Author's Note: The first few lines of dialog are directly from the show. I do NOT claim ownership of those lines. Also, pay attention to the date at the beginning of this chapter or you'll be really confused.

Chapter 008

Did That Really Just Happen?

Thursday, December 02, 2010, just before 9:00 p.m.

Bonnie's Living Room

My granddaughter startles herself awake at the end of the scariest dream she's ever had with Damon's whispered, 'Elena, I love you,' ringing in both of our ears. My baby girl smartly thinks, 'Oh God, Elena really plans to kill Kol, and I'm not just some normal teen having a bad dream. I'm a witch, and I'm not willing to bet the lives of everyone I care about that that was nothing more than a horrible nightmare.'

To Bonnie's right, her father asks her mother, "You're drugging her?"

The frown in my daughter's voice is evident when she says, "Just enough to keep her down until I can get some witches here to clean her mind from that poison that professor's been teaching her."

Bonnie thinks, 'Yeah and if that happens my friends and I are all doomed,' so she sits up and tells her until recently absentee mother, "That's not happening."

Abby turns to face her daughter, and at the teen's bared teeth and heavy breathing she says, "Bonnie, please."

My grandbaby holds out her hand and uses her magick on her mother causing my daughter to gasp in pain before the mortar breaks. Bonnie hates to do this, but she has to get to her friends before it's too late, so she breaks her mother's bones. Ignoring Abby's screams when she falls to the floor Bonnie stands up.

Rudy puts his arms around his ex-wife while their daughter tells them both, "Sorry, but lives are counting on me. We can clean my mind later tonight, so call your witch friends, and I promise I'll be back after I stop my friends from killing everyone that I've ever cared about."

Then she turns and leaves her shocked parents behind when she slams the door in haste not anger and runs to her car. She speeds all the way to the Gilbert's house. Pulling up to the curb the same time Niklaus arrives in front of the house, she doesn't hesitate before she jumps out of the car and rushes for the door freezing everyone in the house and outside of it too because the hybrid speeds up to the home ahead of her.

When she reaches the door just after Niklaus, Elena is frozen just before she would have pulled the original's arm causing Kol to accidentally cut the strap holding Jeremy's arm to the counter, which would allow the teen to free himself.

My grandbaby stands there gasping for air for a minute trying to figure out what to do. She thinks, 'If I try to reason with everyone there's no guaranteeing Kol won't come back and try to cut off Jer's arm again, and there's also no guarantee that my friends will stop trying to kill the original. We've all become obsessed with The Cure, and all it'll bring is pain and death upon us all.' She nods at herself before she walks into the house and walks up to Kol and Elena. Bonnie frowns at the young woman she's considered the sister of her heart for most of her life.

I'm biting my lip, gnawing of the little bit of flesh before offering up a small prayer, "Please, Jesus, please give my granddaughter the knowledge and wisdom she needs and allow all of them to walk away from this unscathed."

Bonnie is thinking the same prayer before brushing her hand along Elena's cheek and telling her best friend, "You and Jeremy are probably going to hate me for the rest of my life. I'd rather you hate me, though, than for my premonition to come true because then all of us except Klaus will be dead and even he wouldn't know peace because Kol would possess his body and cause all sorts of trouble. So, I need you and Jer to trust me."

Turning to Kol, Bonnie asks him, "You swear you'll heal him after you chop off his arm?"

My eyes widen at that before she unfreezes his head. He turns to look at her a minute with his brow raised then he says, "Both arms actually, but yes I give my word I will heal him, the last thing I need is for him to bleed to death and saddle me with The Bloody Hunter's Curse."

I smile brightly because this man here, this ancient vampire, is the man I was friends with which is abundantly clear when he thinks, 'Okay maybe I just don't want him to die but no need to tell everyone here that I still consider Jeremy my friend. Letting them know would only make my family and me more vulnerable to Elena's machinations because I doubt the bitch is above using my feelings for her brother to her advantage.'

