Little Things

Hayley was making breakfast. The clatter of pans and the rattle of opening and closing drawers was what woke Bonnie, but she stayed in bed, turning onto her side to look toward the window where pale morning sunlight poured in. She liked it to be silent in the mornings. She'd gotten so used to it, first back in Mystic Falls and now here. Only now it was being hijacked by the pregnant werewolf taking up residence in her living room.

Bonnie was succeeding at ignoring it when Hayley rapped on her bedroom door. "I made breakfast! Come on, I've got your plate all ready." She knocked again. "It's good, I promise."

With a sigh, Bonnie rolled out of bed. How Hayley had managed to scrounge up breakfast with the limited ingredients in Bonnie's kitchen was a mystery, but she'd ended up with eggs for both of them, toast and a few strips of bacon.

Bonnie sat down silently at the table where Hayley set a tall glass of orange juice down next to her, and then sat down herself. "I'm sorry about last night," Hayley said as Bonnie sprinkled salt onto her eggs.

The spell had taken well. No lost time, no blanks in need of filling, just perfectly falsified recollections of last night. Some perfectly placed annoyance at Bonnie catching her before she could get her ice cream and taking her keys back. Tyler wasn't even a blip on Hayley's radar, and whatever bruises he'd left on her had healed up and disappeared.

It was like it had never happened.

When Bonnie didn't say anything, Hayley kept going. "These cravings are a real bitch, but I'm gonna be on my best behavior. I won't do it again."

No, she wouldn't. Klaus and Elijah would (hopefully) be back sometime tomorrow to take Hayley off Bonnie's hands. She was pretty sure Tyler had heard her last night when she'd told him not to indulge his revenge fantasies anymore, but she didn't like needing to trust him not to do anything stupid again. It was better if Hayley was gone. If that word spread, as all word did, then Tyler surely wouldn't attempt to get to Hayley right under Elijah's and Klaus' noses. He was impulsive maybe, but he wasn't stupid.

All things considered, living with Hayley wasn't terrible. She was fairly neat and pretty quiet, even though she was definitely the more talkative of the two of them. It probably wouldn't be as annoying if Hayley was actually allowed to leave the apartment and wander alone, do her own things on her own schedule, but that wasn't the case. She was cooped up Bonnie's apartment, sleeping on a pullout couch and craving ice cream.

Breakfast tasted okay, and they ate in silence.

"So I was wondering," Hayley said, "if it would be okay if I stayed here. You know, after Klaus and Elijah get back. It's a big question to ask, but...I really don't want to go back. I know we don't know each other that well-"

Bonnie looked at her.

"Or at all," Hayley corrected. "But I can be a really great roommate. I can cook, and I'll keep it clean. You won't even know I'm here. I won't give you any trouble."

With a sigh, Bonnie set down her orange juice. "No."

"I-"

Bonnie held up her hand. "I don't like you," she said. Hayley's whole body seemed to deflate. "I knew Carol Lockwood. I didn't like her that much either, but I knew her, and she didn't deserve to drown in a fountain. I didn't know those hybrids either - to be honest my one interaction with them wasn't great - but I doubt they deserved what they got either."

"Klaus-"

"And Tyler," Bonnie interrupted, "who was really nice to you, didn't deserve to lose those people. On top of all that, I like my privacy. Klaus killed them - I know that - but you played your part. Klaus at least pays me. You don't. You've taken over my living room, and you're in the bathroom when I want to be in the bathroom. So no, you can't stay."

Hayley dropped her gaze to the table and picked up her fork. "I think about it all the time," she said. "And I'm sorry all the time, but I can't take it back. If Tyler were here-"

"He'd try to kill you," Bonnie said. He'd have succeeded last night if Bonnie hadn't realized Hayley was missing. A few more seconds, and he'd have ripped her to pieces.

