summary: "Run all you want, but it won't change anything, Bonnie. It doesn't matter what world we're in, you'll always be my wife." After being sucked up into what they assumed would be oblivion, Damon and Bonnie soon find themselves in an idyllic little town where they're free to find peace. Which is exactly what they have for twelve years, until reality comes calling to bring them home.

word count: 17,569

XX.

By the time Damon returned to the boarding house, it was nearly 3 am. So, he was surprised to find a fire still burning in the parlour. The quiet noise of paws drew him closer, until he stood in the doorway, watching his brother play with Mina. A glass of discarded bourbon sat nearby while Stefan swung his hands around, getting Mina to leap and play-attack him, nipping at his fingers before she twirled around and yipped. When she plopped back to scratch at her ear, Stefan looked up.

Damon stepped down into the parlour. "You look happy."

"I am." Stefan half-smiled. "I know Kai's still a threat and we don't exactly have a solid plan to deal with him but… You're home."

Humming, Damon poured himself a glass of bourbon and took a seat in a nearby armchair. "What were you before this?"

Stefan's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"While I was gone, you had a whole year. I imagine, in the beginning, there was a lot of tears. A lot of blame and regret and anger… But what came after?"

Stefan's gaze fell to the rug. "I spiralled for a while. Even when we were mad at each other, when we'd spend decades not talking, I knew you were out there. I knew, eventually, we'd meet again. But this… This was final. You were gone and there was nothing… I couldn't do anything to fix it."

Mina crawled closer and laid her head against Stefan's knee, her tail rapidly tapping the floor.

Stefan smiled down at her sadly and brushed his fingers around her ears. "When we were children, I used to beg Mother to get us a dog. She'd always tell me Father didn't like dogs, that it was to much responsibility. Eventually, I gave up. Later, after I'd turned, I thought about it. But the idea of loving something you knew would die too soon… I didn't want to set myself up for that kind of pain."

Damon stared at him a long moment before saying, rather simply, "Everything dies."

Stefan's brows arched and fell as he sighed. "Some sooner than others."

"I've lived a long life, brother. Not always a good one, but definitely a long one."

"And you'll have even more time now." Stefan rubbed Mina's snout, his face downturned.

"After a while, the pain fades. Not because you don't miss them, or care less, but because you heal a little more every day." Damon leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "There were days when it didn't hurt, when I didn't think about you or Elena or Ric. And I would hate myself for spending even a second not wishing I was alive. Not looking for some way to get back here… But I had a life, Stefan. I had good friends. People who loved me. Who liked me and respected me and thought I was a good person. Days turned to weeks and then months and finally, years. And it wasn't like how it is here. I wasn't clinging desperately to a memory. I grieved. I mourned you and myself and my life here. And then I healed." He stared at him searchingly. "And I think, even if it was only starting, a part of you knows what that's like. A part of you accepted that maybe I wouldn't come back, and as much as it hurt, you could survive it."

Stefan's chin trembled as he pressed his mouth flat.

"It's okay. I'm not upset you were ready to let go. I'm not mad you didn't bring me back earlier. If anything, I'm glad." Damon's mouth pulled up in a lopsided grin. "I was an ass before all this."

Stefan snorted; a ragged, emotional laugh. "You were."

"I still have my moments." Damon shrugged. "Look, all I'm trying to say is that… I get it. It took me a long time to move on. There was a lot of history to get through, and I left a lot of damage in my wake, but I got there." He leaned back in his seat, balancing his drink on his stomach. "You will too."

The crackling of the fire filled the room; wood popping and flames spitting. Mina had drifted off to sleep, her tail slowly falling quiet.

"You want to go back." Stefan looked up at him, his expression twisted with pain. "It's not just about Bonnie remembering or figuring out how to make it work here… It's about going back."

"It's about Bonnie."

"No, it isn't. Not completely." Stefan shook his head. "You liked it better there. Admit it!"

Damon smiled faintly. "You'll always be my brother, Stefan. My family."

"Then don't leave! Don't— Don't look for a way to reverse this." He pushed up from the floor, dislodging Mina from his lap. "Damon, it's like you said… If you could mourn us, mourn this life, then you can mourn that one. You can be happy here." He waved a hand toward the stairs and said, pleadingly, "You have Bonnie. She might not remember you now, but we can fix that."

Damon stood from his chair and put his drink aside. He gripped Stefan's shoulders reassuringly. "I'm here."

Stefan took a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut. "For how long?"

Pulling him into a hug, Damon clapped Stefan's back. "I'm here."

Stefan clung to the back of Damon's shirt as he buried his face in his brother's shoulder. Damon was reminded of a much younger Stefan, clinging to him when their mother passed, when father took his drunken rage out on them. When their world fell apart and they were two lost, newly turned men in a world they hardly knew. So much had happened since then. But in the end, they were still who they were at the very beginning— brothers, holding on to what was familiar and comforting.

Damon wasn't sure how much time passed when he looked up to see Caroline hovering near the door, her expression soft and worried. She looked to Damon questioningly. He squeezed Stefan's shoulders and leaned back. "It's been a long day. Get some sleep."

Stefan nodded faintly. As he turned to leave, Caroline met him.

"Hey," she murmured, her arm wrapping around his waist. She smiled up at Stefan, her hand gently cupping his face. "Okay?"

Stefan nodded. Pressing his face against her hair, he gripped her hand where it folded across his hip. They stood for a moment until Caroline began leading him away.

Damon watched them go until they disappeared around the corner. Pressure on his foot called his gaze downward, where a sleepy Mina was curling up. Smiling to himself, he reached down and scooped up. She yawned at him as he tucked her into the crook of his arm. After a quick stop outside for her to do her business, he brought her to his room.

It was strange to climb into such a large bed and have nothing but Mina there to share it. But he was hoping he wouldn't be lonely for long. Bonnie was starting to remember; bits and pieces for now, but the memories were there, hidden away. And he was going to find a way to make sure they all came back.

…

Bonnie would like to say she woke up refreshed and eager to begin her day. Instead, she woke up nauseous. Her gut twisted and turned while warning bells screamed that she needed to find a toilet and fast. The cold, solid floor was hell on her knees as she hunkered down over the toilet, spilling a meager portion of tea and toast into the porcelain bowl. After a few minutes, when there was nothing left to throw up, she laid herself down until the warm skin of her face met the cool tile below. She let herself wallow there, her stomach still doing its best impression of a capsizing ship on a rocky sea. But eventually, as time passed, so did the nausea. She pulled herself up, in desperate need of a shower, and stripped off her sweaty clothes.

By the time she was dressed and ready to leave her room, it was nearly nine. Not quite as early as she'd been hoping to wake up, but it would have to do. The knock that echoed from her door was not chipper enough to be Caroline. Even though Damon had invited himself along on her trip to Grams', a part of her was still surprised to find him standing in the hallway waiting for her. He dangled a pair of keys and grinned. "Ready?"

Bonnie nodded. "Yeah. Is Caroline up? I should let her know where I'm going."

"Already filled Stefan in. Which reminds me…" He dug a phone out from the pocket of his leather jacket and handed it to her. "Thought you might need this."

Bonnie turned it over in her hand, surprise and appreciation warming her chest. "You bought me a phone?"

He shrugged. "Had to pick myself up one, figured you would need one too. Besides, family plans are cheaper."

"Thanks…"

"Don't mention it." He started for the stairs. "You wanna grab a coffee on the way or is tea still your style?"

Bonnie's stomach protested even the thought of putting anything in it. "I'm fine for now. Let's just get to Grams'. The quicker we can find her journals, the sooner we can hopefully put this Kai situation behind us."

"By putting him six feet under."

"Unless another prison world is an option."

Damon scoffed. "You really think this guy deserves anything but a worm buffet?"

Bonnie frowned. "I don't know. I just don't like talking about killing someone so casually."

"Why not? He does."

"That's different. He's a sociopath. We aren't."

He grinned back at her. "Should I be flattered right now?"

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Don't get used to it."

When they reached the parking lot, her steps slowed. "Your car…" A spark of a memory flared in her mind. Fire, wood, and splintered glass. "You drove it into The Grill to kill the Travelers…"

He stared back at her, his brow furrowed, and then shook it off. Walking to the passenger door, he swung it open and leaned on it, nodding for her to climb in. "Me and Elena did. But, it turns out Stefan's a better mechanic than I ever gave him credit for. He rebuilt it while we were away. Now, she's almost as shiny as the one back home."

Bonnie blinked. Home? The passenger door closed with a snap and she sunk down into the buttery leather seat, her eyes following him as he circled around the front to the driver's side. "All right." He rubbed his hands together before plucking a pair of tinted blue sunglasses off the dash and passing them to her. "Here. I picked up this annnd… this for you." He produced a sleeve of soda crackers.

Bonnie made a face but accepted them. "Breakfast of champions?"

"Heard you making nice with the toilet this morning, thought this might help settle it."

"Oh." Heat warmed her face in a sudden flush of embarrassment. "You heard that?"

He tapped his ear. "HD senses, remember?"

Humming, she opened the bag and filled her mouth with a cracker. Her stomach gurgled hungrily, but thankfully didn't turn sour.

Pulling on his own pair of sunglasses, Damon turned the ignition.

She startled as the radio came to life, loudly belting out Salt n' Peppa: What a man, what a man, what a man, what a mighty good man (he's a mighty, mighty good man)…

Damon turned the volume down. "Whoops."

Bonnie stared at the radio a moment, a strange feeling of déjà vu making her head feel floaty.

"You all right?"

"Huh?" She shook her head. "Yeah. Just… Readjusting, I guess."

Damon pulled away from the house and started down the road, passing rows of tall, dense trees. "You think the nausea's a side effect?"

Her nose wrinkled. "I don't know. Maybe…" She nibbled on another cracker. "Hey, have you seen Mina? I couldn't find her before I fell asleep."

"I stopped by the hotel to talk to Cass last night. Found Mina buddied up with Stefan when I got back. She slept with me."

"Oh." Bonnie chewed her lip. "So… Mina. Why do I get the feeling that's a vampire reference?"

He grinned at her. "Mina Murray. I like the classics."

Bonnie rolled her eyes, but admitted, "I like it."

"Yeah, me too."

She fiddled with the crackers and shifted in her seat. "Is she yours then? Is that why she came back with us?"

He glanced at her.

"When you saw her, you said 'that's my girl…'" She watched him curiously. "In this pocket world that we were in, was she yours?"

Damon swallowed, his throat bobbing. "Yeah, she was."

"So, you've just been letting me hog her?"

His mouth kicked up faintly. "Seemed like you needed the comfort more than I did."

Drawing a deep breath, she sighed, and turned her gaze out the window. "It should be easy, right? I was dead and now I'm not. I should be ecstatic."

