Chapter 1
~~~~Oxford, 1885~~~~
Helen sneezed.
It was winter, one of the colder ones they'd had in a while, the kind you could feel in your toes. Christmas had come and gone, New Years had rolled by uneventfully, and spring was not so far on the horizon, perfect time to get a fever and a ragged cough.
Helen was miserable; cooped up in her bedroom, cocooned in blankets so tightly she could barely kick them off of her when her fever rose. Tea sat on her nightstand untouched as well as some empty bottles of some homegrown concoction James had made for her using one of her father's recipes that didn't so much as cure her than make her too drowsy to notice how gross she felt.
The boys had scheduled out who would take care of her when. Nigel took the morning shift since he was an early riser, John brought her lunch in the midday, James brought her tea in the afternoon, and Nikola…
Helen sneezed again, finishing it off with a whiny groan as she lazily reached over for her over-used handkerchief lying on the bedside. She wanted to crawl into a vat of disinfectant and die.
The curtains were drawn to ensure she would get the utmost rest, and all three men beforehand had made sure she was as comfortable as she could possibly be without taking into regard that she was probably more bored than anything. That's why she looked forward to his visits the most.
He always brought her dinner, a light broth with a few saltines, some times he brought her something with bit more body to see if she could handle it, like an orange. He always cleared away the cold tea that had passed it's levels of nausea hours ago, unraveled her from her tight web of sheets and duvets, propped her pillow up and then gloriously open the curtains so that she could watch the sunset, and crack open the window fully so that the stale air could be refreshed.
He was her knight in shining armor in these dark times of illness.
The doorknob rattled – speak of the devil.
Helen eagerly looked up, desperately craving any sort of company at this point. Long quiet hours of listening to herself wheeze were hardly fitting ways to pass the time.
The door swung open and Nikola stepped through carrying a tray in his hands.
"Evening lijepa," he smiled to her through the thin line of a mustache he was growing on his upper lip.
"Shut up," she growled, burying her head in her pillow. He chuckled at her.
"Feeling any better?" he sniggered as he traveled around the bed to her nightstand. He made a face at her cold tea before setting the tray on the free space, easily trading one tray for another.
"Perfectly miserable, as always," Helen tried to sit up but was hindered by the tight cocoon of sheets John and James had bound her in.
Nikola smirked watching her try to wrench herself free from their suffocating grip.
"Let me just get rid of this, then I'll help you," he teased with a wink, and Helen huffed with frustration, flopping back against her pillows again. She hated how even that small struggle practically exhausted her.
Nikola took the tea tray to the bathroom and placed it on the sink, then returned, immediately going over to the heavy curtains and prying them open, the sun was fading fast, and Helen could see the icicles forming on the ledge above her balcony, and the faintest sound of a bird or a squirrel chirping in the trees down in the garden. Life. Nikola cracked the window open wide and the freshest of breezes wafted in, and she inhaled it all she'd like to think.
Then he came back over to her and began peeling away a layer of heavy, downey-filled comforter, then several of her softer, warmer sheepskins, until she only had her thin white sheet covering her. He unknotted the sheet so that it lay across her flat.
Helen smiled with relief at the drop in temperature; she had felt like she'd been dying all day.
Nikola draped her to him as he shuffled around behind her, moving the pillows to a better position before slowly letting her fall back against them. She smiled even more widely having been able to smell his cologne off his neck, any smell was better than sweaty sick person smell.
"There," Nikola smiled, his eyes meeting hers. "There's that smile again."
Helen swatted him playfully.
"Honestly, the way John and James coddle me it's enough to make me sick all over again," she sighed, shaking out her arms.
"They fuss because they care," Nikola muttered teasingly.
"And you don't?" Helen teased back, reaching behind her to gather her mop of damp hair so that she could push it all to one shoulder, leaving the other exposed to the cool air.
Nikola watched her breathe in a pleasurable sigh at the breeze touching her overheated skin.
"I do," he smiled. "I just have different motives than they do for nursing you back to health."
