Chapter 13

I don't own tvd and tvd don't own me.

Damon saw the motion before he actually felt it.

Apparently, when Bonnie had snapped the fire back into life, didn't do so because she was cold. But to actually illuminate room enough for her to mentally separate her possessions from his.

He didn't know it then, but his wife was a really strong priestess. The moment her door was opened he was physically pushed through some time/space warp and ended up laying, (still naked mind you) on Ric's couch. All his clothes were here with him, and, he suspected so was his scent.

The last thing he remembered was the pretty smile on his wife's face before she disappeared into the walls of Ric's apartment.

"Wow" he breathed.

He didn't mind Elena finding out that he was married to her best friend, but time/space travel, yeah, he minded that.

"Uggh" He's probably going to be sick now.

"Wha! Oh! Ohmygosh! Damon! How did you get in here?"

Annnd now he just got caught laying naked on Ric's couch by Jo, his best friends fiancée. Bonnie's going to have a lot of making up to do.

A few seconds passed by and Rics alarmed footsteps could be heard dashing towards his weapons stash before turning and heading towards the living room area. Inwardly Damon rolled his eyes. Living life as a human had made his friend far less stealthy than he used to be.

Turning his head this way and that, Damon noticed his underwear lying at the edge of the couch and reached for them casually. Using his vamp speed, he tossed the throw cover beside him into the air and quickly clothed himself in those. He wished he'd had a tee shirt to put on to prevent Jo from oogling his gorgeousness, but hey, que sera right?

By the time Alaric had finally arrived Damon was back sitting on the couch in more presentable wear.

"Damon?" Ric sighed "What –no how are you in here right now?"

"What? You think those baby locks could keep me out. Pfft, Ric please, show some respect."

"Then why were you naked?" Jo huffed, composing herself now in front of her fiancé.

A muscle in Damon's brow twitched.

"First of all missy, what are you doing over here so late at night anyway hmm?"

"Excuse me?" Jo looked confused.

"Damon, what are you talking about she's my fiancée." Ric said, waving his hands in the air.

"Exactly, I thought I hadn't missed the wedding yet."

"What are you getting at?"

Damon hissed, crossing his arms and pinching the bridge of his nose. These two, for having been an immortal vampire hunting vampire and a former gemini, they were dense as rocks.

"You two," he said waving his outstretched first and second fingers between them "have not been married yet, so you" pointing towards Josette "should not be sleeping here young lady."

The couples' shoulders relaxed. They began to chuckle despite the dead serious look on Damon's face.

"Oh c'mon Damon," Alaric laughed "you can't be serious. Not with all the women you've bedded since you've been alive."

"Dead," Damon corrected.

"Whatever, you can't complain, I saw the way you drank yourself stupid when you came back and were prevented from shacking up with Elena because she took away her memories of you two."

A dark look passed over Damon's face. He was briefly tormented by the first few months of being back in the world of the living. Pained tightened his chest at he remembered life without his beloved wife.

Come to think of it, it was Bonnie who had exposed him to such high moral ideals. She had insisted they not live together during their time of courtship, and had only moved into the Salvatore mansion after they had said their 'I do's.

That reminded him, he was going to have to register their marriage soon, as well as compel Mina a birth certificate and other identification. He might also talk to Bonnie about the problem of his immortality and the impacts of his agelessness on their daughter's tender psyche.

He was torn from his musings by Ric's voice asking him something.

"…how you got here, so are you going to tell us?"

"It's a long story, let's just say I was having a really good night and it got interrupted. Now, as much as I'd like to sit and chat" he said getting up and gathering his things "I really need a shower."

With that he sped into the room he kept at Rics place, pulled out some clothes, darted into the bathroom and shut the door.

Outside, the two mortals passed a look between them. It wasn't much of an answer, but they knew from experience that Damon could be very secretive if he wanted to.

From across the room, Bonnie and Elena stared at each other. Both still on their cell phones, their eyes held for a moment. With all that had happened to Bonnie over the past seven years, and Elena over the past seven months, both of them had changed.

