CHAPTER 39: I ALONE
The Whitmore Campus
Unfortunately, the anti-magic spell was still upon the town of Mystic Falls, rendering Natalie unable to visit little grown-up Jeremy Gilbert. Luckily, he had a cell phone, making her able to call him and they had a little reunion over the phone. Of course, after being away from each other for months made them want to see each other again face-to-face.
And they decided that jogging was going to be the way to do it. A little brother-sister/cousin-cousin bonding, for once without Elena with them. Still, when she wasn't using her vampire speed, he was quite a bit faster than her with his hunter abilities.
"Seriously, I shouldn't be winning," the teenage boy laughed as he turned back and started jogging backwards as he waited for his older sister to catch up, which would take a few seconds.
"I was dead for four months, give me a break," she narrowed her eyes at him as she punched his arm playfully. It took only a moment with vampire speed and she was ten meters in front of him with a smirk.
He went up into a much higher speed, catching up to the laughing vampire that was looking at him with a mix of smugness and amusement. "That's cheating."
"Says the guy with supernatural hunter gifts," she scoffed, finding the fact that he could accuse her of supernaturally cheating to be absolutely preposterous. "Back in my hunting day, we didn't have those kinds of perks."
"You sound like a little old lady scolding me for being on my phone," he pointed out, an grin on his face. It was a bit because he found the way she was speaking to be funny, but mostly it was because he was so happy she was back. He had missed her a lot, and seeing her back was wonderful beyond imagination.
"Oh, you want me to sound like a scolding old lady?" Natalie asked, raising her eyebrows at him as she copied his earlier move by starting to job backwards right in front of him. "How about I scold you for what Elena has told me you've been doing. The booze, the women. You're starting to sound like Damon."
Jeremy's eyes widened as if she had just told him that while he was drunk he had gone and made out with his grandmother, mistaking her for a hot girl he had a crush on for years or something like that. "Gross."
"Yeah, that better scare you straight," she nodded, as if her mission was complete. "But, I'm kinda wondering what happened. When I talked to Matt, he said that you've just stopped drinking and while I couldn't sleep last night, I had time to come up with a few reasons as to why that could be. First, you could've impregnated a girl and decided you want to be a good dad. That's my number one suspicion. I'm also thinking you could have joined some sort of cult that won't let you drink. That's a good second."
"It's nothing like that. First, his big sister came back from the dead," he smiled as she reached up and ruffled his hair playfully with a long aw emitting from her lips. "Then he canceled Bonnie's cell phone, cried until there was nothing left, and got all the grief out of his system. He is ready to move on."
Natalie's pace slowed down considerably as she realized nobody told him about Bonnie not having found peace like Damon told everyone that they both did. "Has seriously nobody told you yet?"
He stopped jogging, turning to her with a confused look. "Told me what?"
"It's about Bonnie."
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The two siblings had gotten a bit of privacy by sitting by a picnic table, Jeremy sitting on the actual bench while Natalie just placed herself on the table as she looked down at him carefully. She had done her best to explain the important bits of Bonnie's situation, deciding that details weren't that important (the kinds like telling him what exactly Kai had been doing to them before she had gotten out and stuff).
Jeremy stared blankly into the horizon, not seeming to know how to feel. He had gotten himself ready to move on, to do something else with his life, and then he found out that he might not have to. Even after how hard he worked to get there. "Damon said she found peace."
"Yeah, he said the same thing about me. Yet, here I am," she smiled a bit at him, making him send her a small smile in response, even if it only seemed like it was to be polite. "He thought that Kai had killed us, and I don't blame him. But we're both alive. And we're looking for a way, any way for us to-"
"Are you defending him? All it took was one hollow promise to get Bonnie back," the hunter scoffed, having expected that kind of behavior from Elena, to just go with it and have false hope. He believed that Natalie would be a bit more reasonable, understand that Damon was first and foremost selfish.
"Hollow?" Natalie raised her eyebrows at him, feeling as if he didn't only insult Damon and his ability to keep promises, but also her because he didn't believe in her being able to help Bonnie. "He's not the only one working for this, okay? I've been working too, and we've gotten Liv to help us bring her back."
"And if you can't?" Jeremy asked, not seeming convinced.
Natalie closed her eyes for a moment and sighed, realizing how annoying she must have been when she was in her pessimism days. "Jeremy, please. Can't you just be happy? Bonnie's coming back, and if that's not good news then I don't know what good news are."
He nodded, a tight smile on his face that was far from genuine. "You're right, Natalie. This is good news. Tonight, I'm gonna see Bonnie again, and everything is gonna go back to the way it was because I have never heard that before."
He got up from the bench, not casting a glance back at her as he just kept jogging as if nothing happened. Natalie was left to sit behind, putting her face in her hands as she hoped that Jeremy was wrong, that everything would be okay for once.
