Bonnie chewed at her bottom lip as she waited for Katherine/Elena to awaken or reanimate—she was never sure how to characterize that process. Everyone was twiddling their thumbs while they waited in the basement. She had already devoured three slices of chocolate banana nut bread. Bonnie hadn't lied about stress baking before her friends arrived. Frankly, she was craving the hunk of brisket currently in the refrigerator. However, Bonnie was worried about attracting unwanted attention. It seemed that the overabundance of perfume and cologne had obscured Bonnie and Tyler's scents for now. Neither of them was particularly interested in breaking the big news this evening. They had plenty of complications to deal with already.

She twisted a vintage opal ring around her finger nervously. The ring had belonged to her grandmother. She had found it in the same box containing the talisman that hung around her neck. Bonnie could feel traces of her grandmother's magic in both items. She knew that many witches used talismans to help focus their powers. However, she had no clue why Grams had spelled the ring. If Bonnie still had access to her own magic, she might be able to identify the strands of the spell woven into the item. For now, she just took comfort in the familiarity of Sheila's magic. Bonnie had felt it her entire childhood and never knew what it was.

Her green eyes slid across the room and connected with Damon. He was sitting by himself nursing a glass of bourbon. She glanced at the half-empty bottle beside his foot. Bonnie was glad that she lied about only having the one bottle. Surely, Damon would have already finished that one if he knew there were two bottles tucked away in the kitchen. Bonnie kept her house stocked with bourbon and blood bags for when Damon visited. Their hanging out wasn't limited to the Salvatore boarding house. The house becoming a sort of sanctuary for their friends meant there was little peace or privacy. At times, Damon needed a break and Bonnie's house was the perfect destination. Sometimes they hung out together, other times Damon disappeared into the basement for a couple hours.

Caroline huffed and sat down beside Bonnie. She had been pacing for the last ten minutes. She said, "I can't believe that this is happening. I have been living with Katherine for months and I didn't notice anything. I mean I knew that Elena was a little dejected because Stefan didn't want to rekindle their epic romance. When I started seeing her less around the dorm, I assumed it was because she was really focusing on her classes."

Bonnie shook her head and squeezed Caroline's hand in support. "We are all responsible for this, Care. I should have made more of an effort to spend time with Elena, but…"

Caroline nodded but her heart was heavy. None of them had good reasons for neglecting their relationships with Elena. The simplest explanation was they had all been focusing on their own lives. They had taken the opportunity to be young people for once. Caroline had thrown herself into about a dozen clubs and activities. She even decided to double major in Theater and Communications. The fact that everyone was happy should have been the first sign that something was very wrong.

"We are going to find a way to make this up to Elena," Caroline said with conviction.

Bonnie wanted to believe that more than anything but she didn't even know where to begin. Elena had lost several months of her life. Moreover, they had no idea what Katherine had been doing while in her body. She asked, "Do you think Katherine has even been going to Elena's classes?"

The blond vampire nodded. She said, "I know that she has been going to at least some of Elena's classes. We have English 101 and Intro to Psychology together. She always showed up for those two. I saw her coming out of the Biological Sciences Building a couple times a week, too."

"Well, I guess that is one positive thing. Maybe she hasn't flunked out of college. Elena would be heartbroken. Becoming a doctor like her father was so important to her," Bonnie replied.

Caroline perked up because she could solve that problem in a matter of hours. "I will track down all of Elena's professors tomorrow. I can compel them to figure out if she is passing her classes. If not, I will make them change her grades."

The green-eyed girl frowned and shook her head. "You should probably hold off on compelling people at Whitmore until after we have this Augustine situation sorted. They could be hiding in plain sight."

Caroline huffed. "I am sure Katherine was just lying so that Stefan could save her."

"Probably but it is better to be certain first." She took Caroline's hand again. "I don't think I can handle something happening to another friend."

Her eyes softened considerably as she pulled Bonnie into a hug. She whispered, "Elena isn't the only one I have been neglecting."

"You haven't neglected me, Care. Things have just been…" Bonnie corrected herself and said, "I have been different since I came back from the Other Side. I am still trying to figure things out."

Caroline had been wondering what was happening with Bonnie. However, she pretended that everything was fine whenever Caroline asked. "Is it because you lost your magic?"

Bonnie said, "That is part of it but…"

"But what? What has happened to us? We used to be able to talk to each other about anything," Caroline said in a disheartened voice.

