That one future timeline wasn’t something that Sabrina Spellman ever really liked to talk about. She begrudgingly did so in her therapy sessions because she knew it was something that she had desperately needed to work through. Seeing that everyone she loved had died except for Ambrose had knocked the wind out of, dealing a devastating blow that had crushed a part of her that Sabrina knew she would never get back. And Ambrose being alive hadn’t exactly been a good thing. He’d gone mad while isolated and alone and she wondered if he was still there in that version of the future, lost and alone, with the Pagans still ruling the world.
At least Blackwood was incapacitated, but even that did little to make Sabrina worry less about that version of her cousin whenever she did think of him. She hoped that future was simply gone, rewritten over and unable to come into being any longer, but time magic was weird, the rules of it contradictory and she honestly still didn’t understand how much of it worked even after studying it for months in Vallo. It didn’t help that the rules of one world’s magic didn’t always apply to another either.
She’d never thought to tell Roz or Nick about it because they were alive. What was the point of bringing it up? Vallo seemed to have other ideas though and there was only so long that she could put off explaining how the two of them had managed to go inside of a circle that was only supposed to allow those who’d died before to enter it. Talking about it brought the nightmares back and Sabrina desperately wanted to keep those at bay.
It was easy enough for her to push off answering anything at first with them needing to deal with the death circle and monster inside of it and then making sure everything was ready for the party. But now that the party was in full swing, Sabrina knew it was only a matter of time before she’d need to answer questions.
So was she avoiding being in a room alone with Nick so she didn’t have to answer any questions? Maybe. Or maybe she was just being social. It was a toss up.
Was Sabrina avoiding him or was he avoiding Sabrina?
The answer was probably both, as Nick was throwing himself into bartending duties, which made it easier to keep busy. Roz may have been more interested in the truth than he was. So he was mixing drinks and trying to keep people from getting too drunk, occasionally breaking to talk to Hazel who he'd bestowed a new nickname upon.
This would have worked better if he could have stopped thinking about the issue he was trying to avoid. But it was there, lingering beneath the surface but threatening to overwhelm him if he kept ignoring it, and he finally stopped Sabrina the next time she wandered by.
"We need to talk," he said, knowing what happened if he kept letting something build. It would not be pretty.
She nearly shook him off, tried to come up with some excuse as to why that wasn’t a good idea right then. They were in the middle of a party. But they had said they were going to try and communicate better this time around and pushing him off was definitely not holding up to that commitment.
Sabrina wrapped her arms around herself before nodding. “Not out here.” She didn’t want someone else to overhear anything that they might end up discussing. She nodded toward the stairs that led up to the rooms that she’d never actually set foot in before. “Up there?”
They could easily put up an anti eavesdropping spell.
Nick nodded, not wanting to be out in the open either. He felt somewhat relieved, the pressure that had been building lifting a bit even though the anxiety of the unknown remained. At least he was dealing with things.
He led the way upstairs and into one of the rooms that looked straight out of a movie where backroom deals were made. Once inside, he stopped her so he could say, "No matter what, Spellman. I love you. Now spill?"
It helped a little to hear that but Sabrina still walked away from him, not wanting to look at him when she did finally speak. Talking about what happened only ended up with her seeing them all that way. Her aunts were nothing but headstones. Salem as only a headstone. All of them statues. Her dreams were already going to be awful enough without adding to it.
“I didn’t win the crown the first time I tried to get it. Caliban trapped me in stone.” She still didn’t understand how Sabrina Morningstar could have fallen for the clay boy after everything he’d done to them, after the future he’d brought about. But she hadn’t experienced it. So maybe that was why she never saw the horror that he truly was. “I got out of it after about a hundred years, I think? Caliban was killed by the archangels, Hell was ransacked. The Pagans won. Earth was theirs. My aunts were dead. They killed Salem. I’m pretty sure they sacrificed Harvey. You were turned to stone. Roz and Theo and Robin were...everyone was dead.”
Tears slid down her face as she remembered finding them all as she’d explored her town, the blood vines that seemed to be everywhere. She dug her nails into her palms, trying to keep her breathing steady.
“Except Ambrose. Not that him being alive was any better. He went mad. But he helped me go back in time and fix things so none of you were dead.” And instead the Eldritch terrors were released, trading in one threat for another. “Does that answer it enough?”
Whatever Nick had been expecting, and truthfully, he'd had no idea of what to expect, but even then he couldn't have fathomed that answer. That was a lot to take in, and truthfully it seemed he was spared in not having memories of something that Sabrina had reversed.
But Sabrina hadn't been spared, and even with as much of a shock that had been, he had the sense to close the distance between them. "That's a lot, Spellman," he said quietly. He still couldn't comprehend it, and it was going to take more than just this conversation for him to come to terms with what she'd told him, but it was a start.
And it was enough of an answer though it did lead to another question.
"Morningstar?"
“There were two of us. She wanted power. I wanted my family.” It had been as simple as that. After having lost them, gaining Hell had seemed so meaningless. “So she went there and claimed the crown and I went home.”
Sabrina walked away and sat down on one of the chairs. “You know the rest.”
The party was still happening downstairs, but she had no desire to head back to it. Not yet anyway. She needed a few more minutes to build back any sort of facade before she could try and fake it through the rest of the night.
Now uncertain as to why he thought it would be a good idea to have this conversation in the middle of a party, Nick paced the floor, trying to figure out how to handle this revelatory information that seemed more than either one of them could handle.
"Sorry," he muttered. "I shouldn't have forced this conversation here."
But that wasn't all of it. He walked back over to her and held out his hands. "Sabrina, I'm sorry you had to go through all of that." Most of it alone. "I can't even imagine."
“You didn’t know.” If she’d had her way none of them would have known. Stupid Vallo forcing out stories she didn’t want to tell.
Sabrina took hold of his hands and pulled him toward her. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore though.” All she wanted to do was hug him tightly and forget everything else.
"Okay," he said, maneuvering himself onto the chair and her into his lap for the sake of comfort when it was clear she didn't want to otherwise move. And then he held her, not letting go, wishing he could do something more.
"I'm not in a rush to go back, and they can live without you for a while," he said softly, running his fingers through her hair. "We've got time."
“I love you,” she murmured as she curled her hands into his shirt, not willing to let go of him either. Her head and her heart hurt and she was probably going to need to talk to Dan when they eventually headed home. He could help her go through the tasks again to try and block out any nightmares from winning out that night.
Maybe getting it out and letting Nick know what had happened was better than keeping it to herself and dealing with that nightmare of a future on her own. Right then though, all it did was leave her feeling exhausted.
"I love you, Spellman," Nick replied. "And you're probably not gonna get me to leave your side for the rest of the night. Which will make certain things easier."
He had a point. “I like you by my side over trying to avoid you.” Which would have been difficult later that night considering they shared a bed. “We should get back though because we’re being terrible hosts.”
"Not quite yet," Nick replied, managing a smirk. "If anyone saw us go up here we can't return too soon."
That brought out a laugh from her. “Mmmm. I think Aidan would have a field day if we showed up too soon. I’m not really in the mood to… right now though.” Even if that would have been a more fun reason to have slipped away.
She rested her head against his chest and closed her eyes as she snuggled in closer. “Maybe when we go home.”
"I'll take this right now," Nick replied, perfectly content to hold Sabrina after that conversation, as long as he could before they eventually had to find their way back downstairs.