"Yeah," Hayley agreed. "Probably. He was nice to me, you're right. He was one of the nicest people I'd ever met, and I ruined his life. I know." She shoved a strand of hair behind her ear in frustration. "I think about him a lot - more than you think - and I wonder where he is. I hope he's somewhere nice. An island or maybe somewhere in the mountains. Somewhere far."

Bonnie supposed the Garden District was kind of far from here.

Hayley pushed her eggs around her plate. "When I first met him, he was alone and in over his head, and it messed with him, being by himself like that. I don't know. He doesn't do well on his own."

Two Months Ago

Klaus' apartment was at the top floor of a super posh, super expensive building that overlooked the river with a steel balcony was adorned with potted plants and outdoor furniture. That was where Bonnie found him when she stepped inside, the front door left open for her. There was an olive skinned woman outside with him, leaning against the railing with her dark curls blowing around her face and a giant pair of sunglasses on top of her head.

Bonnie knocked on the glass a couple of times and both Klaus and the woman turned to look her way. Klaus held up a finger, but a look of panic crossed the woman's face and she spun back to Klaus. Bonnie didn't know what that was about, but she wheeled around to go sit on the couch.

The apartment was done up in shades of black and white and was far more modern (and better lit) than Klaus' mansion back in Mystic Falls. Once he'd gotten it, he'd taken Bonnie there to make sure that it was fully protected. The same routine had gone down at Elijah's place.

A few minutes passed before Klaus and the woman came back in. She left without saying a word.

"Who was that?" Bonnie asked after the door had swung shut.

"Her name is Lydia," Klaus said. "She's with Marcel."

Bonnie didn't recognize her, and she thought she was getting pretty familiar with all of Marcel's favorites. If Lydia was wandering around during the daytime she must have been pretty high up on Marcel's ladder of people he cared for, high up enough to ensure that she got some piece of daylight jewelry. But Bonnie was certain she'd never seen her before.

"So what was she doing here?"

"She'd like to be of my family," Klaus said, rounding the sofa to sit down at Bonnie's side. "She wants to come over to the winning side. Smart girl. She was a little concerned about your involvement."

Bonnie arched an eyebrow. "Why?"

"She knows you," Klaus said with an annoying smirk. "You're the witch sleeping with Marcel."

"Slept with Marcel," Bonnie corrected. "Just once."

"Either way," Klaus said, "she was concerned you may inform him of her coming to me."

Bonnie shrugged her shoulders carelessly. "I won't."

Bonnie was sure there'd been lots of kings in history undone by sex, but Marcel wasn't one of them. And she wasn't about to toss aside her fairly cushy lifestyle here just because Marcel was good with his hands (and certain other parts of his anatomy) and didn't mind taking direction. It had only happened once, and there wasn't going to be a repeat performance, no matter how many sexts Marcel sent her.

Klaus teased her about it sometimes, asking her to seduce Marcel into letting his guard down so Klaus could swoop in and steal New Orleans right from under him. Even if Bonnie hadn't told herself it was a one-night stand, even if she'd allowed Klaus to write Sex Worker into her employment contract, sex wouldn't be enough to make Marcel lose focus.

"I know you won't," Klaus assured her, "but I'll need you to keep an eye on Lydia when you're attending Marcel's functions. I need to make sure she's telling us the truth about her allegiance. We can't afford to be caught off guard."

"Got it," Bonnie said. "Anything else?"

Klaus sighed heavily and crossed one leg over the other. "Did you know that Matt Donovan was spending his summer traveling the world with my sister?"

"No," she answered. It had gotten easier to not think about anyone from back home. Bonnie hadn't spared much thought for Matt's, or anyone else's summer plans. She certainly hadn't thought about Rebekah's. It was an odd pairing, but Bonnie was currently sharing a couch with Klaus so there was no room for her to judge.

"He is."

"So?"

Klaus shrugged. "I'm just wondering how long she's going to hold onto this fantasy she has of being human."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Did you call me here so we could have a heartfelt chat about your crappy relationship with Rebekah? Because if you did, I think I should go."

