Well, this is my second chapter… I'm sorry it took me so long to update it, but my real life has prevented me from uploading it any sooner. I honestly don't know how long this fic will be, but there will be at least two more chapters. I hope you will enjoy it!
P.S.: Thank you for your wonderful reviews!
The next morning, when she entered the secret military base in Philadelphia where Mr. Roosevelt had sent her and Nikola, Helen was a little anxious. She liked the idea of working with Nikola, because it brought back some beautiful memories from the time they had been part of The Five, but it also made her concern about what will happen during the experiment. It involved an extremely powerful electromagnetic field and she was unsure if Nikola had the ability to resist such force. Not to mention the effect it could have had on normal humans…That was why, when Mr. Roosevelt had told her about the project, she had refused at first to take part to it. But when she found out that Nikola will be participating too, something made her almost shout "yes". And it would have been a lie to claim that she had accepted only to make sure that everything will be alright, medically speaking. No. She had accepted because it gave her the opportunity to work with him.
"Over here, Miss Magnus. Dr Tesla is waiting you." A man said, showing her the way. He brought her to a laboratory and then he left saying "I will leave you now. Mr. Tesla gave specific instructions not to be disturbed by anyone but you."
She entered, and her stomach made a flip when she saw Nikola. Unlike the previous night, when he hadn't had the time to clean his make-up that helped him fake his age, he was looking as young and as handsome Helen knew him. He was wearing a long, white lab coat, and Helen couldn't help noticing how damned sexy he looked dressed like that. Trying to hide her feelings, she said:
"Nikola, what the hell were you thinking?! Not wearing your make-up is completely reckless! What if someone else sees you looking like that?"
"Come on, Helen, I gave specific instructions not to be disturbed. I came here wearing it; I cleaned myself only when I got in the lab. I took all the precautions, trust me."
"Anyway, it is safer to keep it on."
"And not let you enjoy my charming presence? I don't think so. Unless the real reason you want me to fake my age in your presence is that you are afraid that you won't be able to focus otherwise on your work…"
"It's not that."
"Well, you do like staring at me, we both know that." He said with an enormous grin.
"Nonsense."
"Is that why your blood pressure has been 1.2 times higher than normal since you saw me?"
"Nikola, my blood pressure is perfectly normal, I assure you of that. Now, can we please start working?"
"No. Not yet. I need to make sure."
In less than a second, he covered the distance between them and embraced her from the behind. She tried to release herself from his grip, but she was unsuccessful, maybe because a very big part of her enjoyed this moment between them. Still holding her, he pressed his lips right on her pulse point, making her gasp. He stood like that for a few seconds, carefully listening to her heart beats, which were definitely a lot faster than normal. Fighting with herself, she managed to slip from his soft but firm grip, and threw him an angry look.
"Oddly enough, I was wrong." He said grinning. "Your blood pressure is at least 1.4 times higher than normal. And it increased considerably when I embraced you."
"Don't take it personally, but I don't like a vampire this close to my throat. That's why I got a little tense."
"I am still taking my medication and you know that, Helen. The good part of being a vampire is that I can hear your blood rushing through your veins. I know when someone is lying to me, Helen."
"Now can we please get to work?"
"Fine. I suppose Roosevelt told you about the experiment in 1940. I managed to make a mine layer invisible back then. The thing is that doing the same things on humans is a lot more complicated. The first problem is that I don't know what effects invisibility could have on normal humans. I mean, we both know that at first Nigel didn't enjoy it too much."
"And he had abnormal blood in his veins."
"Exactly. However, this is the least concerning fact. I don't plan modifying their DNA in order to make them invisible."
"How do you want to do it, then?"
"We will need to work on living tissue to see how this works at first, but I was planning exposing them to a strong electromagnetic field. Theoretically speaking, and I stress theoretically, this will push matter out of phase with normal reality, making them invisible and intangible. This worked well on the mine layer, but I don't know how it will work on humans."
"So you are basically shifting the men aboard to an alternate universe?"
"An alternate dimension. And I am not only shifting the men to that dimension. The ship has to be shifted too."
"Because if the men are out of phase with it, they wouldn't be able to control it, right? They can't control anything which is "in phase". They can't even touch it."
"Hot and intelligent. That's my type of girl."
"Well, physics is not exactly my strong point, but you can learn a lot of things during a tennis match with Albert."
"I suppose so. Of course, the problem will be getting them back into our dimension, because they can't stay there for too long. They wouldn't be able to eat or drink. I will have to adapt my invention to work on humans. And there is also the problem of the Zero Time Reference Generator."
"What is that, exactly?"
"It is one of my inventions. You see, Helen, you can't do this type of experiment anytime you want. Each living being on Earth has its own biorhythm. Before you start the actual experiment, you need to connect the subjects to the Zero Time of the Universe, and this is what my machine does. Doing this on one rat is not so complicated, but on one hundred humans… I don't know what to say."
"So, you have to choose the right time for doing anything, right?"
"Not exactly. Only teleporting and invisibility experiments. You can do other things anytime you want. For example, physically speaking, it is also the perfect time for you and me to kiss."
"Do you behave like that with all of your colleagues?"
"As a matter of fact, I am more of a one man show." He said grinning.
He got closer to her, holding his lips only inches away from her ear and whispered: "However, working with you really makes me enjoy teamwork." She tried to focus on her files and not to watch him in the eyes, but his breath tickling her neck made this an impossible task. She was perfectly aware of the fact that letting her feelings take the lead was a very big mistake, but it was very difficult to resist him. Just before he would have pressed his lips on her neck again, someone knocked at the door.
"I'm sorry for disturbing you, Dr. Tesla, but Dr. Kurtenauer requested to see you and Miss Magnus right away."
"Tell him we will come in five minutes." Nikola said sighing. "Well, Helen, I guess that having too many colleagues is a bad idea after all."