CHAPTER FOUR

"Hey." Nyx walks over to Dean where he's looking at some stuff in the trunk of the Impala. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" She asks.

"Uh..." He closes the trunk and looks down at her. "Yeah. What's up?"

"Katherine said something to me before she bashed my head into that dresser, and it's been buggin' me." She tells him. "She said something about you." She tells him and he raises his eyebrows.

"About me?"

"She said that she talked to you, but you thought that she was me. It reminded me of what you had said after you found that napkin. That I said something... And whatever it was seemed to have bothered you." She says. "What did she say to you when you thought that she was me?"

He sighs, shaking his head, as he looks away from her.

"Dean?"

"She said that she liked me, but she was done dating humans. That...she wanted to know what it was like to be with a vampire, see why Elena's so in love with Stefan." He tells her, and her eyebrows furrow as she looks up at him.

"And you actually believed that I would say something like that?" She questions, and he looks back at her.

"What was I supposed to think? That it was your five-hundred-year-old doppelganger screwing with me?" He questions. "And then she mentioned Damon and started talking about him and I—"

"Damon?" She cuts him off. "He and I are just friends...when he isn't trying to kill the people that I love." She shakes her head at him.

"Anyways, after that, and then finding the napkin... I just didn't know what to think." He tells her.

"But you found that stupid napkin after you spent the night with Cassie." She says, and his jaw clenches as he looks down.

"You act different with me all the time." He says. "And after what you told Jenny, I've been starting to think that it's just never gonna happen."

"Jenny?" She questions. "You— You heard what I told Jenny?"

He sighs, realizing his mistake. "I was coming down the stairs, and I heard my name... I didn't mean to eavesdrop."

"So, you heard everything? About the morning after we slept together, and about my- my... Why I'm afraid to get into a relationship after what happened the last time that I was... And you never said anything to me?" She shakes her head. "Why? Because the shifter was right? You really do believe that I'm a bitch and- and none of what I said changed anything?"

"No. God, that's not—"

"You wanna know why I'm always acting different all the time?" She steps back when he reaches for her, she has tears in her eyes now. "Because every time I let myself trust someone, it bites me in the ass. I trusted Stefan, and he staked Vicki. I trusted John, and he killed Anna. I trusted Damon, and he snapped Jeremy's neck... And you don't get why I might have some trust issues?

"I'm sorry that it hurt you when I said that I didn't want a relationship after you kissed me at the carnival, but I told you the same thing when you tried to kiss me after the pageant before that. It hadn't even been a month, and you thought everything would change for me that fast?" She scoffs as she shakes her head. "Did it even occur to you that the night before that, I had Damon kissing me while I was trying to push him away? Then he got mad and snapped? Did it not occur to you that maybe I was still trying to get over having just watched my brother get murdered?

"I told you...I told you that my life was chaos and that I had a hard time sorting out my feelings. I mean, you wanna take a look at the last month alone? I watched my birth mother spontaneously combust, I watched you almost die, I had a reaper try to kill me, I watched Klaus rip the heart out of a werewolf, I watched him stake Jenna... I felt him drain the blood from my body, and then I died... I buried my aunt and my biological father, then I had to babysit Damon so that he wouldn't kill himself because he was already dying after he was bitten trying to stop me from being ritually sacrificed. And then I had my five-hundred-year-old vampire doppelganger slam my head into a dresser. And I think I may even be missing a thing or two, so I'm sorry that my every thought isn't about you!"

Nyx looks up at him as she tries to regain her composure, and she immediately regrets saying anything to him about all of this at all. He looks hurt and guilty. And she doesn't know how much of her snapping at him is because of the pregnancy hormones. Or if it's stress from everything she's been through in the last year. Or if she has any right to feel the way she does at all.

"And this is why I ignore Sam when he tells me to talk about what's bothering me. People either look like they pity me, and I feel like the worst person in the world for hurting you again." She says, and he runs his hand down his face.

"You're not." He shakes his head.

"Just for the record, I was never going to call that guy. I don't even know his name." She tells him. "Him, Damon... I don't have any interest in anyone that isn't you, because no one else compares to the way that I feel about you. And I really wish that me saying that was enough, but it seems like no matter what I say, people hear what they wanna hear." She shakes her head as she turns around and walks away from him.

—

Sam and Dean go back to the Miller's house and they continue pretending to be priests. Nyx, however, stays at the motel to talk to Ric some more.

"I didn't see anything about dreams coming true or premonitions." He tells her.

"What about visions?"

"No, nothing like that either." He says, and she sighs. "Most of her research was centered around Mystic Falls. The vampires and werewolves and different mythology surrounding this area of Virginia."

"Alright, thanks anyway." She sighs. "Sorry I wasted your time."

"No, it's no problem. You can always call me if you need help." He tells her, and she smiles.

"Thanks, Ric." She says, and her phone beeps. She quickly checks it. "I have to go, Dean's calling." She tells him, and he says bye before hanging up.

She then answers Dean's call. "Get to the Miller house, now. It's the son — Max. He killed his dad and his uncle. He's going after his stepmom next." He tells her quickly and she gets up.

