3

Who Sticketh Closer

Caroline Forbes had had a bad day. Her professor had returned her essay with an A-. The same paper she had spent all Spring Break working on. Heads were going to roll.

Co-eds scurried out of her way as she barged through the dorm. She charged into her room, ready to kill anything or anyone that looked at her wrong.

Figuratively speaking, of course.

Bonnie Bennett was sitting on her bed.

Caroline gasped, then screamed, then sped so fast to her friend that she knocked her down.

Bonnie gasped.

"Bonnie! Oh my god, I'm sorry. Oh my god, Bonnie! Are you OK? I'm so sorry!"

Caroline got up quickly, her hands on her friend's shoulders, as tenderly as if she was holding a piece of glass. She touched Bonnie's face gently. "It's you? This isn't some kind of witchy trick, is it? Oh god, I can't bear it!"

Bonnie wrapped her hands over Caroline's and squeezed. "It's me, Care. It's really me."

"Oh god!" Caroline broke down. The two girls wrapped their arms around each other, hugging desperately. "I thought I'd never see you again. I thought you had gone, gone forever and it would have been all my fault. If it weren't for that stupid Cure."

"No, no, Care. It was never your fault. You didn't ask me to find the Cure. I was the one who wanted Expressions Magic…"

"You wanted the Magic to get the Cure, Bonnie! I know you. I figured it out. You knew how much I hated being a vampire. You wanted to save me. You're always saving me and I wasn't there for you. You're my oldest friend, my sister and I couldn't do anything but watch you die!"

And for some minutes, they couldn't do anything but cry and hold onto each other as if they'd never let go.

Much later, when Caroline had brewed tea and made sandwiches, and they were both tucked into Bonnie's bed with Sheila Bennett's thick quilt over them, Bonnie haltingly told Caroline her story.

When she finished, Caroline's face was like stone.

"That. Bitch. Of all the people to get stuck in a Prison World with."

Bonnie grimaced. "I suppose I should be thankful that I had a vampire with me. If not for Katherine's blood, I'd probably have died a long time ago. Or at least, have some gruesome scars." Absentmindedly, she touched the space between her rib cage where the last blade had passed through.

She still had nightmares about it.

Caroline lifted Bonnie's blouse, and stared at the smooth skin underneath. "I don't understand. If Katherine had gone… how did you get vamp blood to heal this?"

"K… He," Bonnie swallowed hard and Caroline squeezed her hand. "He kept some of Katherine's blood." Her lips twisted. "I think she was even more afraid of him than I was."

"And he's out … here?"

Bonnie grimaced.

"I won't let him hurt you," Caroline said fiercely. "Or any of them. Bonnie, you can't marry into that family now, you know that right?"

Bonnie glanced at her, then looked away.

"Oh you have to be kidding me!" Caroline screamed.

Bonnie flinched.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Caroline said quickly. "I can only imagine…"

Bonnie clenches her fists together, forces herself to be calm. "I'm OK," she said at last, quietly.

Caroline sighed, and her head hit the headboard. "Bonnie, you can't do this. Luke is… a good guy, you know, even though he's gay and has no business marrying any woman. But the rest of the family … they're bad witches, Bonnie. They're creepy and manipulative and ruthless. The oldest sister, the one who ran off… His twin, right?"

"Josette."

"Exactly. She took off first chance she got and never looked back. And she's their flesh and blood. Doesn't that tell you something?"

"You only mentioned Luke. I thought you liked Liv."

"The next time I see Liv Parker, I'm going to kill her."

Bonnie laughed, then she looked at Caroline's face and grabbed her friend's arm. "Care, no."

"It was her idea for you to get Expressions Magic. It was too dangerous for little Miss 'I've been casting spells since I was in my crib' Parker but she didn't mind it consuming you as long as she got what she wanted."

Bonnie looked away. "Liv was… she was desperate."

"Then she should have taken the risk herself." Caroline hissed.

"It was my ancestor's magic, not hers. If she could have, she would have done so."

"Do you really believe that, Bon?"

"I have to, don't I? We're going to be sisters, soon. And if she wins the Merge, we're probably going to bring up our kids together."

"This is crazy, Bonnie! Listen to yourself. Merging. Having kids for that creepy coven family. Marrying a man you aren't in love with. What happens if you have twins, Bonnie? You don't want this for yourself. You don't!"

"You don't understand, Care. It's been decided for me for as long as I can remember."

"Because Abby stole you from Sheila, from us. She stole you and she sold you to them."

"Care-!"

"Yes! Yes! I've always wanted to say it and I'll do so now!" Caroline was shouting now and she could see Bonnie recoiling but she couldn't stop herself. "She didn't promise you to the Parkers so that they could protect you. She did it to protect herself."

"Caroline!"

