A/N: A lot of the time when I have a block, it's because I have so many ideas running through my head. This particular idea just happened to be turned into a story.

Buckle up kids.

Chapter One: The Return

Death wasn't a peaceful thing. It wasn't the letting go that everyone made it out to be, and it definitely wasn't the resigned sacrifice that movies and television and all that other bullshit tried to convince you of. Death, having actually witnessed it just minutes ago, was a slip and a fall right out of life. I tried to remember the last time I'd slipped and fell. I was fifteen and not paying attention. I missed a step completely and the whole world felt foreign as it moved around me. I couldn't grasp my senses; I didn't know what the hell was going on or if it was really happening. I reached out to grab the rail and missed it too. The confusion didn't stop until I hit the floor.

That's what death was. Confusion until you stopped.

At least that's what it'd been for Damon, I knew the look when I saw it. The way his eyes darted around at each of our faces, trying to find something to hold on to. No one did the trick, not Elena, Stefan, or even Alaric. They were the three people who crowded around him in his last moments, those were the people who mourned him as they lost him. His eyes searched their faces and his hands gripped theirs. He made a joke about Stefan having the bigger dick now that he wasn't going to be around anymore. Stefan told him he'd always be the bigger dick. Damon told Elena that even though she didn't love him the way he loved her, it was okay because his return policies only included money and the occasional blow job.

She only cried harder.

Damon begged Alaric to bring him Whiskey. Alaric wouldn't leave his side. How Damon was even alive with that many werewolf bites from Klaus was a mystery to me, but he was holding on. His body was drenched with sweat, his skin had gone sallow.

The Originals had gotten wind of our plan, the entirety of it. Damon had come up with the idea of me using my magic to break the blood bond between the originals and the vampires they'd made. If I broke the bond, the Originals could be taken out and no harm would come to the Salvatores or Caroline. It would be easier to kill them because no one would have to worry about dying. Finally dying for Elena had a little less force behind it. There were no technicalities, no rules.

There was only what needed to be done.

And the plan was flawless. If there was anything I could commit to the memory of Damon Salvatore, it was that the man always had a plan. A plan so good, you were okay with not having thought of it first. I could still remember that day in the Gilbert house, the last time I'd seen him perfect and whole.

"Bonnie's got the juju for this." He said, casually leaning against the fireplace. "It'll work."

"It's crazy and you'll get us killed." Stefan said. "If you think for a second Klaus won't figure out what the hell you're trying to do-"

"There's your problem little brother." Damon replied with ease. "You're thinking too much."

"Somebody has to."

"Not when they're thinking about the wrong things."

"How is staying alive the wrong thing?"Stefan shook his head.

"How have you forgotten you're already dead?" Damon asked coolly.

"You know what I mean." Stefan said through gritted teeth.

"No, I know how you think." Damon responded. "You want to live life, but you don't want to wage a war for it. You know what makes the Originals so powerful? They'll do anything they have to; even fuck each other over to get whatever they want done. They aren't afraid to risk anything or everything. That's why they blindside us when all we do is one up them."

"You're talking about stripping them of something major." Stefan shook his head. "You think they won't feel that? You think they won't know?"

"They'll feel the magic, I don't doubt that, but they won't know what happened to them. If Bennett can work the magic like we need her too, they shouldn't feel much of anything."

"Shouldn't and if? You want us to trust shouldn't and if?" Stefan asked incredulously.

"No." Damon said, somehow making eye contact with everyone in the room. "I want you to trust me."

After that, the meeting had gone pretty much as usual. We'd gone from serious talking into somehow discussing Miss Mystic Falls. Jeremy was texting me plans to sneak into my room later. Normally, I'd have been game, but I had too much on my mind. Damon had given me a task I wasn't sure I could do. More than that, he seemed absolutely positive that I could do it. He and I had never been on good terms exactly. His newfound faith in me made me nervous.

I stood up and put my phone in my back pocket. "I'm gonna step outside for a sec."

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Is this because you don't think you should try for Miss Mystic Falls, again?'

I'd only ever tried out for it one time, and the results had been disastrous. Caroline had spent an hour on my hair, Elena did my makeup, and they both collaborated on my wardrobe. Everything had been going well actually. I filled out all the forms, I smiled my biggest smile, but the applicant interview was where everything went downhill.