"I'll be there as soon as I can." She hangs up and rushes for the door.

Nyx gets to the house not long after, and she tries to go inside, but the door's locked. She throws herself against it takes a few tries before it finally busts open. She hears Sam yelling out in frustration, and then a China cabinet moves all on its own. Sam comes out of the closet that the cabinet was blocking and then looks at her.

"Max is going to kill Dean." He tells her, and then they both bolt up the stairs.

The pair bursts into a room, and Nyx sees a gun floating between Max and Dean. "What the hell?" She mumbles as she looks at it.

"No, don't! Don't!" Sam yells from right behind her. "Please. Please, Max. Max, we can help​ you, alright? But this, what you're doing... It's not the solution. It's​ not gonna fix anything."

Nyx glances over at Dean, who's standing between Max and his stepmom, then she looks back at Max. The whites of his eyes are all red and his cheeks are wet with tears.

"You're right." Max says suddenly as he looks at Sam.

The gun turns then, and Max moves to face it. A single shot's fired, and it goes straight into his head. Max falls to the floor, dead, and Nyx gasps as her hand flies up to cover her mouth.

"No!" Sam yells as she moves back.

Nyx's eyes are wide as she looks down at Max, there's blood everywhere. They call the police shortly after and his stepmom gives a false statement to the officer, who's talking to her about what happened there tonight.

"Max attacked me. He threatened me with a gun." Mrs. Miller says.

"And these three?" The officer motions toward Nyx and the boys.

"They're...family friends." She lies. "I called them as soon as Max arrived. I was scared. They tried to stop him. They fought for the gun." She's crying at this point.

"Where did Max get the gun?"

"I don't know." She says as she looks at the hunters for a second. "He... He showed up with it and he..." She starts crying harder.

"It's alright, Mrs. Miller." The officer says.

"I lost everyone." She sobs, and Nycole looks away from her, her eyes dropping to the floor at her feet. Dean rests his hand on her shoulder, and she takes a deep breath.

"We'll call you if we have any further questions." The officer tells the three hunters, and they look at him.

"Thanks, officer." Dean says. "Come on."

Dean grabs​ Nyx's​ hand as they walk out of the house and he pulls her closer to him. Sam follows behind them and then catches up once they're all outside the house.

"If I had just said something else, gotten through to him somehow." Sam says.

"Don't do that." Dean tells him.

"Do what?"

"Torture yourself. It wouldn't have mattered what you said. Max was too far gone."

"When I think about the way he looked at me right before... I should have done something." Sam argues.

"Come on, man. You risked your life. I mean, yeah, maybe if we had gotten there twenty years earlier."

"Dean's right." Nyx says as they get to the car, and Sam looks at her. "I do it all the time. What if I had decided to stay home the night my parents died? What if I said goodbye to Tyler instead of just up and leaving? What if I talked to John instead of threatening him? What if I said something else to Damon? Would my parents be alive? Would Tyler have been less angry? Would John have listened and not killed Anna? Would my brother still have had his neck snapped just for trying to protect me?"

"You really question all of that?" He asks, and she nods.

"Every day. But I'm trying to remind myself that we can't save everyone, and sometimes even we make mistakes." She tells him. "We couldn't save Max, but we did save his stepmom. And that has to count for something." She says, and he nods.

"Well, I'll tell you one thing. We're lucky we had Dad." Sam says as he looks between her and his older brother. "And you're lucky that you had your parents, and John." He adds, and she chuckles.

"I never thought I'd hear you say that." Dean says.

"Well, it could have gone a whole 'nother way after Mom. A little more José, a little less demon hunting, then we would've had Max's childhood." He says. "All things considered, we turned out okay... Thanks to him."

"All things considered." Dean says, and then his brother gets into the car.

Nyx turns toward the car and starts to get into the backseat, but her door's suddenly pushed shut, and she looks up at Dean with a furrowed brow. "What the matter?" She asks, confused.

"I had a gun pointed at my head tonight, and I had this one thought that kept running through my mind." He tells her. "I don't care what Katherine said or about your friendship with that vampire who keeps popping up all over the place.

"I should've said something after what I heard you tell Jenny, because I don't blame you for needing more time, and I sure as hell don't think that you're a bitch. I don't know how you're even still standing, let alone dealing with me." He tells her.

"I don't understand." Nyx shakes her head.

"You're the best damn thing that's ever happened to me." He says. "That's all I care about. Not Katherine, not Damon, not Tyler, not all the other crap that keeps popping up to tear us apart."

"I—"

He places his hands on either side of her face and quickly leans down. The action surprises her at first, but she kisses him back when he presses his lips firmly to hers. Nyx smiles into the kiss as his hands move down to her waist, and he pulls her closer to him.

"I'll tell you what..." Nyx says as she pulls back, and he rests his forehead against hers. "I can forgive you for being an idiot, if you can forgive me for being a bitch." She tells him.

"Deal." Dean says as he kisses her again, and she wraps her arms around his neck.

