You & Me? We're The Same

Pure Bred

About a Week Earlier

Tyler's never heard Bonnie cry harder than she did the day grams died. He still remembered finding her in Sheila's bedroom laying on the floor with her hands tightly gripping the floor rug as she wailed.

He didn't know what to say to her to get her to stop before she made herself sick so he just kneeled down next to her and pulled her against him. They sat there for hours after The EMTs came and took her body away, just staring at the wall.

"I have to go, Ty" she told him as she broke the silence and he took her hand.

"You don't have to. You can stay here with me".

She turned to him and smiled. He knew how much she hated New York, how much she wanted more than anything to stay in Mystic Falls, finish high school and somehow find a way to move on from her past, but she couldn't do that, "I can't leave Liam. I have to go", so after the funeral she did and he's only seen her one time since then.

He tried not to think about that though as he followed the GPS leading him to Beacon Hills hospital.

He'd been driving for hours to get here and the car was barely even in park before he rushed out and into the hospital making a beeline for the front desk to ask, "Which room is Bonnie Bennett in?"

"Are you family?"

"Uh- I'm her brother Liam?" he said, taking a shot in the dark, but with the way his voice went an octave higher even he couldn't believe his own lie. The nurse further cemented this fact by adjusting her glasses and staring him down, making it clear she was was not buying the BS he was busy selling her.

He was about to dig himself into a bigger hole when someone tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.

"You're Tyler" the woman said once he turned around. There was so much confidence behind those two words that you'd swear she's known him for years, and the sympathy he saw in her eyes when he nodded made him think maybe she did just a little bit..

"Derek told me to keep an eye out for you. They're all waiting for you in Bonnie's room".

"How is she?" He asked. He wasn't sure he could see her just laying there without knowing she would be okay first, but this woman didn't sound too convincing to him when she told him, "we're hopeful", when the fact of the matter was she wasn't waking up. She hadn't for three days, and instead of her body mending itself, it was slowly deteriorating. He hated her so much for always being so reckless with her life. She was strong, yes, but everyone had their limit.

Melissa watched him take it all in. The worry in his eyes so intense it was almost palpable, then she saw the rage seeping through beneath the surface that reminded her of her own son.

Derek didn't tell her much of anything when he asked her to watch out for him, just that he was Bonnie's friend, but knowing what she did she knew it didn't stop there.

"Can I ask you something?" He spoke up again after a moment. She nodded her confirmation and waited for him to ask, "the people in Bonnie's room, do they know about her?"

"Yes" she quickly responded thinking she was giving him a sense of comfort when really she was giving him the ammunition he needed because now he knew that they were using her. Just like the others did.

"Are you seriously gonna die for her? Again?!"

He remembered yelling those words in her face the first time something like this happened. He'd tried to shake the sense into her too, but it was no use. He knew his best friend and the person that stood in front of him back then wasn't her. Not when she'd reduced herself to nothing, but someone else's sacrifice.