"Why do you want to try out for Miss Mystic Falls?" Carol Lockwood asked.

"I think it'll be a positive experience." I said.

"If given the title of Miss Mystic Falls, what will you do for the community?"

"I assume whatever the community needs for me to do." I answered politely.

"You know I've never seen you in anything…"she looked me over. "Well, where did you get that shirt?"

The shirt in question was a yellow peplum top with a conservative neckline.

"It's Caroline's." I said, not bothering with her last name. Mystic Falls was pretty small. Not too many people shared a name here outside of the Mikes. Both of whom were on the football team and best friends.

"See," she continued. "That's what I thought. Miss Mystic Falls is a beacon of hope and a leader for the young girls of our town. She has to not only act the part, but also look it. To be honest, Bonnie Bennett, I've never seen you in anything outside of a cross between the Salvation Army and Bohemian chic."

"And to be fair, Mrs. Lockwood, I haven't seen you be anything outside ofan annoying, busybody, wife to your apathetic husband, a hands off approach to your alcoholic douchebag son, and a town gossip. We all start from somewhere, right?"

Needless to say, it didn't work out.

But Caroline didn't know that. "No. I just need some air."

"Well hurry back." Caroline said. "I need your help with dress colors."

"Take all the time you need, Bon." Elena shook her head. "Caroline's going for pink."

I moved away before they could say anything else.

Outside, the February chill gave me what I needed. It was cool enough to relax me into my thoughts and still enough that I could fade into them easily. I folded my arms and clicked my nails. The last time I'd done a spell remotely as powerful as what Damon's suggesting, I lost my Grams. While I lived with it because there was never any time to slow down around here, I always remembered it vividly. The draining of one's life through magical exertion. The fear of sleeping after I did a spell. Was it exhaustion or was I dying? Would I wake up the next day or would my father have another body to bury?

The only thing that soothed my fears was that I'd been practicing spells by myself without anyone knowing. I'd gotten stronger and I could feel it. Using magic didn't hurt anymore, my telekinesis had improved wonderfully. I could lift all of the objects in my room, including myself, simultaneously and not feel anything other than a rush of power. My fire spells had gotten more precise. My Latin was improving. I now knew the purpose for the elements and how to use them effectively. I bonded more with earth and fire. Water and air had too much change for me. I liked my magic solid and concrete, serving a basic purpose through various mediums.

I held out my hand and looked at my finger tips, pushing a little power into them. Magic crackled like electricity along the tips of my nails and danced along the sides of my hand. As a reflex I expected pain, but there was only power, ebbing and flowing with my breathing and concentration. There was nothing but me and my magic out here in the night. The sounds of nature were the score to my thoughts.

"Power at your fingertips," a voice said from behind me. "I always hated that phrase."

I let the magic fade and sighed. "Being a witch, it's all I hear."

Damon stepped up beside me, face tilted upwards towards the sky. His hair was shorter, he'd cut it, but his bangs were still heavy in his eyes. He wore a deep blue v neck that looked black in the night and clung to his body. His skin was the palest I'd seen, possibly in contrast to the black of his hair, but it all worked for him in ways it wouldn't on anyone else. The only time I'd ever seen the hair and eyes combination had been on bronze skinned celebrities in magazines.

"I can see the stars from here." He said.

"I'm not surprised. You're a vampire."

He smirked. "When I was human, you could see them whenever the sun went down. Now you have to get past the car lights, street lights, all that bullshit."

Were we really discussing stargazing? "I never pictured you as a stargazer."

He shrugged. "Not something I do often."

I didn't know what to say. A silence settled between us.

Damon broke it. "How do you feel about what I said in there?"

Nervous. Annoyed. Pressured. "It's a lot."

"Nothing you can't handle." Damon said.

"I could barely keep a tomb open." I said.

"You didn't know what you were doing."

"My Grams did, look where she is." I said in a distant voice.

"You didn't, look where you are."

I didn't like what he was implying. "Grams was a powerful witch."

Damon faced me and raised an eyebrow. "I know that better than you do."

"Then you should know better than to say shit like that." I said. "She died because she took on all the magic. It's overexertion."

