A/N – Sorry for the delay in continuing this story. Work always gets crazy insane for me this time of year (March through June). Now that it's over and the dog days of summer are here, I'll have more time for updates to my stories. This one continues on as my alternate Season 4. As always, I do not own the CW/TVD characters or story. I'm simply using some for fun and a stepping stone for my ideas and my story. Enjoy and please do review. I value each and everyone one especially those that go beyond saying I like it and update soon! ;-)
Reminder since it's been a while…Previously on Bonded for Life, The map was revealed in full when the "Scooby gang" helped Jeremy stake Kol. Klaus is trapped at the Gilberts' but despite this, when threatened by Bonnie and the white oak stake, he helped decipher the map and sword. Rebekah seems fully on board with the gang despite the treatment of her siblings. And our lovebirds, Stefan and Elena have had another fun night somewhat instigated by Elena managing her vampire heightened emotion of jealousy. Enjoy!
TVD – Bonded for Life, Chapter 14
No one got very much sleep that night. Some didn't even bother trying to sleep thinking an all-nighter with making preparations was better than tossing and turning, or better yet, having great sex was the best option with the few hours left before their early departure. Besides, it might make sleeping en route easier. As a group, they decided Tyler and Caroline would stay behind to look after Klaus and Mystic Falls, just in case something came up or if the traveling party needed something. The rest would leave early in order to arrive on the island by early afternoon. That way, they could hike for the rest of daylight, camp overnight, and get to the cure the next day by noon.
The tedium of traveling for hours, anxiously hoping to find a miracle amidst life threatening danger, made for a quietly tense group. Normally bantering here and there, tossing jibes and sarcasm at frenemies, everyone seemed lost in their own thoughts. Perhaps fantasies of being human again, perhaps worries of impending injury and possible deaths,…whatever kept them each preoccupied probably kept any one of them from lashing out at anyone else too much.
Bonnie and Jeremy seemed rather cozy. Not like they'd had sex but there was a spark there again. No doubt the others all thought Bonnie had continued to study Jeremy's mystical ink along with his physique into the wee hours. In truth, she'd left Jeremy be when he finally dozed off. She had covered his naked chest with a blanket having stared seemingly endlessly at the tattoo spread across his muscular body. His body, she could barely admit to herself without blushing, was increasingly calling to her and it was for purposes unrelated to deciphering the tattoo. The blanket helped her focus her attention elsewhere once it blocked her view. "Out of sight, out of mind", she goaded at herself.
Being too anxious to sleep, Bonnie used the rest of the time to meditate on controlling her new magic. She almost feared it and yet relished it just a bit. It felt different than her first magic. She felt this magic more deeply, arousing her feelings of strength and purpose as it also stirred very strong physical reactions. She knew she could leverage incredible power but still worried about her limited ability to manage it without Shane talking her down. Eventually, after tiring both mentally and physically, she dozed off leaning against Jeremy's shoulder. She repeated this modest intimacy again en route to the island just hours later.
Jeremy on the other hand, stayed on high alert the entire trip. A side benefit of becoming a Hunter meant tons of energy and less need for sleep. He'd gotten enough rest in the few hours the night before and was raring to go after raiding Bonnie's fridge for breakfast. He sat protectively still as they travelled hoping Bonnie would catch up on sleep as she leaned warm and soft against him. Jeremy enjoyed his role as protector to Bonnie after his perceived failure at keeping Elena alive and human. He was determined to not fail Bonnie in this along with getting that damned cure for his sister.
Shane appeared to be asleep most of the trip but likely was also making plans in that devious mind of his. No one put it past him to be feigning sleep just to keep his secrets a while longer. He had to protect himself at all costs in order to complete his goal. He was so close. If he could just continue to slowly reveal his unrealized value to the others, he could protect himself until the critical moment. Once achieved, his life would be secured by Silas.
If the others had known Shane better, they would have noticed that Shane was more anxious than ever and visibly less confident about surviving the trip since Damon and the others had mostly figured out how to read the map. But, he kept his stoic if false bravado and continued to play up his knowledge of what to do when they were on the island. He especially touted his knowledge of Silas' headstone and the role it would play in getting the cure as a sure reason to keep Damon from rashly snapping his neck. Shane had another card or two up his sleeve but they would be played in due time.
