Chapter 5

The next few days were relatively quiet. The killings had stopped and there had been no word from Bonnie or Kai. While Stefan and the gang still gathered daily to talk about how to proceed, he noticed that Damon didn't participate. He assumed that his brother was just tired after all the traveling and confusion, so he was happy when he could share some good news about the situation. He'd called in a few favors from a friend at the FBI, who had traced the phone number Bonnie gave to the hotel. The phone had been used recently, right outside of Mystic Falls. Stefan took the report to Damon, who was pouring a glass of bourbon in the study.

"Hey," Stefan said. Damon recognized him with a nod. "I've got some news about Bonnie."

Damon's eyes narrowed and he immediately looked suspicious. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. That phone number she gave to the hotel in Atlanta? It's being used. And it's pinging right outside of Mystic Falls."

He handed the report to Damon, who scanned it but otherwise said nothing. Stefan frowned and folded his arms.

"I was expecting more of a reaction than this," he said.

"You know, little brother, I'm actually starting to think that maybe we need to stop looking for Bonnie."

Stefan's frown deepened. "What? This coming from the guy who's been moving heaven and earth to find her? Why would we stop now? She's right in our backyard. Don't you want to know where she is?"

Damon's head snapped up and he had a blank stare on his face as he said, "I don't know where Bonnie is. I haven't seen her, and I don't think we should look for her anymore. She'll come home when she's ready."

"What the hell are you talking about, Damon? She's out of control. She won't come home when she's ready because she'll never be ready. Weren't you the one saying how we need to be there for her?"

Damon balled up the report, threw it into the burning fireplace, and then brushed past his brother.

"Leave it alone," he said, as he walked out of the room.

Stefan stood there, utterly dumbfounded. He had no idea what had just happened or why Damon's attitude had changed so drastically. He knew something was wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on what.

So for the rest of the day, he observed Damon. He watched his every move, trying to spot even one thing that was out of place. He mostly seemed like himself, drinking bourbon and snarking at people. But every time someone brought up the subject of Bonnie, he either clammed up entirely or said that they should stop looking for her. Then, almost as soon as the sun set, he went upstairs to his room without another word and never came back down.

Stefan thought back over the past couple of days and realized that Damon had been repeating that behavior nightly. He would drop whatever he was doing when night fell, go up to his room, and never be seen for the rest of the night. Stefan had chalked it up to being tired, but now he wasn't so sure.

The group of friends dispersed for the evening and Stefan offered to drive Caroline home, where Liz was resting and unfortunately, slowly wasting away. Caroline never wanted to talk about it, not that Stefan blamed her. She just did what she always did: found ways to distract herself and stay positive. It was something Stefan loved about her. As they got out of his car, she was chatting away about something, purses maybe, when she stopped mid-sentence and narrowed her eyes at him.

"Are you listening to me?" she asked.

"Yes." She raised an eyebrow and he smiled sheepishly. "Okay, no, not really. I'm sorry."

"What's going on?" she asked gently.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and shrugged. "Something's up with Damon. I can't quite figure it out but he's being very weird."

"About Bonnie?" she asked. He nodded. "Yeah, I noticed that, too. Maybe he's just having some kind guilt attack, you know? He did kind of leave her there in that prison world all that time, and now she's totally f'ing crazy, and it's kind of his fault."

"That's what I thought, too, but then today when I told him that we could find her using her cell phone records, he threw the records in the fireplace and gave me this strange answer about not seeing her and not knowing where she is. It was like his response was rehearsed."

Stefan shook his head, unsatisfied with his own assessment, and Caroline, in her usual way, just blurted out what she was thinking.

"Sounds like he's compelled or something," she joked. She shrugged and kissed Stefan on the cheek. "Good night. Thanks for bringing me home. I'll see you tomorrow."

He nodded, but his brain was still stuck on what she'd said. It was like Damon was compelled. That blank stare, the rehearsed answer...it was like he was compelled. Stefan's mind immediately jumped to the Originals, but he had no idea why any of them would care about the situation or why they would compel Damon. He didn't know of anyone else who was powerful enough to do so, either.

