As Bonnie stepped out of the car, she snorted. She tried to hold it in, slapping a hand over her mouth, but the sound still echoed. And, even if she had successfully hidden the sound, it wouldn't have passed Caroline's ears, of course.

"Oh, gosh, don't tell me you hate this house already too?"

"No, It's not that, it's just…" Bonnie licked her lips, unsure how she could explain to Caroline the conundrum about this specific house.

It was the twelfth they'd seen. Kai had oodles of money lying around, just for her, and acquiring it had been pretty easy. The guy at the bank had seemed to know, which of course was impossible, but he'd made a weird mention about pregnancy and the Gemini family line. He was obviously a warlock too, but nowhere near as powerful as the Gemini line, nor strong enough to be able to pick out her secrets.

Still, it had unnerved her.

Well, it didn't matter, because she had walked away with literally a small fortune, and this was apparently only a drop in the bucket of what the Parkers owned and which she now owned too. Enough to buy a proper house, which if she were having twins, was the right choice. They would need space to grow and preferably a space Bonnie could magically force-field so that their terrible tantrums didn't result in blowing out a hole in an apartment building and killing ten people.

Caroline had taken it upon herself to be Bonnie's realtor. She had a hand in everything here, of course. She'd offered for Bonnie to live at the Salvatore House, but Bonnie couldn't bring herself to.

Not only was she terrified someone there would figure out who the father was, but she knew it would be a bad time living there again. Around every corner would be a ghost of Kai and their time in the first Prison World and well, she just couldn't have that.

Caroline was put out, which had led to Bonnie agreeing to her blonde friend to be her house-searcher. It seemed like a good compromise. No one simply told Caroline an outright 'no'.

Caroline hadn't bothered her too much about the money thing. Bonnie had claimed it had been in a fund left by her grandmother and, until now, she hadn't a need to use it. This had held up enough, because one...Grams was mysterious as heck and it probably wouldn't have surprised Bonnie if there was a lot of money laying around somewhere and two...until now, Bonnie truly hadn't a need for more. She'd been more than comfortably living on her salary before this in her studio, the type of thriving where she was able to order take-out twice a week.

She had been expecting more of an inquisition, but Caroline had just blinked and said, "Well, I'm glad you saved it for a rainy day."

Huh.

But as it was, this marked the twelfth house they'd looked at. Three Bonnie had vetoed on sight, due to many reasons including not enough space between her neighbors, already too small, or just that she didn't like it. Caroline, once they'd walked through, had vetoed another five on other issues, and even if Bonnie had liked one, it was rather clear that this one was no longer an option. The rest were okay choices.

Bonnie wanted to see if there was 'the one' house out there, but she was satisfied she had choices to fall back on.

This led to the house in front of her.

The exact house that Kai was locked in.

Well, not this one literally, but also sort of. It was the house of this current year, not the house in 2018 where Kai resided. It looked a bit different; a paint color changed on the outside, new windows, possibly a new room on the top floor where a creaky attic existed in the Prison World. Still, Bonnie paused, as though expecting to see Kai lounging on the front porch like he had the last time she'd made her drop off.

"I just...I didn't know this house was on the market." Bonnie said honestly.

"You know this house?"

"An old friend I knew lived here. Way back," Bonnie waved a hand, scrunching her nose.

"Oh. Well, it's really a great find. Should we skip?" Caroline asked though she was fishing out the keys for it.

Bonnie closed her eyes, considering saying yes, and immediately retreating to the car.

If she were smarter, or less curious, she would have said they should just move on to the next choice. As it was, she was incredibly interested in what lay inside and how similar or different it was.

"Naw, let's go in."

As they walked through, Bonnie couldn't help but feel like she was walking between two worlds; that of her own and the prison one. A lot has changed in the years since 2018. The kitchen was pretty much gutted and remodeled, there indeed was a new addition to the top, the garden outside was nicer, and the basement was halfway finished.

Caroline gushed over the crown molding and the original wood floors and ooh'd at the soaker tub in the master bedroom. Bonnie was silent, making a mental tally of the changes as well as trying to come up with a reason why, under no circumstance, this was the house for her.

The stupid thing was, though? That wasn't entirely true.

When she'd been looking for a place to lock Kai up, she had very much been thinking of what she would need in a house. She, as in a magical witch being. The needs of a vampire or warlock weren't too removed, so the house in 2018 had ticked all her own boxes. And this one, albeit a newer version, still did.