Rebekah wished she could sleep but ended up giving envious, sidelong glances to Stefan and Elena for nearly the entire trip. It was just so annoying to watch the happy couple sleep and drool the entire way obviously spent from a night without sleep. She remembered the feeling well, the sheer exhaustion from a night a glorious sex with Stefan Salvatore…
While it was true that the happy couple spent nearly two hours entwined in each other, they had ended up on a hunt concerned about being a little weak for their trip and possibly not being able to replenish while on the island. They would have been ok without the hunt if they had not expended so much of their energy in passion in the neighbor's pool house. Despite their mutual fatigue, they agreed that the energy was well spent. So they hunted together, shared a six-point buck, and slept en route. Klaus had never seen them leave the Gilbert home, neither for their romp down the street nor when Elena snuck back inside through her window for a quick pack. Stefan caught her on her jump from the window, quieting her landing. They shared a smile at leaving Klaus to wonder when and where they'd gone and sped to the boarding house so Stefan could grab his things.
Damon simply drank the entire way.
The last leg of the journey required two small skiffs Rebekah had arranged to get the band of frenemies from the mainland to the uninhabited island. In the second skiff, Rebekah was nearly knocked overboard when Elena stood at an inopportune moment. Despite Elena's apologies for being a klutz, Rebekah got in a few jibes setting the tone between them for the rest of the trip. Rebekah realized she was taking out her jealousy on Elena more than being mad about almost going for an unplanned swim, but she didn't care. Stefan had reached for Elena to sit her down and to ensure she didn't fall in, but hadn't lifted a finger to ensure Rebekah, the one that was really at risk of falling in, didn't take the plunge. If she had to watch those two be any more wrapped up in each other, she was entitled to let out her feelings in any way she chose.
Jeremy, Bonnie, Shane, and Damon went over in the first skiff and arrived uneventfully just ahead of the others. All had stayed dry and a long day of hiking began. A mile or two into the unknown, Shane called out for all to stop. He then proceeded to strategically release a trap so that none in the hiking party were injured by it. He warned there would be more. Damon couldn't resist getting in his digs at Shane. "I thought you said this island was uninhabited except by Silas' corpse.
"I did. It is, or is mostly." Shady Shane once again was on display. "But that doesn't mean that mainlanders or even hunters over the years might not have set traps for search parties trying to find Silas and the cure." Shane moved onward, leading the way and advising the others to be on the lookout for more traps. "Remember, if Quetsiyah's hunters set any of the traps, they are bound to be dangerous and maybe contain vervain, and most likely, sharp wooden objects," he called back over his shoulder, again keeping himself in the needed alive column due to his knowledge of the island and all things Silas. Shane smiled an evil smile enjoying how he was able to taunt Damon and crew without it seeming that he was. The rest of the party looked cautiously about before following in Shane's footsteps.
Another mile or so passed uneventfully. Shane continued to tell the story of miners who used to work on the island, specifically those who were excavating the well near where Silas was buried. The miners had gone mad. They were rumored to believe if they'd given of their blood in the well, they'd be reunited with their lost loved ones. Whether it was magic or illness, Shane believed that something was going on in that well and it had something to do with Silas. He came to learn how Silas could help him see his dead wife and son again if he set Silas free. This was the most disclosure he'd yet to share with the group making it seem as if he was being more forthcoming than before.
Later, as darkness came, Jeremy and Elena were bringing up the rear, stopping briefly to trade water bottles. Elena didn't really need hers but Jeremy's was empty and he was thirsty. As Elena turned to walk on, Jeremy took a swig and heard someone behind him. Spinning around, a spooky looking archer was about to shoot him but was stopped by a hatchet to the back. Elena ran back yelling to the others to help with Jeremy's safety. No one had any idea why someone would try to kill Jeremy other than trying to warn off the group. There was no evidence that anyone would target the Hunter specifically. But it was almost more concerning that someone unknown to them had stopped the archer and it wasn't someone in their party. Did Jeremy's secret guardian know what Jeremy was? Was it another Vampire Hunter? The group was now even more on edge. They stayed closer together, eyes scanning for trouble from all directions.
As the dark of night took over, Shane chose the spot to stop for the night. There was a cabin the miners had used many years ago with some open spaces for the tents and a ring of stones that looked like it was once a fire pit. "Why? Why don't we keep going and get this over and done with?" Rebekah prodded, not wanting to spend time around a campfire and sharing a cabin or a tent with, well, anyone here. Jeremy hated to admit it, but he agreed, and wanted to keep moving. Shane would have none of it.
