Chapter 31
Elena stood locked in a tight hug with her childhood best friend. tears rolling down her face.
"I can't believe you're here." She finally managed to speak, pulling back to look at her.
Her dark brown hair had gotten longer she had caramel highlights and wore it wavy and loose. Her eyes were as green as ever and her mocha skin was still flawless without a hint of age. She also had tears rolling down her high cheekbones.
"Me neither." Bonnie sobbed. "You look so beautiful."
"Me? What about you? You're as gorgeous as ever." Elena said.
"I didn't think I'd ever see you again." Bonnie sniffled. "I'm just so glad you're okay."
"I still can't even believe you're actually here." Elena smiled through her tears. "How did you get here? How did you find me?"
"I didn't." Bonnie looked past Elena and peered into the house her eyes landing on Damon and widening slightly. "Your boyfriend found me."
"You..." Elena gasped and turned to look at him. She opened her mouth to speak and was to overcome to say anything, so she just started crying again.
"Why don't you come in Bonnie." Damon said. "Here I'll take your bags."
"You're Damon then? It's so good to meet you. Thank you so much for everything." She smiled and handed him her bags.
"It's no problem." He waved her off and walked over to the stairs with her bags.
She walked further inside and embraced Elena again they both cried for a while. They were both wiping their wet cheeks when they pulled apart. Elena was still beyond stunned and grateful. Damon had brought back the best friend Craig took away from her.
Damon came back in with a box of tissues. He held them out to Bonnie. Bonnie half laughed half sobbed as took them from him.
"Thank you, I can't ever thank you enough for this." Elena finally said rushing over to hug him.
"You don't need to..." He started.
"Well I do, Damon. I don't even know how to thank you for this…. every day I worried." Bonnie said her voice about to break again.
"I'm so sorry, I wanted to call you so many times, but I was so scared." Elena sobbed.
"It's okay." Bonnie said gently. "You did good, you took care of yourself. You did what you had to do."
"I am so proud of you Elena. Everyone is." Bonnie continued.
"You have to stop." Elena started sobbing again. "My hormones can't handle this."
Damon rubbed her back chucking softly which made her smile through her tears.
"Okay so tearful reunion over then." Bonnie offered with a big white smile. When she smiled it seemed liked her eyes smiled with her and you couldn't help but smile back.
"I'm just so happy to see you." Elena agreed. "We have a lot to catch up on."
"I know three years." Bonnie murmured.
"Good thing Damon set up a slumber party for us in the film room." Elena grinned looking back at him.
"The film room?" Bonnie asked raising an eyebrow she started looking around finally taking in her surroundings. "Oh my …wow this place is amazing."
"This is just the parlor." Elena said. "I'll give you a tour, you're going to be amazed."
"I set up a room for her already." Damon said. "The other empty one upstairs."
"But if you don't like there's lots of other empty ones to choose from." He added glancing at Bonnie.
"Any room is fine, more than fine, in this place I imagine." She said.
"I'll leave you ladies to it then." He smiled leaning down to brush a kiss across Elena's lips.
"I'm going to the Grill to meet Matt. I promised him a while ago I would help him with the books, but I've never had time. He's closing early tonight, and I want give you girls some time alone so it works out." He said.
"That's really nice of you." She said. "Tell Matt I said hi."
"I will." He said.
"You should have Eric follow you." She said nervously.
"Did the reporters harass you?" She asked Bonnie.
"No not really there were a few cars with us blocking them off anyway, but there wasn't that many outside." She shrugged.
"They're worse during the day." Damon said. "I'll be fine, have a fun girls night."
"Damon, thank you." She said taking his hands in hers.
"You're welcome." He leaned down to kiss her again. "I love you." He whispered into her ear as he pulled away slowly.
"I love you to." She said squeezing him into a hug before letting him go.
"It was really nice to meet you Bonnie." He smiled.
"You too Damon and thank you again so much…If you need any help around the boarding house or anything let me know. I feel bad leeching off you like this." She said quietly.
"Please, we're not running right now anyway, and I couldn't charge Elena's best friend for a room." He scoffed.
He slipped out before she could argue, and she laughed a little.
"He's sneaky like that." Elena said. "Seriously though don't worry about the room and stuff. He's right we aren't running right now. Besides that, you're my guest not a guest."
"So do you work here with Damon as well?" Bonnie asked. "You said we."
"Yeah I'm pretty much his partner, officially the operations manager." Elena nodded proudly. "It's awesome we were just starting to gain momentum then...well Craig happened."
