Chapter 009

You Have My Blessing

Monday, December 13, 2010, 9:10 a.m.

Bonnie's House

Sunday was more of the same and every day after that my granddaughter didn't bother going to her house after school and Cheer Practice. Instead, she drove herself over to the Mikaelson's home and hung out, mostly with Kol and Rebekah, but with Niklaus and Elijah sometimes, too. They did homework, watched movies, did the occasional spell, and she's teaching all four of them how to cook homemade meals because they all seem inexplicably obsessed with the amount of sugar, sodium, and additives in processed food even though all that crap has little to no effect on their health unlike unlucky mortals.

Anyway, other times they just sat and talked about the things they've experienced in their long lives. Honestly, I think that's been my baby girl's favorite part of hanging out with all of them. They've seen so very much of history and different cultures, especially Kol. He traveled extensively through Africa, the Middle East, Asia, the Caribbean, and South, Central and North America before the Europeans really began colonizing other regions. His siblings mostly kept to the bigger more well-established cities in Eastern, Central, and Western Europe, and although they had exposure to plenty of culture and art, Kol spent time with various tribes and clans in the aforementioned places, so his experiences were vastly different and always involved witches and magick.

He wasn't kidding when he said he made friends with other witches either. It's been a little over a week since Bonnie began hanging out with the Mikaelson's and it's time for her bi-weekly phone conversation with her cousin, Lucy, whom she's been slowly getting to know better on the phone.

After they exchange pleasantries, my granddaughter explains, "I'm playing hooky from school today because Elena and Stefan's attitudes are getting on my nerves. That's why I'm calling so early."

Then she tells Lucy all that's been going on in her life in the last two weeks including everything she hadn't already told her about the search for The Cure, her premonition, and she explains about the Mikaelson's doing the balance spell after making Lucy swear to secrecy. Bonnie even admits that she killed Atticus and tells her about the 'shit ton of guilt' she feels over that fact.

I can hear the smile in Lucy's voice when she says, "Relax, Cuz, first things first, that professor was a predator worse than any vampire you might ever meet. He needed to die to protect the rest of the world. I know his death will haunt you for years at least, but every time you feel guilty remind yourself that by taking that one life you saved every other creature on the planet. That's what, 6.8 Billion lives you saved with that one death? That doesn't even consider what Silas would do to The Otherside so really the number of creatures you saved is much higher. Now, I don't have any similar life experience, but my gut says that with time the guilt will fade to a more manageable level. Just hang in there and keep reminding yourself of what would have happened to the world if you hadn't taken that life."

Bonnie nods and tells Lucy, "Okay, I'll try."

We both can hear the smile in her voice when Lucy tells my granddaughter, "Good, now as for your vampires, I actually know a bit about the Mikaelsons and specifically their relationships with other witches."

She proceeds to give Bonnie 'the 411' that other witches of the world have on Kol. "I have it on good authority that all four of the surviving Mikaelsons have only killed witches who have attacked or wronged the originals in some fashion. Every single one of them is highly regarded amongst the various witch communities around the globe, but none more so than Kol."

I can hear the smile in her voice widen when she says, "Seriously Bon, other than the fact that Kol is a vampire, which everyone usually overlooks, he's well known and highly respected by most lines of witches throughout the world. He's famous for taking young, inexperienced witches who, for whatever reason, don't have access to a teacher and he teaches them everything he knows about magick, which for the record is more than most witches will ever know. He's taught some of the most famous witches to ever live. I mean everyone from Alice Kyteler to Angele de la Barthe and Agnes Sampson. None of them were the evil bitches the Church made them out to be, and they were supposedly his students with Agnes being one of his last European students before his family came back to the New World."

She pauses then says, "Well, actually, I think Chalina Fernández and her sister Josefina were his last students before sailing to New Orleans. I think if I recall correctly Mikael killed Chalina and Josefina barely escaped with her life. The other originals helped her and her fiancé flee Spain and sail to New Orleans on the same ship they sailed there on. Therefore, her line is one of the most loyal to your original and really his whole family. Kol tried to save Josefina's sister almost getting himself killed in the process, and as I said the other three Mikaelson's helped her get out of Europe so that Mikael wouldn't hunt her down and torture and kill her out of spite because he missed his chance to do the same to his own children."

My grandbaby's eyes are wide at the last part, but she nods. Kol told her once that he can count the number of witches he's personally killed without provocation on both hands and still have a finger or two left over, and the number is only that high because it took so long to get his bloodlust under control. Those witches were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The other witches he's killed, some 230 or so by his count, betrayed him and tried to harm those he cared about. Witches the world over know and respect that, especially given how much drastically lower that number is than the thousands and in some cases hundreds of thousands of the other species he has killed throughout his entire life.

Bonnie never thought about the possibility that Mikael might attack his children's friends though she supposes it should have occurred to her based on everything Kol has told her about the ass. Anyway, she guesses the fact that Kol is so loyal to the witches he befriends and only harms them when they harm him or someone he cares about has earned him the trust, devotion, and loyalty of every witch he's ever met and most of the ones he's never met too, for that matter.

