As Bonnie Bennett ran from Damon's car, her body lengthening the further away her feet carried, she mentally high-fived herself; all that training was finally paying off. Stopping at the coffee shop, not remotely out of breath despite the trickle of sweat that moved down her back, Bonnie peered in through the large window, but sadly Kai was no longer there.

She had seen him walk in from her vantage point in the back seat of Damon's car; seen him striding along the sidewalk, his face merged into the devious smile of a killer who believed he was beyond reprisal. But standing outside the shop, her hands cupped onto the window, her eyes straining to see each and every customer, Bonnie wondered if it was all in her imagination: an imagination that was recently running wild. Did she see really see Kai, or just what she wanted to see?

Sighing, her body finally feeling the burn of her all out run, Bonnie leaned against the shop. She shook her head, disappointed in herself for believing it would be that easy; that she would see Kai out and about, walk up to him and kill him. Now, Bonnie knew, there would be more to it than that.

Squinting into the sunlight, back down Main Street, Bonnie could barely make out Damon and Elena, arguing, she was sure, next to the car. Bonnie knew Damon would give her hell for leaving, but she hoped it would be due to his worry for her and not his worry of lying to Elena.

Lifting the hood of the sweatshirt over her dark brown hair, Bonnie moved away from the coffee shop and further down the street, leaving Damon and Elena behind.

xxxxx

As the afternoon wore on, Damon dropped Elena off at her dorm, letting her stomp to her room, staying behind and steering clear. He hated lying to her about Bonnie, her best friend, but in the past year Bonnie had also become his… best friend, and his loyalties were torn.

"Help if you want," Elena had spat at him as she exited his car, referring to Caroline's swan dive off of humanity's high board. Of course he wanted to help. Elena, and Stefan, for that matter, were extremely important to him and he would do anything for either of them, including spending a day traipsing around Mystic Falls searching for a lost blonde. But, Bonnie was out there too, and Damon felt she needed him more.

Pulling out from the parking lot, turning back onto the street, Damon thought, for just a second, that he had seen Bonnie, moving about the throngs of students on Whitmore's campus; but that couldn't be, could it? Damon shook the thought from his mind and drove on.

xxxxx

"Why are you getting mad at me?" Elena asked Stefan, her cell phone cradled between the softness of her cheek and the sharp edges of her slender shoulder. She was searching the room she shared with Caroline, rifling through drawers for clues to her whereabouts, while pretending her argument with Damon hadn't happened.

On the other end of the line, Stefan relayed his apologies and his own guilt, but Elena knew if anyone could handle a humanity-less existence, it was probably Caroline. But she wasn't sure she should tell her former lover that, especially considering how concerned he was about his soon-to-be new lover.

"We'll find her," Elena assured him, before hanging up the phone.

"Find who?" Bonnie asked, already knowing the answer. She was standing just in the doorway to Elena's room, her hair still covered by the hood.

As Elena turned around, surprise colored her face. Bonnie took off her sunglasses and smiled, as brightly as she could, despite how awkward the situation seemed to be.

"Bonnie," Elena said, almost in a whisper.

"You know it," Bonnie replied, trying to sound light. She was always doing that, masking her own fears and pain to make everyone else feel at ease. It worked, because in less than five strides, Elena was wrapping her up in her boney arms, squeezing down on her back and crying tears of relief into her shoulder. Bonnie couldn't help but feel Elena's relief pour into her own pores and together the two woman were suddenly beaming.

That was Elena's gift, Bonnie knew; to take the worst of things and minimize them. At least, that was her gift when it came to other people – when it came to herself, Elena did anything but minimize, as was evidenced as soon as their hug ended.

"Caroline turned off her humanity," she blurted out, wanting, selfishly, to unload her problems and bring in re-enforcements.

"Because of her mom?" Bonnie asked, knowing that, of course, that must have been the answer.

"Yeah," Elena responded, "and a whole thing with Stefan and his feeling for her." Bonnie raised an eyebrow of suspicion and confusion. "It's a long story."

Bonnie wanted to tell her best friend that she had some long stories too; that it would be nice to be asked about them, even if they didn't have the time to dig deep; that she was the one who was gone for over 200 days and Caroline had been in trouble for less than 20 hours.

Elena was strong and beautiful; she was willing to die for her friends, running into battle, sometimes stupidly so, sometimes becoming the problem or hostage or helpless damsel herself. But Bonnie knew her intentions seemed good; no one could question that. Could they?

When they were children, Bonnie almost looked up to Elena and when they were teenagers, she couldn't help but draw from her strength. Losing both her parents in a terrible car accident and still coming to school, making good grades, falling in love and living life, Bonnie envied it all. But as they grew older, or as Elena stopped growing all together following her vampire turn, something changed. Even talking about Caroline, Bonnie knew Elena loved her, but the change meant that Elena couldn't bear to be told things that could, in any tiny way, be construed as her fault. Instead of welcoming Bonnie and whatever story she needed to tell, Elena minimized the incredible journey she must have made, thinking, stupidly once again, that it would minimize her own responsibility in Bonnie's absence and perhaps, if she was lucky, all of Bonnie's pain.

"Bonnie," Caroline said as she strode into the dorm room, her hair in tight twists, her dress showing to much thigh, and her lips stained with a slight tinge of red from Liam's blood. "Where the fuck have you been?"

Bonnie couldn't help but smile.

"Caroline," Elena gasped, "we've been looking for you everywhere."

