Well it's been a while, despite knowing exactly where I want to go with the story, I completely lost the ability to get it written down. Thankfully I seem to have gotten over my block so hopefully chapters will be coming much more frequently.
Helen leaned forward and gently wiped a trail of broth off Nikola's chin. His eyes rolled over to look at her for the briefest of moments before the heavy lids fell closed again. She looked down at the small bowl of broth in her hands and frowned; he had barely eaten any of it, and was seemingly eating less with each passing day. Still, she took the spoon and lifted it to his dry lips. Nikola gave barely any sign of acknowledging the feel of the edge of the spoon against his closed mouth and Helen sighed.
"Nikola, please." She pleaded wearily. His mouth dropped obediently and allowed the cooling bland liquid to be spoon-fed to him. Helen waited for him to swallow before she ladled another spoonful, observing how the small task of swallowing became increasingly more difficult with each mouthful. Two mouthfuls later and Nikola turned his head away and groaned.
"I…can't, H-Helen." He stuttered, burrowing further underneath the heavy feather duvet. Helen nodded and set the bowl aside. She reached forward and pressed the hand against his forehead and was pleased to find that his temperature, while still slightly elevated, was much cooler than it had been for the two previous days.
"How do you feel, Nikola?" she asked quietly. He gave a small, barely there shrug of his shoulders but said nothing and Helen knew it would only be a few moments before he fell back into the deep slumber that seemed to be ever pulling at his consciousness. She watched him as his breathing became slow and even as he drifted off into what she was sure to be another fitful sleep. She leaned back in her chair and brushed her hands over her tired eyes, silently wishing that her friend would fight off the effects of the Source Blood sooner rather than later, she had barely left his side for the two days since they injected the serum, and she was anxious to hear the quips and half-hearted insults from her dear friend again.
A quiet knock on the closed door pulled her attention from the bed and she crossed the room to open it, not willing to pull Nikola from his sleep by calling for whomever it may have been to enter. She was not surprised to find her father on the other side, his leather medical bag in one hand and a notebook and pen in the other. Gregory smiled warmly at her and gestured for her to return to her seat as he followed her to Nikola's bedside.
"I would just like to take some blood." He said as he set the medical bag down at the foot of the bed and opened it, pulling out a large syringe and a tourniquet. Helen watched him silently from her chair as he readied his supplies and rolled the sleeve of Nikola's shirt up past his elbow. She winced as the long needle pierced Nikola's fair skin and watched with morbid fascination as the syringe began to fill with his crimson blood. When he was certain he had taken a sufficient amount to satisfy his needs, Gregory set the glass syringe aside and picked up a second.
"And you." He glanced pointedly at Helen and removed the tourniquet from Nikola's arm.
"Father?" Helen questioned but nevertheless pushed the already elbow-length sleeve of her dress higher up her arm so Gregory could fasten the tourniquet.
"I'm curious as to why our young Mister Tesla's reaction was far more adverse to that of your own." He explained.
Helen hissed at the bite of the needle against her skin and turned her face away. "There could be a thousand different reasons why Nikola's reaction was so severe." She mused, her eyes straying to her sleeping friend.
Gregory made a noise of agreement, "Then I will look into every single one, if only to help myself sleep better at night, to ensure that you will not fall to the same fate as your friend." He smiled sadly at his daughter and placed his hand on her cheek. Helen leaned into his hand, showing him in her own way that she appreciated his concern. She knew her father worried for her, there had been more than one occasion when she'd found him pacing the entrance hall of the house after spending the day in the secluded basement room with her colleagues, puzzling over the properties of the Source Blood and the effect it may have on the human body. Of course he had never attempted to hamper his strong-willed daughter's quest for knowledge, but would support her stoically from the sidelines, praying, as all fathers did, that no harm would come to her.
"Thank you, Father." Helen responded sincerely, eliciting a small nod and a smile from Gregory as he removed his hand from her face and moved to collect the blood samples and his medical bag.
"I must begin testing these samples whilst the blood is still viable. I shall be in the laboratory if you have need of me." He dipped his head in farewell and left the room, closing the door gently behind him and leaving Helen to her thoughts.
