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Chapter 20

no good deed

We are all brothers under the skin, and I, for one,
would be willing to skin humanity to prove it.
—Ayn Rand

Bonnie wandered through the Lockwood mansion with no real goal in mind. She'd said some empty platitudes to Tyler and his mom, passing on her father's condolences in his absence. Her father hadn't called her in at least a week before her trip through time, but he'd played tennis with the mayor a few times so a mention was expected. Carol Lockwood looked more furious than grief-stricken, and Bonnie tried to avoid her accusatory stare as it swept the room. Mayor Lockwood had helped set up the Device and following vampire sting, his death could hardly be laid at her feet.

Elena wasn't at the house yet, Caroline was still in the hospital, and Matt had pulled a double shift at the Grill, so Bonnie went from room to room, unsure exactly what she was supposed to be doing. She wanted to leave, had thought it'd be a quick trip to drop off some store-bought cookies that would be thrown out by the end of the day, but no one else was leaving, so she stayed.

The mansion was filled with her classmates , but Bonnie didn't feel like listening to fake happy stories about the mayor, or plotting out plans to help Tyler out of his grief with drugs or sex, so she avoided them all.

Bonnie rounded the corner, swerved to avoid a rather drunk looking Aimee Bradley, and ran straight into a hard chest instead. Two hands reached out to catch her in her stumble, but she steadied herself before they made contact with her shoulders.

"Whoa, there, slow down Bennett." Bonnie met the handsome stranger's eyes, a stranger who apparently knew her name. Her confusion must have shown on her face because he raised his hands and took a step back.

"Hey, don't call Stranger Danger on me, I've known you since you were knee-high. Guess I can't be surprised or hurt; Tyler barely recognized me and he's family." The man grinned down at her; his gap-toothed smile still as charming now as it was when she was twelve.

"Wait, Mason? Is that you?"

"Good to know I made an impression on you at least, I thought I was going to have to reintroduce myself to everyone here." He said jovially, despite his brother's recent death.

"No, you definitely made an impression on me. I had the biggest crush on you when I was a kid." Bonnie said, before making a face at herself. Why did she feel the need to share that?

"When I was at Whitmore? And you were in middle school? Wasn't Tyler more your speed?"

"Do you remember Tyler at twelve? The Axe and hair gel? No, thank you. Sixth grade Bonnie had more discerning tastes. It was absolutely Mrs. Mason Lockwood written in my journal." Bonnie joked. It was already out there, might as well roll with it before she went and buried herself in the plot next to Mayor Lockwood out of embarrassment.

"Discerning tastes, huh? And these didn't tell you I was bit too old for you?"

"What can I say? The follies of youth. Didn't know when a man was too old, or when he was lying about his car being sprayed by a skunk for a third time when he drove me and Tyler home from swim practice."

They both laughed, and Mason snagged two glasses as a server walked by. He took a quick sip of one before handing Bonnie the other.

"Just sparkling cider. I guess Carol is trying to be more careful with all of you high schoolers around." Bonnie rolled her eyes. If Carol Lockwood had made that resolution, it was a very new one. Bonnie'd had multiple alcoholic drinks offered to her today, and absolutely no one had asked for ID.

"So, what have you been up to, Mason? The last time Tyler said anything was…um…"

"When I dropped out of college? Yeah, that decision didn't make Richard super welcoming of me in his home. But it was for the best; we never really got along. It was as much on me as him. But I've been travelling a lot, up and down the east coast mainly."

"Trying to catch the perfect wave?" She offered. That might explain why he didn't have a single piece of dark or formal clothing to wear to this event. But maybe he hadn't expected the town to have descended onto the Lockwood home to witness their grief. Not that such an event was unexpected; Carol Lockwood had servers at the ready even when all of them were allegedly just dropping off casserole dishes.

"Yeah, I mean, I was. But I don't know, I've been thinking it might be time for me to choose somewhere and stay awhile, maybe actually put down some roots. Never been my speed before, but this whole thing with Richard has me rethinking a lot." He finished; eyes downcast. Bonnie reached out a hand in sympathy. She understood all to well how the death of a family member could throw your entire life into a new light.

The flash of panic, rage, and bloodlust that hit her when she touched his forearm threw her, but her shocked squeeze could be interpreted as an attempt at comfort. She hoped. Bonnie tried to remember the psychic read she'd gotten off George Lockwood's skin, but was startled to realized she'd never actually touched him. Gloves and propriety had completely prevented it.

Bonnie saw Elena in the next room and breathed a sigh of relief, finally someone she could talk to here.

