Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries nor am I making any profit from this. Characters, etc. all belong to their respective owners.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who's been reading, reviewing, etc. I really appreciate! In this chapter, we get back to domestic!Bamon.

Enjoy!

Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?

-John Lennon

The flight from New York City to Richmond was just a little over an hour long (it certainly beat driving for six hours, though). From there, she and Damon had a rental car waiting for them to make the forty-something minute drive to Mystic Falls.

The first thing Bonnie noticed when they rolled into Mystic Falls was the giant clock tower in the middle of town. It seemed like a nice, scenic town; the stereotypical place where everyone knew everyone and people dreamed of raising their kids there.

It also seemed somewhat familiar, though. As if she had been here before, except she knows for a fact that she never has because she's never even been to Virginia before…it probably just reminded her of some other town she'd been to.

The house they eventually pulled up to was decent-sized and beautiful in an old-fashioned way.

"You know," Damon said as he put the car in park, "We just peel out of here now and—"

She cut him off by leaning over and pressing her lips to his.

"Not a chance," she said when she broke away from him and opened the car door.

Bonnie wasn't sure what to expect when Stefan and Elena opened the door, but they appeared to be completely normal.

Okay, that's weird, Bonnie thought, Why wouldn't they be normal? Just what the hell were you expecting?

"Hi, you must be Bonnie," said the pretty brunette.

"And you must be Elena," Bonnie replied, holding out her hand. When Elena made contact with her, Bonnie got the strangest feeling; almost like de ja vu, but not quite.

"Is everything okay?" Elena asked.

"Yeah, sorry," Bonnie said quickly. "It's just that you seem really familiar."

"Well, unless you've been to this area before, then we definitely haven't met," Elena replied. "I guess I just have one of those faces."

"Sorry, I don't mean to be weird. This is so not a good first impression," Bonnie said with a nervous laugh.

"Oh, trust me," Stefan chimed in. "You're making a better impression than any of Damon's girlfriends I've met before." He smiled warmly and held his hand out and Bonnie took it. His grip was warm and firm and Bonnie got the same strange feeling of de ja vu she had felt when she shook Elena's hand.

"I can always count on you to give me and upstanding review, little brother," Damon said sarcastically.

"Just keeping it real, Damon," Stefan replied with a grin. He and Damon embraced each other, heartily slapping each other's backs.

Elena smiled at the two men and rolled her eyes a little bit.

"Hey, so why don't we get you two settle in your room?" Elena asked. "I hope you don't mind, but I also invited my family to dinner. It'll be just my parents and my aunt, though. My younger brother is spending time with his girlfriend and won't be back in Mystic Falls till right on Christmas Eve."

"Sounds good," Bonnie replied. It would probably be a good idea to get to know them and get all the introductions and small talk out of the way so that Christmas would be more comfortable.

The guest room that they led Bonnie and Damon to was nice. It wasn't overly large, but it was homey and filled with bursts of color.

"Sorry about those two idiots," Damon said when Stefan and Elena had left them to get settled in.

"Why? They seem perfectly nice."

"That's because you haven't spent enough time with them."

Bonnie snorted.

"You know," Damon said, hooking his fingers into the belt loops of her jeans and pulling her to him, "They probably won't be bothering us for a while, which means…" He leaned down to give her a deep kiss.

After a few moments, she broke away laughing. "We've been in your brother's house for like fifteen minutes and you already want to have sex?"

"Can you blame me?" He asked with a wicked smirk. "I mean," his hand slid under her shirt, lightly caressing the skin, "Just look at yourself." He kissed her again.

"Mmm, nice try," Bonnie replied, pulling away from him again. "But you know that flattery gets you nowhere with me."

When she met Elena's parents and aunt later that evening, Bonnie was struck by the same sense of familiarity as when she had met Stefan and Elena.

Bonnie greeted them all with a smile and a handshake. When Mr. Gilbert shakes her hand, for some reason, she vaguely remembers him referring to her as an unofficial member of the Gilbert family, which made no sense. Because that's never happened. Because she's never met the Gilberts before.

She was really losing it.

After the stereotypical introductions were made, they all sat down.

"I made my famous chicken parmesan," Stefan announced.

