We Are The Afterlife

Part 25

Damon lay in bed studying the tile paneling above him. Bonnie entered the room and gingerly lay beside him. She lay on her side looking him over.

"You remember the day we met?" Bonnie asked.

Damon turned and faced her. "When I kicked you in the side?" he chuckled.

Bonnie caressed his hair out of his eyes. "Yep," she laughed. "Seven-year-old me was mesmerized by your eyes. They froze me in place." She slowly traced the side of his face. "I didn't know then how infuriating you were, headstrong, controlling, selfish, childish,"-

- "Not making me feel better," he noted.

"Kind, intelligent, caring, funny, the love of my life. Even if someone else was my first you'll always be the last and greatest love of my life. My heart belonged to you from the beginning, you just couldn't see it."

"I saw the change Bon," he said as he grabbed her hand. He skimmed the delicate digits with his lips. "I could feel it in my being. And I know the only thing to get Elena to back off is to take this away. You both have to reclaim that memory," he said studying her green eyes.

"I'll work on it. But promise me something."

"What?"

"When all of this is over, we'll never look back, we'll only look forward," Bonnie whispered.

"Always and forever," he promised. Damon's phone rang as he looked into Bonnie's eyes. He wanted to stay in that moment forever. He picked up his phone not looking at the caller ID.

"Come to the house now," Giuseppe said and hung up the phone. He knew given the chance, his son would refuse.

Bonnie studied Damon's features. "Was that Elena?"

"Nope, close. Giuseppe wants to see me," he groaned.

Bonnie laughed. "He's not that bad," she added.

"If you're Stefan or Zach," he shrugged.

Bonnie kissed Damon. "Hurry up and go. I'll have the potion ready by the time you get back," she promised.

Damon wrapped Bonnie in his arms. "The future I see with you has always been the life I wanted. I know you think I'm crazy, but I hope we can still have it."

Bonnie held onto Damon tight. Her stomach knotted at his anguish. "We'll have a better future, because none of this supernatural or Elena drama will penetrate it."

Elena entered the house and went straight to her room. She felt her chest tighten as she replayed Stefan's words over and over in her head. She'd given him her all, and yet it was still Bonnie. She paced the floor trying to get a grip. There had to be something she could do. Bonnie had been a thorn in her side for far too long. It was finally time to get rid of her.

The baby had to go too. There was no way she could keep Stefan's mind off Bonnie if there was a mini version of her still left in the world. But how? She bit the nail of her thumb as she tried to pick the prefect way for Bonnie to go. It had to be clean and look completely natural.

She could always get into Jo's file and write up some false results. What would kill her the fastest, she pondered. Elena grabbed her medical journal and looked up pregnancy complications. She was surprised there wasn't a lightbulb above her head. She had the perfect idea. Gestational diabetes. It was perfect. It was better than perfect. It was the crown jewel that would get Bonnie out of her life forever.

Elena took a shot to drown out the flashes of the past, that same to break through every moment she waited for Damon to deliver what she was promised. She hated that feeling. The feeling of losing. She was going to win this time. She was going back to the life she deserved with Stefan.

If only that planned work and things didn't get complicated, and messy. Things got so messy in the end. If only Stefan didn't get in the way. She could have finished them both. But she had the perfect plan be this time if things didn't go as planned. She'd leave and they'd never find her again. No matter how hard they looked.

Damon entered his childhood home and walked straight to the library. In true Salvatore fashion Giuseppe stood gazing into the flames as they danced and crackled in the stone hearth. "What's up pops?" Damon asked sarcasm oozing in his tone.

Giuseppe turned to face his son. His eye blazed in a way Damon hadn't seen in quite some time. Damon braced himself for his father's rage. Giuseppe marched over to Damon and wrapped his arms around his son. He grabbed Damon's shoulders and looked deep in his eyes. "Tell me where the Gilbert girl is right now," he demanded.

Damon was in shock. The way his father's voice quaked made it such a foreign sound. "I-I don't,"- Damon struggled to form his lie.

"Damon! I'm saying this for your own good. I know you're one of those blood suckers. I know you took her from the cell. I need to get her back NOW!" his father demanded.

Now Damon was scared. He backed away from his father. "I have no idea what you're talking about," Damon said. He didn't want to hurt his father. This version of Giuseppe had more redeeming qualities then he cared to admit.

Giuseppe grabbed Damon again and shook him. "Listen to me boy. If we don't get Elena and we don't get her quick Sarah and Bonnie are going to be in danger," Giuseppe yelled.

Damon's eye turned glacial as he looked at his father. "Listen to him Damon."

Damon turned to see Rudy standing in the doorway. "What's going on?"

Rudy walked into the room. "You're Bonnie's other half. You have the ability to sense when she needs you don't you. That's how you knew she was in trouble the night Sarah was born. How you know that one day soon you'll have other kids. I heard you talking to Shelia. I have the same connection to Abby."

Damon swallowed. "I don't sense any danger."

Rudy snickered. "You feel uneasy. Constantly. I'm sure you've attributed that to Stefan being back, but its danger. Elena is going to kidnap Sarah if we don't deal with her. If that happens, Bonnie will blame herself. And she'll turn Sarah against you."

Damon could already see the dark road. Bonnie would worry herself to death. And Elena will poison their little girl against them. She'd turn her into a blood thirst monster. "And turn her into a monster that kills Bonnie. And her sister."

"We need to know where Elena is. And we need to kill her," Giuseppe pressed.

"She was at the GilbertLake house. But I'm sure she's not there anymore. I don't know where else she'dgo. Stefan would," Damon said fighting his tears. If they didn't get to Elenabefore she kidnapped Sarah. Sarah would someday kill Bonnie and Serenity.