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Mystic Falls Cemetery
Natalie had met up with Damon and Elena at the closest they could be to Mystic Falls, which happened to be the cemetery. They were supposed to meet Liv there so they could get over to the prison world again. No matter how scared she was of going back to that hellhole, Bonnie was more than enough motivation.
Elena had asked Stefan to with her, only to get the response that Matt wanted him for something, which she was far from certain of what could be. "What does Matt want with Stefan?"
Damon shrugged, because while he didn't know, he didn't really care either. He knew that Matt was by no way able to take down his brother if that was what he wanted to do. "I don't know. It's Matt. Food, money, new social class."
"Be nice!" Natalie scolded, slapping his arm as she found him to have been a bit harsh on Matt however long he'd known him, which she was sure was about the same amount of time as her and Matt. "Matt's social class is pretty great because of moi. Actually, all your social classes is pretty great because of moi. Everyone loves me."
Elena chuckled as Damon rolled his eyes. Natalie just walked past him with a smirk on her face, seeing Liv not that far from them. The one who actually thought to show gratitude for her actions was Elena, though. "Hey. Thanks for doing this."
Liv shrugged, her blonde curls bouncing all over the place even from such a simple action. "Don't worry about it. I needed an excuse to get out of that frat house. Way too much boy. Gross. You got everything?"
Damon nodded, grabbing both the things they would supposedly need out of each of his pockets. "Yep. Blood from a Bennett- Lucy to be exact. And an Ascendant from whatever the hell your last name is."
"Parker," Liv informed him, although he didn't seem to care very much. Once she understood that, she just looked at the Ascendant, finding it to be much less impressive than her family had let on. "So this is the famous Ascendant?"
"Yup," Damon responded simply.
Liv nodded, tilting her head, not having expected him to be able to get easily. And if he did, she suspected that Jo didn't give it to him without a big fight. "Surprised that Jo gave it up."
Elena didn't glance over at Damon, who had suddenly gotten very nervous looking for a moment before getting back to normal. Natalie, on the other hand, noticed easily. Elena was a bit more confused than them, so she asked a quick question. "Why?"
"It's the only thing keeping Kai locked in his prison. If he gets out, he's coming after Jo," the blonde witch responded, looking at her as if it was the most obvious thing in the world and she was not too bright for not understanding it.
"Well, good old Jo," the only male there chuckled nervously, tapping his fingers against the pockets of his jeans in a mix of impatience and nervousness. "Helping us out. Can we do this, please?"
Liv narrowed her eyes at him for a moment as she saw him acting so strangely, but decided not to care. "Whatever. So I'm gonna need the moon to activate the Ascendant. It will be viable for about 8 hours, so once I send you over, the clock's ticking."
Natalie thought it sounded pretty nice, other than the fact that she didn't mention anything about they were supposed to get home once the clock finished ticking. "How do we get back then?"
"Drink these," she responded, grabbing three vials of a familiar, red liquid, the same all three of the vampires had drunk at least fifty times before. "It's my blood. It will link you to me so I can find you and bring you back. Give this one to Bonnie, too."
Liv handed Damon a fourth vial. He slipped it in his pocket, but still held the one he as supposed to drink. For a moment, nobody did anything except him, who sniffed it. The witch rolled her eyes, getting impatient. "Are you waiting for a toast? Drink."
Natalie, Damon and Elena quickly did just that, clinking their vials together before downing them like they were shots. Once he had finished it, Damon tilted his head finding a particular taste in it. "Mmm. Bitter. Wonder why. Shall we?"
Damon grabbed each of the girls' hands quickly, reminding Natalie of when him, her and Bonnie were going to the prison world. Somehow, it wasn't even a sad memory anymore, it just made her smile a bit.
Liv started pouring the very limited supply of Bennett blood on the Ascendant, somehow knowing the exact spell that she needed to get them to the prison world as she started chanting. The Ascendant used its famous clicking and turning as a familiar bright light started surrounding the twins and Damon.
Natalie couldn't help but turn her head to meet Damon's eyes with the ghost of a smile on her lips, one with he returned. The two hated the prison world, but they weren't sure if they regretted being there. The two had gotten closer than ever, and they brought Bonnie with them into that friendship, and they knew they would remember that for the rest of their lives.
After a quick moment, they were still in the cemetery, only not with Liv. Natalie knew quickly that they were in the Gilbert family grave-area. Elena seemed to forget a moment that they were now in 1994 as she searched for the graves of her parents before quickly remembering. "I used to come here every day after the accident for months."
Elena didn't seem to be the only one who forgot that in 1994, her parents were still very alive. In fact, Miranda Gilbert was in the middle of her pregnancy with Jeremy. Damon looked at her as he realized "This is where your parents are buried."
The doppelganger nodded staring at the exact spot she remembered her parents being buried sadly, only to find that it was empty, nothing was there. "Yeah, but not in 1994. In 1994, they were still alive."
As much as Natalie wanted to avoid being rude, none of them had any idea of where Bonnie was, so it was a bit important to start finding out. "Well, so is Bonnie. So, perhaps we might want to start looking for her."