She gave him a sly grin at that.
"Yes, right, it was your fault," she teased.
He chuckled and sat down on the bed beside her. He reached over for the bowl of soup on the nightstand and cradled it in his hands, picking up the spoon.
"Here, this is an old family recipe, Mama Tesla original, will knock the sickness right out of you," he grinned.
"Your mother made soup?" Helen asked. She always found it fascinating when he mentioned his family, however briefly.
"She had to, I was very sickly as a child, always getting fevers, I'd be bedridden for days, weeks on end. My mother…she was a genius in her own right. Prayer never sufficed for her as a way to cure her boy, unlike my father," Nikola frowned slightly in the memory.
"She sounds lovely," Helen nodded.
"She is, you should meet her sometime, you'd like her," Nikola smiled fondly, thinking of his mother. Helen knew, with no amount of uncertainty that Nikola was a mama's boy.
Without another word he proffered the spoon full of the mysterious broth up to her mouth.
"Eat," he muttered and she obliged, the first mouthful nearly knocking the wind out of her. She coughed and spluttered.
"What the hell does your mother put in that, a banshee?" she gagged.
Nikola chuckled.
"Potato vodka and spices," he shrugged.
Helen gagged a bit more.
"How much did you put in?" she gurgled.
"Enough for flavor, now eat," he held up another spoonful and Helen eyed it warily.
"Trust me, it gets easier the more you swallow," he nodded encouragingly.
Helen huffed and closed her eyes, quickly swallowing the mouthful before tasting it.
She only coughed a little this time.
She ate a few more spoonfuls before she realized he was right, and the broth wasn't as nearly as powerful as it had first been.
After a while she relaxed into the pillows, allowing Nikola to ladle spoonful after spoonful of the mysterious soup. The flavor was somewhat familiar to her after awhile, and she could almost not stop the laugh when realization dawned on her.
"It's chicken broth!" she cried.
Nikola smirked sheepishly.
"It's just chicken broth with hot peppers in it," she swatted him.
"So, Mama Tesla wasn't that mystical, it works doesn't it," he shrugged.
"I can't believe you got me going with that vodka thing," Helen cried.
"I have to keep you on your toes somehow," he teased.
"Here I'm thinking I'm eating some mystical Serbian soup from the home country and turns out it's just chicken broth with a load of chili peppers cooked into it," Helen groaned.
"Not quite, but close," Nikola smirked, placing the bowl down.
"Way to make the sick girl feel stupid," Helen covered her face with a hand.
Nikola chuckled and gently grabbed the hand, pulling it away from her eyes and over to his lips where he kissed the knuckles.
"I wouldn't be doing that if I were you, I'm simply crawling with germs," Helen sighed.
"I'll survive," Nikola smiled, placing her hand down. "After all, it would be justified payback, wouldn't it?"
Helen smiled at him knowingly.
In fact, Nikola was instrumental to the incident that caused her current condition.
It had been a few weeks ago, when she and Nikola had dressed themselves up for a day out in the snow. Her father was busy with clients, and John, James and Nigel were content staying inside with their warm brandy's sitting by the fire. Nikola had eagerly followed her out into the cold air, the and ankle deep sea of white of the garden.
He had thrown the first snowball, then ducked behind a tree to prepare the ammo for his next shot. Then she had surprised him by dumping a whole armful on his head. He arose, damp hair, and snow tricking down his neck and back, with vengeance in his eyes.
She giggled and ran away, trying to make a swift escape into the small maze in the center of the large estate but he had caught her before that was possible and tackled her into the snow bank.
His vengeance then complete with a hearty laugh from both of them, he rolled to the side so he wouldn't crush her and she found herself going with him, rolling on top of him, not willing to let go of his warm weight.
This…thing of theirs had been going on for some time. They liked to experiment with each other…in the name of curiosity, of course! It started as a game, as all things of this nature normally do in all their innocence. A kiss here, a touch there, who was to know that it would eventually lead to their first coupling. An ungraceful, unplanned, jagged mess that left them with big knowing grins on their faces. It added to the game; no one knew, no one even suspected, not even James, the all seeing know it all.
