Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

A/N: Okay, so I had a flash of Helen a la 'Highlander' and as she's my favorite character, I had to do it. But there's still angst! I love angst! Thanks for reading!


Chapter Two

"Mom?" Ashley whispered fearfully, tears pooling in her eyes as she gently brushed back her mother's hair. "Mom...please..."

Ashley sat there, cradling her mother, in silence on some unfamiliar walkway in Rome that her father had brought them to before she demanded he leave.

"Mom..." Her hand clutched at Helen's cold one.

Tears began to fall and Ashley's face crumpled.

Minutes began to tick by; the longest minutes in her life.

And Helen's hand gave the tiniest squeeze.

Ashley's eyes shot open as she felt her mother violently suck in air before suddenly thrashing about. "Mom!" she cried, trying to reassure her mother. "It's okay! It's okay! You're safe! Mom, please!"

Ashley remembered the first time this had happened.

Helen had been overseeing the transportation of the lizard-like creature into a SHU cell, making sure his new home was adequate and to his liking.

It was a very tense moment, Ashley remembered. Her hand had brushed her gun more than a few times as she had watched her mother gently coax the dangerous abnormal with the large, shark-like teeth into the cell. Her mother always insisted on never treating any abnormal like an animal, but never had any personal regard for own safety.

They never talked about it. Helen, Ashley, and Henry. About what happened next and the days after.

Henry had entered, unaware, from the opposite direction and in a habitual routine, flicked on the lights. He had been doodling on his tablet.

Helen's loud scream had caused him to look up and Ashley's teenage heart to spike with fright.

The creature, startled and hating light, struck out. Its massive fist caught Helen in the face and knocked her clear against the metal container in its haste to retreat. Smeared blood painted a path as Helen slumped down.

By the time, Ashley and Henry had gotten to her, Helen Magnus was dead.

For all of ten minutes.

When her mother's dead body suddenly gasped for air, Ashley had jumped. Henry had freaked. When Helen began to thrash in disorientation, Ashley had been too thankful to do anything more than launch herself in her mother's arms, bawling, while Henry continued to freak out.

The three of them had kept it a secret.

"Ashley..."

With tears cascading down her cheeks, Ashley clutched her mother's hand and smoothed back her hair in a comforting gesture. "Y...You died on me again, mom," she sobbed quietly. "You promised never to do that again, remember? You promised. You promised you wouldn't leave me!"

Helen brushed away Ashley's tears before gingerly sitting up, staring down at the bloodied mess of her stomach. "Nikola...dear God," she muttered, now recalling what happened. Turning to Ashley, Helen pulled her into a tight hug. "I'm sorry, darling. I'm so sorry I frightened you like that. I didn't mean to break my promise. I'm so sorry." Helen consoled her distraught daughter, holding her tight and stroking her hair.

The two sat quietly, a bloody unsightly mess, with their arms wrapped around each other,crying over the events of the day, about how in a single moment, they had lost each other, but mainly thankful in their hearts that they hadn't.

*

John knelt by the blood pool and a hand trembled over it.

It seemed so unfair. Receiving his sanity back, only to lose the woman he loved in a single moment.

He clenched his jaw and anger flashed in his eyes.

Seeing the footsteps of Nikola fleeing in the sand, John stood.

And began to track his love's killer.

*

He rocked.

Back and forth, knees drawn up to his chest, and covered in blood.

Nikola rocked against the wall of his loft lab, feeling the rough stone wall harshly scraping his back. The heels of red hands scrubbed raw dug into his eyes, stinging from the wetness of his tears. Occasionally a sob escaped his throat that echoed in his ears while the force of them shook his shoulders.

He wept. And his tears intermingled with the blood on his hands. Hands that he had used to electrocute and tear asunder his creations as they faithfully, mindlessly, followed his stumbling walk back. Instruments of death were his two hands that gave the world radio waves; that took away the life of the woman he loved in a moment of blind rage.

Nikola rocked on the floor and teardrops of remorse dripped down his cheeks. His insides felt as if someone were squeezing the life out of him with no mercy. His lungs hurt; his heart ached. And he called himself a monster.

In the span of an afternoon that Nikola Tesla thought would bring about his greatest triumph in this world to date, he had instead wrought the greatest destruction of his life. Helen had felt so warm, her lips captured in a surprise kiss; now she was cold.

And because I love you.


A soft gasp brought him back.

A keening sob erupted from his mouth and Nikola wailed in anguish. His tears tasted salty.

I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it. I'm so sorry. Forgive me please.

Silence condemned him.

*

"Here."


A lace-covered card with a picture of a heart was thrust into his hand and Nikola looked up to see Helen beaming at him.


"A Valentine?"


"Read it."


Flipping it open, Nikola's eyes read: 'To the man who saw me for more than just a woman, who listened to my dreams and never laughed once, who brushed away my tears at the sign of adversity, and who never fails to encourage my hopes, there will always be a special place within my heart, just for you. Yours, Helen.'

*

Tears ran faster and a lump swelled up in his throat.

Forgive me, love, for the sin I committed against you.

His tears threatened to choke him. Guilt weighed his shoulders. Despair consumed him.

And Nikola wanted to die.

He loved her.

He killed her.

And now, Helen would never love him back.

She couldn't.

She was dead.