A/N: I saw this quote that Spike said to Buffy on Tumblr (thanks Wowzersduh) and I thought with some tweaking here and there it would be the perfect quote for Bamon. I didn't add it in verbatim, but took parts of it and came up with this baby that's also inspired by another one of my favorite couples. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW. No copyright infringement is intended.
This was her last night here. At least that's what she told herself. That was the agreement. Work yourself to the bone, never sleep, never eat, don't even dream about anything else because everything centered on him. He was the reason she clamored out of bed way before the sun rose. He was the reason her BlackBerry perpetually stayed glued to either her hand or head. He was the reason she flew in like a hurricane and reshaped everything about him, strengthened his weaknesses, took on the problems that mattered to him and wore them as her own.
Bonnie Bennett shifted her feet on the emerald grass. A sharp wind blew by causing her to stiffen and tuck her face into the high collar of her cream Burberry coat. It was a mild spring to which the locals took full advantage of, but Bonnie didn't have time to enjoy it. She didn't have time to enjoy anything. Not when she was stuck in marathon long advisory and strategy meetings. She didn't have time to enjoy anything as she sauntered down the halls in her nude pumps and her curls bouncing against her shoulders as she barked out orders to key members of her staff.
Her role should have ended back in November, but he kept her on, convinced her that without her by his side everything they had worked tirelessly to accomplish could all fall down the political drain. Bonnie remembered he had chided her once in saying that she underestimated him. At the time she didn't fully express her deep rooted opinion on how powerful he could become with the right people lighting the way. She knew that some people had to discover and figure things out on their own, so she didn't stoop to argue with him, nor agreed with his assessment. She merely told him:
"You do your job and I'll do mine."
Those days of traveling from city to city, town to town, state to state was over. It was nothing but a multimillion dollar armada all leading to Oz, and she was here, they both were.
Now she was leaving. It was the only right and logical thing to do.
Her BlackBerry chirped in her hand. Bonnie stared, transfixed, at the caller ID and sent the call to voice mail. She just needed a minute, one minute to clear her head before returning to her office to do the one thing that would be extraordinarily hard to do. Bonnie had typed so many speeches, memos, notes, emails in just a six-month time span that she was lucky she hadn't developed carpal tunnel syndrome. Yet she would have welcomed it anyways because everything she had been doing, she did it for a good cause—the best cause there ever was.
Maybe she was being biased. Maybe she was letting her personal feelings cloud her judgment. It wouldn't be the first time, but it was definitely past time for her to get her head out of the clouds and stop playing this game. It was dangerous. It was dirty. It was scandalous and it could not only tarnish her reputation but it would destroy his.
Her thoughts were unpatriotic. That's probably the first thing he would accuse her of. Bonnie had to smile at that. They had been here before. They had had this talk before and just like the other times it all ended the same way.
Behind closed doors and under bed sheets.
A rush spiked through her. She berated herself. She said she wouldn't go back there. There was no going back only moving forward, and it was time she took control of the reins to her life and left while she was still recognizable to herself.
The sound of size eleven Hugo Boss wingtip Oxford shoes approached her from the east. Bonnie didn't bother looking over her shoulder to have her suspicions confirmed or denied. She knew it was him. The wind carried over the scent of his cologne, something she had picked out because it was a fresh wintry scent that reminded her of his glacial blue eyes.
"It's not Thursday night," his seductive voice spoke a foot and a half away from her left ear.
"I know that."
"Something must be on your mind. You're in our spot, but you didn't call me or give me the Bat signal."
"I needed a minute."
He shifted again, this time standing next to her shoulder-to-shoulder. When Bonnie chanced a look at him she realized he wasn't wearing a coat, not that he ever needed to wear one. He was in a basic black suit, white shirt, plain blue tie. Simple yet elegant and fit his body like a glove. All of his suits did.
"What's on your mind?" he asked.
Bonnie sighed. "Lots of things. I think I'm at that point where a woman starts to question where she wants her life to go next, what her next move should be. I'm nearing thirty. My mom keeps staring at me with eyes full of longing for grandbabies."
A crease formed between his dark eyebrows. "I thought you were already on the path you wanted to be on? I thought this was the life you wanted?"
"You assumed."
"We talked about this, extensively or where you just saying what you thought I wanted to hear? You got on my case about that," he reminded her.
Bonnie lowered her eyes to her hands, glad they weren't shaking. "I know what I said. I remember all of our conversations. They are what keep me going throughout the day when we can't…see each other. Stolen moments. That's all we're going to have and until the both of us realize that nothing will ever change. And I need to change it."
