Damon made his way back downstairs and to the Kitchen where he could hear Stefan rumbling around. "What's for dinner, I'm starved?" Damon asked as he settled on a stool at the island in the middle of the room.

"Just got a fresh batch of O Neg," Stefan replied as he lifted the glass full of blood up a bit in his hand.

"My fave," Damon said with a smile as he took the glass that Stefan held out to him, and greedily gulped it all down quickly.

"Don't have much of anything else in the fridge Lexi and I don't bother eating much food. We'll have to order something in case Bonnie gets hungry in the middle of the night and I'll go shopping tomorrow," Stefan said and Damon nodded in agreement. "How's Bonnie doing, you get her settled in ok?"

"Yeah, she's taking a hot bath. I took her a nightgown from yours and Lexi's bedroom, hope that's ok?"

"Yeah, I'm sure Lexi won't mind."

"Thanks, I'll take Bonnie to buy some things tomorrow, so, you and Lexi, huh?"

"Yeah, didn't quite work out in our last life, but here it's like we've been given a second chance, you know?" Damon nodded his understanding as it was the very thing that he had been thinking of himself. "I decided that this time around I'm going to live life and love life to the fullest."

"That's a good idea, little brother. I think I'm going to do the same," Damon smiled brightly at his brother who watched him with a curious look on his face. Damon then tossed Stefan a quick wink as he stood and walked back out the way he had come.


Bonnie hadn't soaked long in the bath simply because it hadn't relaxed her as she had hoped it would. So, she quickly bathed and got out. She stood a moment looking at herself in the full-length mirror attached to the bathroom door. It had been nearly 60 years since she could recall her body being so firm and supple. She stood for another moment poking and squeezing at the flesh on her 22-year-old body. With a large towel wrapped around her, she finally made her way back into the bedroom as she contemplating what she would wear, deciding on just putting back on her panties and bra. It was then that she noticed the nightgown lying on the bed. Bonnie smiled slightly and silently thanked Damon for his thoughtfulness as she slipped the silky black fabric over her petite frame. Just as the gown settled over her body a knock came to the door that adjoined her bedroom to Damon's. Bonnie moved to the door, unlocked it, and swiftly pulled it open. At seeing Damon standing on the other side his black buttoned shirt undone and exposing his chiseled physique, Bonnie had to stop herself from gawking as she forced her eye to lock onto his as she smiled up at him. That smile soon faded as she noticed the serious look on his face.

"Damon, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I was…" His words faltered as he shifted his eyes from Bonnie's face down across her small voluptuous frame before they settled to lock onto her perfectly painted pretty toes. "I was just talking to Stefan about second chances. What he said was pretty much the same things you said earlier, you know, about getting another chance to find love?" He looked back up into her eyes and although they furrowed a bit in confusion she nodded her understanding, recalling her words. "I want to do that. I want to finally have the love that I've been longing for, for nearly 70 years," He added and Bonnie genuinely became confused by his words.

"Damon, what are you talking about? 70 years? Wait…but Elena…"

"Elena was my wife and I loved her, I did and we had a good life, we were very happy, but…"

"But what? You two had the perfect love, perfect life," Bonnie stated. "God, I used to envy Elena so much because I wanted what she had with you."

"Yeah, well I wanted that too, I wanted it to be you instead of Elena," Damon admitted as his words yanked a gasp from Bonnie and she stumbled back a step as she raised her hand to clutch at her chest. She then turned from the opened door and hurriedly moved to the other side of her bedroom, as if intending to hide away in the bathroom. "Please, BB, please don't run, please let me get this out. I've held this in for so long already," At his pleading Bonnie stopped and slowly turned her shocked eyes back upon her best friend. "I never told you how I felt because I didn't want to hurt you any more than I already had. I had left you because I wanted to protect you, but I only ended up hurting you. When I came back I realized how much you loved Enzo, after everything you'd lost, all the sacrifices you'd made for all of us, I decided then that you more than any of us deserved to be happy. So I never told you how I truly felt about you, that I had fallen in love with you."

"I don't understand, you loved me even back then?" Bonnie questioned.

"I 'love' you, then and now," Damon corrected her.

"When?"

