Disclaimer: I don't own the Vampire Diaries nor am I making any profit from this. Characters, etc. all belong to their respective owners.

A/N: A big thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, etc. last chapter! Admittedly, I've been a bit terrified of posting a story like this since it will be dealing with heavy subject matter throughout, but all the comments and encouragements I've received have helped me to feel a lot better about posting this, so a big thank you for that!

"Come on," Damon says, "Let's head to the boardinghouse."

"How? It's a magic-free zone," Bonnie reminds him. "Unless, y'know, you actually have a death wish or something."

That comment actually comes as somewhat of a relief to him. At least there's still something of her old self in there.

"Yeah…about that. Kai kind of sucked up all the magic that was keeping the barrier up, so…"

"Oh."

She thinks about asking where Kai is now. Because the only thing she's sure of now is that the next time she sees him, she's going to kill him. She even has his pocket knife stashed in her jeans for the occasion and everything.

She silently follows Damon back to the Salvatore boardinghouse.

"Where have you been, Damon?" Elena asks when they enter, coming to meet them in the foyer. "You didn't say any—" she stops dead in her tracks at the sight of Bonnie.

"Bonnie?" Elena whispers as if she hardly dares to believe it. Wh…how?" she asks, but as if she decides it suddenly doesn't matter, she embraces Bonnie tightly.

Bonnie stiffens slightly in her arms, but she forces herself to give Elena an awkward pat or two on the back. She should be happy to see her best friend…especially since she was so sure she'd never see anyone else again.

Bonnie can't help but wonder if maybe she's just broken.

"I'm so glad you're back," Elena tells her.

Bonnie just gives her a small smile, but doesn't say anything. Instead, she starts tapping her fingers against the book she's holding like she did earlier when Liv had first brought her back.

"I'm going to go home," Bonnie says suddenly, breaking the awkward silence.

"Oh," Elena says in a mixture of surprise and confusion. She thought that maybe Bonnie would want to stay here and catch up and enjoy being back with everyone. "Okay, well, I'll go with you."

"No," Bonnie says flatly. "I'm just going to sleep, so…"

"Well, at least let me drive you there," Elena says, faltering a little bit. "It's all the way across town."

Bonnie silently nods and follows Elena out the front door.

She ignores the holes that Damon's icy eyes are boring into her back.

Elena fills the drive with mindless chatter, filling Bonnie in on everything she's missed.

Elena has declared pre-med and conquered a summer-long drug problem by erasing her memories of Damon. She's not sure whether she should get back with Damon or not, but she's pretty sure she has feeling for him.

Elena tells her about how Jeremy's been such a wreck. He's spent the past several months boozing it up and having meaningless sex.

"But now that you're back, everything will be okay," Elena assures her, imploring Bonnie to look over what she's sure Elena views as 'minor setbacks.'

Elena also tells her about how Stefan went MIA, but is now back in action and is so happy to have his brother back.

"Caroline also has some personal problems that she'll have to tell you about herself, but she'll be so happy you're back," Elena says with a big smile.

Bonnie doesn't really care about anything Elena's saying, though. She just doesn't.

When Elena rolls up to Bonnie's house, she asks, "Are you sure you don't want me to stay with you? At least for a little while?"

"Like I said," Bonnie replies with a shrug. "I'm just going to sleep, so what'd be the point?"

Without waiting for Elena's response, she gets out of the car, finds the spare key she kept under a long-dead potted plant and enters her home.

She's surprised to find the house clean and free of dust. She wonders who's doing that was. At least it saved her the energy of having to do it herself.

The more she thinks about it, it becomes too ironic. When trapped alone in 1994, she had craves for contact with any of her friends. But when she's finally back and with Elena? She can't wait to be alone again.

Here's the real kicker about it all, though: Now that she finds herself alone again, she actually wishes for some company.

She really must be broken.

"Does Bonnie seem a bit…off to you?" Elena asks Damon when she returns to the boardinghouse from dropping Bonnie off.

Damon shrugs noncommittally over his glass of bourbon.

It didn't exactly take a rocket scientist to see that Bonnie was off. And the more he thought about it, why wouldn't she be? She had been trapped alone with him for months, then she had been trapped alone with a complete psychopath that did who the hell knows what to her, and then she had been trapped alone by herself after having the promise of returning home dangled in front of her only for it to suddenly be snatched away.

"It's just that she didn't really seem to want to talk to me…or being around me for that matter."

She sighs before flopping down on the couch next to Damon.

