Chapter 5

When Bonnie woke up, the first thing she noticed was the scent of Old Spice. It was a scent that she had come to know very well after months of being with Damon in the prison world. She was in charge of laundry while they were there and she realized that no matter how many times she washed his clothes, the smell of his soap still infiltrated everything. After he and Kai were gone and she was left alone, she would sometimes bury her nose in his clothes just to feel like he was there with her again. It became a scent that she associated with happiness and hope.

With her eyes still closed and her mind groggy from sleep, she nuzzled closer to the source of the smell and her nose rubbed up against something that felt like skin. She frowned and slowly opened her eyes, only to find a sea of white staring back at her. Some white was from the pillow underneath half of her head, and the other portion was skin. Damon's skin. She sat up and looked at Damon, who was resting comfortably underneath her, reading a book.

"Oh, hey, look who decided to wake up," he said, not taking his eyes off his book.

Bonnie blinked a few times and tried to make sense of the situation. She had clearly been asleep on top of Damon and her body felt like it hadn't moved in while. She looked around to assess what was going on, and her memory slowly returned. She recalled having a nightmare and Damon bringing her to his bed. She remembered snuggling with him and falling asleep, and that was it.

"What time is it?" she asked in a deep, sleepy voice.

Damon reached for his phone on the nightstand and said casually, "one."

Bonnie's eyes widened. "PM?"

"Yep."

"Oh my God," she groaned. She ran a hand over her face and then crawled off of him and out of the bed. "I have class soon. I need to go," she said. She looked down at herself and saw that she was only wearing a big T-shirt. She whipped her head to Damon and asked, "where are my clothes?"

"You didn't look comfortable in those jeans," he said with a shrug. "So I changed you into something else. Don't worry. I didn't peek. Much." He smirked and wiggled his eyebrows.

"You are such a pervert," she said, looking around the room but not finding her clothes. "Seriously, I need to go."

"You already missed class, Bon-Bon," he said, returning his attention to his book.

"What? No I didn't. It starts at two."

"Yeah. On Friday. Today's Sunday."

Bonnie stopped what she was doing, right as she was lifting the bed skirt to see if her clothes were under there. Her eyes got impossibly bigger as she said, "Sunday? Like the day after Saturday?"

"Yep," he said, popping his 'p' obnoxiously.

"I've been asleep for three days?" she asked, her voice getting louder with each word.

"Yep."

"Oh my God!" she shouted. She alternated between frantically searching his room for her clothes and running her hands through her hair in an attempt to get herself together. "I have to get out of here. I have a test tomorrow and I haven't studied at all. Oh my God, I'm so screwed!"

"Forget the test," Damon said with a shrug. "I'll just compel your teacher into giving you an A."

"No, no compulsion." She groaned and spun around, throwing her hands in the air. "I can't believe you let me sleep that long! Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Gee, I don't know. Maybe because I just found out that you haven't been sleeping at all and I thought it would be nice and considerate of me to let you get as much rest as you could without nightmares or interruptions? My bad."

Bonnie sighed and dropped her hands. She scrubbed her face again and shook her head.

"I'm sorry," she said. "You're right. Thank you. I did need that rest. I'm just...stressed about this test tomorrow. I was supposed to study all weekend and now I'm going to be completely unprepared."

"You've got bigger things to worry about than a test," he said dryly.

"I know that, but studying and cramming for exams is part of what makes my life feel normal and not like I belong in some horror movie somewhere. I know it sounds stupid to you, but I need this. I want to have a life and a job whenever all this supernatural crap is over with, you know?"

Damon looked unimpressed, but he finally put his book down.

"Fine. I'll take you back to your place and you can study for a few hours, but then we're going to practice so you can learn to keep people out of your head. Deal?"

"Deal," she nodded.

"Good." He hopped off the bed and gestured to the bathroom. "I'll make you something to eat while you take a shower. Your clothes are in the top drawer. You're welcome."

Bonnie wasn't entirely sure what she was supposed to be thanking him for, until she opened the top drawer and found her clothes, washed and folded. She smiled and shook her head. "Oh, Damon," she said to herself. She laid the clothes on the bed and then helped herself to his shower, which felt like standing under several waterfalls. She reached for soap and only found his, but she didn't mind lathering up in that Old Spice smell that she loved so much.

