Under Pressure

How the bloody hell had this happened? Magnus hammered her fists against the six foot thick steel air locked door, ineffectually.

At one time, the high security vault she now found herself locked inside, had been a submarine depressurisation unit which had since been recycled into secure storage containment to house a collection of rare and unusual abnormal artefacts. It took a special kind of obsessive to go to this much trouble to protect their collection so intently.

That was the reason they had been called in. A collector of abnormal artefacts, who wished to remain anonymous, had contacted the Sanctuary and asked them to investigate a break-in into their high security vault. Nothing had been taken but the mystery remained that there was no appearance of forced entry, and no way in or out of the locked unit unless you had the key and the computer code. Well known throughout the field of abnormals, the Sanctuary team's expertise had been requested.

They had spent a couple of hours searching the unit already and Magnus was getting a headache. Ashley and Will were sniping at each other and so were she and Druitt. Why he had insisted on coming along she hadn't worked out yet, but he played the 'Spend some time with Ashley' card, and she relented, especially when Ashley seemed happy enough to have him there and he distracted her from baiting Will.

"John, you'll have to teleport us out."

"I can't. This is lead sealed container, it's used on submarines as a radiation shield. It would be folly to attempt a teleport through it."

"Oh, how do you know you can't teleport through lead?" asked Will.

"I've experimented with various substances," explained Druitt.

Ashley snickered.

"Not like that."

Henry nodded from outside the vault. He could hear every word they were saying but the communication system was only working one way so they couldn't hear him. Druitt was right. Lead was the only substance which could dampen Superman's powers, apart from kryptonite of course. Everyone knew that. It made sense that it wasn't the best substance to teleport through.

Henry bobbed up and down at the small airlock portal window every few minutes waving and gesticulating, trying to impart whatever it was he was doing to the four people inside. In the end he gave up trying to act out his plan through the tiny pane of glass and wrote on the back of an old piece of paper he had found lying around with some strange language on the one side. He held up the paper for them to see.

'Four hours to go. Original programming equalising pressure.'

"What pressure?" demanded Magnus. "We're at bloody sea level, on land."

Henry shrugged.

Inside the vault it was getting warmer and clothes were starting to stick to skin. A trickle of sweat ran down Will's forehead and made him scratch his nose under his glasses. His eyes flicked around the room. No one was saying anything, why was no one saying anything? He twitched nervously as he noticed Ashley glaring at him.

She was bored, and with the cuckoo in the vault she wasn't about to ask the awkward questions she wanted to ask her parents. She was too hot, and hungry, and dying for a pee, and all of the above, plus Will's noisy breathing and mere existence was all contributing to her bad temper. A diversion was needed but none were available in the confined area. Will sniffed and another straw was added to the pile on the camels back.

"Are we making you uncomfortable, Will?" asked Ashley, a slightly mocking tone to her voice.

"N-no."

"Well, that's alright then. For a moment there I thought the silence was unsettling you."

"N-no. It's just we don't know how long we are going to be in here and no ones saying anything. Why isn't anyone saying anything?"

"Some people are happy to sit quietly and not blabber crap at every opportunity."

"Ashley," said Magnus in a warning tone.

"No, Will, what's your problem? We're all comfortable sitting patiently and you're spazing like you'll burst if you don't start spouting hot air. What would you like to talk about, my anger management problem or about how much you annoy the hell out of me? You'd love to stick your nose in wouldn't you? It kills you that we're not running to tell you our every thought and you know what its none of your damn business."

"Some people aren't suited for psychological counselling," said Will, unwisely.

The final straw hit the camel. Ashley launched herself up from where she had been sitting against the wall and grabbed him by the throat.

"Say that again?"

"Enough!" Druitt separated the two of them. "You, over there." He pushed Ashley off to the far end of the room. "And you, over there," he pushed Will towards Magnus. "Ignore each other."

Druitt made his way over to a silently yet visibly fuming Ashley.

"What is the matter with you?" He demanded.

"He really winds me up. Trying to interfere."

"Interfere with what?"

"Trying to get me to talk to him, like some kind of therapy. I don't want to talk to him."

"Then don't."

"I'm not."

"Well then."

"Pffft."

He couldn't help it, Druitt chuckled at her indignation.

"What don't you want to talk to him about?"

"Anything."

"What is it really?"

"He's been asking about you."

"I see."

"No you don't see. It's none of his business. Mom keeps it tightly zipped and I'm not spilling and it's driving him nuts, he's just nosy and can't stand being out of the loop. Can I come and hang with you?"

"I beg your pardon, hang?"

"You know like spend time some time. Would that be OK?"

"I, uh, yes. I would like that. As long as it's not only an excuse to get away from him."

"It's not. But if we're in here much longer I might snap his neck. I swear he wasn't brought in to be a shrink to us. He's just nosy sticking his nose into other peoples business and I hate it."

Druitt attempted to take Ashley's mind off the impending murder of young William by appealing to her natural curious human nature.

"Since we are trapped here for the time being I think we should occupy ourselves by rummaging around in the boxes."

Magnus and Will watched as the angrier two of the quartet put their attention away from the weaker member of the team.

