The first part of this chapter takes place during and after The Hybrid.

Then

Bonnie frowned when she stopped outside Jeremy's door. She'd left the boarding house shortly after she'd arrived, actually and she really just felt like she needed to be around Jeremy for a bit after spending time with Damon.

She had stopped, however, when she heard his voice. Sounded like he was talking to someone. She knocked on his door then, wondered who he could possibly be talking to. Elena had been the one to let her in.

"Hey," he said with a slightly strained smile when he opened the door and she glanced around the room when he stepped back to let her in.

"Who were you talking to? I heard you talking to someone," she said, a little confused. He was alone in his room.

"Oh…I was just talking to myself," Jeremy answered, his gaze sliding away from hers.

"Oh." A feeling of unease settled into Bonnie's chest because it sounded like he was lying but he was alone and his voice had been the only one she'd heard…

"So, what have you been up to?" He asked and Bonnie forced a smile this time.

"Nothing much." This time, guilt settled in on her for the lie but just wasn't sure she wanted Jeremy to know what she was doing just yet. He'd either freak about her being involved or want to get involved himself…

"You want to grab something to eat?"

"Sure." Her smile came easier when he put his arm around her and she let him pull her out.

Xxxxxxxx

Guilt squeezed Jeremy's insides as he left with Bonnie. He was lying to her, of course but he couldn't tell her that he was seeing Anna. Or that it was her fault that he was. She wouldn't take that well.

But he also couldn't stop talking to Anna. Seeing her only brought everything back, everything he had felt for her. Everything that had been cut short because of John and his vendetta. He only felt more guilty for that.

Xxxxxxxx

Bonnie let herself into the boarding house less than an hour later. She had come over after the date with Jeremy. The weirdness he'd been displaying since she'd gotten back to Mystic Falls hadn't dissipated in the slightest. He'd seemed downright distracted. She needed a distraction herself.

She usually did let herself into Damon's house. He had taken to not answering the door. She supposed it was because Elena usually let herself in as well. She found him as soon as she made it inside, coming down the stairs and putting on his jacket.

"You might want to turn back around. I got nothing for you, Judgy," he commented. She frowned and followed him into the parlor, watched as he grabbed the keys to his car.

"You're leaving?" She asked.

"Yes." He turned to her, raised an eyebrow. "I do leave the house from time to time."

"But you found something?"

"What makes you say that?" He started around her; towards t he door but Bonnie grabbed his arm. He did stop and turn back to her.

"You did find something, didn't you? What is it?" She pressed.

"Don't worry about it. All I need from you is to kill Klaus when we find a way-"

"And track Stefan, right?" Bonnie crossed her arms. "How exactly do you plan on me helping if you're keeping things from me?" She glared at him to emphasize the point.

"Fine. Klaus and Stefan have been tracking werewolves. I think I might know where they'll be tonight. I'm going. Happy?" He started away again and Bonnie moved to catch up with him, grabbed his arm once again.

"Wait. Isn't tonight a full moon? You're going on a full moon?"

Damon opened the door. "Still daylight, isn't it?" He grinned. "You're not worried about me, are you?"

"Of course not," Bonnie answered immediately. "What I'm worried about is you getting yourself killed before we can finish this." She paused, hesitated. This could be the distraction she was looking for. Besides, he really was her only hope at that point of finding a way to take Klaus down for good.

"I'm going with you," she finally decided.

"No, you're not. Werewolves and Klaus, Judgy. You'll only be a distraction I don't need. I don't need to be worrying about keeping you alive."

Bonnie's glare strengthened. "I can take care of myself, Damon," she pointed out. "If you want more proof of that…"

He actually almost smiled at this and shook his head. "Fine. But we leave before the moon rises."

"Agreed." She definitely didn't want to be stuck with a bunch of werewolves on a full moon.

Xxxxxxxx

Ric was a little frustrated. He and Elena were on their way to track down a bunch of werewolves that Klaus was supposedly after. She'd convinced him to go along. Not that he had much choice. If he hadn't, the girl probably would have run there by herself.

The problem was that he couldn't get a hold of Damon. Despite what he'd said to Elena, he tried calling Damon the first chance he got. They would need the backup but Damon's phone was going straight to voicemail and he had no one else to call.

When they reached the woods, he couldn't even try. He had no service where they were and he was further frustrated at this, could at least hope that Damon checked his voicemail. If Damon was ignoring his phone calls on purpose, he was going to kill the vampire himself.

Xxxxxxxx

"What exactly do you plan on doing if you do find them?" Bonnie asked, her gaze sweeping the woods they were walking in. She'd been thinking about that question for a while. Damon had yet to find a way to really get Stefan away from Klaus.

"Honestly? Not here to try and kill Klaus or to try and get Stefan away from him yet."

