What Bonnie Did

"You're back," Marcel said when Tyler came through the front door, pushing it closed with his foot. Marcel walked leisurely down the stairs, pausing at the bottom to lean against the banister.

"I am," Tyler confirmed.

"Where'd you go?"

"Bonnie just took me around town a little," Tyler said. He peeked out the window to see if she'd left yet and saw her walking down the street. When she disappeared from sight, and Tyler turned back to Marcel.

"Yeah, I heard you guys out there," he said as he sat down on the bottom stair, resting his elbows on his knees. He looked...fine. Tyler didn't know what he'd expected him to look like. Maybe exhausted after his encounter with Klaus, far less cheery than he was. Considering how he'd been the last time he'd had a private conversation with Klaus, this was a vast improvement. "Drunk?" Marcel asked.

"Nah," Tyler said with a wave of his hand. "I just had a couple of beers. I'm fine."

"I heard you worked out your crisis," Marcel added. "Sticking around huh?"

"Yeah," Tyler said, joining Marcel on the step and stretching his legs out in front of him. "Me and Bonnie talked about it and-"

"She told you to stay?"

"She didn't say that," Tyler said, "but...I think it was implied. Maybe." He tried to remember. "Sort of. I dunno. I'm staying, and she didn't seem upset about it."

Marcel smiled and nodded his head slowly. "That's good."

So he was still on that kick about Tyler convincing Bonnie to switch teams. Tyler rolled his eyes. Bonnie may be a lot of things, but she didn't seem at all tempted to help Marcel. She'd picked her side already, and she was certain it was the best side. If Marcel wanted her to join him he'd have to give her a reason. Tyler told him so.

"I've got plenty of reasons for her," Marcel said. "It's just a matter of making her understand."

"Then make her understand," he said. "Bonnie likes me. She's nice to me. Kind of."

Marcel snorted.

Tyler ignored him. "But she's with Klaus," he said. "That's not gonna change anytime soon."

Marcel furrowed his eyebrows. "We'll see." He swung his head in Tyler's direction and hitched an eyebrow. "Isn't a little early to be flirting with ex-girlfriend's ex-best friend?"

Tyler shrugged. "I'm single so I don't see the problem."

There was a time when he'd enjoyed that - flirting with pretty girls. It was all he used to do, and it usually ended in some kind of hookup. That was unlikely to happen with Bonnie, but still. He didn't see any reason why he shouldn't. Caroline was going on a date. Tyler may not have had that option, but he had others. Since he and Caroline had become Tyler-and-Caroline all of his flirtations had been reserved for her, and even if it was only Bonnie rolling her eyes and smiling wryly on the other end of them, it was nice.

"I don't either," Marcel assured him. "I'm just making an observation."

"Is this a violation of some kind of code?" Tyler asked. "I know you guys hooked up that one time, but I didn't think it was serious."

Marcel laughed heartily. "No," he said. "It wasn't. You're not violating any codes. You're free to do whatever you want with Bonnie."

"Good to know," Tyler said. "So, what happened with Klaus?"

Marcel shrugged his shoulders like it was all very insignificant. "He threw a tantrum and then he left. Nothing happened. We're still exactly where we left off."

Like usual Tyler got the feeling Marcel wasn't telling him everything. For all his talk about being Tyler's mentor, everything Klaus hadn't been to him, he still played it all close to the vest. Maybe he was like Klaus in that way, always feeling the need to keep a secret.

"When you guys were talking," Tyler said, "you acted like he couldn't hurt you. He could have killed you."

If Klaus had been in a worse mood Marcel may have been in pieces across this house, and Tyler wouldn't even have been able to return to help clean him up. He'd have to run immediately, and he'd be on his own again. And after all this time with Marcel and the house, the thought of going back out there and living on nothing, with no one all over again wasn't a good one. He didn't even know if he'd have Caroline's messages to keep him sane anymore.

Marcel smiled, the corner of his mouth slowly turning upward. "I am truly looking forward to the day when I get to share all my secrets with you."

