CHAPTER THREE

There's a pyre burning in front of the two sets of siblings, and Jeremy takes his sister's hand in his as they stand a little ways away from the Winchester boys. She leans into his side as she watches the flames, knowing the pain that they're both feeling and having no words to make it any easier on them.

John's body is wrapped up as the fire engulfs him, and his sons stand there with tears in their eyes. They've heard of the hunter's funerals numerous times, but they truly never thought they'd have to attend their father's. At least, not so soon.

"Before he... Before he..." Sam struggles over the words. "Did he say anything to either of you — about anything?"

"No." Dean says, so Nyx doesn't say anything at all. "Nothing."

Sam's crying, and Dean and Nyx both have tears in their eyes. Dean wants to be strong for his brother, and Nyx feels like she should hold it together for the two of them. She didn't know John that well, but she did like him. Even though he could be an ass, and she often didn't like the way he spoke to Dean.

Jeremy looks at his sister as she pulls away from him, moving closer to Dean. She stops beside him, slipping her hand into his and intertwining their fingers. He squeezes her hand, wanting what little comfort the action brings.

The four of them spend the next week at Bobby's, and most of the interactions with Dean are rather tense. The only one he even tries to contain his anger with is Nyx, but it still slips through every now and then with short outbursts. They're always followed by quick apologies, and she never holds any of it against him.

After all, she had her own outbursts aimed at him after they buried Jenna and John only a few months ago. So, she knows the battle raging in his head all too well.

Currently, Nyx is sitting outside while Dean works on the Impala in the salvage yard. Sam walks back toward her, and she looks up at him. "That didn't​ go very well." He mutters sarcastically.

"I stopped trying." She tells him. "I think he just needs a little space, Sam."

He was trying to get Dean to talk to him about John and see how he's doing. He goes back inside, where Jeremy stays unless they're leaving the house for any particular reason. The youngest has been doing whatever Bobby's asked him to, just trying to keep busy. They've even tried looking more into how he's able to occasionally see Vicki and Anna, but everything's come up short so far.

Sam walks back out later with Jeremy and he has a phone in his hand. The boys get Nyx to go over to where Dean's working on the Impala, and they get his attention as well.

"This is one of Dad's old phones. It took me a while, but I cracked his voicemail code. Listen to this." He hands the phone over to Dean, and he listens to the message.

"What is it?" Nyx asks.

"It's from a woman named Ellen." Sam tells her. "That message is four months old."

"Dad saved that chick's message from four months ago?" Dean questions. "Who's Ellen? Any mention of her in Dad's journal?"

"No, but I ran a trace on the number, and I got an address."

"Ask Bobby if we can use one of his cars." His brother tells him.

—

The hunters pull up to a bar called the Roadhouse, and Jeremy helps Nyx climb out of the back of the van that Bobby loaned them.

"This is humiliating." Dean says, referring to their transportation. "I feel like a friggin' soccer mom."

"It's the only car Bobby had running." Sam says, and they start looking around.

"Hello? Anybody here?" Dean calls, but he gets no answer. "Hey, did you bring the, uh—"

"Of course." Sam tosses him their lock picking stuff.

The hunters make their way inside the bar, and the place is empty. Nyx jumps slightly when a bug killer zaps something in the corner, it's the only noise in the otherwise quiet building.

She nudges Sam's arm then, and points out a guy that's passed out on a pool table. "Hey, buddy." Sam says as they walk over to him.

"I'm guessing that isn't Ellen." Nyx mumbles.

"Good work, Sherlock." Dean says, and she shoots him a dirty look.

Sam, Jeremy, and Nyx all walk away from him and start looking around the bar. The oldest of the three makes his way into a back room, and the Gilbert siblings stay close together.

"Oh, God, please let that be a rifle." Dean says suddenly, and Nyx turns around.

A gun cocks, and the brunette pulls her own out. "No, I'm just really happy to see you." A blonde girl says.

"Yeah, well, you're not gonna be seeing much of anything if you don't put that gun down, sweetheart." Nycole tells her.

"I wouldn't piss her off." Dean says.

She looks at Dean, and he nods his head ever so slightly. "You should know something. When you put a rifle on someone, you don't want to put it right against​ their back, 'cause it makes it really easy to..." She trails off.

Dean turns around quickly and snatches the gun out of the blonde girl's hands. She then punches him in the face and takes the gun back.

"Seriously?" Nyx questions, keeping her gun pointed at the blonde. "We really need to work on how you deal with women. I mean, first the thirteen-year-old Bender girl, and now this? It's sad."

"Can you criticize me when I don't have a rifle pointed at my face?" He questions, holding his nose.

"I think this makes it funnier." Jeremy laughs.

