I don't plan on sticking to the plot; I'm bending this all in favour of my favourite duo.
I also just wanted to say to WarriorPrincessNumber42 and MystiBleu73 – I am one hundred percent on the same page as you, TVD shoves a lot under the carpet in favour of fleeting sentimentalities and that has never sat well with me. If we think about it, really think about, Damon didn't deserve Bonnie's sacrifice but she went ahead and put someone she's claimed to hate for years ahead of her own interests. It's not realistic. I'm a (relatively) nice person but even I would struggle with sacrificing myself for the sake of someone like Damon (a lot of people for that matter, and I don't think that makes me a bad person?)…So that begs the question – is it just because Bonnie's that great of a soul or does she genuinely love him? BAH. This is hurting my head and hurting my heart because I'm sure that the writers won't do her any justice.
Also. Guys, within the space of two days & two chapters you all have rallied behind this story and that makes me all giddy inside. I've been posting here since like, the end of Sep (of this year) so it still amazes me when I get any sort of response to my stuff…so thank you, so so much X
Apologies for the lengthy note.
Damon grunted in his sleep from where he was hunched over awkwardly in the passenger seat of Caroline's car. The little sleep he got was riddled with nightmares which meant that he was always tired and always on edge.
"Gemini Coven." He muttered for the third time and Enzo sighed softly, Caroline only hearing it because of her supernatural instincts. She and Enzo locked eyes in the review mirror as Damon started awake and glared out into the slowly approaching morning. "Are we there yet?" He wondered aloud and both the other vampires were surprised. They were sure he'd be hallucinating Bonnie again. Caroline turned left and quickly found a parking spot before pulling out her phone and nodding to herself as she checked something.
"We're here." She confirmed and Damon shot out of the car before she could stop him. "Shit." She hissed, following after Enzo who hadn't missed a beat following after the blue eyed Salvatore. Damon's eyes had a manic darkle in them as he sniffed out the person they were looking for before speeding off to the right dorm room, with Enzo acting as a shadow. Caroline caught up with them and was about to shove them aside to knock when two things happened simultaneously. A shuddering hoarse gasp echoed through the wooden door to the trio assembled outside of it while a high pitched cry pierced their ears. Damon kicked the door in without thinking about it and stormed inside, determined to get what he needed. Caroline had grown suddenly apprehensive, managing a scowl on her usually euphoric features as Enzo shoved her into the room while he followed quickly behind her and fleetingly inspected the damage to the door. Caroline's eyes rolled before she could stop them as Damon stood a few feet in front of her, panting like a madman.
"Get dressed." Damon growled out and Tyler's face drained of colour as he moved off of Liv and sought out his pants. "Not you mutt, her." Damon clarified with an accusatory finger, "I'd like to say 'take your time' but we have none to waste…especially on trivialities such as these." Liv's face reddened as she gripped the sheet around her body to obscure her naked form from view. Not that any of the visiting vampires would have cared.
"What the hell do you mean 'her', she's not going anywhere with you!" Tyler snarled and Damon cackled gleefully before throwing himself towards the half-naked werewolf only to be intercepted by Caroline who yanked Tyler aside with a warning in her eyes at Damon who growled angrily. Turning to Tyler Caroline shook her head and raised her hands to explain while Enzo grinned wolfishly at Liv who's eyes were darting all over the room in a blind panic.
"We need Liv to come with us to help bring Bonnie back." Caroline said, with as much patience as she could muster, she really didn't like having to be the voice of reason but between Damon and Enzo what choice did she have?
"Bring Bonnie back?" Tyler echoed, something sparking in his eyes, anger, disbelief, she couldn't tell anymore, "How do you plan on doing that?" He asked, his shoulders tensing up.
"We don't have a plan yet, but we have a direction that we're going in and we're going to need a witch we can rely on…or the closest thing to that that Liv can manage." Caroline added on as a bitter afterthought of the memory of why Bonnie was still gone from them to begin with.
"Can I speak for myself?" Liv wondered aloud as she moved to stand to her feet with the sheet wrapped securely around her.
"You could," Enzo answered stepping towards her slowly, "But I think the real question is whether or not your opinion matters to us."
"Get. Dressed!" Damon snapped, startling both women in the room. Liv pressed her mouth together, "It's not really a requirement though," Damon went on, "Merely an act of courtesy, I don't care what you are or aren't wearing as long as you come with us in the next ten minutes."
