It took five people to compel before Caroline managed to get to Elena. She couldn't believe it when Damon texted her that she wasn't asleep anymore. He could have called...

What happened to Bonnie? was the first thing she asked herself. The second was: What happened to Elena that she was in hospital? But the ultimate question was - How?

Damon wouldn't pick up his phone and neither would Bonnie. Caroline felt completely left out. She hoped he'd be beside Elena and clear things up for her there. Or Elena could do it herself.

It was half past one at night when Caroline silently opened the door of Elena's room. She was asleep. Caroline listened to her steady breath and heartbeat in sync with beeping of medical devices. She would barely recognize her if she hadn't known it was Elena. Almost every square inch of her skin was covered with bandages. The medical report, hanging at the feet of the bed, aquainted her with Elena's condition: burns of 2nd degree on sixty-five percent of skin, of 3rd degree on one percent of skin, with prognosis of successful healing. She didn't have to be a doctor to know that despite whatever that'd happened to her, she'd been lucky. And then there was bunch of medical terms she didn't understand, but which Elena sure would translate to her, being an excellent pre-med student. Five years ago, Caroline thought bitterly.

It seemed more like forever ago since she'd dropped out of college, and not even for one second did it ever occur to her that she would come back one day. The twins were the priority now. And Stefan, she added swiftly. She might have been locked up in an eternally seventeen-year-old body, but inside she was growing old probably even more profoundly than she would have as a human.

Either Caroline made too much noise or Elena had light sleep. Perhaps she sensed her coming.

"Caroline?" she wheezed. "Is that you?"

"Hi," Caroline asnwered. She was on the edge of joy and relief; it was a feeling almost as magical as seeing the babies for the first time.

"Oh god, Caroline," Elena said, "you have no idea how happy I am to see you! You have to tell me everything! How's your life been? Did you graduate?"

Caroline laughed, a litte moved. "We have so much catching up to do." Where to start - I'm a mother now.

"Trust me, sleeping and dreaming for years is not such fun as one would think. I have total sleeping hangover."

"You just woke up," Caroline reminded her, "you were sleeping when I came."

Elena grinned. "Alright, you got me."

She gasped.

"Are you alright?" Caroline freaked out. "Do you want me to call help? I think I've seen a doctor -"

"No, Car, it's fine," Elena insisted. "I'm fine, just a little trouble breathing, that's all. It's all the fire. And that five-year-long nap threw me off a bit as well," she joked.

"What happened to you, anyway?" Caroline asked.

"To be honest, I have no clue," Elena shook her head. "Damon promised he'd tell me 'when I'm better'. Where is he?"

"I don't know," Caroline answered honestly, "I thought he'd be here. You know, maybe he just went home to get you some stuff."

"Yeah, you're right, that'll be it," Elena said, in a way convincing herself. "What about Bonnie? Is she with him? Have you seen her?"

"I haven't, either. I'm totally not up-to-date. I tried to call her as soon as I found out you were awake. And she's not picking up. Openly, I'm quite worried about her."

"Well, she was here with Damon earlier. She probably went with him to the Boarding House. But you know what, most likely she's home sleeping."

"Wait - she was here?" Caroline yelped in surprise. "I don't wanna know what the two are cooking together, because Damon is not picking up, either."

"That's weird."

Up to this point, Elena was just confused - and that seemed normal after waking up to entirely different world than when she'd fallen asleep. But now she began to worry as Caroline's nervousness made her very suspicious.

"I should try to call Enzo..." Caroline thought out loud.

"Enzo?" Elena was amazed. "Why Enzo?"

"Ah, that's a long story," Caroline replied.

"If I were to count how many times I've heard that today..."

"We've been writing everything down as promised," Caroline smiled. "So let me know when you feel like reading and I'll bring you five-years-worth of journals from all of us. And let me tell you - it's the pile."

"Sounds like I'll be doing nothing else for another five years than catching up," Elena laughed.

The door open.

"Damon," Elena exclaimed. "Where have you been?"

"Is something wrong?" Caroline asked slowly. "You look as though you've seen hell again."