"You're not?"

"I don't know what I am." She shook her head. "It doesn't feel real. It feels… Wrong, somehow. Maybe it's just the readjustment period. I didn't exist for a whole year; it makes sense that things are weird… Right?"

"Do you want it to go back to what it was?"

She turned to him, an eyebrow raised. "What do you mean?"

"Well, life wasn't exactly perfect before we bit it… Seemed like there was some new disaster every other week."

He wasn't wrong. Life had been complicated basically from the moment Stefan returned to Mystic Falls and Elena drifted into his orbit. Whatever brief moments they had of rest were quickly blotted out by the next enemy. Sometimes it felt like Bonnie would never get a moment of real rest. That she would just be on edge, waiting for the next problem to come knocking until she died. But even death wasn't guaranteed; her resurrection more than proved that.

Bonnie vaguely recognized her surroundings. Most houses looked the same as they always did. Some had new paint or unfamiliar people milling around. But this was the general neighborhood her Grams had always lived in. Much like yesterday, the town seemed quieter than usual. Emptier. A side-effect of the magical barrier? she wondered. Maybe there had been more people with secrets in Mystic Falls than she could ever guess.

Shaking the thought off, she turned to him. "I thought you liked being the go-to guy for dealing with whatever craziness showed up to town."

Damon shrugged. "I was a show-off, occasionally, but even I knew that wasn't sustainable. Everybody burns out eventually."

"I think Grams knew…"

"That you'd burn out?"

"That I would push myself so hard there was no coming back…" She clutched the crackers a little too tightly and had to force her hands to loosen before she crushed them. "I think she knew she'd die from overextending herself and maybe a part of her hoped it would scare me off or teach me a lesson. But I didn't learn. I just kept doing it…"

"Why?"

Bonnie's throat tightened. "My whole life, all I had was Grams, Elena, and Caroline… My dad, I know he loved me, but he just wasn't there. He was always so busy. And Grams, I didn't always appreciate what she did, or who she was. But when I lost her, it felt like someone ripped my heart out. I couldn't go through that again. So, I just… I thought if I could keep Elena and Caroline safe, I wouldn't have to." She shrugged. "But then everything just got so complicated. I fell in love with Jeremy and everybody was so reckless and it felt like I was always showing up at the last minute, called in to clean up the mess. But I didn't know what I was doing!" She laughed emotionally. "I barely understood my powers and I was expected to fix everything— to save everyone. It started to feel like that was my whole purpose. Anytime things started to look up or go well, it fell apart, like life was reminding me that I was only good for one thing."

Damon hummed. "You know, if I've learned anything, it's probably that we're a lot more important than we think we are. We're not tools, Bon. We're not disposable. And our purpose doesn't get decided by some cosmic force like we're pieces on a game board. We get to pick our destiny. And if that means walking away from a situation that'll end up hurting us, then we do that. Loyalty has its limits. So, draw your line in the sand and don't step over it."

She stared at him a long moment. "You're different."

His mouth kicked up at the corner. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"You're not so… chaotic. Or as much of an asshole. At least not lately."

He wiggled his eyebrows. "Oh, I can still be an asshole when I feel like it."

She snorted. "You know what I mean."

"I get it. I've grown and matured while we were away."

Her mouth flattened. "Did I?" As soon as she asked, she wanted to take it back. To eat the words that betrayed her, laying her insecurities bare. But she didn't. She let them hang there, in the air, like an ever-present guillotine, waiting to drop.

He stared at her, his expression unreadable, before saying, "We're here."

Blinking, Bonnie looked up to see they were parked in front of Grams' house. In serious need of some TLC, for sure, but her house nonetheless. Clearing her throat, Bonnie reached for the door handle.

Damon's hand on her arm stopped her; his touch was gentle and prodding. She looked back.

With soft blue eyes and a completely sincere expression, he told her— "You flourished."

She wasn't sure why, but her heart jumped, and a flood of emotion clogged her throat.

And then he released her and climbed from the car.

Bonnie swallowed down the swell of feeling that had rocked her understanding of things right out from beneath her feet. With shaking hands, she pushed the door open and followed him up the white stone walkway to Grams' porch. There was a hide-a-key in a fake rock, still there after so long. Letting herself in, she wrinkled her nose at the musty smell and walked deeper into the house. Her gaze bounced around, never quite landing on anything.

Damon whistled to catch her attention. He was standing at the doorway, unable to cross the threshold. "She willed it to you, didn't she?"

She did, along with everything else she owned. Bonnie hadn't had the heart to get rid of anything but the food in the fridge and cupboards. She left the furniture exactly where it was, history preserved in cobwebs and dust. "Come in."

He stepped inside cautiously and dragged a finger along a cabinet. "Might want to hire a maid service."

"She kept her journals in her room." Walking down the hall, Bonnie passed pictures of herself at various ages. Missing teeth and brightly patterned clothes that were hideous upon reflection. All of her school pictures, lined up from kindergarten forward. A beatific smile of a girl long before her world had crumbled and reshaped itself. Bonnie hurried past and made her way for Grams' desk. There were stacks of books on the occult and old syllabi for her classes. She moved them aside until she found the weathered books Grams had kept in a neat stack. Grabbing them up, she turned to find Damon fiddling with an old jewelry box; it popped open to reveal a ballerina inside.

He smiled to himself. "You wanted to be a ballerina when you were little… Didn't last long. You preferred hip-hop."

Her breath stuttered. "How did you…?"

"You told me." He wound up the box and watched the ballerina twirl. The music started slow and lurching but eventually hit its stride. "Hip-hop suited you better anyway. I'm pretty sure ballerinas don't get the luxury of pasta whenever they want it."

"I didn't like it because it hurt my toes…" She hugged the journals to her chest. "I was a wimp."

"There are people out there that would pay a lot of money to see your toes, Bon-Bon."

"Damon!" She scoffed and shoved his chest.

He laughed. "Come on, let's see what Sheila's deep, dark secrets were."

Bonnie pursed her lips in a frown. "I can't let you read them."

"What, you think she wrote down every sordid detail of her sex life?" He wiggled his eyebrows. "Good for her."

Skirting past him, she walked out the door. "I don't know what she wrote. But I know she wouldn't want you reading about her most personal thoughts and feelings."

"I'm wounded, truly. But I think she'd make an exception if she knew that I was helping you look for a way to bring down Kai before our nearest and dearest try to wave you in from of him like a white flag."

Bonnie mulled that over with a sigh. "Fine… But try to skim whatever doesn't fit. We're looking for a diary around 1994, when Kai went into the prison world. Anything too far before or after probably won't matter." She eyed the living room where the couches promised a thick layer of grime. "Why don't we do this in your car? This place seriously needs to be aired out."

"Deal." He plucked a book out from her hands and opened it to a random page. "Dear Diary, I met a hunky man named Ruis today and he swept me off my witchy feet… I'll never be the same and neither will my loins..."

"Damon…" She followed him down the porch. "Never say 'loins' again."

"Hey, we've all had a few passionate hook ups that scratched the itch but didn't stick around. Let her have her moment."

"There was no Ruis!"

"You don't know that."

She bit her lip to hide a smile and shook her head. "Try to focus!"

"I'm focusing." He climbed into the car and thumbed back to the first page. "All right, let's see what kind of hijinks Sheila got up to when she wasn't creating prison worlds and rocking Ruis' lights out."

Rolling her eyes, she put the stack of books on the dash and picked one at random.

…

Caroline's gaze followed Stefan as he moved around the bedroom with purpose, grabbing books from his shelf to stack on his desk. She sat in bed, blanket pooling in her lap, arms crossed over her chest. "Are you going to talk to me what happened last night?"

Stefan sighed. He kept his back to her as he hunched down, skimming through a few pages. "There's nothing to talk about."

"Stefan, you were heartbroken. I haven't seen you like that since…" She paused. "A year ago, when they first died… You were like a ghost of yourself."

His back stiffened.

"Talk to me," she pleaded softly. "I thought you'd be happy. He's back! They're fine. I don't understand—"

"He doesn't want to be."

Whatever Caroline was going to stay stuttered to nothing. Stefan's words repeated in her head, but they didn't make sense. Why? Why wouldn't Damon want to be back? He seemed ecstatic when they first returned. What could have changed in that short time? "Why?"

"He had a life." Stefan turned to face her, his eyes noticeably shiny. "A good life. He was happy. And we took them away from it."

Caroline shook her head. "But it wasn't real. This is real! This is home!"

"They had another home."

She shoved the blanket off and stood. "You keep saying 'they.' But Bonnie isn't Damon. She's happy to be back. She's just… She's a little confused, but she's just adjusting. It'll take time—"

"What if it doesn't?" Stefan left the desk and walked toward her. "What if they were better off there?"

"No. That's not…" She looked away, her brow furrowed. "They were dead, Stefan…"

"I know, but it's not that simple. Cass said they were in a pocket world. From what Damon's told me, it was a good place. He created a whole new life for himself. Caroline… He had twelve years to move on. Twelve years! The people he had over there, they're his friends now. We… We must be like strangers."

The enormity of the amount of time seemed both big and small. After all, both Damon and Stefan had been alive for over a century. "You're his brother," she murmured. "Isn't that more important than whoever was over there?"

"I don't know." He shrugged, and when his shoulders fell, insecurity and uncertainty seemed to swallow him whole, leaving him looking hurt and exhausted. "All I know is that he wants to go home… He wants both of them to."

Caroline shook her head, her brow furrowed. "No, he doesn't get to make that decision for Bonnie! She's her own person. If she wants to be here, if she wants to be alive, then she has every right to."

"You're right. She does. But she can't make that choice until she knows everything. And right now, she doesn't remember her life back there. But when she does—"

"If. If she remembers."

Stefan smiled softly, knowingly. "When she remembers… You have to be prepared for the possibility that she'll want to go too."

Caroline inhaled sharply, her mouth wobbling. "I just got her back."

Nodding, Stefan gathered her into a hug. "I know." He buried his hand in her hair and cupped the nape of her neck.

"I wanted to help her. I wanted to bring her home." She clutched him as she shook. "I can't lose her again."

Stefan held her tighter, but he offered no empty promises. She was grateful for that, even as she wished it could be simple.

…

A cool breeze crossed through the window, making the pages of the journal flutter. Bonnie laid a hand down flat on one side to keep them from turning. She'd been reading for over an hour and not getting much. The sun had dipped behind a tall willow tree, casting dancing shadows along the hood of Damon's car. She was mesmerized for a moment. Until her stomach grumbled for attention.

Damon looked up. "Hungry?"

Thinking of earlier, hunkered over the toilet, she hesitated.

"Why don't we take a drive into town, see what's open?"