"What's wrong with today?" Tyler asked. If Marcel was excited to share them, Tyler was excited to hear them."

"Not yet."

"Is one of those secrets the thing that's banging around up in the attic?"

With a hum Marcel pointed his gaze toward the ceiling and smiled. "That is by far my favorite secret," he said with a nefarious wiggle of his eyebrows. "Don't worry about what's up there, Ty. It's there for your benefit. And mine. It's very...helpful."

"Helpful how?"

"Helpful however it can be. And we'll need all the help we can get. The witches are becoming...rebellious," Marcel said. "And Klaus is using it to his advantage."

"They're working with him?"

"Looks that way."

"So what are you going to do?"

"What are we going to do?" Marcel corrected. "I'm working on it."

Tyler wished he could make a suggestion, but he doubted he'd be able to formulate a foolproof resolution. Marcel had said so himself. Witches made the world go 'round. If he was losing his hold on them and they were willingly allying themselves with Klaus, Tyler didn't know how he expected to win.

"Why don't you...let them go?" Tyler asked.

Marcel laughed and the sound seemed to fill the whole house. "Even if I did, it wouldn't change anything. They'd just be free to come after me and mine on their own. And I don't want to give anyone the satisfaction. Good ole' fashioned pride, you know?"

"Are there any of them who'd help you?" Tyler asked. "Any who actually like you?"

Marcel considered it. "Doubt it. I've slept with a few of them, but I don't think that's enough of an incentive."

"Probably not," Tyler deadpanned.

"There's something I can try," Marcel said, "but I don't know if I want to. If I do it, it'll turn this whole thing up several notches."

"But it'll work?"

"Yes," he said certainly. "It'll take all the witches out of commission. It won't kill them," he added, when he saw Tyler's face, "but it'll take care of it."

Tyler thought about it. Klaus was already formidable, with or without witches, but with them the game would change dramatically. Marcel didn't have the firepower to go up against a city of rebelling witches and Klaus. And Bonnie.

"Then you have to do it," Tyler said. "If you don't, what are your odds?"

"If I get Bonnie, pretty good," Marcel said which made Tyler roll his eyes.

"And if you don't get Bonnie?"

"Then they're pretty bad," he admitted, "but I'll get Bonnie."

"How do you know?"

Marcel grinned and pushed himself to his feet. "That's another secret." He clapped Tyler's shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "Get some rest."

The next night Bonnie turned up at the front door. It was drizzling outside, and she held an umbrella in hand. "We're going to dinner," she said. Without giving Tyler time to accept or refuse the invitation (if it could even be called an invitation) she was turning and walking down the steps, obviously expecting him to follow.

He did. When the rain fell harder, Bonnie opened up the umbrella, and Tyler offered to hold it. It was so small it didn't seem like it would cover them both so he kept it over her as much as he could but the rain didn't seem to touch him anyway, even when the wind picked up and blew the droplets sideways toward them.

"It's a charm," Bonnie said, tugging on his arm to guide him down a narrower, less busy lane where there was a tiny little restaurant that was quite literally a hole in the wall. And that's what it was called.

Inside it was cool and lit by various multicolored lights that hung from the ceiling. It was put together from mismatched furniture. The tables were all different colors and shapes and sizes and the chairs were the same. It was mostly empty inside except for a trio of girls near the back laughing loudly. Bonnie led Tyler to a table in the corner where she plopped down into a plush looking armchair, and Tyler perched on a stool.

"This is nice," he commented as a waitress with pink hair dropped menus down in front of them.

"It's not really," Bonnie said. "The food's decent, but there are better places. With better seats. And better lighting. But we won't be running into anyone we don't want to here."

"I heard the witches are rebelling," Tyler said casually, glancing over the soup list.

Bonnie didn't say anything as she lifted her eyes to his face. She blinked. "Are they?" she asked after a few seconds.

"I don't know," he said. "Are they?"

