Chapter 7

There Is So Little Light From the Warmth of the Sun

Jeremy came to visit her again the following day, keeping her updated with everything that was going on. Everything mainly being that Elena had undaggered Elijah and was searching for a way to take down Klaus without Bonnie having to kill herself.

This was good news. Events were happening as they should, but a cloud hung over Bonnie's head, and Jeremy picked up on her mood.

He sat next to her, playing with her hand in his. "Is everything okay with us?" The question came out of the blue. She'd been expecting him to ask her if she was okay again, not whether their relationship was okay.

"Everything's fine." She tried to reassure him with a smile, but worry swam in his eyes.

"Lately, it seems like you've been distant," he explained.

She shook her head. "I'm sorry. It's just with everything going on, it's been hard for me to focus on us. I promise, after all this is over, we'll spend more time together."

"Alright, I'll hold you to that." He was slow to lean in, and she turned her cheek so his kiss landed there. When he tried to go in for a second one on the lips, she pulled away much to his obvious disappointment. Her excuse was that it felt like the witches were watching them, and to allay his worries, she forced a wider smile over her words that time. By his chuckle, he took it to be genuine.

He squeezed her hand, and she squeezed back, eyes softening. In that moment, Jeremy looked at her like she was the only thing that mattered, but all Bonnie could think about was how she wished he was a certain blue-eyed vampire who probably hadn't spared her a single thought all day.

She sighed.

Just thinking about that situation depressed her and tired of pretending, she sent Jeremy away, promising she would be fine on her own. But alone, she was left to her thoughts, which further dampened her mood, and the old run-down house didn't help either.

Really, she would give almost anything to be back in the comfort of her bed.

The dull crumbling walls surrounding her were an eyesore and the leftover smoke damage was a cruel reminder of what happened there. Sure, this place was safe, but it was also where witches had been burned at the stake. It made her uncomfortable to think about their deaths, of what she felt when she absorbed their power. It dredged up thoughts of her time as the anchor and her own deaths, which wasn't something she was keen to reflect on.

Her eyes wandered over to the staircase, and her thoughts wandered outside.

She should leave. She should just get up and walk out. Cloaking her house wasn't an issue, and she could hole up there. But the what ifs stopped her. What if Klaus caught her? What if Klaus killed her? What if she messed everything up?

Leaving held too much risk, so she slipped back into her sleeping bag and curled up in the dank basement, resigned to let things happen as they did no matter how much she wished she could change them, and she prayed the following day would be over quick.

Eventually, she fell asleep without realizing, and the night passed in a light, uncomfortable slumber. In the morning, Jeremy returned once more to inform her of what Damon had done. Apparently, in a bout of brashness, he'd fed his blood to Elena in order to prevent her from permanently dying in Klaus' ritual. This was another moment she hadn't entirely forgotten, so Bonnie was aware she was supposed to be looking for a spell that might keep Elena human. In that vein, she instructed Jeremy to go out and grab her grimoires, and when he came back, they searched through them for a possible solution.

There was a desperation about him as he skimmed through the tomes, anxious to save his sister, and it was him who found the resuscitative spell in Emily Bennett's grimoire. It was vague, but Bonnie remembered how it worked. Still, she refreshed her memory by rereading it.

Some time passed, and then Alaric came and interrupted them. He wanted a second with Jeremy, so she went upstairs where Elijah and Stefan were waiting.

The two vampires finally relayed the news about Jenna, and a pit formed in her stomach. This had been gnawing at the back of her mind all along. but it was too late to stop it. Jenna had already been turned into a vampire for the sacrifice.

After she did a locator spell to find the site of the ritual, Stefan headed over to Steven's Quarry to bargain his life for Jenna's, and soon Damon arrived at the house with John. Once she explained the resuscitative spell, John volunteered his life just as he was supposed to, and Bonnie bound it to Elena's.

As she was finishing up the spell, Damon grew impatient with her.

"Come on, Bonnie, we've got a hybrid to kill," he said, his voice threatening to distract her.

But ignoring him, she completed her chant, the link firmly established between Elena and John Gilbert's life force. "It's done." She met his cold blue eyes, and he nodded.

"Let's go then."

Damon left, and Bonnie moved to follow him, but hearing Jeremy follow behind her as well, she turned around and deliberately stood in his path. "You stay here."

Jeremy looked confused. "What do you mean? No, I'm coming. I need to make sure you guys are okay."

Not letting him argue with her, she waved a hand across his face, and he fainted. John caught him and dragged him into a nearby chair.

