"Helen, always nice to see you, you know if you call first I can— what have you done to your hair?"

She looks dead shocked for a moment, eyes as big as saucers, hand winding through hair that was decidedly not the same titan red he last remembered her with. "Oh…" she drawls for a moment. "You know, I wanted a change. It's, ah. Only temporary." She seeks approval from him he thinks and he nods with a smile. "I like it."

She lets him hold the door open for her as he guides her through to his expansive lab. "What can I do for you? I assume that's why you're here. Unless you've suddenly come to your senses."

"I need a favor." Helen's smile is cautionary, like she's not sure of it, if he didn't know better himself he would have thought she's looking at him like he were a ghost. "What kind of favor?"

"I need you to help me build something."

"What?"

"I'll tell you over dinner."

They dine not at his usual haunt, but instead she takes him to a quiet place in a part of town he usually avoids. Good food, terrible wine choices, they take one look at Helen and it's anything free of charge. Her cheeks burn red as he teases her about it, playing with the corner of her napkin.

What she wants is both very specific and very vague but she reels him in when she asks if he is capable of doing it. "Of course, of course." he insists, takes her hand, and smiles. "Will you be staying in New York through the month?"

"Of course." she says, draining the last of her wine. "Why would I pass up time with my old friend?

His heart soars just a little too high after that, he thinks. Helen is so different, even if she doesn't realize it herself. She's changed, he thinks. He hopes.

He's still surprised when she doesn't pull away when he kisses her over the lab bench. She, infact, responds with a vigor he was not expecting, and it is Nikola that has to step back with the shocked expression. "Come now, Nikola." Helen is teasing, "I'm not that repulsive, am I?"

Later that night he swells with pride, tucking the tip into the elevator operator's lapel, winking at him as the boy looked at the woman standing just behind him.