Made this a bit longer for you, Kamille. ;)

Thank you all for the kind feedback, and for following along.


He should probably not be smiling. This isn't good. The way she looks at him tells him that his attempt at compelling her hasn't worked as well as it should have. She clearly remembers him, at least to an extent. There's recognition in that green gaze, recognition and wonder and a touch of confusion - no, a lot of confusion. And still he can't help but smile. Because this was so easy. He didn't even have to go looking for her. She's right here, a few feet away from him, and beside her stands Blondie, clutching her friend's arm a little too forcefully.

"Bloody marvelous. Now what?"

Enzo makes a point of not turning around when he speaks, shielding the side of his face with one arm and hand, trying rather obviously to stay out of sight. Dude would probably benefit from loosening up a bit.

"Hey. This is good news." Damon pats his friend's shoulder. "It's going to be easy now. Fast and painless, just like you love it."

Enzo rolls his eyes, scoffing, and Damon turns toward the nurses' station again, where a nurse is now standing before him.

"How can I help you, sir?"

Damon smiles at her, leaning in to Enzo as he does.

"We won't have to use plan A after all," he mutters, "you should be so happy…" Out loud, he adds for the nurse's benefit, "Actually, we're good for now, thank you."

"Then let's get the hell out of-"

"You!"

Her voice shrills out, interrupting Enzo, cutting off Damon's train of thought, and even though he knows he should play dumb and deaf, he can't. So he turns around again to smile at her, shooting for his best confused frown.

"Me?" Tapping his chest, he holds her gaze, pretending the hell out of this. "Have we met?"

She seems to falter for a moment, then quickly catches herself, walking toward him with a resolute stride. She's fierce and fast, and somehow that surprises him.

"I've seen you. Tell me you remember it too."

Shaking his head, he gives her his best innocent look of bewilderment, then moves to turn away from her. His heart is beginning to beat faster, his thoughts racing. How to proceed? He needs to slip away and still keep an eye on her somehow - which won't be easy now that she seems to recognize his face…

"I'm sorry," he waves her off, "I think I'd remember that. - You from around here?"

Her eyebrows are rising higher and higher, her friend whispering something he can't catch from where he's standing, but the way Blondie tugs at Bonnie makes him think she's trying to get her to let it go and move on. Which would be a great idea.

But Bonnie seems to think otherwise. Even when an old woman with the slightest resemblance - maybe a grandma or an older aunt? - shows up at her side, with the demanding frown of someone who's used to being listened to, she doesn't move.

"No," she replies now, inclining her head a bit, her brown curls bouncing off her shoulders in an oddly sensual way that makes him lick his lips. Swallowing, he works to keep his noncommittal smirk in place, even though the way her mere presence affects him is beginning to make him uneasy. He's not usually one to fall for a girl that quickly.

Well…

"Just passing through then, huh? - Sorry your way led you to the hospital. You should check out the annual Seabreeze Fair while you're here, at least."

"Seabreeze Fair."

He has to smile at her tone. Like she can't quite believe he brought it up. Like it's something rather ridiculous, which it kind of is. But it's a good cover story, and it's the first thing that came to his mind.

"Mate…"

Grinning at Enzo briefly, he catches the warning look his friend shoots him, and he knows why. He's headed for dangerous territory now, talking to her, engaging with her. If there were fewer people around he'd probably be able to compel her again, hope that this time it'd take. But the hallway is crowding up more and more - probably filling with fair visitors that have had too much to drink and managed to get themselves hurt.

Ignoring it all, he keeps his eyes trained on Bonnie, who is still standing feet away from him.

"Yeah," he says, playing his role, pointing to his outfit that must seem ridiculous to her. They really do need to get some contemporary clothes if they want to blend in with the crowd. "It's quite pretty. There's booths with seafood and little trinkets, shell mobiles, bracelets. You ladies might enjoy it - if you're all alright?" He indicates the hospital, making her frown deepen then lift.

"Oh, yeah… uh. Yeah. That sounds… nice. I… just a little accident, we're all good now."

"Good. Well then… Excuse me, I need to take care of my stubborn friend here. He needs to see a doctor for his - uh…"

"Damon," Enzo hisses, and he grins, then rolls his eyes before he continues.

"Anyways. Enjoy your stay here, sweetheart." With that he turns away, readying himself for Enzo's lecture, but what he hears instead is a very loud and triumphant, "There!"

Uh oh, he thinks, exchanging a glance with Enzo that the other man shrugs off, then he looks over his shoulder at Bonnie again, trying his best to keep his smile neutral.

What exactly did he say that made her so… happy?


Sweetheart. No one calls Bonnie Bennett sweetheart. Not even her Grams. But this man, this man just did.

