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Bonnie opened her eyes and the sun was drifting into the room. It took her a few moments to focus and realize that she was in Damon's bedroom and that she was finally safe. She turned over and looked at Damon who was sleeping in the chair where Caroline had been the previous night.

"Did you kick her out?" Bonnie asked quietly.

Damon opened his eyes, "It's my room".

"You would use that excuse", Bonnie chuckled.

Damon shrugged, "Hey…it's the truth, so how do you feel?"

It was Bonnie's turn to shrug, "Can I get away with the answer…I don't know?"

"I think that's acceptable. I want you to know that I wanted to let you kill Klaus last night. I wanted to kill Klaus last night, but I knew that we had to follow the plan if everything was going to work out".

"So you threw me up against a wall to stop it?"

"I'm sorry".

Bonnie smiled for a few moments and then her face melted, "Ever since last night, I've been going over and over in my head why Klaus would say those things about how I wanted him and how I enjoyed it…"

"Bonnie, he was just talking. He was trying to hurt you, it was a mind game", Damon cut her off.

She sat up, "Was it? I don't know what the other part of me did".

"She stuck that dagger in him, she hated him…anything that she did was to protect you. I am pretty sure that she never wanted Klaus. He forced himself on you, you didn't want that and you didn't deserve it".

Bonnie nodded as she wiped her eyes, "Is it true about Lucy, did he really kill her?" she asked looking at Damon.

Damon nodded slowly and Bonnie shook her head as the tears fell from her eyes, "I never wanted anyone to get hurt, I didn't want that to happen…I hate him so much…I hate him!" she cried.

"I know you do, but he's gone and he's never going to hurt you or anyone else that you care about again", Damon said as he stood up and walked over to the bed.

"He's already done his damage…he knew that….he's always known that since that night that he came into my room….since he made sure I kept this scar…he knew that he had ruined me", Bonnie wiped her eyes as the tears began to flow.

Damon sat down on the bed and touched Bonnie's cheeks, "Hey…he did not ruin you".

Bonnie shook her head as Damon crawled up next to her in the bed and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her closer to him as she continued to cry. After a few moment, Bonnie wiped her eyes and moved away from Damon, "I'm sick of crying and most of all…I'm sick of crying on your shoulder", she replied wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

"What…my shoulder isn't good enough?" Damon smirked.

"That's not it", she shook her head, "I just feel like…I feel like I'm broken".

"Perhaps you are", Damon replied.

She looked up at him, "But now that Klaus is gone, you can start to put yourself back together", he continued.

"But is he really gone? Yes, he has the dagger inside of him but what if someone finds him and removes the dagger…"

"No one will find him, I have faith that Stefan and Caroline made sure that he will never be found again".

"I know that there was no real way to kill him, but I wish there were…I wish there was a way for me to make him really suffer…it's a feeling that I never felt before, not even when I hated you".

"Wow…thanks?" Damon replied.

"I don't mean it like that, what I mean is…ok…wait…let me say this right…", she said looking at Damon trying her best not to offend him, because after all he had done for her, she didn't want to hurt his feelings (if he had any…), "I did not like you, I tried to kill you…I thought about killing you a couple of times…"

"This is fun", Damon smirked.

"But no matter how many times, I never thought that I could actually go through with it…"

"You tried pretty damn hard at that carnival".

"But I stopped. When I think about Klaus, I know exactly what I would do to him and how I would do it…when he kidnapped me a couple of days ago, I had time and I spent that time thinking about if I ever got the chance what I would do to him and it scared me. I think I tapped into my other side with the dark things that I came up with".

"Well its understandable…Klaus, did some pretty bad things to you and he killed your cousin…"

"I know that, but when did I turn into this person who thinks about revenge and thinks about destroying someone's life…I was never that type of person, Damon".

"But didn't you say that you changed when Klaus…"

Bonnie held up her hand. As many times as she thought about what Klaus did and flashed back to that night, she could never say the word. She could never say the R word—just thinking about it made her sick.