"What he means," Caroline says as she approached Liv, "Is that since he's been back he's been hallucinating Bonnie and at first we thought it was just guilt from her sending him back while sacrificing herself but it's more than that…It's so much worse than guilt…We think there might be something supernatural, something magical involved and we need to figure out how to get him back to normal and how to get Bonnie back home." Liv nodded at the end of it all, thoughtfulness ghosted over her features before she locked eyes with Damon who looked like he was at his wit's end. "Liv, please. I need my best friend back." Caroline whispered, unsurprised when she felt Enzo's arm on her shoulder as his eyes bore into the witch's.
"So do I." Enzo added on, his voice low and riddled with a noticeable amount of emotion. There was a bout of silence before Liv began nodding. Caroline wiped away at the single tear that fell down at the witch's agreement – she was stuck balancing precariously on the line between hope and severe disappointment, which meant she was probably as unstable as Damon at this point but she smiled through it and surprised everyone when she pulled Liv into a quick hug.
"I'll help you." Liv said with a small smile as she was hugged by the bubbly vampire.
"Thank you." Caroline said as she stepped away, "Thank you." Enzo reappeared at Damon's side in time to tug him away from an edgy and confused wolf, for everyone's safety.
"Caroline stay here and wait for her," Enzo said with an impressive amount of authority bleeding through his accent, "We'll be right outside." Caroline nodded and turned around with a bright smile on her face as she faced her ex-boyfriend and his new love interest.
"Alright, let's get some clothes on people!" She said with a clap of her hands.
Stefan was pacing his living room floor when there was a knock on the door, Damon, Caroline and Enzo had left hours ago and it was well into the afternoon. When he opened the door he found Elena on the other end of the threshold. She smiled as she walked past him and scoured the oddly quiet and empty house.
"Where is everyone?" She asked as she turned to face him.
"They've gone to find a way to get Bonnie back." Stefan said quietly and watched as questions began to run through her mind.
"Why didn't you go with them? Why did no one tell me? Where are they going?" She asked, an edge of irritation in her voice as she regarded her ex-boyfriend.
"They don't have anything substantial to go on Elena," Stefan explained, "They have two words; the 'Gemini Coven' and this version of Damon that makes me angry at myself for wanting him back at all." Elena's head reared back in shock as her face became covered in her disapproval and disappointment.
"First of all, those two words are more than any of us had before," Elena said, "And second you don't get to say that about Damon, you need him, you still do and you should be grateful that he's back." Stefan shook his head at her misunderstanding him.
"I've claimed for so long that Damon is the more selfish between us but it isn't true, it never has been true – that is our one likeness between the two of us. The definitive difference between us has always been evident in how we act on that selfishness." He walked further into his home then, towards the kitchen as he explained, "Damon is reckless with it where I am more calculating and quiet – but when it comes to the two of us I always knew that my life was non-negotiable to him, but the state I was in never seemed to faze him so much as my being alive with him – that's why we fought as much as we did." He drew in an unnecessary breath then, "But when I still had hope at his return not once did I wonder what state he'd be in when he came back and seeing him like this…as ridiculous as it sounds, I can't help but blame myself. It's worse somehow than when he was still dead to us, this Damon…this person who's coming undone before our very eyes in ways I'd never thought possible – he scares me. I feel like that day he and Bon…the day he and Bonnie died, was the day they really died. Who's to say that she won't come back to us in the same condition?" Elena shook her head, ignoring the tears that fell at the mention of her best friend's name.
"Then the definitive difference between you and me Stefan," Elena said in a watery voice, "Is that I don't care what form Bonnie takes when she comes back, what state she's in…I will always love her and I will always need her."
"Then that is how you show your selfishness, do you think Bonnie would want that for herself? That indefinite madness? She deserves better than that and so does my brother." Tenseness fell around them as the two vampires looked at one another.
"Then what do you suggest we do?" She asked, folding her arms across her chest.
"If you don't change this song I won't be responsible for my actions." Enzo growled from his seat behind Caroline. Liv was practically pressed up against the glass on the other end of the back seat. Damon had grown incredibly quiet after Liv had agreed to come with them, he was staring out into the passing forests scenery as they sped through mile after mile.
"Shut it Enzo, I'm driving, therefor I'm dictating what we listen to." Caroline snapped half-heartedly. Enzo groaned and flopped back onto the cushioned seat and turned to rake his eyes over Liv's form as she tried and failed at smiling at him. He wiggled his fingers, watching a frown skip over Caroline's brow in his peripheral view of the review mirror. He caught her eye in the review mirror and lifted his eyebrows repeatedly and suggestively causing her to scoff in return.