Unaware of Kol's peaceful, though disparaging, thoughts Bonnie takes a deep breath and then exhales, then she takes another and slowly exhales again before nodding her head and telling her ex-boyfriend, "I'm sorry Jer, any other way and everyone, including Caroline, Tyler, and Matt but not Kol who would be inside Klaus will be dead. Only Elena's death would be anything even close to peaceful and after suffering from The Hunter's Curse for 144 years that sort of nullifies the peacefulness of her death."

Jeremy's eyes widen but then soften when he comes to believe my baby girl. He realizes that she would never allow anything bad to happen to him unless there was no other way. He understands how Bonnie works enough to know that she's telling the truth, so when she sees his acceptance in his eyes, she nods and says, "I'll do everything I can to help afterward, but it needs to happen."

Unfreezing his head, she half frowns, half smiles slightly when he nods and says, "Do it, if it'll save everyone else then do it."

Leaning down and kissing his forehead before stepping back she unfreezes Kol after she tells him, "Make it as painless as possible."

Kol looks at her for another minute then he leans over Jeremy and asks, "Mate, I'm not sure if it'll work or not because you're a hunter, but are you willing for me to try compelling you not to feel any pain?"

Jeremy nods and despite his frown and trembling lip says, "Since I became a hunter I stopped drinking Vervain so try. If it doesn't work, at least you will have tried."

Kol nods and looks into his former friend's eyes a minute before he catches Jeremy's eyes and says, "You will not feel any pain or discomfort until after you have finished healing."

Bonnie and I both let out a sigh of relief when Jeremy repeats, "I will not feel any pain or discomfort until after I finish healing."

Kol nods and then takes a step back and aims before in one fell swoop he chops off the boy's right arm. Jeremy only gasps but doesn't appear to be in any pain. Kol quickly moves to the left arm and has that chopped off just as swiftly and painlessly.

After he finishes he pockets the cleaver while my granddaughter looks at him funny, so he says, "Call me insane, but I don't much trust any of you not to use it on me after the fact."

He makes a fair point based on their prior history with him and his family, so my baby girl just nods. He nods back, and then he bites his wrist and brings it to Jeremy's mouth. Smiling encouragingly, he tells the young man, "Mate, I think I'm going to need to feed you a couple of times, so drink until my wound heals, and then I'll bite again until you look as good as you can."

Jeremy nods while he drinks Kol's blood. Bonnie feels her control over everyone's movements starting to slip, so because he's trapped outside she lets go of Niklaus, and he stumbles into the invisible barrier before saying, "What game are you playing, witch?"

While my baby girl lets go of her control of Jeremy's body, she turns just enough to see the hybrid out of the corner of her eye but still have her eyes on Kol, who in her mind is still a genuine threat right now.

My precious grandbaby frowns before she tells Niklaus, "It's just what I said it is… Kol would die but somehow get trapped in the hallway mirror. Then he would possess you, kill Caroline, and then possess Stefan. He'll kill people while inside Stefan and then possess Elena to kill Jeremy, killing him and cursing her. He would compel Tyler to kill Matt, and he would also compel Damon to kill Tyler and Stefan leaving only Damon and Elena to suffer from their guilt. After 144 years of living with The Hunter's Curse, which is possible only because Kol compels Elena not to kill herself until after the curse is lifted, it gets lifted. But then Elena keeps trying to kill herself, so Damon puts her out of her misery in as painless a way as possible by staking her in her sleep and then he meets the sun. That leaves Kol inside you with your permission and Elijah and Rebekah by his side as the only ones left alive at the end of it all. This will hopefully keep all of us alive and in our rightful bodies."

The hybrid seems to believe her, so he nods once and says, "Fair enough, witch. Don't expect me to thank you for saving me from being possessed."

