Bonnie's leaf green eyes narrowed into slits and her arms were folded. Damon knew that face; that face was trouble. "Damon, I need some help with the dishes," she stated with no hint of a question. Damon's normally quick wit was failing him and he just opened and closed his mouth a few times, every response dying on his lips before he delivered it.

While Damon was busy being drug into the dog house, Stefan had his own daunting task to tend to. Valerie was in an unmoving heap on the couch and that never meant anything good. She looked strangely unharmed to have arrived in apparent distress. Besides her strawberry blonde waves being in disarray and her grey clothes being askew she didn't have a scratch on her. If not for her speedy descent into unconsciousness and bloody nose there would be no sign she had been doing anything but taking a run while overdressed. The first order of business when dealing with an injured vampire was always getting blood into their system and Stefan had no desire to find himself so near human blood at that point. Unfortunately, since it was not obvious what had happened to Valerie, the only way to be sure she survived at all was for him to get over it. Holding his breath in hopes not smelling the blood would help, he cut the blood bag open with a knife, sat down on the floor next to the couch and started to pour blood into her mouth as neatly as possible.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Bonnie had turned on the faucet. That always meant that it was time to have a private conversation in a house with vampire guests. When she brushed past Damon, and turned on the blender as well, he swallowed thickly and would have blanched if he weren't already dead. With that matter handled, Bonnie walked very close into Damon's personal space, right in his chest. As much as he knew it was in his best interest to think quickly while she was this upset, he was finding it a struggle with her so close to him in such a snug fitting black sweater dress. When she reached for him he snapped out of his thoughts and paid attention. When she reached up behind his neck and pulled his face even closer to hers he flinched just a little.

"Remember last night, Damon? Bourbon, candles, bath?" she started.

Since it couldn't hurt to at least try charm, Damon smirked a little. "I remember that quite well, Bon Bon."

"Good. Good," she said nodding at him, but not returning the smile. "Then surely you remember that I asked you if Enzo had given up Valerie."

"—He said he didn't," Damon interrupted in his defense.

Bonnie tilted her head thoughtfully. That mannerism was a very familiar one for Damon, and it precipitated nothing good. "I asked you if he had given up Valerie and you said no. You also said that she was fine. Does she look fine to you, Damon?"

She was making him nervous, so he started to pace around the kitchen. "Are you trying to say that I lied to you?"

Bonnie blinked a few times, and took several deep breaths. Doing her best to think of how much antique shopping would follow kicking Damon's whole ass right in that kitchen, she remained still and silent for several seconds. Under just the right circumstances, seconds can seem like hours and Damon knew he tried the wrong tactic so quickly, but thought of a way to right that mistake so very slowly. As Bonnie was breathing deeply and her heart rate was picking up, Damon abandoned the task to think of the right thing to say and just plunged right in as anything would be better than nothing at this point. "Bonnie, I didn't mean to accuse you…" he stuttered pathetically.

That was just the push Bonnie needed to find her voice again. "Oh, you were definitely not about to try to answer my question with a question and flip the blame around were you? That's what you were definitely not doing, right Damon?"

He decided at that point it was probably better to just keep to the issue at hand. "No I wasn't. I was just about to tell you what I think happened with Valerie."

Bonnie smiled and the tension in the room dissipated as quickly as it had formed. "I'm so glad you're just going to explain why you didn't mention that while, technically she was still alive, obviously she needed our help and you knew that. It would just be a crying shame to have to fight about it, wouldn't it?"

He shook his head and chuckled darkly. Nothing about her expression implied she wouldn't have enjoyed interrogating his ass as much as any other way of getting the issue resolved. "Enzo has officially become a problem."

Bonnie looked curious. "He hasn't always been a problem, more or less our entire acquaintance with him?"

"I thought on the strength of our friendship, at least, there was some way to get along again. But this is enough lies from him," he said. His blue eyes were thoughtful as he paused a moment and then apparently made a decision. "I'm going to handle it," Damon started walking out of the kitchen, apparently feeling the conversation was finished. She followed behind him as he grabbed his jacket and was about to walk out of the door.

"What do you mean by 'handle it, Damon?"

Damon stopped walking by the door and turned to face her. His face was as serious as she had ever seen it and she felt a bit of a chill. "You know what I mean, Bon Bon." He gave her a kiss on the forehead, pulled her against his chest in a tight hug, and then was gone before she had a chance to say another word.