With an annoyed sigh, Bonnie dropped her menu back onto the table and leaned toward him. "I don't know," she said.

Tyler leaned forward, too. "Is Klaus working with witches?"

"He's working with me."

"You know what I mean."

Bonnie leaned back and shrugged, picking up her menu again. "Don't know, don't care. I think I'll try the Louisiana Scramble. Breakfast sounds good.."

And he knew that conversation was over.

They left the restaurant, Tyler feeling satisfied and full and the rain having stopped. He hadn't eaten out in a while. He was always trying to save up money when Lydia was around and since Marcel wouldn't let him leave the house, dining in restaurants was out of the question.

"Thanks for paying," Tyler said as Bonnie led him down the street. He realized she was taking him back toward the aquarium.

"You'll get the next one," Bonnie said with a smile even though they both knew he probably wouldn't. Tyler wondered if Marcel would give him some cash. Probably, but the thought of asking reminded him of being thirteen and approaching his parents for an advance on his already substantial allowance. His mom always said yes, and his dad always said no.

At the aquarium, they walked side-by-side through the cerulean tinged halls, their footsteps muffled against the carpet. "Do you know what Marcel and Klaus talked about last night?" Tyler asked.

"No," she said, pausing to look at seahorses bobbing whimsically in their tank.

"I'm gonna call that one," he said pointing to one that was a pale blue color, floating off to the side while the others huddled together. "Klaus."

Bonnie snorted. "Why?"

"Looks like an asshole."

He saw Bonnie pressing her lips together to keep from laughing. She spun away from the tank and started walking again. They neared the exit with the small fountain, not on at this time of night, and the locked down gift shop. Bonnie grabbed hold of his arm. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"We're going shopping."

Tyler felt pressure, warm and tingling on his body and his legs felt like jelly when they reappeared inside the gift shop, on the other side of a metal gate. Bonnie released his arm and started toward the racks of key chains.

"We're stealing?"

"Don't find God now," Bonnie said, plucking one of the key chains from the rack and tossing it to him.

Laughing, Tyler caught it. It was a seahorse.

Riverwalk was lit up and down by dim lights. There was a restaurant open where Bonnie bought them drinks and they walked with them down the whitewashed dock, darkened by the rain and slowly drying. They were a couple of other people out leaning against the railings to look out the water, colored black in the dark.

"It's pretty here," Tyler said, looking over the edge into the gently moving water. He wondered what it would feel like to touch it. How cool it would feel against his skin.

"Yeah," Bonnie agreed.

"If you have to leave are you gonna miss it?"

Bonnie shrugged. "I can find somewhere else, but I'll miss the water. I love the river. I feel closer to nature with it here." She balanced her drink on the rail and gripped it with both hands tilting her head back as a breeze blew, stirring her hair off her shoulders. "I wish I'd come here sooner."

She wished she'd left Mystic Falls sooner.

"Can I ask you a question?" Tyler asked.

Bonnie nodded.

"You said you'd done something," he said, "and that was why the Daywalkers don't like you. Remember?"

"Yeah."

"What did you do?"

Bonnie shrugged and looked down at her hands where she toyed with the bracelet on her wrist. In the light the jewels looked darker and the silver shinier. She didn't speak.

"You don't have to tell me," Tyler said. "It's fine. I-"

"I killed someone."

Tyler was quiet. So was she. He could hear the wet, liquid sound of the water moving up against the pier, the faint music from the restaurant they'd come from and light laughter from the people further down.

"Who?" he asked.

"A couple people," she said, "but there was one in particular. She was...first, and she was important."

"What did she do?"

"She was working for Marcel," Bonnie explained. "She approached Klaus about switching sides. It was a lie. She was going to pass information to Marcel. I was at Turbulence one night, and she was there. She was with someone, and when she saw me, she didn't want me to see them so she got them out. I was suspicious so I called Klaus." She sighed and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, like she was looking for something to do with her hands.

