I disclaim. I own nothing.

AN: I don't know when Bonnie's birthday is, so I made one up. If it has been mentioned and I just missed it please let me know and I can make appropriate changes. Thanks.

Chapter 10

"Wait," Elena lowered herself into a chair at the Grill. "So, your dad is totally okay with Tyler living with you."

Bonnie nodded, it wasn't something she could really reconcile herself to, wasn't particularly sure how she was suppose to feel. On one hand, she'd have Tyler back and would be able to sleep through the night. On the other, her father could care less about her shacking up with her boyfriend. "He said that he was glad someone was with me. And with this London trip coming up and not knowing just how long he'll be gone for, he can sleep better knowing that I won't be alone."

Elena recognized the sadness in Bonnie's eyes, knew that despite the air of indifference she was going for she was hurting. But they'd been friends long enough for Elena to know that Sean Bennett was off limits. His absence may hurt Bonnie, but it was a hurt she didn't talk about. And if anyone pushed, they'd succeed only in pushing her away. "Are the nightmares getting any better?"

Bonnie smiled. "I can't believe that is a safer subject then my dad." It's not like she didn't know how she got when anyone questioned her father's parenting skills. She did. It was just...he was still her dad. He loved her, Bonnie knew he did. He wasn't a good dad, he had tried; when she was little he really did try his best. But parenthood just wasn't for him, it was hard for her to fault him for that. "No, they're not getting any better. I think the one today was the worse."

"You had one today? I thought you didn't have them when Tyler was with you."

"I said they're not so bad when Tyler's with me; not that I didn't have them." Bonnie paused, trying to tell the story without having to relive it. "The nightmares are about Tyler; he's usually hurt. When I wake up and he's there, it's not so bad because I can see that he's okay."

Elena reached out to take Bonnie's hand in hers. She could see just how badly this was messing her friend up. "What was different about the one today?"

"I…I was the one that was hurting him." Bonnie's tear filled eyes locked onto her best friends, as if asking Elena for help. "I was killing him, Elena."

"What…Do…" The thoughts were racing so quickly through Elena's mind she couldn't straighten them out enough to speak. The past few months taught her that anything was possible. She understood that Bonnie had a gift, that she could see things before they happened. But what she knew, was that Bonnie could never hurt anyone. She just wasn't capable of it. "Are you sure you're not interpreting the dream wrong?"

"Tyler and I are out in the woods and I smother him."

"Okay, maybe it comes from the fact that things with Tyler are new and you're afraid-"

"Elena." Bonnie interrupted with a sad smile. "Come on."

"Well it makes more sense then what you're saying." Elena tightened her grip on Bonnie's hand. "You wouldn't hurt anyone, especially not Tyler. That's as likely as…you hurting me. So no, I don't believe it."

"You can't just deny something until it's the truth."

"Watch me."

Bonnie smiled, how could she not when faced with her best friends sheer determination. "Thanks, Elena."

"No big deal, it's my job." Elena smiled now as well. "You know I think I can get use to being the Ard to your Eph instead of the other way around."

"You're an awesome Ard."

"You know," Damon slid a chair over until he was pressed against Bonnie's side. "I'd give Stefan's right arm to hear the two of you recite that little poem to each other."

"And I'd give his left for someone to drive a stake through your heart." The words were out of her mouth so fast Bonnie had no hope of even stopping them.

"Can we stop giving away my boyfriend's arms please." Elena glanced over her shoulder to the door. Stefan and Tyler were outside; they'd been held up by Mick. She knew if they came in and saw Damon, Tyler was going to go off. "Damon, I really think you should go."

"Good thing I don't care what you think." Damon tossed back while he kept his eyes trained on Bonnie's profile. Because he knew it would annoy her, he rested his arm around the back of her chair. "I'm here to apologize to my little witch. I've been neglecting you."

"Yet I haven't missed you at all." Bonnie just barely resisted the urge to scratch his eyes out. She could feel the confidence pouring off of him. Not that he shouldn't be confident, even though she hated him Bonnie could admit he was beautiful. Thought his was the face Milton imagined when he wrote of Lucifer and his rebellion against God. It really was a shame he was such a son of bitch. "Why don't you go away again, Damon? I'll try to get it right this time."

He reached up to brush the hair off her cheek, but his hand was slapped away for his efforts. "Actually I think I may stay awhile. Really have missed that morning yoga."

At this Bonnie whirled around so quickly, her hair slapped Damon in the face. The satisfaction was there, but she was far too pissed off to care anymore. "Should have guessed that on top of being a bastard you were a pervert too."

"Bonnie," He gave her chin a playful flick with his finger. "Don't you know when you're being wooed?"

"I know when I'm being stalked."

