Disclaimer: I don't own the Vampire Diaries nor am I making any profit from this. Characters, etc. all belong to their respective owners.

A/N: So, I've always wanted to write a Bonlijah fic (because, even though I don't show it very much, I actually really love this pairing), but other than a one-shot I wrote a long time ago, I never got around to it. But, I've been doing a summer re-watch of TVD, so I figured why not? This is one of those fics that I'm not banking on being very long (like in the ballpark of 10-ish chapters or so).

This begins right after 3x15 (where Bonnie's mom gets turned into a vampire).

Enjoy!

She doesn't sleep. Or she can't. She's honestly not sure which. She's not sure it makes a difference.

It's not the first time she's suffered from a bout of insomnia. It had happened after Grams died, and when Jeremy cheated on her, and when she thought she really would die from trying to kill Klaus, and so forth. It's not a surprise it'd happen again now that her mother's a vampire.

Every time she closes her eyes, she remembers the fear she felt when she really thought Stefan would kill her, she hears a resounding crack echo in the otherwise eerily silent house.

So, she lays awake in the bed in the guestroom she and Caroline had been sharing in Abby's house.

Abby and Caroline had gone out hunting and they haven't been back in a while. Bonnie's not surprised or worried, though. Or at least she tries not to be worried. She figures that this sort of thing can take a while…especially since Abby is already having a hard enough time with the transition.

A knock on the door has her sitting up in confusion. Who the hell would be at the door this time of night?

She tentatively slides out of bed, her bare feet making soft padding sounds on the hardwood floor and she moves from the guestroom to the foyer to reach the front door. She hesitates, her hand hovering above the door knob, thinking that maybe it could be Damon or Elena or any number of people the she honestly didn't want to see…or couldn't quite face yet.

Taking a deep breath she twists the knob, pulling door open, only to reveal Elijah Mikaelson on the other side of the door.

"Good evening, Miss. Bennett."

"Evening? It's midnight?" She says tightly once she finds her words again. "What the hell are you doing here?" She really wants nothing more than to slam the door in his face right now.

"I apologize for the late hour, but it is important that we talk," he says calmly, tucking a hand in one of the pockets of his immaculate suit.

"You're insane if you think you're going to get invited in," Bonnie hisses, her grip on the door tightening to the point where her knuckles turn white.

"You misunderstand me. I don't need an invitation. I'm merely being polite."

He doesn't need an invitation because of what's happened to Abby, Bonnie realizes much to her own horror.

"We have nothing to talk about. You made yourself perfectly clear when you sent Stefan and Damon to kill me and my mother." She's surprised but relieved that her voice comes out so evenly given that she's more than a little shaken on the inside.

"Bonnie?" comes Jamie's tired voice. "Who's at the door? Is something wrong?"

"Don't worry about it," Bonnie says, not turning to look at Jamie. "He was just leaving."

And with that, she slams the door right in his face.

She ignores Jamie's questions as she heads back to the guestroom. It's not until she's laying down and staring at the ceiling, still unable to sleep, that she realizes she's shaking.

She's greeted the next morning to Caroline scrambling some eggs (or at least attempting to) and cheerfully humming.

"Good morning," she greets perkily. Way too perkily. "So, thing didn't exactly go marvelously last night, but they could have been a lot worse. I keep trying to talk Abby into blood bags instead of forest animals because I think it would make things easier, but she really hates the idea, so…"

She bites her lip at Bonnie's non-responsiveness.

"Uh, oh! You left your grimoire out on the front porch last night," she says, pointing her spatula at the kitchen table where an old book lay.

With a frown, Bonnie walks to the table, picking up the tome.

"This isn't mine…" Bonnie trails off in confusion, sitting down. She delicately flips through the yellowed pages in confusion.

"What? Why would someone randomly leave a grimoire on the front porch?" Caroline asks, her face scrunching up.

Bonnie shakes her head, having no answers.

