CHAPTER ONE

Nyx slowly starts to become aware of what's around her as she returns to consciousness. She's in pain, though not much — her head hurts. She can still feel Dean's hand in hers, and then she hears Sam's voice.

"Get back or I'll kill you. I swear to God."​ He says, but she doesn't know who he's talking to.

"You won't." A male voice responds. "You're saving that bullet for someone else."

Sam cocks the gun in his hand. "You want to bet?" He challenges.

Nyx peels her eyes open to try and see what's going on. There's a man with black eyes standing outside the car — a demon. He screams and that same black smoke comes out of his mouth.

"Sam..." Nyx tries to speak; her voice is low, but he hears her. His head turns to try and get a look at her and his brother.

"Oh my God." The now de-possessed human says. "Did I do this?"

"Dean." She tries to turn, but the jerky movement hurts. She looks at him. "Hey, hey. Dean."

"Nycole!" Caroline yells as she runs over with the two boys. "Oh my God!"

"Nyx!" Tyler pulls her door open as she turns to Dean. "Nyx."

"Nycole​, are you okay?" Jeremy asks as he pushes past Tyler. The panic is clear in his voice, but his sister doesn't register it because she's looking at Dean, who's bleeding and unconscious.

"Dean, open your eyes." She's saying as she lightly touches his face, cradling his head in her hands. She doesn't want to move him too much, fearing that she might accidentally hurt him worse than he already is. "Please. Please, baby, look at me."

"Nyx—"

"No!" She yells as she looks at Caroline, tears in her eyes.

—

"Nyx..." Sam walks over to her, and she looks up at him.

"Will you tell them that I'm fine? I don't need to see any more doctors. I need to see Dean." She says, and he looks at the nurse.

"She seems to be okay, and the babies are fine, we just want to do a few more tests." The nurse tells him.

"Caroline!" Nyx yells, and the blonde walks into the room. "Make her leave."

She compels the nurse to leave them alone in the room, and Nyx looks back at Sam. "Nycole—"

"Just tell me how he is." She says, and he sighs.

"The doctors don't know if he's gonna wake up." He tells her. "Caroline said she could give him some of her blood, that he'd be safe in the hospital. Damon pointed out that that's exactly what he said about Caroline."

"Damon's here?" She questions, eyebrows furrowed.

"The hospital called Ric." He says, and she sighs.

"Can I see Dean, please?" She begs, and he nods.

"Yeah, come on."

They go into Dean's room then, and he looks even worse than he did after he was electrocuted a few months ago. He has a tube in his mouth, and he's connected to different machines; there's an I.V. stuck in his arm. He looks pale, and he has a long cut on the right side of his forehead.

"I'm gonna go talk to my dad, I'll be right back." Sam tells her.

"How is he?" She asks, her eyes still on her boyfriend. "How's John?"

"He's alright, he'll be fine."

She nods, and he walks out of the room.

Nyx limps over to Dean's bed, and she stands beside him. She takes his hand in hers as tears fill her eyes all over again. Dean — his spirit — looks down at her and he sighs when he sees the pain and fear on her face.

"Please wake up." She whispers. "Please be okay, baby... I need you, Dean. What that bastard said... There was no truth to it."

"I know, baby." Dean says. He wishes more than anything that he could comfort her, but she can't even see him, let alone hear or feel him.

"I need you. God, the way that I need you... I need you here to drive me crazy, calling our babies different foods every week." She says, and he chuckles. "If you wake up, I promise I'll stop calling them Gremlins."

"No, you won't." He smirks as he reaches forward. He tries to wipe away her tears, but he can't touch her.

"We need you, baby." She says as she squeezes his hand, and then leans down to press a kiss to his knuckles. "So, please, Dean, stay with me."

"Nycole." Damon walks into the room, and Dean looks over at him. She wipes the tears from her cheeks, her eyes still on Dean. "If there's anything I can do—"

"Is there?" She turns to him. "Honestly​, is there? Short of giving him your blood. I made that decision for Caroline, and it was the wrong one. Katherine killed her because she knew she'd turn, and I can't risk something like that happening to Dean. I can't do that to him too." She says, and he walks over to her.