"Yeah? And how about this?" A male voice asks from behind the Gilberts, and they hear another rifle cock. Jeremy quickly turns, moving so that he's facing the man and his older sister is behind his back so he can protect her.

"Sam!" Nyx calls as Jeremy's eyes narrow as he looks at the man. "Where the hell are you?"

"Sorry, I can't help right now. I'm a little tied up." He says. "Oh, and Dean is too. This is great."

"Sam? Dean?" The woman with a gun to Sam's head questions. "Winchester?"

"Yeah." Dean says.

"Son of a bitch."

"Mom, you know these guys." The blonde girl asks.

"Yeah, I think these are John Winchester's boys." She laughs as she lowers her own gun. "Hey, I'm Ellen."

"Ellen?" Nyx follows her lead and lowers her gun as well, hoping the situation is defusing.

"That's my daughter, Jo." She says, and the blonde puts her gun down next.

Nyx turns then and sees the guy who had his gun pointed at Jeremy lowering the weapon. His eyebrows furrow as he now gets a good look at her.

"You're not gonna hit me again, are you?" Dean asks Jo.

"The next person to hit you..." Nyx starts, and he looks at her. "...is gonna be me."

"Gee, thanks."

"Your smartass comment when we walked in here — I'll show you Sherlock." She grumbles, and he smirks as he looks over at her.

"Nycole?" The guy speaks up, and she turns to look at him again, this time with a furrowed brow; her gaze flickers between him and her brother. "Jeremy?"

"You're that Carter guy." Jeremy says after a second, knowing he looked familiar.

"Holy hell. Carter Calloway?" Nyx questions.

"Carter, you know them?" Jo asks.

"Yeah, from that summer that my dad and I spent in Virginia." He tells her. "These are two of the Gilberts​ that I was telling you guys about."

"Small world." Jeremy says.

"You don't quite look like you did back then." Nyx says. "What did you do, eat a tree?"

Carter chuckles. "Yeah, I bulked up a little, grew a few inches." He says. "What are you doing here?"

"Playing hockey." She says sarcastically​ and then walks away from him.

"So, your dad finally told you about that famous founding families' legacy, huh?" He asks, and she stops in her tracks as she and Jeremy both look back at him.

"What?" Jeremy questions​.

"You're traveling with hunters​. I know you guys know." Carter says as he walks over to a table at the back of the bar, and the two siblings go with him. Dean turns to watch Nyx with this new guy, but his attention is quickly pulled elsewhere.

"You know?" Nycole asks as the three of them sit down.

"Of course I know. I'm a hunter."

"Wow, you really do have a type, don't you? I mean, besides Tyler." Jeremy says, and his sister kicks him under the table. "Ow!"

"How is your dad anyway?" Carter asks, and they both look at him.

"You didn't hear?" Nyx asks.

"Hear what?"

"Our parents died last year." Jeremy tells him. "Car accident."

"Oh... I'm sorry." He says, and they both nod.

The three of them talk for a little while as Dean and Sam talk to Ellen and Jo about John and the yellow-eyed demon. Jeremy eventually gets up to get something to drink, and Nyx looks at Carter.

"So, where's your dad?" She asks. "He was always funny. I really liked him."

"He liked you guys too." He nods. "He died on a hunt about a year and a half ago."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." She reaches forward and rests her hand on his. "What happened?"

"It was a werewolf. He tried to kill it, it killed him first." He tells her. "It's the job, you know. Happens to the best of us at some point."

"Hey, Nyx." Dean gets her attention, and she looks over at him. "We found a job. You comin'?" He asks, his eyes flickering between her and Carter.

"No, I think I'm gonna stick around here for a while." She tells him, and he nods as his eyes settle on Carter for a second, then he walks out of the bar.

"Jeremy wants to come with." Sam says, and she sighs as she looks at her brother.

"You come back in one piece or I'll kick your ass." She says, and he nods before walking out with Sam.

Carter gets up and goes to help Jo with something in the back, and Nyx walks over to sit down at the bar. Ellen places a glass of water in front of her, and the young brunette smiles at her as she runs her hand back and forth across her stomach. Her bump's grown to be about even with her breasts now, maybe extending a little past them. Though she still manages to hide it pretty well with her boyfriend's shirts and with sweaters.

"The boys said you're a damn good hunter. Why didn't you go with 'em?"

"Little ones kept me up all night, I'm too tired." Nyx tells her, and she nods. "My head's not really in the space for hunting right now anyway."

"Why's that?" Ellen asks.

"I'm keeping this secret, and the thing that it has to do with... It's driving me crazy." She answers honestly.

"What kind of secret?"

"How John died. Hell, how I'm probably gonna die, very soon." She tells her. She may not know Ellen, but all of this has her sick to her stomach and it's ridiculous.

"You know how John died?" Ellen asks, and she nods. "And you haven't told the boys?"