"Then why are we-" Bonnie cut off when her foot caught on something and she nearly face planted on the ground. Or, she would have if Damon hadn't moved to catch her. He righted her with a grip on her upper arm and she brushed her hair back.

They were standing close. "Why are we here then?" She finished her question. Damon stared at her a moment before releasing her.

"Keep moving, will you?" He started out and Bonnie sighed before following. Maybe she knew the answer to that question anyway. They couldn't kill Klaus and trying to get Stefan away from him at that point would probably only get them both killed. The only thing they could really do was confirm that Stefan was alive, that he was okay. Well, okay other than the fact that he was killing people.

Bonnie had gotten a lot of new insight into Damon and Stefan's relationship since she had started working with Damon and she wasn't as surprised as she would have been before. While she still didn't totally trust Damon or like him, she was a hundred percent sure that he cared about his brother and that that was the only reason they were hiking through the woods.

Xxxxxxxxx

Stefan stared down at the werewolf bite a moment. Klaus had refused to give him the cure to it, at least until he tracked down the very rabid looking hybrid experiment. Just his luck. But a part of him wondered if it would be better.

Ever since he had seen Damon in Mystic Falls, since he'd killed the reporter in front of his brother, he'd had a harder time losing himself in the blood, in the guy that he had been over the last several months with Klaus.

Calling Elena had been a mistake. Seeing Damon had been as well, although he hoped that one good thing had come of it, that his brother had given up on the chase. That hope, however, was dashed a moment later when he heard the voices in the distance.

"I could help you…you know."

"I don't think so. I'd really like not to be that close to you."

Stefan turned his gaze towards the voices just as he heard his brother chuckle and saw Damon and Bonnie hiking through the woods several yards away. He nearly cursed, and was unsure of what to do in that moment.

He knew he couldn't let Klaus know they were there. But there was also the dying hybrid he had to worry about, the one that they didn't know about. He almost went straight to them but stopped himself. Hopefully, Klaus would stay at the camp.

Xxxxxxx

Bonnie was focusing on the trek. They were almost there and she was still worried about what they were going to do once they got there. She wondered if there was even a way for Damon to speak to his brother without letting Klaus know.

She almost plowed right into Damon when he stopped abruptly, though. "What?"

He didn't answer right away and he wasn't looking at her. His eyes were trained somewhere off to the side. "Dammit."

Xxxxxxx

"We got about a mile left," Ric commented, the frown still on his face.

They both stopped short and Ric raised his crossbow when a man stumbled into the opening between the trees in front of them. "Stay where you are," he ordered, his finger on the trigger.

"What the…?" Elena had a frown on her face as well. The man's face was bloody. It looked like his eyes had been bleeding and he snarled at the both of them. Before Ric could even think about pulling the trigger, he launched himself towards them.

He never made contact with either of them, though. Something slammed into him from the side, moving faster than either Ric or Elena could see. The guy fought back and it wasn't until he had his attacker pressed up against a tree that Ric recognized who it was.

"Damon!" The call did not come from Ric or Elena.

"Bonnie?" Elena asked in surprise. She ignored Elena, in favor of the werewolf that was snapping at Damon. A second later, the werewolf dropped to the ground, clutching his skull and Elena seemed to come back to herself, tossing Damon one of the wolfs bane grenades from the backpack. It exploded in the werewolves face. Well, the sight of Damon explained why he hadn't been able to get a hold of the vampire on his phone.

"You didn't get bit, did you?" Bonnie asked, coming over as Damon pressed the wolf up against the tree and Elena and Ric tied him to it.

"I'm fine," Damon answered, his tone frustrated.

"Good, I'd hate it if you died on me before we could actually follow through on your plan."

"It's nice to know how much you care, Judgy."

"What are you both doing here?" Elena interrupted. She sounded rather irritated.

"I could ask you the same question. Are you insane? I'm beginning to think that you do have a death wish," Damon said with a glare in her direction.

"I had to come up here. And you'd given up on me. Obviously that was another one of your lies."

"Damon," Bonnie cut off whatever it was he was going to say in response. She grabbed his arm, and directed his attention towards the hybrid, that had just woken up. She saw the confusion on his face when the guy began to change and strain against the ropes.

He pressed his hands back against the guy's chest, trying to keep him in place. "Bonnie?" He requested, using her first name for the first time.

"It's not working," she answered, angry. "We need to get out of here." She watched in horror at how fast the man was changing. "Damon!" She yelled when he didn't move.

"Yeah." And they were gone, dragging Elena along with them.

Xxxxxxx

"She's not going to give up on you."

"Well, she has to. Because I'm never coming back."

