ACT TWO: AUT VIAM INVENIAN AUT FACIAM

(I'll either find a way or make one)

england, 1856

THREE YEARS LATER

His forearm presses into the solid redbrick of the wall behind her and Bonnie looks up at him, smirk fixed onto her face. "What if someone sees?" She murmurs, and he presses forward, urging her back against the wall with his hip.

"So what if someone sees?" He asks, his dark eyes wide as he presses his lips to the where the curve of her neck meets her shoulder. Bonnie grins and bites the shell of his ear, prepared for the hiss of his breath against a collarbone as he exhales slowly.

She raises an eyebrow he can't see in the darkening dusk and inches her fingers down the muscles of his back. "The papers wouldn't stop talking about it for weeks."

He pouts against the swell of her breast rising over the silk of her bodice and Bonnie pushes against the muscle of his chest with her palm, both of them knowing full well she could throw him off her if she really wanted to.

"Let people talk," He pleads but she shakes her head and forces him to straighten up with the sharp sting of her fingernail grazing the underside of his chin.

"Wouldn't want to draw any unwanted attention to us," Bonnie says, and he catches her palm before she snatches it away, twisting her arm behind her back so she is forced to look up at him, exasperated.

"Tyler," Bonnie warns, but he pushes her into him with a grin and captures her lips for a kiss, self satisfied smile curling on his lips when she gives in. "You're an awful influence on a lady."

"It makes us even," He grins and releases her hand so she can scrape her fingernails through his hair, tugging on the thick strands and forcing him to look down at her. "Because you ruined me."

Bonnie laughs and allows him to carry her back inside, back to their shared chamber where a letter has just landed with a thump into the cubbyhole.

::::

Their heads snap up immediately from where they are bent together- her mother and Lucy and Grams, as Bonnie strides into the room, Tyler in tow.

"What is it?" She asks impatiently, taking a seat opposite them and drumming her fingertips on the dark wood of the drawing room table. "Tyler and I are expected at a society ball this evening."

Tyler's touch on her shoulder is light and warning, and she turns to give him an apologetic smile, wishing she was a little less tense, a little less on edge when it came to her family nowadays. "Nothing-" her mother begins, and then sighs when Bonnie gives her a scathing look that has Abby bristling. "Listen Bonnie; you know that it was for the better that we didn't tell you anything. You would have given yourself away almost instantly."

"And I could have died, because you knew what he wanted, and you still saw fit to send me away without the slightest idea of what he could do. And you agreed- you all did, that you wouldn't leave me out of things anymore."

Grams eyes her mother with a disapproving look, and Bonnie is glad for it. It's nice to know that there's at least one person firmly on her side in her family. "Fine," Abby Bennett sighs, sliding the glittering stone across to Bonnie. "This is the stone. If we channel the power from it, we'll be so powerful we can take any vampire down."

Bonnie takes the blood red gem and turns it between her fingers, examining it for a moment before setting it back down onto the table. Her mother is right- she can feel the power from the stone pulsating even when she's not touching it, and as Tyler shifts behind her, she knows he can feel it too.

"You should go," Grams tells her, and Bonnie obeys, standing at once and intertwining her fingers with Tyler's. "I think they'll be returning very soon, child, so make the most of this time while you can."

Lucy makes a face from behind her back and Bonnie wonders for a split second where her husband is before she's being half pulled, half dragged out of the house by Tyler and into their carriage.

She rests her head on his shoulder and closes her eyes. "I wish you could have seen our family before." Tyler drops a kiss to her forehead and draws circles into the exposed skin of her back gently.

"I know what they did wasn't right, but you should think about forgiving them. Family should be there when no one else is."

Bonnie sits up, green eyes glittering, and laughs bitterly. "Family shouldn't send their youngest into the lion's den as bait." She lets out a frustrated sigh and drags her fingers through her already mussed curls, willing herself to calm down. "I know I should, but every time I come close, I remember that they made me a weapon without my permission and I can't bring myself to do it."

He swipes at the tears gathering under her eyes carefully and wraps his arms around her, voice a comforting rumble under her. "Take as long as you need. They'll understand."

Bonnie smiles up at him, grateful as she is so many days, for his presence with her. He's her partner in more ways than one, and she's so glad that both of them were able to make the best out of a bad situation. "I love you," She admits, and the smile that breaks out over his face is instant.

"I love you too," Tyler tells her, and she wonders at the fact that they have said those words so many times to one another, yet they have not lost their glow.

She thinks back to her wedding night, and thanks the spirits that she has a husband like Tyler as he puts his arm around her and rests his chin on her hair. Whatever mistakes her past holds- and there are numerous ones, the greatest being Klaus Mikaelson, she's sure that Tyler will never be one of them.