"Have a glass of wine first," Klaus said, standing up in a flash and returning with a glass filled to the brim with rich, red liquid.

Present Day

Bonnie didn't intend to make her way to the house. It just happened. She was walking as she always did, sunglasses on, dress swirling around her knees, and when she looked up she was standing outside Marcel's house, stepping onto the pathway and going up the stairs to the front door. She shouldn't be here, not anymore than Tyler should have been at her apartment last night. They both needed to stop straying from where they were supposed to be. But Bonnie still went up and rang the bell.

Tyler answered after a couple of minutes, shirtless and bleary eyed, raising an inquisitive eyebrow when he saw her. "Hey," he said, glancing anxiously beyond the gate to the empty sidewalk. "What are you-"

"Can I come in?"

Tyler nodded and stepped away from the door so she could go past him. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to make sure you're over your revenge fantasy," she said, doing a quick sweep of the house. They were alone.

"For the most part," Tyler said, folding his arms across his chest. "I won't be making anymore surprise visits to your apartment, and I won't go after Hayley again either. Scout's honor."

"You were never a scout," Bonnie said, turning away from him and walking into the living room where she tossed her bag down on the sofa.

Tyler followed her. "Still counts."

Bonnie looked at the ceiling, let her gaze travel the floor to the very spot where she and Marcel had done their horizontal mambo and smiled to herself. That night definitely made the Top Ten Nights Spent in New Orleans Being Alive While Everyone Thought She Was Dead, if only for the sex.

Marcel was annoying, but he was good for something.

"It's a nice house," Bonnie said, tilting her head back to the high ceiling. During the day it took on a hazy, dreamlike kind of quality, different from the dim mysteriousness of it during the night when all the shadows looked deep and the red furniture looked particularly red. With the sunlight coming through the windows, there were dust motes that floated with a whimsical lightness throughout the rooms.

"Yeah," Tyler agreed. "Besides the ghost rattling around in the attic."

"Still on that?" Bonnie said, looking back at him and sitting down on the couch.

"I swear to God there's something up there," he said, claiming the chair across from her. "I hear it all the time."

Bonnie repeated the sweep, focusing on the attic where she came away with nothing, as expected. She told him so.

"Marcel was up there the other day," Tyler said, "when he drugged me. I heard stuff."

"Ooh, stuff," Bonnie said. "Creepy."

"Something was going on up there."

"Well, it's not going on now."

They sat awkwardly and silently, and Bonnie wondered why she'd come here at all. What did she expect other than this uncomfortable silence? Tyler seemed just as uncertain as she did, staring at the floor.

"Do you want me to put a shirt on?" he asked finally. "I can."

"Don't worry about it," she said. "I've seen you without a shirt before."

If there was any kind of party happening outside when it was moderately warm, Tyler would have his shirt off. Every Halloween since they were fifteen, Tyler had been shirtless, and every summer it was like he threw all of his shirts away.

Did that qualify as thinking of Mystic Falls? Was that something she was supposed to be avoiding? Or was it okay because Tyler was right here, and it applied to the current conversation? She decided it was best to play it safe, and she commanded herself to stop thinking about it.

Again, she wondered why she'd come.

"How's Hayley?" he asked.

"Fine," Bonnie answered. "She doesn't remember what happened, like I said."

"Good," he said. "And thanks for that."

Bonnie pressed her lips together into a weak smile.

"And thanks for everything else, too," he added. "I never thanked you for not telling Klaus. I just kind of...I don't know. I took it as a given, I guess."

Bonnie nodded. She almost said, "No problem." But it was a problem. This whole thing was a problem, and she wasn't exactly making it any better for herself. She couldn't tell which of them was worse in this situation. Probably her. She may have finally jarred Tyler into understanding just how complicated their situation was, and then she had to stop by for a friendly chat.

