I'll Be Home

She's something else to you, isn't she?

It had been three weeks since their failed rescue mission, and seven days until the next full moon. Seven days before he needed another witch. And in that time, Elena's words went from accusing to perceptive to clairvoyant to ominous.

Accusing, because it meant he had been lying to Elena – just not in the way she thought. Perceptive, because even he hadn't dared to realize it, let alone say it aloud. Clairvoyant, because it had blossomed from inkling to gnawing, gut-wrenching truth. So much so that Bonnie wasn't just something else, she was  everything else.

And ominous because, try as he might, Damon just couldn't figure out how to get her back.

Bonnie's former friends had all decided it was better to help useless Gemini witches than a Bennett who had risked her life time and again to save theirs. Who had, apparently, given up the very thing that made her a witch, to protect them all from Kai. Who had given up an easy out back into the living to protect them from him, and he had got out anyway.

He had thought about her every day. Hell, every moment.

When he woke up, and he couldn't hear her mumbling. When he sat in the kitchen, and wondered what the hell she was eating – if she was eating. At first, he avoided blueberries and whipped cream and plaid and aviators and '90s music. But soon enough, he was saving the crossword puzzles for her, and trying to remember all the clever one-liners he was dying to say to her.

And when he wasn't thinking about what she was up to, he would think about what he would do differently next time. He would go alone. He would meet her halfway. He would grab her hand and he wouldn't let go – not when they got back and it felt awkward, not so long as Kai was still alive.

It was so normal to think about Bonnie that it became infuriating to him that no one else did the same.

Elena had come around with her doe eyes, but had done nothing useful to help him get to her. She had even excused Alaric's galling behaviour. Damon didn't have time for that. Caroline wasn't much better, and Stefan was only happy that Damon had returned – he didn't care about how, or at what cost. As for Jeremy, Damon cut him out of any future rescue missions when, upon realizing how he felt, he called Bonnie's number and was met with a chipper, automated voice sating: This number is no longer in service.

He said he loved her to a machine with someone else's voice.

Why am I the only one who cares? Why am I the only one who is doing anything?

Yeah, Stefan had said after one of his long, meaningful stares, why are you?

Damon loved her, and he realized it too late.

Bennett blood? Check.

Natural, celestial event like a full moon or a comet? Check – the eclipse.

Object that was used to bind a Bennett spell? Check – the moon stone was easy enough to locate in the Lockwood manor.

Magic? Double check – turns out the witches' house Damon had showed her was one great big object filled with magic. It didn't take long for her to, once again, hold their power in her hands.

Bonnie was ready to go home.

After she had cried herself to exhaustion on that porch, Bonnie had forced herself to list, aloud, the things she knew:

One: Kai was free.

Which meant, two: whoever remained of his family was in danger.

And, three: Damon had come back for her.