"Ok you may have changed Bonnie, but things can get better".

Bonnie looked at Damon and raised an eyebrow, "This is scary".

"What is scary?"

"The fact that I can talk to you about this and everything else and it doesn't feel weird".

"Well you want to know what's even weirder?" Damon asked looking down at her.

"What?"

"The fact that I want to sit here and actually talk to you, that's weird for me".

"Well if nothing else after all of this, we have become friends...?" Bonnie trailed off.

"Yes we have", he answered.

SSSSSS

Damon walked into the kitchen as Stefan heated up a cup of blood, as soon as Stefan removed the cup from the microwave Damon removed it and smiled drinking it. "That was mine", Stefan replied.

"I haven't had anything to eat today, I'm practically wasting away", Damon sighed.

"Right…so how's Bonnie?" Stefan asked.

"She's as best as can be expected".

"So can we talk about last night and what Klaus said. We all heard him".

"And what do you want to know?"

"I want to know, was he lying about them being lovers?" Stefan whispered.

"I would not describe it that way at all, I would describe it as some sick, psychotic vampire taking advantage of a young, inexperienced witch and forcing himself on her".

Stefan closed his eyes and leaned against the counter, "I kind of figured that's exactly what happened but I didn't want to believe it".

Damon nodded as he sipped his blood.

"And you knew…I mean…you knew before Klaus said it last night".

"When we found Klaus that day at the house, after she pulled the dagger out of him—he said it. He said that he was her first and at the time, I thought he meant her first vampire—I had no idea that it was so much more than that. She begged me to keep it a secret…"

"And you did", Stefan replied.

"I did".

Stefan was quiet for a few moments and then he spoke again, "Damon, can you answer me honestly here?"

"What Stefan?"

"Do you feel anything more for Bonnie than just friendship?"

Damon closed his eyes and sighed, "Why Stefan?"

"Because I saw the way you acted when Klaus kidnapped her a couple of days ago. You were angry and you determined. You cared a lot and the plan you came up with, it was all about keeping Bonnie safe…"

"I wanted to save the witch, what's the big deal?" Damon replied walking away.

"I saw you when you carried her out of that room, that was not just about saving the witch", Stefan stated.

"So what do you want me to say?" Damon asked, "because if you're waiting for me to declare my love for Bonnie or something, it's not going to happen".

"I know that…I didn't say that you were in love with her, I would say that you feel something for her and it manifesting itself now as a need to save her and make sure she's safe".

"Oh really Dr. Stefan, so what comes after that?"

"I don't know, but I think you need to back off a little", Stefan replied.

"What do you mean back off…I'm not doing anything?"

"I know that…I know that you only want to do what's best for her. I know that you want to protect her, but Damon…Bonnie's been through hell and she's fragile and I don't want her to get hurt when you decide that you're done being the protector or whatever this is that you feel for her wears off".

"Seriously?" Damon rolled his eyes, "are you warning me away from Bonnie? Did Elena put you up to this?"

"No…"

"Then why are you even bringing this up to me?" Damon asked feeling his anger creep up, "have I done one thing with Bonnie that could be construed as hurting her?"

"No, but Damon…I know you".

"Obviously you don't, if you believe that after everything I've done to protect Bonnie that I would hurt her", Damon said slamming down his cup and leaving the kitchen.

SSSSS

Bonnie, Elena and Caroline sat in the study at the boarding house and Bonnie watched them watch her every move. "How long are we going to sit in silence?" Bonnie asked looking at them.

"I don't know what to say", Caroline frowned, "I don't want to make you cry".

"Funny thing is, I don't think my tear ducts work anymore", Bonnie chuckled humorlessly.

Elena walked over and sat on the couch next to Bonnie and Caroline joined her on the other side. "Your Dad is home, he believes that you went on a school trip. As long as you need to stay here or if you want to stay at my house, you can", Elena began.

"Or you can come to my house", Caroline offered.

"Thanks ".

"Bonnie, we just want you to know that we are here for you. We love you and we don't want you to think that we see you any differently then we did before", Elena spoke up.