::::

The grass is damp under her bare toes as she runs across the lawn in little but her nightshift, winter wind frigid against her skin as she turns back to face Tyler, laughter lacing the wind that blows back to him.

"Bonnie Bennett," He calls after her, tone half annoyed, half amused, "Come back here this instant."

"Make me," She yells, and takes off at a sprint, letter clasped firmly in her hands as she runs without bothering to look back, listening for the sound of his breathing as he gains on her.

"You'll catch your death of cold-" He pants, and she hears his voice close to her ear and speeds up.

She's in mid step when his arm closes around her waist and tugs her back into him, back bumping against the rough surface of his nightshirt. Bonnie pouts and clenches the letter a little more tightly in her fist, determined not to let him see it before she does, feet dangling in mid air as he lifts her.

He presses a kiss to the warm skin at her throat and she lets out a loose giggle, twisting in his grip to return it with one of her own. "Please," He murmurs, lips warm against her skin, but she shakes her head, neck of her shift falling off one shoulder and leaving it bare.

"It's mine," She whines, as his hands try to pry hers off the letter. "I should get to read it first."

"But we're supposed to share everything, wife."

She frowns, expression contorting into one of mock rage as she twists to face him once more. "My name is Bonnie Bennett and I could obliterate you if I so wish-stop it!" She shrieks as Tyler's hands dance over the skin of her waist, tickling her in the one place where she is most sensitive. "Tyler Lockwood!" She gasps, trying to find enough space to breathe so she can cast a spell to make him stop, but he is unrelentless, laughter filling the December air around them.

A twig snaps in front of them and they both look up, smiles frozen in place as they look up to face the intruder on their land. Tyler instinctively lets the arm around her waist go, and Bonnie lands with the soles of her feet on the wet grass, letter fluttering out of her hand as she struggles to pull the sleeve of her shift back up, blush growing on her face as she avoids all eye contact with him.

She reaches for Tyler's palm to find him already sliding his arm around her shoulders, pulling her back so she is a little shielded by the curve of his body.

"What are you doing here?" Bonnie asks him, jaw firmly set to avoid any semblance of a tremble.

Rebekah looks luminous in the moonlight; her blonde hair bleeds through the blue dark and twines around Bonnie's heartstrings, tugging them into some kind of misguided nostalgia in an alternate universe where they were proper friends. "Bonnie," Rebekah says gently, and takes the slightest step forward, as if she is afraid Bonnie will bolt at the slightest movement or set her undead body on fire.

"Rebekah." Tyler says, and her eyes flicker to Tyler for a moment as she takes in his presence, lip curling as she acknowledges his existence.

He senses her inner turmoil, and Bonnie relaxes into the curve of his arm as he draws slow circles through the fabric of her nightshift. She lowers her eyes to the purple striped hem of Rebekah's travelling gown, splattered with mud that tells Bonnie that she must have come here upon arrival.

"I have business with Bonnie," Rebekah admits, taking another step forward. Bonnie remains stoic, assessing the situation with a numb kind of shock which is slowly but surely thawing to a rolling wave of fury.

"What kind of business could you possibly have with me?" Bonnie snaps, stepping out of Tyler's protective embrace to glare at Rebekah, clenching her fingers into fists. "I made it clear to you that I would have nothing to do with you."

A twist of something drifts over Rebekah's face for a moment, and she sighs. "I never meant for anything to happen between you and Niklaus."

"You're lying," Bonnie mutters firmly, and Tyler tenses behind her, ready to spring at the slightest movement. She takes a deep breath-wonders if she should let them know the extent of her powers and gives in.

"I have a friend," She quotes, rejoicing in the look of shock that crosses Rebekah's face. "in London. But I'm quite partial to her Nik- I don't want her meeting the same end as the others."

"You knew full well that he planned on using my powers and draining me dry, because it had happened a thousand times before. The trail your family leaves across the pages of history is one splattered with witch blood, tainted with innocent blood," Bonnie spits viciously, half turning away to find Tyler's eyes gleaming with the same rage.

"You need to calm down," She says to her husband, immediately softening as she runs her long fingers up the exposed skin of his forearm. "Or you'll turn."

His eyes seem to flash for a second, and he tenses under her fingers so much so that she wonders if she will have to tether him with her powers. "I'm no more in danger of turning than you are of setting fire to that tree with your mind."

He has the unnerving ability to coax a smile out of her even when she is at her angriest, and Bonnie turns to Rebekah slightly more composed, her heart beating a little slower in her chest.

"You were my friend," She says simply, "And now you're not. So leave us alone."

"I'll leave for now," Rebekah says, shrugging, "But I can't promise we'll never meet again."

