The Showdown (Bonnie/Buffy/Damon/Puck)

Bonnie and Damon were talking amongst themselves at the large table in the Salvatore home. It was obvious they were deep in the discussion, various books and papers spread out throughout the table. Bonnie was hovering on particularly large book, called a Grimoire, which contained various spells and enchantments that witches have documented. To someone on the outside, this would look normal if they peeked in at the duo. Even though their discussion and mood was somewhat serious due to the situation, the usual Bonnie and Damon banter was in there but with more lightheartedness that normally wasn't associated with the two.

Bonnie chuckled lightly at something Damon had said, as he leaned against the table, glancing at the teenage witch as he took a long sip from the glass of scotch in his hand. His attention shifted momentarily from Bonnie to look at the time, both had texted their "other halves", Puck and Buffy, separately to meet them here.

"What do you have?" Damon asked, his position shifting as he now looked over Bonnie's shoulders, standing close to her as she studied the book in front of her.

Bonnie glanced up at Damon, her hazel eyes looking into his blue ones for moment before they looked back down at the book. "In the short amount of time we have, we'll be lucky to find what we can." She simply stated.

Buffy got a text from Damon and headed over to Damon's place like he said, as was Puck. Though Puck was a bit less aware of where he was. They arrived at almost the same time and when they saw each other, they recalled their last encounter.

"you again?" Puck asked confused.

"Yeah...me again...this is Damon's house." she rolled her eyes as she let herself in and Puck followed her in.

"Damon?" she called.

"Bonnie? You here?" Puck called as well, sniffing the house a bit.

Damon moved away from Bonnie and appeared where Buffy and Damon where. "Wolfy boy....Buffy..." He nodded, giving only Buffy a genuine smile. He'd usually greet her with a kiss or hug, but only made his presence known before turning back around to lead them to the den.

Bonnie looked up when she saw Damon come back over and saw that they had arrived. "Good you both came."

"Want me to tell them or you?" Damon asked lowly to Bonnie as he retook his place beside her.

"Speak away, Salvatore." She smiled before her head returned back to the book.

Damon nodded. "Alcohol? You may want it after I tell you what I need to tell you." He said.

Bonnie simply rolled her eyes at the vampire, trying to hold in her laugh. "Just say it..."

She smiled back but was a little confused about his lack of affection. Then again, this was something serious so she let it go...for now. But his behavior with Bonnie was...interesting.

Puck saw them and watched them closely. He could smell Damon on Bonnie and he didn't like it one bit. He stayed quiet, keeping his distance.

"What's going on? And...you two get along now?" she asked arching her eyebrow.

"At the moment..." Bonnie simply replied to Buffy's last question.

"Anyways..." Damon said with a roll of his eyes. "...there's been some killings in the nearby areas." He pushed over newspaper article that talked about it. "Bonnie brought it to my attention...by accusing me..."

"I had good reason to." Bonnie interrupted with a grin.

Damon shook his head, picking up where he lifted off. "I had nothing to do with it. But the killings screamed vampires....sloppy ones, but vampires nonetheless. I...we've been looking into it and tracking what's going on. To make a long story short, we think they're going to come to Mystic Falls...tonight."

"There's a festival down at the town center, that's probably where they'd strike. We need to stop them before they kill anyone else." Bonnie said.

"Fine then...but how do you expect us to do kill them when there's a chance of people getting hurt?" Buffy pointed out.

"Do we know how many are going to be coming?" Puck chimed in.

"I need to go home and get my stakes and more...combat friendly clothing." Buffy said, realizing she didn't bring her weapons.

"Damon lures them away and out of the views of everyone else of course." Bonnie replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And I'm trying to find a tracking spell or something for supernatural beings to keep an eye on these guys if..or when they come into town."

"We have no clue how many maybe a little over a dozen? if it wasn't that many, do you think we'd be asking you for help?" Damon asked, eying Puck up and down. Bonnie slapped Damon in his chest and he caught her hand, giving her a look which she pursed lips slightly at. "You don't need to leave, I've got weapons upstairs, that I'm sure you'll have a ball with." He said, dropping Bonnie's arm.

"Combat friendly clothing?" Bonnie asked with a quirked eyebrow. "If I can cast a spell in heels, then you can 'fight' in..that..."

Puck and Bonnie watched them further and both were getting annoyed.

Buffy was about to just let it go and then Bonnie talked down to her, well that was how she heard it. "Um...excuse me...yes, I do fight. You know...hand to hand combat, punching, kicking, staking vampires, beheading things, the dirty work." she snapped back. "Where are the weapons, Damon?" she asked, not really looking at him but partly because she was getting into business mode.

"I'll be outside, waiting." Puck said as he almost stormed out of the house and slammed the door shut.

Bonnie had open her mouth to speak, but Damon put his hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"Upstairs. Go in my drawer against the wall, second drawer, lift it up and you'll find everything." Damon told her, not offering to go upstairs and show here where everything is at.