Caroline moved passed her friend and stopped short of Bonnie, staring her in the eyes, as if scanning her for signs of life. Both of their lives had taken such turns, and even without her humanity, without her ability to fully care, Caroline wasn't ignorant of what Bonnie must have gone through in order to get back.

"Where are your manners, Elena?" Caroline quipped, her eyes still firmly placed on Bonnie. "Our friend here has been locked away in a hell dimension for God-knows how long and all you want to do is talk about little ole' me? Aren't you just a tiny bit miffed about that, Bonnie?" Caroline pressed her nose to Bonnie's nose, having to slump down a bit to do so, as her high-heeled boots made her at least two inches taller than the Bennett witch. Caroline smiled big. "Oh, no. I can see it in your eyes. You're downright pissed."

"Caroline," Elena started, trying to diffuse the situation.

Caroline turned around. "What? Ask her."

Elena looked over Caroline's shoulder to Bonnie, but Bonnie couldn't respond. It was all happening so fast and not nearly the way she had expected. Where was the welcome home? The real welcome home? Not this crap.

"Have it your way, Bonnie, but no one's going to respect you if you can't be bothered to stand up for yourself."

Caroline sat on the edge of the bed, crossing her long, lean legs.

"I respect her," Elena said. "I respect you both."

"And it definitely shows," Caroline said sarcastically. "So, Bonnie, how was hell?"

"Not great. Probably could have used a few humanity-free days there myself," Bonnie replied, matching Caroline's wit. Caroline laughed.

"That's not helping," Elena told Bonnie.

"Did you two do the hugging? The whole "I'm so happy to see you" tear-fest? Or, was a it a huge letdown?"

Bonnie nodded her head in agreement, without even thinking about it.

"What are you saying yes to?" Elena asked.

"Isn't it obvious, Elena? I mean, I wasn't outside the door listening to your pathetic reunion or anything, but if I had been I'm sure I would have heard you barely have time to ask Bonnie if she's okay before launching into another episode of the Elena Show. I'm the one who turned off my humanity, not you, but I bet you couldn't help but recruit poor, fucked up Bonnie to drop her own baggage and pick up yours. Come search with us, Bonnie. Help us convince Caroline to come back, Bonnie. Use your intelligence and strength and magic to make me look good, Bonnie. It's always the same. Right?"

"Screw you, Caroline," Elena spat out, turning her back on both women and stalking across the room. "You know I care about Bonnie. I love Bonnie. I almost died being drained off all my energy, trying to get Bonnie out of that hell dimension. Don't pretend I'm the only one who has a selfish day. This whole no-humanity bullshit is nothing but selfish Caroline."

"Well, you did do it first, so I guess you would know." Caroline got off the bed and walked to Bonnie. She wrapped her arms around her limply and gave the weakest hug Bonnie had ever received. "I'm hugging you now, but since I don't really care that you're back, it's a shitty hug."

At least Caroline was honest. She released Bonnie and made for the door.

"Where are you going?" Elena asked her.

"Elena, I'm fine. Better than fine, actually. So maybe you shouldn't worry about where I'm going, but where Bonnie has been."

Caroline let the door slam behind her, as if telling all that truth had created a hurricane, sucking the air out the room.

"You know I love you, right?" Elena shyly asked, after a minute or two of terrible silence had gone by.

Bonnie did know that, she was absolutely sure of it. And hearing about what Elena had done to save her, Bonnie kicked herself for thinking that Elena was so selfish she didn't care about her. She had to remind herself, that any conversation about how and when she returned to the land of the living would have to include Damon, and, just like Elena, there were some things Bonnie wanted to minimize. If only she had just Damon take her out for pancakes.

"Let's just figure out how to help Caroline," Bonnie told her, before walking out of the room.

"Are you mad at me?" Elena wondered aloud, as she followed closely behind.

"No," Bonnie said, and it was true. She wasn't mad, she was disappointed… in both of them.

xxxxx

"It's about damn time," Damon said as he strode to the front door, following a long, loud procession of knocks. He assumed Bonnie was back, after bailing on him earlier in the day. He couldn't blame her, Elena was coming right for them, and Bonnie had seemed nervous and scared. Maybe she had seen Elena in the distance and wanted him to stop the car in order to avoid such a moment, but he hadn't listened, and stopped too late, right in the center of the storm.

The knocking started up again.

"Keep your pants on, Bonnie," he called out. "Not that I wouldn't mind seeing—"

As the door opened, the sight of Kai stopped Damon in mid-sentence.

"You can definitely keep your pants on," Damon said sarcastically, before closing the door in Kai's face.

"Damon, please," Kai yelled, his fists continuing their assault on the door. "I really need to speak to you."

Damon scoffed. Kai was the last psychopath he wanted to talk to. "Get away from my door Crazy, before I come out there and make you!"

"We both know I could kick your ass," Kai told him.

"Baiting me won't work, Kai. No matter how deluded you are," Damon replied, knowing that with Kai's newly gained merger powers, he was probably no match, but Damon never backed down from a word-battle.

"I'm not baiting. I'm telling you I'd win in a duel of magic versus vampire, but that I'm not using magic right now, am I?" Kai called through the door. "I could knock this door down Damon, but that's not what I want to do. So, please, let me in."

With his curiosity peaked, Damon reached for the door handle, still not sure if he should entertain Kai.

"It's about Bonnie," Kai finally said, sounding dejected.

Without another thought, Damon opened the door.