She turns away for a moment, pausing before she turns back to Bonnie and Tyler. "Congratulations on your wedding," Rebekah says bitterly, and Bonnie wonders if she is aching for the kind of peace Bonnie has carved for herself.

Bonnie hopes she burns in her bitterness.

:::::

"How can she think for one moment that she could just waltz back into my life again, and that I would forgive her?" Bonnie stabs the earring through her earlobe with uncharacteristic bitterness, watching it dangle and gleam for a moment before turning back to Tyler. He's sprawled on the bed, half listening to her and half picking his way through the newspaper, and only serves to spike her annoyance a little more.

"Oh hurry up!" She spits finally, and he looks up, raising an eyebrow at her as she storms out of the room, chuckle following her as she strides away from him.

Bonnie takes the cigar from the library room table gratefully, tipping her head back to blow perfect smoke rings towards the ceilings. She's never liked cigars- while her father always seem to smell of them, she's never found pleasure from the cigar, but something about blowing smoke rings calms her down.

She waits for the angry beating of her heart subsides, before she begins to mull over the situation with Rebekah. She supposes that the only reason she is really, truly angry with her being back is that she thought they were true friends. And they obviously weren't- not if she was willing to see Bonnie's heart ripped out by her brother.

And if Rebekah was back, it was highly likely Klaus was back too. Bonnie still wasn't sure if she could face him and walk away unscathed.

"You look like a cream puff." Tyler walks into the room with all the arrogance his situation affords him, catching sight of Bonnie's deadpan look with a smile. "A very lovely cream puff, but still a cream puff."

He tries to pluck the cigar from Bonnie's fingers and she burns him the slightest bit, pressing her lips together as he lets out a hiss and then a laugh.

"If I look like a cream puff," Bonnie begins, blowing a steady stream of heavy smoke into his face, "What do the rest of them look like?"

"You look very nice," He says, and she watches his eyes fall to where her flesh swells over her bodice with a roll of her eyes. "It's just, very unlike you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He attempts to pluck the cigar from her gloved hands a second time, and this time she allows him too, fiddling with his collar almost absentmindedly.

He shakes his head, and her gaze immediately focuses on the tiniest blush creeping over his cheeks. "Tell me," Bonnie asks, placing one silk covered finger under his chin.

"You look nicest in the dress I first saw you in, if you must know."

Bonnie smirks and leans in, pressing her lips gently to his stubble. "Such a charming husband."

"Quite so. You must be the envy of every lady around."

"And you the envy of every man to exist," Bonnie watches his eyes darken the slightest bit and laughs, drawing him in for a kiss and standing.

"We should go," Tyler says, and she allows him to place the wrap over her bared shoulders, although not before he kisses both of them. It almost makes her want to stay at home instead, as they did with almost every engagement in the first year of their marriage. Bonnie instead forces herself to slip her hand through his, and together they make their way into the carriage.

::::

His gloved hand slips beneath the crimson ruffle of her gown and Bonnie has to bite back the laugh that rises in her throat and shove her elbow into his gut as discreetly as possible. They're mid conversation with Lord Edgerton, who's throwing this summer ball, and Tyler's doing his utmost to distract her, it seems. Everything around them seems as usual, and Lord Edgerton is as boring as he always is, twittering on about table decorations and how many knighthoods their family has managed to collect.

She's about to tune out when he mentions a word in passing that has her straightening against Tyler instinctively, gloved fingers curling to fists. "And I told Lord Niklaus it would happen-"

"I'm sorry," Bonnie interjects, and watches as the insufferable man seems to do a double take, as if only just realising that she is present, and she can talk. "Did you mean Lord Mikaelson? That Niklaus?"

He clears his throat and Bonnie watches the gleaming chandelier lights shine off his balding head impatiently. "The very same, my lady. He's due to make an appearance soon, if you were hoping for an introduction."

Bonnie grits her teeth and forces a smile, wondering whether he will be surprised when she reduces his precious Lord Mikaelson to his knees. The thought of it has sustained her through countless meetings with her family where she has tasted nothing but betrayal on her tongue, the thought that one day, she will be able to deceive him as well as he did her.

"Excuse us," She says sweetly, and leaves him standing there, tugging Tyler away.

"The nerve of him," She begins furiously, then watches Tyler's eyes focus on where a few ringlets are escaping her piled up hair with no small amount of frustration. "As if- Tyler!"

Her husband only throws his head back and laughs, a rich laugh that comes straight from his belly, and wraps his arms around her. "Should I be jealous?" He wonders aloud, breath tickling the nape of her neck, "You seem quite hung up on this fellow."

Bonnie stiffens for a beat, because she hasn't told him- hasn't told anyone- about what happened with Klaus. So she laughs softly with him, aware of the tick of her pulse under her flesh, speeding up the tiniest amount.

