Damon was twelve hours into a proper sulk when Bonnie asked him out to lunch. He had considered turning down the little witch's offer. He knew that Bonnie would only need a couple hours to snap him out of this funk. She had an uncanny way of chipping away at his hardened exterior. Bonnie got underneath his skin in ways that few others ever had. However, he was not interested in snapping out of his sour mood. This week his life had been upended by several unexpected situations. Each incident had been more confidence shaking than the last. He just wanted a few days to binge drink and regroup. Damon did not think that he was asking for too much. Unfortunately, the judgy little witch did not share his belief.

The raven-haired vampire was oddly proud of Bonnie. She had come to know Damon well. She correctly predicted that he would use some lame excuse to avoid seeing her. Therefore, the manipulative little minx told him that she had suddenly fallen ill. Bonnie claimed that she was experiencing some inexplicable side effects as a newly minted hybrid. Immediately, Damon had abandoned his bed and the beautiful woman that was sharing it with him. He had zipped around his bedroom like a blur looking for clothes and shoes. Meanwhile, he promised to meet Bonnie at the address she rattled off to him.

Damon started to get suspicious when he pulled into the parking lot. A dive bar off the interstate was a strange choice for a serious conversation. However, Damon knew that the witch had duped him once he walked up to the table. There were four different brands of bourbon waiting for him.

Bonnie was in the process of feeding Mari. The infant complained loudly when it took too long for Bonnie to bring the spoon to her mouth.

"You've got some explaining to do, Witchy…"

Bonnie grinned when Damon arrived. She handed the spoon to Tyler and asked, "Can you feed her for a minute?"

"I've got this." The hybrid hedged and said, "Maybe…"

Mari fussed at him and banged her hands against the high chair.

Bonnie stood up and threw her arms around the vampire. She immediately detected Elodie's scent all over him. She tensed for a second but then tightened her arms around him. She murmured, "Please, don't be mad at me."

He begrudgingly hugged the witch. "You lied to me. I have reached my limit of people lying to me."

Tyler stifled a laugh by drinking his beer. Bonnie had the vampire wrapped around her finger but it was obviously mutual. He saw the way she lit up whenever Damon walked into a room. Frankly, he was proud of himself for being so nonchalant about their friendship. By all rights, he should have an overwhelming urge to disembowel Damon but he did not.

She pulled back from the hug but did not let Damon go. Bonnie looked up at him with mischievous green eyes. She swore, "I did not lie to you, Damon."

"You don't look sick to me, Witchy," he said with an appraising look.

"I never said that I was sick, Damon. You assumed. You know that they say about assuming," she chirped.

Tyler could not suppress his chuckle this time. "Damon is always an ass."

Damon glared at him and said, "No one asked for your input, Wolf Boy."

Bonnie rolled her eyes at both of them. She tugged on Damon's arm to regain his attention.

He looked down at her. "I appreciate what you are trying to do, but…"

She said, "I made Tyler steal blood from a hospital for you. I also spent an obscene amount of money on your bourbon habit. The least you could do is stay for a few minutes. I have big news to tell you. Please?"

Damon looked at the ceiling for a moment. Then he said, "Fine…"

Bonnie grinned at Damon before returning to her seat. She took a travel mug out of Mari's diaper bag and placed it next to the bourbon bottles. "For you…"

He sat down in the empty chair and opened the travel mug. He cracked the smallest smile when the aroma reached his nose. Bonnie had made sure that Tyler stole his favorite blood type. He decided it would be a shame to let good blood go to waste. "I have one condition."

"Okay," Bonnie said expectantly.

"I don't want to talk about anything that happened last night," he said firmly.

Damon had not spoken to his brother about the situation yet. He snapped Stefan's neck every time the younger man tried to broach the subject. The act was satisfying but he knew that they would have to discuss it at some point. Their niece was still alive and it seemed that she would be sticking around for a bit. Damon had half-expected Stefan to whisk the girl to safety after he retired to his bedroom last night. However, the girl had offered a meek greeting before Damon left the boarding house. He had stumbled over a reply on his way out the door. Sarah obviously did not know the reason she had been put up for adoption.

She rolled her eyes. "Get over yourself, Damon. We are here to talk about me. I told you that I have been experiencing some side effects."

Damon stopped mid gulp. He looked at Bonnie with some concern. "Are you okay, Bon-Bon?"

Tyler frowned when Mari snatched the spoon from his hand. "Hey…"

Mari giggled and splashed pureed sweet potatoes all over her face and bib.

