Everything you know about the finale? Disregard it. I didn't like it. There was no Bamon. So I'm changing it. This story follows the events of 4x22!

"I never feared the unexpected,
Until I found myself
In this peculiar place..."

"Bonnie!"

His voice echoed in the tunnels beneath Mystic Falls High School, loud enough for the graduating students to hear, if they hadn't been so consumed with the excitement of their impending ceremony.

"Bonnie Bennett, I'm not here to play one of your witch-y mind games," Damon said, barely holding on to his temper. Things were a little awry in his town, and he needed Bonnie to fix it. Pronto.

His problems were her fault anyway. After being threatened by the immortal Silas, Bonnie had dropped the veil to the other side letting all the dead supernaturals roam freely in their town.

Pros? Damon got to be reunited with his first and last friend, Alaric, and Elena got to see Jeremy one last time to get closure.

Cons? Not all the ghosts were friendly or welcome.

As much as Damon would love to have Alaric around, or keep Elena happy with her little brother, Damon had learned long ago that his happiness came at a price.

And he never liked the cost.

So here he was, searching damp tunnels for the only witch amped up on enough juju to send them all back to perdition.

"Bonnie!" he called again. She did not go to that damn graduation with all these ghosts running wild, did she?!

Having searched the tunnels, Damon decided to head back and wait for the ceremony to end before trying again. Just to be safe and check all the bases, he took the long way out the tunnels, going through the boiler room of the school.

He had almost made it out of the school. Almost. But just as the cheering on the field outside became deafening, indicating the end of commencement, Damon found her.

Lying on the ground in front of him, with her silken hair fanned around her, was the girl who had been their answer to every supernatural predicament. Damon stood and stared, as his mind fought to process what he was seeing.

She looked so peaceful with her fingers curled into her palm and tucked near her face, her lips parted almost on a sigh. If he didn't know better, he'd believe she was sleeping.

But he did know better. And he knew he didn't hear her heartbeat.

"Bonnie Bennett… what have you done?" he whispered.

Kneeling beside her, Damon lifted her face gently into his lap. He'd never had to be gentle with her before. He always went full throttle at her with his snide remarks and actions and was always pleased when she responded in kind. But seeing her like this… so fragile, it brought out protective instincts he didn't know he had for her.

Not bothering to wonder what it was that made him feel this way, Damon pushed Bonnie's bangs out of her eyes and cradled her face. Hoping like hell this was anything other than what it seemed, Damon whispered, "If you're experimenting with some… weird ghostly spell, now would be a good time to stop, Bonnie. It's time to come back now."

Quietly, he listened for her heartbeat, still unable to accept what he was seeing.

"Come on, come on!" He grasped her chin as his whispers grew more furious. "Come back! We need you…"

Anger erupted inside him as Bonnie refused to respond, and he welcomed it. It was an emotion Damon was comfortable with. It was far better than the panic and growing sadness from earlier.

"Damn you, witch." Damon bit out coldly at her body.

Knowing he couldn't stay here forever, and knowing he couldn't just leave her in the dank room, Damon slipped his arms under her lifeless form and lifted her with him as he stood. Looking once again at her softened face, all the fury festering in his mind couldn't keep him from cradling her a little closer to his chest.

Even in death he felt an instinct to protect her.

Before he could decide where to take her, a voice startled him. "Damon?"

Something in his heart lifted in relief, as he spun around to face the girl he couldn't bring himself to believe was truly gone. "Bonnie…" he breathed reverently.

Bonnie stood facing Damon in her red cap and gown. She was shocked to see him carrying her body so closely. But she was even more surprised to see the range of emotions that went across his face as he turned to face her. She could have sworn she saw something akin to joy cross his face before it gave way to rage.

Bonnie never pretended to understand him, so she ignored all of that. Instead she focused on the fact that Damon was holding her body after she had taken pains to hide it.

"What are you doing here, Damon?" she asked on a sigh.

