Fic: With the best of intentions (TVD - Klaus/Bonnie/Stefan: 1/1)
Title: With the best of intentions
Rating: R (for violence, torture, and Stockholm Syndrome - none of which is explicit in nature. Still the content may be disturbing for some)
Pairing: Klaus/Bonnie/Stefan
Disclaimer: Vampire Diaries belongs to L.J Smith and the lovely people who brought it to TV
Summary: In order for her to be like them, they must break her.
Word Count: 2840
Author's Note: This is a dark one, folks. I am not entirely sure where it came from. Written from Stefan's POV. Written for swirlsofblue's The Other Ripper challenge at tvd_rarepairs
The body count was higher than expected.
Although upon reflection, Stefan realizes he could have predicted this would happen. All the signs were there - Bonnie had been moody, refusing to say more than a few words all day as she paced the tiny room where Klaus had left them. Any dialogue she had engaged in had been tense and to the point. When it was finally time to go, he was sure he saw a smile cross her face, however briefly.
She had put her power on display the moment they entered the tiny bar.
Klaus had wanted information but he was not going to deny his newest pet the pleasure of showing off her talents. Stefan had watched as she moved blithely through the patrons, a touch here, a few words there. Inducing an aneurism in vampires causes momentary discomfort - inducing one in humans causes instant death, and that small ooze of blood from the ear that tickles his senses every time.
When the smell had become too unbearable, he had joined in.
As always, she was much neater than him, and he scoffed when she turned her nose at him. After all, if they were keeping a tally, she has caused more death then he.
Klaus played no part in the massacre - other than to sit back and watch.
Now he stands beside Stefan and they both watch as Bonnie roots behind the bar to find her liquor of choice. If he were going to guess based on her current mood Stefan is sure she’ll come up with something hard. She doesn’t have the same luxury that he does, the ability to gorge on blood until he cannot remember thing. No, she has to find a mind numbing substitute.
She pulls the top off a particularly old bottle of whiskey. She drinks the neck out before Klaus pries it from her hands. He is getting wise to her tricks. No doubt he would prefer it if she remember every kill in crystal clear detail. He loops an arm around Stefan’s shoulders, his smile wide. “Enough fun for one night. A few hours rest and then on to the next town,” he instructs, before shoving Stefan away. Klaus turns to Bonnie, bowing ever so slightly before offering his hand. “Shall we, my dear?”
Once there was a moment’s hesitation, but now she freely places her hand in his. She has to step over a body, a victim of hers, to get to the exit. Stefan kicks the man aside to follow suit. Outside the air is fresh, not a hint of death. Bonnie inhales deep - it is an unnecessary move for him and Klaus.
Back at the hotel, she paces again, restless, despite Klaus’ words of warning that they won’t be stopping any time soon. The hybrid has no trouble falling into a light slumber, leaving Stefan to watch her.
Sometimes he thinks she is punishment for lying to Klaus, for letting Rebekah escape, for whatever wrong Klaus thinks Stefan has done to him. He reaches out, touching her shoulder, trying to calm her.
She burns his hand.
x
It had been Klaus’ idea to take Bonnie.
After all, she is a powerful witch, and therefore a useful tool in expanding their army. It helps that she is a direct descendent of the original witch - it suits Klaus’ need for symmetry. A few days after his sister disappears, Klaus becomes consumed with the idea of hunting the little witch down. Stefan doesn’t question - it doesn’t do him any good anymore.
However, there is enough of the old him left to have the presence of mind to get in contact with Damon to warn him he and Klaus will be coming to Mystic Falls to pick something up. Elena is miles away when the two pass over the town limit.
Stefan soon discovers that it would not be enough for Klaus to simply take her. He makes it clear from the moment they spot Bonnie leaving the Grill that she will be one of them, not their prisoner. Stefan wonders how Klaus thinks this goal will be accomplished- for as long as he has known Bonnie, she has been steadfast on where she stands. She will sacrifice herself before she becomes a willing pawn in their games.
They watch her for five days.
In this time, Stefan realizes that something has changed. She seems less sure of her powers, of herself. There is friction between her and Jeremy that he can’t pinpoint. She looks over her shoulder, as if seeing something that is not there. For a moment, he wonders if she knows they are following her but the wild look in her eyes tells him that she doesn’t.
In all their time spent in her shadow, they never once see her use her magic. Stefan realizes that she is afraid to - that one of those unforeseen consequences of misusing what her ancestors has given her has reared its ugly head, or at least she thinks it has.
