disclaimer: I do not own these characters. They belong to the CW and are based upon characters created by L.J. Smith and the film was written by J.S. Cardone.

Chapter Four

Tyler was fidgety and that was never a good sign. Reid had known the youngest Son long enough to pick up on when his best friend was about to go off the deep end. The signs were all there: bouncing his knee, staring off into space. He was also running his hands through his hair every chance he got.

Reid couldn't blame him though.

It was the day of Shelia's funeral and the only one of them in attendance was Caleb. Caleb was currently ignoring all of their texts and calls. He even ignored Sarah's and the two youngest Sons who had been on the receiving end of her checking upon them. Pogue was busying himself at the garage and Kate.

But they were all feeling the same things: anger, worry, and dread. They had never been apart from each other before, not like this anyway. The last time they were apart was because of Chase Collins. Reid was happy that bastard was rotting six feet under. His blood still boiled at the thought of him, and his magic flared.

If that son of a bitch ever found out about his Bonnibee, Reid was prepared to welcome an early death.

He had to stop. Tyler was the one who needed comfort, and he was going to end up blowing something up if he wasn't careful. Reid took a deep breath, counted backward from ten, and exhaled. Rising from the chair he was been sitting in, the blonde moved across the apartment and plopped down next to his best friend. They said nothing as Reid hugged him close.

They had to be strong for Bonnie. They had to be strong for themselves, even if it hurt like hell. They were far away from family and that was one of the most important things to them as a coven.

"She's gonna be okay," he muttered, to himself or to Tyler he wasn't sure. He kept repeating that as Tyler finally broke down and started crying.

She was going to be okay.

She had to be.

Damon Salvatore stared at the two newcomers standing in the front row with Bonnie and her father. He definitely had to give it to Rudy Hopkins for playing a grieving son-in-law. He knew the whispers about how he had been trying to distance himself from Mystic Falls and his estranged daughter. But he wasn't interested in that bit of gossip right now.

He was curious about the guy who was holding Bonnie's hand. He looked like a teenage heartthrob, dark hair, soulful brown eyes. Damon wouldn't be surprised if Bonnie fell for the guy. While Damon didn't swing for the other team, he couldn't deny the guy was a looker. He could also wear a suit because it looked good on him. The vampire looked to his left, finding Caroline and Liz beside him, and leaned down to whisper in Caroline's ear.

"A question for you, blondie,"

"What the hell do you want, Damon?" she hissed.

"Touchy," he teased, "who is the YA Romance Protagonist Cut-Out?"

Blue eyes peered up at him, and Caroline looked ready to shred his balls. "Who the hell are you talking about?"

Damon inclined his head towards the front row. "Do you know who the guy locking pinkies with Bonnie is, or not?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"Because you're besties," he singsonged into her ear.

Caroline stepped on his foot. "I don't know who he is. Now go away," she dismissed him and turned her gaze on the priest as he continued his sermon. Damon pouted and turned his attention back to his newest inquiry.

The funeral continued on, and Damon took his chance at the repast. The Lockwoods were hosting it as a show of hospitality. Waltzing into the foyer, he set his eyes on Bonnie. The little witch was nestled between the mystery woman and her father. Her knight in a suit was off somewhere.

"My condolences," he offered to them. "Shelia will be missed."

Rudy nodded his head. The sooner this was over, the sooner he could get back to his next business trip. The woman beside him wore a look of taking no-nonsense. She was not buying his bullshit.

"How exactly did you know Shelia?" she asked.

"She was an old acquaintance," Damon said, lying through his teeth. His eyes glanced at Bonnie and found the little witch was not in the mood to correct him.

That was no fun.

"Funny," the woman said with a tilt of her head. "Shelia has told me plenty about the people of this town and not once did she mention someone matching your description."

Damon was about to say something when he caught the tail end of Hurricane Caroline. The blonde shoved him to the side, surprisingly strong for a human, and threw caution to the wind. She embraced Bonnie tightly, apologizing for not being able to be there to comfort her. Apparently, Liz hadn't wanted anyone outside of Rudy or close family near the house until the funeral.

So how had the other two got in? Were they family he didn't know about? He knew they weren't Bennetts.

At least he hoped they weren't. He wasn't in the mood to handle any other Bennetts aside from Bonnie. Sabrina the Teenage Witch was enough.

"Care," Bonnie breathed and clung to the blonde. "It's alright, you aren't in trouble."

"I failed as a best friend," the blonde murmured into her shoulder. "You've been in so much pain and I wasn't there."

Bonnie glanced up at the woman as if asking permission to handle this. The woman offered her a small smile and a nod. "Go on sweetheart. Your father and I will handle everything here,"

"Thank you, Aunt Evelyn," Bonnie said and started leading Caroline off somewhere into the manor.

