CHAPTER SIX

"Hey, have you talked to Meredith lately?" Dean asks as he walks into Nyx's​ motel room. She's been getting one separate from the boys ever since she and Dean broke up.

"I was just about to call her, actually." Nyx says as she looks for her contact in her phone.

"Hi, Nycole." She greets when she answers the phone. "The twins are doing really great. I think they're almost ready to leave."

"Really?" She asks with a smile, and Dean moves closer to her.

"Yeah. Everly's a tough little girl, and her brother knows how to follow her lead in getting better. She must take after you." She says, and Nyx chuckles.

"What's she saying?" Dean asks.

"Everly started getting better, and then Alex did too soon after." Nycole tells him, and he sighs in relief as he moves to stand beside her. "She said she thinks they might even be able to leave the hospital soon."

"I have a patient so I can't talk, but I just sent you a picture​." Meredith tells Nyx. "I'll talk to you later."

"Bye." She hangs up, then quickly opens the text she just got. It's a picture of the twins, and they're laying side by side.

"They're bigger." Dean says, and she nods.

"Yeah, they are." She looks up at him with a smile on her face.

He's standing so close to her that their noses almost brush, and she quickly backs away from him when she smells his blood. He sighs and shakes his head as he walks away from her.

"What's going on?" He questions as he turns to look at her. "I get that you think you're gonna hurt me, but I swear sometimes it seems like you're just flat out afraid of me."

She looks down, not saying anything as she puts her phone back into her pocket. It wasn't the reason that she moved back, but now she remembers what happened on their last hunt.

Dean's heart sinks seeing that look on her face, like she is scared. "Are you?" He asks. "Nyx, are you afraid of me?"

"It's just... The way that you were looking at me before. And how you killed that girl back in Oregon, and how you were going to kill Duane." She shrugs, ashamed to even be admitting this out loud. "I'm a monster now too, and seeing you like that... I just—" She shakes her head.

"I would never do anything to hurt you." He says as he moves back over to her. "Nycole, I couldn't. I don't see a monster when I look at you. I see the same girl that I've always seen."

She moves away from him again, but not because she's afraid. Close proximity is still difficult for her, and it's going to be for a long time. Which only adds to her self-hatred and guilt.

"And who's that?" She asks as she looks back over at him.

"Do you remember when we were at your family's lake house, and I was teaching you how to fight?" He asks, and she smirks.

"You mean before you finally lightened up?"

"You're a dick." Nyx says as she gets up off of the ground. She quickly wipes some dirt from the front of her shirt.

"You can think whatever you want about me, but what I'm teaching you is going to keep you alive." Dean says, and she just looks at him. "Alright, come on. Again." He motions for her to come at him, and she picks her knife up off of the ground.

"Can we go back to shooting? I'm better at that." She says, and he nods.

"Yeah, I know. That's exactly why we're taking a break from shooting and working on your combat skills. Or lack thereof."

"Monsters fight like this?" She questions.

"Some of them do, yeah. You have to be ready for anything out there or you'll get yourself killed." He says. "Or you'll get me killed, and I can't have that."

"Oh, but you can have me die?"

"That's not what I said."

"That's not not what you said." She says, and he sighs.

"Hold the damn blade the way that I showed you and come at me." He says.

"Ay, ay Colonel Hard-Ass." She mumbles.

"What was that?" He questions.

"Nothing." She adjusts the knife and takes a swing at him.

"You were a pain in my ass. Well, you still are, but it was a lot worse back then." Dean says, and she chuckles. "And there's that laugh." He smiles.

Her smile widens as she looks at him. "You just like me better now."

"Yeah, well, there's no denying that one." He says, still with a smile of his own.

"Wow, civil conversation, even some smiles." Sam says as he walks into the room. "It's about damn time."

"We just heard about the twins." Nyx pulls the picture up on her phone and then tosses it to him.

"They've definitely grown some." He says as he looks at it. "How are they?"

"Meredith said we can take them from the hospital soon." Dean tells him.

"I was thinking — and don't hate me — but...maybe we shouldn't bring them on the road right away." Nyx says, and the boys look at her.

"Actually, I was thinking the same thing." He says, and she's surprised as she looks at him. "I just haven't said anything because I don't know what we'd do. I can't stay in Mystic Falls, and you don't want to."

"I talked to Meredith...and she said she'd be willing to look after them for a little while." She tells him. "And Caroline​ will help her too, I already asked her."

"That could work."

"And you— You'd be okay with that?" She asks, surprised, and he nods.

"Meredith's​ a doctor, and she's already been looking after them. I trust Caroline enough." He tells her. "We can go and see them. It's not ideal, and I don't like it, but it's not permanent."

"So, we're in agreement then?"

"Yeah." He nods.

"Okay," She nods. "I'll let Meredith and Caroline know the next time I talk to them."

It's not​ much progress, not really, but that one agreement between the two of them feels like a milestone. They haven't agreed on anything in weeks, and they both hate it. They hate feeling like they're at odds with each other, but they don't know how to fix it either.