There is a shift in the room; the air seems to grow more cloying as she sucks it in and Bonnie knows that Klaus and Rebekah must have arrived. She shrugs Tyler's arms off her bare shoulders and smiles up at him, laying her gloved hand on the fingers of his coat with a soft smile. "Let the charade begin," She says, and Tyler kisses her cheek gently.

"You don't have to do this if you don't want to," He tells her, squeezing her hand in his grip, "History doesn't have to repeat."

Bonnie doesn't want history to repeat, which is precisely why she's doing it. "I'm a weapon of my own construction this time," She says with a bitter laugh, and turns to face him, already anticipating the feel of his gaze upon hers.

Klaus hasn't changed; and she's stupid for even believing he would have. He's been alive for centuries and Bonnie doubts that he has had much change to his appearance than to change the look of his hair. Her host moves aside and she peers over the throng to find that the figure next to him is not Rebekah. Instead, he seems to be a somber fellow, a little taller and broader than Klaus.

"Who's that?" Tyler asks, and she shrugs, eyes widening as she watches her host drag the pair over to where they are standing.

"The spirits have mercy," She breathes, blush colouring her cheeks as she looks up at Klaus, "He must have taken me seriously when he thought I wished for an introduction."

"They must be able to hear the blush rising to your cheeks from over there," He drags a gloved finger over the pink blush on her cheeks and Bonnie bats his hand away, pouting.

"This is so embarrassing!" She moans, and half sags against Tyler.

He looks down at her as if he wants to say something more, but Lord Edgerton is before them once more, and they both straighten, painted smiles rising to their faces.

::::

She looks good, he notes when he spies her from across the room, watching the Lockwood mutt kiss her cheek. All of her power and she ends up with a second rate werewolf. She could be with someone more powerful-

-She could be with him.

The scent of her blood is more intoxicating than ever, but if he is honest with himself, it is not the taste of her blood that he wishes for the most anymore. From Rebekah's reasoning, she would never forgive them. And she knew exactly their motivations in bringing her to their country estate now.

He should have guessed, he thinks, only half paying attention to the blithering idiot that is their host, that the Bennetts would not send their youngest witch unprotected into their midst. Only, from the stricken look he remembers crossing her face when she found him feeding, he almost believes she did not know that he was a vampire.

"If I could introduce you to Lord Lockwood," Edgerton manages to say the most interesting thing he has said in years, and Klaus gives him his undivided attention for a moment. "His wife seemed quite interested in you."

Klaus allows him to lead them over to where Bonnie and Tyler seem to deep in conversation, anger rising in him as he watches Tyler Lockwood run a gloved finger over her cheek. They seem to be comfortable in their marriage- he would almost say in love, if he didn't want to believe it himself.

Lord Edgerton clears his throat, "Lord and Lady Lockwood," He says and stands there more than a little awkwardly as Klaus stares Bonnie down, willing her eyes to make contact with his own. They seem to be lodged firmly on the point where the curve of his jaw meets his neck, and he thinks he can detected the slightest speed in her pulse as she becomes aware of his presence.

While Bonnie's pulse is at least a little controlled, he cannot say the same for the Lockwood boy. Klaus can see the vein pulsing at his forehead, and imagines the blood flowing through it.

He doesn't think Bonnie shall ever forgive him if he eats her husband.

Next to him, Elijah brushes his lips over Bonnie's hand, and Klaus controls the twinge of discomfort he gets from the gesture. It is no different to how Elijah usually behaves, he tells himself. Or maybe his lips are lingering a little too long.

Bonnie's eyes meet with his for a moment, and his fingers clench inside his pocket. Her eyes are the same green they were before, yet seem sharper somehow. She narrows them at him and Klaus offers her his nicest smile.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance," Elijah is saying, and Klaus wonders if Tyler knows the extent of his relationship with Bonnie. "We're in town for the season."

Bonnie smiles and places a hand on Tyler's arm, and Klaus notes as the werewolf seems to relax almost instantly under her touch. "Excuse us," Bonnie says sweetly, "But I'm feeling faint."

You don't even look the slightest bit flushed, Klaus wants to say; he wants to grab for her hand and prolong this all to brief encounter.

Instead, he turns back to Elijah and resolves to wait it out.

::::

The hand at her wrist is cool and large, and Bonnie doesn't have time to do much more than open her mouth before she is pulled through the door and into Lord Edgerton's private corridors.

Bonnie crosses her arms under chest and looks up at Klaus, schooling her features into the most unimpressed expression she can muster. The hammering of her heart gives her away, a mixture of adrenalin and anxiety that has been building in her for the three years since she has seen him. "What do you want?"

"Lord Mikaleson," she chokes out as an afterthought, sinking into a mocking curtsy.

