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: Thanks so much to everyone who's been reading and reviewing! I truly appreciate it!

Oh, and I put together a fanmix of songs that have inspired me while writing this, so if you're interested, you can find the link in my profile!

Enjoy!

She spends about an hour staring down the sticky note Maria gave her before she manages to work up the nerve to call and schedule an appointment with Dr. McNamara.

Approximately three days later, she's sitting in an office with a balding man in his sixties who had eyes that were so grey, they had no color. It made her feel like he could literally see straight through her and it was uncomfortable.

He does the expected run through of her history, her symptoms, etc., etc. And, as usual, she gives away selective information.

She leaves with a diagnosis for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a prescription for Paxil and instructions to have weekly visits with him so that he can monitor the effects of her medication as well as her symptoms.

She shoves the little piece of paper with the illegible writing that's typical of a doctor in a kitchen drawer, undecided if she'll actually go to get the prescription filled or not.

She's not surprised by the results of her visit to Dr. McNamara. But…some of the things she's heard about antidepressants made her extremely hesitant to want to take them.

"You don't have to be on these forever, Ms. Bennett," Dr. McNamara had assured. "The medication can take time to have effect and the dosage may need to be adjusted or we could always try a different medication if it does not appear to be helpful."

Bonnie sighs and pulls the prescription back out of the kitchen drawer and grabs her puss of the counter. If nothing else, she could always just toss the pills down the toilet if she decides she doesn't like them.

She seriously begins to think about moving. She could get a little apartment nearby Whitmore.

When Grams had died, she'd inherited everything and when her father had died, she'd inherited everything then, too. She certainly wasn't Salvatore level rich, but thankfully money wasn't a huge issue as long as she was responsible with it.

She could sell the house and keep Grams' house for when she wanted to stay in Mystic Falls. It was actually sounding like a good plan to her.

And she'd get a dog. Or maybe a cat. Cats were a lot more self-sufficient. They would probably be a little better for now. And if the apartment wasn't friendly? Screw them. She'd get a cat anyway.

As for college…she'd wait until next semester or maybe even take a couple courses of the summer. The current semester was halfway over, so it seemed kind of dumb to try and start now.

She cracks her laptop open to begin her apartment search.

"I know Dr. McNamara has been checking in with you on this front, but how do you think the medication is helping you?"

"At first I didn't want to take it," Bonnie admits. "I just…I'd heard so many bad things about these types of drugs, so…but, it actually hasn't been as bad as I thought. It made me a little nauseous at first and a little numb, but the longer I've been taking it, the more that seems to go away. Now, I'm just eating everything in sight and I get a little more tired easily."

"And emotionally?"

"Less anxiety, less panic attacks. It doesn't get rid of the flashbacks, but I feel less like finding somewhere to hide when they happen."

"Good," Maria replies with a smile. "However, something I've noticed is how you tend to avoid specifics as much as possible. Especially when talking about what happened. Something that I've seen be helpful to a number of people who have gone through similar experiences is to revisit the traumatic events, so to speak. It helps one to gradually come to terms with what has happened to them and be able to think about it in a way that doesn't debilitate them and it's typically done gradually."

"I…uhm, I don't think I can do that," Bonnie says quickly. She doesn't really have any cuticles left to pick at, but she does it anyway.

"Would it be easier with others?" Maria asks. "I run group therapy at my clinic once a week and you'd be a welcome addition," she offers.

"No. I…," Bonnie bites her lips and takes a deep breath. "It was already hard enough even coming to you or Dr. McNamara and talking about it at all. There's no way I could go in front of a bunch of strangers and give full detail."

"Okay, that's fine," Maria says soothingly. "Maybe there's someone in your life that you can tell?"

Bonnie shrugs, looking down at her hands.

"I'm not trying to make you do anything you don't want to do," Maria reminds her. It was something she reminded Bonnie about practically every session. "But this isn't meant to be easy. The road to recovery is hard. I won't sugarcoat that for you. But believe me, when you come out on the other side, and you will, you will be all that much stronger for it."

"How did you do it?" Bonnie asks Damon one night while they were watching Groundhog Day for what was probably the umpteenth time.

"Do what?" Damon asks, his eyes not leaving the screen.

"How did you just slide right back into life when you got back like nothing happened?"

"I didn't," he responds, turning to look at her. "I came back to find that Stefan took off for a while and that Elena decided to have her memories wiped."

Bonnie bites her lip and looks away. She feels a little guilty for thinking that it had all been so easy for him.

""At first I didn't know what to do," he admits. "Everything had changed and I felt guilty because I was back and I thought you were dead. But then I found out you were alive, so I focused on getting you back."

"I never did thank you for bringing me back," Bonnie says quietly, looking back up at him.

"You sacrificed yourself for us over and over again," he replies simply.

She curls up comfortably to his side and just enjoys the feeling of being close to somebody.

"Thanks for doing this," Bonnie says to Matt. "I think I'd really botch it if I tried it on my own."

