Disclaimer: Me no own, you no sue!

A/N: Located at end of chapter.

CHAPTER 4: THE CONNECTION

The springs in Jeremy's mattress creaked under their weight as Jeremy pulled Bonnie closer to him. She felt him wrap his strong arms tightly around her waist, he pulled back for a moment, his smoldering brown eyes searching hers and without hesitation he leaned in once more and initiated a kiss far more passionate than their first had been. Bonnie's heartbeat increased to a rate that was likely nearing a heart attack and her skin had suddenly burst into flames. She tangled her fingers into Jeremy's thick, untamed hair and soon all the feelings she had been suppressing for him sprung forth. Alongside the sheer desire she felt for Jeremy, for his company, his approval, his laughter, the way his eyes always spelt out exactly how he felt about anything, and the worry he felt for her when no one else did; Bonnie also felt panic as thoughts of Elena and what would likely be feelings of hurt and discomfort at any sort of relationship between Bonnie and Jeremy other than a strictly platonic one. Jeremy had enough reasons to be involved in the supernatural happenings of Mystic Falls than he needed. Bonnie would not be another person that Jeremy would blindly sacrifice himself for if the situation called for it. She would never be able to live with that. Jeremy sighed against Bonnie's lips and began to ease her down onto the mattress. Still in thought, Bonnie allowed him to, yet realization struck and the panic began to rise in her throat. Jeremy had planted his forearms on either side of Bonnie, and held himself just close enough for her to feel his chest against hers. The silver chain dangling from his neck felt warm against her skin. God, she was weak.

As Jeremy hovered over her, his eyes roamed her face in disbelief.

"How are you allowed to be so beautiful?" Bonnie felt his thumb stroke her cheek as he spoke.

Bonnie had to get away from Jeremy's gentle touch. As she starred at the sheer perfection of his face, his full pink lips, his dark eyes, at the boy she had known her entire life but at the same time hadn't known at all, she knew just what she was giving up and for whom. Bonnie would be keeping her and Elena's friendship, and she would also be protecting Jeremy this way. If anyone targeted her, Elijah or Klaus or whoever else came their way, she would not give them a reason to target Jeremy too. How would Elena ever forgive her if Jeremy got hurt or killed trying to protect Bonnie? She doubted that even Elena could overcome that sort of loss, after already having lost her parents.

"Jeremy, what are you doing?" Bonnie commenced the sequence of her lie. She hated lying to him. She hated lying to the one person she could be honest with.

Jeremy rose one of his naturally arched eyebrows. "Well Bonnie, I'm preparing myself to continue making out with you. Like we have been for the past um," he paused to glance at the watch on his left hand "three minutes." he winked at her seductively.

"Oh God," Bonnie allowed a look of shock to wash over her face. She was an excellent actor, she'd even been told so. She placed her hand on Jeremy's chest and gently pushed him away. "I'm so sorry Jeremy; I was still kind of loopy from my vision. That shouldn't have happened."

She felt compelled to look away, but her eyes were unable to resist darting back to Jeremy's face to see his reaction. Jeremy tensed his jaw as he nodded his head slightly. He did not look at her. Bonnie felt the urge to spit it out and tell him she was crazy for trying to lie to him, for trying to avoid her feelings for him any longer. She wanted to feel his warm lips against hers once more. Instead, she simply patted his arm in a friendly way. He looked up at her, and in that moment the hurt and anger in Jeremy's eyes was unmistakable.

His eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "Be honest Bonnie, is this because you don't have feelings for me or is this because I'm Elena's little brother?" Jeremy mocked her and it was clear that to some degree, he could see through her lie. If he knew her reasons, maybe he would have understood more. But he couldn't know, wouldn't.

Bonnie sat silently, unable to muster the ability to string together a sentence that wouldn't hurt him further.

Jeremy took her silence as confirmation for what was either one of his suspicions or both. In one fluid movement he was off the bed and heading towards his bedroom door. As Bonnie watched his retreating back, her mouth was left agape as Jeremy effortlessly pulled his deep grey v-neck off and tossed it onto the hardwood floor.