"What? Again?" Elena wondered. "But no, let me guess: 'it's a long story.'"

Caroline pressed her lips together, silently confirming Elena's words.

"Is it Bonnie? Just say something for god's sake, I don't understand any of this."

"Hey, detective, chill out," Damon said. "Bonnie's just fine."

"She broke the spell," Elena said avidly, almost festively, and not knowing that she helped Damon from uncomfortable explaining.

"Did she? I thought it was impossible. So she's really alright? Does she have her powers back?"

"Not exactly. We found a loophole," Damon clarified, pleased to realize it wasn't even a lie. The spell was broken, after all, and it was sort of a loophole.

"I brought you these," he told Elena, waving with some journals in his hand. "I took mine," he placed them one by one on her lap, "Stefan's, and Caroline's. It might give you a rough idea."

"You were in my room and took my journal?!" Caroline burst out.

"Come on, you've written it to be read," he opposed.

"Do you really think I'm able to read like this? I'm a mummy," Elena pointed out. "Why won't you just tell me everything I should know?"

"Alright, long story short: Enzo's dead and Stefan's human."

"He's human?" both Caroline and Elena exclaimed in disbelief.

"But that means -"

"- that you're not the cure anymore," Damon finished. "Just don't ask me how all that happened, please." He felt higly uncomfortable about telling them the truth: that Stefan had attempted to kill Elena. It was just too much.

"Who are we supposed to ask, don't you know?" Caroline objected. "You come here, blow our minds and say we shouldn't ask!"

Damon's phone began ringing just when he was prepared to defend himself. It was Stefan. Damon frowned, partly from suspicion and partly from amazement.

"Hello, little brother," he replied.

"Damon, I need your help."

"Wait - what? Where are you?" he asked and left the room. Caroline would probably hear their conversation, but at least Elena wouldn't.

"She's after me, Damon, I need you help!"

"Slow down, Stefan, who she?" Then he realized: she was Bonnie. "I'm on my way. Where are you now?"


"What's wrong with Stefan? Who's after him?" Caroline asked when he returned. Her vampire hearing might have been enough sufficient to hear their conversation, yet she had trouble processing the information. It made no sense.

"You keep asking 'what's wrong' today, Miss Broken Record, " Damon complained.

"Seriously, Damon, what is it?" Elena beseeched.

"I got this," Damon said. "Caroline, stay here with Elena, will you? Bye baby," he kissed Elena - as much as her bandages allowed him. "I'll come back soon, promise."

"Damon!" Caroline exclaimed angrily. "God! What is he up to!"

"Tell me about it," Elena sighed. "I feel like an alien who just fell to Earth."

"Well, I also expected your boyfriend to be more excited that you're awake," Caroline noted. "He might as well actually care."

Elena gasped again. Caroline stiffened when she heard the unnatural noises her lungs were making.

"Well Damon," she coughed, "always the hero."

The beep-beep of the devices became urgent.

"Elena? Elena, what is it? Elena!" Caroline shook with her, trying to get her react in any way - whether it was pain or just reassurance that she was alright - anything.

Caroline bit her wrist, prepared to give Elena her blood to heal her, but then she remembered: cured vampires couldn't process the blood. Maybe it doesn't work only for the Cure, but once the cure is gone, out of the system, she pondered and hesitated.

The doctors rushed in just seconds before Caroline could make her, possibly dangerous, decision.


The engine was revving and urgently roaring. Stefan held his foot on the gas pedal and here and then he looked up to see how close the care behind him was. Its high beams were on and successfully blinding him.

Bonnie had been following him for a couple of hours already, ever since she'd figured out he'd come home, now after his accidental metamorphosis to human that set him free from Cade. She'd also counted with the fact his guilt after another ripper spree would gulp him immediately, and that he would be stunned to see Bonnie when just several hours ago he had killed her boyfriend.

Stefan had actually been naïve enough trying to talk some sense into her and apologizing; Bonnie'd grinned at that, because how could one lame apology take back everything that Stefan had put her through? Not only her, but everyone else as well. How could it bring back the love of her life? Her life had gone down the hill the moment he'd come back to Mystic Falls,.

