Chapter 13

Bonnie, Abby and Lucy were assigned to the area near Wickery Bridge. Matt kept getting blips of activity here and there, so the three ladies stayed on their toes. Abby had two guns filled with wooden bullets. Lucy had a stake in each hand. Bonnie was without a weapon, but she created a weak forcefield around them in case of a sudden attack. It wasn't enough to sustain an onslaught, as Bonnie didn't want to use up her magic before needed, but she at least wanted a barrier between them and the unknown.

"Looks clear," Lucy said after a sweep of the area.

"For now," Bonnie said. She checked her cell phone again but there were no more messages from Matt.

"I'm gonna head this way," Lucy said. "See if there's anyone lurking in the trees."

"Do you think that's a good idea?"

Bonnie saw a look pass from Lucy to Abby, and her cousin nodded. "I think your mother wants a little heart-to-heart time." She smiled and held up her stakes. "I'll holler if I need you."

The two Bennetts watched Lucy disappear into the woods, and Bonnie turned to Abby.

"Is that true?"

"Pretty much."

Bonnie smirked. "And what exactly is this heart-to-heart about?"

"You," Abby said. She gestured for them to sit on the bridge. "How are you? Really? I know you call me every now and then but I'd like to hear from you other than during an emergency."

"Well, no offense, but it's not like we have that kind of relationship."

"I know that. Trust me. And I know that's entirely my fault. But I'm trying to make amends. With your Grams gone and dad gone and now Elena gone, you must need someone to confide in. I'd like to be that person, if you let me."

Bonnie regarded her mother and saw sincerity in her eyes.

"I'll keep that in mind," she said.

"I do have something I want to ask you," Abby continued. Bonnie nodded. "What's up with you and Damon?"

Bonnie's eyes rounded in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you two are very different than you were before."

"We went through something traumatic together. That changes people, brings them closer."

"It's more than that. There's an affection between you two that's...I don't know. I don't want to say romantic, but I'm not sure I can think of another word for it."

Bonnie looked over the bridge and down at the water, where the moonlight reflected and made the area seem so much more tranquil and quiet than it really was.

"We're close," she said after a few silent moments. "He's my best friend."

"You love him?"

"Yeah, of course I do."

"As a friend or as something more?"

"Why are you asking me this?"

"Because I don't want you to get hurt. You've been through so much in your young life and getting her heart broken shouldn't be something you have to endure again."

"But where is this coming from? Yeah, Damon and I are close now but that's it. He's in love with Elena, he always will be and that's that. I'm not silly enough to go after someone whose heart I could never have."

"So you've thought about it. Going after him, I mean."

"He's a really hot guy. Of course I've thought about it."

Abby cracked a smile. "He is kind of hot."

Bonnie crinkled her nose. "That's gross, you know."

They fell into comfortable silence before Abby spoke again.

"Just be careful," she advised. "I know you and I know that you're a practical, smart, rational young woman and you only have good intentions. But I also know that when your heart gets involved, sometimes logic goes out the window."

"He doesn't like me like that. So even if I did like him, it wouldn't happen."

"And what if I overheard him say something that makes me think he does like you like that?"

Bonnie's eyebrows raised and she was about to ask Abby what she meant by that, but both their heads snapped around when they heard a scream come from the woods. All talk of Damon was abandoned as they jumped up and ran towards the sound. Bonnie was the first to spot Lucy, who was lying on the ground and gripping her neck. Bonnie started to run to her, but Lucy held up a weak bloodied hand and shook her head.

"It's...a...trap," she said.

No sooner had the words come from her mouth did Bonnie throw up a protective force field around herself. A vampire bounced off of it and another one appeared from the woods. Instead of going after her, though, he sprang on Abby and snapped her neck without a second thought. Bonnie couldn't fight him and protect herself and the others at the same time, so she dropped the forcefield and immediately held our hands, telepathically grabbing each heretic by the throat and easing them into the air. She did the same thing to them that she had done to Lily by setting every vein and artery ablaze, making them cry out in agony.

"That's right, assholes," she said with a little grin. "I've had enough of you."

She was about to finish them off, when an all too familiar voice came from behind her.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Miss Bennett."

Bonnie didn't relinquish her hold on the two men, but she slowly turned her neck and saw Lily standing there with a sick smile on her face.

"Don't worry," Bonnie told her. "There's enough for you, too."

