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That time, Kiko and Nick turned on him together.

“Oh, give it a rest,” Kiko complained loudly. “Gah! Haven’t we beenoverall this? He’s not even the same person, Dex. How is it everyone can see it but you? The doc let it go. I let it go. Why can’t you? It’s not like it was his fault. That piece of shitdidthis to him. He hurt him. Bad. He killed him. How is it you don’t see that?”

There was a silence where Dex just looked at her.

Then tears came to his brown eyes, and he clutched her hands.

“I’m so sorry, Kiks. I’m so, so sorry… I blew it. I blew everything. I should have never left you alone that day. It was my fault. More than him. It was my fault.”

She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tight.

“You didn’t blow anything, you big dummy,” she said fondly. “And it absolutely wasn’t your fault. You have to know that. It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t Nick’s fault. If it was anyone’s fault, it was that asshole, Brick.”

She smacked him on the back, leaning up to kiss him on the cheek before she hugged him even tighter. After a few more seconds, she finally let him go, and her own eyes filled with tears. “I love you, dummy. I just want my friend back. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

She hooked a thumb in Nick’s direction, grinning through her tears.

“That’s allthisdumb lug wants too. He loves you… and you shot him in the face. You shot him likethree times,Dex. And he still loves you. He might be a complete fucking idiot, but he loves you. What more do you want?”

Dex looked at Nick.

He frowned, as if about to call bullshit on everything Kiko said.

Then his eyes welled up again.

He stared at Nick’s vampire eyes and his chalk-white skin like he had no idea what to do with him, much less how to feel about him.

Nick stared back at him, swallowing.

He knew he looked alien to Dex. He knew why Dex hated him.

Without warning, tears came to his eyes, too.

Dexter had been one his best friends. Angel. Miri. Dex. Black. Kiko. They were all the people he’d loved most before he got turned. They were all the people he tried to hurt the most when Brick stripped his humanity from him. He had bare memories of feeling like they deserved it, like they betrayed him, left him in that tree to die.

He remembered thinking they didn’t give a shit about him.

He remembered believing no one even looked for him.

None of it even made sense to him now.

None of it had been remotely true.

They were like the rantings of a crazy person.

However weird he felt now, Nick felt positively grounded and sane compared to how he’d felt those first few months of being a vampire. He couldn’t comprehend how he’d done any of those things. He couldn’t comprehend how he’d felt any of the things he’d felt, or believed any of the things he believed.

Dex grabbed his arm, and squeezed.

He looked down at his hand then, and burst out in an involuntary laugh.

“Jesus, man. You’re made of concrete.”

Nick shrugged, giving him a wan smile as he wiped his eyes.

“More or less, yeah,” he said. “You can punch me if you want anyway. You might want to wait until you have brass knuckles… or you’ll probably break your hand.”

Dex smiled for real. He didn’t punch him, but shoved at Nick’s shoulder. He laughed again when he barely moved Nick’s rock-like form. Kiko punched Nick in the arm, then laughed, shaking out her hand.