There were two voices - two Bonnies - arguing inside her head. One said: "If you kill him, you'll be no better than any other vampire. Be on the top of it." and the other only seeked revenge and to hell with moral principles. Nothing could stop her now.


Damon kicked another pebble ouf of the way, swearing to himself that Stefan couldn't have been more vague about his location. This road had approximately XY miles and Stefan could be on any spot, and Bonnie obviously stuck on his back. Damon figured out that eventually, they would pass by the Welcome to Mystic Falls sign.

He parked his Camaro behind bushes where it was basically invisible from the road. The plan was an oldie: wait for the fastest care to came - which would be Stefan's - let it pass, and step in the way of the following one - that would be Bonnie's.

The anger made her beyond dangerous and hotheaded. Damon wasn't so sure that she wouldn't attack him. He actually counted with the possibility she would; the likeliness of it made him feel a bit weary. But he didn't regreat at all turning her into a vampire: it was the only way to keep her alive. If this - the temporary danger before he'd bring her back out off this rabbit hole - was the price to pay, he was more than willing to pay it. And the following months or years of spleen was nothing he couldn't handle. At least so he thought. She couldn't hate him forever, right?

He got another impatient call:

"Damon, where are you?" Stefan panted to the phone. Damon would have sworn he heard even his heart beating.

"Courage, Stefan, I got you covered -"

"Hurry! I think she's catching up."

"Just gas it and speed straight to Mystic Falls."

"Mystic Falls? Are you kidding me that you're still in Mystic Falls and not on the road!"

"Just do it, Stefan! Get your ass here before she'll make meatloaf out of ya!" Damon ordered and hung up.


Seeing Stefan was actually going back to Mystic Falls, Bonnie was annoyed that she'd wasted time looking for him. She could have as well just sit and wait for him in the Boarding House.

Upon finding him and a little awkwardly attacking him, she believed that he wouldn't risk going home knowing she would hunt him down, because that was Stefan - "I have to run away, there's no other way, I can't put you in danger." Blah blah blah. But he was not a vampire anymore. Now she had to count with several vampires trying to stop her and save him.

Maybe it had been the irritation cause by being turned into vampire against her will, probably excess energy that needed to be vented, that'd led to this high-speed trip. The tension could be reduced, she thought, by tracking Stefan down and chasing him to death.

She clenched her teeth. Her fangs enlarged and she felt the blood pumping in the veins that appeared, as she saw in the rearview mirror under her eyes. She did look like a monster, she realized, like a demon. She hated her own reflection. It was all Damon's fault; she hated him for doing this to her. Hate. Hate. Hate.

Hate was the only thing Bonnie felt. It outgrew the grief for Enzo, it made the amazement of Elena's awakening negligible. Hate infiltrated her entire undead being.

Bonnie was getting closer to Stefan, but not close enough. Chasing him gave her peculiar sense of thrill. He'd be her victim in a matter of short time, but it was the fear he felt right now as she breathed on his back that pushed her forward. She had absolute power over him; it was up to her to decide whether he would live or die. Her choice was obvious, yet she wanted to enjoy the feeling of proponderance, or even supremacy, to the fullest.

The tires sqeaked on the concrete as Bonnie pushed the braked down to the floor. That silhouette wasn't there a second ago. She didn't even shake off the shock when the silhouette grabbed her out of her care and threw her out to the bush along the road.

Damon, she figured.

In a moment, Bonnie was back on her feet, determined to get back on the road before Stefan got too far. Damon stood right in front of her.

"Well, what do we have here?" Damon said. "Will you blow the whistle and tell me what are you doing here?"

"You know the answer. What are you doing," she said, more as a reproach than a question.

"You know, I was just spending some quality time with my girlfriend and her friend when I got a call from her fiancé, who happens to be my brother, that he was being hunted by a rageous newbie vampire. I'm sure you understand what that implies," he winked.

"Mind you own business, Damon," Bonnie retorted and deliberately ran into him as she tried to walk away back to her car.

