When the sun begins to peak over the horizon Damon suggest that they either needed to go into the house or leave. After all it was black Friday and people in her neighborhood had already headed out shopping. Bonnie got to her feet with his help and lifted the potted plant on to get the key. She handed Damon the key and he opened the door, moving to the side so she could enter.
She turned and faced him, her hair was a mess and her eyes were puffy and swollen.
"I can't invite you in." she said apologetically.
"I understand. It's your grandmothers house and she didn't like or trust me, among other things," he added.
" Thank you for last night and for helping me." She said looking anywhere but at him.
He didn't want to press her but something told him he needed to. " What are you going to do Bonnie?"
"About what?" she asked visibly confused.
"About what happened with Shane, Bonnie you have to report this and get help."
She backed away from the door mildly shaking her head.
" I can call Liz. You trust her and she is Blondie's mother."
" I can't."
" What if this is not the first time this has happened?"
" I can't."
"Bonnie."
" I can't, I can't, I can't! You think I can tell someone what happened?" she screamed, her eyes pooling with tears.
"If you told someone maybe," he started quietly but before he could finish she began to shake her head feverently and pace around the foyer like caged bird " Bonnie wait…"
She was scaring him, he said something wrong and he was trapped outside of the house not able to help her.
"Bonnie I don't want to push you, but Shane is..."
" I don't want to talk about it with you anymore! You think I want to think about what he did to me, sit in a room and tell someone how he climbed on top on me and.." she shouted and put her hands over her eyes and shook her head madly as if she were trying to get the image out of her head.
Whatever she was trying to do didn't work and she cupped her hand as if they were a pillow, turned her face away from him rocking back and forth and crying. Her sobs shook her body as she stood in the middle of the wooden floor.
His heart broke for her in that moment.
They had never been friends but somewhere along the way they became reluctant allies. First to protect Elena and then somehow they became the good guys; as good as good guy vamps could be.
They somehow began to tolerate each other. He didn't wish her any ill and he would never let someone hurt her. She was apart of his dysfunctional family.
"Bonnie just listen to me."
She shook her head, "Don't look at me, please don't look at me."
"Why?" he whispered confused.
" Just don't look at me,"
" Bonnie.." he felt useless.
"Don't you see that is the worst part about it, your face just looking at me." She sobbed.
"Why?"
" Because you know," she finally said. " you know I was raped."
He didn't know what to say. This was beyond his understanding.
" I don't want to leave you alone."
She finally put her hands down and faced him and he saw she what a shattered mess she was. She was barely holding on. She suddenly sobered " why not, I am always alone."
And she closed the door in his face.
/
Over the next few weeks Damon did some detective work. First he went to the hotel to make sure that piece of shit Shane had left the area. Whitmore was 45 miles away from Mystic Falls so Damon took up residence at the college. He stayed out of sight but he followed Bonnie like a shadow. He watched her move around the campus like a ghost. She didn't talk to anyone. She wore baggy clothes and a baseball hat or a hoodie everyday. Damon figured it was some sort of disguise to hide herself from the professor, who was surprisingly keeping his distance.
He would sit in his car outside of her dormitory at night to make sure no one bothered her especially Shane. When he knew Bonnie was safe in her dorm room on the 5th night of his watch he went to the building where the professor worked. He had thought long and hard about it and he wasn't going to kill him. He had a few options though either compel him to confess, get Bonnie to press charges, he'd compel every member of the jury to find him guilty if he had to. Damon wanted him to suffer and suffer badly. He wanted him to go to prison and if the Gods were willing maybe the next rape he experience would be his own.
Three weeks later before finals and Christmas break Damon followed Bonnie as she made her way to her classes. She wore a pair of grey sweats and a hoodie. It started to rain and she ran to take cover under the a gazebo. Once she made it she took the hoodie off and from the look of it she hadn't slept in days. Her eyes were dark and she looked exhausted. He stayed in the shadows and watched her. The hour grew late and she still sat there.
She got up to leave and that was when Damon approached her. She looked extremely shocked to see him.
"Damon, what are you doing here?"
" I came to check on you and see if you were okay and safe."
" Um yeah, thanks."
" He left you alone."
" He seems to have moved on to his next victim." She said and Damon followed the direction of her gaze.
Bonnie had been watching the Professor flirt with another young co-ed.
She felt ill watching him do the same things he had done to her to draw her in.
" He is not going to stop is he?" She asked, neither one of them taking their eyes from the scene before them.
" No, I've been following him. He is looking for his next victim."
They walked together back to Bonnie's dorm and sat on the stoop outside of Langdale Hall. Damon stood on the ground in front of her with his hands in his pockets. Co-eds went in and out of the building, when they saw Damon they giggled, gawked and wondered what Bennett had done to catch his eye.
Damon for the first time in a long time had no interest in the women. He was there for his ward.
" How is everyone?" she asked conversationally.