Unless...

Bonnie was super powerful but he wasn't sure if she was capable of compelling a vampire. Then again, she was stealing vampire lives and maybe it was possible that she was taking on their traits. He thought about it all night and decided that if Bonnie was one controlling Damon, she was probably the reason he disappeared into his room every night. Stefan had no idea why or what they were doing, but he was going to find out.

The next night, he excused himself right before the sun went down and hid in Damon's closet. He felt like a freak but he knew it was the only way he would truly find out what was going on. He held his breath the entire time, peeping through the tiny slit in the closet doors and watching as Damon appeared from the shower, dressed, and then sat on the edge of the bed and looked out the window for a while. He didn't move a muscle. He simply sat there and waited. Stefan was sure it was for Bonnie. But she never came.

Damon eventually gave up and turned over and went to sleep. Stefan crept out of the room and wondered if he had lost his mind. It didn't stop him from doing it the next night, though, or the night after that. He was three nights in, ready to just open the closet doors and subject himself to his brother's ridicule, when it finally happened.

Bonnie came.

Stefan couldn't tell from where she had appeared, but he saw her slim figure through the slight opening in the doors. He heard her voice and Damon's and centimeter by centimeter, he opened the doors until he could see what was going on. His mouth fell open when he saw Damon perched on the bed, with his back to the headboard, and Bonnie straddled on top of him.

"Did you miss me?" she asked in a tone that he hardly recognized as hers.

"No," Damon said, but his voice gave away his delight at seeing her.

"Liar. I might have to punish you."

"I wasn't sure you were coming back. You never wait this long."

"I can't get predictable, now, can I?" She ran her hands through his hair. "Has anyone been asking about me?"

"Just the usual stuff. Stefan is being nosey."

"What did you tell them?"

"What you told me to say."

"Good boy. You must want a reward."

Stefan watched as she offered her wrist, and Damon went for it, but she pulled it away.

"Me first," she said.

Damon obeyed her like an obedient puppy and opened his mouth for her. She leaned down to him and the stream of energy flowed from him to her. Bonnie held his face and Stefan wasn't sure if he should intervene or not when he saw his brother being drained of life, yet again. The only thing that stopped him was that it was obvious that the two of them had done it before and Damon was still alive. He watched, somewhat uncomfortably, when Bonnie finished and breathed heavily, panting and whimpering like she was having an orgasm.

"God, you taste good," she whispered to Damon, even though he was incapacitated and he probably didn't hear her.

She leaned down further to him, wiping hair away from her neck and offering herself to him. She pushed her neck into his mouth until one of his teeth punctured her skin. Blood dribbled out and a few drops got into his mouth. He groaned and pulled her closer and then latched on in earnest. Stefan wasn't sure if he should turn away or keep watching when Damon's hands grabbed onto her hips and he made sounds like he was feasting on the finest meal. It didn't help that Bonnie was encouraging him.

"Don't stop," she said. "Drink it all."

"Mmph," Damon responded. He did stop, though, and when his head fell back, he sighed. "Shit," he groaned.

"My thoughts exactly."

"Don't make me wait that long for your blood again," he said.

"Oh, you're giving the orders now?"

"Don't act like you weren't dying to feed from me again, too."

"Dying might be a bit of an exaggeration."

She started to get up, but Damon pulled her back down.

"Why do you always leave?" he asked. "You could stay, you know. Talk. Bicker. Whatever. We were friends before."

"Yeah, before."

"You think I was just sitting here with my thumbs up my ass, letting you rot all by yourself? I wasn't. I was looking for you."

"Right. I bet after you finished fucking Elena each night, you spent your entire day agonizing over little old me." Damon started to respond, but she held up her hand and his mouth closed. "Remember what I told you. Don't tell anybody about this. Now go to sleep."

And just like that, Damon's body fell into sleep. Stefan watched as Bonnie took Damon's unconscious head in her hands, mumbled something that Stefan wasn't able to hear, then kissed Damon's forehead and got up. She walked out of Stefan's line of vision, and then everything was silent. He waited for a few minutes before he came out, and he looked around to make sure that Bonnie was gone. He then hurried to Damon and shook his brother awake.

