A bit of me punishing Will...because despite the last ep, I still don't like Will and think he was acting like a petulant child all season. So instead of throwing a piano on his head, I'm going to torture him emotionally. With a little bit of Teslen along the way, of course.
Also, once again it is actually a complete coincidence that this story starts with the letter 'T'. I think I have an affliction of sorts that only allows me to do so...
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When Will walked through the grounds of the new Sanctuary, he was still in awe. He'd been there a whole week and still he found himself often running into things simply because he was mesmerized staring at something else. It led to a lot of embarrassing encounters, and Magnus's endless amusement, but it was still the most damn breath-taking establishment. As soon as her amusement lessened he could see the pride bubble forth. This was her baby, the project she'd been working on for 113 years. And, in true Magnus form, it was stunning.
The technology was beyond anything at their old Sanctuary, with Praxian mixed with their own, and security measure upon security measure keeping the mass amount of enclosures for those abnormals who used to be housed in the shu safe. The labs were state of the art. Except, of course, which was also true to Magnus-style, a small string of labs in the east wing which rather closely resembled her old labs at the Old City Sanctuary. Old Victorian Era style design mixed in with state-of-the-art technology formed Magnus's private laboratories. He wouldn't expect anything less.
All in all in was a masterpiece, to put it simply.
But it wasn't until he had angrily set out in search of a certain electrical genius vampire that he'd discovered another change.
It was still morning and he was up rather early, getting an uncharacteristic jump start on setting up his new office. Apparently, Tesla had thought it funny to set off a series of booby-traps in his office, each set-off when he performed a technological task such as switching on the lights or starting up his computer. He was going to kill Tesla. He knew it was Magnus's domain, but he wondered if she'd mind him shooting the irritating vampire. Covered from head to toe in an un-named green goop, he couldn't even care if she'd mind right now.
He stalked to the elevator, the ones leading to the residential corridors. However, upon exiting on the residential level, realised he didn't know which room Tesla had been residing in since he'd come to stay. The vampire had already been at the facility when Will had arrived, sipping on a glass of wine in Magnus's new library (still sadly not as full as her old one, but well on its way – he suspected she'd moved as many of her more precious tomes as she could). Magnus hadn't said anything, nor explained his presence, merely joining him as he offered her a second glass of wine Will hadn't noticed had already been sitting there.
So, Will decided to direct his anger at Magnus. It was her fault Tesla was still here after all. She may indulge the eccentric genius but that didn't mean they all had to suffer through him. At the very least he could get Magnus to tell him which room was Tesla's, hoping his boss would take sympathy on him in his goop-covered state.
It was slightly baffling that she was still asleep, it was almost eight, but she must be exhausted. She'd been running about on less sleep than even was usual for her the last week getting everything settled. Or perhaps she didn't want to face her new office, he knew she was a bit depressed about the losing the old one. It had been so her, each ornament carefully laid and telling a story, shedding insight on her past. Knowing he would never see her sitting in her old desk in that office again saddened him.
He found Magnus's room with relative ease, knowing vaguely where it was located. The door was a deep coloured wood, rather nostalgic of her old one. He knocked on the door, calling out her name, and instinctively also trying the handle. To his surprise, the door was unlocked. It's not as though he made a regular habit of going into her room – he'd been in her old room fewer times than he could count on one hand, and all had been for emergencies. It was just that he assumed she kept it locked. Her room was private. Her own private Sanctuary. No one went in there.
Not hearing a response when he called her name a second time, nor hearing any movement inside, he pushed the door gently open.
He was more stunned by what he saw than he was walking into various objects while admiring the new Sanctuary. If he weren't rooted to the spot he may well have walking into something.
His eyes were glued to the bed, where he saw his boss lying, but not alone. His jaw had no choice but to drop when he saw she was securely encased within the arms of none other than Nikola Tesla. She was lying with her back pressed against the vampire's chest, his face buried in her hair. His left arm was wound around her waist. His right arm wrapped around her other side, threaded under her body to thread hands with hers. Helen seemed to cling to him as she slept, both hands holding his own firmly in her own.
It was a position that screamed of intimacy, of comfort.
He stood blinking at them as his brain worked furiously to catch up. How had he missed this?
Magnus shifted a bit in her sleep, Tesla shifting in response to accommodate, still remaining curled up with each other. They looked so at ease, so natural, wrapped around each other. It was obviously not the first time they'd shared a bed.
He finally regained his wits enough to drag his eyes away from his boss curled up in the arms of the vampire to look about the room.
Things jumped out at him, out of place things in her room. Things he remembered seeing vaguely in Tesla's room once when Magnus had forced him to retrieve the then de-vamped man from an alcohol induced lock-in.
There were men's shoes neatly lined in the bottom of the open wardrobe, Tesla's jackets hanging neatly lined beside hers. Even their clothes seemed to match in perfect symmetry, it was almost sickening.
On the bed-side table was a man's comb, a wrist-watch, and an aged photograph of what he was sure was a Victorian Era couple sitting together under a tree. He didn't need to move closer to see the brightly smiling faces, nor to guess that it was Helen and Nikola.
Will finally sobered up enough to back out of the room, closing the door softly, eyes still wide with shock.
There were many changes to do with the Sanctuary building, but this was certainly the most shocking to him. That hadn't just been Magnus's room, it had been Magnus and Tesla's room. It was their room, unmistakably.
It made him wonder just how he'd managed to miss this shift, he'd been so wrapped up in everything going on, in his own worries about Abby and about Magnus pulling away. But apparently she hadn't pulled away from everyone. No, he had pushed her away. If her obvious closeness to Tesla indicated anything it was that she had pulled those she cared about closer to her in the past months. Even Henry had seemed to know more about her plan than Will had.
He hung his head for the first time as he walked the corridors of the new Sanctuary instead of looking up and around in awe. He was ashamed that he had let his own petulant concerns get in the way of his relationship with Magnus. He hadn't tried, not really. He'd been so petty that he was hiding something from him he hadn't stopped to think, to try and understand that she had a good reason, to trust her. So in the end, it was he who had lost. He hadn't been one of those she had pulled closer in those difficult times. He'd thought they were okay, that she was okay with him when she'd showed him the new facility. But apparently he'd burnt more bridges than he'd realised.