Lucy's not done surprising my baby girl, though, when she says, "The fact that Kol and the rest of his siblings are taking you on as a student says that they think very highly of you because they've never been ones to bother themselves with amateurs or witches who half-ass it. I know you had that issue with Expression and that Abby doesn't necessarily agree with your decision to trust The Original Family, but everything I know about Kol and his relationships with witches says that you're safe with him. He's never taught or advocated anyone using dark magick, and he's gone out of his way at least a dozen times that I know of to try to stop witches from killing themselves with that dark crap."

She takes a breath and then continues, "Whatever he and his family may have done to the humans, all four of the surviving Mikaelson's have been nothing but good and decent to witches until the witch double crosses them. Then the witch is screwed, but provided you don't try to harm them, I think you are safe with them, especially because I know you well enough at this point to know the likelihood of you attacking them is slim if they don't harm you and yours first. Ultimately, I think you'll be fine."

Bonnie nods and tells her, "Thanks, Lucy. That makes me feel better because Abby's been making me nervous with her unspoken disapproval."

Lucy laughs and says, "No problem, Little Cuz. She's your mom, so naturally, she's more reserved about you involving yourself with The Original Family of Vampires. If you were human and not a witch, I'd tell you to run and don't look back, but like I said, they all, but especially Kol, have nothing but good relationships and reputations among the multitude of witches around the world."

While my grandbaby was talking with Lucy, Finn popped into the room to tell me, "Kol is skulking in Bonnie's side yard listening to her phone conversation with her cousin. How is she so remarkably knowledgeable about my family and more specifically our history with other witches?"

I shake my head and tell him, "I don't know how she knows what she knows."

He nods and then goes back out to watch his brother's reactions to Bonnie and Lucy's conversation stating, "He's so funny when he's so very smug."

I just laugh and shoo him away, so I don't miss any more of Bonnie's talk with Lucy. I can still hear Finn chuckling while watching his brother outside.

I do tune into Kol's thoughts in time to hear when he realizes that Lucy is a Bennett too. Mere moments after Bonnie gets off the phone with Lucy my good for nothing ex-son in-law pulls into the driveway. He's breathing heavily when he gets out of his vehicle and slams the door so hard the glass rattles. While Rudy stomps his way from the driveway to the front door, Kol frowns and a knot forms in my stomach. This is not going to end well.

My granddaughter's whispered, "Crap," tells me that her father wasn't supposed to know that she's not in school today.

She already explained to Lucy that Elena's disapproving glares and Stefan's reproachful stares have begun to get on her nerves, so she decided to give herself a day free of them. A day where she could just be by herself away from everyone, and now her father is about to have a fit.

The door crashes into the wall when the ass shoves it open, and I flinch at the sound before he screams, "Bonnie, you selfish brat, get down here now!"

She sighs, and Kol moves closer to the door because his instincts have always been strong and right now he has a bad feeling about how this is about to play out. Bonnie is slowly walking down the hallway prompting her father to yell, "Now Bonnie, you do not want to make me wait."

She agrees with that opinion, so she rushes to the stairs and down them. The abusive ass my daughter married about 20 years ago is in the living room still breathing heavily.

From my angle, I watch while his eyes flash and he hisses when he sees Bonnie. Then he practically growls while he says, "I saw Principle McMahon this morning. When we finished our meeting, he wished you a speedy recovery. Care to explain why he thinks you're sick, and yet you are most definitely not sick?"

My baby girl sighs again and then answers in an incredibly quiet and obviously frightened voice while she stares at the ground and shifts her feet back and forth, "I'm having a fight with Elena, and I just wanted a day where I didn't have to put up with her crap."

Her horrible excuse for a father slams the front door closed making me jump before he asks, "So you thought it would be okay to skip school because of a childish argument? An argument with a girl I forbid you from being friends with anyway now that she's a vampire. Am I understanding you correctly?"

Bonnie's shaking like a leaf and she shuffles her feet again and still speaking in that small voice she tells him, "Yes Sir."

Kol hears nothing and then four large strides across the room before he then hears that unmistakable sound of flesh hitting flesh and bone cracking when Rudy smacks my precious granddaughter across her face so hard she crumples to the ground.

Kol doesn't stop to think he merely acts and is through the door in a matter of seconds. He only vaguely hears the door crash into the wall again while Rudy's eyes open wide and he shouts when Kol grabs hold of him and uses his hand to put pressure on the violent ass' pressure point in his neck.

My abusive ex-son in-law crumples to the floor a moment later, and Kol barely gives him a glance while he takes several deep breaths trying to calm himself, so he doesn't further frighten Bonnie, but all he can focus on is her obvious pain while she moans.

Kol steps in front of her where she's laying on the floor crying. Crouching, he slowly reaches out a hand towards her causing her to flinch. "Little Bella, can you hear me?"

Her head pops up prompting her to moan again before she trains blurry eyes on his face and asks, "Kol? How? What?"

He sighs because he knew the moment her father hit her that he was going to have to explain himself, so he tells her, "I promise to explain later and answer any questions you have. For now, can I convince you to drink some of my blood?"