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose before stepping in front of her. "Bonnie, you are the most important person in my life…"
"Damon…"
"Just listen to me for a second. I've lived a long life and I haven't always made a ton of great decisions but the best decision I've ever made was falling in love with you. And when I say I love you, I'm not saying it because I want you or because I can't have you. I say it because its the truth. I love who you are. What you do. How you can make a way out no way. And I love your unfailing ability to bring down my ass a peg or two or five. I've seen your kindness and your strength. We've seen the best and the worst of each other; you're my missing half. You're the love of my life, Bonnie Bennett."
She smiled nervously. Bonnie had heard similar confessions like this in the past, and they all touched the deep places of her heart, places several men in her history had tried to ignite and failed horribly. But he didn't. Bonnie should have known she didn't stand a chance the first time they laid eyes on one another and she read him his Miranda Rights on why he would lose the South Carolina primary. And from that introductory speech they spiraled down a hopeless slope of forbidden love, unbridled passion, and the best toe-curling, paint melting, heart attack inducing sex in either of their lives.
"Mr. President…" Bonnie blushed and looked down. Damon tipped her chin up boring into her chartreuse eyes.
"Say it again."
"Mr. President."
"You're not leaving me. I know a resignation speech when I hear one."
Bonnie wanted to stare up at him stupefied but couldn't. He knew her too well and what should have been disconcerting only made that love she was trying to wrestle into a cage burst apart like a piñata and override her common sense.
"I'm not yours," she painfully reminded him. Her eyes dropped to the platinum band on his ring finger.
Damon couldn't argue the point, but did say, "You're mine in every way that matters."
"Everyway that matters?" Bonnie questioned heatedly. "How many times have we gone jogging around The Mall? How many times have you picked me up from my apartment, taken me to dinner, to plays, to movies? How many times have we just wasted entire weekends working on crossword puzzles or watching mind-numbing television? How many times have you held my hand in public, or kissed me whenever you entered a room? How many times have you told me you love me while the cameras are rolling and the lights are flashing? How many holidays have we spent together? How many times have we danced together at public and private balls? How many times have you sat at my grandmother's table and shared war stories? How many times have we simply just been a couple in love, Mr. President? How many?"
The only sound to be heard was the traffic flying down Pennsylvania Avenue and the crickets. A sea of crickets.
"I've helped give you the world, Damon. What have you given me? Words."
"It's not like that! I want to give you me! All of me! Every single last fucking drop of me, Bonnie! I was willing to give up this whole thing for you! But you spurred me on, told me that the nation needed someone like me in office, and I listened to you although deep in my gut I didn't want it with a tenth of the passion as I wanted you! You think I want this? You think I want to keep what we have a secret from the whole fucking world? I would love nothing more than to wake up next to you everyday, to hold your hand, take you out on dates, kiss you whenever I feel like it, meet your family and not be followed around like a criminal all the time. I don't want to just give you words, Bonnie. I want to give you my soul, my last name. I want you to have my babies."
Tears slipped from between her eyelashes and down her cheeks. Licking her lips, Bonnie took a deep breath before looking up at Damon's enraged face. He was always beautiful to her, far more than ordinary handsome. His face alone is what really won him the election. Not the policies he wanted to introduce; or his promises of tax cuts and affordable healthcare. It was his pale skin, glowing cobalt eyes, ink-black hair, devilish mouth, swimmer's physique, and boyish charm that won him the highest seat in the land.
Settling his hands on her shoulders before sliding them up to cup her cheeks, Damon continued, "I know you're in a terrible position and I'm at fault. I'm the one that's married. I'm the one that's President, but none of that matters to me. I'll march in that office and I'll resign right this second. I'll tell Rosalie I want a divorce if you agree to marry me."
"Damon," Bonnie had to work overtime to hide her shock yet also her excitement. She knew this was nothing more than wishful thinking on both their parts. "You're not being rational. You can't just quit during the first year of your presidency. You have so much good you can accomplish and I can't allow you to throw it all away especially not over me. I won't do it. I won't let you do it either."
Damon sighed. "You're missing the point."
"No, I'm not. Do you think that's what I want for you?"
President Salvatore took a step away from his Press Secretary. "So this is it? Your plan all along was just to screw me into the Oval? You don't love me?"
Bonnie's nostrils flared. "How dare you! You're thinking with the wrong head, Mr. President," she retorted snidely. "We've all had to sacrifice something to get you elected, and if you resign your actions will be like spitting into the faces of each person in your campaign, and also the American people. Four years, Damon."
"I can't wait that long. I'll murder someone if I have to live another second without you, Bonnie."