Bonnie had heard the slam and glanced at the door.

"Don't worry about it. We need to get ready for all of this." He said to Bonnie, who nodded and gathered her book to go off into another part of the manor to look over something.

Buffy nodded as she went upstairs and found everything she needed. She got all set up and headed back down. "I'll see you there." she said, all business, like she'd done countless amounts of time.

Puck saw Buffy leave and started after her so they could get ready.

Once everything got all set up, sure enough, the vampires arrived. There were about 20-25 of them, and while they were sloppy, they were still strong. Buffy and Puck were able to take their frustrations and irritations out on the vampires and Buffy was back to her old self, kicking undead ass and taking names.

Even in his human form, Puck was very strong and was able to hold his own against the oncoming vampires...at least for now.

Things seemed to be going well. Everyone seemed to to be off on their own, tackling four to five vamps by themselves and they were being pretty damn effective.

Damon, as if it was nothing, was ripping hearts out, staking vamps, and snapping necks as if it was no big deal. Of course there were the few that thought they could handle the older vamp, but there was a reason why they were sloppy..it was because they were young. Damon could beat them no matter what, some were persistent and brought a bigger challenge for Damon, but in the end, Damon got rid of the the group he'd gotten a hold of.

He glanced around at everyone, but his eyes settled on Bonnie who surprisingly was handling her own. He knew she was powerful, but he also knew if the witch over did it, she'd be a goner. For some reason that weighed on his mind as he watched the witch send vamps flying across the forest were the oddly formed foursome had went too, but it wasn't enough. She was handling them, weakening them, but she couldn't keep them down enough to kill them. They were young, sloppy, and a quick, and the more they worked at her, the more magic she used to wear them down which would cause her to get weak.

"Shit..." Damon muttered, noticing a slight amount of blood pouring from Bonnie's nose, a tell tale sign that whatever spell she was preparing to cast was taking a lot out of her. He raced over to her and took over, finishing off the few vampires that were still standing near not too long after with the help of Bonnie.

"You okay..." He asked, looking down at her.

She nodded weakly at him as he looked over her, concern on his face. "Damon..I'm.." Bonnie said softly, feeling partially faint. "..I'll be okay, just a lot."

"Damn it Bennett..I told you... Damon said.

"I had to..." Bonnie said softly her hand wiping beneath her nose to do away with the blood. Damon figured Buffy and Puck were doing alright on there own, so stayed at Bonnie's side. "I'll be okay, seriously...it's no big deal."

Buffy was doing very well but of course she kept their group in her peripheral, and she saw Damon and Bonnie...again. This time, they seemed awfully close. And it was distracting...a bit too much so as she somewhat let her guard down to the point where one of the remaining vampires jumped in front of her, grabbed her arm with the stake in it and while she was able to avoid major organs because of her reflexes, she couldn't stop the stake from going pretty deep into her side. She let out a yell of pain as she instinctively broke his neck before falling to the ground to try and remove the stake. She had to get it out and fast or else she'd be screwed.

Puck had also seen Bonnie and Damon and now was in a killing frenzy. He tore vampires' hearts out and punched all the way through their throats, obviously killing them. His next target would be Damon.

Buffy crawled her way to a tree and leaned up against it. With her adrenaline going and everything, she was bleeding out pretty badly and was feeling herself get weak. As she pulled the stake out, she winced. But she couldn't relax as another vampire was coming at her. She had to defend herself but before she even had a chance to, another figure appeared, breakign the vampire's neck, dusting him. Buffy wasn't sure what to expect until he turned around and faced her.

"Angel?" she asked in almost a whisper.

"Buffy..." he said, crouching down to help tend to her.

"wha-what are you doing here?"

"You're bleeding...bad...you need to take care of this." he said, taking his black outer shirt off and pressing it to her wound.

The yell broke Damon's concentration on Bonnie.

"What the-?" He said looking up. "...Buffy." He looked down at Bonnie. "You going to be okay?"

"I already told you, I'll be fine." She replied, allowing him to lead somewhere she could sit down to rest until everyone and everything got settled,which wasn't too far away, in case something else happened.

He ran over to Buffy but stopped dead in his tracks seeing another man attending to Buffy's wounds. He tensed up, even though he had no clue who the person was, but went to Buffy's side anyways. "Goodness...you alright? The hell happened?"

Angel looked at Damon with an arched eyebrow. "She'll be fine...she needs rest and here..." he said, applying more pressure to her wound.

Buffy was a bit uncomfortable. "Um...I'll be fine..." she winced.

Puck went over to Damon and grabbed him, turning him around. "Listen, vampire...stay away from Bonnie..." he said, his eyes fully feral now. He speared Damon to the ground, going for his throat.

Angel wrapped his shirt tightly around Buffy and sat close to her.

"Angel...what are you doing here?" she asked, starting to fade into unconsciousness.

