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Chapter 7

paved with good intentions

Perhaps that's what all human relationships boil down to:
Would you save my life? or would you take it?
―Toni Morrison

Bonnie missed her car. The walk into town had seemed like a good idea when she started out, but a dozen steps past the front gate regret overtook her. If she was in shorts and sneakers it might not have been so bad, but she wasn't. Instead, she walked in leather boots, stockings, and three layers of skirts that she wanted to set on fire. The only thing that kept her moving was the thought of what awaited her at the mansion if she turned back. She'd left Katherine and Emily with the Zhus, after she had told them all exactly what Rachel had revealed to her yesterday. The news of the council's plans and Jonathan Gilbert's newly operational device had shocked even Katherine from her languor. She'd begun to dig through her luggage, searching for something and muttering about contingency plans.

But Katherine had still refused to leave Mystic Falls. Even Pearl seemed reluctant, eyeing her daughter as if the girl really cared whether they stayed or moved on. Pearl had developed on her own plan. She would stop her idle flirting with the Gilbert inventor and take action. She planned to steal the compass to prevent herself and the other vampires from being discovered.

"You should destroy it. Don't just steal it." Bonnie's own words had shocked her. Last night, she'd reaffirmed her promise to herself, that she wouldn't intervene in major events. She'd even given up her plans of matchmaking George Lockwood and Rachel Fell. After all, what if Rachel Fell was supposed to end up with Alexander Forbes and she doomed the entire Forbes line down to Caroline with her meddling?

Recounting Rachel Fells' words to the vampires, she had reasoned to herself, was not a major intervention. For one, she knew from 2010 that both women had been warned before the round-up began. Afterall, Pearl had stolen the Gilbert device and Katherine had escaped the tomb, so they must have known. Bonnie wasn't planning on adding any of her knowledge of the future to any plans they came up with. She wouldn't warn Katherine about Giuseppe Salvatore spiking Stefan's blood, and she wouldn't describe the compass to Pearl so she would swipe the right one.

Those words of advice had slipped out though, despite Bonnie's resolution. Bonnie knew that Pearl would be taking the device, not the compass. Pearl would still be revealed and would still be imprisoned in the tomb. Destroying the device wouldn't change anything until the 21st century. If she had destroyed the device, and had nothing to hand over to Damon, there would be no device for Bonnie to lie about de-spelling. They would have to deal with the tomb vampires themselves, with no faceless deputies to round the convulsing vampires up for them, but Bonnie was confident in Damon's fighting skills and her own powers. She didn't need a mass torture tool that would affect all of them. They could be more discerning. Bonnie thought guiltily of Harper, who always made sure she felt included at supernatural and mundane gatherings, and Cordelia, who actually did go out to the battlefield to feed because she didn't want to kill innocents. Caroline wasn't the only person who had suffered from her inaction.

But Pearl had shaken her head. "If humans have discovered a way to reveal us, even with our daylight rings, we need to find out what this science is. If we cannot counter it, we need to understand it." Bonnie had opened her mouth to protest but caught sight of Emily at the edge of the room.

"Just think about it." Bonnie said and didn't press the issue further. She couldn't betray her ancestor by telling them the truth, that Jonathan Gilbert's devices ran on magic, and not science. The past would stay the past, and Bonnie would live knowing that she'd killed twenty-seven people.

So Bonnie didn't want to go back to their planning, because watching them forced her to feel the guilt for her actions in the future, compounded with her guilt for not doing all she could prevent the foundations for them being laid here. She'd seized the opportunity to leave and head to town on her own small assignment.

The dull drudgery of her walk was broken by the sight of a figure on horseback galloping towards her. The fact that Bonnie was excited just by the sight of another person highlighted how boring the past was. Scary and harrowing, yes, but also boring. She didn't have school, or cheer practice, or hours of wasted time on YouTube. The lack of electric lighting limited reading to the daytime, and Bonnie had long grown tired of pricking her fingers with her attempts at sewing. Meeting another person could be the day's highpoint, especially someone new. It could also be a significant low point, if they hadn't come in contact with anti-racism compulsion yet, but Bonnie wasn't trying to dwell on the negatives here.