In the blink of an eye, Lily collected Abby's limp body from the ground and held it hostage, with a pointed stake digging into Abby's chest.

"Kill them and I kill her," Lily said. "Your choice. And we both know you'll choose to save your mother, even though she's not worth your loyalty."

Bonnie hesitated, but only until she saw blood trickle down her mother's shirt. She dropped her hold on the two heretics and Lily did the same with Abby.

"You're quite predictable," Lily said. "It's a weakness you should address."

"What do you want?"

"The same thing I've always wanted: for you to turn and grant me immortality."

"Do you have comprehension problems or something?" Bonnie asked, throwing her hands into the air. "I said no, and I meant it. There is nothing on this Earth that would make me help you."

Lily's face briefly twitched with anger, but then she smiled tightly.

"That's unfortunate." She began to stalk towards Bonnie. "I think that I have been very understanding throughout this whole ordeal, Bonnie. I've given you opportunities to come to my way of thinking on your own, yet you stubbornly refuse to see the advantages of life as a vampire. And I'm afraid that my patience has run out. If you won't die and become immortal, then I suppose you'll just have to die."

Before Bonnie could ask what that meant or react in any way, the two witchpires did some kind of spell that made her immobile. Her eyes widened in fright as Lily approached her. Lily carried the stake that she was going to use on Abby, and she slid her slim arm around Bonnie's neck and squeezed tightly.

"I'll give Damon your regards," Lily said, before she drove the stake harshly into Bonnie's chest. The spell was broken and Bonnie screamed in agony as she fell to the ground. Excruciating pain pulsed from her chest throughout her body and she was left to die on the cold hard ground as Lily and her friends ran off into the night.

Bonnie's hands shook as she looked down at the stake. She thought about pulling it out, but she realized that might only worsen the wound and leave her to bleed out before anyone could get to her. Every breath was painful and each inhale felt like nails through her ribs and lungs. She managed to crane her neck up and saw that Abby and Lucy were both unconscious. She reached her shaky fingers into her pocket and pulled out her phone. She managed to send out one text message to Caroline that read "HELP" before the pain became too much and she passed out.

When Bonnie awoke again, it was only for a few brief moments here and there. At one point, her eyes opened and she saw the blur of people around her, standing over her, prodding her with instruments and needles and the like. Even if her confused state, she recognized the white fluorescent lights of a hospital. She could tell she was being moved around quickly, probably on a stretcher, and an older woman looked down at her with a concerned expression.

"Honey, you've had some serious trauma to your chest."

Bonnie nodded slowly but couldn't form any words.

"You're gonna be okay," the woman said. "You're going into emergency surgery right now, okay? We're gonna take care of you."

Bonnie heard the words but all she could think was that she was about to die. Again. And the only person she could think to ask about was Damon. She wanted to give the woman a message for her, something to tell him in case she didn't make it, but whatever medicine they had given her slowed her brain to a halt and she succumbed to sleep.

...

Damon burst through the hospital doors like a bat out of hell and marched up and down the hallways, nearly breaking the floors with his hard steps. His fists were balled up at his side, ready to punch whoever got in his way. He kicked closed doors open, completely unaffected by the startled gasps and angry looks that patients and their families sent his way. He didn't care if he had to tear down the whole hospital to get to Bonnie, that's what he was going to do. He swung open a patient door and found Abby and Lucy Bennett inside. Lucy looked a little worse for wear, with a large bandage on the side of her neck, but Abby looked fine.

And that enraged him.

He sped into the room, grabbed Abby by the neck and slammed into the nearest wall.

"What the fuck happened?!" he roared.

"Back off!" Abby said as she grabbed Damon's hands and threw him off of her. He huffed at her and when he looked like he was going to charge again, she held up her hands. "Do you think I wanted something to happen to Bonnie?"

"You better start talking or I'm gonna rip your head off."

"We were ambushed. They attacked Lucy first, then snapped my neck, and Bonnie was left alone. I don't know what happened."

"Are you fucking kidding me right now?" Damon scoffed. "I thought you two were Bennetts! I wouldn't have called you if I'd known you were just gonna get Bonnie killed!"

Abby yelled at him and he yelled back and Lucy tried to break it up, but their noise became so loud that the door swung open and Caroline and Stefan walked in.

"What the hell is going on in here?" Stefan asked.