"Now isn't the time to get into it, Care," Bonnie replied gently.

The blond vampire shook her head. "I disagree. We all realized that Elena was a little off and we ignored it. Well, I am not going to ignore whatever is going on with you. I can't just keep waiting for it to pass."

Bonnie realized that suddenly everyone's eyes were on her. Their quiet conversations had been abandoned in favor of looking at the two young women.

Damon grumbled, "Leave it, Blondie."

"No, I won't just leave it," Caroline argued.

"Yeah. When did Damon become your best friend, anyway? You used to hate him," Jeremy chimed in.

The high school student was happy that someone was finally on his side. He had been complaining for months that Bonnie was behaving differently. Jeremy was ready for things to get back to normal. Matt and Tyler had tried telling him that ship had passed but he didn't agree. Bonnie had only been dead for a few months. He couldn't understand how she could have changed so drastically in such a short amount of time.

Damon spoke slowly as if talking to a particularly slow child, he said, "I made the deal with Qetsiyah to resurrect Bon-Bon. I am also the one that got her out of being the anchor with an assist from Wolf Boy. Of course we'd be besties after that."

Bonnie glared in Jeremy's direction. However, her expression softened when she looked at Caroline. Her friend looked so lost. "I died, Care. I was dead for months and no one realized that something was wrong with that."

"But you told Jeremy not to tell us what happened," she argued quietly. However, she knew the argument was weak.

Bonnie chose her words carefully because she was no longer angry. She didn't want to hurt her friends' feelings by being too blunt. She said, "I asked Jeremy to keep my situation a secret because I wanted to make it easier on everyone. That is all I have been doing since the moment I realized I was a witch. I have been trying to make everyone else's lives easier...safer. I have saved all of you at great cost to myself with very little appreciation. My grandmother is dead, my father is dead, and my mother is a vampire. I refuse to believe that you or Elena could have gone missing for so long without sounding alarm bells. No one pressed Jeremy for more information about my whereabouts until you all needed me to save you again. Qetsiyah told me to learn from her mistakes and my own. I did. When I came back from the dead, I decided to put myself first. I like it this way."

Everyone in the basement looked guilty because Bonnie was right. They had accepted Jeremy's paper-thin explanations for months without even a cursory investigation. They would have discovered Katherine's scheme sooner if she had fled Mystic Falls after possessing Elena. They would have scoured the country looking for the doppelganger to ease their concern. Even Matt, arguably the most considerate of the group, had only insisted on finding Bonnie once he realized he was losing time while possessed by Gregor. He had tried to right that wrong in recent months. Matt talked to Bonnie a couple of times a week to make sure she was still alive. They usually hung out together at Mystic Grille.

Bonnie sighed quietly. "Look, it isn't a big deal. I just had to change some things to make myself happy. I am still figuring out how to merge those changes with our friendships. I still love all of you…"

Katherine gave a disgusted groan, "Bonnie, be a dear and snap my neck again so I don't have to listen to your tragic teenage angst. It sounds like a bad episode of One Tree Hill. You are totally a Peyton."

Caroline looked at Bonnie with wide eyes. "You broke Katherine's neck?"

Bonnie's eyes darted over to Tyler for a moment. She shrugged and said, "What can I say? My training sessions with Damon have really paid off."

Stefan cleared his throat and walked over to the chair where Katherine was shackled. He had been tempted to ask Bonnie why she had shackles in her basement. However, Damon reminded him that this house had been in the Bennett family for several generations. His older brother assumed that the shackles had belonged to one of the Bennett witches that came before her. "When did you possess Elena?"

Katherine rolled her eyes. "We're going right to the main event, Stefan? No foreplay? I thought that I taught you better than that."

Bonnie said, "Stefan won't hit you because he's a gentleman but I will."

Tyler bit back a chuckle.

"I took control of the less interesting version of myself when she came to say goodbye. It was hardly an opportunity that I could pass up. I could be a vampire again and live another 500 or so years. I would do more with that time than boring Elena ever would," she explained in a flippant tone.

Caroline scoffed in disgust. "What have you been doing? What trouble have you caused for Elena?"

Katherine sighed dramatically. "What sense would it make to ruin Elena's life? I planned for it to be my life. I figured playing college student for a while couldn't hurt. Becoming a doctor was intriguing. I've never done that before, but I was a midwife once upon a time."

Damon muttered, "Can we kill her now?"