" I don't really know. I haven't seen anyone in a few weeks."
"Have you been here the whole time?" she asked incedously
"Yeah, since you came back to school I wanted to make sure you were safe and that he didn't try to hurt you."
"Are we friends Damon?" she asked.
"More like frenemies, I don't really want to kill you anymore." he grinned and despite what was going on she smiled and pushed her hair behind her ear.
"It's getting late." She said looking up at her watch.
" Yeah it is. I better get to my perch." He laughed.
" Have you been sleeping in your car that can't be good for you?"
"Bonnie, I'm a vampire, I don't need sleep and yes I have." He grinned.
" Right, I mean you usually sleep in a coffin right?"
She reminded him of the old Bonnie in that moment and he smiled despite himself. The fighter was somewhere inside there.
"How's the magic?" he asked seriously.
"Fine." It wasn't fine. She had regained her powers later the day Damon had left her at her Grams. Bonnie thought it was psychological, she hadn't figured how Shane was able to channel her powers yet. She was afraid to use her powers, she was still fragile and she didn't want to accidentally set her room on fire. Her roommate usually slept at her boyfriends frat house so Bonnie had been alone since she got back from Thanksgiving.
" Good, well I better get going. You have an early day tomorrow, English literature at 8 am."
He had been looking out for her. She knew that things had changed between her and Damon, Him knowing her secret at first was shameful but now it didn't seem so bad. I mean she wasn't alone in this after all.
"Would you like to sleep in my room?"
"Your roommate staying over at her boyfriends again?" he inquired.
"Yeah, she usually does." She had to look away from him. Her emotions were all over the place.
" Are you okay with that?" he asked. Damon could tell she was still jittery During his 3 weeks of watching after her, he had done a lot of reading up on rape victims and he knew that Bonnie need time and space to accept what happened. He also knew she might be afraid to be around the opposite sex.
She hadn't confided in Caroline or Elena, they both had gone to see Bonnie before she headed back to Whitmore and neither seemed to notice anything amiss. They were not very good friends he thought. He was sure Elena couldn't wait to get back up Stefan's butt and Blondie was still yo yoing between the Mutt and the Matt to pay any attention to Bonnie's behavior.
Bonnie thought for moment. She was barely sleeping, and her grades were suffering because of it. She mostly stayed in her room unless she ventured out to class, afraid she would run into Shane. She had seen him once when she had gotten the nerve to head to the cafe. He saw her but he was engrossed in a conversation with a blonde and merely threw his hand up and waved. She left her food and went straight back to her room, looking over her should every few moments to see if he followed. Maybe if she had known Damon was there she would have slept easier. He seemed to have taken up the mantle of Bennett protector again.
"Yeah," she said, the beds are small, but comfy." She shrugged.
" How you gonna get me in?"
" You can just compel your way past the RA."
The look of shock on his face did not go unnoticed by Bonnie.
"Since Thanksgiving I have decided that maybe my views on certain things are wrong."
"Don't change who you are or what you believe in because of him Bonnie." He said with all seriousness.
She hopped down from the stoop and headed inside. Damon followed closely behind her.
Bonnie walked up to the RA desk and said quietly. " I need to sign in a guest." The RA glanced up her eyes bugged out of her eyes when she saw the blue eyed Damon. She gave Bonnie a nice going girl look to which Bonnie simply replied, " I need to sign in a guest."
The RA cleared her throat and stood up provocatively with a clip board," Sign here sweetie." Damon gave her his signature smirk and scribbled his name on the sign in sheet.
" Visiting hours are over at 10 pm. You got two hours." She winked at Damon.
Bonnie looked at the girl with disgust and rolled her eyes. Damon winked back at the girl, then leaned in and compelled her. You didn't see me enter the residence.
When they entered her room, she mumbled" welcome to my humble abode." And shrugged locking the door behind him.
It was your typical dorm room. Two beds side by side, two desk, a microwave and a mini fridge, very neat. Bonnie sat down indian style on her bed and Damon sat down on the opposite bed.
They sat in silence for a while before she pulled off her hoodie and pulled the covers down . She kept on the sweatpants and underneath the hoodie she had a t-shirt that read, I love sushi. Damon grinned to himself. She was so young it rung his undead heart. She turned off the lights and crawled under the covers ; all the while watching his every move. He kicked off his boots stretched out on top of the covers of the bed. She turned on her side facing him and for a while they just watched one other; his clear blue eyes and her exotic green one.
Finally Bonnie spoke , " thank you."
"For what?"
"For being here."
He wanted her to know how much it meant to him that she trusted him. Elena said she trusted him but that was different. He was trying to get her to love him but Bonnie was different, he wanted nothing from her and all she appeared to want was his company. Damon was usually all over the place and full of energy. But he knew Bonnie needed peace, quiet and the comfort of something familiar, even if it was a crazy vampire who once tried to kill her.
He stretched out his hand and to his surprise she placed her tiny hand into his.