"Bonnie, what are you doing? You have to stop!" Damon's scream was endless, an agonized wail. Elena wanted to fly to his side, to do something to make the pain stop, but she knew that her best bet was to reason with Bonnie.
"Elena, don't you see? I'm doing this for you," Bonnie said, her face softening from that terrible hauteur.
"For me? Bonnie, no. You're hurting him, you may be killing him. You have to stop!"
"Bonnie," Damon managed, her name elongated into a moan of pain. Incredibly, he was attempting to stand. "I'm gonna-"
"Stay down," Bonnie commanded, flinging her outstretched hand towards him. A fresh scream tore out of Damon's throat as he fell back. Blood trickled from his ears.
"Okay, okay, Bonnie! Why do you think you're doing this for me? Let's talk about this," Elena said, an edge of panic in her voice. Bonnie would see reason. If she could just get her to stop hurting Damon, Elena knew she could make her see sense.
"I figured it out, Elena. Why you've been acting so strangely." Bonnie looked at her with sympathy. "It all started when I took your necklace to destroy it. Your vervain necklace. Damon finally had a chance to compel you, and he took it."
Elena stared at her friend in horror. "No, that's not what's going on, Bonnie. Listen to me-"
"No, Elena, you need to listen. I've been so worried about how you've been acting—first you have him compel your own brother to leave town, then you tell me you're actually dating him? The Elena I know and love would never do those things. Compulsion is the only thing that makes sense. And I know you don't understand it. It's just like Jeremy: you don't realize what really happened."
"I know exactly what happened, Bonnie. Love happened. I sent Jeremy away because I love him, and I love Damon enough to risk everything to be with him. There's no compulsion! They're my choices. You may not like them, but they're mine. Now stop it!" Damon's screams had quieted to pathetic whimpers. Blood flowed freely from his nostrils.
"I know you believe that," Bonnie said gently. "That's why I'm here. I'm going to help." Her eyes turned towards Damon. "There's only one way to break compulsion." The candles at Damon's bedside erupted into gouts of flame.
"There has to be another way. Isn't there...isn't there some spell you can use to prove that I'm not compelled? I'll do whatever you want, but you have to stop this!" Elena was frantic.
"There's only one way. I'm sorry, Elena, but you'll thank me once you see." Bonnie stretched her hand out to Damon.
There was no more time to think, no more time to reason or bargain. All she could do was act. Elena punched Bonnie in the face.
Alaric would have been so proud. Her form was perfect, her thumb tucked over her index finger, leading with her first two knuckles, wrist perfectly aligned. She hadn't expected quite how much it would hurt to connect with human flesh, the pain as her knuckles scraped over Bonnie's teeth, the sickening crunch as she connected with her nose.
The effect was instantaneous: the flames died, Damon stopped his pitiful moans. Bonnie stared at her in shock, bleeding from a split lip. "Now will you listen? Every choice that you hate so much? That was all me. The Elena you knew is dead, Bonnie. The new Elena has to make hard decisions. And if you can't handle that, you need to get the hell out."
Blood dripped from Bonnie's chin. Her eyes narrowed. She nodded once, turned, and left. Elena held her breath until she heard the front door slam behind her. Then she flung herself to her knees beside Damon. "Damon, Damon, can you hear me? Are you all right?"
His eyes were closed, a sheen of sweat coating his face. He was pale, the lines of blood on his face standing out in stark relief. "Elena...?" He managed.
"Just hang on a minute, Damon. I'll be right back. Just hold on." Elena tore through the house, making her way to the basement. Thank God Damon had just picked up more blood. She threw the freezer open, snatching two bags at random from the neatly arranged rows before reversing course and flying back to him. She settled his head in her lap, fumbling as she attempted to open the damn bags.
"Elena. You're bleeding," Damon whispered.
She glanced at her right hand. Sure enough, the skin on her knuckles had been torn away, a thin rivulet of blood trickling down her wrist. "And you just had a ten minute aneurism. Let's prioritize here." She ripped the tubing open, spattering herself with a fine mist of red in the process. Then she slipped the tube between his lips like an obscene crazy straw. He drank greedily.
By the time the bag was gone, Damon was able to sit up, and color was returning to his cheeks. He reached for the second bag. "One more. Then I'm going after her." His voice shook with fury.