She quickly shakes her head but whimpers mid shake because the pain in her quickly swelling cheek grows steadily when she moves. Her father definitely broke her cheekbone, so I'm not surprised that she's in so much pain when she moves.

Kol moves and sits on the floor and then pulls her still crying form into his arms before he says, "I heard your cheekbone crack from outside, so you are going to be in quite a bit of pain if you don't take some of my blood. I promise to keep an eye on you until I'm sure the blood is out of your system. Please."

It's been a long time since he's begged anyone for anything, but there is no question that please is him begging the woman who holds his heart to allow him to heal her. She nods slowly to keep the pain under control, so he bites into his wrist and then places the wound against her lips before she has a chance to change her mind. She wraps her lips around the wound and sucks. He allows her to take five swallows before he pulls his hand away and gently cradles her head against his chest.

While her bone stitches back together she can't stop the tears from continuing to fall, so he just softly strokes the back of her head and tells her, "Shh, Little Bella, I've got you. You're safe."

She nods slightly, but then she stiffens in his arms and frantically asks, "Where's my dad, Kol?"

Neither Kol nor I think the abusive ass deserves my baby girl's concern, but he knows she will insist on moving if he doesn't answer her question, so he tells her, "Shh, I used a pressure point to knock him unconscious but other than that he's unharmed. Does he normally hit you?"

She stiffens in his arms again. She shakes her head a moment later and tells him, "No, this was the first time."

In Kol's mind I see that she's glowing red when the words leave her mouth, so even without having witnessed him hit her on a regular basis since I died, I know she's lying through her teeth and so does he. He growls and tells her, "You forget, Little Bella, that you are not the only person who has used The Truth Spell. I can also smell a change in your scent, and the only explanation for that must be that when I healed you many bruises all over your body healed with your cheek. Therefore, your blood is no longer so close to the surface, so the jasmine scent of your blood isn't as strong as it was even five minutes ago."

He pauses and sighs while he lets that sink in then he asks, "How often does he hit you?"

My precious granddaughter stiffens even more before she whispers in that small, scared voice, "Um, not often?"

It kills Kol that the one creature who means more to him than almost anyone fears him hurting a man that clearly doesn't deserve her concern. He hears the frown in his own voice when he tells her, "You're still glowing red, Bonnie. How many times has he hit you in the last week?"

Now she's frowning when she asks, "Like instances where he hit me or the number of actual strikes?"

The usually short-tempered Kol thinks, 'Dammit that means he hits her multiple times a day probably.' Because it will be better if he doesn't lose that legendary temper and kill her father for harming her, he growls again and tells her, "Never mind, if you tell me either number I'm likely to break the truce. The important part is that I now know that he hits you on a regular basis, so I'm going to wait here with you until he wakes up, and then I'm going to compel him to never touch you again. He will never raise his hand to you in anger again."

She sighs but tells him, "You don't need to do that for—"

Is she seriously trying to talk him out of protecting her? He interrupts her to tell her exactly how things are going to play out this morning, "You're going to let me compel him, or I'm going to kill him right now and make it look like he got into an automobile accident, so the town's people will have no clue. The choice is yours."

She gasps at his words and grips his shirt tightly before she looks up at him and begs him, "Please, you can't kill him! Please!"

My darling grandbaby is far too caring and compassionate for someone who hurts her daily. Still, he sighs and kisses the top of her head before telling her, "I won't kill him if you let me compel him. Either way, though, you will be safe from now on."

She knows he's serious about her options, so she just nods, and they sit there on her floor until her father moans behind them. Kol stands with her in his arms and moves to the couch before placing her on the cushions. He looks her in the eyes and tells her, "You will stay here while I compel him."

She's still shaking uncontrollably, but she ignores her trembling and nods again, so he inclines his head and then stands up straight and moves so he's standing over her father.

The jackass shifts and moans again. When his eyes open and he's fully conscious he looks at Kol with hatred in his eyes before he hotly asks, "Who the hell are you, and what the hell are you doing in my house?"

Kol catches Rudy's muddy brown eyes and tells him, "From this moment forward you will never strike nor otherwise harm your daughter, physically or emotionally. You will not raise your voice to her, and you will only touch her to hug her, pat her shoulder or back gently or hold her hand. You may kiss her cheek or forehead if you choose to. Other than those exceptions you will not touch nor harm your daughter in any way ever again. You will support her in all of her endeavors, and you will not question her decisions."

Bonnie's eyes widen at that last part while Kol waits for her father to repeat his words back to him. When he has Kol tells him, "When I release you, you will get up and go back to work. You will not remember coming home this morning, your argument with Bonnie, the reason you were angry, that I have compelled you, any of the details of this compulsion, or that you've ever even met me before."

Rudy once more repeats Kol's words to him and then the original releases the abusive ass. Rudy gets up off the ground and picks up his keys off the floor by the still open door, and then he walks out the door and by the sound of it gets into his car and drives away.

Kol knows Bonnie is about to interrogate him, so he goes into her kitchen and then returns with a chair, which he places in front of her, so he can face her while she's on the couch. He frowns while he sits and then says, "Now, I'm sure you have questions so we will talk about that, and then if you're willing and are feeling up to it I came here to ask you to go somewhere with me."