The older vampire looked in his direction. She pouted at him. "I'm sorry. Did I break your heart again when I broke up with you as Elena? Your face that night in the woods is how I imagine you looked when you realized I was never in the tomb. It is like you just cannot get facts through that thick head of yours. No one is ever going to choose you over Stefan. It doesn't have anything to do with fate, destiny, or even the doppelganger curse. You are always going to be alone because Stefan will always outshine you. I mean your only living friend tolerates you because you saved her life. You two have been bosom buddies while Elena has been on ice. I am guessing Bon-Bon is going to drop you as soon as her bestie is back."

The brunette vampire was out of his chair and across the room in seconds. He had his hand wrapped around Katherine's throat as she laughed maniacally.

Stefan grabbed his brother. "Damon…"

Bonnie stalked across the room and punched Katherine with all of her might. Her eyes flashed amber where only Katherine could see it. "I said that I would hit you again. Keep it up, Katherine. Like you said, I have a lot of teenage angst to work out."

Katherine spit some blood onto the floor. "You won't hurt your precious Elena."

She smiled. "You aren't Elena. You're my best friend's skanky sire until one of us stabs you with the knife we found under your bed tonight."

All of the humor slid off Katherine's face when Bonnie mentioned the knife. She hadn't counted on them finding it. "You can't kill me."

Damon calmed down. He lifted an eyebrow and said, "Stalling for time is beneath you, Katherine."

"My daughter is the only thing that has been keeping the Travelers from coming down all of your heads." She looked to Stefan. "You remember when Gregor said that the Travelers wanted me dead."

Damon snorted. "They can get in line."

Stefan nodded. "I remember what Gregor said. What does that have to do with anything? I just assumed that you had pissed off a group of Travelers in the past. You have a habit of making enemies, Katherine."

She said, "The travelers aren't just interested in my death. They want you and Elena dead, too. Nadia has been keeping them at bay but that ends the moment you kill me."

Damon tensed at the mention of his little brother being in danger.

Stefan frowned because Katherine seemed genuine. However, she had been mastering the art of lying for centuries. "Why would they want me dead? Gregor is the only Traveler that I have ever met."

"The Travelers want all of the doppelgangers dead. They need our blood for some big ritual to break the curse that witches put on their kind. Nadia has found the other doppelganger that looks like you. She compelled him into dating her to keep him safe. They have an apartment not far from Whitmore's campus."

Tyler thought back to what Jonas said earlier. He asked, "What curse?"

Katherine relaxed somewhat now that they were listening to her. "The witches were pissed when Qetsiyah created that immortality spell. She and Silas had been Travelers so the witches decided to curse the entire group and their unlucky descendants. Qetsiyah only escaped that fate because she died. Witches can be bitches that way. Right, Bon-Bon?"

The girl rolled her eyes and said, "I'm still feeling punchy…keep talking."

"The witches literally turned nature against the Travelers. They can't practice magic as normal witches do because they can't connect with nature. They also can't congregate in one place for too long or nature punishes them with natural disasters and unexplained illnesses. They need doppelganger blood to break the curse but it is more involved than that. They want to destroy the Other Side to resurrect the other Travelers that have died in the past."

Bonnie frowned. "It has to be more to it than that. Bringing down the veil to the Other Side means resurrecting all of the witches, too. The witches cursed the Travelers for creating the immortality spell. I don't want to see what they would do to them for destroying the balance between life and death."

Katherine smirked and said, "Look at Bon-Bon saving all of your asses and she doesn't even have her magic. The leader of the Travelers plans to destroy spirit magic by ensuring that the witches aren't able to cross over before he destroys the Other Side. All of your witch ancestors would simply cease to exist. The Travelers would be free to slaughter the rest of you or perhaps just curse you as they have been cursed for centuries."

The girl gasped as the talisman around her neck began to vibrate.

"What exactly does that mean?" Stefan asked.

Bonnie didn't hear Stefan because her talisman was vibrating hard enough to visibly move now.

Damon moved closer to her. "What's going on, witchy?"

She grabbed the talisman when it began hovering in mid-air. However, that was precisely the wrong thing to do or precisely the right thing to do depending on one's vantage point. Bonnie's eyes flashed amber as the power from the talisman surged through her body. Suddenly, the world began to turn upside down and her knees grew weak.