"She came back, and she thought I'd seen whoever it was, I think," Bonnie said. "So she attacked me. I stopped her, and I took her to Klaus, and he...You know Klaus. He wanted her to talk, and she wouldn't. He wanted me to make her talk. I tried. She wouldn't. So he gave up and told me to kill her, and I did."

Tyler felt something sinking in his stomach. His fingers felt numb, and Bonnie's voice sounded far away. He remembered the smoky interior of Turbulence, hot and packed with hundreds of bodies all dancing and drinking and laughing. And Lydia's apologetic face as she told him they had to cut their visit short, putting him in a cab. "What was her name?" he asked.

"Lydia."

Tyler shut his eyes and set his beer on the railing to dig his fingers into the wood. He thought he heard it grinding beneath his fingertips, as the wood gave way beneath them. Bonnie didn't notice. She was quiet, like she was waiting for him to say something, but she was staring at the water again.

Lydia had been dead this entire time. Not off somewhere dragging some other guy around to shop and drink and dance, not picking up where she left off in her nomadic existence. Not alive.

Tyler let go of the railing and turned, walking away. Bonnie followed him right away. "Where are you going?" she asked.

Tyler didn't answer. He couldn't make his mouth move.

Bonnie reached for his arm to pull him back. "What's wrong?" she asked. When Tyler turned toward her, he looked over her head. At the sky, at the lamps, at the giant Riverwalk sign. Everywhere but her face.

"Tyler," she repeated.

"It was me," he said finally, looking at her face where her lips were parted in confusion. "I knew her. She was my friend, and it was me she was trying to hide. From you."

Bonnie swallowed. He could see her mind working, checking, replaying, figuring. "Tyler, I'm..."

"What?" he asked, louder than he meant to.

"I'm...sorry."

Tyler scoffed in disgust and started walking away again. It took her a few seconds to start following him. He heard her steps on the ground and ignored her. When he turned a corner there she was.

"You can't go home by yourself," Bonnie said as he stopped short. "I have to take you."

Tyler stepped around her. She was right, but he wasn't about to admit it. He hadn't minded it before, but it now was humiliating being escorted around New Orleans like a toddler. Before, walking with Bonnie had been nothing more than walking alongside a friend, headed off together and now it was different.

Bonnie kept pace with him. "I didn't know who she was," she said, talking fast. "There was no way I could have known she was your friend. I didn't even know you were here then!"

"It's not about me," Tyler said, wheeling around to face her. "It's about you. You killed her because Klaus told you, too. You may not have known she was my friend, but you knew she was someone, and you did it anyway!"

Bonnie looked slightly taken aback, and Tyler started walking again. It only took her a minute to compose herself again. "She was someone working for Marcel who tried to kill me in a bathroom."

"Because she was trying to protect me!"

"So that makes it okay?"

"No," he said. "That's not what I'm saying, and you know that's not what I'm saying."

"Obviously I don't."

Tyler stopped walking, and Bonnie stopped, too. They were across the street from a bar overflowing with people with music so loud they could it hear it clearly from where they stood. "She thought you were the bad guy," he said, "because...you are. You're with Klaus, and you're...You're on his side, doing what he wants and that's...you. I'm not trying to make you feel bad-"

"That's exactly what you're trying to do."

Yeah, it was.

"You should feel bad on your own," he said. "How do you not care?"

"I tried caring," Bonnie said. "I tried being the good guy, and it didn't work. This works."

"For who?" Tyler demanded. "For Klaus?"

"For me!" Her voice cracked. She looked away from him almost instantly to swipe away a tear making its way down her cheek.

Tyler pretended he hadn't seen it.

"I am sorry," she said with a shaky breath. "If I'd known... I can't take it back so this is just a waste of time for both of us."

He didn't know what he wanted her to say, but he knew that wasn't it.

"I can make it back on my own," he said, and when he turned and left this time, she didn't follow.

Two Months Ago

Tyler was really lamenting that he and Lydia had never gotten around to exchanging phone numbers. It was just her popping up at his apartment whenever she wanted him to do something with her, and it had become fairly frequent, so frequent Tyler never had to worry about contacting her himself. She'd just pop up.