"No you aren't. The exact same thing will happen all over again, only she might finish the job this time. She needs some time to cool off, to think about all this. Then she'll be okay." Elena cast a worried glance at the door, as if the witch might reappear at any moment. "But...I've never seen her like that before."
"Oh really? Because I have. You know, like that time she set me on fire. Or the time she tried to trap me in the tomb. Or the time-"
"Okay, okay. I guess I have, but I really thought she'd do it this time." Elena didn't have enough friends left to lose one. Especially not one who'd always been as loyal as Bonnie had. But was it really so hard to believe she'd love Damon, that she could forgive him for the sins of the past? Did she act like a woman compelled?
"Yeah, she was taking that migraine thing to the next level." Damon dabbed at a spot below his nose, looking at his bloody fingers with disgust. He picked up the empty blood bags, climbing to his feet with some difficulty. He disappeared with them into the bathroom, returning with a clean face, a damp washcloth, and the first aid kit.
"How did you get her to leave, anyway? I missed some of the finer points of the conversation while my brain was melting." He settled down next to her on the floor, taking her hand.
"Um. I kind of...punched her. In the face." Elena was still having trouble processing the fact that she'd punched anyone, let alone her best friend. But she had. And it had worked. And deep down, in some tiny part of her that she was ashamed to admit existed? It had felt good.
Damon looked up at her in surprise. "You punched her? And I missed it?" He wiped the blood from the back of her hand, examining the scrape more closely "That's how you got this?"
"Yeah. I didn't know what else to do. She was crazy, Damon. I thought she was going to kill you. But I guess she realized I was serious after that...I don't know. I don't know why she left, or what she's planning now." Damon swabbed antibiotic cream over her knuckles. She sighed. "I can't believe she thought you were compelling me. Even when you were being a complete jerk to me you never did that."
There was a long moment of silence as Damon packed the items back into the first aid kit. He turned towards her, damp washcloth in hand. Gently, he began wiping the freckles of blood from her cheeks. He wouldn't meet her eyes. "I did. Once."
"You—what?" She grabbed his hand, stopping his ministrations. "You compelled me?"
"I'm not proud of it, Elena." He rubbed his eyes tiredly. "When Elijah kidnapped you, and Stefan and I rescued you from that creepy old mansion? That night, I came to see you."
"My necklace—that's how I got my necklace back. I never knew where it came from," Elena said, the pieces suddenly falling into place.
He nodded. "I came to give it back to you. And I guess Bonnie was right: when there was an opportunity for me to catch you without your necklace, to compel you, I took it."
"What...what did you do? Damon, I need to know." Elena knew she was a hypocrite where compulsion was concerned. Twice she'd asked Damon to compel Jeremy, and she still believed that in both instances, it was the only option, the best thing for him. But when it came to her? Compulsion was a violation, a subversion of free will. The idea that he'd once done that to her, and that no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't remember when or why or how it had happened? That made her skin crawl.
"Do we have to do this, Elena?" He finally met her eyes, a thousand unspoken memories swimming in their depths. "I promise it was nothing bad. I swear to you. But please, let's not do this."
"Yes, we have to do this! What did you do, Damon? You said you always wanted it to be real between us. God, is all this a lie? Is what I feel for you—is that all because of what you made me feel?" She stood, needing some distance between them. Her chest was tight.
"No! Elena, I would never—it's all been real. Everything is real. I just...I had to tell you. I had to tell you I loved you." He rose, but kept a respectful distance from her. "But you couldn't know. Not then. It wasn't right. But I couldn't keep that secret inside of me anymore, Elena."
"That's all you did? You just made me to forget what you told me?" Relief washed over her. What he'd done still wasn't okay, but she could deal with it. She could accept it. He hadn't made her some kind of grotesque puppet, hadn't made her love him.
"That's all. If I could give you those memories back now, if I could show you, I would. But it doesn't work like that. I've never done it again, Elena. I swear. I never will. I do want it to be real. It is real. For me, it's sometimes the only real thing in the world." He looked at her, and she saw fear in his eyes. Fear that she would hate him for this, that she'd turn her back on him and leave him here all alone.
"You didn't have to tell me. I never would have known otherwise. But if you ever do that again, for any reason, what Bonnie did to you will look like a cakewalk." She approached him, and he eyed her warily.
"Are you...are you gonna punch me?" he asked.
She smiled grimly. "No, you idiot." She kissed him then, her hands cradling his face. "Don't make me regret it."