When she stepped out and wrapped herself in a towel, she stood at his counter and checked herself out in the mirror. She couldn't believe she had slept so long, but she had to admit that she felt much better after so much rest. She looked better, too. Her eyes were brighter and her skin clearer. She dug out an extra toothbrush and brushed her teeth, and then got dressed. She instinctively reached for the phone that she kept in her pocket, only to find it empty. She frowned and looked around the room, and when she didn't find it, she padded down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Damon had made a pile of pancakes, of course.

"Hey have you seen my...?"

He held up the phone before she could finish the question.

"Caroline kept calling," he said as he sipped some coffee. "I didn't want her to wake you up so I confiscated the phone."

"Did you tell her where I was?"

"Oh yeah. I told her that you and I were in bed together all weekend." He grinned deviously and Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Did I lie?" he asked.

"Technically, no, but I'm sure if you said it like that, she got the wrong idea."

"Relax, Judgey, after she threatened to come here and 'pull my heart out of my ass,' her words not mine, I explained that it was totally innocent. I even sent her a video of you drooling and snoring so she could see exactly how unsexy the whole thing was."

"Wow, thanks, Damon. You know just what to say to a girl, don't you?"

"I try," he said with a wink.

She rolled her eyes again and took the phone to call Caroline back. Her friend answered on the third ring, and in her usual Caroline style, she skipped right over the formalities.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "Has Damon done something to you?"

"I'm fine, Care," Bonnie said with a light chuckle. "Believe it or not, I've been asleep all weekend and as far as I can tell, Damon was a gentleman." He wiggled his eyebrows and she decided to leave out the part about his undressing her.

"Hm, I guess. Are you coming back home today?"

"Yeah, I'm eating now and then we'll be on the way. I have that test tomorrow, remember? I'll probably have to pull an all-nighter just to get a halfway decent grade."

"Okay. Well, we'll talk when you get here."

After they hung up, Bonnie groaned. "Thanks, Damon," she said. "Now it sounds like I'm going to get a lecture from Caroline."

"Not my problem. Eat, so we can go."

Much to his surprise, she followed his directions. He smiled smugly as she wolfed down five pancakes and didn't complain about them once. They got into the Camaro and during the entire ride back to Whitmore, Bonnie was picking her nails, drumming her fingers on the door and biting her lip.

"Stop it," he said. "I can hear your worry all the way over here."

"I can't help it. I'm going to fail this test."

"If you go into it like that, you will. Haven't you ever heard of the power of positive thinking, Bennett?" She flipped him off and he smiled. "Just chill."

Of course, she didn't chill at all. She was anxious the whole way and once they were in her apartment, she booked it to her room and shut the door. Damon sighed and collapsed on the couch in the living room, where he watched TV for a few hours until Bonnie finally emerged from her room, looking defeated.

"How goes the studying?" he asked with a smirk.

"Terribly," she sighed. She picked up his legs that were spread on the couch, sat down, and put them on her lap. "I've been reading the same chapter over and over and I still have no idea what it says."

"That's because you need to learn how to relax, Bon-Bon. You're always so tense and worried about everything and everyone. Your mind is so cluttered, and that's why Lily can get into your head and why you can't concentrate."

Bonnie nodded slightly and arched an eyebrow at him. "I suppose you can help me learn to relax?"

"Duh. I used to be a meditation and yoga instructor."

"You?" she snorted. "Yeah, right."

"Why not? Having a bunch of hot sweaty chicks bent over and with their legs spread while I teach them to be more bendy?"

"And now I believe you."

He swung his legs off of her and cleared a space on the floor. He moved the coffee table to the side and held his hand out for Bonnie's phone. He called for some bacon and pineapple pizza, her favorite, and then sat down with his back to the couch and patted the space in between his legs.

"Come here," he said.

She looked wary but began to move. "What are you going to do?"

"I also used to be a massage therapist," he said, flexing his fingers for effect.

