I disclaim. I own nothing.

Chapter 4

The morning after Grams' died, Elena found herself being forced into consciousness by the steady buzzing of her cell in the back pocket of her jeans. It took a few minutes for her to remember the events of the previous night, but when she did it all came back so fast it nearly suffocated her. Opening the tomb, feeling her heartbreak upon realizing Stefan had gone in after her knowing he couldn't come back out. Chasing after him and witnessing Damon's distress upon discovering Katherine wasn't there.

She'd been surprised to learn just how badly she felt for Damon, not even fully aware of her actions until her arms were actually wrapped around him. But she couldn't deny that spending over a century loving and missing someone only to discover your pining was for naught…well, really it was something Elena couldn't even begin to imagine. And maybe she'd been a little relieved, seeing Damon's reaction and Stefan's indifference had gone a long way to proving what Katherine meant to each brother.

So she'd parted ways with them, leaving Stefan to deal with Damon while she went with Bonnie. And maybe that was selfish. But she was hoping to talk everything over with her best friend and get her help on how to deal with the situation that was now in front of her.

When she heard Bonnie scream, there had been a moment of disconnect. Her mind couldn't rationalize what was happening with what she knew. This was Bonnie. Bonnie, who found out she was a witch and dealt with it without Caroline and Elena being none the wiser. Who actually used her powers to cheer up Elena. Bonnie, who was haunted, possessed, and bitten by a vampire all in the same day. And ended up offering comfort instead of simply receiving it. Bonnie…dealt. Yet Bonnie was breaking down and Elena found herself at a loss for what to do.

Stefan hadn't helped, well that wasn't entirely true. He'd been the one to speak to the emergency workers and the coroner. But as far as Elena had been concerned Bonnie was all that mattered and he hadn't been able to tell her how to help. Sheriff Forbes, though well intentioned hadn't helped. Neither had Caroline. By the time Tyler showed up and seemed to know how to handled the young witch, Elena had been too grateful to even question his presence.

And now it was morning. Now the after and the between began. That time after the death and before the funeral. Elena didn't know what to do now, any more then she had the night before. The time between her parents accident and their funeral was such a blur of pain and grief it seemed to have never happened at all. In the back of her mind, she knew Bonnie had been there. She remembered the accident and the funeral. Logically she knew there were days between; but it was like her brain decided she didn't need to remember it. Honestly, she'd been glad for it. But now she wished she had something to draw on, anything, just to help Bonnie.

Her phone began to buzz again and absently she pulled it from her pocket and brought it to her ear. Her mind already so distracted she wasn't even fully aware of what she was doing. "Hello."

There was a pause on the other end. "Elena. I.." It was Damon. And Elena couldn't say she was use to him sounding so unsure of himself. "You know what, never mind."

"No," Elena spoke quickly before he could hang up. This she could handle. Where as the night before, Damon's problems seemed bigger then what she could deal with. Right now they were the only thing she felt she was capable of dealing with. She was a teenage girl in love with a vampire, who knew heartache better then she. "Damon wait." She eased out of the bed, making her way across the room so as not to disturb her friends. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." And she would have sworn she could actually hear his eyes rolling. "Was just wondering how you felt about another road trip. Figured you owed me one. You know, since I helped you after you found out Stefan wasn't who you thought he was."

Eyes on the bed, Elena missed whatever hidden meaning was there in Damon's words. Bonnie was on her back arms above her head, Caroline was on her side facing the door. A sad smile ghosted her lips as she realized it was the same why they slept as kids. They had even looked up what their sleep positions meant once and laughed at how close the meanings came to their actual personalities.

The smile fell. Before her parents accident she and Caroline had the same sleep positions, it was one of the reasons she and Caroline took the outside of the bed and Bonnie who slept flat on her back with her arms and legs spread was in the middle. But Elena slept in the fetal position now, usually falling asleep with her body wrapped around a pillow.

She didn't want that for Bonnie. Couldn't stand for that to happen to Bonnie. "I can't leave right now, Damon."

"Your loss."

"Do you really think leaving is the best thing for you right now. Why don't you stay? Let Stefan help you."

"Do what? Listen, Elena, I know in your sweet simple mind you must think I'm suffering oh so much. But really, I'm fine. I'm glad to have this monkey off my back."

Now it was Elena who rolled her eyes. She had no idea who he thought he was fooling. "Well can you at least come by here first. I'd like to see you before you go."

"Of course you do. I just need to know where 'here' is first."

"I'm at Bonnie's."

"Be there in a jiff."