"When did I fall in love with you?" Damon finished her question and Bonnie nodded her head. Damon entered her bedroom closing the adjoining door behind him. He then moved to where Bonnie stood close to the foot of the bed as she watched his every move cautiously. "I started to notice that my feelings towards you were beginning to change during our months in Kai's prison world, but that went both ways, so no big surprise," His words garnered another nod from Bonnie. "But when I returned home without you I realized then how important you had become to me. Elena had even noticed and made a comment about my feelings for you, but I excused it away easily with some nonsense. Then, after losing Elena to Kai's spell my fledgling feelings for you were pushed to the back burner because of the guilt I felt over Elena. I didn't choose her and I couldn't choose her because it would have meant losing you forever," A single tear slid slowly down Bonnie's cheek as she stood staring at him stunned. She didn't even flinch when Damon reach down and wiped away the tear. "There were so many moments when I fell in love with you Bonnie Bennett, it wasn't…isn't just one moment. Once I sat and recalled all of them up until that point, every single one and I started falling for you from the second I laid eyes on you," He said with a smirk as he used the hand that had wiped at her tears to grasp one of her hands and lift it a bit while he stared at it and rubbed his thumb across her silky soft skin. "I've wanted to tell you so many times but things always got in the way; your grief for Enzo, Elena's happiness, my stroke and then death. It was never the right time and then I ran out of time. But now I have a second chance and I'm not going to waste it," At that moment Bonnie realized how close Damon had gotten into her space; his one hand still held her hand while the other hand gripped her gently about her waist. His head bowed so low his mouth was mere inches from hers.

"Damon," Bonnie pressed her free hand against his chest as she spoke in a whisper even though they were alone in the room.

"Don't waste your breath Bon-Bon," Damon interjected not allowing her to push him away. "I'm not going to let you try to 'talk me down' from this and I'm not going to let you deny that you also have feelings for me. I know you do. I've known how you felt since my 45th birthday party and that kiss you gave me in the kitchen."

"I had a little too much to drink that night and you know it," Bonnie defended but the slight outrage that filtered in her voice didn't quite reach her eyes.

"No, that's the excuse you've been trying to convince yourself of because the truth was too difficult for you to admit. You would have had to admit that you wanted to be with your best friend's husband. I think a part of you knew how I felt even back then, and you knew that if you had let me know of your feelings I would have left Elena for you. You were right, I would have," Bonnie closed her eyes as she shook her head not to deny his words but to shake off the feelings his word invoked in her. Then she opened her eyes and looked into Damon's head on.

"But you're standing here now saying that you already knew…knew that I loved you when I kissed you, so why…" She stopped her words and bit down on her bottom lip to keep the words from falling out.

"Why didn't I just grab your hand and run out the back door never to be seen again?" He asked and although she didn't dare speak or nod her head her silence told of her need to know. "Because you weren't ready to admit the truth, you're still not ready, and until you admit how you really feel about me, you'll keep trying to run from me, from us, from this," He released her hand and cupped her face as he swooped in and captured Bonnie's warm, soft lips with his own. The kiss lasted for only a few seconds but it left them both panting and wanting more as they stood with eyes closed, foreheads pressed together, and their mouths slightly open. "And the happiness we can finally have together. I swear we can be so happy Bon. Let me show you, let me love you," Damon words were now low and seductive and Bonnie found herself swooning a bit and if it weren't for Damon's arm wrapped more securely around her waist she probably would have slinked down to the floor. He captured her mouth again with his, his hands unabashedly groped at her silk covered body as he moved them backward until Bonnie toppled back upon the bed with him falling lightly atop her.

Any words of protest left Bonnie's lips as they sucked hard at Damon's. And thoughts of guilt or thoughts of Elena and even Enzo were pushed aside by her thoughts of how good it felt to have Damon's body against her, and the thoughts of how it will feel to have him inside of her. Her body did not disagree with Damon's manipulative touches but it welcomed them and participated with gyrating movements that invoked growls from Damon's chest. Both Bonnie and Damon internally sighed as their minds filled with a single thought of 'finally'. She spread her legs open to Damon and lifted one to give him freer reign and he traced his hands and fingers up her leg and then thigh, pushing away the gown that covered them. The moment was perfect and a moment they both felt had been long overdue. It was a firm knocking at Bonnie's bedroom door that allowed the outside world to come crashing back down on them, and although Damon fully intended to ignore whoever was on the other side of the door, he could tell by the way Bonnie pushed at him that she wouldn't. The spell they had been under was now broken and Damon knew it was a moment and mood they would not get back at this time, and so he lifted off of Bonnie and flashed to the bedroom door swinging it open with a ferocity that showed his irritation. He hadn't even realized that his face held his vampiric guise and deadly leer as he stared at the person standing across the threshold.

"Sorry Damon, I was sure this was Bonnie's room," Lexi said as she lifted her finger and tapped at her nose to indicate she could smell Bonnie inside. All while she appreciatively raked her eyes over Damon's muscular chest.

