Bonnie found Damon kneeling over Alaric's dead body, his face a mix between disbelief and dejection.
Jo had walked in behind her through the doorway, unfazed by the rug seeped in blood.

'Is that him?' she asked.

'How did this happen?' asked Damon in return, looking up at Bonnie from the floor with glassy eyes.
The last time she had seen him like this was when Elena fell into her long slumber.

'I don't know- I...'

'Yeah, you do. Think! You told me to go and check up on him. You knew...'

'I didn't know he was going to die,' she whispered, an apology stuck in her throat. 'I had those visions again. I tried calling out and nothing happened. I don't think he could even see me...he just screamed and screamed and-'

'Fix this. You can fix this, Bon.'

'I know what you're thinking. It's not going to work,' she replied, unable to take her eyes off her undertaking. This was all her doing and she couldn't shake it off so easily.

'I wasn't asking. I'm going to get him off the floor and into the next room and you're going to use the stone on him.'

'I'm not touching that thing.'

'This is Alaric. Not some random local off the street, Bonnie!'

'Fuck you, Damon. You don't know what that wretched thing does.'

He ignored her and did as he said he would. The blood dripped off the body, leading a trail into the front room. Bonnie followed silently, stunned by what she saw next.

A bouquet of roses sat on the mantle of the fireplace. Wine glasses stood lonely on the table with empty dinner plates. The entire place was tidier than Bonnie had seen it in months. But surely Ric had gone overboard, she thought, until Damon read her thoughts and answered the question.

'It's Jo's birthday. He wanted to surprise her.'

She took a moment to contemplate the guilt-trip. Did she want to go through that agonising ordeal again? She knew that abusing magic meant paying the cost but she also respected the sanctity of marriage and this was, after all, Ric they were talking about...