DISCLAIMER: I don't own Sanctuary or the Sanctuary characters, I'm making no money from this, etc.

Helen Magnus walked through the silent halls of Sanctuary to her office. It was early, not yet seven a.m. She flicked on the light and approached her desk and stopped. There was something on her desk that hadn't been there last night when she left.

She approached with caution, taking a dagger off its mount on the wall. It looked like a branch. She poked it with the dagger, but it didn't move- it was indeed just a branch. Some type of evergreen, with a flattened, spray-like branch system- Arborvitae? What in the world was it doing on her desk, and who had put it there?

She frowned and gingerly picked it up and dropped it in the wastebasket. Some sort of odd joke, perhaps, although she couldn't see any point in it. She replaced the dagger and sat down to work. The evergreen branch nagged at her a bit, as if there should be some meaning to it, but she couldn't think of anything. And since no one had popped in with a camera to take a picture of her poking it with a dagger, she put it out of her mind.

The morning passed in with the normal fervor of ordinary tasks and crisis management. At noon, she decided to take a break and walk around and see how everyone else was doing.

Will's office door was closed and the "Private" sign was hung up, so she continued on without bothering him. He was likely in session with one of the resident intelligent abnormals, there were two or three that were having some difficulties adjusting to their new living conditions.

She peeked through the door into the lab. Henry and Nikola were both there, and miracle of miracles, it was quiet and they were both working intently. She could see mounds of paper and drafting implements by Nikola, so he was working on his patent applications. Henry had some disassembled sensors scattered around, so he was either doing repairs or upgrading. Either way, they were both being productive. She eased the door closed silently.

She went back to her office and resumed her duties. The afternoon passed quickly and she was able to reduce her backlog significantly. No one interrupted her with any complaints or problems. In a way it was nice, but it seemed odd. Apparently Nikola was still behaving himself, which seemed even odder. Still, he was now an employee of sorts, so that might be having an effect.

He'd called his New York hotel and had his trunks shipped and taken a quick jaunt to pack up a few other things, arriving back at the Sanctuary about the same time as his trunks. She hadn't seen very much of him, since when he wasn't working in the lab he had been unpacking and settling into his new suite, right next door to hers.

She had been concerned about him being that close. She had expected him to show up at her door at odd hours or start tapping on the wall or something, but so far he had been a model neighbor. She was almost disappointed.

She picked up a bite to eat in the kitchen at dinnertime, and returned to her office to work until about eight p.m. She decided that was enough for one day, and went to the library.

The new Sanctuary library dwarfed the old one. She loved the idea of so much more reading material at her fingertips, but the downside was that now she had to search for books. In her old library she had known exactly where everything was, but the new library was haphazardly arranged, at best. She resolved to make some time to fix that, but not tonight.

She relaxed for an hour with a new book and a glass of wine, and found herself hoping Nikola might stop by, but he didn't show. Eventually she took the book to her room and read for a bit before bedtime. It seemed she was seeing less of him since he moved in than she had when he was just visiting.

In the morning she started later than the previous day, a little after 7:30, but when she walked in to her office, there was something on her desk again. It was a pear. She frowned. That wasn't right, it wasn't supposed to be the fruit, it was supposed to be . . . the flower?

She stared at the pear. It couldn't be what she was thinking, who would even know these days? Oh, of course. And since Nikola stayed up late, he could come to her office after she was asleep and do whatever he wanted. She considered locking the door, but there was no point, he would probably enjoy magnetically manipulating the tumblers to open it. It wouldn't even be a challenge for him.

She needed to find out what he meant by leaving her an evergreen branch and a pear. She went to the library and started searching. It was such a small book, published back in the 1880's, but it should be in the huge room full of books somewhere.

It took her over three hours, but she found it mostly by luck buried in with the gardening books. "Language of Flowers" was very dusty, and no wonder. She doubted anyone had tried to communicate in that way in at least 70 or 80 years, probably longer.

Of course she could be completely wrong, and a deranged person could be leaving her plant parts, but she doubted it. She looked up Arborvitae. It meant "unchanging friendship". Well, that was all right she supposed, they had been friends a long time. And pear meant "affection". She liked that much better.

It was nearly 11:00 a.m. Nikola was likely in the lab by now, so his room would be empty. She was perfectly willing to play his silly game. It could be fun, and the rest of her team would have no idea what they were doing, even if they ran into one of the bits of flora involved. The trick was finding something that expressed what she wanted to say that she could get hold of. The light outside was mostly artificial, but it had been designed to provide all the light spectrum plants needed, so there were rather pleasant gardens around the underground Sanctuary.

She found something perfect, and they did have a London Plane tree in the garden. It simply meant "genius", which he would like. The tree wasn't blooming, but Nikola was apparently willing to use a loose interpretation of the language, so it didn't matter. He probably didn't know one kind of leaf from another, so it would be a challenge for him to figure out what she had said.

