DISCLAIMER: The respective copyrights belong to LJ Smith and other relevant title holders.
WARNING: Spoilers to the recent finale episode, Founder's Day. [I decided to skip right to the end of the episode. So this is an 'aftermath' thing]
SLOPPY SECONDS
2
It's a twist Bonnie could have never foreseen, Damon's apology. Later, when Elena makes a run for the old Gilbert surgery, adamant to save Stefan, her love for Elena isn't the only thing that makes Bonnie change her mind. Though she truly does love Elena, and she knows Elena loves Stefan, and Damon is Stefan's brother. Bonnie knows the Salvatore brothers are bad news. Ever since they've arrived, Bonnie and Elena's friendship has been shot to hell. But Bonnie realises she can't. She can't let Damon Salvatore die.
Later, at home, Bonnie sits in front of her dresser. She stares at her reflection mindlessly, dissecting her own features. High cheekbones. Blemish-free dark skin. A mouth that slightly twists to one side, just like Grams. Grams wouldn't have approved tonight.
What else could she have done? Let the Salvatore brothers burn? Let her friendship with Elena completely die? She's been friends with Elena since childhood. Their memories together go beyond weekend sleepovers spent braiding each other's hair, horrendous makeovers, and double dates with dubious boys.
Will it always be like this now? Elena, getting sucked further and further into the vampire thing. Caroline… and Matt, chirpy and buzzing on the sidelines. I'm going to find you someone terrific! Caroline had promised. Well, Caroline's got her work cut out for her.
Bonnie's phone rings. Rihanna. Breaking the Dishes. An oldie, but goodie. Bonnie checks the screen and sees Elena's number, debates whether to pick up. It's so late at night, and she can't imagine why Elena would be ringing her…
"Elena?"
"Bonnie." Even from the muted speaker of the phone, Elena's voice is shrill, panicky. "You have to come over. My father.... he's dying…"
"Elena, your father's dead."
"I don't mean him!" Elena's sobbing. "Bonnie, please come. His fingers, my God. His fingers."
It doesn't make sense, but Bonnie doesn't think anymore. Elena's her best friend, nothing else matters. "I'm coming over."
Elena's got blood all over her hands, all over her arm and clothes. Her 'father's' severed fingers, what's left of them, are chilled on ice. The front of his shirt is bloody. Bonnie sees gory entrails on the knife.
For someone who has just been disembowelled, Uncle John looks surprisingly healthy.
"Elena got me in the nick of time." John grimaces, still in pain. "That bitch, Katherine…"
"Katherine was here?"
"She was here." Elena's pale and pacing. "She chopped off his fingers, the ones with the ring. I slipped the ring on his other hand. Do you think you could reattach his fingers back? Obviously… we can't go to the hospital."
"Obviously." Katherine's back. John is Elena's father. It is information overload for Bonnie. She processes the most important point: reattach… fingers… okay.
"Will you be able to do it?"
Bonnie nods. "I think so. Performing the spell earlier weakened me, but I should be able to manage."
Elena smiles weakly. "Stay over tonight after this?"
Well, that's one way to initiate a sleepover. Bonnie smiles back timidly. "Sure."
After swallowing a glass of orange juice with extra sugar added for energy, Bonnie gingerly retrieves John's fingers from the ice bath and places it to the stumps of his hands. "This will hurt," she warns him.
"Try not to scream." Elena adds, "I think Aunt Jenna's sleeping. Do you need me here, Bonnie? I need to check up on Jer."
"Go." Bonnie waves her away. "I've got this. Go see Jer."
As Elena pads up the staircase, Bonnie starts up the healing incantation, murmuring the Latin invocations. The power inside her builds. It's slower now, more sluggish, weakened from the earlier use. Her heartbeat slows as her energy flows into John. She feels the tissue reconnecting, the blood vessels pumping. His. Hers. John's other hand, which she's holding, tightens from the pain.
It's not quite done yet. More power. More energy. Bonnie feels her magic levels starting to wane. But she's not in the danger zone, using the dregs of her energy stores yet. It's still okay. And he's Elena's father. Though how, Bonnie can't understand. Incessantly murmuring the healing incantation, a warmth washes over Bonnie as the beat of the pulse strengthens. John's. It's definitely John's, and it comes from his injured hand.
With the spell complete, Bonnie lets go, smiling. "It's done," she says to him, "You best get some rest."
Oddly, John doesn't smile back, not even a little.
And then Bonnie turns around, to see Elena, looking as white as a ghost. Bonnie knows something terrible has happened. She's almost too afraid to ask; "Elena, what's wrong?"
"I called 911." Elena's voice is flat, deadened from over-exertion. "We need to clean the kitchen up. We don't want the paramedics to see this bloody mess."
"Elena…"
Elena's face crumples. Bonnie hugs her, letting Elena bury her face in her shoulder. "It's going to be okay," Bonnie says. She doesn't know if that's true.
