CHAPTER FOUR

Nycole wakes up the next morning and she starts to stretch. She feels an arm around her torso, and a smile spreads across her face as she remembers last night. Dean's arm tightens around her, and she chuckles before turning over to face him. He smiles at her.

"Good morning."

"Yes, it is." He nods, and she chuckles as she hides her face in his chest so that he can't see her blush. "Aw, come on. Let me see that beautiful face."

"I should go." She says as she looks up at him. "Before we have an awkward encounter with your sister. And I have to get back to my own place to change and get ready for work." She tells him, and he nods. "You know, that place where you're my boss, and this is totally inappropriate."

"Who cares about appropriate?" He asks as he leans down and kisses her.

She smiles as her hand rests on his bare side, and she kisses him back. He props himself up on his elbow as he rolls them so she's on her back. He trails kisses down to her neck, and she sucks in a sharp breath.

"Okay." She lightly pushes on his chest, and he moves to look down at her. "I still need to get home and shower."

"I have a shower." He says, and she chuckles.

"Yeah, but you don't have any clothes for me to change into." She argues as he presses a gentle kiss to her cheek. "I have to go, Dean." She tells him, and he nods.

He kisses her again and then rolls onto his back as she gets up. Nycole gets dress, and he quickly gets to his feet before she can leave his room to head downstairs.

"Hey." He grabs her hand, and she looks up at him. "I want to keep doing this. Not— Not just this..." He motions to his bed. "I want to keep seeing you." He tells her, and she smiles.

"I want to keep seeing you too." She says, and a wide smile spreads across his face.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." She nods and then glances down for a second before looking away from him. "But in the meantime, you should probably get dressed." She rests her hand on the side of his face as she stretches up to kiss him one last time before leaving.

—

Nycole's sitting at her desk typing, when she suddenly gets the worst headache. She groans and then clenches her teeth as she looks up.

"Goddamned angels." She gets up and walks over to Dean's office before banging on the door.

It opens, and the man who runs the place smiles at her. "Hello, Nycole." He says, and she walks past him.

"I hate you. I don't know which angel you are, and I don't care. I hate all of you." She says, and he chuckles as he looks at her.

"Yes, I'm sorry. It's a great deal more difficult to alter yours and your sister's memories." He says as she rubs her temples. "But welcome back."

"Screw you."

"How did you know that he's an angel?" Dean asks, and she looks at him.

"Because I can feel it." She shakes her head.

"I'm Zachariah."

"Oh, great." Dean says as he starts pacing behind his desk. "That's all we need, is another one of you guys."

"I'm hardly another one. I'm Castiel's superior." He tells them. "Believe me, I had no interest in popping down here into one of these smelly things. But after the unfortunate...situation with Uriel, I felt it necessary to pay a visit — get my ducks in a row."

"I am not one of your ducks, and neither is she." Dean points at Nyx.

"Starting with your attitude."

"Oh, so, what? This— This was all some sort of lesson?" He questions. "Is that what you're telling me? Well, very creative."

"You should see my decoupage." He says, and Dean makes a disgusted face.

"Gross. No, thank you." He says. "So, what, we're— We're just hallucinating all this? Is that it?"

"Not at all." He shakes his head. "Real place, real haunting. Just plunked you in the middle without the benefit of your memories."

"Just to shake things up? Hm? So you guys can have fun watching us run around like ass-clowns in-in monkey suits?"

"To prove to you that the path you're on is truly in your blood. You're a hunter. Not because your dad made you. Not because God called you back from hell. But because it's what you are. And you love it. You'll find your way to it in the dark every single time, and you're miserable without it." He looks from Dean to Nyx. "Just as you will always find your way back to him and back to this life. You two can hardly function without each other, and you know it."

"So, that's what this is." Nyx says. "You want us together, fighting your fight. Screw what we want, screw what we think is best for our kids." She looks at Dean and then back at the angel. "I may have found my way back to him, but I walked away from the hunt. I saved these people, and then I was gonna be done. How does that fit into your plan?"

"And when he would've showed up at your desk, or on your doorstep, and told you that he was leaving to hunt — you would've said what?" He asks.

"Goodbye." She says, and Dean looks down, knowing that she's being honest. "Yes, I still love him. And yes, I always will. But there is one thing that I love more — my children. I didn't know that the twins were mine — thank you for that, by the way, you dick — but this is still my daughter." She points at her stomach. "And I'm still not gonna raise her into this. She and the twins deserve better."

