Just a heads up everyone, this one is a tear-jerker and please remember this story is canon. You should know what that means at this point in the series. Thank you for reading and feel free to review.

It had been just shy of a couple of weeks after Stephen had passed. I had just come to terms that he was not on a holiday and would actually not be coming home. Losing someone was always a difficult process and to handle, it always varied from person to person and death to death. I had turned my sorrow into anger when I came to the realization it was all Helen. If Helen was out of the picture none of this would have happened.

No one had heard anything from Nick in a couple of days, it was something that was not normal so I made my way over to his flat. I walked up the steps and knocked on the door, waiting for an answer. It was an unnaturally sunny day today. It was the first time in a while where I felt I could have worn makeup, without worrying it would all come off two seconds later from tears. Alas, I didn't just in case.

Nick opened the door. His disheveled appearance took me by surprise. His hair was unkempt, he had the beginnings of a beard growing and his clothes were dirty. "Hello Skyla," he stated as he opened the door further to let me in. Apparently, his appearance didn't bother him one bit. I cautiously walked into the flat behind him as he made his way to the lounge. "Connor said you've called out the last couple of days. Thought I would stop by to see how you're holding up." I stated as Nick sat on his couch. I sat next to him.

He didn't say anything, just stared at the wall. It reminded me of how sometimes my Grandfather would stare into the wall, reliving memories to a point. After a couple of moments, I reached out and grasped his hand, knowing exactly what he was thinking. He was reliving the last day Stephen was on this earth. Trying to calculate how things could have gone differently. If he would have done this one thing would he still be alive?

Nick snapped out of his staring contest and turned to me. He gave a forced smile and looked into my eyes. There was a sense of panic there before he broke down into tears. "It's my fault that he's dead. It should've been me that went into that room," he said between his sobs. I shook my head. "No, it wasn't your fault." A tear fell down my face as I watched the man I had grown to love in a fatherly way break down in front of me. "We've talked about this. Neither of us could have changed the outcome of this. Only Helen could have." I explained, pinning the blame on our mutual enemy.

He shook his head. "No, Helen loved him. She wanted him to join her." Even though I already knew this truth, knew that Stephen had betrayed him with Helen in the worst way a friend could, it still felt like a dagger to the chest. Knowing that they had a fling, an affair.

"She didn't love him enough to save him. Something that you were prepared to do. Me, I was still in too much shock over it all to register what was happening. He sacrificed himself for us." I explained. "Not for her. In the end, he knew that you and I would forgive him for his wrongs and love him all the same."

Nick continued to shake his head. "It should have been me," he whispered. Something ignited in my chest when he repeated his words. I lifted my hand and slapped him across the face, shocking both of us.

"You did not cause this. This was all Helen's doing. If she was out of the picture, Stephen would still be here. She brought all those creatures to that place. She lured us like sheep there. She caused this to happen, not me and definitely not you." I yelled the words, I noticed I was suddenly standing in front of Nick who was still looking at me with wide eyes.

I knelt in front of him and grasped his hands looking up to him with a pleading face. "You need to stop blaming yourself. It's eating at you. You did nothing wrong that day. Neither did I. Yes, we had words with Stephen. Both of us felt the betrayal when he believed Helen and went with her. But that is the keyword in all of this. The key to this whole thing. Helen. Not you or me." I continued to repeat my words, slowly convincing him that we weren't to blame for his death. It wasn't until his knuckle connected with my cheek to wipe away some of the tears that were still falling when I realized how upset I really still was over this whole ordeal.

Nick pulled me from the ground and sat me next to him, slowly wrapping his arms around me into a hug. I wrapped my arms around him as we both continued to cry. We stayed like that for what felt like hours. I never would recall how long we sat there in each other's arms mourning our lost friend. When we stopped crying we just sat there next to each other. My head on his shoulder and his resting on my own head.

Nick let out a little laugh. I moved my head to look up at his face, wondering what on earth he could be laughing at. "Remember that time when you stayed late with us going over other students midterms and you two got into an argument over Jurassic Park novels and how Michael Crichton describes the dinosaurs?"

I let out a small laugh at the memory. "If I remember right I was saying that, for a writer, he described the animals impeccably. And he said that it was all nonsense."

Nick let out a little louder of a laugh as the memory began to play in his mind. "You two got so heated about it, I finally had to split you two up and explain it was just one person's interpretation of a dinosaur and we would probably never know what they truly looked liked."

"Then you made us go out to get pizza and beer and bring it back to make up," I said letting a couple of tears fall at the memory. "He really was a stubborn ass when he wanted to be."

Nick let out a weary sigh. "I always knew at some point you two would get together. I thought it would happen sooner rather than later."