"Okay, this is getting silly," Caroline chimes in, crossing her arms in front of her as she looks from Bonnie to this man in front of them, and before Bonnie has a change to stop her, she continues, "Is your name Damon by any chance? - I can't believe I'm asking this, but…"

The way he looks at them makes Bonnie feel like the air got sucked out of the room. It's obvious that he's trying to control his features, to shrug it off, but when Caroline mentions that name, he recognizes it. They can all see it, can see through him, Bonnie, Caroline, even Grams beside her, who is now gripping her shoulder, peeking out at this man with the suspicious scrutiny of a grandmother worried for her grandchild.

Damon - because that's definitely his name - swallows visibly, and while she can't see the face of his companion, the guy's body language as he looks at his friend is screaming "busted." Exchanging a glance with Caroline, Bonnie knows that her friend sees it too. So maybe she still has no clue why she knows his name, or where she may have met him before. But she is now certain that she has.

His smirk is firm again, his posture cocky as he leans his back against the nurses' station's counter, wiggling a finger at them.

"I see what this is. You must have passed through the fair ground after all. Saw me there. My friend Lorenzo and I work in one of the restaurant halls." He pauses, readjusting his position, shooting his friend another glance. "You remember them, Enzo?"

"No."

Bonnie shakes her head. Even though there's a ton of things she should remember but doesn't, she's damn certain that she hasn't been to this fair he keeps talking about. When she looks to Caroline for confirmation, her friend shrugs at her.

"Definitely not," she mumbles. "Bon, let's just go. This is getting creepy."

Maybe Care is right, maybe they should just let it go and leave. But… something just doesn't seem right. He seems so familiar, and that name. He wasn't even trying to pretend she got it wrong...

"Girls. What on earth is going on here? Bonnie?" Grams has moved forward a bit so that she's standing half in front of her grandchild, looking back without taking her eyes off these two strangers. "Excuse me," she then says, making heat creep into Bonnie's cheeks as she begins to walk toward Damon. "We haven't met. My name is Sheila Bennett, I'm Bonnie's grandmother."

Like a complete gentleman, Damon takes her hand, bowing down a little as he does.

"Ma'am. Damon Salvatore at your service."

"Mr. Salvatore, my granddaughter seems to think she has met you. She certainly knows your name."

"That she does…" His grin is back, making Bonnie's insides turn to jelly.

"Let's just go, Grams," she mutters, embarrassed, and ready to leave.

"One moment, child. - Well, Mr. Salvatore-"

"Damon, please." That smile… Even her Grams seems to melt a bit now.

"Damon," the old woman says, and Bonnie catches her smiling almost shily. Her Grams! "My granddaughter here was in a car accident. Barely escaped certain death as it is, and while she can't remember much, I think someone must have come to her aide. That couldn't have been you? See, I'd love to thank whoever saved her."

"I'm sorry, Ma'am. I wish I could be that hero, but it wasn't me…"

It's at that moment - Damon is still speaking, Grams listening almost starstruck - that Bonnie notices commotion by the elevators, a few men barging out of one of them, pushing their way through the people with too much force. Some of them are tumbling, even falling, but the men don't seem to care, keep moving with strange determination, and a clear destination.

"What's happening?" Caroline whispers behind her, her fingers digging into Bonnie's arm. "Bonnie…"

"Grams," Bonnie says, exchanging a brief glance and a nod with Caroline, motioning for her friend to back away as the men zone in on Damon and his companion, and on them...

"Uh, Damon, I think we might have company," the other man is saying, finally turning around enough for her to see him too, and while his face doesn't ring a bell, her gaze gets drawn to the row of buttons on his shirt, buttons that seem to rival the sheen of the aurora borealis when the light catches them.

She has seen those before, or… one of them. In Caroline's hand.

But then everything goes crazy around her, loud voices drowning her own out as she calls out to Care, grabbing her Grams as she does.

"We should go," she hisses, watching as the men draw closer and closer.

"Damon." His friend sounds urgent, grabbing Damon, not unlike how Bonnie is grabbing her Grams, trying to pull the old woman with her.

"Crap."

Damon turns to look behind him briefly, exchanging a few words with his friend that she doesn't catch, then he stares straight ahead again, his smile wavering but still there, though there is a shadow over him now, an air of something dangerous. Abruptly, he leans forward, licking his lips, cursing under his breath before staring straight at her, grabbing her arm.

"You were right," he says, "we found you after the crash and brought you here. - You're welcome, by the way." He grins for a moment, and Bonnie wants to say "I knew it!" but no sound makes it past her lips. It's as if she's paralyzed, unable to move or say anything. "You should get out of here now. Hurry."

"Wait."