Sam then honks the car horn, and the two of them both start laughing.

—

"Dean, I've been thinking." Sam says as he walks back into their motel room.

"That's never a good thing." His older brother says.

"I'm serious." He says. "Why would this demon or whatever it is— Why would it kill Mom and Jessica and Max's mother, you know? What does it want?"

"No idea." Dean then throws one of his shirts at Nycole. "Get up and help us pack. It's your stuff too."

"You think it was after us, after Max and me?" Sam asks.

"Why would you think that?" He asks as Nyx continues to look at the text on her phone from her friend.

Bonnie
Spent the last few days
looking, nothing about
premonitions or realistic
dreams.

"I mean, either telekinesis or premonitions, we both had abilities, you know? Maybe it was after us for some reason." Sam says.

"Sam, if it wanted you, it would have just taken you, okay?" Dean says. "This is not your fault. It's not about you."

Nycole
What about any psychic
abilities?

Or demons?

"Then what is it about?" Sam questions.

"It's about that damn thing and what it did to our family. The thing that we're gonna find, the thing that we're gonna kill. And that's all." He tells him.

"Actually, there's something else too."

"Oh, jeez. What?" Dean questions. "Nyx, get up."

"When Max locked me in that closet, with that big cabinet against the door..." Sam starts. "I moved it." He says quickly and then clears his throat.

"So, I did see that?" Nyx asks as she sits up and looks at Sam.

"Oh, she can hear us." Dean says as he looks at her, and she ignores him.

Sam nods. "Yeah, you did."

"You got more upper body strength than I gave you credit for." He says as he turns back to his brother.

Nycole
Telekinesis?

"No, man, I moved it, like...Max." Sam tells his brother.

"Oh." Dean says. "Right."

"Yeah."

"Bend this." Dean says as he holds a spoon toward the younger boy, and Nyx shakes her head at him.

"I can't turn it on and off, Dean." Sam says.

"Well, how'd you do it?"

"I don't know. I can't control it. I just​... I saw you die, and it just came out of me like a punch — like a freak adrenaline thing." He explains.

"Well, it won't happen again." He says and then throws another shirt at Nyx and it hits her in the face, much to her annoyance. "Get your ass up." He tells her as she sets his shirt in her lap.

"Yeah, maybe. Aren't either of you worried?" Sam asks as Nyx's phone vibrates. "Aren't you worried that I could turn into Max or something?"

"Nope. No way." Dean says. "You know why?"

"No. Why?"

"Because you have two advantages that Max didn't have — me and Nyx. As long as we're around, nothing bad's gonna happen to you." He tells him.

Bonnie
My grimoires are about
the Bennett heritage and
my ancestors lives here
in Mystic Falls. It's about
witches and their struggles
with vampires. There's​
nothing about psychics or
premonitions or telekinesis.
I'm sorry, I wish I could be
more help.

But if you need anything else,
let me know. I'll do my best.

"Even if she is wrapped up in the problems of people in another state half the time." Dean continues, and she looks up at him through narrowed eyes, now getting irritated. "What the hell have you been doing while we were working this job?"

She tosses her phone toward him and it lands on his duffle bag in front of him. "Go ahead. Read all my messages from the last two days." She tells him, and he picks her phone up.

She grabs the two shirts that he threw at her and walks over to where he's standing, looking at the texts. She puts them in his duffle bag and then grabs hers, that's been packed and ready to go out to the car for half an our. She walks out of the motel room with both of their bags​ and puts them​ in the backseat of the Impala. She then walks back into the room and goes to grab Sam's bag, but he stops her before she can take it.

"I can carry my own bags, but thank you." Sam pats the top of her head, and she narrows her eyes at him. "Cutest little bellhop I've ever seen."

"Don't make me smack you." She shakes her head, and he smirks as he looks down at her.

"Why didn't you tell us? Or at least tell me?" Dean asks, and she turns back to him.

"I wanted to get answers from Bonnie and Ric before I mentioned it. I didn't want either of​ you to get your hopes up if nothing came out of it, like nothing did." She tells him. "Can we go now?"

"What just happened?" Sam questions.

"I've been asking Bonnie if her grimoires mentioned anything about psychic abilities or premonitions or telekinesis. And I asked Ric to look at all of Isobel's old paranormal research for the same. Neither of them came up with anything. Now that we're all caught up, can we get on the road?"

"Nyx—" Dean starts.

"Great, let's go." She says and then walks out of the motel room.

"Hey." Sam stops her when they get to the car. "Thanks for looking​ into it for me, even if you didn't find anything."

"Of course." She smiles at him. "That's what friends are for."

They get into the car, and Dean holds her phone out to her. She takes it from him, and he looks at her for a second.

"I'm sorry​. What I said wasn't fair." He says. "I shouldn't have assumed that I knew what you were doing."

"No, you shouldn't​ have." She says. "Is that really what you think of me? That I care more about what's going on there than what we're doing? Because that's not true."

"I know that." He says. "I was wrong, alright? I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Can we just go?" She asks, and he turns back around in his seat before starting the car.