"Damon. Damon! Wake up!"

Damon opened his eyes, groggy and confused, like he had been asleep for hours, not minutes.

"What?"

"Bonnie was just here."

"What the hell are you talking about?" he asked, genuinely confused. "Bonnie wasn't here."

"Smell around you," Stefan said. "Smell and you'll know she was here."

"Get off me, you idiot. What is wrong with you?"

"Damon," he sighed. "Bonnie was here. She fed off of you, and you fed off of her, and apparently, this is what you've been doing for the past week. She's compelling you to not talk about it."

Damon narrowed his eyes, barely concealing his rage.

"Do you hear yourself right now? Bonnie can't compel me! She's not a vampire and she sure as hell isn't an Original!"

"She's taking on vampire traits because she's feeding from you and she's using it to control you. This has to stop. We need to turn her in to Gwen before she kills you or herself."

Damon pushed Stefan off his bed, then got up and pushed him again.

"Get. Out," he said angrily.

Stefan tightened his jaw and nodded. "Okay, fine. You won't believe me? I'll prove it to you. Then we're going to talk about this."

He slammed the door on his way out and headed straight for the living room. He dug out a video camera and smiled. He was going to prove it, all right.

...

Damon didn't know why he was so agitated. Ever since that conversation with Stefan about Bonnie compelling him, he had been on edge. He tried to remember what had happened before Stefan woke him up, but his mind was completely blank. The last thing he recalled was walking upstairs and shutting his door. He had smelled the room, just as Stefan suggested, and he gritted his teeth when he smelled Bonnie. Somewhere inside of him, he knew that she had been there. He knew he had seen her. But he couldn't remember it. And he couldn't form the words to say it.

He stubbornly avoided everyone for the next several days, mindlessly separating himself from the group every night as soon as the sun went down. And every morning, it was the same thing. He was alone in his bed, smelling of Bonnie, but unable to remember her.

At least, that was until one morning, he woke up with a video camera on his stomach and a sticky note that said "watch me." He had a feeling as to what was on the video, and his thoughts were confirmed when he pushed 'play.' His heart sank as the video camera, which had been set up on his desk without his noticing, showed Bonnie in his room, on top of him, sucking him of life. He watched her revive him by offering her blood, which he drank greedily. They talked a little, mostly bickered, and then she directed him on what to say. She compelled him to sleep, and when he woke up, his memories were gone.

There were seven days worth of encounters, and he clenched his jaw and threw the camera across the room. It shattered against his wall and he balled up his fists up in anger, although he didn't know exactly where the anger originated. He didn't know if he was mad because Bonnie had taken such control over him, or if he was disappointed with himself for being so weak. He was supposed to be helping her, and instead, he was only reinforcing her bad habits. He went downstairs to knock back some bourbon, but he stopped when he saw found Stefan, Caroline, Elena and Jeremy in the living room, talking in hushed tones. Gossiping about him, he knew.

"Hey," Stefan said as everyone fell quiet.

Damon kept his angry posture, but admitted quietly, "I saw the tape."

"We have to stop her, Damon."

"She's not hurting anyone," he defended. "She stopped killing other people."

"That doesn't erase the fact that she did it before. Gwendolyn will come after her and it's probably only a matter of time before she realizes that Bonnie's coming here every night, to see you."

The threat of Gwen killing Bonnie wasn't spoken, but it lingered in the air. Damon crossed his arms and smirked.

"And I suppose you geniuses have come up with a plan?" he asked sarcastically.

"She's taking on vampire traits," Jeremy spoke up. "Which means she's probably vulnerable to vampire weaknesses." Damon arched an irritated eyebrow. "Vervain."

"You want me to vervain her?"

"Just long enough to get her down," Caroline said.

"And then what?"

All eyes went to Stefan. "And then, we turn her into Gwendolyn."

"Hell no," Damon said, as he started to walk away. Stefan jumped in front of him.

"We have to."

