Bonnie had been quietly reading from the book The House on Pooh Cornerfor about a half hour. She loved the book almost as much as Sarah did. However, she looked down and realized that the little girl had fallen asleep at some point. She smiled as she closed the book and placed it on the nightstand. Despite, Damon's presence in the house, Bonnie was still letting Sarah sleep in the master bedroom. If Damon objected, he could find somewhere else to sleep. She wouldn't force their daughter to sleep alone again until she was ready. She tucked Sarah in more securely and then climbed out of the bed.

She quietly walked to the vanity and retrieved the phone from her jewelry box. Then she entered the bathroom so that her call wouldn't disturb Sarah's rest. Bonnie locked the door and then had a seat on the marble counter top. She needed to get this call out of the way before Damon decided it was time to turn in for the night. He had been locked in the office for several hours now. She could only hope that he was working on a way to kill his degenerate father. One way or another Giuseppe had better be in a coffin the next time she laid eyes on him. She dialed a number that she knew by heart and waited for an answer despite the late hour.

The person picked up after the first ring. "I've been waiting for you to call me for the last hour. I was beginning to get worried, Bon."

Bonnie's lips curved into a tiny smile at his concern. Her fingers fiddled with the Saint Christopher's medal that hung around her neck. "I'm fine, Ty. What exactly did you expect to happen?"

In exasperation, he said, "Excuse me for being worried about you unprotected in the lion's den. I heard that Alaric, Zach, and Stefan flew out there."

Her spine straightened at that. "What danger did you expect me to face in my own home? This isn't the Salvatore Manor."

He scoffed, "You give your coward of a husband too much credit. You always have. A real man would have never allowed something like this to happen to any woman...let alone his wife. Excuse me if I don't have as much confidence in him as you do."

Bonnie would have chastised anyone other than Tyler for speaking about Damon in such a way. She didn't even let her family get away with questioning his character. However, Tyler was a different case. He was her best friend and confidante. The pair had few secrets from each other, which meant he knew all about Damon's indiscretions and shortcomings. She already knew that defending Damon would fall on deaf ears with him. "Well, put your mind to rest because I am fine. I was just making sure that Sarah got to sleep okay before I called."

"How is she doing? Any more nightmares?" he asked with genuine concern.

"Sarah is doing better. She hasn't had any nightmares since last week. I think that the worst of it might be over…at least I hope that is the case," she confessed.

"She'll get through this because of you, Bon."

Bonnie nodded but the guilt hung on her heavily. She was just as responsible as Damon was for allowing Sarah to live in the same house with that man. She could have made demands of her husband months or even a year ago once the adoption was final. "Tell me that you have some good news. I could really use some right now."

Tyler said, "Yeah. Alaric reached out to Uncle Mason tonight. He wants him to figure out where John's head is when it comes to who should succeed Giuseppe. He's going to meet with John tomorrow over drinks."

She rolled her eyes at the mention of John Gilbert. He had his uses but he was a snake. "You have spent enough time with him. Where do you think his head is on the matter?"

Tyler had been dating John's niece off and on for the last couple of years. He spent time with the man inside and outside of the business. However, it just meant he was more inclined to hate John.

"He's arrogant and presumptuous but I think even he knows that his life would be forfeit if he tried taking Giuseppe's place after his death. By the way, the word is Damon has people searching for the old man in Milazzo. He isn't staying at the Salvatore compound."

Bonnie smiled. She had been confident that Damon would kill his father. However, she was grateful that he was moving about things swiftly. She didn't want Giuseppe's death to become a lengthy maneuver. "Hopefully, he will have lowered his guard in the last few weeks. The last thing we want is for Giuseppe to see the hit coming. You know he wouldn't hesitate to kill Damon in retaliation."