"I gave Caroline a call to let her know. I thought she could use some good news given everything that's happening with her mom. I should give Jeremy a call, too. Matt said he took it really hard when we didn't manage to bring her back last time, so…"

"Or maybe she could use some breathing space and a chance to go deal with everyone on her own terms," Damon replies. "She's obviously feeling disoriented right now."

He doesn't mention that he's sure it's much more, much worse than simply being 'disoriented.'

"I get that," Elena replies somewhat defensively. "I do. But we should be helping her through it. Maybe I should have just stayed with her anyway…I think I'll go back and check on her again later on tonight."

Silence.

She looks at Damon for a few moments before leaning over and pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth.

"I have no idea how you did it, but thank you for giving me my best friend back."

Typical Damon would have made some witty comment and then made a move on Elena. Instead, he continues to sit there silently with his bourbon.

She reads for a bit and then falls asleep.

Then, she's woken up to someone jumping in her bed and reaching out of her.

With a loud shriek, she automatically begins fighting and thrashing.

"Bonnie, Bonnie! It's me, Caroline!"

Bonnie stops and sees that it really is Caroline after all. She had been so sure that she was waking up to find Kai attacking her again.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Caroline says with a small frown. "It's just that Elena called and told me you were back, so I had to see you and when I saw you there, I just couldn't help myself." She envelops Bonnie tightly in her arms. "I've missed you so much."

Instead of hugging her back, Bonnie focuses on her breathing, trying to steady her racing heart.

"Hey, you're shaking." Caroline pulls away, concern clearly etched out on her pretty face. "Are you okay?"

Bonnie doesn't reply.

She just keeps trying to breathe.

Caroline catches her up on things Elena didn't tell her.

She tells Bonnie about how her mom has terminal brain cancer.

"I'm sorry," Bonnie says. It's a sincere condolence. Liz Forbes was a good person.

Parents were clearly never meant to last in this place.

Elena joins them later. Apparently she didn't feel so good about leaving Bonnie alone earlier.

Clearly, both Caroline and Elena know that Bonnie isn't right because they spend the night trying too hard to cheer her up.

They order in pizza and try to feed her amounts of massive chocolate. She has no appetite, but she forces herself to eat at least a little bit to appease them so they'd leave her alone. Her stomach almost rebels against her, making her feel like she might actually throw up.

Caroline pops in cheesy romantic comedies—the kind that Bonnie had loved watching back in what felt like an entirely different lifetime. None of it makes her laugh anymore, though.

She'd really rather just sleep, but she's afraid that she'll wake up and mistake one of them for Kai again.

It takes a lot of coercing to get them to leave. In fact, she has to flat out tell them that she'll sleep better with them not there.

They're clearly hurt by that, but leave with a promise to check up on her again tomorrow.

She curls up on the couch with her book and her blanket and reads until she falls asleep again.

She wakes up the next morning to non-stop doorbell ringing and simultaneous knocking. She thinks about ignoring it until they stop so that she can go back to sleep, but she gets the clear impression that whoever it is just won't go away. So, she forces herself to get p and answer the door.

It's Jeremy.

"I—I almost didn't come here. I didn't want to believe Elena when she said you were back because I didn't want to be let down again."

That's not exactly the heartfelt welcome someone would expect from the man who says they're the love of his life.

She doesn't care, though.

She's suddenly enveloped in his arms, almost lifted off the ground.

"I've missed you so much," he tells her in between kisses. He's everywhere; his lips are on hers, on her cheeks, on her forehead.

She feels like she's choking on him.

"You have to let me breathe at some point," Bonnie murmurs.

"Are you okay?" He asks her, brushing a strand of hair out of her face.

Are you okay?

It's a question that has become a trap for her in less than twenty-four hours.

There's no way anyone could expect her to be okay after everything that's happened. Yet, if she says no, that she's not okay, everyone will wonder just what is wrong with her. She could practically hear them now: "You're home now. Everything's going to be okay. So why aren't you happy? How can you not be happy now?"

Instead of answering Jeremy she shrugs and replies, "I'm really tired."

She moves back to the couch without waiting for a response from him and beings to read.

Jeremy sits in a nearby armchair, looking like he wants to say something but is very much holding back.

She's sure this isn't going at all how he had imagined. He must have been expecting smiles, tears of happiness, declarations of undying love, long and swollen kisses.

Bonnie just doesn't have it in her.

It's so much easier to just stick her nose in a book and become enthralled with someone else's problems.

Thanks for reading and, as always, reviews are very much appreciated!