A/N: Here is the long awaited Gala chapter. I'm sorry it took so long for me to produce this. Life got in the way and I lost my muse for the story because I knew the Gala would be very detail-oriented and I hate writing detail-oriented moments because it's hard to write down everything you visualize in your head and have it make sense on paper. I'm not completely happy with this. But I hope you guys like it and thanks for being so patient. And special shout out to PE1 who kept on my back about turning out another chapter for the Think Twice series.

Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW. No copyright infringement is intended.

Sunlight spilled into his room like an intoxicated lover—loud, belligerent, and unwelcomed. It irritated Damon until he became lucid. Blue irises burned like a methane flame as he tried to remember the last vestiges of his dream.

It unfortunately dissolved into a vat of nothingness, but there were key parts he remembered. He was in a room at some fancy hotel or resort drinking champagne straight from the bottle. He had been staring out the large picturesque window at the city lights below, when, having heard spike heels tap against the floor, he turned and offered up a cinematic smile.

She had said something to him—something that made his smirk deepened. Regrettably her words were lost. He was distracted, having spent a majority of his time ogling her legs, slender hands and feet, and those lips infamously shaped into Cupid's bow.

Damon groaned and buried his face in his pillow. It was too damn early in the morning to be having thoughts about her.

Deplorably his thoughts were in control this morning as he rolled on his back. Damon had been absolutely serious when he asked Bonnie for a truce and she outright told him no. No one handled rejection well, least of all him. Typically he would have just brushed her comment off as if it were lint on his shoulder. Unfortunately that's not what happened in the slightest.

Something uncomfortable lanced through Damon causing his "let's make a deal" smile to instantly vanish.

He couldn't exactly figure out why earning Bonnie's respect was so important to him. Damon had met hundreds of people, tens of thousands of people in his lifetime, and not one of those people outside of Katherine and Elena's respect did he want to earn.

Damon saw himself cutting back flips like a trained poodle in trying to find some middle ground with Bonnie. She lived in era of black and white. There was no grey area with her, and grudgingly he had to admit that was one of the reasons he secretly admired her.

Great, now he was wasting his time thinking about her admirable traits.

Damon sighed and pushed himself upright in bed. This was definitely a first. Thinking about Bonnie instead of Elena upon waking up. He could pin it on the fact that he and Bonnie along with that abomination with his mug would be attending an uber-formal gala tonight. That was probably the only reason for it.

Yeah, right.

His gaze waltzed to the corner of his room where his tux sat perched on a hanging rack. His shoes were polished, and his diamond encrusted cufflinks sat on top of his dresser. It went without saying Damon hated formalwear but looked damned good in it.

Voices from outside caught his ear prompting Damon to his feet. He saw Bonnie and Stefan heading towards the back of the property. Opening the window to hear better was pointless for he could hear every word as if he were walking beside them.

"Do you think you'll finally be able to land me on my ass today?"

To Damon it sounded as if Stefan was smiling. He never smiled, he smized—smiled with his eyes but that was about it.

Bonnie turned, her curls bounced against her shoulder. "I've perfected a few spells over the week, so we'll see. You might need a doughnut hole to sit on once this is over."

"Bring it on, chump."

"Oh, it's already been brought'n."

"What?" Stefan chuckled.

"Just go with the flow, dude."

Those two, in Damon's high opinion, were the whackest people he knew. But also the ones he most loved to annoy.

It was time to get dressed.

Bonnie knew Stefan could be badass when he wanted to be. She was privy to the little visit he paid to John Gilbert in the hospital to grease information out of Elena's dead-beat father about why Katherine would attack him. She wasn't certain how much of the story Stefan decided to reveal to Elena other than admitting what she had already figured out—that he threatened John. Yet Bonnie saw the events unfold in her mind when Stefan placed his hand on her shoulder earlier today to ask if she were ready for training.

At first she was stuck, rooted to the spot over the fleeting image she caught of Stefan, first choking John, then ruthlessly biting into his wrist and shoving his bleeding appendage in the man's mouth. Of course she couldn't "hear" what Stefan was saying to John, but she was a smart girl and got the gist of it. As much as Bonnie wanted to question Stefan about that awkward transaction, she had to focus because right now he was literally running circles around her.

Bonnie was currently running through a list of things she needed to do before attending the gala. Caroline was slightly outraged that she didn't want to swap her training for a day of beauty instead. The preppy blonde had warned Stefan none-too-gently about what would happen to him if he returned Bonnie with a bruise or a scratch on her flawless face, or laceration of any kind. And there had better not be any broken bones, sprained ankles or wrists, or she'd do something interesting with his balls and forceps. Yeah, Bonnie really didn't want a mental picture of what Caroline might have had in store for the younger Salvatore.