Damon nodded, knowing that she was right, only to remember that Bonnie wasn't the only one they had left behind in the prison world. "Keep your eyes peeled. There's a pork rind munching freak somewhere around here. Ok?"
"You think we should get the poker?" Natalie teased cheekily, sending a wink his way when he started laughing at remembering playing a little game of truth or poker while eating pork rinds, which he didn't even like.
But unlike the duo, Elena had no idea what they were talking about. She had a frown on her face as she tried to figure out why you should get a poker to deal with a pork rind munching freak. "What?"
"It's nothing," the younger twin shook her head, trying to keep herself from grinning again because she didn't want her to feel left out just because she was lucky enough to come back to life before them. "Let's go find Bonnie."
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The Salvatore Boarding House
Seeing as the last place they knew Bonnie had been living was the Salvatore Boarding House, they decided to see if they could find her there in some weird torture contraption that Kai could have put her in because he wasn't just angry that she let Damon go, but then threw Natalie away with her magic stuck in Ms. Cuddles.
Damon had been searching a bit around the woods while Elena had gone looking at places where she could be, like her house or the Gilbert house. Natalie, on the other hand, was going to look through the Boarding House carefully, as that was one of the only places they had been with Kai at.
It didn't take long for Damon and Elena to meet Natalie at the Boarding House, them having called that their meeting place for when they were done. Elena seemed like she had no luck, judging from the sad look on her face and the lack of Bonnie by her side. "Bonnie?"
"Nothing," Damon confirmed what she was so afraid of, although he didn't really seem happy about it either. He looked over at the other twin, hoping she might have found some kind of clue. "You?"
"Not a thing. I searched every single room, trying to find something that would tell us where she went, but I couldn't find it. I even searched the vampire-prison basement," Natalie responded as she ran a hand through her hair.
Elena sighed, sitting herself down on the couch, her mind jumping to the worst conclusions just because they hadn't heard anything. "You- you don't think that Kai...?"
While he had thought of the possibility as much as she had, if there was one thing Bonnie and Natalie had worked for while in the prison world, it was for him to have hope. "Look. Let's not jump to depressing conclusions yet, ok?"
Elena nodded, seeming as if she agreed trying to calm herself down. Then she saw a pillow that Natalie cringed at in familiarity and her eyes widened as she saw the large red stains. She grabbed it and started smelling it and figured out that it was, in fact, blood. "Oh my god. Oh my god, this is blood."
Damon sighed. "And we're jumping."
"Actually, that's my blood," Natalie answered sheepishly, knowing that Damon and Elena would be a bit pissed at her for not telling them. They raised their eyebrows at her incredulously, as if they wondered what happened and why she didn't tell them. "There were some things that Kai did after you left, Damon. And I never told you about it because I knew you would be all: Oh, I'm gonna kill him a thousand times over blah blah blah. Yeah, he hurt us and it was pretty bad. I could barely move and Bonnie saved me. Now, I don't wanna think about what he's done to her now that she's gotten me out. I just know that it's not good."
Damon looked at her guiltily, because he knew that if he had been there and hadn't left, he could've helped. He could've kept her from getting hurt. The blood that was on the pillow didn't have to be there, he could've kept it away. And he'd be damned if he'd let him do that kind of thing to Bonnie again.
"What are you doing?" Elena asked as Damon stalked over to the phone, not even casting a glance back at Natalie again, who was watching him, trying to understand how he was about to react.
"If Kai has Bonnie, we need to talk," Damon turned to look at Natalie with a determined look that showed that not only was he sorry, but he was also a bit angry, even if it wasn't with her. "I'm not gonna let him hurt her the way he hurt you before."
Natalie sent him a small smile, one he didn't return although his gaze was stuck on her. Elena didn't really care about it, and was just wondering what he was about to do, and if it was going to be easy. "So you're gonna call him?"
"I'm gonna page him actually," he corrected. He saw the two brunettes give him blank stares in return, neither of them really understanding how pagers worked. They had heard of them and they could vaguely remember seeing people use them, but they didn't know how. "Sorry. Forgot you guys were two in 1994. Pagers are an ancient form of telecommunication."
"I know what a pager is," Natalie responded, narrowing her eyes at him as she crossed her arms over her chest. For a moment, nobody spoke as Damon looked at her doubtfully. In the end, she uncrossed her arms and sighed in defeat. "But I don't know how it works."
"We dial jackass's number 555-HIYA-KAI..." he dialed the number. "We leave our number... And then we hang up."
Elena seemed like she was expecting something big to happen for a moment, like fireworks or an explosion that would alert them that Kai had gotten their message. It never came, and like her twin she didn't know what to expect. "And now what?"
He shrugged casually, seeming much more careless than only moments before when he found out a bit of what had happened to Natalie and Bonnie. "And now we sit by the phone like a 13-year-old girl and wait."