My grandbaby laughs and tells the slightly frowning Niklaus, "Of course, I'd never expect you to thank anyone for ever doing anything nice to help you, besides you're not the reason I'm doing it. If you saw the pain on Damon's face when he drove the stake into Elena's chest, well you'd probably laugh in glee, but it was enough to make me respect him and know that he loves my best friend more than he's ever loved anyone else. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he would be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to set her free from her pain and suffering."

While she's been talking with Niklaus, Kol has bitten his wrist twice more and fed Jeremy until the wounds heal over entirely without even the pinkness a usual new scar has.

When Kol pulls away one final time he tells my granddaughter, "I'll be expecting you to ensure that he doesn't die with my blood inside him because if he turns into a vampire, he won't be a hunter anymore and I will kill him."

Like I said earlier this creature is still the man I call a friend, so I know even without hearing his thoughts that he's bluffing because he's actually fond of his former friend and wouldn't kill him unless he was a threat and there were no other options available to him. Still, Bonnie doesn't know that, so she just nods and watches while Kol stands straight and looks at Jeremy before saying, "No hard feelings, Mate. I'll forget you conspired to kill me, and you forget that I cut off your arms, deal?"

Surprisingly Jeremy laughs and says, "Yeah deal, though it's a little late. What would you have done, if I said no deal?"

The ancient man smirks and says, "I'd have waited to catch your sister alone one day and then compelled her to kill you for me, but if you give your word, you and yours won't seek retribution then I will give the same, and we can all peacefully coexist."

Jeremy sighs and says, "You have a deal on my end, but it's going to take a little work on mine and Bonnie's part to get my sister on board, so if you could avoid her for a while that would probably keep us from having to go back on our words."

Kol nods once and then says, "I'll meet Bonnie at the boarding house tomorrow morning at 8 am to undo the compulsion on Damon because I gave my word I'll peacefully coexist and allowing him to kill you due to my compulsion would go against the promises we just made each other. However, I agree that your sister and I should avoid each other for the time being so, Little Witch, skip school for a few hours, and I'll keep my word."

My granddaughter nods and tells him, "I'll be there."

He nods back and then turns and walks across the room, "Well it's been fun, Mate. See you around."

He walks out the door and right past his stunned brother who turns to look at my baby girl after watching Kol walk down the path and asks her, "Did that really just happen? Did you really just negotiate a peaceful solution with my family's 'Happy Homicidal Maniac'?"

Bonnie laughs and nods before telling him, "Yeah it happened, now, if you could not be here, I have to help Jer talk some sense into Elena, and it will go easier if there are no originals present when we try to do that."

The hybrid grins and says, "Sure, tell Caroline I said hello."

Bonnie knows from her premonition that Niklaus' feelings for Caroline are genuine and very real, so although she frowns, she refrains from commenting with a snide remark before he walks away.

Turning, Bonnie helps Jeremy sit up, and then they both look at Elena, who even frozen, is obviously incredibly pissed off. Somehow her nostrils are flaring despite being frozen, and if looks could kill, my granddaughter would be dead right now.

Bonnie pats her best friend on the shoulder and tells her, "I was serious Elena, everyone you love and care about would have died if Jer kills Kol. It would take 144 years, but you and Damon would both follow us all into death but not until after you've both suffered worse than anyone should ever have to. I mean Damon pulled his own brother's heart out of his chest, and then 144 years later he staked the woman he loved so that you wouldn't feel the pain of burning up in the sunlight. If you care about no one else, remember Jer would die staring into your eyes while you strangled him, and Damon would do the most selfless thing I've ever witnessed and killed you to save you from unnecessarily feeling pain while you killed yourself. No matter how much I may have hated the sarcastic ass in the past, he doesn't deserve to suffer like that, and neither does Jer."

Elena's nostrils aren't flaring anymore, so Bonnie unfreezes her friend's head and waits to see what she'll say. We don't have to wait long before she asks with a smidgen of attitude in her voice, "How do you know it wasn't just a bad dream?"