"You can believe that if you want, but don't ask me to entertain it." He said. "I've done my reading. I know exactly what that spell was. There is no taking on all of the magic in a two witch spell. The magic is divided equally because that's balance. You witches are all about balance. It's why you're so judgmental."

Asshole.

"Your Grams couldn't handle the magic. It's nothing against her, she just couldn't do it. You could and you did. It's why you're still here."

He was implying something I couldn't accept. "You're saying I'm powerful than she was."

"I'm saying there's a reason she was teaching you what you needed to know instead of how much you should."

Directly after her death, if he'd said these same words to me, I'd have killed him. If I hadn't been practicing my magic on my own and reading over grimoires from the Bennett women, I'd have killed him. The fact that I'd wondered the same thing once or twice was the only thing stopping me from exploding now.

"I know you've been practicing." He continued. "I bet your magic feels different doesn't it? It feels different whenever you walk into a room. Most witches are undetectable, even by supernatural standards. All of us know when you're coming. We all know it's something big."

"And you think because of that I can do the spell you want?"

"I think you can do the spell because you want the originals dead just as much as the rest of us. I know you can do it because you're powerful."

I shook my head. "I'm not sure Damon."

He sighed. "I'm going to be honest with you. We don't like each other, but I'm sure even you can respect what I'm going to say enough to never repeat it."

I stared at him. Damon's face lost its usual hardness and his eyes showed signs of weariness. The wall he kept up was taken down. It was like seeing him for the first time. I couldn't look away.

"I'm sick of the bullshit." He said. "I'm tired of looking over my shoulder, making deals with undead bastards with power fetishes. I'm sick of it. When this is done, and it will be done, I'm taking a long vacation from everyone here. But it needs to be done."

I knew how he felt. Surprisingly, I understood.

"You," he pointed at me. "Are powerful enough to end this. It's not something I've witnessed, it's not something you want to believe, but it's the truth. I'd bet everything I have or will ever have on the amount of power you're capable of. I don't have faith in too many people or their abilities, but I have it in you. You can do this. You will do this. You're that powerful. We both know it."

It turns out, I was.

In order for the spell to work, it needed the blood of Klaus's bloodline. Stefan, Damon, and Caroline all cut their hands and bled into the wooden bowl I'd spelled. The incantation was lengthy, but I got through it fairly easy. I threw in the sage, holy water, and ground white oak. I pushed my magic deep into the spell, putting power behind my words and beseeching my will to be done.

The three of them glowed for about for about four seconds, and then it was over.

"Do you feel anything?" I asked, breathlessly. The rush of power flowing through me had been amazing.

"No." Caroline said. "But I think that's because it worked."

"I'm right next to you." Stefan said in a shocked voice. "I don't feel anything."

I looked at Damon.

"When vampires come from a specific bloodline, we can feel it." He said. "It's like wearing a sign; we all know each other when we're close."

"Like Lucy knew we were cousins." I said.

"Exactly." He nodded.

And he'd been right.

So right that when Klaus found out, he was furious. He didn't know what exactly I'd done, only that he felt off. For some reason or another, he knew Damon had orchestrated the entire thing and that I'd been the one to cast the spell. I'm not sure how he put it together, but he had. What happened after had been horrible.

It all happened in flashes.

Damon, Stefan, Elena, and I had been on our way to the boarding house in Damon's car. The guys were in the front speaking in hushed tones. I was in the back next to Elena. She was talking to me about what to get Jeremy for his birthday. I was telling her about going on eBay and finding limited edition comics.

"He's still into those?" she asked.

"It's what he wants to do when he gets to college." I replied. "He's great at it."

"I mean I knew he was into art, but I thought it was more of a hobby." She said.

"More like a passion." I mused, thinking about it.

"And you would know about his passions right?" Elena teased.

"Don't be that girl." I said.

"You know, if you really wanted to get him something, you could try tickets to Dragon Con in Atlanta." Stefan suggested.

"I want to get him something he can keep." I said. "I hate temporary gifts. And I want it to be personal."

"Memories aren't temporary." Elena said. "And they're really personal."

"They fade. Besides you never remember everything."

"Sketchbook." Damon said from the driver's seat.