"How far along is she?" Tyler asked, oblivious to Bonnie's agitation.

"About four months."

"Who's the father?"

"I don't know," she said. She'd never been a bad liar, not necessarily, but she'd never made much of a habit of it either. But the lie rolled easily off her tongue, and Tyler seemed to believe it. Even if he didn't, Klaus wouldn't be the first name to come to mind anyway.

"So how's it going?" Tyler asked. "You like it here?"

Bonnie shrugged. She hadn't given it a lot of thought. This wasn't the life she'd dreamed up for herself in middle school, but it wasn't bad. It was a life, more than she would have had if Qetsiyah had let her stay dead. That was what she'd wanted, and that was what mattered. "There are worse places to be."

"You think back home was worse than here?"

"Since I've been here I haven't died once," she said. "In Mystic Falls I was working up a tally."

Too much information. Too much information. It went off like alarm bells in her head. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up.

"You don't," she said, turning it back around on him. "Like it here, I mean."

"Not really," he said. "I mean, it's a nice place, and I'd probably really like it if the circumstances were different. But they're not. I keep thinking that I could go back if I wanted to. That I could at least call Caroline. My whole reason for not doing those things is here doing whatever the hell he wants. And so is Hayley. And me. And you. It's just...weird."

"Yeah, it's weird."

She wouldn't have expected Tyler to be here. She'd sooner expect to see Caroline, lured here by Klaus' strange lovesick declarations, and she definitely didn't expect that to happen anytime soon. But Tyler? He was supposed to be somewhere else. Somewhere obscure and deserted, maybe way up north on a ranch or something. But not here with her.

It was funny how those things worked out.

Bonnie heard the front door opening then whistling, and she knew it was Marcel before he stepped into the living room, his trademark grin lighting up his face. "Bonnie. What are you doing here?"

"I was just leaving," Bonnie said, reaching for her bag.

"Wait," Tyler said. "I-"

"Are you going to be joining us tonight?" Marcel asked.

"For what?"

"An execution," Marcel said. "Three actually. It's gonna be great. Free drinks for all."

"We'll see," Bonnie said. She'd only gone to one of those things once, and it hadn't been very exciting. It had been a little depressing.

"Ty, walk Bonnie out," Marcel said. "We've gotta talk business anyway." He winked in Bonnie's direction and turned to disappear from sight.

"Sorry," Tyler said as Bonnie started toward the door. He walked with her, and stepped in front of the door before she could open it. "Thanks for coming by. It was nice talking to you, you know, for the like few minutes we got to. And you didn't bite my head off once," he added with a grin.

"There's still time."

Tyler's grin widened. "See you tonight?" he asked, raising his eyebrows hopefully.

It was pathetic really, how Bonnie almost wanted to go, just so Tyler wouldn't have to endure it alone. She shouldn't have had breakfast with Hayley. If she'd just pretended to be asleep, she wouldn't have talked to her about Tyler and his loneliness, and she wouldn't have come here.

"Maybe," she said before Tyler stepped away from the door. He held it open for her as she stepped out.

When Bonnie got back to her apartment, Klaus was waiting for her. He sat at the dining room table drinking a glass of wine and staring out the window. "You're not in my bed this time," Bonnie said as she tossed her keys onto the counter.

"I didn't want to risk a spill on your sheets," Klaus said, raising his glass to her in greeting.

Bonnie scanned the room and found it empty. The couch was back in its neatly folded position. "Where's Hayley?"

"Elijah took her home."

"Oh," Bonnie said. She didn't know why she felt so bad about that. She'd meant every word she'd said that morning, and she wasn't going to change her mind. She reminded herself never to have breakfast with another person ever again. "Why are you back so early?"

"Rebekah was easier to convince than I anticipated," Klaus said, draining the glass and reaching for the bottle next to him. "She's here now."

"Where?"

