Chapter 8

A/N: Sorry to keep y'all waiting. Thanks for all the reviews–Keep 'em coming. :) Enjoy!

He woke up, bound with vervaine in her room. He immediately began to struggle against the ropes.

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead," Bonnie said dryly.

"Fuck you," he spat.

"You have to compel those people. And the Kellys." She gestured outside of the room.

"What the hell makes you think I would do that?"

"If you want to try this again, it would be a lot easier if everyone didn't know what you were. I have a feeling you aren't trying to leave the city any time soon."

"Fine." He grunted and looked down at the vervaine ropes. "Untie me."

She obliged, and he was gone. It was difficult, but he covered up the scene at the school and compelled the Kelly family. She was impressed. He was showing remorse. She didn't think he was finished, though. Not yet.

That night, Bonnie waited on the porch for him. She knew he would be there.

He appeared in the road like a ghost. It was raining and the leather jacket was soaked but he didn't seem to care.

"Why did you agree to compel those people?" She half-shouted against the rain as she made her way down the driveway. "You could have gone behind my back and killed them." She shuddered inwardly, hoping she wasn't giving him any ideas.

"Figured I didn't need to kill them all," Damon said quietly. She had to strain to hear him.

"Why?" she asked again. She was standing in front of him now.

He ignored her question and just looked at her, blue eyes piercing green. "Where are you from, Bonnie?"

"What? I told you, I'm from Georgia."

"I don't believe you," his voice was dangerously low. The veins around his eyes began to ripple.

"Why do you need to know so badly? I live here now, that's all there is to it." She tried not to sound too nervous. He was still staring at her, eyes boring into hers.

"You're different. And I don't think it's because you're from Georgia."

She didn't say anything for a moment. Then she decided to go for the truth because fuck it.

"Damon, I came here to find you," she held his gaze. "I need to learn how to turn your humanity back on. I knew you, in a different time, and I think you need me."

"I've never needed anyone." She couldn't read his expression. They were both drenched, and it started to thunder. Bonnie looked up to catch a flash of lightning above the Kelly house. Although it illuminated his already electric blue eyes, they looked more dead than she had ever seen them.

"Please," she said. "I just need to know what to do. Help me help you."

He was dangerously close to her face now. She stared back until he broke eye contact to raise a hand to touch her face. He slowly traced down her cheek to her lips, examining them, eyes widened slightly. When he met her eyes again, he spoke.

"I think you already know how, little witch." A ghost of that familiar smirk passed across his lips, and then he was gone.

Bonnie wandered the street for a while, looking for him. Calling out. Luckily it was late, so there weren't many people out. Part of her knew he wasn't coming back this time. But she was more confused than ever about what she had to do.

Soaked through and dejected, she grabbed her belongings back at the Kelly's and left some money on the kitchen table to thank them for their hospitality.

She placed a hand to her lips, still feeling where his fingers had traced. What the hell was that? Frustrated at how far she still was from bringing present-day Damon back to his humanity, she performed the spell to return to 2016.

Stefan and Caroline looked up, shocked, exactly where she had left them months before.

"Bonnie!" Caroline pulled her into a hug. "You were only gone for, like, 20 minutes!"

"Really? I was there for months," Bonnie said.

Stefan, always perceptive, frowned. "What's wrong, Bonnie?"

"I didn't do it. I'm no closer to learning how to restore their humanity than I was before." She told them everything that had happened. "See? It was a waste of time. At least it was only 20 minutes of time wasted here."

Stefan looked thoughtful. "Bonnie, I think you learned more than you think."

"Oh yeah?"

"You obviously had some kind of effect on him back there."

"Whatever it was, it was probably mostly because I had some difficulties following my role in such a sexist, racist society. He kept saying I was 'different.'"

Stefan shook his head. "What if it's more than that? What if he just needs someone to break through to him who cares? 'I've never needed anyone,' you said he told you. What if you made him realize that he did?"

"Well I hate to break it to you, but Elena is too slumped to be of any help in that department," Bonnie said dryly.

But Caroline was looking at Stefan. "What are you saying?"

"Bonnie, I think you need to remind Damon that he needs you. He was different ever since you guys got back from that prison world. Kept saying you got him through it. He went crazy trying to save you when you sacrificed yourself–"

"That's nice and all but it doesn't mean that he'll turn his humanity back on for me." Bonnie didn't know why he kept pushing this. It only made things harder.

"Just think about it, alright?"

"I'll see." Bonnie hugged Caroline and nodded to Stefan. "I'm going to go home and take a nap, traveling over 50 years in time takes a toll on you."

When Bonnie got back to her house she sat in bed and flipped through her Grimoire. There didn't seem to be anything else in the spellbook that would help her.

Sighing, she thought about what Stefan had said. What if she was the person who could bring him back? She didn't understand why he had gotten all weird back in the '50s. He did that sometimes, though. It had happened in the prison world a few times. She remembered when he had found her crying once when she'd been trying to hide it, overcome with distress at the prospect of being trapped there forever. He had wiped away the tears, but then he just kept staring at her. Like she would disappear or something.

She rolled her eyes at herself for dwelling on the memory. He's gone now. It's highly doubtful that you'll be the one to save him.