I rolled my eyes. "Like he doesn't have a million of those."

"I wasn't finished." Damon said. "Give him a sketchbook, but put a spell on it. Something you know he'll like. Maybe the pages don't tear or they're infinite. His pictures come to life or shit like that."

The idea actually had a lot of merit. I could get something ordinary and make it extraordinary, and Jeremy would love it. He'd be so psyched that his pictures moved and he didn't have to spend any more money on sketchbooks, more of that money might go somewhere else. Like a car fund. Driving everywhere got boring sometimes.

"And if that doesn't work," Damon smirked in the rearview mirror. "Nothing says happy birthday head."

"Seriously, Damon?" Elena shook her head.

Something hit us hard from the right.

All I could hear was twisting metal and shattering glass. The world was spinning, Elena's hair was flying. We flipped three times before the car stopped on its roof and we were all upside down. I coughed and tried to undo the seatbelt strangling me. Stefan ripped his seatbelt off and climbed towards me and Elena, who was regaining consciousness.

Damon wasn't in the car.

Stefan untangled Elena first and then me immediately after. He kicked the door off the car and pulled the both of us out. Elena and I were both coughing and rubbing our throats. She had a small cut on her forehead; I could feel a welt on my neck from the seatbelt. Other than that, it was fine. I ached in places, I'd be bruised, but I was fine. It wasn't the worst thing I'd been in by far.

Until I started paying attention.

Kol, Klaus, and Rebekah were beating Damon so savagely I almost couldn't comprehend what was going on. There was nothing but speed, arms rearing back, feet kicking, crunching sounds. Kol grabbed Damon's head and snatched it back, Klaus punched his face one way, Rebekah punched it the other. It started out slow at first, but then the speed came. Damon's head was moving so fast, I thought his neck would snap.

"Keep her safe." Was all Stefan said before he took off running. He didn't get far.

Klaus lifted Damon by the neck and held him. "Do you really think you can win?"

Stefan stopped, stumbling a little.

Damon had so many gashes on his face, he looked like he'd gotten into it with a knife instead of a fist. I could see the skin slowly starting to heal itself already, but that didn't stop Damon from spitting out copious amounts of blood. Elena clung harder to me. I couldn't say I blamed her.

"Now I'm not exactly sure what your little witch did to me, but I'm not a particular fan of spells." He said. "I don't really like plots against me either."

"Let him go." Stefan said, an anxious tone in his voice.

"I'll make it easy for you," Klaus said playfully. "You can have your pathetic brother back in exchange for Elena Gilbert. Fair trade wouldn't you say?"

"Don't fucking do it!" Damon shouted. "Don't you even think-"

Klaus sank his teeth into Damon's shoulder.

Elena screamed. I started to chant.

"Cast that spell and he loses an arm." Klaus winked at me with yellow eyes. "Someone should've told you about vampire biology, witch. We heal, but nothing grows back."

"Bonnie stop!" Stefan held up a hand.

"Yes, Bonnie, stop." Klaus smiled.

Rebekah and Kol came to stand by Klaus on either side, her expression bored, his gleeful. It was like watching pieces of a deranged puzzle come together. The picture was horrifying, one that had way too many possibilities. I knew we weren't giving up Elena and I'm pretty sure Klaus knew that too. We were going to die out here. I could feel it.

Klaus bit Damon again.

Damon yelped so loud the sound deafened me. My eyes darted around for something, anything, but nothing came. It was like a deer being caught in headlights. Nowhere to go, nowhere to run, nowhere to anything.

"Let this be a lesson to you Stefan." Klaus said. "If I wanted Elena right now there isn't a goddamn thing you can do about it."

He squeezed Damon's neck tighter.

"I'll let the three of you go, but only because I like the chase. Damon, on the other hand? His attempts to kill me have gotten rather annoying."

Klaus bit him one last time and tossed him to the ground.

But not before his final words to me. "For your sake, I hope whatever you did never becomes apparent."

And here we were.

It had been two minutes since Damon died and an extra five when his skin went blue. No one could move him, not that it was even a thought, but it seemed like everyone but me was so strung out on grief. Caroline was holding a sobbing Elena, Stefan's face had gone eerily blank. Alaric's face was grim, and the silence that settled into the living room of the boarding house was so stifling, I could barely breathe.