"Just went on the market three days ago," Caroline told her as she flipped through her notes, "This one won't stay long."

Damn the timing. Damn the coincidences. Damn it all.

Bonnie leaned against a threshold to the master room, sighing hard.

"It's perfect," She muttered sourly.

"Turn that smile upside down! Is this the house?" Caroline gushed, running her fingers along the walls, "I can just imagine you here! The pictures on the wall, a potion brewing in the kitchen...the basement is a perfect place for a potion lab!"

"I know," Bonnie said. She did. She'd realized that when she'd found the house in the Prison World.

She placed a hand to her stomach. Though they were no bigger than peanuts, she was more accustomed to their magical signatures, after Kai had pointed it out. She knew that they were telling her things all the time, little signals and such.

And they really were vibing with this house.

Of course, they were...they were conceived here, practically, in the present but also in the past. Prison Worlds really mucked up the idea of a continuous timeline, didn't it?

"They like it too."

Caroline turned her head for a pause, laughing, "You can tell? This early?"

Bonnie gave a slightly embarrassed shrug. Did Caroline think she was crazy?

"I guess you would be able to," Caroline said after a second, "I mean, I can hear their heartbeats but no doubt they're magical. That must be so weird." She'd been carrying two magical babies herself, but hadn't been able to connect with them the same. Not how Bonnie could. Bonnie wondered now if it was due to blood or her full vampire status? It was rude to inquire, not unless Caroline offered something for her to research, some small thread.

Either way.

"Sort of." Bonnie didn't really feel like running through exactly how weird it was to be connected to these two little strings all the time, always in the back of her head. She decided to stray away, before it went farther down the rabbit hole than she wanted anyone poking. Like…the question she was just anxiously and fearfully waiting…could she feel the father on the other side of a string?

"So!" She forced a bright smile, hoping to distract Caroline, "Where do I sign?"

Caroline stared at her for a few seconds, then let out a squeal that was entirely inhuman. She jumped up and down, clapping her hands.

"Oh, Bonnie, I knew you'd love it! It's perfect, isn't it?" She gushed, "Oh, my heart," She sniffled, patting her un-beating chest.

"Yeah, yeah," Bonnie said, glad she was pleased, "I guess, well, gotta put down roots somewhere, right?"

Suddenly, Caroline took a sharp intake of breath, "Oh, Bonnie," She crooned.

"What?"

"You're going to have your kids grow up here. We're all growing up, aren't we?" She whispered quietly, staring at her friend with a bittersweet smile, "We're a far cry from those little kids that were around when Damon and Stefan moved in, huh?"

"Well, to be frank, you're still technically that little girl," Bonnie said, letting out a teasing grin.

Caroline paused, as though she'd actually forgotten she'd died at such a young age, and then the next thing that happened was she let out a long laugh.

And it was all good.

So very good.

XX

Bonnie kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.

For the papers for the house to magically catch on fire.

For a meteorite to slam through the house.

For a pack of sea monsters to rise up from underneath the basement and swallow it whole.

Yes, it was the same house Kai was in time and space and leaps and bounds away, but it was pretty different, all things considered.

And it seemed unbelievable to her that maybe, just maybe, she'd get to be happy…

So much had happened it seemed like she was being followed by a black cloud of darkness and despair, like most of her friends. But Caroline learned to lasso that black cloud for her own and Elena seemed to always find the sunshine on the other end. But Bonnie hadn't. It felt like whenever tragedy came her way, it would stay within her for years, eating her up.

She'd expected this whole thing to be a tragedy too. Forced to have a kid with a psychopath didn't sound like her idea of a great time or a new adventure. However, Kai was sort of reformed or at least behaving at his best. He hadn't tried to kill her. She was an expectant mother and was more excited than she would have thought. She'd just bought her first house.

It seemed utterly normal.

Had magic...shockingly...done her a solid here? Had it seen she was lonely and decided this was the fix? Possibly, had the universe turned the tide to her favor? Was that possible?

She decided to think so.

She couldn't live her whole life waiting for some unseen horror to drop.

There hadn't been any magical mishaps for years. Everyone was settling in. Kids were being born and growing up. People were forgetting those weird six or so years in Mystic Falls that came and went like a season's change.