Damon grabbed her arm. "That's exactly what I'm doing."

He miscounted. In a blink of an eye, he lay twenty feet away between the trees and bushes, with small sticks stuck everywhere. She vamp-speeded to her car, and Damon hear only revving of the engine.

He lay there for a few seconds and silently moaned, when a raindrop fell down on his cheek.

"Great."

He jumped up and dialed Stefan, hoping he had given him a sufficient head-start and tat he wasn't dead by now. Damon pondered about the places Stefan could be headed to, and the most foolish one came out as number one. The Boarding House.


Stefan hoped from the bottom of his new human heart that the vampire weapons and wooden bullets were back where they belonged. He didn't plan on killing Bonnie - he wasn't prepared to kill anyone ever again. The goal was to weaken her, distract her from her killer mindest.

He had no idea who put them back into the throne since the twins still lived in the house, but there they were in their entire beauty: guns, wooden stakes, vervain granades, even a small crossbow Jeremy had used to use. Stefan exhaled in relief: the odds were apparently in his favour.

Deep inside, Stefan admitted to himself he deserved to die and Bonnie was, unfortunately, absolutely righteous with the intention to kill him. He would never forget the pain he'd caused to so many innocent people. What a monste he was wanting to kill Elena and almost following it through! Had he ever been so close before? What about the time when he had been compelled by Klaus? No. And it seemed just legimate that Bonnie took the justice in her hands - Stefan could never repay her for killing Enzo. That was also the only thing he could do - planting pain all around him.

Although he was aware of all that, still there was Caroline. He had to fight for his life for her. The desire to run away escape from all those he'd hurt, was nothing compared to the need to be with Caroline. Leaving her again would be betrayal and he'd never be able to repair what he'd destroy. Dying meant leaving. And he was far from suicidal, so fighting Bonnie - as clumsily as he could - was the only option.

The cars were coming, one and shortly after the other. They stopped.

Stefan hid behind a corner and surprise her. He did realize how naïve it was, because she could hear him breathe, she could hear his heartbeat and maybe even sense his blood. But it was better than nothing. She couldn't know that he had a weapon in his hand which he was really skilled with. And vervain, of course.

Bonnie smashed the door. As if I hadn't been here today already... She lost no time and speeded to Stefan; his breathing was so loud and annyoing. She grabbed him by his throat, pressing him against the wall. He choked and his head was getting swollen incredibly fast. He dropped the weapons because all the strength he had was instinctively used to fight her with bare hands so he could breathe.

"Finally I get to do this. You know, I never even imagined how this would feel. But it's actually pretty cool," Bonnie said, half-smiling.

"I'm sorry," he gasped after every two syllables. "Please. Let me go."

"Oh, no, I won't do that." Her voice was alarmingly calm and... was it irony Stefan heard in it?

"Let's talk about this," he faltered.

"Less talking, more dying, Stefan," she hissed through her teeth. And then Stefan saw it. The blood in her eyes, the veins under them, the fangs peeked through her lips. She was no longer the Bonnie he knew.

In a flash of thinking straight Stefan remembered that he had a vervain grenade and a small wooden stake in his pocket. He had to act fast and precisely; any mistake was fatal, Bonnie had reactions of the speed of light.

He pulled the granade out of his pocket and crashed it against her ear. It exploded and sprayed the vervain over her face, so her squeeze eased and he could escape. While catching a breath, he staked her in her arm. She stumbled backwards, preoccupied with her injury.

Damon jumped out of nowhere to pacify Bonnie, who had already the burns from vervain healed and the stake pulled out. Although being older and stronger was his advantage, he had to be very careful and foresightful. He hadn't seen anyone so blustery and fierce - since Katherine Pierce, the ultimate survivor.

Stefan touched his face; pieces of the plexiglass of the granade got stuck all over it. He stared at Bonnie and Damon from a short distance, in shock, pulling a piece by piece of the glass out of his face. He had seen countless vampire fights, he had been a part of many more of them. So why was he suddenly so overwhelmed? Why did it seem more like a loud and vivid dream than reality? It was as if he had been watching himself sit there on the floor where had thrown himself.