As they got closer, Bonnie recognized the horse and her rider. Damon's wide smile at the sight of her dispelled any chance of disappointment rising within her at the sight of such a familiar face.

"Bonnie! On you way to town?" He asked as he swung off his horse.

"Yes, but I think you were going the opposite way." She answered as he fell into step beside her, leading Amber along with her head between them.

"I was. But you can hardly blame me for turning around when I have the chance to keep you company."

"I'll try not to, but don't you have anything you're meant to be doing?"

"The only thing waiting for me at home is my father's disappointed face, whether I make it there in ten minutes or ten hours. Don't subject me to that so soon."

"You're ridiculous."

"Ridiculously handsome you mean. I can't disagree. I've been blessed." Bonnie laughed. He came by his vanity honestly at least.

"Yes, thank you for deigning to even be seen in my presence as I run my lowly errands." Damon waved away her mock curtsy, like she shouldn't even think of his many sacrifices.

"And what lowly errands would those be? Picking up a new dress? Katherine's second wardrobe didn't provide a frilly enough concoction for the esteemed George Lockwood's date?"

"Don't be mean, you two are friends—"

"Hardly." Damon snorted, but Bonnie ignored him.

"But no new dresses for me. Just picking up some things."

"Things? How intriguingly vague. Now I have to come along. It's my duty as Stefan's brother to watch out for those he deems suspicious characters."

"Ah, but you coming with me is just giving me more credibility. The town won't even know the danger they have in their midst."

"Yes…this town is singularly ignorant of dangers in their midst."

"Subtle."

"I try, Bonnie. So where to first?"

Bonnie led him through the street to her destination. The main town square looked eerily similar to how it would in a century, and Bonnie couldn't help the double take at the bustling apothecary housed in the same building as Dr. Grayson's now-burnt-out abandoned practice. But that wasn't where they were heading. On the next block over, standing tall in the place of the Mystic Grill, was the town's general store. Owned and operated by the Smallwoods, some odd down-on-their-luck offshoot of the Lockwoods, the store acted as a town center. Everyone went there for everything, and an enterprising Smallwood had converted a quarter of the store into a tea shop. Society matrons and servants could sip on tea all day, gathering gossip to report back to their households.

The store also sold the newly-appeared vervain tincture.

Damon looked disappointed that she wasn't heading somewhere more exciting, but Bonnie doubted there was anything in Mystic Falls that would actually fall under that category. Considering the Mystic Grill acted as the social spot for townspeople aged five to ninety in a hundred years, that was something that would never change.

Bonnie made her way to the shelves lined with the tincture. They were still well stocked despite the concoction being sold at a steeply discounted price. Palming a bottle, she considered it. Buying it wouldn't actually show that much. Pearl handled the bottles everyday when she sold them in the apothecary. Bonnie needed to really dispel any rumors. With a shrug, Bonnie cracked the wax seal and took a deep swig. It tasted vile, a mix of alcohol and herbs, but Bonnie made sure not to even let a single eye twitch escape.

"Looks delicious." Damon snarked, so she might not have hidden her distaste as well as she would have liked. Still, the eyes on them belonged to others who had tasted the tincture; they would know exactly how bad it tasted.

Damon looked amused, like he was watching a ten year old regret taking a sip of her mother's wine. Bonnie narrowed her eyes, both at his amusement and at the titters coming from the society types nearby. She could see one woman she thought was Jonathan Gilbert's sister, sitting with Honoria Fell's main rival for top societal matriarch: Beatrice Maxwell. The latter was glaring at Damon. Did she suspect him as a vampire?

Bonnie thrust the bottle at him. "Well, why don't you see how you like it?"

