The day Bonnie Bennett died, Damon Salvatore felt like his chest was ripped opened, his ribcage separated, and his heart leapt for the heavens. His eyes had been filled with tears when he'd tumbled from his bed and the arms of another brown skinned girl whose eyes held more gold than green. It had to be a dream. Some twisted tool of fate to revive his obsession with the witch. His fingers lifted books, magazines, and flimsy clothes until he found the shiny, sleek cell buried beneath the pile. He forced himself to breathe while he waited for his brother's voice on the other end.

Maybe he was wrong.

He shook his head, closing his eyes.

He wasn't wrong.

Damon had endured this brand of torture before.

He felt it the night Bonnie stood her ground and simply said no.

It had poured through him the night she'd given herself completely to Jeremy Gilbert.

It echoed in his ears with the cries of the two babes she added to the Bennett family tree.

The incessant ringing ended and Elena's voice traveled across the line, "Damon, just come home."

It took him an hour to shower, thirty minutes to find a shirt, forty five minutes to zip his jeans, and another hour to decide on a pair of Italian loafers. He moved in a haze, pressing his palm from his chest to his temple, searching for some sign that he was wrong.

He wasn't wrong.

The air felt different when he stepped outside. It was heavy and cold. The birds had ceased their song. Even the wind refused to blow. It was eleven o'clock in the morning and the sky was black as midnight. This wasn't nature or the God that man liked to call when they needed him...this was some poor soul's pain. Violent drops of rain splattered across his skin and he recalled an old tale about magic, emotions, and their effect on the weather.

The purr of his newly restored vintage motor did little to soothe the despair that threatened to overtake him.

How?

He'd stopped watching her years before. Long after she went to college and accepted the diamond ring from that brat Stefan and Elena refused to let him kill. It was more than he could bear.

She was happy.

She was safe.

She was alive and now she was...

The drive back to Mystic Falls' felt longer than the requisite two hours. His memory failed him and he couldn't recall the directions to his family's home. He saw the cars in the driveway. Caroline's sleek foreign sedan, Elena's oversized SUV and the motorcycle his brother rode to recapture his long subdued adventurous nature. Then there was the swing set peeking from the backyard, reserved for the weekends when Aunt Lena and Uncle Stef were allowed to...

The words drifted from his mind and he backed away from the home and chose a different path.

The rain poured as he walked along the tree - lined streets. It was virtually impossible for him to see. The hole that once held his heart ached with every step he took. Still he kept going, determined to ask the difficult questions, to finally end this farce of a fairytale that the Gilbert ass had fabricated.

Bonnie would be safe if she had chosen Damon; alive in one form or another. No, all he had were memories - nights that had passed more than a decade before, words that he had never said and promises he had refused to keep because she made the decision to...

Damon tripped on the root that jutted from the cement paved sidewalk. He caught himself before he fell to the ground. He brushed the wet hair from his eyes and caught sight of a tiny boy, no more than five, sitting on the top step of the Gilbert home. His face was turned to the sky, emerald eyes stretched wide, and his voice a chilling scream as he chanted words that sent a shiver down the vampire's spine.

The storm outside raged with every word, the winds finally came, and lightning tore across the sky.

Bonnie had taught him well.

The kid was strong; stronger than any Bennett had ever been at his age.

Before Damon could reach the child the door opened and Jeremy appeared. His eyes were puffy and red. Yet his voice still held warmth and comfort when he spoke his son's name.

"That's enough Noah."

Jeremy took a breath.

"Mommy wouldn't want..."

Noah broke out in a run with the mention of his mother. He headed for the street and the headlights of the car that never saw him coming. Thankfully Damon did. He plucked the child from the road.

"Crazy Bennetts, I'm tired of saving your lives, screw Emily, and screw this promise."

The kid stared at him.

Damon noted the heart shaped face and pokey little mouth reminiscent of the last woman to break his heart.

"Mommy said you would come."

Damon was flooded with emotions he'd buried years ago. A small smile crept across his lips as the rain stopped and the birds finally began to sing.

Noah slipped from Damon's arms and ran to the door, retrieving the little girl whose hand his father held tightly. Jeremy trailed behind his children, eyeing Damon suspiciously.

"Can he stay daddy, just for a little while, mommy would want him to stay."

Jeremy nodded as the walked back to the door and up the stairs, "Damon, please come in."

"How?"

Damon finally had a chance to ask after the kids were safely tucked in to their beds upstairs.

"Magic finally pushed back and won, it was an aneurysm." Jeremy stared into the distance, sipping his beer slowly, "Izzie was here with her."

The little girl, who looked so much like her father but laughed like her mother, had made his head twinge with a familiar pain when she wrapped her tiny arms around his neck. He watched as his former nemesis toyed with the ring on right hand. The Gilbert legacy lived on with him, while the Bennett line grew stronger with every birthday his children celebrated.

Damon would have never been able to give Bonnie that. He couldn't even give her unconditional love.

Finally he understood.

"Man up Gilbert. I know you loved your wife. She loved you. Noah and Izzie need you to be strong."

Jeremy's eyes met Damon's.

"They need you too." He slid an envelope across the table. "She wrote this the day before she...told me to give it to you if you came..."

Jeremy's words drifted off as he slid his chair across the floor and left the kitchen.

Damon had a decision to make, he could read the words, and pull the scab off the wound that had partially healed on his heart, or he could run. Forget these kids that reminded him so much of their mother. Leave this cursed town and never look back.

He tore into the envelope and unfolded the paper.

D,

I hope you know it was not easy walking away from you. What we had was special. In a lot of ways it was exactly what I wanted. However, I needed you to heal. I needed you to move beyond the pain your father caused, the heartache Katherine piled on, and the lies you continuously believed about who and what you were.

I pray that this letter finds you as the Damon I knew you were destined to be.

The hero...

My friend...

The man I will always love.

Jeremy needs you. For everything he thinks he knows about our world and what it means to be something other than human, subtract infinity. He doesn't understand. He'll need your guidance. He'll need your friendship.

Protect my babies.

Noah is strong and unfortunately he reminds me a lot of you.

Isabelle, Izzie, she's special. She holds a quiet power that will draw a new evil.

They need your wisdom. Don't hold back with them.

Thank you Damon for always being there, good, bad, or indifferent, I cherished the time we spent together.

B