"I'll send Caleb for you!" Evelyn called out and the teenager witch's heart skipped. Damon arched an eyebrow. Now that was interesting. He dismissed himself, once again offering his sympathies, and went in search of Stefan. They had some sleuthing to do.

Bonnie led Caroline towards the parlor room. Tyler opened the door upon noticing them and shut it behind them. Elena, Jeremy, and Matt were already there, though Bonnie did glance around for any sign of Stefan. She wasn't in the mood for any vampires and Damon had already wasted enough of her precious time and energy.

Matt jumped up and pulled Bonnie from Caroline and into his chest. The witch wrapped her arms around him and sobbed. It wasn't the first time she had cried since her grandmother's death, and it probably wouldn't be the last. She had cried herself to sleep the night before and even when she had dressed for the funeral.

She had expected her aunt Evelyn to reprimand her for her tears. But the older witch had walked up to her and kissed her forehead and held her as she cried into her shoulder. Caleb had held her hand the entire time. He had only let go once his phone started going off.

She knew it wasn't the Sons. They had been buzzing her phone all morning, she had even gotten a voicemail from Reid; neither of them would ever bring up his voice choked with emotion as he told her he was always gonna be there for her and even that he loved her like a sister.

Bonnie tightened her hold of Matt and for just a moment wished it was Reid. She whispered it was him so she would whisper how she missed him, missed Pogue and Baby Boy.

Her heart ached for them.

"Bon," Matt winched, she was pressed against his ribs. She moved away from the quarterback and offered him a watery smile.

"I'm sorry," she apologized.

"You don't have to apologize," Tyler answered for him. He held up his father's flask for the witch to take. If his father was going to raise hell, Tyler was prepared for those blows. But right now, he needed to be some kind of support for Bonnie.

Her fingers curled around the flask, and she raised it to her lips. It wasn't the first time she had tasted whiskey. Reid snuck her some when they were younger. He had also held her hair back when she puked on the ground. After a few gulps, she handed it back to Tyler. He raised it in mock cheers and took a swig before handed it out for anyone to take.

Jeremy reached for it, but it was Caroline to swiped it. The youngest of them glared at her back. "You just got clean Gilbert; we don't need you relapsing."

They all went silent for a moment. Vicky leaving town had been hard on Matt, Jeremy, and Tyler. Caroline sipped the flask and then handed it to Elena.

The brunette coughed; it had been a while since she had had whiskey. She handed it to Matt, who declined. Tyler reached for the flask and took another swig. The group settled into some spots, Caroline and Bonnie nestled together with Matt sitting on the arm of the couch while Jeremy sat as a buffer between the two girls and Elena. Tyler sat off in the chair adjacent to the couch.

After a few moments of silence, Tyler spoke. "So Bennett, who's the guy you were holding hands with?"

Matt and Caroline each rolled their eyes. Suitability was not Tyler's strong suit.

Bonnie leaned her head on Caroline's shoulder. "That's just a friend of the family's,"

"He's definitely older," Jeremy murmured.

"Wait, is he a part of that family you and Ms. Shelia always went to see every summer?" Caroline asked, running her fingers through Bonnie's hair.

"The Danvers," Bonnie answered.

"He's got to be in college," Elena observed.

"He is," Bonnie answered, though her stomach twisted at the idea of Elena taking an interest in Caleb. The thought of Caleb joining the Elena Fan Club made her magic flare and her insecurities as well. Elena was pretty enough, and she wouldn't put it past Caleb to see her as something other than a sister.

"He seemed pretty touchy with you," Tyler grinned, a wolfish look in his eyes. "Fess up Bennett, you guys hooked up over the summer, didn't you?"

Bonnie scoffed. "Why is your mind always on sex, Lockwood?"

"Because it is," he said in a matter-of-fact tone. The others snorted at that. Trust Tyler to think with his dick and not his actual brain. "Plus he kept looking at you like he wanted to whisk you away from everything."

"Caleb doesn't like me that way," Bonnie grumbled. She held out her hand for the flask and Tyler tossed it. She caught it with ease, unscrewed it, and took a long gulp. She could never forget how he had rejected her. "I'm like a sister to him."

"Ouch," Tyler placed a hand on his chest, close to his heart. "My sympathizes, Bennett. You can have the flask."

"But—" she protested.

He waved her off. "My dad will have to understand, you don't drink, and he knows how much Ms. Shelia meant to you. He actually does have a heart."

Bonnie nodded and leaned back into Caroline's embrace. The blonde started humming a song into her ear. The room fell silent once again.

They were all mourning.