"We'll find something, Nyx. Elena said that you guys did before." He says, and she nods as she looks back at Dean in his bed. "But I think you should consider the possibility that—"

"No." She shakes her head. "No."

"Hey." Sam walks back into the room, and they all look at him. "I'm gonna meet Bobby, and get the colt. I'll be back, alright?"

She nods. "I'll call you if... I don't have a phone. I broke mine, and Dean's is..."

"You can use mine." Damon says. "She'll call if she has to." He tells Sam.

"Alright." He nods and then leaves.

Tyler walks in, and Nyx looks over at him. "Care said that Ric got a car to take us to the airport so we can go home. He said our moms are worried, so we have to go." She tells him.

She nods.

"Nyx, I'm so sorry." Caroline says as she walks past Tyler. "If you need anything, call and I'll come right back."

Caroline and Tyler both hug her, and then they leave. Damon looks at her.

"I, uh... Could you get me some water or something?" She asks, and he nods.

He walks out, and Nycole starts pacing the room at the foot of Dean's bed. She leans her back against the wall and looks at Dean. He's just laying there, pale and not moving. It scares the hell out of her. And with the tubes and the machines he's connected to...

"Come on, babe." Dean says as he walks over to her. "I'm gonna be alright. We'll be fine, I promise."

She starts crying again, and Ric walks in. He stops for a moment when he sees her, but then he walks over and stands in front of her. He reaches out and places his hand on her arm, and she looks up at him.

"I don't know what to do. I want to ask Damon to give him his blood, but I know that's not what he'd want. And then what if he ends up like Caroline? I mean, we're here because a demon tried to kill us." She says. "But I can't lose him, Ric. I can't. He's the one who got me through my parents and Vicki's​ deaths. He was there after John and Jenna​... And that moment where I thought that Jeremy was dead, Dean showed up and he was there. He's always here when I need him."

"Nyx—"

"And when I ended up in the hospital those times. I know it should've been my brother and sister who I thought about to get me through, but it was him. He's the reason that I keep fighting." She tells him. "And these babies are gonna need their father. Ric, I can't lose him. I just can't. I can't."

John walks in then, and she looks at him.

"We'll give you a minute." Ric says before pulling her out of the room.

They go out into the hallway, and Ric hugs her while she cries. She buries her face in his chest, and he tries to comfort her as best he can. She feels pathetic. She should be doing something to help Dean, but instead she's crying into her dead aunt's boyfriend's chest.

—

"Any ideas?" Nyx asks Damon, and he looks down the hallway​.

"Yeah, you should probably go stop the fight between Sam and John." He says, and she gets up and runs to John's room.

"Don't tell me how I feel. I am doing this for Dean." John says as she closes the door behind her.

"What the hell is going on?" Nyx questions.

"My dad plans on summoning the demon here." Sam tells her, and she looks over at John.

"What?"

"Explain to us how revenge is gonna help him." He says. "You're not thinking​ about anybody but yourself. It's the same selfish obsession!"

"Sam, stop!" She yells.

"That's funny. I thought this was your obsession too." John says. "This demon killed your mother, killed your girlfriend. The only reason it didn't kill your brother's girlfriend in front of him is because he wants to see what happens when Klaus finds her. And you begged me to be part of the hunt! Now, if you killed that damn thing when you had the chance, none of this would have happened!"

"Enough!" Nyx yells.

"It was possessing you. I would have killed you too." Sam continues.

"Yeah, and your brother would be awake right now." John says.

"Go to hell."

"I should never have taken you along in the first place. I knew it was a mistake."

"Stop it!" She yells again.

John's water glass flies off the table in front of him. It hits the ground and shatters, spilling water all over the place. Which, of course, immediately gains all of their attention.

They all look at each other, then nurses start running by John's door. John tells them to go, and they take off running.

"Nycole." Damon quickly grabs her, holding her with her back against​ his chest so that she can't run into Dean's​ room.

"No." Sam mutters, and she reaches forward to grab his hand. He squeezes it as he backs up toward them, and they watch the nurses surrounding his brother.

Dean flatlined​. The doctors and nurses are trying to resuscitate him. He has no pulse for a long time, and Nyx's eyes fill with tears again.

"No, no, no, no." She mumbles as she leans into Damon.