It is that self-doubt that Klaus decides to target.
And to that, they must first break her.
Stefan is not expecting him to use such traditional methods to do so. Withholding food, sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation - he begins to wonder if Klaus had ever once been part of the military just for the hell of it.
Despite the already observed cracks in her façade, Bonnie is strong. She uses magic now, flinging it in their direction even as her body weakens from lack of nourishment and stimuli. Klaus laughs when she drops Stefan to floor and it is all he can do not to sink his fangs into her neck when he recovers.
Klaus soon leaves these unpleasant methods behind to move to something more stomach churning - gaining her trust. Stefan watches from the sidelines as Klaus finally gives her food, albeit it at what must seem strange intervals (in truth, a carefully laid out schedule on the part of Klaus). Bonnie appears hesitant at first, but eventually starts to eat. Klaus then decides that while she eats one of them must talk to her. Stefan spends hours in the tiny room, talking to what seems like dead air. She remains huddled in the corner, picking at expensive takeout, no longer lashing out him. After spending days in the complete darkness and silence, his voice must be a welcome change to her.
He keeps his topics neutral - the weather, literature, anything benign that comes to mind.
Klaus, however, is more devious. Now that she has weakened, her doubts threaten to consume her. He begins with Jeremy, pointing out that the teenage waste of space has not even attempted to find her (in reality, Stefan knows Jeremy is frantic). Using subtly he is soon able to convince Bonnie that Jeremy cannot truly care for her if he can’t even be bothered to save her. He moves to her father next - not that she needed much of a push off that particular ledge. When Klaus speaks of Elena, both he and Bonnie flinch. Stefan knows this link will take longer to sever. They are not sisters by design - but by choice.
He leans against the wall just outside Bonnie’s room and listens as Klaus pokes and prods at the bond until it finally gives under the weight of all the doubts Klaus has burdened it with. With no one left, the task then becomes convincing her that despite all that has been done to her, she is safe with them.
With Stefan’s help, Klaus expands her privileges. She is allowed to leave her tiny quarters to sit with them for a little each day. Slowly, they fill her room with furniture - a real bed, a little table, a lamp. Stefan gives her a book. One night after he returns from feeding, he sees the light burning through the cracks of the door and his keen senses pick up the sound of pages turning.
Klaus takes the lock off her door the next morning. Her door remains open but she chooses to stay amongst her new possessions, clinging to them like a lifeline. Stefan wonders if it is a step back and if Klaus will rip them from her and return her to darkness. However, Klaus proves to have more patience then he has given him credit for (then again he should have known - Klaus had waited over eighty years just to remind that they were in fact once like brothers).
The day Bonnie chooses to sit herself next to Stefan at the rickety table in the dining room is the day he and Klaus leave. She remains, confined once again to her room and to the dark. Stefan follows Klaus across state borders, helps him track down an old acquaintance that might have clue as to where Rebekah has hidden herself. He only realizes that it has been an act of biding time when Klaus turns them right back around to Bonnie.
It has been three days since they left.
When Stefan pulls off the lock and opens the door, she launches herself at him, her arms coming around him as if it is the most natural thing in the world. He stands stiff for a moment before he gives her that contact she so desperately needs. Klaus is in the doorway, watching the scene with a smile that cannot be seen as anything but triumph.
“Let’s go for a walk, shall we?” He announces when Bonnie finally pulls back. Her hands still rest on Stefan’s upper arms as if she is afraid he will disappear the moment she lets go. Klaus extends his hand, and Bonnie frowns, looking from it to Stefan. He nods, as if it will free her from the residual obligations to her old life.
She steps forward, her hand tentatively reaching out to touch the monster who broke her.
Bonnie is ready.
x
Her first kill had been choreographed.
They leave the tiny town they had been holed up in for the weeks of her transformation, hoping to cast aside any lingering memories of her torture. The only thing Klaus allows her take is the book Stefan had given her. It sits in her lap during the long drive into Wyoming. Klaus prattles on about inane matters, trying to engage her in conversation but she spends more time flipping through the pages and watching the scenery.
Klaus takes them deep into the woods, apparently on the search for another pack of werewolves to make another attempt at transformation. Stefan knows better - Klaus won’t risk it unless he is sure. No, Klaus has something else in mind and he has failed to bring Stefan into the know.
They fine a lone wolf, cut off from its pack drinking down its sorrows by the gallon.
Klaus approaches it, leaving Stefan and Bonnie amongst the bushes. She sticks close to him, one hand on his upper arm. He watches as Klaus shares the drink and then whispers something conspiratorially to his newfound friend.