Her mind should have been engrossed on pinpointing Stefan's exact location so she could flush him out, but right now she was expelling her concentration on the butterflies throwing a rave in her belly. It would be one thing if she were going to the gala with the Damon she actually liked, but Mystic Falls Damon would be escorting her as well.

For days on end she had been trying to screw her head on straight. Ever since Damon gave her his blood to heal the damage Katherine's witch had caused, she felt as if a piece of herself no longer belonged to herself. She noticed that whenever he stepped into a room she immediately became aware of him. And though they pretty much kept their distance from one another, their comments to the bare minimum, there was a sliver of Bonnie which felt disappointed by that.

Not as if she didn't have another distraction to focus on.

Sensual-eyed Damon Salvatore made her feel like a woman and never once tried to undermine her abilities. In fact, he was all for her relishing and expanding them. As much as she may like him, Bonnie understood he was here on a temporary basis.

The air shifted again and Bonnie made a sharp right to avoid being planted on her tailbone.

"You're not concentrating," the disembodied voice chided. "If I wanted to, I could have snapped your neck by now. Focus, Bonnie!"

She growled in response to the criticism, but had to concede Stefan was right. Her personal life was interfering and she couldn't get caught making herself into an easy target.

Bonnie took a deep breath, closed her eyes and visualized turning up the volume in her ears. She tried to push her senses out as far as she could. She really had no idea if she was doing it right or not, but it didn't take long for Bonnie to hear the minute sounds of the forest. Somewhere to the northeast two squirrels were chasing one another. The air was warm in certain areas, so she discarded heading in those directions. Up above she found a cold spot and something else. Bonnie spun around, flinging out her arm, making the tree branch Stefan was standing on explode. She smiled a little at the brief flash of surprise that hijacked his face.

The move, unfortunately didn't plant him on the ground. He had vampire sped off. Bonnie cursed and stomped after him.

She walked twenty meters west and came to a jarring stop. Stefan was right behind her. Bonnie executed a roundhouse kick and connected with his temple. The force was great enough that he did land on the ground, but quickly got back to his feet and tried to make a grab for Bonnie who hopped out of the way. She palmed a handful of dirt, flung it into his eyes and took off running.

Stefan gave chase ignoring the sting of the dirt particles scratching his eyes. He was within reaching distance of Bonnie who was running full steam ahead towards a tree. Stefan checked for a moment but continued going when it became apparent Bonnie wasn't going to shift her trajectory or slow down.

What she did though astonished him. She increased her speed, used the tree as a spring board as she planted one foot on the tree, then the other, arched her back, did a back hand tuck to land behind Stefan who turned just in time for his shoulder to take the brunt of the blow.

"Gotdamnmmm!" he swore long and loud, and slid along the tree until he sat awkwardly on the ground.

Bonnie stood proudly before him, approached.

It was taking too long to reorient himself as he breathed rapidly. Bonnie didn't take his being down meaning he was out for the count. She lowered to her haunches and simply touched the side of his head.

"Sleep, Stefan,"

His entire body shut down without his permission. He could hear nothing, see nothing, do nothing, but walk around the blackness clouding his mind.

Where in the world did she learn to do that?!

Not two seconds later everything came rushing back to Stefan. His eyes snapped opened and he involuntarily began coughing.

He wearily stared at Bonnie who merely gazed at him curiously.

"If you're wondering what I did to you…it's my trade secret and I'm not giving it up."

Stefan blessed her with a crooked smile. "I don't know if I should be impressed or scared. It was like…I was lost in my own head for a second, completely vulnerable."

Bonnie's smirk stretched wider which did not help Stefan feel any better about himself.

"The world is not going to know what to do with you," Stefan continued to praise Bonnie.

"Kind of the point don't you think?" Bonnie held out her hand, brought the defeated vampire to his feet.

The two silently retreated towards the boardinghouse.

"Sometimes I do wonder if it's ethically right for me to use my power to hurt people—vampires included."

Stefan's eyebrows lifted at Bonnie's admission. "You have the right to defend yourself, Bonnie. There would be no point to you having the ability to do what you do, if you couldn't protect yourself and the people you care about."

"But see that's the thing. I read in this book my grandmother had in her library that the more a witch uses her power it can change her. And I'm not talking about her looks, but her views about the world. It can skewer the line between right and wrong. Some people can get lured in by the seductiveness of being able to cast spells…"

"You're talking about dark magic?"

Bonnie nodded. "Honestly I never want to be placed into a position where I'll have to decide to who gets to live and who has to die. Yet something tells me it will come to that point sometime in my future."

Stefan gently touched Bonnie on the elbow to get her to stop walking. He stared at her seriously. "Do you feel that way because Katherine is back in town?"