She nods, so he smiles and tells her, "Ask your questions, Little Bella."

She frowns slightly and stops and thinks before asking, "How did you get inside the house?"

He nods and tells her honestly, "I had previously compelled an invitation into your home from your father."

Her eyes widen at that knowledge then they narrow before she asks, "How many times have you been inside my house?"

He smiles gently and tells her just as gently, "Relax, Little Bella, this is only the second time I've been inside your home. I didn't do it to invade your space. I did it, so I'd have access to your father, if necessary."

Scowling, my granddaughter asks, "Access for what?"

He's still smiling gently, and he leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees before he tells her, "Access to compel him if I needed to. The man is the Mayor, and he recently began putting Vervain in the water supply. I put an end to that behavior."

Her scowl turns into a frown, but she nods, and then they lapse into silence for a minute before she asks him, "What else have you compelled him to do?"

Despite the interrogation he's currently undergoing, he's quite pleased by her questions and the fact that despite her earlier upset she is asking every question she should be, so he smiles wider and says, "It's more what I compelled him not to do. I made sure he wouldn't consume or wear Vervain ever again, and I told him to never invite another vampire into this house even if they try to compel him into doing so."

She's still frowning while she stares at him. A moment later she asks, "Is that everything?"

He shrugs and says, "For the most part, yes."

Now my granddaughter is really frowning with narrowed eyes when she asks, "For the most part?"

Kol chuckles at her suspicion that he's not being straight with her because he's really not trying to evade her, so he tells her, "I don't have ulterior motives here, Little Bella. I may have also compelled him to support whatever decisions you might make regarding non-dark magick, but other than that and making sure he wouldn't try to harm my family or me I didn't hurt him, threaten him, or try to get him to do anything I thought you would disapprove of."

Her muscles relax at that, and they sit in silence for a moment or two then she asks, "When did you compel him the first time?"

She's still asking every question he would if their roles were reversed so still pleased by the distinctly higher than average intelligence she's exhibiting he smiles once again and tells her, "The night we made our truce. I knew that if he acted against us, I'd be forced to hurt him, and I was serious that first morning when I said I care about your needs and any pain you might be in. I'd go so far as to say that if possible I would keep you from feeling any pain, ever. The fact of the matter is, my harming or worse killing your father would have harmed you and caused you pain so I made sure my hand wouldn't be forced."

She nods slightly. He pauses to see if she has any further questions though he's confident they covered everything that his entering her house without an invitation today revealed. When she just sits on the couch looking at her fingers which are twisting between each other in an apparent nervous tick he says, "Now, if you don't have any further questions or object I have some questions I'd like the answers to."

She gulps but nods again without looking up at him, so he asks her, "When was the first time your father hit you?"

My baby girl's eyes widen but ever mindful of the immensely helpful truth spell she tells him, "I don't recall a time in my life when he didn't at least occasionally hit me. It kind of comes and goes in cycles, though since I hit puberty, it's been pretty consistent."

He nods then asks, "Does anyone else hurt you, Bonnie?"

She quickly shakes her head and tells him, "No, just him." When his eyebrow rises in question to the yellow glow he's seeing around his mate she adds, "Well, physically anyhow. Elena has been making snide comments. It's why I chose not to go to school today. Um, how did you know I was home?"

Kol smiles slightly and leaning towards her again tells her, "'Bekah called and told me you weren't in school and that you hadn't answered any of her texts, so she asked me to come and check on you."

She sits up straight at that and tells him, "I didn't get any texts this morning besides one from Caroline at about 9:00 a.m., which I answered right away. I've been here on the phone with my cousin for over an hour, so it should have beeped if I got a message."

She gets up off the couch and hurries upstairs to her room. She grabs her phone off the bed and then runs back down the stairs. Sitting back down in front of him, she looks at her phone before saying, "Oh, ten missed texts, including one telling me she was sending you to come and check up on me."

He smiles indulgently and asks her, "Did you put it on silent again?"

She fiddles with the phone and then nods and tells him, "Yes, I don't know why it keeps doing that. I had the screen locked both times, so it shouldn't have gone onto silent without my actually telling it to."

He laughs and shrugs before he then says, "I'd help if I could, but you'll have to remember that I only found out about the existence of cell phones a little under two months ago.

She giggles and tells him, "I bet you probably know more about my cell phone than I do just because you're the kind of guy who studies and researches every new thing you encounter. I think it's because of your having been on the run for a thousand years, but essentially information and knowledge, in general, are power so you learn everything you can about every new piece of information or technology you encounter. That way if it might prove useful in keeping you and, more importantly to you, your siblings safe, you'll have the necessary information the moment you might need it."

He smiles and nods before telling her, "You know me so well already."

She shrugs so he gives her a broader and slightly cheeky smile before he asks, "So I actually arrived a few minutes before your father did so… Checking up on me, Little Bella?"

