CHAPTER ONE

"Dude!" Sam bangs on the door to Dean's room. "Get your ass out of bed!"

"Oh, jeez—" Carter fumbles as he tries not to trip over Everly, who's crawling around. "Is he seriously still not up yet?"

"He grumbled something​ at me when I went in to get the twins. As far as I know, he went back to sleep and hasn't been up." He says.

"Dude, this whole Summer has been a bad remake of Three Men and a Baby." He says. "Except we added a baby and lost a man."

"He's having a hard time, Carter."

"And I get that." He nods. "I wouldn't even say anything except that... He's got, what, nine months left, and he's not spending much time with the twins."

"I'm up with the both of them every night, you dick." Dean says as he walks out of the master bedroom of the Donovan house.

Matt let them live there so that they wouldn't have to live at the Boarding House. Besides not wanting to live with vampires, the smaller one-story house is much more baby friendly. Matt lives over in the Lockwood mansion now anyway.

Not that he's been in Mystic Falls at all this Summer.

—

Jeremy's​ looking at Elena's​ contact in his phone and he's about to call her when one of his classmates bumps his shoulder.

"Look who rose from the dead." He says as he smacks Jeremy's phone from his hand. It lands beside the books that he dropped.

"Just ignore him, Jer." Nyx says, and her brother's head moves in her direction ever so slightly.

Jeremy clenches his teeth and kneels down to pick up his stuff. Another guy then kicks it away and shoves hard on his shoulder. "Nice phone. Does it ever ring?" He asks as Jeremy looks up at him.

"Jeremy!" His sister yells when he pushes himself up and shoves the guy into a locker​.

The first guy grabs him and tries to swing at him, but Jeremy ducks under his fist and then quickly throws a punch of his own. The other one runs at him, but Jeremy flips him, and he lands on his back.

"Alright, Jer. Let's​ go." Nyx gets his attention, and he notices all of the other students staring at him and the other two guys. He picks up his stuff and walks down the crowded hallway, leaving the two bullies laying on the floor.

Nyx and Jeremy are at the grill later, and she's bugging him. "Elena's gonna kill you." She practically sings, and Jeremy glares at her.

"Don't you have better things to do than harass me?" He asks, and she shakes her head.

"The twins are asleep, and I'd rather annoy you than watch him drink the whole damn bar." She points​ over her shoulder, and the youngest Gilbert looks up to see Dean down a shot.

"Who's with the twins?" He asks, his voice low since he's the only one who can see her.

"Sam and Carter. Around last call, Sam will abandon his search to save Dean from his demon deal to come and drag him back to the house. Which is where Carter will be trying not to pass out on the couch with a baby monitor on his chest." She tells him, and he looks back at her.

"How are you doing?"

"I'm dead, Jeremy. I miss my boyfriend, er, ex-boyfriend. I miss my babies." She sighs.

"One day." Damon says as he walks over to them, gaining their attention. "One day where you don't screw it up."

"Leave me alone, Damon." Jeremy says as the blue-eyed vampire unknowingly sits down in the chair across from Nyx.

"You're lucky you didn't put one of those idiots in the ICU."

"Says the guy who once killed me."

"Jer..." Nyx sighs.

"Yes. In the privacy of your own home, away from prying eyes. Unlike you, who went all Hunter in the middle of a hallway." Damon says. "You got expelled, genius."

"Does that mean I don't have to go back to school?" He asks.

"Hell no!" Nyx yells, and he glances at her.

"I compelled Principal Webber into a very generous three day suspension." He says, and she laughs at her brother.

"Will you shut up?" He looks at her, and the vampire glances between him and the seemingly empty seat beside him.

"You want me gone, close me out." She smiles when he doesn't. "Tell him not to tell Elena about today."

"Nyx says she doesn't want Elena to know." Jeremy says, and Damon nods.

"Finish eating. Meet me outside." He tells him.

"Stefan?" Nyx asks, confused as he walks up behind Damon as he stands up.

"Hello, Damon." His brother greets.

"Stefan. Welcome home." Damon says as he looks at him.

"Thanks."

The two vampires hug, and Nyx watches the younger of them skeptically​. "That was weird, right?" She asks, but her brother doesn't say anything.

The brothers go to the bar, and Dean avoids them. Nyx watches them from a distance, but she can still hear what they're saying, not that either of them know she's there.

Stefan skipped town for a while because he was hoping that he and Elena would get back together after she got her humanity back. That didn't happen, and he was hurt.

Damon mentions Nyx, and Stefan looks down, but something about it seems off to her. It's like he's trying to look sad, more than genuinely feeling bad that she's gone.

"Jeremy!" Nyx calls. "Get your ghost whisperer ass over here! Something doesn't seem right to me with our old friend."

Jeremy walks over as requested and smiles at the brothers. Stefan hesitates before smiling at him. "Hey, Jeremy." He says as he pats his shoulder. "Looking good, man. How are you doing? Since Ny—"

"Dude." Damon nudges his shoulder and motions to Dean, who would be in ear shot, if he cared enough to listen.

"I'm good, Stefan. Glad you're back." Jer says, but his sister recognizes the uneasy tone to his voice.

"Yeah, yeah." Stefan nods. "Alright, I'll, uh... I'll see you at home." He tells Damon.

"Great." The older Salvatore says.

"Well?" Nyx appears next to her brother, and he shoots her a glare. She likes​ to pop up in front of him in public places.

"Something's wrong. When he touched me, I felt a chill where my tattoo was." Jeremy tells them.

"What are you talking about?" Damon asks.

"Right before I died, Silas grabbed me, and I felt the same thing."