"I have something of yours," Klaus says with a secretive smile, and Bonnie arches a single eyebrow and asks the spirits why she has not hexed him yet. The sight of him- what he stands for- makes her feel as if she is soiled somehow, merely by being in his presence.

She looks at his empty hand, half expecting it to be there. "At my house," he finishes, and Bonnie sighs.

"Just leave me alone," Bonnie tells him, in a slightly wavering voice that neither of them buy. "I want nothing you have to give me."

She turns away, and his hand is on her wrist, swinging her back so her spine makes a soft thud upon connection with the wall.

"Bonnie," Klaus mutters, a single finger coming out to touch an astray curl, "Forgive us."

She watches his eyes widen as he springs away from her, almost as if he has been burned by something. Bonnie gives him a grim smile.

"I am a servant of nature," She tells Klaus, uttering words which have danced across his nightmares for centuries, "And you are an abomination."

He snarls, fangs widening, and Bonnie sends him an aneurysm that brings him to his knees and sends the slightest trickle of blood from her nose.

She swipes at her nose with one fingertip, and watches his blue eyes glow luminous from his position on his knees. Bonnie sends him a mocking smile and pushes her bloodied finger under his chin, forcing him to look up at her.

"It's a shame you never even got to taste my blood," There is a bite to her voice, and she leaves him there with a swirl of her silk skirts.

::::

Grams gives the grimoire a gentle push, sending a cloud of dust spiraling from its pages as it lands before Bonnie. "The Bennett coven is united," Her Grams says, and there is a little nostalgia in her tone. "And stronger than before."

"Seven is a good number," Bonnie concedes, "And we'll be powerful enough to take them down this time."

Her Grams quirks one of her lips. "Lucy did as I asked of her, and now I'm going to have to ask something of you."

Bonnie ignores the dread curling in her heart, and knows that she will do as her Grams wants, simply because her Grams has at least the decency to ask. "You need to get the oldest Bennett grimoire back."

"He has it."

"Yes. And he's not likely to give it to you instantly, but it is my understanding that Rebekah knows where it is." Her Grams waves a ringed finger over the blood of the stone, and Bonnie peers forward to see Rebekah, wiping tears from her eyes.

"I told you I didn't want it to end like that," She wrings her hands and lets out a huge sigh, "I told you Bonnie was off limits, and she was the only person I trusted for millennial- if you'd just been a little more careful-"

Klaus looks furious from where he is sitting, and grits his jaw. "You think I wanted this to happen?"

Rebekah opens her mouth to retort, but before she can utter a single word, the door swings open with a heavy thud to reveal Elijah.

Bonnie sits back in her chair, the smallest smile on her lips. "You think Rebekah will be easier."

"I think she will be less dangerous, for you at least."

Bonnie tucks a slightly frizzy curl behind her ear and sighs, the rustle of her dress a reminder of the uncomfortable swathe of fabric encasing her body. "There's no one in that family I trust. But Rebekah is the one I understand, out of all of them."

"The easiest for you to manipulate," Grams murmurs, and her eyes twinkle slightly at Bonnie through the candlelight.

Bonnie sighs. "No. Klaus is predictable."

"Niklaus Mikaelson is the most deadly of his siblings. He has a left a trail through history that I do not care to repeat."

"They all have."

"Niklaus poses the greatest threat to you, child."

Bonnie chokes on the air she was sucking in; straightens her spine a little and finds her Grams looking at her, lips in a thinned line.

"I told your mother to tell you about what you were doing. I told her you could handle it. If she had just told you-"

"I can handle it-him."

Grams arches an eyebrow and lets out a rattling cough, pressing a handkerchief to her lips. "If you can't, it's no failure. We all have our weaknesses."

Bonnie wonders, just for the slightest moment, whether Grams is baiting her on purpose. She shakes the idea from her mind as quickly as it appears, then offers what she hopes is a reassuring smile.

"I'll be careful." Bonnie brushes her lips against Grams' cheek and turns away, heels clicking against the parquet floor.

::::

Tyler tucks a hand under his chin from where he is lounging at the window seat, his head making an audible thud as it connects with the ivory paneling lining the walls.

"You don't have to watch," Bonnie says softly.

"I like watching you practice magic." Bonnie thinks about the time they spent in the woods on the last full moon, the thrill that shot through her at being able to see his wolf form. She supposes it is much the same for him.

"What are you doing?" Bonnie sets the half melted candle stubs on the faded parchment of the map, reaching for the bone dagger.

"Calling her to me."

"Can't you just leave a card?" Bonnie laughs and rolls the sleeve of her nightshift up.

"I thought I'd do something a bit different."

She grits her teeth and pulls the blade over the flesh of her inner arm, watching the blood bead there and slowly drip onto the parchment. Tyler sucks in a breath but she throws him a smile, healing the wound in the next instant.