Katherine was part of the underling issue, but it went deeper than that for Bonnie. Everyone she cared about, and even perfect strangers stood the chance of being used as pawns in Katherine's cadaverous game.

"She's part of the problem—yes, but not the entire reason. The last few months have made no sense and each day the stakes keep rising. What happened to me the other night, the attack on John, even the other Damon being here, it all feels connected and disconnected at the same time. I can't relax in my own skin, Stefan. Something bad is going to happen, and I'm not sure if I'll be strong enough to stop it."

Stefan was an intuitive person—had been his whole life. It was plain enough to see Bonnie was troubled by the weight of responsibility no one specifically asked her to bear. "You have help, Bonnie. You don't have to shoulder this alone. Katherine is dangerous and I'm going to try my best to convince her to leave town for good. Is it a crap shot? Probably but it's worth a try. Maybe once she's gone, your feelings of dread will disappear too."

Bonnie had a hard time buying that, but she didn't want to burst Stefan's optimistic bubble.

"Or maybe she's just sexually frustrated."

Bonnie exhaled heavily and looked at their visitor who materialized out of nowhere. Light-eyed Damon leaned casually against a tree with his arms folded over his chest.

"Perfect timing," Stefan mumbled under his breath.

Damon didn't acknowledge him, just kept his laser-like gaze on Bonnie who suddenly grew interested in staring at the sky.

"Are the two of you done playing Hogwarts? The 'glam squad'," Damon air quoted, "just arrived and their impatient asses sent me to find you. Now, I don't mind running errands so long as there's some type of incentive for—,"

Bonnie couldn't take listening to the sound of his voice anymore. She simply began walking towards the boardinghouse.

"Thanks for the lesson, Stefan."

Damon snorted as he watched her amble off, "In the incomparable words of Stephanie Tanner…how rude!"

"She already has to spend the majority of the night with you. Why are you trying to get on her nerves now?" Stefan questioned as he resumed his trek to the house.

Damon pushed away from the tree and began following. "The girl acts like she's about to go to a maximum security prison. I know I might have a bit of a prickly demeanor but I am not that bad."

Stefan chuckled boisterously, "You have no idea what a dick you are, do you?"

"That wasn't me being a dick…I know I'm going to have to kiss her ass all night, but the least she could do is look at me when I talk to her. I'm the one who gets called out for rudeness, but no one ever says anything in my defense when someone is rude to me."

"First of all, you're a grown man, Damon. You might want to try to remember that. Bonnie is a seventeen year old girl so that gives her a little leeway on the matter."

Damon slashed a dismissive hand in the air. "Yeah, and explain to me the point of these group therapy sessions of yours?"

"That's between Bonnie and me," Stefan retorted with a bit of finality to his words.

Damon shrewdly picked up on that. "It's kind of insulting she'd come to you with helping her practice like she's got a recital or something."

Stefan said nothing but smirked.

Three hours later…

"You got to suck it in, Bonnie," Caroline commanded as she tightened the laces to the corseted back of the ball gown.

Bonnie sucked in a deep breath and wanted to yelp. She was sure one of her ribs just cracked no thanks to Caroline's manhandling.

"You're gonna kill her, Caroline," Elena came to her friend's distressed rescue. "Bonnie is already small enough. She needs to have some type of waistline. Do you want her to turn purple? Loosen it up a bit."

"I'm trying to make her boobs look awesome."

Bonnie glared over her shoulder, "My boobs already look awesome. If you tighten this thing anymore I'll be able to suck on my own nipples."

Caroline scrunched her nose before laughing. "That is so gross. I'm sure Damon wouldn't mind watching that, though."

Silence immediately blanketed the room.

"Oh, will you two get over yourselves, seriously," whined Caroline who tied a perfect bow at the end of the corset and stepped back to admire her handiwork. "Done."

Bonnie let go of the chair she had been using as leverage and flexed her fingers, cracked her knuckles. She slowly turned around to face her friends' head on. Caroline—the drama queen, covered her mouth with her fingers. Elena could do nothing but repeatedly say "Wow".

"Don't move! I have to take pictures."

Bonnie pulled a face of impatience and placed a hand on her hip. "I know I'm wearing a wedding dress…kind of…doesn't mean I want to have a photo-op."

"Your attitude stinks and you need to change it because obviously you aren't seeing what I'm seeing," her blonde friend admonished and began snapping away.

Meanwhile downstairs, the two Damon's eyed one another. Both refused to say that the other looked dapper or smashing. Stefan couldn't help but feel stuck in the middle of some science fiction movie as he volleyed between dark-eyed Damon who chose to wear a regular black tie with his tux, to his brother who went the more traditional route in donning a bowtie.