"It is," Bonnie spoke out as she appeared, ducking under Damon's arm where he stood gripping the door frame. She gently elbowed Damon who snarled his unhappiness at the interruption and then turned from the door, moved back to the bed, where he dramatically flopped back upon. "Hi Lexi, it's nice to see you again … Alive," Bonnie greeted with a smile.

"You too, though technically we're both dead now, and least in the old Mystic Falls. Ugh, it still confuses me. Anyway, when I returned home," At those words, Bonnie arched an inquisitive brow. "A story for another time," Lexi giggled out and Bonnie's smile widened as she nodded in agreement. "Stefan mentioned that you arrived with just the clothes on your back so I thought I'd give you a few…more things," Lexi said as she took in what Bonnie was currently wearing. "To tide you over," She then handed Bonnie a bundle of clean, neatly folded clothes.

"Thank you and I'll make sure to return everything as soon as I figure out how I'm going to buy myself some things," Bonnie said as she frowned up a bit. "40 years at my last job with an excellent pension, now it looks like I'll be starting all over again."

"Don't worry about it Bon I got you covered. I'm filthy rich here too remember?" Damon offered from his position sprawled out on the bed. "I'll take you shopping tomorrow."

"Thanks, and I'll pay you both back as soon as I find a job," Bonnie replied with determination in her voice.

"Don't worry about it I've got plenty of clothes for us both," Lexi said as she waved her hand dismissively. "Well, I'll let you two get back to whatever it was that I interrupted," She added as she arched her brow questioningly.

"One of those stories for another time," Bonnie tossed out with a giggle.

"Right, goodnight," Lexi's words got an immediate and very loud growl from Damon, which made her giggle and Bonnie rolled her eyes.

"Goodnight Lexi," Bonnie called out after the petite blonde who was already making her way back down the corridor. She then closed the door and turned back to Damon with an irked look which disappeared when she found him lying with his arm across his eyes. "You know, as I recall you had gotten a lot mellower and less rude in your golden years."

"Yeah, well now I'm back to the 25-year-old vampire me, who wasn't particularly nice to many, present company excluded of course," He added quickly.

"Of course," She repeated his words as she moved to the nearby bureau, opened a top drawer and placed the close inside before closing it again and then turning back to a pouting Damon Salvatore.

"And I had a lot less patience, especially for cock blockers," He grumbled out as he sat up more and rested his upper body on his elbows. He watched Bonnie as she made a slow trek back to the bed, letting his eyes honed onto the delicious sway of her hips. "There's probably no chance we'll pick things up where they left off is there? You're going to give me some speech about how we shouldn't do it even though there's no one in this world to stop us."

"Yes, we could pick things back up where we left them, and no I have no speeches to give you," Her words had Damon shifting up into a sitting position as he eyeballed her skeptically waiting for the but he knew was coming, and Bonnie didn't disappoint him. "But although I will now freely admit that I have feelings for you Damon, feelings deeper than just being best friends and family, I'm still in love with Enzo," He opened his mouth to protest but she silenced him by raising her hand and shaking her head a bit. "It would be easier if I had spent a lifetime with him like you did with Elena. It would be easier if he wasn't here in this world, in human form just the way that he and I…" She closed her mind on that thought. "I've spent most of my life pining for him, looking forward to the day we would be together again. Now I know that it's never going to happen. It's going to take me some time to move on from him," Damon nodded at her words letting her know that he would give her some time, but knowing Damon as well as she did she knew that wouldn't stop him from trying to seduce her every chance he could. He stood from the bed, moved to her, dipped his head, and placed a quick peck on her lips before moving back to the adjoining bedroom door. He stopped and looked over his shoulder at her.

"I'll give you as much time as you want BB, just know that I won't let Enzo…not his ghost nor the human version in this world come between us. In this world, this lifetime we are going to be together," He said in a commanding tone and his words made Bonnie giddy and she felt very special having that kind of attention from Damon.

"Whether I like it or not, huh?" She asked in a teasing tone and a saucy smile crept across Damon's face.

"Don't worry Bon-Bon, you're going to love every second of it, I promise," With that said he reentered his room closing the door behind him. "You probably should lock that, in case I change my mind about waiting," Bonnie heard Damon call out through the door. She took a couple of hurried steps towards the door with the intention of locking it but then stopped, turned and made her way to the oversized bed, and climbed onto it. She made up her mind then and there that she wanted Damon and if he wanted to come into her room to ravage her in the middle of the night she'd let him and reciprocate in kind. She knew she loved Damon but the love she also held in her heart for Enzo was stronger and she didn't yet know how to be free of it, but she knew that she would try. She truly wanted to see where this thing with Damon would and could go.