She chewed her lip and shrugged. "Sure, I guess. I don't know if I'll be able to hold anything down."

"You look okay to me." He reached out and pressed the back of his hand against her forehead, his skin cool and soothing. "Could just be your body acclimating. Maybe it comes in waves and it'll skip you for a while."

He earmarked his page and put the journal aside before turning the ignition.

"What happens if we see Kai in town?"

"We run him over."

She snorted. "Seriously?"

"If we can catch him off guard? Absolutely. Kai pancake."

Bonnie shook her head. "It's a solution…"

"Sometimes life offers you an opportunity and you just have to take it."

She turned her head away as she smiled, helpless to the amusement that filled her.

The drive through town felt strangely bittersweet, as if she were watching a distant memory play out. "That was my favorite park as a kid." She pointed to a small, fenced off park with a jungle gym, swing set, and rusty see-saw. "Grams used to take me there. She'd sit on the bench and read Harlequin romance books while I played… I'd beg her to push me on the swings until her arms were sore."

"Harlequin, huh?"

Bonnie rolled her eyes at him.

He smiled. "You had a hammock back home. You'd sprawl out and read books until you fell asleep."

Her heart squeezed. "I did?"

He nodded. "Had an herb and vegetable garden too."

Bonnie's gaze fell thoughtfully. "How long were we…" Her voice fled and her throat tightened.

"A while."

She looked up at him, seeking more. "You said I flourished… What did you mean?"

His expression softened. It wasn't a look she was used to seeing on him, especially not directed at her. And yet… the familiarity of it struck her. "You had a good life, Bon. A house, your own business, friends, family… You were happy."

Her fingers folded into her palms and squeezed, fists pressed down hard against her legs. He made it sound so simple. Sometimes, when she looked back on her life, she missed the days before the Salvatore brothers came to town. How easy and normal and even boring it could be. Drama back then was who was dating who; it was never life or death. But it wasn't perfect either. Her mother had left and her father was always so busy he rarely had time for her. It was why her and Grams had always been so close. The idea that she had something better felt like dangling an impossibility just out of reach.

The car slowed to a stop, parked in front of a farmer's market. "C'mon." Damon left the car and circled around to pull her door open. He held out a hand for her to take.

She stared at it a beat before letting him draw her from the car. Her knees felt wobbly. Questions swirling around her head in such rapid succession that she couldn't center on just one.

As the door closed behind her, he lowered their hands, fingers folded together, and tugged her toward the open door of the market store. Bonnie followed, still dazed.

Damon found a reusable shopping bag and brought her toward a table covered in piles of stone fruits: apricots, plums, nectarines, and peaches. He grabbed up a few nectarines and tested their firmness before adding them to the bag.

Bonnie watched him a moment before wandering toward a tall hill of oranges. Her mouth watered and she grabbed up a few, some so big her hand barely fit around them. Damon appeared, bag held open for her to add them.

"What's our stance on mango?"

She wrinkled her nose.

"All right, pomegranate?"

"I have no idea how to eat them."

He grinned. "Guava?"

She waved a hand side to side.

"One guava. We'll see what we can do with it." He reached out and scooped up a carton of bright red strawberries. "You want some cherries?"

She brightened.

Before she knew it, the bag was packed full of fruits and veggies. A stand near the front was selling freshly made sandwiches and she drifted toward it. Her stomach was starting to kick up a fuss now, with no signs of nausea in sight. She picked out each ingredient, including a few she wouldn't usually ask for but that just looked too good to pass up on, and watched hungrily as it was all put together. When it was finally handed to her, she cheerfully joined Damon at the check out counter, where the grocer was weighing out the fruit.

Damon nodded for her to add her sandwich to the counter.

"Are you sure? I didn't even think to bring my wallet…" She pulled a face. "Actually, I don't even have a wallet…"

Amused, he plucked it from her hand and waved for the cashier to add it to the bill. "Carebear probably put it away for you. We can ask her when we get back."

Bonnie rested her hip against the counter. "Where'd you get money?"

"I borrowed Stefan's wallet."

"Guess I should thank him for this then." She plucked the bag up as he finished paying and hung the straps over her shoulder.

Tucking his wallet away, he pressed a hand to the small of her back and led her toward the door. "If it makes you feel better, I'll pay him back for whatever we spent." He tipped his head and stared at her from the corner of his eyes. "Ready to eat?"

"Starving," she admitted.

When she climbed back into the car, she expected for them to head right back to either Grams' or the boarding house. Instead, Damon drove them to the old park. Bonnie followed him to the bench, one of Grams' journals tucked under her arm.

"Here." Damon passed the sandwich to her and pulled out a pair of oranges.

The groan Bonnie let out as she sunk her teeth into her sandwich was loud and unfiltered. Maybe it was just the earlier nausea and the persistent empty feeling in her stomach, or maybe it was the way the pickles popped and the tomatoes burst as she bit down on them, but eating felt heavenly. She watched him peel the oranges and split them in half. Each time he tossed a piece in his mouth, he passed her the next one, until both oranges were gone.

They ate in peaceful silence. The distant sound of birds chirping and the breeze rustling leaves was all she heard. She was nearly finished her sandwich before either of them said anything.

"Have you talked to Elena?"

He stared at her a beat, his brow furrowed. "About what?"

"About any of it… About your life over there."

Humming, he shook his head. "No."

"Why?"

Damon turned away, staring out at the swing set through narrowed eyes. "Maybe I'm afraid."

Fear wasn't something she associated with Damon often. The few times Damon had shown genuine fear, he quickly tried to stamp it out by being increasingly reckless. He was more the type to face whatever scared him with bravado and take what life dished out. It was one of his less redeeming qualities, if only because it usually made things that much more difficult. But this fear seemed altogether different. "Of what?"

"Who I was." He shook his head slowly. "The person I was when I with her, when I died, I'm not proud of him. There's a lot of choices I made then that I wouldn't make again."

"So don't."

He turned to her, his head tipped curiously.

"We all do things we regret. Things we'd never want to repeat. But we can't change that. There's no redo button. All we can do is learn from them and try to do better."

He nodded. "I get that. But things are different when you're a vampire."

"Bullshit," she scoffed.

His brows hiked, more amused than offended.

"So, you feel things a little deeper or stronger. That's a cop out. You think humans don't feel hurt and pain and love just as deeply as you do?" She shook her head. "We don't get a switch to turn it off. We have to live with it. We have to learn coping mechanisms and grow. You're just as capable of doing that, but only if you want to. Only if you put the work in."

He stared at her searchingly a moment and then let a slow grin grow. "That's fair."

Surprised by his easy acceptance, she frowned. Shaking it off, she turned her attention back to her sandwich. But she was full now, so she rewrapped what was left and put it aside. "You should talk to her," she decided. "She missed you."

Damon hummed. He spread his arm out across the back of the bench; she could feel it pressed against her shoulders. "I get the impression she's avoiding me too. But I guess closure can't hurt."

She looked at him, abruptly. "Closure?"

"I told you, I'm not the same guy I was when I died, and I don't want to be." He shrugged. "Me and Elena, we had our run, but that was a long time ago."

"Just like that?"

"I closed the book on that relationship a long time ago, but maybe she hasn't. So, we'll say our piece and go our separate ways… Well, just as soon as Kai's dealt with. We don't need her hitting the road before the finale. We'll need all the power we can get."

A troublingly heavy feeling settled in Bonnie's gut. "Where will you go? When it's over?"

Damon peered at her thoughtfully. "Where will you go?"

Bonnie blinked. "I didn't really have any plans."

"Well, that's the problem, right? So focused on the present, we never plan for the future." He dug his phone out from his pocket. "C'mon, Bon-Bon. Name a place. Anywhere in the world you'd want to go."

Bonnie chewed the inside of her cheek. "Paris." It was the first place that came to mind and it seemed like a reachable goal.

"Overrated. But if that's what you want…" He tapped away at his phone screen intently. "How about a penthouse suite with a view of the Eiffel Tower?"

"Paris is overrated?" Her eyebrows arched. "Where would you suggest?"

"Italy, naturally."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Of course."

"But, there's nothing stopping you from going to both… Start in Paris, hop on over to Florence, drop by Athens, add a few stops in between to flesh out the tourist experience, and voila."

Bonnie leaned over to see him scrolling through a trip advisor website. "Damon, you can't book us flights for some last-minute trip through Europe."

"Why not? Stefan's card can take the hit."

She covered his hand against the phone. "We don't know how long this situation with Kai will last. And also…"

"Also what?" He met her gaze. "Whether we'll survive it?"

She pursed her lips. "Nothing is guaranteed."

"Some things are." He shook his head. "I won't let him hurt you, Bonnie. If there's one good thing about being a vampire, it's that I'm a lot stronger and faster than your average sociopath."

"But Kai isn't average. He's superpowered." She squeezed his hand. "Look, I'm not saying no to Europe. I'm just saying… let's be realistic and wait a little while."

"The whole point of planning a trip is that we're planning to outlive this." He shifted to face her better and the arm behind her shoulders folded, his hand gently cupping the nape of her neck, thumb stroking across her skin. "We can't walk into this fight with one foot already in the grave. If we want to win this, then we need to believe we can. Think of Kai as a speed bump in the path to the rest of your life. We get rid of him and the rest is just a straight shot to happiness."

A sudden flood of exhaustion hit her. "What makes you think Kai will be the last? When has there ever been an end to this?"

"The only reason we're hanging around here playing hero is because we choose to. We're not chained to this place. We don't owe anybody here any loyalty. We've done our part, ten-fold. This is just one last hurrah before we walk away. That's all it has to be."

"You keep saying 'we.'" She shook her head. "Damon, we weren't exactly bitter enemies when we died, but we were never what you'd call close."

He flinched and looked away. "Maybe not to your memory."

Her brow furrowed. "We were friends…? In the pocket world?"

He ground his teeth a moment before turning to look at her. "Believe it or not, Bon-Bon. You were my best friend, and I was yours."

The idea of it seemed too bizarre to believe. And yet, her brain didn't immediately reject the idea. In fact, it would explain a lot of his behaviour, and her own. The strange comfort she felt around him, when in the past she would be dogged by a constant feeling of suspicion. Still, their history demanded she take what he was saying with a grain of salt. After all, what could have possibly happened that Damon Salvatore was her best friend?

"I wasn't your only best friend," he admitted, "but I like to think I was the best of the best friends."

Her mouth pulled up faintly. "Of course you would."

He stared at her. "I'm invested in you. Before anyone else. So, if the shit hits the fan, I'll be there. Through all of it. You don't have to remember me for that to be true."

She wanted to believe him. It sounded so simple when he said it. But it was hard to believe that a man who was once willing to burn the whole world down for Elena would put any of that energy into her. At least, not for long. "I don't expect you to—"

"You should. Expect it. Demand it. Of all of us." The look on his face was fierce and serious. "They brought you back here because they cared about you. Let them prove it. Or walk away before they get you killed."

