Chapter Ten: Bedtime Monsters

Damon and Bonnie's son, Zach has some trouble sleeping. So, for the night they allow him to sleep with them in their bed. Meanwhile, he keeps them up all night.

Damon places his hands on to his wife's hips, pulling her back towards him as she glances at herself in the mirror. "I'm getting old." Bonnie says in a soft and saddened tone, examining her wrinkles as she realizes in a few weeks she's going to be 29 years old and that being 30 is around the corner.

"No, you're not." She hears Damon retort with a small smile and a laugh. He moves a few pieces of her hair away from her neck as she feels his fingertips linger over her shoulder, soon his lips follow.

"Mhmm. Three days away from you is like hell. Every single time." He states, sucking on her skin as Bonnie giggles. She can feel the butterflies building within her belly as her hand slides across Damon's biceps and she smirks a little while her nails scrap against his chest. He's been working out more and more lately which make her heart race a little extra these days. "You're getting sexy again." She purrs in his ear as he lets out a loud laugh, hoping that their giggling like two teenagers won't wake up the children in the next room. "Sam and Olivia are staying over tonight." Bonnie reminds him as Damon remembers that Stefan and Elena wanted a night off from being parents and they too are probably acting just as he and his wife are now in the moment.

"Too bad." Damon groans, chuckling as he lays his head back down on to his pillow and glances up at the ceiling for a moment, his right hand playing with Bonnie's as she too lays next to him in silence. "How'd we get so lucky?" She asks, exhaling deeply. They had been through so much together and as a family that the idea of everything breaks her heart a little.

Damon swallows the lump forming in his throat. He's not really sure of the answer. Although, he can think of something that will make her smile. "We have a lot of great people in our lives, Bon. A beautiful son and I am lucky to be able to come home to the love of my life every night." He squeezes her hand, turning his head just in time to see a small smile appear upon her lips. He'll never really get over it. The way her eyes light up and the way her move curls into a small smile when he says something to make her laugh. God, he loves her. The silence between them lasts for a while. Long enough for Bonnie to curl up against her husband after she turns the lights off and she feels him tighten his grip around her. "I love you, babe." He says softly in the midst of being half asleep while she replies back in an equally sleepy tone. "I love you too, always."

2:30 am.

That's the time she hears it. A soft whimpering coming from the hallway and then a tip toeing sound as their bedroom door creaks open. "Momma." Zach's sleepy voice echos into their room as Bonnie slowly opens her eyes and it registers what's happening. "Momma!" Zach calls out a little louder, pulling a dark blue dinosaur printed blanket behind him while Bonnie sleepily asks him what's wrong.

"I had a bad dream. Now, I can't sleep." He tells her in a small voice. She forgets sometimes that he's only five years old because he acts like his older cousins most of the time and then she remembers it, he's just a little boy who still needs his mother.

"Okay." Bonnie says, nudging Damon awake as he makes a slightly sexual comment in front of their son and Bonnie leans into his ear. "We have a visitor of the small son kind. Not the time to say anything too inappropriate." She says, kissing his ear to awaken him as he opens his eyes and rolls towards them both.

"Hi buddy." Damon comments, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as Zach crawls in between them and Bonnie gives Damon a look.

"What's up?" His dad asks him as Zach covers himself up with their covers and Damon watches the little boy pull the warm covers nearly up above his head. "I had a bad dream" He whispers softly, burying himself under the blankets and comforter.

Damon slowly slides himself under the covers too as he waves Bonnie on to follow. "You want to talk about it?" Bonnie asks softly, turning to her side and placing her hands underneath her head as Zach glances at both of his parents with a shrug of his shoulders. "No." He says with a straight face, turning to Damon and burying his face against his father's chest. Damon exhales deeply, rubbing Zach's back gently.

"It's okay. We don't have to talk about it. We can sit here and talk about something else." He suggests, hoping that talking for awhile will eventually put their son to sleep because Damon's alarm clock is set to go off in two hours and if neither of them get any sleep at all, they'll both be like two walking zombies.

"A big green monster frog." He comments in a barely there tone as Bonnie stifles a laugh. "A monster frog?" She questions when Zach nods his head, adding in that it was super scary looking too.

"Honey," Bonnie begins, reaching out her hand towards her son whom has finally turned to her with water eyes, pulling the covers off of his face as she does the same.

"Big monster frogs aren't real, Zach. I'm pretty sure you're safe." She says, gently caressing his warm rosey cheeks. "But, momma. It was really scary!" He exclaims. Damon laughs a little too, looking over to his wife and son, trying to come up with a plan to help Zach go back to sleep, because he's not really in the mood to fight big scarey monsters tonight after the long hours of fire fighting that he's been having to do at the station.

"You know, son. Frogs eat all the other ugly things I'm scared of." Damon comments with a small smile as Zach suddenly turns his attention towards him, tilting his head to the side curiously. " You're not scared of anything, liar!" Zach states as Damon shakes his head. "Yeah, I am."

"Like what?" He questions.

"Spiders and flying bugs. I hate flying bugs. They scare me." Damon points out, hoping that Bonnie catches on as she lets out a loud yawn and then says with a laugh. "Your daddy, sure does! You know, one time at the fire station your uncle Stefan found a huge spider in the showers and he didn't want to go in there because your uncle Tyler told him that it was going to eat him."

"Nu huh." Zach replies, giggling a little as he asks in a soft tone. "What happened?"

"Well," Damon smiles as he watches Zach yawn a little. "Your uncle Stefan realized that it was a fake spider because Tyler played something called a prank on him." Zach laughs, while he asks them both. "What's a prank? Can I play one of those on Sam and Olivia?"

Damon nods with a small smirk, ruffling the top of his head as he states. "Yeah, you can. But, let's make a deal first. How about we all sleep for a few hours and when we wake up, you and your mommy can play a prank on your cousins." Zach claps his hands together, grinning just like his father as Bonnie watches their son excuse himself while he tells them that he's ready to go back to his bed.

"Great, see ya in the morning kid. Love you." Damon comments, pulling Bonnie back towards him as they both kiss Zach on the cheek and watch him finally leave their room.

"Alone at least. Now, where were we?" Damon asks with a bright smile, starting to kiss the side of his wife's neck as she swats his arm and says "You're horrible."

"Why am I so bad? I got our kid back into his bed. Hell, I think I deserve father of the year for that one." He winks, watching Bonnie roll her eyes at him. "Using manipulation."

Damon chuckles, kissing her shoulder while she grabs his face, staring right into his tired blue eyes. "Was that story about Stefan and Tyler even real?"

"Not one bit. But, thanks for remembering it and playing along." Damon smiles against her lips, wrapping his tighten grip around her as he clears his throat and asks once more where they had left off at.

"What am I supposed to do with you?" She asks him, releasing her grasp from his face as he leans down against her ear and whispers in a seductive tone. "Punish me in the hot and sexy way you always do. Because let's face it, I probably deserve it and neither of us are going to be really be sleeping anytime soon."

A/N: Please send me requests of things you'd like to see in these little one shots. I'll gladly write them up. :)

Thanks for reading!