Bonnie sighs and tells Elena, "Maybe because I dreamed the whole scene I walked into including you about to pull Kol's arm to the side. Everything leading up to my freezing everyone was exactly like it was in my 'dream,' so I'm sure it wasn't a dream at all."

Jeremy turns towards his sister awkwardly and says, "It was my choice Elena, don't be angry with her, she just gave us all the opportunity to make informed decisions." He turns to look at Bonnie and with a soft smile on his face despite his lack of arms says, "Thanks for that, Bon. Now can someone help me off this counter, so I don't fall flat on my face?"

Despite the seriousness of the situation Bonnie laughs and helps him stand. He turns and looks at his sister before he says, "I need your word as my sister, 'Lena, that you won't go after Kol or Bonnie. I gave my word, and I'll find a way to kill you myself if you make me break it."

Elena's eyes widen at that, but she nods and then says, "I give my word, I won't go after Kol or Bonnie."

Despite being the youngest person involved in this whole mess Jeremy is smart, and he obviously knows his sister well, so he throws in, "Or any other original either. The Mikaelson's are now officially and permanently off limits."

I've always thought that Elena was one of the biggest, most selfish brats I've ever had the misfortune to meet. Being able to hear her thoughts since I died has only strengthened that belief, so I roll my eyes when she sighs but nods and says, "Okay, I give my word that the Mikaelson's are officially off limits."

In her thoughts she's bitching, 'I'm a vampire, thanks to Rebekah, and Jer is mortal, so is Bonnie for that matter, so I just have to wait until they both die and then I can go rid the world of the whole Mikaelson family once and for all. If I'm lucky I can talk them out of forcing me to wait and I can get them to help me find the cure. Knowing the Mikaelson's, they'll probably break the truce first so that should give me the in I need to get Jer and Bonnie to change their minds.'

Okay clearly, she hasn't really been paying attention to the Mikaelson's actions or their motivations for those actions, so she really believes that they're likely to break the truce first and quickly at that. I know them well enough from my time on The Otherside with most of them to know that not a single Mikaelson, not even Niklaus, will risk angering Kol by forcing him to break his word.

Oh, if Elena and company break the truce first nothing will protect them from the Mikaelsons' wraths, but none of them will break the truce first. They clearly remember what one of Kol's temper tantrums looks like and just how many died last time, not to mention the incredible guilt and deep and long-lasting depression Kol fell into after he came back to himself and calmed down.

None of the Mikaelson's would willingly force their brother to suffer through something like that again. They're also likely to realize the truth of Bonnie's words tonight, and so they will be grateful that Kol is still with them and unwilling to do anything to put him or any of their other siblings at risk.

They might bicker and fight like little homicidal children on occasion, but no one can say with any accuracy that every single Mikaelson doesn't love their siblings more than they love him or herself.

Now, Jeremy, he has some clue from conversations he had with Kol about his siblings the lengths they would go to protect each other, even from themselves. He might not have known Kol was a vampire at the time or that the siblings Kol was speaking of were Niklaus and the others, but Jeremy could easily see in Kol's eyes and hear in the soft tone his voice took on when he spoke of them just how much Kol loves his family.

He also knows that most siblings feel that way. So, even while he can guess where his own sister's thoughts are, he knows that he will do everything in his power to help Bonnie keep the peace for as long as possible because he knows that the moment someone on his side breaks the truce everyone he loves will die by Mikaelson hands.

After staring at his sister and making sure that she understands what's at stake or at least doesn't plan to make him break his word, he turns to look at my granddaughter and says, "You can let her go, Bon."

She nods, releases her friend, and watches as Elena lunges at her brother and tries her best to squish him in a hug. He laughs and says, "Uh, a little too tight 'Lena."

She chuckles and loosens her hold before Bonnie turns and walks out the door. Neither of them tries to stop her, but she's surprised when she gets outside and finds Kol leaning against her car.