"I'm gonna have a shower, so you should probably go." As he reached for the doorknob, the muscles of his smooth back jumped around as he whipped the door open. He turned to her, giving her a view of his solid chest, what were basically washboard abs, and a thin line of hair that started just below his navel bordered by two prominent lines that led into his fitting jeans. All that was under there, of course it was. Why would he be easy to resist? Jeremy stepped to the side to allow her to leave, and Bonnie was certain she detected a sense of smugness behind his angry façade that dared her to walk away.

Bonnie averted her eyes and began to quickly toss her things into her bag, also grabbing the files and witch hazel that Jeremy had gathered for her. She'd look over the files at home and try to understand the purpose of her vision and also the properties of witch hazel. She zipped her bag closed and climbed off the bed awkwardly, her eyes glued to the floor until she reached Jeremy's stoic figure. She craned her neck upwards to look at him, and allowed a genuine smile to appear on her face even though his expression suggested that any effort to repair things was not welcomed. She wouldn't bother trying.

"I," Bonnie cleared her throat "I've really appreciated your help through all this Jeremy. And you're the only person that I've felt I can trust with what's actually going on with me. So I guess, I'll go through your research" she motioned to her bag "and I'll let you know what I find." No reaction came, so she headed through the door.

Having forgotten her manners, Bonnie turned around quickly and blurted, "Thanks for having me by the way!"

Jeremy looked past her and shot a curt nod in her direction before slamming the door in her face. Bonnie found herself starring at the white door in front of her wondering what she had done to deserve her being in such an impossible situation. She grazed the handrail with her fingers as she descended down the stairs; her ears perking at what sounded like Lithium by Nirvana blaring from Jeremy's room. He clearly hated her now. Bonnie slid on her boots and shut the door behind her softly, Jeremy's music muffled behind the mahogany door. Sighing, she headed towards her car. Setting her things onto the passenger seat, Bonnie unzipped her bag, laughing mischievously to herself as she unearthed a pair of Jeremy's plaid boxers and hugged them to her chest.

"Dad?" Bonnie called into her house as she struggled to get the keys out of the lock of her door while carrying her bag and attempting to balance three text books at the same time. Out of town as usual Bonnie happily concluded. Bonnie's father, although situated in Mystic Falls, worked as a criminal prosecutor in Jamestown, Virginia. Originally, her father James Bennett had worked for the courts of Mystic Falls handling mostly petty theft, since before Stefan and Damon Salvatore had arrived the worst crimes her father and the one other lawyer in town had to deal with was shoplifting. Her father had been offered a job at the Court of Appeals before all the mysterious deaths began in Mystic Falls. Kicking the door closed, Bonnie plopped everything she was carrying right onto the floor in front of her and was about to head towards her room to change into more comfortable clothes, when a thought popped into her head. Dropping her jeans right there, she stepped out of them and slid easily into Jeremy's green plaid boxers. She decided that had never felt more comfortable in her life and then headed to the kitchen to make herself some tea. As Bonnie waited for the water in the kettle to heat up, she thought back to the kiss she had shared with Jeremy barely twenty minutes ago. Bonnie absentmindedly let her fingers drift to her lips and began to smile dumbly. She had it bad, she had it real bad. Bonnie snapped out of her trance once she heard the kettle ding, indicating that her water was boiled. Searching through the cabinet that she had solely dedicated to tea, Bonnie selected her favourite chamomile and placed a teabag into the deep mug she had selected and let it brew as she gathered her thoughts regarding her vision, although all she was really trying to do was keep her thoughts away from Jeremy.

In her vision, Bonnie had watched as the slave known as Tituba witnessed what she presumed was some sort of deal with the devil, made by a man named Samuel Paris. Tituba was then threatened by Samuel's brother, Tom and subsequently raped by him also. Her heart ached for Tituba and the woman's longing for her lost love Bastian. Bonnie hoped they had found their way back to each other. Securing her mug of tea, she grabbed the information Jeremy had gathered and spread it out in front of her on the kitchen table. As she starred at the stack of papers in front of her, Bonnie simply could not believe the effort that Jeremy must have gone to in finding everything. First she scanned through the handwritten notes Jeremy had made regarding the healing properties of witch hazel. He hadn't had the chance to explain to her in person due to her vision.