"I'm sure whatever you decide to do will be for the best. I'm gonna go grab 'Lena, but we should catch up some more later, okay?" Bonnie said with a wave towards Elena.

He followed her hand as it gestured to Elena across the hall. She was pouting, drink in hand, as she picked at a platter of cheese cubes and grapes. She didn't look very like herself, but Bonnie could cut her some slack considering the stress she'd been through recently, between John and Jeremy. And whatever was going on between her, Damon, and Stefan. Plus, no one here looked quite right. The mayor was a hard man to pretend to mourn.

"Elena? She's here too?" Mason said.

"Yeah, she's right there. Next to the fireplace?" Bonnie clarified, even though Mason was looking right at Elena.

"That's Elena? You're sure?" Bonnie looked up at him. She'd clocked him as supernatural as soon as she touched him. Knowing what she did about George Lockwood, she thought it was a safe guess to label Mason as a werewolf. But the interest in Elena kind of leaned more into vampire territory. Unless he was somehow in love with her too, which Bonnie wouldn't put past him. It was a common theme in the town. But Mason didn't look in love, or in lust. He looked…disturbed.

"That's definitely Elena. You okay, Mason?" He stepped back from her and tore his eyes away from Elena.

"Yeah, Bonnie. I'm fine. It was nice talking to you. We should totally catch up sometime." He backed away, heading down the hall. Bonnie shrugged off his weirdness and turned back to head towards her friend. But Elena was gone.

"Who was that, witchy?" Damon flicked a lock of her hair as he spoke from behind her, and Bonnie jumped in surprise. She had to stop doing that. If she was going to hang around the Salvatores she'd have to get better at stoicism in the face of abrupt entrances.

"He's Tyler's uncle, Mason."

"Hmm. You two looked cozy." Bonnie scoffed.

"Really, Damon?"

He has some nerve, Bonnie thought, looking judgmental of her coziness with anyone when he'd been kissing his brother's girlfriend. Bonnie pushed down her growing annoyance. Annoyance at Damon butting her nose into his business obviously, but also at her brain's constant reminder of Jenna's gossip.

"Hey, new faces don't mean anything good in this town." He said. Which, you know, was a fair point.

"Well, you would know. But maybe we should be less aggressive and more casually curious, at least once."

"Why? Because you have a crush on this one?" He sneered. His inflection made it clear that he'd heard her reminiscing with Mason, and he wasn't happy about it. Bonnie rolled her eyes.

Damon tried to slip away, to leave the conversation, no doubt thinking his one liner was a perfect time to exit, but Bonnie wasn't going to let him escape, and she followed him into the dining room.

"Damon, did you know the Gilbert Device affected Tyler Lockwood?"

"Well," Damon popped a grape in his mouth, "I know it took the mayor down."

"Don't you want to know why?"

"Yes, Bonnie, I would love to know why a non-vampire was tortured by the vampire torture device that you let John Gilbert use against us. Speaking of your guilt, how's Caroline?"

"She's much better."

"You're welcome."

"Thank you. I mean, you definitely owed it to Caroline after what you put her through, but thank you."

"No threats on my person today, witchy? You aren't actually grieving the mayor are you?"

"Hardly. You want to be threatened?"

"I like it when you sprinkle it through our conversations, keeps me on my toes."

Bonnie sent a hint of an aneurism his way and he dropped his grape, cringing away from her. She immediately stopped, feeling a little sick. She could kill him where he stood, with just a thought. Of course, he could kill her with just a flick of his wrists. Did that make them equal, or just another level of toxic?

"Okay, no more sprinkling necessary. Thanks." He said, voice strained.

"I'm glad to remind you whenever, Damon, all you have to do is ask. Or do something stupid. I don't care what you have going on with Elena, if you make on wrong move you'll have to answer to me." Bonnie said, ignoring her own nausea at the thought of hurting Damon. This was a line she had to mark in the sand. Damon couldn't go around killing innocent people carte blanche anymore, not when she was here.

Damon had already straightened and readjusted his shirt.

"Answer to you? Kind of kinky, huh, Bonnie?" He wiggled his eyebrows. The answering spark of desire exploded into anger inside Bonnie, but she snuffed both out immediately. She took a deep breath.

"I don't want you to say that kind of stuff to me anymore, Damon. If you're being real about your feelings for Elena, you have to be better about a lot of things, this included, okay?" She patted his shoulder as she walked by him out of the room. Bonnie could be emotionally mature. But maybe a drink wouldn't hurt, and not a sparkling cider this time.