He gamely took the bottle and took a sip for himself. Damon licked the rim of the bottle as he pulled it away, erasing the overlapping prints left by their lips. He winked, and Bonnie's stomach flipped.

"Drinking straight from the bottle and sharing with a man. Now, Miss McCullough, what would your mother say?"

"Probably that I could have picked a better man."

"Oh, you wound me Bonnie. And here I was going to the gentlemanly thing and pay for your medicine."

"Don't let me keep you from performing your one good act of the day. Besides, you took a dose too. It's as much your medicine as mine." She answered.

"So it was all a ploy to get me to pay? What a spendthrift you are. Now I know you're after my father's heart and not my own. You can count your pinched pennies together every night while I stand out in the cold."

"I doubt you'll have many cold nights, Damon. You're much too charming. Now hand over the tincture or I really will make you pay for it." Actually, she would be putting it on Katherine's tab which, now that she thought about it, probably came from the Salvatores anyway.

"Ah, ah, ah." He said, holding it out of her reach. "If you make me do it, it hardly counts as a good deed. Why don't you grab a seat? I'll order us a pot while we're here. I'll be right back." He loped off, bottle in hand, towards the front counter.

Bonnie sat at a table. The steaming pot of tea arrived before Damon did. The tea was still steeping, and Bonnie had to interlace her fingers to prevent her hand from reaching out and checking it's progress every thirty seconds. She peeked over her shoulder. Damon, it seemed, had been caught up in conversation with a young man in a bowler hat. Damon glanced over to her and their eyes met. He smiled, and Bonnie saw the other man's eyes turn towards her as well. She quickly faced forward again, but her ears strained to hear their conversation across the shop. A much closer conversation caught her attention first.

"Absolutely shameless, it's disgusting." That was Mrs. Maxwell.

"They have been particularly…blatant." And the Gilbert sister. Bonnie struggled to remember her name. Lara? Or was it Geraldine?

"And right under Giuseppe's nose. In his own house! Though I would guess the rot starts with him, considering that other boy of his."

"Stefan? Don't tell me he is caught up in this too!"

Bonnie almost smacked her own forehead. How oblivious could this woman be? Was Stefan caught up with Katherine? Yes, duh! Her moment of amused distraction cost her a few seconds of the women's conversation, but she tuned back in quickly as their voices gained more vehemence.

"—bad enough when it's contained to their quarters, but in such a public forum! Like some sort of respectable lady."

"It's just wrong. How can he bear it? It'd be like kissing an animal."

Bonnie's spine stiffened. She'd not given much thought to how humans thought of vampires, as she'd mostly been focusing on the opposite.

"Truly! Even that dress can't mask the truth; I can't imagine what the young Lockwood is thinking. What do you think, Bea? Does the McCullough tart more resemble an ox or an ape?"

Bonnie felt numb. The realization that they weren't speaking about Katherine sleeping with both Salvatore brothers washed over her. They were talking about her, and calling her an animal. Bonnie stood up, but had to grab the table to keep steady. Her head swam with dizziness. She tried to shake it off.

"Bonnie? Are you alright?" Damon had finally pulled himself away from whatever conversation had been keeping him, and was now looking down at her, concerned. The two women had stopped speaking, but didn't look chagrined in the least, even though it must have been obvious that Bonnie had overheard them.

A spike of anger shot through Bonnie's spine. At the women, and at the world that told them their beliefs were justified. She'd allowed herself to forget where she was, and who she was. She'd allowed the compulsion to lull her into some weird fantasy; where she could live in this world, with her skin, and it would let her.

"Bonnie? Was there something wrong with the tea?"

"Fuck the tea. We're leaving." Bonnie said. She pushed past him and headed for the door. She could hear him following behind, weaving through the shelves, but she didn't look back. Once she was outside the shop, she counted backwards from ten, trying to control both her anger and panic. What was she doing here? She had to get home.

