Reverse Psychology (Book Three Zach's Daughter Series, TVD)

I held my head in pain as I walked downstairs.

"That's great," I heard Damon say. "Klaus will finally be dead. We win. Why do you look like someone just shot a panda bear?"

"Because to kill Klaus, she has to kill all of them, including Elijah, and he doesn't deserve this," Elena answered.

That got my attention.

What?

"I'm supposed to care about Elijah?" Damon asked.

"Nicola does," Elena said.

"It was a date at a ball and a conspiracy plan to kill Klaus," Damon said. "If he dies, she'll get over it."

"Shouldn't you at least care about Rebekah?" Elena asked bitterly.

"Two seconds ago, you were pissed that she attacked you," Damon told her. "It's a win-win. Don't do anything to screw this up, Elena."

"Why are you doing this?" Elena asked.

"He's right, you know," Stefan said. "Klaus has to die. They all do."

"See?" Damon asked. "Democracy in action."

I heard Elena leave, hearing Damon and Stefan talk without them knowing I was listening.

But I couldn't focus on the words. They were echoy, and I couldn't tell them apart from each other. Just one, big blur, the only way to tell any difference at all being the separate voices.

My head throbbed, pounded . . . I could hear my own heartbeat in my ears. That was the only thing I could hear anymore.

The pain . . . It got to where it made my head feel at least a thousand pounds but light-headed and dizzy at the exact same moment, with my eyes closed, trying to take a step in the left direction. When it felt like I was swaying toward a fall, I took a step to the right.

Opening my eyes, all I could see were blurs and shapes and colors. I rubbed my eyes, the vision staying the same as I felt my head thicken.

"Nikki?" I heard Damon ask between a heart beat. Pump. "Nikki." Pump. "What's--"

Pump.

"Nicol--" Stefan said.

Pump.

Blackness took over as I started to fall, Stefan catching me.

"Nikki!"

~

When I woke up, I had no idea where I was. At least my head felt normal. I didn't hear my heart beat. I could see clearly.

I was in a bed, but I wasn't in mine. Everything in the room was white. The bed I laid in was inclined, had railings on either side of me.

I looked at the IV in my arm, which was probably what had stopped the pain.

"It's worse than she let on," I heard Meredith, Dr. Fell or Ric's new girlfriend, saw from behind the closed curtain. "It's not just sleepless nights, or blurred vision, or chronic migraines, shakiness, it's that and more."

"Actually  she's never told anyone about any of that," Stefan said. "We, uh, we just had to put the pieces together ourselves."

"Yes, we know something's wrong with Nikki," Damon said impatiently. "What is it?"

"I've gone through her mother's records and compared them to the blood work I took from Nicola, and the MRI," Meredith explained. "The sicknesd her mother had? Nicola has it."