For the first time in a long time, I felt completely…down. I'd tried to distance myself from the situation entirely and even tried to blame my feelings on everyone else's sadness, but I knew how I felt. I just couldn't explain it. While Damon and I had gotten over our initial hate for each other longer enough to focus on a greater good, he and I had never been friends. There were a few times we'd chuckled at something the other said, but nothing close to what he and Alaric or anyone else may have had.

Why did I feel so bad?

Because he'd trusted me, something I barely did with myself a lot of the time. Damon had told me, rather unexpectedly, that he believed in me. Looking back on the whole thing it was kind of surreal. That moment of honesty I hadn't expected from him, the first person to actually be confident in the extent of my abilities and not the dire need for it…it was affecting me way more than it should have.

My pulse was beginning to thump in my ears, my eyes were starting to water. Suddenly Damon's body was pulling at emotions I was trying to keep down. I was seeing him in his final moments, and the time before that when we were alone outside. My breathing quickened, time slowed down.

I felt the presence before I heard it.

"You can bring him back." A voice from my right said.

I turned to my right and stiffened, seeing who the voice belonged to. Emily Bennett, my ancestor, was standing beside me, looking at Damon's body with a determined gaze. Her skin was fairer than mine, but I could see the resemblance just a little within us. We both had the Widow's Peak and heart shaped faces, our eyes were slightly slanted. While my mother and grandmother had gotten the skin tones, Emily's features had come to me in other ways.

"What?" I whispered.

She looked me right in the eyes. Her lips didn't move as she spoke. You can bring him back.

Standing in a room full of my friends, I tried to speak as quietly as I could. "It's not possible."

Resurrection goes against the rules, but that's only for the evil. Damon Salvatore may have been a product of a life stolen, but he was never of black heart. I promised him years ago that if he protected my lineage, I would repay him when the time came. Now is the time.

I stared at her in shock.

"How?"

Upstairs, in his room, is a grimoire of mine. You need to get it, read the spell, and put it right back where you found it. This is of grave importance. If anyone other than us knows that grimoire exists, the consequences will be dire.

I opened my mouth to say something, but she silenced me with a sharp jerk of her head.

Do you want to help him?

I thought of the way Damon risked his life for us. He may have been an asshole, but that didn't stop him from doing what was necessary, even if it was primarily for Elena. Ifelt the yes before I could verbalize it.

Do as I say. Follow me.

I backed slowly out of the room, not that anyone was paying attention to me, and when I got to the edge of it, I sprinted up the stairs as fast as I could. Emily was at the top when I got there, turning on her heel and moving quickly down the hall. As I ran, I had a moment to really examine everything in my head. I was running down the hall after my ancestor. She was leading me to the room of the dead vampire downstairs. The dead vampire I was going to resurrect.

I tried to think if weirder things had happened. Nothing came to mind.

"Hey slow down!" I whispered into the darkening hallway. "Emily, wait!"

She stopped so abruptly I almost fell.

We don't have the time, Bonnie.

"You said you and Damon had a deal." I said. "What does that mean?"

I said I made a promise and I did. As the acting leading witch of the Bennett line I made a blood oath to Damon Salvatore that if he protected my family, my family would protect his. Keeping him and his brother alive from the Other Side has been tumultuous at best, but I've done it. Whether it's been steering various influences into his path or guiding him away from something, I've kept my promise until now. Now, it's your turn.

My turn? "My turn for what?"

You're the acting witch of this line, Bonnie. Protecting the Salvatores falls to you.

Wait, what?

Emily looked towards a door at the end of the hall and it opened slightly. She moved towards it quickly, leaving my unasked questions hanging in the air. Protecting the Salvatores falls to me? What did that even mean?

Inside of Damon's room was dark and warm. The colors were blacks and silvers and wood. His room was neat, bed made perfectly, the closet, from what I could see, was organized. I hadn't spent an excessive amount of time around Damon, but somehow the room fit him. I wasn't surprised by any of the décor, only how much personality it had. There were books and magazines, dvd's, and posters. He had an extensive cologne collection that probably cost more than my life.

In here.