Maybe nothing horrible was coming. Maybe, Bonnie considered as she signed a mountain of paperwork for the house, her fingers twirling around the ring that Kai had given her to get access to all his things, maybe the world was giving her a very elaborate 'I'm really sorry.'

She'd take it.

Yeah, Bonnie would accept that.

XX

"Where's this going?" Jeremy asked, hefting a set of cabinets through the house.

"Kiddie bedroom. The one painted pastel yellow," Bonnie directed. Yellow; a safe, neutral color. Not even in the gendered sense. Just in…every since. Colors held magic too, and she sure as heck didn't want to set off a magical temper tantrum by painting the walls the color of a long-forgotten rage spell. In all her research, yellow had turned up to be utterly calming and welcoming.

"What, that one's not yours?" Jeremy teased, "So grown up now, aren't we."

"You're younger than me," Bonnie reminded, nudging him along.

"I know, I know. It's just weird, isn't it?"

"Not really, Jer. People grow up. They have kids. Life moves on," Elena said, coming in behind him with a box of her kitchenware.

"Usually there's a marriage in there-ow!" Jeremy yelped as Elena kicked his shin.

"It's the twenty-first century, Gilbert," Damon snorted, "No one has to be with anyone anymore to raise a kid. You think that our resident witch is gonna be anything but a more-than-capable mom?" He asked, winking at Bonnie.

"It wasn't that, I just…" Jeremy sighed, "You really have never tried finding the dad? I mean, between us, we could-,"

"No," Bonnie sighed for the umpteenth time. She knew why people were bothered by this. Though Damon was right, there was still a pretty big stigma about unwed moms and such. And sure, if it actually had been a bar hookup, they probably could find him, "I like my life. I like the house I just bought. I don't need to complicate it any more." Bonnie said to him, picking each of her words very carefully.

Jeremy pulled a face, but gave a nod, "I just...twins? It's going to be twice as hard. I just don't want you getting overwhelmed is all." He mumbled.

"We'll be around to help until Bonnie is begging us to leave," Caroline said, which Bonnie knew was likely true, "The girls are so excited for their nieces or nephews that you're never getting them out of this house! Besides, we're all the family Bonnie needs."

In that, she was right.

To Bonnie, it seemed like the entire town had shown up to help her move in. It wasn't really, but it was a decent-sized number of people; Caroline, Elena, Damon, Jeremy, Alaric, Matt, and even Lucy had come up after Caroline had rung her. Everyone was carting boxes into the house and very much not letting Bonnie touch any of them, despite the fact she was hardly pregnant right now.

"I know, I know. I just...I think…" Jeremy chewed on his lip, "I think I'd wanna know. That I was a dad."

Elena gagged, "Do not tell me you have a kid out there with a one-night stand."

"I might, but how would I know if they never reached out? Maybe the dad's not a bad guy. Maybe he wanted to know his kids. It doesn't mean everything changes." Jeremey said, "And that's my last bit. I'll shut up now."

Bonnie pressed a hand to her stomach, metaphorically tugging on her children's magical signatures, and by extension, Kai's.

The weird thing was that he did want to know his kids. Genuinely. Which was a total shock to Bonnie. But how would that even work? No, it was better to pretend he was just some guy at a bar, not make it complicated.

"What if he's a total goon or an idiot or a creep?" Caroline countered, which made all of Bonnie's warm fuzzy thoughts vanish. Because, well, Kai was. Caroline had hit the nail on the head.

"I guess," Jeremy shrugged, "So, kid's room?"

"Yeah, let me come up and show you which wall," Bonnie said.

As she was walking up the stairs, she saw a shadow out of the corner of her eye. One that looked like the same build as Kai. She spun, but nothing was there.

"Uh, Bon?" Jeremy asked.

"Nothing, I…" She blinked, "I was just trying to decide if that wall would look better with wallpaper or paint."

"Wallpaper is my vote. Shall we?"

Bonnie grasped the banister inhaling, "Yeah, yeah. Right behind you."

XX

She decided that being pregnant was playing mind games on her. She'd heard of pregnancy fuzz brain before. Caroline had warned her heavily about it; despite being a vampire, she'd still been a pregnant vampire and apparently, she had been bothered with the usual symptoms of pregnancy.

"Oh, Bon! I would walk into a room and absolutely forget why I was walking in there. And I'd heard that going back through the threshold would remind you of a thought you lost, but I'd do it eight times before realizing I just looked like an idiot pacing between two rooms. And I never would regain that thought." Caroline reminisced as she helped Bonnie put things away.