"You go. I'll stay with him," John said to her.

Bonnie nodded and went upstairs to meet Elijah, Damon, and Alaric. They all went to leave, but when Alaric tried to exit the house behind them, he ran into a barrier she'd discreetly put up to stop him and anyone human from leaving the house.

"We're not putting anyone else at risk," she told him.

"I can't stay here with Jenna out there!" The guilt bubbled up inside her again.

"I'm sorry Alaric," and truly she was, but he would be happy eventually. He would meet Jo. He would have the twins. That was what she told herself, but there was a little voice in the back of her mind wondering if he might be happier if Jenna was still alive, if there was an option for him to stay with her instead.

"You can't do this!" He called out to Damon for help, but Damon was in full agreement with Bonnie and the three of them ignored Alaric and got into the car, Damon in the driver's seat with Bonnie on the passenger's side and Elijah in the back.

Together, they headed to the quarry.

The car ride was quiet, tense, and pensive. Bonnie ran through every possibility in her head for the umpteenth time, worrying over how maybe she could have done things differently, but she came to the same conclusion every single time, and it didn't make her feel any less guilty.

She looked next to her.

In the driver's seat, Damon was beginning to look clammy, something a vampire should never look. Her brow furrowed as it took her a second to recall why, but it dawned on her that he'd been bitten by Tyler. Currently, he was dying, but he would be fine in a few days. Stefan would make a deal with Klaus for his blood.

And yet she couldn't help but worry for him.

"Hope you're ready for this," Damon said to her, fingers tight on the wheel. He didn't normally get nervous, but with that werewolf bite, she could see his edges fraying.

"Of course I am. Will you be alright?"

He glanced over at her, his eyebrows dipping inward. "I'll be fine." Looking over again, he stared at her for a long moment until Elijah spoke.

"Remember Bonnie, you merely have to stop him. I'll handle killing Klaus," he said.

Breaking Damon's gaze, she briefly turned back in her seat and nodded.

They arrived at the quarry in the nick of time, just after Klaus finished the ritual and was beginning to transform into a werewolf.

With her magic, Bonnie catapulted Klaus into the air, Damon snapped his witch's neck, and Bonnie began the long chant, focusing all the magical energy inside her into killing the hybrid. Her attention was singular. She had to believe she was going to kill Klaus to perform the spell, so she pulled from her hatred and the witches' hatred to make sure there was intent behind every word, and she drowned out everything until all she could see was him writhing before her.

There were other things happening around the clearing, but she wasn't sure what. Vaguely she registered trees falling in the background, Damon and Stefan with Elena's body, and then Elijah entered her field of vision.

She stopped chanting when she saw the elder Original approach his younger brother. There was disappointment, anger, and sadness in his eyes as he punched into Klaus' chest and grabbed hold of his heart.

"In the name of our family, Niklaus…"

Klaus winced as his brother's grip tightened, panic soaring through him as he opened his mouth to say the one thing that would save him.

"I didn't bury them at sea!" he shouted.

Elijah loosened his grip. "What?"

"Their bodies are safe. If you kill me, you'll never find them."

"Elijah! Don't listen to him," Stefan yelled.

Elijah looked between Bonnie and Stefan, then back at his brother.

"Elijah…" Bonnie warned, taking a step forward as if to stop them.

But with eyes full of sincere apology, the Original made to betray them. "I'm sorry," he said, and he ran off into the night with Klaus, leaving the rest of them to deal with the ritual's aftermath, with the dead scattered across the clearing.

Regretfully, Bonnie couldn't help but notice Jenna's body among them.

A few days later the church stood tall before her, a looming tower of judgment. Grams was not a devout Christian, but she had taken Bonnie to service many times over the years, enough for Bonnie to respect Christian values, enough for her to feel as if God was watching her with disdain as she pulled open the door.

Pulling her black sweater tighter around her shoulder as she walked in, the atmosphere grew heavy. The weight of the room was nothing new to Bonnie. She'd been to many funerals before. She'd suffered the grief of losing a loved one, but there was a different sort of weight hanging over her, a sense of regret that settled deeply inside her.

Bonnie wasn't close to Jenna. She'd only spent time with her when she was over Elena's house. And yet it still bothered her that she'd been willing to let her die so easily. But this was who she was wasn't it? Bonnie always wanted to save everyone. That part of her still remained. She'd grown able to ignore it, but it was intrinsic to her morals, and the way she let Jenna die went against everything she stood for.

