I disclaim. I own nothing.

AN: I'm sorry it's taken so long to get this chapter up. The story is nearing the end and I'm struggling a bit with it. I don't want to drag it out, but I don't want it to seem abrupt. I won't say how many chapters are left because I don't want to scramble to stick to what I say. I'm gonna try to do better. Hopefully the next update won't take as long.

Chapter 28

"What the hell were you thinking?" The smell of blood, the sight of another vampire at Elena's wrist, had Stefan's eyes bleeding black. "She could have killed you."

"Could have, but she didn't." Elena snatched out of Stefan's grasp. "And I was doing what none of you would. Saving her. I wasn't just going to let my best friend die."

"Elena," Damon spoke her name sadly as he gazed back and forth between the two girls. "You shouldn't have done that."

"Bunny?" Framing her face in his hands, Tyler tilted her head back. Her eyes were bleeding from black to green. Blood, Elena's blood, staining her chin. And she was gone. So very far gone. "Bunny, come on baby, look at me." And she did slowly, the green taking over the bloody black.

"Was it enough?" Caroline asked, earning glares from the Salvatore brothers. "What? She did it now, it shouldn't be for nothing."

"You all should leave." Damon shared a look with Stefan. A freshly turned vampire in a room full of hot blooded humans, one of them bleeding, was going to turn ugly very fast.

Stefan grabbed both Elena and Caroline's arms, pulling them out of the room, but Tyler didn't move away from Bonnie.

"I'm not leaving." That he could still feel her, that the bond between them hadn't changed, was all the proof that Tyler needed to know that, no matter what, he and Bonnie belonged together. "I won't leave her alone."

"I wasn't asking wolf."

Damon reached for Tyler, snapping Bonnie out of whatever trance she had been in. Quick as a flash her hand caught hold of Damon's wrist and with a combination of magic and preternatural strength she sent him flying. Her eyes had bled black, sharp teeth prominently on display.

"I told you before to never touch him." Her voice was a low growl unlike any of them had ever heard before. "No one touches him."

"I'll be alright." Tyler assured them. "Just leave us alone. It'll be okay."

Stefan wasn't too sure of much, things were spinning rapidly and dangerously out of their control. But what he knew, what he was near positive of, was that Bonnie would never hurt Tyler. His impatience and anger at the entire situation had him shoving Caroline and Elena none-to-gently out of the room. "Let's go, Damon."

"She needs to be-"

"Not now." Stefan snapped at his brother. At this point there were two people currently in the room that he was sure Bonnie would never hurt. And Damon was not one of them. "Come on."

Damon was reluctant, but eventually pushed himself to his feet. "Fine."

"What the fuck were you thinking?" Stefan demanded of Elena.

He stood, still as a statue, in front of the fireplace. Damon pacing behind him. Caroline had lowered herself onto the couch, feeling as if years had passed in the space of a few hours. Elena stood tall and unwavering across the room. It was clear in her eyes that nothing they said to her was going to convince her the decision she made was the wrong one.

"Did you really think I was going to sit back and do nothing?"

"No, we foolishly thought you'd listen to reason." Damon bit out, growing more agitated by the minute.

"Let Bonnie die, that's reason to you?"

"Elena," Stefan softened his tone, hands coming together as they always did when he was trying to reason with someone. "I know what you were feeling. Bonnie is as much a sister to you as Damon is my brother. Because I loved him, because I couldn't stand the thought of not having him with me, I tempted him into a life he didn't choose."

"And you see where that's gotten us." Damon quipped.

"It's not entirely the same though," Caroline began slowly, still weary of Damon. And not at all sure of how he would react in his current state of mind. "Is it? I mean, from what I understand, Damon was all wrapped up in his love for Katherine and not being with her."

"But the point is still the same, blondie. Bonnie," Damon began slowly, as if talking to a particularly dimwitted child. "Did not want to be a vampire. And yet she is, because of Elena's selfishness."

"Don't you dare stand there and act as if you know what Bonnie wants." Elena snapped out. "You don't know her, not like I-" She broke off looking at Caroline. "We do. And what I know is that she was afraid. She was afraid of dying. She didn't want to die. But-"

"She needed to know it was okay." Caroline picked up, realization dawning. "That if she became a vampire we wouldn't hate her or think less of her or be afraid of her. She needed that from us," She pointed between herself and Elena. "Because Tyler…Tyler."

Stefan looked between Elena and Caroline. His girlfriend seemed proud that Caroline had finally cottoned on to what she was thinking. He just wished they clued everyone else in. "What about Tyler?"

"I wasn't just saving Bonnie." Elena shot Damon a withering look. "I was saving Tyler."

"God, she never would have forgiven us." Caroline mumbled.

"What the hell are you two talking about?" Damon demanded. "Why did Fido need saving?"

"Grams loved to tell the story, you might have known that if-"

"Elena." Stefan's voice was quiet but firm as he tried to ease the tension between his girlfriend and brother.