The murmuring and cooing voices of the girls upstairs filled in the deafening silence of the living room. Earlier, Stefan had tried to engage both Damon's in conversation, but gave up after receiving nothing but one word replies.

Thankfully he heard Caroline and Elena coming downstairs. They entered the living room with giddy, child-like expressions and rosy cheeks.

"Where's my girl?" dark-eyed Damon directed his question at the blonde. It took next to nothing to figure out Caroline was the most outspoken of the group. She reminded him exactly of the Caroline Forbes of Fell's Church who had earned herself a well-deserved reputation for being boy crazy and a bit...free with her affections.

Caroline quirked her lips at Damon and vaguely pointed over her shoulder. "She's coming. You know she has to make an entrance."

Light-eyed Damon, who had been hovering near the wet bar, snorted and proceeded to fix himself a drink.

Not long after he poured a liberal amount of the good stuff in a crystal glass did he hear Bonnie making her way downstairs.

Her heels tapped lightly on the stairs accompanied by the rustle of her dress. He kept his back to the main entrance of the room. Why? Maybe because he wanted to "hear" rather than see everyone's reaction to Bonnie's transformation from something of a plain Jane into a beautiful swan.

Dark-eyed Damon didn't dare blink. He saw the bottom of her skirt as it entered the room before she did. Bonnie rounded the corner. Thought, as well as speech escaped him as if he had been lobotomized.

Stefan whistled. Elena and Caroline beamed at one another for a job well done. In three hours Bonnie had been transformed from an everyday teenager to a goddess. Her makeup was flawless, highlighting her alluring features. Her green eyes popped against her caramel skin that glowed and look absolutely sun kissed. Her lips sparkled as if she bit into a ripened melon. Why was it until now dark-eyes realized how full her cheekbones were? She wasn't exactly smiling, but she might as well have been because that's how plump they were.

Her hair was in a style that reminded Damon of his years of being a courtier. Half of her tresses had been pulled back and braided into an intricate web while the remainder rippled down her back in waves.

The dress, the dress augmented Bonnie's beauty and figure. Its color Damon could describe it was being barely mint. To a human it might appear white, but it wasn't. The skirt was full and heavily beaded with authentic crystals. But it was the bodice which was the most interesting piece of the gown.

A sweetheart neckline opened and dipped to the end of her sternum that left plenty of cleavage exposed in a tasteful manner. Embroidered with lace so sheer it almost appeared as if Bonnie were wearing lingerie.

Her neck had been left bare. Only tiny diamond stud earrings decorated her lobes. She didn't need to drown herself in heavy jewelry. Her hair, makeup, and the dress was enough.

Damon wiped at the phantom drool on his chin as he drew closer. "I'm looking at the definition of perfection," he said quietly to himself.

Light-eyes felt it was safe to finally turn around to see what all the hoopla was about. When he did, his eyes widened, his jaw plopped open. He had seen Bonnie nearly everyday since returning to Mystic Falls, but why did it seem he were seeing her for the first time?

He knew Bonnie was beautiful—hell she was hot—but seeing her dressed like a true American princess, heat crawled up his neck.

I need her. Wait? What? He'd think about that later.

Dark-eyes was already approaching and something in Damon spurred him into action. He couldn't let his double get to her first. Because what was it Nelly rapped out in his song Number 1 "two is not a winner and three nobody remembers…"

Drink forgotten, Damon went to intercept but unfortunately his knees crashed into an end table that popped up out of nowhere.

"Shit," he cursed as he hastily reached for the lamp before it toppled over and crashed to the floor.

This of course caught everyone's attention.

"What?" he barked and managed to set the lamp on the table—disaster avoided.

Bonnie never once looked away from light-eyes while he tugged his tuxedo jacket down. Damon had decided to use a comb and hair gel to tame his notorious disheveled locks. He actually looked civilized and very much like Clark Kent.

Unconsciously she smiled at him earning her his customary smirk.

Dark-eyes inwardly growled at the tiny bit of affection that passed between them. To break that up, he reached for Bonnie's hand, kissed it, and began complimenting her in Italian.

She blinked as if finally realizing he was standing there and giggled. Bonnie didn't understand everything he said, but caught the gist of his expression. He thought she looked like Aphrodite. Venus—the perfect woman.

Such a charmer.

"Thank you," she blushed and felt an irrational sense to curtsy. She didn't. "You look handsome as usual."

"Its kind of hard to make perfection more perfect," he gloated.

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Vain much?"

Light-eyes finally sidled up to her. He didn't reach for her hand. Merely let it be known optically what he thought of her. Bonnie held his challenging stare for a moment before running her hands over her skirt.

Damon wasn't sure of the strength of his voice, so he cleared his throat prior to speaking. "There's no need in wasting the night away. The limo's here."