"Sssh...don't worry about it right now." he replied softly. The fact that she was hurt really got under his skin, but it looked like the werewolf was going to handle things.

Damon barely got a chance to a) reply to the jackass who was beside Buffy and b) rip his damn throat out. He was caught off-guard by Puck getting a hold of him and the next thing he knew, he was on his back with Puck's hands on his throat. Damon's eyes narrowed at Puck and he grunted as he flipped them over, his hand now at Puck's throat as well. "The hell...is your problem?" He choked out.

"DAMON!" Bonnie screamed, seeing all of this unfold in front of her. She slowly rose to her feet, but wasn't able to get too far, she was simply to weak to even attempt to stop what was going on between the two.

"Stay away from her." he growled as his grip tightened around the vampire's throat.

Buffy was having a hard time keeping her eyes open but she saw what was going on and attempted to move to stop Puck.

"What are you doing? You're in no condition to do anything." Angel said firmly. "Gotta...stop Puck." she said, breathing a bit heavily. Angel looked between them and saw that Buffy was determined to stop them so he took it on himself to do so. He got up and got to the werewolf, grabbing Puck and throwing him off Damon. "I suggest you stop." he said seriously.

Puck glared at Angel and then at Damon before looking over at Bonnie. He at least knew that the temperment he was in, Bonnie might get hurt even worse. "I'll see you at home, Bonnie." he said, his voice still in a growl.

Damon's hand went to his neck, when it was released. It wasn't like he could stop breathing, but he did feel the pressure from the tight hold Puck had on him. He rose to his feet and shot Puck a look as he walked away. Damon then eyed Angel, not saying a word as he went over to Buffy and swooped her into his arms.

"Let's get you to the hospital." He said softly. He chanced glancing at Bonnie who simply nodded in his direction, reassuring him that she'd be okay.

------

Bonnie simply just looked at Puck, startled by the whole ordeal that happened in front of her and not liking how he looked or sounded. She couldn't really pin point her emotions at the moment, but she'd catch up with him at home soon. She watched Damon walk off with Buffy and managed to let out a soft "thank you" to Angel for getting Puck off of Damon, cause she was sure if it had continued both guys could've been seriously hurt.

Angel nodded to Bonnie before following Damon and Buffy to the hospital. He had put some tabs on Buffy and he knew she was linked to this guy. Once Buffy was safe in the hospital, he strode up next to Damon. "You should know that she heals abnormally fast...how are you gonna explain that to the doctors?" he asked, glancing at Damon.

---------

Puck spent a good few hours in the woods blowing off steam before going home.

"I don't know..I'll think of something though, couldn't just let her bleed without getting it checked out." Damon replied, not even looking at Angel as he crossed his arms over his chest. He didn't even have to get confirmation on who it was, he pieced it together quickly the way Angel attended to Buffy.

----

While Puck had been off doing what the hell it was, Bonnie made her way back home. As she settled into her thoughts, she became angry that Puck was so wrapped up in whatever that pissed him off, that he left her alone, weak and in the woods. She could fend for herself, she's done it before, but this was unlike him.

In the hours that he was away, she considered going back to her house, but did go to Puck's place. She'd taken a hot shower and changed out of her clothes before she laid in the bed, with her eyes clothes. She felt better than what she did earlier that night as the time passed.

Buffy slept in the hospital bed, resting and getting her strength back.

Angel moved and sat on the edge of Buffy's bed. "Who are you to her?" he asked, barely tossing Damon a look this time.

-------

Puck came back home, finally calm but a lot of things weighing heavily on his mind. He got upstairs and saw Bonnie in bed and suddenly he felt guilty. "Bonnie? You awake?" he asked softly.

Damon shook his head lightly. "You know who I am. You may seem like a total dick, but you aren't stupid."

-----

Bonnie's eyes fluttered open and she raised onto her elbows, looking at Puck. "Yeah...I'm up..."

"Then answer me this...if you really care about her...how could you let this happen to her?" he asked much more accusatory this time.

-------

"Can we talk?" he asked, not really able to look at her.

"How could I let this happen to her?! You don't even know what the hell was going on. I didn't let this happen. She was doing fine and then all of a sudden, a vamp gets to her. It happens, but I sure as hell didn't want it to." Damon replied.

----

"Sure." She replied, raising up so that she was now sitting cross legged on the bed, with her back against the pillows.

"I was watching the whole thing...you were tending to the witch...and while that was going on, she got hurt." he pointed out simply. "Do you even really care for her?"

---------

"First off...how are you feeling?"

"That witch, is my brother's girlfriend's, best friend. If anything happened to her when she was around me, it would be my ass." Damon replied. "And you don't know a damn thing about what's going on...or my relationship about Buffy, so I suggest you quit acting like you do."

---

She glanced up at him again for a moment before she looked down at her nails. "Worn out..exhausted....confused...abandoned...so...I guess that's normal." She shrugged gently.