"Stefan always cooks because Elena's like you; she can't cook to save her life," Damon whispered to Bonnie.

"Don't be a jackass," Bonnie whispered back, "Especially because if it wasn't for your amazing cooking, I would have left you a long, long time ago." She smiled mischievously at him.

"So, Bonnie, where are you from?" Mrs. Gilbert asked in an effort to make small talk.

"Salem," Bonnie replied.

"Salem? As in witch trials?" Jenna asked.

"Yeah," Bonnie replied with a little laugh. "My mom grew up there, went to college in Boston and met my dad there and they ended up staying in Salem even after they were married. They ended up getting a divorce when I was ten, but they managed to stay civil with each other. They're actually next door neighbors if you can actually believe it." She paused. "They weren't exactly thrilled about me missing Christmas with them this year, but I promised them that I'd visit soon."

"Hey, I heard you were a fashion editor for a magazine," Elena said. "That must be fun."

"Oh, I absolutely love it!" Bonnie replied enthusiastically. "It's just for a small, not so well-known magazine, but it's a start."

"What I'm really curious about," Jenna said with a grin, waving around her fork, "Is how you met Damon and actually ended up in a relationship with him."

Damon grimaced and Bonnie almost laughed again.

"Yeah, how about we stop interrogating my girlfriend?" Damon asked.

"I don't mind," Bonnie said. "It's really not that great of a story. It's actually a little cliché. He tried picking me up in a bar one night, but I thought he was totally lame and I even told him so. But, uh, like right out of some stupid romance movie, we happened to be at the same Starbuck in the morning, getting coffee. And then against my better judgment, I gave him my phone number…and here we are now."

"Yeah, that is totally cliché," Jenna said with a smile.

Bonnie smiled back at her. She knew Jenna didn't meant to be insulting; she was sarcastic and blunt, but she seemed nice. She wasn't a big fan of Damon's, though, and Bonnie wondered if there was some sort of history there.

She decided it didn't matter, though. She knew that Damon didn't have the most stellar past when it came to women, but he admitted his faults. This was the here and now.

The rest of the evening passed by pleasantly and they all got to know each other better. She learned that Jenna was currently working on her Master's in psychology, Mrs. Gilbert was a writer, Elena was following in her mother's footsteps, Mr. Gilbert was a doctor, and Stefan had just finished up med school and was about to start his residency at the local hospital (courtesy of Mr. Gilbert).

Bonnie found herself truly enjoying it and any lingering nervousness fading away. She could tell for all of Damon's nonchalant act, he was also enjoying himself, too.

She was standing in the middle of some woods, feeling confused and disoriented with the acrid smell of a freshly put out fire burning her nostrils.

The disorientation was soon replaced by searing pain, though. Something, or someone was attacking her, ripping her throat open.

Everything went black for moment and the she suddenly saw Stefan and Elena's worried faces hovering over. There was no more pain, but there was the metallic taste of blood in her mouth.

"Bonnie!" Elena cried out, immediately collecting Bonnie into her arms.

She touched her neck and felt blood there, but there was no wound left from the attack. She looked past Stefan and Elena and saw Damon. The expression on his face was a mixture of anger and devastation and she could see blood—her blood—smeared around his mouth.

Bonnie shot up in the bed. She was clutching her neck and she could feel the chill of sweat cooling on her body.

She took a few deep breaths and ran a hand through her messy hair. Then, she looked over at Damon who was laying on his stomach, sleeping peacefully.

She turned away from him, getting lost in her thoughts.

Things had seemed off when she had first woken up back in their apartment this morning, but they had now escalated into downright weird. Ever since they reached Mystic Falls, it had been a near never-ending feeling of de ja vu that she had tried to ignore…and now she was having the most bizarre nightmares.

Just what was happening?

A/N: So, this chapter was probably not the most exciting. It was more about further establishing the tone for what Bonnie and Damon's life is like in this AU and to give more background information on their AU lives. However (as you can probably tell from the end of this chapter), we'll really begin digging into the meat of this now.

I've also been working on making the chapters longer (which I obviously haven't been doing a good job of), but now that the boring stuff is (mostly) out of the way, there are decent-sized chapters coming up!

Thanks for reading and, as always, reviews are much appreciated!