Damon's mouth dropped as he stared at her, flabbergasted. "What am I doing here?" he repeated, her question sounding completely preposterous in the midst of what was going on.

"What are you doing? What is this, Bonnie?!" he asked holding out the body he still carried.

Bonnie stared at her body in regret. Turning sad eyes on him, she answered simply.

"I died," she said with a shrug, trying to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal.

Clenching his jaw at her flippancy, he tried again. "I get that," he said with a nod towards her body. "I want to know how."

Tired of it all, the ruse she just put on to graduate with her friends, mentally saying good-bye to her dad, and the magic that got her here, Bonnie sighed and gave in to Damon's hard stare.

"I used expression to drop the veil, then I used all the power I had in me to desiccate Silas. When I came back to put up the veil, I needed to keep Jeremy on our side… I needed him."

Knowing he wouldn't understand that, she added something he would always understand, "Elena needed him."

Damon's gaze didn't flicker for a second as he waited for her to get to the being dead part.

"So I did another spell," she continued. "One to bring back the dead. It was too much."

Her eyes dropped back to her body. "And I died."

Damon's eyes narrowed at the outcome of her story. "Well that's a series of unfortunate events. Now how do we undo this?"

Bonnie shook her head in exasperation. "Don't you get it? We don't undo this. Undoing death is what got me here!"

"How. Do. We. Undo. This?" Damon asked again, ignoring her explanation.

"Damn it, Damon! You don't always get what you want! Do you think I wanted to die? I want to be with my friends, I want to go to college!"

Turning away from him, Bonnie swept off her cap and fiddled with it as she felt tears form in her eyes. "I want to grow old, get married, have kids. But I don't get to do any of that. It's my fault. I've accepted it…"

As she trailed off, Damon considered his options. The town was being terrorized with vengeful ghosts and their resident witch was out-of-commission. Realizing he didn't have much of a choice, Damon sped in front of her, still cradling her body.

The words that he intended to say vanished from his mind as he saw the tears that silently spilled from her eyes. As tough as he always wanted to be with her, there was a part of him that couldn't bring himself to hurt her.

"Okay, pity-party over," he started, unable to handle her quiet sadness.

"I quite agree," said a voice behind Bonnie.

Damon looked over Bonnie's shoulder as she turned to face the intruder.

"Well, if it isn't Casper, the not-so-friendly ghost," Damon taunted, staring at the Mikaelson brother he couldn't face without getting violent.

Kol stood smirking at the two fools who stood in the way of his plans. Unfortunately, he could see the one witch who could help him was as dead as him.

"Condolences on your regrettable death, my dear," he spoke to Bonnie as she stared at him in horror. "You have my deepest sympathies. You must see now what a hindrance this curtain is."

Bonnie straightened her spine and leaned away as he stalked closer. She heard Damon subtly shift closer behind her, but she knew there wasn't much he could do against the Original brother.

"What do you want, Kol?" she asked, not letting him see her fear.

Turning the power of his charm on her, Kol tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and said, "the same thing you want, Bonnie Bennett. To live again."

Tilting his head he narrowed his eyes in annoyance at her. "But we can't have that, can we? Like you said, we don't always get what we want…"

It unnerved her, knowing he had eavesdropping on their conversation, but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of showing it. "No, we don't. So what do you want?" she asked again.

Admiring her tenacity even in death, Kol gave her some space and took a step back. "Well, it's simple really. I want you to drop the veil. Permanently."

Bonnie lifted her chin at his absurd command.

Before she could even open her mouth to answer, Damon sharply shut him down. "Not gonna happen."

Leaning to the side, Kol peered over at Damon. "You do have a fondness for pain, don't you? Particularly when it's caused by me. I'd be happy to oblige, but it's rude to ignore a lady."

Glancing back at the pretty brunette in front of him with more spirit than he had seen in many a century, he held out his hand, "shall we, darling?"

