Chapter 10

"Nathaniel Hawthorne once wrote: No man, for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true."

~Lucas Scott, One Tree Hill

Josh had left Bonnie in the room to sleep. Damon hadn't been home when he arrived so he took the liberty of tucking her in himself. "Thank you."

"No problem. Next time if you want to run off remember there's people who care about you and you can talk to them."

"I won't forget it." He kissed her forehead and shut the door to leave her to sleep.

"Hey, What were you doing in there?"

"I was putting Bonnie asleep. The visit to the festival didn't go so well. So I cancelled the dinner at Tony's." he walked to their room and sat on the bed letting out a sigh. "I figured she needed to be comfortable so I'm going to ask Jazz to make her some tea and maybe see if I can find her favorite movie in the library.." The blonde beauty eyed Josh who was confused by her stare. "What? Bonnie has a hard time sleeping she always did."

Sara watched the man as he was preparing to tend to the witch and again it made every bone in her body upset. "I'm sure Damon can take care of his girlfriend."

"He isn't back yet."

"Okay her cousin and best friend could do it." He looked up and was about to protest when he saw his girlfriends face.

"Your right. I'll ask Elena to comfort her." He placed his wallet and keys on the dresser and continued to talk. "Maybe taking her to the festival wasn't a good idea."

"I thought you said you didn't like going to the festival."

"I don't I just wanted to see Paul and Shirley."

"I've asked you plenty of times did you want me to go and you always say no."

"I thought you just said that to make me feel better. You don't even like things like that."

"I know but if you love them I want to love them too."

"Okay we can go tomorrow if that's fine. I'll introduce you to Paul. He helped me with my powers when I was young."

"I would love to." She wrapped her arms around him. She felt like she was losing him to this Bonnie girl. "I love you. Josh."

"I love you too."

Damon had came in early in the morning. Everyone had still been asleep when he stumbled into the house. Walking into the bedroom he saw Bonnie and Elena dozed off in his bed. Being the gentlemen that he was instead of kicking Elena out of the bed he just slept on the couch.

It was now 10 a.m. and most of the house was still sleep. Which was kind of weird seeing as though around this time the house would normally be busy? Especially Bonnie, she would be up at the crack of dawn. He noticed that lately she had been sleeping in more, which he honestly didn't mind because he loved to wake up and see her cuddled up to him. Shutting the guest's bedroom door behind him, he walked downstairs to see Stefan and Elena drinking a cup of coffee.

"Good morning." The brunette said, looking up to see her brother-in-law coming to take a seat on the stool. "what time did you get home?"

"Around 3 had a late night."

"We had been trying to call you yesterday. Bonnie went missing for an hour and no one knew where she was."

"Was she okay?"

"Yeah Josh found her and bought her back. Then me and her spent some time watching movies in the room and dozed off. She had tried to call you before she went to bed but you didn't answer."

"My phone had died. Did it take her a long time to get to sleep last night?"

"not really but she seemed really worried about something?" Elena said leaning against the counter in the kitchen.

"Did she tell you what was bothering her?" Stefan said turning to face his wife.

"Actually she did. You're not going to believe this but she thinks she's a monster."

"What?" Damon said not sure if Elena was lying or not.

"Yeah she was so upset and kept going on and on about how she was a monster."

"You obviously told her that wasn't true." Stefan spoke in a matter of fact tone.

"Yeah of course. She still seemed upset though."

"Why would she think she was a monster though?" Stefan said looking back and forth between his brother and wife. "I've known her since she found out about her powers and she never seemed to think that at first."

"I don't know maybe because she has been getting pretty powerful lately, the reason for all those nosebleeds and the fainting." Elena was holding her coffee with two hands as her mouth moved. "Is there anything we can do so she doesn't think that?"

"I don't know but for now we're going to see if she can pull herself out first." Damon said as Elena handed him a cup.

"I think Josh may know what's wrong with her. I mean he was there."

"I haven't seen him so I'm guessing he probably had something to do with why she's acting like that." Elena looked behind her and Damon knew she was staring at someone. "Well speak of the devil."

Josh said good morning and moved to grab himself a cup. "Mind if I grab this pot?" Elena poured the man his coffee and it was silence as they all watched him. "Did I do something wrong. Because if I did I'd like to deal with this after I've had my coffee."

"Where did you and Bonnie go yesterday days ago?"

"The annual Witch Festival. Our friend Paul has a booth there."

"Did you do something to her to make her think she was a monster?"

"No. She wouldn't tell me when I tried to ask her."

"Yeah and it had to be something you did because she was there with you."

"When I left her with Shirley she was fine. I heard a bunch of commotion in the room then I went to see what was wrong. Bonnie ran and she never explained what happened. If you really want to know what happened there you'd have to talk to Shirley. Though I've been trying to reach her and she hasn't been answering my calls."

"Well it looks like you and I are taking a little trip to see the psychic." Damon said finishing up his drink.

"Great." Josh said sarcastically. "I'm going to need another cup of coffee if I'm going to have to deal with him this early in the morning." He said causing both Elena and Stefan to smile.