"That's fair." He nods. "But consider this — most live and die without moving anything more than the dirt it takes to bury them. You two get to change things, save people. Maybe even the world. All the while, you ride around in a classic car and spend all day, every day with the one you're in love with. This isn't a curse — it's a gift. So, for God's sake, quit whining about it."

"Oh, yeah, I feel real lucky. Getting to sit at his bedside while he's in the hospital, the twins in my lap asking why Daddy has a tube in his mouth. How do you explain to toddlers that their father can hardly breathe on his own?" She shakes her head. "You know, that was actually worse than all the times that I spent away from them. Having to tell them about hospitals and the doctors trying to save their dad's life. Some firsts are great, but others... So, screw you."

"I probably am wasting my time with you anyway." Zachariah says as he walks over to her. "All you want is to be a normal girl. You want to live in a house, marry Dean, raise your kids together. You want a white picket fence, the whole shebang.

"Never mind the fact that while you play house, the world is about to end. You can't set your fears aside for long enough to see that if you quit, and Lucifer escapes​ — that's the end for everyone. Including your kids.

"The sad thing is, if you would just stop running, you might be able to stop Lucifer from rising. You and Elena could stop Lilith, and all of this would be over." He's standing directly in front of her, leaning toward her as he talks. "But you're so much of a coward that you can't even look Dean in the eye and tell him the truth. So, why should I believe that you can save the world? You can't even save yourself." He says and then he just disappears.

Nyx purses her lips as she looks down, then she closes her eyes, not wanting Dean to see her tears. He walks over to her and rests his hand on the small of her back as he stands beside her. She shakes her head as she moves away from him.

"Nyx, come on." He sighs.

"Last night doesn't change anything. We haven't fixed anything, Dean." She says as she turns to look at him. "Do you remember why we broke up in the first place?"

"Because I'm an idiot."

"Because we have crappy communication skills."

"We didn't use to." He says, and she sighs.

"You keep things from me, Dean. You didn't tell me about Cas, you didn't tell me that he sent you to 1973. You had a plan to save Anna, and you didn't tell me, but you worked with Ruby. Do you know how that felt? To hear that you trusted her more than you trusted me?" She asks. "It hurt a hell of a lot more than Uriel telling me that you slept with Anna."

"It wasn't that we didn't trust you. We knew that you wouldn't trust Ruby, and you wouldn't have worked with her." He says, and she nods.

"You're damn right I wouldn't trust her. I never will." She tells him. "Because no matter what story she spins, or how many times she saves Sam — she is still a demon and yeah, I trust vampires, but—" She looks past him, thinking about something.

"What?"

"It wasn't Uriel." She says as she turns back to him. "Uriel's not the reason that Sam stopped trusting​ me, at least he's not the only reason. It was Ruby. I mean, come on, think about it. He and I never fought like this before; you were always complaining about me taking his side. But then Ruby shows up, and suddenly he blames me for what happened to you. And that comment that she made the day that we found out that Anna was an angel."

"About you trusting vampires while judging him for trusting a demon." Dean says, and she nods.

"She's playing him. She's been playing all of us."

"Okay, but to what end?" He asks.

"That's what we have to figure out, and we can't tell Sam." She says. "I know that makes me a hypocrite, but... How many times have we had this fight with him? He trusts her, she used the time that we were gone to make sure that he would. She can't know that we're this suspicious, so we can't tell him." She says, and he nods.

"No, you're right." He sighs. "And we can't tell Caroline either. We can't ask her to keep this from him." She nods, and then sighs as she looks down. "What?" He asks, confused.

"I hate to do this, but..." She looks up at him. "We have to put any conversation about us on the back burner for right now. We have to focus on this — on stopping Lilith from raising Lucifer from hell. Because... Because I'm out once she's born. I can't do things with her the way we've been with the twins, and I can't just leave her with Stefan and take off. It's not fair to her, and honestly... I just don't want to." She tells him, and he nods.

"I know. I was saying all the same things, remember?" He says. "I know this isn't right for any of them."

Nyx takes a deep breath. "Well, what do you say? You think we can save the world in five months?" She asks, and he smirks.

"If anyone can, it's you." He says as he walks over to her.

"I won't be alone."

"Never." He tells her, and she smiles. "I know we're not together, and we're not discussing it anymore for now, but... Can I kiss you one more time before we quit and get the hell out of here?" He asks, and she chuckles.