"We need Bonnie rested. Heck, we need all of you rested. Do none of you remember how powerful Silas is? We have no room for anything to go wrong. We need rest and planning and caution. Trust me. We all want this over and done but not over and lost. We brought the tents and sleeping bags, right? This is the plan…" He turned away, his body language saying this conversation is over.
Bonnie agreed. She was fatigued physically which would make it all that much harder to control this very powerful magic she only recently began to wield. She wanted some time to clear her head and ensure she was ready for anything she may have to magically fight or conjure. She also wanted Jeremy to get some rest. Hunter or not, he was still human. The last thing they needed was for Jeremy to be overconfident in his abilities and end up getting killed, never mind if he got fatigued and reverted to wanting to harm one of the vampires he had trained himself not to kill.
Camp was set up. The humans ate. Damon and Rebekah shared a blood bag. Despite their excellent vision, neither Stefan nor Elena wanted to hunt and end up finding more traps or other assailants accidentally in the dark. Their recent hunt would tide them over. Still, Damon offered Elena the last of the blood bag with a smirk. "Want it? Wait, No, no human? What's on the menu for you now? I'd offer my hand again but I don't think that would go down well…"
"No thank you, Damon," Elena replied with just a hint of stiffness. Her initial instinct was to snap at him but she thought better of it and swallowed it down not wanting to start something here and now. Stefan would have had her back but she didn't want to start something between the brothers now either. It wasn't the time or the place. She'd expected Damon to revert to his sarcasm and bitterness at some point after losing her post sire bond. Her only surprise was that it took until now for the first relatively subtle barb, subtle relative to Damon, to be aimed directly at her.
After that, Damon kept his distance mostly, not wanting to engage with Elena further, nor his brother. Instead, he decided to confront Shane about what his real plan was. Damon still didn't trust the professor at all. While the elder Salvatore appeared to be completely focused on his scotch during their travels, he had covertly watched the professor. He could tell by breathing patterns all the various times Shane was not really asleep though he looked like he was completely out of it leaning sloppily against a window. Damon also had watched closely as a few more traps were uncovered by the professor late in the day and close to the camp. How convenient that Shane seemed indispensable when they had arrived on the island and again just before they made camp. Damon couldn't help but feel that something was wrong about each situation but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Was Shane truly spying the traps as they were encountered or did Shane know about them in advance somehow…? Why weren't there any traps spotted by anyone else in the group? Why not a trap off to the side spied by vampire eyes? No it seemed to Damon that each time Shane had found a trap, he walked right to it.
Damon confronted Shane in the miners' cabin. "Who are you trying to call?"
"What?"
"You just had your phone out…Thought you said there wasn't any signal out here…?"
"Yes, and there still isn't. I just checked."
"Uh huh. So, these traps, did you set any off when you were here the last time?"
"No. At least not accidentally." Shane went back to searching else in his backpack.
"You must have been quite the boy scout." Shane felt the mocking almost physically so he gave Damon his full attention. He set down his bag as he turned toward Damon with a questioning look. "It's just that you seemed to be able to disable those traps, three different kinds of traps, without much hesitation…Almost like you knew them…" Damon suggested.
"No, Damon, I didn't know them specifically. But I did my homework," he smiled.
"Yes, the professor would do his homework," Damon smirked sarcastically. "Which means you know very well that it's not that much further to the well, to the cure…and yet…You still haven't told us how the headstone fits into this little island jaunt, nor what we have to do to get the cure."
"All in good time, Damon, all in g…" Shane choked on his last words as Damon's hand closed around his throat.
"I think now is a good time, Professor Shady." Damon forced Shane into an old rickety chair and squeezed Shane's throat harder for good measure. Releasing Shane with a push further back into the chair left him gasping and sputtering. When the vampire's back was turned, Shane slipped a wooden stake from a pocket along his calf distracting from any noise he made with his coughing.
Turning back with rope to secure Shane for an interrogation, Damon was surprised to feel a stake just barely pierce his chest, well below his heart. Shane had missed and Damon caught him before any serious damage could be inflicted. Damon smirked at the startled look from Shane. "What, am I getting too close in my suspicions of the good teacher? Whatever secrets you are keeping must be really good to try to end me," Damon leered in closer and continued in a genuinely disturbing sneer. "You try that again and we'll really have some fun."
"Come on, Damon, I have to at least try to defend myself, don't I?" Shane said in his nervous justification of his actions.
Damon secured Shane's wrists and ankles to the chair as he answered. "Oh, I give you credit for that, I do, I didn't think you had it in you. But, you are a good teacher…and now I know not to turn my back…" He finished tying the ropes and stood back, toying with the stake now in his possession. "So, forget about the traps. Tell me about the cure. Where will it be, exactly?" Shane didn't answer. Damon backhanded Shane hard enough to leave a welt and cause a chair leg to splinter and give way. The remaining three legs creaked and left Shane sitting precariously askew. "What was that? I don't think I heard your answer," Damon asked mockingly, a hand to his ear. Shane spit some blood onto the ground and regretted it as soon as Damon's eyes travelled to the reddish liquid pooled on the sandy ground. Damon brought his eyes slowly back up to Shane's. Spying fear in Shane's eyes, and a quickening of Shane's pulse, an evil and possibly thirsty smile grew on Damon's lips. Fangs descended and pulsing veins turned bright blue eyes to blood red. It was all for show and elicited even more signs of fears from the teacher. In a flash, Damon was behind Shane, whispering at his ear as he torqued Shane's head to expose more of his neck. It was prime feeding position for Damon with the carotid artery just below the surface.
"You can't kill me, Damon! You need me," Shane hissed in panic.
"Really, why is that?"
"I know what to do with the headstone."
"I don't care about the headstone. That's for waking Silas. I just want the cure."
"You won't be able to get it. It's trapped with Silas."
"Why not? Why can't I just grab the cure and leave?" Damon eased the strain on Shane's neck but at the same time just barely touched fangs to skin.
Quickly Shane spit out, "Because the two are together. You can't get the cure without moving Silas. You can't move Silas without waking Silas." Still displaying his vampire self, Damon slowly came around to face Shane. Shane continued. "They are bound like stone."
"We're vampires. We can break through stone."
"Even if you could, which you can't, you still need me for another reason." Here it comes, Damon thought. He could smell the professor getting desperate. The fact that Shane was offering another reason meant he thought the first reason to keep him alive wasn't working and it probably meant that the first reason was a lie. Shane continued. "You need me to keep Bonnie under control. The magic she's using, it's called Expression." Damon took a couple steps back, retracting his fangs and listening carefully. Damon knew what Expression was, at least on the surface. Shane continued again as Damon turned back to face him. "I need to keep her in check, only I can do it. She could easily kill us all without even trying or realizing it if she were to lose control."
"Then, I guess, I'll just have to kill you and her."
Shane tried to sound just as cocky and mocking as Damon. "You wouldn't! You wouldn't kill her. Everyone would hate you, Damon, Elena would hate you. Everything you've tried to overcome to find love and have a family would be gone!"
Leaning in on the arms of the chair, Damon applied more than enough pressure to hint at breaking Shane's wrists. He hissed disarmingly at Shane's attempted manipulation. "I guess you haven't noticed that I no longer have that family anymore, Professor not so smarty-pants." Damon stalked behind Shane once more and growled sinisterly and slowly into his ear. Shane could hear fangs descend just next to his ear. Once again, Damon bent Shane's head to the side exposing his neck. "Elena is with Stefan once again. I no longer have to keep any promises to that bitch to protect her friends." Damon dragged his fangs along the soft skin causing just a hint of blood from the scraping. He toyed with the stake, ready to drive it into Shane's stomach. "Now, let's see how much fun we both can have watching you bleed out…while I have dessert." Shane gasped in fear and made a kind of squealing cry to stop. Damon was sure he was about to provide more valuable information with the threat of death looming so near.
"Damon! No!" Elena flew in without warning, knocking the stake from Damon's hand. "What is wrong with you?"
"Elena!" Damon growled in frustration. If he was going to learn anything really important from Shane it was in that moment. Shane would have been reaching the point of caving or at least giving Damon some tidbit of truth in his desperation to stay alive but Elena had ruined the moment. "He's a liar, Elena. He's not telling us everything and you know it." Damon tried to salvage the moment and bit down on Shane's neck.