Bonnie had felt groggy. She wasn't use to spending all her time in her bed. It didn't feel right. She placed her feet on the cool floor when she heard a knock at the door. "Bonnie are you up."

"Yeah come in." The door opened to show Elena, Meg, and Jazz coming in.

"Is everything okay?" She asked getting alarmed.

"Yeah it's okay. We were just worried about you." Elena said sitting next to her best friend.

"I'm fine."

"You don't look fine." Bonnie gave Megan a death glare and the brunette looked away.

"We decided that today was a girl's night out." She wasn't sure why they should be having a girls night out because it was getting closer to D-Day.

"That sounds nice but shouldn't we be focused on the training."

"It's good to take a break sometimes. So we are going to take you shopping and then hit up the club tonight."

"I don't know."

"Come on Bonnie we hate seeing you like this so let us spoil you."

"Okay if you say so."

Josh pulled up to the house and looked at Damon. "This is it."

"Well let's go."

"A few rules."

"You should know before you start that I don't do well when people give me rules." Damon spoke smirk on his face and grabbing at the door handle to the car.

"Alright, just don't be an ass to these people. They are like my second family."

"I thought the people at the house were your second family."

"No they are my family."

"So where is your other family?"

"Does it matter? Just come one so we can get this done." Damon looked at the blonde then got out the car following Josh as he knocked on the door.

There was Paul who looked grateful to see them. "How it going?"

"Good How's Shirley?"

"She's been better."

"Do you think we could see her?"

"I don't know."

"Whatever your psychic saw has my girlfriend thinking some bad things about herself that can't obviously be true, so can we please talk to her or this is going to turn ugly."

"So you're Bonnie's vampire boyfriend." He shrugged his shoulders and Damon interpreted it as him saying she could do better. He would have had a problem with the man but right now he was worried about Bonnie. "Fine. Come on in. I'll go get Shirley and be back in a minute.

"Did you have to threaten him?"

"We're in here aren't we?"

"How may I help you?"

"I want you to tell me what you saw when you touched Bonnie's hand?" The woman looked as though she didn't want to say. The thought bringing a little fear to her eyes.

"I don't think I should say but I can tell you this. Bonnie has something in her that she has locked away and for now it's at bay but if she ever lets it out. It's not going to be good for anybody. Not even the people she loves." Damon had glanced to Josh who was staring back at him wondering what the psychic could have seen to make her think that.

Bonnie looked around. The sound of the music from the club blasting around her. She saw Meg out on the dance floor dancing with some guy. Looking to her left and right sat Elena and Jasmine."So this is much better than being cooped up in that bed. Right?"

"I do feel a little better." Bonnie took a swig of her drink.

"Girls Nights Out is always a good thing." Jasmine said. "I hope you don't mind but I invited Sara. I know you guys aren't the best of friends but she doesn't have a lot of friends."

"It's fine the more the merrier." The witch gave her friend a genuine smile. She was checking out the dance floor when a familiar face walked past. She knew who exactly it was and she knew she shouldn't be moving to go see where they were going. "I'm going to the bathroom. I'll be back." The two nodded as Bonnie walked off.

Seeing the man posted up by the back door of the club she heads straight for him. She knows that he recognizes her when he looks in her direction and smiles. "Look whose back in town. We missed you around here."

"What are you doing here? I thought this was a neutral zone."

"Sweetie you've been gone for a long time now. Things changed." She looked at him and he looked at her up and down. "Though someone hasn't. I see you trying to be normal by hanging with your friends. Is it working?"

Bonnie didn't want them to run into him or for him to talk to his friends. "You need to leave."

"You don't think you're going to kick me out? Do you?" He smirked at the witch causing her to become angry.

"Do you want to test that theory?" His smirk dropped.

"Wait a minute I see. You're looking for some of your old drugs. Aren't you?"

"No! What are you talking about?"

"I can see it in your eyes. You're trying to go clean but it's eating you up inside."

"I'm clean."

"Not for long." She looked away guilty.

"So I'm right. So that's why you came looking for me. You want some of your old product. Well you're in luck because I have some in my VIP suite."

"I said I'm done. I'm clean and I'm not going back." She turned to walk away but he gripped her arm she stopped as he walked closer to her to whisper in her ear.

"Come on Bonnie we can go to the back and I can give you a dose on the house." Every bone in her body was telling her to just go back to the table and her craving for it would go away but knowing that she was close to having it in her system again made her heart excited with adrenaline. She needed it. She was tired of fainting and having nose bleeds. She would do it this once and she would be done. All she needed was the one dosage and she wouldn't want it anymore.

She knew that she was probably wrong but she didn't care. She felt Howard let go of her arm. "Howie wait."

"That's what I like to hear." He grabbed her hand and led her to the suite.

"I haven't seen Bonnie in a while I wonder what she's doing." Elena asked looking over the crowd for her brunette friend.

"Maybe she's out there dancing with one of these hot ass men." Meg fanned herself while she looked at all the males in the room.

"I doubt that plus she wouldn't want Damon to see her doing that or he would go on a rampage."

"Yeah but it's been an hour."

