...

The bed was nice and cozy. Now that Elena had finally persuaded Damon to get some comfy and warm sheets to replace his satin ones she felt like she could basically live in that bed.

"We are not in a porn movie, Damon. Let us have boring sheets please. We will be the exciting part about this bed," she had argued, and he had smirked and said, "alright, you and I, we will make this bed smoke and burn, even in flannel, Elena Gilbert."

Now she was lying cuddled up in a cocoon of blankets right next to him, her head resting in the crook of his arm and his neck, when his phone suddenly made a beep and disrupted their postcoital bliss.

"Who is that?" Elena wanted to know, but Damon turned toward her and buried his head in her hair, grunting.

"Come on, Mr. Salvatore, you could at least check. Maybe it's something important."

"More important than breathing in your scent and chilling with you? I think not."

"Damon," she chided, but with a smile.

"Alright. Fine, just a quick glance. But only to prove to you that-" He had grabbed his phone off the nightstand and sat up so quickly that Elena almost forgot that he wasn't a vampire anymore.

"What?" She asked, lifting herself up on one arm, the blanket revealing her naked upper body. Damon looked over to hear, almost regretfully so.

"As much as I hate to say this, beautiful, but you'll have to cover up and get dressed now. Choose something… fancy."

She frowned at him as he gave her a last quick kiss and stroked her body longingly once more, before he himself went over to grab some clothes.

"Where are we going? Who was the message from?"

"There seems to be a bit of an… awkward situation with Bon Bon and, uh… the escargot in her French restaurant seem to be a little sub par and my boy Enzo is not amused?"

Elena didn't need to be a genius to see through his lame attempt at evading the truth. She would have been angry. But she knew why he did it.

"It's my dad, isn't it?"

Damon raised his expressive eyebrows, "I'm sorry, babe… Come on, we gotta get going. While I don't know your dad well yet, I know that Enzo won't just sit still and wait for very long and I promised Bonnie I'd help her keep him out of trouble."

"A hothead keeping another hothead out of trouble?" Elena rolled her eyes. Perfect. Like that was gonna end well.

And in the middle of those two, her dad - and Elena herself.

...

"Can we talk about this?"

Caroline looked at Matt and shook her head.

She was sitting with him and Tyler at the Mystic Grill and tried to drown her sorrows in alcohol. Tyler raised his glass to her and downed it. Sitting hunched over, he didn't exactly look too happy, either.

Matt was frustrated with his two friends, but he couldn't really blame them either.

For the longest time, he had held a grudge against any and all supernatural beings and he had hated that side of his friends.

Yet here he sat, and suddenly, after all these years, he felt sorry for them and yes, he missed the people they used to be. He actually kind of missed their supernatural side. If the price of their humanity was that they were miserable, then he didn't want it anymore.

Caroline stared at her empty glass, and hollered over to the bartender for a refill.

"Care, I think you had enough. Remember, you're-"

"Not a vampire anymore? Yeah, thanks, Captain Obvious, I know that. I'm sure you're really happy about that."

"No, actually. I'm not." He surprised himself by saying it out loud. "I… I'm really sorry, Care."

Before she could say anything, her phone started ringing. She tensed, but decided to answer anyway.

"This better be good," she challenged.

"Hello, Caroline," a handsome voice said, and it made her even angrier that she still had an instant reaction to it.

As if to thwart that reaction, she hissed, "Where were you when I needed you, huh? And why are you calling me now?"

...

It had taken all of Bonnie's persuasive powers to prevent Enzo from getting up and losing his cool. It had taken her everything, but she had done it. He had remained seated and had promised to wait and share another bottle of the good wine. And she had held his clenched fist in her hand, stroking it, reminding him that the past was over.

And then that… that man had had the audacity to just walk over to their table and sat down facing them.

"Bonnie." He smiled. "It's so good to see you here…"

There was a pointed silence as she was torn between acknowledging the past, where he had just been dear Mr. Gilbert to her, almost an ersatz father, and the present, where he was one of the monsters haunting her lover's nightmares.

Some wounds were so deep that even without a visible scar, their pain could be forever palpable.