A lump formed in her throat.

"You're not expendable, Bonnie."

She stared at him a long beat before nodding jerkily. "Okay."

He gazed right back. "Okay."

A moment passed before he tapped the journal resting in her lap. "Anything in there about Ruis?"

She smiled slowly. "No… She does mention a Jack a few times. He's a carpenter."

Damon whistled. "Steamy."

Rolling her eyes, she opened it to where she'd left off, skim-reading while Damon collected their garbage to toss away. She read a few passages aloud to him, filling him on the history between her Grams and Jack the carpenter.

It was a few pages later when the words 'Joshua Parker' and 'Gemini Coven,' caught her eye. "Hey!" She perked up, drawing his attention. "I think I found something…"

…

"You're back!" A peppy Caroline greeted Bonnie in the driveway the moment she and Damon returned to the boarding house.

"Yeah, and I think we might have a lead. Or at least enough information to point us toward a lead." Bonnie eyed Caroline, who was shifting around with nervous energy. "Are you okay?"

"Fine!" Nodding, Caroline cut her hand through the air in an exaggerated fashion. "Totally fine."

Damon, carrying the bag of fruit and veggies, walked toward the front door. "I'll leave you to deal with the manic pixie vamp. I've gotta call Ric and pull together the rest of the gang."

Bonnie nodded and, as the door closed behind him, focused back on Caroline. "Seriously, you look freaked out. Did something happen? Was it Kai?"

"I'm not freaked out! I'm not. I'm just— I don't know. I guess I was a little worried. You and Damon were gone a while…" Caroline pulled a face. "The fact that you and Damon are hanging out is also weird. That's weird, right? For you? I mean, you weren't exactly close before you… died. And now he's picked up the shield of Bonnie's Number Two Protector like it's second nature. It's strange."

"Number two?" Bonnie pursed her lips to hide her amusement.

"Well, obviously, I'm number one." Caroline grinned. "Look, I just want to be sure that you're okay… And that Damon isn't planting any seeds."

"About what?"

"I don't know…" She eyed Bonnie curiously. "Stefan might've mentioned that Damon was missing the pocket world… Maybe even that he preferred it."

Bonnie's brow furrowed. "That makes sense, I guess."

"It does?"

"Sure. I mean, the pocket worlds are supposed to be another version of heaven, right? Peaceful, happy, that kind of thing…" She chewed her lip. "He said… When I asked him about it, he said he had a good life there. That I did too."

Caroline winced. "But you know it's not real, right? I mean… We're real. This world is real. Your life here, it's real."

"Just because it's a pocket world doesn't mean it's not real, Care. And even if that's true, does it matter?" She shrugged. "The way Damon talked about it; it was like he was a different person there."

"Well, shouldn't that be proof enough? If Damon isn't even himself—"

"I said different, not that he wasn't himself." Bonnie paused thoughtfully. "Have you talked to him lately? He's changed. A lot. And… it isn't terrible."

"Bonnie, this is Damon… I mean, don't get me wrong, I helped bring him back. I'm glad he has another chance. I just want you to be careful trusting anything he says."

Bonnie frowned. "I'm the first to admit that being suspicious of Damon and his motives is just smart planning. But what exactly are you worried about? The pocket world was destroyed. Or at least whatever path to get there through Grams' magic was destroyed when you brought us back. Whatever life we had there is gone." A pang hit her chest and the ache seemed to echo through the rest of her body for a moment. It left her frozen and breathless.

"Bonnie?" Caroline's hand gently squeezed her shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?"

Bonnie blinked. Shaking her head, she tried to slough off the hollow feeling that had filled her. "Yeah, sorry, I just… I don't even remember it. But I think a part of me… misses it in a way. I don't know."

"It's okay." Caroline half-smiled. "I'm sorry I'm making such a big deal out of this. I guess I just sort of panicked."

"About what?"

"That you might go back." She took a deep breath and let it out on a sigh. "For totally selfish reasons, I don't want to lose you again."

Bonnie smiled up at her knowingly. "I wish I could promise you that would never happen. But we both know that it's never that simple. What I can promise you is that I will try really hard to stay here for as long as humanly possible."

Laughing lightly, Caroline nodded. "Good. That's all I need!" She swung an arm around Bonnie's shoulders then and tugged her toward the front door. "So, what were you saying about a lead?"

Bonnie started catching Caroline up on what she'd found in Grams' journals. It wasn't until they were about to enter the parlour that she noticed Damon and Elena talking at the end of the hall. With a hand wrapped around Damon's wrist, Elena drew him through the door into the kitchen.

Bonnie watched as the door swung closed behind them, a heavy pit forming at the bottom of her stomach. It didn't make sense. She was the one who encouraged him to talk to her. And yet, a part of her didn't like the idea of them being alone. Or what it might lead to. Bonnie shook her head, trying to rid it of the overwhelming sensation of doom and gloom that was suddenly swamping her. Focusing on Caroline, she tried to blot out any thoughts of Damon Salvatore at all.

It didn't work.

…

Damon eyed Elena as she wandered around the kitchen, her thumbs tucked in the back pockets of her jeans. "Well, this is awkward."

Elena let out a vague laugh. "It is, right?"

For a moment, Damon just took her in. Her hair was different, cut into a bob that just brushed her shoulders. But other than that, she looked just like he'd remembered her; beautiful and unaged. Twelve years ago, that was a relief. The idea that Elena would live as long as him, never changing. But he'd watched himself age and grow and he hadn't hated it. He'd liked it. Embraced it. Was it occasionally a chore to have to put in extra work to stay fit? Sure. But that just became a part of his life too. He'd watched Bonnie grow and mature along with him, a partner in whatever life handed him, and there was something poetic in that.

"I owe you an apology," Elena said, her voice quiet. "You and Bonnie."

Damon's brows quirked. "Let me guess, you didn't try hard enough to bring us home."

Elena's mouth fell open and then abruptly closed. She made a face and sighed. "That obvious, huh?"

Damon shrugged. "I don't blame you."

Her brow furrowed. "Why?"

"Death's usually permanent. Bonnie's the only one to prove different, and since she went with me, your options were limited…" He shook his head. "It's fine. No hard feelings."

"That easy?" Elena raised an eyebrow skeptically. "We just pick up where we left off?"

"No."

She pursed her lips, looking hurt then, and raised her chin in some mimicry of defiance. "Why do I feel like you want to punish me even while you're telling me I'm forgiven?"

"It's not about punishment." Damon took a deep breath. He wasn't often on this side of things. There had been a few occasions that he and Elena had called it quits. When he recognized his influence on her, their toxicity to each other, and tried to walk away. But their relationship was a cycle that always seemed hellbent on repeating. This was different. This was final. "It wasn't a year for me. It was twelve."

Elena's eyes widened, stunned. She stumbled back a step, leaning against the kitchen island. "What? How?"

Damon shrugged. "For whatever reason, a month here is a year there. It's hard not to reflect on your life after you've died, so I did, and I wasn't proud of a lot of what I did. So, I changed. I grew."

"You grew… out of me?"

"It wasn't about you, Elena. It was about me."

Nodding, she looked away. "And yet I'm the one being left behind."

"Stefan said you moved, got out of Mystic Falls, and started new somewhere else."

Crossing her arms over her chest like a barricade, she nodded. "New York."

He grinned then, proud of her. "Won't be long before you're a big-shot doctor, huh?"

Her shoulders loosened and she let her mouth quirk up faintly in a smile. "That's the dream."

"Good." Damon stared at her searchingly. "I want that for you."

She blinked quickly as her eyes started to well with tears. "I didn't want to believe her… Caroline, when she said she found a way to bring you back. I didn't want to get my hopes up again. But there you were, looking exactly like you did before I lost you. And I just…" She shook her head. "It all came rushing back."

"It wasn't all great, but it wasn't all bad either."

She wiped at her cheeks. "So, this is it? We just say goodbye and move on? Feels anticlimactic. After everything we've been through. Everything we fought to get here."

"When I came back here, I was damaged. For a long time, I didn't think that could change. I accepted that I would never be anything more than the monster Stefan made me into. But that wasn't fair to him or me…" Damon shook his head. "I told myself that if I could just get Katherine back, I'd be worth something. But I was wrong to think it was ever tied to her in the first place. And stupidly, even after I stopped loving her, I made the same mistake with you."

Elena's brow furrowed. "What we had was real! Katherine was… She manipulated you. And Stefan. If anyone was a monster, it was Katherine."

"She had her moments," Damon agreed. "I'm not saying I didn't love you. I did. And before I died, loving someone meant desperately begging for any shred of their attention. It meant devoting myself to them to the point that what I wanted and needed was just a mirror of their wants and needs… My life revolved around my latest obsession. Everyone and everything else was expendable."

Through clenched teeth, she accused, "You're saying our love was toxic."

"It was," he said simply. Not always. But a lot of the time, it was."

"That's not fair!" She glared up at him. "What we had was special! It meant something to me. How can you say it didn't matter?"

"I'm not saying that. It kept me alive. It kept me going! But that doesn't mean it was healthy."

"So, what, I— I was a coping mechanism?"

"Sometimes," he admitted. "Especially in the early days… But that changed. We changed. And what we had, it mattered. A lot. But I'm not that guy anymore. I don't ever want to be that guy again. That guy was… He was screwed up, Elena. He was broken and angry and selfish. And yeah, he had days when we was heroic and good and selfless, but the fact that I felt like I had to hide that so I wouldn't get hurt says a lot about how screwed up I was, mentally and emotionally."

"But you didn't!" She pushed off the counter and walked to him, her palms pressed flat against his chest. "Damon, you never have to hide from me."

"But I did." He caught her wrists and stared down at her sadly. "I hid from you all the time. And when things came out, when my history and mistakes came to light, you'd pull away. You'd question why or how you could ever love me. And that's okay. Because the things I did were wrong. I was a monster. I know that. And any sane person would wonder how they could forgive the things I did. But you always came back. You'd decide that whatever I did was survivable. So, it got swept under the rug and forgotten, added to all my other mistakes. But that wasn't right. I needed to own up to it and fix it. I needed to be better. Not because I wanted you to love me. But for me. I needed to look in the mirror and not hate the person staring back."

Tears spilled over Elena's cheeks. "But I loved you. Despite all of it. I loved you and you loved me."

"I know." He tugged at her wrists, pulling her hands from him. "I was human. For twelve years, I was the most human I could possibly be. And I lived the most amazing life."

Elena squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head.