A moment later, the werewolf is charging at Stefan, teeth bared and ready to deliver a poisonous bite. Stefan tenses, preparing to defend himself. However, it is not necessary. The werewolf goes rigid in midair, its body twisting in an unnatural way. It falls to the ground at Stefan’s feet, and at first he doesn’t understand.
Then he sees Klaus’ smile -
- and turns to find Bonnie standing there, hers widened, her hand still raised in the direction in which the werewolf had charged.
It takes Stefan a while to realize why Klaus chose to compel the werewolf to act as it did. It posed a threat to her wellbeing. More importantly, it posed a threat to his wellbeing. Bonnie is just acting as she always has.
She protects the ones she cares about.
x
Klaus didn’t make it as easy the next time around.
To start with, he decides that her victim must be human. Killing a supernatural being is already in her repertoire. Added to that, the human must be an innocent. Bonnie has always had a rigid sense of what is right and wrong - killing a mass murderer or even a petty thief would be too easy for her.
Klaus sends Stefan on a scouting mission. He returns with a young college student (always his favourite victim of choice), compelled to act docile and caring. Bonnie immediately resents her intrusion into her safe little nest, which bodes well for Klaus’ intentions.
Klaus plays on that, paying more intention to the blonde then Bonnie. Stefan follows suit, seating himself next to her. His fingers tangle in her hair and he finds himself wishing he could be the one to bring her to her end. He bets that she tastes sweet.
Despite her compulsion it becomes clear that the blonde feels Bonnie’s subtle anger. Bonnie may not uttering death spells but she is clearly making the blonde uncomfortable. Stefan knows things are not moving fast enough for Klaus. He is not surprised when the hybrid stands and crosses the room under Bonnie’s watchful eyes. He still makes no move to even address her presence. His grasp falls on the book, never far from Bonnie. Klaus hands it without a second thought to the blonde.
It is akin to signing her death warrant.
Stefan is left to clean up the body while Klaus finally gives Bonnie the contact she craves. Once again he realizes after the fact that Klaus knew exactly what he was doing when he so casually handed the poor thing Bonnie’s most prized possession. It was never about the book - but the action. To Bonnie, it had been a sign that she was being replaced. Given that Klaus had made sure she thought she had no one else it was no wonder that she was quick to prevent it from happening.
Stefan burns the blonde, crouching to watch the flames consume her body. There is a tiny trickle of blood running down the side of her face, the only outward sign of trauma. Stefan considers it a waste.
But no doubt, Klaus considers it necessary - for it serves to prove that they truly have her.
x
From there began a downward spiral to where they stand now.
Bonnie kills discriminately at first - taking only those she deems a threat to one of them or their unique bond. Klaus realizes this and uses it to direct her powers. Soon all he has to do is look at someone the way he looks at her to have the human dead at his feet.
This quickly evolves into her removing any person she feels has the potential to replace her. Her victims probably don’t even have the slightest inkling why she stands before them twisting their insides with a few chosen words.
Stefan finds himself stopping in the middle of his own massacres to watch her, wondering how this being can be the same one who had nearly killed him for hurting an innocent girl not that long ago. The fact that he cannot see even the slightest hint of her in the woman that stands in the middle of the room wielding such enormous power with playful ease is a testament to the determination and insanity of the man that holds them both.
He should feel guilt.
He tries as she continues to pace and he nurses his burnt hand. The fact that she has lashed out at him must be a sign that somewhere buried deep is notion that all of this - the killing, the way she follows he and Klaus without question, is wrong. Bonnie Bennett is still in there, and he should feel guilty.
He should free her.
He knows it is impossible. He only has two options - return her to Mystic Falls, broken into a thousand pieces or show her some mercy by killing her. Either way, Klaus would be furious. And who knows what sort of revenge he would wish to exact this time.
He can’t free her.
He wishes that like him, she had something pure to cling to. Despite all the horrid things he has done, Stefan knows there is still a part of him that will stop short of going all the way. Tucked in his back pocket is a picture of Elena, folded and worn by use. She has nothing like that because he has helped Klaus take it from her.
The guilt comes now as she turns to walk the length of the room again. He sinks to the couch and watches until he can no longer stand it. He has to give her something, anything to hold onto when that part of her awakens and cannot deal with what she has become. He notices the book, lying on the floor where she has left it. He reaches out, tentatively extending his hand. She stops, eyeing him as if to discern his intentions.
“Let’s read awhile, shall we?”