She relaxed into her chair and let her thoughts wander. She had word from the others since they had left her house two days ago. John had left shortly after Nikola's vomiting episode, throwing the unconscious Serbian a dark look and claiming the need to incinerate his expensive shoes. Both Nigel and James had only left after Helen had practically forced them from the room, telling them both to get some rest and assuring them that she could handle anything that might occur during the night, with her father's help of course. James had left her strict instructions to contact him as soon as there was any change before lifting her hand and lightly kissing her knuckles and shaking Gregory's hand respectfully. Nigel had given Helen similar instructions and his trademark cheeky grin before trailing James out of the room. The whole exchange had left Helen feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude towards the men she had come to call her friends, but now she couldn't help but wonder what had become of them.
A sudden sense of panic washed over her as she pondered the whereabouts of her friends. Had something happened to them in the days since she had seen them? Had they fallen to the same fate as Nikola and were lying somewhere with no one to help them? She herself had felt briefly ill after their little experiment, however, considering Nikola's severe condition, she had pushed all thoughts of her own health aside and focussed on his; brief bouts of light-headedness and nausea paled in comparison to Nikola's, at the time, near comatose state.
She shook her head to clear the ridiculous thoughts from her mind. If by chance her three friends had also fallen ill it was absolutely impossible that their help would not have informed her sometime in the two days that she had not heard from them. She entertained the thought of sending a messenger to visit their houses with news of Nikola's condition, and come back with an update on their health in return. Of course it would also be far more productive for her to go herself.
With one last quick glance over her Serbian friend, Helen rose from her seat and left the room, closing the door quietly behind her. She walked quickly through the house almost on autopilot, her feet steering her through the endless corridors and stairways towards her father's laboratory. She was unsurprised to find the door was closed as it so often was, creating a barrier between her father and the outside world as he worked on whatever struck his fancy, be it an experiment of his own making or his investigations into whatever species he had recently discovered.
She tapped the door with her knuckles and waited for her father's distinctive voice telling her to enter. When it came, she pushed the heavy door open to find Gregory Magnus leaning over a microscope, adjusting the magnification with one hand while the other drummed a rhythm on the tabletop absentmindedly.
"Father?"
Gregory immediately paused his drumming pulled his head away from the monocular microscope. "Is everything alright, Helen?" He went to his daughter's side and placed his hands lightly on her shoulders, his eyes searching her face for a hint as to why she had chosen to visit him in his laboratory.
"Yes of course, Father." She smiled reassuringly at him. "I was just going to make a trip into the city, I was hoping to visit with Mister Watson, Mister Griffin, and Mister Druitt, keep them apprised of Nikola's condition."
Gregory smiled knowingly. "And keep yourself apprised of their good health, no doubt." The corners of Helen's lips twitched lightly in response. "Would you mind requesting the gentlemen grace me with their presence so that I may take a blood sample from each of them to study?"
"As you wish, Father." Gregory smiled widely at his daughter and brushed a stray lock of hair from her face.
"I'd like you to see something before you leave." He moved back over to the microscope and gestured Helen forward. "What do you see?"
Helen peered into the scope and adjusted the magnification until the cells beneath it became visible. She gasped quietly. "Is that?"
"Nikola's blood? Yes. Fascinating, isn't it?"
"It looks as though it's mutating." Helen mumbled absently, her focus entirely on the red blood cells before her.
Gregory nodded to himself in agreement. "That was my first thought."
"But mutating into what?" Helen asked, looking at her father with concerned eyes.
Gregory sighed and rubbed his hand across the nape of his neck. "That I don't know, but given the nature of your…experiment, I have a few ideas. We shall have to monitor our Mister Tesla very, very closely."
"I agree." Helen responded. She bit her lower lip thoughtfully for a slow moment. "Father-"
"Your blood appears to be normal, Helen." Gregory answered before her question left her lips. "For now at least. Don't think I won't be watching you closely too, my dear."
Helen smiled wryly at the older man. "I would expect nothing less, Father."