Bonnie just stared at the closed door in silence. Her brain was all over the place. Eventually she remembered that there were other occupants in the house and she turned around to see how Valerie and Stefan were faring. Much to her pleasant surprise, Valerie had apparently awakened while they were having their discussion in the kitchen. "Just another normal day in the Salvatore household," she said with a painfully false smile. "I'm glad you were able to make it here safely. If you'll just give me a moment, I have a few things to handle in the kitchen." Neither vampire missed the misty look in her eyes, or the catch in her voice. Fortunately, they were both raised to be too polite to comment on such a thing, so they left her to turn off the sink and the blender and compose herself.

Bonnie was quite sure that Damon would physically survive what he was about to do, but less sure how he'd feel emotionally after it was done. Damon has always been the sort of person to do things that need to be done, but that didn't mean it didn't affect him to do so. A half century ago, he had needed to flip his switch to leave Enzo behind to save himself and move on with his life. It was unlikely he'd do something like that this time, but that was only one of many unpleasant ways a person not good at managing their emotion could messily attempt to do so.

Once she was done fretting and cleaning up after that disastrous breakfast she went into the living room to see how the rest of the household was faring. She was very curious what had sent someone as powerful as Valerie running for her life. Almost as curious as she was to know how Stefan was doing with the pile of empty blood bags next to Valerie beginning to form a tower. Bonnie's eyes widened and she gestured at it.

"Oh! I'm terribly sorry, Bonnie. I've more or less tapped out your blood supplies. It's rather difficult for us heretics, you see. We need blood in the same sense all vampires do, but even more than usual when we use a lot of magic because our magic feeds on our vampirism."

"Gotcha," Bonnie answered. "That makes all the sense in the world. I don't drink blood, well at least not human blood, so it's really not a problem for me. But if you feel up to it you might want to get a bit more for Damon later on; he's likely to return hungry."

Whatever discussion they had in the kitchen could not have been good. "Do you, by any chance know where Damon went?" he tried.

Bonnie shook her head just a bit too hard. "I have a pretty good guess, but I'm not totally sure. Valerie might have the answer to that, though."

Valerie's fussed with her grey sweater and tucked the hair falling in her eyes behind her ears. She looked alert and attentive, if a bit uncertain. "Forgive me, but I'm not entirely sure what you're asking me."

"There was some matter with Enzo that Damon is going to handle. All I know about it is that Enzo was captured so that someone could figure out where you are, and he told Damon that he had not done so when Damon arrived to free him. Apparently, he lied. I have no idea why someone would be after you, but I was hoping you could enlighten me?"

Stefan bristled. "Valerie came here for our help, not to be interrogated."

Bonnie merely rolled her eyes and waved him off. "She's free to answer or not answer, but given that we have obviously committed ourselves to assisting with…whatever is going on with her, I don't think it's too much to ask what that is."

Valerie turned to Stefan. "Thank you for so gallantly coming to my defense, but Bonnie is right. I've endangered you all by coming here," Valerie stood up and was about to leave.

"Valerie, I was not asking you to leave. I'm as happy to help keep you safe as anyone else that has done the same for us at some time or another. That said, the running and urgent knocking strongly imply that whatever was after you is unlikely to simply give up pursuit. I'd rather not have a nasty, lethal surprise at the door," she finished with a look at Stefan. "But it wouldn't be a surprise if I knew what that was."

Stefan didn't appreciate the implication that he was a nasty, lethal surprise. But all things considered, he had no grounds to contest the assertion so he let it go. "If you're not quite ready to talk about it, then you can have some rest while Bonnie and I see what we can do."

As much as she would have preferred a more immediate answer, that was the right thing to say. "Of course, we have several guest bedrooms if you would like one."

"I would greatly appreciate it. After I've had some rest I'll be in much better shape to give a proper accounting of my ordeal."

Bonnie gave the clearly shaken woman a hug and led her upstairs. Stefan felt an odd pang seeing a woman act as hostess in the boarding house after so long without one. She moved through the house with such ease and comfort, and he could hear her easily directing Valerie towards whatever she might need. He thought the worst thing about his inability to control his blood lust was the shame it brought him, but it seems that wasn't it at all. The worst thing was the enforced loneliness. Even his own home and family weren't quite familiar anymore. It seems that's what happens when you leave for too long.

After a bit of time passed, Bonnie came downstairs and sat down next to him. "I guess it's just you and me for now, isn't it?"