She felt marginally bad for making Damon worry about her. However, it was better than letting him brood some more over Stefan's decision. Damon brooding usually ended with him draining humans. She said, "Sure. It will just take some time for the side effects to fade."

"How long?" he asked.

Tyler haphazardly cleaned the orange puree from Mari's face. Meanwhile, he tried not to laugh at Damon.

"About nine months," she replied.

Damon's eyes narrowed as he realized what Bonnie meant. His head snapped in Tyler's direction. The hybrid looked entirely too smug. Damon wondered how angry Bonnie would be if he snapped the teen's neck.

Bonnie kicked Damon's foot under the table as if she had read his mind. She motioned at him. "This is the part where you offer half-hearted congratulations."

The vampire ran through about a dozen responses. Most of them would probably end with Bonnie frying his brain like a pork chop. Finally, he said, "You better hope that kid looks like you."

"Don't be a jerk, Damon."

Tyler joked snidely, "That is like telling the sun not to shine."

Bonnie laughed at Damon's sour expression. She said, "Cheer up. I have already decided that you are going to be my baby's godfather."

The brown-eyed hybrid's jaw dropped because they definitely had not discussed that. "What?!"

Damon gave a full-throated laugh at Tyler's expense. The teen's expression was truly priceless. He felt just a little of his irritation bleeding away.

Bonnie shrugged her shoulders and smiled at her mate innocently. "I figured Damon was the logical choice for godfather. I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for him."

Tyler opened and closed his mouth a few times and then just scowled. He could see Bonnie's point of view. On the other hand, Damon was an annoying bastard with some serious psychopathic tendencies. "It is still early, Bon. We don't have to decide now."

She flashed a smile that could only be described as cherubic. "You are right. I got ahead of myself. I am just so excited."

He frowned because Bonnie's face and words said one thing but the bond was telling him something completely different. Tyler eyed Bonnie carefully because it seemed as if they would have their first argument as a couple later.

Bonnie turned back to Damon. "Anyway, you are the first person that we've told. It would be nice if you kept it to yourself for now."

"You haven't told Blondie yet?" he asked with a smirk. "I thought the Ya-Ya Sisterhood was back together."

She shrugged her shoulders a little. "I only figured it out a couple days ago. You were the first friend that I wanted to tell."

"Well, obviously. I mean if there was a friend draft, I would go in the first round," Damon boasted.

"Obviously," Bonnie replied.

Damon looked between the young couple before he muttered, "Congratulations."

"Your happiness for us is overwhelming," Tyler heckled.

Bonnie said, "We'll take it."

She took the spoon from Tyler because he was doing a horrible job with feeding Mari. She smiled at him in thanks.

Tyler chuckled and kissed Bonnie's temple. "Was I as bad at that as I think that I was?"

Bonnie nodded with a small smirk. "But it isn't as if Mari made it easy on you. She is very demanding. You would think I didn't feed her just a few hours ago."

Damon thought back to the strange conversation he had with Elodie in the car yesterday. She had asked him if Bonnie and Tyler had been successful. He did not understand the question at the time. However, Elodie's meaning had just become clear. Damon decided that he did not feel like thinking about it too much. The less he thought about Bonnie and Tyler having sex the better. Instead, he cracked open a bottle of bourbon and drank from it.

Bonnie asked, "How is it?"

"Not as good as my normal brand but not terrible," he replied.

She shrugged and said, "Well, you have three more to try."

Damon chuckled because he would probably drink all of them before it was all said and done. His supply was running low at the boarding house because of his encounter with Rebekah. The Original siblings found a way to ruin even life's simplest pleasures.

"You might be able to come home soon," Damon said.

Bonnie lifted an eyebrow in response. "What's going on?"

"I had a run-in with Barbie Klaus last night. She seems desperate to undo whatever the hell Lucy did to her brother. Elodie thinks that Klaus can't physically control his siblings which makes them more dangerous. She is worried that Rebekah or Elijah might do something to hurt Lucy. I am sure she will be calling you with a plan soon," he replied.

She frowned because that was not encouraging. Bonnie had allowed herself to feel hopeful after talking to Lucy yesterday. She should have known it was too good to be true. Bonnie felt torn. She did not know if she should trust Lucy's judgment. Perhaps their aunt was more unbiased and therefore more trustworthy in this situation.

Bonnie said, "I was reading over the notes in Lucy's grimoire. I don't understand all of the computations. They were more complex than anything I have ever seen. Some of it was in a language that I did not know off hand. But the description sounds like she hexed Klaus' vampire side. He may be somewhat incapacitated."