This was why she couldn't quite get over this, that and the knowledge that she could have stopped this. It had taken her a while to think of a solution, but if, from the moment she returned, she had set her mind to it, she could've found a way to unlink Klaus from his bloodline and kill him with a white oak stake. She could've done it.

Jenna and John would both be alive then, and Bonnie wouldn't be taking a seat in the pew behind Elena's ten minutes before their funeral was supposed to start.

Stiffening in her seat, Bonnie took in the doppelganger's appearance. Her visage was solemn, her eyes a little red, but she wasn't crying anymore. When she first saw Bonnie, she almost did cry though. They had hugged, and Bonnie tried her best to be comforting, to ignore how her stomach began to churn at watching the girl barely able to contain her tears.

She moved over to hug Jeremy beside her too, and he held her tight, finding comfort in her presence. After he let her go, she glanced up at him and an apology slipped from her lips to both of them. She was sure they thought it was an I'm sorry for your loss, but what she really meant was I'm sorry I let this happen and I'm sorry I didn't do more.

As penance, she dutifully sat through the funeral. Caroline sat on the other side of her after she arrived, and Alaric sat on the other side of Jeremy. Stefan, after he finally appeared, had taken his place beside Elena. The other Salvatore, however, was missing, and Stefan mentioned he would join them later for the burial.

It was stifling just being there. Having to see Elena and Jeremy in pain made it worse. As much as she had become distant from both of them in the future, it was hard to watch her and her brother in grief when neither of them deserved to lose the people they cared about like that. Knowing that she knew what would happen, that she could've stopped it really was a horrible feeling, so much so that in watching them, the churning of her stomach worsened, and her head began to ache.

Elena was called to give the eulogy, and Bonnie was still in her head despite her headache, trying to justify her actions. She was doing this for Damon, but no matter what, it was selfish of her to let it happen. Everything was for her happy ending. Realizing that made it a hundred times worse on her conscience. And yet, it was the way things were supposed to go, she reminded herself. There was no telling if preventing their deaths would've somehow made things worse, and they were already going to get bad. She'd told herself that a hundred times already, but even now it refused to sink in.

The funeral finished and everyone made their way out for the final procession, but Bonnie managed to excuse herself.

Elena was confused at first when she told her she had to go, but something about the way Bonnie looked made her relent. She let her go with a promise that they would talk later, and Bonnie hurried away, eager to escape the funeral. She was so in her head that she even forgot to say goodbye to the others, only remembering when she was already in her car and halfway to her house.

When she reached her street, and pulled into her driveway, Bonnie just sat there for a moment, her fingers rubbing at her forehead. The stifling feeling wouldn't leave no matter how much she told herself the events of the day before were meant to happen, and on top of her head hurting, her chest felt odd and heavy. Her lips tightened into a somber line as she pulled the key out of the ignition and stepped out of the car. Making her way inside the house, she went straight to the kitchen, pulled a glass out, and immediately poured herself a drink.

The scotch went down her throat with a burn, and she almost coughed. It was her father's bottle, a brand she didn't usually drink, but it was good enough that she took the glass and bottle with her into the living room, sinking into the chair, placing the bottle on the side table beside her.

She fell asleep in that living room chair with a half empty glass in hand, the vibration of her phone in her lap waking her hours later. It was Stefan calling about Damon having the werewolf bite. He needed help finding a cure.

How did this go before? She couldn't think straight, half asleep and still a little out of it, so Bonnie promised she would help find something and hung up.

It could wait until tomorrow, she thought as she stood up and put the bottle away. Heading up to her bedroom, she changed out of her funeral clothes into a mismatched pair of pajamas and went back to sleep in her bed.

Tired of going through the motions, the next day, Bonnie met up with Stefan and told him she did a spell to contact the ancestors about the cure to a werewolf bite. She didn't actually do the spell, but she figured that didn't matter when she already knew what was needed. So she told him that Klaus was the key, and Stefan set off.

Bonnie went about the rest of her day mostly as she was meant to, meeting up with the gang in the town square for the movie showing. However, her thoughts were on Damon as she joined Caroline and Jeremy, on how he was probably suffering. She briefly thought about how she could've prevented that as well, but she quickly pushed the thought away. If she went over every situation like that, she was going to drive herself insane, and Damon would be cured soon enough.

Gone with the Wind was playing in the square, and, alongside Caroline's enthusiasm for the movie, it provided Bonnie enough distraction from her thoughts that she was actually enjoying being there. It was too bad it didn't last. Next to her, Jeremy's phone went off on their blanket. Alaric was calling to let them know that Damon had escaped, and Liz was trying to hunt him down.