Narrowing his eyes, he gave a disappointed shake of his head. "Stalk is such an ugly word. Think of it as me keeping an eye on you."

"I'd prefer not to think of you at all. So," She made a shooing motion with her hand. "Go away."

"Do you really think I'm going to do that."

"What do you want?" Bonnie's voice was full of the exasperation she felt.

Because she opened herself up to it, Damon allowed his eyes to travel slowly over her form. Moving quickly, he gave her sweatshirt a tug so that it hung off the shoulder closest to him. "What are you willing to give?" Off her bored look he smiled. He should have known she wouldn't rise to that bait. "Just want to take care of you, Bonnie."

Both Bonnie and Elena frowned, because really this was the last thing they expected from this particular vampire. For an instant, the witch saw something-the truth maybe-in his eyes. Then, as was normally the case with Damon, he went and ruined it.

"When left to your own devices you invite fleabags into your bed." For a time he considered not telling her what he'd done. But Bonnie was just too irresistible when she was angry that he couldn't help himself. "But don't worry, I took care of that."

Her brow creased in a frown, before realization dawned. "You called my father. Bitch move, Damon."

Elena, who'd watched the whole exchange, began to get a sinking feeling in her stomach. The way Damon was looking at Bonnie, she remembered the offhand comments he made the last few times she saw him; she didn't think she liked where this was heading. "Why would you call her father?"

The smirk that was playing at the corners of his lips, formed completely. And he somehow managed to direct it at both girls. "Didn't think I was just going to stand by and let someone else share a bed with my witch did you?"

The smile curled her lips first, then a slight giggle escaped, and before long Bonnie was full on laughing. "Your witch? In what circle of hell would you think that was true?"

Any other time, Damon would have been pissed that she'd have the audacity to laugh. But he realized he'd never seen Bonnie laugh, at least not like this. And he liked it, liked the way her entire face lit up. Liked the way it made him want to smile in return. "You don't believe me?"

"How could you tell?"

"I got a story. When I went to your lying great whatever number grandmother to free the lying whore Katherine, the crystal wasn't the only thing she gave me. See, Emily dreamed about you." The way he said made it obvious Emily wasn't the only one who dreamed of her. "Told me that if I protected her line, it'd be worth my wile. As I'd get a witch more powerful then she could ever hope to be. I'd get you."

"Okay first, that's just ridiculous." Bonnie tossed back though for the life of her she didn't know why she was even humoring him. "She probably told you that because she knew it would have to be a witch of her line to open that tomb. I was just the ancestor unlucky enough to be alive when that stupid comet powered that crystal. That's what Emily meant. Not 'one day a witch will be born have at her'. This is pathetic even for you."

"You know why you're so pissed off right now, little witch. Because you know what I'm saying is true. You belong to me, Bonnie. You were mine long before you were even born." His fingers toyed with the ends of her hair. She was so busy being pissed at him in general she didn't even realize what he was doing. If he were honest, Damon wasn't even fully aware of his actions. He was too busy basking in what anger did to Bonnie's eyes. "So instead of ripping that mongrels' arms off, I called your father. Couldn't have someone else in your bed."

"Hate to break it to you, but your plan backfired. My father is actually thrilled that Tyler's staying with me. He all but gave us permission to-"

Damon's hand came up quickly, Bonnie barely batted an eyelash. It took a lot of restraint, but his fist curled into a tight fist. "Careful, Bonnie."

There was a moment, where she could have just let this go. Chalked everything up to a case of the crazy Mondays. But she couldn't, just could not let him get one over on her. "Maybe permission is the wrong word. Consent, is better I think. His consent to fuck."

The hand Damon balled into a fist came down hard on the table, drawing the attention of most everyone around them. But just as quickly, the smirk was back in place. "I said careful. He's not like you and I. Fido out there is fragile, all sorts of bad things can happen to him."

Elena's eyes widened, as far as she was concerned this conversation had gone on for way too long. This was what had clicked that night on Bonnie's porch. The way Damon was so sure that he could get Bonnie to do what he wanted by threatening the people close to her. Some part of her had known then that this was where he was going. Damon had spent a hundred and forty-five years loving the same woman. Obsessive didn't even begin to describe his personality. The fact that he was now focusing that attention on her best friend…

"Unlike you, Damon, I have a full understanding of my belongings." Bonne leaned in close, fire burning in her eyes as her lips practically touched his. "Tyler…Tyler is mine. And I know you want us all to believe you're over Katherine and you could care less about what happens to her, but that's not entirely the truth. You still love her, still want her. So I'll say this only once, you touch one hair on Tyler's head and I will hunt down that vamp bitch, drag her back here, and end her while you watch."