Damon took another gulp of bourbon and asked, "Do you know what the hex does?"

Tyler was interested to hear this, too. He could not imagine what hex would be so dangerous that Rebekah would be worried for her nearly indestructible brother.

"I am piecing this together from notes and Stefan's account of what happened in the caves. I think the hex caused Klaus' vampire side to rot. It should have stopped his heart and desiccated him. But Elijah pulled out the dagger before the hex finished the job," she replied.

Tyler whistled lowly. He said, "Remind me to never piss off your cousin."

The girl shook her head sadly. "That hex wasn't something created out of anger. It reads of desperation. Lucy went to some really dark places to create it."

Damon studied the witch beside him. Then he casually said, "That's one way to handle the custody agreement."

Bonnie tensed and then looked at Damon with wide eyes. "What did you just say?"

He shook his head. "Don't look so nervous, Witchy. I am not going to hire a skywriter anytime soon. I assume that Lucy wants to keep this quiet."

"How do you know?" Tyler asked with a frown.

"Stefan overheard the Originals talking. Elijah referred to the kid as Klaus' daughter. You don't need to worry. I am the only person that Stefan told. He plans to keep it that way."

Bonnie relaxed somewhat. "Thank you, Damon. Lucy swore me to secrecy."

He nodded. "I have enough problems without pissing off a bunch of Bennett witches."

The witch opened her mouth ready to seize on that sentence.

Damon lifted an unimpressed eyebrow. "You remember our deal."

Bonnie pouted at him and shoved the travel mug in his direction. "Drink your blood."

He grinned and said, "Don't mind if I do."

The witch rested her chin on both her hands and smiled innocently at Damon. "So…you and Elodie, huh?"

Damon swallowed so quickly that he choked.

Tyler barked out a laugh. Watching Bonnie and Damon interact was comical. He had learned that earlier in the year during their cross-country road trip.

Bonnie's innocent smile turned into a wolfish grin. She said, "You probably should have showered before coming to lunch."

He snorted. "I thought you were dying!"

"How long have the two of you been a thing?" she asked curiously.

"We aren't a thing," he objected.

"Are you saying that my great-great-aunt is your one-night stand?" she asked with a disapproving edge to her voice.

Damon scowled at Bonnie because she had not left him any good choices.

Tyler volunteered, "Friends with benefits?"

She shot a glare at Tyler.

He held his hands up in surrender. "I was only trying to help."

Damon rolled his eyes at the teen. He shifted his attention to Bonnie and said, "I am not sure what you want me to say here. I have been alive a long time. Elodie has been alive a long time, too. The two of us hooking up on occasion was sort of inevitable."

"I am not sure that is what Emily had in mind when she asked you protect her bloodline," she replied sarcastically.

"Well, your great-great-grandwitchy tricked me into believing Katherine was in the tomb. Defiling one of her descendants seems a small price for her deception," he quipped.

Bonnie's eyes narrowed dangerously.

Damon grunted in pain as blood vessels in his brain began to pop. He would have been mildly nostalgic about the whole ordeal if he was not momentarily blind from the pain. The psychic attack ended as quickly as it began. He glared at Bonnie. "You're the one that started asking about my sex life, Judgy."

She huffed. "I know but you won't talk about the thing that I want you to talk about."

"You don't need to worry about that. I'll snap's Stefan neck another six to ten times and then we will be square."

Bonnie's expression melted into a smile. She said, "That's all I wanted to hear."

Tyler looked between the two of them in complete bemusement. Few people would think Damon's way of dealing with his anger was reasonable.

Damon's phone started to vibrate in his pocket. He pulled out the phone and scowled at the screen. "Speak of the devil."

Bonnie perked up when she heard that it was Stefan.

The vampire answered the phone in a gruff voice. "What do you want?"

"We have a problem, Damon."

He rolled his eyes in exasperation. "You are going to have to give me some details if you expect me to stop getting drunk. You know day drinking is my second favorite activity."

"I am pretty sure that Sheriff Forbes has stumbled across a couple of Travelers," he explained.

Damon put the phone on speaker and then put it on the table. "I am here with Bonnie and Tyler. What's going on? Is Liz okay?"

"She is fine, Damon. Two of Liz's deputies have been out sick for a couple days. There is just one problem, their wives showed up at the station this morning. They haven't been home since the night we put the wards in place."

