Rose weakly opened her eyes in the darkness, an irritating buzzing sound disturbing her deep slumber. She spotted the hazy shape of her cell phone and picked it up, flipping it open and pressing the speaker to her ear.
"Könnten Sie später zurückrufen?" She said groggily, glancing over at the clock to see 3:00 in glaring red lights.
"Must you answer the phone in German?" A soft voice said through the phone, followed by a small chuckle.
A pang of recognition resounded through Rose's mind and she bolted upright in her bed.
"Tesla, you had better have a damn good reason for bugging me at such an early hour. I'm teaching a class at 9 so you had better just tell me what you want." She said rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"Cutting to the chase are we? And here I was hoping you would want to hear how my life was going…oh well. It would seem Rosie that Magnus needs your help with a little side project. She said you can even bring along your little plants and set them up in the laboratory."
Rose rolled her eyes and thought for a moment, glancing over to a large calendar on her wall. Circled in black sharpie was the 13th, exactly three days away. That was the day she would officially be quitting her job at the University of Cologne.
"Alright Tesla, I'll be on the next possible flight as soon as I get packed." She sighed, closing the phone so she wouldn't have to hear any remarks from Tesla.
Her eyes closed before she finally stood up from the bed and stretched her whole body out. Slowly she made her way around her apartment, first to find a large duffle bag the second time to throw things at it in the hopes they would make their way in. The sky outside was still dark by the time Rose had finished putting all of her clothes and toiletries in the bag. She zipped the bag closed and glanced around her hotel room, spotting nothing of hers she left the apartment and headed to her car.
It was a short trip to the airport, on the way she called the airport to get their earliest flight out to England. She booked her ticket for 7 that morning, meaning she wouldn't get into England until 8 their time. A small huff came from her when the plane had landed. It was the exact type of English summer that she had not prepared for; she would have to go clothes shopping soon and drag Will or Tesla along to carry the bags. She picked up her bag from the luggage return and quickly hailed a cab out of the airport and to the sanctuary.
Coming upon the old gothic structure Rose felt her heart rise up into her throat. She reached into one of her inside coat pockets, pulling out a few pounds she handed them to the man in the cab and grabbed her bag. A trembling finger pushed the white button by two large wooden doors.
"Magnus it's me, Rosie." She said, smiling up into the camera.
A small noise came from the door and it pulled back from Rose, revealing a smiling Will. The two embraced in a big hug and when Will finally did pull back he tousled the long brown tresses of Rose's curly hair.
"It's so good to see you again Will! How has everything been going since my last visit?" She said beaming with happiness until she realized her hair was in a shambles. There was a small grumbling as she smoothed out her hair.
"Well, that's what we wanted you here for. We are in need of some help with Helen." He said, dropping his smile a little bit.
"Spit it out Will." She said, letting the corners of her mouth falter for a moment.
"Helen is dying."
She put a hand to her mouth, hiding the look of surprise from Will.
"Honestly William, don't be so dramatic. Our little Rosie here is much too fragile for your notions of dying. Helen is nearly 160 years old; I doubt that this little thing will knock her out so easily." Nikola said coming from around the door and gently nudging Will out of the way.
Rose wrinkled her nose slightly and hit Nikola on the shoulder, receiving a pained look from him in return.
"Insensitive trottel." She pushed past him and put her arm around Will's.
She could nearly feel Tesla's smirk burning a hole in the back of her head, she could only scowl at the space in front of her.
"I'll have you know my research has done much more good than yours has. So I suppose that would make you the trottel, dear Ruža." He said catching up with them.
"Don't be mad just because Magnus wanted someone still practicing to help you out with this problem." Will said scolding Nikola as he led the two down to the labs.
Nikola just rolled his eyes and held the door into the lab open for Rose, but forgot to leave it open for Will and 'accidentally' he let the door hit Will. Nikola laughed, watching as Will walked off seeming to take the hint to leave the two to their work.
