Disclaimer: I don't own anything apart from the monsters I make up and the plot. Don't sue me corporate whores!
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In Their Meadow All Starry With Flowers
Chapter 2.
Helen stumbled and skipped to keep up with Nikola's swift strides as he strode off down the corridoor, his grip was tight on her arm as he dragged her along in his wake. "Nikola! What are you doing? Let go of me!" She snapped as he darted suddenly into the lift, whose door nearly closed on her. Once inside he released her and leant against the wall grinning at her, his pointed eye teeth peaking over his bottom lip as he laughed at her astonishment.
"What are you playing at Nikola?" she demanded, irritated by this sudden change of situation, while hysterical sobbing Tesla was worrying enough, when he smiled like that you knew you were guaranteed trouble.
"I'm going to show you my dreams my darling Doctor Magnus. Well, that is if your pet is anywhere near as good as you think he is, I will" He laughed again and impetuously grabbed her and whirled her around, nimbly waltzing to the clunk-click of the descending lift as she tripped over her feet, clinging to his shoulders for balance.
"Oh you are going to understand Helen, finally, really understand. You'll finally get what you've always wanted and get to know what really is inside my head." he crooned in her ear,
"It'll be so exciting for you, just think of all those secrets you could worm out..."
The lift door whirred open again and once more he had her wrist and was dragging her down yet another corridoor. Helen realised they were heading for Will's office, what could Tesla, who had made his opinion of Will as little more than walking decoration perfectly clear, want with Will?
"Do keep up Helen, won't you?" Called Tesla airily, yanking her arm again as his long legs sped him onward. They reached the door at the end of the corridoor bearing the plaque "Zimmerman" which the Big Guy had just put up a few months ago as a little nod to Will's official standing at the Sanctuary. Nikola burst in without knocking and dragged Helen in behind him.
Will started up from his desk as his door was thrown open to reveal a frighteningly grinning Tesla and a struggling Magnus trotting in behind him.
"What the...? Magnus? What's going on?"
"Will!" Tesla greeted him jovially clapping him heartily on the shoulder with a force that made him stagger. This was enough in itself to put Will on edge if the current situation hadn't been odd enough.
"Seriously, Magnus, what's going on?" Will turned to Helen who was massaging her wrist and looking furious.
"I don't know, ask him!" She pointed at Tesla who was sneeringly examining Will's degree certificates and commendations on the wall. "He's the one that's gone stark raving mad, I have no idea what the lunatic wants!"
"Are these even from real universities?" queried Tesla who was holding Will's doctorate in his hand, examining the seal closely and pointedly ignoring Helen.
"Yes!" snapped Will, his normally low patience threshold for Tesla being severely pushed. "Now d'you want to tell me what's going on or shall I just guess?"
Tesla smirked at him "Well as amusing it would be to make the monkey guess what the grown ups are doing, I doubt you'd ever get the answer."
"Fine!" snarled Will, "Then if it's nothing important I don't have time for your games Tesla, unlike you, I have an actual job to do here." He gestured to his desk, currently covered with evaluations of all the new abnormals they had taken on while the Tokyo Sanctuary was still getting back on it's feet.
"Fine, ok, come on, let's do it!" Tesla looked at him brightly "C'mon, ply your cod-science trade and zap me. Put me under. Hypnotize me!"
"WHAT?" The shout came from both Will and Helen.
"You're not serious" Gasped Helen, "I knew it, you're playing some elaborate game and I'm not impressed."
"No. No really. I'm deadly serious." Tesla looked back at her, his smile fading. "Really I want to be hypnotized." He turned to Will "You've heard of automatic drawing, right? Where you can put me under and I can recall and draw all the memories my conscious mind is blocking?"
Will rolled his eyes, "Well yes, of course I have. It's effective for traumatised children and electively mute patients, but I doubt it'd work for you."
"Why ever not?" Tesla frowned at him. "Don't give me doubts, try!"
"Look, Tesla, as awesome as it would be to put you under and make you think you're a chicken, it wouldn't work. I'll tell you why it wouldn't work, because to be hypnotized the subject has to a) completely trust their hypnotist. b) be willing to be hypnotized and most importantly of all c) REALLY believe that they can be hypnotized. Somehow, I just don't think you're a suitable candidate." Will sat back down behind his desk. "I'm sorry, but whatever your problem is, you'll have to solve it without me."
Tesla strode over to the desk, his face grim and set,
"Listen to me you barely conscious psychologist QUACK. My mind is one of the most highly trained powers on the planet and it will do exactly what I want, so unless you want it to be trained upon making your every moment a living hell, you'll damn well hypnotized me. Got it, Blondie?"
"Nikola!" Interjected Helen who had been watching the exchange from the doorway, "This is madness and you know it is, please, just let me run some tests, we'll go over the results together and we'll find out what's making you sick..."
"I am not sick!" He rounded on her, "How many times must I tell you, there is someone or something trying to show me where this woman is and how we can save her..." He paused, suddenly shocked at his own voice. Save? That was all a bit...worthy. Disturbed by his own virtue, Nicola sat heavily on the armchair Will usually sat in when attending to patients.
"I just want to show you Helen, I can't prove anything to you unless you can see...like I can. I can't think of any other way." He turned to Will, and choking down his pride said "Please Will. If you try, I'll try and hopefully it'll work. Helen has questions I can't answer and this is the only way. Really."
Will understood desperation when he saw it. No matter what Magnus said about Tesla losing it, he knew that sometimes you had to disprove a patients fantasy on every single count before they could finally accept their illness themselves. Looking meaningfully at Helen he gently put his hand on Nikola's shoulder,
"If it's that important, I'll try. But you have to promise to follow my instructions exactly and don't be too disappointed if it doesn't work. Why don't you sit at the desk and we'll begin as soon as I set up the audio recorder"
Hope flickered back onto Nikola's face as he went and settled himself at Will's desk.
"no, not MY...oh well." Will sighed as he pulled up a spare chair for Magnus and sat himself on the other side of his desk facing the slightly scared looking vampire. He fussed briefly with a small digital dictaphone and placed a large pad of paper and pencils on the desk between them.
"Right, now I want you to take whichever pencil you prefer and hold it loosely on the paper with your arm and hand relaxed." Nikola obeyed and looked back expectantly. Will passed a notepad to Helen who duly began to record notes of the session. Will continued "Close your eyes, close them and listen to my voice..."
It was about an hour later when Henry and Bigfoot finally managed to pry Nikola's claws from the desk, and about another half an hour after that for the tranquilizers to kick in and for him to actually stop screaming.