As soon as he hung up, Jeremy was ready to help, but Bonnie tried to stop him, knowing it was something her younger self would do. "If Damon is off the rails, there's nothing you can do to stop him. Let us take care of it."

"You keep doing this," Jeremy said, frustrated with her. "You left me behind before and Jenna still died. I'm going to find my sister. You go ahead and try to stop me."

That stung a bit. Even though Jeremy being there probably would've changed nothing, his words felt like he was blaming her for Jenna's death.

She watched him walk away with a blank stare.

"Hey," Caroline drew her attention. "You alright?" Blue-green eyes watched her worriedly.

Bonnie mustered up a small smile. "Yeah, I'm going to head this way."

"Alright, I'll check over there." She pointed to the other side of the lawn.

They split up, and Bonnie wandered through the crowd of people watching the movie, not really searching for Damon. She stood at the edge of the movie-goers, leaning against a building, staring up at the sky. With all the lights, it was too hard to see the stars. She lowered her gaze to look out amongst the crowd again, and somehow there he was, standing a few yards in front of her.

He caught sight of her at the same time and sped over, feverish and not quite all there. "Emily?"

"It's Bonnie," she said, but he didn't seem to hear her.

"Have you seen Katherine?"

Her eyes softened. Oh, she did not like seeing him like this. "No, I haven't."

He sped off just as quickly as he arrived. She tried to follow him, to chase that pull she felt every time he was near, but she found him with Jeremy and stopped in her tracks. The two spoke for a moment and Damon keeled over a bit, Jeremy catching him before he could fall. Trying to avoid too much attention, Jeremy dragged him over to The Grill, and they disappeared behind the door.

Less than a minute later, Liz was walking through the door behind him, gun unholstered. A shot sounded. In the background, the other police officers were trying to manage those watching the movie, but Bonnie ran to The Grill's entrance, meeting Caroline there.

They walked in together to find Liz kneeling over Jeremy's body, a gunshot wound in the middle of his chest.

Bonnie stared on while Caroline rushed over in a panic. "Mom, what did you do?"

Liz looked up at her, looking as if she were ready to cry. "I was aiming for Damon."

"He still has ring," Caroline said, looking to Bonnie for reassurance that she couldn't give.

"She's human. The ring isn't going to work," Bonnie stood behind Caroline, aware that she should be acting distraught over this, but she really didn't have the emotional energy to expend.

Caroline turned back to Jeremy. Seeing as the ring was useless in this situation, she tried to feed him her blood instead, but Jeremy was already gone. Alaric walked in then and saw the state Jeremy was in.

Before he could freak out, Bonnie spoke. "I need you to grab him," she said to Alaric. "And follow me."

"What are you going to do?" Liz asked.

Bonnie blinked at her. "I'm going to fix this."

They brought Jeremy's body to the old witch's house, and laid him out on the floor. A circle of candles surrounded them, and Bonnie started reciting the spell to revive him. As she did, the candles sprung tall flames, and she could hear the witches in her head, their anger reverberating in her bones. Why should we help you? Why should he be allowed to come back? There will be consequences. The voices all sounded at once.

Her own voice was calm. "Please. He can't die. This isn't supposed to happen. It's not his time yet."

And how would you know? They were still suspicious of her. Somehow they hadn't figured it out, or they had and they were looking for confirmation from her. Either way, now wasn't the time for that.

"Please," she begged, and began to recite the spell again, pushing the power out of her by force. Vitas phasmatis ex silento. Revertas phasmatis ut victus. As she said it, the ground began to quake under her. Her nose bled through the spell as she prayed that it worked, and with one last plead to the witches, the ground stilled and the candles extinguished themselves.

Jeremy woke up in her arms safe and alive.

The instant she knew the spell worked, Bonnie became lighter. With all of the witches' energy spent in bringing him back to life, it was as if a weight had lifted. Her magic coursed within her more freely, and she itched to practice, knowing it would be a balm to some of her inner unrest, but that would have to wait.

She and Alaric had to make sure Jeremy got home, and when she was certain that he was safe and well, she played her part and pretended to be overjoyed.

Really, it was all she could do at this point. Play her part as best as she could hope that when the time came to do what she came here to do, going through all of this for a second time really would be worth it.

After that, things calmed down for a while, summer came quick, and Bonnie was grateful for the end of the school year. The routine of it all had been nice, but realizing how much she had forgotten and how much she had to redo was not fun. She was happy with herself for how much her grades had improved though, and so was her father when she showed him.