"Let me guess, for all the hot naked chicks?"

"Now you're catching on."

He patted the spot again and she tentatively sat down, but not before pointing an accusatory finger and at him and saying, "if you try to cop a feel, I'm making your brain explode."

"Don't flatter yourself, Bon-Bon. Your ass is nice but not that nice." He put his hands on her shoulders and said in her ear, "plus I already grabbed it a bunch while you were asleep, so I think I've had my fill." He laughed when she spun around and smacked his chest, but he made her turn back around and immediately cut off her attack when he massaged her shoulders. He could tell that the pressure was just right by the way she slumped into his hands like putty.

"Good?" he asked smugly.

"It's okay."

"Just try not to moan too much. It might make it awkward."

"Shut up and rub, Damon," she said.

Bonnie was surprised by how good he was at massage, but she supposed she shouldn't have been. As socially inept as he could be sometimes, he was always good at everything physical: hugging, cuddling, and, at least according to Elena, other things, too. She couldn't help the way her head drooped as his cool hands worked out the kinks in her neck and shoulders. And when he dug his thumbs into her back, she seriously contemplated writing him a 'thank you' note. She was on the verge of falling asleep when they heard keys in the door and Caroline walked in, pizza box in hand. The smile she was wearing slowly shrank as she looked at them.

"Hey," Caroline said slowly.

"Hey," Bonnie said with a sleepy smile. "I guess you caught the pizza guy?"

"Yeah, he was walking up here and I could smell the bacon and pineapples so I knew it was yours." She put the keys and pizza on the counter and gestured to them. "What's going on here?"

"Damon is helping me relax," Bonnie said she stood up. She groaned when she stretched and although her skin was little sore from his rubbing, it was the good kind of sore. "So I can learn how to keep Lily out of my mind."

"And generally because you need to pull that giant stick out of your ass and let loose sometimes," he chimed in. "If you keep worrying so much, you'll get a forehead as big as Stefan's."

"Hey," Caroline and Bonnie said at the same time.

Damon shrugged. "Bring me a piece of that pizza."

"Your mother taught you how to say 'please,' right?" Bonnie asked.

"You've met my mother."

"Good point."

Bonnie scooted into the kitchen and pulled out some paper plates. She put two slices on each and was about to walk out when Caroline got in her way, arms folded.

"What's up?"

"Are you okay?" Caroline asked lowly. "I mean, Damon didn't do anything to you, did he?"

"No. He actually helped me. That was probably the best sleep I've gotten in months."

Caroline frowned like she was unconvinced.

"Be careful with him," she warned.

"Care," Bonnie said with a soft smile, "Damon and I are friends now. We're good. I trust him. He's not going to do anything to hurt me. And if he does, you have my permission to pull his heart out of his ass."

Caroline's face morphed into a grin and they burst into laughter. Once she was at least temporarily sure that Damon was on the up-and-up, the three of them ate pizza and talked, which mostly included Caroline and Damon bickering and Bonnie playing peacekeeper, only then to bicker with Damon, too. They went their separate ways when Bonnie started yawning and Caroline excused herself to her room.

"Come on, Bennett, time for you to go to bed," Damon said.

"But I should at least try to study," she said weakly.

"You've been to class and paid attention. You'll be fine. Let's go."

"Let's?" she asked.

"I assumed I was spending the night, unless you want to have nightmares again."

She held out her hand to the bedroom and said "after you." She made a pit stop to the bathroom to brush her teeth. She had already changed into fresh pajamas earlier and when she went to her room, she found Damon nestled on top of her comforter, hands behind his head like he owned the place.

"I probably have some of Jeremy's old clothes around here if you want to put them on," she offered.

"No thanks. It's a man law that you can't sleep in another man's clothes."

She raised an eyebrow and folded her arms. "Oh yeah? Then how do you plan to sleep?"

"Well, I usually sleep in the buff."

"Try again."

"Boxers?"

"Nope."

"You're not leaving me with many options here, Bon-Bon. And you didn't seem to mind my state of undress when you were all over me this weekend."