I moved to where Emily was standing, a small space in the corner of Damon's room. I could feel the magic as I got closer to it, the power traveling along my skin like a current. Emily pointed to a single floorboard and I knew what she wanted me to do. I waved my hand and the floorboard flew away. I got to my knees and reached into the darkness.

Do not touch the book.

I pulled my hand away.

The book floated out of the floor on its own, landing on the floor with a small thump and opening itself. Emily reached out her hand and the pages flipped quickly until coming to a halt on the last page. Emily knelt down on the floor and nodded to the page. I looked at it, piecing it together with my Latin and blinking my confusion.

"The Immortal Coil?" I asked.

Everything has a place in nature Bonnie, everything. Vampires don't belong to the mortal coil. Your questions will be answered later. If you're going to do this, it needs to be done now before Damon's soul leaves that coil.

Emily looked at the bedroom door and it closed quietly.

"I don't know if you've noticed lately," I said as I reread the spell. "But I'm not exactly the best with spells like this."

Which is why I'm here. I will anchor you and your magic to this plane so that you don't overexert yourself.

I looked at her. "Have you done this before?"

The time for questions is endless. The time for Damon is not.

I shook my head and tried to calm my nerves. A white crystal appeared on the floor beside my knee.

Read the spell slowly and silently, channel your magic into the crystal. It is a medium acting as Damon's body.

I picked up the crystal and examined it as best I could. It was pure white, shining even in the dimness of the room, and if I concentrated hard enough I could feel it calling to my magic. Emily stood behind me and put her hand on my shoulder.

You will be fine.

I took a deep breath and looked at the spell, tilting my head as I read it. With each syllable that left my lips, the magic inside of me grew deeper, more intense. My voice got breathier, my tone deeper. I could feel Emily's hand on my shoulder, but just barely. A wind began to circulate in the room, rustling random papers and playing with the strands of my hair. My bangs fell into my eyes, magic crept over my skin in a million tiny pricks.

I went backwards onto the floor, my back arching with the magic.

For a second, I was nothing and everything. I was corporeal and spiritual, teetering on that balance between the Other Side and the plane I lived on. Magic rushed over me in waves, crashing against the barrier of my psyche and tapping into the core of my being. Reality flickered like an old television, a million sounds became one noise. My lips were still moving, but I couldn't hear myself. I was still breathing but I couldn't hear my pulse. Emily disappeared and reappeared. The world followed suit.

Now, Bonnie. The crystal!

I pulled as much power as I could and shoved it into the essence of the crystal. I pictured Damon's lifeless body being filled with the magic of the spell and making him whole again. I wanted his wounds healed, the werewolf venom purged from his body. I wanted him walking and talking and living and breathing.

The words came from nowhere and danced from my lips. "Return, Damon Salvatore! Return to the Immortal Coil!"

The crystal burned hot inside my palm, then cooled so fast I shivered.

The magic left me so fast, it hurt. It was like ripping away a band aid only this was stripped away from every part of me. I could feel myself trembling as I rolled on my side facing Emily's calm and collected frame. I was so cold, as cold as the crystal I was holding.

"D-did it work?" I managed to stammer.

She nodded. You did well.

I sat up and tried to get to my feet, and fell right back to the floor. Emily was behind me with her hand on my back, but I couldn't feel it. I shook my head and waved her off, pushing myself shakily to my knees and then to my feet. When the room stopped spinning, I faced my ancestor.

"I have questions." I said.

I have your answers.

"Not right now." I didn't think I could take it.

When you're ready. Go, I will put away the grimoire.

I swayed a little as I walked, but I managed to make it to the door okay. Leaning against it for a few seconds felt wonderful.

There was a loud crash followed by a bang.

One last thing. Emily said as I turned the knob. What the hell was going on?

I nodded, keeping my eyes closed and trying will away the magic induced vertigo.

You need to keep the crystal hidden. It is the very thing tethering Damon to this world. Should anything happen to it, he will die.

I whirled around say something, but she was gone.

