A/N: What was originally planned as a one-shot took on a life of its own and is now a multi-chapter fic. I hope you enjoy.

Please forgive any mistakes, for they are all my own.

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.

A Dream Within a Dream

By: Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon thy brow! And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow-

You are not wrong, who deem that my days have been a dream:

Yet, if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day, in a vision, or in none, Is it therefore, the less gone?

All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar of a surf-tormented shore, and I hold within my hand grains of golden sand-

How few! Yet how they creep through my fingers to the deep,

While I weep- while I weep!

O God! Can I not save one from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?

SPOV

If you had told me fifteen years ago that I would be where I am now, I would have laughed in your face. It had taken me years to carefully construct the walls that surrounded me and nothing could destroy it. I had perfected it and it was indestructible, unconquerable, and impenetrable.

Love was nothing but a fairy-tale and I wanted nothing to do with make-believe. I lived in the real world and strived there. I had made my home there and nothing and certainly no one was going to infiltrate my home or ruin the good thing I had going.

Sure I was lonely and sure I had needs that could not always be fulfilled in the lock down that was my life. But I had my ways and I was growing increasingly adept at satiating my desires and necessities.

Maybe my methods were a little less than traditional, but they worked for me and who was I to fix something that wasn't broken. I was a firm believer in the saying: 'When life gives you lemons, just say fuck the lemons and bail.' Ok, so admittedly, that's not how the quote goes but that was my philosophy.

I didn't believe in love and I certainly knew that I was never going to be in love or have someone that felt that way about me. Not only did I refuse to allow myself to even get remotely close to that, but the mere thought of it made me nauseous.

So for you to tell me that I would be in love would be the biggest fucking joke to me and I would have rewarded you with a boisterous belly laugh, complete with tears and side clenching guffaws.

I had my life planned out and it was drama-free, not to mention filled with no-strings attached sex and no complications.

If life had taught me anything thus far, it was that you couldn't count on anyone but yourself. I figured it was safer to take everyone else out of the equation, so I did.

But just because you plan your life out and set certain goals and barriers, doesn't mean that someone won't piss in your cheerios and throw you for a loop.

That is what happened to me, but I didn't welcome it. Matter-of-fact, I fought tooth and nail to try and avoid it. Nevertheless, things had been set in motion and I was left to deal, whether I wanted to or not.

True love, the kind you read about, only happened in books and movies, or so I thought.

I couldn't have been more wrong…

A/N: Just so you know, reviews make me grin from ear to ear.

MUAW!!!