CHAPTER THREE

"What's a seven letter word for kill me now?" Bonnie asks as Jess and Jenna walk into​ the kitchen where Damon's making breakfast while he's dancing.

"Nycole." Jess mutters.

"That's only six letters." Nyx says​ as she walks over to the fridge and gets three water bottles. She tosses one to Jenna and then one to Jess.

"It was mildly amusing though." Damon says, and she shoots him a dirty look.

"I've done this stupid crossword puzzle everyday since we got back from Bobby's, and I still can't figure out twenty-seven across." Bonnie tells them. "Old tongue twister Eddie turned top forty." She reads as Damon sets her food in front of her. "And I hate pancakes!" She stabs it with her pencil.

"Whoa." Damon looks at her. "Don't take it out on the pancakes. Those pancakes, like the rest of us...are waiting for you to be witchy to get us the hell out of here." He says as he walks back over to the stove where Nyx is making herself breakfast.

"You know I've been trying." Bonnie says, annoyed, as she stands up.

"And failing." He says. "Further evidence we're in hell."

"Damon." Nyx nudges him.

"Not only am I stuck with you, I'm stuck with the useless version of you." He continues, and Nycole stomps on his foot.

"Did you hear that?" Bonnie asks as she looks around.

"What would we have heard, Bonnie?" He questions. "We're the only people here." He motions to the five in the kitchen. "We were the only five people here two months ago. We're the only five people here now."

"Well, I swear I heard something." She argues, and Nyx looks at the other two at the table, both of which simply shrug.

"Maybe it's the sound of existential despair. I hear that's what hell sounds like." He says, and then Nyx stabs him with a fork. "Ow!"

"Oops, my bad." Nycole smiles as she pulls it out of his arm.

"You know what, you think we're trapped in your hell?" Bonnie questions. "I have to spend every day on repeat with the person I like least on this Earth. Maybe we're trapped in mine." She grabs her teddy bear and then leaves the kitchen.

"You've been upgraded from most hated to least liked." Nyx says, and he chuckles as he looks down at her.

"Great eggs, by the way, Damon." Jess says as she picks up her plate and leaves the kitchen to go after Bonnie.

"I'm gonna go take a nap." Jenna says as she stands up. "Wake me for our next lesson in an hour."

"You're overworking them." Damon says as he watches Nyx jump up onto the counter to sit by the stove.

"I don't​ know when we're getting out of here, and they need to be ready if we do." She tells him. "This crap already killed them both once. It's killed all of us at least once."

"And you think running every morning at six a.m., and the constant training, and all of the lessons in demonology are really going to make much of a difference?" He asks.

"This is how Dean taught me." She says, and he nods. "I won't let them get killed again."

He rests his hand on her knee, and she looks at him, away from the plate of pancakes she was eating. "They're gonna be fine, Nyx." He says, and she nods.

"They're doing better than I was after only two months of training." She tells him. "It's actually pretty impressive. I'm proud." She says, and he smiles as he looks at her.

"Can I ask you something?"

"You will no matter what I say, so..."

"Are you throwing yourself into this whole teacher role...to keep yourself from thinking​ about the twins?" He asks, and she sighs as she looks down, setting her plate on the counter beside her.

"I feel like they won't even know me if we make it out of here." She says. "I mean, Ev recognized me from the picture that Dean had, but... What if they see that picture now, and they think that it's Elena?"

"Look at me." He grabs her chin and slowly lifts her head. "You're their mom, and no one is going to change that. We'll get out of here, and you'll find them. They will know you."

Her gaze drops from his bright blue eyes to his lips, a fact that he notices. Without a second​ thought, she leans down and presses her lips to his. He moves to stand between her knees as he kisses​ her back. His hands grip her waist, and their lips move in sync as he pulls her closer to him, deepening the kiss. Her hands move down his torso as she pulls on his shirt.

"Hey, Nyx— Oh!" Jess turns back around as the two vampires quickly​ pull away from each other. "Um... Sorry."

Damon backs away from Nycole, and she slides off the counter to go after Jess, who left the kitchen rather quickly after what she walked in on.

—

It's been about two months since the heated make out session between Damon and Nyx, and none of the three who know about it have mentioned it. She expected things to get awkward between them after what happened, but is grateful that it hasn't. Damon's been a lot of help for her getting through this, and she doesn't want to lose the friendship that she has with him.

Bonnie's​ been spending most of her time trying to get her magic back, and Nyx has continued training the other two girls. Damon's actually started helping with that too. They've both come a long way since they started four months ago.

