'He's going to kill me,' she thought to herself.

She was panicking and didn't know what to do.

"Please don't hurt me," she yelled at her assailant. "Leave me alone!"

'I'm dead.'

"Meredith, wake up!"

Meredith opened her swollen eyes and was looking up at Damon. He was leaning over the bed, trying to see what was wrong. She screamed.

"Shh...you're ok, it was just a nightmare."

"Get away from me," she screamed at him.

She backed away and pulled her legs up close to her and wrapped her arms around her knees. Damon just gave her an odd stare.

"You're scared of me? Besides the obvious reasons why you should be scared of a vampire in your room, may I ask why you're frightened now?"

'It was a dream,' Meredith thought to herself. 'A stupid dream.'

And yet the images stayed fresh in her mind and made her wonder. Could it happen? The dream had played out in her mind over and over for the last few weeks. She found herself reluctant around Damon. Whenever he would go to lead her somewhere or near her in anyway, she would retreat. Meredith could sense Damon got the gist of her actions and backed off to give her some space, but she could tell, although he would never admit it, he was starting to feel unwanted

"Damon," she began, "I want to tell you about this nightmare."

He took a seat on the edge of the bed.

"Ok, shoot."

"I'm in my room, looking at myself in the mirror. It was like that one day a couple of months you. You come up to embrace me and put your hand on my stomach. Then I just feel this horrible, agonizing pain and I can feel myself dying right there! And you don't do anything about it."

Damon took a hand and held her chin and looked directly in her eyes.

"Listen, Mere. I would never, ever, do anything to hurt you or that baby of yours. How could you even think that? I could have left you and the other humans alone in the clearing that night. You were almost dead when I got there! Klaus would have made sure you were dead if I didn't show up for Stefan. I could have killed you easier then if I wanted to.."

"Damon?

"The point is, I don't have any reason to kill you. Frankly, I don't want to. I've grown attached to you after all these years, and I would rather have you stick around. I care about you, Meredith, and I would rather die than to see you or your child hurt."

Damon had opened up to her in his own way and it brought tears to her eyes.

"You're not too bad yourself. I'm sorry that I doubted you. Besides, you couldn't hurt me anyway."

He took hold of her hand and turned it over to playfully nip at her wrist.

"Oh, a challenge," he said jokingly.

He turned her delicate wrist over again and kissed the top of her hand. Then, he once again flipped it over and kissed the palm of her hand. She moved her hand to cup his face. Meredith then grabbed hold of his hand and placed it on her stomach; Damon was in too much of a shock to pull his hand away.

He could feel something moving, like something out of a sci-fi movie.

"Can you feel it? It's the baby moving. It knows when you're around, Damon. It recognizes your voice. Whenever you're here, it jumps around and kicks me," she laughed.

His hand stayed there on its own volition. The feeling was just so odd; it was a sense of deja vu so strong that he couldn't ignore it for the same scene had played out about 517 years ago. He was almost three and his mother was pregnant with Stefan. This time, he could control the situation and make sure that Meredith was safe and he swore to protect against anything and everything.

He leaned in closer to her and kissed her with a promise to always be there for her, no matter what and it seemed that it wasn't one sided.

"Hello, Damon."

"What is it, Stefan?"

"I'm thinking of calling Gena and telling her to come home; something is going on."

"Something different? How do you know?"

"Well, Bonnie has been trancing out a lot lately with absolutely no memory of it at all. She's so much stronger than she used to be and the last time she tranced with no recollection was Fell's Church! Elena's been having really weird nightmares. She's been so antsy lately and hasn't slept in a while."

"Stefan, Meredith has been having nightmares too. She's over tired and it isn't good for her health right now. I'm really concerned about her, but I didn't think it was connected in the big scheme of things."

"You really care about her, don't you Damon; I mean more than before."

Damon laughed into the receiver.

"Do you think I'm going to talk to you about my relationships, little brother?"

Stefan sighed.

"No, but it's pretty obvious that you care about her. I know you, Damon. I remember the womanizing vampire you used to be. Maybe you're turning into a one-woman?

"Or, maybe not; it's not any of your business either way. I'll tell you this much, I'm here to make sure she's safe and I'm not sure if she or the other girls are. If things don't stop, give Gena a call and make her come home."

"Well, we can't make her come home, Damon. She's a grown woman you know."

Damon laughed.

"Oh, I'll make her come home, even if I have to drag her back here myself."