A/N: and the reviews are in! Special thanks to:
Kblatz
Gspratt10807
& wickedlover87
You guys totally made my day and I appreciate everything you had to offer!
Stefan stared at the rising sun, a smile spread across his face that he just couldn't seem to shake. Phylicia Halliwell-Mitchell was something else. Before he even thought about what she was; a witch, a whitelighter, a psychic, Stefan was thinking about who she was. Phyl was quarky and yet shy; spoke her mind yet didn't fight for dominance. They were attributes she shared with Elena which had scared him when he realized it, but then he thought about their walk and everything they had talked about and how during the time he spent with her his history with Elena was the furthest thing from his mind.
As a vampire, emotions ran so highly and as a creature with the potential to spend an eternity on earth, those emotions could last for decades. When Stefan had left Mystic Falls all those years ago he had to learn how to do everything without giving into the anger and hurt. Even when he had come face to face with Elena only days before, Stefan had felt his entire body seize and the breath -that he didn't need to breathe- get knocked out of his lungs.
Phyl wasn't like the addiction he felt for Elena, she was the anti-Elena; calming his nerves and senses, brightening not only his world but his being. The breath no longer got knocked out of his lungs, it held there. Within moments of meeting her something within him had just known that though he had loved before her, he wouldn't love another woman again. Now he just had to make sure that they could pull off their little coup without anything happening to her.
Matt was going for his morning jog while Jeremy opened the Grill. He thought about the girl that hit on him the night before and smiled; his baby blue eyes gleaming with humor. It had been a while since anyone had tried to catch him with such intensity. Sure, he had gotten close to Rebekah and now they were good friends, but his last relationship had ended in disaster when he ended up engaged to a witch that had tried to go up against Marcel. That had been six years ago. There had been a fling here and there, but no one had looked at him with the same straight forward desire and interest as Denny had last night.
He was flattered even if she was a baby. Matt thought about what would have happened if she was another five years older when suddenly someone else was running at his side. "Elena," he was surprised. "What are you doing here?"
"Going for a run with my favorite quarterback," she laughed. "I wanted to invite you over for brunch actually, and I know you don't leave your phone on when you run."
"Brunch? Are you cooking?"
She smacked him on the arm and laughed with him. "I will have you know that Damon has spent the last ten years teaching me how to be one of the best Italian chefs ever."
"And how's that going for him?"
"I can make pasta from a box without burning the water," she admitted. "But the good thing is I have all the time in the world to learn and Damon is incredibly patient," she saw Matt's face contort in shock, "at least when it comes to teaching me how to cook. I think it's because we don't actually need to eat to survive so he gives me more time to learn."
"Alright," he agreed and they began to run toward the boarding house.
"Hey, handsome." Denny gave that cocky little half smile she had perfected. "Long time no see."
Matt smiled. "You know, there are a lot of great guys from the football team who hang out at the grill. I'm sure we can find one to introduce you to."
"I've always had a thing for older guys. Sit with me?"
"Sorry, kid. I'm hanging with Caroline today," and he picked up his plate and headed to the table.
Phyl watched from across the room and smiled. "Good for you," she whispered, glad at how things were turning out with Matt and Denny.
"Alright," Damon called everyone to the table and held up a mimosa. "Not my usual drink but I guess anytime you can imbibe alcohol in the morning it's a good thing. So here's to old friends, new friends, and hopefully a Klaus free existence. Let's eat."
An hour later it was time to get down to business. "What's the plan," Stefan asked.
"Well," Payton answered, "I've been thinking about what we've learned and the three of us want to look into our old family property; the witch house," she expanded, "find out who has the deeds right now and what we can do with the property. It's one of the most powerful sacred spaces we've come across and I'm sure we can tap into the power of the spirits to help us."
"I can look into that," Caroline offered, "but Bonnie tried to channel the dead witches and it almost killed her."
"Yeah, well no offence but Bonnie was still new to the whole witch thing and we're not only more powerful than her but we've been trained our whole lives. We have better control and we know something she didn't," Denny said.
"Which is what," Damon asked.
"The house is equidistant from the five spiritual elements, putting it right smack in the middle of a pentagram which makes it a source of power all by itself," Phyl replied. "By claiming it for good we can boost our powers and our spells, using it as a command center."
"Like your family manor back in California," Caroline remembered from the articles she had googled after the witches had told her about their ancestral home.
"And after that," Matt wondered.
"Well, we could cloak it so that we can continue to hide our presence from Klaus," Payton told them, "and we can start hitting the books. Try and find a way to summon Bonnie on a more permanent basis like we discussed last night."
"You still want to do that," Elena asked. "I know you guys were upset with her."
Denny grimaced. "Yeah, well she's had ten years on the other side to learn from the spirits. She could be beneficial but the issue is finding something to summon her with. If we could get DNA off of a relative we could cast the spell but her Dad left town after he sold their house and as you've told us, Abby fled after Bonnie's death and hasn't been heard of since."
"Wait," Stefan paused, "Caroline knows what to do."
"Um, no! No, I don't. Where is this coming from?"
"Bonnie said you would know where to look," he reminded his friend. "Right before she left, she said you could call her whenever you needed her."
"I don't know what that means," the blonde cried in frustration.
"You guys grew up here, right? Quaint, small town. Did you guys ever bury a time capsule or create a kind of memorial or anything where some physical piece of Bonnie might still reside," Phyl asked.
"No," Elena whispered; her brow furrowed as she thought. "That's not what she meant. She specifically told Caroline that she knew where to look. If she meant anything else she would have included me and Matt because we all grew up together."
Payton looked up. "The research," she said. "Where is it?"
Caroline walked over to her attache case and removed the documents that she printed. "But this is about you guys. What does it have to do with Bonnie?"
"Oh, we're idiots," Denny realized. She pointed to a name on the family tree. "Do you see what I see?"
Phyl pulled out her phone and ran a search, coming up with a whole other side to their genealogy. "Son of a bitch," she murmured. "I would never have guessed."
"But I should have," Denny cursed herself. "But Bennett isn't an uncommon name."
"What's going on," Matt asked.
"Bonnie Bennett is my very distant cousin on my Grandfather Victor's side."
"What does that mean? You're all related," Caroline asked.
"No, not all of us. Our mother has a different father then her sisters. If Bonnie is related by our Aunts' father, then Denny is the only one of us whose related to her," Phyl told them.
"And I can use my blood to summon her," Denny concluded.