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Unfortunately, Natalie found 1994 as boring as usual. But after living in eras without any electricity and gadgets, she wasn't having as hard of a time with it as Elena was. She had never lived in another era, and so she was used to having some kind of electronics in her every memory. If she didn't have her memories back, Natalie would have probably been the same.
The doppelganger twin searched through the cabinets looking for something relating to Bonnie's whereabouts or something that could entertain them, only for her to finally find an old camcorder.
She frowned, seeing that something had been recorded with it and she was a bit curious as to what had been recorded. She hesitantly pressed play, because she was a bit nervous at it being Kai filming torturing Natalie and Bonnie or something. Luckily, it wasn't anything close to that.
"Well, I am officially in hell. This place is my own personal hell." Natalie quickly got up from her seat and walked over to Elena to see what was happening because she recognized Damon's voice quickly, but she couldn't remember ever seeing anything like that happen.
But before she could look at it, Damon swooped in and grabbed the camcorder, pausing it so they couldn't watch what he had filmed anymore. He had almost forgotten about it, so he had definitively not expected either of them to find them.
Knowing that it could be used against him, Natalie smirked teasingly. He looked at her as if he knew it was coming, closing his eyes with a wince. "What was that, Damon? I've never heard you mention it."
He did his best to come up with something that he could use as a retort, because he refused to see that smug look on her face anymore than necessary. "Uh, it's my audition tape for Real World: London. Fingers crossed. I think I'm finally gonna make it."
"No, no, no," she grinned, looking at him as smugly as she could. She found the idea of him going around and filming himself talking because her and Bonnie were sick of him. "That was a video journal. You were journaling."
"What?" Damon scoffed in a final attempt at keeping her from making fun of him. He hated whenever she could make fun of him, even though, deep, deep down, he loved it even more than she could imagine. Because that's what made their friendship their friendship. "No. Journals are lame, especially video ones."
As funny as Elena found their interactions, she couldn't help but wonder why he told the camcorder that it was his own personal hell. "Then why did you say you thought this was your own personal hell?"
"Well, I mean, because I was stuck here with Natalie and Bonnie. What could be worse than that?" Damon partly lied, deciding that he didn't want tell more people than he had to about what happened May 10th 1994. Natalie winked at him.
He could see that Elena didn't believe him, and that was for good reason. But, he was saved by the phone starting to ring. His eyes widened and he was somehow the first one that manged to grab it. "Kai, if you so much as hurt one hair on her annoying little witch head, I will kill you and-"
Suddenly, it turned out that the voice on the other end was far from that of Kai Parker, and luckily it was the exact person that they had been looking for. "That was so sweet. Why'd you ruin it by calling me annoying?"
Natalie, who had been listening in to the short conversation between them, grabbed the phone and responded for him. "Well, you know Damon. All the development in the world still can't keep him from being a complete and utter dick."
"Truer words have never been spoken," she could hear the Bennett witch reply, and Natalie could hear the smile on her face from the way she spoke. Hearing their voices made her unbelievably happy.
Not being able to wait anymore to speak with her best friend, Elena was the next one to grab the phone out of a former prison world-resident to speak with her, only that she had been the one who had seen her the least in the last few months. "Bonnie?"
Bonnie sucked in a breath on the other side of the call, because finally hearing Elena's voice again was different than hearing Damon or Natalie's. They had been there with her for a long time, hearing them was almost a normality, still after they left. But, Elena was someone she had missed dearly for a long time. "Elena? Elena, is that you?"
"Yes! It's me. I'm here. I'm at the Salvatore house in- in 1994," Elena laughed a bit as if she finally realized how weird the whole situation sounded. She was back in her hometown in the year she was two years old, only eighteen years later.
"I can't believe I'm hearing your voice right now. How are you here?" she asked, even if she hadn't thought to ask Damon and Natalie the same thing, because for all she knew about prison worlds, they could now travel back and forth as they pleased because they had gotten in and out or something.
Elena smiled, and imagined Bonnie doing the same wherever she had ended up. "It's a long story. Just know that I'm here to get you."
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Bonnie had gotten time to explain everything that had happened with her and Kai after Natalie left, her telling them what he had done. He had somehow gotten her to Portland and cooked her dinner before abandoning her. It seemed like things had only gotten weirder and weirder.
Elena, not knowing Kai fully as well as the three others, found it hard to believe that someone would do something like that, abandoning somebody just because they wanted to. "So Kai just left you in Portland?"
"After cooking me Thanksgiving spaghetti and stealing my blood. It's been a strange few days," Bonnie responded, making Natalie smile from where her and Damon were standing over a map overlooking the USA.
"Where is he now?" the doppelganger asked.
Bonnie sighed, as if she was sad because she didn't know. She needed to know because she didn't want him to come out and try to kill anyone ever again. "Don't know. I hotwired a car, and I'm on my way back to Mystic Falls."
For a moment, Elena's eyes widened as she was wondering what had happened to her once sweet, little, witchy best friend into someone who knew how to hotwire a car. "Hang on. You hotwired a car? Who are you?"
