CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

"How are they?" Damon asks as he walks up behind Nycole. They're at the hospital, and she's looking at the twins through a window in the NICU.

"Meredith says they're fighters. It'll​ be a while before we know for sure if they'll make it. They're not out of the woods just yet." Nyx tells him.

"And how's your boyfriend and his brother?"

"Dean's taking this all a lot harder than he'll let me see, it's part of the reason he's not here right now. They're on their way to Mississippi. I guess there's been some bizarre deaths there." She says, and he nods. "Hey, uh... Can I ask you a strange question?"

"Of course."

"Do you believe in angels?"

"Like God and heaven?" He asks, and she nods. "I haven't really given it much thought. Why?"

"With everything that's going on, it just makes me wonder, you know... Is there a God out there, and does He​ have some divine plan?" She turns and looks up at him. "Does He even care that my babies are fighting for their lives, and that their father's being hunted by the FBI because he's a hunter who was caught at the wrong place at the wrong time?"

"Why don't you ask Him?"

"You mean pray?" She asks, and he nods. "I've thought about it. My mom used to. Hell, I used to... I just don't know if I can ask for this kind of help and survive if I don't get it. I mean, if I lose them..." She looks back at the twins. "It'll be a hundred times harder than losing my parents. All four of 'em...and Jenna."

"You're always telling me to take a leap of faith. Maybe it's time you take one."

"You believing in me isn't as big a leap as me praying to God." She argues, and moves forward to stand beside her at the window. "I'm here, you can see me. I've helped you, you know that if I say I'm gonna do something, I will do it. But that leap — me asking God for help..."

"That's why they call it a leap." He says, and she looks back at him. "Sometimes you have to have a little faith."

"I had that kind of faith once." She tells him, admitting it for the first time. "Even after everything, I still prayed. I tried so hard to believe that He actually gave a crap about any of us."

"Then what happened?"

Nyx pauses for a moment and then looks back at the twins. "I died...right after finding out I was pregnant." She tells him, and he turns so he's facing her. "How do you keep hoping and praying after something like that? How do you keep faith and tell yourself that everything happens for a reason when it all feels like a monumental lie that you tell yourself so that you can sleep at night? How can God care and still let us suffer so much?"

Damon reaches out and places his hand on the center of her back, opening his mouth to speak, but the words fall short. How does one go about answering a question like that? Especially when asked by someone who's gone through the most pain that he's ever seen in his hundred years on this planet?

"What are you doing here?" She asks, never shifting her gaze from her babies.

He clears his throat, collecting his thoughts. "Uh... Elena and I are getting ready to leave to go and get Jeremy. I just wanted to check on you before we go." He tells her.

"Well, I'm..." She sighs. "I was gonna say I'm fine, but who am I kidding?"

"If there's anything that I can do..." He starts, and she doesn't say anything. "Call me if you need anything."

"Thanks, Damon."

"We'll be back soon." He says, and she nods.

—

"How are you doing?"

"Oh, you know... I'm hanging in there as best I can." Nyx tells Dean over the phone. "You?"

"Trying to distract myself. What's happened since we left?" He asks.

"Well, Bonnie's mom is a vampire because Damon turned her to save me and Elena from Rebekah. Klaus forced Bonnie to undo the link that Esther created. Matt killed Finn and after he died, every vampire in his sire line died along with him. Ric tried to kill Meredith because he has an evil alter ego who hates all vampires and vampire sympathizers. And now, Stefan — who has his emotions back on — and I are trying to get the location of the last White Oak stake out of Evil-Alaric so Klaus won't kill anyone." She tells him. "This, right now, is the longest I've been out of the hospital in a week."

"Damn..." He sighs. "I wish I could come help you with everything​."

"Work your case." Nycole says. "It's safer for you out there than it is for you here."

"How are the twins?"

"They're better than they were a week ago, but still not good enough to know for sure if they'll make it." She tells him, and he sighs.

"I hate not being with you three." He says, and she nods.

"I know." She looks at Stefan as he walks into the living room. "But we'll figure​ it all out eventually. In the meantime, I have a legal guardian to get information out of, and you have a case to solve, monsters to kill."

"I'll talk to you soon."

"Bye." She then hangs up.

"I never did apologize for what happened the day that the twins were born." Stefan says as he sits down across from Nyx in his living room.

"You mean scaring the hell out of me, and causing me to go into early labor?"

"Yeah." He nods, clearly ashamed. "I can't tell you how sorry I am. I would give anything to make sure​ that the twins are gonna be okay."

"Well, we can start by getting information out of Ric. Get the targets off the backs of the twins' family." She says.

"I'm about to go down there."

"I'll be there in a minute." She says, and he nods as he stands up. He goes down to the cellar where they're keeping Ric.

Nycole checks her phone — her normal phone, and the burner that she now uses to talk to Dean — for anything from Elena or Damon. When she sees nothing, she goes downstairs to the cellar.

"Oh, we're drinking. Good." She takes the glass of bourbon out of Stefan's hand and takes a drink.

"Are you sure that that's such a good idea?" Ric asks.

"The twins won't be out of the hospital for weeks, and I'm going out of my damn mind." She says, and he just looks at her. "Right. Sorry. Pour choice of words. I seem to do that a lot." She says, and he just nods.

They both stay down there with Ric and talk and drink. Nyx less than them, but she's still drinking.

"You think they got Jeremy by now?" Ric asks — Damon and Elena are on a road trip to get Jeremy from Denver.

"They should." Stefan says. "I haven't heard from them. Elena's worried about him. Now that she can't count on his ring anymore."

"Who knows? Maybe his alter ego's a pot-smoking, hippie pacifist." He says, and they both chuckle. "I can't say I thought mine would be so hostile and militant."

"Actually, it makes perfect sense." Stefan says. "Your wife left you to become a vampire, and your girlfriend was killed by one. Not to mention, one of the first times you met Nycole, you were saving us from a bunch of vampires. And you two are pretty close now."

"He must really hate me. Here I am, the failed hunter-slash-drinking buddy of vampires." Ric says.

"He's too judgmental."

"The thing is... He's me. I'm not compelled, I'm not possessed. There's no humanity​ switch. What drives him...is me."

"No. No, he's not you." Nyx argues, gaining their attention. "He's the darkest parts of you. Parts we all have."

"Well, this is depressing, isn't it?" Klaus asks as he walks into the room, and Nyx immediately stands up. Stefan gets in front of her. "Oh, and I found this upstairs." He holds up a White Oak stake. "Now, by my count, there should be one more."

"Yeah, well, it's going to take a little more time." Stefan tells him.

"Why, because we're waiting for that one to pass out?" He asks as he points at Ric. "No, thanks. I think I'll just kill him."

"Well, then you won't know the location of the other stake."

"I can live with that."

"Well, I can't. When we staked Finn, we discovered that killing an original vampire kills its entire bloodline. Now, I don't know which one of you I'm descended from, but I'd rather not find out by dying. So, why don't we just find the stake and destroy it so we can all be safe?" Stefan says.

"So, the fate of the entire vampire race depends on you finding the stake. And to get it, we need you to pass out. Which means I feel totally justified doing this." Klaus then runs past Nyx and Stefan to snap Ric's neck. "There. Sleeping like a baby. Speaking of, how are yours?" He asks as he looks at the brunette.

"Go to hell." Nyx says, and he laughs as he looks between her and Stefan.