"This is getting us absolutely nowhere."
"Agreed," Damon took her by the hips and then pushed her up against the nearest tree. He wedged his knee between her thighs to widen them and make room for himself.
Their arguments, as tiresome as they could be sometimes, were always the match to his libido. He had an unhealthy obsession with this woman, his campaign fixer who was now his Press Secretary. He had offered her the position the moment he won the election because the idea of letting Bonnie Bennett slither away into obscurity and resume her role as being a junior partner at a Virginia law firm was unacceptable. He needed her, wanted her, craved her, and was willing to offer her a seven figure salary just to tempt her to stay. He knew it was never about the money or the benefits to Bonnie. She lived for this life, this was her drug—thinking and formulating solutions on her feet. She was probably a better politician than him. So when he and Klaus Mikaelson, his Chief of Staff were reading through resumes trying to pick the right staff Bonnie was at the top of their lists, but for obviously different reasons.
Bonnie's hands tightened around the lapels of his jacket. She hated him but she loved him. Loved the way he made her feel. She came alive whenever she was in the same vicinity as President Damon Salvatore. When they were forced into separation, Bonnie took on project after project just to give her racing mind something to do, to keep her thoughts away from Damon and seeing him in all his naked glory. They broke several constitutional laws whenever they were alone like this.
She hissed the second his lips made contact with her throat, his tongue drawing lazy designs against her hot flesh before taking her mouth. Bonnie became liquefied and evaporated as his tongue darted in and out before circling hers. Blood rushed everywhere and she allowed it to continue until she heard Damon trying to unbuckle his belt.
"Damon, please don't do this," Bonnie broke their kiss.
"I need you, Bonnie," he stared at her imploringly. "I need you. You can't leave me."
"If I stay…I can't…I'll lose myself. I already have. I don't sleep."
"Neither do I."
"I can't focus when we're not together."
"It's the same for me, too. I know you hate this, the sneaking around like we're a bunch of teenagers, but…other than me resigning there's no way for this to work."
"I know," Bonnie pushed him away. "That's why this needs to end."
Damon shook his head. "I can't stop. We've gone too far to stop."
Bonnie pushed down her pencil skirt. "But it's not too late for us to turn things around. You're going to be the president that America needs, and I'm too much of a distraction, a liability."
"Stop coming up with excuses. I'm a grown man. I can control myself."
"Oh, really?" Bonnie pointedly stared at the tent in his pants giving her a salute.
Damon smiled sheepishly. "I can't help it if he has a mind or agenda of his own," he sobered. "Bonnie, please just…I know I shouldn't ask for this, but give me—us more time."
"More time for what?"
President Salvatore had no earthly clue. He needed more time to convince her to stay on board, to not give up what they had. If he had to pull every dirty trick in the book, he'd do it. He wasn't against using emotional blackmail to get his way.
Just as he was about to answer a third party joined them. "Ah, it's the dynamic duo."
Bonnie and Damon jumped out of their skins as they turned to face the Chief of Staff.
"Klaus…I was just going over some…negotiations with Miss Bennett. Did you need something?"
A knowing grin displayed on Klaus' face. "Yes, Cairo's Prime Minister is on the phone."
Damon nodded his head. "Give us a minute. I'll be in my office shortly."
Klaus volleyed between staring at his boss and his protégé before pivoting on his heels and marching off.
Bonnie's heart didn't resume its normal beat until she felt the coast was clear. "That is why this needs to stop."
Damon violated her personal space again and traced her bottom lip with the pad of his thumb. "Getting caught is apart of the fun," he kissed her slowly, languidly until Bonnie was clutching on to him for dear life. When he pulled away and saw the glaze to her eyes which were half-lidded he knew for the moment she wasn't going anywhere. He had just bought himself some more time. A week at the most but it would be a week she'd definitely remember. "I'll see you in the morning."
Damon walked off without waiting for her reply. Bonnie watched him as she drew her tongue over her lip.
"I'll see you in the morning…Mr. President."
The end.
A/N: If Damon was ever elected president then God help us. If you watch Scandal, like I do, this might have read more Olitz than Bamon so apologies on that end. But a reader had asked me if I thought about doing a Scandal based Bamon and I said it might have been difficult to sell because who can take Damon seriously as president, but the idea did intrigue me. Unfortunately at the time I was still working pretty hardcore on Think Twice and didn't want to add another big project to my plate. I made changes and swapped out Allison from Teen Wolf with Rosalie Hale from Twilight to be Damon's wife. But let me know what you think about it. Love you guys! Thank you so much for reading!