Mercifully, after some hesitation, she takes his hand.
Rating: R (for violence, torture, and Stockholm Syndrome - none of which is explicit in nature. Still the content may be disturbing for some)
Pairing: Klaus/Bonnie/Stefan
Disclaimer: Vampire Diaries belongs to L.J Smith and the lovely people who brought it to TV
Summary: In order for her to be like them, they must break her.
Word Count: 2840
Author's Note: This is a dark one, folks. I am not entirely sure where it came from. Written from Stefan's POV. Written for swirlsofblue's The Other Ripper challenge at tvd_rarepairs
The body count was higher than expected.
Although upon reflection, Stefan realizes he could have predicted this would happen. All the signs were there - Bonnie had been moody, refusing to say more than a few words all day as she paced the tiny room where Klaus had left them. Any dialogue she had engaged in had been tense and to the point. When it was finally time to go, he was sure he saw a smile cross her face, however briefly.
She had put her power on display the moment they entered the tiny bar.
Klaus had wanted information but he was not going to deny his newest pet the pleasure of showing off her talents. Stefan had watched as she moved blithely through the patrons, a touch here, a few words there. Inducing an aneurism in vampires causes momentary discomfort - inducing one in humans causes instant death, and that small ooze of blood from the ear that tickles his senses every time.
When the smell had become too unbearable, he had joined in.
As always, she was much neater than him, and he scoffed when she turned her nose at him. After all, if they were keeping a tally, she has caused more death then he.
Klaus played no part in the massacre - other than to sit back and watch.
Now he stands beside Stefan and they both watch as Bonnie roots behind the bar to find her liquor of choice. If he were going to guess based on her current mood Stefan is sure she’ll come up with something hard. She doesn’t have the same luxury that he does, the ability to gorge on blood until he cannot remember thing. No, she has to find a mind numbing substitute.
She pulls the top off a particularly old bottle of whiskey. She drinks the neck out before Klaus pries it from her hands. He is getting wise to her tricks. No doubt he would prefer it if she remember every kill in crystal clear detail. He loops an arm around Stefan’s shoulders, his smile wide. “Enough fun for one night. A few hours rest and then on to the next town,” he instructs, before shoving Stefan away. Klaus turns to Bonnie, bowing ever so slightly before offering his hand. “Shall we, my dear?”
Once there was a moment’s hesitation, but now she freely places her hand in his. She has to step over a body, a victim of hers, to get to the exit. Stefan kicks the man aside to follow suit. Outside the air is fresh, not a hint of death. Bonnie inhales deep - it is an unnecessary move for him and Klaus.
Back at the hotel, she paces again, restless, despite Klaus’ words of warning that they won’t be stopping any time soon. The hybrid has no trouble falling into a light slumber, leaving Stefan to watch her.
Sometimes he thinks she is punishment for lying to Klaus, for letting Rebekah escape, for whatever wrong Klaus thinks Stefan has done to him. He reaches out, touching her shoulder, trying to calm her.
She burns his hand.
x
It had been Klaus’ idea to take Bonnie.
After all, she is a powerful witch, and therefore a useful tool in expanding their army. It helps that she is a direct descendent of the original witch - it suits Klaus’ need for symmetry. A few days after his sister disappears, Klaus becomes consumed with the idea of hunting the little witch down. Stefan doesn’t question - it doesn’t do him any good anymore.
However, there is enough of the old him left to have the presence of mind to get in contact with Damon to warn him he and Klaus will be coming to Mystic Falls to pick something up. Elena is miles away when the two pass over the town limit.
Stefan soon discovers that it would not be enough for Klaus to simply take her. He makes it clear from the moment they spot Bonnie leaving the Grill that she will be one of them, not their prisoner. Stefan wonders how Klaus thinks this goal will be accomplished- for as long as he has known Bonnie, she has been steadfast on where she stands. She will sacrifice herself before she becomes a willing pawn in their games.
They watch her for five days.
In this time, Stefan realizes that something has changed. She seems less sure of her powers, of herself. There is friction between her and Jeremy that he can’t pinpoint. She looks over her shoulder, as if seeing something that is not there. For a moment, he wonders if she knows they are following her but the wild look in her eyes tells him that she doesn’t.
In all their time spent in her shadow, they never once see her use her magic. Stefan realizes that she is afraid to - that one of those unforeseen consequences of misusing what her ancestors has given her has reared its ugly head, or at least she thinks it has.
It is that self-doubt that Klaus decides to target.
And to that, they must first break her.