Bonnie had successfully avoided running into her freshman boyfriend, her current calculus teacher, and a still angry Carol Lockwood, when she spotted Elena again, this time outside on the porch.

"Hey!" Bonnie called out, and her friend turned to her with a smile. She almost didn't want to spoil it, but the elephant had to be addressed. "Listen, Elena, I don't know what you're doing with Damon, but please get a handle on it okay?"

Elena's head tilted, and her smile faded.

"Funny you should say that, Bonnie, I was just about to say the same thing to you about Damon."

"What? El—" She stopped short. Bonnie's mind wasn't playing tricks on her this time. That head tilt was not Elena. And the hair, while smaller than the coif she'd worn in the 80s, had way more volume than Elena ever sported.

"Katherine."

"The one and only." Katherine said with an impish grin. Bonnie's mind raced. If Katherine was here, she must already know about Elena. Klaus wouldn't be far behind.

"What are you doing here?"

"Wow what a warm welcome! Well, Bon Bon, I'm here for some answers. Starting with: what the fuck? You said we were friends!" Katherine said. She didn't sound like an angry vampire out to suck Bonnie's blood, but more like Caroline the day she found out Elena was abandoning their matching trio of Halloween costumes to be a sexy nurse with Matt. Betrayed, but not murderous.

"That's not exactly what I said." Bonnie answered cautiously. While Katherine didn't seem actually upset, that probably came from the high of discovering another doppelganger. Freedom seemed within reach, and she might not realize that Bonnie was not going to let Katherine trade Elena to Klaus for her own safety. When Bonnie didn't give Katherine what she wanted, the vampire could change her tune and have Bonnie pinned against the wall instantly.

"Don't try and squeak by on technicalities now, you devious bitch. Just admit it, you lied to me!"

"Okay, I lied. But not really! I mean, here we all are, you, me, and the Salvatores back in Mystic Falls."

"Like you even knew that was coming! Just own it Bonnie, you lied to my face and actually got away with it. I'll make a con woman out of you yet. Now come here!" Katherine threw her arms around the witch exuberantly. Katherine might not be trustworthy, but she was fun.

"This is great, this means that our friendship is actually equal and I don't have to worry if my future self shared some juicy gossip with you, or betrayed you and you've just been waiting this whole time to stab me in the back dramatically. Believe me, that's a relief."

Bonnie laughed weakly.

"Yeah, that would be something you would have to worry about."

"But not with you. God, Bonnie, Mystic Falls has gotten even duller. It's been such a drag trying to piece Elena's life together. Isobel said it was a puzzle, but wow. And of course the first thing I'm greeted with when I get to town is that ridiculous torture device of Jonathan Gilbert's. I don't know what it was about that man that made both Pearl and Emily so stupid, but I never saw the attraction. Though, I have to say, watching you play witch to Elena and the Salvatores, before stabbing them in the back with the Gilbert Device…just wow. It was inspired." Bonnie pulled away.

"I regret that, don't compliment me on it please."

"I won't stop, I loved it. Here I was, worried about all of those tomb vampires out for revenge on me, and you got rid of them in one fell swoop. Amazing."

"Really, don't compliment me on things I consider mistakes."

"Would that be bagging Damon, or losing him to my clone? Tell me now, I'll be sure to focus on the opposite."

Bonnie sighed, good mood evaporating.

"Katherine, what are you really here for?"

"It can't just be to see you?" Katherine said with a wink.

"No."

"Here I am, maligned just for visiting a friend. I even brought you a gift."

"I hope it's not a bottle of Rakia."

"We should do that again sometime! It was the first time I'd had a hangover in a decade, and you didn't even have to deal with the aftereffects in your own body. But no, this gift is much better than that. I'm not sure you deserve it, but since I already took care of your payback, I guess I can let it go."

Bonnie felt for the poor witch who had to suffer her hangover from the strong liquor. Would it be weird to send a sorry-about-that bouquet thirty years later?

"Payback?" She asked absentmindedly, trying to figure out how she would track the witch down.

"For the lies. I couldn't just let that go, even if you are my oldest friend." Katherine said pleasantly. But Bonnie saw the satisfaction in her eyes. Katherine wasn't angry because she felt that she'd already gotten even.

"Katherine, what did you do?"

"Well I couldn't have you replacing me, now could I? Elena was the original target obviously, but she's basically never without a Salvatore bodyguard. You should watch that, by the way. Your Salvatore was all over me when he thought I was her."