Mr. Gilbert leaned forward, it could have been an innocent gesture, but to Enzo it was a threat and he leaned forward even more, almost getting in the other's face. "You need to back off. Now," he gritted out, protectively shielding Bonnie from the man.

She grabbed his arm, leaning in to whisper something. "It's okay, Enzo. He won't hurt me. Please. Please just don't do anything rash. Please…" her voice trailed off.

He didn't even look at her, though she knew it was simply because he couldn't bring himself to let the obvious threat of Mr. Gilbert's presence out of his sight.

Where was Damon? She needed him here. Stat. No way Enzo would sit there, passive, for much longer, with his tormentor taunting him like that.

Bonnie felt a prickle of powerful magic rise up inside of her. She only knew what it was because it was similar to what she had felt before the very first strange blast had erupted out of her. She knew she needed to get her feelings under control if she didn't want this to escalate horribly. Since she had no power yet to influence the outcome and didn't know how much it might weaken her, she needed to rein in her magic until she was more confident about it - or at least until it was inevitable to use it.

Damon, come on, she prayed.

Out loud, she said, "Mr. Gilbert. Please have the decency to leave. You are not welcome here. Leave. Please."

He looked honestly surprised and slouched back in his chair a little, not a defeated gesture, but rather cocky.

Bonnie wasn't sure whether it was actually the case or just because of her changed perspective on him, but he didn't look nowhere near as nice and friendly - and homely - as she remembered.

He gave her an unreadable look, did she see a bit of concern in it? Disappointment? Before she could decipher it, he had focused his gaze on Enzo again and grinned.

"It's quite fascinating that you have ended up here of all places. Actually, I'd have never thought you'd even still be alive this late in the game."

"That's what it is to you, isn't it? A game." Enzo quietly observed. A little too quietly for Bonnie's liking. It was like the calm before the storm.

Mr. Gilbert smirked.

"A game disguised by the higher motive of studying the intricacies of human and immortal life," the former vampire added.

"Enzo, Enzo… you have no idea how interesting and important you've just become to the cause. An immortal turned human-"

"Like your daughter?" Enzo taunted, and his opponent's expression darkened.

"Let me guess, she is in no danger of ending up on a hard cold metal table somewhere, chained up for your… studies, forever being torn apart. Did you know, though, that that's where I first met her?"

He felt Bonnie's hand on his arm. He had to focus on it, focus on her touch so that he wouldn't do anything stupid. He knew he wasn't up for a fair fight yet. He knew it. But his hackles were raised.

That man… he deserved to finally be punished, no matter who his daughter was or how nice he had been outside of his 'work environment.'

Mr. Gilbert gritted his teeth and lashed his arm out to grab Enzo's shirt, right where he had injured him just a short while back. Bonnie almost jumped out of her seat, but Enzo remained eerily calm.

"My daughter," Gilbert hissed, "is none of your concern."

"Take your hands off him, now." Bonnie had stood up and her hostile stare told Mr. Gilbert that this was not just sweet young Bonnie Bennett anymore. No, she looked powerful, tall and proud. Her flaring nostrils showed him that she was barely restraining a real anger, anger directed at him. It hurt him to see it.

It hurt him even more to see her with the test subject. He knew that if she stayed by his side, she'd end up in the crossfire.

He didn't know, however, how hard she currently tried to keep her magic in check...

Before the situation could escalate any further, Bonnie finally heard a familiar voice, and she felt herself relax the tiniest bit.

"Oh, look sweetheart! If that isn't your dad and…" Damon acted all surprised. "Bonenzo! Well, what a nice surprise: a gathering of friends and family…" He grinned his wide contagious grin and placed a hand on Mr. Grayson's arm.

He cocked his head a little. "Grayson - or should I call you papa? - please kindly remove your hand now?" It sounded a little like a question, but when Grayson looked up, he saw menace in the other man's eyes.

"I can fight my own fights, Damon," Enzo grumbled, but Damon only grinned at him.

"Can you?" He asked. "Because… it really didn't look like you were even trying."

"Damon."

The two former vampires exchanged a long glance, Grayson Gilbert still keeping his hand in place.