"That's good because I'm a different Bonnie now and don't think that I am the Bonnie that will go around being mean and setting people on fire…I don't mean different in that way, I just mean that I am not the same person that I was before Klaus pulled me through that window".

"We know, we know", Caroline rushed to assure her.

"But I also know that you heard what he said".

"But we know that he was lying Bonnie", Elena shook her head, "and that he was sick…psychotic".

"He was", Bonnie nodded, "you know, he was definitely trying to give me one last dig or one last harmful reminder of him…"

"He was horrible, I am glad that he's dead", Caroline fumed.

"Bonnie, do you want to talk about what he did?" Elena asked quietly.

"You don't have to talk about it Bonnie, you don't", Caroline replied widening her eyes at Elena.

"It's ok, I'm going to talk to you guys about it…I mean, we talked about what we wanted our first times to be like and who we thought they would be with…", Bonnie began as she touched her scar, "I always said that I didn't know who it would be with, but I knew that it would be with a guy that I loved and loved me back…that we would have candles all around and that it would be nice and gentle and sweet..."

Bonnie watched as Caroline and Elena's eyes filled with tears and it was only then, that her eyes filled with them as well, "Who knew that my dream would be shattered one night during a thunderstorm when Klaus came into my room and decided that he wanted to make the nightmarish life that he had sentenced me to worse. No matter what happens, I will never be able to get that night back…I will never be able to have what I wanted for my first time…it will always be something that I look back on and I feel sick…I feel nauseous…and I will never forget it".

Elena and Caroline each took one of Bonnie's hands as they put their heads on her shoulder.

Damon stood outside of the study looking inside through a crack in the door. The three women could not see him, but he heard every word of what Bonnie said. He fought the impulse to say something, but instead just walked away silently.

SSSSS

Hours later, Damon sat in his bed flipping through a book when Bonnie entered the room. "Hi, I thought that I would just come and get my bag…maybe move to a guest room", she mumbled walking over to her duffel bag.

"Maybe you should go home", Damon replied refusing to look up from his book.

Bonnie froze as she picked up her bag, "I guess I can do that…", she replied turning to him.

"I think maybe that will be best, Klaus is gone…he's not coming back and I know that you want things to get back to normal".

Bonnie stood for a few moments, trying to feel if the lump in her throat was due to her fear or the fact that it appeared that Damon was casting her away or pushing her away, rather.

"I guess I do and going home is probably the best solution", Bonnie nodded, "I guess I will get Stefan or Elena to drive me home".

"Yup", he said turning a page in his book.

"Ok…then…", she mumbled as she turned around to leave and then turned back to him, "did I do something?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, did I do something…you seem different?" Bonnie asked.

"Bonnie, I promised to keep you safe from Klaus…Klaus is gone, no one will ever find him and now you can move on with your life".

Bonnie squinted as if she was trying to understand what had changed within a number of hours, "You're right…absolutely right…I guess I should go…"

"See you around", Damon replied.

Bonnie nodded, "I…uh…I just want you to know that I am thankful for everything that you did to help me and thank you for keeping everything between us".

"No problem", Damon stated.

Bonnie nodded as she turned and walked out of the room without another word. Damon put his book down as he looked over at the empty doorway.

SSSSSS

Bonnie walked into her darkened house after Elena dropped her off. She offered to stay over, but Bonnie maintained that her dad was home and that she would be fine. However, when she walked in the house—she found a note from her father. 'Sorry Bon, thought I would be here when you got back from your trip…had to leave early for a meeting in Nova Scotia, will call you tomorrow…Love You, Daddy'. Bonnie dropped the note down on the table and sat down on the couch. She looked around her empty house and drew her knees to her chest. She flicked her finger up and the television came on. She knew that coming to terms with being alone would take some time and while that time passed her by, she would not spend it sleeping…whenever she closed her eyes, she saw Klaus and it was as if she was still in that house with him.

Other Bonnie makes some appearances in the next chapter and she brings some enlightenment with her.