Damon said nothing to that. Maybe it was true. Maybe Stefan didn't ever plan on coming back to Mystic Falls. Didn't matter, he was still going to get Stefan away from Klaus. It was when Stefan reached up and wiped his forehead, that Damon saw it and moving fast, he grabbed Stefan's arm.

"What the hell is this?" He forcefully turned Stefan's arm so he could look at the bite. It was a familiar sight, mirroring the one he'd had on the inside of his own elbow a couple of months ago.

"It's fine," Stefan said, pulling away.

"Fine?" Damon repeated, his temper rising. "Klaus…"

"Knows about it," Stefan answered reluctantly.

"And he didn't heal it?" Damon asked, the anger he had been feeling growing.

Stefan hesitated a moment. "He will."

"And you're still a horrible liar."

Stefan looked away from him a moment and spoke reluctantly. "He told me to bring the hybrid back…alive."

Damon cursed at the meaning behind those words. At the fact that Stefan had just most likely sacrificed himself for Damon…again. His anger turned to rage and, for a moment, he felt the urge to find Klaus. Stefan must have seen in it his eyes.

"Just go, Damon. Get Elena home and try to keep her there this time. Get Bonnie out of here. If Klaus finds out there here…Just…go." He was gone a second later, disappearing off into the woods.

Xxxxxxxx

"What the hell were you doing up here?" Elena asked the question later.

"What were you doing up here?" Bonnie countered distractedly. Damon had lured the hybrid off what felt like forever ago and had yet to return to them. Bonnie had followed Ric and Elena back to Ric's car and he'd moved it to park beside Damon's.

"I had to find Stefan," Elena answered finally and Bonnie only nodded. Seemed she and Damon were up there for the same reason. Bonnie let out a breath when she saw Damon stalking towards them.

He assured Elena briefly that he was alright, that he had no bites before pushing her towards Ric's car, ignoring her protests. It wasn't until he'd started over to his own car that he turned his gaze on Bonnie.

"You coming?"

Bonnie glanced briefly at Elena and Ric, knew it would only cause more questions but something had obviously happened when he'd ran off from them and she wanted to know what that was. Plus, she wasn't looking forward to an interrogation about why she had been there with Damon in the first place.

"Yeah." She avoided the look on Elena's face and jumped into the passenger seat of Damon's car. "You going to tell me what happened?"

"Later," he answered shortly, starting the car.

Xxxxxxxx

It wasn't until they had stopped in front of the boarding house that Bonnie finally got an answer out of him. He'd been silently fuming all the way back to Mystic Falls, which only confirmed for her that something big had happened. Damon was almost never silent.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on now?" She asked after he stopped the car.

"None of this even matters anymore," he said. She got the impression that he was talking to himself more than her and he was out of the car, slamming the door.

Bonnie stared after him a moment before she got out as well. He'd already made it inside the boarding house before she'd managed to close the passenger side door and she considered her options.

She could get in her own car and drive away. The thought that maybe he didn't want anyone there crossed her mind. But he had asked her to drive back with him, and she needed to know what he meant. Needed to know if he had run across Klaus or Stefan.

He may have been lying to Elena earlier with his claim of giving up but now, he sure looked like he really had. Making a decision, she marched up to the house and went inside. It didn't take long to find him. He was in front of the papered walls of his closet. The map he had put up was still there.

"What's going on?" She asked quietly. He didn't answer her. Instead he pulled the map down, balled it up in his hands. The look in his eyes was a bit unstable and Bonnie was unsure if her decision to follow him inside had been a good one. That was, of course, until she heard his ringtone go off and he pulled his phone out.

She didn't know what message he had received but whatever it was had him dropping the map in his hands. The mix of emotions she had seen just seconds ago was replaced with relief so strong that she was sure a blind person would have been able to see it. When he looked up at her, met her gaze, it was still there.

"I have to get him away from Klaus. I have to," he said. For the moment, there was no sarcasm or mocking in his eyes or his voice. Just raw honesty. Bonnie was shocked by it and there was only one way she could answer that.

"We will."

Xxxxxxxx

Now

"You didn't tell them?" Damon asked, offering Bonnie a glass. She shook her head, frown on her face.

"No, I didn't." She paused and watched as he dropped down on his couch with his own glass of alcohol. "They are going to find out, though."

"Not until after, they won't," Damon countered. Bonnie nodded and sat down beside him.

"The plan's set. This should be over soon." She sighed and looked down. "Damon…"

"Don't, Judgy. It doesn't matter."

She grimaced and rested her head back against the couch. She was aware of a lot of things. Aware that he was dying beside her, aware that, after everything that had happened since they'd started working together on this, that maybe the price for success was too high. When she spoke, she made her voice firm.

"It does matter." And no matter what he said, she would do everything in her power to make sure that she saved him.