This she could deal with. She'd get Damon to stay. Now that he learned what Katherine truly was, maybe he'd come to realize how far he'd fallen. That living, or not living, the way he did was pointless when it was all for a woman who didn't deserve his type of devotion. And then maybe Stefan could get his brother back.

With one last look at the bed she started down the stairs. She'd been expecting to find Stefan on the couch. She'd been wanting to find Stefan on the couch. But he wasn't there and she had a feeling he wasn't in the house at all. So she headed towards the kitchen, intending to put on a pot of coffee and hunting up something for them to eat. It was there she came across Tyler and Sheriff Forbes.

"It's strange."

With a frown, Elena looked across the kitchen at Caroline's mother. Instead of her uniform, she was wearing a pair grey slacks and a pale yellow cardigan over a white cami.. And for the teenager, that was strange. In all her life she could count on one hand the number of times she'd seen Sheriff Forbes out of uniform. "What is?"

"Bonnie's usually the first one up. When you girls were younger and you'd sleep over, I'd get up in the morning to find Bonnie already up and in front of the TV watching cartoons."

"She still is. As far as she's concerned the day's half over by eight. Morning, Tyler." She greeted the tired looking young man standing silently by the back door.

"Morning." Was his muttered reply.

"Elena," Sheriff Forbes motioned to her. "I tried calling Bonnie's father, but I keep getting his voice mail. Do you know if Bonnie has a phone number for the hotel he's staying in?"

"No. I guess I can go wake her up and ask." But she hated to do that. Would have actually preferred calling every hotel in Washington to waking Bonnie up.

"Don't do that." Tyler went to the corkboard hanging on the wall above the counter where the cordless phone charger set. Plucking an index card from a tack he handed it to Sheriff Forbes. "Here. His work cell is on there as well as the number to his hotel and the room he's staying in. Still don't see why you need to call him. It's not like he's going to rush back here or anything."

"He's her father, Tyler."

Tyler gave Sheriff Forbes a look that clearly stated his opinion on the matter. An opinion that closely mirrored Elena; Sean Bennett was only a father in the looses sense of the word. "That doesn't mean anything to him. Why should it mean anything to us?"

"Sheila was Sean's mother, he'll come back. He'll come back because Bonnie needs him right now."

"He doesn't know what Bonnie needs!" Tyler exploded. "And obviously neither do you." And with that he pushed open the back door and stalked out.

Elena could only give Caroline's mother a blank look when the other woman turned to her. They both opened their mouths to speak, but the words were bit back when Stefan, Matt, and Jeremy walked into the kitchen.

Whatever awkwardness that had existed between Matt and Elena was gone when they crossed the room to each other. "I'm sorry we didn't call." She mumbled against his chest. "You're her friend, too."

"Hey, you guys had other things on your mind. Tyler called first thing this morning. It's no problem."

Elena nodded, though she really didn't think it was. "Hey," She moved out of Matt's arms to hug her brother. It was odd to find the awkwardness here, with him.

"Jenna went grab some bagels and stuff." He began, clearly not sure what to do with himself. "She figured you guys might be hungry or something."

"Right." And she left him alone. He was here, which was more then she would have been able to say for him a few months ago. Not to mention the fact that she was eager to go to Stefan, to find the strength she needed for Bonnie in his arms.

Sliding her hands under the black North Face pullover he wore, she felt the warmth of his skin. And knew he'd left to go feed.

"You okay?" He asked as he pulled Elena gently out to the front porch.

"It's not me you should be worried about."

Framing her face in his hands, Stefan pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. "You break, so does Bonnie. I'll worry about you, so you can worry about her."

Because it was absolutely the most perfect thing he could say at that moment, Elena wrapped her arms tightly around his waist. "Who's going to worry about you, then?"

"Well his big brother of course."

Elena jumped, because honestly she forgot she'd even spoke to Damon this morning. And really, appearing out of no where was just never the right thing to do.

"I'm better off on my own." Stefan deadpanned.

"Are you saying I'm a bad big brother?" Damon shook his head. "That's the low iron talking, because I happen to know for a fact I'm an awesome big brother. Because I always take care of what's mine." He sent a leer at Elena that he just knew would set his little brother off.

"Look, Damon, I'm sorry you lost Katherine." Stefan began with just barely restrained anger. "But trying to take Elena from me, isn't going to make you feel better. It isn't going to make what she did to you hurt less."

"This," Damon's voice was clearly harder then he would have liked. And he deliberately relaxed his stance. "Has nothing to do with Katherine. The truth is brother, Elena is safer with me. I protect what's mine. Can you say the same?"