She took a small branch with four or five leaves and went by the lab and peeked in. He was there, so his room was empty. She hurried to it and found it unlocked, which didn't really matter since she had a master key, and put the branch on the small desk in the sitting room. She went back to her office and started to work, snacking on the convenient pear.

Biggie came in a few minutes later. He looked at her quizzically, and asked "What did you need the branch for?"

Drat, she had been seen. She smiled and said pleasantly "It was just a gift for someone." She kept smiling at him.

He looked conflicted; he wanted to ask for details, but he didn't want to be nosy. Finally he just grunted and left.

She quit work early. Things were quiet right now, and she was fairly well caught up on everything. Besides, she wanted some time alone in her room to study the little book. She wondered where Nikola had gotten one; likely he had picked up a more recent edition on his trip to New York.

She looked forward to the morning, anticipating another message. She woke early, and went down to her office in her robe and slippers. She felt like it was Christmas morning. On her desk was a handful of small purple flowers, along with a plastic cow and a plastic sheep. What?

She picked up the flowers. They had a very nice spicy fragrance. But the plastic animals had her stumped. What did they have to do with the Language of Flowers? Then she got it- Nikola was making it easy for her, leaving her a hint to the identity of the flowers; they were "stock". She looked it up- "lasting beauty".

Very nice she thought. I shall have to come up with something equally pleasant for Nikola.

Unfortunately, when she found the message she wanted, she didn't have the flower. Well, then she would go him one better than his plastic animals. She found a particular perfume and liberally laced one of her old handkerchiefs, and got a small plastic figure from one of the abnormal children.

It was still too early for him to be up, so she decided to leave it in the lab for him. But she was so intent on her latest message she had forgotten Henry would be there. She was a little embarrassed at leaving her gift in front of him, but there was no reason to be secretive, really. She placed the little plastic Indian and the handkerchief in the middle of Nikola's papers.

Henry looked at the items; he looked at her, back at the items, and back at her.

"Uh, that's for Tesla? I suppose you don't want me to tell him who it's from, right?"

"Not at all; Nikola will know perfectly well it's from me. After all, he started it. And tell him to return the Indian to Tomas, Karon's son."

Henry nodded, but he looked worried. What was going on? What had Tesla started?

Nikola sauntered in a little after 10:00 a.m. He lifted the embroidered handkerchief by the corner as if he really didn't want to touch it, but then noticed the perfume. He also noticed Henry watching him intently.

He apparently changed his mind about the handkerchief, and tucked it in his pocket. He picked up the Indian.

Henry said "She said to give it back to Karon's kid Tomas."

Nikola flicked it over to Henry who scrambled and caught it.

Henry said "No, she said you were to give it back."

"Do you know who those people are?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Do you think I know who those people are?"

"Oh. Probably not." Henry left, taking the plastic figure with him.

Nikola took out the handkerchief and gently inhaled the perfume. Indian jasmine meant "attachment". Perhaps he was making progress.

Overnight he left her Austrian roses- "Thou art all that is lovely". Well sort of, he wasn't sure what an Austrian rose was, so she got six pink roses and a tiny Austrian flag.

By the next day, everyone knew something was going on between the Sanctuary's two oldest residents. But no one knew exactly what.

Will came to see her early the next morning. Henry had told him about Helen leaving odd things in the lab for Nikola, and Biggie had told him about the leaves she had taken, as well as the evergreen branch he had found in the trash, and the plastic animals now residing on her desk.

He hesitated inside the door, and said "hey". She said "hey" back, and he walked over to her desk and looked at the plastic animals, and the roses and flag.

"I heard you and Tesla have been exchanging . . . unusual items. Is everything all right?"

"Everything is fine."

"You're not, like, mad at each other or anything?"

"Absolutely not. Is there some reason I should be angry with Nikola?"

"Uh, no, it's just everyone is kind of wondering what's going on."

"And you were delegated to find out?"

"Hey, I'm your second in command, if there's something I should know . . ."

"There isn't, Will. What's going on is strictly between me and Nikola, and frankly, no one else's business."

"Okay, I can respect that, but . . . not even a clue?"

Helen smiled at him and said nothing.

Will shrugged. "Okay, no clues. Can't blame a guy for trying." He left to report his lack of success to Henry and Biggie who were waiting anxiously for him in the hall. They were disappointed, but decided they were going to keep trying to figure out what was going on.

Helen wasn't sure what to leave for Nikola. Much of the Language of Flowers was designed to be complimentary to women rather than men. She didn't want to discourage him, she was enjoying the game, but neither did she want to encourage him too strongly. She finally left him a handful of peppermint candy. "Warmth of feeling" was the meaning for the peppermint flower. Of course he wouldn't eat the candy, but he would get the message.

But the next morning what was on her desk was only a twig of maple leaves. "Rendezvous"- perhaps he was right, they should stop the game and talk. She left him some of Henry's bendy straws on his papers in the lab- "agreement". There was no need for her to ask where or when, she knew where he would be waiting this evening. After all, the chairs and table had never been returned to the guest room.

A/N: I'm using the 1992 edition of Language of Flowers printed by Dover Publications, Inc.