She blushes and remembering her conversation with Lucy she tells him, "It just came up. That was Lucy, my cousin, and I was telling her all that's been going on. She's a witch too, and Abby's, Elena's, and Stefan's judgmental glares are getting on my nerves, so I wanted a second opinion to see if I'm completely off my rocker trusting you at all."

His smile widens even more before he says honestly, "You don't need to justify your actions to me. I'm pleased that it occurred to you to ask others about me. That shows you're being more cautious, which other than you being safe is really the one thing I want you to be more than anything else."

He pauses again, and they lapse into silence for a minute then he asks, "So, Little Bella, if you're not sick, would you like to go somewhere with me?"

She finally smiles at him and says, "Let me just get my purse, and I'll be back."

When my grandbaby gets up and walks back up the stairs, he tells her from his seat, "Just bring your wallet if you need it and wear sneakers."

She's trembling again but not from fear this time, so she nods and goes and puts on her sneakers. She's wondering where he's going to be taking her.

Meanwhile, Kol is sitting in the living room hoping her renewed trembling doesn't indicate that she's nervous about going to some mystery place with him. He's hopeful based on their previous time together that she's not nervous around him at all.

She's really not nervous either. She knows he won't harm her, especially after he just rescued her from her father.

When she gets back down to the living room, he's returned the kitchen chair to its usual place, and he's sitting on the couch. He stands as soon as she reaches the foot of the stairs and walks to her before putting his hand in the small of her back and leading her out the front door while she puts her wallet and keys in the back pocket of her pleasantly tight jeans. When they're outside, he smiles and asks her, "In my arms or on my back, Little Bella?"

She laughs and stops and thinks for a minute before asking, "If I'm on your back and I start to slide off, will you be able to catch me?"

He chuckles but also nods and tells her, "Yes, however, my hands will be holding your thighs, so you shouldn't be able to slide off. If you feel yourself growing tired, just tell me to stop, and we'll switch positions."

She nods so he turns his back to her, which I know she's not dense enough not to realize the significance of that action before he says, "Hop on, Little Bella."

She pushes away the sudden ball of nerves in her stomach and shuffles her feet for a minute then she walks up behind him before she hops onto his back with her legs wrapping around his waist while her arms go up around his neck. His hands are holding her thighs just as he promised they would be. Turning his head a bit, he tells her, "Hold on," and then they're running through the streets at vampire speed.

Kol takes her to the falls, and they spend a good long hour just talking, mostly about his history. She studiously avoids the topic of her father. Instead, she asks about the witches he's taught. He tells her all about most of the more famous ones, though, he does gloss over Chalina and her sister, so he's sure she knows that Lucy was right, and Mikael killed the other witch and that it's a sore spot for him.

Bonnie spends that whole hour smiling like a crazy person, and I know it's because she loves hearing the members of his family tell her interesting stories about their various travels through the years, even the gory parts. She thinks she should be horrified by the bloody parts, but really, I know she just finds it all so fascinating, and honestly, she knows they're not acting that way now, and ultimately that's what counts most. I think she also appreciates that The Original Family isn't sugar coating who they've been in the past and are being completely honest with her, so she overlooks the gory parts and focuses instead on the historical and funny, interesting, or entertaining parts.

After about an hour of sitting on the edge of the little lake at the bottom of the falls, Kol stands up and brushes the dirt off his pants before he smiles and tells Bonnie, "Okay, Little Bella, I had an ulterior motive for bringing you here."

She tenses at his words until he chuckles and says, "Relax, Darling, it's nothing bad, not for you at least. Parts of it may be very painful for me, though. The last time I tried to teach a witch these abilities 'Bekah got upset and wound up tackling the witch and breaking her arm. The witch didn't want to drink my blood for fear she'd die with it in her system. We didn't know back then that The Cleansing Ritual would return a vampire's magick to them, so she wasn't willing to risk turning. Given the lack of medical knowledge back then her refusal to allow me to heal her was a big deal."

My granddaughter has no clue what abilities he's talking about, but she does what he says when he tells her, "Okay, stand up, Little Bella."

He smiles what I assume is meant to be a reassuring smile before he says, "Okay, so not all dark spells create dark results and every dark spell except The Immortality Spell, and resurrection spells have non-dark counterparts. Now, I know the night of your premonition you froze us all using Expression, but that's dark magick. Therefore, the first thing I'm going to teach you is how to freeze someone, so they can't move, but you're going to do it without your having to use dark magick to accomplish the effect. As I'm sure you realize, if they can't move, then they can't hurt you unless they have magick but using the Expression spell to do it is too dangerous."

She nods so he smiles deeper and says, "Repeat after me, 'Spermatophyta.'"

Ever curious her eyebrows furrow before she asks, "What's it mean?"

Kol's smile widens before he tells her, "It's Latin for 'Freeze.'"

My grandbaby smiles and repeats the word, "Spermatophyta."

Nodding he says, "Say it a couple of times and get used to it because the spell I'm about to teach you won't work if you mess up the pronunciation in the heat of the moment."

Shrugging she nods again and repeats it about ten times before he smiles even wider and says, "Very good. Now every day when you wake up, and before you go to bed I want you to say that word two dozen times like you just did, okay, Darling?"