Nikola secretly relished the times when Helen wanted to play with him. He'd never been interested in sex as a younger man, but with Helen…he understood why some men were ravenous for the touch of a woman. But he didn't want just any woman, he had chosen his playmate, and thanked his lucky stars for any moment he got to share with her.
Like this moment.
This time, it was she who initiated it, running her gloved hand down his chest as they lay in the snow bank. He knew well enough now when her touches turned from playful to devious. This was a devious touch, one she perfectly calculated so that it would hit every ping inside him, like a flute. He met her eyes with a boyish gleam, a dirty smile crossing his lips.
"Someone might see," he whispered warningly.
"We can go inside…" she said, only slightly breathless.
He made a face. No doubt the wonder trio would hear them come in and pull them away from the fun; he really didn't like that option.
"Or…" Helen grinned wider, pushing herself off him to standing. She grabbed his hand and pulled him further into the maze.
She giggled freely as she pulled him into the centre. Before he could even think to ask if she really thought this was a good idea she had pulled him to her and captured his mouth in a strong kiss.
While distracting him with her lips, she undid the buttons of his overcoat and snuck her hands inside, wrapping them around his waist.
"What brought this on?" Nikola pulled away, watching her snuggle up to him.
Helen smiled.
"I don't know, feeling adventurous," she had shrugged before unwinding herself and peeling off his overcoat, turning to the bank behind her and draping the coat on it.
She turned back to him, her smile curling into a particularly devious grin before attacking his buttons again.
"Helen, it's cold," he chuckled.
"Not for long," she teased.
"You could get sick," he warned her once more.
"It would be worth it," she kissed him and he had ran out excuses for them not to continue with this. She was stubborn, always had been, especially went it came to getting something she wanted, and right now she wanted him in the snow on a cold January afternoon.
How could he refuse?
He took hold of the situation and pushed her back to the bank and coaxed her to lie down on his coat.
She followed and looked up at him through the bangs of her long blonde hair, he shuffled so she was sitting in the middle of his coat with the most desirable come hither look he'd ever seen.
A cool breeze brushed against the exposed skin of his chest and abdomen and caused him to shiver slightly; she'd be the death of him he was sure.
He joined her, using his body to block her from the harsh winter cold as his hands slipped under her coat and quickly pulled at strings and laces, enough to easily maneuver his hands to places he wanted to touch.
Helen kissed the space under his jaw, nipping his ear, leaving a cool trail in her wake that sent gooseflesh up his back.
In the back of his mind he prayed no one would come out looking for them and ruin this moment. These were his moments, the ones he got to keep all to himself. He'd had to share Helen when she had begun forming the Five, and before that it had just been the two of them, never like this, but it was almost just as good.
Nikola rucked up the skirts of her thick winter gown, trying to find a way to get himself as close to her as possible with leaving her as little exposed as he could manage.
Helen moved from his jaw down to his collarbone and the hollow of his throat, her hands ruffling his hair in her fingers.
Nikola managed to carefully undo her garter belt and was contemplating what to do with her undergarments when Helen slipped out of his grasp, momentarily to kiss him thoroughly.
Nikola pulled away from the kiss with a mournful groan, his eyes screwed shut as if he was in pain, which he was...just not physically.
"Helen," he breathed out in a whine and she giggled.
"I'll take care of it, dijete," she whispered and he glared at her. He absolutely abhorred that nickname. It was in his native language, it was very demeaning, it meant "baby". She called him that for being the youngest in the group. She had no idea how much younger because he refused to tell her the date of his birth. What was six years anyway? She used it teasingly, especially in moments like these, not like she had a leg up on experience, in fact, he knew that for a fact because he had been her first, an honor he reflected on proudly.
He buried his deep growl into the soft skin of her now-exposed shoulder to hide his intense dislike for her teasing and she just giggled more, running her hands along his back soothingly, coaxing his hips into the cradle of her lower body.