To Elena, it seemed almost overnight Bonnie had gone from her quiet, self-sacrificing best friend, to a calm, quiet woman of poise, with whom she held almost nothing in common. For Bonnie, Elena seemed all she had ever been, the self-serving best friend who, despite all the tragedies in her life, never once looked back to mourn any of those she'd lost.

Her parents, her birth mother, Jenna, even Bonnie herself, Elena had found a way to get over them all. Bonnie resented her for that. Over the seven years she spent away from all these people, she had loved, hated, mourned and forgiven all of them. She had made her peace. Living with Damon was enough, keeping Kai prisoner was enough, living alone and then with Mina, was enough. She'd had everything she ever wanted and then some in that prison world. She knew what absolute joy and bone crushing despair were. She could handle them, and she could handle Elena, who, despite seven months and two semesters to grow, was still a spoiled, obnoxious, self-centered, child.

Elena broke eye contact first, taking half a second to let her eyes flit about the room and her nostrils sniff the contents of the air, she realized that Damon indeed was not there. Bonnie watched as cheeks burned with embarrassment and her eyes lilted back up to face her.

Even stripped naked as Bonnie was, she was still glorious and defiant. She commanded the atmosphere in the room, and looked Elena in the eyes like she was dressed in the finest splendor.

"H-hey Bonnie…"

"Close the door Elena."

The other shook her head and swallowed. Closing the door she took a moment to run her hand though her hair, but stopped when she realized that she was still holding her cellphone. Mentally, she cursed herself for having run here so quickly, there was still blood from Sarah Salvatore all over her hands, and blood from her own wrist all over her mouth. The journey here hadn't been kind to her. Wild, wind whipped hair was strewn all over, and she looked every bit the wild, savage vampire others thought she wasn't.

"So…" she tried again, wanting to lighten the atmosphere, "how was your night?"

"Didn't you want to ask me about why I had Damon's phone?"

She tried to cover her flinch but Bonnie was well versed in the art of vampire expressions.

"I thought you two weren't together anymore. So why do you care how he spends his time?"

"I-I don't" Elena stammered, still shocked by her friends blunt questions and her still naked form. Bonnie had made no attempt at covering her amazing figure, and somehow, though the two had grown up together, it made Elena feel all kinds of embarrassed and intimidated.

"So, you wouldn't care if I said your ex-boyfriend was here making love to me tonight?"

Elena's eyes bulged and her heart dropped. She froze in her walk to the bed and suddenly her senses were on high alert. If Bonnie was playing her, she would detect it.

Without turning her head Elena listened to her friend's heartbeat and breathing, and her nostrils flared trying to detect the pheromones that would be released if she were trying to hide something. Despite her confidence in her abilities, she was completely undone, and her voice shook as she phrased her response.

"D-Damon was here, with you t-tonight?"

"Yes."

Bonnie's heartbeat was as steady as if she were reciting the alphabet.

"You were together after the rave?"

"Yes"

Still no falter. Now Elena raised her gaze and tried to pin her friend to the wall with it. Bonnie may be able to control her body, but she couldn't hide her expressions from her. She was surprised to see Bonnie staring back at her, looking regal as the firelight decorated her skin.

"You slept together?"

Now Elena held her breath.

"Yes."

Suddenly the world stopped turning on its axis. Her vision became heightened, she lunged at Bonnie.

Bonnie had predicted her friend's intentions. As Elena came zooming toward her, eyes turning black and veins writing beneath her skin, Bonnie sidestepped her, used her weight as a counter balance and knocked the vampiress off her feet.

Using her spiritual energy to speed up her own actions, Bonnie lurched her knee upwards into Elena's chest cavity causing her body to jolt upwards. Next she shielded her elbow with power and sent it smashing into Elena's spine, slamming her into the ground at her feet.

Knocked around better than she thought she would be, Elena took a second to resume her earlier pursuit. She rose to her feet in blind anger, intending to cause Bonnie bodily harm, but before she could carry out her actions, Bonnie reached into her personal space, placing her left hand at the back of Elena's head and her right on her chin. Before Elena could fully register what was happening, Bonnie flexed her arms and snapped her neck.