Dark-eyes slid into position next to Bonnie and held out his arm. Wordlessly she slipped her hand around it. To her surprise light-eyes offered his as well. She stared up at Damon and reluctantly took his arm.

The flash of a camera caught their attention. Bonnie scowled at Caroline. When she learned how to take things apart with her mind—Caroline's digital camera would be the first casualty.

"Have fun, guys, and please…don't leave a whole bunch of dead bodies around," had been Elena's friendly word of advice.

"Don't wait up kids," dark-eyes boasted. "It's going to be a long, crazy night."

Perfect, Bonnie thought as she was led outside sandwich between two titans.

Yet the young witch couldn't lie and say she wasn't thrilled about showing up with not one but two dates. Not like anyone she knew personally would be at the gala. Only the crème de la crème would be at Dontess de la Gandara's art viewing.

The driver already had the rear passenger door open. Both Damon's released Bonnie allowing her to climb into the limo first. It took some cute maneuvering to get into the vehicle without her dress flying up over her head.

Settled, Bonnie became hyper aware once enclosed with the two Damon's. They unequivocally ogled her like a delicacy.

Bonnie's defenses rose. "What?"

"Nothing," both Damon's answered in union. They looked one another and frowned.

This would make for an interesting night.

De la Gandara Estates

The estate was the type of place Robert Leech would visit to do an interview of the world's rich and famous. It was a sprawling mansion that sat on five acres of land surrounded by lush forest and imported trees from Bali.

Bonnie tried to remain impassive like she was used to being in a room full of relics. In fact, she laughed at the fact she had arrived with two relics. She snickered and giggled as she waited in line to pass through the metal detector wands. After having passed her inspection, she waited for both Damon's.

Dark-eyes captured her hand. "What's so funny, gorgeous?"

"Oh, nothing," Bonnie appraised the fresco painted ceiling.

Light-eyes bent his knees a little to whisper directly in her ear. "Are you thinking about what a relic the other Damon is? He'd fit right in. Just stick him in a glass box."

Bonnie craned her neck to stare at him and actually smiled at the bastard. Spurred by this, blue-eyed Damon took Bonnie by the other hand and sort of yanked her away from his counterpart who frowned until wrinkles magically appeared on his forehead. He twirled Bonnie around once.

"Where are you going with her?" midnight-eyed Damon demanded.

"We're going to go have a look around," the other Damon responded simply.

Midnight-eyes reached for Bonnie, detaining her for a moment. "Bonnie needs to stay with me."

"Um, hello," the girl in question interrupted. "Bonnie is standing right here and she'll decide where she's going to go and with whom," and with that she yanked her arms out of both of their possessions and swayed into the crowd.

Dark-eyes growled. "Go and try to blend in with her," he ordered and stalked off in another direction.

Damon had never been good at following directions but when he noticed that several men had taken an obvious interest in Bonnie, he figured he might as well approach her and insert his machismo. But he held off and merely watched her.

Couples and singles milled about the main floor staring at the pieces from de la Gandara's collection. Bonnie for a second wished Alaric had come with her so he could fill her in on everything she was seeing. Call it her history nerd syndrome kicking into higher gear—it would have been nice to have a personal orator at the moment.

Yet she sensed Damon standing beside her and hadn't looked up to acknowledge him. That's how constantly aware she was of him and it sickened her. She had a mind to ask Stefan how long vampire blood was supposed to linger in someone's system. The rule was it lasted for twenty-four hours, but it had been days since Damon gave her blood. And she felt him wiggling under her skin like a drug.

Damon was finding it a bit hard to keep his focus on the glass encased mask and not Bonnie. She had her head tilted to the side offering up a tantalizing view of her neck. Added with the fragrant scene of her perfume, his mouth watered and his gums throbbed. He shook his head to clear it. No one had infected his thought pattern like this, no one since Katherine, since Elena. He gulped nervously. He didn't want to feel anything for the witch. She'd flay him alive if she caught a hint of what he was currently thinking about.

Music streaming from another room caught Damon's ear. He stared down at Bonnie, "We should dance."

She considered his proposal for a moment, "Why would we do that?"

"Because its fun and I need to break in my shoes. Come on, Judgey."

"Damon, we're here to look for something, not to actually enjoy ourselves."

But she was already being tugged to another room were several couples were showing off their footwork. Bonnie groaned and stared wearily at the moving couples.

Naturally Damon would drag them to the dead center of the room.

"Follow my lead."

"Damon," Bonnie attempted to protest which she already figured would be pointless. Once Damon had his mind set on something it was next to impossible to get him to change course. Seeing she didn't have much of a choice by this point, Bonnie laid her hand in his. Her breath sharpened when Damon wrapped his other around her waist and drew her closer. There was still a proper amount of room between them, yet their proximity was something Bonnie couldn't stop thinking about.