"What was that about?" Magnus asked Will.

"Nothing."

"It didn't appear as nothing."

"I've been trying to persuade Ashley to come for a chat." Magnus raised an eyebrow. "A professional chat, a counselling session."

Magnus made a funny noise, he could have sworn she snorted.

"How's that working out?"

He sighed and cleaned his glasses with his t-shirt, shaking his head in answer.

"Will, she won't talk to you. She barely talks to me. The only person I know she does talk to is Henry."

"I'm worried."

"Well don't be, it's not your job to worry about Ashley, it's mine."

"But she's a part of the team. I'm worried that her recent experiences have affected her more than she's letting on."

"Of course they have, everyone knows that. Will, you aren't here to counsel the team just to help our guests in their adjustment to their new lives. So long as Ashley performs her tasks as part of the team there is nothing for you to worry about."

"And as a friend?"

"Your worries are noted."

"Who does this vault belong to anyway, what kind of a geek collects radios?" said Ashley, throwing an old shiny wireless over her shoulder.

"Hey watch that," called Will, he couldn't help himself. "That's someone's prized collection."

Ashley ignored him and pulled an old tapestry out of the bottom of the box she was looking in. By the smell of it the tapestry was ancient.

"What's this weird writing?"

"Sanguine vampiris," said Magnus, coming over for a closer look. "John," the truth dawned on her. "You knew about this."

He grinned in response.

The door clicked open and Nikola Tesla stood in the doorway silhouetted against the bright light outside, Henry was standing behind him looking mildly sheepish, Tesla had moments before been shouting at him for scribbling on the back of a two thousand year old vampire manuscript.

"I knew it, John Druitt."

Ashley and Henry tried not to catch each others eye at the unintentional rhyming sentence. A fit of hysterics was not appropriate at the moment.

"Nikola, what is the meaning of this?"

"I contacted the Sanctuary in good faith and asked to help find which abnormal was responsible for breaking in to my private possessions and here I find him flagrantly disregarding any sense of propriety and rummaging through my belongings. And as for you Miss Ashley, I'm surprised at you."

Ashley opened and closed her mouth like a goldfish then hurriedly put down the moth eaten cloth a.k.a. ancient vampire artefact, she had been examining.

"You are the anonymous collector?"

"Clearly. I see you brought the perpetrator to test the theory of how one gets in and out of a locked room without use of the door."

"What are you insinuating?" started Druitt.

"He can't teleport through the lead lining," piped up Will, in an effort to show Druitt his gratitude from being rescued from Ashley's steel grip earlier.

"Ha! Is that what he told you, can't teleport through lead, I'm sure. A clever smoke screen, John. Pulling the wool over their eyes whilst in the midst of the group. Oh, now where have I come across that occurrence before?"

Druitt's demeanour changed noticeably at the hint of his past indiscretions.

"Watch your mouth, Tesla" he practically spat at the scientist.

Ashley looked nervously across at her mother. Druitt was getting volatile.

"John, did you break in?" asked Magnus, calmly.

"I certainly did," he answered with a smirk.

"Why?"

"So he'd call you for help. I wanted to be sure I was here when you found it."

"I don't understand. Found what?"

"What he is hiding in this vault."

Tesla twitched agitatedly. Magnus looked from Druitt to Tesla.

"Nikola?"

"It's nothing. This is a private, I repeat, private collection and the only reason I came down here was because some idiot pressed the deadlock and trapped you in here."

"Ah," said Will. "That might have been me."

Druitt's smirk turned to a nasty sneer.

"Ashley?" he said without taking his eyes off Tesla, enjoying seeing the fool squirm in front of Magnus. "Metal box, top right corner."

Ashley eyes flicked to her mother, who didn't object, and moved to the box. Tesla stepped forward as though he were about to stop her until Druitt stepped forward and blocked his way.

"Touch her and die a final eternal death," he whispered.

Tesla stopped.

"Helen, please," he begged Magnus. "These are my own personal belongings."

"Ashley, what is it?" asked Magnus, ignoring Tesla's pleas as she noticed the colour drain from Ashley's face as she studied the contents of the box.

Ashley jumped down and walked over to her mother without saying a word and held out a small vial of what looked like blood.

"The source blood," whispered Will, recognising it as the same container as the one they had collected from the ruined vampire city of Bhalasaam.

"Where did you get this?" Magnus voice rang with steel which made Tesla flinch.

"It's not really relevant," he tried to fob her off.

Her blue eyes locked on his with an ice cold glare.

"I swear I was going to give it to you. Or destroy it."

"You know what I lost because of this, Nikola. You must have gone to the Cabal to get it. After all they did."

"Helen, I was only going to study it," he said desperately, trying to step closer to her but Druitt, as ever, blocked his way.

Will put his hand on Ashley's shoulder and led her out of the vault, this time she didn't object. She had gone white, absolutely sickened at the sight of that cursed blood. Magnus turned away from Tesla and without another word to him left, following after her daughter.

Druitt sneered as he walked past Tesla, satisfied that his work there was done, but Nikola didn't notice. He stared in dismay at the blank ground, he felt as though he had just lost his best friend. They left him alone, again, always alone.