"I'm gonna have to insist." She says, and he smirks as he leans down and presses his lips against hers. Her hand rests on the side of his face as he grabs her hips and pulls her against him. "I know it may not always feel like it, with how often I pull away, but I do love you, Dean." Her voice is low as he rests his forehead against hers, and he nods.

"I know. I always know." He says, and she smiles. "I love you too."

—

"The angels?" Vicki questions as she looks between Nyx and Dean. "They scrambled our brains and made us think that we were totally different people for three weeks?"

They're all at a motel now — Nyx, Dean, Elena, Sam, and Stefan. And they just explained everything to the three of them.

"Yep." Nyx sighs. "They wanted to teach me and Dean a lesson. That no matter who we are or where we go, we'll always end up hunting again. Because it's our destiny."

"I thought you two don't believe in destiny." Sam says.

"Those were Zachariah's words, not mine."

There's a knock at the door, and Stefan goes to answer it. "Hello, brother." Damon smirks, and everyone turns to look at them.

"What's going on?" Elena asks as he and Caroline walk into the room.

"Hey." Sam wraps his arms around her as soon as she's close enough.

"I thought something happened to you. I was freaking out for weeks." Caroline says, and he rubs her back as he leans down and kisses the top of her head.

"I'm alright." He tells her, his voice low as he tries to comfort her. "We all are."

"I was with Damon when Stefan called. He said he suddenly got his memories back, that he thought he was someone else for three weeks." She says as she looks up at him.

"It was the angels. I'll explain later." He tells her, and she sighs, not letting him go.

"Are you ready to go?" Damon asks his brother, and Stefan nods.

"You're leaving?" Nyx asks, confused, and he looks at her.

"Yeah. I have no place here, not until she's born." Stefan's eyes flicker to her stomach.

"What are you talking about?"

"I will come to you, wherever you are, for any and all doctor's appointments. And I want to hear everything about what she's doing, if she keeps you up at night, call me, but..." He looks between her and Dean. "I'm taking Damon's advice and removing myself from...this." He motions between them.

"Stefan..."

"Look, I get it. He loves you, you love him. I'm not blind, and I'm not stupid." He says, and she just looks at him. "I can't compete with him, so I'm not gonna try."

"Nobody's asking you to." She tells him.

"Dean turned this into a competition the second that he found out that we were together. He's not gonna back off, and he shouldn't. Damon's right — you two are meant to be together." He says. "Even if I wanted to try and... He's in love with you, and I love you, but I'm not in love with you. And I know you're not in love with me."

"No." Her voice is soft, like she's embarrassed, or just afraid of hurting him by admitting it.

"It's best for everyone involved, especially the kids, if I go home and let you two figure out what you're gonna do." He says as he walks over to her. "But just because I'm not here, doesn't mean that I'm not here for you and for our daughter. I want to hear all about her, all the time. I especially want to keep talking about names. And I have a suggestion."

"Okay." She nods, a small smile on her face.

"I think we should try to come up with names that start with an S." He says, and her smile widens.

"Because we keep calling her baby S. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing." She tells him, and he nods. "Plus it's got the same alliteration as her dad's name." She adds, and he smiles.

"So, we are going with Salvatore?"

"Oh, hell yeah." Nyx nods.

"Then I'm happy." He tells her. "As long as she's happy and healthy, and he doesn't let anything happen to either of you..." Stefan glances at Dean. "Then I'm good."

"Okay." She nods. "But just remember, you said that I can call if she keeps me up. And she's starting to kick more, so..." She smiles, and he chuckles as he nods. "I'll come home for any doctor's appointments. We'll make sure you don't miss anything important."

"Thank you." He leans down and kisses her cheek. "Be careful."

"I always am." She tells him, and he then goes to get his stuff so that he and Damon can leave.

Damon walks over to Nyx, and she narrows her eyes at him. "Don't look at me like that."

"What do you want?" She questions.

"Can't a guy come and say hi to his best friend before he leaves so she can fight monsters?" He asks, and she just looks at him. "Why don't you trust me?"

"I do. I'm just cautious." She says, and he smiles. He tries to grab her, but she ducks under his arms. "What's the matter? Are you slower than you used to be?"

"Oh, you think you're funny." He goes after her, and she uses Elena as a shield, causing everyone watching the pair to laugh.