"This won't take long," She promises, then spreads her fingers, silently igniting the candles.

She's gotten better at this silent spell thing, she muses, as she visualizes Rebekah's blonde head, prying open her mind. Bonnie closes her eyes and finds herself firmly in Rebekah's brain, finding the seeds of loneliness already planted.

She almost feels bad.

The whispered Latin curls under her lips and she mouths silently, the spell finished within the next instant, the candles guttering before going out.

In her room, Rebekah's blue eyes fly open, and she sits upright on her bed.

::::

The knock on the door comes as the sky is wash with a watery blue, and Bonnie is already fully alert, having anticipated this coming much earlier. She's surprised Rebekah held off this long, wonders whether Klaus or Elijah had something to do with that. Bonnie looks to Tyler, sprawled lazily as ever in bed before her and smiles, running soft fingers through his hair.

"Stay here," She whispers when his eyes open, still groggy with the crust of sleep, then moves from under the sheets of her bed.

Bonnie nods away the butler's scandalized expression- it is only Rebekah that will see her in her nightshift, and honestly, she has seen her in much less.

Bonnie pushes her sleeves up to her forearms and wonders how she will do this- this kind of quiet manipulation is already difficult with newly turned vampires, and Rebekah was the very first.

Bennett bloodline, Bonnie reminds herself, and imagines the weathered hands of her ancestors curling under her and lifting her power, forcing her to be stronger. She pushes open the door of the drawing room quietly, dismissing the butler in the next breath. It is difficult; being discreet about the fact that there is a werewolf and a witch living here, but she hopes that they do it well.

"Bonnie," Rebekah says, voice strained with the effort of holding it together, the blonde curls of her hair unravelling, her gown just a little too haphazardly put on.

Bonnie's eyes shift as her brother places a hand on Rebekah's arm, as if to hold her back, and she meets with the blue of Klaus' gaze and knows why Rebekah didn't come running.

"What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see you, I needed to tell you-"

Klaus cuts Rebekah off, fingers tightening around her forearm. "What have you done to her?" He asks, and Bonnie recoils for a split second.

"I haven't done a thing."

"That's bullshit," Klaus says, and there is a gleam in his eyes that she does not like as he advances towards her, Rebekah falling silent for a second. She almost wishes she had called Tyler down with her, because Tyler always helps to keep her anchored. "What do you want from us?"

My grimoire, Bonnie almost says, but as he takes another step closer, she knows that he means to go one.

"What do you want from me?" He whispers, and his breath fans over her face, the smell of whiskey making her wrinkle her nose.

"What makes you believe this has anything to do with you?" She asks, and watches him stiffen for a moment. "Rebekah wanted to see me, and you invited yourself along. It seems to me as if you are trying to make excuses to see me."

"Niklaus," Rebekah snorts, pulling her brother back towards her. "Leave me and Bonnie. I wish to speak to her in peace."

Klaus raises an eyebrow and leans against the wall. "I shall stay where I am, sister. You'll thank me when you come to your senses."

"Leave or I will bodily remove you," Bonnie says, and finds that she has come to the end of her tether as he tries to step forwards again.

She imagines Klaus in the parlour, alone, surrounded by her black and white photographs and unable to move. And then she moves her palms out to face him and he is gone. She can hear his enraged howl from the other side of the house.

"Rebekah," She says, and the blonde looks haughty as ever in spite of the magical manipulation occuring in her veins. "Why are you here?"

"I wanted to apologize," She says, and Bonnie cocks her head to the side and wishes for a second that this was not all a farce, that this was in fact real. "And I understand if you don't want to be friends with me, but I've missed you. I'll walk away now and not come back if you tell me too, Bonnie."

Bonnie sighs, looking directly at Rebekah for a moment before she gives the impression of breaking, stretching out her arms and beckoning for Rebekah to come into her embrace.

"Of course I forgive you," She mutters against the soft gold of Rebekah's hair. "But first, will you do something for me?"

::::

Tyler kisses the soft skin of her neck and Bonnie finds herself wondering, just for a moment, what it would have been like had she stayed with Klaus. The moment passes as Tyler raises his own eyes to look into hers, washed chocolate by the soft candlelight.

"You're so beautiful," He says, and Bonnie loves how he gets after a few glasses of wine, just intoxicated enough to loosen his tongue and tell her all the things he wants to but can't quite say. "I'm glad I married you and not-"

"Not?" Bonnie asks, stilling quietly and stiffening just enough that he backs off. "Not who?"

"Not her," He says, and Bonnie closes her eyes for a split second, wonders whether there is a Klaus in Tyler's history. Nothing so dramatic, she guesses.

