"Caroline. I don't want to go to college." Bonnie sighed. She'd been back for a week and it was odd being alive again. And it wasn't that she didn't ever want to go to college, but she wasn't ready. She had watched Silas kill her father, Rudy and was unable to do it and now the universe is playing some cruel joke on her by becoming the Anchor.

"Come on, Bonnie! We dreamed of this since forever." Caroline tried to convince her best friend.

"Forever meant something different to us when we started dreaming about college, Care." Bonnie broached slightly. "Elena and you are vampires while I've become…" saying 'Anchor' was hard for her "...immortal as well." Bonnie finished. "We can attend college one hundred times over in the future. We can bring Stefan too. But this…I don't have forever with my dad and Stiles."

"Bonnie, I'm-"

"It's fine, Caroline. Don't say it. It's not your fault." Bonnie didn't want Caroline to apologize. She wasn't involved. Damon and Jeremy and Silas and Qetsiyah were the ones who brought her back, and the only one she was angry with was Qetsiyah for making her the next anchor. For some, unbearable pain every once in a while as someone passed through you to the other side was a small price to pay for immortality, but Bonnie was a servant of nature, and having her powers taken away from her made her feel like something was missing. Like something was wrong with her.

"So you'll visit your dad and you'll come back in a few years and I'll compel us into a college and we'll relive the college experience. Hell, we may even convince Klaus to take us traveling the world."

Bonnie grimaced. "I'd rather not." Caroline laughed. "Call me if you need anything."

"Just be happy, Bonnie. Create good memories."

Stiles, Scott and Alison had returned to school and tried to pretend nothing was wrong or different, but Deaton was right and there was a darkness growing in their hearts. Somehow, the Darach made Stiles and Scott draw their friends, their pack, closer. They had accepted the twins into the pack (probationally at first), Derek had become a beta, and Isaac and Scott had become something akin to brothers, not like Scott and Stiles were together, but close. And that's not to mention the other rather diverse members of their pack: Alison, a hunter, Lydia, a banshee (probably), and then there was him, a human.

"Have you heard from Derek?" Stiles watched as Scott questioned Isaac.

"Nah, he hasn't called." Isaac shrugged.

"Let him know that…that he's still pack." Scott said awkwardly.

Stiles pushed off the couch. "I've got to go. My dad's going to be home soon and I want to make sure he eats healthily."

The Sheriff got home and shrugged off his jacket. "Stiles, I'm home!" He shouted, knowing Stiles would be doing something or other upstairs in his room and he was better off not asking.

"Hey dad, dinner will be ready soon!" The Sheriff winced. His son had taken the doctor's words to heart, maybe too much so, because he'd never eaten so much green in his life. He was proud of his son, the man he'd grown into. Especially because of what happened to Claudia and Stiles witnessing her death. There was a chance Stiles wouldn't forgive him for not being there, but after a month long visit with Bonnie, Stiles' anger evaporated.

John Stilinkski slunk down on the couch. He wouldn't admit it to Stiles, but he had grown worried about Bonnie over time. Her visits over the recent years had grown few and far between and she was no longer the happy girl he was glad to see. Not that he wasn't glad to see her, but she was more serious, to put it lightly. She hadn't called him when her grandmother died, and after that they grew apart. They used to talk every day, and now he hadn't talked to her on the phone in over four months. He'd receive the occasional email, but there was something off about them. Some may say otherwise, but he was a damn good cop (the only thing he'd like to think he was better at was fatherhood), and it didn't escape his notice that his daughter didn't tell him anything about what she and Abbie were doing. He hadn't heard from Abbie in years, so he'd be receiving no information on that end. He heard the oven go off, followed shortly by a stampede of feet, that somehow, had only come from Stiles.

Growing boys. The Sheriff shook his head and went to help his son finish setting up the dinner.

It was nearing ten o'clock when the Stilinskis heard a knock from their front door. John had been reading the newspaper while Stiles was completely some last minute homework. They shared a look, wondering if it was police or werewolf business because no one would knock this late unless necessary.

"I'll get it, Stiles." John got up and went to answer the door when Stiles looked as if he was ready to listen in. "And if its about work, don't get any ideas."

His dad was gone for a minute when he heard, "Son, you may want to come here." Stiles grew panicked and rushed to the door, grabbing a bat on the way.

His dad raised an eyebrow at that bat, but didn't let his smile fall. "Look whose decided to grace us with her presence."

Stiles looked at the girl, no, woman who stood next to her father. "Bonnie!" He smiled and went to hug her. "Your smaller than I remember."

"And you changed your hair." John brushed his daughter's new bob haircut back behind her ear in a paternal manner.

