Brotherly Love
"Bloody Hell," James Watson murmured after finishing the telegram Angelina Tesla sent him. The part-time detective needed clarification on a multitude of things he learned while doing a background check on his brilliant but sometimes pompous research partner, Nikola Tesla.
James was surprised when Nikola asked to join the group that would later become known as "The Five" - a small group of Oxford students dedicated to pushing the boundaries of modern science. Until Nikola became a part of "The Five", James knew very little about the young lad other than he was by all accounts enrolled in Oxford classes, but rarely showed. James assumed Nikola thought himself too good for "The Five". Boy how wrong he turned out to be and James had considered himself a very good people reader.
This error judgment is what had gotten James to study young Tesla more closely. The more time James spent with the man, the more he wondered if Nikola's snide sarcasm was really due to Nikola being that full of himself or a defense mechanism for a deep seeded pain.
The first impression Nikola gave many tended to suggest the former, but James began to doubt whether the reason behind Nikola's remarks was that simple.
The part-time detective's research confirmed his doubts. There was more to Nikola's behavior than too much ego. James considered the old news article covering Nikola's older brother Dane's death in 1863 in his hands.
The article mentioned two accounts of Dane's death. One said Nikola pushed Dane down the cellar stairs after being blamed for the death of the family dog; the other that Dane was knocked unconscious when he fell off the family horse after Nikola accidently spooked it.
Whichever the case may be, Nikola's parents did not take their favorite sons death very well. Based on the telegram, James questioned whether Nikola's parents ever moved on from the incident.
With help from Angelina's telegram, James began to formulate a hypothesis surrounding the young Serbs behavior: His sarcasm was a defense mechanism for diverting attention away from how deeply Dane's death had affected him. Now, if only James could find a way to get Nikola to confess this. And that, James knew would be a daunting task.
Nikola finished reading the telegram his elder sister, Angelina, sent him. "Damn him!" Nikola yelled, Serbian accent thick. He crumpled the telegram and threw it into his corner trash can.
"How dare he go meddling in affairs that are none of his business!" Annoyance rose in his vines. "I'll have a discussion with that cheeky bastard before the vampire blood experiment tomorrow and then confront my sister about letting family secrets out with speaking to me first," he stated, finger pointed out to the air.
"Damn it! Not again!" Nikola screamed, falling into yet another haunting vision of his only brother's death.
It was a beautiful autumn afternoon in Smiljan, Croatia. Seven year old Nikola Tesla busy playing on his family's vast farm lands. He ran over its hills and through its forests, his newly acquired pop gun in hand. A curious little boy; he was always wondering how things worked and how he might make them better. Little "Niko" - as his family called him - was fascinated by how such an apparatus could compress enough air to pop the cork out the end.
"Hey Niko, you gotta new toy?" Nikola's eldest sibling and only brother, Dane asked as he rode up to Nikola on the family horse, bringing the horse to a halt beside where Nikola was standing.
"Yeah! I just made it yesterday! Isn't it amazing how this contraption can compress enough air to shoot a cork out the end?" Niko told his brother. In his eagerness to tell Dane, the young genius hadn't noticed his finger came to rest on the trigger and before he knew it, the pop gun went off.
The family horse reared up throwing Dane into the air before the older boy could respond. Dane landed on the ground several feet away.
Nikola watched - for a moment frozen in horror - as his beloved brother was launched from the Arabian's back and the horse ran away. Nikola unfroze once he realized Dane wasn't moving and ran to where his brother lay. "Please don't die on me! Please Dane! I didn't mean to scare him! Please Dane!"
Dane tried to reassure him "I know."
"This is all my fault! If I had known my finger was on the trigger and . . ."
"No, Niko, It's not your fault. You couldn't have known this would happen."
"Oh my poor boy!" Djuka Tesla exclaimed when she arrived at the scene. She wept as she knelt down where her eldest and favorite son lay. "What happened here?" their mother demanded of Nikola, a scowl on her face.
"I, I." was all Nikola could manage through the tears which now fell down his face.
"He, didn't, mean to, mother," Dane told her before going unconscious.
"Leave us!" Djuka yelled at Niko when seeing her husband and the boy's father, Miltuntin appear.
"We need to get Dane to the house," their father replied, giving Nikola an apologetic look.
Niko walked away in silence, his head held heavy and made his way to the pigeon coup.
This place helped him feel understood and appreciated. There were times when Niko questioned whether even Dane really understood him. Something about being with the pigeons just made him feel welcome.
Even though he and Dane both had the ability to visualize things so vividly they couldn't tell if it was real or not, Dane was still the family favorite. Their mother's pride and joy. Anything Nikola did was always compared to whatever Dane did.