"What of yours have you ever protected?" Stefan moved until he was nearly nose to nose with his brother. "Katherine, she was yours right. Yet had she been depending on to save her, she would have found herself locked in a tomb for half a century. Me, the kid brother you were suppose to take care of. Well I'm a demon, an unnatural thing. And Bonnie-"

"Bonnie?" Damon's handsome face was drawn in a contemplative frown.

"Yeah, your little witch, the one you were suppose to protect. First you nearly killed her. Then you terrorize her. Now you've destroyed her. Bang up job there, bro. Just stellar."

"Stefan." Elena put a restraining hand on his arm.

"You shouldn't even be here, Damon." Stefan spoke softly, but every line of his body was still tense.

"Doesn't matter what you think, Stefan. First, you just said it yourself, Bonnie's mine. So it's only right I check in on her. And second, Elena invited me over. Not in." The ever present smirk, curled the corners of his lips. "Though, from what I've seen of our dear Elena and my little witch, she probably could invite me in."

"Elena-"

"I just wanted to talk to him. It's okay." But as she looked up into Stefan's face, she had a feeling he thought this was as far from okay as it could get. "We're just going to talk. Don't worry I'm not going anywhere with him. I wouldn't leave Bonnie."

"Are you sure she's still asleep?"

"Yeah," Though she frowned at the randomness of his question. "I'll be right here."

"You know," Damon began when Stefan walked back into the house. "When he acts like that one would think he actually didn't trust me."

"Did you know Bonnie was there for me everyday after my parents died?"

"Well you guys are BFF's right." This was spoken with a mocking eye roll.

"She was there for Caroline after her dad left."

"She should have tried harder with helping sweet little Caro with her 'daddy issues'."

Elena fought desperately to ignore the act he was putting on, because she knew after the time they spent together in Georgia that his behavior now was clearly a front. "She was there for me after Matt and I broke up, for Caroline after you did…what you did to her. Every bad thing that's ever happened to Caroline and I, Bonnie has been there to help us through it."

Damon yawned as he leaned against the stone railing of the front porch. "Your point?"

"Bonnie's strong, always has been."

Now he was laughing, positively giggling as he jumped off the front porch. "Bonnie? Strong? Little Bonnie Bennett who trembled like a baby bird when confronted in a crowded parking lot in broad daylight."

"Yeah, she trembled. But she didn't back down. That takes strength." He rolled his eyes, and she expected him to, but she continued on anyway. "And as strong as she is, she broke down last night. She was strong enough to allow herself to hurt."

"See, you're working under the illusion that Katherine actually hurt me. She didn't"

"I saw you, Damon."

"You saw what I wanted you to see."

"I saw, what you couldn't hide." She gave a frustrated sigh, because she knew he could go around and around in this circle forever. "Bonnie's mom died when she was a baby, her dad is hardly ever around, but none of that mattered to her because she had her Grams. You may try to pretend not to, but you know what she lost last night. You know what it feels like to lose the only person you felt truly loved you. If you took the time to actually look at her, you'd see just how close the pain you feel is to the pain she's feeling as well."

For a moment she thought she had him, she could see the thoughts flicker over his face. The way his eyes traveled up to the room, she didn't even want to know how, he knew was Bonnie's. But in a flash it was gone, and the smirk was firmly in place.

"How badly could the little witch be hurting if she has some guy climbing into her window." The smirk turned lecherous. "Though if I had known Bonnie was the fuck her pain away kind of girl…"

"Don't be disgusting. That's just Tyler. He's helping her." She wanted to push him away, wanted to cut her losses and leave Stefan to deal with him. But she couldn't get over the way he looked. The way he just stood there when she hugged him. "Think about what I said. Okay?"

"We'll see. Maybe. Probably not."

If she had looked back, she'd have known that a little bit of what she said had gotten through. Just not the part she would have preferred.

Elena could hear the music pouring out of the house even before she stepped out of her car. Immediately she recognized Matt's pick-up and Tyler's Charger. Because the front door was open, she could hear their voices over the music. Naturally, Caroline was talking over everyone. Unbeknownst to her, she stood in nearly the same spot as her brother had not to long ago and peered into the large picture window.

The largest TV she thought she'd ever seen was mounted on the wall. There was all kinds of electronics in the built-ins surrounding it. But what surpassed all of that was the sight of her little brother and boyfriend standing in front of the TV, Wii-motes in hand, and playing tetherball as if the fate of the world was on the line.

"You should have just come away with me."

Elena jumped, because seriously. "You should really consider not doing that anymore."

Damon smirked. "And then how would I have fun. Because I don't know if you've noticed, I'm not the video game type."