With her super-strength, it was a huge help. She also was not letting Bonnie lift anything heavier than textbooks, much to her annoyance, but she was more grateful for her help than she wasn't.

She'd seen a shadow of Kai more than once today. Always just a shadow, like the story of Peter Pan's shadow unattached to him, she was almost sure Kai was slinking along the walls of her house.

If, of course, that wasn't an absolutely bat-shit crazy idea.

Damon had noticed it too.

"Earth to Bonnie? What's so interesting with that doorway?" He'd asked after she'd gone running after a shadow and found nothing.

"Sorry. I just…something was there. Maybe a bug. I do hate spiders," She said, frowning. It was true. She really hated them.

"Ohhhkaaay. Elena!" Damon went off. Surely to say that Bonnie was insane.

But it was Caroline who had come to help her. She'd suggested that everyone leave and they'd pick up moving boxes tomorrow. They'd all had a long day.

Caroline had also been more than understanding. She'd been the one to remind her of the brain fuzz.

Yes, yes, that seemed reasonable. She had morning sickness. She had weird cravings. She did have a sort of glow on her skin (her face was blemish-free, and this had never happened). So why shouldn't she also be a little kooky, like a normal, average pregnant person?

She wished desperately it was this. It had to be this.

"Yeah, I guess I'm just seeing things that aren't there," Bonnie said, rubbing a really soft rabbit toy that Alaric had sent over, one of two oversized stuffed gifts.

"That's probably normal too," Caroline shrugged, "You can get away with saying the wildest things and people will just let it go. Near the end of my pregnancy, I just started seeing what I could get away with." She teased.

"Like what?"

"Oh, like I'd go to a vet's office and make an appointment for a non-existent dog and pretend to forget it. And they'd look at me like I was a weirdo until I revealed I was pregnant, and then they'd just laugh. One person once told me they'd forgotten their kid in an Arby's because of a pregnancy brain. I mean, that seems insane, but it just goes to show…you basically have a golden ticket of 'I can get off scot-free' for nine months."

"Huh," Bonnie snorted, "I dunno. I think I'd just like to be treated normally."

"You say that now," Caroline waggled a finger, "But when you're 8 months pregnant with twins, which is like…the equivalent of two million months pregnant, you'll be far more willing to do things you never would have done before." For a second, she looked like she knew she was going to regret saying something but was going to say it anyway.

But she still did and Bonnie knew before she even opened her mouth.

"Don't," Bonnie said darkly.

"I just…Jer was right. Twins? No father? At least I had Alaric. We weren't even romantic, but he was someone who was invested and there and cared about them, and by extension, cared about me."

"I don't care to find out." Bonnie stood, pressing her temple, "Weren't…didn't you defend me earlier?" She asked.

"I did because it's not fair for everyone to gang up. And I don't want to put you in a peer pressure situation. But everyone wonders about it. And I just wonder why you don't worry about it more."

"I'm not an invalid, Care."

"I never said you were."

There was a long, tense moment.

Caroline sighed, grabbing her coat. She wearily approached Boonie, kissing her forehead.

"We all just love you so much, Bon." She whispered, "And we will follow you to the end of the earth for these kids. But Elena was also right. People grow up. They make family units. It's different."

"And I don't have one," Bonnie interjected angrily.

Caroline just shook her head, "We just worry about you, and them. Two magical kids. It's not like…normal kids."

"I think it's time for you to go."

Caroline didn't disagree. She'd sensed she was choosing a topic that may get her booted. "I'll be back over tomorrow. Sleep tight."

Bonnie didn't reply, just watched her go with a worried sense oozing over her. If they tugged on this hard enough…they'd all find out, wouldn't they? And then, it would be worse…she'd have no one to help her.

She was glad they made it a priority to get her bed assembled because if she had to go to sleep on an air mattress, that might have just made a shitty situation all the more terrible.

There was really only one location in the master a bed could reasonably go, so it was, unfortunately, the same place the bed in Kai's world was.

So that was on her mind.

And she told herself that this is all that it was; all it was so she was thinking about that because as she started drifting to bed, she felt something.

A warm breath on the back of her neck. Hands resting gently on her waist. A male body pressed innocently against her - as normal couples did as they went to sleep together. The scent of sandalwood. And, finally, a faintly whispered voice.

"Nighty-night, Bonster."