"What's it like?" Bonnie asked, watching Damon eat.

"What?"

"Waking up human," Bonnie elaborated, genuinely curious. He'd been a vampire for a century and a half and, as far as she had knew, he'd liked being one. Of course, with her new insight she was beginning to doubt that assessment.

"I suppose it's like the opposite of waking up dead."

Bonnie frowned at the non answer. "Well, I've never done either. So, what's it like?" She pressed. He was silent for a moment and seemed to be considering whether or not to give her a serious answer.

"It's not like I couldn't go out into the sun or eat this," he waved his burger, "before. Everything's just a little muted now. A little less intense."

"Like your feelings?" She remembered someone telling her that what your feeling became a lot more intense when you became a vampire. Probably why he obsesses about things so much.

"Like everything."

"And you like that?" She wanted to ask him about the disappointment he'd felt when she'd told him being human was probably temporary. This seemed the best way without telling him about the connection.

Damon just shrugged, however, but with her new insight, she got the answer anyway.

"Can you really turn it all off? Is that what you did after you were turned?" She tilted her head, studied him.

He leaned forward, closer to her. "Are you trying to analyze me, Judgy?"

"Maybe," Bonnie conceded. It would make them even more intense, wouldn't it? Turning them off for so long and then suddenly feeling everything. Bonnie shook her head when she realized that she was trying to understand him.

"Nothing excuses all the things you've done." She was, at least, firm in that resolve.

"I haven't made excuses to you," he pointed out.

Xxxxxxxx

Damon watched the witch for a moment, wondering how he'd gotten sucked into that conversation. He'd been doing that a lot lately. He remembered, vaguely, apologizing to Stefan while he'd been drunk. He also remembered kissing the witch. That wasn't important. He'd been hallucinating, reliving one of those moments with Katherine.

What he thought was more important was that when Jeremy had found him in the square, he'd been looking for the witch...and he'd wanted her with him when he died.

Xxxxxxxx

"Hey." A slow smile spread across Stefan's face when he opened his door to see Elena standing there.

"Hey." She smiled back at him, stepping into an embrace.

"What's going on?" He wrapped his arms around her.

"Nothing. I just thought we could spend some time together. It has been kind of crazy around here lately..."

"Sure." His smile widened and he pulled her inside. She glanced around the parlor when they got inside.

"We alone?" She asked after they sat down and she leaned back into him.

"We are." He had seen Damon disappear with Bonnie earlier but he didn't tell her that. He was willing to bet that Bonnie hadn't thought he was home when they left and he didn't want to stir up trouble for her. He still had no idea just what was going on between the two of them but Bonnie was old enough to make her own decisions and he had never known her to take crap from Damon.

He was also pretty sure that Damon hadn't told Elena about his...transformation. He was a little surprised. He would have thought Damon would have gone straight over to Elena's to tell her but he hadn't.

Stefan, of course, knew how Damon felt about Elena and now Damon had an advantage over him. An advantage that he apparently wasn't using. Or, at least, he hadn't so far.

"Great." She kissed him and they were just starting to get into it when he heard the front door open again and two voices.

"You really need to learn to drive the speed limit." Bonnie's voice was scolding.

"It was your car. If you didn't want me to drive, you could have said no." Damon's voice, on the other hand was just plain amused.

"I didn't know you'd be driving like an idiot. Although, I guess I should have. It is you."

Elena had sat up and a frown had formed on her face when she heard them but they had stopped just inside the door and still hadn't come inside enough to spot either Elena or Stefan.

"That hurts, Judgy. And here I thought we were connecting, learning to get past all that animosity...really working on our relationship." Damon's voice was mock serious and even though Stefan couldn't see him, he could picture the smirk he knew was planted firmly on his brothers face.

Bonnie let out a frustrated noise. "I hate you."

"Hate you too, Judgy." The words were said idly but they both stopped at the doorway when they spotted Elena and Stefan. Stefan eyed his girlfriend. Elena was not stupid. Although the conversation they'd overheard sounded pretty typical of Damon and Bonnie, there had been none of the usual anger behind it.

"Hey, Elena." Bonnie shifted on her feet and glanced at Damon. "I should really get out of here," she said abruptly after a moment of silence.

"So soon?" Damon's tone was the same as it had been when he'd first come in the door. He either didn't notice or was ignoring the expression on Elena's face. "I thought we were getting somewhere."

Bonnie scowled and hit him on the shoulder before turning to leave. Elena glared at him as well and followed Bonnie out the door. Damon watched both of them leave with a raised eyebrow.

"And you people think I'm the crazy one."

Xxxxxxxxx

"Bonnie!"

Elena's voice stopped her before she could reach her car. She sighed and turned briefly. "Look, could you not yell at me about what you think I'm doing. I'm really not in the mood for a fight right now."

Elena stopped as well. "This is more than just the spell, isn't it? Jeremy told me after you left last night...about what it did. But it's more than that..."

Bonnie shook her head. She thought about the last couple of days, about the way she thought about Damon had started to shift, about everything that had happened in those few days. She could still feel him. She'd felt it when he was in pain. She'd felt him die.

"I don't know," she finally answered truthfully.

Xxxxxxxxx

Bonnie barely slept that night either. She was going to have to start doing something about that. She couldn't go the entire time the connection was still active without any sleep.

She was exhausted and still couldn't sleep. She was so going to blame this on Damon later. He was up and not tired. He'd slept late, getting over a hangover. She felt like he was haunting her. She couldn't get away from him, even across town.

Finally, in frustration, she gave up and got out of bed. She'd been lying there for nearly two hours. There was no way she was getting any sleep, at least not while he wasn't.

Xxxxxxxxx

Damon's foot moved restlessly. The television was on but he wasn't paying much attention to it. He'd never been one for sitting in front of the screen anyway. It made him feel even more restless than he had before.

He couldn't sleep and he kind of felt like he was wasting time. Plus, not having anything to do gave him way to much time to think.

Finally, he got up, grabbed a jacket and headed out of the house, no real destination in mind.

Xxxxxxxxxx

Bonnie flipped disinterestedly through the channels on her TV, not really paying any attention to what was on. Was it getting stronger? It sure felt like it was. She could practically feel him beside her with that damned smirk on his face.

And she'd really hoped it would start to fade over time. A tap on her window distracted her and she went to it, pulling the blinds. She stared at Damon a moment before reluctantly opening the window.

"What are you doing here?" She asked with a frown, understanding just why the connection seemed to have gotten stronger since she had gotten out of bed.

"I don't know," he said with a shrug. The answer was honest with no amount of mocking and she sighed, and opened her window wider to let him in. He was lucky her bedroom was on the first floor.

Bonnie cringed when he slid inside, landing hard on the floor and she was thankful her dad was out of town at that moment. When he got up, he dropped back on her bed. Bonnie frowned. She knew he had come to her house because he was bored and restless.

"So, what have you been doing?" He asked and there was that smirk.

Bonnie let out a resigned sigh and sat against the headboard next to him. She didn't answer his question but had to suppress a groan when she turned to the television and caught sight of the cheesy romance that starred a human girl with her vampire boyfriend.

She scowled and flipped the channel until she got to some comedy and wondered when, for what felt like the hundredth time, when it had started to feel normal to have him so close.