Tyler sighed and said, "I should have killed him that night when you came to my house. When I saw your face…"

Bonnie had gone to Tyler first because there was no one else. She didn't have any family in the city. "I know that you wanted to protect me but there wasn't a plan, Ty. We would have had hell on our hands while we figured out what to do with the dead body of the West Coast's biggest crime boss. Either you would have gone down for the murder or we would have had to pin it on someone else. There wasn't time for that before he got on the plane to Sicily and you know it. Letting Damon sanction the hit on his father is our best chance."

"I won't let him get near you again. If Damon won't pull the trigger then I will, Bon."

Bonnie knew that he didn't make idle threats. She loved Tyler because he was fierce and loyal. However, he used to be a hothead prone to violent outbursts at inopportune times. He had gotten better in the last few years but something like this was liable to make him revert to his former self. She said, "Damon wants him gone. I gave him the means to make that happen with as little blowback as humanly possible. I trust him to make this right. I know that you don't trust him and I wouldn't ask you to do that. However, I am asking you to trust me. Can you do that, Ty?"

"You know that I love you. I trust you with my life. But I don't know if I trust you with your own. When it comes to Damon…I'm not so sure, Bon. It's like you have a blind spot for him."

She snapped, "Like you don't have a blind spot for Elena. Or should we just pretend that she doesn't think that she's better than you? Little Miss Medical School likes to pretend that her father and uncle haven't been working for the Salvatores for years."

"You're right. Elena does think that she's slumming it by being with me. The difference is I'm not tied to her for the rest of my life."

She laughed coldly. "Not yet but we both know that you're going to propose to her soon."

The line went quiet for a moment. "We're not going to get married. I doubt that we will even be together by Valentine's Day."

Bonnie's anger cooled at the sound of his voice. "What happened? I thought that you two were happy."

"Don't pretend that you want us together, Bon. I know how much you hate her."

"Hate is a strong word. I don't hate Elena. I mean I don't like her but that's a far cry from hate. Besides, it doesn't matter how I feel about Elena. I know that you love her. I want you to be happy."

Tyler said, "We've just been growing apart. It's not important. I'm more concerned about you right now."

Bonnie shook her head. "I know that my life is crazy right now but I'm still here for you. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not much to say. Elena just prefers hanging out with her med school friends. She wants to be this…different person now. I'm not sure that I fit into her five-year plans anymore. I'm not even sure that I still want to fit into her plans."

"What about your plans, Ty?"

"I don't know…they are the same as they always were."

"You mean you still want to become a professional snowboarder and race car driver?" she asked teasingly.

Tyler huffed out a surprised laugh. "I had almost forgotten about that. You wanted to be a ballerina ninja."

Bonnie chuckled and corrected him. "I wanted to be ballerina assassin."

Tyler chuckled and then paused. "I'm sorry for getting shitty about Damon. He's your husband and you love him. I get it but don't ask me not to hate him. You deserve better than him and his fucked up family."

"I was going to be someone's possession the moment Grams found out that she was dying. I was too young to take over the business myself. If it wasn't Damon then it would have been a cousin distant enough that our children wouldn't come out with extra fingers or toes."

"Don't talk about yourself that way. You're not a possession."

Bonnie said, "We both know that I am. I'm still too young to take over the smuggling operation. The men wouldn't respect me. I would lose what it took 100 years for my family to build. I won't let something as simple as pride take that from me. I have a plan and I am going to follow it until I can take what is rightfully mine. If things work out with Damon then that's great. If not…then we will just have to hope that one of the twins is a boy. Then he'll never have to touch me again. I should go. It's getting late."

Tyler sighed and then asked, "When will you be home?"

"I'll be back early next week. It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without dinner at the Salvatore Manor."

"We'll keep in touch until then. I'll let you know what Uncle Mason finds out from John."

"Thanks, Ty. I'll talk to you tomorrow." Bonnie ended the call and then sat there for a few moments. She didn't like arguing with Tyler. He was one of the few people in her very small support system. She lived in the manor surrounded by Damon's family. They all cared for her but at the end of the day they would always choose his best interest over hers. She couldn't blame them. What was good for Damon was good for the future of the Salvatore family.