"My Salvatore? Damon isn't mine. But if you couldn't get Elena, then who—?" Bonnie realized that she had not checked up on Caroline after she'd left the hospital. She had trusted that Damon's blood would do its job without her oversight. That had been a mistake. Bonnie flew down the porch stairs, not bothering with goodbyes or threats.

"Calm down! It's not like she won't wake up!" Katherine called after her. Bonnie ignored her, running across the lawn as fast as she could. Carol Lockwood would probably moan about her grass and the purpose of walkways, but this was the shortest path to Bonnie's car.

Besides, someone else was on the lawn too. Bonnie ran by Stefan, and she saw him look over her head at Katherine on the porch.

"That's not Elena!" She tossed as a warning over her shoulder, but she didn't stop to watch the fallout. Stefan could handle himself. Probably.

In her car, Bonnie sped towards the hospital, eyeing her fuel gauge nervously. She really needed to fill the tank, but the mundanities of modern life had escaped her for the past day and a half.

When she rushed into Caroline's room she found the blonde standing in the deepest shadow available in the bright room. Her vervain necklace was discarded on the floor, and Bonnie could just see the corner of a drained blood bag tucked beneath the pillows. It was already done.

"Oh, Caroline."

"Bonnie? I don't know what's going on. I'm scared." Caroline's face took on a sharp whine, and Bonnie could see the tears that were about to fall.

Her best friend was now a vampire and would need to drink blood to survive. Bonnie stepped into the room and closed the door behind her.

When Grams had discovered that the Salvatores were in Mystic Falls, she'd talked to Bonnie about vampires. Grams had described how their very existence was a crime against Nature, and how a witch who allowed themself to believe a vampire was their friend was as good as dead.

Like most of her lessons, Bonnie hadn't paid much attention. After her grandmother's death, she'd revisited her advice, but her trip to the past had mitigated any lingering hate she had for the species.

On balance, Damon had now saved her life more than he'd threatened it, and Bonnie had counted Damon and Stefan, and even Katherine, as her friends. A vampire took advantage of the Titanic sinking to slaughter innocent people, but another helped her save even more. Klaus had caused the deaths of a dozen witches, but hadn't Analise been a part of that? Hadn't she made that choice to sacrifice her coven? The world could hardly be divided along a simple line, with good witches on one side, and evil vampires on the other.

Besides, this was Caroline. Caroline her best friend, who always laughed too loudly, and danced like an idiot, and who cried over being second best to Elena. Caroline, who promised to share her mom with Bonnie after Abby left, who baked her cupcakes when Bonnie broke her arm in sixth grade, who created a fully-diagramed battle plan for Elena and Bonnie to get dates to senior prom their freshman year after being asked herself by Andrew Haskell.

Caroline who was cowering the corner of the hospital room she'd almost died in. Bonnie crossed the room and pulled the window curtains tightly closed. Caroline's entire body relaxed, and Bonnie turned arms outstretched, and just in time to accept a desperate hug from her sobbing friend.

"I think Elena killed me Bonnie! And now the sun burns, and I bit a nurse, and it tasted good! What is happening to me?"

"Shh, shh, I've got you. Everything is going to be okay, Caroline."

"So, you're telling me that I'm now a vampire. That vampires are real. That werewolves are real. Witches are real. And apparently time travel is real. Does that about cover it?" Caroline ticked off each of these points on her finger, before looking to Bonnie for further confirmation. Not that Bonnie could do more than confirm her own words and perform a little levitation to prove magic was real.

"Yeah, and Elena—"

"Right. I forgot. Elena is some weird mystical being that doesn't get any of the extra powers everyone else gets, but looks exactly like a vampire who was born five hundred years ago, who you are now friends with because you traveled two hundred years in the past—"

"Only a hundred fifty—"

"And Elena's evil clone is the one who killed me. Because she's jealous of our friendship?"

"Katherine never has only one reason for doing anything, and I doubt I'm the actual reason. But that I what she said. I'm sorry she killed you, Caroline."

"Wow, thanks. That means a lot to me now that I'm dead! You could have told me about all of this, Bonnie. But you and Elena just left me out, like always."

"Caroline it wasn't like that. I tried to tell you about the witch stuff remember, but you seemed freaked out. And Elena said that Stefan—"

"So you just let Elena make that decision for me? Based on Stefan? You barely knew him!"

"I thought you'd be safer, with not knowing."

"Yeah, safer. In case you forgot on your trip to la la land, Damon was eating me!"

