A/N: apologies on the time between chapter2 and this update. Real life is so obnoxiously distracting from the important things =] As always enjoy.
It was the longest three years of her life. She did receive, six months later, a post card from a southern country containing no return address and with three words, "Safe, Love you" scrawled in that familiar elegant hand. And while this brought a glint of comfort it did not last long and she restlessly crossed off the days, months and years until she would be making the trip. Though she had set up the plan ever since she had returned home to Old City, when the time came for her to again visit her Villa she was nervous James suspected, but if he did he made no indication of it.
Their reunion at the villa was bittersweet. Nikola, when the world was wrapped in the coat of night, stole in through the backdoor like a thief and finding Helen curled up, asleep in the bed, only slipped under the covers to wrap himself around her and slumber beside her. This time, unlike all the prior visits, it had to be exactly a three days. No extensions going from weekends to a week to weeks. No. This time they spent the time exact amount of time that had been pre-determined together. Three days. Nothing more and nothing less than that. The moment it was the third day, Nikola and Helen shared one last lingeringly passionate kiss before he disappeared again into the night.
They were able to do this one more time.
And then she received an urgent telegram mere days before she was going to leave on what was going to be her third trip to see him. It was short, and she could feel the urgency of as she read the 9 words:
"Helen. Do not go. Will contact when its safe."
Folding it and putting it away her night drawer Helen could not stop worry from hugging her heart. Biting her lower lip she eagerly waited for his next communication.
That was how two years passed. Helen biting her lower lip, stealing glances at the postcard, telegram and other notes of his to her she had tucked away. Waiting.
It was where she was one night, late in October.
The sun had long since been devoured by the horizon with darkness now throttling all the light from the world with the help of the clouds wrapping around the moon and stars like a menacing scarf. Helen was seated by the window in her room, one light casting a little light about the room. The small table to her left held the now frigid remnants of her evening tea. Beside the cup rested a half folded piece of paper on which lay a note Nikola had once inscribed to her, while they had stayed at her Villa, explaining that when she awoke she should meet him on the back porch for breakfast. Helen herself was slightly slouched, hands interlaced on her lap, absent-mindedly staring out over the grounds of the Sanctuary and into the choked starlight.
The door to her room swung open. Helen, startled that anybody would be so bold as to come in without knocking, instantly turned in her seat to see who the intruder was to find Nikola already gently closing it behind him and walking to her.
"Nikola!" She gasped.
He was already seated on the ledge of her window opposite her. Helen embraced him for a long moment, before sliding her hands down his arms to meet his. Gazing into each other's eyes she asked quietly,
"What are you doing here? Not that I'm complaining…"She added smiling.
"I had to see you…" He replied, a smile just touching his lips.
"What is going on? Where…?"
"The Cabal found me."
Silence thundered down around them as what Nikola had said registered in Helen's mind causing her eyes to widen with fear.
"But how…"
"I don't know Helen and honestly that doesn't matter now. They know I'm not dead, they saw me…"
"But you got away. You're here now, you can stay here in secret and when there are no sightings of you after a while they'll give up and think they were mistaken!"
Nikola shook his head as she spoke,
"No Helen, you don't understand. They saw me…"
"Oh Nikola," Helen murmured realizing, "you didn't…"
"I didn't have a choice." He answered, "They tried to capture me, and it was the only way I could escape."
Helen took deep a breath. Nikola waited to see what she would say.
"Well, now you're here and here you can stay." She smiled a little at him.
But he did not return it.
"I would love that more than anything, but I think we both know that is impossible." He stated sadly.
"But why? The Sanctuary is well fortified. And if they don't know you're here…"
"I will not put you in that kind of danger."
Nikola said in the sternest of voices cutting her off. He lifted a hand to cup her face,
"I will not your risk your life for mine."
She leaned into his hand and he bent forward placing a small kiss on her forehead.
"When it's safe, I'll come back." He whispered.
And with that he released her face and hand, stood and went to leave but Helen reached out, grabbing his hand effectively stopping him. She stood as he turned to face her, attempting to hide the heartbreak from his gaze unsuccessfully. Helen glided forward to place her other hand delicately and deliberately on Nikola's chest. His free hand rose to hold it there as she whispered,
"Stay."
Regret burned with longing in his gaze,
"I can't…"
Leaning forward Helen closed the little space between them, placing a gentle but suggestive kiss against his cheerless lips. After a moment she pulled back to lean her cheek to his and breathed into his ear,
"Just for tonight…"
Nikola replied by tilting his head to place a kiss at the base of her neck then trailed them slowly upward. Helen smiled as he placed one on her pulse, eagerly awaiting the reuniting of their lips which came moments later. He relinquished the hold on her hands, using one of his to grip her at the waist and the other to cup her face, both pulling her to him and deepening the kiss as he did so. She moaned with the pleasure as he found his way into her mouth and began slipping buttons lose on his shirt. When he went to remove himself from her mouth she pressed her hips to him a little harder and bit his lower lip. Groaning heavily Nikola he forced himself back into her mouth, ground his hips against hers and released the quiver of electricity she caused him to lose control of through the hand on her cheek. His own shirt almost completely undone he let go of her face, grabbed her at the waist, and spun her around to lay her gently onto the bed.
The love they made that night was filled with deepest of fears and the fiercest of passions.
Helen's eyes fluttered open many hours later and she expected to hear the sound of Nikola's heartbeat. No such sound came but she was half aware of a hand gently stroking her face and weight depressing the bed somewhere down by her waist. She slowly opened eyes still yearning for sleep to find Nikola's face floating above her, his hand caressing her. Smiling groggily at him she shifted slightly mumbling his name.
"No don't get up," he whispered to her.
Moving his hand to her waist to keep her lying on her side as she was, Helens mind vaguely registered that he was dressed. He then returned his hand to her face. He said nothing more and neither did she. Not for want of trying though. Three thousand thoughts must have run through his mind and not a one seemed right for him to say, in this moment of goodbye. Finally he settled on just kissing her cheek and then rose, slipping out the door. Helen settled back into the covers and her mind soon thereafter pulled her back into sleep.
A few hours later Helen again awoke. As her brain returned from the world of the unconscious Nikola's departure slammed into her mind like a freight train. Sitting up she looked around, sure it had to be a dream. But when she saw her clothes from the day before crumpled on the floor next to the bed the last cobwebs of sleep left her mind leaving only the biting memories of the night before and his silent departure this morning. Recalling the look in his eyes just before he had kissed her cheek Helen felt the tears splash onto her face. She knew that look well, it was the look he got when he was trying to tell her he loved her, but thought no words sufficient enough. Drawing her knees up to her chest and resting her head upon them Helen wept.
It would be the last time she cried for many, many years.
She waited again. Three years passed and there was nothing. Then six, then nine and soon it had been fifteen years.
Helen had never experienced such loneliness in her life. Nigel had been around for awhile, but then he disappeared with his family and never contacted her again. She had seen a fair many of those she worked with grow old and die now. Of course, James was still there miraculously. He tried to visit it her as often as their jobs would allow and wrote her frequently. They were still good friends.
But he was not Nikola.
And by July 1982 she could stand it no more.
Helen gave birth to a beautiful baby girl in 1983.
She named her Ashley.
