around her and she buried her head against his chest and cried. He looked at the five foot in diameter circle of dead nature and realized just how close he had come to losing his Bennett witch.

"You haven't come in direct contact with nature since you completed the expression sacrifices have you?" he asked.

"No…it was dying all around me," Bonnie sniffled as she slipped her shoes back on.

"Expression is dark magic Bonnie," Kol reaffirmed, "darker than the magic my mother used to make us vampires."

"What if I can't get my real magic back? What if the spirits have forsaken me?" Bonnie worried.

"Well there are other options but I don't think it will come to that," Kol said. That afternoon he started with the blood exchange again. He blood didn't taste quite as toxic this time which told Kol that he was on the right path. The second time he drew he blood much later in the evening instead of being stiff she settled against his chest and he held her tenderly as she struggled through the detox.

"I won't leave you darling, I promise," he vowed tenderly against her ear. She was already half-delirious with fever but he hoped that deep within she knew that he meant it.

VVVV

Elena was sitting in the Compound with Caroline, both telling the dark skinned vampire-Marcel Gerard-about what was going on in Mystic Falls as well as why they left.

They're not worth the tears she scolded herself. None of them-except for Jeremy, Bonnie and Liz-were worth her tears nor did they deserve them.

Liz, her second mother, the one who watched over her before Jenna came into her life…

With newfound fury and anger boiling inside her, she wanted to rip Damon's pathetic heart out and squeeze it in her hands, in front of Katherine before making sure that she suffered the same fate as well.

Caroline noticed that her sister was tethering on the edge of shutting it off and keeping it on when she whispered, "don't leave me. I can't lose you as well."

That sealed it for her-she wasn't going to shut it off, not for her sister. She looked and Caroline wanted to let it out, to let go of all this pain that was inside her. Pulling her into her arms, she held her as the tears fell.

"She was your mom Care," Elena whispered softly. "Let it out. We can grieve her here and we will be safe."

Marcel nodded to them. "You're both not gonna leave the Compound without telling me or one of my vamps as I don't want Kol coming here and killing me if anything bad happens to you both."

Elena smiled at him but it was marred by the look in her eyes. It was the same look that he'd seen on Elijah a couple of times when he was growing up and someone's pissed him off.

It was pure, unadulterated fury and it was all directed at the ones named Katherine Pierce and Damon Salvatore.

"Thierry-show Elena to her room," Marcel said to his right hand man who nodded. Turning to Caroline, he smiled. "I have a feeling Caroline and I are going to talk for a bit, if you don't mind." He added, as his eyes never wavered from her big blue ones.

"I don't." Her voice was small, softer than he's ever known a voice to be and it broke his undead heart.

It was that moment that made him want to fix her to the best of his abilities. He knelt down in front of her and whispered, "I'll protect you Caroline. No one will hurt you."

"How can I believe you?" She wanted to but how could she? Everyone that she was friends with-everyone except for Elena, Bonnie and Kol-happened to be against her as well as her choice to leave Mystic Falls but what did she have back there? An empty house and a cemetery filled with ghosts of her family.

No, she was going to make a new family here.

As he saw her stare into his eyes, he kissed her forehead lovingly, lightly, as he pulled her into his arms.

"I don't know how to make you believe it but I swear that I will." Moving her so that he carried her bridal style up to her room, she allowed her tears to fall onto his skin.

He knew that she only had Elena, Kol and a witch named Bonnie on her side but for him, they were her family and if any other Originals found these two girls he will personally throw them into the Garden to desiccate for lifetimes.

No matter the cost.

VVVV

Bonnie looked up at Kol as he placed fifteen grimoires on her dinner table. She looked up at him with a wary expression on her face.

"What do you want me to do?" He smirked at her expression.

"There's this magic that you have all bottled up inside of you and I want you to undergo a detox of sorts-to get rid of the black magic-before I have you do anything more that's related to magic."

She barely spared him a glance after the word 'detox'. She was fine! Yeah, she was craving a bit but wasn't that normal?

Getting up, she moved towards the kitchen to make herself some breakfast when Kol was right behind her.

"You're craving to use the magic at the moment," he told her and she wanted to slam him into something just for prying into her mind. "Bonnie-this magic is all consuming and the only way to get you cleaned of it is to do this detox I know."

VVVV

"I never really cared for jazz music much when I was younger," Caroline told Marcel as he took her to all the best places in the city that he ruled. "Now looking back at my life, I think that this music is soothing and good for the soul. My soul, at least."

Marcel nodded before swinging her around, making her laugh. "Thierry is the best at playing jazz-he and I rebuilt this place after the Originals left and their daddy chasing them. He was with me for the newest rebirth and when Katrina happened, we helped the supernatural here to begin their lives again."

"You've been doing a fine job Marcel." She told him and he was grinning, as her voice wasn't as sad as it was the night before.

"Whoever left you did the world a disservice." He told her with another spin.

He could see her eyes go sad as well as dark.

"My hybrid boyfriend cheated on me twice-once with this were skank named Hayley and another hybrid girl named Kim. Kim's dead and Hayley's slutting herself around in Mystic Falls the last I heard."

Well, if Marcel ever meets her ex hybrid boyfriend, Marcel was going to teach him a lesson about cheating.

Hell, he might make use of some of those chains he has in the Garden he was saving for Klaus if he ever showed up.

"…Elena and I have to go back to Mystic Falls for my mom's funeral…I'm afraid to go back there all by myself…" she was nervous, scared and Marcel knew why.

She would have to face everyone again. Holding her hand, she looked up and he smiled at her.

"You won't be alone-I'll go with you both." He ended up eyeing her daylight ring with disgust. "You deserve a better daylight ring and one that doesn't look like trash."

VVVV

It was two days later that the girls arrived in the dead of night, Caroline and Elena both had new daylight rings-Caroline's looked like it was something fit for a queen while Elena's was an Irish Claddagh ring made out of pure silver and the heart was the blue lapis lazuli stone.

Marcel saw Kol who he nodded to as well as the witch standing beside him and surrounding them were people he's only heard of.

The green-eyed boy with the blonde hair was Stefan, the other blue eyed and blonde haired boy was Matt and beside him was a brunette boy with brown-eyes.

"Jeremy." Elena whispered as she threw herself at him, her arms wrapping around him and he held her tightly in his own arms.

"I've missed you sis." He whispered and her tears finally shed.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV