Thank You, Bonnie
There was probably a toasty circle of hell reserved for Bonnie Bennett.
A small one, just for her. The girl who poked and prodded Tyler Lockwood into kissing her and pretended like it was all casual and not a big deal and didn't mean anything. And it hadn't meant anything except that Bonnie's dreams were right about at least one thing: Tyler was a very suitable kisser. If she ever needed to be kissed again, if her life happened to depend on finding a good kisser to do the job, she knew exactly who to call.
It would be a lonely circle, in a little corner of hell, but it would be hers.
Bonnie walked across the marble-floored lobby of Klaus' building where the security guard at the front desk nodded to her and flashed her a smile. She bent her steps toward the bank of elevators and punched the UP button.
She watched the elevator move. The glowing numbers above the elevator doors indicated it was on the level of the parking garage. She watched it move upward until the light froze on the "L" for lobby, and the doors slid open.
If anything her time with Klaus in New Orleans had taught her, it was how to paste on a completely uninterested face no matter what she was looking at. No matter how shocking, how horrifying, how terrible, she'd gotten very good at making sure her face betrayed nothing.
She hadn't had many opportunities to practice that skill recently, but she hoped any flicker of her facial expression would be chalked up to the very understandable shock at seeing Tyler there when as far as Elijah knew, Bonnie thought he far away, possibly lying on a beach somewhere.
Tyler stood at Elijah's side, his clothes and hair tousled from what was probably a struggle. He only blinked when he saw her. More likely than not, Elijah had compelled him into obedient complacency.
"Bonnie," Elijah said with a smile. "Hello. I was worried we were late."
"Same," Bonnie said, stepping onto the elevator. "What's going on?"
Elijah reached past her to press the button to close the doors, before straightening back up and adjusting his suit jacket. "Ah, yes. You remember Tyler. You too used to be...in the same circle. Forgive me, I can't recall if you two could really be called be friends."
"We couldn't," Bonnie said.
"Tyler's been helping our dear friend Marcel."
Bonnie looked to Tyler whose gaze remained fixed ahead. "How long?"
"That's what I need you to find out," Elijah said.
Bonnie tilted her head up to the glowing lights. Klaus was on the fifteenth floor. They were moving toward the third. She tried to think, but she couldn't think about anything but Tyler standing a few feet away from her, the promise of Klaus waiting upstairs, and Tyler's inevitable death if she let him reach Klaus.
"How'd you find him?" Bonnie asked.
Elijah smiled tightly. "Tyler made a deal with a certain doppelganger."
"You'll have to be more specific," Bonnie said. "There are two doppelgangers, you know."
"Well, only one of them is human."
"Katherine?" Bonnie said. "What kind of deal?"
"We'll discuss it with Klaus," Elijah said, and Bonnie knew there was nothing else he was going to tell her at the moment. She swallowed thickly and fixed her gaze on the lights above the doors.
"Is this going to be a problem?" Elijah asked, turning his head and fixing a cold stare on her.
Bonnie didn't answer him. She had minutes - seconds - before this elevator made a decision for her. Once they hit Klaus' floor, they'd have no more options.
"Bonnie," Elijah said. She blinked and turned her head to look at him. "Is this going to be a problem?" he repeated slowly.
Bonnie found her voice. "No."
The elevator came to a sudden stop, throwing them all just slightly off balance. Elijah barely had any time to right himself before Bonnie flicked her wrist and threw him against the wall. The clench of her fist drew his mouth closed and made it impossible for him to speak. Or scream. When the flames swallowed him, the only indication of his pain was his thrashing, but she held him there.
Tyler jumped as far away from Elijah as he could, putting as much distance between himself and the flames as possible, pressing against Bonnie's shoulder. He stared with wide eyes as Elijah's movements stopped, and Bonnie released him so he sunk to the floor in a charred, smoking mess.
"Shit," Tyler breathed.
Bonnie dropped to her knees at Elijah's side, rifling through the pockets of his burned jacket. It was still warm. Finally her fingers closed around a blackened hunk of metal.
"What's that?" Tyler asked.
"His phone," Bonnie said. She laid it flat in her palm and waved her other hand over it, relieved when it regenerated, looking absolutely perfect without a single hint of its former destruction.
"What are we going to do?" Tyler asked as he bent down next to her, looking back and forth from her to Elijah.
She didn't have time to pick out the relevant bits and pieces floating through her brain right now. The elevator was stalled between floors. Several levels up Klaus was waiting, and Bonnie and Elijah were already late. How long until he started calling one or both of them, demanding to know what the holdup was? They were already late.
If she erased Elijah's memories, Katherine would only seek him out again. But if he disappeared, Klaus would start looking. If he started looking, he could find something. If anything led him to Tyler, to Bonnie, they were going to be so very, very screwed.
But they already were.
Bonnie scrolled through Elijah's recent calls, looking for any that were suspicious. None were labeled Katherine. Most of them were to Klaus, a few to Bonnie here and there though those had been awhile back. Apparently Elijah didn't have the most exhilarating of social lives. With that plan in pieces, it was time to switch strategies.
"I-I have to meet Klaus," Bonnie said.
"You're kidding, right?" Tyler said. "Just come with me. "We can-"
"No. I have to meet Klaus and make sure that he does not start looking for Elijah tonight," she said, more harshly than she meant to.
Tyler recoiled only slightly. "Well, what am I supposed to do?" he questioned. "In case you haven't noticed, we have a situation here. He's going to wake up soon."
"Not soon," Bonnie said. "You've got at least half an hour, and Qetsiyah can keep him down longer once I get you to her. I'll send you back to the bar, and Qetsiyah will know what to do."
Or at least Bonnie hoped she would. Her brain was stuck on Klaus in the same building where she and Tyler were crouched alongside Elijah's body in a metal box suspended over an open shaft. She could hardly think of this let alone what to do with Elijah once she got out of here.
"Bon-"
"Tyler," Bonnie said. "Just do what I say."
Tyler opened his mouth to protest some more because that was what he liked to do apparently, and they both froze as Elijah's phone began to buzz in her hand. Eyes wide, Bonnie stared down at the screen.
"It's Klaus," Tyler said, stating the obvious since they were both staring at the same screen with Klaus' name printed across in digital letters.
"Be very quiet," Bonnie hissed.
Tyler nodded.
She inhaled through her nose, recalled a spell and answered the call.
"Klaus," she said in Elijah's smooth, accented voice.
"You know how I loathe being kept waiting," Klaus said.
"I do," Bonnie said, hoping her voice didn't sound as shaky as she thought it did. "My apologies. I'll have to reschedule. Something's come up on my end."
"Care to elaborate?"
"No."
Klaus chuckled. "Fine. I expect Bonnie will be here soon. We'll carry on without you."
"Give her my regards," Bonnie said, hoping she sounded just the right amount of sardonic.
"I doubt she'll accept them," Klaus said before hanging up without another word. As Bonnie dropped Elijah's phone back into her pocket
Once she hung up, she exhaled deeply. "Okay," she said finally. She turned off Elijah's phone and pressed it into Tyler's hand and grabbed hold of his other one, slapping it down on Elijah's chest. "I'll find you when I leave here," she promised.
"Bonnie-"
But she spelled them both out of the elevator, and all that was left was the lingering scent of smoke. She paused there for a moment, willing her heart to stop pounding and her hands to stop shaking. She didn't know when everything had become such a mess. Well, she did know. It was when Tyler saw her outside Turbulence, and then she made it worse by going to talk to Tyler herself afterward. And then she'd poked and prodded him into kissing her tonight.
And now Elijah was burnt to a literal crisp, and Klaus was waiting for Bonnie upstairs.
Maybe she wouldn't need that little circle in hell after all. She was being punished right now.
Then
"Are you listening, Miss Bennett?"
Bonnie swung her head toward Elijah who stared at her with politely daring look. His lips curved upward into a phony smile. Bonnie returned it with one of her own. "To you? No."
From across the room where Klaus was tending his bar, he chuckled. He found Bonnie's many exhausted exchanges with Elijah to be highly amusing. "Thank you for noting your concerns, brother," he said. "I've heard them, and I'll pass them along to Bonnie later when she's more in the mood to listen."
Elijah didn't look at Bonnie again before he turned and left.
With an exaggerated groan Klaus dropped himself onto the sofa next to her and passed her a glass of wine. "Day drinking," Bonnie said as she raised the glass to her lips. "I approve."
"I thought you might," Klaus said. "How does it taste?"
"Like wine."
Klaus clucked his tongue. "Too young to understand the intricacies of a fine wine, I see. We'll get you there." He downed the contents of his glass and leaned forward to set it on the coffee table before turning to Bonnie where he watched her take a long sip from her glass.
"What?" she said.
Klaus lifted his chin and squinted at her. "Do you miss home?"
"Not really."
"No?" Klaus was skeptical. "If one of your beloved friends walked through those doors right now, what would you say?"
Bonnie blinked at him. "Is there a point to this exercise?"
"Satisfying my curiosity."
"I'm not worried about your satisfaction or your curiosity," she said shortly, and that made Klaus laugh heartily.
"I'm sure that's true," he said. "I'm just making conversation."
"No need for that," Bonnie said, standing up and grabbing her bag. She drained the rest of her glass and left. He didn't try to stop her.
The days had become as boring as she'd knew they'd be. She was summoned to Klaus' on a fairly regular basis but not to discuss anything particularly interesting. She suspected Klaus just wanted to keep her in his sights and make sure she wasn't feeling too homesick. If she got to that point she may just be tempted to abandon him.
When Bonnie reached the elevators, she groaned up at the ceiling at what was waiting for her there: Elijah. He leaned against the wall with his hands shoved into his pockets, the perfect picture of annoying patience.
"Waiting for me?" she said. She thought about taking the stairs, but knew Elijah would only follow her. And she'd much rather take the elevator down than have to walk down to the lobby and be subjected to Elijah.
"I feel as though we've been having difficulties," Elijah said.
"You feel wrong," Bonnie assured him. She tried not to think of Mystic Falls too much and all that she'd had to endure there, but it was hard to do with spending so much time with two Original vampires who had been the catalysts for so many of her problems. At least Klaus blinded her with his hefty payments. Elijah didn't.
She glared at the glowing down arrow, willing the elevator to come faster.
Maybe she worked some inadvertent magic because the doors slid open, and she stepped on. Elijah followed. Once the doors were closed, he spoke. "I understood your discomfort when you first came here," he said, "but now enough time has passed that we should be able to interact professionally."
She hated the way he talked.
She didn't say anything until the elevator came to a stop at the lobby. "I'm not setting you on fire, am I?" she said, stepping off. "That's as professional as you and I are going to get."
Now
When Bonnie knocked on Klaus' door, she was surprised by how quickly he answered. Usually Klaus took his sweet time coming to the door. "Bonnie," he said with an unusual amount of levity, considering how their last face-to-face meeting had gone. "I apologize for making you come down here. Elijah no longer requires our meeting."
Klaus waved her into the apartment, and Bonnie stepped in on trembling legs. "Something come up?" she asked.
"Apparently."
She closed the door behind her, calculating how long she should stay to avoid looking suspicious. If she ran out of here in a hurry Klaus may follow her just to see what her rush was all about, but she didn't know if she'd be able to keep her pounding heart in check for very long. Klaus was paranoid enough without her giving him reason to worry, and she felt like she was likely to give him a few reasons if she prolonged her stay.
Klaus disappeared into his kitchen and returned with two glasses and a bottle of wine. Brand new and unopened. "Care for a drink?"
"I've had a couple already," Bonnie said as she set down her bag, "but another couldn't hurt." Klaus passed Bonnie a glass and filled it. "What did Elijah want to talk about?"
"I've no idea," Klaus said, taking his own glass and dropping onto his sofa. He turned his head to the window where he could see straight across the skyline and the river in the distance, blackened in the night. "He wasn't very specific on the phone, but he was very excited so I'm sure he'll reschedule soon." He patted the space on the sofa next to him. "Sit."
Bonnie did, but she sat on the other end, leaning against the arm and sipping from her glass.
Klaus stared at her. "Are you still mad at me?"
"I don't know," Bonnie said sarcastically, "you did threaten to kill me a few days ago."
"I didn't threaten to kill you," he said. "I simply alluded to it." Bonnie narrowed her eyes at him, and Klaus let out a breathy sigh. "Fine. I apologize." He slid closer to her on the couch and touched her shoulder with the tips of his fingers, fingering the sleeve of her shirt. She kept her gaze fixed firmly out the window. "You know how my temper can be. You can't tell me you thought our alliance would be smooth sailing all the time can you?"
"I'm not stupid, Klaus," Bonnie said. "I knew what I was getting in to. I just thought you'd show a little more restraint before you turned your little paranoid spotlight my way. I've been nothing but helpful since I got here."
"You have," Klaus conceded. "I admit. And I hope you'll continue to be helpful." He smiled and put down his wine glass so he could fold his hands in his lap. "Do you know why I agreed to let you come with me, Bonnie? When you asked me to bring you here? Do you know why I said yes?"
"Because you saw the value of having a Bennett witch on your side," Bonnie said tersely.
"Do you know why else?"
He didn't wait for her answer.
"You needed me. You were so desperate to escape, and I was the behind the door you decided to open. What would you have done if I didn't agree to bring you here with me?"
Bonnie shrugged. "I'd have come up with something."
She was a witch after all. There were some thing she could have done, none quite as easy as falling in with Klaus, who was just there and practically begging to be utilized in some way, but there were other options. If she'd taken one of those, if she'd disappeared somewhere else and taken up a life without vampires and hybrids and tug-of-wars over whole cities, what would her life look like?
It was safe to say she wouldn't have run into Tyler anywhere, but without her here Tyler may have gotten himself killed already.
Klaus smirked down at his hands. "Yes, I'm sure." Across the room came the beeping of a phone, and Klaus' smirk slid off his face as he sped across the room to answer it. He sighed at the screen. "You'll have to excuse me," he said, his teeth gritted in frustration. "Rebekah and I are having a little spat. I need to go see her."
"I'll leave you to it," Bonnie said, hoping she didn't sound too relieved at being given an easy out. She downed the rest of her wine and grabbed her bag.
"Do you want me to drive you?" Klaus said. "I believe it's on your way."
Bonnie swallowed. "No," she said. "I've got some things I wanted to do tonight, and since our little meeting isn't happening I'm gonna do those. I'll take a cab."
Klaus blinked and looked back down to his phone. "Very well. Enjoy your night."
Bonnie barely breathed as she took the elevator downstairs. She'd been hoping to get the elevator that didn't smell of Elijah's burned body, but she got that one anyway.
It was only once she was on the street and saw her cab waiting at the corner that she finally let out a breath. She gave the driver the address and stared at the window with her knuckles pressed to her mouth. She didn't know if her head was going to explode or not. She felt better not being in such close quarters with Klaus, but she couldn't stop imagining Klaus marching outside, dragging the cabbie from the car and snapping his neck with as much concern as he would brush a speck of dirt from his shoulder and coming for Bonnie's neck within seconds.
He didn't.
The cab pulled to a stop in front of Marcel's bar in the Quarter, and Bonnie handed over cash without a word.
The doors were locked so Bonnie magicked herself inside where the others were waiting. Marcel, Qetsiyah and Tyler surrounding a table where Elijah's body had been placed.
"I thought you would have done something with him by now," Bonnie said, avoiding looking at Elijah's face where she expected his eyes to open at any moment. It was unlikely he'd be able to take out all four of them, but she didn't want to see him try.
"I've taken care of that," Qetsiyah said. If she'd been at all drunk when Bonnie left, she'd sobered up quick. "I wanted to check his mind first. See what I could find."
"Anything interesting?"
"A few things," Qetsiyah said, "but nothing especially helpful about Katherine. He found her, and she told him why she left him."
"Do you know where she is?" Bonnie asked. If she could get to Katherine, then they could get this whole thing settled tonight just by shutting her up. Permanently.
"No," Qetsiyah said. "He didn't know either. He found her at one of her old spots."
"I've sent Duke and Ronan to check," Marcel said, "but I doubt she'll be there. Locator spells are being difficult as well."
"Did she give him a way to contact her?"
"No," Qetsiyah said. "She said she'd get in touch in a few days, and we have his phone so we should be fine."
"So we just wait for that," Bonnie said even though the idea of waiting for Katherine to make a move when she was walking around with information that she'd already proven herself willing to hand over made her painfully nervous. What if she and Elijah had a different way of contacting each other that they didn't know about? What if Katherine got spooked with Elijah's disappearance, and went to Klaus herself? Maybe her feelings for Elijah would override whatever fear she still had of Klaus.
"It's all we've got," Tyler said, breaking his silence. He didn' t sound too crazy about it either.
Bonnie let out a sigh and nodded to Elijah. "What are we going to do with him?"
"Marcel and I will take care of it," Qetsiyah said. "You've done enough for one night. Go home. Rest. We'll postpone our plans for a day or so."
"I thought you said it was urgent."
"Another day won't hurt," Qetsiyah said with a shrug. "I can wait if you can."
"I can," she said. "Well, if that's all..." She'd wished she'd kept the cab waiting for her. Now she was going to have to find another or magic her way home, and she felt too exhausted to do either of them. "Night."
"Before you go," Tyler said, "can we..." He nodded his head toward the far wall while Qetsiyah and Marcel pretended to be occupied with other things. Bonnie followed him, eyebrows raised expectantly
"I know this was the last thing you wanted," Tyler said, very quickly. "So I'm really sorry that this happened. I should have...I don't know, I should have made sure Katherine would stay quiet. I just believed her when she said she wouldn't tell, and that was...really stupid."
"Yeah," Bonnie agreed. She tried to make her annoyance clear, but her heart wasn't in it. "It's too late now anyway."
"If you're tired you can come back with us," Tyler said. "They wouldn't mind. You can stay-"
Bonnie shook her head. "I'll be fine. And I shouldn't be away from the apartment tonight anyway, just in case Klaus comes looking."
Tyler nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right. And thank you, by the way. I was trying to tell you that in the elevator before you sent me away so..."
"You're welcome," Bonnie said.
Tyler smiled and opened his arms like he was going to put them around her. He shot her an "Is this okay?" kind of look, and when she didn't immediately recoil, he hugged her. She hadn't known she'd wanted him to until he was doing it. It was probably some residual whatever from her stupid dreams and their stupid kiss, but it was nice. He was so tall that all she could do was rest her head against his chest and clasp her hands behind his back, and she stayed there for what was an undeniably long time, but he didn't seem to mind, and she wasn't complaining either.
When he pulled away, he smiled. "Thanks again. You saved my ass."
"Yeah, I know," Bonnie said, smiling some.
Tyler's smile widened, and he planted a kiss on her cheek, just for good measure and said, "Night, Bon."
Bonnie traversed the hallway with her legs feeling like lead, exhausted beyond belief despite the still-pounding tattoo of her heart. She stopped short when she saw Hayley slumped against her door, arms folded around herself. Just seeing her made Bonnie even more tired. "What are you doing?" she sighed.
"I need your help," Hayley said.
"I am not in a helping mood," Bonnie said. Helping Tyler was becoming a full time gig as it was.