Bonnie laughed. "We didn't all receive dad's genes to reach six feet." Bonnie knew she was small, but her confidence, especially after discovering she was a powerful witch, had made her appear more imposing and larger than she was, but since her return from the dead, she grew slightly more emaciated. It didn't help that practically everyone she knew didn't need to live off food.

"What are you doing here?" Stiles let go of his sister and looked at her.

"I'm taking a gap year, and figured a visit was long over due." Her smile was tense, but the men didn't comment on it. What was she supposed to tell them? Where could she even start? Her (other) dad was dead. She was dead, then alive. She was a witch, now the Anchor. Oh, and there was that time where she went crazy thanks to expression. Yeah, she'd be tossed in the Nut House for sure.

"Come in." John ushered her inside. "How was summer with your mom."

"It was fine." Bonnie shrugged. She knew that John probably wasn't happy that she reconnected with her mother. He perceived the woman as a flake: leaving him while pregnant and then leaving Bonnie and Rudy without a word. But he didn't know the full story. He didn't know Abbie left her because her powers were lost when she desiccated Mikael, that leaving Bonnie was the only thing to keep her and Elena safe. John didn't know that it was Bonnie's fault that her mother was killed and turned. "We had fun." She lied.

"That's nice." John smiled tightly and led his kids to the sitting room. "Are you hungry? Did you eat?"

"I'm fine, thanks." That had become her catchphrase. Everyone would ask how she was coping and she'd say she was 'fine'. The truth was, she hadn't eaten on the plane, but the thought of food made her so nauseous, she just hadn't wanted to deal with it and she wasn't hungry now either. "I am, however, beat. Could I sleep and we can catch up tomorrow?" She asked.

"Of course, it must have been a long flight."

Bonnie smiled forlornly, "It was." And the men watched her as she ascended the stairs.

"Well that was a surprise." John murmured.

Bonnie rushed up to her room and closed the door. It was so odd, being seen, being touched, being warm. The Other Side didn't allow her to be any of those things. And all of the emotions that swept in when she was hugged by her dad, and then her brother, it didn't make her feel like the strong woman she was. She crawled into bed. She hadn't gotten much sleep since she returned and she wouldn't admit it, but she was both physically and emotionally tired. Being dead would do that to you. She'd close her eyes for just a moment.

Bonnie looked at Jeremy in front of her. What was he doing here?

"I'm not ready to let you go." He was on the verge of tears. And Bonnie was as well.

"I love you." She whispered. "And Jer, tell my brother and dad I love them as well." She smiled with tears coursing town her cheeks.

Jeremy reached up to cup his face, knowing he wouldn't be able to feel her. But they were surprised. "I can feel you." She gasped at his words.

"I can feel you." She repeated. "I'm warm. I was never warm on the Other Side" She started crying happily.

"You're…"

"I'm alive." She gasped and threw herself at Jeremy, hugging him. "Don't let me go, Jer." But something was wrong, as a witch she learned to trust her gut, and even if coming back meant she wasn't a witch, it didn't mean her instincts were off the mark.

She drew back and stumbled when she saw, not Jeremy, but Qetsiyah.

"Tessa." She said confused.

Qetsiyah cocked her head to one side. "You're the anchor now." And her smile sent chills down her spine.

"Where did you just come from?" Bonnie asked, distressed.

"As I pass through you, you'll feel my death. You'll feel every death. Every supernatural being the passes over to the Other Side will pass through you. Sorry. That's going to hurt like a bitch. True love prevails."

And as Qetsiyah reached out to touch Bonnie's shoulder, Bonnie felt white hot pain everywhere, she felt like she was being staked over and over again in the heart. She gasped and finally was able to manage a scream.

"Bonnie!" She heard but she couldn't look up, she couldn't move from her curled position from the ground of the Salvatore Boarding House in front of the fire.

"Bonnie!" Bonnie shot awake, seeing her dad shaking her as Stiles watched from behind him, hovering. "Bonnie, what happened, are you alright?"

Bonnie blinked owlishly. "Yeah." She pulled away. She couldn't stand to be touched right then. "I'm fine." Her motto. "Just a nightmare."

"Some nightmare." Stiles spoke up as he sat by the foot of her bed.

"I'm fine. Go back to sleep. She smiled bravely, showing them she was alright. She knew she wouldn't be going back to bed that night.

"Alright." John said cautiously, forcing his son to get up as well. "If you're sure…"

"I am." Bonnie said shortly.

"Then just call if you need us, Bon." He kissed her on the forehead, worried for his daughter and then he and Stiles left the room, leaving Bonnie alone in the dark.

She pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her head. She could do this. She could be normal. For them. For her family.