"Ask Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum," Damon said.

"Look, all this yelling isn't helping anything," Caroline said. She closed the door and walked towards Damon, who was pacing like a caged animal. "Calm down."

"Calm down? How can you tell me to calm down when all I know that Bonnie got attacked and now she's in surgery. I don't even know how she got hurt."

"Before she came to you, Lily stabbed Bonnie in the chest," Caroline said, maintaining her steady tone. "Her ribs are fractured and she has a punctured lung."

"Then why the fuck didn't someone give her some vampire blood and fix it?!" he screamed. "Why are we standing here with our thumbs up our asses when we could be helping her?"

"I tried. When I got there, I tried to give her some blood but she wasn't responsive and she couldn't drink it. She looked..." She faltered and her eyes blinked away tears. "She looked like she wasn't going to make it."

"Then we'll fix it now," he said through gritted teeth.

"Damon," Stefan said with a sigh. "The town is already on high alert after that Christmas party. Literally everyone there saw vampires and other weird shit that they and we cannot explain. If you go in there and miraculously fix Bonnie, people are going to start asking us questions that we don't want to answer. Let the doctors do their work and we'll go from there."

Damon roughly ran hands through his hair and blew out a breath. Stefan was right. And he truly hated it when Stefan was right. Knowing that he would have to leave Bonnie's fate in the hands of potentially incompetent doctors angered him more than he expected. The room suddenly became stifling, so he pushed past Stefan and walked out of the room, slamming the door harshly behind him. He marched through the waiting room, completely ignoring the tense and waiting families, because he knew if he saw them and their expressions, he might actually sympathize with them.

And he didn't want to open that can of worms.

So he got in his car and drove to the nearest liquor store and bought a couple of bottles of bourbon. He sat in his car outside of the store and drank. People came and went but he didn't pay them any attention. He turned off his mind and drank, even after the store closed and the owner gave him a questioning look. Damon didn't know how much time had passed when his phone lit up and Stefan's name came on the screen. His gut reaction was to ignore it, but he knew it was about Bonnie.

"What?" he answered.

"Bonnie's out of surgery. I thought you would want to know."

"Out of surgery, huh?" he asked dryly. "And where's she headed? The morgue?"

"A recovery room, actually." They didn't say anything for a while. "She's pretty out of it right now but I'm sure she'll want to see you when she wakes up."

Damon hung up without saying anything else, and he stayed in his car and finished off his bottle. He took his time driving back to the hospital, and when he arrived, Stefan was in the waiting room, apparently waiting for him. Stefan led him to Bonnie's room, where Abby was sitting at the bedside. When she saw Damon, she silently stood and left, as did Stefan.

It was only after he was left alone with Bonnie that Damon really took a good look at her. She was asleep in the hospital bed, in a dim comfortable room, surrounded by machines that beeped softly. Tubes came from her mouth and chest, and IVs were running in both arms. Every breath from her sounded like a strained wheeze. She looked helpless and pitiful.

He sat in the chair next to her bed and just stared for a while. Every fiber in his body itched to just cut into his wrist and put it to her mouth. It would have been so easy. But Stefan was right. The inevitable questions in a town on high alert was the last thing they needed. So Bonnie would have to hang in there, at least until she was released from the hospital. Damon touched her hand, where an IV was taped down, delivering medicine into her small body.

"It's not supposed to be like this," he said quietly to her sleeping form. "I bet you think I'd be happy about this. You probably think I'd just let you die in here so I could get Elena back." He sighed and took his hand away from hers.

"But you're not supposed to die like this. You're supposed to get old. Very old. And I'm supposed to tease you about all the wrinkles you're getting while I'm still young and hot. And you're supposed to get married to some loser and settle down as a professor or something. And you'll have some kids. Probably two. Maybe three. They'll call me Uncle Damon and I'll spoil them to death and you'll act like you hate it but we both know you don't."

He smiled a little, hopeful that his talking would bring her out of her medicine-induced slumber. She didn't respond. She didn't move at all, other than the assisted rise and fall of her chest. The thought lingered in his mind that she might actually not make it out of that hospital bed. He thought about the rest of his eternal life without the judgey little witch at his side, and suddenly, it was more than he could take. He didn't like the way the whole situation made him feel.

In fact, he didn't like any of the feelings that Bonnie evoked in him lately.