"I missed you. I mourned you. And for a while, I didn't know how I would ever go on without you. But I did. I let you go and even though it hurt, it was the right thing to do. Because for the first time in my life, I was free. And I finally figured out who I was. Who I wanted to be. And I became that guy. I became the best version of myself I could possibly be. I can't afford to lose that. I don't want to go back."

Taking in a deep, shuddering breath, she opened her eyes to stare up at him, sorrow swimming in her eyes. "What about me?"

He released her. "You have your entire immortal life ahead of you. You have New York and a stethoscope waiting. I'm just one very handsome speed bump along the way."

She let out a hiccup of a laugh. "What happens now?"

"Now… Now we find a way to put Kai Parker in the ground. And then we go our separate ways."

She raised her chin. "Okay."

He half-smiled. "Okay."

As he stepped back, she pulled her sleeves down over her hands and scrubbed at her face. "You really have changed. The old Damon would've had us halfway back to New York by now."

"I like to think I would've at least stuck around and helped Stefan take out Kai." Damon shrugged. "Anyway, once the siphon problem is dealt with, I don't plan on sticking around here."

"No? Where will you go?"

"I've got a few ideas." He nodded his head toward the door. "C'mon, I think Ric just pulled up. The sooner we can get a plan together, the sooner we can all put Mystic Falls in our rear view."

…

Caroline busied herself stoking a fire to life while Bonnie tried her best not to stare in the direction of the kitchen. She was the one who encouraged him to talk to Elena, so why was she feeling so weird about it? Whatever strange instinct had Damon so focused on Bonnie was fleeting. Once he and Elena put any complications over his recent death and resurrection to rest, he would find himself right back in her arms, just like always. And while that used to annoy her, if only because Damon was so infuriating, she should be used to it by now. As much as she hated to admit it, he was usually the one to follow through and get things done. Not always in a way she could agree with or approve of, but he did what he had to if it meant saving the people he cared about. Of course, the list of people Damon cared about used to be all of two bullet points, with subsections of people whose survival meant the happiness of those two people. And yet, he'd fed her soda crackers and read dusty journals and told her she mattered. A wholly unexpected experience for her.

Best friends… Her and Damon Salvatore. It still amused her in its absurdity. She'd once tried to set him on fire, after all. And she couldn't begin to count how many aneurysms he'd earned over the years. But there was a certain sense of peace that came with spending time with him. He wasn't his usual antagonistic self, courting chaos to avoid boredom. Maybe all that time in the pocket world really had sanded down some of his edges.

"Are you listening?"

Bonnie blinked rapidly before focusing on Caroline. "Sorry, what?"

"I heard from Tyler." She waved her phone meaningfully. "He's bringing Liv here. And Luke, if they can find him."

Nodding, Bonnie took a deep breath. "Okay. Good. Or it should be, until we tell them about their homicidal brother."

"Do you think they know about him? I mean, they were like, what, three years old when he killed the rest of their family and was sent to that prison world…?" Caroline frowned. "That's not exactly small talk."

"I have no idea. According to Grams' journals, Joshua Parker, Kai's father and the coven's leader, is the one who sent him to the prison world. Three of his children survived: Luke, Olivia, and Josette. Josette and Kai were twins and there's something called a merge where twins are forced to prove who's the strongest. Whoever wins gets to be the next coven leader while the other twin dies."

"Okaaay… But Kai was sent to the prison world, so does that mean Josette's the next leader? Or do Liv and Luke have to merge?"

Bonnie shrugged. "Grams doesn't really mention the coven much after that. Once her part in helping them was done, they went their own way and didn't reach out to her again."

Caroline hummed. "So, are we hoping Liv and Luke can be distractions or…?"

"I don't know." Bonnie clapped her hands down on her knees and shrugged. "Maybe I'm hoping they can tell us some secret weakness of his. I don't know a whole lot about siphons and Grams didn't write about them much either."

Pouting, Caroline plopped into an armchair. "Why does this have to be so complicated? Why couldn't they just disappear Kai when they destroyed his prison world? Who keeps a sociopathic serial killer alive?"

"Well, it was his dad who sent him away. Maybe he couldn't bare to kill him."

Caroline looked unconvinced. "He killed like four of his siblings. You don't just forgive that."

"Well, then, maybe it wasn't about forgiving. Maybe it was about penance. It was a prison world for a reason, right? Maybe wherever he was stuck was a version of hell."

"Maybe." Caroline sighed. "Anyway, let's just hope they bring something to the table. Because, at this point, we have no way to find or stop him. He's just out there, probably causing unnecessary havoc."

"Has Matt mentioned any sightings?"

"Not so far. In fact, he says everything's been eerily quiet. But that could just be because we're expecting something to happen."

Bonnie rubbed at her temple. "All I know is Kai wants revenge and he doesn't care who gets in his way."

…

Damon walked into the parlour from the kitchen hallway in the same moment Alaric entered from the other doorway. Behind Ric trailed a nervous looking woman with jet black hair and worried blue eyes.

With a surprised blink, Damon wondered, "Who's the interloper?"

Alaric rolled his eyes before waving a hand behind him. "Damon, meet Doctor Jo Laughlin. Jo, this is Damon Salvatore."

Damon raised an eyebrow. "MD or PhD?'

"MD." She wiped her palms against her hips. "Alaric thinks I might be able to help you."

"Does he?" Damon's gaze shifted to Alaric. "Are you bringing dates to planning sessions? Super unprofessional. This will go on your permanent record."

Exasperated, Alaric shook his head faintly. "It's not a date, but if you're curious, yes, Jo is my girlfriend."

"And to think, it only took me dying for you to finally get a love life."

With an impatient sigh, Jo moved past Alaric and cast her gaze around at the collected faces. "Is it true? Is Kai back?"

Damon tensed. He looked her up and down, both curious and suspicious. "You know him?"

"I did… He's my brother."

"Josette," Caroline murmured, drawing Damon's attention. "Kai's twin."

"How did he get out?" Jo demanded. "He was trapped in a prison world. Sheila Bennett helped create it. He never should've been released!"

"Yeah, well, 'never' had an expiry date." Damon returned his attention to Jo, watching the anxiety grow in her shifty frame. "So, you and your serial killer brother, were you close or…?"

"If you're asking where my loyalty lies, it's with the siblings I lost because my brother was obsessed with power…" Her voice was sharp and bitter. "I loved Kai. But I knew who he was. I knew what he was capable of. And he should have stayed in that prison for eternity."

"No arguments here. Unfortunately, he's out, and he's got a whole lot of power thrumming through his veins. So, if you'd be so inclined as to tell us how we might kill him, we'd sure appreciate it." Damon found his voice edging into that mocking sarcastic tone he hadn't used in entirely too long. Maybe it was just that his friends back home didn't justify the use of it, or maybe it was old habits, but Damon's impatience was starting to grow.

"How did he get power?"

"You remember the magical barrier surrounding Mystic Falls?" Alaric said. "He absorbed it and now he's walking around free."

"Oh my God…" Jo pressed a shaking hand to her mouth and turned from them.

Damon watched her a moment. Her fear was palpable; the stink of it was hard to ignore. Just like animals that knew prey were tracking them, she gave off a scent.

Stefan walked into the parlour then, took a look at Jo, and cast a curious look toward Damon.

"Kai's twin sister." He waved to her dismissively. "Come to point out sociopaths shouldn't be given early parole."

Jo whirled around to face him, fire in her eyes. "Which one of you did it? Who let him out?"

The books began to quake on their shelves and the lights flickered ominously. Damon looked around the room a moment before focusing on her again. "Cute show, but I've seen better."

"Damon," Alaric said warningly.

Ignoring him, Damon took a few casual steps in Jo's direction. "Does it matter how or why? He's out and there's no way to put him back. So, the next logical step is to put him down. If you don't have any plans to bring to the table on how we might do that, I suggest you find somewhere safe to bunker down until the rest of us do what you and your family should have done twenty years ago."

Jo glared at him. "I want Kai to pay more than any of you could possibly know. But if he has as much power as you're saying he does, then the only thing you can do, they only thing you should do, is run."

A muscle ticked in Damon's jaw. "As enlightening as that idea is, we don't have the luxury."

"Then it's your funeral." Jo turned on her heel to leave.

The front door swung open then and in walked Lockwood with the Wonder Twins.

Jo stumbled to a stop and stared in shock at Liv and Luke.

Damon cocked his head and crossed his arms. This should be interesting…

Tyler stepped into the parlour with a laboured sigh. "What apocalyptic problem is it now?"

Liv came forward, wide-eyed. "Bonnie?" She cast a look at Damon and then back to Bonnie. "How?"

"Stubborn ingenuity on Caroline and Stefan's part." Bonnie half-smiled. "I wish we were calling you here for a celebratory resurrection party but, unfortunately, we've got a problem."

"When don't we?" Tyler smiled in Bonnie's direction. "Not that I'm not happy you're alive. I am. But now that the border is down, it took all of .3 seconds for a new problem to crop up. So? What is it?"

"Kai," Jo breathed out.

Liv and Luke whirled in her direction and stared, uncomprehending.

"That's not possible…" Liv said.

"All right, let's hit fast forward on the shock part of this." Damon twirled a finger in the air. "It's possible. He's back. We want to kill him, permanently, and we need your help."

Liv was already shaking her head and backing up. "No. No way. This is way too dangerous. If Kai is back then the smartest thing to do would be to leave, immediately."

"Yeah, we already heard that from your sister." Damon waved a thumb in Jo's direction. "Not an option, Twinderella."

Brow furrowed, Liv stared at Jo a long beat. "Josette?"

Jo swallowed and crossed her arms tight across her chest.

Drawing a deep breath, Damon turned on his heel, already rolling his eyes. "I need a blood bag. Somebody call me when the family reunion is over." Stalking from the parlour, he made his way downstairs to the cellar.

It was a few minutes before he heard footsteps on the stairs and looked up to see Bonnie making her way down. He raised an eyebrow. "Come to save me from the outdated packaged stuff?"

Bonnie snorted. "No." She eyed his mouth as it wrapped around the stem of a blood bag, sucking on it like a straw. Her nose wrinkled cutely. "Jo, Liv, and Luke are talking. It felt kind of invasive to hang around and listen." She hugged her arms around herself, her gaze bouncing around at the cob-web covered walls. "I know I said we should bring the twins in, but what exactly are we expecting from them? Even if Kai killed their family, they seem genuinely terrified of him. I don't know if they'll even help."

"We're not asking them to join hands and sing Kumbaya with brother dearest. We just need them to shed a little more light on who he is. It's hard to track a complete stranger. And I don't know about you, but siphons aren't exactly my forte. So, maybe they know a weakness we don't."

Nodding, Bonnie chewed her lip.

"What's wrong?"