He had finally been home for a while, and they were actually acting like a family. She was sure her father thought it odd how much time she tried to spend with him when he was around since, in the past, she'd been content to let him dictate the distance between them. These days, however, she purposefully inquired about his work and whatever he was interested in, and he seemed to like that she was making an active effort to know him, to take an interest in his life.

Despite her desire to spend time with him, she was less than excited when her father told her he planned a trip to visit family for the entire summer. Here, in Mystic Falls, she had a reprieve from pretending whenever her father wasn't around, but there, she would be around her aunts, uncles, and cousins twenty-four seven.

For a while she debated on whether or not she would go, and a few days before, she'd opted to stay behind for a few weeks, and then join him for one or two later in the summer.

At that point, everyone had known she was supposed to be going away, and Bonnie didn't tell them that she'd decided to stay instead. No one knew Bonnie was still in town and preferably, she wanted to keep it that way. It was easier to be alone than to be around the others, and it gave her time to prepare. With the witches' magic gone, she spent her time developing her magic through meditation and exercises or going out anywhere that wasn't Mystic Falls.

In fact, she currently sat at a bar called Sullivan's that was two towns over from Mystic Falls. It was a small place with a few tables, pool, and darts in the corner. She had been there a few times already, and generally liked the quaint atmosphere. It was not unlike hanging out at The Grill, except she didn't know anyone and no one knew her.

Having become somewhat of a regular, Bonnie sat in her usual barstool in the far corner of the bar, nursing a tumbler full of cheap bourbon on the rocks. She stared off into the distance in front of her, playing with a loose strand of hair when she heard someone near her.

"Is this seat taken?"

Bonnie glanced at the man. He was actually not that bad looking. Pretty almond eyes, a cute beard, and a neat fade. Better than the last two guys who tried to hit on her. Smiling politely, she twisted her glass in her hands. "Sorry, I'm not interested."

With a gracious nod, he stalked off, and she turned forward again, taking another swig and finding her glass empty when she brought it back down to the counter. She motioned to the bartender, a young guy named Sean who was also interested in her. He smiled as he took her glass. "The same?" He asked, and she nodded.

She leaned forward, resting an elbow on the bar as she waited when she felt it. A pull. Her posture grew rigid, and she kept her eyes on Sean as he made her drink. From the other side of the room, his footsteps grew closer until they were right beside her, and he settled against the bar a little too close. She turned, faking her surprise with wide green eyes when she saw it was Damon.

"Surprise, surprise," he said, his own eyes widening in that crazy way they did sometimes. "I almost didn't recognize you." Her curls were pulled back into a bun, a style she didn't usually do, and she wore a black wrap around shirt with a pair of dark skin-tight jeans and some black sandaled heels. Her makeup was heavier around the eyes too with a smokey look, but the rest of her face was done light. She was dressed how she would normally dress in the future so she probably looked a bit older than seventeen, which certainly helped with getting Sean to believe she was twenty-one.

Damon's eyes slid down her with a little more heat than usual, and Bonnie warmed at the appraisal. Sean came back with her drink, his gaze flicking between the two of them, noting how close Damon was standing to her. "You good?" There'd been one or two persistent guys before and Sean had graciously interfered on her behalf, saving her the trouble. Based on the vibe Damon gave off, menacing and impertinent, Sean could easily think Damon was about to be a problem, but his interference was unnecessary. She could handle Damon herself.

The vampire, however, did pick up on the underlying intent behind the question and bristled beside her, shooting the bartender a dark look. "It's fine, Sean, I know him."

He nodded, and looked at Damon, unaffected by the vampire's attitude. "Can I get you anything?"

Damon calmed slightly, tilting his chin towards Bonnie's drink. "I'll have what she's having." He slipped onto the barstool.

"Bourbon on the rocks it is then."

Damon's eyes widened again with actual disbelief this time, and Bonnie sighed.

"You're just full of surprises, aren't you?"

"What are you doing here?" She asked him.

"The better question is what are you doing here?" He countered.

"I asked first."

"Well, if you must know, I'm here for a drink."

Bonnie didn't miss the real meaning of drink.

"Can't you do that in Mystic Falls? And don't you still have your little girlfriend, Andie?" Her name was spoken with derision, and she hoped Damon wouldn't pick up on what that actually meant.

Luckily, he was distracted for a moment when Sean came back with his drink and placed it in front of him. As Sean left, Damon grabbed the tumbler and took a long gulp. She watched his adam's apple bob along his throat, and then his face as his expression soured.