"Stop!" Elena cried out nearly tackling both Shane and Damon. The chair further caved, moving Shane out of position and Damon stumbled backwards. Instantly back upright, he snarled at Elena looking as is he might come after her but then he turned stalked out unbelievably pissed off.
Elena untied Shane and made sure he was well before leaving to confront Damon about his actions. He's lost it is all she could think. She was able to trail his scent. He wasn't far but was away from the others.
"Damon, have you lost your mind?"
He knew she'd come looking for him so he hadn't bothered to hide. She'd probably have kept looking for him and gotten injured or killed if she stumbled into a trap so he didn't make it difficult to find him. He turned to face her. "No, Elena, I haven't lost my mind. Maybe something else, but not my mind," he said pointedly. It was awkward for a moment as she wondered if he was implying about how he'd lost her.
"Damon, we need Shane to help get the cure. It's what this whole crazy quest is about. Have you forgotten that?"
"He's lying, Elena. He's not telling us something and it's big, whatever it is. I almost had him, he was right there, I could smell it…and you had to come and play hero like your boyfriend and screw it all up!" He was in her face by the end of his outburst. Elena tried to stay strong but internally cringed at his words. She wanted to scream back at him but refrained from losing it completely. It wouldn't do any good to escalate this by being louder and angrier.
"You were about to stab him, Damon. I thought you were going to kill him."
"And so what if I had, Elena?"
"Damon,…"
"Elena,…He's playing us, all of us, and you know I'm right," he said pointing at her accusingly.
"No, I don't, Damon…" she said a little more quietly reaching for his arm.
"Don't you dare, Elena, don't you dare touch my arm and say it! You don't get to tell me to be the better man anymore."
It was quiet. That wasn't what she was about to say, but it was a good point and she knew it. Whatever words she'd used would have led to a similar conversation more than likely. If he really was just trying to get information, she felt guilty for putting the kibosh on Damon's plan, however misguided.
"Did he tell you anything new?"
"Nothing worth mentioning, but he was about to…," Damon said, withholding the comments on Bonnie's magic and the limited knowledge he had of Expression. It wasn't worth mentioning until he could verify it was an issue.
"You should have said something and we'd have helped. I'm sorry. I'll go back to camp." Elena turned to leave regretting that she'd foiled Damon's attempt at getting information from Shane. She hoped it was all true, that Damon wouldn't have killed Shane unless he was a real danger to their lives.
"Running away now? Now that we've finally said more than two words to each other?"
She stopped and turned back to Damon. She could see the angry stance, the cold blue eyes, and the tension in every muscle. But still, she could see the pain behind the anger. It wouldn't have surprised her to know, now that she knew him better, that Damon may have shed a tear over losing her. The sire bond and all its trappings hadn't kept her from learning ever more about Damon and his well secreted-away humanity. She swallowed, trying to steady herself for the conversation they both had been avoiding.
He looked at her, waiting. He'd gotten her to stay but he knew better than to really start the conversation. He'd only be able to instigate with jibes. When it became apparent he wasn't going to start, she ventured in with the question that had been haunting her from the first day, her first day of not being under the control of the sire bond.
"Did you know?" He looked confused and waited for more. "Did you even wonder what might have been going on with me,…before we…?" Her voice caught in her throat. He understood her question, she could tell, so she didn't even try to continue.
"No." That's all he said. Now she looked confused.
"No suspicions at all?" she asked a bit incredulously. "I choose Stefan and then suddenly I'm with you?"
"It didn't seem sudden to me. I just thought, well I wondered if your transition helped, if it made you more like me." She didn't look like she completely believed him and it ticked him off. "I said no, Elena, I did not know. I'm not lying. I've no reason to now. It's abundantly clear once and for all that I don't get to be with you so why would I lie." She looked at him, considering his answer and not sure what to believe. He stepped just a bit closer to her, closing the distance between them but still keeping about six feet from her. "Look, if a man in the desert is dying of thirst and is given water, does he question if it's really for him? It's everything he's hoped for, struggled to find, desperate for just a drop…do you really think this man would question when it is given to him freely?"
Damon's stance eased and his voice drew quieter. "But I did question it, later, that first morning, I woke up thinking that there is no way I deserved it,…no way I deserved you…" Damon looked down, unable to look at the pain mixed with empathy exuding from her beautiful face. It struck too close to home knowing all the emotion was intended for him. Damon didn't do pity, giving or receiving.