I let out a chuckle. "It was a daydream of mine sitting in your lectures. Not that I wasn't paying attention of course. But on the stuff I really knew by heart, I would let my mind wander to what it would be like to be with Stephen." I could feel the weight of my words as I said them. The weight of the whole conversation was beginning to weigh on my chest. "Talk about coincidences. I don't know where I would be if he hadn't walked into that tea shop when he did. Of all the gin joints in all the world, right?" I said letting out a sigh and trying to hold my tears back. "Despite what's happened," I began as my eyes teared up, "I wouldn't change a damn thing if it meant not spending the time I had with him." The tears began to flow down again. "I'm happy for the memories I got to have with him. The relationship that I got to experience with him. Trust me it goes without saying I would rather have him still here with me. But I got to spend his last months here with him. I'm grateful for that."

Nick tightened the arm around my shoulders. "Me too. I know he hadn't been that happy in a long time. He loved you." I nodded my head as we continued to let out silent tears and talk about the good times we had with Stephen.

I felt like I was being rocked to sleep. Like I was a wee babe and my mother was rocking me to get me to sleep. Suddenly the rocking stopped and I felt like I was being put down. I tried to open my eyes but was unable to.

It had been so long since I had been treated in such a loving way. The last person to treat me with such tenderness, such love, was Stephen. Maybe this was all a horrid dream. Maybe he had never died and it was all just one crazy nightmare. "Stephen?" I muttered as I slowly began to regain consciousness. I tried to open my eyes, the light stung them. I wanted to see his face. I longed to see his face, to see his brilliant blue eyes. Once my eyes finally opened I looked up to see Becker. His face was covered in soot as he looked down at me concerned. It was that moment I remembered it wasn't a nightmare, that all these events had indeed happened in real life. "What happened?" I choked out. My throat hurt and I was unsure why.

Becker shook his head. "There was an explosion," he said. I remembered I was running back to Nick and Helen and ran into Helen. I sat up suddenly, Becker's hand was placed on my good shoulder, an attempt to avoid the sudden movement that I had made. "Where's Nick?" I asked barely able to speak let alone breath. My lungs were on fire. I noticed Abby and Jenny walking in my direction noticing that I was conscious. Sarah and Lester stood a couple of feet away looking at the burning ARC. "Where's Connor?" I asked when they got closer noting that I couldn't find him in the commotion.

"He went back inside for Helen. Connor went after him when he didn't come out." Abby said with tears brimming in her eyes. I shoved Becker's hand away from me as I abruptly stood up. I ignored the pain in my head and the sudden wave of nausea and lightheadedness that overcame me.

"Skyla, you need to sit down," Becker said.

I looked up to him and shook my head. "I'm going in," I stated as I began to wobble toward the burning building.

Becker got in front of me. "No you're bloody not," he said holding out his arm to my good shoulder to stop me.

"You don't understand, Nick is in there and he needs my help!" I yelled at him, tears brimming in my eyes.

For the first time, Becker looked like he was torn in emotion. He looked empathetic. "I understand but I cannot let you put your life at risk to save him," he argued.

"You let Connor go! You let him run into the burning building to save a man that he looks up to. Why can't you let me do the same? He's practically my father for christ's sake!" I pushed Becker and he pushed back.

"I can't let you go in." He said sternly. His eyes looked to be brimming with his own tears. I stood there staring up at him in anger as tears began to fall down my eyes. I knew I shouldn't go in and I knew I could never make it past Becker.

"Oh my god," Jenny's voice sent chills down my spine. I looked past Becker to see Connor carrying an unconscious Nick out of the building. The soot on Connor's face showed his own lines of tears.

Even though my lungs burned and my throat was raw I let out a horrified scream and I tried to run in their direction. Becker caught me and handed me off to one of his security details who held onto me as his life depended on it. I watched as Becker helped Connor lower Nick to the ground. He wasn't moving and it didn't look like he was breathing. I couldn't hear anything around me but my screams and my heartbeat. I watched as Connor opened his mouth. The first words I heard echoed through my head. "It's too late."

In a disbelief rage, I elbowed the soldier that had a hold of me and punched him in the face as he regained his footing. I ran as fast as I could over to the group surrounding Nick. The moment I laid my eyes on Nick's lifeless face my legs began to crumble beneath me. I felt someone grab me before I hit the pavement as I screamed and sobbed uncontrollably. Slowly the person who held me lowered me to the ground. Once we were both sitting the person's arm held my head in comfort. For a brief moment, I glanced up and registered that it was Becker who had a hold of me as I sobbed into his chest.

Nick was gone, a small bullet hole in his unmoving chest. His lifeless eyes stared up at the blue sky.