She glanced up at him. "I just feel like we're three steps behind. He's out there, doing we don't even know what, and we're here, trying and failing to come up with a plan to kill him. The only thing that might even slightly keep him from leaving town is the vague possibility he might be able to track down a Bennett. But if he believed you when you said there were none left, then what if he really did leave? What if he's just out there, walking free? What if we released that kind of evil on the world?"

"Hey… This isn't on us. If anybody should be shouldering the blame, it's probably Stefan and Carebear."

She snorted. "Ha. Ha."

He grinned. "The point is, we didn't ask to come back, and we definitely didn't ask for them to release Killer Kai on the masses. And yeah, maybe he did leave town. But honestly, I doubt it. I know a guy on a mission and he's got one. Maybe it's hunting down a Bennett or maybe it's finding his family and coven. But I don't see him packing away the daddy issues and walking away from this."

Bonnie frowned thoughtfully. "What if he is looking for his coven…? Liv, Luke, and Jo could be in danger."

"We're all in danger. Personally, I'm a little more worried about you than the witchy trio upstairs."

She softened, a faint smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. "I appreciate that, but I don't want them getting killed in the crossfire either."

"Is that your heroic martyr cape you're donning right now?"

"No… I just want to walk away from this with as little bloodshed as possible."

"You and me both."

She raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Hey, it's been a long time since I had to kill somebody; I'm not eager to step back up to the plate. But Kai needs to go. And I know you, Bonnie. You won't walk away from this until the threat is gone. It's your most annoying and endearing quality."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Thanks."

"Anytime." He cast his gaze upward. "I think they're done reminiscing. Time to head back in and bully some witches into doing our bidding." He held out a hand for her to take and grinned when she didn't hesitate to accept.

Damon led her back upstairs and into the parlour, releasing her to a seat at the table.

A brooding Liv and confused Luke sat across from her while Jo was fiddling with her hands, leaning into Alaric as he rubbed her shoulders soothingly.

Caroline poked her head in. "All clear?"

Alaric gave her a subdued nod.

Slowly, everyone trickled back into the parlour, with Tyler quick to take up a seat next to Liv, his shoulder wedged against hers supportively.

"What's your plan?" Liv demanded, staring up at Damon with firm, unforgiving eyes.

Damon exchanged a look with Bonnie before looking back at the table. "We were hoping you might be able to tell us any weaknesses Kai might have, or siphons in general."

"Their biggest weakness is magic itself," Jo answered. "Siphons rely on having a steady magical source because they can't create their own. But if he absorbed as much magic as you say he did… Then he's more powerful than he's ever been. With regular witches, we have a threshold of what we can handle and what we can put out. If we use too much, we risk dying. But our magic also replenishes. If we take care of it, use it sparingly, nurture it and its source, then we're fine. Siphons don't have a threshold. There is no 'full' or 'too much.' Which means that he could unleash all of that power over a short amount of time or all at once and it won't hurt him like it does us."

"So, how do we stop someone like that?" Caroline's brow furrowed. "I mean, is there a way to bind his magic? To keep him from unleashing any of it?"

"No. Because the magic itself isn't bonded to him. He's just a conduit. For us," Jo motioned to herself and the twins, "magic is part of us. It's who we are. Even if we don't use it on a regular basis, it's at our core. With Kai, he's just a vessel. And the only way to stop him is to drain him or kill him."

"But draining him of that kind of magic would take time. He would have to expend all of it in one go." Luke shook his head. "Kai isn't an idiot. He won't waste it like that, not until he knows he has a new source."

"Where would he find that?" Stefan asked.

Liv and Luke turned to Jo, both looking apologetic.

Jo sighed. "We never merged. And technically… It's his right. By the rules of our coven, he's owed a merge."

"There's no way you'll survive it!" Liv exclaimed; her eyes wide. "He'll kill you and then he'll have a permanent source of magic."

A sinister voice in the back of Damon's head piped up that as unfortunate as that would be, it would technically put a cap on Kai's magical abilities. He would be just as vulnerable as any other witch, only a lot more homicidal. Whereas currently, he could probably wipe out the whole of Mystic Falls with a snap of his fingers and still have some left over in the tank. But, that also meant sacrificing Jo. Sure, she was basically a stranger to Damon, but sacrificing innocent people wasn't his go-to plan anymore. He imagined, if Bonnie had an idea of what he was thinking about, she'd be right back on the hate-Damon bandwagon, but he couldn't help it. Right now, he was staring down the barrel of a gun and there were only so many empty chambers.

"So, let's say he doesn't drain Not-So-Twisted Sister and we don't figure out a way to drain him of all that power, all we have to do is kill him, right?" Damon clapped his hands together. "How hard can it be?"

"Hard," Jo emphasized. "If he sees you coming, he'll kill you without missing a beat."

"We already met once. He was creepy in a play-with-your-food-before-you-eat-it kind of way, but I've dealt with worse." Damon shrugged. "Look, we're right back to Plan A. Distract and decapitate."

Lockwood pulled a face. "Distract him with what?"

"Not what, who."

Alaric frowned. "No. Absolutely not."

Damon's eyes narrowed accusingly. "You weren't complaining when it was Bonnie's pretty little neck on the line."

Alaric scowled. "At least with Bonnie, there's a chance he'll spare her. If you dangle Jo in front of him, he'll force a merge and kill her without missing a beat."

"The only thing we're sure of is that Kai will want revenge," Caroline piped up. "Whether it's on the Bennetts or his coven. Which is the bigger draw?"

Luke rolled his eyes. "Us, obviously. We're his family. He'll merge with Jo and then go home to slaughter the rest of them. Liv and I included."

"So, we don't dangle Jo then. We dangle you and Crazylocks here within view. Kai thinks he can follow you home or sniff out where Jo is, and we swoop in and take him out then and there." Damon dusted his hands off. "See? Easy."

"What makes you think we're willing to get anywhere near him?" Luke stood from the table, a hand on Liv's shoulder, urging her to follow. "You made this mess, you can clean it up."

Just as they started marching for the door, Damon flashed in front of them, an insincere grin on his face. "If I remember correctly, that bag of crazy fell off your family tree, not mine."

Liv glared. "My family put him away in a prison world. Yours let him out!" Her hand twitched at her side. "We did you a favor coming here and hearing you out. But if you don't move out of our way—"

"Big words coming from a scared little witch." From the corner of his eyes, Damon could see Lockwood starting to rise from the table.

"Everybody stop," Caroline shouted. "Fighting with each other isn't going to help us stop Kai. We need to be on the same page!"

"Not only are we not on the same page, we're in different books," Liv spit through clenched teeth. "If you want Kai dead, kill him yourself and leave us out of it." She thrust a hand forward then and the pain that swam through Damon's head was excruciating. His knees turned to jelly and he felt himself sinking to the floor as he clutched at his head. As quickly as the pain came, however, it ebbed. He blinked spotty eyes and realized that the twins were no longer standing in front of him. Instead, they were pinned to the adjacent wall, dangling some five feet off the floor.

Panting, Damon stared at them, confused.

Jo hurried from the table to stand in front of the twins. She whirled around, eyes wide, until they fell on—

"Bonnie!" Caroline rushed toward her, a hand finding Bonnie's shoulder.

"You're a witch?" Jo's brow furrowed in confusion. "But, I thought…" She looked to Alaric accusingly.

He held his hands up in surrender. "She wasn't when she died."

Jo's expression hardened. "Let them down," she demanded.

But Bonnie wasn't looking at her. Instead, she was staring at Liv and Luke with a blank expression, her elbow pressed tight to her side while her hand was raised, fingers curled in a mimicry of a claw.

Damon shoved himself up from the floor. It was a good thing he'd recently had a blood bag or it might have taken him a little longer to shake off the after-effects of a serious aneurysm. As it was, the pain was a distant echo already.

Jo shifted her feet, getting into a stance Damon was well acquainted with.

He frowned. "She's a Bennett. You're, what, a rusty witch with a medical degree? You might want to rethink this."

"I'm not the only one who's rusty."

Damon's eyes narrowed. "Ric, call off your little girlfriend or I'm gonna make you the boyfriend equivalent of a widow."

Jo thrust one hand abruptly to the right and Alaric was thrown off his feet and directly into a bookcase. It splintered upon impact, wood and books falling atop him as he hit the floor. "Nobody controls me. Not him, not Kai, not you, nobody."

"Okay, I think everybody needs to take a breath…" Stefan walked forward carefully, his hands raised non-threateningly. "Bonnie was just trying to protect Damon. Just like you're trying to protect Liv and Luke. All right?"

"If that's all it is, then she can let them down," Jo bit back. "Now."

"Maybe she would if you'd stop barking orders at her!" Caroline snapped. Soothingly, she rubbed Bonnie's shoulder before quietly telling her, "Not that I'm not seriously excited that you have your powers back— I really, really am— but maybe this isn't the best time to be showing off. We might actually need these guys later, so we should probably be on their good sides."

Bonnie blinked— once, twice. Slowly, her body relaxed and her hand slid down to her side. At the same time, Liv and Luke dropped to the floor. Jo twisted around to check on them.

Pissed, Liv and Luke shrugged away from her concern and stood abruptly, snarling in Bonnie's direction.

But Caroline, Elena, and Stefan were quick to step in between, blocking the way between the Parkers and Bonnie.

Lockwood stepped in then, his hand finding Liv's. "Let's just go," he urged.

She glanced up at him, frowned, but after a beat, she nodded. Together, Liv, Luke, and Lockwood hurried from the parlour and out the front door, letting it slam behind them.

With a groan, Ric climbed from the debris layered on top of him and cast an exasperated but strangely amused look in Jo's direction. She shrugged back at him. With a shake of his head, he dusted himself off and joined her. "I think that's enough for one night. Why don't we pick this up in the morning?"

Damon gave a vague nod and waited until they too had left before he let his guard down.

"I'll be right back," Elena mumbled before hurrying after Ric.

"How do you feel?" Caroline smoothed a hand over Bonnie's hair worriedly. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Bonnie reassured.

"Really? Because ten minutes ago you couldn't do magic."

"Care, I'm fine," Bonnie promised. "Seriously, you don't have to worry."

Caroline chewed her lip, unconvinced.

"Why don't we give you a chance to breathe," Stefan suggested, tugging at Caroline's elbow.

"If you need anything…"

Bonnie smiled. "I know."

Caroline let herself be dragged away by Stefan.

Damon watched Bonnie for a moment, her smile fading as she stared up at the wall with a furrowed brow. And then her gaze fell to her hands, as if the whole experience was unfamiliar, and possibly even unwanted.

"Scared?"

Jolted, Bonnie turned to look at him. "No. I…" Her gaze fell. "Maybe. A little."

"What part of it's scary? That your magic is back or that, for a second there, you didn't quite have control of it?"