- Witch hazel (Hamamelis) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Hamamelidaceae, with three species in North America (H. Ovalis, H. Virginianaand H. Vernalis).

Jeremy had underlined the second species of the flower, H. Virginiana. It was likely the type he had secured for her and there was a good chance that it was grown in their home state. So Jeremy was not only insanely attractive, but also intelligent and extremely intuitive. And his writing was so boyishly messy. He was getting harder and harder to resist.

- In John Gilbert's journal, he wrote that witch hazel had been given its name due to the healing properties it instilled in those who possessed magical abilities

- He wrote that it works best when boiled and then drank as tea

- The nutrients and other healing properties can be accessed the best this way

With that, Bonnie reached over to Jeremy's cigar box as she eyed her steaming mug of tea. Sliding it open, she plucked up a piece of witch hazel and submerged it in the warm liquid. She hoped the witch hazel didn't taste too bitter. But with her first sip, she found it was sweet in an appealing way. She set her mug down and continued flipping through the information when she came to a beautiful drawing Jeremy had made of a bundle of witch hazel. The detail and likeness of his drawing left Bonnie awestruck. He made everything he drew beautiful, and she secretly hoped that one day Jeremy would draw her. If Bonnie ever tried to draw Jeremy though, she doubted that she could ever capture how she saw him through her eyes. How perfect he was to her.

Bonnie shook her head and discarded her thoughts. Next she went through the research Jeremy had did on the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. Her gram had told her that Bonnie and her family were related to Tituba, the Paris household's slave somewhere down the line. Jeremy must have remembered her having mentioned that since the second piece of research she found regarding Tituba was a family tree listing her descendants. She went on to marry a man named Gabriel Levy and have three children with him. However, to the left of her children with Gabriel was another child, a daughter named Abigail Levy whose father was listed as John Doe. The name triggered something in Bonnie's memory. Yes, Tituba had spoken about Abigail Williams, the child who was being raped by Samuel Paris, but the name Abigail Levy was one she had most certainly seen somewhere. Suddenly, it dawned upon Bonnie. She was up and running into the den of her home where her mother's family tree hung on the wall, framed in black. She switched on the lights and her eyes traveled directly to the top where the name Abigail Levy-Stone stood next to that of her husband, Robert Stanley Stone, and further down the tree, her mother's name, Evelyn Rhodes and her father James Bennet, and a thin line connecting them to her, Bonnie Bennett. So Bonnie was a descendant of Tituba and the daughter she had with an unknown man. The gears in her brain continued to operate and a flash of Tom Paris' handsome face entered her mind. Realization struck her, and slowly Bonnie raised hand to her mouth in shock. Thomas Paris had impregnated Tituba when he raped her, and so Abigail Levy was born, likely named after the golden haired Abigail Williams who Samuel Paris had raped over and over again. Tituba had wanted Bonnie to become aware of her connection to the Paris family…but why? She intended to find out.

Bonnie reached for her cell phone that she had left on the table nearest to the front door and began to scroll through her contacts until she reached the person she intended on calling. Holding the phone to her ear, the person answered just after the first ring.

"Bonnie, Bonnie, Bonnie, and to what do I owe the pleasure?" Damon Salvatore sing-songed on the other end of the phone.

"Damon…" Bonnie hesitated a moment before she continued. "I need your help."

A/N: What exactly does Bonnie need Damon's help for? What will Jeremy think of Bonnie going to Damon instead of him? What is the significance of Bonnie's relation to Thomas Paris and the Paris family, and is it connected to Klaus somehow? Find out in the next chapter of 'The Darkness'! I would also like to thank each and every one of you that reviewed this story while I was on my four month long hiatus, which by the way I deeply apologize for! I lost inspiration for a while, but it's your reviews that brought me back. Thank-you so much and please review, and perhaps if I get enough, you'll eventually get to see Jeremy Gilbert naked ;) !