"I need to feed." Damon said suddenly, gaining everyone's attention. He noted how Liv's heart rate accelerated and he would have found amusement in it if he hadn't been seeking out an entirely different witch's heartbeat and presence.
"Can't it wait?" Caroline wondered as she took a turn. A low growl vibrated in Damon's chest, bubbling up into his throat before he hissed out a resounding 'no'.
"Take this," Enzo said as he tossed a blood bag onto Damon's lap, "And pull yourself together mate, we don't have time for pit stops." Damon nodded as he began to pull onto the crimson liquid.
"You're right," Damon said as he took in a shuddering relieved breath, "You're right." Not a second after he'd taken the final sip from the blood bag did his eyes fall closed and his body sag into the hold of the passenger seat. Caroline pulled the seatbelt over his chest without taking her eyes off of the road, a force of habit she reasoned inwardly.
"Is he asleep?" Enzo asked and she nodded in return. "Right," he went on and clapped his hands and rubbed the palms together as he turned his body to face Liv fully, "So we're headed to New Orleans to get as much information about this as we can but if you could be forthcoming about everything you know about the Gemini Coven that would be lovely." A scared breathy laugh fell out of Liv's mouth as her eyes went between Caroline and Enzo before she cleared her throat and racked her brain.
"You can't kill me forever!" Kai screamed out in pain after Bonnie as she ran away from him again, hauling ass to Damon's Camaro and cranking up the engine before peeling down to the Salvatore Boarding House. She had to get there before he did, so she could replenish the protective wards she'd put up all around the house. She looked over quickly at the food she'd managed to procure on her latest supply run before she yanked the car into a messy left turn as she burnt rubber through the empty streets. She'd put off getting food as long as she could have but unless she planned on staying drunk on bourbon for the foreseeable future, she hadn't had a choice. Spinning the car into a terrible angle in the driveway she killed the engine and fled through the front doors, slamming them shut and chanting through the Latin verse to reseal the spell over the house. The words came out broken and disjointed due to her breathlessness and her mind still reeling from all the adrenaline. She felt the pulse of power leave her as the spell took hold and she slid down to the floor with her back still pressed to the front door. The relief was short lived as the thick silence came to her attention once more. Drawing in a determined breath she got up onto shaky feet and walked into the kitchen, dropping the food off there before she headed upstairs to her room in the house. Walking up to the full length mirror in the far corner of the room she lifted her shirt and inspected the small scar there, she'd managed to fix herself up quite decently with magic and some medical supplies she'd also killed Kai in order to procure.
"It's healing quite nicely," his voice said, calling her out of her own thoughts. Her heart clenched at the sound but she turned around and smiled anyway.
"Yeah," she said, dropping her hold on the hem of the oversized checked shirt that she'd loaned from him…or was it really loaning when he wasn't even there anymore? "It is." He grinned and walked towards her then but she held out a hand before he could hug her or console her or worse, keep smiling at her. "Please don't." she whispered softly. "It messes up my head."
"But it also makes you feel less alone," Damon pointed out and pulled her harshly into an embrace, she tried fighting it off but it felt too warm, too familiar to let go, "I'm proud of you." He muttered into the crown of her head.
"Proud?" she echoed as she gave in and wrapped her arms around his waist, "Why?"
"Because you still have hope and you're still strong and you're still fighting." He explained.
"What else do I have left?" Bonnie asked, lifting her head to lock eyes with him.
"You have me." He said with a warm smile and Bonnie shook her head and pulled out of his hold and hugging her body.
"No I don't." she said, a pain re-entering her chest as her heart began to ache. "This isn't you."
"It's the me you need to get out of here." Damon said seriously as he began to walk backwards to her door a wistful look passing over his face as he gripped the doorframe before looking over his shoulder before looking over at her again with a wide grin, "And I'll always be here for you Bon-Bon." He ducked out of view and despite herself she ran to the door and looked out into the hallway only to find it to be empty. A hollowness rose up to meet her and she let it hang precariously in the air around her before she shoved it aside and stormed downstairs to get to the den which she had turned into her makeshift Head Quarters.
"This isn't over." She promised herself again, her voice more determined than the last time.
Oh my. Let me know what you guys think!
Stay excellent.