Stefan is not expecting him to use such traditional methods to do so. Withholding food, sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation - he begins to wonder if Klaus had ever once been part of the military just for the hell of it.
Despite the already observed cracks in her façade, Bonnie is strong. She uses magic now, flinging it in their direction even as her body weakens from lack of nourishment and stimuli. Klaus laughs when she drops Stefan to floor and it is all he can do not to sink his fangs into her neck when he recovers.
Klaus soon leaves these unpleasant methods behind to move to something more stomach churning - gaining her trust. Stefan watches from the sidelines as Klaus finally gives her food, albeit it at what must seem strange intervals (in truth, a carefully laid out schedule on the part of Klaus). Bonnie appears hesitant at first, but eventually starts to eat. Klaus then decides that while she eats one of them must talk to her. Stefan spends hours in the tiny room, talking to what seems like dead air. She remains huddled in the corner, picking at expensive takeout, no longer lashing out him. After spending days in the complete darkness and silence, his voice must be a welcome change to her.
He keeps his topics neutral - the weather, literature, anything benign that comes to mind.
Klaus, however, is more devious. Now that she has weakened, her doubts threaten to consume her. He begins with Jeremy, pointing out that the teenage waste of space has not even attempted to find her (in reality, Stefan knows Jeremy is frantic). Using subtly he is soon able to convince Bonnie that Jeremy cannot truly care for her if he can’t even be bothered to save her. He moves to her father next - not that she needed much of a push off that particular ledge. When Klaus speaks of Elena, both he and Bonnie flinch. Stefan knows this link will take longer to sever. They are not sisters by design - but by choice.
He leans against the wall just outside Bonnie’s room and listens as Klaus pokes and prods at the bond until it finally gives under the weight of all the doubts Klaus has burdened it with. With no one left, the task then becomes convincing her that despite all that has been done to her, she is safe with them.
With Stefan’s help, Klaus expands her privileges. She is allowed to leave her tiny quarters to sit with them for a little each day. Slowly, they fill her room with furniture - a real bed, a little table, a lamp. Stefan gives her a book. One night after he returns from feeding, he sees the light burning through the cracks of the door and his keen senses pick up the sound of pages turning.
Klaus takes the lock off her door the next morning. Her door remains open but she chooses to stay amongst her new possessions, clinging to them like a lifeline. Stefan wonders if it is a step back and if Klaus will rip them from her and return her to darkness. However, Klaus proves to have more patience then he has given him credit for (then again he should have known - Klaus had waited over eighty years just to remind that they were in fact once like brothers).
The day Bonnie chooses to sit herself next to Stefan at the rickety table in the dining room is the day he and Klaus leave. She remains, confined once again to her room and to the dark. Stefan follows Klaus across state borders, helps him track down an old acquaintance that might have clue as to where Rebekah has hidden herself. He only realizes that it has been an act of biding time when Klaus turns them right back around to Bonnie.
It has been three days since they left.
When Stefan pulls off the lock and opens the door, she launches herself at him, her arms coming around him as if it is the most natural thing in the world. He stands stiff for a moment before he gives her that contact she so desperately needs. Klaus is in the doorway, watching the scene with a smile that cannot be seen as anything but triumph.
“Let’s go for a walk, shall we?” He announces when Bonnie finally pulls back. Her hands still rest on Stefan’s upper arms as if she is afraid he will disappear the moment she lets go. Klaus extends his hand, and Bonnie frowns, looking from it to Stefan. He nods, as if it will free her from the residual obligations to her old life.
She steps forward, her hand tentatively reaching out to touch the monster who broke her.
Bonnie is ready.
x
Her first kill had been choreographed.
They leave the tiny town they had been holed up in for the weeks of her transformation, hoping to cast aside any lingering memories of her torture. The only thing Klaus allows her take is the book Stefan had given her. It sits in her lap during the long drive into Wyoming. Klaus prattles on about inane matters, trying to engage her in conversation but she spends more time flipping through the pages and watching the scenery.
Klaus takes them deep into the woods, apparently on the search for another pack of werewolves to make another attempt at transformation. Stefan knows better - Klaus won’t risk it unless he is sure. No, Klaus has something else in mind and he has failed to bring Stefan into the know.
They fine a lone wolf, cut off from its pack drinking down its sorrows by the gallon.
Klaus approaches it, leaving Stefan and Bonnie amongst the bushes. She sticks close to him, one hand on his upper arm. He watches as Klaus shares the drink and then whispers something conspiratorially to his newfound friend.
