AN: Hey everyone, this is the last chapter! I know this has been sort of a controversial series; a lot people seem to think Bonnie is being naïve, but I do want to point out that she doesn't know everything that we do. She doesn't know the real Katherine, and right now, she's trusting a woman she feels like she has something in common with; that combined with the guilt is making her vulnerable. Bonnie may be being manipulated, but she's not stupid, and she will find out soon enough.

I do want to thank everyone for giving this story a chance; it's a bit different from the others I've written. I actually noticed as this went on that it's giving real Cruel Intentions vibes! And I feel like the Kathryn in that movie is really playing out as Katherine in this story. So I snuck one of her lines in there if anyone noticed 😉

I'll be back soon with another song fic, and I have already started writing my first SPN story. I have decided to do sort of the same premise, using songs from the show that relate to one or either of the boys. Some will be brother bonding fics, Sam/characters & Dean/characters. (Original female characters too). So look out for 'The Winchester Journals' if you're a fan.

Vanessa

…

I Had to Know You – Part IX

We should leave our lovers so that we can choose each other

.

It had been a busy day. Bonnie had been held up in court all morning and then got caught in traffic on the way back and was finally able to sit down at her desk. She sifted through her mail pausing when she got to a thick manila envelope. There was something that stood out about it; maybe it was that it had nothing on it at all. Most mail that crossed her desk was addressed to her, with a return address and postage…this had nothing of the sort.

She was just about to rip the seal off when there was a knock on her door. "Bonnie?" her head shot up to see Anna, her new assistant standing in the doorway. "Sorry, I know you just got in but your 2 o'clock is ten minutes early."

Bonnie sighed but smiled through it. "It's okay, Anna. Send him in." She put the envelope to the side, and continued on with her day.

One Month Later:

He spotted her the moment he walked in the door of the hotel bar. Katherine Pierce wasn't hard to spot, she wanted to be seen; sat by the fireplace in a lounge chair, a red dress hugging her body, lipstick staining the rim of her martini, looking every bit like the painted whore she was. He knew she would be here; he'd learned her hunting grounds over the years. It was where she found him. Damon strode over confidently, settling into the lounge chair across from her with a relaxed smirk. "Fancy meeting you here." He sneered.

Her eyes took him in neutrally looking him up and down. "Finally come out of hiding? Need a job?" She barbed with an exaggerated pout. "Hey! I hear they need a new shoe shiner down at the courthouse." She snickered.

"Oh, you don't need to worry about me. I'm good." He told her evenly.

"Have you come to apologize? Slinking back with your tail between your legs?" she snarked, swirling the skewered olives in her martini before popping one in her mouth.

Damon just let it all roll off him unbothered. "Hardly." He scoffed.

Katherine smirked. "Or maybe…it's my legs you want to get between."

He chuckled cruelly. "Not even if you were the last woman in New York."

The smirk fell from her face, all civility leaving her tone. "So then why are you here?"

"I just figured we needed some closure." He responded elusively.

A brow arched high on her forehead. "I signed the divorce papers; what more do you want?"

He made himself comfortable, leaning back and crossing his ankle over his knee. "Answers. I think you owe me at least that."

She hummed a little laugh to herself. "Okay…I'll play." She crossed her legs, and took a sip of her martini. "What do you wanna know?"

His eyes steeled. "Why Bonnie?"

She rolled her eyes, with a shake of her head. "Still with Bonnie? That ship has sailed, Damon. She's moved on…and on, and on." Katherine finished with a giggle, watching Damon's face harden and his jaw tick when he realized the meaning behind her words. "I mean, you didn't expect a hot piece of ass like that to stay off the market long, did you?"

"Why her?" he demanded again.

"It was never about Bonnie. In fact, I quite like her…she shows promise. I've quite enjoyed tainting her white feathers." She mused fondly, before her eyes snapped to his darkly. "No, it was always about you. You were willing to give up everything we had for someone you barely knew." She shrugged casually. "I was jealous."