She swallowed tightly before whispering, "Both."

A drop of blood suddenly fell from her nose and caught itself in the cupid's bow of Bonnie's lips. Damon was in front of her in a blink, his thumb gently swiping it away, only managing to smear it across her mouth. She stared up at him from big, worried eyes, her lips trembling under his thumb. "I don't remember doing it. I… I remember her hurting you and then… Nothing. I heard Caroline's voice, but it was so far away. And then I was back, and it was like waking from a dream you can't remember."

"You didn't do anything wrong." He stared at her searchingly. "It was instinctive. You were just trying to help."

"But what if I hurt them? I wasn't even thinking! It wasn't me doing it. It just… happened."

"Bon…" His voice softened knowingly, and he let his knuckles gently glide over her cheek. "We're okay. Everybody's okay."

She nodded, a quick jerk of her head. "I should be glad. My magic is back. That means I can help."

"You were already helping."

She pulled a face, unconvinced. "I did a little research. Besides that, and possibly being bait, I didn't have much else to offer."

Sighing, Damon shook his head. "You're worth a lot more than your magic."

Bonnie stared up at him a long beat, her brow furrowed and her eyes teary. "I—"

The door opened and closed loudly, followed by a few sharp footsteps, and then Elena was standing in the doorway to the parlour. "Hey," she called.

Startled, Bonnie pulled away from Damon and quickly swiped at her face, wiping hurriedly at her nose. "Hey."

"I talked to Ric and Jo," Elena told them. "I know we're all pretty hellbent on the bait angle and luring him to us, but what if we just find him when he's not expecting us to? Take him completely off guard."

Damon cocked his head curiously. "And how would we do that?"

"That's why I wanted to talk to Jo. Her and Kai are twins, which means that maybe her blood can be used to track him down."

"You don't think he'll have a cloaking spell?" Bonnie wondered.

Elena shrugged. "It can't hurt to try."

Damon nodded. "When can we do it?"

"Tomorrow." Elena frowned. "She's not exactly in the mood to be around any of us. I think she also wants to try and reconnect with Liv and Luke, smooth things over. But she said she's willing to drop by first thing tomorrow and try a tracking spell. Once we find where he is, we can make a plan of attack from there."

Damon hummed. "Could work."

Elena rolled her eyes. "No, please, stop with he praise. I can't handle it."

He snorted. "Good thinking, Gilbert."

She grinned. "Thank you." Waving a thumb over her shoulder, she said, "Anyway, since we officially have another day to wait… I'm gonna go. I need to track down Jeremy and fill him in. If I see Matt, I'll let him know too." With that, Elena turned on her heel and left.

Damon turned his attention back to Bonnie who was staring at the floor with a puzzled expression. "You okay?" He pressed the back of his hand to her forehead. "You feel a little warm."

"I'm fine." She ducked out of reach. "I'm just tired. I think I'll go lay down for a bit."

Damon frowned. "Are you sure? I could make you some tea…"

"I'm sure." Bonnie made her way toward the stairs before pausing. "Actually, do you know where Mina is?"

"My room. I can grab her for you."

"No, that's—" Before she could even finish her question, Damon was gone and back. He handed a half-asleep Mina over to Bonnie, who immediately snuggled her, burying her face against Mina's neck. With a faint smile, she said, "Thank you," in Damon's general direction before continuing toward the stairs.

Damon watched her go and, when she was out of sight, listened to her quiet, soothing murmurs to Mina as she made her way to her room for a nap.

After a few minutes of pensive thought, Damon decided that there was little he could do. Kai would have to wait another day and Bonnie needed her rest. So, choosing to be productive, he made his way to the kitchen. He had pre-emptively picked up all the ingredients he wanted to make an amazing spaghetti sauce, so that was exactly what he was going to do.

…

Stefan found Damon in the kitchen, whistling along to a song on the radio, a towel over one shoulder as he kneaded at a mound of dough. Breathing in deep, Stefan's mouth watered at the scent in the air. "Is that spaghetti?"

"It is." Damon grinned. "Hungry?"

"What's the occasion?"

"Equal parts wooing and nostalgia."

"Nostalgia?"

Damon shrugged. "I did most of the cooking at home. Actually, I did all of the cooking. Bonnie could, and has, burned water."

Taking a seat on a stool at the island, Stefan rested his arms atop the marble counter. "Tell me about it."

Damon's brow furrowed skeptically. "About Bonnie's terrible attempts at cooking? It's pretty cut and dry. Other than a family hot chocolate recipe, her skills in the kitchen are mediocre, at best. She knows it, I know it, the local fire department probably knows it."

Stefan smiled slowly. "I meant about your life there. What was it like?"

"Ahh…" Damon's gaze fell. He was quiet for a moment, adding a dusting of flour before he buried his knuckles back into the dough. "Making friends has never really been my forte. I always screw it up eventually. Enzo comes to mind as a perfect example of that… But when I woke up there, I already had a sort-of built in life. I was doing contract work and there was a guy I carpooled with. Danny Herrera. Guy was… goofy. Told dad jokes every day, loved puns, the last guy you'd think I'd be buddies with. But there was something… I don't know. There was something normal about it. I was a human with a regular job, and I had a friend who told bad jokes and couldn't throw darts to save his life… Somewhere along the line, he became one of my best friends." He paused and swallowed tightly, an uncharacteristic wave of emotion crossing his face. "He had a daughter, four years back. Sofia. Sweetest kid alive. She's just…a ball of energy. Talk your ear off, easy. And I'm her godfather. Or I was…"

Stefan felt a lurch in his chest at the acute sense of loss that filled his brother's face.

"And then there's Chris. He worked construction with me too. We started Mina's Bar and Grill together. Threw all our savings into it. Emptied out the date night jar when things were tight… I never wanted anything as much as that bar. And when we finally got it up and going, it was perfect. Me and Chris, we built it ourselves. Stripped it down to the studs and put it back together better." He smiled then. "You would've liked Chris. He was my Jiminy Cricket a lot of days. Made me think about where I went wrong and how I could make up for it. He held me accountable without judging me. I don't know where I'd be without him."

Stefan nodded. "You had some great friends."

"I did. So did Bonnie. She had Carla, Danny's wife. Those two were tight. And Naomi, that was her bestie, second only to me." He grinned. "Naomi's a ball-buster, but she's loyal to a fault. And then there's Kayla…" His face pinched up and his mouth flattened.

Stefan cocked his head curiously. "Who's Kayla?"

"A friend…" He turned and moved to the pot, stirring the sauce. Clearing his throat, he said, "Kayla worked for Bonnie in the shop. She was still in school then. She had angsty teenager written all over her… She was a good kid. Her parents weren't around much, so she stuck pretty close to us." He wiped his hands on the towel and made his way back to the island. "Bonnie had a soft spot for her, so we helped her out a lot. Bought her groceries, helped her find an apartment, cheered her on through college… She graduated pretty recently. She wanted to be a big shot journalist and she got her first by-line in the newspaper last fall… We put it on the fridge."

Stefan hummed thoughtfully. "Who else?"

"There's Brandon. Good guy. He works with Bonnie. They're pretty close. Him and Chris have been together forever. They were waiting to hear back from an adoption agency. They're gonna be amazing parents."

"Sounds like you had a pretty full life."

Damon looked up and stared at Stefan. "Twelve years isn't a drop in the bucket. Not when you're human."

"And not when you're expecting it'll stay like that… You built up a whole world. A whole new family."

"You're still my family, Stefan. I told them about you too." He shrugged. "I mean, they thought you died in a tragic car accident, but they knew who you were. How much I missed you. How much I regretted not being a better brother."

Stefan swallowed down the lump forming in his throat. "You talked about me?"

"Course I did." Damon grinned. "You're my little brother." He nodded his chin down at the dough. "Speaking of, when was the last time you made homemade pasta?"

With a faint laugh, Stefan stood from his stool and rolled up his sleeves. "It's been a while," he admitted, making his way to the sink to wash his hands.

…

In the quiet shadows of a dream, memories swirled just out of reach.

The ghost of a kiss against her forehead. A hand folding around hers. A spare set of gloves. A bottle of red wine. Poetry in a language she doesn't know. A warm laugh rattling his chest. The wanton whisper of her name. Crystal blue eyes staring down at her as she spins and spins and spins in a dance that never ends. Longing and having and loving in absolutes. Gossamer bubbles in a claw-foot tub. Overdramatic kisses climbing her lace-dressed arm. The rev of an engine shaking the car beneath her as the world flies by in a blur. A hammock swinging between two trees. Ripe, red tomatoes sprouting in a lush garden. Ropes of twinkle lights strung across a fence. A crown of white flowers. A pair of golden rings.

Bonnie woke slowly, blinking blindly at the unfamiliar ceiling above. It took her a moment to remember where she was. The boarding house. As reality sunk back in, her dream became less and less detailed, leaving behind only a lingering sense of melancholy.

And then a yawning Mina was wiggling against her, tail wagging as she put her little paws on Bonnie's ribs and gave her a demanding shove.

Bonnie smiled down at her. "Hey Meen…" She scrubbed her fingers over Mina's ears. "Do you need to go outside?"

Mina gave a mighty bark before twirling around, her butt shimmying excitedly.

Bonnie shoved the blanket off and stood from the bed. Running her fingers through her hair, she said, "All right, come on."

Leaping across the bed, Mina hopped down to the floor with little to no hesitation. She wove herself in circles around Bonnie's feet, hopping and barking excitedly. When Bonnie reached the stairs, she scooped Mina up and carried her down, smiling as Mina licked her chin and wiggled in her grasp. The closer to the ground floor she got, the stronger the scent of food filled the air. Bonnie's stomach grumbled loudly.

Following the heavenly scent into the kitchen, she breathed in deep.

Damon was already grinning at her as she walked through the door. "Hungry?"

Bonnie felt a flush fill her cheeks and tried to shake it off. "I could eat." She walked to the back door to let Mina out and stayed in the threshold, keeping an eye on her as she walked in circles for a while before hunkering down.

She felt Damon's presence behind her and shifted to look back at him.

His gaze dropped to meet hers, warmth simmering in crystal blue eyes. "How're you feeling?"

"Better," she breathed.

"Good. Nosebleeds aren't usually a great sign."

"I'm fine." She cleared her throat and turned her gaze back toward Mina. "I was thinking of trying something later. Make some feathers float or light a few candles. Try to get the hang of my magic again."

"Or… you could rest a little while longer."

"Kai isn't going to wait for us to be at our best. We should be prepared—"

"We will be. But exhausting yourself out of the gate isn't gonna do us any favors." He patted her hip. "Come on, we'll fill you up with carbs and then I'll run you a nice, hot bubble bath."

Bonnie frowned up at him. "I don't have a tub in my room."