He put the tumbler down and finally responded. "Andie is dead, courtesy of my homicidal little brother." His eyes were cold as he delivered the news, but she could tell that he was actually sad in the way his shoulders slumped ever so slightly.

She felt bad then. "Right. Sorry. You've been looking for him haven't you? How's the search going?"

"Not great, but let's not talk about that. Let's talk about you." Damon changed the subject. "Pray tell, what is little Bonnie Bennett doing in a bar drinking bourbon, dressed like you're not a seventeen-year-old high school student. I thought you were supposed to be away all summer visiting family."

She looked around, trying to make sure no one heard that, but they were alone in the corner of the bar, the nearest person sitting at one of the tables in conversation with another person. "I haven't left yet."

He tsked. "And didn't tell anyone."

"I wanted some me time." She explained.

"So you purposefully missed Elena's birthday last week"

"I sent her a text," Bonnie waved her hand dismissively, "and I suppose I should say happy belated to you too."

He cocked his head to the side, frowning. "How do you know when my birthday is?"

Shit. She wasn't supposed to know that yet. "I think I heard Stefan mention it." She hoped he bought the lie.

"So what is this then?" He motioned at her and around the bar with his hand. "Are you living a double life?"

That made her snort, a wry smile coming to her face. She was, in a sense, living a double life, just not in the way he thought. "No."

"Out meeting a secret older boyfriend because you finally got tired of little Gilbert?"

"No," she shook her head. "It's nothing complicated. I just like to go out have a drink sometimes."

He looked scandalized and put his hand on his chest dramatically. "Who are you, and what have you done with Bonnie?"

Bonnie would blame the alcohol for the short laugh that slipped out. "I'm still me."

At hearing her laugh, a strange look passed over his features. He drank a bit more of his bourbon and they were both silent for a few seconds. She should probably go, shouldn't she. But spending time with him was soothing a bit of the ache inside her. "How often exactly do you come here?" he asked.

She turned her half empty glass in her hand. "A few times a week."

"A few?"

Bonnie arched an eyebrow at the way his lips set in a line of disapproval, and her smile widened. "Are you worried about me?"

"Can't have our resident witch off her game."

"Ah yes, because then who's going to save all of you the next time Mystic Falls goes to shit." She looked away from him, bringing her glass to her lips.

"You make it sound like you're the only one responsible for saving everyone."

"You have to admit that I've been pulling the heavy weight. Without me, we wouldn't have been able to take on Klaus, Elena would be dead, Jeremy would be dead, and you would be dead because let's not forget it was me who found out Klaus was the key to curing a werewolf bite. A thank you would be nice by the way."

She stared at him expectantly.

"Well?"

Amusement danced in his eyes, and for once, she could see a crack in the coldness. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." Bonnie brought her drink to her lips and downed the rest of it. As much as she wanted to stay, after unloading a bit of her frustration at how underappreciated she was, it was clearly time for her to leave before she blurted out more. "I should get going." She eyed him. "You can keep this a secret, can't you?"

"I can. But seeing as I'll be doing you a favor, you'll owe me for it."

That made her weary, but fair's fair. "Alright, as long as whatever you want is within reason."

His request wasn't what she'd been expecting. A locator spell was what he wanted, but helping him find Stefan early felt like she'd be making a big change. It didn't escape her that Stefan had become a ripper and people were dying though. If she helped, she could save so many, but the changes she might make in messing with Klaus made her shake her head, and it wasn't likely she would be able to find him anyway. She told as much to Damon after coming up with an excuse.

"I can't. My magic's been off since reviving Jeremy, and if he's with Klaus, do you really think I'd be able to find him by locator spell."

He was silent a moment before he conceded. "Probably not."

She got off the stool, hoping he wouldn't push the matter, but the solemn look on his face tugged at her heartstrings. She placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it lightly. "You'll have to think of something else, but don't worry too much about Stefan. You'll find him eventually."

A/N:

The events that happen in the summer are going to be dragged out a bit and the order may or may not change. Just thought I would mention that.

Also, I know it's been a while, and I know I'm a slow updater already, but I might be even slower for a while because I'll be making a big life transition come summer. So if you're really looking forward to this story, I apologize, but do know that I have written ahead a bit, so if I find time to edit that stuff and write more outside of everything else I'm doing, I will.

Anyway, thanks for reading! I wasn't entirely happy with this one, but I hope it's alright.

Chapter title from "Outside, Digging" by James Vincent McMorrow.