"Now, my question," he said turning the tables on her and veering away from the emotions he wanted to rein in. "Was any part of it real? Can you even tell, you know, now that you are free?"
"I'm still working it all out. Mostly, I've just been really angry, angry with you, because I couldn't understand how you didn't know and how you,…how we slept together," she looked down, kicking at some debris with her boot, "so soon after Stefan and I…" She trailed off not needing to explain the slutty guilt she was working through. "I know a lot of the anger should just be anger at the situation. But it gets directed at me and well, mostly you."
"Elena, if down deep I knew, in any way, I was in complete denial. I did not suspect the sire bond until Stefan brought it up and that I freely admit was the moment I semi-consciously headed into denial." He paused, hoping to let it all sink in and hoping to ease her guilt just a bit since it would ease his as well. "So, you don't know the answer to my question then?"
"Damon…you know the answer, I think we both do." Her eyes pleaded gently with him to not push this further. It would mean rehashing what she's told him before.
"I know, I know,…It's always gonna be…" She silenced him with her fingers against his lips having quickly stepped forward.
"Stop. Stop this. I'm not a prize to be won. You don't have to prove anything. Just find some happiness all your own, Damon." Sensing his reaction to her touch, she dropped her hand away from his lips. She turned to leave, cursing herself for the intimate move.
Despite everything they had said, he wished she'd stay touching his mouth just a bit longer. "Wait," he called. She sighed quietly and pursed her lips. Slowly she relaxed and turned around awaiting his question. "Can I just kiss you once more?"
If she was still sweet, innocent, human Elena, she might have let him. It would have been out of compassion, at least on the surface. The part that human Elena wouldn't admit to herself would have been that there was a side of her that wanted him to kiss her back then. She was weak when it came to his advances and it had nearly ruined her more than once.
But she wasn't human anymore. She was vampire. She hardened inside at his request, not that anyone else could see. She was a victim of a sire bond and used for sex. Blameless or not though he might be, her body repulsed at the thought of him kissing her now.
"No, Damon, you can't. I should have been more insistent about that long ago. But I was weak and young and naïve." He smirked slightly, knowing that this meant he could still affect her but mostly to hide his disappointment. She turned on her heel and left him there in the woods.
Before she even got back to camp, a cry from Bonnie stopped everyone in their tracks to listen and gauge the direction from which the cries came. "Jeremy?!" And again, "Jeremy?!" Everyone came running to Bonnie's side asking what happened. Bonnie explained that Jeremy had excused himself to relieve himself behind a tree but never came back. Bonnie had heard a noise, a scuffle, and he was gone.
"Maybe he just needed to, you know, get more privacy…?" someone offered.
"No, he's gone. Something's wrong. I can feel it." Bonnie was adamant.
They searched for an hour or so, carving the surrounding area into quadrants and splitting up to search. Elena took the North. Stefan took the south. Rebekah took the West. Damon took the East. Bonnie said she and Shane would stay back in case Jeremy returned on his own. By the time the four vampires returned, each without Jeremy, Bonnie was in quite a state. She'd gone to the miners' shack and seen the broken chair, broken ropes, and no sign of the good professor. Now, both Jeremy and Shane were not to be found. She cried out to her remaining companions. "What do we do now?"
"We'll find them, Bonnie," Damon said, uncharacteristic concern for her in his voice. "Let's all just stay calm and think this through. Did you see Shane at all after we left? Is the headstone still here?" Bonnie shook her head no to both questions. Damon grimaced and looked to Rebekah who vamp-sped to her tent to check. The headstone was confirmed gone by the Rebekah's one utterance of shit!
Elena crossed to Bonnie to support her friend by wrapping an arm around her. "We'll find them, Bonnie. Maybe they're with the person who saved Jeremy today so we know they won't be harmed. Maybe we just have some more competition for the cure, or something. We'll figure it out."
Bonnie looked into Elena's eyes, tears still falling down her face. "We have to find them. We just have to…" Bonnie sniffled before completing the embrace Elena had started.
Damon shared a look with the vampires. He wasn't looking too happy about Bonnie's emotional state. Would she be controllable without Shane? Were the forewarnings about Bonnie's use of Expression now suddenly all too possible? Only time would tell.