"Caroline, I'm sorry. When all this started I didn't know about vampires either, or anything they could do. I just thought Damon was an ass. By the time I learned about compulsion, Elena said she'd figured out a way to protect you."

"The necklace?"

"Yeah, it has vervain in it. It stops you from being compelled, and when you drink it your blood becomes poisonous to vampires."

"I guess I'll have to watch out when weeding the garden now. At night. God, what am I going to tell me mom?"

"Actually, Caroline, your mom knows. Not about you! But she'd on a secret town council that hunts vampires."

"She knows about this? And she also didn't tell me. What the hell? What is wrong with you people? Next you'll be telling me that Dad and Steve are international vampire hunters!"

"I didn't want you to know. You were so into Matt, and it seemed like you'd be able to get through high school without dealing with all the scary stuff I was. To be honest, I was jealous. That's one of the reasons I tried the time spell. I wanted to stop me from finding out about vampires."

"But how could you not know about vampires? Or Damon, at least? He was obsessed with you."

"That necklace we fought over? It was my ancestor's and the key to a tomb of vampires that had been trapped under Fell's Church for the last century. He thought his, um, ex-girlfriend was in there. Katherine, the one that looks like Elena."

"Yeah, you covered that in the initial overview. But I'm talking way before the crystal. That night at the Grill, when you first made flirty eyes at the bartender—"

"He was a vampire too. He kidnapped me and Elena after I went on that date with him."

"Townie Ben was a vampire? And he kidnapped you? What the—no. No getting sidetracked. After the back to school party, when we were at the Grill, do you remember?"

"Yes, waiting for you to sober up and get over Stefan. I leave for two seconds—"

"To flirt with a vampire bartender." Caroline interjected.

"I leave for two seconds to pay the bill and get you some water and I come back and you're flirting with Damon, giving me serious do-not-come-over-here eyes. I was stuck playing Tetris on my phone until it died, and you were willing to leave."

"I know I was not giving you any looks because I wasn't flirting! He was literally interrogating me about you. He wanted to know everything, and I was hyping you up and…and then he made me forget. How could I forget that? I was going to set you up!" Caroline insisted, but then snorted. "I thought he was a better catch than Ben. Can't believe they were both blood-sucking assholes."

"He probably compelled you. Vampires can do that. You can do that now. You can make people do what you want, and forget what you want. I think you did it to the nurse earlier, from what you described."

"That's freaky."

"Yup."

"But why am I remembering now?"

"You're a vampire now. I guess it breaks the compulsion."

"Hmm. Good to know. Also, I expect you to hold Damn down while I punch him later. But back to this weird German twin thing."

"Doppelganger."

"Yeah, that. You said that some bad guy came to town to kill Elena when we were kids? And your mom locked it up, but now a different bad guy is going to come any day now to sacrifice Elena after Katherine hands her over to break this Sun and Moon curse?"

"No, the Sun and Moon curse was a lie that Klaus told me, but I don't know what Katherine believes. He's actually trying to break a curse on himself, so that he can be both a vampire and a werewolf."

"Okay, got it. Can I just say, Bonnie, you are so lucky I know now. I get why you didn't tell me, even if I don't agree with that decision, but I'm surprised nothing has gone worse. None of you are planners at all. All of you are doers, never thinking ahead."

"I feel like I should be offended, but the time travel mistake has been pretty humbling."

"Don't worry, you have me now. And I am going to deal with all of these problems exactly like I would anything else."

"With research and extensive to-do lists?"

"Exactly! You know me so well! First things first, I need my laptop, and you need to give Elena the checklist for the carnival. There is no way I can spare you, so Elena will just have to handle that on her own."

"Elena could help us!"

"And then who would be left to run the carnival? Aimee Bradley? Tiki? Please. I need Elena to do this. We can check in with her later tonight, once the sun stops burning my skin. It will be too late to salvage the carnival if she's completely messed it up, but at least we'll be there to commiserate and do some damage control."

"Are you sure going out in public is a good idea? It's kind of soon and you're still getting used to everything."

"I'll scoop another blood bag before we go, and besides, you said you can take Damon and Stefan down. I'm brand new, so I must be much weaker than them. Just promise me that we'll stick together, and it will all be fine."

"Alright, and once we're sure you can handle it, I'll make you your own daylight ring. Those let you walk in the sun."

"You're the best, Bonnie! Have it ready by Monday morning, I'll be ready! I'll have to be; I have a chem quiz that I can't miss if I want to keep my GPA. Now shoo, I have to call Matt and tell him that we're doing an immersive girls' weekend and he can't visit."