Damon inhaled deeply, because he'd never known anything to smell as sweet as Bonnie did in this moment. And fuck if seeing the way she meant every word she just said wasn't the sexiest thing he'd ever witnessed. Part of him wanted to go out and knock Tyler around just to see her do it. "Promise."

Bonnie didn't have to turn around to know that Stefan and Tyler had just walked in. "You need to leave now, Damon."

The vampire's eyes flicked towards the door, his smirk positively evil when he saw the dog practically trembling with anger. To both please himself and fuck with teen wolf, he leaned in until his lips were practically brushing her neck. "Why's that?"

"Because your car is on fire."

***&***

There was barely even a breeze in the air by nightfall. The lateness of the hour in addition to it being a weeknight accounted for the utter silence. And sitting on the fronts steps of her home, with her back pressed to her boyfriends still chest was the best way Elena could think to end a day. His arms were around her, fingers laced with hers, so that it seemed as if he were surrounding her completely. Laying her head back on his shoulder, Elena thought she could end every night, for the rest of her life, just this way.

Minus all the excitement that proceeded the sunset.

"You're worried about her." Stefan spoke softly against Elena's ear.

"She set Damon's car on fire." She felt more then heard his chuckle and would have rammed him in the stomach with her elbow if she wasn't afraid it would do her more damage then him. "Okay he was being a jerk, he was being Damon. But…Bonnie, you didn't see her. She was fine before. But then Damon shows up and she was different…she referred to Tyler as one her belongings."

Stefan nodded in understanding. He'd seen Bonnie with Damon. After losing her Grams, Bonnie had become a bit more caustic, a little short on patience. But with Damon she was antagonistic. Admittedly, Damon had a tendency to bring that out in people. "I think Bonnie is still a bit raw and because of how close to the surface her emotions are now, her feelings are intensified."

Elena pulled away slowly so she could see his face. With Stefan it was never really what he said, but more how he said it. "You say that like she's a time bomb just waiting for a place to go off."

"No," Shaking his head, Stefan took her hands to calm the fear that lit in her eyes. "That's not what I'm saying." Though it had been a fear of his after Sheila died, when he looked at Bonnie and it seemed like she was just barely hanging on. "Bonnie doesn't feel things like anyone else. Take her relationship with you." He wanted to explain this to her, so she'd understand. Thought Elena would better be able to help her friend if she had a better understanding of what she was going through. "Bonnie loves you. You're Ard and Eph, right. You're happy if the other is happy, sad when the other is sad. Well, for Bonnie it's more. When you hurt, she bleeds."

Elena paled, because she knew what it was to suffer through with Bonnie. To hurt because her friend was hurting. But this…she couldn't imagine what this was like. "I don't want that for her."

Stefan smiled sadly at her, framing the face he loved so much gently in his hands. His brother may have had a lot wrong, may have had the worse view of the world then anyone he's known. But Damon was right about this; the friendship between Elena and Bonnie really was something special. "I know you don't. But you can't take it from her, either. A witches power and her emotions are connected. This is her legacy. Don't worry, she was born for this." Leaning in he kissed her softly on the lips before pulling her back into his arms.

"But what about Damon, he thinks Bonnie belongs to him. That Emily gave Bonnie to him." Elena waited for him to contradict her. To make this better as he had moments before. And she waited. And waited. "Stefan!"

"Technically," Stefan began reluctantly. "When Emily put her family under Damon's protection she was, in a way, giving them to him. Her children, their children, and right down the line to Bonnie."

"Oh my God," This was just getting worse. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish Katherine had been in that tomb. I hope he finds her now, I hope he finds her and just stays away."

Stefan's arms went around her again, he nodded but said nothing. He didn't want to tell her he thought Damon was done looking for Katherine. At least for now. Because the only thing Bonnie accomplished by setting Damon's car on fire was strengthen his interest in her. She presented herself as a challenge, all but making herself irresistible to Damon.

"I have another question." Elena began softly.

"Shoot."

"Is Tyler a werewolf?"

***&***

"What did Damon Salvatore want with you?"

Bonnie stood on the opposite side of the bed from Tyler. The window was open at his back and she was momentarily distracted by the crow that landed in the tree. A chill ran down her spine, that she promptly ignored. She shouldn't have, knew Grams would tell her to always listen to her instincts, but Tyler's fear was palpable. And she couldn't ignore that. "Nothing."

"Nothing? I saw you. He was all over you, he was touching you." More roughly then he intended, Tyler pulled the covers on the bed back. This would be the first night they shared a bed since they became a couple.

Both had put off coming upstairs. As usual Bonnie had showered first but instead of getting in the bed she'd gone back down to watch T.V. After his shower, Tyler suggested they work on spells in the backyard. It made more sense as the cooler air kept them from overheating. But there was something decidedly more intimate about sitting close together, whispering in the dark that by the time they came back inside any awkwardness was gone.

