When I woke up hours later, it was to the sound of Elena's voice. The sun was casually shining through the clouds. When I sat up to see what she was doing, I was surprised to see her holding that day's newspaper in front of her face, reading aloud.

"Good morning!" she chided, going back to reading the paper moments later.

I stretched, attempting to wake myself up, "What are you doing?" I yawned.

"Reading to her." She responded. Talking to one's stomach was never a good sign, "I read somewhere that children who are read to in the womb learn faster than those who weren't." she answered my unspoken question, "Besides, my mom read out loud when she was pregnant with Jeremy, so I figured I'd try it too."

"Well," I began, "Seeing as we really don't even know what your baby is yet, I'd say it's a crapshoot as to how fast he'll be learning." She took my joke and nodded, a smile gracing her features, "Besides, the fact that Jeremy turned out the way he did should be proof enough that it doesn't work." A huge grin spread across her face, as she threw her head back and cackled wildly, "But seriously; when they say that, don't they mean, like, nursery rhymes or something?"

Elena gave me a look as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "Well, that would be ideal, Damon, but you really don't seem like the type to keep Green Eggs and Ham lying around the house."

Then it suddenly dawned on me what I needed to get for her, "I've got just the thing…wait right there!" I called over my shoulder, racing out the bedroom door, sprinting down to the library, to grab a tiny, leather bound book, "Try this on for size." I commanded, handing her the book, as I reentered the room excitedly.

She took the pages from me cautiously, reading the title aloud, "The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland?"

"It's a first edition. Look, hand-written and everything!" I paused for a moment, waiting for her response. She looked absolutely dumbp-founded.

She shook her head in amazement, still staring down at the picture on the first page, "Damon, this is - phenomenal."

"You like it?" she nodded furiously, "Keep it, then. Read it to him every night before he goes to sleep. I find books like these are beneficial when attempting to disconnect from reality." She cranked open the first page and began to read aloud. I suddenly found myself lying on the other side of the bed, peering over her shoulder at the pictures as she read, like a common five-year-old.

She had gotten through all of ten pages, lulling me into semi consciousness, when out of the blue, her stomach gave a mighty growl and she looked up impishly, "Sorry." She grumbled, embarrassment written all over her face.

"What do you want?" I asked, standing to run to the kitchen.

"Damon, you don't have to-"

"Yes, I do," I bore a hole directly between her eyes, "You live in my house. You're going to go by my rules."

She suddenly looked incredulous, dropped the book beside her, "Who says I'm staying here? I told you yesterday that after we were done with Alaric, I was going to live with Jeremy. I can't stay here, Damon. Sorry to disappoint." She hoisted herself out of bed, "Now, if you'll excuse me-" she slid past me, clutching her stomach, "I have to-"

"Do whatcha gotta do." I waved her off, not wanting to hear anything about her bodily functionings and goings on, "I will be downstairs cooking your breakfast."

I felt rather proud of myself, having managed to pull together an omelet, bacon, and what was left of the grey lump from the day before. As Elena made her grande entrance, she appeared to be aggravated, "I told you not to." She pouted.

A smirk was definitely in order. I actually managed to let out a small chuckle, "I know you did, but I did it anyway. You'd think that after knowing me for nearly ten years, you'd finally know how this thing works." It was just general knowledge. Whatever she told me to do, I generally did the exact opposite. Well, it had seemed to work thus far…

"Well, whatever you say." She scowled, sitting at the counter, as I pushed her breakfast over to her. The doorbell rang mere moments later and I cocked my head. Who the hell was ringing at 7 in the morning, "Were you expecting someone?" she asked, taking the brief second to look up from her plate to ask.

"No, I wasn't." a moment later, there was a knock on the back door. Something wasn't right. There was not a coincidence in the fact that mere seconds apart the front door and the back door had both been called on. I stood up carefully, trying to weigh the odds of what was going on. If we were going to be ambushed, I was going to have time to shove her out a window at the very most, "Elena, go up to the library and lock the door."

"But-"

"Just do it. There isn't time to argue." I gritted my teeth as the back door began to rattle on its hinges from being knocked on so harshly. Elena's eyes grew huge, as she jumped up and took off sprinting. I hedged my bets and went to the front door first, digging through one of the long-forgotten boxes of vamp-protection gear in the coat closet, pulling the first thing I saw. The Vervain grenade. I pinched my eyes clothed one more time before placing a hand on the door knob and pulling the door open at fast as it would go, pulling the pin from the grenade and chucking it into the hands of the person standing on the other side of the door. There, a shocked expression on his face, stood Elena's brother, "What the hell?" grabbing the thing from his grasp, tossing the thing into the yard, only moments before it exploded, "Jeremy, what are you doing here?"

"Yeah, I'm not the one who just chucked a bomb at someone, Dude." He drawled in disbelief.

"Dude. Really, dude?" I smirked. Typical little brother. Even at the age of twenty-one, he was a child. He just seemed to be the eternal high school kid.

"I'm here to pick up Elena." He said, trying to push past me into the house, "Where is she?"

That incessant noise coming from the back door snapped me back in to what was actually happening, "She's in the library." I locked eyes with him for a moment. Compulsion, "Go join her in the library."

He stood there with a stunned look on his face for a solid minute before he heard the knocking too, "Seriously, man. The smolder eyes might work on the chicks, but I'm as straight as an arrow. Sorry about your luck."

Was my compulsion expression really that bad? I shook that off quickly, remembering that he had that damn ring, "Just go check on her. She's - " All of a sudden, there was a crunching sound and the back door flew clear away from its hinging. Without a second thought, I pushed Jeremy to the staircase, "Go up to the library. You'll find Elena. Get her out of here." I managed, before straining to see who had the balls to knock my door out. The sight I found in front of me made me want to bash my own head in. If the kid brother showing up at the wrong time wasn't enough, this definitely was, "Katherine." I groaned, consciously hitting my head against the wall, "What do you want?"

She stuck her bottom lip out, flipping her curled locks, which had gotten reasonably shorter since the last time I'd seen her, "I come back after eight years and that's my greeting?" her façade broke when I went running for the closet for another grenade. I knew it wouldn't do much damage like it would've to any other vampire, but it would have put her bay long enough to get Elena out, since it was obvious that the little brother wouldn't be able to get a handle on her on his own, "Relax. I'm not here to kill anyone this time. I just want to make a deal."

"You know about-"

"Of course I do, Damon. You admitted yourself, I'm always two steps ahead of you. But I'll tell you who doesn't know is Klaus."

I rolled my eyes. I hated the mind games. They quit working a long time ago, "Cut to it, Katherine. What do you want. Because the faster I do it for you; the faster you're out of my hair, and I can get back to figuring out what that thing is." She knew I was talking about what Elena kept referring to as her 'baby'.

"I want protection." She crossed her arms over her chest, "Let's just say that there are quite a few people out there right now who aren't the biggest fans of me. And they're closing in pretty damn fast. So, in exchange for my protection, I will tell you what that thing is that is growing inside of your precious Elena."

"How do you know?" I asked through the haze that was going through my mind. I was barely able to make a coherent thought travel from my brain to my lips. I managed to keep the expression up, though, "I need solid proof, then I'll consider it."

"I know because I've been in her position before. Now, we could sit down and have an entire heart to heart, loving family moment," she chuckled sarcastically, "Or, you can seal the deal and we can get the hell out of this town before somebody figures out that the vampires are still here."

"Well, we could potentially be initiated World War III, you do realize?"

"Of course I do."

"Then, you've got yourself a deal."