The CW owns The Vampire Diaries. I, regrettably, do not.
Chapter 2
For Vee
She woke up.
Some mornings it was harder to do than others, and today was only moderately difficult. She stretched in her bed, their bed. The one that she shared with her husband.
She knew that something was off before she hit it. Something in her wide awake brain was telling her that the world they had made for themselves was about to come to a grinding halt.
Bonnie should have known by the way the sunlight poured into their window. It was too bright, it was too warm.
She should have known because of the fact that she woke up with an immediate return to consciousness; rather than the slow, groggy refocusing that she was usually met with.
Lying on her back, twisted up in the sheets that entangled her, Bonnie stretched. She arched her back high off the bed, reaching her hands above her head and pointing her toes as far as she could get them. Holding the pose, she relished the feeling of the start of a new day, the promise it held.
Bringing her hands out to circle her frame as she dragged her relaxing fists on the sheets around her, Bonnie stopped when she felt her right fist knock into something cool and smooth.
It was her husband.
Except for the morning after their wedding, Bonnie had never woken up with Damon by her side.
She should've been more alarmed at the sight of her male companion beside her, but she wasn't. Instead she felt an odd sense of calm.
It had been four years sense they landed on this empty planet, and after the first two years of bitterness and strife, they had somehow begun to take comfort in the presence of the other half of their small population.
She had always known he was handsome, it was clearly evident to as much of the female population he had met over the past one hundred plus years. But it wasn't until they had passed the two year mark of their time in the pre Spice Girls Era world, when the reality of their circumstances really hit her.
Standing in the kitchen of the Salvatore Boarding House, Bonnie felt herself unravel. Never again would she see the sweet, smiling faces of her best friends, never again would she hold her lover Jeremy in her arms.
The boy, the people she loved so much, the people she sacrificed herself for, she would never…
Breaking to her knees, she found herself crying. Even in all this time, she had held out hope for so long and she wouldn't let herself cry. But now the barrier was down and the emotions that lay dammed up behind her walls of hope came crashing down.
From far away she could hear herself wailing, doubled over in pain; there was no remedy for this kind of heartbreak. Somewhere in the back of her mind she felt she might die here, alone accept for the vampire she came with. She realized now that she would age, get old, and die here while he would stay the same, and she hated him for it. Even though he fed exclusively from the blood bank supply at the local hospital, even though he never let her see him do it, even though he kept himself so chocked full of blood that she never saw his need to consume blood from the source, she hated him.
Hated him for loving one best friend and using the other. Hated him for all the chances that he had to be forgiven, for all the people in his life that loved him through all his awful deeds.
She hated him for being here with her.
For using her moment of weakness to take hold of her hand, for taking so long to find his body, for not going through her while she held open the gates between life and death. Hated him for being the reason for every bad thing that's ever happened to her.
In all this time Damon Salvatore had never apologized for anything, not even once. Instead he bickered with her, argued and teased, called her names and never said 'please'.
He was awful.
And he never even noticed her.
That was something she had thought she buried in the seven years since she'd known him, but presently it swam up to the surface to be counted amongst the rest of his sins.
He had chosen Caroline to feed from, then Elena to replace Kathrine as the love of his life. It wasn't that she wanted his affection, but he never even looked at her. She would at least like to be counted amongst the possibilities for his interest, at least like to be categorized as desirable.
Not even Stefan wanted her.
Only Jeremy, and a few witches here and there had ever commented on her appearance, and now they were gone and the one person who had treated her as though she were invisible was stuck with her for the rest of her life.
Yes, she could honestly point to him and say, he is the reason for all things wrong in the world.
The pain in her lungs from her ragged breaths was making her cough. Rocking forward on her knees she expelled the air from her chest so forcefully that she began to retch.
Leaning over her hands that were covered in whatever vomit her stomach could provide, Bonnie knelt; a crying, dry heaving, shaking, sputtering mess. She knew she was dying again, and the thought brought her peace.
The thought of what might beyond the world her grandmother had promised she would find peace in as she slipped slowly into unconsciousness.
She almost chuckled at the thought that she had indeed found some kind of peace in this world where she could finally confront all the things she was bitter about. She was almost glad she hadn't gotten her magic back. It was magic that started all this mess. Sure, she felt whole with her magic, and without it she could tell that there was more than a little missing, but it was magic that prolonged Damon Salvatore's wretched life, and for that alone she believed she could live or rather die, without it.
Just as the world around her was fading away, she felt two strong arms wrap about her middle.
It was Damon. The man who had never chosen her, who had no choice but to save her if he didn't want to be left utterly alone in this world, wrapped his arms around her and drew her to his chest.
He had heard her crying and gone out into the yard to give the young woman some much needed privacy.
He would admit it, she was interesting, and maybe he did tease her a little much, but hey, it was worth it. Better than having the two of them moping around all day.
But something in the way she sobbed brought him vamp speeding back to the Boarding house. He had lived almost two hundred years on earth, seen things, felt things, experienced things that normal people weren't supposed to, weren't allowed to feel. And when he heard the broken hearted wailing that was coming from Miss Bonnie Bennett, he knew what it meant.
She had given up.
He should've seen it coming, should have known that with all her griping, Bonnie was still very human, and mortals had a way of creeping up on you in the worst possible way.
He couldn't lose her. Because if they ever made it back, Elena would have his head. Their little gang, he could see the way they would look at him, Caroline would be hurt, eyes tearing up, hand flying to cover her little mouth as it formed an "o" shape. Stefan would fold his arms, only to drop them again and press his hands into the pockets of his jeans, looking at his shoes as he stifled his sadness. Alaric, Little Gilbert, everyone would hate him if he let her slip away.
And naturally, in typical Damon fashion, he would shrug his shoulders and smirk, lifting his hands up in his characteristic "whatever" motion. He would put on a show, tell them all he was "sorry the little witch offed herself when he wasn't looking. He might feign remorse, swaggering as he cradled a bottle to his chest, and calling out loudly that it "wasn't his fault".
Everyone would call him heartless, say he was a monster, but no one would ever see the little hairband tied around his wrist, the one that he stole from Bonnie months ago. No one would ever see the little green head band that he kept close to him, they wouldn't know that they reminded him of her, of the way she laughed and the way she smelled.
So he held her, and hid didn't let go.
He didn't let go, because somewhere in his heart of hearts, he knew, that this was love and wouldn't ever let go.
That was the first time he kissed her.
After that, they didn't need words anymore.