"Bunny, you set his car on fire. Something he said upset you."

"Damon upsets me." She shrugged her shoulders indifferently. "Don't worry about it."

Tyler wondered how someone who looked like Bonnie could be completely unaware of her appeal. Her beauty, her power, her selflessness; for someone like him, who'd been made to feel less by his own father, she was everything he could ever want. He'd be crazy to think no one else saw it. Crazy to think that as a witch she didn't appeal to the demon in Damon the way she appealed to the wolf in him. What's more, this was the second time he'd come across the vampire at her neck that way. He didn't like it. Not at all. "I don't want you around him anymore."

More perplexed then upset at his demand, Bonnie frowned up at him. "What?"

"He wants you, he looks at you like you're already his. I don't want him anywhere near you again." Recalling the smirk Damon had given him, Tyler felt his anger spike. "I see him touching you again, I swear I'll kill him, Bunny."

"Ty," Bonnie quickly climbed across the bed until she was kneeling in front of him. "Hey, Ty, look at me." His eyes had gone that tawny color she found ridiculously attractive. In an attempt to soothe him, she ran her hands over his arms and chest before framing his face in her hands. "Hey," Her lips curved slowly, a relieved sigh escaping her when he smiled in returned. "Forget about Damon Salvatore. Isn't that what you told me? That killing him wasn't going to solve anything."

"It's not-"

"No," Bonnie interrupted with a shake of her head. "I don't want you anywhere near Damon." Whatever Damon was after, she wasn't convinced there wasn't some ulterior motive behind this sudden interest he had in her. He wanted something, he always wanted something. She wouldn't allow him to use Tyler to get it. "Just forget about him."

His arms went around her then, holding her in a grip that surprised even himself. "I waited my whole life for this, Bunny."

Bonnie pressed her lips softly against his ear. "Shh," The crow was still perched on the tree outside her window and she could have sworn she saw something like contempt in it's eyes. "I won't let anything come between us." She placed a kiss over the tightly corded muscles in his neck, smiled at the way he shuddered at just this gentle contact. Her eyes went back to the crow as she promised. "Especially not Damon Salvatore."

Sean Bennett was a man of habit. Raised by a woman who professed to be a witch instilled him with certain…beliefs. It's not that he believed his mother was a witch, but he believed in the power of certain things. He was very much a man of order. If things were to be done properly, they had to be done in the correct order. One misstep, as his mother would say, and the pot just boiled over.

The number twelve was very important. Flight numbers, hotels rooms, license plates and the like all had to contain the number twelve. At midnight on the twelfth day of the twelfth month his daughter was born. His only child. His Bonnie.

No one had to tell him that he was a poor father. His mother used every available opportunity to tell him that. It's not that he didn't love his daughter, he did. God knows he did. He just didn't know how to be a father. He was sorry for it. But there was nothing he could do to change it.

So he tried not to dwell on it too much. Which is why he focused so intently on his routine. Some would say he was obsessive, Sean liked to say organized. It allowed him to prepare for the end of one day while looking ahead to the next. His wife use to poke fun at him, she use to call out the items as he stripped them off. As they always came off in the same order.

His jacket came off first, placed on a hanger and hung back up in the closet. While he stood there, his shoes would come off, then his tie. Over to the bureau where he took off the watch his mother gave him as a graduation present, the cuff links that belonged to his father and grandfather, then his wallet. And then finally the broken pocket watch, another gift from his mother.

This was the one wistful moment he allowed himself a day. On the left side, as always, was Bonnie's baby picture. It was the same picture that had been inside nearly ten years ago when his mother had given it to him. It was the picture on the right that always changed. A sort of punishment he inflicted on himself, marking time by the changes that occurred in his daughter while he was away. Every night he'd stare at the two pictures and hear his mother's warning: Mark my words boy, one of these days you're going to come back and you're not going to recognize that child. For your sake I hope it's a long way off.

This was the first night the full impact of those words hit him. Because the last time he saw her, two days before waiting for Tyler Lockwood to pick her up for school, he looked at her and saw the young woman his child had become. A young woman he didn't know. Could't even pinpoint when it was he lost her.

As the hurt sank like lead in his gut, he gave a relieved sigh at the knock on the door. Any interruption would be welcome at this point.

Despite the years of traveling under his belt, Sean was still a small town boy at heart. And as he often did, especially on the rare occasion when he was distracted, fell back into the poor habit of opening the door without checking to see who it was first. "Yes?"

"Mr. Bennett." Damon didn't bother to smile. Didn't have the patience to play nice. So, when the man opened the door a crack, he placed his hand on the wood to keep it open. "We need to talk." He said in an easier tone then he felt as he held the other man's gaze. "So, you're going to invite me in. Now."