"Go, Bonnie Bennett." The urgency in his stare gets to her. Without further explanation, he then kisses her brow, winks, and races toward where his friend is already running toward the group of strangers, leaving her standing there, in the middle of the hallway.

There's an ominous flicker of lights, the sound of roaring water filling her ears for a second, then she blinks - and the hallway is almost completely deserted again.

"What the hell was that?" Grams asks, and the women exchange a confused glance.

"Wait. So it was really him? The one who saved you?" Caroline's eyes are wide, shocked, but while Bonnie nods, she still has his voice in her ear.

You should get out of here now. Hurry.

Looking at the other two, she swallows.

"We gotta go. Now."


"Father!"

Emerging out of a large pool of salty water, Stefan calls into the void. His clothes are dripping, sticking to his body like a second skin, a feeling he's been used to for ages, but now, for some reason, it irks him. He'll have to change out of them and into a dry set as soon as he's done down here, and then he'll have to go after his brother - like so often before. It's tiring.

Balling his hands into fists for a moment, he rushes forward, storming toward his true destination, deeper into the darkness of the large underwater cave.

Guiseppe is where he expected him to be, sitting atop a dais of coral, in his throne of sorts, which Stefan considers to be nothing but a large chair with a too high backrest and a ridiculous amount of shells stuck to its sides and armrests.

"Father," he calls out again, not decelerating until he's right in front of his old man, and the look he earns himself makes his blood boil almost over. "You said he'd have time to sort this out!"

"Good to see you, too, son."

"Damon was doing his best to make sure the girl stays away from the water. But you had to send your guards out to detain them and kill an innocent girl?!"

"Is that right, Guiseppe?"

Blinking, Stefan turns his head, only now noticing the shadow of his mother toward the side of the room, where she must have stood all along, quite possibly conversing with her husband until this moment. She shoots her youngest son a glance, then turns to face her husband, raising her chin as if to challenge him.

"What if I did? The boy is unreliable. I don't trust him to handle this correctly, and, my dear, need I remind you what a bad influence that sailor of yours is that he seems to fraternize with constantly?"

"Lorenzo is not a bad influence-"

"He's a Turned, for Neptune's sake! Turned by you! Because you fell for him, too."

"Please!" Lily throws her head back, hair spilling over as she does, and Stefan can't help but stare at his parents, at their display of marital battling. Even now they can't stop behaving like the world revolves around them.

"You are still jealous, is that it? Because I had an affair, too, just one, where you had many!"

Rolling his eyes, Stefan looks to the ground, giving a loud sigh. He can't deal with this.

"Can we focus on Damon again? And the fact that you're willing to let your goons murder this girl that was unlucky enough to be saved by him?" he therefore interjects, and to his surprise, both his parents fall silent and look at him. "Tell your goons to lay off and give him time. You don't need to kill the girl to prevent her from becoming one of us."

"I…"

"If you do, I can promise you, you'll lose Damon, too. And me." The challenging words sound off to his own ears, uncharacteristic. Because isn't he usually the one who tries to appease their dad, to play nice, smooth out whatever could upset Guiseppe? Not this time. Sighing, he keeps staring straight at his father, running a hand through his tousled hair.

"Let Damon do his thing. Please. Give him the month, like you said you would. You can still sic your goons after the girl if he does fail after all."

His father's dark eyes bore into him, making him feel naked under the scrutiny. He doesn't even know why he's here, fighting Damon's fight for him. Maybe because his brother is all he's really got, and the love for him has always made him do stupid things…

With a wave of his hand and a bored sounding sigh, Guiseppe eventually turns away, focusing on a young man by his side.

"Fine," he allows, "Conrad, you heard my son. Relay the message to let my oldest go and spare the girl. For now. But." Conrad is still nodding when Guiseppe changes his focus yet again, glaring over at Stefan, making him clench his teeth. "Should the girl end up becoming one of us before the month is over, he'll pay." He smiles over at Stefan, then at his wife with a saccharine expression. "They will pay. - Now go, both of you. I need time to deal with more important matters of the realm."

Stefan wants to say something, wants to blurt out all the hatred he feels toward this man that is his father. He would even have a few choice words for his mother. But of course he remains silent, as usual, fists clenched so hard that his fingernails dig into his palms.


They leave the hospital as fast as they can, Caroline holding Bonnie's hand, her mom and Sheila Bennett ushering them on from behind as they make their way down the staircase so fast that Caroline almost slips and stumbles.

"Ouch," she makes as her ankle gets overextended, but there's no time to rub the sore spot or even stop and take a break. No. She doesn't quite understand what the hell is going on, but one thing is clear, this man, Damon, he meant it when he told them to leave.