"When Tyler and Bonnie were babies, Mrs. Lockwood brought Tyler over because he was sick and she was feeling overwhelmed. Grams was one of Mrs. Lockwood's professors and they were always kind of close I guess. So, while they were there, Tyler was screaming his head off, and Grams was trying to calm him down. Bonnie's mom brought her over." A sad, wistful, smile touched Elena's lips. "Grams would say the instant Tyler laid eyes on Bonnie he stopped crying."

"We all use to laugh and tease Tyler about it." Caroline added.

Elena nodded her agreement. "Still we chalked it up to Grams being Grams."

"And a little drunk." But there was no malice in Caroline's comment. She smiled as she said it, missing Grams and who they all were. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

"But when you consider how they are together, everything we know about how they feel about each other." Elena turned to Stefan. "They were babies, just babies, and they've been glued at the hip ever since. Do you really think Tyler would have been able, or even want, to go on without her?"

"That's why he was so calm, so okay with all of this." Caroline explained. "As far as he was concerned he and Bonnie were going to be together regardless."

Damon stopped his pacing just behind Stefan's shoulder. The way the brothers stood, the way they both frowned, they may have never looked more alike.

"Are the two of you," Damon's frown gave way to a highly amused smirk which turned into a full on grin. "Are you two seriously trying to imply that Tyler would have killed himself if Bonnie died? Seriously, all of a sudden they're Romeo and Juliet."

"Nothing sudden about it."

She wouldn't allow him to touch her, insisted he stay at least an arms length away. Her shirt was stained with Elena's blood, body tucked into the corner, her eyes shut tight.

"You should have left."

"Well…" Back against the wall, Tyler slid to the floor. "You knew that wasn't going to happen."

"I can make you go away."

"You wouldn't."

"Stop it." The words thundered out of her, causing the door to slam shut and the wood to splinter. "Stop trying to act like something isn't seriously wrong, that things aren't different between us now."

"How? I'm a werewolf, Bonnie. You're a witch, I'm sorry a witch-vampire hybrid. It doesn't change-"

"It changes everything!"

Tyler moved closer, as calm as she was frazzled. "I love you. That's never going to change."

That wasn't fair. Wrapping her arms tight around her knees, Bonnie wondered why he just couldn't be fair. "What if I stop loving you? It could happen. According to Stefan and Damon, I could cut it off. Shut off my emotions until I feel nothing at all."

Tyler was quiet as the reality of that hit him. And it hurt, but it wasn't an unfamiliar pain. It was one he knew all too well. "Last year I wanted to ask you to homecoming. I was going to ask you to homecoming. It's so lame, but I just knew that if we went together we'd be together, you know." He moved so that he was sitting even closer to her. "The night I came to your house, do you remember, I climbed into your window while you were on the phone with Elena. You were telling her how Pete Godley had asked you to the dance. You told her you didn't know if you were going to accept or not."

"I was hoping you would ask me."

"Didn't know that, not at the time. Just like, the night we kissed, I didn't know you didn't have feelings for Jeremy. All I knew was that I loved you, I was in love with you, and you would never feel that way about me. I was convinced I didn't deserve to have you feel that way about me. It hurt to look at you, hurt to even be around you, but it didn't change the way I felt." It would be different, knowing now what it was to be loved by Bonnie and to have her feelings suddenly change. Worse, he thought, much worse than it ever had been before. But he knew what it was like to love her, knew how to love her, knowing she didn't feel that way in return. "Nothing is ever going to change the way I feel about you, Bunny."

"I just want to go on record saying I think this is a bad idea."

"Fine," Damon smirked. "We'll put it right under the record of you and Elena having the single worse ideas ever."

"Not ever." Bonnie mumbled.

Stefan thought it may not have been the worse idea ever, it sure as hell was going to the biggest pain in the ass. But Bonnie needed to learn and he needed Damon's help to teach her. "Can we start. Or do you two want to bicker some more?"

It was full dark out, the moon hidden behind clouds, and what little light did escape wasn't strong enough to break the tops of the trees. Stefan wanted Bonnie to learn to use her senses. They tried to start her out slow, in the house, but all she'd been able to hear, smell, or see was Tyler. Which is how he ended up here, miles into the forest with two sulking vampires. Bonnie because she'd been dragged away from Tyler and Damon because Bonnie had to be dragged away from Tyler. Stefan wondered if the day would come when he'd stop being punished.

The last few days had been…strangely familiar. Familiar if you didn't count Bonnie speeding all over the manor, or answering questions from a different part of the house, or drinking glasses of blood. Other than that, he'd walked out of the shower two mornings in a row to find Bonnie lounging in his bed with Elena. Or having to hunt Elena, Bonnie, and Caroline down.

Stefan didn't know what Tyler said to Bonnie, didn't know how he got her to come out of her cell. Part of him didn't ever really care. He was just glad to see Bonnie. Not the scared girl, the newly fed vamp, or the guilt ridden hybrid. She had smiled at him, rolled her eyes at Damon, and even though things were forever changed. He was glad that Bonnie wasn't forever lost to them.

Now it was time to get to work. Things were too quiet for too long and Stefan had a feeling they had played right into Klaus' hands when Bonnie was turned.