Her skin burned—annoyingly so—and she huffed a bit before forcing herself to make eye contact. Big mistake. His eyes were simply mesmerizing, arresting, the kind of soul catchers that lured you in like a Venus Fly trap.

Dark Night of the Soul by Philip Wesley began to play.

Bonnie attempted to glare at him and it faded once their feet began moving across the floor.

She relinquished control to Damon just this once although her insides were screaming that she dominate. But Bonnie was simply tired of being strong all the time, of having to shoulder responsibility that really should have landed on the shoulders of someone with far more life experience than she had.

Bonnie was exceptionally light on her feet. Didn't really surprise Damon because he had observed her during cheerleading practice a few times he lingered after dropping Caroline off. She knew how to move her body.

Dark-eyed Damon tried his best to ignore the interaction between them. He had his own problems to deal with and that was finding a star ball or a master key to get back to Fell's Church. However surveilling Bonnie and Damon pulled him up short and made dark-eyes yearn for having a treasure of his own. For so long he had engaged in competition with his baby brother. Attempted to kill him or throttle him at every chance he got. Conversely he never stopped to ask himself what was the point.

Damon had accepted his nomad lifestyle with a grain of salt. Deep down his true desire was to be loved by a woman who loved him just as intensely as he loved her. Bonnie and Damon, seeing their potential to mean more to one another uprooted in Fell's Church Damon things he hadn't experienced in five-hundred years: extreme loneliness and jealously.

There was a flip side to this as well. He wanted Bonnie. Wanted her in ways that made very little sense to him. He wanted to be her everything. He wanted to be her first. Yet that path would be filled with land mines painted with his face and blue-eyes.

Breaking his scrutiny away from Bonnie and "friend", Damon bolted upstairs to do a quick sweep of security and hidden rooms.

This was probably by far the longest Bonnie had gone being nice to Damon. She was thankful there was no talking required with dancing because otherwise she would have abandoned him on the dance floor ages ago. Instead she was spun out and around, dipped, and even lifted a few times. A heated speared through her each and every time Damon lifted her off her feet.

His strength had never been in question, but seeing him lift her without grunting, making a face, or breaking stride was a true testament that she kept company with something inhuman. Not saying she was the heaviest person in the world to lift, but Bonnie was assured that if Damon wanted to throw her out the window, he'd do so without a conscious thought.

"Are you feeling all right, Judgey? You haven't said one rude thing to me in the last five minutes."

She smirked at that. "Am I making you nervous?"

Damon scoffed, "Please. Nothing makes me nervous."

"I'm sure I can think of something that would though."

"Good luck with that. If anyone should be nervous between the two of us…that'd be you," Damon spun her out.

"How do you figure?" Bonnie asked.

Damon boldly pressed his body against Bonnie's whose brows lifted as the only indication she was surprised by the move. He smirked a little when he heard her heart beat triple.

His head dipped and cocked to the side, "See, your pulse is practically racing just from my touch."

Before Bonnie could reply, she was torn away from Damon by the other Salvatore.

"What the-,"

"I said blend in not make a scene," Damon spoke through gritted teeth.

Bonnie self-consciously looked around and saw that she and Damon had garnered a small audience. She slipped her arm out of Damon's grasp and glowered at him.

"And you just made everything ten times worse by storming over here and acting like a jealous boyfriend."

Damon rolled his midnight-eyes. "I may have found something. It's time to get to work, princess," he bit out tersely.

Well, this was a new development, Bonnie inwardly seethed. Damon was jealous and he was going to cop an attitude with her. Unfreakingacceptable is what it was and she had every mind to tell him off, but her diplomacy chose that precise moment to kick in. Bonnie spared blue-eyes a look before following after Damon.

The three of them climbed the spiraling staircase to the third floor of the mansion that was blocked off by a red velvet rope.

"Some high tech security," blue-eyes scoffed as he merely stepped over the velvet rope. "Honestly, where's the challenge? A three-year old could rob de la Gandara blind."

"I incapacitated the guards who were patrolling this floor, idiota," Damon informed.

Bonnie shook her head.

"Do you feel anything, princess?" dark-eyes gentled his tone, softened his features.

Bonnie concentrated and expanded her powers to see if anything supernatural struck her radar. The first thing to spring out at her was an electrical buzz but figured it might be the furnace or air conditioning system. She carefully navigated down the polished hall, expanding and retracting her power, and felt absolutely nothing.

Her shoulders slumped, "I'm not feeling anything, Damon."

"We'll do a sweep just in case," Fell's Church Damon prompted. "Remember the star ball might resemble a snow globe, and the key could be in the shape of an animal: fox, wolf, lion. Check everything. Leave nothing to chance."