Bonnie stood staring at his hand. His suggestion of completely dropping the veil would solve one problem, but could she risk causing another?

From his place behind her, Damon growled in warning, "Bonnie…"

Throwing him an annoyed look over her shoulder, Bonnie turned back to Kol and crossed her arms against her chest. "Not gonna happen," she said, echoing Damon's sentiment.

Kol's boyish charm transformed within seconds to one of wrath as he gave up on trying to convince her to do what he said out of her own desire. Now, he'd have to use force. "It's always got to be the hard way with you witches," he said with a sadistic smile.

Damon shifted on his feet as he pondered the best course of action he could take to protect himself and Bonnie while still carrying her body.

Before he could come to a decision, Kol fell with a scream, clutching his head.

"Damon," Bonnie spoke, pulling him out of his wonder of how strong this witch was to be able to bring an Original to his knees even in death. "Go. Go back to the tunnels under the school."

Part of him responded to the power in her voice, but another part of him refused to let a girl fight battles for him. "I can't just leave you-"

"Go!" she interrupted his protest. "I'll handle Kol, You go and take my body back to the location of the spell. I'll be right behind you."

Still not comfortable with the idea, Damon threw one last look at Kol writhing in agony on the ground, and reluctantly turned to follow her command.

As he sped away, he heard her whisper, "It's time to put up the veil."

Damon sped back through the tunnels until he came to the center of the Expression triangle under the school. Carefully laying Bonnie's body on the ground, Damon placed her hands on her stomach and gazed at her serene face, wondering why the lifeless form made him uncomfortable.

The Bonnie he knew was all fire. The empty shell in front of him was just that. Empty.

It didn't sit right with him.

As much as he hated to admit it, the girl had saved his ass on more than one occasion. Sure, she had also caused him just as much pain, but she never went through on her threats to kill him, when he knew she was more than capable.

He didn't think too much on why that was, but he was grateful nonetheless. Whose going to save the world now, Bonnie Bennett? he asked, absentmindedly trailing a finger down her face. You're gonna haunt my sorry ass, aren't you?

Hearing her footsteps coming closer, Damon quickly straightened himself and took a couple steps away.

"He won't be down long. We need to do this quick," she said briskly, as she flicked her hands to light the candles still set up around them.

Damon rolled his eyes as if it was a child's magic trick, even though it still impressed him every time.

Bonnie went to stand in the middle of the room beside her body, and closed her eyes to center herself and focus on the spell she was about to perform. Before she could open her mouth to begin chanting, she felt Damon grab her arm.

Opening her eyes to face him in irritation, she scrunched her brow at him in question.

Damon opened his mouth to say something, give her a few good last words to leave on, but thought better of it. Screw that. This is my world and if I say Bonnie Bennett is going to be in it, then she damn well will be in it.

So instead, he gave her a command. "Go ahead and lift the veil, but I need to be able to see you even after it's up."

Shaking her head in confusion, Bonnie asked in bewilderment, "why?"

"Because I'm going to need your help when I bring you back."

Okay, let me explain. Did you think this was crap? Because I did. I don't like first chapters. They're so boring. But set-up is necessary :(

I have about ten chapters planned out for this fic, and usually my chapters are longer (about 4,000-5,000 words). Please stick around!

Writing Bamon freaks me out, because they're the most complex characters on the show, so let me know if I'm screwing it up. I'll try to fix it!

Also, I couldn't resist adding a little Kennett in there D: they're my crackship babies.

This fic is going to have a cover eventually. Either I'll have a battle with Photoshop and produce something that is not too hideous to look at, or if any one of you amazing people want to make one for me, I won't object :)

BUT I'M GETTING AHEAD OF MYSELF. Do you even want to read more of this fic?! Should I continue or re-write? Please review and tell me what you think! Please and thank you!

P.S. I have a tumblr you're probably not interested in, but I'll promote it anyway: givemelovelikeklaroline :)