Summary: Druitt's past returns to haunt him and threatens to destroy everything he cares about, including Magnus.
Disclaimer: I own nothing of Sanctuary or its characters, I just play with them. My words, however, are my own.
Author's Note: Stands alone or is the beginning of the 3rd Arc in the "No Destination in Mind" series, where Druitt is freed from his energy creature and living and working at the Sanctuary with Magnus. This one will be multi-chapter and dark. You've been warned….Thanks to MajorSam for being the best Beta in the world!

Eye for an Eye
(Copyright 2010, NoCleverSig)

The boss had been wearing it for a week, and nobody said a word.

Predictably, Will was playing Mr. Tight Lips. Henry simply grinned. Biggie, of course, was unreadable. And John? No way was she asking him. He'd been nothing but smiles all week; well, up until a couple of days ago when he got all moody and quiet, which was just plain freaky.

Frak! What was it with guys? Whatever it was, it seemed to cross species. Looks like it was up to Kate Freelander to get to the bottom of this mystery. And since Magnus and she were spending some quality hours this morning with the Kerastat they'd picked up in Siberia...no time like the present!

"So boss, what's up with the bling?" Kate asked, eyeing the opal and diamond ring on Magnus' left hand.

Helen looked down and smiled, she couldn't help it. "A gift," she answered noncommittally.

"A gift, huh? Nice gift. Sure it doesn't mean anything more? Like, maybe some special, big deal occasion coming up that we should…say…be preparing for?" Kate nudged.

Helen laughed. "If you mean marriage, no, Kate. John and I are much too old for that." Magnus thought about stopping there, but decided to continue. "We're not getting married, but it does hold some significance for us, so, yes, it's special."

The boss was smiling, beaming actually. Kate couldn't help but smile back. Magnus was happy, and even though she and Johnny were, well, old, it was still cute. No, sweet, she mentally corrected herself. Boss didn't like cute.

"Can I see it?" Kate inquired, pointing to Magnus's hand.

Helen was flattered. "Of course," she answered, and held her hand out for Kate. Kate took it and looked at the ring, appropriately ooohing and ahhing. Magnus found herself thinking it rather nice to have another woman around just to be…female with on occasion.

"Johnny did good," Kate finally approved, giving Helen her hand back and a thumbs up sign.

Magnus agreed. "Yes. Yes, I rather think he did."

They went back to work observing the Kerastat, taking notes, working in silence.

"Kate," Helen said after awhile. "May I ask you a question?"

"Shoot."

"How are you and John getting along?"

Kate thought about it. "Good. Real good. We work well together."

"Any…change recently?" Helen went on hesitantly.

Kate paused. Johnny really had been all smiles after last Friday night when he and the boss went on their big date and the bling magically appeared on Magnus' finger. But a couple of days ago things changed. She chalked it up to maybe an argument between the two of them. Still, Magnus was acting pretty Magnusy; situation normal there. It was Johnny that was being weirdly quiet and all distracted like. He'd even made a mistake on a retrieval yesterday that could have gotten them both injured, maybe even killed, but no way was she going to tell the boss that.

"He's been acting a little quiet lately, you know, like he has something on his mind, but that's all." She didn't want to say too much. He was her partner, and she didn't want to rat him out or get in the middle of any weirdness between him and Magnus.

"I'm not trying to put you in the middle, Kate. I was just curious," Helen acknowledged.

Damn! The lady had done it again. She really could read minds. Maybe it was some abnormal ability she wouldn't own up to.

"No problem. Everything's cool," Kate replied.

Magnus smiled at her, dropping the subject, and they returned to their work with the Kerastat.

She couldn't find John anywhere. Helen checked with Will, Henry, Big Guy, and Kate. He was just…gone. He didn't carry a cell phone, something she'd have to rectify soon despite his protests. Some things he was simply stubborn about, and for some reason the use of a cell phone was one of them. Yes, he could pop in and out at will, but sometimes a text message or a phone call was much simpler and far less jarring than a sudden materialization in the hallway.

Tonight was one of two nights a week when, if possible, they ate dinner together and not with the rest of the team. John hadn't shown. He was scheduled to help Henry all day in the computer lab, John being particularly skillful with weapons and Henry being particularly artful at building them, but Henry hadn't seen him. He'd also missed his weekly appointment with Will, asking if he could reschedule.

Helen was doing her best not to overreact, but she was starting to worry.

She shook her head, angry at herself. He was a grown man. He could take care of himself and had so for over a century without her help. She didn't own him, didn't possess him. It wasn't as though they were married. He could come and go as he pleased so long as the work got done.

But it wasn't like him, she thought, and she found herself reacting exactly as she had when Ashley was alive, imagining the worst. He was much too courteous a man not to inform her of his whereabouts; not because he had to, but because it was the polite thing to do. Will had sensed her concern when she opted to join them for dinner and asked if she wanted the team to go search for him, but she'd shaken her head and said she was sure he'd be back soon. In truth, she wasn't sure of anything. He hadn't done this to her before. Not since…well not for a very long time.

Instead she walled herself off in her office, surrounding herself with work, trying not to fret or at least not to let on how anxious she really was to the others. Anything to take her mind off of him. She looked at the time on the monitor: 12:15. Damnit, John! Where are you? She thought, and shut the computer down, no longer able to focus, panic starting to well up inside her. She couldn't sit around any longer doing nothing. She'd get her things and go out. If he was injured, if he was hurt…

Just then he materialized in front of her, forcing her to take a swift step back. He was dressed in his usual field attire: leather pants, dark shirt, and black duster. He looked haggard, worn.

