Helen opened the door to her office and winced.
It might have been at the gigantic stack of paperwork that menaced her from its place on her desk, or the pounding headache she'd acquired on the long flight back from New Zealand. It could have been at the trip itself, a spectacularly unproductive affair that had promised the discovery of fascinating new abnormals and had ended up being an infuriating scheme to get blog hits that had tied her, Will, and Kate up for two useless weeks. Or maybe it was the fact that the computer system was down, again, a near weekly incident born from trying to integrate their old Sanctuary files and equipment with Praxian technology.
Even the artificial weather was depressing, thick clouds swirling around the sky and giving her office a dim, cramped atmosphere. If they had been on the surface, Helen would have expected them to burst into a storm at any moment, but down here they would just continue hanging above the Sanctuary gloomily. Not for the first time, Helen was rethinking her decision to leave rain off the weather rotation. Unfortunately, it would require some effort to change it now, and their ongoing technology problems meant that something that nonessential had to be indefinitely put off.
Sighing, she made her way over to the desk, planning on trying to get at least a little paperwork done before she called it a day. Henry had promised her an update on the computers in a few hours, and she needed to hear that. Afterwards, she couldn't deny she was going to collapse into bed with as much enthusiasm as her young protégés already had.
There was something else she wanted to be awake for, though she might not admit it out loud: someone, rather, and he was already overdue. Not that Helen was keeping track. Still, failing to glue himself to her as soon as she set foot inside – on their anniversary no less – was unlike Nikola.
As if on cue, Nikola appeared in the doorway with his usual lack of ceremony, bouncing across the threshold with a spring in his step that the exhausted Helen found both endearing and slightly disheartening. His eyes connected with hers as soon as he was in her line of sight, and he took a deep breath, like he was trying to inhale her presence.
"Helen!" he exclaimed, a brilliant smile lighting up his entire face, surprised delight apparently undimmed by the fact that he had spoken to her on the phone only an hour ago when her plane had landed.
Helen stood, barely getting a tired "Nikola" out before he made it across her office. His arms were wrapped around her in the space of another half-second. Helen returned his embrace, resting her aching head on his shoulder.
"Sorry I'm late," Nikola said into her hair. "Heinrich roped me into working on the damned computers with him."
"Ah, how shameful of him to force you to do your job like that." Helen's tone was dry, but her frustration had already drained away somewhat in the face of his open exuberance at seeing her again. She was glad to see him, too, and she squeezed him against her in a tight hug.
"Your sarcasm is especially breathtaking tonight," he said, voice dripping with admiration.
Nikola had to pull back slightly to kiss her, one hand sliding up to cradle her face, his thumb brushing against her chin. His lips were soft, and Helen could taste the wine he had been drinking. She stifled a laugh – he had apparently used her absence as an excuse to break out some of the really good stuff.
It was such a Nikola thing to do, and Helen suddenly felt so at home, laughing at something ridiculous he'd done again. She had missed him, ridiculous behavior and all, in New Zealand. When they separated, she was smiling against him, and she saw satisfaction flicker through Nikola's eyes.
"Dare I ask about the mission?" he asked, tilting his head curiously. Helen had given him a general impression over the phone, but not any specifics.
"I'd rather you didn't."
"Ouch. That bad, huh?"
"Probably worse." Helen grimaced. She wasn't sure which was more frustrating: some of the ludicrous red herrings they'd chased, or all the time they had wasted that Helen could have put to a much more useful purpose.
Nikola wound his arms around her and kissed her again. "At least you got back in time for our anniversary. Did you get me anything cool?" It was a blatant attempt in typical Nikola fashion to distract her, but Helen would be damned if it didn't work.
"That depends," Helen said. "How do you feel about dirt? It seems I've already given you quite a bit of that." The trip had culminated in an extended journey through some caverns, chasing one last dubious lead, and Helen hadn't bothered changing during the return flight.
Nikola leaned back, glancing down at his now less-than-spotless jacket. "Ehhh," he said, waving a hand and giving her what Helen knew he considered a charming smile. "A small price to pay to once again hold my beloved Helen in my arms."
She chuckled. "I thought you might say that."
"Though I was hoping for something a little cooler."
Helen exhaled sharply as she remembered something. "Damn," she muttered. "I forgot to pick your gift up on the way home. We were a little preoccupied, I'm afraid – you'll have to wait until tomorrow. It's very cool though," she added, a little teasing.
"How mysterious," Nikola said. "I'm kinda glad though. You getting back as soon as possible is a much better present than anything else I can imagine." His tone was breezy, but there was no hiding the sincerity in his eyes.
"Nikola…" A warm smile threatened to overtake her face.