Damon found his brother in the middle of a heated conversation with Anna and Pearl. The four vampires stared at each other for a moment before Pearl took her daughter and the two left the manor. Stefan stared at his brother with a frown, noticing the almost manic look in his eyes.

"What could you possibly need now?" Stefan grumbled.

"No Elena?" Damon asked looking around for the doppelganger.

"She's off with Jeremy and Matt somewhere," Stefan answered. They were no doubt comforting Bonnie. Elena had extended the invitation to him, but Stefan declined it. He loved that she was trying to keep the peace between her best friend and him, but Bonnie lost her family because of him. He didn't want to cause her any more grief.

"Without you?" his brother looked aghast. "There had to be trouble in paradise."

"Her grandmother is dead because of us," Stefan said, his green eyes filled with remorse. Bonnie was someone he had considered a friend, but now? He was pretty sure that friendship was dead and buried with Shelia. It had been there in the ground a few days before – the night Shelia's heart stopped beating.

Damon waved it off like he was batting away a fly. "Bonnie's a strong girl. She's gonna go off, lick her wounds and then come back and be rearing and ready to protect Elena."

Stefan couldn't even say he was shocked at Damon's way of thinking. The man had assumed Katherine was still alive. Stefan had long since buried her in that tomb, even if it was metaphorically.

"You're a horrible person."

"At least I don't go off and take a bite out of Thumper to curb my urges," Damon snarked. He turned his eyes out to the sea of people, searching for Bonnie's knight. He found him on the phone, just outside. He tuned his hearing, hoping to catch something interesting. He frowned as he listened to the man speak to some woman named Sarah. By the sounds of it, she was his girlfriend.

Well, that was boring, the vampire thought.

Evelyn knocked on Bonnie's door.

Rudy had come home, undressed, showered, and was off to the airport. The man had told Bonnie he had paid for the mortgage, wired her some money for the month, and paid any bills that needed to be paid. He then left with no answer as to when he would be back.

Caleb called him an asshole just after the door closed. Bonnie hadn't even bothered to defend her father. She was tipsy and just wanted to go to sleep.

Now the Ipswich matriarch stood in front of her door, a tray of food and some painkillers in her hand. She could hear Bonnie's footsteps coming towards the door and she smiled as the door opened.

She held the tray out for the girl. "I noticed you hardly ate anything this morning or at the repast. So I made you a plate," she said as an offering.

Bonnie reached for the tray, "Thank you, Aunt Evelyn," she said. After a few moments, she spoke again, this time with sadness in her voice. "I take it this will be the last I see you of you all?"

Evelyn looked like she had been slapped. "Excuse me?"

"You were Grams' friend, Aunt Evelyn. I just tagged along with her every summer. The boys won't need me anymore. Caleb, Pogue, and Reid are off at college, aren't they? Soon Tyler will be too, and he won't need me either. So, this should be just as much has goodbye to me as it was to Grams."

Evelyn inhaled a shaky breath and then shut her eyes. Calling forth her magic, she teleported the tray from Bonnie's hands to her bed. The younger witch blinked and barely had time to form the first syllable of her name before Evelyn crushed her into her chest.

She was going to find Abigail Bennett and make her pay. She vowed she was going to make sure that woman was turned away from any coven she sought help from.

Shelia had always spoken of Bonnie's abandonment issues. She had confided in Evelyn about how terrified she was that if something happened to her, Bonnie would shut down. She had no family in the Bennett outside of Grams; everyone else had gone off the grid or lost contact.

Bonnie had no idea she had cousins out there. That was something she planned to correct, for Bonnie's sake. Daughter-in-law or not, Bonnie was a part of her coven.

"I am not abandoning you, child," Evelyn spoke each word with conviction like she was saying a spell. Her arms never left from around Bonnie's form as she called over her shoulder. "Caleb, come up here and back Bonnie a bag!"

"What?" Bonnie (and Caleb) asked.

"You're not spending another day in this house," Evelyn said hotly. "I'll call your school and Rudy as well. You need time to heal, Bonnie. Besides, I know Tyler and Reid will be overjoyed to have you staying in the same town again."

"But—" Bonnie started.

"No buts," Evelyn snipped. "You're coming to spend a few weeks with us and that is final."

Bonnie nodded; her aunt had no room for arguing. She knew not to even try and argue with the woman. She had seen how she argued with her husband even Beatrice Perry.

Evelyn was a force to be reckoned with.

"It's settled," she smiled. "Now, you sit down and eat dear. Caleb and I will get you packed up."

She ushered Bonnie into her room and turned towards the stairwell. "Caleb William –"

Caleb was up the stairs before she even finished his middle name. She smiled at her son. "Come along dear,"