She'd asked Matt if he wouldn't mind helping her plaster over the little holes left from when she'd ripped the picture frames off the wall. If she wanted to sell the house, a couple repairs had to be made here and there.

"Not a problem," Matt replies with a smile. "Are you sure about this, though? Selling the house and moving, I mean? It's a big decision."

"Yeah, it is, but I think it'll be good. I'm hanging onto Grams' house if I want somewhere to ever stay in Mystic Falls. But…I think it'll be good to have a place all to myself without all the constant memories."

"Well, promise me you'll still come to visit and hang out somewhat regularly, please. As usual, you're the only person around here who isn't driving me crazy."

"Even Tyler?" Bonnie teases. "I thought you and your bromance was unbreakable."

"He and Live are fighting over something that he refuses to talk about. But I ended up enrolling him in police academy with me, though, just to make him do something besides sitting around and getting drunk."

"Wait, you enrolled in police academy?" Bonnie asks, surprised.

"Yeah, a while ago, actually."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Bonnie asks with a small frown.

"Well, you've had a lot going on," Matt says, finishing up the last hole and then setting his tools down. "It's not like you need to hear the boring details of my boring life."

"But I'd like to," Bonnie says. "And I'm happy for you. You're going to make a great police officer." She hugs him, not caring that she might be getting plaster on her clothes. "So, what are the chances of me being able to bribe you to also help me repaint this wall?"

"So, I hate that one guy for you," Caroline tells her, sliding into the booth across from her.

"You what?" Bonie asks, half-chocking on her soda.

"You remember, don't you? That got that got way to handsy with you at the rave like two months ago? I would have done something then, but I was a little busy with this one boy toy. Buuut, I saw that scum bag at a party last night and I remembered him, so I ate," Caroline explains with a big smile.

Her cheerful expression dissipates upon Bonnie's face.

"Oh, don't give me that look. I didn't kill him. I just drank his blood, broke a couple bones, and compelled him to tell every woman he tries to talk to about what a skeeze he is."

"You shouldn't have done that," Bonnie says.

"Oh, come on, he totally deserved it! Betcha he'll think twice about putting his filthy hands on someone like that again."

Bonnie sighs, brushing her hair out of her face. Arguing with Caroline about this wasn't going to get her anywhere.

"Are you ever going to turn your humanity back on, Care?" Bonnie asks softly.

"Probably," the blonde replies with a shrug, reaching over to steal some fries off Bonnie's plate. "The novelty's kinda wearing off a bit, to be honest. Although, I do take a certain pride in being the only vampire to actually be functioning with their humanity of." Pause. "Anywho, what are you up to today? Wanna come with me on a shopping trip?"

"Actually, I'm apartment hunting today," Bonnie replies. "I was just grapping a quick lunch beforehand."

Caroline's eyebrows shoot up.

"I'm looking for somewhere close to Whitmore," Bonnie clarifies.

"If you're planning on going back to school why don't you just move in with Elena and me?" Caroline asks. "We have a Bonnie-sized space in our room."

"No offense," Bonnie says with a small smile, "But, I have feeling that either you or Elena would end up driving me crazy. Or both of you would."

To her surprise Caroline actually throws her head back and laughs at that. Bonnie can't help but laugh with her.

She actually did it. She actually got her own apartment.

There was one she had fallen in love with instantly. It had hardwood floors, a decent-sized bedroom, a little balcony. The kitchen and bathroom were a little bit on the smaller side, but that was okay with her.

"So I got an apartment today," Bonnie tells Damon as she works on cutting up vegetables for dinner.

"You what?"

"It's near Whitmore. I'm still keeping Grams' house for when I want to stick around Mystic Falls."

"And you're leaving me in a town full of total idiots," Damon sighs dramatically.

"I'm moving like thirty miles away, not three hundred," Bonnie replies, laughing a little. Her laughter dies down when she sees Damon staring at something by her coffee maker.

And that's when she remembers that she'd left her bottle of Paxil there this morning. She drops her knife on the cutting board and practically runs over, squeezing in by Damon and grabbing up the pill bottle. She quickly stuffs it in a kitchen drawer, slamming it shut. But she knew he'd seen.

"I, uh…a couple days after Sheriff Forbes' funeral, I decided to go see a psychologist over at Whitmore," she explains, looking down at the floor. "After a couple visits, she recommended that I go see this one psychiatrist, too. He told me I had PTSD, which is really surprising to like nobody, and then he gave me some Paxil. And I've been taking it for like almost two months now."

"Oh." He turns back to working on the pasta.

"Oh?" She asks, a little wide-eyed. "That's it? Oh?"

"Was there something else you wanted me to say?" He asks. "If it's helping you, then it's helping you."

She doesn't know what to say. She hadn't told anyone about Maria or Dr. McNamara or the medication because she was afraid of what they'd say or how they'd treat her after knowing.

"Oh," she says. She goes back to helping him with dinner, feeling a little lighter.

A/N: So, if everything goes as planned, I think the next chapter is actually going to be the last, believe it or not!

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