"It's ok," he said with a blinding grin and an almost wink. "You can say I'm adorable if you want."
She started laughing again. "Dear lord."
"Well, I didn't forget your gift, so do you want it now, or do you want to wait until after the romantic meal that I've planned in my usual considerate manner?"
Helen snorted, which set off the splitting pain in her head again. That certainly wasn't doing any favors for her appetite. "Ah… I think bed would be preferable to both."
His eyebrows jumped up. "Why, Helen, I love the way you think," he said, still grinning. "We can do that." Despite his enthusiasm, he was now speaking much more quietly. She almost wished he would keep talking: his smooth, familiar voice was rather soothing.
"Unfortunately," Helen said, her lips twitching, "I need to get Henry's report on the computers in a few hours, so…gift, I suppose."
"How about both at the same time?" Nikola proposed, taking both her hands in his. The look on his face told Helen he had something up his sleeve, and she had a feeling he had been planning to ask that no matter what her answer had been.
"Why not?" she said. It would be something other than paperwork to occupy the time until Henry checked in, and knowing Nikola, it wouldn't be boring.
"Excellent." He pulled her over to the couch, waiting until she was comfortably seated. "Ok, just hold on one second." With that, he darted out of her office.
Helen was nearly nodding off, sinking deep into the soft cushions, when he returned. His hand was outstretched, a cart loaded down with covered trays rolling along in front of him. (It would have been less effort to simply push it, but Nikola probably considered that too pedestrian.) Two wine glasses and a bottle were clutched with admirable dexterity in his other hand. A wonderful aroma entered the room with the cart, and Helen inhaled deeply.
"Alfredo's?" she asked with delight.
"The one and only," he said, beaming.
"How on earth did you get it down here?"
"Carefully."
The delicious smell was doing wonders for Helen's appetite, but when Nikola stopped near her, he left the covered trays alone and fished something out of his pocket instead. He kept his fingers tightly wound around it, but to Helen it looked like some sort of remote.
"Now for your gift," he said, and hesitated. "If you don't like it I can change it back."
Helen narrowed her eyes. "Change what back? Nikola, you haven't been messing about with the backup power again, have you?"
"Oh no," he assured her. "I would hate for you to shoot me – today, anyway. No, I think you'll like this. You told me once you missed it, so… Happy anniversary, Helen." Giving her a slightly tentative smile, Nikola flicked a switch on his remote and looked over at the other side of the room.
More specifically, he looked at her window, and Helen found out why when she followed his eyes and saw a spectacular flash of lightning, followed by a crash of thunder and the very familiar pattering of raindrops against the Sanctuary windows.
Helen had always loved the sound of rain: in England, at the old Sanctuary – there was something so familiar and comfortable about it. She closed her eyes, and she could almost feel herself back in her old home, ensconced in bed with a cup of hot tea and a book, listening to the rain tapping on her windows. When she established the new Sanctuary in Hollow Earth, she had thought that the spared nuisance from unpredictable weather patterns would be worth giving it up; it was such a small thing, after all, but she hadn't realized how much she had regretted it until now.
When she opened her eyes, Nikola was watching her hopefully.
"Thank you, Nikola," she said with a rush of affection.
"So you like it?" he said, sounding relieved. "I know I messed with your Sanctuary, but this was for a good cause, so –"
Helen laughed. "Just get over here."
"The food is getting cold," Nikola pointed out some time later.
"So it is," Helen agreed.
"The food that I toiled over –"
She silenced him with another kiss.
By the time they got around to dinner, it was on the stone cold side of lukewarm, but luckily neither of them cared much by that point anyway. Nikola didn't even bother getting a plate for himself, stealing everything off hers instead. Ostensibly this was because he needed to eat less than Helen, but she suspected it had more to do with him seizing the opportunity to lean against her shoulder and let their hands touch every few seconds.
As she reached for a second helping, Nikola grabbed a bit of bread off her plate and took a bite.
"Hmm," he said, wrinkling his nose. "Don't get me wrong, I love Alfredo's as much as you, but I think they changed their bread recipe, and not for the better."
"Nonsense," Helen said, snatching it back and tasting it herself. "Same as always."
His hand flitted below hers to take the last piece of bread on her plate before she even saw him move, and he popped it into his mouth.
"No, definitely different." He made a face. "This is way heavier on the garlic. It really detracts…" He stopped.
Helen took one look at him and burst into laughter.
Nikola closed his eyes. "Ah, damn it."
"I don't believe it," Helen choked. She was going to hold this over him for years.
"Thank God the children aren't here," he muttered. He turned pleading eyes on her. "I'm begging you, Helen, as you love me, forget that happened."
