Author's Note: Sanctuary Bingo Entry. Having to use . as paragraph breaks due to FFnet's funky formatting
Prompt: Next Tuesday
It hadn't been the day either of them expected, and treading water as they waited for rescue wasn't something either of them wanted to be doing as night began to fall. The helicopter they had crashed into the oil drilling platform had probably sunk all the way to the ocean floor by now, and they both hoped that the vampire squid they had been transporting had won its fight with the sea scorpion. Will knew that they would probably have to come back to the area to collect the squid, and while the idea didn't appeal, he hoped they would have an easier ride next time. He and Helen had done a lot of talking in the hours since the helicopter sank, but he wasn't prepared for her next topic.
.
"So, when are you going to tell Declan you're sorry?" Helen asked, her voice calm despite the hours of treading water.
"What?" Will exclaimed, surprised by her change of subject.
"You've been avoiding him for weeks now, ever since the investigation," she didn't look at him directly, just watched him in her peripheral vision, waiting for his reaction.
"And just what have I go to say sorry for Magnus? He came barging in to your Sanctuary, took control, put you on trial and locked you up," he exclaimed angrily, the pain of that time still very raw for him. His anger was also fuelled by the knowledge that Declan had been telling the truth when he had advised Will about the others waiting to take over; others who would not have been as forgiving as Declan had been.
"No, Will," she disagreed, turning to face him. "Declan did exactly what I had hoped he would do."
"Hoped?" Will asked, confused by her admission.
"Yes, hoped," she confirmed, watching as emotions ran across his face. "I knew Henry would call him and I had hoped he would take charge when he arrived, ensuring that all of you remained at the Old City Sanctuary. Had someone like Terrance Wexford been placed in charge, you would all have been fired, or worse."
"How do you mean, worse?" he had to know, although he suspected he might already know.
"Well, for one thing, Kate would have been arrested as an enemy operative. At best, Henry would have been fired, at worst he would have been made into a resident," she stressed the word, making sure he understood what she meant before she continued.
"And the Big Guy would have been confined for sure," Will concluded, horror washing through him at the thought of Henry or the Big Guy in a cage.
"Yes. So for Declan to offer to take charge took a lot of guts. He knew you would all hold the appointment against him, that you'd suspect him of engineering the whole affair, but he did it anyway. He was determined to keep searching, keep looking for a cure for my apparent 'brain disease'. He knew that if the charges were proven false at a later date, he'd be able to step down safe in the knowledge that he had protected everything I have worked for all these years," she told him, knowing he had to hear the full truth in order to be able to accept that Declan was not the bad guy.
.
"He was searching for a cure?" Will was stunned; he had assumed Declan wanted to take over, not protect them and their work while trying to cure his former boss.
"Yes. While you were vilifying him, he was trying to cure me, save me. Did you know that from the moment he arrived, he didn't get any sleep until I came out of my coma?" she asked, already knowing his answer.
"No, I didn't," he confessed, as a sudden thought occurred to him. "You know, when he told us you'd been put into a medical coma, he was stroking your hand. I didn't take any notice of it then, but now you've told me what he was doing, it makes perfect sense."
"Declan and I have known each other for many years, we have a lot of history," she confirmed, deciding to keep the extent of that history to herself.
"And I've made a total ass out of myself by treating him so badly," Will concluded, knowing he had a lot of work ahead of him to try and make up for the way he had treated his former friend.
"Just a little, yes."
"Alright, I'll talk to him the next time he visits," Will promised, wondering how long he'd have to figure out what to say.
"Then you'll never get to say sorry," Helen told him, her voice full of grief again. "He's already sent me his resignation."
"What? Why?" Will demanded.
"He said he felt that it was in the best interests of the network that all Heads of House and their teams were able to operate together, and I agree. He feels that, because of recent events, the lingering resentment from certain members of my team would put undue pressure on me, as he feels I would be forever having to play mediator between you," she told him, her voice breaking slightly as she fought back tears.
"I'll talk to him as soon as we get out of here, you have my word," he promised. "And you'll be tearing up his resignation letter very soon." He reached out and took her hand, squeezing it to strengthen his promise.
"OK," she smiled. She was about to go for another subject change when the drilling well they were trapped in suddenly lit up with light, shone down from the helicopter hovering above them.
.
Rescue had come at last. And Will had a friendship to save.