CHAPTER TWO

Nyx got back to the motel room a little while earlier, and the boys weren't there. She just finished blow drying her hair in the bathroom, and she looks at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes are red and puffy from crying, and she looks exhausted. She takes a deep breath and then walks back into the main part of the motel room.

"I let myself in. Hope you don't mind."

The teenager freezes when she sees who's standing by the foot of the bed that she slept in last night, but the image before her is off. Instead of the curls that she's known for, her hair is straight, which Nyx knows isn't a good sign. But this definitely isn't her sister standing before her.

"Katherine." Nyx clenches her teeth, and the vampire smiles.

"You'll have to excuse the intrusion. I haven't had much in the way of entertainment lately." She says. "And I wanted to see that Dean of yours. He sure is something."

"Stay away from him."

"Oh, it's a little late for that." She chuckles. 'I've already spoken to him. Of course, he thought I was you, so..."

"What did you say to him?" She questions, shaking her head. "What are you really doing here?"

"Does he know about his kids?" She asks as she starts walking toward Nycole.

The hunter quickly pulls a stake from her open duffle bag beside her and stabs Katherine in the stomach. She grabs Nyx by her throat as she pulls it out, and she looks more annoyed than anything else.

"I liked this shirt." Katherine slams her head into the dresser, and Nyx falls to the floor. She groans in pain as she puts her hand on her head where she knows she's bleeding from. "Okay, well... I'm bored." She disappears.

There's blood running down Nyx's face, and it starts to soak the carpet around her. Her head is pounding and everything's getting fuzzy around her. There's a ringing in her ears as she tries to push herself up, but she falls back to the carpet.

"Somebody... Help me!" Nycole barely manages to yell. "Help!" She calls as tears run down her face. "Please. Help me."

"Hello?" A woman's voice calls from the doorway.

"Help!" Nyx calls out a little louder, and the woman runs into the room.

"Oh my God." She kneels beside Nycole as she pulls a phone out of her pocket.

—

Nyx slowly opens her eyes and starts to look around the room. It doesn't take long for her to realize where she is, the white walls and the sound of her heartbeat on the machine are a dead give away. Then she sees a familiar face sitting in a chair beside her bed, and she sighs.

"I'm getting really tired of waking up in hospital rooms." Nyx mumbles, her voice low, but it still gets the attention of the man beside her.

"And I'm getting really tired of hearing that your boyfriend can't keep you out of these hospital rooms." Damon says as he walks into the room, and Ric stands up from the chair.

"First of all, he's not my boyfriend. Second, he was working." She tells him. "And I doubt there's much even you could've done against her. What are you even doing here?"

"I was with Ric when he got a call saying you were in the hospital." He explains. "I'm not the only one here with him. Jeremy and Elena are in the cafeteria. The doctor told her to eat and stay hydrated. She gave blood because you lost a lot of it last night."

"Elena gave me blood?" She asks, still a little out of it, and he nods.

"We figured she was the only donor you wouldn't be furious about."

"But I'm sure you would've been more than willing to contribute if things didn't work out." She says, and he nods. "Wait... Ric got a call? I never changed my emergency contact from Stefan. I haven't had time for that yet."

"I heard a phone ringing in my bag, and when I found it, I didn't recognize it. I almost didn't answer, but..." Ric shakes his head. "Stefan must've left his phone in my things in case anything like this ever happened."

"It's a good thing too. Because I don't think Klaus would appreciate my brother taking a vacation trip to visit a girl who's supposed to be dead." Damon says, and she looks over at him. "What happened to you yesterday?"

"The woman who found you said that you were on the floor of your motel room." His eyebrows are furrowed as he looks at her, and she sighs as she thinks back on yesterday's events.

"I, uh... I got into an argument with Dean and left the motel. When I came back, the boys were gone." She tells them. "I was getting ready for bed when..."

Elena and Jeremy walk into the room then, and she looks at her siblings. They're both relieved to see that she's finally awake.

"When?" Damon prompts, and Nyx takes a deep breath.

"Katherine was there when I got out of the shower." She reluctantly continues. "I tried to... I went after her with a stake and she- she slammed head into something hard. A dresser, I think."

"What was Katherine even doing here?" Elena asks as she walks over to her sister's bedside.

"She said she didn't have much entertainment lately." She blinks, trying to remember everything Katherine said. "She said that she wanted to see Dean; she talked to him. She was pretending to be me. Again."

"Are you alright?" Jeremy asks as Ric gives him room to stand opposite Elena.

She looks up at him as she thinks about her answer. "Do you remember when I was sick in bed for a week a few years ago, and I was complaining because no one would spend any time with me? Tyler refused to come to the house, Elena was sleeping on the couch, Dad would bring me soup with a rag over his face, and Mom wouldn't walk past the doorway. But not my little brother." She forces a weak smile, and he chuckles as he tells her to move over.

