Today, Bonnie felt happy. She had woken up to Zander cooking her a delicious breakfast, and the sun shining in her honor, on what really felt like the first day of summer. And then her entire kindergarten class sang "Happy Birthday" and presented her with a giant card that included twenty-one little painted handprints and twenty-one names, from Astrid to Zachary, printed in little-kid wobbly letters that she, Bonnie, had personally taught them to make over the course of the year.

"It was the cutest thing ever," Bonnie said, gazing happily around at her assembled friends. "One of the moms even baked me cupcakes."

And now she got to sit on a velvet chaise longue in a lovely bar full of Christmas lights and pink cocktails and enjoy herself.

Meredith, elegant as ever in a classic black dress, handed Bonnie a bubbling glass of champagne as she sat down beside her. Meredith's husband of six months, Alaric, patted Bonnie's shoulder affectionately before turning to pull over a seat of his own.

"Your class sounds adorable," Meredith said. "But I think the cutest thing ever might be that you got Zander to come to a cocktail lounge called the Beauty Mark."

"Zander likes to make me happy," Bonnie said simply. She glanced over to where her boyfriend straddled a tiny ornate golden chair with a pink leopard-print seat. She watched as Zander tilted the chair onto two legs and flung his arms wide, saying something to his Packmate Jared. The chair creaked and wobbled alarmingly under his weight. Bonnie winced. "It's possible this isn't his natural setting, though," she admitted.

Werewolf guys always seemed too big and rowdy to be inside, as if they might accidentally break things. Werewolf girls, on the other hand ... Zander's second in command, Shay, met Bonnie's gaze and raised her own glass in a silent toast. Shay didn't get to do girlie stuff much and looked like she was enjoying herself. Bonnie squinted a little, catching a glimmer from Shay's pale skin. Was she wearing body glitter?

"Thank God Shay started dating Jared, right?" Elena said, plopping down on Bonnie's other side and following her gaze. Stefan, standing beside them, inclined his head to Bonnie in what was almost a formal bow.

"Happy birthday, Bonnie," he said solemnly, handing her two packages. The larger one was wrapped in polka-dot paper and tied with a pink bow; the smaller was much heavier and wrapped in a dark silk that shimmered with subtle rainbows.

"The big one's from us," Elena said. "The other one's from Damon. He sent it to us to give to you."

"Ooh, thank you," Bonnie said, looking at the packages with interest. She'd never gotten a gift from Damon before, but she had a feeling it would be something special. Damon was so elegant, so sophisticated, so intriguing, with his sleek dark hair and sharp smile that every so often softened for Bonnie ... he was unlikely to give a girl, say, a DVD. Not that there was anything wrong with a DVD.

She politely opened Elena and Stefan's present first: a delicate filmy top she'd had her eye on when she'd gone shopping with Elena a couple of weeks earlier. "Gorgeous," she said with a wink, holding it up to herself amid a chorus of approval. "Thank you so much." She held out her wrist to Elena and Meredith, showing them a bracelet of gold filigree dotted with semiprecious stones. "Look at what Zander gave me! And he got me about a year's supply of dittany of Crete-an herb, for charm making," she added, for Elena's benefit. "It's really hard to find. He must have had to order it especially for me."

"It's beautiful," Elena said, and Meredith nodded approvingly. For such a guy's guy, Bonnie reflected, Zander was surprisingly good at buying presents for a girl. At least if that girl was Bonnie.

She couldn't concentrate on Zander's many wonderful qualities just now, though, not with a mysterious package from Damon in her lap, waiting to be opened.

She carefully unwrapped the silk. Inside was a small, rounded box that fit perfectly in the palm of her hand. It looked almost like a river rock, polished gray with a slight blue sheen to it. Opening the box, she found inside a delicate carved bird, in the same bluish-gray material, on a thin silver chain. There was also a note on thick, creamy paper, folded small.

"Wow," Elena said, bending to peer more closely at the bird. "What is it? It looks old."

Bonnie unfolded the note. In Damon's elegant script, she read:

My little redbird, congratulations on reaching the age of twenty-four. It's still ridiculously young, but at least you're not a child anymore. The enclosed comes from Egypt, and is older even than me. The bird is a falcon. A witch I met in Luxor tells me that it represents power, wisdom, and guardianship-all of which I wish for you. Be strong, be wise, be safe.

Bonnie smiled. Damon could be surprisingly sweet and sentimental sometimes.

Underneath, in a different ink, scribbled in as if he'd added it at the last minute, was:

I hear you're still running around with the overgrown wolf boy. Tell him to behave himself or he'll answer to me.

Still sort of sweet, Bonnie decided, and tucked the note in her pocket.