There were four doors on both sides of the hallway. Each was locked. With some twisting, locks were broken and the Damon's darted inside and quickly did sweeps of the rooms. Bonnie kept guard and expanded her powers seeking any anomaly.

She felt it.

"Guys! Check the last room on the left."

Two figures blurred into the room.

A minute or two later she heard footsteps ascending the stairs. Bonnie pushed away from the wall she was leaning against, reached inside her dress.

To her horror it was a security guard, decked out in a customary tux that showcased he was a frequent attendee of a gym. He was speaking into a mouth piece clipped to his wrist, alerting his team of his current location.

Bonnie attempted to smile seductively and probably succeeded in looking as if she needed to use the bathroom.

The guard was a bit startled to see her. His thick brows narrowed with suspicion. "Ma'am no one is allowed up here. I'm going to have to ask you to vacate this part of the premises and return to the party."

"Oh, I will in one second."

The guard noticed that several of the doors were ajar. His hand dropped to his firearm. "Is someone up here with you, ma'am?"

Bonnie shrugged and appeared as innocent as a newborn. "You could say there's two somebody's up here with me," she inched a step back.

The guard snapped his hazel-green eyes to her, "How old are you? Let me see some ID."

"Okay," Bonnie agreed. She stepped up to the guard and with lightening fast reflexes, jammed a hypodermic needle in his neck, and pressed the lever. Thanks, Alaric. He had supplied her with vervain, and a local anesthetic to use just in case.

The guard croaked, reached for her hand and fell unconscious to the floor. The guard landed with a muffled thud.

"We leave you alone for two seconds and you're already knocking them dead," blue-eyes teased as he bent to drag the guard off into one of the unlocked rooms.

Midnight-eyes slipped out of the final room he checked. Bonnie caught him tucking something bronze into his inner jacket pocket.

"Did you find…?"

He placed his index finger up to his lips to silence her. Bonnie clamped her mouth shut and waited to hear whatever Damon was listening to.

"We need to leave. Several guards are on their way. They must have heard your little exchange."

"Well, I did the only thing I could think of," Bonnie muttered in her defense.

"Eh, yo, we take the roof," blue-eyes suggested. Bonnie looked appalled, but if the guards were currently on their way up here, it went without saying the Damon's could easily take them on. Unfortunately that could lead to a riot. People would have to be compelled left and right. There was simply no time for that.

But to have to escape using the roof? Were they out of their freakin' minds? She was wearing five inch heels dammit! Bonnie mentally complained.

Blue-eyed Damon tsked at Bonnie who was frozen. "Don't get all prissy on me now, Lara Croft. Move it."

Bonnie said nothing, approached the window and threw it open. She stared down at the nice manicured lawn waiting for her "head" down below.

Bonnie had no fear of heights, but she would literally have to scale the tiled roof—in heels—and pray she didn't twist an ankle, break a nail, or lose an extension that could be traced back to her.

Midnight-eyes wrapped an arm around her waist, "I won't let you fall, Bonnie. Grab on to me."

They had officially run out of time.

"Freeze!" several guards shouted simultaneously and the next thing Bonnie knew she was being catapulted out of the window.

Blood-curdling screams was ripped involuntarily from her lungs as she saw the ground growing inexplicable closer to her. She snapped her eyes closed and then, her downward movement stopped.

Slowly her lids opened, but didn't have much time to reorient herself with standing on land. She was whisked away across the lawn, her feet barely making contact with the ground. Bonnie stifled laughing hysterically at the velocity she was being transported, moving so fast it was exhilarating and stomach churning at the same time.

"Oh, my God I'm gonna dieeeeeeeee," she shrieked as Damon, the one she liked, carried her almost like a football through the surrounding forest of de la Gandara's home. He ran so fast, smooth, and sharply Bonnie had no idea how they hadn't crashed into a tree.

"Not on my watch," midnight-eyes maneuvered Bonnie until he carried her bridal style.

The trio made it to the valet section of the property. "Find the gotdman limo," midnight-eyes said to blue-eyes who jumped over the hoods of waiting vehicles like an Olympic hurdler.

Damon cradled Bonnie in his arms. "Are you okay, cara?"

Silently she nodded and rested her cheek on his chest. "Or I will be in a few decades. Let's not do that again."

He laughed. The rumbling sound of it soothed Bonnie.

"Did you find the key?"

Damon unearthed the key from his pocket and passed it over to her.

She studied it for a second. It looked more like a painted dog whistle which was in the shape of an owl. Bonnie anticipated it to look like a skeleton key but not something this elaborate. The second she touched it, sparks flew every which way which stung her fingers.

"Okay, ow," she hissed.

