this ficlet is what really sets up the premise for the au, as well as introduces us to our beefy af hitter lol
Bleary eyed, Bonnie rolled out of bed, pulling on a house coat over her pajamas. The stillness of the early morning was aggressively interrupted by the continuous banging on her door. Her phone read 3:04am. 3:04am, 7 missed calls, and 15 text messages.
Peering through the peephole, Bonnie frowned and pulled the door open to find Stefan with a strange man draped over his shoulders, barely conscious.
"How do you even know where I live? We're not this kind of friends," she said, as he brushed past her, laying the stranger down on her couch.
"Tyler, stay with me," he said, holding his friend's eyes open. Bonnie knelt down beside them.
"What happened?" she asked. Stefan ran an anxious hand through his hair and shrugged.
"I don't… I don't know. I found him on my doorstep. I thought he was dead."
Bonnie eyed the bloodied man occupying her couch.
"Call Caroline," she instructed, and Stefan looked up at her with eyes simultaneously hopeful and hopeless. "Call her," Bonnie repeated.
"Can you help?"
"I don't know, I'm not a doctor, Stefan. This is out of my depth."
He pulled his phone out and backed away from the couch. Bonnie moved closer to the stranger's head. "Tyler, right?" she asked him.
He didn't respond.
"Shit," she swore under her breath. "He needs real medical attention," Bonnie reiterated as Stefan watched nervously.
He shook his head vigorously. "No."
"Stefan-"
"No. He's been working with some big players who, by the looks of it, want him dead. I'm not sending him to the hospital to be totally helpless."
"He's helpless here."
"I took care of the building's security cameras. A hospital is too much with no notice, even for me. Caroline. Hi," he said into his phone, pacing the length of the loft.
A resigned sigh slipped past Bonnie's lips and she turned her attention back to Tyler. He didn't look good. His right eye was purple and swollen, his cheeks bruised with open cuts, and dried blood that had slipped from the corner of his mouth.
Tentatively, she reached for his face and gently parted his eyelids to check his pupils. For what, Bonnie wasn't exactly sure, but she saw it done on TV a lot and felt helpless doing nothing.
Suddenly his eyes shot open on their own accord and his irises jumped around frantically, searching for something familiar. Before she could move, Tyler had pushed her off him, sending her backwards, landing on the hardwood floor. He grimaced and fell back against the couch, clutching his side and groaning.
A little shaken, Bonnie pulled herself up, hesitant to get too close again. Tyler seemed to be conscious for now. Conscious and very, very confused.
"Who the hell are you?" He winced and Stefan rushed over, ending his call with Caroline.
"What happened, man?" Stefan asked, relief seeping into his voice.
Tyler looked between the two of them as Bonnie approached the couch again warily, but he remained silent.
"Can someone tell me what's going on?" she said, shifting uncomfortably.
"Caroline's on her way," Stefan told her, and turned to Tyler. "I knew this would happen. Klaus?"
Tyler avoided eye contact and answered, "Elijah."
"And?"
"Just him."
"I told you not to get involved with that family." The level of frustration that seeped into his voice was one Bonnie had never heard before.
"Yeah. You would know."
"I would," Stefan said.
An uneasy silence fell between them before Tyler quietly mumbled. "Thank you. For helping me anyway."
"I'm glad you're okay," Stefan sighed, placing a hand on Tyler's shoulder.
"I'm sorry to interrupt this bro moment, but I just wanted to make sure I heard you right. First, Klaus and Elijah. You mean Klaus and Elijah Mikaelson? How are you even alive right now?" She asked Tyler, but turned towards Stefan before he could answer. "Second, Stefan, did you just tell me that you gave my address to a known thief?"
Stefan shrugged. "She already knew. Come on Bonnie, the place is in your own name. Of course we found it. Sloppy," he admonished.
"Yeah, of course I did. This is my real home. My other places are for work."
"Found those too." Stefan said. "It's fine. I'll change the building's records, no one will be able to find you." He waved away her concern.
"Now I have to move," she grumbled. Which was a shame, Bonnie loved her loft. Exposed brick, perfect kitchen, and a landlord who didn't ask questions when she installed the wall safe hidden in her closet. Although, that last perk was probably because she never ran it by him.
None of them heard when Caroline slipped in a half an hour later. Stefan sat on the floor, leaning back against the couch where Tyler lay holding a bag of ice on his eye, flipping through the channels on Bonnie's TV. Bonnie occupied the oversized chair, arms crossed, wondering if it was time to finally bail on the States and see what Monaco had to offer her.
It wasn't until Caroline pulled out the first aid kit from her backpack and leaned over the back of the couch to get a better look at Tyler did anyone notice her.
"What the fu-" He did a double take and groaned from moving too fast, aggravating his injuries.
"That cut on your cheek is going to need stitches," she said, pulling out a tiny flashlight and shining it into Tyler's eyes. "I don't think you have a concussion but we'll keep an eye on it."