She slowly scoots to give him room, and he lays down at her side. Elena helps him with the tubes and wires connected to their sister so he doesn't disrupt anything or hurt her. She carefully rolls onto her side as she pulls the top of the blanket up, cuddling with it as she rests her head on his shoulder, and he wraps his arm around her.

Nycole looks at Ric as he stands on the other side of Jeremy. "Sorry you got designated as my emergency contact." She says. "I can change it to Damon now if you want."

He shakes his head. "You can change it to me." Ric tells her, and she smiles weakly.

"Nycole!"

"Nycole!" They hear Dean and Sam outside​ the room. "Where is she?!"

The boys run in then and they both stop when they see that she's with both of her siblings, Ric, and Damon. Dean's eyes settle on her as Elena pulls the blanket up more to cover her, and his jaw tightens.

"Why are you coddling me?" Nyx waves her hand at her sister, trying to get her to leave the blanket alone.

"Because you asked to cuddle with Jeremy, and you have goose-bumps." Her sister argues. "I've been in a hospital before too, remember? I know that IV fluids are cold." She grabs her sister's hand and finishes fixing the blanket over her previously bare arm.

"Are you okay?" Sam asks as she stands at the foot of her bed.

"I'll live." Nyx says as she looks at him, her voice still pretty weak.

"I'm so sorry, Nycole." Dean says.

"Why? You didn't do it."

"No, but you wouldn't have been alone in the room if we hadn't gotten into that stupid argument."

"You can't be with me at all times, Dean." She argues. "No one can."

"What happened?" Sam asks.

Elena squeezes her sister's hand and then looks at the boys. She tells them what Nyx already explained so that she doesn't have to do it again.

"How are you doing?" Dean asks, and she looks over at him. She had been staring between Ric and Damon at the wall behind them. "How do you feel?"

"I'm okay. Or, I will be." She tells him, and he nods.

—

Nyx is laying on her bed in their motel room and she's staring up at the ceiling. She's by the foot of the bed and her knees are bent so her legs aren't hanging over the edge. She and the two boys left Missouri a couple of days ago and she hasn't said much since.

Sam gets out of the shower and walks into the room in just a pair of sweatpants. He looks around as he walks over to his duffle bag to find a shirt. "Where's Dean?" He asks.

"He grumbled something about finding a decent burrito and then left." She tells him.

"Yeah, 'cause that's what he needs — food loaded with beans." He shakes his head and then glances at her when she doesn't​ say anything. "You two still aren't talking?"

"I'm not not talking​ to him."

"Right." He nods. "You're just not talking."

"I'm talking right now, aren't​ I?"

"My mistake." He says sarcastically​ as he pulls a t-shift over his head, and she just continues to stare at the ceiling. "You haven't moved since I got​ in the shower."

"I'm comfortable." She tells him.

"Alright, that's it. You've gotta talk to somebody." He says. "You know, I've always admired you, Nyx. You're strong, and brave, and you're resilient as hell — I've seen that since the day I met you. But it's like you think that you have to deal with everything all on your own and you don't."

She just lays there.

"I'm not saying that you have to talk to me, but you should talk to somebody. Dean. Elena or Jeremy. Caroline. Hell, even Ric. I'd accept Damon as a reasonable choice, at this point. Just talk to someone." His voice is almost pleading, and she slowly sits up.

He watches as she lets her feet rest on the floor. She doesn't look at him, but he can see the tears welling up in her sad brown eyes. He walks over and kneels down in front of her, her eyes settle on the carpet to the left of him. Sam takes her hands in his, he can tell she's working up to telling him what's been on her mind for so long now.

"I died." Nyx finally says, and his heart drops. "I was— I was dead. Klaus killed me." Her tears spill over and start to run down her face.

"Nyx..." He sighs. He had no idea that this was what's been eating at her.

"He was like this bad dream. I knew that he was out there, but he wasn't a threat. Not yet anyway." She still hasn't turned her gaze to meet his. "I could pretend that he​ was just a scary story told over the years, but then he showed up and suddenly... He became real."

Sam reaches up with one hand and wipes the tears from the side of her face. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, trying to compose herself.

"He came to my home, and he..." Her voice is lower than before. "He killed me. And he killed Jenna. John died because of what he did. He took Stefan away, and he... He hurt all of us. He broke us."

He doesn't know what to say. He could tell her that everything's gonna be okay, but the truth is he doesn't know what's going to happen next. And she knows that. He can't say anything that's going to bring her any real comfort. And they both know it.

He sits on the bed next to her, facing her, and pulls her to him. She leans against his chest as he wraps his arms around her and she starts sobbing. She turns her face toward him, and her fingertips dig into his arm. He lets his head hang forward and moves her hair out of her face as she continues crying.

This is the first time that she's really let herself feel everything that's been running through her mind. It's the first time that she's cried for herself, and for the fear of what almost happened to her babies. She could've lost them the moment she found out about them.