He'd made some movement with his hand, that she realized was suppose to be her cue to look in the window, realize how childish Stefan was and reconsider her choices. What he didn't take into account was how much Elena enjoyed seeing that smile on Stefan's face. The way his eyes crinkled at the corners and his entire body seemed to relax. He was beautiful to look at anyway. But when he smiled…he was perfect.

"It was rude of them not to invite us, don't you think." Damon continued conversationally. "Stefan was never good at sharing, so I know why I'm not in there. But what I can't figure out is why you weren't invited." He actually scrunched his forehead as if deeply considering this. "Don't tell me you're still fighting with my little witch."

Deciding not to give him the satisfaction of calling him on his possessive statement, Elena made a restless movement with her shoulders. "Bonnie's not in a good place right now."

"Yeah, this little get together just screams that." Damon mocked. "I'm on my way to California, you should come. It's obvious you aren't missed here."

She couldn't deny that there was a part of her that was affected by his words. That small fear in everyone that no one would miss them when they were gone. But she pushed it back, determined not to let Damon get to her. "Haven't seen you around much, Damon. Where have you been?"

"Here and there. Miami was…awesome. Missed you there. Missed you in a bikini there."

Rolling her eyes, Elena shoved him away. "Stefan and Bonnie really got to you didn't they."

He gave a sigh as he leaned back against the rail. "I'm not sure I follow."

"You're trying so hard to prove how unaffected and cool you are. But the way you're searching for Katherine…it kind of contradicts that. She still has you, Damon."

"No one," He snapped out, but just as quickly fell back on cool disinterest. "Has me. I'm searching for Katherine because we need to talk. Well, I plan to talk and inflict pain. If she knows what's good for her, she'll take it."

And that Elena did believe. Everything about Damon stated that he'd make suffer anyone who hurt him. "You could just let her go. Forget about her."

"I could. I just prefer to flay her alive. It's much more therapeutic." He rubbed his hands together, the glee in his voice didn't quite reflect in his eyes. "Gotta say, at first I was enjoying the hunt. The...anticipation. Now I'm just ready for the fun to start."

When his eye lit with interest, Elena turned to look back in the window. Bonnie had stepped into the room, she said something to Tyler and the two walked out again. Finding only one reason for the look on the vampire's face, Elena glared at him. "Is that why you're here? To get Bonnie to help you find her."

"What?" Damon looked at her as if she asked how to spell her own name. "I wouldn't…" He broke off, as if seeming to realize what he was about to say and horrifying himself with the knowledge. "No."

"Then why are you here, Damon."

"I told you. I want you to come away with me."

"No. Why won't you let Stefan and I help you?"

Damon just rolled his eyes. "Spare me that please. I just thought you could use some fun."

"I don't consider hunting down and torturing your ex to be fun."

"Your loss." He started to walk away, but stopped. "Would you come if I threatened to kill one of your little friends?"

Elena's eyes narrowed as she studied him. He said it in such an offhanded way that he could be joking. But this was Damon and one could never tell with him. "I wouldn't have to. Stefan would stop you."

Like a giddy school boy he was back in front of her. Sitting on the rail with a ridiculous smile on his face. "You know Katherine wouldn't have cared. She'd have thrown open the door and told me to take my pick. If you were sure I was serious you'd consider going, weighing your options before foolishly counting on Stefan to save everyone."

"What's your point? I think it was long ago established that I'm nothing like Katherine."

"But Bonnie," He continued as if she hadn't spoken. "She'd have come with me. Wouldn't have even thought about it. My little witch would have let me drag her all over the world and fuck her every which way from Sunday anywhere I got the urge. All in the name of keeping her friends, most especially you, safe. You got to admire that kind of blind, stupid, loyalty."

There was something there, something she should have heard in his voice or words. A warning sounded in her head, but she couldn't say for what.

"Elena." Stefan spoke her name softly, drawing her attention towards him. "Go home, Damon."

"I will." He shot one last look into the house. "Eventually." But in a flash he was gone.

Elena prepared herself for Stefan's anger, for him to look at her disapprovingly, but he only held the screen door open. Relieved she quickly crossed the porch and latched her hand to his.

"Hey, sis." Jeremy glanced quickly over his shoulder, didn't bother to wave, and went back to the game of dodge ball he was playing with Matt.

Which was more then she could say for Matt, who didn't even bother turning around. Simply tossed out a muttered 'hey, Elena'. And even that was better then Caroline, who was typing something into her cell and did no more then wiggle her fingers at the newcomer.

"She's in the kitchen." Stefan's voice proceeded his lips against the shell of her ear.