"I'm so sorry." Bonnie said sadly.
"I guess in the long run him showing up here set me free, so I guess everything happens for a reason." Elena said.
Bonnie looked surprised. "Wow, you're handling it so well."
"I've had some time to think about it a little." Elena said.
"Come on I'll show you what Damon and I did." She took her hand and brought her over to the east wing doing a quick tour of the downstairs first. Bonnie was as impressed with the house as Elena had been.
Elena proudly went over how she and Damon renovated the rooms and priced them and then brought her into the study to show her some of the work she does.
"Elena this is so amazing." Bonnie said. "I'm so proud of you. I wouldn't have had a clue how to do any of this."
"I thought Damon was nuts when he asked me for help, but then I just picked it up so easily and it was so much fun." Elena said.
"I can't believe you guys aren't booked solid. This place is so amazing." Bonnie said. "I want Luke to take me here for our anniversary now."
"Luke?" Elena asked.
"My boyfriend, it's been almost two years now. He's really great." Bonnie smiled and blushed.
"He just moved in actually."
"Really?" Elena smiled and hugged her. "That's awesome, congratulations."
"Tell me more about Damon." Bonne smiled.
"I think you need jammies on, and we should get camped out in the film room before we do girl talk." Elena giggled.
"Deal." Bonnie smiled.
"Come on, I'll show you to your room." Elena said taking her hand.
She looked breathless as Elena showed her upstairs. The room was at the end of the hall past Elena and Damon's rooms. It wasn't quite as big as Elena's, but she did have her own bathroom and a large pillow top queen bed. It was decorated a little more old fashioned then the other rooms but Bonnie took a liking to it right away.
"You can always just walk into my room whenever," Elena said showing her to her room next. "If you want to sit outside there's a great balcony. I'm never even in here anymore unless I'm changing or something."
"Damon's room's next door." She said showing Bonnie's Damon's room next.
"Whoa This room is huge." Bonnie said wide eyed. "That's the biggest bed I've ever seen."
"Yeah." Elena nodded rolling her eyes a little. "He even has a minibar in here."
Bonnie laughed and went to change, and Elena laughed a little remembering how taken aback by this place she was at first too. It was fun showing it off to Bonnie.
Bonnie changed into some sweats and a tee shirt and they headed down to the film room.
"He's thought of everything even a popcorn maker." Bonnie said looking around at the decked out room.
"That's new." Elena said. "But it smells so good." She filled up a bowl of popcorn and sat down at the sofa.
Bonnie grabbed herself some popcorn and headed over to the drink cart. "Do you want a pop?"
"Actually is there any jukeboxes?" Elena asked.
"Yeah a bunch of tropical punch ones." Bonnie said.
"Grab me like three of them." Elena said.
"Okay." Bonnie raised an eyebrow but grabbed the beverages and sat down next to her. Elena grabbed a bunch of bags of candy and put it between them.
"This is perfect." Bonnie giggled. "Just like old times, except now we really are in some amazing mansion, instead of pretending."
"I know I can't believe I live here sometimes." Elena smiled.
"How did you end up here?" Bonnie asked.
"My cousin Jeremy, he's the one I told you about on the phone that time. He wanted me to come here so I did. I got here late at night and it was raining. The town only had this and a bed and breakfast that was closed. So, I walked here." Elena explained.
"Yeah I know Jeremy he picked me up from the airport. He's so nice...So you came here in a storm and met Damon then, was it love at first sight?" She teased.
"Lust." Elena admitted. "I don't know I couldn't take my eyes off him and he was the same. Then I sort of got it together. He was only wearing boxers."
"And you managed to get yourself together?" Bonnie smirked.
"I teased him about it, and he got all cocky. I didn't want anything to do with him at first, but he didn't give up and he had these sneaky ways of getting to me. Mostly the looks he was always giving me they made me into mush sometimes." Elena laughed. "One morning he drove beside me at a snail's pace until I let him give me a ride."
Bonnie laughed, "That's really cute."
"Yeah." Elena smiled. "Then I started getting to know him more, and after a while he dropped the bravado he was trying to put on and he was just genuine with me, and so sweet. I just couldn't seem to stop myself we kissed and suddenly instead of trying not to think about him he was all I could think about."
"Ahh." Bonnie smiled. "You look so happy, it's so wonderful to see you happy."
"I really am, I couldn't be happier." Elena said,
"Did he know about Craig before the incident?" Bonnie asked.