"With Elijah. She's still not very...open to reconciling with me, but her around-the-world whatever it was with Matt came to an end as soon as they were back on American soil so she's feeling a bit...blue." He chuckled to himself. "Sometimes her naiveté astounds me. Grab a glass, Bonnie. Drink with me."

Bonnie took a glass down from one of the kitchen cabinets and sat down across from Klaus. She held out her glass, and he touched her fingers as he poured the wine.

"Is Rebekah excited about her yet-to-be-born niece or nephew?" Bonnie asked, raising her glass to her lips.

"Of course she is," Klaus said. "She's always wanted children, but I haven't considered that kind of life in a long time. If nature should be giving anyone a baby, it's her." He traced circles on top of the dining room table, watching his finger move. "Did everything go alright with Hayley?" he asked, seeming to recall this was Bonnie's apartment and probably not the best place to have some kind of existential crisis.

"She was a joy."

"I can imagine," Klaus said. "If I'd known this would happen I never would have slept with her."

"I'm sure the feeling's mutual."

"As am I," he agreed. "Ah, before I forget." He reached into his pocket and withdrew a silver strand strung with diamonds and rubies that glinted in the light.

"It matches my necklace," Bonnie said, setting down her glass.

"You did say there'd be bonus points," he said, extending the bracelet in front of her. She held her wrist out over the table, and he fastened the clasp with swift fingers. "Are you sure you wouldn't have preferred a car?" he asked, turning her wrist to examine the jewels better.

"Maybe next time," Bonnie said, dropping her gaze to where he kept his gentle hold on her wrist, his fingers pressed against the exact spot where her pulse thrummed steadily.

"What about my bonus points?" he asked, lowering his voice.

Bonnie smiled. "Those are more...abstract."

Klaus laughed and let her go, drawing back so his fingertips brushed against hers before he folded his arms across his chest. "Do you ever think about how I am the closest thing you have to a friend here?"

"I don't," she said, taking another sip of her wine.

"No?"

"Never," she lied. "I have a suggestion for you."

"A suggestion," Klaus repeated slowly.

"Where's Rebekah staying?"

"She's looking at places tomorrow. Why?"

"I think you should let Hayley live with her instead of Elijah."

"You do?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because Elijah's an ass," Bonnie said. She didn't know if staying with Rebekah would be any better, but it was worth a shot. If Rebekah was so gung-ho for the baby show then maybe she'd be willing to let Hayley stay with her, and Rebekah was always going on and on about wanting friends. It could be a win/win. "And so are you," she added which made Klaus smile. "Hayley's miserable, and she's gonna have your kid so it would be nice if you'd try to make her a little less miserable. But it's just a suggestion."

"I'll consider it," Klaus said, with a wave of his hand. "Shall we finish the bottle?"

Bonnie finished off her glass and held it out for a refill.

They went through the bottle in a less than half an hour, and when it was empty Klaus stood to leave. "If you change your mind about the abstract nature of those points, feel free to call."

Bonnie stayed at the table and smiled down at her hands without speaking.

When Klaus was gone, Bonnie went into her bedroom where she sat down at her vanity and stared at her reflection. She adjusted her necklace and bracelet, brushed her hair and pondered going to watch Marcel kill some witches tonight. She remembered that hopeful look on Tyler's face, but then she remembered Bonnie 2.0.

She'd be doing all of this differently. She wouldn't have bothered going to see Tyler today, and she wouldn't have batted an eyelash at Hayley's living arrangement.

And you were doing so well, Bonnie 2.0 said. Careful, Bonnie. It starts off with the little things. Being friendly with Tyler, a word on Hayley's behalf to Klaus. Next thing you know you're dead in a dirty basement. Tread lightly. There are no more do-overs.

Quick note if any of you were wondering: all of S4 is canon in this with the exception of Klaus telling Caroline he'd let Tyler come back to town. Otherwise everything else happened. Even the stupid stuff. Thanks for reading and reviewing!