Summary: John's heart is beating for him and Helen while Gregory works to revive her.
Disclaimer: I still don't own anything…
Rating: T+
Pairing: John and Helen.
A/N: In my haste to post this story I totally forgot to edit it… lol!
IN DEATH:
John followed the waning link he held to Helen. He had to find her, had to be with her. She was dead that much he knew, but through their bond he was keeping some of her alive in him. Adam was close to death and his minions were in pieces. All that mattered was Helen. John took twists and turns in the cave tunnel until he came to a chamber where he saw the last man he thought he would never see again; Gregory Magnus. Helen's father was here standing with Kate, Will, and the Wolf. He scanned all he faces trying to find Helen, though he knew where she was. She was dead. "Gregory…?"
"John, you shouldn't be here." Gregory stood in John's way. His daughter and the Ripper were linked in a way he had warned against. But John had a right to be here, he was keeping his daughter's heart beating through their link.
"I'm keeping her alive; I'm keeping her linked to the land of the living." John growled, but already he could feel his life slipping away from him. He wanted to place his hand over his heart to be sure that his heart was still beating.
"John, a few hours, you still have that." Gregory said putting his fingers to John's pulse. It was strong a steady for now at least, but in a few hours who knew.
"Fine," John backed away and paced like a caged wolf. He kept his mind focused on the link, the bond, he had with Helen; it was so thin he could hardly feel her anymore. Watching every move Gregory made John thought back to the second experiment that was done between only him and Helen; it was an experiment to bond them.
"Are you sure about this?" John questioned looking over the vampiric directions for a bonding. Helen had come across it in one of her father's book. She had showed it to him and talked him into it. John wanted to be with Helen for eternity, so it didn't take much to convince him.
"Yes, this is the something I want for us." Helen answered coming to sit in front of John. They were both in her father's lab while he was away. She tightened the sheet around her torso before reaching for the needle. "If this works, then our hearts will beat together, and you'll feel me no matter where I am, you'll know when I'm in trouble and when I need you."
"And if it doesn't work?" John asked. He was committed to finishing this experiment. Just being linked to Helen was enough. John had every confidence in Helen, but he wanted to be sure that she knew what she was doing.
"We'll be very sick." Helen replied sticking the needle in John's arm. For this to work they would have to mingle their blood. Everything about them came down to blood; they were made from Vampires.
They all knew the price they would pay when they committed to the experiment. At times he felt himself lust for just a single drop of blood. John took the other end of the needle and asked, "Ready?"
"Yes," Helen answered taking a deep breath as John slide the needle home in her arm…
John paced and paced. He couldn't bear to stand still for too long just knowing that Gregory was trying to revive Helen. John should be in there, should be there by her side holding her hand. He should be whispering to her to come back to him. And yet, he had done what Gregory had asked, John was staying away. It killed him to be just out of reach of her when she needed him the most.
Will watched the Ripper pace and pace and pace. It was setting his teeth on edge, mainly because he felt the same way; he was just remaining still about it. "Could you stop doing that?" Will grumbled. He wasn't in the mood.
"No. If you don't like it, then by all means, don't watch." John growled out in return. His life was slowly slipping away and he would follow Helen into death if Gregory didn't hurry. Worrying about how uncomfortable he was making William was the least of John concerns. All he could think about was Helen.
Will sighed, feeling like he felt the first time he cheated death earlier this year. He couldn't take it. When Druitt passed him again Will reached out and wrapped his hand around John's left wrist. Normally one would feel the steady beat of a pulse. Will felt nothing like that. "Oh my god," Will gaped.
John went still, deadly still. If William wasn't important to Helen, John would have hit him for touching him. "Let go." John said carefully wrenching his wrist out of Will's grasp. He hated to be touched by anyone other than Helen. His skin always hungered for hers.
"You have no pulse. How is that possible?" Will asked.
"Old experiment between Helen and myself." John answered. He thought back.
Helen had kept a small amount of the Source Blood before her father had taken it to hide away from the world. Sitting with John, feeling his blood flowing into her and hers flowing into him made her feel strong and dizzy all at once. To seal them together Helen dabbed her index finger in the small pool of blood. Bringing that finger to her lips, she painted them red. Then she repeated the same action with John. He didn't question her.
"Are you ready?" Helen placed her other hand on the switch that would send the electricity over them.
"As ready as you are." John answered before molding his lips to hers, tasting the blood…
"The Source blood?" Will inquired. He needed anything he could get to take his min
"And our own," If John had something to occupy his mind he might not be as worried. Except he was worried, his heart beat slower and slower. Though, Helen had warned him to play nice; he did so.
"How?" Will needed his mind engaged. Hearing that his boss was even more linked to a deranged killer was keeping him from thinking of her lying dead in the next chamber.