Hayley rolled her eyes. "Klaus bit Rebekah," she said. "She's hallucinating and stuff. She said it would pass since the venom's not going to kill her or anything, but...we've got awhile until it does, and in the meantime she's talking to people who aren't there and drinking all of the blood in the apartment."
"So what do you want me to do?" Bonnie said. "I don't have a cure for werewolf bites."
"I figured," Hayley said. "But can you...put her out or something? If you could see her, you'd think she's really pathetic. Which she is because she's practically crawling on the floor right now. Can you just...please?"
Against the wishes of the nagging voice in the back of her head telling her to go into her apartment and go to sleep, Bonnie turned her steps toward Hayley's apartment door. It was unlocked and she let herself in, finding Rebekah where she was sitting on the floor with her hands held out in front of her like they were alien to her. They were streaked with blood, the contents of the many plastic bags scattered around the apartment, all empty. There was an angry, bleeding wound at her throat that had been badly wrapped with gauze and tape probably more out of a desire to hide it from view than actually help.
"Rebekah," Bonnie said, and the vampire looked up at her as if she hadn't realized she was there. Her face was streaked with blood, probably from her hands. It was in her hair and coating her lips.
"Bonnie," she said, almost sounding confused.
"You look a mess," Bonnie said, squatting down at Rebekah's side. It was like a different world in here. One tiny, bloody, blonde world. "What was the fight about?"
Rebekah rolled her eyes. "The usual," she said bitterly. Her eyes were just slightly out of focus, jumping from one corner of the room to the next, never really settling on Bonnie's face. "I'm not the sister I should be. I'm disloyal, controlled by the poor, pathetic heart and my recurring dreams of humanity. They come and they go, but they always lead to some variation of this."
Bonnie hummed quietly. "Hayley asked if I could help you, and I can. If you'll let me."
"What are you going to do?" Rebekah asked warily. Veins sprouted below her eyes and her fangs dropped down so Bonnie could see.
Bonnie glared at her. "Don't start," she said. "I'm putting you to sleep until the venom works its way out of your system. Looks like you drank enough blood that it won't take too long."
Rebekah's face slowly returned to normal, and she almost looked ashamed. "My mother was here."
Bonnie didn't respond as she straightened up and reached down for Rebekah's hands. She pulled her to her feet, glad that Rebekah responded to that and didn't make Bonnie drag her. She directed her gently to the couch where she plopped down against the pillows. "Lie down," Bonnie said.
Rebakah was surprisingly compliant, moving her feet up and adjusting her head on the pillows so her hair fanned out around her. She blinked slowly up at the ceiling, and Bonnie wondered what she was seeing there. "I've always liked you," Rebekah murmured as Bonnie took hold of her hand. "I used to be a witch. It was so long ago I've forgotten what it felt like. I was nowhere near my mother in power, but I would have been. Someday. If I hadn't been turned." She turned her head to face Bonnie, looking at her with a stare so wide it was disconcerting. "I hate him," she said.
"I know," Bonnie said. "Go to sleep."
Rebekah exhaled. "Thank you," she said, and Bonnie watched her eyelids flutter and close, and when she was deep in her spelled sleep, Bonnie grabbed a blanket from an armchair and threw it over her.
Out in the hallway, Hayley hadn't moved from her spot by Bonnie's door. "She's out," Bonnie told her.
Hayley let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, great. Thanks for that. She seemed okay with me being there, but who knew if she was going to start having some kind of anti-werewolf whatever, you know?"
"Yeah," Bonnie murmured. "You're welcome." She let herself into the apartment.
So yeah this update's been languishing on my computer. Sorry for the long wait. I'll try to do better. I really, really love the reviews the few of you take time to leave and it would be nice to hear from more of you, but either way, thanks for reading!
If you're looking for some instant Tonnie gratification and are weary of the slow burn happening here, you can read my other fic Rebellion which is extra heavy on the Tonnie love starting in chapter one.