And I was paying for that whirl. The room spun so hard I had to press my forehead against the cold wall in order to keep from throwing up. I took a couple of deep breaths and moved as quietly as I could from Damon's room. I stayed against the wall, using it to keep me upright and clinging to the rail for dear life as I braved the stairs. I put the crystal in my bra and shivered again at the coolness of it. In my head, when I got back downstairs, Damon would be awake and fine. He would crack a joke about it not being that easy to kill him. And everything would be normal.

I should've known better.

The scene I walked in on chaotic to say the least. Stefan was flying through the air like a doll and Elena was being guarded by Alaric. Caroline was recovering from whatever happened to her and slowly getting to her feet. Stefan was back up in seconds.

"Damon," he said. "Damon calm down."

"Go to hell, brother!" Damon spat. "You did this to me! You've ruined me!"

"What did I do?" Stefan asked. "Calm down and tell me what I did."

"Stop telling me to calm down!" Damon boomed so loud, I felt it in my chest. "Don't play the victim here, Stefan, you've always done it!"

He was about to leap again.

"Damon!" I shouted.

He stopped on a dime and faced me. Everyone did.

I willed myself to walk upright and ignore the exhaustion I was feeling. If I didn't get to a couch or a chair soon, I was going to pass out. I was so nauseas, I felt like I was going to throw up every bit of the last ten years. When I got close enough to look at him, I could see just how well the spell worked.

Every part of Damon was healed. There was no evidence of the massive beating he'd incurred earlier or the car accident we'd been in other than dried blood on his face. I looked at his ripped shirt and saw no werewolf bites. His skin was smooth and pale and taut over his muscles. I looked him over twice, marveling at the spell I'd casted to bring him back.

Until I got to his eyes.

There was something off about the eyes. Physically, they were the same blues they'd always been. Evenly shaped and startlingly clear, like staring into smaller versions of icy blue pools. The closer I stepped to him, the more I was noticing about him. His eyes roamed over me, darting over my body and landing on my own eyes. His gaze softened slightly.

That's when I knew.

"Damon what-" Stefan started, but I held up my hand to stop him.

I asked the first question. "What is your name?"

He stared at me for a second, his heaving chest slowing immediately to a regular breathing rhythm.

"Damon. Damon Salvatore."

He had an accent. A slight one. More like his words had a different cadence.

I asked the second question. "Do you know where you are?"

Damon looked around. Twice. "Boarding house."

It was more an observation than anything.

I paused before I asked the next question, wanting to phrase it correctly. "Damon how old are you?"

"Twenty two."

"What?" Caroline asked from the corner of the room. "No, Damon, how old are you n-"

"Oh my god." Stefan said, face shocked.

Damon's eyes went completely black this time, fangs extended. I thought he might've been coming for me, but instead he had Stefan against the wall in seconds.

"How quickly we forget brother!" He hissed. "You know what you did, own up to your actions for once in your life! Tell them what you did!"

Stefan didn't have to say anything, I already knew. Damon had, if one was paying attention, basically told all of us what Stefan had done. Twenty two, unexplained anger, uncontrolled emotions, and the speech confirmed everything for me. Stefan had killed his brother.

He'd turned Damon into a vampire and, right now, it was all Damon knew.

A/N: DUN, DUN, DUUUUUUUUN!

Actually I'm really sketchy on this ending. Sigh.

So I'll let you guys decide whether I should post a second chapter to this or not. Don't worry, I'm still doing Effervescent. The chapter is still being posted on the 12th as promised (See Lapis Love's tumblr. Hey boo!)

So I'm saying this here and will probably reiterate it in some form in the next chapter of Effervescent, but I had a lot going on. The main thing is that while I wanted to write Bamon, I couldn't really concentrate solely on effervescent. It's like binge watching a show and needing a break, but not wanting to completely let go of the universe altogether. Maybe no one understands that, but I hope you do. I needed my creative Bamon juices flowing, I needed to get back into the swing of writing my characters, and I just needed to do something with all the ideas I had.

I sincerely hope you guys like this, and I'll trust you to let me know if you don't.

PM me for questions. Read. Review, Review, Review.

AGAIN I AM CURRENTLY WORKING ON EFFERVESCENT AS WELL. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO ASK ME WHEN I'M UPDATING. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO ASK ME IF I'M UPDATING. YOU DON'T NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THE UPCOMING UPDATE BECAUSE IT IS UPCOMING.

RGE