"Caroline, I know the door was locked." Bonnie frowned, uncomfortable with the ease both of them felt crossing the boundary of professional and personal.
"Stefan said it was an emergency. It would have taken longer to knock," she said with a shrug and wiped Tyler's check with disinfectant. Caroline held up a small needle and Stefan swallowed nervously as it glinted in the light, thankful he was not the one she was about to use it on.
"Please, it wouldn't have taken that much longer for me to walk from here to the door," she said and Caroline shot her a pointed look. "Fine, point taken," Bonnie conceded, the vivid memory of Caroline picking the lock of the Swedish ambassador's hotel room with his bodyguards four steps behind them around the corner springing to mind.
Tyler grabbed Caroline's wrist gently before she could stitch up the wound on his cheek. "I'm not sure I'm in a position to ask for medical credentials, but I like my face. It's a nice face."
Bonnie snorted, causing Tyler to glare over at her. "It's a little worse for wear." She shrugged.
"Don't listen to her, man. You have a beautiful face," Stefan assured him, and Tyler rolled his eyes.
"They make you get certified to coach," Caroline offered simply.
He let go of her arm. "Coach what?"
"I was a gymnast," she answered, holding Tyler's chin to keep him still.
"You're looking at a one time Olympic hopeful," Stefan said, nudging Tyler with his elbow, causing him to grimace. Without looking over at her, Stefan added, "Don't give me that look, Bonnie. What kind of professional would I be if I didn't check the backgrounds of my team?"
"We're not a team," Bonnie clarified. "You get a cut of what Care and I steal in exchange for information to prep. That's not working together. If anything you work for us."
Caroline smirked over at Bonnie. "And what does that make me?"
"Occasional work associate," she responded.
"Do you think she's going to give us the 'I work alone' speech again?" Stefan grinned, looking over at Caroline with a small smile dancing on her lips. She began her stitches on Tyler, who barely winced as she worked.
"You're going to have to let us in sometime, Bonnie," Caroline said.
"Emotional ties-"
"-get you killed," Stefan and Caroline said in unison, and Bonnie rolled her eyes at them.
"I'm glad you find my ability to separate my work and personal life amusing," she grumbled.
"Admit it, Bennett, we're a team. And look! Now we've got some muscle," Stefan gestured towards Tyler, who offered a weak grin at his friend.
"Speaking of which. No offense, Tyler, you seem…" Bonnie glanced over at his battered face, at a loss for words. "... but who exactly are you?"
"He's my buddy from boarding school," Stefan said.
Bonnie mentally ran through the list of Stefan's old classmates before remembering him. "Lockwood?"
"How-"
"We were going to rob you," Caroline interrupted, tugging his final stitch and putting the needle away. "But you were out of the country. It's how we found this one." She gestured to Stefan, who shot them a goofy grin.
"And we're all the richer for it." Stefan stretched his arms behind his head and leaned back against his interlocked hands. "And our team will get even richer with Tyler's help."
Bonnie rolled her eyes. "The only thing I know about this guy is he used to work for the Mikaelsons. That doesn't exactly bode well for trust."
Caroline's eyes flashed at the Mikaelson family name.
"Tyler's solid," Stefan insisted.
"Says the hacker son of a nefarious jewelry thief."
The grin disappeared from his face. "Do you trust me?"
"No," Bonnie answered without hesitation and tossed the pillow she had been sitting on at his head.
Aghast, Stefan looked between Bonnie and Caroline, who just shrugged. "I wouldn't share my darkest secrets with you, but I trust you to have my back," Caroline said. Satisfied with her answer, he leaned back into the couch.
"It's cool, I already dug up your darkest secrets," Stefan teased, and Caroline shot him a look.
Bonnie yawned, eyeing the occupants of her loft uneasily. Tyler was in no condition to be moved and Stefan wasn't about to leave his side, but her bed called to her.
"You can sleep," Caroline said quietly. "I'll keep an eye on things."
She bit her lip nervously.
"Okay," Bonnie agreed warily and Caroline smiled.
Taking one last look over the railing at her unwanted guests, Bonnie collapsed on her bed, lulled to sleep by Stefan's loud snores from below.
They were still there when she woke the next morning, but to her relief, they left that afternoon and she basked in her solitude. Until they inexplicably returned the next day. And again the day after that. And suddenly, it was three weeks later and her happy little bubble of a loft turned into the apartment from Friends.
Arms full of groceries, Bonnie unlocked her door, pushing it open with her back. Groaning internally at the sight of Stefan watching Food Network on her couch and Tyler and Caroline using the loft's beams to do chin ups, she kicked the door shut.
"I changed the locks," she called to them, dropping the bags on the kitchen counter.
Tyler jumped down from the beam and held up his hands innocently. "Stefan cut me a key," he said.