She slid off the counter and landed gingerly on her feet. Then she went into the bedroom and hid the phone in her jewelry box once more. Bonnie contemplated climbing into bed to get a good night's rest. However, too many thoughts and emotions cluttered her weary mind.

She picked up a thick fleece blanket as she walked out of the balcony's glass paned doors. It was cold outside by Southern California's standards. However, Bonnie liked the brisk weather of the Pacific Northwest. It felt like home to her. She settled down on the wicker loveseat and watched as the trees swayed in the wind. Her hand settled on her flat stomach. "It's going to be okay," she whispered.

Bonnie was worried for her unborn children and Sarah. Once upon a time, she had been a little girl that had witnessed the cruelties of life. She only hoped that the memories of that fateful night would fade for Sarah with time. Bonnie hadn't been so lucky as a child.

Her ears perked up when she heard someone bumping around the bedroom. She had left the doors open just enough that she could hear if Sarah needed her. Bonnie stood and walked into the bedroom. However, Sarah was still sleeping soundly.

"Son of a bitch," Damon barked from inside the bathroom.

She quietly crossed the room and lightly knocked on the bathroom door. "Are you okay, Damon?"

Damon opened the bathroom door with a sheepish look on his face. He was wearing a pair of pajama bottoms and had a toothbrush hanging from his mouth. He took out the toothbrush and said, "I'm sorry. I hope I didn't wake Sarah."

Bonnie shook her head and said, "No, she's still asleep. I am sure that she is exhausted. She stayed up until 11 o'clock telling me about everything she wants to do tomorrow with Nico and Bella."

His lips twitched into a smile as he looked at the bed from over Bonnie's shoulder. Sarah, Nico, and Bella were all the same age. Growing up in the manor together made them as close as if they were siblings. Damon had grown up having a similar connection to Zach. He was closer in age to him than he was Stefan. He asked, "She's sleeping in here with us tonight?"

"I hope you don't mind. I figured that I would wait until she was ready to start sleeping alone again. She might not be ready until we go back home. She is used to sharing her room with Bella. I don't think she likes sleeping alone."

Damon shook his head. "No, I don't mind. I would have done the same thing."

Bonnie smiled and said, "I'll let you get back to brushing your teeth. I am going to sit outside for a little longer."

"Why don't I come join when I am finished in here? We haven't exactly had much time alone since I've been here."

His offer surprised the young woman. Bonnie nodded. "I would like that, Damon."

Damn brushed his fingers against her hand and said, "I won't be too much longer."

Bonnie left Damon to his nightly routine and returned to the balcony. She wrapped up in the fleece one more while she waited for him to join her. She wondered idly if he meant to update her about Giuseppe. However, Bonnie knew that he wouldn't speak with her honestly about the man's fate.

Damon pulled on a t-shirt as he stepped onto the balcony. He sat beside Bonnie on the loveseat. Genuine concern marred his handsome features. "How are you feeling? Are you in any pain?"

Bonnie pulled her knees up to her chin. "I'm a little sore but otherwise I am okay. Jo prescribed something mild for the pain. She said that it was safe for me to take it while pregnant but I don't want to risk it. I was in more pain last week and managed to survive without any pain medicine."

Damon didn't like knowing that she was in pain. He wished that she would just take the medication. However, he knew it was more about assuaging his guilt. Bonnie had survived without medication or his concern for her wellbeing. He took Bonne's hand and asked, "Why didn't you tell me what happened? If you had called me, I would have come home, Bonnie."

"My main concern was getting Sarah out of the manor and as far away from Giuseppe as humanly possible. I didn't even know where I was going when I got in the car. I just knew that I had to run," she said.

She removed her hand from his grasp and sought the Saint Christopher medal hanging from her neck. Her thumb caressed the image imprinted on the metal. Bonnie couldn't tell Damon that she had first run to Tyler Lockwood. He would ask too many questions and might even get curious about her in ways he had never been.