With a nod, and a nervous smile, Elena made her way into the other room. As promised Bonnie was there. She was standing in front of the open refrigerator door, Tyler was standing almost directly behind her.

"I don't understand how you can eat so much pizza. It's been like every other night this week."

"There's no such thing as too much pizza. Besides, we don't necessarily have to order out."

"There is nothing here to eat. And we are well passed the too much pizza mark."

"Alright," Tyler grudgingly conceded, as he closed the refrigerator door, and leaned back against it. "So what do you want then?"

"I don't know. How-" She finally looked over to Elena. The way she trailed off had Tyler glancing over as well.

"Hey," Elena stepped forward hesitantly. "Can we talk. Please, Bonnie."

Bonnie nodded slightly before turning back to Tyler. "How about tacos?"

"Okay." He crossed his arms over his chest. For a moment, Elena thought he'd block Bonnie from her view. "I'll send Matt."

"Ty." Bonnie gave him a bump with her shoulder, that immediately had him relaxing his stance.

"Fine." Elena half expected him to stomp his foot like he did when they were kids. "I'm still making Matt drive." He muttered as he left the two girls alone.

"I see you got a new TV." Elena began, barely resisting the urge to slap herself on the forehead for the ridiculous statement.

"Yeah, I, uh, haven't been able to get rid of Matt and Jeremy since."

The few moments of awkward silence were the worse Elena ever experienced, because it was something she never would have thought could occur between her and Bonnie. There had been days when they talked non-stop and never ran out of things to say to one another. Other times they could sit together, not utter a single word, and be completely comfortable. But this…this strain…nothing like this had ever existed between them.

"Stefan," She pointed to the doorway behind her, where she could hear everyone leaving. Giving her and Bonnie time alone. "Has he been by a lot?"

Bonnie shook her head. "He came by to explain that he asked you to help with Damon. It was sweet. It is sweet how much he loves you. I don't even think it mattered to him that I knew he was lying. He just wanted to make sure I knew that you would never do anything to hurt me."

"I'd die," Elena began, her voice quivering when she would have preferred to be strong. "You have to know I'd die, before ever doing anything to hurt you."

"Then how could you." Bonnie's voice quivered as well. "How could you compare-" The words caught in her throat as tears gathered in her eyes. "My Grams is gone because of him. And I wanted to hate you. I wanted to hate you so much for going to him after what he took from me."

Elena's own eyes watered. Pain, real and tangible, sliced through her when she took a step towards Bonnie only for her friend to take one in retreat. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Not only did you ask him to stay. You invited him here, to my house. Why, Elena? Why would you do that?" She wiped impatiently at the tears falling from her eyes. "How could you possibly think that would be the right thing to do?"

"Because I didn't know what else to do." Her own tears fell unchecked. "I couldn't help you. I didn't even begin to know how. But Damon…I could deal with that. I mean…he found out his girlfriend was a bitch and needed help getting over her. I could do that, I could get Stefan his brother back. Do something for someone. Because I knew that I was going to be absolutely useless to you. To you, Bonnie. My best friend, my sister, my Ard."

"I would have preferred you to be useless. Preferred that a thousand times over then having to watch and listen to my best friend, my sister, my Eph comforting that monster. I thought you'd know what I'm going through, that you'd understand how I'm hurting. But you trivialized it by comparing it to Damon."

"Don't you see. I do know and I can't stand it." Elena rushed forward, grabbing Bonnie before she could back away from her again. "I can't stand the thought of you hurting. I can't stand the thought of you feeling the way I did. You are the last person in the world I'd wish a pain like that on. I handled things badly. I know I did. But don't shut me out. Please don't push me away." She wrapped her arms around her friend. Vowing silently not to let go no matter how hard Bonnie struggled.

"Elena…" Bonnie said the other's girls name on a choked sob. "I don't want to be mad at you anymore. So just let me hate him. Please. Because, I think, if I don't I might hate myself. I might hate-"

"Shh,"Elena quickly soothed. Because she thought she could go the rest of her life without hearing what she knew Bonnie was about to say. If she didn hate Damon, she might hate Elena. Feeling her best friend's body tremble this way, Elena held her tighter. She wouldn't allow it, she wouldn't be able to take it, if Bonnie hated her. Not Bonnie. So she knew, in that moment, whatever was cooking in that head of Damon's was someone elses problem. Because she couldn't lose her sister. Not for anything in the world.

AN: Ard and Eph are from a poem by Ann Kingsmill Finch titled Friendship Between Ephelia and Ardelia. It'll come up again later, because it really does fit them.