response to this, but simply looked at Damon with eyes that were...knowing. Damon bridled.
"I told the truth!"
"Going to take it up as a hobby?"
Damon started to release Bonnie, figuring that dropping her into bloodstained water would be the proper precursor to walking out of this dump, but...
But. She was his baby bird. She'd swallowed enough of his blood now that any more would begin to Change her seriously. And if the amount of blood he had already given her wasn't enough, it simply wasn't a remedy in the first place. Besides, the miracle worker was here.
He closed the cut on his arm enough to stop the bleeding and started to speak....
And the door crashed open again.
This time it was Meredith, and she had Bonnie's bra. Both Stefan and Damon quailed. Meredith was, Damon thought, a very scary person. At least she took the time, which Mutt had not, to look over the trampled clothes on the bathroom floor. She said to Stefan, "How is she?" which Mutt had not, either.
"She's going to be fine," Stefan said and Damon was surprised at his feeling of...not relief, of course, but of a job well done. Plus, now he might avoid being thrashed to within an inch of his life by Stefan.
Meredith took a deep breath and closed her frightening eyes briefly. When she did that, her whole face glowed. Maybe she was praying. It had been centuries since Damon had prayed; and he had never had any prayer answered.
Then Meredith opened her eyes, shook herself, and started looking scary again. She nudged the pile of clothes on the floor and said, slowly and forcefully, "If the item that matchesthis is not still on Bonnie's body, there is going to be trouble."
She waved the now infamous bra like a flag.
Stefan looked confused. How could he not understand the mighty missing lingerie question? Damon wondered. How could anyone be such a...such an unobservant fool? Didn't Elena wear any - ever? Damon sat frozen, too arrested by the images in his own inner world to move for a moment. Then he spoke up. He had the answer to Meredith's riddle.
"Do you want to come and check?" he asked, turning his head virtuously away.
"Yes, I do."
He remained with his back to her as she approached the tub, plunged her hand into the warm pink water, and swished the towel a little. He heard her let out her breath in relief.
When he turned around she said, "There's blood on your mouth." Her dark eyes looked darker than ever.
Damon was surprised. He hadn't gone and pierced the redhead out of habit and thenforgotten it, had he? But then he realized the reason.
"You tried to suck the poison out, didn't you?" Stefan said, throwing him a white face towel. Damon wiped the side Meredith had been looking at and came up with a bloody smear. No wonder his mouth had been stinging like fire. That poison was pretty nasty stuff, although it clearly didn't affect vampires the way it did humans.
"And there's blood on your throat," Meredith went on.
"Unsuccessful experiment," Damon said, and shrugged.
"So you cut your wrist. Pretty seriously."
"For a human, maybe. Is the press conference over?"
Meredith settled back. He could read her expression and he smiled inwardly. Extra! Extra! SCARYM EREDITH
THWARTED. He knew the look of those who had to give up on cracking the Damon nut.
Meredith stood up. "Is there anything I can get him to stop his mouth bleeding? Something to drink, maybe?"
Stefan just looked stricken. Stefan's problem - well, a part of one of Stefan's many problems - was that
he thought feeding was sinful. Even to talk about.
Maybe it was actually kickier that way. People relished anything they thought was sinful. Even vampires did. Damon was put out. How did you go back in time to whenanything was sinful? Because he was sadly out of kicks.
With her back turned, Meredith was less scary. Damon risked an answer to the question of what he could drink.
"You,darling...you darling."
"One too many darlings," Meredith said mysteriously, and before Damon could figure out that she was simply making a point about linguistics, and not commenting on his personal life, she was gone. With the traveling bra.
Now Stefan and Damon were alone. Stefan came a step closer, keeping his eyes off the tub. You miss so much, you chump, Damon thought. That was the word he'd been searching for earlier. Chump.
"You did a lot for her," Stefan said, seeming to find it as hard to look at Damon as at