Maybe Elijah left it? She wonders. But why…he probably wants something. He always does. Everyone always does.

Her eye catches something inside the front cover of the grimoire. It's old and faded handwriting, but if she squints, she can just make it out.

Ernestine Bennett.

Emily's mother.

If Elijah really left this, how did he even have it in the first place? Did he know Ernestine? Did he know Emily?

"Damn!" Caroline curses as she suddenly seems to remember the eggs in the frying pan. "So, they're a little burned," she says as she shuffles them onto some plates, "But they're still edible!" She offers a plate to Bonnie.

"Thanks, but I'm not hungry," Bonnie murmurs, still staring at the name written in the grimoire.

"Too bad, you're eating anyway," Caroline informs her, shutting the grimoire and moving it to the side before setting the plate down in front of Bonnie with a clank.

Bonnie sighs and gives Caroline a look. She knows there's no point in arguing when Caroline's in full out caretaker mode.

"I know it doesn't seem like it right now, but things will be okay," Caroline tells her softly. "I mean, Abby turned for you, so that means something."

"No, she didn't," Bonnie says, pushing the eggs around on the plate with her fork. "See, no matter which way you look at it, me and Abby…we're strangers. We don't really know each other. I couldn't even recognize who she was in my dreams at first. And when I first came here…she had no idea who I was, what I looked like. She didn't even know Grams had died. She never bothered to check up on me."

"Bonnie—"

"We don't know each other," Bonnie repeats, finally looking up at Caroline. "No one would make the transition for somebody they don't know…especially when you're a witch. If she's doing it for anybody, then it'd be Jamie."

She tries not to sound bitter at that. She really does. But how does one deal with the fact that their mother abandoned them and then raised someone else's child?

"Bonnie…" Caroline tries again.

"It's fine," she tells Caroline quickly with a strained smile. "When I first came here with Elena, I said that wasn't suddenly expecting to get a mom. And I'm still not. I just feel guilty that she got caught in our crossfire."

She's left alone later that afternoon when Caroline and Abby go hunting again and Jamie decides to go restock on groceries. He had invited her to go along, suggesting that maybe getting out of the house would do her good, but she really wanted to be left alone.

She's flipping through Ernestine's grimoire when there's a knock on the door. She tries to ignore it, really not wanting to be bothered, but the knocker is persistent.

She probably shouldn't be that surprised that it's Elijah again.

"I see you found my gift," he says, nodding at the grimoire in Bonnie's hands and his lips curling upwards slightly.

Bonnie openly scoffs. "Nothing's ever a gift when it comes to you all," she says scathingly. "I don't know what you want and I don't care. You can shove it."

A voice in the back of her head tells her to cool it because, even if she'd love nothing more than to stake the vampire in front of her right now, he's still an Original and since her connection with the dead witches is now broken, he could easily kill her.

Shaking her head, she moves to shut the, but he easily stops her this time.

"I don't want anything from you," Elijah tells her. "Well, I suppose that's not entirely true. But it's hardly as sinister as you'd believe. I simply want us to reach an understanding and maybe even forgiveness."

She doesn't mean to laugh aloud at that, but it escapes her before she can help it.

"I don't know if I'm more angry or surprised," she admits. "Either way, it doesn't matter. I'm not interested in reaching an understanding with you." The word 'understanding' twists in her mouth. "Now, leave. Please."

He lets her close the door this time, but she has a feeling that this is far from the last she'll see of him.

A/N: Short first chapter, I know. I'll try to increase the length as I go along (I always seem to struggle with knowing where to end chapters and where to continue…). I know there's been other fics that take on the concept of Elijah trying to make right with Bonnie after what happens to her mother. And I actually love that trope because I'm still pretty miffed that Elena got this long ass apology letter while everyone else was like "lol, move on Bonnie, move on".

Anyway, thanks for reading and, as always, reviews are very much appreciated!