"Yes." Elena said. "I eventually told him everything. He was wonderful, he knew how hard it was for me to talk about and he was so incredible and patient, understanding. I felt comforted and safe with him. He is amazing, he's so good to me. Like this bringing you here. He doesn't buy jewelry and flowers, he does things like this. Things that mean so much, things I need and he just knows. It amazes me to the point of tears sometimes."
"He really does sound like a good man." Bonnie said. "You deserve this second chance you really do. You never should have had to go through what you did, and the fact that you found someone so supportive and understanding is really great."
"I'm really lucky." Elena agreed getting up to get them some more popcorn.
Bonnie started thumbing through the movies. "Legally blond one and two?"
Elena giggled. "Hey those aren't bad actually."
She sat down and handed Bonnie a bowl of popcorn.
"I wish Luke was this creative, He's a really good guy, and he tries to be romantic, but candle lit dinner is a about the most I'll get, he's just not suave like this." Bonnie said gesturing to the decked out little film room.
"Where did you meet?" Elena asked.
"In school." Bonnie said. "He was my tutor actually."
"But I bet you taught him a thing or two instead." Elena teased with a wink.
"Elena." Bonnie exclaimed with a laugh.
"Yeah, yeah I did." She said once she calmed down and then they both burst out in laughter again.
"He was really shy, but I could tell he liked me. I wasn't so sure, but my friends kept pushing me at him. Finally, I asked him out to a party and after a few drinks we kissed and there was this moment. It felt so right. I was so against it for so long. I kept saying he's too shy, too smart, too nice too ...whatever excuse I could come up with, and then I kissed him and felt like such a fool for not doing it sooner." Bonnie said.
"Then what happened? You couldn't get enough of each other after that?" Elena guessed.
"Actually… It was kind of rocky at first with us. Relationships freaked me out, my grandma had a tough relationship with my grandfather and my dad left my mom, then I watched you go through Craig. Commitment didn't sit well with me, but Luke is the type of guy that needs to know where we are and where we are going." Bonnie said.
"That must have been hard on you." Elena frowned thumbing through the candy until she found some M&M's.
"We struggled with it for a while, then after a break, a short break, I realized that I loved him. I didn't want to be with anyone else so why was I so scared of being clear with him about that? We got back together and since then we've been really good, we're moving forward. I actually love living with him. I didn't think I would, but I really do. Having someone to come home from work to and someone to eat with. The late-night talks... I even think it's cute when I find his socks stuffed in the couch cushions." Bonnie laughed.
"I know what you mean. I can't imagine not living with Damon now. I love waking up next to him that's my favorite part, besides the sex of course." Elena winked.
"Or should I say late night talks?" She added with finger air quotes.
Bonnie laughed and stuck her tongue out.
Elena smiled and opened her M&M's. Bonnie watched as she dumped them over her popcorn and then stuffed a handful of the mixture into her mouth.
"Try it." Elena said covering her mouth as she talked.
"Um I'm good." Bonnie looked at her and shook her head.
"Seriously it's like sweet and salt and butter all at the same time, it's awesome." Elena said.
"I'll take your word for it." Bonnie giggled.
Elena shrugged and washed down her new concoction with her first juice box she would have to mention it to Rick. He'd give it a try.
"What are you going to school for?" Elena asked.
"Social services," Bonnie said. "I want to try to help out some of those kids in our old neighborhood."
"That's wonderful." Elena said. "I always felt so bad for those kids."
"I know and now my grandma's not there giving them free dinner anymore." Bonnie sighed.
"What happened?" Elena asked
"She decided to sell and retire. She was getting tired and not feeling well often. She's doing better now though. My mom got remarried a few years ago she didn't want to take it on. It was best to just sell it. Gran is just taking it easy she bought a nice little house. " Bonnie explained.
"I miss them so much." Elena said, then paused all the sudden her stomach started churning and she clenched her stomach and got up racing for the bathroom in the library.
"Elena are you okay?" Bonnie called out from behind the door.
"Give me a second." She groaned.
She got up and brushed her teeth, she decided to leave a toothbrush and toothpaste in every bathroom as a precaution. Liz had told her that brushing the offending flavor from your teeth can quell the vomiting.
"Come on baby, M&M's are good." She said looking down at her stomach.
She left the bathroom and Bonnie was hovering outside looing nervous.
"I'm fine just pregnant." Elena smirked. "The baby didn't like my little concoction to much I guess."
"Really?" Bonnie gasped. "You're just telling me this now?"
"I was warming up to it." Elena said.