"Here, let me fasten it." Zander came over and swept her hair aside, hooking the necklace firmly and then placing a swift kiss on the back of her neck.

"Damon called you an overgrown wolf boy," Bonnie told him. "You're supposed to behave yourself."

"Aw, he mentioned me?" Zander said affably. "I'm touched."

Jared snorted, and Shay's eyes narrowed. Most of Zander's Pack had never really understood Damon.

Or, Bonnie admitted to herself, they'd understood him too well. When the Pack had met Damon, he'd been going through a ... difficult time. Truthfully, he'd been dangerous, and despite the fact that he'd fought beside them once or twice against greater threats, the small band of Original werewolves that protected the Dalcrest area didn't trust him.

But now that the Guardians had connected him and Elena, he wasn't so dangerous anymore. Because if Damon ever harmed a human, it would hurt Elena. If he killed anyone, Elena would die. And anyone who had seen Damon's fierce desperation when Elena was in danger knew he would never hurt her.

Besides, Bonnie thought pragmatically, the falcon weighing cool against her neck, it seemed like Damon was gone for good. Part of her missed him-there'd always been a special connection between her and Damon-but it might be better here without him. It was certainly calmer.

"Matt's here," Stefan said, glancing up from murmuring into Elena's ear. You could never surprise a vampire, Bonnie thought wryly.

But now they all saw Matt working his way over to their corner of the bar. He kissed Bonnie on the cheek and handed her a small package. "Hey," he said. "Happy birthday. Sorry I'm late."

"No problem," Bonnie said, surreptitiously feeling the present to see what it was. A DVD, she thought. "Where's Jasmine?"

Matt grimaced. "She really wanted to come, but she's on call for the emergency room," he said. "She said to tell you happy birthday and she'll take you out to lunch sometime next week instead."

"It's a pretty good excuse," Bonnie said. "You know, come to Bonnie's birthday drinks or be ready when they need you to save lives."

"Since Jasmine couldn't come," Matt said, smiling at Meredith and Stefan, "you can tell me what happened with Celine. She's dead?"

That was the one problem with Jasmine, Bonnie thought, taking a swig of her drink. She'd been dating Matt for a couple of years, and everyone really liked her, but she didn't know the truth about him, about all of them. Jasmine knew Bonnie liked fortune-telling, herbs, and "New Agey" stuff, but she didn't know she was really a witch. She knew Alaric had a doctorate in paranormal studies and folklore, but she didn't know any of that was real either; she just thought he was an academic. And she sure didn't know the truth about Stefan, or Zander and his friends, or Elena. She didn't even know Matt, not really, how he'd fought evil again and again, how strong and brave he was. She just thought he was a nice, ordinary guy.

Maybe Bonnie needed to slow down on the champagne cocktails, because she opened her mouth and heard herself say, loudly, "Matt. How can you love Jasmine, when she doesn't even know who you are?"

Matt's face stiffened, his mouth forming a tight line, and a hot flush of embarrassment ran over Bonnie. Wasn't she ever going to learn to keep her mouth shut? After a moment, Matt said stiffly, "It's safer for her this way." His light blue gaze met hers. "I just want Jasmine to have a normal life."

Bonnie's throat tightened. She remembered when she and Zander had finally told each other the truth about themselves, more than five years ago. How she'd held his hand, nervous. Normal is overrated, she'd told him, and they'd kissed, sweetly and honestly, everything open between them. She couldn't imagine keeping secrets from someone she loved for so long.

She managed to smile at Matt, although the smile felt pinched on her face, and nodded, blinking away the stinging in her eyes. "Okay," she said in a small voice.

There were an awkward few moments of silence.

"Anyway," Meredith said, with a brittle little laugh. "Since you asked ..." She began to describe to Matt the battle she and Stefan had fought with Celine.

It was a dramatic story. There were secret passages and close calls and much use of Meredith's skills and Stefan's vampire speed and strength before they'd even gotten close to Celine. But finally they'd tracked her down in Atlanta, evaded her vampire soldiers, and killed her with Elena's magic blood.

The first two times they'd told the story tonight, Bonnie had been hanging on Meredith and Stefan's every word.

This time, though, she politely stifled a yawn and glanced around. Everyone else was still riveted. Even Alaric, who was usually Bonnie's compatriot in being more interested in the magical side of fighting monsters than the physical side, was asking intelligent questions about weaponry.

She sighed, dutifully fixing her eyes back on Meredith. It was possible, Bonnie admitted to herself, that she was a little bit jealous. They hadn't asked her for help at all in tracking down Celine.

Bonnie was good at fighting evil. It was just that, as her friends had become even more superpowered-faster, stronger, in Elena's case immortal-it was possible that they didn't really need her.