He growled again, but for a completely different reason. What he felt now, slipping a hand under her skirt again, was bare skin, she had somehow managed to do away with her undergarments and he refused to get caught up in how. She was a genius after all, almost rivaling him, his equal.
He looked up at her with an awestruck grin and her hands slipped from his back to the back of his neck, fisting his short, slick hair and pulling him towards her in a passionate frenzy.
An hour later, they reappeared from the maze, stupid, hazy, sly grins across their faces, Helen arm looped with Nikola's. He took her immediately inside as she started to shiver.
"There you two are, we thought you'd gone and died," muttered James as they walked into the main foyer.
"We…uh, lost track of time," Helen smiled at Nikola knowingly, only the slightest hint of a blush in her cheeks.
"Helen, you're positively shaking," John pointed out, making a bee-line directly in between her and Nikola. It was true, she was a tad colder than she ought to be, even Nikola had sacrificed his coat for her warmth.
"We may have been out there a bit too long," Helen chuckled.
"What were you doing out there?" asked James, pulling the two coats off of Helen's shaking shoulders and hanging them up on the coat rack.
"Well, uh…"
"Playing," Nikola interjected. "We were playing a game, a battle of wits you may call it."
"This coat is soaked through," James lifted up the sleeve of Nikola's dark coat.
"Snowball fight," Helen chirped in. "I won."
"Just barely," Nikola eyed her.
"Helen, let me escort you to your quarters and draw you a bath," John stepped in between Helen and Nikola again and Helen's smile changed dramatically from the deviously playful grin she shared with Nikola to the smile of a young girl with a crush at John, a blush fully creeping her features. Nikola's smile faded.
"Thank you, John, that'd be lovely," she smiled, allowing him to take her hand and kiss the top of it.
"Your hands are like ice," he hissed. "Let's get you warm and dry as soon as possible."
With that, John wrapped an arm around Helen's shoulder and led her away up the stairs to the residential corridors.
"Later gentlemen," Helen waved to the three let standing in the foyer.
Nikola waved half-heartedly, watching her leave with a laugh…with him.
"Nikola," James' voice broke through his reverie. "Will you ever grow up?"
Nikola looked over at James and sneered. Like it was his fault Helen got cold…well it was, but still, he'd hardly blame it on immaturity or his age.
"We were just enjoying the day, James, it's called having fun, maybe you should try it before you become too old to even remember you were young once," Nikola sneered and stalked off, locking himself in his lab for the remainder of the day.
The next day Helen woke up with a cough, which then progressed to a fever, which then led them to a week later, to now, where Nikola sat at her bedside quietly smirking. They hadn't really talked about what they did, but it was kind of funny in hindsight.
"I did warn you," Nikola smirked.
"I did suggest we go inside," Helen poked him in the chest.
"I gave you multiple times to change your mind," he poked her back.
"Please, you knew as well as I do neither of us were going to stop once we got started."
"You started it!" he laughed.
Helen laughed as well.
"I still blame you," she grinned.
"And I don't regret a second of it," he smirked.
"Neither do I," she looked at him, her smile changing ever-so-slightly.
Without a word Nikola shuffled closer, a hand cupping her cheek. Helen gasped at the contact. He brushed away her bangs with his long fingers.
He leaned in to kiss her but she stopped him with a hand to his chest.
"You shouldn't do that…I'm still contagious," she said with a teasing look in her eyes.
"I'll risk it," he slyly winked at her before pressing the gentlest of kisses on her lips.
Before she knew it she had pulled him closer to her not realizing how much she missed being touched. Her illness was completely forgotten the moment his lips touched hers.
When she woke up next she was lying, completely naked, with only a sheet covering her and she let out a small shiver. Looking up she saw that Nikola had reclosed the window and reclosed the curtains.
He was crouched in front of the fireplace trying to get a warm fire going to heat up the room.