Bonnie giggled a bit. "A badass apparently. A badass in Muncie."
Natalie glanced back at the map underneath her hands, looking at where Muncie was compared to their town. "Muncie's around six and a half hours away from Mystic Falls, if you give or take a bit. And Liv's pulling us out of his hellhole in seven hours."
Of course, Damon being Damon, he couldn't keep himself for adding a little bit for himself just because he could. "If you don't stop to use the little witches' room anymore-"
He was cut off by Bonnie's determined voice, and seeing as how she was so sure of herself, Natalie couldn't help but feel assured by it, like it was actually going to work. "I can make it in time. I'm going home."
"You're coming home," Elena repeated, grinning. "We'll see you soon."
She quickly hung up, turning to the other vampires. Natalie was smiling, seeing as the thought of finally being able to help Bonnie come home, that the guilt she was carrying around would finally be gone, was wonderful. Damon, on the other hand, didn't seem very happy, something Elena noticed. "You're worried about Kai."
"If he's got Bonnie's blood and the Ascendant, he's got everything he needs to get out." he responded, running his hands through his hair nervously, because he feared the worst had happened. "What if he's already out?"
"Well, if he is, look at the bright side," Natalie suggested, only for him to look at her with his eyebrows furrowed. He wasn't sure how Kai getting out could be good at all. She simply smirked. "This time, when we kill him, he'll stay dead."
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Somehow, Natalie had kind of missed Damon's barely edible pancakes. Ever since she had gotten back from the dead, she had only eaten simple, always edible food, but once she saw that Damon had started making them again, she couldn't help but smile widely in a way that Elena didn't understand.
"Bon appetit," he smiled as he put a plate each in front of both of them before getting his own. For some reason, he couldn't help but wish that Bonnie was there instead of Elena, because after everything, it felt weird for him and Natalie to sit in that kitchen and eat pancakes with someone else and without her.
"Hang on," Elena stopped him from taking a bite from his pancakes. She grabbed his plate and the can of whipped cream. She started creating fangs for the blueberry-smiley face Damon had already created. She saw Damon and Natalie exchange smiles for what seemed like the thousandth time, like everything happening was related to some sort of inside joke, a secret just for them. "What?"
Natalie rested her head in her hand as she used her other one to hide the ever-growing smile on her face, because she knew Elena was getting slowly more annoyed with them always seeming like everything normal was incredibly funny. "Nothing, sorry. Let's eat."
She eyed her weirdly, but decided to grab the same newspaper that had been lying on the table for maybe three weeks, because they usually switched them every two weeks, but they had been a bit busy after Kai came. But she then looked at the crossword she had wanted to do, only to find it wasn't in perfect condition. "Ok. Who mangled the crossword?"
"Six letters, illiterate witch, B," he teased, as she was so into doing the crossword now. She narrowed her eyes at him playfully, even if there was a smile on her face that kept her from looking even slightly intimidating.
As she couldn't do the crossword, she started looking at what news were in the paper at May 10th 1994, only to see the familiar face of her teacher, also known as Alaric's girlfriend. "This is about Kai and Jo."
"Kai's greatest hits," Natalie muttered bitterly, before drowning that bitterness with a new chomp of her pancakes, which made everything feel so much better, easily. Still, not even pancakes could keep the urge of strangling Kai away, and he may not even have been in the same world as them anymore.
Slowly but surely, Elena had started to figure Kai out from what she had heard from everyone who knew him, and the newspaper created a bit of panic when it came to Jo. "If Kai's out, he's gonna go after Jo again. He's gonna kill her."
He tilted his head, as if she was correct, but not completely. "Well, if I have my Gemini rules down, actually, he's going to merge with her, which will most likely result in her death, which I guess is 6 of 1-"
"Then why would she give you the Ascendant?" the doppelganger interrupted him, as Natalie watched the intense exchange hungrily, because the TV didn't really work, so they were the next best thing.
"Um... Because I asked her very nicely?" he tried to answer, but it came out more like a question. He quickly decided that it was time for a subject change. "You want some music maybe? I'm gonna turn on some music."
Elena raised an eyebrow as she wasn't an idiot. She understood that he was keeping something from her, and she was intent on figuring out what it was. "It was the one thing trapping Kai, and she just gave it to you?"
Damon just ignored her question, only deciding to show the girls the choices they had in music. "We have Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, Boyz II Men- Stefan's." He turned to Natalie at the last one, only for her to nod sarcastically, making sure he knew that she didn't believe him in the slightest.
"Damon," Elena spoke warningly.
"Fine. She didn't give it to me. Alaric stole it from her," he responded, and Natalie almost choked on her pancakes at the revelation. She couldn't imagine that he would just steal something that important from someone he had a good thing going on with.
"Alaric stole from her," the doppelganger repeated, as if she didn't quite believe it either, which was the truth. She didn't seem to trust him all that much yet, not after Alaric compelled away her memories, she had come a long way, but it seemed to not be enough.