Bonnie pushed the feeling away and took another sip of her drink. Stop being ridiculous, she told herself firmly.

Meredith was reaching the end of her story-Stefan was about to cut Celine's head off, as the Old One writhed in her death spasms-when Zander caught Bonnie's eye and suddenly hopped to his feet, knocking his tiny gilt chair over with a clatter.

"Whoops," he said, winking at Bonnie as he sauntered closer. She grinned back at him. Maybe she hadn't been doing as good a job of hiding her emotions as she'd thought. "Time to toast the birthday girl," he announced, and everyone climbed to their feet.

"Okay," Zander said thoughtfully. "I'll go first. What is there to say about Bonnie McCullough that you don't all know already?" He pulled her closer, wrapping a warm, strong arm around her shoulder, and she leaned happily into him. "Well, there was the first night we moved into our apartment. It felt weird being in this brand-new place, and I couldn't sleep. But then Bonnie started telling me all about these myths she'd been reading about selkies. She was so smart and looked so gorgeous with the moonlight shining on her, that I would have fallen in love with her right then and there if I wasn't already fully and completely in love. And I thought, as I fell asleep, Moving in with Bonnie is the best decision I ever made." He kissed her briefly, the corners of his sea-blue eyes crinkling affectionately, and raised his glass. "Which of course I already knew. To Bonnie!"

They all drank, and then Meredith cleared her throat. "I couldn't have gotten through the wedding without Bonnie," she said. Her olive cheeks flushed slightly as she added, "You all know what my parents are like. When I couldn't stand them taking over the wedding planning anymore, Bonnie and Elena would kidnap me and take me somewhere on a 'sanity outing.' The very best sanity outing was Bonnie's idea."

Elena started to laugh. "This was completely Bonnie's idea."

"They took me to the batting cages down at the park," Meredith went on, "and slapped a batting helmet on me and turned on the machine, and I whammed balls around until I didn't feel like running off to Vegas to elope anymore. And Bonnie sat there and shouted advice at me and bought me a hot dog when I was done." She slung an arm around Bonnie and hugged her tightly, pressing a cool cheek to hers. "Best friends ever."

"Me next," Elena said, as Meredith let go of Bonnie. "So, as you'll recall, Bonnie and Meredith and I spent all four years of college rooming together. When we graduated last summer, it was"-she shrugged-"scary. We weren't going to be there for each other every minute anymore. That last night, Bonnie decided we were going to have a slumber party just like the ones we had in junior high. We did one another's hair and nails and prank-called our boyfriends-"

"I was very surprised," Alaric added solemnly.

"It was a silly night," Elena said, "and it took Meredith and me a little while to get into the spirit of it, but Bonnie coaxed us along, and it ended up being perfect. Sisterhood." As Elena raised her glass, Bonnie suddenly remembered how Elena had looked that night, her usually perfect hair in a hundred sloppy braids, laughing in pink pajamas. Elena, she thought, needed to laugh more.

"Velociraptor sisterhood," she corrected, and Elena smiled at their old private joke.

Matt stepped forward a little. "My favorite memory of Bonnie this year is from Alaric and Meredith's wedding," he said. "Jasmine was still feeling awkward around you guys-she knew we'd been friends for a long time, and I guess it's weird for new people-"

"It is," Zander agreed loudly. "And Jasmine and I are both awesome."

Bonnie shushed him. "We're talking about me now, honey."

"Anyway," Matt went on. "At the reception, Bonnie took Jasmine under her wing, and before I knew it she was out dancing with all the girls and having a great time."

"Her dance moves put me to shame," Bonnie told him. Jasmine had looked gorgeous that night, her short teal dress setting off her long dark curls and caramel-colored skin. Most beautiful of all, though, had been the way her eyes shone every time she looked at Matt. Matt deserved someone who saw how great he was, Bonnie thought, and so she'd tried really hard to make Jasmine comfortable.

When Matt fell in love, he fell hard and for the long haul, and he hadn't had much luck in the past. Even if he wouldn't tell Jasmine the whole truth about himself, Bonnie wanted them to work out, for his sake.

Stefan raised his glass. "Bonnie, when I first met you, you seemed so sweet and innocent and young. I didn't take you as seriously as I should have. But it wasn't long before I came to realize how wrong that was. You are spontaneous and intuitive and have a warm, loving heart. Here's to your twenty-fourth year being even better than the last."

All Bonnie's friends were smiling at her, their glasses held up to toast, and she smiled back, warmed by the combined affection of their gazes. It was fine. Even if she wasn't essential to the monster fighting, she knew everyone loved her.

Today, Bonnie was happy.