Damon brought her tingling fingers to his lips, blew on them to take away the sting, then kissed them one by one. Bonnie gulped nervously.

Their moment was shattered at the sound of screeching tires. The limo rounded the curve, and Damon threw open the doors. "Hurry up. They're two seconds from putting this joint on lockdown."

Bonnie and Damon hastily climbed inside and they were off.

"So now what, Sherlock?" blue-eyes asked.

"Now, we find the doorway this unlocks," midnight-eyes replied.

Hearing that made Bonnie's stomach cramp with nerves. Letting go, saying goodbye was going to be harder than expected.

The Salvatore Boardinghouse

Every piece of her felt raw and inflamed. Her lungs screamed in relief after having been squeezed to death for several hours in her corseted dress.

Bonnie tossed on her favorite T-shirt and a comfortable pair of jeans. She stared at her beautiful dress—regrettably. It would be a while before she got the opportunity to wear it again. She traced the neckline with a lone finger and had a quick flashback of being at the gala and feeling like Cinderella.

Not until now it never bothered Bonnie that her two best friends had been nominated and voted on the Miss Mystic Falls court. Bonnie had never bought into the whole pageant, beauty contest thing mainly because she shied away from being in the spotlight. Come to think of it, if Elena and Caroline had never signed up to be cheerleaders, Bonnie wouldn't have tried out for the squad either. She found her strength in working behind the scenes, but last night had been…nice to step out in front of the camera, so to speak.

As Bonnie thought about it some more, she was that bubbly girl everyone flocked to for advice on what to wear and who to date. Or maybe she simply molded herself to that role because it was expected of her. When you were best friends with two of the prettiest girls in school, you couldn't just sit around and be anti-social. People were aware of her familial background, called her Grams a drunk and her father aloof—they told the truth to a certain point, but it was a stigma Bonnie fought tirelessly to overcome.

Tonight brought everything to a head that she wasn't set in her ways. She was still cultivating her identity, didn't fit one mold explicitly, nor did she want to. There was too much for her to learn. First as a person and second as a witch, but during the interim, Bonnie did so little just for her.

Attending the gala hadn't been about her, but finding a way to send Damon back to where he belonged. In all honesty, she didn't want him to leave. In such a short span of time he had carved out his own special place in her life and in her heart. But her conscience told her it was wrong to keep him or ask him to stay when she was sure he was needed back in his world. How could he not be considering the shit that was unfolding in hers?

But it had been nice simply being twirled around the room by a handsome man and eating up the attention. Bonnie was sure Damon pictured Elena in his head the whole time they danced together. Normally Bonnie wouldn't have cared either way, but…

She did feel a pinch as she thought about it.

Someone knocked on the door.

"Come in!"

It was Elena. "How was tonight?"

Bonnie gave her a brief synopsis of what happened.

"Do you want him to leave, Bonnie? You'd have to be blind to miss the connection you have with the other Damon."

"He's not my pet, Elena. He deserves to go back to his world…where he belongs. The Bonnie and Elena he knows…they might be in trouble if their town is anything like ours. I'd feel bad if I asked him to stay and something happened to them, and he wasn't there to help."

Elena nodded in understanding and then fingered Bonnie's dress. "If…if he asked you go with him…would you?"

Bonnie stared at Elena for a while and realized her answer could impact the future. She released a sigh, "I can't leave. I made a promise to Grams that I'd protect the town, and that's exactly what I'm going to do."

"Duty before love. How sweet."

Both girls groaned and turned towards the intruder.

Damon had shunned his formal threads for his customary black on black ensemble. And he still looked hot.

Bonnie could do nothing but stew.

"We're trying to have a moment here, Damon," Elena hinted.

"Don't mind me…in fact let me go grab my camera."

That same invisible force that knocked Damon out of the tree, pushed him back into the hallway, and slammed the door in his face.

Twenty minutes later, Elena left the room and Damon eased inside. Bonnie was zipping her dress in its garment bag.

"About to go?"

She didn't jump, which he was impressed, but she did pause for a moment before turning to face him.

"Yeah. I didn't pack for a slumber party."

They stared at each other before Damon spoke again. "Well, I'll let you go."

Damon took two steps out of the room, stopped, and faced Bonnie again. She looked at him expectantly.

"You looked really beautiful tonight, Bonnie," Damon vanished after his admission.

Alone, Bonnie cursed, "Shit."

A/N: Like I said earlier I wasn't happy with this. It's too long and I still feel like I left out some very key dialogue but I'll just round that off to the next chapter. I have no idea how I want things to develop between Book Damon and Bonnie now that she's more than aware of TV Damon. They [TV Damon/Bonnie] won't be seeing each other naked any time soon, guys. Let me know what you think. Love you guys.