"Who was she?" She's quiet, and he holds her to him for a moment, and she knows that Tyler is looking down at her, trying to gauge her reaction.

"She was called Caroline," He sighs, and kisses the top of her head, her hairstyle just unraveling from the evening. "She was blonde, your age, taller than you."

The exact opposite of me, Bonnie thinks. "Caroline Forbes?" She asks, and Tyler nods.

She knows Caroline Forbes. Caroline Forbes is an old matron in the making, always trying to orchestrate meetings between her friends and the men she believes are worthy of them. A long time ago, when they were much younger, she had been friends with Caroline.

"How serious was it?"

Tyler shakes his head. "I think she just saw me as marriage material more than anything else. She liked the idea of me. And it would never have worked anyway, you know what she's like and what I'm like."

Bonnie smiles and kisses the stubble on the side of his jaw. "I know what you're like," She admits with a smile. "I know that I can always trust you."

It's a warning in disguise, she muses as they lapse into silence. She will not tolerate being second best.

"Anyone for you?" He asks abruptly, and Bonnie immediately thinks of Klaus.

"No," she says softly, "Just you."

Bonnie doesn't know why, but the memory of Klaus is sacred only to her, and she doesn't want to share it with Tyler. Or maybe it's that she's not quite sure what will happen, now that he is in London again, and that he seems intent on pursuing her. But Tyler is hers and she is Tylers, Bonnie thinks, twining their fingers together. That's how it is and how it will always be.

::::

Cousin Marcus smiles encouragingly at her, taking her palm in his own. Bonnie feels the power they conduct, pulsating, growing around them. Across from her, Grams purses her lips.

"You found the grimoire," She says, closing her eyes, "You do the spell, Bonnie."

Bonnie concentrates on the bowl of their blood, pooled together in the centre of the table, and begins to read from the grimoire, following the spidery old Latin.

"Come on," her Grams urges as she pauses to take a shuddery breath, feeling the power wane from her legs. "Finish this first part and then we will all be there to guide you."

Bonnie thinks of their power, waxing and waning and growing as a part of nature, and the bowl of blood seems to swim before her eyes. One more line, she forces herself to speak, and then another and another until the weight it lifted from her shoulder and the entire coven joins in with the chiming, the strength in her bones almost instantly replenished.

"This is what being a coven means," her Grams tells them, her chest heaving from exertion. "We are bound by both blood and magic now, and we must all share our power. And learn to use it properly."

Her eyes flash in warning at Bonnie, it seems and Bonnie shrugs. "Learn to use it properly," Grams repeats, "Before we go picking any fights."

Bonnie stays silent, the insinuation that she will soon be picking a fight with Klaus unsettling her. She does not what anything to do with Klaus, she tells herself firmly. No matter how many dark corridors she ends up in with him.

Grams raises an eyebrow and flashes Bonnie a knowing smile. "Keep the peace, child," She warns and Bonnie nods, excusing herself.

"You'll be fine," Lucy says when she meets Bonnie in the musty study, nursing a glass of brandy. "You don't have any problems with controlling yourself, Bonnie. You were never the impulsive one."

Bonnie shrugs. "I might be...with Klaus, anyway."

And then Lucy turns to her, sharp eyes glittering almost black in the dark. "Don't be impulsive."

"It doesn't get you anywhere," She sinks to her knees before the fireplace, gazing into the leaping flames with an distant expression. "Look where it got me. Widowed and I'm not three years older than you. I should have stayed with him."

Bonnie places a hand on Lucy's shoulder. "You couldn't have done anything. Had you stayed, you would have fallen ill too."

"I'm a witch. I'm sure I could have found something."

"There are some things magic can't fix."

Lucy nods and turns back to the flames, and Bonnie wonders whether she is seeing her husband's solemn face in them. A good man, Grams had said when he had asked for her hand, but Lucy had hated him, in the beginning. And that hate, Bonnie supposed, had dissolved to a kind of quiet fondness. He was gone and he'd left behind no child and no will, so Lucy was right back where she started.

"Remember me," Lucy warns as Bonnie leaves the room, "Before you make any rash decisions involving Klaus. You found true happiness with Tyler."

She wonders for a moment why everything thinks that her willpower is so weak, that she will be swayed by Klaus. I won't be, Bonnie promises herself as she steps back into her carriage. I would rather die.

::::

Tyler's voice is a little unsettled when she enters the front room, and Bonnie takes in the strangled mess of his tie and knows that he has been overthinking. "The Mikaelsons," Tyler says, and Bonnie's heart skips a beat for a moment at the mere mention of their name, "they're renting a few houses down."

"Why on earth would they do that? Everyone knows that they have more real estate than most people in England, save our Queen."

He shrugs and stands, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. "Do you think they know?"

"Know what?"