His lips twisted in a wry smirk. "So that's what this is about? Your wounded ego?"

"A little bit more than that, Damon." She responded grimly. "You have no idea the shit storm you sent my way when you backed out of our deal. I thought I deserved a little payback." She snickered nastily.

Damon kept his appearance calm, even while fuming on the inside. "What's your end game, Katherine?" She raised a curious brow. "All of this must be for something. Changing people's lives, moving them around like pieces on a chessboard. How do you win?"

She held his stare for a long time. "Sorry, I don't like to kiss and tell." The words slipped from her lips in a slow drawl.

"What part did I play? Hm, knight…rook?"

"More like pawn." She snapped back. "I needed insurance. Having the DA in your back pocket would have been the ace up my sleeve. But you had to go and have a conscious." She narrowed her eyes at him scornfully.

He hummed. "Insurance? For what?"

She completely ignored his question. "God, I love you in a suit. Makes my nether regions all dewy." She purred looking him over appreciatively.

Damon wasn't surprised by her deflection. She always used sex as a tool to get what she wanted, and it no longer worked on him. "Insurance for what, Katherine?"

"I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say." She retorted in her professional voice.

"That line won't work forever." He leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees. "What did you tell Bonnie about us?"

She shrugged. "The truth…or a version of it anyways. I may have embellished a thing or two. As far as she knows, you're just another lying, cheating scumbag that only cares about his own insatiable desires. And why wouldn't she believe it, you set yourself up for it perfectly. Now you've lost the one thing you thought you'd never have." Katherine took a sip of her drink, her eyes still on him as she smirked vindictively. "And now everything could go back to the way it was. We always did make a good team, you and I."

"Not a chance in hell." He asserted.

"Well, I've heard that before. Fight it all you want, Damon…but you and I both know where this story ends." She glanced around them. "I mean, here we are…full circle. Right back where we started." She smiled smugly.

He blinked at her. "You are completely delusional. Do you honestly think, that after everything you've done, I would have any interest in coming back to you?"

She laughed. "What else do you have?"

"Funny you should ask." Damon chuckled to himself, pulling out the folding envelope from the breast pocket of his suit. He dropped it on the table between them.

She eyed it speculatively. "And what the hell is that?"

"That's my insurance." He watched her pick it up, slowly opening it and reading the contents. He smirked when he saw her face pale and her jaw hardened as she forced herself not to show her anxiousness. "If you're wondering if I was smart enough to make copies…I did." He cracked a brazen grin. It was every thing he could pull together on her; pictures of her and the mayor in…compromising positions, along with some other notably powerful men and women. But more importantly, it was the documents enclosed with them.

She huffed petulantly tossing them back on the table in frustration, looking more inconvenienced than anything. "So what is this? Blackmail?"

"God, no…I don't want to get even with you Katherine. I want justice." He vowed coldly.

.

Three and Half Weeks Ago:

Her desk was a disaster. The cases had piled up, and with being in court the last few days she barely had time to organize. As she was restacking her case files, she saw the envelope from earlier that week hiding underneath. It made her pause. Curiosity got the best of her; the current task put on hold as she slowly took it out and turned it over in her hands.

She ripped open the top and pulled out the contents, a USB stick falling out the from the bottom. Her heart pounded in her chest when flipped through the folder of papers and the pictures enclosed in them. It was enough to make her sick to her stomach. She rolled the USB stick between her fingers wondering what the hell was going to be on here.

She pushed the button on her phone for her assistant. "Anna…hold all my calls for the day." And with trepidation, she plugged it into her laptop, making sure her door was locked before preparing herself for the worst.

.

Katherine was silent. "What's the matter, Kitty-Kat? Have I finally rendered you speechless?" Damon pushed on. "You thought that you could get away this, didn't you? And why wouldn't you think that? You did a good job at covering your tracks. It all makes sense now…how quickly you rose in the ranks, how you seemed to win every case that landed on your desk and all the perks and pleasures that came with it. I mean…I always had my suspicions but honestly, I didn't think you'd be so stupid." He chuckled. "Really Katherine…paying off judges, intimidating jurors? Tsk, tsk."

