A/N: Firt thing first, I need to thank frostbluete for pointing out a big mistake I made in this chapter when I first uploaded it. Hopefully, I have fixed it up! XD Next chapter is the last before the epilogue :D This has been so much fun writing! Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to do more! This is for all you guys (who are all obvious Teslan fans) Enjoy!

::Sanctuary::

After a quick change of clothes, Helen Magnus hurried from her bedroom, trying desperately to stray her mind from thoughts of Nikola Tesla. Usually, she was quite successful at doing so, however the fact that every time she did manage to suppress a thought of him, a snippet of her memory of what they had just done came rushing back to her and the heat and frustration spread through her once more.

What a day; first Nikola nearly burnt the Sanctuary down, and then they did something Helen never thought she would do with him, and now she discovered the Nubbins had escaped.

Damn Nikola for being so irresistible.

Helen had always prided herself in being able to keep her composure, especially when it came to Nikola. The Nubbins seemed to have made her push aside all boundaries that she had made over the years and let her succumb to her deepest desires.

She found Nikola attractive, no doubt. Many women did. He was brilliant, if not arrogant, but that is what she loved about him. Yet, that was exactly what she was afraid she couldn't do; Love him. Not the way that she loved John. Not in the way that she had loved James. Loving him – loving anyone – was too painful. That was why she had trysts with men she met at conferences and the like; because she had no worries of loving them. It was being together for the sake of being together, to have someone to hold for a moment, someone to spill your heart out to and have no worries of the repercussions afterwards. Though she didn't like to think of them as one night stands, she knew that was exactly what they were.

But this...situation was more than she was used to. Throw her a young agitated phoenix in the middle of an ice storm, and Helen could handle it. But when it came to relationships; that was something that 160 years of living still hadn't been able to help her understand.

She knew Nikola loved her and sometimes she thought that it would be easier if she returned that love, but she knew it would only hurt him and her for that matter.

With a frustrated sigh, Helen strode into Henry's lab, determined to understand how this Nubbin situation had gotten out of hand in the first place. Will and Henry looked up at her arrival, their faces showing blissful ignorance to the recent events. A part of Helen had worried that news of this...thing between herself and Nikola would have spread throughout the Sanctuary networks by now, which was ridiculous of course. Big Guy was her oldest friend and would never do anything to jeopardize that.

"Doc! Where have you been? I've been trying to call you for like the last 3 hours now. I even sent the Big Guy up to Nikola's room to see if you were still there, but apparently he couldn't find you or the vamp anywhere." Henry exclaimed; worry etched onto his features.

"I apologize, Henry. It seems I lost track of time when I went for a walk without my cell phone. It was foolish of me, and now look at this mess. Why don't you explain the situation to me?"

Will cast her a curious glance, almost as if he were analysing her story and she sent him a soft smile to reassure him as Henry launched into his explanation.

"Well, I still haven't figured out how it happened, though Tesla immediately comes to mind. Kate and I had just finished feeding the residents when the power just...went out! It took a few minutes for the emergency power to come on, but by then the Nubbins were long gone."

"We had recaptured the majority of them when the power came back on, but a few are still free. Kate and the Big Guy are rounding them up now. Luckily, they didn't cause too much damage." Will concluded.

If he only knew, Helen thought with a soft sigh.

Nikola chose that moment to arrive, now fully clothed and apparently relieved, Helen noted. That thought once again sent her mind into turmoil once again as she imagined what he had been doing to relieve himself.

Nikola noticed her discomfort and flashed a smug, knowing smile her way so briefly that Helen thought she may have imagined it. Big Guy and Kate entered the lab a minute later, armed with fire extinguishers and transport containers, all of which held incapacitated Nubbins.

"Hey Vlad, what the hell were you doing when you caused the power outage?" Kate asked as she crossed to Henry's desk tallying off the remainder of Nubbins, even though since they had started the list, the numbers seemed to have multiplied.

Nikola looked at Kate confused.

"An electrical surge caused the nubbins to escape," Helen summed up, remembering something about Nikola's thought habits. When he became engrossed in his thoughts, he lost the ability to control his electric powers. In fact, just before the fire broke out in her office, Nikola had been deep in thought. It was still light outside, and therefore the lights had not been on to indicate the power outage and Helen hadn't needed to check any of the computers before she went to visit Nikola in his room.

"That would have been me," Nikola grinned sheepishly, his thoughts following the same as Helen's. Not bothering with an explanation, Helen turned back to her team.

"Get these creatures back to their enclosure, and make sure it is sealed tight. I would rather not have a repeat of this."

"I wouldn't mind, Helen," Nikola whispered in her ear for only her to hear, his body too close to hers and she suppressed a shudder of desire that ran through her at that moment.

She wanted to resist him, to tell him to go back to his room and leave her be, but suddenly she couldn't. Maybe it was her proximity to the Nubbins; yes, Helen decided. That is what it was.

"Don't forget, we have a new arrival tomorrow and I wish this place to be in tip top shape. I will be in my office and wish not to be disturbed," Helen reminded them as she turned from the room, tugging Nikola's arm to follow her.

She may not be able to love him the way she loved John, or James, but she could love him in a way that she would only be able to love him with. She didn't want to be alone any more, and if that meant that she would finally have to admit that she cared for the self-centred, arrogant yet brilliant Nikola Tesla, then so be it.