It would have been easier to just call her instead of returning to Turbulence and trying to find her, to ask if he'd annoyed her so much she was just looking for an excuse to party without him. When he got there, he compelled himself entry to look around for her. The club was packed, but he liked to think he'd be able to pick Lydia out in a crowd, or at least pick out a vampire. But all he got were tipsy humans gyrating on the dance floor and taking shots at the bar. He looked everywhere and still couldn't find her.

She wasn't there and there was a feeling that twisted his gut, telling him something was very, very wrong. But why should anything be wrong?

Maybe the something she'd cited when rushing him off had been real. Maybe she'd just forgotten something and had come back to get it before taking off.

He was probably just being paranoid.

Lydia would turn up in a day or two and drag him right back here.

Present Day

When Tyler returned to the house, it was empty. No Marcel to tease him about flirting with Bonnie. Even the attic was quiet. He thought about going to Marcel's place in the Quarter, but worried about going alone. It was lucky he'd made it back without any trouble, and he didn't want to risk it again. He fell asleep on the couch, hoping Marcel would make an impromptu appearance and trying to remember every detail of the time he'd spent with Lydia.

He was woken by a gentle nudge of his knee.

"Morning, sunshine," Marcel said, holding up a bloodbag and tossing it into Tyler's lap. "Late night? You and Bonnie consummate your friendship?"

Tyler tossed the blood bag aside and stood. "No," he said. "The night ended early when she told me she killed a friend of mine, and of yours. Lydia."

Marcel's smile faltered, his mouth flattening into a line as he dropped his gaze to the floor. "How'd that come up?"

"I asked what she did to piss everyone off," Tyler said. "Was Lydia the one who told you about me?"

Marcel nodded grimly. "Right after she found out who you were. She wanted me to help you."

"You took your time," Tyler grumbled.

"I wasn't sure what use you could be," he said. "Then she died, and I had to deal with that first."

"Why didn't you tell me she was dead?" Tyler asked. "I thought she just...left."

"I was concerned about your reaction," Marcel said. "I knew it would change things for you. And Bonnie."

Tyler looked up. "This is about Bonnie?"

"You'd be surprised how much is. I've already explained that I need her. And so do you." Marcel sat down in one of the chairs across from Tyler, folding his hands in his lap. "Lydia was my family, and I loved her so I know this is difficult. Bonnie may have pulled the trigger, but Klaus gave the order. He's the enemy, not her. Bonnie made a choice, and it was a bad one, but Lydia knew the risks, and so did I."

Tyler frowned down at his hands, wondering if knowing the risks still meant Lydia had been prepared to die.

"I need to know what happened with you and Bonnie," Marcel said. "What did you say?"

When Tyler shook his head slightly, looking down at the floor incredulously, Marcel frowned. "I need to know if this is a serious setback."

"A setback," Tyler repeated. Unbelievable. But of course, he was supposed to be Bonnie's incentive, the shiny thing she was supposed to get distracted by, to lure her to Marcel's side. It was supposed to be him, and without him they may lose her, even if Tyler wasn't convinced they'd ever had her.

"You think this is hard for you? You don't know what it's like for me," Marcel said. "Did you say anything we can't fix?"

"No," Tyler said. "I don't think so."

"I'll figure it out," Marcel said. "You, on the other hand, need a break. Get out of the city for a few days, clear your head. I've got something I need checked out anyway. I was gonna send Sloane, but you'll do. Interested?"

Tyler thought of Bonnie and wondered what she was doing this morning, if she was thinking about last night at all or if she'd just pushed it to the periphery of her mind, determined not to care.

"Yeah," Tyler said. "I'm interested." Maybe somewhere else he could think and walk around without a chaperone and just be.

Marcel smiled and clapped his hands together. "Great. You're going to Lake Charles."

Sorry for the delay. Thanks for reading and reviewing!