Bonnie frowned. "If those deputies are being possessed by travelers they might be stranded outside the town's boundaries."

"That would definitely be in our favor," Damon commented.

He was not the biggest fan of Mystic Falls. After all, the town's residents did murder him for being in love with a vampire. However, Mystic Falls was still the only home he had ever known. All the other places Damon had ever lived were just way stations on his journey. He did not like the idea of his town being overrun by travelers. He was the only one that should be terrorizing the citizenry.

She said, "There is another option that isn't as great."

He huffed. "Of course there is…"

"The wards can't expel travelers that are passengers in someone else's body. However, it does cause the person's eyes to turn black as oil. That isn't the type of thing that you can hide from someone. It is possible that our missing deputies are hiding out somewhere in Mystic Falls."

Damon took another gulp of his bourbon. On the bright side, he was going to get to kill some travelers. The downside was that he had to stop drinking. Lucy never had the chance to cast the spell that would protect them from possession. He would have to be mostly sober and lucid while facing the travelers.

Tyler said, "It can't be a coincidence that two travelers decided to possess sheriff's deputies. We should probably check on other important Mystic Falls' residents."

Stefan said, "Caroline and I had the same idea. Liz is getting city hall's directory for us. We are going to make sure no one else has been suspiciously absent from work."

"I don't know if you should do that without the knife, Stefan. If you happen to find travelers, you will have to kill them before they can possess you or worse. Unfortunately, you will just be killing the human vessel because the traveler will return to his or her own body," Bonnie explained.

Damon opined, "Witchy is right. Our numbers are too few and reinforcements haven't arrived yet. We can't afford to lose anyone to the travelers. See what you can find out by using the phone."

Stefan conceded, "Caroline and I will head back to the boarding house."

"Take Liz with you," Damon added.

Bonnie said, "In the meantime, I am going to see if Aunt Elodie can help me perform the spell to protect us from the travelers. I have the spell because it is in Lucy's grimoire. But I will need some ingredients that I don't have on hand."

Stefan asked, "Does this mean that you are coming back to Mystic Falls?"

The green-eyed girl frowned because that was a good question. She glanced at Mari and said, "I don't know yet. I need to speak with my aunt first."

"I'll call you back when I have an update," Damon said and then hung up.

"That was rude," Bonnie chided.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I am sure my brother's delicate sensibilities will survive."

Jeremy did not enjoy being ordered around by Damon. Unfortunately, he could not behave petulantly when there could be a real threat lurking within the town's borders. It seemed obvious now that they should have been looking for suspicious activities all along. Nevertheless, taking down the Augustine Group first still felt like the right decision. Jeremy felt even surer of that after the horror show he witnessed last night. The simple truth was that they did not have any good choices when enemies were attacking from all sides. Damon had even suggested that the Augustine Group's sudden arrival had been a red herring arranged by the travelers.

After Jeremy finished making the bed in Liz's guest room, he pulled on his jacket. He walked into the living room to tell Elena that he was leaving. However, she did not even acknowledge his arrival. Jeremy realized that Elena was staring at her phone again. She had been obsessed with her social media accounts since yesterday. Jeremy thought it was somewhat neurotic but he understood it was the only reliable account of Katherine's activities while masquerading as Elena. The young hunter hid it well but he felt even more guilt than Bonnie and Caroline did. He had spent countless hours with Katherine and never once suspected the truth.

"Elena…"

The vampire's head snapped in her brother's direction. She had only meant to skim her Instagram account. The plan changed when she realized that Katherine had posted several hundred pictures. Elena found herself somewhere between bewildered and jealous of the other doppelganger. Katherine had seemingly made the most of her stint as a college student. She had actually pledged a freaking sorority. Elena had always wanted to join a sorority but she gave up that dream after becoming a vampire. She had told herself that there were just some college experiences that were closed for her. However, the most painful aspect was seeing all the pictures of Katherine and Jeremy together.

Elena had also used social media to catch up on what her friends had been doing. The fact that no one had really missed her stung. She tried to remember that Katherine had pushed everyone away. It made sense in a way. The best way to avoid detection would be to break contact with people that would notice inconsistent behavior.

She noticed that Jeremy was wearing a jacket. "Hey, Jer. Where are you headed?"

"I need to go over to Nadia's apartment. I am on doppelganger babysitting duty because she is needed here," he explained.

She tried not to feel hurt that he was rushing off to look after Katherine. Elena said, "Well, let me get a few things and I will come with you."