"So what?" Her lips curled up distastefully. "You have a couple photos and a weak statement from some nobody who might have seen something? Big deal…that evidence is circumstantial. It would never stand up in court." She argued back confidently.

"Probably…but your journal…well, that was the nail in the coffin." He saw her visibly swallow in nervousness. "All those nasty little secrets perfectly laid out in your own handwriting. Awfully careless of you if you ask me, but then again who am I to question the mind of an arrogant, selfish, narcissist." He jabbed disdainfully.

The night she had him over to her house to work on the campaign, he knew that if he was ever going to be released from her clutches, he needed something on her. He knew that house like the back of his hand, and when she got took an important call in her home office, he looked for anything that he could save for a rainy day.

"That's inadmissible." She snapped. "Stolen evidence can't be used in a court of law, Damon you know that." She was panicking; grasping at straws as she tried to keep the tremble out of her voice.

He shrugged. "It's not stealing if we were married when I acquired it." Her eyes widened. "And to be fair, I didn't steal, I just took some photos. They can get the hardcopy when they issue a search warrant. You didn't honestly think that in the years we were together I wouldn't have dug up a thing or two? I never trusted you, Katherine; and I wasn't about to let you ruin my life without taking you down with me. You made a big mistake when you pulled Bonnie into this." He nearly growled out, his eyes darkening. "I was willing to let it go; let bygones be bygones, but you pushed me too far. So, I sent everything to your new BFF and she's been spending the last month building an ironclad case against you." He responded victoriously.

"You're bluffing. No way she could pull that off without me knowing." her voice lowered to an almost whisper as reality set in.

"She's a good actress. It wasn't hard really. Once she found out the truth about you, she had no problem stabbing you in the back…least she could do was return the favor." Damon linked his hands together. "It helped having someone on the inside…to go through all the files you had buried, follow the money and find out who you paid off. When Klaus realized how serious these allegations were, he was very cooperative." He smirked.

"No…no, you can't do this." She whispered feeling like her world was collapsing around her.

"Well I can…and I did." He collected the envelope and tucked it back in his pocket as he stood. "By the way…Bonnie wasn't the only one that received copies of this. So did Mrs. Lockwood, the State bar and the NYPD." He grinned.

Katherine jumped to her feet, grabbing him desperately. "Damon, please…you don't want to do this. Please I'm begging you." She turned frightened eyes up to him, and it was the first time he'd ever seen her look scared. "You have no idea what it was like. Growing up the way I did; the pressure my father put on me to be perfect, to carry on his legacy. I tried to do it the right way, I tried to fill in his shoes but it was never enough. I was going to lose everything! I had to…" she tried to explain but it did nothing to sway him.

"For some reason…I just don't have it in me to care." He uttered back emotionlessly, removing himself from her grip. He walked away and she ran after him to the hotel lobby only to find two police officers blocking her.

Tears filled her eyes as they met Damon's in betrayal, and then sliding around to see Bonnie standing beside him her eyes as cold as ice.

"Katherine Pierce?" One of the officers unhooked his cuffs from his belt, coming around behind her. "You are under arrest for the bribery of a judicial officer, witness tampering, and corporate fraud. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. You have the right to an attorney; if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you." To her, the voice drowned out as she was cuffed and was led out to the street. People were everywhere, watching shamelessly, and a fat tear slid down her cheek.

When she was gone, both Damon and Bonnie were able to breathe a sigh of relief.

…

Later that night, Damon walked Bonnie back to her apartment building in silence. So much had happened in the last month that their sole focus was this case and it left them little to no time to discuss much else. Damon was happy to avoid the topic so long as he got to see her. She never brought it up, and he never pushed her to. Now that it was all over, the silence was deafening.

Bonnie turned to face him at her door. "Thank you. For everything…I guess I owe you a really big apology, don't I?" she joked weakly, her smile barely registering. Now that she had nothing to hide behind, she was nervous around him.

