A/N: Something clearly shocked Helen just before the auto-destruct came on - and it wasn't the auto-destruct itself. Gosh, I wonder what it could be!
"Go away," she breathes in horror, but she's too terrified, too exhausted, too flabbergasted to push away from him, to escape from the hold on her body. "Leave me alone." More frantically, shaking herself within his arms, she adds: "Let me go!"
"Is that really all you have to say to me?"
"Do you really have to ask?" she spits, finally coming to herself and shoving her way free, stumbling backward and casting a surreptitious gaze around herself before pinning him with a glare again. "After everything you've done - "
"Yes, funny you should mention the things I've done. I seem to recall saving your life several times... in fact, I believe I just now saved you from a rather nasty fate." The drawl is a little scornful, but too characteristic to faze her in the least.
"I had everything under control."
"That's not what it looked like to me."
"Well. That's what it was," she growls, dropping Henry's personal shield off of her shoulder and to the ground. It's heavy, and that she hasn't even had a chance to use it is the real shame here.
Because, in all honesty, she's done with him.
"If you follow me, I'll kill you myself." Much bravado from a woman stricken with fear.
"John came to my rescue in Italy." There's something about the statement that makes it more akin to a question.
"Yes," Nikola replies with some hesitation, unsure of where she's going. Surely it can't be good. Is she really going to bring up the past betrayal now, after all that's happened? She merely nods in response, but the expression on her face remains equally thoughtful. "Why?" he inquires dubiously.
"My memory of the last hundred and thirteen years - your last hundred and thirteen years - isn't what it used to be. He went with me to Hollow Earth. Disappeared when I did?" she presses without pausing.
"Yes. But I fail to see how John Druitt putting his arm through me in those catacombs, or anything else, is relevant."
She's very quiet for a long moment, and she fixes him with a steely gaze, but he isn't going to back down. This time, it isn't a game. "I'm concerned that small variations, altered interactions from my trip back in time, may have changed individual points of view... altered the timeline in their own small ways."
"Why is that important if Druitt is dead?" he inquires a bit scoffingly, waving his hand dismissively. When her gaze shifts just a little, confirming precisely the opposite, he narrows his eyes and adds in a conspiratorial tone: "Druitt isn't dead."
"I'm beginning to think he can't be killed."
"My god, Helen, what did you do to him that might make him want to kill you?"
"No one said he wanted to kill me, Nikola." He'd as good as rescued her from the Sanctuary, in fact - but it didn't mean she trusted him.
"You did something!"
"It's of little importance if he's still on our side, in whatever small way. Besides, everything is evidently in order in the timeline - as I remember it, at least."
He narrows his eyes at her, but Helen's gone quiet, chin resting on her fists.