But he stayed. He stayed at her bedside and never left. The others offered to take shifts with him but he would just roll his eyes and put his feet up on the tiny table to show that he had no intentions of going anywhere. Stefan and Caroline took turns bringing him blood bags every now and then. He got to know the nurses and doctors treating Bonnie by name and they started reporting all their notes and progress directly to him. He was there when the tubes were removed from her mouth and chest. He was there when she woke up, but she was so groggy that he was pretty sure that she had no idea who he was.

He'd lost count of how many days had gone by, and he got rather comfortable in his little chair, watching TV shows on his iPad. He didn't look up when the door opened, but he did raise his eyes when a steaming cup of coffee was placed into his face and he saw Caroline standing in front of him.

"Thanks," he said.

"I just talked to one of the nurses. They're about to run some tests on Bonnie and try to get her up for a shower."

"And you're telling me this why?"

"Because you should leave."

Damon frowned. "I'm not going anywhere."

Caroline sighed. "You've been sitting in that chair for almost two weeks. You look like a mountain man and, no offense, you stink. Go home, take a shower, and shave your damn face. They're going to turn down her medicine for a little while and she'll actually be up and aware of what's going on and I'm thinking that maybe you don't want to smell like a garbage collector."

He narrowed his eyes at her and she just blinked in return. She knew she was right, and worse than that, she knew that he knew it. He looked at Bonnie, who was sleeping and whimpering with every breath, and he groaned.

"Fine," he said as he stood up. He pointed a finger at the blonde. "But if anything happens to her on your watch, I will kill you."

"Trust me, I know. You've been a very doting boyfriend."

Damon narrowed his eyes again, which only made Caroline smile.

"What? You're her friend and you're a boy, right?"

"Just watch her, Blondie."

She did a sarcastic salute and he rolled his eyes at her before finally leaving the room. He walked out of the hospital and winced a little at his first view of sunlight in many days. He fished his keys out of his pocket and rolled down the windows, letting the cold air whip by him as he drove to the boarding house. He wasted no time getting into the shower, and he made the water as hot as it would go. He stood underneath the spray and let the water wash over his body, which was more worn down than he thought. He lathered himself up in Old Spice and rinsed off. He wrapped a towel around his waist and looked at himself in the mirror. He stroked the beard that had grown on his face and smirked. Caroline may have hated it, but he kind of liked it.

He took his time brushing his teeth and trimming, but not shaving, his beard. He pulled out some fresh jeans and a shirt and one of his many leather jackets before he headed back to the hospital. When he walked into Bonnie's room, he saw that she was awake and sitting up in her bed. She was smiling at Caroline, but when he walked in, she turned her attention to him and her smiled brightened.

"Hey," she said slowly and with a hoarse voice.

"Hey, yourself. How do you feel?"

"Like someone chainsawed my chest open."

"Pretty accurate description."

"After they did all the tests and everything, they gave her a few hits of pain medicine and now I think she's feeling kind of good," Caroline offered. The giggle from Bonnie confirmed it.

Damon smirked. "So you're stoned."

"Maybe a little."

"Mm hm."

He pulled his chair close to the side of her bed and observed her. She looked frail, of course, after a steady diet of IV fluids and no real food. But her eyes were bright and she was smiling. He looked at Caroline and nodded once.

"You're excused," he said.

"And you're an asshole." She turned to Bonnie and patted her hand. "Call me if you need me."

"I will."

Caroline stuck her tongue out at Damon, and he did the same, and then she grabbed her purse and left the room.

"So how did your tests go?" Damon asked.

"I'm healing well," Bonnie said. She grimaced a little as she turned her body to face him. "They're going to release me in a couple of days."

"And as soon as you're out, I'll let you tap a vein and you'll be good as new."

She made a noncommittal sound and stared at him. After a few seconds, he quirked an eyebrow.

"What?" he asked.

"What?"

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I like your beard," she said. She reached out and stroked his chin hair. "It's sexy."

Her comments caught him off guard, but he smiled and touched the hair on his cheek.

"Yeah? Caroline said I look like a mountain man."

"A really hot mountain man."

His grin widened to a ridiculous level and he had to clear his throat to maintain some level of cool.

"Well, now I know you're tweaked on pain meds," he said. "You've called me many things, but 'hot' and 'sexy' aren't on the list."