"Bonnie," Elena's whole body trembles. Her tears drench Bonnie's shirt front. "Bonnie, it's Jer. He tried to kill himself. It might be too late to save him."
A call comes to the Gilbert household, minutes later. It is Matt, Caroline's in the hospital. Bonnie doesn't think the night can get any worse. It surely can't get any worse. There's no place beyond rock bottom, right?
Not true.
Once in the hospital, things impossibly get grimmer. Tyler's father is dead. Caroline's in concussion. Bonnie and Elena manage to duck in and out of Caroline's room, before rushing off to the emergency ward. But then, when the Salvatores arrive, things somehow become even weirder. Not so much Stefan and Elena, who draw together like moths to flame. Stefan cradles Elena's face, murmuring low. Elena buries herself into him, wordless from grief.
There's something up with Damon. He stares at Stefan and Elena, a scowl on his face. Bonnie noticed that Elena doesn't look at Damon, not even once.
Oh, okay. Elena does now. A weak smile, a congenial nod.
Damon glowers.
Bonnie narrows her eyes. No flirty looks? No sly smiles? How uncharacteristic of him.
Odder still, Aunt Jenna looks and Damon and Elena with a peculiar gravity in her eyes. And the fact is made more peculiar, considering Jeremy's in the emergency department. The doctor had had a hushed conversation with Elena before, talking about how they're trying to purge the pills from Jeremy's body. Bonnie understands the hospital jargon to mean induced vomiting.
"The situation is unstable," the doctor had said.
Well… it can't be more unstable than the one in the waiting room.
After twenty minutes of uncomfortable silence, the doctor comes out again. "I need to talk to Jeremy's relatives."
Elena detaches herself from Stefan. Jenna steps forward. The doctor takes them inside the nearby room.
Bonnie, alone with the Salvatore brothers (John had chosen to stay home to recover), reconciles herself to awkward silence. There's nothing she can say. After all, she tried to kill Damon only hours ago, and then she threatened to Stefan that she'd kill Damon again, not long after.
Elena comes out. Reattaches herself to Stefan. "They're putting him in psychiatric hold." Her voice is husky, hoarse. "He's refusing to cooperate."
"He wants to die?" The shocked question spills from Bonnie's mouth.
"I think he's ingested some of Anna's blood," Elena whispers. The 'he's trying to turn into a vampire' part remains unspoken.
Stefan embraces Elena harder. Damon looks on the verge of exploding. And he does, merely seconds later.
"Why are you being like this?" he snarls to Elena.
Elena is bewildered. "Like what?"
"Like it didn't happen!" His grey-blue eyes are heated, his fists are clenched. "Are you going to deny it?"
Elena's holding onto Stefan like a lifeline. As if clutching him will make Damon's anger go away. "Damon, I don't know what you're talking about."
"She's got a lot of things on her mind right now," Stefan says warningly.
Damon's smirk returns, full force. Malevolent, brutally cunning. "You can hold her all you want, but tonight, she chose me."
A tingling, warning feeling trembles up from Bonnie's toes. Elena's still confused. She braces herself against Stefan. "Damon, what are you saying?"
"You kissed me," he says fiercely. "And you loved it."
"It's true. I saw it." Bonnie has no idea how long Jenna's been listening to their conversation. Jenna leans against the door, arms folded. "Elena, what were you thinking?"
Elena backs up against Stefan. She locks eyes with Bonnie, sharing understanding. "Oh no."
Katherine. Kissed Damon. Or visa versa. Probably both. Probably mutual kissing. With lots of tongue and groping. While Damon thought he was kissing Elena.
Stefan's jaw is clenched. Elena holds his hand tight, not letting go.
"Let's take this outside, okay?" Bonnie thinks on her feet. "Would you mind staying here?" she asks Jenna.
Jenna shrugs. "Go," she says. "Sort it out." She shoots Elena a disapproving glance as the younger girl walks past with Stefan. Elena visibly shrivels from the second-hand shame.
Bonnie forcibly takes Damon by the arm, walking him out. "You're despicable, you know. Even if it was Elena, you should have known better."
"It was Elena." His mouth twists bitterly. "Is it so hard to think that she chose me?"
Bonnie doesn't know how to respond to that. She shakes her head. "I'll let Elena explain."
Damon follows docilely for several steps. Right outside the hospital, however, he freezes. "You're saying it wasn't Elena."
"It wasn't Elena."
He turns… wooden, for the lack of a better word. His green-grey eyes dull, and his mouth droops. "Katherine." The word hisses from his mouth.
Bonnie begins to nod.
Damon turns, and in the blink of an eye, slams his fist into the hospital's brick wall.
Thanks for the reviews. :) They're greatly appreciated. Any comments and suggests will be taken with hearts and love. The short story is 'Bonnie and Damon: After Hours'. I think LJS has taken it down for some future publishing venture on her webpages, but links are available on the LJS wiki entry.
Not to state the obvious, but the story will be AU from this point in, since I hope to be done and done by the time season two starts. How AWESOME was the finale?