Bonnie hadn't been normal. Her usually black, shiny hair was in disarray, much like her room. Her grimoire was wide open. Elena couldn't read what was written on the pages.

"Hello Elena." Elena worked hard to keep from shivering. Bonnie's voice sounded like a recorded message-like a robot.

"Bonnie... what happened to you?" Bonnies lip was split, her nose bleeding.

"I was working on the banishing spell too hard." Elena shook her head.

"Why? Would you do that? Don't you care about Jeremy at all?"

"It had to be done. She had to go." Bonnie's gaze flicked to Damon standing in the doorway. "Don't you care about yourself, Elena? If you stay around Damon, you so obviously don't." The skin around Damon's eyes tightened.

"You're speaking in riddles, Bonnie. If you have to say something, spit it out." Damon said. Bonnie looked over at Elena.

"You heard him." Bonnie looked surprised, and then laughed.

"Becoming more like him each day, I see. Or, is it, becoming more yourself?"

"Bonnie, don't play games with me right now. If you won't give me a good enough answer I'll just leave."

"You wouldn't. You care too much."

"Right now, I care more about getting a good nights' sleep. Goodnight Bonnie." Bonnie looked shocked, then shrugged. Damon raised an eyebrow, but followed Elena out the door. Once they were safely out the door and in the car once more, Damon spoke.

"If you have another one of those dreams, let me know."

"Damon?"

"Yes?"

"Be honest with me. Did you have the dream, too?" Damon's smirk vanished.

"Elena..."

"Damon. Did you?"

"It was just a dream, a coincidence-"

"No! It means something! If Jeremy knows, it Bonnie knows, if they think I'm not entirely human anymore, it can't just be a dream, and it cannot just be a coincidence! Think about this from the supernatural point of view, Damon. Stranger things have surely happened."

"What are you saying, huh, Elena? That we go digging around in our subconscious together? That we try to make something out of nothing?"

"I'm saying that we shouldn't rule out-"

"Rule out what? What theory do you possibly have at this point?"

"We both had the same dream, now we're hearing about from Jeremy and Bonnie, and you don't think this is weird? It means something, Damon, it does!" Elena enunciated her last sentence so Damon would get the full impact of her words.

"It wasn't the same as yours, Elena. You had no control over yourself, what you had described as what I was doing was-in my dream-what you'd been doing. Our roles were reversed."

"So? We had the same dream! I'm telling you, it means something. It does." Damon looked away. "Damon. Look at me!" Damon turned his head.

"Why aren't you saying anything?"

"What am I supposed to say? You know how I feel about you, Elena, you do. You know what it would mean if it truly did have a meaning, and I don't think that you're ready to accept it." Elena scoffed.

"Yeah, and that would totally add up to why I'm pushing this right now. It's for me to decide what I'm ready for, Damon. How do you know that I'm not?" Damon turned towards me.

"I'm going to get you home now. I can't talk about this right now."

"What if I wanted to stay at the Boarding House?"

"What'd you think I was talking about?" Damon smirked, then started his car. Elena sat with a triumphant smile on her face, and Damon wondered what on earth had made smile as if she had won a prize. Once they had come back to the house, Damon got out then went to open the door for Elena. She smiled appreciatively, and they both walked in together.

"Damon?"

"Yes?"

"It's been a long day, hasn't it?"

"Yeah, it has."

"Do you want to go sleep now?"

"Do you?"

"I don't think I can." Damon's expression became alarmed.

"Why not?"

"I'm upset, Damon. I can't not say anything anymore. Stefan's gone to get revenge on Klaus, Jeremy's lost his head, Bonnie isn't clear headed anymore... and I'm confused. About everything. And through it all you're here and you're wonderful and supportive, and I swear I have no idea what I would do without you. Just this afternoon we were having so much fun, we were surrounded by peace, and it was one of those rare days that nothing awful seemed to happen. But it didn't last, it never does, and Jeremy's right; if I'm no longer human, I wouldn't be surprised. I don't feel human, much less normal, anymore. But you always help, you always have and I've already lost so much Damon, I don't know how much more I can take anymore, I just can't..." Elena's voice broke off, and Damon took her under his arm into the house quickly, and handed her a tissue.

"Elena, you'll never have to worry about losing me."

"That's what Edward Cullen said to Bella Swan in the first book before he left in the second one. She turned into someone that looked like they were near comatose, but he still didn't come back because he thought he was protecting her. If you pull that crap on me, if leave me in the middle of this in an attempt to be noble, I swear I will-"

"I'm not Edward Cullen, alright? What are we living in now, a book? A movie? Yeah, thing's are hard right now. They'll get better, Elena. No one expects you to stay strong all the time. You need to let out some steam." Elena raised an eyebrow, then sniffled.

"Okay, okay." Elena was starting to feel embarrassed.

"So, do you wanna watch a movie? We've got Netflix! Yay!" Damon smiled when Elena laughed.

"Sure. But if you're tired, just tell me, okay? I don't want you to lose out on sleep because of me."

"Sleep comes every night, but you don't." Elena shrugged as they settled on the couch, and before long, noticed Damon's eyes close. His head was on her lap, and she didn't move to slip it off. Instead, she brushed some of his raven hair out of his eyes, and stroked his suddenly warm face. A slight smile appeared on her lips, almost affectionate.

Then she blacked out, swallowed up by an intense dream, pulsing with the beat of the hypnotic music that she and Damon had shared, only to encounter the face she had been admiring just moments ago dressed cleanly in his white dress shirt, the colourful lights casting shadows over his features as they turned down to hers. She realized with a shock that she was in Damon's dream that she had tunnelled into it as effortlessly as if it was her own. Oh my god, she thought, he's going to kiss me. And she was mildly surprised that she was... excited. How are we going to get out of this dream? She thought with a start. Oh my god...