"I'm not sure," Helen said mischievously. "Perhaps I need a little extra persuasion."
"Well, that doesn't sound too bad." He grinned and leaned in to kiss her again, but Helen started snickering before he could make it to her lips.
"Careful, Nikola, I've been eating garlic, I wouldn't want…" Helen dissolved into laughter before she could finish.
Nikola sighed. "I'm never going to live this down, am I?" In spite of his downcast expression, there was a suspicious twinkle in his eyes.
"Not if I have anything to do with it," she told him, resting her hand on the back of his head and pulling him to her. In contrast to earlier, this kiss was slow and rather lazy, and Helen was smiling as she leaned back and peered at Nikola. "Well, you haven't disintegrated yet."
"Are you sure?" Nikola murmured. "I think we should do some more testing, just in case."
"Nikola Tesla, verifying. I never thought I'd see the day."
"Hey!" he said, sounding offended, and then paused. "You know what, never mind."
She snorted before leaning back in to do a little more evaluation.
Nikola cleared away their dinner by dint of levitating the trays onto the cart, magnetically pushing it out of their line of sight, and declaring he would worry about it later, which Helen interpreted to mean the dishes would appear in the big guy's kitchen tomorrow morning for him to clean.
She would deal with that tomorrow, but for now, Helen let herself relax against Nikola as he swung his legs up and lay across the length of the couch. Wrapping an arm around him, she rested her head close to his, letting her lips brush against his cheek before settling near him and closing her eyes.
It was still raining outside, providing a constant, soothing background rhythm, and her office flickered with candlelight – Nikola had gotten some in here while she was gone. He must have been planning this for a while. She could feel his breath warm on her face, still smelling faintly of garlic despite his avoidance of it, which made Helen smile against his shoulder.
Henry had checked in with her during their meal – thankfully he hadn't interrupted anything more awkward than wine pouring – and let Helen know the computers were functional but sluggish, and if she could spare Nikola that would be really helpful. In an unsurprising turn of events, Nikola didn't especially want to be spared, and had spent five minutes convincing Helen that Henry could wait for his help until the next day.
At a pointed look from Nikola, Henry had chimed in that he could wait, everything would be fine for the night, and Helen had given in, which prompted another look between him and Nikola. She was quite sure that Henry had locked the door on his way out. It all had a very conspiratorial air, and Helen had to wonder if Nikola hadn't planned this entirely on his own after all.
Nikola hummed, snuggling closer and kissing her hair. "You know," he murmured, "it might be the whole immortal relationship thing, but we really have a lot of anniversaries. I mean, there's our first kiss, our first meeting ever, our first meeting after we hadn't seen each other for half a century, Vienna in springtime… today, the first time you confessed your undying love for me…"
"Oh, dear lord," she muttered again.
"The list just goes on and on," he said. "Hey, remember the first time we slept together? No, that's a whole different anniversary," he added with a smirk as Helen opened her eyes and fixed him with a look. "I mean, very literally, slept together."
That jarred a memory loose. "Ah," she said abruptly. How could she have forgotten? In fairness, it had been two hundred years for her. "Oxford."
It had been before their experiments, when they were still mortal and drinking up as much knowledge about the ancient vampires as they could lay their hands on, partly to find a sample of source blood, but also simply for the sake of it. Helen and Nikola had stayed up into the early hours of the morning, studying the vampire language until their eyes were blurry and starting to close of their own accord. In their exhaustion and preoccupation with their work, the two of them began to drift closer to one another, and the next thing Helen knew she was waking up with her head on Nikola's shoulder, their hands entwined on the dusty books in front of them.
"It was a miracle no one walked in on us," she said. She neglected to mention that his shoulder had been quite comfortable, but she didn't try to prevent Nikola from seeing it in her expression either.
"It seemed like a miracle to me," he said softly.
"You know," Helen said, letting her voice get teasing, "I believe I much prefer sleeping with you now. Your moustache tickled."
Nikola shuddered. "Oh Helen, must you remind me?"
"I must. Can't have you growing it again, now can I?"
"Never," he said. "Please shoot me if I ever try."
"Will do," she said, laughing.
He turned towards her, adjusting his arm around her and closing his eyes. Helen had been planning on going to bed soon, but it was too comfortable here and she was too tired; neither of them were going to make it to her room.
"You should help Henry fix the computers in the morning," she told Nikola, voice muffled in his shirt.
"Aww, Helen," Nikola complained sleepily. "You don't want me to stay?"
"Of course I do." Fatigue made the truth spring easier to her lips, and Helen nestled closer to him, breathing in the scent of him. "But I also want a functioning computer system. And I won't be sleeping in, either, so you needn't feel as if you're missing anything. I have a lot of work to catch up on tomorrow."