"Alright Nikola, what's your problem?" Rose said, setting her duffle bag on the floor.
She crossed her arms, using this as an opportunity to take in Nikola's appearance. He was wearing a dark, navy blue suit with a white silken undershirt. It was a very classical style, typical Nikola. His hair still stood up, just like the last time he had met. Of course the clock had stopped on him some time ago, it was only natural he look near the same. He made her seem so innocent even for her younger age. She was barely entering into her thirties, having just completed her doctorate in Genetics, with another in ancient history her absolute favorite subject. Currently she wore a black navy peacoat, the reached down to about mid-thigh on her. Underneath it she wore khaki pants and a white polo shirt.
"I just thought you would want some time alone with one of the greatest minds. Don't fret over William, he's probably fine. But as to why you are here, Rosie… Helen is of course dying. She is suffering from a rare disease only contracted by those who travel between dimensional rifts without proper qualifications." He said walking over to a computer screen, typing in a few things before showing the screen to Rose.
"As you can see her blood platelets are grouping together at an alarming rate. We thought her only hope would be to find what we call Hollow Earth. But, since she believes your research into human blood and genetics has reached a head she wished that you would come down and help solve the puzzle." Nikola said picking up a glass of wine from the table.
As he casually sipped on his wine Rose pulled out a fresh notebook and a pencil. She began to make notes about how the blood was sticking together, the amount of time it takes and the like. Nikola glanced over her shoulder, following the furious scribbles with great ease.
"You know how I work Nikola. I just need a cot set up in the corner and one meal every so often. And since we are going to be working together, this will be a sterile work environment and you will not have a drop of alcohol near any of this." She said stopping her writing long enough to take the glass from Nikola and set it down on the tabletop.
"As long as I can still drink outside of this workspace we won't have a problem at all." He said frowning and walking just outside the door.
She laughed a little and shook her head slightly. At least he would abide by her rules for now, but the more rigorous the work became the more flexible she would have to be.
"I nearly forgot my manners, would you like a drink Rosie?" He said taking one final sip of his wine before he began to walk away.
"I don't drink and work Nikola. We all can't have a tolerance like yours!" She yelled a little, watching his retreating form.
The door shut and she set to work utilizing the DNA samples from Magnus. She also used a syringe to take a vial of her own blood to test out any extraneous theories. After a few hours Nikola still hadn't come back and Will had only dropped by to leave a cot for Rose. Many apparatuses were lain out on the table before her, testing iron levels and the counts of her red and white blood cells. Just as she was about to put her own blood through a ring of tests she heard a knock on the lab door. She pulled back from the desk and whirled around in her chair, seeing Nikola standing at the door this time absent any glass. She went over and opened the door, giving him enough time to step through before she shut it.
"I've already started setting up the different tests to find a cause for this blood disorder… At least a quantifiable cause." She said turning back to the desk, running her blood through various tests to make sure they were working properly.
"Hmm, your iron levels have been low. Have you been eating well at all these past years my dear Rosie?" He said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
She shrugged off his hand and shook her head lightly, turning to look at him.
"The last time you saw me Nikola I only had a bachelor's in genetics. These years we've been apart were hard on me with all the schooling I had to go through. So many experiments, and I couldn't get the full joy out of them. It's tragic when your own work can't be done throughout the day…" She said sighing and leaning back into the chair.
Nikola only nodded and took note of the slower movements she was exhibiting since she had first arrived. He moved his hand back up to her shoulder and gave it a re-assuring rub.
"Perhaps you should lay down for a bit. You did after all get up so terribly early, which I must apologize for but we did need you here immediately. And like you said, not everyone can be as adamant about their projects as I can." He said giving her a little smirk.
She smiled playfully at him and batted his hand away. Her work went on for the next few hours with Nikola glancing over her shoulder to make any corrections. At about four in the afternoon Rose had started to doze off, her head resting on another end of the desk away from all of their apparatuses. She could have sworn something had been draped around her before she drifted off into a sound sleep.