Okay! So, this is a very short add-on to the previous chapter, but because a couple of people actually liked the story, I decided to share this part, too. I've not had time to write more than this with the semester starting, but I hope to soon. I've been jotting down ideas of where this is going to go and I hope that it will actually be something worth publishing on Amazon. As always, I love hearing from you guys! Reviews are so appreciated.

The feeling that coursed through Elena in that moment was indescribable. Joy and hope and a million other emotions spread from her chest to the tips of her fingers. She was sure that her heart would burst at any moment. With her heartbeat pounding in her ears, she began to dig frantically with one hand, keeping her other safely secured in Damon's. She was terrified that if she let go for even a second, she'd lose him again.

Oh, no. She thought with a horrible revelation, fresh tears streaming down her face. We left him here. All alone. He was still alive and we left him. I left him.

The weight of guilt threatened to crush her, but she pushed back. No. She wasn't going to let anything stop her from doing what she needed to do. Instead, she used it to motivate her, to make her stronger. With each swipe of her hand, she could feel another part of Damon beneath the dust and her mind was flashing with images of the things her fingers touched: his leather jacket, the black t-shirt and the barbed branch that still pierced it, his neck, his face.

Oh, God. Was this real? Was she really touching his face, again?

Seconds seemed like hours and, then, finally, she could see him. His eyes were still closed and there was congealed blood—her blood—sticky and coated in ash, trailing down his face and neck. His black hair was dusted in white and his already-porcelain skin was lighter, almost like he was molded from the very powder that had housed him. But he was here. He was really here, intact. Not rotting, like some dark part of her mind had feared, but here in all his beautiful glory.

She held his face in her hands, running her fingers along the sharp slant of his cheekbones, across his lips. She never thought she'd see him again, let alone touch him. She only wished that she could see the ebony velvet of his eyes and the flash of white as he grinned.

She leaned down and laid her cheek against his.

Oh, Damon. I can't hear you anymore. She realized suddenly. The Guardians took my Power, but if you can hear me, I'm here. I'm so sorry that I left you. I'm so sorry. I—

There was a loud boom, the noise echoing all around her as if she were inside a large drum being repeatedly hit.

Panic flooded through her. No, she wasn't ready to go, yet, and, somehow, she knew that's what was happening.

She tightened her grip on Damon's hand, lacing her fingers through his and felt the slight pressure of a response. She couldn't leave him again. She had to stay. She still had to figure out how to get him free from the branch that imprisoned him. She had to save him if that was a possibility at all.

The sound grew louder, ringing in her ears, and even as she tried to lean into Damon, twisting her hands in his leather jacket, she could feel her grip in this place beginning to falter.

No! She cried to whoever was listening. Please! I'm not ready, yet!

But the world around her continued to disintegrate despite her pleas.

I'll come back for you, Damon. She thought as loudly as she could, praying he would hear her. I swear it.

She squeezed her eyes shut, feeling another sob building somewhere deep in her chest. She couldn't watch. She couldn't bear to see him disappear yet again. So, instead, she tried to do nothing but feel him there with her, to store away the feeling of his hand in hers, and in the next instant, she was back in her room, falling to the floor.

Bonnie McCullough pulled back the blue-flowered curtains framing her window, checking out front for the fifth time in the last ten minutes. Elena had called early that morning and asked if she and Stefan could come over. She'd sounded exhausted with an odd tone in her voice that immediately made Bonnie feel apprehensive, yet hopeful. She couldn't put her finger on why that was, but she had a thought—a hope—of what it might be about. Most of the time she'd had those particularly nagging feelings, they turned out to be much more than just feelings.

That's because Bonnie was a psychic. It wasn't something she particularly wanted to be, but you can't choose your heritage and hers happened to come from a long line of Druid priestesses. Whether she liked it or not, she was what she was and, to be honest, she couldn't deny that her visions and intuition had become pretty useful in the many calamitous situations she and her friends had been thrown into over the last year.

But it wasn't enough, was it? A thought loomed in her mind.

Bonnie bit her bottom lip to keep it from quivering, her brown eyes instantly filling with tears.

No, it hadn't been enough, not to save them all. Even though the number of people saved greatly outnumbered their one casualty, the weight of that loss was still prominent in their lives. Bonnie used to have the misguided belief that death was somehow romantic. Now, she knew it was anything but.

Stefan had lost a brother, Elena had lost a love, and Bonnie had lost something else entirely. She didn't really have a name for what Damon had represented in her life. He'd been more than a friend and, in a lot of ways, even more than a crush. He'd saved her, cared for her, and she knew that he'd felt for her, too.

Bonnie wasn't a fool; she knew that Damon had loved Elena in a way that he could have never really loved her. It was evident when he'd turned his black eyes to Elena's rose blossom skin and gold-flecked blue eyes. Even when his features were arranged in a mask of indifference, as they so often were, Bonnie could see something in his eyes that softened at the sight of her. She'd warmed his icy heart, somehow; maybe she'd reached the piece of him that was still human after all this time, if there was such a part tucked behind his many walls. Sometimes, when he was angry and fueled by the massive amount of Power contained in his lean body, his face would transform into a sneer that could chill you to the bone. In those moments, he would suddenly become more beast than human; he was certainly as deadly as any she'd encountered. Still, Elena had brought out the good in him when everyone else had believed he was unredeemable.

This was something Bonnie was used to. Elena had always been Queen Bee. Ever since they were children, Elena had been able to attract the focus of not only boys, but of friends and followers scrambling to be warmed by the golden light that seemed to emanate from somewhere deep inside her. She was vain sometimes, sure, but she was a good person. She wasn't afraid to protect others, even if it came at great personal cost. She was strong and loyal. She was righteous. She helped the people others overlooked. People like Damon.

But even though Bonnie knew all that and she knew that Damon's love for her, his little redbird, had paled in comparison to the passion he felt for Elena, it was still there. He'd felt for her, enough to save her from Shinichi when he'd almost killed her, enough to give his life to save her when she'd foolishly leapt for the Star Ball that was nestled inside the Great Tree that had acted as its guardian.

She'd loved him, too. Yes, she felt she could say with certainty that it was love she felt. Maybe not in the conventional way, but that didn't mean it was any less real. She'd loved him, even when he was the beast, even when he had terrified her, which was quite a lot, actually.

And, now, he was gone. But if her intuition was right… well, she didn't know, exactly. But there was a feeling building in her chest that was becoming impossible to ignore.

"Bonnie."

Thank you for reading! Please review! :D

-Krista