Damon studied her heart-shaped face for some sign of deception. He said, "I understand why you didn't call me that night. Getting you and Sarah to safety had to take precedence. I just don't understand why you didn't call me once you were here."

"I was angry at you. Is that what you want to hear?"

He saw something that he didn't recognize glint in Bonnie's eyes. "Yes, if that is the truth. I know that my work schedule can't be easy on you and Sarah."

She glared at him. "I'm not stupid, Damon. I knew where you were. I always know where you are when you disappear for days at a time. I could have driven into the city to confront you at the Rischard but I didn't want to deal with it."

Damon felt his heartbeat quicken at her admission. He wasn't delusional enough to belief that Bonnie was unaware of his extramarital activities. However, knowing that he maintained a penthouse at the Rischard was another matter. "Bunny…"

"It is what it is, Damon. I knew about your relationship with Katherine before we got married. Grams warned me that it would likely continue. I accepted that your infidelity would be part of the arrangement. My only concern was that you kept it out of the public eye so that I wasn't humiliated. You've done well in that area. I don't particularly like Katherine but then again I wouldn't really like any mistress of yours. But she is very unpleasant," she bit out.

His eyes nearly bulged right out of their sockets. He asked, "How do you know about Katherine?"

Bonnie resisted the urge to scream in frustration. Of course, his first reaction was to ask how she knew about his mistress. She gave a bitter little laugh. "Did you really think that someone as petty and vindictive as Katherine wouldn't make her presence known? She's contacted me on numerous occasions over the years."

Damon couldn't believe that Katherine would betray his trust this way. She knew how hard it was for him to allow anyone into his life. "Why haven't you ever mentioned any of this to me?"

She shrugged and placed her feet on the ground. "We have a good thing going. You pretend to love me and I pretend to believe you. Telling you about Katherine's pathetic attempts to hurt my feelings would only make us have to confront the elephant in the room. You see how well that is going."

"I don't pretend to love you, Bunny. I do love you. I'm sorry that Katherine has been contacting you. I obviously didn't know but I will put a stop to it," he promised.

Bonnie wasn't surprised by Damon's lackluster response. Of course, he believed the problem stemmed from Katherine, instead of acknowledging that the affair was wrong. "I don't care about Katherine. She's insignificant. It isn't as if you are going to leave me for her. You are stuck with me. I just hoped that you would grow tired of her at some point. Or maybe…"

Damon asked, "Or maybe what?"

Bonnie shook her head and looked down at her hands. "Nothing. It's stupid."

He rested a hand on her knee and said, "Don't do that. I want to know what's on your mind, Bonnie."

"I guess I hoped that one day you might fall in love with me, too," she whispered. Bonnie hated feeling vulnerable with Damon. She loved him too much. She gave him too much power over her.

Damon felt a lump form in his throat as he swallowed. He thought back to his conversation with Rose that morning. He asked, "You're in love with me?"

She nodded.

"Since when?" he asked incredulously.

She stood up and said, "You're going to think that I'm an idiot. Can we just drop this, please? It's late and I should be in bed anyway."

He took both of her hands into his and steered her back to the loveseat. "Please, don't run away from me. Just talk to me, Bunny. Please?"

She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "You've always been an important part of my life. I guess somewhere along the way I developed a crush on you. Then one day Grams tells me that I am going to marry you. I thought…all of my dreams were coming true. Then she told me about Katherine and it broke my silly little heart. I guess I should have tried harder to stop myself from falling in love with you but I didn't know how to do that."

Damon just sat there as he digested Bonnie's confession. He understood that she had just gone out on a limb. He couldn't leave her hanging. "I do love you, Bonnie. You are important to me."

Bonnie nodded with a crestfallen expression. The epiphany she had been hoping for wasn't going to happen. "But you don't love me as a man should love his wife. You love me as a friend or God forbid as a sister."