"After I compelled him," he admitted reluctantly. He noticed that Natalie quickly facepalmed, only to leave her hand on her face as she rested her elbow at the table. Elena, on the other hand, was a bit more dramatic. She pursed her lips before suddenly pushing herself away from the table, getting up to walk away. "What? Elena, stop."
She kept walking, and as much as Natalie didn't want to hear what was going on, she knew she actually really did. "Of course you compel your best friend. I mean, why would that be off limits?"
She could hear how insulted he sounded as he followed her, because he had only done his best to get Bonnie back, someone they all loved and someone they all missed. "Hey. I'm trying to get Bonnie back!"
Elena scoffed. "Don't. Damon, I want Bonnie back more than anything. She's my best friend, but to you, she's something else, isn't she? She's a chance for me to realize what a great guy you are so that I can fall in love with you all over again. It doesn't matter who gets hurt in the process as long as Damon gets what Damon wants."
Clearly, she stormed off, away from the Boarding House. Damon walked back into the kitchen, when he found Natalie, in what one would call an overdone natural position, making it obvious she had been listening in.
She looked over him, noticing that he had almost been staring at her. She wasn't sure why, especially because had just fought with Elena. The Damon she had once known put Elena before anyone else in the whole world. "What are you waiting for? Go after her."
Then he did something surprising. His lips tightened for a moment, as if he was hesitating. But in the end, he decided that what he was about to talk to Natalie about was more important than to go back and find Elena. "Not before we talk about what Kai did to you."
"Damon, it's fine. I'm fine," she dismissed it. She knew that it was coming. She wasn't sure when, but she knew that during that day, he would come to her and he would talk to her about it and she'd have to try to convince him that she was okay.
"But you weren't, not then. I should have been there and I should have helped instead of going back home and focusing on Elena. So, no I'm not going to focus on Elena right now," he responded, walking closer and closer to where she was sitting, and by the end of his stride, he was standing with his hands on the table, right next to her half-eaten pancakes.
Natalie looked down as she thought about what had happened with Kai. She had never felt weaker, more helpless than that day. She couldn't move a lot, definitely not fight him off, and that was something she had barely felt before. "It's okay. Bonnie saved me. She's a badass now, remember?"
"Natalie, he hurt you. He made it almost impossible for you to move and you had to be saved by a witch who had gotten shot with an arrow. You expect me to leave that alone? That guy scares the crap out of you. You don't think I see it whenever we say his name? The way you always seem to wince a tiny bit? Because I do. And I'm gonna kill him for it." It was almost frightening how serious he sounded when he said those words.
Natalie pushed herself off from her chair, forcing him to take a step back as he looked down. She frowned, putting her hands on the back of his neck to force him to meet her sincere gaze. "Hey, I'm okay. Look at me, I'm here and alive and a-okay. You did not do that, you did not hurt me. That was all Kai. Take it from someone who used to blame herself for everything, you didn't do a thing."
He still looked as guilty as he did the first time her heard about it. He grabbed the hands she had put on the back of his neck, and held them in his own, holding them up between them. "And that's the problem. I should've been able to do something. I abandoned you."
"Not by choice. You, Damon Salvatore, did not let me down. Bonnie and I didn't sacrifice ourselves for you to go around and feel guilty for everything, okay?" she tried to convince him, a comforting, close-lipped smile on her face.
"Okay," he nodded, still not smiling at her. He just had his gaze trained on her eyes, trying to see if there was any indication that she blamed him the way he blamed himself. But once he couldn't find it, he knew that she actually meant it, and that gave him a kind of comfort. He didn't know what he'd do if she started hating him.
Her smile widened, finally being one with teeth. She pulled her hands out of his grip as the tension was relieved. "Good. Now you should go after her, because once we get home, holding Bonnie's hand, all Elena's gonna do is complain to me about you being some self-serving asshole. "
He then noticed that the only way she had reacted to his actions was through a very serious face-palm. It could've gotten worse, but, luckily, she didn't snap his neck or something. "Aren't you mad at me? He's your dad."
At the actual reminder of what he had done, her eyes narrowed at him. "Oh hell yeah, I'm mad. I'm just not mad enough to do anything about it. You handled it wrong, but you did what you thought was right. I admire that. But, just to be clear, I don't admire you compelling my dad. Big no-no. You're now on best friend probation."
"Crap, I've gotta work myself out of that one," he said playfully, throwing a wink her way. She responded with a loud giggle, with a really big snort that mad her giggle even more, and him smile.
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She knew that Damon and Elena had gone over to the Gilbert house to end their argument, and so Natalie decided that since Bonnie was supposed to be there soon, she decided to give her a location to meet them at, since she would first try to go to the Boarding House, only to find it empty (seeing as Natalie decided that it was time to meet up with the others).
She grabbed a pen and paper, starting to write a note that she would easily be able to see once she'd come to the house.
Hey, Bon. Remember that house I burned down that Elena, Jeremy, a lot of adults who never stayed and I used to live? We're gonna be here. Can't wait to see you finally get home.