She didn't respond verbally, but she did keep rubbing his beard and he knew it was pathetic how much that was turning him on.

"You haven't missed much," he said, just to break the silence. "Lily's dead."

"Mm."

"If I had known what she did to you before I killed her, I would have made her death a lot more painful."

"Mm."

"Nothing's really happened since then. All the rest of them are dead and the town is on the lookout for vampires, so I expect things will be quiet for a while."

Bonnie didn't answer, but she did keep rubbing his beard. He saw her eyes getting heavy, as if her touching him was lulling her to sleep. She stopped suddenly and scooted over a little, making a tiny sliver of space in her bed.

"Come up here with me," she said softly.

"That's not very much space."

"So?"

He eyed the IVs coming from her arms. "I don't want to mess up your wires and stuff."

"You won't."

He thought about arguing with her, but he could tell that she was a few minutes away from falling asleep and he would only have to squeeze into the little bed until then. So he took off his shoes and slid into the spot, with his front facing hers. He wrapped his arm around her and she scooted in close. She buried her face in his neck and he smiled when he felt and heard her inhale.

"You smell good," she mumbled. "You always smell so good."

"Lucky for you I took a shower. Caroline told me that I stank."

Bonnie pulled away enough that they could look at each other, and she had that look in her eyes again.

"What?" he asked.

"Have you been here the whole time?"

"Before Blondie kicked me out, yeah."

She slowly shook her head.

"You're too good to me," she said.

"Well, it's not like I could leave you in your mother's hands. We see how that turned out."

She smiled a little and reached up to touch his beard again.

"Keep this," she said. "I like it."

"You got it, Judgey."

She returned her face to the perch of his neck and nuzzled closer so that their bodies were pushed together in every possible spot. He rested his cheek on top of her head and slowly rubbed her back with his thumb. He thought she had fallen asleep, until she spoke in a voice that was hardly louder than a whisper.

"We'd be good together."

Damon's thumb froze on her back as he waited for her to say more, but she never did. She was asleep soon after, but her words swirled around Damon's head. He kept telling himself that she'd meant it in a friendly way. And that she was not in her right mind. But he couldn't quite make himself believe that.

He didn't say anything about it because he didn't know what to say or that Bonnie even remembered it.

He kept it to himself even several days later, when Bonnie was finally released from the hospital. She agreed to go back to Sheila's house with her mother and cousin, much to his dismay.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" he asked, while the two of them stood on the porch outside of the house. "They don't exactly have a good track record of taking care of you."

"I'll be fine. And if not, I'll call you."

He frowned. "Why don't you just come to the boarding house? There's space for them there."

"I know, but Abby says she wants to spend some quality time when there isn't an emergency. Lily's gone. Things are quiet right now. It's a good time."

He grunted.

"Then I guess I'll leave you to it."

"I seem to recall you offering me a vein."

"That's all you chicks want me for," he teased.

He slid his leather sleeve down and bit into his wrist. He offered it to Bonnie, who didn't hesitate to take it. She sealed her mouth over the punctures and greedily pulled blood from his body. It wasn't the first time that he had given her blood, but it was the first time that he noticed how utterly sexy she looked while she drank from him. Her plump lips wrapped around his skin. Her eyes were closed and she moaned, mostly in pain, as his blood healed her fractured ribs and injured lung. He could hear the skin of her chest stitching itself back together, and the rich brown tone of her skin returned to her cheeks.

When she finally had enough, she pulled away and sighed contentedly. She opened her eyes, grinned at him, and said, "oh my God. I can breathe again."

Damon cracked a half-smile. "Glad to be of service."

She smiled, and he smiled, and for the first time in months, Damon didn't know what to say to her. He felt a little uncomfortable, so he touched his beard and said, "I guess I'll let you get to your mother-daughter bonding. If you get sick of her, you know where to find me."

"Yes, I do."

Bonnie opened her arms for a hug, and Damon embraced her closely. He wrapped his arms around her waist and she did the same to him. They swayed a little bit for a few minutes, and then she stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek.

"Thank you," she said in his ear. "You're too good to me."

He was so surprised by her comment that he didn't even think fast enough to respond, or to stop her from going into the house and closing the door behind her. He stood alone on the porch, replaying the moment in his mind over and over until he finally accepted what he had already begun to suspect.

Bonnie was into him. And he was into her. And he had no idea what to do about it.