"You're in luck then, because I do." He walked backwards toward the stove and wiggled his eyebrows playfully.

She bit her lip to hide a smile and shook her head. "You're being way too nice. I should definitely be more suspicious."

"Yeah? Why aren't you?"

Her brow furrowed. That was a good question. One she'd asked herself and brushed off a few dozen times. "I don't know…" Mina crossed back into the house and Bonnie pulled the door closed. She made her way over to the island and slid onto a stool. "We were really best friends? In the other world?"

"Yup." He said it so easily, and cheerfully.

Bonnie squinted at him. "How did that… happen?"

"Wasn't hard. We were the only two people who remembered our old life." Damon started wiping down the counters and island. "In the beginning, it was probably more out of necessity. And familiarity. We could talk to each other, be honest, about things nobody else knew about."

"And then?"

"Then… we liked spending time together. Life was different there. There wasn't all this doom and gloom and chaos. We were happy and safe; our biggest worries were bills and budgeting."

She snorted. "You? Budgeting."

He half-grinned. "I didn't have a bottomless bank account like I do here. I had to work for my money. And when you do that, you start to appreciate it a little more. Which was why Sunday's garage sale scavenger hunt was a fun pastime."

Bonnie tried to imagine Damon, of all people, digging around at garage sales for a good find. A man who bought even his most basic of black tees from stores she would never set foot in for fear of spontaneous bankruptcy. "But you liked it? Living a basic human life."

"I did." He tossed the cloth in the sink and dug a bread knife out from drawer. He set a loaf of still warm French bread on the counter, along with a slab of butter. He left and returned with a cutting board and a butter knife. "I'll cut. You butter."

Bonnie plucked up the butter knife and fiddled with it absently. "Would you want to be human here?"

His brow furrowed. "Here?"

"If you had a choice to be human now, here, would you want to be?"

Damon's gaze dropped to the bread thoughtfully. He sliced off a few thick pieces and stacked them at the end of the cutting board. "I don't know… There, it was safe. There were no threats to worry about. Here… That's a whole other basket of trouble."

"Even if you left? You said you wanted to travel after…" She frowned to herself, buttering the bread absently. "Maybe Mystic Falls is the problem. It attracts evil to it like a beacon. But maybe away from here… Things could be different."

He cocked his head. "Are you hiding the cure to vampirism somewhere?"

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "No. It's a hypothetical."

He hummed. "Honestly, it would depend."

"On what?"

"Who I'm spending it with." He raised his gaze to meet hers. "Human lives are short. You have to make sure you're spending it with the right person."

Bonnie stared back at him, her heart thudding loud in her chest. Her skin felt unnaturally warm and the strange sense of time slowing seemed to swallow her. She felt suspended in the moment, dangling in a free-fall, caught up in the heaviness of what his words seemed to imply, and an image of a future she'd never dared consider.

"Oh my God, what smells so amazing?" Caroline walked eagerly into the kitchen. "No offense, Bonnie, I've had your cooking before, so I know this wasn't you."

Blinking back into the present, Bonnie turned to Caroline. "I'm not that bad!"

Simultaneously, and inelegantly, Caroline and Damon snorted.

Bonnie glared at them. "I can make a few things decently."

"The Bennett family hot chocolate doesn't count as a meal," he argued.

Her eyes widened in surprise. "I made you hot chocolate?"

"It's a winter staple." Bread officially sliced, he dusted his hands off. "You two can set the table. I'll grab Stefan."

Bonnie sat in stunned silence as Damon left the kitchen, Mina nipping at his heels. It was a small thing, really. But the idea that she shared something so personal, so dear to her family, with Damon… It solidified something in her mind. That whatever that other world was like, she and Damon had found some sort of common ground they had never been able to find in the regular world. Despite previously being confused, and even somewhat amused, at the idea of her and Damon being best friends, the more time they spent together, the more she believed him.

Caroline groaned appreciatively from her stance next to the spaghetti pot. "I don't always like him, but the man can cook."

"I won't take all the credit, but I did have a hand in making the pasta," Stefan announced as he walked into the kitchen.

Damon smirked. "If you count absolutely mangling the first batch."

"I was a little rusty," Stefan admitted.

Bonnie busied herself putting cutlery and glasses on the table. She brought over the cutting board of buttered French bread, a bowl of green salad, freshly shaved parmesan, and a jug of cold water. Damon had already laid out linen napkins by all four plates, each marked with a curling red S for their family name.

"Here, I can get the rest." Damon pulled a chair out for her.

Taking a seat, Bonnie's hands fell to her lap restlessly.

Caroline joined her at the table, smiling as she poured them each a glass of water.

Stefan and Damon followed, each carrying a bowl of sauce and pasta. Stefan took his seat beside Caroline while Damon sat across from him and next to Bonnie. She found herself hyperaware of his presence, his arm faintly brushing hers. He served them each out a bowl of salad and passed her a bottle of raspberry vinaigrette.

Bonnie watched as Stefan filled a bowl with pasta for Caroline, passing her a couple slices of French bread, the pepper shaker, and parmesan. As soon as he was done, Caroline was pouring sauce in each of their bowls. They worked together seamlessly. A couple that was well-used to what the other liked. While serving the salad between their bowls, Caroline was careful not to add mushrooms to Stefan's, while he stole a spear of red pepper from her bowl and popped it in his mouth as she glared at him playfully. It was sweet and tender and Bonnie couldn't help feeling happy for them. She'd always suspected Caroline's feelings for Stefan were stronger than friendship. But now, seeing how they'd grown into each other, she was glad it wasn't complicated or tainted like things had been in the past. Their relationship was organic and built on a foundation of friendship.

Damon nudged her arm and Bonnie returned her attention to him.

"Eat up. If you wanna use your witchy juju later, you'll need all the energy you can get."

"Lighting candles isn't going to drain me," she argued. Even still, she speared a bite of salad onto her fork and ate it. Raising her eyebrows at him, she silently asked if he was happy with her effort.

He smirked back before turning to Stefan and Caroline. "So, what did you two get up to while we were digging through Sheila's dusty memories of her glory days with Ruis?"

"Ruis?" Caroline looked to Bonnie expectantly. "Did Grams have some torrid affair?"

Simultaneously, Bonnie and Damon said, "Yes!" and "No!" respectively.

At Bonnie's frown, Damon merely chuckled. "All right, it wasn't an affair… But she was definitely hooking up with a hot carpenter."

"No way! Tell me everything," Caroline demanded, sitting up eagerly in her seat. "I don't think I can even remember the last time Grams went on a date. I mean, did she date?"

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "She met a carpenter in like, the eighties. His name was Jack and they had a brief fling."

"That she was still writing about and remembering over a decade later." Damon unfurled Bonnie's napkin and reached over to lay it across her lap. Waving his own open, he said, "He asked her to marry him, but she turned him down. Broke his poor little heart."

"She wasn't ready to remarry," Bonnie argued. "She was still in love with granddad."

"Didn't stop her from hooking up with Jacky-boy in the church bathroom."

Caroline let out a dramatic gasp.

"Damon," Bonnie admonished, bumping him with her elbow.

"Hey, I'm proud of her, personally," he said. "She deserved a hot hook-up."

Laughing, Stefan tried to bury it in a glass of wine.

Sighing, Bonnie shook her head.

"Do you think he's still alive?" Caroline wondered. "What if he's still in love with her? Aww, that's sad…"

Bonnie's expression softened. "I think she mentioned in one of her journals that he eventually got married to someone else, so I'm sure he's fine."

"Does he live in Mystic Falls?" Caroline waved a hand excitedly. "We could look him up. Oh my god, what if this is Grams' like one true love or something?"

"She never even mentioned him to me. I literally only found out about him because of the journals. Anyway, I really think she was still in love with granddad. So, yeah, maybe Jack was some whirlwind romance, but I think she met the love of her life long before him. And he stayed that even after he died." She paused, her brow furrowed. "I think Jack was just… a placeholder for the regrets she had in life. That she didn't do more or see more or have more… Maybe if things were different, she would've said yes and had a totally different life with him. But she'll never know, so she thought about him sometimes and she wrote about an idea of what life might've been like."

"Hmm." Damon scooped some pasta and sauce into her bowl before handing her the shaved parmesan. "Well, maybe there's a lesson in there about taking risks and not letting life pass you by."

Bonnie thought of earlier. Of Paris, then Florence, and finally Athens.

Damon turned to her, his brows arched meaningfully.

Abruptly, her vision went fuzzy and when she blinked, it was like looking into a foggy mirror. She was sitting in a completely different dining room. A table set for Thanksgiving dinner, dressed with dishes of food and long, tapered candles burning brightly. All around her were unfamiliar faces, filling their plates as the warm, welcoming noise of laughter and conversation filled the air. Bonnie turned to see Damon sitting next to her, his hair a little longer and faint wrinkles fanning out from soft blue eyes. He lifted her hand, pressed a tender kiss to her fingers, and smiled as her thumb reached up to stroke across his cheek.

When she blinked again, she was back in the Salvatore kitchen, and Damon was smiling at her the same way he had in her, what, vision? Memory?

She swallowed tightly. "Yeah," she said, her voice coming out a little more shaky than she meant it to.

He squinted at her, brow furrowed with obvious concern. But she just smiled and turned her attention to her food. "This looks amazing. You made this from scratch?"

Eager to brag about his cooking prowess, Damon launched into a step-by-step recipe for his sauce.

Bonnie wasn't listening. Instead, she was thinking of that moment, of that smile…

Best friends occasionally kissed their friend's hands…

Right?

[tbc]

author's note: in the grand scheme of things, a month and ten days in between updates isn't terrible for me. still, i'm sorry the wait was so long.

also, this story officially hit 2k reviews! holy freaking shit! thank you all so much!

a lot of this chapter was honestly just damon testing to see how close she would let him get. a part of him definitely wants to just tell her everything, but he also understands that bonnie is not ready to hear what they were, so he's letting her set the pace. at the same time, bonnie is letting herself be comfortable with damon. partly because he's been so good about things and partly because of this strange feeling of familiarity she doesn't totally understand. but with her new revelation at the end of this chapter, there's going to be some serious emotional upheaval. and things are going to start picking up here with kai. he's been lurking out of sight, but he's eager to start causing problems.

also, can i just say hurrah for bonnie having her powers back. i wanted there to be a trigger moment similar enough to the prison world in canon. damon and her desire to protect him is the reason her powers spark back to life. but we all know that having her powers doesn't solve everything. bonnie still has to reconcile what it means to be a witch without sacrificing herself for the sake of others.

anyway, i hope you enjoyed this! i've already started working on the next chapter, so hopefully the wait will be shorter.

thanks for reading! please try to leave a review!
~ Lee | Fina