"No, you don't." He started. "I should have been honest with you from the start, Bonnie." He darted his eyes between hers. "I'm so sorry. For how I hurt you, for lying…for letting Katherine get between us. You deserved better than that, and I hope that one day you can forgive me." He expressed genuinely, his brows slanting empathetically.

"I do forgive you, Damon." She smiled at the breath of relief he let out. "And I'm sorry too. I should have let you explain, maybe things would have been different." Biting her lip contemplatively, she dropped her gaze to the floor so he couldn't see the tears in her eyes. "Look, I'm not going to lie to you…the last eight months have been really hard. I tried to forget about you…I tried to move on."

He winced, recalling Katherine's words earlier. "Bonnie…" he interjected, not sure if he could handle hearing the details.

She glanced back up meeting his stare with more bravery than she felt. "And the more I tried, the more it hurt because…" the tears at bay fell, and her words got caught in her throat. "You were my person…and I wasn't ready to let you go."

His heart broke as he stepped closer, running his hands up her arms to cradle her face, swiping away her tears with his thumbs. It was the first time he'd had her that close in months, and holding her felt like coming home. "Bonnie…I promise you, that I will never put you through anything like that again. You are the best thing that ever happened to me, and I know I screwed up, but please…give me a chance to make it up to you." He pleaded hopefully, brushing one of his hands affectionately through her hair.

She averted her eyes. "I can't…" Bonnie was so terrified of getting hurt again it was all she could do not to run away from him. She'd been through the worst of times in her relationship with Jeremy, and never in all those years did he hurt her as much as Damon had. Deep down she knew why.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me that you don't want this. Tell me that you don't feel anything for me…and I'll walk away right now." He forced out behind the lump in his throat. "But if there is one part of you that still cares about me, about us…" she turned her glassy green eyes up to him, so torn between her head and her heart. "Then I can't let you go. Because I'll be damned if I let the woman I love, slip through my hands twice."

She stood there stunned, blinking as she tried to process. "What did you just say?" she whispered.

He smiled adoringly. She was so beautiful; even with tears streaming down her face. "I love you, Bonnie, and I have been wanting to tell you that since to moment you first showed up on my door step."

Bonnie felt like her breath was stolen from her lungs. That seemed like ages ago now; before she gave herself to him, before she herself knew how deep her feelings were. "Damon…I love you too. But we can't just pick up where we left off…"

With a bow of his head, Damon took the blow. He knew it couldn't be that simple, not after the mess he made of things. "Okay…I understand." He rasped, stepping away from her.

But she stopped him. "We can't pick up where we left off because what we had isn't how a healthy relationship is supposed to be." She smiled sweetly. "So let's start at the beginning." She held out her hand. "I'm Bonnie."

He grinned brilliantly, taking her hand and bringing the back of her hand to his lips, his eyes never straying from hers. "Damon…pleasure." He hummed, recreating the moment they first met.

It made her blush, and a breathy laugh left her lips. "So…did you want to come in?" she asked nervously.

"Actually…I believe I owe you a first date." He stated with a crooked smile. He held out his arm for her, and she linked hers through it.

"Oh yeah? What did you have in mind?" Bonnie asked as they headed for the elevator.

He flashed his brows at her. "Pancakes?"

…

AN: FINALLY! This chapter took a lot out of me. I wrote and re-wrote parts of it, almost scrapped it completely, but I made it through. Thank you to those that left constructive criticism and those that were more critical than constructive. It fuels me either way.

Big thank you to my regular reviewers; - pixiegirl1976, SteVie'sGirL, IntrovertedxxMusings, and Oneandonly48 and on AO3 – Bre, Jerkchickenz, DayDreamer70, danceswithbutterflies, LoVeSpuffy, and Rix1998.

There is one person though that has been a true delight to hear from. Ningyo-kijo you have had my back throughout this whole crazy ass journey and you never doubted me or my process. Truly appreciate your support and I look forward to hearing from you with other stories! Thank you so much! - Vanessa