"Silas is gone. Bonnie turned him into a big piece of rock, remember?"

"You don't wanna believe me, fine. Then believe Nyx. You think I'm over here because I enjoy your company?" He questions. "She called me because she was watching him, and she thought that something seemed off."

"So, I'm supposed to listen to what you and your dead sister think?" Damon questions, gaining Dean's attention.

"Don't be a dick because you miss her. We all do." Jeremy tells him. "And I'm telling you that we both think that something's wrong."

"He's stone, Jeremy."

"I died." Bonnie says, appearing beside the other ghost. "Jeremy, I bound the magic that took down Silas. When I died, the spell must've broken. He's free." She tells him, and he glances at her.

"What's Bonnie saying?" Nyx asks, growing impatient. "I know that she's there, you looked at her. What did she say?"

"Nyx." He looks at her, and she huffs as he turns his attention back to Damon. "That was Silas."

"That's impossible." Damon insists.

Nyx goes to slap the back of his head, but her hand goes right through, and he doesn't even notice. "I hate being a ghost!" She yells, and her brother looks between the two of them for a second before shaking his head.

"I'm a Hunter — our whole reason for existing is to kill him. I know what I'm feeling, Damon. That... That was Silas." Jeremy says.

"I just watched him walk through a crowd of people who saw Stefan. There's no way he could fool that many people at once." He argues. "He's psychic, but no one's that psychic."

"He didn't even flinch when you said Nyx's name." He repeats what his sister's saying to him. "Do you remember how he handled it when you told him what Kol did to her?"

"I gotta tell you something, brother." Damon says as he walks over to Stefan. "And you're not gonna like it."

"I'm not in the mood, Damon." Stefan says as he looks at him.

"Stefan." Nyx walks up beside Damon, and he looks between the two of them.

Confused, he follows the pair down to the basement, and Carter turns to face them. He sighs when he sees Nycole. She nods, and he opens the door to the cellar. Damon motions for Stefan to look inside, and he moves closer to the open door.

"What the hell is this?" He questions as he looks from Nyx's body to her ghost.

"Kol came for me before he went after my sister." She explains. "I wasn't fast enough the first time around."

"You're..." He trails off, and she nods, answering his unasked question. "Damn it!" He starts punching the safe that the boys had Elena locked up in while they were trying to get her to flip her switch. "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" He dents it.

"Katherine!" Nyx suddenly yells, and her brother looks down at her again. "He said something about Katherine. Jeremy, she's human because Elena shoved the cure down her throat. Silas wants Katherine, and she's at the Boarding House."

Damon and Jeremy start to leave, and Dean just watches them go. Nyx stays at the bar.

"Call me when you have an update!" She yells after her brother, and he puts his thumb up before disappearing out the door.

She looks at Dean and sees him looking over at where Damon and Jeremy just were. He knows that she was there and he's wishing to any God that'll listen to let him see her just one more time. He sighs as he looks down at the counter, glass clutched in his hand, and she walks over to him.

"I'm sorry, baby." She sighs as she leans on the bar and looks up at him.

She sees the pain in his green eyes. She can't help but think that they look darker now than they used to. They always seemed so light whenever she was watching him as he told a story, or when he was looking at her while she sat in his lap.

"I miss you too." She whispers. "More than you know."

"What do you say we call it quits a little earlier tonight?" His brother asks as he walks over to him, and Nyx looks up. Sam glances at her, and she gives him a sad look.

"Leave me alone, Sam." Dean says as he takes another drink of his whiskey.

"The twins are asking for you." He tells him, and he sighs. "Ev's got an endless stream of Dada coming through the baby monitor, and Alex is refusing to even lay down."

"I'll be home soon."

"Get your ass home now."

"Excuse me?" He looks up at his younger brother.

"I know you miss her, but so do they. And right now, they need the only parent that they've got left." Sam tells him.

"They don't remember her."

"If you honestly think that, then you clearly don't know your own kids." He says. "Now, get off your ass and be a father." He tells him and then walks away from the bar.

"Damn it, Dean." Nyx sighs as she looks from his brother to him.

She suddenly feels a pull toward Jeremy, like she always does when he thinks about her. Her eyebrows furrow, and she goes to find him. He's laying in the middle of the road a few feet away from his car, which is completely wrecked.

"Jeremy!" She kneels down beside him and tries to put her hands over his wounds, but it's no use. It's like she's not even there.

Damon suddenly pulls up in his car and runs over to him. Nyx is too panicked to hear anything he says as he tries to get Jeremy to drink his blood. He finally wakes up, and his sister sighs in relief.

"Katherine...is gone." He tells Damon, who sighs as he lifts him up slightly​ to hug him.

"I don't care." Damon tells him, patting his head.

—

"Dadadadadadadada." Nyx listens to Everly as she lays on the floor beside her bed.

The twins actually have their own separate cribs now. They got too big to share so one, Sam and Carter put together a couple of new ones that Elena and Caroline picked out. Dean was involved, but he mostly had the twins climbing on him while he sat on the couch.

Carter has Alex in the living room with him — he's hoping that playing with him some more will tire him out. So far, he's been unsuccessful, but he's also determined. His determination is fueled purely by sleep deprivation, but it's determination nonetheless.

Dean walks in the front door and ignores both of the others. He picks up Alex and carries him into his room. Sam looks from the book he's searching through to Carter.

"Nice of you to finally join us." Nyx says as Dean walks over to Everly. "Our daughter's only been calling you for an hour." He picks her up and takes the twins to his bed with him, completely oblivious to their mother on the floor.