"Is that the best you can do?" Nyx laughs as she looks down at Jessica.

"You enjoy this too much." The blonde says as she pushes herself up off of the floor.

"I've been the student for so long, it's nice to be on the teaching end for once." She says with a smile. "Now, hit me like you mean it."

"Breakfast!" Damon calls from the kitchen, and the two girls look at each other.

The brunette smirks, and they both take off running. Nycole makes it to the table first, much to Jess' annoyance. "You cheated!"

"Well, duh." Nyx says with a smile as she sits down next to Jenna. "If I didn't cheat, you'd beat me." She tells her. "I can't have that."

"Wait, what?"

"Did I not mention that a month ago?"

"You're mean." Damon chuckles as he sets pancakes down in front of her and Bonnie.

"Every day I tell you I hate that." Bonnie says as she looks at the whip cream fangs on the blueberry smiley face.

"And every day, I do it anyway." He says with a smile. "Bon appétit."

"You should make the smile bigger and then use half of a strawberry for the teeth." Nyx says with a smile, and her aunt laughs.

"No, he shouldn't." Bonnie argues as she passes the newspaper over the table to him.

Later that night, they're all back in the kitchen for dinner, and Jess looks at Bonnie. "This is really good, Bon." The blonde says after taking a bite of her chili.

"Thanks." She smiles at her as Nyx sits down next to Damon at the table.

The brunette vampire is watching the fire in the fireplace when Jenna sets a bowl down in front of her, gaining her attention. She hands her niece a spoon as she sits at the head of the table.

"You okay?" Jenna asks, and she nods.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Nyx says as Bonnie sits down across from Damon.

"We miss them too, you know?" Bonnie asks after handing him a spoon to eat his chili with. He was up in Stefan's room earlier, looking at all of his brother's old stuff.

He nods and picks up the newspaper Bonnie had again this morning. "Look who got twenty-seven across." He says, and she looks at him.

"I wish." She says as Nyx looks at the crossword puzzle. "Twenty-seven across is a rock I am pushing up an endless mountain."

"Old tongue twister Eddie turned top forty." He reads the clue. "Eddie Vedder. Pearl Jam. Yellow Ledbetter. Good work." He says as he sets the paper down.

"Are you messing with me?" Bonnie asks, causing Jess and Jenna to look up.

"No. Are you messing with me?" He asks as he continues eating.

"I didn't finish this."

"Well, neither did I." He tells her, and they look at the other girls.

"Nope." Jess shakes her head.

"I didn't know it." Jenna says.

"I don't listen to Pearl Jam." Nyx tells them.

"There's someone else here." Bonnie says, and the five of them start looking around.

Later that night, Nyx goes into Damon's room and lays on his bed. She's done this every night for the past few weeks. He questioned it first, but he's stopped making comments. She comes to talk, and he knows that she needs it.

"So," Damon lays down next to her, looking up at the ceiling. "What was bugging you at dinner earlier?" He asks.

"It's May here, but it's September back home. The twins are gonna be two next month." She tells him, and he sighs.

He already knew that, he was just hoping that it would take longer for her to start thinking about it. Though, he knew that wasn't gonna happen. It seems like the only time she's not thinking about the twins is when she's sparring with Jess or Jenna.

"We still have a little over a month to get out before then." He reminds her. "There's still a chance you could be there."

"Yeah." She's not at all convinced.

"Don't lose hope just yet." He turns to face her, and she looks at him. She's laying on her stomach with her arms under the pillow.

"What hope?"

He smirks. "Come on, Nyx. Take a leap of faith with me." He says, and she chuckles as she adjusts herself so she's on her side.

"There's an old one." She says, and he nods.

"But still valid."

"Hardly."

"I'm not asking you to have faith in God or in a higher power, I know you gave up that hope a long time ago." He tells her.

"Then what?" She asks.

"Have faith that I will drive Bonnie so crazy, she gets her magic back just to get the hell away from me." He says, and she chuckles.

"Have faith in you and Bonnie?" She pauses for a second. "I think I can manage that."

"See? And you thought our little talks didn't do any good."

"I never said that." She argues. "Why do you think I come in here every night?"

"To see my face, of course." He says, and she smirks.

"You're a big reason that I'm still sane, Damon." She tells him. "Missing my kids and everyone​ else... It's driving me crazy. But I talk to you for a while and... I don't know. I laugh, and the world sucks just a little less."

"Glad I can help." He says, and she just smiles as she looks at him.