Jeremy made a pained expression. "I don't think that would be a good idea. Katherine is just going to make you angry. But you won't be alone here for long. Matt is on his way over to keep you company."

Elena said, "I don't care about Katherine. I just want an opportunity to catch up with you, Jer. We really haven't had time to talk since I came back."

He walked around the couch and hugged his sister. "I know and I am sorry. Everything has been crazy but I want to catch you up on my life. We will make time for that, Lena. I promise. It just can't be right now. The travelers can't get their hands on Katherine or Tom. We also can't have Klaus finding out about Tom. He is the only human doppelganger left as far as we know."

Elena knew that Jeremy was right but it did little to help the ache in her chest. She nodded sadly. "Okay."

Jeremy hugged her again. "You should be safe until Matt gets here. Just don't open the door without looking out the peephole first. Damon said that anyone being possessed by a traveler will have black eyes because of the ward Bonnie and her cousin placed on the town."

"You talked to Damon?" she asked curiously.

He nodded. "Yeah. He's the one that told me to head over to Nadia's apartment. She won't leave her mom and Tom unprotected. Damon thinks that we could use the help of a 500-year-old vampire. Besides, she knows more about travelers than any of us do."

Elena had been hoping that Damon would talk to her last night. However, he seemed preoccupied by something that Stefan did. She was not really clear on the details because no one told her anything. She was back in her own body but she still felt adrift.

Jeremy could see that Elena was conflicted but he really needed to go. He said, "On second thought, you should come with me. It makes more sense for Matt to help everyone else search for travelers. They are going to need all the help they can get. And Nadia kinda likes him."

"Are you sure?" she asked tentatively.

He smiled at his sister and patted his messenger bag. "Sure. I'll just inject Katherine with vervain if she becomes too annoying."

Elena beamed in response. "I'll be ready in a sec."

Jeremy said, "I'll be waiting outside in the truck."

She nodded and then blurred out of the room.

Jeremy walked outside and climbed into the truck. He sent a group message to let everyone know that Elena would be with him. He was sure that there would be some objections but she was his sister. Jeremy got to decide how to handle reintegrating her into the real world.

Elena joined him less than a minute later. She had raced around the house at full speed changing clothes and getting a snack for the road. She was less likely to be murderous if she was not hungry. She smiled at Jeremy. "Ready…"

Jeremy chuckled and started the truck. As he drove away from the Forbes' home he asked, "Did you sleep at all last night?"

She nodded. "I slept for a few hours. I was expecting Caroline to wake me when she came home."

He winced in sympathy. "She ended up staying the night at the boarding house."

"With Stefan," Elena said as if she was still trying to wrap her mind around it.

"Yeah."

"And Bonnie is dating Tyler."

Jeremy's entire body went rigid. "Yeah."

"She told me that the two of you broke up. What happened, Jer? I know how much you love Bon."

He shook his head. "I really don't want to talk about this, Elena. I made some mistakes…"

"What kind of mistakes?" she asked with a sinking feeling.

Jeremy could already hear the judgment in his sister's voice. He argued, "She was different after coming back from the Other Side. You'll see what I mean when you spend more time together."

Elena frowned because that was less of an explanation and more of an excuse. "Jer…"

He glanced at his sister and then looked back at the road. He knew that Elena would learn the truth eventually. Bonnie might do him the courtesy of keeping it a secret. However, Caroline had been vocal in her disapproval after everything came to light. He frowned because come to think of it, Tyler had expressed his disapproval before Bonnie learned the truth. On several occasions, he had told Jeremy to break up with Bonnie rather than cheating on her. Sometimes Jeremy wished that he had taken Tyler's advice but now he wondered if it had been self-serving.

"I started dating this girl in my grade," he confessed.

"How could you do that to Bonnie a second time?" she asked with a scowl.

"You don't need to tell me that I was a jerk, Lena. I know. I made a mistake. If I could take it back I would. I just felt so lost. I still do sometimes."

She said, "I wasn't here. I don't know what happened between you and Bonnie. I don't know what you were going through at the time. I'm sorry."

Jeremy frowned. "You don't have to apologize to me. It isn't your fault that you weren't here."

"No, but I am starting to realize I wasn't a very good sister to you even before then."

"That's not true," he said quietly. "Other stuff just got in the way."

Elena felt as if she had been punched in the stomach but he was right. Everything else got in the way of Elena looking out for her brother. "I am going to do better," she promised.

"You don't have to…"

"But I want to, Jeremy. I could have lost your forever."