"I can't. I mean, I don't know how." Nyx says. "It's not something that you can just casually say, and the guilt that'll come with it..."

"You can't not tell them because of your guilt." She says, and the brunette shakes her head.

"It's not me that I'm worried about."

"What happened?" Ellen asks, and she looks down. "Sam said the demon got John before he could get the demon."

"He's half right." She nods. "It was the demon."

"You can tell me. I won't tell the boys, I'll let you handle it when you're ready." She says, and Nyx takes a deep breath.

"The demon tried to kill Dean, almost did too. He was in the hospital and he was so close to death. But John..." She looks back up at her. "He made a deal with the demon: his life for Dean's."

"He gave himself to the demon to save Dean?" Ellen asks, and she nods. "How do you know?"

"I have this friend — he's a vampire. Not the dead man's blood kind, the other one. He's a dick, but he's decent enough, and he's saved my life before so I let him live." She tells her. "He was at the hospital because we were all in a car accident and he heard. He came to make sure that I was okay. We all started looking for a way to save Dean. And my friend — he overheard John make the deal."

"You're worried Dean will feel guilty."

"How do you tell someone you care about as much as I care about him...that his dad gave his life to the thing that they hate the most, to save him?" She asks, and Ellen sighs. "I know how that feels. I can't do that to him. It's a lot to carry around every day."

"What do you mean you know how that feels?" She asks as Carter and Jo walk back into the main area.

"Have you ever heard of Klaus Mikaelson?" Nyx asks, and she nods.

"Most hunters have." She says. "A thousand year old original vampire — of his species — who's ruthless and hellbent on breaking some curse."

"He broke it." She tells her.

"What? How?" Carter questions.

"Do you know what he needed to break the curse?" Nyx asks them.

"A witch, a vampire, a werewolf, the doppelganger, and a moonstone." Ellen says. "I wasn't entirely convinced that the doppelganger even existed though."

"She does."

"How do you know that for sure?" Jo asks.

"Because she's me." Nyx tells them, and their eyes widen. "Klaus sacrificed​ me."

"So, how are you alive?" Ellen asks.

"I have this other friend, she's a witch — the good kind. The balance of nature, save people kind."

"Sheila Bennett?" Carter asks.

"Bonnie. Sheila's granddaughter." She tells him. "Sheila passed away last year too."

"Oh."

"Bonnie found this spell in her grimoire that allowed my father to give his life to save mine." Nyx explains.

"I thought you said that your parents died in a car accident." He says, and she nods.

"They did. Grayson and Miranda aren't​ mine and Elena's biological parents. Do you remember my uncle — John?"

"Yeah. Grayson's dick of a younger brother."

"He's our biological father." She tells him, and he raises his eyebrows. "Yeah, that was a surprise." She shakes her head.

"So, what makes you think you're gonna die some time soon?" Ellen asks, and she looks back at her.

"Klaus is trying to make hybrids — half vampire, half werewolf creatures like himself. But he can't. The running theory is that it's because I'm still alive."

"I see." She says, and Nyx nods.

—

Carter and Nyx walk into the Roadhouse a few days later, and she sees Dean and Jo talking. The brunette goes to sit down at a table, and he doesn't even notice that they're back. She looks at them and then looks down at the table.

"Hey, where have you been?" Jeremy asks as he walks over to his older sister. Carter goes over behind the bar and starts working.

Nyx looks up. "You guys left me here three days ago. Did you expect me to stay here the whole time that you were gone?" She questions.

"What have you been doing?" Dean asks as he walks over them.

"Not much. Catching up with Carter, getting to know Ellen and Jo." She tells him, and he just nods as he looks at her.

They head back to Bobby's that night, and Nyx doesn't get much sleep. Neither does Dean.

The next morning, Nyx is sitting in the kitchen with the blinds open. She doesn't want to be outside, but she doesn't like being too far from Dean either, and this way she can see him while he's working on the Impala.

"Are you okay?" Jeremy asks as he walks over to his sister, and she looks up at him.

"Honestly​? I kinda feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop." The older girl says.

"Which shoe is that?"

She sighs, shaking her head. "I don't know."

Nyx looks outside again and she sees Dean swing a crowbar and shatter one of the rear windows of the Impala. She sighs as she stands up and walks over to the door. He's hitting the trunk as she makes her way over to him. He needs to get it out of his system, and she knows it.

He hits the car one last time and then drops the crowbar. It clinks on the ground near his feet and he turns, noticing Nycole for the first time. She walks over to him, and he looks down at her with tears in his eyes. Nyx reaches up and wipes away the tear that ran down his cheek before resting her hand on the side of his face.

He closes his eyes as he leans his head into her palm. She then moves closer to him and wraps her arms around his neck. His arms wind around her torso and he holds her tightly against him before burying his face in the crook of her neck.