CHAPTER TWO

"Where the hell have you been?" Jeremy questions as he looks at his sister.

Nyx is sitting on the couch watching the twins play on the floor. She has her knees pulled up to her chest and her chin is resting on them. Her arms are wrapped around her legs and she's ignoring him.

"Nycole."

"Leave me alone, Jeremy." She says, her voice low, and she keeps her eyes on the kids.

"Sam, Carter, will you two take the twins into the other room please? I don't want them to see their Uncle Jeremy yelling at thin air."

"Yeah." Sam picks up Alex as Carter scoops up Everly from the floor. They take them into Sam's bedroom — Matt's old room.

"Silas screwed with Elena's head and then killed Matt. She almost killed Damon because of him." Jeremy says. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Here." She gestures around the house as she stands up. "Is Matt okay?"

"Yeah. Katherine saved us."

"Mm. And the plot thickens."

"I needed to talk to you." He says. "I needed my sister."

"I'm dead, Jeremy. You want your big sister, call Elena."

"What the hell, Nyx?" He shakes his head as he gets in front of her. "What happened to I'll be here if you need anything?"

"I'm dead!" She snaps. "Without you and Sam, I am all alone! I've got nothing!"

"You have us!"

"And I love you guys, Jeremy, but that's not enough. I want to be alive. I want my kids to know that I'm here." She tells him. "I hate this!"

"What the hell's going on?" Dean questions as he walks out of his room.

"He's hungover." Nyx points at the green-eyed hunter. "He's been on one hunt since I died. One hunt where a demon told him about hell. That she thinks Lucifer is real. She told him all about Yellow-Eyes and his plan to create a demon army lead by Sam." She shakes her head as she looks at Dean. "He's not even trying to find a way to survive. He doesn't want to. I get that he's hurting, because I am too, but our babies need their father!"

"What's going on, Jeremy?" He asks again.

"Nycole is here." He tells him. "She says to grow the hell up and be a parent. Stop making Sam and Carter do the work all day while you drink alone at the bar." He says, and Dean looks taken aback.

"What?"

"I paraphrased from a few different conversations, but the point is the same."

"I keep thinking about what Vicki said. She told me that the Other Side was lonely... I didn't think it was this bad." Nycole says as she looks back at him.

"You've got me, Nyx." He tells her. They don't want Dean to know that Sam can see her — Nyx doesn't want him to know.

"Yeah. And I watched you almost bleed out in the middle of the road. I couldn't do anything, but sit there and watch it all happen." She says. "I can't keep doing this. I can't watch all of you go through hell while there's absolutely nothing that I can do about it. It's driving me crazy, Jer."

"So, what are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna be less involved. I'll be around, and I'll check in, but I'm not staying here twenty-four/seven." She tells him. "I really am sorry, Jer."

"N— Nyx!" He takes a step forward, but she's gone. Not that he could've stopped her.

"Jeremy, what the hell is going on?" Dean asks as the younger boy walks toward the front door.

He grabs his arm, and Jeremy spins around and punches him in the face. Dean stands up straight after the force of it knocked him to the side, and Jeremy grabs him and pins him against the wall.

"We all lost her, we are all mourning her." He says as Dean looks down at him, though he's not much taller. "But she lost everything! She lost all of us! And unlike you, she doesn't have a bar to get drunk at all day to numb herself of the pain. So, take advantage of the one thing that she wants more than anything, and be a father to your kids. Stop wasting what little time you have left and stay with the twins!"

"Jeremy!" Sam pulls him off of his brother.

"The next time I see you at the bar, I will kick your ass six ways to Sunday. And if you think I can't, remember I'm a Hunter, and you hurting my sister is the one thing that pisses me off more than anything." He shoves Sam off of him and leaves the house, slamming the door behind him.

Sam looks at Dean. "I'd say he's wrong, but..." He shakes his head as he walks back toward his room. "You should put some ice on that. The kid has one hell of a right hook."

—

Qetsiyah — Silas' back from the dead ex-fiancée — fried Stefan's brain to stop Silas' psychic abilities. It turns out, Stefan is Silas' doppelganger. And the original doppelganger who looks like Elena and Nyx is a woman named Amara — Silas' one true love who he chose over Qetsiyah.

Katherine's been kidnapped by some mystery woman in a bar.

Jeremy finally told Damon that Bonnie's​ dead because everyone thought that she could help get Stefan's memories back. She obviously can't, and now everyone knows why. So, they're having a funeral for her in the middle of the woods.