Tyler was across the room in seconds and had her in his arms. His eyes were dark amber as he threatened to shift right then. However, he knew that his mate needed him in his humanoid form. "Bonnie! Talk to me, please."

Her eyes fluttered closed as she lost consciousness.

He scooped up Bonnie and carried her to the couch. Tyler laid her down carefully.

"What the hell just happened? Is she okay?" Jeremy asked.

Katherine watched with a curious expression. "Where did she get that talisman?"

Caroline asked, "Talisman? What are you talking about? It is just a necklace."

"You are all completely useless," the older vampire complained.

Tyler sat beside Bonnie on the couch and listened for her heartbeat. He was glad to find that she still had one. Tyler tried to ignore the distress he felt coming from his wolf. He said, "She found it in a box of her grandmother's old things."

Jeremy scowled as he watched Tyler with Bonnie. They were all worried about her but his concern was something different.

Damon moved closer to the couch and nodded. "Bonnie had me cart a couple of boxes out of the attic for her. There were a couple of grimoires, some jewelry, and photo albums in there."

"Did she have any idea who the talisman belonged to first?" Katherine asked.

Tyler said, "Bonnie thinks it might have been handed down from her great-grandmother to her grandmother. There is a picture in the living room of Amelia wearing the talisman."

Caroline looked between Bonnie's unconscious face to the pure terror etched into Tyler's. She shook her head because none of this was making any sense. Then she remembered that Tyler and Bonnie were both missing Saturday morning. This was the first time that they had been seen since Damon's party. Jeremy had sworn that he saw Bonnie and Tyler dancing together before they went missing. Caroline shook her head because she had to be jumping to the wrong conclusions.

Katherine chuckled.

Damon whirled around to look at Katherine. "Why are you laughing?"

"Well, I mean she kinda deserves it since she punched me a total of three times. My guess is that she is about to be possessed by the original owner of that talisman. That's the danger of wearing a talisman that doesn't belong to you."

Caroline shook her head. "No, it doesn't work that way."

Katherine scoffed. "Which of us knows more about witches?"

"Bonnie was possessed by Emily before but it was only after we did a séance. She had to reach out to the spirit first to welcome her."

Tyler groaned.

Stefan asked, "What?"

"Bonnie wears the talisman all the time…including when she goes to the Falls at night to commune with nature."

Caroline was stunned and confused. She could somewhat understand an accidental tryst. She was guilty of that. However, Tyler seemed to know details that only close friends would know.

Katherine smirked. "There you have it. She has been communing with nature and the spirits. She probably drew the attention of her grandmother or great-grandmother. They watch out for their own…especially a powerless little Bennett witch that can't protect herself. They will have been watching her and now they know what the Travelers are planning."

Damon said, "We need a witch…"

"I might be able to help you with that," said Katherine.

His blue eyes narrowed dangerously. "You are dying tonight, Katherine. Helping us find a witch isn't going to save your life."

She said, "I am not naïve. I know that you will kill me regardless but it doesn't have to be right away. I have a vested interest in making sure the Travelers fail. Nadia has made many enemies protecting me from them. They will kill her if their plan succeeds."

Damon feigned surprise. "Are you being…maternal? I didn't know you had it in you, Kitty Kat."

Katherine glared at Damon. "The witch I have in mind is a Bennett. She won't be clamoring do me any favors but as I said Bennett witches protect their own."

Jeremy argued, "You can't be serious. She has been wearing my sister like a meat suit for months. I want to help Bonnie but there has to be another way."

Stefan looked between Damon and Tyler. He couldn't decide which man looked more ready to murder Jeremy. Stefan decided to step in before things got out of hand. He said, "Elena is safe. We are not going to let Katherine leave this basement still in control of her body but Bonnie needs help."

The younger boy heaved a sigh and looked at Bonnie. He said, "Alright!"

"Thanks, little brother," Katherine taunted.

Stefan said, "Don't provoke him."

She shrugged innocently. "What? I have enjoyed our weekly family outings. We had fun bowling just last week."

Jeremy frowned because it was true. He had been enjoying Elena's new outlook on life.

"How do we get contact with this Bennett witch?" Stefan asked.

Katherine smiled at Stefan. "You've met her before. Her name is Lucy. I had Nadia track her down a few weeks ago. I figured we would need some help with the Travelers. Her number is in my phone."

Matt said, "Her purse is still in the living room. I'll go get it."

"Thanks, Matty Blue," Katherine practically cooed.