"Wow…how long?"
"I'm less than a month along. We just found out." Elena said.
"Are you okay? It's so soon is he okay with it?"
"We're both really happy and really excited about it. The thing is Damon and I were so careful about my safety here and my protection, about everything but that. When it came to that, we threw caution to the wind most of the time and I think that might be because we both wanted this on a subconscious level." Elena said thoughtfully.
"Actually, based on the doctors timing I think it happened the first night we made love." She added.
"Really?" Bonnie breathed, "That is incredibly romantic."
"I'm pretty sure, that night felt like magic." Elena said.
"I'm so happy for you, you're going to be wonderful mother." Bonnie hugged her.
"I hope so." Elena said.
"I know you will." Bonnie assured her.
They got settled back into the film room and Elena calmed her stomach with soda crackers and water. They chatted for a while before popping in a movie and getting comfy.
Damon left the bar a few hours later he and Matt had got a lot done. He felt good about being able to help Matt out after being so rude to him when he first came to town. Luckily, the media had actually been providing The Grill quite a bit of business so this whole thing gave them a nice boost.
There were far less reporters at night and he was grateful he didn't want any of the guards following him when Elena was at home without him. He wanted to make sure they were all guarding her. The house was quiet and peaceful. When he got home. Rick's car was gone so he must have spent the night at Jenna's.
Damon peeked into the film room. Bonnie was still awake watching a movie and Elena was sound asleep on the couch.
"Hey." Bonnie whispered.
"Hey, did you guys have fun?" He walked inside and gazed down at Elena.
"Yes, so much fun, thanks again, for everything it was really generous of you."
"It was nothing; it's good for her that's all that matters." He said. "Thank you for coming."
"I haven't seen her so confident and self-assured since high school." Bonnie said. "Even then it wasn't like now, she's so happy. I've never seen this happy and it's because of you. I'm really glad she found you."
"So am I." Damon said his eyes drawn back to his sleeping angel. He brushed her hair back off her face and sighed. "She did the same for me she made me happy again, and I'll never hurt her. You can trust me on that."
"I know." Bonnie said. "I can tell just by the way you look at her."
"She told me about the baby. I'm really happy for both of you. " She said.
"Thank you." Damon said.
"That was part of the reason I wanted you to come here." He said. "She has a lot of support, but it's really important she stays calm. You're her best friend. Having you here is going to help her stay that way." He said.
"I will help in way I can." Bonnie said. "I think it's terrible that he came here and she was in danger, but now she has a chance to tell her story and put him behind bars. I think that is going to be so good for her in the long run."
"I think so too." Damon said. "She's nervous but she's ready for this."
Bonnie stifled a yawn. "Long flight, I'm ready to pass out, as much as Elena thought a slumber party was cute. That comfy bed up there is calling me. I think I'll head upstairs."
"She's going kink her neck sleeping like that anyway." He nodded cradling Elena into his arms she didn't even stir.
Bonnie smiled a little and shook her head looking slightly awed
"Good night Bonnie." Damon said.
"Night." She headed out ahead of him.
He carefully and slowly carried Elena upstairs and into his room. He laid her down and stripped down to his boxers before crawling into bed with her. He wrapped his arms around her and spooned her against him. She stirred just as he closed his eyes turning around so she was facing him.
"Where'd Bon go was it a dream?"
"No honey." He chuckled. "She went to bed I brought you upstairs."
"Oh." She said looking sheepish as her eyes cleared up a little.
"Tonight, was awesome. I can't believe you did this." Elena gushed. "I don't even know how to thank you."
"You don't have to." He said.
"Damon." She said.
"I'm serous, you never should have been separated from her in the first place. I'm glad you were able to reconnect with her." Damon said.
"You're so amazing." She kissed him softly running her hands through his dark locks.
"No that's all you." He mumbled into her mouth. She rolled on top of him and deepened the kiss pressing her body on top of his. He felt himself hardening against her and started rubbing her back. She grinded her hips against his moaning softly into his mouth.
"Elena." He moaned. "We should cool down."
"Why?" She asked before attacking his chest with kisses.
"I don't want to hurt the baby." He frowned in frustration as she continued trailing kisses down his chest.
"We can have sex, it won't hurt the baby, we just have to be careful not to crush my stomach or anything." She looked up and smiled at him.
"Are you sure?" He asked worriedly.
"I looked it up online today." She grinned.
He chuckled at that. "That's my girl."
"Your girl is waiting" She whispered.
He didn't make her wait another second.