John sighed deeply turning from the protégé for a moment to stare at Gregory. The elder Magnus moved around the table in the center of the next chamber doing things that John couldn't see. And then he began to speak, "We mixed our blood and used a concentrated jolt of electricity to sync our hearts to beat as one. Through the properties of the blood we became linked with a metaphysical bond." John turned to William again, "Now you know the real reason she keeps me alive. If I die, she dies. For her to die I will perish as well. As it stands I am her one hope of continued survival." Sooner or later Helen would have had to let slip that particular secret. It was better if it came from him. It would save her from explaining too much of the details later on.
Will's mind did a complete 180. Just when he thought he had their 'relationship' figured out a new piece of the puzzle would fall into his lap unwanted to make him reassess everything about Magnus and Druitt. This news gave new meaning to eternity and Will partially hated what he was now learning about his friend and employer. "How is that possible?" He asked but Druitt wasn't listening as he resumed his pacing.
Gregory listened to the muted conversation Will and John were having about the experiment he had expressly forbidden. Though, knowing his daughter the way he did, Gregory knew she found a way to bind herself to the man she so desperately loved. By John's reaction his feelings for Helen were clear. He only hoped that Helen's love for John didn't die, hadn't died. As opposed to John as he used to be, Druitt had a way of making Helen smile in the darkest of times. That was what she would be needed now more than ever.
Turning to the entrance Gregory shouted, "John, come over here."
John ignored Will's latest question to go to Helen's side. "What now?" He looked at Helen, she was so pale. John bet if he reached out to touch her she would be as cold as ice.
"Take your shirt off." Gregory muttered pulling out what he would need.
"What?" John asked, stunned.
"I'm going to recreate the experiment I warned you against." Gregory bit out. "As much of your skin needs to be touching hers. The bond you have with my daughter is weak, this will…"
"Break it?" Just the thought of no longer being linked to Helen terrified him, more so than ever hurting her.
"No, renew it." Gregory wasn't happy about doing this but he had no other way of saving his only child.
John relented undoing the buttons of his shirt. Peeling the shirt off he could feel all the scrapes and bruises he had sustained from Adam's pale minions. Dropping his shirt John moved to the right side of the table Helen was lying on. "What now?"
Gregory removed an arm cuff with two clear tubes in between them. "Could you remove Helen's jacket and her top shirt?" He fiddled with the device, listening to John do as he asked.
John looked at Gregory's back, but didn't protest. Very slowly he reached out to Helen grasping the zipper of her coat and pulled it down. He wrapped his arms around her feeling no tension in her limbs as he peeled the sleeves off of her arms. As it was he was fading faster and faster. Gregory had to do something sooner or later. Shaking his head John used his right hand to pull Helen's plain black shirt up and over her head. He never wanted to out live her, never wanted to be with out her. "Ok…"
Gregory hobbled over to the table, "Lie down with her and pull her very closely in your arms." He instructed watching as John did so. Leaning over them Gregory affixed the cuff on John's arm and then around Helen. With the touch of a button two needles entered John's arm and Helen's. "You would do anything for my daughter?" Gregory asked.
"Yes, I'm her willing slave you know that." John said pulling Helen closer to his fleeting warmth. Time was grown short for them.
"This will hurt… a lot." Gregory pressed another control and an EM bubbled appeared around his daughter and Druitt.
John waited for the process to begin. His blood was flowing into Helen and hers once again was infusing his system. She was so cold in his arms, so much so that John wanted to run. He had never felt that before. He had never wanted to run from Helen in his life. John felt his teeth start to chatter. His body was losing heat. John had a second to hold his breath against the massive electro shock to wrack his body. He gritted his teeth and held Helen tighter. The pain was nothing he wouldn't bear to bring her back. John tried to stay conscious, but he was slipping. The pain was taking the remainder of his strength. Just a few more seconds, that was all he had to hold on. Then John remembered the last part that bound them the first time. With his last shred of conscious thought John placed his lips to hers. The last thing John thought was the light taste of spearmint on his lips.
Will had lingered with Kate and Henry while Gregory and Druitt were with Magnus. It wasn't until he heard the cracking and sizzling of the electricity that he went to see what was going on. Gregory was standing back near the mouth of the chamber watching, waiting to dial down the voltage. "How long before…?"
"Not long now." Gregory responded, "I have to effectively kill John as well. Then with this," Gregory showed the device he was holding; a hand held hear monitor and defibrillator all in one. "I'll amp the voltage starting their hearts together."
"Does it bother you how they are together?" Will asked.
"No," Gregory glanced at Will. "John would do anything for her, abide her wishes. He, as he likes to put it, is her willing slave.
"That's serious." Will muttered.
"They were always like that." Gregory mentioned half with bitterness and half with awe. His daughter had found true love and then that love had been taken away from her. If he could then he would give her some of that happiness back with making their bond stronger.