"I was unconscious, remember?" she asked. She dug through a couple of drawers and said a triumphant 'ah ha!' when she pulled out some black pajama pants and a white T-shirt. She tossed them to him. "Those are yours. No man laws broken."

He narrowed his eyes at her but didn't accuse her of being a thief. He excused himself to the bathroom and he turned off the lights when he returned. He turned on the TV to the old movie station, of course, and lay on his back. Bonnie curled up to him on her side and wrapped her arm around his torso. She hesitated but then lay her leg across him, too.

"Is that okay?" she asked. "I'm more comfortable this way."

"Yeah, that's okay."

They rested in comfortable silence and a smile crept across Bonnie's lips. There was something so comforting about their embrace. She idly thought that it was no wonder that she had slept for three days, and then she popped her head up and looked at him.

"Hey, I meant to ask you something," she said.

"Mm hm?"

"Did you stay in the bed with me that whole time? All three days?"

"I got up a few times for blood bags and showers and stuff. But yeah, for the most part, I stayed there."

Bonnie looked at his blue eyes, which seemed to glow from the black and white lighting of the TV screen, and he frowned.

"What?" he asked.

"That was really sweet of you," she said. "You can actually be very sweet when you want to be."

His frown turned into a smirk. "Just don't tell anyone. It'll ruin my reputation."

She smiled and rested her head on his chest again. "Trust me, your secret is safe."

They returned their attention to the movie and once Damon slipped his fingers into her hair and rubbed her scalp, she was out like a light.

...

The next morning, Caroline woke up at her usual time and did her whole morning routine. She pulled out nearly everything in her closets and drawers before settling on a cute top and skirt for the day. She did her hair and makeup and walked into the living room, expecting to see Bonnie sipping some coffee or looking at her notes. But the living room was empty. Caroline checked her watch to make sure that it was, in fact, nearly nine o'clock. She thought that maybe Bonnie had already left to get to class early for her test, but a quick listen into the other bedroom confirmed that her roommate was still asleep. She knocked on the door and when Bonnie didn't answer, Caroline let herself in, mouth open and ready for a loud wake-up call.

But her words stopped in her throat when she took in the sight of Bonnie and Damon sleeping together. And not just in the same bed. Their bodies were so entangled that if it weren't for the stark difference in their skin colors, Caroline wouldn't have been able to tell where one stopped and the other started. For one, Bonnie was on top of Damon. Like, completely on top of him. Her head was buried in the crook of his neck, arms wrapped around his chest, one leg resting on top of his and the other hooked around his waist. Damon's hand was on her back, fingers just shy of touching her butt, and the other hand was in her hair.

Caroline knew that they had spent the weekend together but the image of it in person stopped her cold. She didn't know how to feel about it. And as much as she wanted to find out what was going on in Bonnie's head, she knew it wasn't the time.

"Bonnie," she said. She cleared her throat and said much louder, "Bonnie!"

Bonnie's head popped up and she looked around, confused. "What? What's happening?"

"You have a test in about five minutes," Caroline told her.

Once that information sank in, Bonnie's eyes widened. "Oh shit!"

She jumped up from the bed, waking Damon in the process, and as she ran to the bathroom and did the world's fastest tooth brushing and hair fixing, he groaned and squinted his eyes.

"What's going on?" he asked, still halfway asleep.

"Bonnie has a test and didn't set her alarm," Caroline told him. She folded her arms and glared at him. "Probably because she was too busy fooling around with you."

Her words were intended to annoy him or at least get a rise out of him, but they failed miserably. He made a 'hmph' sound and turned onto his stomach. He pulled the covers over his head and grumbled something about leaving him alone. Bonnie raced back into the room and threw on a hoodie on top of her pajamas.

"Oh my God, I'm so screwed!" she said.

"I'll run you there in time," Caroline offered.

"Oh, thank you, Care. You're a lifesaver."

"Shut the door on your wait out!" Damon said from underneath the covers.

Bonnie rolled her eyes but shut the door when they left. Once they were out in the hallway, she hopped onto Caroline's back and they sped to the back of the astronomy building.

"Thanks. I'll see you later," Bonnie said as she ran into her class.

