... REDO

11

When Damon dropped Bonnie off at home, Caroline met her at the door. "How did it go?" she asked worriedly.

"It went good. Damon had to pull me off the first two when I didn't control myself so well, but after that it was better. We're going again tomorrow night to give me some more practice," Bonnie told her.

"Good. That's good. I'm glad Damon took care of you," Caroline said relieved. She'd been considering revising her opinion of him since Bonnie told her his excuses for how he treated her. She still thought he was an ass and agreed with Bonnie that it was a shitty way of going about it, but at least he had a reason. That made it easier to forgive. And he was being good about helping Bonnie where she couldn't, so she would let it go and give him a chance.

"So I was thinking tonight we could practice separating sounds? I thought up a game like 'I Spy' but instead 'I Hear'. What do you think?"

"That sounds fun," Bonnie agreed and they whiled away the night that way. They were going to wait until Bonnie was more stable for her to start passing on Damon's fighting lessons.

The next day went much the same as the first, but Bonnie was good to try driving on her own again. She was doing better about controlling her emotional breakdowns and being less distracted by odd noises or movement that she wouldn't have been able to see as a human. She had to pay careful attention to the speed limit though. While she could compel herself out of a ticket from everyone but the sheriff, anyone who saw her who was in the know would realize she was a vampire now and she wanted to be the one to tell Elena herself. If she did good in the city that night, she would find Elena the next day and tell her.

Bonnie did end up doing well in the city. Damon had to call her for the first person, but the three after that she stopped on her own and Damon pronounced her safe to be around people again. As long as she was careful. She asked if he would mind if she skipped their sparring the next morning so she could go talk to Elena, and he didn't mind a bit. He would appreciate the morning off in fact. Between two different teaching sessions every day and chasing down all the leads on Stefan, he was running himself ragged. There wasn't really anything he could drop though, so he had to live with it for now.

Bonnie invited Caroline to Elena's house with her the next morning, partially to keep a watch on her in case something happened, and partially because the three of them needed some hangout time. "Bonnie! Caroline! I haven't seen you two in a few days. Come on in," Elena said cheerfully when they showed up at her door.

"Yeah, we kinda have some news," Bonnie said hesitantly.

"Okay, cool. My room?" she offered. Ric was still staying there technically, despite the fact that she was eighteen now, but he wasn't home at the moment.

Once they were ensconced in Elena's room, all sitting crosslegged on the bed like they always had when sharing secrets, Bonnie dropped the bombshell. "I'm a vampire now."

"What?!" Elena yelled. "Damon turned you? How could he..."

"I turned her. Not Damon," Caroline jumped in.

"What? But..."

"Because I asked her to," Bonnie said firmly, seeing the hurt and confusion in Elena's eyes at that pronouncement.

"Why? Why would you do that? I don't..."

"Because I lost my magic, Elena, and I was useless. The supernatural world is where I belong, but being a part of it as a human is too dangerous."

"I manage just fine," Elena pointed out.

"And look how many sacrifices have been made to protect you," Bonnie pointed out right back. Caroline gasped as the tears started welling up in Elena's eyes again and Bonnie winced when she realized what she'd said. "Crap. I'm sorry. I didn't mean...I just..." Way to remind her of the fact that she'd lost almost everyone she ever cared about.