And now it was Nikola's fault Dane was hurt. Oh how he wished he could change that. But, as much as he wished it, Niko knew it wasn't possible.
A pair of pigeons, sensing Niko's grief, flew over to the bench where the young lad sat and landed on a nearby perch. One of them, a small female, decided to fly closer and brushed herself against Niko's shoulder in an effort to get the poor boy's attention. It worked and Nikola turned to see her.
"I, accidentally made Dane fall off the horse and now he's really badly hurt!" Niko confessed to his feathered friend. His small slim hand wiped the tears from his blood shot eyes.
The pigeon drew closer and tried to wrap a wing around Niko's frame. She may not have understood any of the words Niko had spoken or their full implications, but she did understand the boy was in pain.
James put on his coat and gloves. Angelina informed him she also sent a telegram to Nikola. Knowing Nikola would undoubtedly be furious at him for his invasiveness; James thought it best to address any issues tonight, before the big experiment. He grabbed his medical supply bag and headed out of the Oxford University library towards Nikola's attic loft.
There was light coming from inside when James arrived. "Good, he's home and the latter's down." James climbed up to the loft entrance and knocked on the small door, hoping Nikola would hear and let him in. When he got no answer after knocking three times and found the door unlocked, James decided to enter himself.
James found Nikola sitting on his bed dressed in night clothes. He appeared to be investigating some sort of imaginary device. What it was, James could not tell but at any rate, Nikola looked engaged in his meticulous examination.
Angelina had mentioned that both Nikola and his brother possessed the ability to visualize an object so intensely they had trouble telling whether said object was real or not. James assumed that this was what he was witnessing until started Nikola explaining that this apparatus shot compressed air through it, resulting in a cork "popping" out the end.
Why would Nikola be talking about a pop-gun in his sleep? Wait pop-gun! James began to realize what was happening. He had planned on getting conformation of what Angelina told him from Nikola tonight, however James hadn't expected to get it this way.
James ran over to Nikola's side when he started screaming, setting his medical bag down on the floor.
"Please don't die on me! Please Dane! I didn't mean to scare him! Please Dane!"
James managed to lie Nikola down on his bed despite his screams. "Nikola! Nikola! Snap out of it!" James shouted, trying to shake the man back to reality. James was glad he had gone straight here from the library and not dropped his medical bag off at his dormitory. It was looking like he might need it to give Nikola the peaceful night's rest he needed.
". . . all my fault . . ." Nikola sobbed as he continued to be engrossed in the nightmare. Tears slid down his face beneath closed eyes.
"Nikola, this is not your fault! Nikola, please, get a hold of yourself!" James tried again to shake him back into the present.
Nikola's eyes shot open and he tried to sit back up with little success.
James wrapped his arm around Nikola in order to give him the stability he needed Nikola's eyes were still glossed over and distant.
"I, I, accidentally made Dane fall off the horse and now he's really badly hurt." Nikola confessed to James.
"Nikola, it's alright. You couldn't have known that would have happened," James reassured his friend. Perhaps it would be best to stay overnight with him.
"James!" Nikola exclaimed, his face pink with embarrassment.
"Yes, Nikola, it's me."
Nikola pulled himself away from James, dirty enough from his nightmare. "How, how much did you see?"
"What I can only presume was the whole thing," James replied. "I came here thinking we would talk. I didn't expect to witness you having a nightmare of your brother's death!"
Nikola looked away. "Well, I guess the only thing I can do is beg you not to tell the others."
James grabbed the young man's forearm. "Nikola," the detective said. "I know I caught you in an awkward situation, but I promise, I won't tell the others about this."
The two men locked eyes. Whether the young man wanted to believe James or not, Nikola could tell the other man meant what he said.
"You know, I thought I might need to sedate you, just so you could get some rest tonight."
"That won't be necessary," Nikola said, getting up to prove his point.
"You are still on for tomorrow?"
"Do I look like a person who backs out on an opportunity like this?" Nikola retorted, hands on his hips.
James chuckled. "Just making sure. Would you like me to stay the night?"
"No, I'll be fine, but don't think I like the fact that you were brown nosing in my family secrets," Nikola warned.
Annoyance got the best of James. "I am a detective by nature! What did you expect?"
"You to respect my privacy! Now, leave," Nikola ordered, shooing James away. "These flashbacks take a lot out of me and I'm soaked."
"Very well then. I'll see you tomorrow," James answered and headed for the door.
Nikola watched as James left, still unsure what to make of it all. He managed to keep things like this a secret from people outside the family until James started digging. On the one hand, it had felt good to no longer be harboring this secret by himself. On the other hand, he didn't need anyone's pity.
If only they had known this night would be the start of a friendship lasting over a century and the Source Blood experiment would give them something to base that friendship on.