"Druitt mentioned something…" Will started.
Gregory had heard most of the conversation John and Will had had. "Through the Source Blood Helen and John bound themselves together, essentially giving them one heart beat, one soul. Only the first time they didn't do it right. The cuff on their arm is drawing blood into each of them and the voltage is reanimating them." Gregory explained.
"I still don't understand the last part." Will ran his hand through his hair.
"Think Frankenstein's Monster." Gregory looked to the monitor in his hand. John's signal flat lined. "Take this and when I tell you tap this command and it will begin to restart their hearts."
Helen looked around the darkened woods. It was cold; there was snow on the ground. She walked a ways seeing nothing but the moon and the stars and the barren trees. Helen breathed out seeing her breath, but also seeing John standing a just a distance from her. "John!" She shouted. He turned only she couldn't her what he was saying. John was so far away. Helen ran to him; had to go to him. He was the only other person she had seen here in this place.
"Helen!" John called out. She was coming to him. They only had a small window of time before it was too late.
Helen came to John immediately asking, "Where are we? The last thing I remember is being executed."
"Listen to me, we're dead."
"No." She could believe what he was saying and yet, she did. It made sense.
"Helen," John cupped her face. "Listen to me. Your father is trying to revive us, but you need to take my hand." He stepped back offering her his left hand. "Take my hand Helen and we can return, together, as we were always meant to be. Be bonded to me again. I need you now more than ever." If Helen was no longer in his life then there was no reason for him to continue to live.
Helen stared at John's hand trying to picture her life with him again. If she didn't take his hand then she would die and condemn John to the same fate. She couldn't cast him back into the darkness. Helen didn't have the heart to be that cruel to a man she loved so much. Tentatively she reached out her hand lacing her fingers with his. "Yes, I want to be with you forever." John pulled her closer and Helen placed her ear to his heart waiting to hear the comforting beat once again.
Gregory dialed up the voltage, "Again Will, again!" he shouted.
"It didn't work the last four times you tried it." Will pointed out even as he pushed the command to shock them. A few seconds later both life signs beeped as one.
Helen and John breathed in as one. It was a loud gasp of air that sounded around them. One thing was for sure they were alive. Will came over to where Gregory was and looked down at Druitt and Magnus. "What now?"
Gregory heard the ping of the heart monitor and hobbled over to Will. "We let them rest." Gregory looked at the device that Will was holding, "Good. When they wake we can leave." Gregory had to get them all out of the Hollow City as soon as possible. Right now he removed the cuff and bandaged the puncture wounds.
A FEW HOURS LATER:
Helen felt limp, her body hurt, her head was pounding, but she was warm; unbelievably warm. Opening her eyes half way she saw she was in a bed, her bed at home in her Sanctuary. How did she get here? Why was she brought back? More of her woke up enough to hear a gentle, male humming. Turning slowly Helen saw John watching her. He had a content smile on his face. She didn't say anything, couldn't say anything. He was wearing no shirt and she was only in shorts and a camisole top. What had happened? "John?"
"Hmmm." John stopped humming. He had been awake for half an hour just enjoying the feel of holding Helen in his arms, of feeling some measure of peace return to him.
"What happened?" She asked sliding away from him just a bit. It pained her to do so. She had been so content in his arms.
"We died, your father renewed our bond, and we slept so peacefully." John answered sounding a bit drugged. He was once again getting used to feeling her emotions, to knowing that she was so close to him.
Helen once again lowered herself to be in John's arms. Instantly she felt calm. It was how things were between them in the early days. Helen listened to John's heart and felt overjoyed to hear it beating again. "This is my heart." Helen whispered.
John reached over and placed his hand over her heart. "And this is mine." He kissed the side of her head.
"Your heart is so strong." Helen muttered.
"My heart was enough to keep you from the grips of death." John answered. He only pulled her closer. "While we have been sleeping, you father and Nikola have been working on curing you of the radiation poisoning. They should have something by tonight."
"Good, I really don't want to back to that city." Helen admitted. Being executed was far from what she thought would happen. She knew that John wouldn't let her return either, and if she had to she would take John with her.
"I can only hope Adam is getting a warm reception." John made sure his voice dripped with sarcasm.
"I thought you would've killed him." Helen mentioned.
"Yes, I thought about it and then I felt you die and all that mattered was getting to you." John answered. "If he manages to survive, I'll kill him later." John tilted her head back and kissed her.
Helen moaned into his mouth tasting vanilla. It was as it had been the first time she and John had been bonded. Taking a breath Helen whispered, "I taste vanilla."
"I taste spearmint." John laughed holding her closer and closer. He settled back into the pillows letting his body settle and mold to hers. They needed rest; Helen needed it even more so. Tonight she would be cured and hopefully they could move on and forget about what happened in Hollow Earth.