"She wanted a coven that could fight for her when that Original that she pissed off came for revenge. She wanted allies and she bought them with you."

The curtains were flapping. A small wind was building in the room with closed windows.

Caroline was too enraged to heed. She had wanted to say this for a long time and now it was all coming out, she couldn't hold back.

"She abandoned you, Bonnie. You were three and she walked away and never came back. Until she found a use for you. She took you from everyone you loved and everyone that loved you and bound you to that sick, twisted, sadistic…"

"Caroline, stop!"

And Caroline was launched from the bed and flung across the room, hitting the far wall in a shattering of bones.

Bonnie was kneeling on the bed now, her hands balled into fists at her side.

For long minutes, the only noise in the room was the flapping curtains, the creak of the nailed down furniture as they groaned against the small whirlwind.

Then Bonnie collapsed back onto the bed and the current of air stopped.

Caroline groaned.

"Really, Bonnie?"

"You were being an ass."

She groaned again. "Maybe."

Beat. "I'm going through with the wedding, Caroline. I'm going to be a Parker, and a member of the Gemini coven. I don't expect you to understand or agree with me. But if you want us to remain friends, don't ever repeat those words to me."

"If you want us to remain friends, then don't expect me to lie to you."

Bonnie raised her head to glare at her. "You get one chance to speak your mind and you've used it. I don't need to hear this again."

Caroline frowned. "Fine," she said, grinding out the word.

There was a long silence.

"Am I still your maid of honour?"

"It depends. Are you ready to go shopping tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?"

"The wedding is in two weeks."

"Two weeks! Are they-" Caroline literally clamped her jaw, checked herself. "Sure."

"Good."

"Good."

"You may need to compel a few professors for me. I missed the whole of last semester."

"Just say who and when."

"Good."

Caroline sighed. "Talking about compelling professors, I got an A- in Pol 251."

Bonnie gasped. "That's impossible."

"I know, right?" Caroline said and launched into the tirade that she had been reciting in her head earlier that day.

In minutes, she had crawled back into bed with her best friend. She was still talking when Bonnie fell asleep. When she realized this, she slipped out from the bed and carefully tucked the quilt around the smaller, more fragile girl.

For a moment, she just looked at Bonnie. At her small, delicate features, her less than fashionably skinny body. It was hard to believe that someone so small, so delicate looking was really so powerful. In her own way, Bonnie was more powerful than an army of vampires.

But all that power was sealed in a tiny, fragile vessel at the heart of which was a young, innocent, trusting girl who didn't deserve the shitty hand that life her dealt her – the car crash that took her dad's life, her mother uprooting her from Mystic Falls, the creepy coven that she was being married into, the gay husband that would never really love her, the Expressions magic that had nearly consumed her and the Cure that had turned her into an open-house supernatural target, the psychopathic bitch of a vampire that had followed her into the underworld and the psychopathic witch that she had met there.

Caroline shuddered. Bonnie Bennett had got rotten break after rotten break in life.

It was high time, Caroline Forbes decided, for someone to change her best friend's luck.

"What can I get you?"

It was Liv's last customer. A teen in dark slacks and a T-shirt. He was cute, if you like them tall, dark and somewhat creepy looking. Liv hoped he wasn't going to try and flirt with her. She had been in a rotten mood all day… all week… all month… maybe even half the year. Luke had covered for her from Joshua Parker but he knew the role she played in Bonnie's death.

(Ex-death).

The twins had been at the outs before but never like this. Never this long. It made Liv want to hex something.

The customer rambled on and on about his preferences. No bourbon. No tequila. No vodka.

All the other patrons had long gone.

Liv twirled her fingers and wandered if she could get away with hexing this one.

Just a little bitty hex.

He finally made up his mind. Liv barely heard his order, still considering whether or not he'd notice if he suddenly started walking into walls for a week.

"I'm going to need to see some ID," she said automatically.

"Sure." He said, giving her a wide and annoyingly cheesy grin.

She blinked at the card. 1972. Wow, they didn't even bother trying any more, did they?

"Get out of my bar," she said. Before I hex you and get into even more trouble with my brother. "We're closed now."

"Oh no, you didn't give it a good long look. See the name there… and the address…"

Liv was already mentally canting the hex when she glanced at the card again. Then her mind froze.

Bile rose in her throat and she stretched out her hand to curse at him.

He grabbed her palm and she fell to her knees as magic drained out of her body like blood from a gash.

"I'm hurt you didn't recognize me. No family pictures with me? No albums? Certainly no selfies, too old-school. I guess that's to be expected. I did kill and heavily maim most of our family."

"Malakai."

"Olivia. I've missed you so much. You and I have a lot of catching up to do."

A/N: Chapter title is part of Proverbs 18:24 : One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.