Damon chuckled darkly and said, "We have sex on a regular basis. I think it is safe to say that I don't love you as a sister."

She looked down and steeled herself. She said, "Then as a friend…"

He suppressed a frustrated growl. Damon didn't like being caught off guard and he had just been blindsided. His wife was in love with him and just being with him was hurting her. He seriously wondered what in the hell Sheila had been thinking entrusting him with her pride and joy. He was too broken to be a good husband. It took all of his energy to be a good father to Sarah and he wasn't always sure that he succeeded on that front. All he strived to do was not ruin his daughter in the way that Giuseppe had ruined him.

Bonnie saw that he was struggling to come up with a response. She could hear Tyler's warning in her head. She forced a smile for his benefit. "It's okay, Damon. I had no right to expect more than you can give me. I mean there are worse fates than having a husband that isn't in love with you. I could have been married off to someone like Giuseppe."

He huffed out a pained laugh. "Being married to me is slightly better than being married to an abusive psychopath."

"That's not what I said," she argued.

"No, that's what I am saying. You shouldn't need to feel grateful that I don't get drunk on the weekends and beat you. It's not insane or asking too much for your husband to be in love with you. Things are just complicated, Bonnie. Between the age difference and my profession, I never imagined that you would fall in love with me. From the moment, Giuseppe told me about the arrangement, I was terrified that you would be afraid of me."

Bonnie squeezed his hand. "I have never been afraid of you, Damon. I couldn't be. You have always been gentle and considerate with me. Even though you weren't in love with me I could see how you tried to make me happy. I mean you let me go to college despite all of the grief Giuseppe gave you about it."

The older man had been convinced that Bonnie would divorce Damon after finding someone closer to her own age.

He rolled his eyes as he thought about the argument he had with his father about Bonnie enrolling in school. "I wanted you to be able to make friends and get out of the house. I know that our lifestyle puts some unfair limitations on you. I want to give you as normal a life as our circumstances permit."

"I don't want normal. I want you, Damon."

Damon heard the sincerity in her words and it made him feel even worse. He could literally give Bonnie almost anything under the sun. However, all she wanted was for Damon to love her as much as she loved him. "You have me, Bonnie."

She decided now was the time to put her cards on the table. She had to know if this was a lost cause. Bonnie had her plans but they could change. She asked, "Do you think that you could ever fall in love with me? It's okay if you can't. I'll understand. I just need to know if I should stop hoping for the impossible."

Damon really considered her question and said, "Yes, I think that I could. I think I haven't allowed myself to consider the option because I didn't think that was what you would want. Maybe we can explore things between us once Giuseppe has retired."

Bonnie said, "I would like that, Damon."

He cupped her cheek and kissed her sweetly. "Yeah?"

Her cheeks flushed after the kiss. She nodded. "Yes."

Damon settled back on the loveseat and opened his arms. "Come here."

Bonnie shifted so that her head was resting on his shoulder. She pulled the fleece blanket around her more. A little voice told her not to put too much stock in Damon's words. However, her heart was running the show right now.

Damon's mind strayed to his mistress. His blood boiled at the thought of Katherine ever speaking to Bonnie. He could only imagine the things that she had said. Damon truly wondered what she thought calling Bonnie would accomplish. Their marriage was the merger of two legitimate and illegitimate enterprises. A little infidelity on his part wasn't going to suddenly end the relationship.

Then again, Katherine had a completely different upbringing than he and Bonnie did. She didn't know what it meant to have a duty to your family. Damon always knew that he wouldn't be able to marry for love. He was the eldest son and he was always going to marry someone of his father's choosing. The same was true for Bonnie. Sheila allowed Abby to marry for love. She picked a horrible man and it did nothing to benefit the family. Worse Sheila had to pay off Rudy to get him to go away. Abby's colossal failure had sealed her daughter's fate.

He knew one thing. Katherine would regret sticking her nose into his marriage.