AN: Written for GW Helen/Nikola thread January challenge, I know it's a bit late, and I'm not even sure if they know I've written this *bites lip sheepishly* Dedicated to all the wondeful Teslenites on there. This fic is only Helen/Nikola, no other pairings, so don't be alarmed.
AU after sleepers, the obvious spoiler for that ep. Just a bit of fun on my part; would love con crit and reviews.
Snowed in
Helen was getting frustrated. They'd been holed up in the Sanctuary for almost a week now and being kept indoors was starting to get stifling. Will, Henry and Kate had made it their personal mission to get on Nikola's nerves and vice versa. Bigfoot – the most sensible among them – had been catching up with some old acquaintances of theirs' when the storm had struck, and so was snowed out.
Helen was starting to wish she could grow wings and fly out, because although they could still get out onto some of the courtyards via a few windows, they couldn't get out of the grounds themselves, and so they were stuck indoors most of the time.
And then their problems had got worse.
The heating system was on the blink. They were freezing one minute and evaporating the next. Some of their residents had gone into hibernation, but she had to keep the rest confined to their cells as they'd had another nubbins breakout yesterday. They were pretty certain they'd caught them all, but it was better to be safe than sorry. This did mean however, a number of her patients were getting cranky.
She also had one very persistent headache, and they were running low on paracetamol.
And now she couldn't find any of her bickering team.
***
Having searched the house once more and finding nothing, Helen finally gave up and pulled out her phone. She called Will.
After two rings, Kate picked up.
"Uh, Will's kinda busy right now, call back later."
There were some muffled thumps and giggling from down the line.
Helen raised her eyebrows.
Suddenly Will's voice was heard. "Wait, Kate, who is that?"
"The boss." Came Kate's nonchalant reply.
"You didn't! Give me that!"
There was another thump and the call was disconnected.
Helen's anger had quickly been replaced by a sort of puzzled surprise.
She hadn't really expected anything to really develop between the two newest recruits, although she had sometimes thought it was possible she'd thought it would have taken a lot longer and probably not go anywhere. So much for that theory.
Now she knew why she couldn't find Will and Kate, but she still didn't know what had happened to Henry and Nikola...
Her questions were answered a moment later when a voice drifted in through an open ground floor window. The question 'Why is that window open?' got shoved to the back of her mind.
"I'm going to kill you!" It was Henry, and he sounded very angry.
"Oh yeah," that was definitely Nikola. "Bring it on pipsqueak!"
Helen winced as she wondered over to the window. Henry really might kill him now.
"You're gonna regret that gramps!"
A thump was heard, followed swiftly by a crash and a yelp. Then a different voice piped up.
"Urr...Henry, you know Magnus is gonna kill you, right?" It was Will.
Helen was confused, if Will was outside...What the hell was going on?
Without another thought Helen marched over to the open window and vaulted out it, careful to make as little noise as possible.
She was suddenly very glad to be wearing trousers.
***
Helen resisted the urge to laugh at her previous ponderings when she saw the sight in front of her.
Kate, Will and Henry were gathered around a large pile of snow which was heaped up against one wall of the house; a broken vase ('what on earth was that doing there?') in several pieces next to it. Will's mobile phone could be seen a short distance off stuck in a snowman. It was obvious now that her team had been in the middle of a snowball fight.
"Yep, you are dead meat man." Kate's voice drifted across the short distance to her.
"He's not even unconscious!" protested Henry.
"No," said the disembodied voice of Nikola Tesla as the snow pile started moving. "But you will be! And I'm bleeding!"
Nikola had just dug himself out of his icy grave when he looked up and spotted Helen creeping stealthily up on them.
"I see you finally ventured out of your office then."
Three startled faces quickly swung around to meet her.
"Urr...hi boss." Kate recovered the quickest. "We can explain, really."
"I'm sure you can." Helen brushed past them to where her mind was currently occupied and crouched down in front of a not very dignified looking Nikola.
Instead of his usual suit, he was wearing jeans and a dark blue woolly jumper. A matching blue beanie hat lay on the floor next to him whilst his hair stuck up even more than usual. He was indeed bleeding; there was a small cut on his left cheek from where a pottery shard had cut him.
Helen couldn't help but smile at his sodden appearance.
Reaching out, she placed her right hand on his cheek and quickly brushed away the blood with her thumb, careful to ignore the hitch in Nikola's breath. Then, taking herself and everyone else by surprise, she quickly pushed her hand through his hair, dislodging the snow that had settled there but lingering longer than was absolutely necessary.
God had she wanted to do that for a while!
Nikola looked suitably shocked, but his face soon broke out into a wolfish grin.
Helen withdrew the hand and made a show of inspecting his cheek once more. "You'll live." She declared and pulled Nikola to his feet.
The man in front of her looked down at their still joined hands, and slowly leaned forwards until she could feel his lips hovering over her ear. This time it was the hitch in her own breath she ignored.
"Care to help me with some payback?"
Helen couldn't help but grin at his whispered words. She turned her lips towards his own ear.
"You go left, I'll go right."
***
At sometime during the following chaos Helen found herself sheltering from oncoming snowballs behind a mound that had once a bench.
She and Nikola were taking on the children in the fight, but they'd become separated in the mad flurry continually flying their way.
An incoming missile forced her to roll onto her back, trying to think of a strategy to get back to Nikola without being killed.
As it was, she needn't have worried, as the ex-vampire came flying over the bench and landed right on top of her. He looked up as if startled by his sudden flight and then noticed what he'd landed on.
"Why hello there Helen, I was just looking for you."
Helen couldn't speak. Having a fully grown man land on top of you has a tendency to leave one out of breath. Nikola must have noticed as he gently pushed himself upwards, balancing miraculously on his elbows so she was looking up at him; their faces inches apart.
Helen wasn't entirely sure what happened next: suddenly she found herself lying on top of Nikola, the wolfish grin on his face suggesting he'd had something to do with their change of position. And then Nikola did something she really hadn't seen coming.
Keeping her from getting up with one hand, the other disappeared before quickly returning with a sprig of mistletoe. She wondered where he could have possibly got the item he was waving in front of her face.
Instead of bothering to ask a question she knew he would avoid, she stated a fact.
"It's not Christmas anymore."
Nikola raised an eyebrow. "When has that stopped me before? Besides, it doesn't need to be Christmas."
And then Helen felt his lips on hers, she found herself wholeheartedly agreeing.
~Fin