"Did you feed before you came out?" Damon glanced over to Bonnie, but her attention was focused elsewhere. "Witch!"

"Damon," Bonnie flinched as Damon's voice seemed to vibrate off her eardrums. "What?"

"I asked if you've fed."

"Yeah," Bonnie answered absently. "Do you think they're safe?"

"Bonnie," Stefan began quietly before Damon could make the situation worse. "We need you to focus."

"I am."

"On us."

"Alright, fine." She knew they were right. They'd given her time, let her get use to her situation, the least she could do is give them her attention now. "Sorry. Lead on."

They went at it for hours. Bonnie never wavered, never complained. Stefan was impressed by how quickly she was picking things up. Truth was they were out a lot longer than necessary and he'd picked up on his brother's need to keep Bonnie away from Tyler and to himself just a bit longer.

"Very good, witch. Let's just hope the next thing you hesitate to sink your fangs into something it scurries away as well."

Bonnie scrunched her nose up at the thought of draining a mouse. "I thought you testing my reflex's not my instinct to kill."

"We're testing everything, now get your head in the game."

"So, freaking, annoying."

Stefan and Damon both grinned at the barely concealed comment.

"Don't you think she's had enough for one night, Damon." Stefan was actually beginning to get a little antsy about being away from the house for so long now. So many things could go wrong so very quickly. He thought now they were just testing their luck.

"Not until she finds that mouse and brings it back."

"First of all I'm not a barn cat, I'm not fetching mice. Second, there's no way I can find that same mouse again. It's been a long night, Damon, let's just go."

"No," The voice came from somewhere with the trees. "You all should stay."

The only way Elena could think to describe the way Tyler moved across the room was prowling. And at one point she would have sworn he sniffed the air. She'd never seen him like this. Usually, the days leading up the full moon, Bonnie kept him close to her. To be honest she didn't know how Bonnie did it. Tyler was barely recognizable to her, more wolf than the boy she knew. And somehow that was more disturbing than when he was actually the wolf.

"Something's wrong."

Caroline looked up from the magazine she was pretending to flip through, her eyes going immediately to Elena.

"She seems fine to me." Elena answered. "Tyler, use your link."

"Okay," Caroline tossed her magazine aside. "Can you not say that like you're asking him to use his words. And Tyler, can you-"

"Care." Elena warned. Prodding Tyler now would only lead to trouble.

"I don't know how you guys don't smell that."

"Smell what, Tyler?" But Elena was suddenly hit with a wave of panic. Before she could fully grasp it or even say anything, Tyler was moving faster than her eyes could see. Grabbing her and Caroline by the arm he shoved them behind his body just as the manor door flew open.

"You've made things so convenient for me."

Katherine stepped slowly into the clearing, pale face so much like Elena's Bonnie wanted to be sick.

"I'd hoped you would."

"I think you may have overshot your goal this time, Katherine." Damon's voice was smug even as his stomach clenched. Three of them and he was still counting the number of vampire's Katherine brought with her. "She's a Bennett. You know their power."

"I knew Emily's power." Katherine gave Bonnie a pitying look. "She's know Emily."

"You're right. I'm not." Bonnie's head came up, just a quarter of an inch, and fire sprung up just outside the clearing. Screams filled the air.

Katherine looked duly impressed. "Maybe you're not. But I'd bottle that rage for now if I were you. Another little outburst like that and I'm wearing your wolf as a hat."

"You can't get to him."

"Of course I can." Confident, Katherine began to approach them slowly. She spoke to Bonnie but her attention was focused entirely on Stefan. "My people have the house surrounded. They don't need to be invited in, just set fire to the outside. Don't you watch Angel, Bon? One strike of a match and we have your wolf, Stefan's little substitute for me, and the other one. Now you come with me and all of that can be avoided."

Knowing, when it came to Tyler or herself, just who Bonnie would choose, Damon stepped quickly in front of her. "I'm going to rip your heart out."

"Aw," Katherine gave him a condescending smile. "Of course you will, precious. Bonnie, shall we?"

"Why are you doing this, Katherine?" Stefan demanded.

"Because Klaus doesn't know when to call it quits. It's time for a shake up at the top of the vampire food chain."

"Fine, but why involve her." Stefan stressed. "We have nothing to do with a war between you and Klaus."

"Sure you do, when you're sitting on a Bennett witch. She can open that tomb, a tomb containing a great number of vampires not particularly happy with yours truly. Klaus gets your little half-breed to open that tomb after he tosses them a couple useless citizens of this town, they're going to come after me."

"Don't really see the downside to Klaus' plan, Kat." Damon smirked. "Don't really see a downside to any plan that ends with you dead."

"He's gonna kill you, too, you know." And she seemed to take great pleasure in telling him that. "He doesn't like you, Damon. He thinks you're reckless and foolish."

Damon rolled his eyes. "And he shared this information with you when?"

"Never." It was Klaus' turn to step into the clearing. "But she's right. I am going to kill you. Just like I killed everyone of Katherine's little minions." He smiled a cold, deadly smile. "Hello, children. Let's play."