Caroline sped to her own class, but it was hard for her to pay attention because her mind was preoccupied by Damon and Bonnie. She didn't want to jump to conclusions but she also wasn't blind. Her fingers itched to text Bonnie, but she didn't want to disturb her during the test. So after her class ended, she did text her and ask to meet for lunch, which Bonnie agreed to. They both had a class in between, but once that was finished, Caroline met her best friend at the student union. Bonnie was already at a table, eating a chicken sandwich and fries.

"How'd it go?" Caroline asked.

"Not as bad as I thought it would," Bonnie said with a happy smile. "I think I got a solid B."

"Good."

"Mm hm. So what have you been up to?"

Caroline tried to tell her about her weekend, she really did, but the questions just wouldn't go away until she got some things off her chest.

"What the hell is up with you and Damon?"

Bonnie looked surprised. "What do you mean?"

"I know we kinda talked about this last night, but what's up with you two being all close now? You spend all your time with him and it looks to me like maybe something is going on." Bonnie opened her mouth to speak but Caroline interrupted her. "And I'm not judging you, if that's what you think. I'm not. I'm confused."

"There's nothing going on, I promise. We're friends. I'm sure that's weird for you because you weren't really around when we came back and you haven't seen us together where we don't just fight constantly."

"Is that it? Because you spent the whole weekend sleeping with him in his bed. And then I walked in on you guys looking awfully cozy on the floor while we gave you a massage. And then, this morning! You should have seen how you two looked."

Bonnie shook her head. "I'm sure it looked some kind of way, but it's not. The sleeping together thing is only a temporary solution until I can figure out how to defend myself against Lily. That's all."

"Are you sure, Bonnie?" Caroline asked, her eyes wide with concern. "Because you know I've given this a lot of thought and I can already see how this going to go."

"I'm afraid to ask."

"I know you're going to call me a neurotic freak for saying this, but here goes. I think that you're not going to stop sleeping with him, even after you figure out how to protect yourself. It's been a long time since you had someone to snuggle with at night, and it probably feels good having Damon there. He's all possessive and protective and he smells good, and you're not going to want to let that go."

"Care..."

"You guys will keep it friendly for a while. Until one morning, you wake up and there's a boner sticking in your back. Or your stomach. Or wherever it's sticking depending on how you're sleeping. Anyway, you're gonna notice it and it's gonna feel good because it's been too long since you had sex. You'll briefly think about being friends with benefits with Damon but you won't do that because you're not that type of girl and he's still in love with Elena. So you'll find someone else to do it with and Damon will become crazy jealous. You two will fight about it and then you'll both realize that all this time you've been hanging out and cuddling each other at night, your feelings aren't just friendly. And then you'll start banging like bunnies."

"Caroline..." Bonnie said, trying to stop the train wreck but knowing it was unstoppable.

"And sometime during all this banging, you'll realize that you're in love with him or that you've always been in love with him and you want more. He might even realize that he loves you, too, but there's the problem of Elena because he's still in love with her. You'll try to get past it, but you won't. And then you'll pack up your stuff, move to some boring place filled with boring people, settle down with someone who's not as exciting or handsome as Damon, but he'll do because he treats you well and he's never met Elena. And even though you act like you're happy, you're still in love with Damon and your broken heart will never heal."

She finally took a breath, and Bonnie blinked at her several times and put her sandwich down.

"Wow."

"I'm sorry, I just had to say it."

Bonnie nodded slowly and was silent for a few minutes before she reached over and took Caroline's hands in hers.

"Care, I love you for worrying about me. I really do. It's nice to know that someone cares enough about me to create this insane scenario in the span of one morning." Caroline laughed in spite of herself and Bonnie did, too. "I promise you, Damon and I are only friends. He's helping me and I really do need him. All that stuff you just said, won't happen. I am fully aware that at the end of the day, he's always going to love Elena and I hope they end up having a happy life together. I don't feel that way about him, okay?"

Caroline nodded and squeezed Bonnie's hands. "But if that changes, you'll tell me, right?"

"I swear. If my feelings for Damon ever change to something more than friendship, you'll be the first to know."