"What we're planning?" She takes his hand and shakes her head.

"How could they know? Everyone who knows is incredibly trustworthy. We'd trust them with our lives, which is why we told them, remember?"

"I'm just worried," Tyler says, and Bonnie presses the back of her hand to his forehead. "I don't want anything to happen to you."

"I'm not. We're almost ready, now. We have the stone, we have the grimoire."

"Come next month, you'll have the power."

Bonnie nods and he takes a seat back on his favorite chair, trying and failing to pull her onto his lap as her skirts get in the way. "I hate these things," He notes, taking a scrap of silk between his fingers. "You look lovely but I can't get within a yard of you."

Bonnie laughs. "It's the fashion."

"Well I want to kiss my wife," Tyler pouts, "without having to jump through hoops to do it."

Bonnie giggles breathlessly and kisses him, long and slow and sweet.

"We have dinner," She reminds him as he tries to draw her deeper.

"But no guests. Can't we take dinner upstairs?"

"The servants will talk," Bonnie warns and Tyler groans.

"I don't care what they say, I don't want dinner. I'm not even hungry right now. I just want you."

Bonnie has to smile, but she reaches out her hand for him to take nonetheless. "Well I am. Come on, I'll tell you about the spell I just cast, it took a lot from me. I need to replenish my strength."

Tyler grumbles about it but follows her nonetheless, and anyway, Bonnie thinks as she leads him to the dining room, she'll make it up to him later that night.

::::

"Niklaus," Klaus says stiffly in what seems to be the most awkward greetings ever, his eyes locked with hers. "And you must be Tyler."

Tyler nods and slides an arm around Bonnie's waist, cinched in by her corset. She's wearing a crimson red today, and she feels less like a lost little girl. Especially with Tyler at her side, his presence stoic and solid and warm in ways that Klaus can never be.

"I've heard a lot about you," Klaus says, and beside him, Rebekah rolls her eyes at Kol, who sticks his tongue out at her. The fourth member of their party is the older sibling, quiet and solemn at Klaus' side.

Tyler smiles politely and falls into easy conversation with Rebekah and Kol, opting to ignore the undercurrent of tension passing between him and Klaus and all their interactions.

"I thought it would be polite to call on our neighbours," Klaus says with a grin, falling into step beside Bonnie. "And anyway, I hadn't seen you in a week and I was getting a little lonely."

Bonnie curses him in her mind profusely, because Tyler has werewolf hearing and will surely be listening to the conversation. "I can't imagine what you mean, Mr. Mikaelson. The last time I spoke to you was at the ball, and before that, three years past when I came to stay with Rebekah."

Klaus laughs then, and Bonnie glares at him, slipping her low heeled shoe out from under the hem of her gown so that she can step on his toe with it. She could have always used magic, but somehow this seemed more satisfying.

The meal passes completely uneventfully, with Rebekah and Bonnie recounting memories of the time they spent together in the past, and Bonnie watches Klaus watch her from under her eyelashes, as he keeps quiet.

He's a fool, she thinks bitterly. A fool who knows exactly what he is doing. Watching her like this, bringing up some kind of false ideas of previous intimacy will pique Tyler's interest, and raise questions she doesn't wish to answer.

They are moving to the study after dinner when Klaus finally catches her alone, gripping her wrist as she makes to leave the dining room. "Bonnie-" he says and she casts a quick cloaking spell, that no one but those in the room will be able to hear the conversation.

"Niklaus," she bites out, swinging around to face him. "Let me go. I don't know what you mean to achieve by all this."

"I told you; I wanted to see you."

"I don't know why."

"We have unfinished business, and you know we do, love." Bonnie groans and runs her gloved fingers through the tight ringlets of her hair.

"I'm happy here." She tells him seriously. "I am happy and in love with my husband and I would like if you left us alone."

"If you're so in love with this Lockwood fellow, why haven't you told him about us?"

Bonnie opens her mouth to retort, but then something shifts in Klaus' eyes and she turns around to finding Tyler leaning against the doorway, something unreadable in his expression.

"Yes Bonnie," Tyler says slowly. "Why haven't you told him about 'us'?"

::::

a/n: thoughts? sorry this took so long to update but these chapters are quite long soo...tonnie or klonnie? or bonbekah? during the next chap I really want to focus more on the witchy side of things because I am very interested in coven dynamics and also exploring bonnie's family, esp. since that was so neglected on the show. But I do think that Bonnie's got a good, healthy relationship going with Tyler so I hope that this is a believable lovetriangle.

Also next chap will feature more Lucy and her mysterious husband, because I looove Lucy. Also Grams. Anyway, tell me what you thought! Your reviews were all lovely they make me happy and make me want to continue writing, so shoutout to all of you who reviewed, I really love you 3