When they reach the outside, the whole area is strangely deserted, a few scattered people walking by with vacant expressions on their faces, and Bonnie and Caroline exchange a glance.

"What the hell is going on in this place?"

"No idea. But I'm not keen on finding out either. Let's just go. Grams, where did you park the car."

Caroline's mom steps closer to the girls, pushing them both with her in lieu of a reply.

"We drove here together," she explains, "Follow me!"

Everything is going by so fast that Caroline doesn't know what to think. She's limping after her mom, still clutching Bonnie's hand, her skirt billowing around her legs like a cloud, and she's shivering. It's grown so cold.

"What do we do when we've reached the car? Just leave? What if someone comes after us? What about this guy Damon and his friend?"

The one with buttons on his shirt like the one she's still holding in her free hand…

But before she has a chance to worry and wonder about any of it much longer, she feels a sudden strong gust of wind, the smell of salt and sea growing strong around her, and the next thing she knows...


...

There is not much time. The second he sees the men - Guiseppe's guards, he knows what they have come here for. Cursing under his breath, he decides within a split second what to do, silently communicating his plan to Enzo.

~ Frigging bastard is gonna kill her... - Lorenzo, time to shine. You keep the guards at bay, then make these people forget anything ever happened, while I'll first get the girls out of here. Then I'll assist you. ~

~ Kind of you. ~

Even in this dire moment, Damon finds time to arch an eyebrow and stare at his friend with surprised amazement.

~ So you just quietly mastered telepathy, huh? I'm impressed! No, seriously… ~

Damon chuckles lightly as Enzo rolls his eyes. But time is running out, the goons already on their way, so they both spring into action, sprinting off in opposite directions.

He knows what Guiseppe is doing. As usual, his old man doesn't trust him, doesn't trust that Damon can keep Bonnie Bennett away from the water and clear up his mess. And rather than finding means to help his son, he's going for the ultimate solution: killing the girl. But that is not an option, not if Damon has any say in the matter, and he likes to think that he does. So he blurs forward, staring intently at this girl before him, trying to make her feel the importance of his words without scaring her too much.

She needs to leave, now, but before he can see her do so, he feels a spot of pain explode against the side of his head, and the next thing he knows, he's not in the hospital hallway anymore, but sitting slumped against the wall of an old warehouse in some rundown part of town.

"Well, hello there, sleeping beauty."

Blinking against the dim light of dusk, Damon rubs his smarting jaw, then turns sideways, where Enzo is smirking at him, streaks of blood running out his nose, staining the collar of his shirt.

"Ouch," he says, noticing the blood on his own shirt, with ginger movements touching his temple, then his split lip.

"You two, quiet."

"Ah, so we're not alone to enjoy this romantic moment…"

The shadow of a large man falls over him, and when he looks up, he sees his own blood staining the goon's brandished fist.

"Easy now," he says, waving his arms appeasingly. This whole thing isn't good. He doesn't know what happened to Bonnie or her friends, he doesn't know what these assholes are going to do - after all, it wouldn't be below Guiseppe to teach his own flesh and blood a "meaningful lesson". It wouldn't be the first time. But while he knows that his father would never go too far, would never kill one of his own, he's not so sure the man wouldn't use this as a good excuse to finally get rid of Enzo…

"Alright, this has been fun, fellas, but right now I really need a drink and it's getting kinda cold-"

The fist slams into his stomach, making him gasp and double over, if not losing his smirk.

"I see. You have different plans for the evening. You could have just said so, you know?"

Another slam, this time to his kidney, and he grimaces in pain.

"Damon, shut up." Enzo's tone sounds annoyed, but in his face there is genuine concern, and Damon sighs. He's ready to play this game for a few more rounds, but he's not alone, he has other people to think of, not just himself and his father.

"Alright," he therefore says, tired and weary. "How about we make a deal. You leave the girls alone, and we-"

As if on cue, he sees the street lights flicker, sees the silhouettes of more people coming closer, and he blinks again, trying to clear his hazy vision, even when he already knows what he's about to see. Or, who…

Dammit.

And there she is, Bonnie Bennett with her friend, her soft skin glowing in the sparse light, her hair streaming in the breeze, and… so much fight in those green eyes of hers, so much anger and fight contorting her features that he can't help but be proud of her.

"Bonnie," he whispers, a strange sense of awe making him breathe her name as he tilts his head to look at her, watching as recognition floods her face.

"You?"

He grins apologetically, just as the goons shove her toward him, and without grace, she slumps right against him, her cheek grazing his, her breath caressing his neck for just a second before she quickly scrambles to the side, shooting him an almost accusing glance.

"Who the hell are you - or should I say, what? What is going on here?"

Should he tell her that she's lucky to even still be alive? Probably not…

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I'll explain in a minute…"