"You can't kill him. He's human, Bonnie!" Damon yelled.

"I know," she said with a clenched jaw. "And I don't care. Easier to kill him that way."

"Run, Stefan, run! Take the car!" Damon shouted at him. "Damn it, Bonnie, it was all Cade! He made him do that."

"No, he didn't," she burst out. "No one made him do all this. He made his choice all by himself, he killed Enzo without a reason. He deserves to die!"

"Don't be insane, Bonnie, just chill the hell out! He's not a vampire anymore," he said as Bonnie tried to knock her elbow in his ribs. "Listen to me! Stefan's not a vampire. You don't want to kill him."

"Oh yes, I do, and you have no idea how much."

"Don't make me fight you, Bonnie," Damon threatened her.

Even with all the weakness of a new vampire, Bonnie was an equal fighter against Damon. The anger and desire for vengeance were great fuel for her strength. Not hearing Stefan start the car was making him nervous and distracted. He focused so hard on not letting her go that he didn't even see all the weapons lying just a few feet away. One incautious movement and she'd be free.

"It's your fault," Bonnie said. "You made me drink blood, you turned me into this monster. I'm only making use of it." One last time before I die, she thought.

"So you kill him, and then what? The guilt will haunt you forever." Damon tried to be rational, but even he knew that rage and brain were not good friends and only one could win. With someone as emotionally driven as Bonnie was right now, he didn't give it much of a chance. "You will hate yourself every miserable day for the rest of your vampire existence. Did I mention that means forever?"

"I'm not you, Damon. I won't feel guilty for doing something I should have done a long time ago."

"It won't bring Enzo back, Bonnie! Killing my brother won't solve anything."

"No, but it will feel good," she said with disturbing lightness in her voice.

She escaped his grip, making full use of her newly gained speed to go after Stefan, who'd hardly got used to his human slowness and clumsiness, something he hadn't experienced for over a hundred and fifty years. The only thing moving him forward was the survival instinct. His legs were shaky and he slipped on wet leaves every ten feet. The rain was heavy and the night was moonless. His sight sucked, to say the least.

"Okay, Bon Bon, you give me no choice," Damon said as he broke a branch from a tree nearby to use it as a stake.

Bonnie cried out. The stake stuck out of her back, just between the scapula, and she collapsed on the moss soaked in rain water. She tried to pull it out, which only caused her more pain and each attempt pushed the stake deeper and closer to her dead heart. To her greatest horror, she began to cough blood.

At any other given moment, she would think this was for the best and that she should die. However, now she hated the idea that she would have to leave with unfinished business, without any closure.

"You know, I was debating it for a moment," a voice above her said, "but now I'm certain. You flipped the switch."

"You should know all about that." Bonnie wheezed. "How good it feels, being able to shut off all the pain."

"Look, I know that after turning into a vampire everything got hightened, especially the grief for Enzo..."

"I don't care about any freaking grief," she said.

"Yeah, sure you don't," he sniffed out, "because your switch is off. But once it's back on, everything will be much worse if you kill Stefan."

"That comes from someone who wanted to kill him for over a century. He wanted to kill Elena - how many times? And he almost did, just a few hours ago! Does that mean nothing to you?"

"He didn't, and that's the point! I never did actually kill him, because he's my brother. He didn't want to hurt me today, he did all that because he had to."

"Oh, he wanted to do it, and you know it," she insisted, with mocking tone in her voice. "Nothing would bring him more pleasure than to see you suffer. It's what he is."

"No, it's not, not anymore. He's human now. The Ripper is gone for good. And even after everything he's done to me, all the pain he put me through, I forgive him. Because that's what brothers do."

"Should I wipe a tear? Who would've thought you're weaker than me. Just pull the damn stake out of my back so I can finish this for us both..."

An unexpected pinch and then intense burning spreaded from her neck to her entire system, making her weak and in a way besotted. It felt as bad, if not worse, as the stake stuck in her back.

It was a shot of vervain, she realized before passing out, put right to her carotid artery for better effect.