She frowns and asks, "Why are you so serious. I mean I get that I need to say it right, but saying it twenty-four times twice every day seems like a bit much?"

He frowns and says, "One of my former students would probably disagree. I was lax in teaching her the correct pronunciation, and it got her killed because she got so nervous when a vampire came at her that she messed up the pronunciation, and it gave the arse more than enough time to snap her neck, killing her instantly. I hunted him down and killed him shortly after that, but my friend was still permanently dead so never let it be said that I don't learn from my previous failures. Therefore, because I gave my word to help protect you, I need you to say 'Spermatophyta' two dozen times twice a day or even more than that if you're so inclined. I want it to just roll off your tongue without you having to give it any thought to pronounce it correctly."

She just nods with wide hazel eyes and repeats it ten more times because his reason is a damn good one. When she finishes, he smiles and then says, "Okay, good, now to release someone you've frozen you would say 'Te solvo.' In battle, you're unlikely to need it, but if you ever need to freeze one of your friends or your mother if they lose control, you'll know how to unfreeze them once you've dosed them with Vervain and restrained them. Today, though, you're going to need it so that I'm not stuck frozen for the rest of eternity."

She repeats the new phrase over and over about fifteen times before he smiles and says, "It would be best for you to do the same exercise with that phrase every morning and night as well, though I know it's much easier to say."

She nods so he smiles and says, "Excellent Darling, now to freeze someone in place you need to focus on the person and say the word 'Spermatophyta' with the intent of freezing them in place. When you go to release me say 'Te solvo' with the intent to release me from your binding. The intent with both is particularly important because that's what gives the spell the power to freeze or release your opponent. Your witch powers will recognize the word and what you want it to do because of that intent, and it will freeze or release the person so that they can't or can move a muscle. Now spread your feet about shoulder width apart and then say 'Spermatophyta' with the intent to freeze me and we'll see if it works just yet. If it does wait a few seconds, then do the second phrase to release me."

Bonnie thinks, 'Um, wow. He trusts me enough to let me make him so vulnerable? I mean just a few weeks ago we were fierce enemies, and now he's letting me make him unable to protect himself against me?' The teen looks at him and then silently adds, 'And with a smile on his face, no less?'

Nodding, though, despite the ball of nerves forming in her stomach she spreads her feet about an inch wider then she says, "Spermatophyta," with intent and he just stands there. She waits a few seconds then asks, "Um, did it work?"

My grandbaby thinks it must have because he doesn't say or do anything, but she can see laughter in his eyes all the same, so she tells him, "Te solvo."

When the last syllable crosses her lips, he stumbles and then laughs and says, "Well that was a resounding success. I've never actually worked with any witch that had as much power as you do and the effect both times was so instantaneous that one millisecond I could move and the next I couldn't and the same with the reversal spell. One moment I couldn't move a muscle and then suddenly, I was tripping over my own feet. Well done, Darling. Now, do it again."

And she spends the next hour freezing and unfreezing Kol. They try it with him running towards her or trying to grab her at vampire speed, and she manages to freeze him before he touches her every time. He even stops and has conversations with her and then tries sneak attacks and every time she manages to avoid him getting close enough to touch her.

Smiling after the last time, he then says, "I'm certain you could do it in the heat of battle, so now for the painful part. I want you to give me consecutive aneurysms just like you've done to vampires in the past. However, I want you to do it once just the way you always did and then I want you to try to make it less severe."

Bonnie is frowning before she asks, "Um, if the point is to incapacitate my opponent then why would I want to lessen it?" She pauses, but when he frowns slightly, she then tells him, "I'm not asking to be difficult. I really want to know your reasoning because I'm beginning to realize that you always have a reason for what you say or do, and usually it's a damn good one."

He laughs and wearing a big smile he says, "Well at least you have a good reason for questioning me. That's good. I wasn't frowning at you but rather trying to psyche myself up for what's to come, so I wish for you to always ask for clarification if you have a question or wonder why I'm having you do it one way or another. Now to answer your question, if you were to do it the way you always have to someone like Damon or Stefan, the fact that you now have significantly more power would probably kill them instantly and very permanently. Now, the good news is although it will hurt me tremendously it won't kill me because only a White Oak Stake can accomplish that. So, do it the way you always have, and then you can practice trying to make it less lethal."

Her hazel eyes widen at his words before she thinks, 'It would kill them?' She doesn't doubt him, but now her stomach really knots at the thought of causing Kol enough pain that an ordinary vampire would fall over dead.

He smiles a reassuring smile and says, "Don't worry. I promise you that you cannot kill me okay, so take a few deep breaths and when you're ready unleash your power."

She's trembling, but she nods and looking at her feet so that she's not staring at her future victim, who has quickly become a good friend, she takes about six deep breaths and releases each one slowly. Then she looks at Kol and does what he told her to, unleashing her power. He cries out and then faster than she can see he's in a crumpled heap on the ground.

I still consider him my friend, so I look to my left and smile before telling him, "Perhaps you should have warned her first."