"Did you hear that?" Sam asks as he looks at her and Damon.

"He has a pulse." A nurse says, and they all turn back to face Dean's room. "We're back into sinus rhythm."

Nyx sighs, and Damon then lets go of her. Sam turns to face Nycole, and she hugs him. He wraps his arms tightly around her, and she closes her eyes.

"We have to talk to my dad." Sam says, and then he pulls her to John's room. Damon follows them and Ric, Jeremy, and Elena all show up too.

"What do you mean you felt something?" John asks Sam.

"I mean, it felt like...like Dean. Like he was there, just out of eyeshot or something." He tells them. "I don't know if it's my psychic thing or what. But do you think it's even possible? Do you think his spirit could be around?"

"Anything's possible."

Nyx looks over at Jeremy, and he nods once before walking away from them.

"Well, there's​ one way to find out." Sam says.

"Where are you going?" John asks his son.

"I got to pick something up. I'll be back."

"Wait, Sam." He calls, and the younger boy turns back around. "I promise I won't hunt this demon, not until we know Dean's okay."

Sam walks away, and Nyx turns back to John. "Can I say something?" She asks.

"If I said no, would it make a difference?"

"No." She says, and he chuckles.

"Go ahead."

"You're being too hard on Sam. I hated​ my father... Or at least as close to hating someone as you can get without really hating them." She tells him. "And I still wouldn't have been able to aim a gun at him, point blank, and pull the trigger."

"You think I was asking too much of him."

"You want my honest opinion?" She asks, and he nods. "You're not gonna like it."

"That's why I like you." John tells her.

"I think you've been asking too much of both of them since the day that Mary died."

He nods. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"Now, can I ask you something?"

"You want to know if I know anything about Klaus' hybrids." He says, and she nods.

"Do I have to die for them to turn?"

"I don't know."

"And Elena?" She asks.

"I don't know, Nycole. This curse that was placed on him is a thousand years old." He says. "It's possible that the only one who knows the answer is the witch who placed the curse on him."

"A witch who's been dead for over a thousand years."

"There's still hope." He says.

"Do you really believe that?"

"I believe that there has to be."

"Be honest with me, John." She sighs. "After we save Dean, should we say our goodbyes?"

"No." Damon says.

Nyx turns and looks at him. "You can't protect us from everything, Damon​."

"I can try."

"Even if it means you die trying?" She questions. "Stefan sold himself to save you. You can't throw that away."

"I know what my brother did." He says.

"This isn't your decision, Damon."

"So, you're just going to let Klaus kill you and maybe even Elena?" He questions. "You'll let him kill your kids again and leave Jeremy without a family? You'll make John's sacrifice to save you mean nothing?"

"You think this is what I want?"

"I don't know, but it sounds to me like you're not willing to fight for what you want." He says, and she just looks at him for a second.

"If I fight, everyone that​ I care about dies." She reminds him of previous threats.

"You and Elena are exactly like your boyfriend's family. So willing to give your lives when you should be fighting for something more." He shakes his head. "It's not heroic, Nycole. There's nothing heroic about being a martyr."

"If you don't agree with my decisions, then what are you even doing here?"

"I'm trying to stop you from making a decision that lands you in the morgue instead of a hospital bed this time."

"You know what? You worry about your family, I'll worry about mine." She says, and he turns around and leaves.

"He's not entirely wrong." Ric says, and she looks at him.

"Living isn't worth it if I have to keep burying the people that I love. My parents, Vicki, Jenna, and John, just to name a few. All the death that I've seen in the last year alone..." She shakes her head. "I mean, can you really blame me for wanting to save everyone else?"

"By giving them another grave to mourn?"

"Would rather it be them — you — who ends up in a grave?" She questions.

Ric leaves, and Elena quickly follows after him. Nyx sighs as she shakes her head and looks back over at John. "I'm sorry, kid." He says.

"If I run from Klaus, it won't matter if we save Dean now." She says. "He will kill him and everyone else that I love."

"That doesn't necessarily mean you should just roll over and give up."

"Okay... So, what should I do, John?" Nyx asks. "How do I save everyone else without dying in the process?"

He sighs as he looks at her. "I wish I knew." He says, and she nods.