The original smiles and says, "It takes a lot to impress me, Darling, but you may have actually managed the feat." At her frown he says, "Don't worry I know you didn't save me to save me, but I don't often find myself owing my life to other people, so just know I won't forget and if you have need of a favor just call, but only once so make it count."

Kol hands Bonnie a slip of paper and then smirks before saying, "I have a great and deep appreciation and respect for witches. I've called many of them my friends and even loved a few, and well, I don't know if you know this, but I was a witch before my mother turned us. My siblings were as well."

He shifts his weight on his feet and says, "Even though we lost our magick when we transitioned, I spent the next thousand or so years learning everything I could about magick. So, if you want help getting your natural powers back and clearing your aura of that black shit the professor has filled your head with and maybe even learn some new non-dark spells, I won't count that as the favor."

He smiles a warm smile that she's never seen on his face before and then says, "If you're genuinely nice to me, I might even give you access to my extensive grimoire collection."

My grandbaby wonders, 'Is he serious? He wants to help me? Me? The girl who broke his bones and gave him aneurysms earlier tonight? What game is he playing at?' Her eyes are wide, but she says nothing, so he adds, "Yes, Darling, I'm serious, and no it's not some attempt at tricking you. I gave my word to peacefully coexist, and one thing you should know about my family by now is that if we give our word, we usually keep it, and the only exception to that rule is when to break our word will save a member of our family. So, if you and your merry band keep to our agreement, my family will be safe, and my siblings and I will have absolutely no reason to break my word. I also won't allow anyone else in my family to break my word first, so we officially have a truce."

Kol shrugs and tells her, "You wouldn't be the first witch I've helped either because I don't do well with just sitting around. I need to keep active and helping a young witch learn her craft properly has always sufficiently filled that need for activity. Think about it, Darling, and call me if you want my help."

He pauses again then says, "Oh and I was serious about meeting you at the boarding house tomorrow to lift the compulsion. 8 a.m. sharp, but a word of advice when it comes to dealing with me, I get bored easily, and then I get into all sorts of mischief, so make me wait at your own peril."

She nods so he grins and says, "Well, until then, Darling," and he walks off towards his house.

I don't know how long she stands out there just staring at the spot Kol had been, but eventually, she moves and takes out her phone putting his phone number and email address into it before getting into her car and heading to the jail.

If she thought it would work, she'd already call in that favor and have Kol compel Atticus to stop trying to raise Silas, but she knows my younger former friend picked up a few tricks in Tibet so compulsion won't work on him. Therefore, she resigns herself to having to kill him herself. It's, unfortunately, the only way to keep the balance even and everyone else alive, so although I regret the guilt she will feel after doing this, I know it's necessary to save everyone on both sides of The Veil.

When we arrive at the jail, she doesn't get out of the car. She psychically searches the building for Atticus' soul signature, for lack of a better phrase, and then latches onto it and squeezes until she feels his life slip away. Then after pausing and having a moment of silence in his memory, she heads home to mend things with her parents.

While Bonnie drives she thinks, 'God, what a day! Thank goodness it's finally over and everyone I care about is still alive, or undead as the case may be. Let's hope Kol and his family keeps his word and we all continue to stay that way.'

The End

(Until the Sequel)

Author's Note: Well there you have it, what did you think? I have written a sequel (Picking Up Shattered Glass) and have a third story (Repairing Shattered Glass) outlined and partially written, which will make this a trilogy (The Shattered Glass Trilogy). Picking Up Shattered Glass is primarily Kol/Bonnie centric but also has some Klaus/Caroline and Rebekah/Jeremy inferences thrown in for good measure with an exceptionally light sprinkling of Damon/Elena... if you're interested in reading it, keep your eyes open for it soon. I hope to begin posting Picking Up Shattered Glass sometime in the fall of 2018.