All the love, Natalie.
She smiled as she put it somewhere she knew she would easily acess it. She started to walk towards the door, when a strange feeling started to fill the area around her. Suddenly, a familiar bright light started surrounding her and she realized what was happening. "No, no, no."
Suddenly, she was back at the Mystic Falls Cemetery, Damon and Elena by her side. In front of them were Tyler and Liv, both of whom looked a bit guilty for what they just did, because there was supposed to be time.
"No. No. We shouldn't be back yet. We have another hour," Elena turned to look over at Tyler and Liv with a glare, being really angry with them for taking back another chance to get Bonnie back. "What did you do?"
Tyler looked at his old friend apologetically. He missed Bonnie too, but he couldn't risk Liv's life for her at that moment, when they were both alive. "Kai is here. We have to get back to Mystic Falls before he takes any more of her magic."
"Liv, come on, you've gotta send me back first," Natalie pleaded over at the blonde witch, only to get a shake of her head in response. She then started glaring, and if she wasn't on the other side of the border, she would have rushed at her. "Tyler, come on! Bonnie's your friend too! She was on her way back, she would have come back! Come on!"
"I'm sorry, Natalie," Tyler shook his head, and he seemed sincere, but it wasn't enough for her.
"No, come on! Tyler, Liv!" she called after them, but they didn't respond, only walking further and further into Mystic Falls, leaving the three vampires behind. Natalie raised her hands to cover her face, to muffle a small scream of anger that wanted to emit from her lips.
Elena sighed, plopping herself on the ground next to her parents' gravestones. Damon decided to sit next to her. Natalie just slid down the side of a tree. "Bonnie's gonna get to the house, and we will be gone."
Damon stared blankly at the where Natalie was sitting, looking like she was doing the exact same thing she told him not to do, blame herself for something that wasn't her fault. "Until the next comet, or full moon, or eclipse. As long as we have that, we can go back as many times as we need until we get her back."
Then a voice spoke up, one that made chills run down Natalie's spine. Because once she heard it, she couldn't help but think of how helpless she felt that one time he had killed her, drained her of blood and given her a bit of Bonnie's, only it was filled with vervain. "Wait. Are you guys talking about Bonnie Bennett? Because honestly, I didn't think she was all that great."
Suddenly, Kai held his hand out, and the Ascendant Elena was holding in her hands flew into a tree and broke into a million pieces. Natalie hated when Ascendants did that. But, both of the twins rushed towards it, because Natalie felt too weak around him, and it was hard for her, and Elena just wanted to try to fix the Ascendant.
"Go," Natalie whispered to her twin, who opened her mouth to protest, but she looked at her pleadingly, the way that made her understand that it wasn't because she was in the way, but because she was scared he would hurt her. "I don't want him to hurt anyone else I love."
After having seen her change so much, develop away from her abandonment issues, Elena wasn't about to ruin that by letting her go around and be terrified that Kai was going to take her away from her. So, she nodded and sped away.
"I'm going to enjoy the hell out of this," Damon hissed at Kai as Natalie struggled to collect all the pieces of the Ascendant. She was wondering why they had to make it so break-able if they were going to make it in the first place.
He chuckled as Damon groaned in pain as Natalie searched for more pieces of the Ascendant, knowing that Damon could always hold his own against Kai. "Oh, hey. Me, too. Oh, yeah. Damon, I, uh, I stole some of Liv's magic when I tried to kill her. Think some of it might still be in my system, so pardon me."
Natalie glanced back, and she saw Damon lying on the ground, barely conscious. But as much as she wanted to run over to him and help, she felt frozen in place as she saw Kai's gaze move to her. She didn't think he would scare her that much, because when she had first kicked him out of the circle of light, she felt brave. But once the reality of the situation he had put her through kicked in, she just felt scared at the thought of him.
"Uh, oh, Nattie-bear," he chuckled, and she winced as that nickname only reminded her of that exact day he had made her feel weaker than she had ever felt. He picked up a piece of the Ascedant that was lying on the ground. "You missed one. Phesmatos incendia."
The piece caught on fire, and when he dropped it onto where the other parts of the contraption was, they all caught on fire. And seeing as Natalie's hand was holding onto them, her arm suddenly caught on fire with them.
Damon finally seemed to regain his strength, and knew that the only way to stop his best friend from burning to death was to get Kai over the no-magic border where his magic would suddenly stop affecting everything.
He rushed at them, only to suddenly find Kai having turned invisible from a spell with Liv's magic. But, Damon still had a trick up his sleeve. He grabbed a giant stick and started rushing around with it like a madman.
Finally, he seemed to have caught Kai, who was now forced over the border, making the burning pain on Natalie's arm stop as the flames went out in a flash. For a moment, Damon didn't care about anything else but making sure that Natalie was okay. He rushed towards her, grabbing the arm that hadn't caught on fire and looking at her worriedly. "You okay?"