Helen found her nightgown and slipped it on, grabbing one of her thick warm blankets, and putting the slippers on her feet.
She could see Nikola was only wearing his trousers, the suspenders hanging loosely at his hip as he blew a puff of air into the embers causing them to ignite.
She tiptoed over to the fireplace and cuddled into a ball on the couch.
Nikola peered over his shoulder at her with a smile.
"Hey," he whispered.
"Hey," she sighed.
"It got a bit chilled in here, didn't it?" he smirked.
"It did," she sighed. "If I'm stuck in bed for another week because of you I will hurt you."
Nikola chuckled.
"I will gladly take fault for it," he got up and picked up his shirt from the floor.
"Dijete," she called to him, hearing him growl quietly. "Come here," she smacked the seat next to her.
"Don't call me that," he stalked over, plomping himself down with a pout. Helen was quick to snuggle into him and wrap her arms around him, stealing every bit of warmth he had to offer.
They sat quietly for a couple of minutes, watching the fire crackle.
"I think I'm in love," Helen muttered suddenly.
Nikola kept his eyes on the fire, not willing to meet her eyes, his breath getting stuck in his throat at her words.
"With who, lijepa?" he asked, trying to keep his tone even.
"John," she said quietly.
The name cut like a knife right to the center of his chest.
"I think he likes me too," she continued, her fingers gently dancing over the skin of his collarbone. Nikola could've screamed at the situation. Here he was, half-dressed, with her, having spent the day in her bed, and here she was prattling on about perfect John, the prince of England!
"Really?" he managed to say even though his throat was tight.
"Yes, he tells me he really cares for me, and I think it is because of more than just being a member of the Five. I think he wants to court me…I think…I think I could love him, I mean, I think I do," Helen lifted her head off of Nikola's chest. "That's why I wanted to…to tell you not to tell him of…this. I don't think he'd understand…this."
"Would you…uh…like to stop?"
Dear lord, just kill me now.
"I don't know…I think it might be best," she looked at him with a level of uncertainty he was sure he'd never seen in her before.
He allowed himself to look at her, forcing a smile.
"Then we won't then," he tried to smile as sincerely as possible. "After all, it was only a game."
Helen smiled at him and kissed the side of his head.
"Thank you for understanding," she returned to her position of cuddling him.
Nikola felt frozen, like all time had stopped as he sat in front of the fireplace. It felt like eternity until he heard her yawn.
He looked down at her.
"We should…we should get you to bed," he managed to say, pushing her off him to coax her to stand up and trot back to her bed.
She nodded sleepily.
"James would probably kill me if he saw you out of bed like this," he tried to joke.
"James can suck on a lemon," Helen muttered, slowly slumping her way back to the large bed.
Nikola sniggered, picking up the last of his things and putting as much as he could back on. By the time he was finished Helen was already settled back in the bed, cocooned in the one blanket.
Nikola sighed, and went over, draping the rest of the blankets on top of her, brushing her hair off of her face.
"Good night, lijepa," he whispered, kissing her forehead.
She mumbled something of a good night and he smirked, placing his cravat on the tray next to the empty soup bowl he had brought for her, picking it up and heading out of the room as Helen slipped into her slumber.
They wouldn't talk about what happened earlier, and a few days later Helen was back to her normal self, and two weeks later she and John announced that they were courting.
Nikola said nothing, instead choosing to take a long walk in the maze.
~~~~Author's Notes~~~~
Hey all, been a lazy few months in the writing department, busy in all other aspects of life. I thought of this shorty though and thought I could at least give them that. This is probably going to be a two-hander at most a three.
It doens't fit into any of my previous canon,and goes along with more of the show's canon idea in the months leading up to the Five taking the source blood. So currently, in my head, they are soon to receive it and start working on it. Also, this whole story is based on the idea that Helen and Nikola were having casual, if playful and not all that serious sex before this story happens. The thought struck me as an interesting way to start their friendship...but obviously Helen doesn't see it past a physical game. It'll be fun, just go with it.