"Dad!" Elena, who had looked on in shock, seemed to wake up out of a stupor.

For the longest time she had tried to block out the fact that her father used to work for the Augustine Society. It had worked pretty well when he was dead… She had just had to tell herself that those were two different men and that he was already long done doing anything atrocious and that he had probably regretted it anyways.

But now? Even from afar, she had seen the satisfaction in his face when he got the smallest reaction out of Enzo. She had seen him deliberately try to hurt Bonnie's boyfriend. This time Elena couldn't explain it away as self-defense.

She felt like she was falling, like the bottom was torn out from under her feet, or rather, the foundation was torn out from under her entire life.

"Dad! Stop it! Let go of him, let go!" She was so distraught, she actually found herself slapping her dad, hard, on the cheek.

The world came to a halt then.

She saw her dad look up to her, surprised. That same handsome face that she had always seen when she had scraped her knee or when she and Bonnie had had a fight, or when Jeremy had stolen her stuffed toys. This was the man that she had mourned for when he had died in that car accident with her. This was the man that had always, always been there for her. A gentle man, never once angry or loud or upset. Always fair in any sibling fight. Always such a great dad.

She had thought his dark past was just that: past. She had worked so hard to forget about it and treat it like it never happened. Or like at least it was something her dad probably never really wanted to do and was somehow obligated to do because of some sick perverted sense of family.

But the man that had returned from the dead was not that man anymore. And what had seemed like a wonderful gift of fate, turned into a sour nightmare.

"Let. Go."

All eyes were on her. Her dad's. Damon's. Bonnie's. Even Enzo's.

Strangely, it was Enzo she found herself looking at. She remembered the moment they had first met. Chained up. She remembered him humming. Singing.

She remembered…

She sighed, she felt tears burn in her eyes. It was strange. For what felt like the first time, she could see his pain. She could really really see what he'd been through; and her own father had been part of it.

"It's alright, Elena," Enzo whispered and nodded his head a little. "None of this has anything to do with you." His lip curled into a half smile. A sad, understanding smile.

How did he even know what she had been thinking? And why was he the one to try and console her, while her father remained noticeably silent?

"He's right, babe," Damon muttered, gently tugging at her. Her body was like a tense rod. She started shaking.

Her father was a monster and she… she didn't know how she could live with that.

It took them a few more minutes to sort out their mess.

Damon managed to get Elena out. He gently put his hand around her waist and guided her away from her still silent father. "Go, Elena. I'll be right with you. Let me just take care of this real quick, okay?"

She glanced up into his beautiful face, grateful that he took care of her mess. He gave her a small kiss on the cheek, just a graze of lips against her skin, then let her find her way out past the other, oblivious guests. She walked in a trance.

...

"Bon Bon? Will you and Mr. Englishman over here be alright now?" Damon asked and was glad to see her nod. Thankfully, there was no need any more to talk Enzo down from anything. Whatever he and Elena had seen in each other's eyes had taken care of that for the time being. Damon sighed then nodded to Bonnie before returning his attention to Elena's father.

"Alright, Grayson," he chirped, "Let's get you outta here." He gripped the other man hard. He was not superhumanly strong anymore, and he depended on Grayson not putting up a fight, so he breathed out a small breath of relief when the other man shrugged him off, but at least finally let go of Enzo and started walking past them all.

"Let's do this again, sometime, Mr. St. John," Gilbert said smugly, still walking, then he shot a glare at Damon.

"Damon."

They all followed him with their eyes for a minute before Damon waved to Bonnie and Enzo and followed the other man.

"I better make sure he doesn't catch up with Elena. She can be a bit… intense in certain situations, as we all know, and I dare say this may very well be such a moment," he said and grinned again. "Oh, and you two love birds, drink another bottle of red on me, will ya?"

With that he was gone and Bonnie and Enzo were finally alone again.

Thank you again for the reviews! So very much appreciated! Shadowdancer: I love your thoughtful feedback so much. The same thing has always bothered me about Elena - or rather, the shows handling of that whole storyline. Which is why I'll be tackling it. (And I also rather like Delena and was a little sad as to how lame their last scenes were together...)