"Mmm." Nikola sighed. "Fine."
"…But we don't have to get too early of a start," Helen conceded. It was comfortable here, and she justified her decision with the thought that she did desperately need a decent night of sleep after the last two weeks.
Nikola smiled. "Excellent."
After they parted in the morning, Helen left the Sanctuary to get some business done, and Nikola was in his lab when she returned. Henry was there too, and Helen couldn't restrain a smile at the sight of them in the lab together. They could work separately if they wanted to – they had their own labs – but here they were, choosing to work together instead.
Of course, that didn't stop the bickering.
"Nah, Star Wars was way better than Return of the Jedi," Henry was insisting. "That's what started it all, dude."
"Sure, that one's good," Nikola said. "But the last movie brings it all full circle."
"The Ewoks, though," Henry said doubtfully.
Nikola waved a hand. "Whatever. You gotta admit the Jabba's palace sequence is cool."
"Ok yeah, that was awesome."
"And what's better than a satisfying ending?" Nikola went on in the tone of one lecturing a small child. "The villains are defeated, the heroes continue on their journey, relationships are…developed…" He glanced at Helen, who was watching them with an amused smile.
"Wait a second," Henry said, peering around his computer at Nikola. "Please tell me it's not your favorite just because Han and Leia get together."
"Of course not," Nikola said, almost sounding like Helen for a moment. "Don't be ridiculous."
Henry glanced between them. "Hey, you know you two –"
"Helen!" Nikola interrupted him, giving Helen a smile. "My dearest Helen, you'll be glad to know we've gotten the computers up and running…until next week, when something else goes wrong."
"Glad to hear it," Helen said, chuckling. "Henry, could I talk to Nikola for a moment?"
"Sure."
Once Henry had disappeared through the door, Nikola looked at Helen and raised his eyebrows.
"Ooh, is this where you give me my mysterious present?"
"It is," Helen said. She took out the object she had been concealing behind her and handed it to Nikola, watching his face carefully. "Happy anniversary, Nikola."
It was a book, the cover deep black with silver glittering on the front and spine, and Nikola looked back up at Helen as soon as he read the title: History of Vampires, by Nikola Tesla.
"I've been working on getting your manuscript into publishing shape for a while," Helen said. "Got rid of that dreadful castle graphic in the first chapter, too."
"Hey, I liked that," Nikola protested.
Helen laughed. "Don't worry, Nikola. It's still there. Everything you wrote is still there – I only organized it and had a copy printed for you. And corrected your grammar."
"My grammar is flawless."
"Is that so." Helen paused, then went on softly. "You know quite well I don't admire your ancestors in the way you do, for very good reasons, but you've spent your entire life putting this record together. It's going to be a long time before the world finds out, permanently, about vampires, abnormals, about everything, and even longer before it accepts it. But when it does – you're one step closer to seeing the truth about it all told."
He still hadn't said anything, looking back down at the book with unfocused eyes.
"Granted, it's not a very big step," she admitted, and he snapped to attention.
"Are you kidding?" he asked, practically clutching it to his chest. "I love it. It's perfect – you're perfect."
Helen had to laugh again at that. "If you like it now, perhaps you should open it," she said. "There are a few additions you may be interested in."
Nikola opened the book, letting his fingers run along the length of the cover first. A few pages later, he got to the table of contents.
"Afterword by Helen Magnus," he read, his forehead creasing as he flipped forward.
"It's about you, as a matter of fact," she said. "I thought there might be a few things you'd like someone who was actually there to set the record straight on."
He turned over a few more pages and froze as his gaze flicked over the short lines in Praxian she had written at the beginning, as a kind of dedication for his eyes only. She could see him reread it twice before he looked back up at her.
"Helen…" His voice was unsteady. Very carefully, he set the book aside before he blurred across the room to envelop her in his arms, pulling her so tightly against him that she lifted slightly off the ground. He spun them around, grinning, until Helen was almost dizzy; then he set her down and pressed an unhurried kiss to her lips, his own curving into another wide smile even against her mouth. She deepened the kiss, letting her fingers tangle in his hair, until Nikola pulled back to give them both a chance to breathe.
"Helen," he sighed, entirely contented. His cheeks were flushed as he leaned forward, resting his forehead against hers.
He didn't need to say anything else – Helen already knew everything he would have, partly because they knew each other better than anyone, and partly because the same words were ringing through her mind.
She stroked his cheek, giving him another light kiss. When she spoke, she let all of the warmth she felt into her voice.
"Nikola," she breathed against his lips, just loud enough for him to hear. "My dear Nikola."