"We don't have to do anything. We don't even know this chick! She might kill her anyway."

"She gave us her word that she wouldn't."

"And we're just supposed to trust her word? No way."

"Do you have a better idea?" Stefan asked.

Damon could feel everyone looking at him as the thoughts raced through his head.

"We'll take her downstairs and lock her up, just like we do everyone else who needs to detox."

"That may not work," Stefan said. "We don't know if this vervain thing will even affect her, and if it does, we don't know how long it'll last."

"That's the deal, or I don't do it," Damon said.

Stefan looked to everyone else, and all they nodded. "Okay, fine. We'll do it your way."

Damon's posture relaxed slightly. "Good. Now how exactly am I supposed to vervain her? She's faster and stronger than I am and she'll see it coming a mile away."

"You'll need to distract her."

"Distract her? How?"

Stefan was silent, and nobody would look at Damon in the eye, until Elena stood up and said, "can I talk to you alone?"

The others dispersed, leaving Damon and Elena in the living room.

"Bonnie has feelings for you," Elena said. "You should use that to your advantage. I think it's pretty obvious that you're the only one who can get close enough to her, so...you should do that."

"Do what?"

"Get close to her." She looked down at her feet and messed with her hands before adding, "physically."

He blinked several times, then asked, "are you suggesting that I sleep with Bonnie?"

"Yes." She swallowed and nodded, like she was trying to convince herself as much as him.

"I'm not doing that."

"How else are you going to get her to let her guard down long enough to vervain her?"

"I can't have sex with Bonnie, Elena."

"Why not? And don't stand here and say that you're not attracted to her," she scoffed. "I've seen the video, too. I see how cozy you guys are."

"She's not herself! She's so high on magic, she'd probably hit on Stefan!"

"But she never has!" she yelled back. "She hasn't ever come to Stefan or Alaric or even Jeremy, her boyfriend! She wants you, Damon. She's in love with you."

Heavy silence fell over them, and Damon was truly torn. The girl he had been loving and chasing for years was in front of him, telling him to have sex with her best friend to save her life.

"This is so fucked up," he said, scrubbing face with his hands.

"Yeah, it is, but Bonnie's my friend," Elena said quietly. "I know I don't always act like it, and I realize that I've done a lot of things to make her life pretty horrible. I want her to come back home, and I really think the only way that will happen is through you. So please. Do this for me."

Damon cracked a small smile and shook his head. "That's your problem, Elena. You still think this is about you." He sighed. "I'll do it. But not for you. For Bonnie."

She nodded and he saw her bottom lip tremble, but she left before she broke into tears. He stood there alone for a while, then opened the bourbon and drank straight from the bottle. Someone grasped his shoulder and he thought it was Stefan, but it was Jeremy whose face appeared in his line of vision.

"Here," he said, handing Damon a small syringe of vervain.

Damon accepted it, and the two men stared at each other in awkward silence.

"Can you just not be a dick to her for once?" Jeremy asked. "Don't hurt her."

Damon nodded but he didn't say anything and Jeremy left him to his drinking. He spent the rest of the day thinking about his predicament, and whether he could or should really use Bonnie's feelings for him against her. He was still undecided when he went up to his room for the night and placed the vervain in the top drawer of his nightstand, close enough to access from his bed. He was still thinking when he took a shower. He stood underneath the spray for nearly an hour, going over the implications of everything. On one hand, he knew that he would feel guilty taking advantage of Bonnie in her current state. But he also knew that he wanted to get his old Bonnie back. And that was more important than anything else.

He made up his mind to do whatever he had to do to help Bonnie, and when he got out of the shower, he dried off and pulled on some black pajama pants but didn't bother with a shirt. He rested on his bed, wondering if Bonnie would appear that night or not. He grabbed a book to take his mind off the waiting, but about an hour in, his eyes started getting heavy. He woke up some time later when the smell of Bonnie infiltrated his sleep, and he found her sitting in a chair across from his bed, watching him.

Upon seeing her, all the memories of their past trysts came flooding back. Every foggy thought of their time together came into full focus, and he knew that once she compelled him again, he'd forget it all.