A moment later, the werewolf is charging at Stefan, teeth bared and ready to deliver a poisonous bite. Stefan tenses, preparing to defend himself. However, it is not necessary. The werewolf goes rigid in midair, its body twisting in an unnatural way. It falls to the ground at Stefan’s feet, and at first he doesn’t understand.
Then he sees Klaus’ smile -
- and turns to find Bonnie standing there, hers widened, her hand still raised in the direction in which the werewolf had charged.
It takes Stefan a while to realize why Klaus chose to compel the werewolf to act as it did. It posed a threat to her wellbeing. More importantly, it posed a threat to his wellbeing. Bonnie is just acting as she always has.
She protects the ones she cares about.
x
Klaus didn’t make it as easy the next time around.
To start with, he decides that her victim must be human. Killing a supernatural being is already in her repertoire. Added to that, the human must be an innocent. Bonnie has always had a rigid sense of what is right and wrong - killing a mass murderer or even a petty thief would be too easy for her.
Klaus sends Stefan on a scouting mission. He returns with a young college student (always his favourite victim of choice), compelled to act docile and caring. Bonnie immediately resents her intrusion into her safe little nest, which bodes well for Klaus’ intentions.
Klaus plays on that, paying more intention to the blonde then Bonnie. Stefan follows suit, seating himself next to her. His fingers tangle in her hair and he finds himself wishing he could be the one to bring her to her end. He bets that she tastes sweet.
Despite her compulsion it becomes clear that the blonde feels Bonnie’s subtle anger. Bonnie may not uttering death spells but she is clearly making the blonde uncomfortable. Stefan knows things are not moving fast enough for Klaus. He is not surprised when the hybrid stands and crosses the room under Bonnie’s watchful eyes. He still makes no move to even address her presence. His grasp falls on the book, never far from Bonnie. Klaus hands it without a second thought to the blonde.
It is akin to signing her death warrant.
Stefan is left to clean up the body while Klaus finally gives Bonnie the contact she craves. Once again he realizes after the fact that Klaus knew exactly what he was doing when he so casually handed the poor thing Bonnie’s most prized possession. It was never about the book - but the action. To Bonnie, it had been a sign that she was being replaced. Given that Klaus had made sure she thought she had no one else it was no wonder that she was quick to prevent it from happening.
Stefan burns the blonde, crouching to watch the flames consume her body. There is a tiny trickle of blood running down the side of her face, the only outward sign of trauma. Stefan considers it a waste.
But no doubt, Klaus considers it necessary - for it serves to prove that they truly have her.
x
From there began a downward spiral to where they stand now.
Bonnie kills discriminately at first - taking only those she deems a threat to one of them or their unique bond. Klaus realizes this and uses it to direct her powers. Soon all he has to do is look at someone the way he looks at her to have the human dead at his feet.
This quickly evolves into her removing any person she feels has the potential to replace her. Her victims probably don’t even have the slightest inkling why she stands before them twisting their insides with a few chosen words.
Stefan finds himself stopping in the middle of his own massacres to watch her, wondering how this being can be the same one who had nearly killed him for hurting an innocent girl not that long ago. The fact that he cannot see even the slightest hint of her in the woman that stands in the middle of the room wielding such enormous power with playful ease is a testament to the determination and insanity of the man that holds them both.
He should feel guilt.
He tries as she continues to pace and he nurses his burnt hand. The fact that she has lashed out at him must be a sign that somewhere buried deep is notion that all of this - the killing, the way she follows he and Klaus without question, is wrong. Bonnie Bennett is still in there, and he should feel guilty.
He should free her.
He knows it is impossible. He only has two options - return her to Mystic Falls, broken into a thousand pieces or show her some mercy by killing her. Either way, Klaus would be furious. And who knows what sort of revenge he would wish to exact this time.
He can’t free her.
He wishes that like him, she had something pure to cling to. Despite all the horrid things he has done, Stefan knows there is still a part of him that will stop short of going all the way. Tucked in his back pocket is a picture of Elena, folded and worn by use. She has nothing like that because he has helped Klaus take it from her.
The guilt comes now as she turns to walk the length of the room again. He sinks to the couch and watches until he can no longer stand it. He has to give her something, anything to hold onto when that part of her awakens and cannot deal with what she has become. He notices the book, lying on the floor where she has left it. He reaches out, tentatively extending his hand. She stops, eyeing him as if to discern his intentions.
“Let’s read awhile, shall we?”
Mercifully, after some hesitation, she takes his hand.