He frowns when my granddaughter releases the power as quickly as she can and rushes over to him, "Kol, oh my God, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" When he doesn't respond, she reaches out and rolls him over. There is blood coming out of his eyes, nose, and ears and he's completely motionless, "God Kol, please wake up, please. I'm sorry, please wake up, please."

He frowns gently and nods before saying, "You're correct. That was a miscalculation on my part."

I smile and tell him honestly, "She'll forgive you. If you would, please tell her I love her, and I'm proud of her. She's back on the right track. And you Mr. Mikaelson need to know that I will find a way to hurt you if you hurt my grandbaby. Otherwise, you have my blessing."

He smiles big and says, "Thank you, Sheila. I'll do my best to protect her even from myself, if necessary."

Finn, who showed up around the time the pair began practicing Bonnie's ability to freeze her opponents, steps closer to Kol and engulfs him in a hug and says, "Brother, I am so sorry."

Kol shakes his head and says, "It's me who is sorry. I should have recalled what she had done and known you weren't acting of your own accord. Forgive me?"

Finn just nods and whispers, "Always and Forever, Brother."

Kol nods back and squeezes his brother tightly while he says back, "Always and Forever, Finn."

Finn just nods and pulls away from his brother at the same time my baby girl reaches out her hand and strokes Kol's blood covered cheek. Barely a minute has passed since he collapsed but tears have been streaming down her cheeks from the moment she rolled him over and got no response.

A moment later, Kol tells me, "I'll look after her." Then he vanishes from beside us, and Bonnie jumps back from his prone form when his back bows and his eyes pop open.

Kol gasps for breath that I know damn well he doesn't actually need, and then he relaxes back onto the ground and reaches up caressing my granddaughter's cheek and wiping her tears away, before he frowns and says, "Shh, Little Bella, don't cry. This is why we're practicing, so you don't kill anyone you don't intend to kill, okay? I should have warned you that I might lose consciousness, but it didn't occur to me that the effect would be quite as powerful as it actually was."

Sitting up, he then pulls her into his arms and smooths his hand down her hair and back while he says, "Shh, I'm okay. I'm okay, and so are you. Now you see why we need to do this, okay?"

She shakes her head and adamantly tells him, "Nuh-huh, I'm not doing that to you again. I hurt you worse than I've ever hurt anyone."

My baby girl can hear the frown in his voice even though her face is crushed into his chest when he says, "How would you feel if we don't practice and without thinking you were to do that to Damon, or Stefan, or your mother. They would not survive like I did."

She just sniffles in response, so he says, "You're not a killer by nature, Bonnie, and I know what just happened has frightened you, but I need you to be the brave, courageous woman who marched into the Gilbert's house and took charge of a dangerous situation without stopping to consult your emotions. You were frightened then too. I could smell it, but you didn't let it stop you from doing what needed doing. I need you to harness that same mentality and overcome your fear, so we can practice this and prevent a terrible tragedy."

She tries to pull away from him, but when he doesn't let go, she tells him with some heat in her voice, "You have blood coming out of your eyes, nose, and ears, Kol. How can you ask me to do that to you over and over? I wouldn't even want to do that to an enemy never mind an actual friend, which in case you've missed it you're the latter not the former."

Smiling ever so slightly so as not to incite her further ire he pulls her even tighter into his chest and kisses the top of her head before telling her, "And that is why you must do it again. You need to be able to protect yourself and others, and I know you will never forgive yourself if you accidentally kill someone, so we need you to practice on someone who can't die."

He pauses, then adds, "And I'm sorry to tell you, but the names on that very short list all qualify as your friends at this point. So, I'm going to have to insist that you do it over and over, as you put it until you can control how deadly it is as well as just how painful it is. As I said, you can't kill me, and you're a fast learner, and you now have motivation in spades to learn this skill as quickly as possible. So, we'll sit here for a minute until you've calmed yourself because you won't be able to control it while you're upset, and then we'll try again."

Frowning and sniffling she tells him, "Annoying, know-it-all vampire that you are you are once again right, but I don't have to like it, and I want you to know that seeing you so lifeless like that was the scariest thing that's ever happened to me."

He pulls her face from his chest and brushes her cheek with his hand before he tells her, "I know, Darling, and I wish I had realized ahead of time that it would happen so I could warn you. I think the real scare was not having any warning of what would happen, so I want you to stand back up and then go back to your place over there, and I'll stand back up, and this time you'll know if something is wrong if it happens differently than it just did, okay?"

My granddaughter reluctantly nods but tells him, "Okay, but I want it on the record that I'm doing this under duress. If I had my way, we would never do this again."

Kol chuckles and kisses her forehead before telling her, "So noted, Little Bella."

Reluctantly my baby girl stands up and then slowly walks over to her spot before wiping angrily at her tears that just won't stop falling.

It takes Kol a little longer than usual to stand back up. He walks to the edge of the lake and bends down splashing water on his face effectively rinsing off the blood before he walks back over to his spot much slower than usual, and when he's looking at her from a few feet away again he smiles and says, "Now, focus on releasing less power. In fact, try to release as little power as you can and still hurt me, and we'll try to work our way up instead of down, if possible, okay?"

