xxxiv.

Surprisingly, Damon found what they were looking for first.

Well-not quite what they were looking for; not quite a way out. But he did figure out where the hell they were, buried in an old grimoire. It mentioned a particular coven's specialty, worlds set in an infinite loop of one day in time, based on a celestial event. Such as a solar eclipse. It was even a coven he and Bonnie knew-the Gemini coven.

As soon as he read it and scanned the pages after to see if there was more they could use to get out (there was not), Damon shut the grimoire, marking the place with his thumb. Then he leaned back against the couch and stared at the ceiling.

They had been stuck in this world for a little more than two months now. Things with Bonnie were...uncomfortable, their weird domestic equilibrium gone down the toilet.

So why did Damon feel reluctant to show her this newest lead? He should want a way out, right? He figured he would, eventually. But going back meant dealing with yet another supernatural crisis. Meant jealousy choking him every time Elena went back to Stefan, meant ricocheting between good and bad and always landing on the bad end of the spectrum, meant doing something shitty (because something inevitably came up) and then lying to her about it.

He was tired of being...kind of terrible with her. And he wasn't looking forward to starting that again when he got back.

Damon frowned. He wasn't looking forward to seeing her at all when he got back. This was the kind of thing he'd talk over with Bonnie, if he didn't think she'd take it as him trying to woo her.

He pushed himself to his feet. Even if he didn't want to go back to the real world just yet, Bonnie deserved a shot at it.

xxxv.

"Today on road trip with a vampire, we're going to Portland. Turns out that one-we're probably not dead, and two-the Gemini coven might have a way out for us. I don't like to say I told you so, but..."

"Yeah, yeah, you told me so. Don't let it go to your head."

"Too late. Anyway, we're in the first rainstorm I've seen since we got here. You'll notice I'm a little...damp. That's because we pulled over to celebrate. Damon is still driving too fast, because the laws of physics apparently don't apply to vampires, but I guess I'm used to it by now."

"I keep telling you, Bon, I've got it all under-shit-"

"Oh my g-"

A squeal of brakes, a crash of glass and metal, a crack as the video camera hits the pavement.

"Bonnie? Oh God no no no-"

xxxvi.

When Bonnie woke up, everything was too bright. She whimpered, shielding her eyes. What had happened? She hadn't had a hangover this bad in-

But no, this wasn't a hangover. Bonnie remembered it had been raining. Damon's shitty driving. The car had crashed. She had been...bad. Bonnie had been hurt too many times, but none of those times compared to glass shrapnel embedded in her chest. Weirdly though, nothing hurt that badly now; just her head, and her stomach. And...her mouth?

"Hey," Damon said softly. It wasn't a tone she'd ever heard him use, like he was trying to sweet-talk a puppy. "How're you feeling, Bon?"

She squinted through her fingers. The greyish sunlight was like the glare off of snow, too bright and painful to look at, but her eyes began to adjust. "I told you to slow down," she said. Something in her mouth felt off; the words were slightly garbled. "You asshole."

"Glad to see you're still yourself, then," Damon said. She noticed for the first time that he was gripping her other hand hard enough to hurt. Blood smeared over both their fingers; Bonnie followed the trail and saw it staining the shreds of her shirt, her legs. It crusted itchily along the side of her face. "You were...in bad shape." His voice broke, and he cleared his throat.

Something clicked. Her sensitivity to light, her sore mouth-she ran her tongue over the tip of her canines, just to be sure.

"I died, didn't I?" she said. Her heart sped up, as if it knew its beating days were numbered. "I'm-I'm transitioning."

Damon took a deep breath. He was still in vamp face, she noticed; probably all the blood. It didn't bother her as much as it should have. She'd look like that soon, too. "Yeah. But-please, don't-don't do anything stupid, you've gotta transition-"

"Oh, I'm transitioning." Sorry, Grams. "I didn't die just to get here and fucking die again. Take me to the hospital and I'll finish it." Bonnie pushed herself to her feet and the world blurred around her. Vampire speed hit early, it seemed. "We'll just have to find another way out."

this is another one of those things I've had in mind since I started this fic. The cure will come into play, but at this moment they're too busy to think about it.