"You're pretty when you sleep," she said quietly.

"How long have you been here?"

She shrugged with one shoulder. "A little while. Long enough to know that I'm not the only one who talks in my sleep."

He put his book on the nightstand and folded his hands on his stomach.

"Come here," he said.

He expected her to make some comment that he was not the one giving orders, but she didn't. She silently walked to the bed, then crawled on top of it. She didn't stop until she was hovering over him. He noticed the sad look in her eyes, and he wiped some hair away from her face.

"You're different tonight," he noted. "Subdued."

At first, she didn't say anything. Then she surprised him by resting her head on his chest and hugging his waist. He hesitated, then rubbed her back.

"Gwendolyn's coming for me," she confessed. "She's been sniffing around. I can feel her aura everywhere I go. She's playing with me. Making me paranoid."

"Then why stay here? You could go anywhere in the world and she wouldn't find you."

"Because."

"Because what?"

She didn't answer for a while. Then, she lifted her head and looked at him. "Because you're here."

Damon was speechless. Not only because of what she'd said, but because for the first time since her return from the prison world, he saw a glimpse of his Bonnie underneath the person in front of him. If he had any doubt that she was still in there somewhere, her statement proved that she was.

"But I'm leaving tonight," she continued. "I don't know where I'll go yet."

"Is Kai going with you?" He frowned when she nodded. "You can't trust him. He'll turn on you."

"Probably. But I'll turn on him first." He continued to frown. "There's nothing here for me, Damon. It's time to go."

"So this is goodbye," he said.

"I guess so. One last shot of your energy to tide me over. Are you up for that?"

"Do I have a choice?"

She half-smiled. "No."

"Then let's do this, Bon-Bon."

She inched her face closer to his and he voluntary opened his mouth. He felt that sensation of her taking his energy, but where it had once been unpleasant, he found himself kind of enjoying it. He kind of liked the sleepy feeling that overcame him as she drained him almost to the point of unconsciousness. She stopped short, though, and he was just cognizant enough to accept the tender flesh of her neck that she placed against his lips. He sank his teeth into her and groaned when her powerful blood rushed into his mouth. His hands gripped her hips and he held her against him until he couldn't drink anymore.

When he finished, he watched as the puncture wounds on her neck healed. He could tell from the way that Bonnie was slowly beginning to move that she was about to compel him and leave. A moment of panic gripped him when he thought about her leaving forever and he knew it was time to make his move.

So before she could get away from him, he planted a kiss on her neck where he had bitten her. She froze in place as he briefly worried that she would push him away, but she didn't. So he continued to kiss her, just little pecks at first. Her skin was soft and sweet, and he worked his lips from one side of her neck to the other. He sucked a chunk into his mouth and she made a little noise.

"Damon," she sighed as she pulled away and shook her head.

"Don't," he said. "Don't tell me to stop. I know you want this, and so do I."

"I'm leaving."

"I know that. So let me give you something to remember me by."

He could see the indecision on her face, so he slowly leaned up until their lips were almost touching. Their eyes locked and he waited for to give him permission. Her green eyes jumped all over his face, trying to determine if his advances were real or not. What she saw must have satisfied her, because she gave him the slightest nod and he was just about to kiss her when his door flung open.

Their heads snapped to the open door, where Gwendolyn walked in with her hand outstretched. Bonnie screamed an ear-splitting screech and Damon doubled over in pain as his brain was racked with continuous aneurysms. He could barely focus long enough to see Gwendolyn standing over him as one of the other witches swooped in and stabbed a needle into Bonnie's neck. She immediately went limp in the witch's arms.

"NO!" Damon screamed, even though it hurt to move or talk. "Leave her alone!"

"Thank you, Damon," Gwen said calmly, still looming over him. "For making Bonnie so easy to catch. Love is always a person's greatest downfall."

"Please..." He grabbed his head and tried to make the pain stop, but nothing helped. "Please..don't...hurt...her," he struggled to say.

"What we do to her remains to be seen," she said. "Good night."

And then she plunged a vervain needle in his neck and everything went black.