What Could Never Be
Sequel to "What Might Have Been" and "The Way It Really Was"
2051:
Helen sighed as she looked around her study. Another year had come and gone; she had officially seen two centuries pass, and still she looked as young as she had at the beginning of her nightmare. She looked at the photo on her desk of the blond-haired angel whom she'd lost forty-two years earlier. The pain was still as deep now as it had been back then while the regrets had been given time to cultivate and grow. How she missed Ashley.
Hearing the clock behind her tick slowly, she looked back at the screen in her desk in an attempt to return to her work, using her stylus to make some adjustments to her notes in her impeccable script. Their first dragon egg had been recovered only a few months ago by the Chinese Sanctuary, and then handed to her for her personal study. With all of the changes she was detecting in it, it would hatch any day now.
There was a beep as a holographic image of her daughter appeared on her desk, necessitating that Helen pause her work. "Mom?"
Helen smiled as she looked at the miniature representation of the now auburn-haired woman to whom she'd given birth forty years earlier. "Yes, Audrey?"
"Magnus, Gregory, the kids and I are ready to come back, but it'd help if you'd let down the EM shield."
Helen chuckled softly as she quickly accessed a program on her computer. "It's down."
Her daughter's hologram disappeared as Audrey, her husband, Magnus Zimmerman and their five-year-old daughter, Katie, named for her late paternal grandmother, appeared before her. "Just two more trips," Audrey promised, disappearing once again.
Helen couldn't help but chuckle as she looked over at her son-in-law. "No time for a proper greeting, I suppose," she teased.
He laughed as Katie raced toward Helen. "Gramma!"
"Hello, sweetheart," Helen said, absorbing the five-year-old's energy easily as she caught her in her arms and hugged her tightly. "How was London, hm?"
"Cool!" She cried, excitedly.
Another violet-colored flash appeared, and Helen turned to find her son, forty-year-old, Gregory, shuddering. "I hate when she does that."
Helen offered him a sympathetic smile as he left where he'd been standing in his twin sister's grasp and walked toward her. "Hello, Mother."
"How are you, Gregory?" She asked, hugging him tightly.
Her daughter still looked like she was twenty-five, but her son, the considerably more sober head of the UK Sanctuary, was beginning to gray at the temples with the stress of his job.
"I'm fine," he said, returning the embrace before he pulled away.
"Magnus, a little help here?" Audrey asked, her three-year-old son, Luke, unwilling to let go of his mother's leg.
"Come here, little guy," Magnus said, prying the toddler away from his mother, eliciting a wail from the young boy. "I know, I know. But Mommy'll be right back."
Audrey looked back at her mother. "One more trip." She said before she disappeared in a flash of color.
"What on Earth is she getting?" Helen asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise. "You're all here."
"Surprises." Gregory said with a grin.
Helen couldn't help but chuckle as she shook her head. "You're incorrigible," she laughed.
"Something I inherited from my mother," he teased, affectionately, as Magnus brought Helen's grandson to her. "Oh, this can't be my little Luke, can it?" She asked, feigning shock. "He's so much smaller than this young man."
"I free now." Luke said, holding up three pudgy fingers for her to see.
"Three?" Helen asked with a widening smile on her face.
He nodded, emphatically, and Helen chuckled softly. "Well, I suppose that makes you a regular English gentleman then."
The toddler yawned, and Magnus smiled. "And that's a sign that it's naptime."
Helen chuckled. "Welcome home."
"Thanks, Helen." He said, reaching for his daughter's hand.
"Just so you know, I believe your father is in his office awaiting your arrival."
"Grandpa!" Katie cried, excitedly.
"Come on, Katie," Magnus said, offering his hand to the young girl. "Let's get Luke ready for a nap and then, we can go see Grandpa."
"I no wan' nap." Luke protested as his sister accepted their father's hand.
"I'll have these taken to your quarters," Helen said before Magnus could even think about getting the bags himself.
"Thanks," he said, relieved.
Helen watched him leave, remembering for a moment the first time she'd ever heard of him, long before he'd been conceived, in the alternate timeline that the Guardian had shown her when she'd found the cure to her longevity. She shuddered involuntarily.
"Cold?" Gregory asked, feeling her vibration.
Helen shook her head. "I'm fine."
"Finished!" Audrey cried, appearing before them again.
"Empty-handed, I see." Helen mused.
"Mother, it's your birthday," Audrey said, shaking her head. "I would never be empty-handed."
Helen tensed. "Just tell me that you've only brought presents and no plans to celebrate with a large event."
She won no response from either of her full-grown children, though Gregory looked down, properly abashed.
"Audrey, we've been over this," Helen sighed, heavily.
"It's your two-hundredth birthday, Mom. We can't just ignore it. And if we did, someone else would throw you a party."