Jeremy's​ standing in front of a tall tree stump and he places a photo of him, both of his sisters, Bonnie, and Caroline on it. Caroline walks forward and sets her old pom poms down with the photo — they were on the cheer squad together. Matt places his old lifeguard whistle there — the Summer that he and Bonnie were lifeguards. Elena fights back tears as she drops feathers onto them all — when Bonnie showed her that she was a witch for the first time.

Elena then walks over to Caroline, and they hug as they both cry. Carter takes a deep breath as he walks forward and places a red rose with the other stuff. He wasn't close to her like the others were, but he still thought highly of her. Damon walks over and sets one of her old grimoires on top of the small pile. Sam leaves two roses — one from him and the other from Dean, who has the twins in each arm as he watches the others.

"It's okay." Bonnie says as she walks up beside Jeremy. "They need this. I need this."

Jeremy picks up the gold bell that's resting on the tree stump. "We ring this bell in honor of Bonnie, in remembrance for her." He says and then rings the bell.

Alex reaches for Sam, and he takes his nephew from his brother. Nyx sighs as she watches from a few feet away. She can't see Bonnie, but she knows that she's standing with Jeremy.

"I'm not sure what else to say."

"Say that I'm not going anywhere, say that even though they couldn't see me... I've been there the whole time." Bonnie tells him.

"She says that she's not going anywhere, that she has been here all along. Bonnie has watched you have the summer of your life."

"And I saw you trying to do what Nyx asked, trying to be happy." She continues as she walks over to Elena. "And I know you think now you can't have a normal life...that you have to be here for everyone, but you don't. Everyone will find their way, so you are gonna repack your things, you're gonna go back to college, and you're gonna live it up.

"You didn't do anything wrong, Matt." She says as she walks over to him. "You know I would've sent you three hundred emails if I could. I miss you.

"Caroline... I watched you decorate that dorm room like your life depended on it." She says, and both girls laugh. "And I know that college isn't everything you expected and that you feel like something's missing, but... Tyler." She smiles when she sees him walking up behind them.

Caroline turns around and runs over to him as soon as she sees him. He wraps his arms around her before going to place a white rose with the other stuff they've left for Bonnie.

Bonnie turns to the three boys who have the twins. "Watching you guys with the kids is so sweet...and sometimes a little comical, if I'm being completely honest." She says, and they all crack a small smile. "Dean, you have to stop numbing the pain, and grieve. I know it's hard, but they need you. They need all of you."

And suddenly Nyx can see her standing in front of them. "Bonnie?" Nyx's​ voice is confused, but what confuses Bonnie is that she heard her.

"Nyx?"

"Oh my God."

The two girls rush over to each other and hug as soon as they're close enough. It's the first physical contact Nyx's had in three months, but it means just as much to Bonnie. Even though she was able to talk to Matt while he was on the Other Side after Silas killed him.

"They're together." Jeremy tells the others, who are all relieved that they have each other, at least for now.

Sam smiles a little when he sees the happiness on Nyx's​ face as she pulls back and looks at Bonnie. He doesn't know how he can see her, they think it's because he was dead, and then Dean brought him. Just like Jeremy was dead before Bonnie brought him back the first time.

—

Dean looks down at Nycole's grave with tears in his eyes. He kneels down and runs his fingers over the engraved letters of her name on her headstone.

Nycole Gilbert
June 22, 1988 - June 14, 2007
Beloved Mother, Sister, and Friend

His eyes flicker to the right of her grave, and he sees Ric's headstone near hers. He sighs as he closes his eyes and lets his head hang.

"I don't know how to do this without you, baby." He whispers. "You were the one guiding me through it all. You made it so easy. All I had to do was follow your lead, and I knew that we'd all be okay."

"I know this is hard, but you have to keep going." Nyx says as she walks up behind him. "They deserve as much time as they can get with you for as long as they can have it. Please, baby, fight a little harder."

"I get why you wanted to be buried here, next to Ric. He was like a father to you. Even after Grayson, and John, you got Ric. Three dads... And all the twins have is me." He shakes his head. "What a disappointment."

"You are not a disappointment." She sighs.

"I'm not a father." He says as he stands up and looks around. "I know you're gonna hate me for this, but I need to kill something."

"Dean..."

"Goodbye, Nycole."

"Dean!" She yells, but he can't hear her.

He walks away from her grave, and she wants so badly to go after him and make him stay. She wants to kick his ass for what he's doing right now.

"Dean Winchester! You selfish bastard!" She pops up in front of the Impala. "Go home to our children! Don't you dare leave town!"

He walks right through her, not sure if she has any idea what's happening, and he gets in the driver's seat of the car before driving away from the cemetery. Dean leaves Mystic Falls.