"Maybe we should go look for her." Sara said as the rest of the girls got up taking their stuff with them. They went until they found a VIP that caught their attention.

"I wonder how she does that. I could do that for Nate." Jazz said turning her head at the movements of the stripper.

"I'm sure Stefan would love that." Elena said smiling at Meg, who nodded.

"What man wouldn't?" They shared a laugh before they heard the surprise in Sara's voice.

"Oh my god is that Bonnie." They looked inside to see her sitting next to a pale man with dark brown hair who had his hand grazing her neck and Bonnie didn't seem repulsed at all with it. Jazz ran inside the room first as Bonnie looked up to see them coming in.

"Guys? What are you doing here?" She moved and stood up.

"Bonnie? What hell are you doing? Who is this guy?" She looked back at Howard to see him standing up and coming over to them. Sara had noticed that Bonnie had tensed up when the man came to stand beside her.

"Hello. I'm Howard an old friend of Bonnie's. You must be her friends."

"Yeah and she's leaving with us because she has a boyfriend. Who would honestly beat your ass if he found out about this?" Elena said while Jazz pulled Bonnie to them.

"Elena please don't."

"Listen to your friend." As the man's fang protruded the girls stood their shocked. "Because that ass whooping wouldn't end well for him."

"He's the same thing you are so I wouldn't be so sure about that." Sara said eyes turning.

"Well isn't that interesting." The man folded his arms over his chest. "You date a vampire and are friends with one but you came to me. That's sweet." They all looked at Bonnie confused on what the hell he was talking about. "If this night isn't just filled with surprises."

"Bonnie let's go."

"Yes Go Bonnie. I know I'll be seeing you soon enough." He smiled at the group as he turned back around to his stripper and the other people in the room.

"Bonnie what the hell was you doing in there? And what is he talking about an old friend?"

"He's somebody I met the first week I ran away."

"You never mentioned him to us."

"I didn't think it was that important." Bonnie said defending her actions.

"This man was feeling on you and you tell me he wasn't important enough to tell any of your friends."

"He wasn't feeling me up and yes that's what I'm saying." They sat there in silence taking in the event that had just passed. "Listen there is nothing to worry about. Howie's just an old friend. We were catching up. Damon doesn't have to know."

"Bonnie he should know." Elena said. She knew that it may not have meant anything but still Damon ought to know.

"You don't understand please just don't tell him. Can't you do that one thing for me?"

"Alright but Bonnie. I don't know why but if you don't think he should know."

"I don't. It isn't that big a deal. Don't tell any of the guys please because one of them will end up telling him." The girls all looked around and a silent agreement was made. The rest of the ride back home was an awkward silence. They walked through the front door to see the men in the living room watching TV. Evan was the first to see them.

"Looks like the ladies are back." Evan said passing them with a cold beer in his hands.

"Hey how was your night?" Damon asked. Bonnie looked at him and Elena was surprised at how easy it was to lie to him. "It was fun. We drank, danced, and gossiped. You know things normal girls do."

Stefan came up behind Elena and wrapped his arm around her. "Sounds fun."

"It was okay." Elena said not able to look her husband in the eye.

"Sara did you have fun. I know you're use to spending most of your time with me but it wasn't bad was it?"

"I enjoyed myself." Bonnie had stayed to listen until she felt her eyes get a little droopy.

"I'm going to bed. I'll see you all later." Bonnie said eyeing her friends and Sara as she moved towards her room.

"Sara, are you sure you had a good time. You aren't talking too much?"

"Yeah I'm fine."

"So did you and Bonnie get along?" Josh asked following her into the kitchen.

"Why does it matter what she thinks?" The words came out even though that's not what she wanted to say. But oh did she want to say so much more.

"Is everything alright?" He asked concerned about his girlfriend.

"Yeah I just want to know why it matter what she thinks of me?" Josh was at a loss for words.

"She's a good friend."

"So it has nothing to do with Bonnie being your ex-girlfriend?" She looked at him and he knew that she did have something to say. "I mean since she's been back we hardly spend time together because you're always with her in that attic or going to festivals."

"Bonnie's a good friend and that's all." He tried to believe his words but it was harder said than done.

"I don't believe you."

"What can I do to show you that I'm not in love with Bonnie anymore?"

"I want her out of your life." Josh laughed until he realized that she was serious.

"You can't be for real. Bonnie is the only other witch that can help me with the spell and she is a really good friend. I can't just kick her out my life."

"Well it looks like you're going to have to make a choice. Either it's her or it's me." Josh stared at Sara as she waited for an answer.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed. So pretty much to sum it up Bonnie may have gone off the band wagon and broke her promise to Stan. Elena may actually be starting to pay attention to some of the things going on with Bonnie. Damon and Josh got a tidbit of info from the psychic. And Sara gave Josh and ultimatum me or her…

Thanks for the reviews, faves, and alerts. Sorry if there were any grammatical errors. Next chapter deals with some of Elena's appearing feelings towards her best friend and Damon's lingering gut feeling about his girlfriend. Plus we see Josh's answer and how it affects Bonnie. Until next time then.