She felt calmer and looked up from the cobbled pavement. Her eyes locked with Beatrice Maxwell's through the window. The woman smirked, looked away dismissively, and poured herself a fresh cup of tea. Bonnie continued watching, staring intently at the woman's cup. The old woman screamed when she took a sip of the suddenly boiling tea, and dropped the rest down the front of her blouse. Bonnie allowed one side of her mouth to quirk up in appreciation at the sight, before she turned back to Damon's anxious face.

"It's too hot for tea, and I'm done anyway. Let's get back."

"Right," Damon said, drawing out the first syllable, "I'll let this slide, but we're not going back. Follow me."

"What? Where are we going?"

"I'm cheering you up. Don't make me ruin the surprise!" He tossed over his shoulder as he walked away.

He led her down a narrow street jutting away from the square. Bonnie was pretty sure in 2010 her dentist was somewhere around here, but the buildings were unrecognizable. Damon stopped in front of a particularly shabby establishment.

"A bar? That's where you're taking me?"

"Always ready to think the worst of me, Bonnie. Yes, this is a bar; but no, we will not be going in." He knocked on the shuttered window Bonnie hadn't noticed, and it opened outwards.

"Gregory, good to see you're still in business. Two of the specials, if you could."

"That'll be three hundred." Damon nodded and lay down some bills, which Gregory quickly squirrelled away before closing the shutters again.

"Three hundred dollars for a couple of drinks? Isn't that a bit much?"

"I didn't bring you here for drinks Bonnie, I wouldn't subject you to that. No, you are about to taste the best secret in Mystic Falls."

"More like the most expensive secret."

"Expensive? Maybe compared to a few years ago, but the greybacks mean nothing now. That pot of tea you left behind was five hundred dollars alone."

Damon laughed at Bonnie's shocked face.

"Every time I think that Stefan might actually be right, you remind me of the impossibility with your complete ignorance." Bonnie's mouth snapped shut and she narrowed her eyes.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know, Stefan's little pet theory about you being an agent of espionage."

"I thought you were joking earlier! He really hasn't dropped that yet?"

"No, he mostly has, but every so often I learn something new about you that fits the mold."

"Such as?"

"You're intelligent, well-read, and a surprisingly good chess player."

"Is chess a crime?"

"No, but playing and winning against my father is enough for me to take note." Bonnie hadn't had a very hard time beating the Salvatore patriarch at the strategy game, but she'd attributed it more to him underestimating her than any skill on her part.

"But you also make friends easily, ensuring you have powerful allies in any situation," Which may have more to do with the compulsion than anything Bonnie did or said, "you're a fine horsewoman, and apparently, a skilled seductress."

"Wait what?" Bonnie interrupted. Damon had paused, anticipating that she would do so. "I'm not some kind of honeypot here to seduce your secrets from you!"

"Honeypot? I was only referring to your good looks and date-catching skills. Whatever, the point is this; even though you have a number of suspicious characteristics, you're too ignorant of basic knowledge to be an effective spy. You don't even know how much Confederate money is worth. Which right now, by the way, is practically nothing."

Gregory came back before she could argue further, slamming open the window and thrusting his hands forward. In each he held a cup made of layers of newspaper, coated in wax. The little dishes held something that Bonnie had missed desperately.

"Ice cream!" She snagged one of the cups and pushed the thin wooden spoon into the cold treat. It was delicious, ice cold, and creamy. Not exactly Ben and Jerrys, but sweet enough for Bonnie not to care. Bonnie ate another spoonful quickly, not willing to sacrifice any of the bowl to the heat.

Damon took his more slowly, and thanked Gregory before leading Bonnie away. She followed along mindlessly, enraptured with her ice cream.

"Do you like it?" Bonnie looked up from her dish, spoon halfway to her mouth. Damon had brought her back to the square and led her to a bench so they could sit. Bonnie took her waiting bite of ice cream and savored it before answering.