Helen managed a small smile, knowing that it was useless to try and fight Audrey – she had inherited both of her parents' determination which made her nearly unstoppable in pursuing what she wanted. "I suppose you're right," she finally managed. "Now...your husband and children are either in their usual suite or headed down to see Will."
"I should go and help out." Audrey said after a moment.
Helen nodded, watching her leave.
"I'm sorry about the party, Mother, but you know what it's like to fight Audrey..."
"Yes, I know." Helen said, turning a preoccupied smile to her son. "But if it makes her happy..."
"What about what makes you happy, Mother?"
Helen bit her lip. She'd given up trying to be truly happy a long time ago. Happiness made way for devastation. It always had, and it always would, she realized.
Having Ashley had lulled her into happiness, and a short twenty-five years later, she'd died. That had made way for John to return to her life, only to die at the hand of an abnormal, leaving her with a broken heart and another unplanned pregnancy. Then, John had reappeared after the discovery of a cloning plan that Nikola had put together, and in an uncharacteristic move, she invited him back into her life and into the life of their children, only to hear the devastating news...
"Magnus?" Will had asked, hesitantly knocking on the door to Helen's study.
"Yes?" She asked, looking up from her work.
"Look, I know you're busy catching up and all, but...I think there's something you need to see."
The woman stood, perplexed by the younger man's hesitation. "You don't need to apologize, Will. You've done a wonderful job running the Sanctuary in my absence. And you kept me very well-informed. I don't feel like there's much on which to catch up."
He managed a strained smile. "Thanks, Magnus, but...I really think you should see this..."
She merely nodded as she followed him into his office to the small television set that sat on his desk.
"Authorities suspect that the murders are connected – one of the many copycats of the Ripper killings from 1888."
Her breath was trapped in her chest as she stared at the television screen.
"Look, I know what he means to you, but..."
She looked up instantly, feeling the all-too familiar feeling of adrenaline rushing through her veins as she realized that the most notorious serial killer of all time threatened her family's safety once again. "He's with Audrey and Gregory. Dear God, he's with my babies..."
She'd grabbed the nearest gun and hurried to the nursery to find John Druitt reading silently in the room with the then-year-old twins.
"I thought we'd moved past this part of our relationship," he drawled lazily, barely putting aside the book in his hands.
"Tell me when, John." She whispered, trying to keep the tears from streaming down her cheeks.
"When what?" He asked, feigning ignorance.
"I saw the news, John!" She cried, angrily. "You've been killing again!"
The twins awoke, and Helen turned to the unexpected sound of Audrey's crying. John took advantage of the opportunity to disarm her, and pull her back against him with one arm tight against her throat. "Do you really want to know?" He whispered, his breath hot against her ear.
With her heart pounding in fear, she watched as her manservant and makeshift nanny, affectionately called by the other "the Big Guy" appeared in the door at the sound of the twins' tears only to have John whip Helen around to face the door. "Don't..." John ordered the hirsute butler.
"Druitt..." Will said, appearing a few moments later. "Let her go. Don't do this."
The serial killer raised an eyebrow as he looked at the younger man. "And who's going to stop me?"
Helen watched her protege's eyes, waiting for some signal that it was safe to make her move. She got a moment's approval, and she stomped on the inside of John's foot, feeling the bone give way as her heel crushed one of the smaller bones.
"Agh!" The man cried, momentarily releasing his grip on his former lover. As she hurried toward the gun, he grabbed her hair and pulled her back.
Will revealed a handgun and shot John in the shoulder as the infants cries grew louder. "Let her go, Druitt."
Suddenly, a blade appeared in Druitt's hand, hovering above Helen's jugular. Thinking quickly, she swept her leg underneath him, forcing him to the ground, and her along with him. With the force of the blow to the ground, however, he released his grip on her hair, and she retrieved the gun, standing over him in righteous indignation. "You need to leave now." She managed, her voice trembling with anger and fear together.
"Or you'll do what?" He asked with the smirk to which she'd grown too familiar. "Shoot me?"
Her gaze hardened. "If you ever come near me or my children again, I will do worse than shoot you."
His eyebrow raised as he laughed softly at her threat. "Do try better than that, Helen," he said, playfully.
"If she can't, I will." Will assured, pointing his gun at the man again.
John's smirk turned into a twisted smile as he disappeared from view only to crackle against the EM shield, causing Helen to tear up involuntarily with the stress of what had just transpired. "He's gone..." She whispered, remembering for an instant her daughter's similar death. "After a century and a half, he's..."
She couldn't bring herself to say the words as she looked at Will in shock.
The Big Guy didn't say anything about what had just happened, allowing Will to comfort Helen as he picked up the twins, and instantly comforted them back to silence.
"Mother?"
Helen turned to her son, instantly regretting the flashback. "Yes?"
"Did you hear my question?"
"What question?" She deflected, expertly, as she walked down the corridors of the Sanctuary.