"I came in through the fire escape." Caroline wrapped her legs around the bar, swinging upside down.
Bonnie hoped the look on her face fully conveyed how unimpressed with them she was, since her words sure as hell hadn't. She began to put her groceries away when Stefan's head shot around at the telltale sound of a Cheeto bag.
"You love us here," he taunted, grinning. Stefan hopped over the back of the couch and pulled the bag from her hand gleefully.
She rolled her eyes. "Not true. You haven't stopped complaining since you got here and I imagine this is the only way to shut you up."
Bringing the first glorious, neon orange Cheeto to his mouth, Stefan watched, as if in slow motion, as Tyler slapped it out of his hand and confiscated the bag.
"You promised," Tyler said, disappointment etched into his features.
Stefan was horrified. "But-"
"You said you'd help me recover," Tyler reminded him.
"Yeah, but-"
"You said you wanted to be on this journey with me."
"I know, but I-"
"You said the word solidarity at least fifty times."
"Ooh, Stefan, you did. I was here for that conversation," Caroline said, dropping from the beam and joining Bonnie in the kitchen. Bonnie silently handed Caroline a new box of the green tea that she liked, and the blonde smiled gratefully and filled the kettle.
"Wait, I wasn't here for that. How often are you people in my home without me?" Bonnie asked incredulously.
Tossing the Cheetos onto the counter, Tyler crossed his arms intimidatingly. "Do some chin ups with me, then we'll talk about ingesting chemical garbage."
Stefan stared at the bag longingly with hopeless eyes. He dragged his feet and reached for the beam, struggling to lift his chin over the bar and Tyler hopped up beside him, pulling himself up with ease. Caroline joined them happily while the water boiled. Before long, Stefan sat on the couch pouting as Tyler and Caroline competed to see who could last longer.
Bonnie watched from the kitchen, berating herself for letting these clowns into her life.
The kettle whistled. Bonnie poured the tea into three mugs and some Mountain Dew in the fourth for Stefan, to Tyler's absolute horror.
As she sat on the couch beside him, an uneasy quiet fell over the loft. "What's going on?" Bonnie asked warily. The other three exchanged looks and Bonnie narrowed her eyes. This couldn't be good. "Caroline?"
Caroline shifted uncomfortably on the other side of her. "This is really Stefan's thing."
Stefan jumped up from the couch, rubbing his hands together, with Tyler standing just behind him sipping his tea.
"I have a job for us," he said.
Bonnie looked around at the others, taking in their serious expressions. "Isn't that supposed to be a good thing?"
"It is," Caroline assured her quickly.
She pursed her lips. "Explain yourself," Bonnie told Stefan.
He hesitated briefly. "The White Oak Diamond."
"No." Bonnie shook her head. "You can't be serious."
"Just hear him out," Caroline urged, a dangerous sparkle flashing in her eyes.
"What's to hear out? Half the world believes it doesn't even exist and those that do aren't stupid enough to go after it. Except you, apparently," she said, and turned towards Tyler. "You barely escaped the Mikaelsons with your life last time, why are you targeting their most prized possession? Do you have some sort of death wish? "
Tyler shrugged. "It wasn't my idea. But I'm on board with anything that will hurt them."
Bewildered, Bonnie looked at Caroline. "Don't tell me you're in on this too."
"This diamond is the diamond," she said softly, eyes glittering.
"Why?" Bonnie asked Stefan aggressively. "This is going to get all of you killed."
"Not if we have your help," he responded. "I have a plan."
"I'm not getting killed over this, it's so out of our league." She shook her head again. "No. Out of the question."
"They know Tyler and Caroline's mom has been trying to take them out for decades. We need a grifter. We need you," Stefan looked at her hopefully, brows furrowing together awaiting her response.
Bonnie looked between them, a shared determination spread across their faces. They were doing this with or without her. And they were going to get themselves killed.
"Do you trust me?" Stefan asked her quietly.
Worry tugged at her stomach. "The minute I feel like we're in over our heads we walk away."
A smile spread across Caroline's face and relief flooded Stefan's posture.
"Say it," Bonnie pressed. "Say you'll walk away if I tell you to."
"We'll walk away," Stefan said quickly.
"And we need to do other jobs first. We need to see if we can even work well together," she added to her conditions. "As a team."
"A team?" Stefan's eyes brightened, visibly pleased at her word choice.
"Yes," she conceded.
Tyler gave her a gruff nod. "Sounds fair."
Caroline agreed.
"So," Bonnie leaned back against the couch. "Who's our in? We can't use Tyler."
Stefan dropped an open folder profiling their mark on the coffee table. A picture depicting a smirking, dark haired man was paperclipped in front of a bunch of documents.
Bonnie leaned forward and pulled it from the folder, studying him. God, his face looked so punchable.
As she raised her eyes from the photo, Stefan answered.
"Damon Salvatore."