"Yes, I like it a lot. Thank you, Damon. Ice cream was definitely on my top ten list of things I missed from home."

"Well, tell me the rest of them, maybe I can find them here for you too." Bonnie thought of her Prius, the internet, and the sweet Thai chili wings she ordered by the dozen after cheer competitions.

"I don't think Mystic Falls has anything else on my list, but thanks for the offer."

"Come on, just one more." Damon wheedled. "Unless it's not a list of somethings, but of someones?"

Bonnie started guiltily. The list she'd unintentionally started compiling at his question had included modern comforts, some civil liberties, and a general sense of belonging, but she hadn't thought to add her friends and family to it. Was that because they were so important they didn't fit on her arbitrary list? Or was she becoming complacent in this time, happy with new friends and adventures? Bonnie shook herself. No, it was just too painful to think of her friends. She should linger on easy things, like Netflix, and not on Caroline, holding on for her life in her hospital bed.

"No, no people. Not that kind of list."

"You don't have family? Or a special…person in your life? A fiancé maybe?" Bonnie snorted, caught off guard. She'd been so focused on the guilt of forgetting her friends that she'd lost sight of Damon's goal in questioning her.

"Did George Lockwood put you up to this? Or Katherine? You can tell them both I'm unattached, and there's no family to whisk me back home anytime soon."

"But you want to? Go back, I mean." Bonnie's attempt at levity had failed; Damon's question was serious and his eyes intent. Bonnie looked back at her dish, half of which was now a white pool of melted cream.

"Yes. I want to go home. But I can't. Emily and I have been trying to figure out a way, but it's too dangerous." The two Bennetts had put their heads together to try and figure out a way to send Bonnie back, but the jump was just too big. Emily continued to be amazed Bonnie had arrived alive at all. They'd run through dozens of possible solutions and discarded just as many. Just before Bonnie had shared the news about the Gilbert device, Emily had mentioned the comet as a power source, but Bonnie knew she would need that for the tomb protection spell, so wasn't holding her breath.

"Well, maybe I can help. Once I'm a," He lowered his voice to a whisper and leaned in for the next word, "vampire, I'll be able to handle anything on the road that gets in your way no problem. You'll just have to stick around a little longer."

"Sure, you, me, and Katherine; travel buddies on the Great American Road Trip."

"Oh. Of course, Katherine would be good protection too." He agreed.

Bonnie mixed her melted ice cream miserably before answering.

"Doesn't matter, neither of you will make a difference. A road I could handle myself, but Emily thinks there's something here that I'm supposed to do first, and that I can't leave until I do that."

"Maybe she's right."

"No, this was all a big accident. I was never meant to be here in the first place, let alone fulfill some part for the greater universe."

"Just because you weren't meant to be doesn't mean you weren't needed." Damon said softly.

Bonnie stared, not sure she understood what he was saying.

"Damon, I—" She cut herself off, wanting to think more before she said anything else.

He read the indecision on her face, and his expression closed itself off.

"Right, well." He pushed back his hair, straightening the disorderly curls. He smiled at her, but it was empty of the laughter it had held just a few minutes ago. "You wanted to go back, I've distracted you enough." He took away their empty ice cream dishes before heading back towards the general store they'd started at. Amber, his horse, was still tied to the post they'd left her at.

Without a word he gave her a leg up. Bonnie expected him to swing into the saddle behind her, but he walked ahead of the horse, using the reins as a lead. A new barrier had been erected between them. Bonnie wasn't sure which of them had started building it, and she didn't know how to tear it down, but she wanted it gone. She already missed him and the way it was so easy to talk to him.

Bonnie caught the glares of Beatrice Maxwell and the Gilbert woman before she turned away. To Bonnie it felt like hours had passed since she'd left the store, but the two women were still inside, drinking their tea. Amber walked on, and Bonnie turned away.