She wipes at her tears again and then begs him, "Please don't make me do this, Kol, please."

It can't be helped. He's right. She needs to learn to control the ability, so even though he frowns he says, "I'm not making you do the same thing, okay? This time you're actively trying to use as little power as you can, okay?"

She really doesn't want to do this, but she realizes that he has a point about how she'll feel if she accidentally kills someone she doesn't intend to kill, and he's also right that she has too many vulnerable people in her life. Most of them are young vampires too, so there's nothing to say they won't lose control at some point and need to be stopped in their tracks, but she certainly doesn't want to kill them permanently, so she sucks it up and releases as little power as she can. Kol still drops to his knees and cries out.

Just when she's about to pull the power back, he says through gritted teeth, "I'm okay. Don't stop. Actively try to use less power. You can do it, Little Bella. I know you can. Keep trying. I'm okay."

Resisting the urge to stop the power entirely, she instead focuses on trying to use less power. It doesn't seem to work, so she tries visualizing it only hurting the ancient vampire but not killing him, and she jumps when he lets out a deep breath and says through slightly less tightly gritted teeth, "There you go, Darling, whatever you just did reduced the pain slightly. Keep doing it. You can do this. I know you can. You're a Bennett witch. You're descended from a long line of the most powerful witches to ever walk the earth. You have the ability to control your power. You control it, not the other way around."

My precious girl pictures the power flowing through a little hole in a piece of wood, so Kol smiles and says, "That's it, Darling. I still think this would kill anyone who is not a member of my family, but it's far less painful, and look, I'm not losing consciousness."

She giggles, but the distraction has him crying out in pain again, so she focuses back on forcing the power through an even tinier hole. And so, it goes for almost three hours before he manages to rise to his feet despite the pain and tells her, "Good, now we need to work on you not losing control of it if you lose focus."

She stops the power completely, which causes him to frown and ask, "Why did you stop?"

My baby girl's lip betrays her and trembles before she tells him in a small voice, "I think I need to stop for today." His eyes narrow, and she's sure he's about to argue, so she hurries and tells him "I'll try again tomorrow if you want me too, but I need to stop right now, please."

He walks to her and marvels at the fact that she has managed to mean so much to him in such a brief period of time. When he reaches her, he pulls her into his arms, "Okay, Little Bella. You're correct. You've spent just under three hours doing this, and I shouldn't push you so hard, especially given what happened earlier today and the fact that you're already doing something you don't want to do. Do you feel tired physically or just emotionally?"

She pauses and reflects, taking stock of her body and then frowning tells him, "I don't feel physically tired at all. I could probably do this for hours, maybe days and still be fine, but emotionally…"

He hugs her tighter and kisses the top of her head again before he tells her, "Okay, well you made definite progress today. Now, I want us to do this every day, and before you object think about your other loved ones. We have no way of knowing if something you or someone else is going to do or say will set them off and require you to physically stop them in their tracks without killing them. Therefore, the sooner you get it completely under control, the safer it'll be for everyone involved, okay?"

She reluctantly agrees and nods even though she hates that she had to cause him so much pain. Kol picks her up in his arms and then begins walking through the quickly darkening woods at a human pace before he asks, "Are you up for going to The Grill or do you just want to go home?"

While my grandbaby snuggles closer into his chest she tells him, "I don't want to be alone after what we just did, please, don't make me, please."

He stops walking and lowers her feet before taking her cheeks into his hands and looking her right in the eyes when he says, "I won't make you be alone, Darling. I hope you know I'm not making you do anything for my own enjoyment, but rather to protect you, even from yourself."

She nods while another tear travels down her cheek. Wiping it away with his thumb, he then asks, "How about we go back to my house, and I'll cook you something?"

She bobs her head before he sweeps her back up into his arms and then runs at vampire speed out of the woods. A minute or two later he slows down, and she realizes they're in the Mikaelson's backyard, their vast backyard.

Kol lowers her to her feet when they reach the house just before Niklaus comes to the door and asks, "What's wrong? Why have you been crying?"

My granddaughter shrinks in on herself before he gentles his tone and asks, "Luv, what happened?"

Inside he's calculating who he's going to be killing for harming his first real friend since 1921, but she just shakes her head.

He looks at Kol who tells him, "We were practicing giving me aneurysms without making me lose consciousness so that she doesn't accidentally kill one of her friends or her mother if she's forced to protect herself or others from them."

He nods but asks the two people standing before him, "I take it you lost consciousness often?"

Kol shakes his head, "No, only the first time, but I didn't realize just how powerful she is, so I didn't warn her that I'd probably lose consciousness."

Niklaus frowns but says, "Oh, okay, well I made chicken and vegetables. There is enough for both of you as well."

Looking at Bonnie who is heavily leaning on Kol, Niklaus tells her, "If you've been doing magick all afternoon then you need to refuel, especially because I know the kind of taskmaster my brother is. The fact that you'll likely be doing more of the same tomorrow, and for the foreseeable future, means you need to keep your strength up as much as possible."

My grandbaby just nods, too emotionally drained to even form words, so Kol puts his hand in the small of her back and leads her into the house.