"John!" she exclaimed. "Are you alright? Where the bloody hell have you been?"

He looked at her, his eyes strangely distant. "Out."

Out? Was that all he had to say?

"Out where?" she asked.

His face grew angry, his breathing heavy. "Do I have to account for my every movement to you, Helen? That ring on your finger," he said, pointing at her hand, "does not mean that we are married!" he shouted.

If he wanted to stun her, shock her, hurt her, he'd succeeded.

"You're correct. We are not," she responded coolly after a moment, regaining her composure. "If you'd like to sleep elsewhere tonight, John, please do so. I have plenty of guest rooms available…." She started to walk away, get out of the room before she said something she would most certainly regret. But he grabbed a hold of her arm as she moved past him and spun her around, yanking her toward him, nearly tripping her as he pulled her into his arms. He held onto her arms like a vise, gazing at her intently.

"John," she looked at him, her arms pinned to her sides, nerves beginning to build in her stomach. What the hell was wrong with him? He could be an incredibly gentle man. He could also be an incredibly strong and brutal one. "You're hurting me," she said softly, trying to get through to him.

He didn't move. He simply continued to hold her, staring at her, his breathing ragged. "Helen …" he finally moaned, his voice breaking. He pulled her toward him and crushed his mouth against hers.

She tried to break free, tried to move out of his grasp, but he held on to her too hard, too fiercely. He deepened the kiss, ravaging her mouth, forcing her to open to him. When she did, she was lost. Her tongue tangling with his, her teeth scraping his lips, his cheeks, his mouth.

He picked her up, urging her to wrap her legs around his waist and roughly dropped her on her desk, casting papers, books, notes, even her laptop aside with one swipe of his arm, never breaking the hold he had on her mouth. He hiked her dress up over her thighs, feeling the thigh-high stockings that ended there, running his calloused hands to and fro from her legs to her hips, making her shudder with anticipation. Once he had her where he wanted her, he reached up and ripped her panties off, throwing them aside and dropping to his knees to lick her.

Ohmygod! Magnus thought, and didn't think anything else.

His tongue, his lips, his mouth worked on her. Her hands kneaded his shoulders, wrapped around his head, desperately trying to hold on, to balance herself. He was sucking her, licking her, plunging into her with his tongue, his hot breath washing over her. Pulling on her, biting her, teasing her. She was on the verge, about to come...so fast, too fast.

Suddenly she rocked and lights burst before her eyes. She came so hard, so quick she couldn't breathe. John gave her no time to recover, standing up and thoroughly kissing her while her thighs still shook and quivered. She could taste herself on his lips, in his mouth. She fleetingly thought of the door to her office…it was open. But at the moment she didn't care.

He moved his hands to her back and pulled down the zipper, yanking her dress off her shoulders, deftly undoing her bra. When her breasts were free, he moved down to suckle them, one then another, back and forth, building her to climax once again though her head still swam from the first. He undid his own zipper, pulled down his pants, grabbed her by the hips, and drove into her, hard. She gasped, throwing her arms around his neck, holding on for dear life. He wrapped his arms around her waist, her back, and pounded into her, his face on her neck, panting, moaning, growling. The rhythm was steady at first, but grew stronger, harder, faster. She could barely keep up, could only cling to him, doing her best not to let go, not let it stop, not let it end.

He drove hard inside her, so hard she could feel him pounding against her uterus, adding exquisite pain to the pleasure. She wanted to scream but muffled herself in his shoulder, biting him as she came and he came along with her, spilling himself into her, squeezing her so tight there was no room for even a breath between them.

She sat weakly on her desk, legs wrapped around his waist, he standing in front of her, head limp on her shoulder, both of them breathing so hard, so heavy, they couldn't speak.

"John," Helen finally said, finding her voice. "What the hell was that?"

She could feel him chuckle into her neck, his breath warm, his moist lips against her skin.

"That, my love, was the most incredible sex I think I've ever had."

She found herself grinning as well, and kissed his cheek. They stayed there for a time, holding on to one another, trying to breath, to regain their equilibrium.

"John," she eventually asked quietly. "Where were you?"

He pulled back and looked at her, running his fingers through her long, dark locks. "I had…matters to attend to my dear. I should have called, I'm sorry. It simply took longer than I expected."

He was lying to her, she knew it. Hiding something. But at that moment, with her dress hiked up to her waist and his hardness only just going soft inside her, she found she didn't care.

He'd scared Druitt. Good. He deserved to be scared. Deserved to sweat. Deserved far more than that. And he would see to it that the bastard got everything that was coming to him.

His little note had sent the demon into a tailspin. He smiled at the recollection. He could still see the prick's face as he picked it up from the doorstep of that fortress he lived in with that dark-haired whore of his.

Druitt didn't think anyone knew, that anyone would find out, but he knew. He knew and had hunted him down. And not only had he found him, he found something he cared about; that bitch he lived with. A woman that would actually sleep with a monster like Druitt had to be a monster herself. Two for the price of one. Sweet.

Scaring Druitt had been easy. Hurting him would be amusing. Killing them both would be…fun.

(to be continued)