He got a nod in return, but he could see that how much Kai scared her was still there, and he hated it. It was like, in finding out that he had done that, he promised himself that he would be the one to kill Kai if possible, just because of what he did to Natalie.
"Huh. I guess this is that, uh, antimagic border, which means now there's a psycho loose in Mystic Falls and no vampires around to stop him. Whoops," Kai shrugged with a smirk playing on his lips before turning and walking away without them being able to follow.
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The Door Room
Natalie sat on her bed, watching as Elena had fallen asleep in hers. She wasn't enrolled in school, but she just slept there because she didn't have anywhere else to go anymore, not when Mystic Falls was a no-go zone.
She picked up her phone, dialed the number of the one person that deserved to know what had happened to Bonnie, even if he would hate it, and maybe hate her for trying to give him false hope. He quickly picked up, throwing a quick hey out there that she responded to. "Hey, Jer."
He quickly identified the sad and disappointed tone of voice she had and sighed in a disgruntled manner. He knew she was sad about it, but he was still pissed at her for trying to tell him everything was going to be okay when everything still sucked. "Let me guess. She's not with you?"
Natalie tapped her fingers against her bed sheets, hoping that Elena actually was asleep so she didn't have to hear them do what was starting to sound like an argument. "She was on her way but-"
He cut her off, knowing exactly where she was going with it. It was the same thing every time. Things were supposed to be good again, but something was messed up, but Damon somehow made it out easily. "But at the last minute, something went wrong, and it didn't work. I bet Damon's fine, isn't he?"
"Jeremy-" she started to say, but she knew he had hung up on her. She didn't blame him, she knew he didn't want to talk to her anymore then because she had tried to make promises she couldn't keep, but she was just glad he kept her from making it an actual promise.
The brunette looked up as she felt someone watching her, meeting the blue eyes of her other prison world companion. She quickly looked down again, a blank expression on her face. "I left her a note telling her that we were going to be at the Gilbert house. And now she's probably gotten there, thinking that she had time to spare, only to find herself alone again."
She finally looked up for them to have the eye-contact she needed to show him how much it hurt her to know she couldn't have helped Bonnie. Her eyes ere glistning with tears as she thought about what Bonnie was going through. "Bonnie has sacrificed everything for us all time and time again without expecting a thank you. We would all be dead a thousand times over if it wasn't for her. And now, the one time she needed us, we let her down."
He didn't say anything, he just watched as the tears in her eyes never started to stream down. Both of them looked at each other with the kind of vulnerability they had only recently developed when it came to Bonnie, and they both felt so absolutely wrecked and guilty that they ddin't know what else to do.
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Alaric's Apartment
Natalie knew that the kind of thing you do when mourning a friend who couldn't go home isn't going to see the people you had lost and gotten back. But her dad had invited her over so her and Jo could get to know each other better, and she didn't say no, because she needed something normal.
She had ended up sitting between Jo and Alaric as she was supposed to be the center of attention for that meeting, so they could talk a bit about her, being newly resurrected. "I'm sorry about the Damon compelling you thing. You know that if I knew, I wouldn't let him do that."
"Yeah, I know," Alaric responded, pushing his lips to the side of her head in a fatherly kiss to show her just exactly how much he loved and how much he had missed her, only to be happy fpr her to be back."I missed you so much, you know that?"
Jo, who had never seen them interact before, smiled at their exchange and decided to add onto the conversation, because if she was going to be even a slight part of their family, she needed to start getting to know her. "It's true, you know. When I first met him, he drank a lot."
After everything that had happened that day, Natalie still felt unable to smile. The guilt was crushing her, but she still shrugged, trying to keep herself from looking as sad as she felt. "Don't worry, he did that before too."
"No, I mean like borderline alcoholic," Jo chuckled, acting like she thought it was funny that she thought his drinking hadn't worsened by her death, by losing his daughter just when he'd come back from the dead.
Natalie just looked at her, dead serious, as she nodded. "Yeah, just like the good old times."
Jo looked over at Alaric questioningly, only for him to smile a bit because it was true. "Tell me about them, the good old times. I want to hear everything about my boyfriend's daughter's life, from start to finish."
Natalie tilted her head as if it was fair, even if it was going to take a quite a bit of time to tell them about all of it. "Well, it all started when some redeemable jackass named John Gilbert met my mother..."
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A/N: So, I have written one of my favorite Statalie moments of all time in another chapter already. And if you guys like Statalie, I will guarantee that you will love it. For once, it's not going to be bittersweet, just sweet. It made me very happy when I figured out what was going to happen, and I hope it will you bring you a lot of joy. And it's in this season, in case you're wondering, so you won't have to wait super long.
And while I'm sorry for the lack of Statalie this chapter, the next one will have a bit of them going on.
PS: This happened to be the longest chapter in "Monster", so it took a ton of time and energy to write, but it was worth it because I'm just really looking forward to getting on with the season.
Votes and comments are greatly appreciated.