It was unfortunate that John's absence didn't actually make anything clearer for Helen. As much as she had pushed him away while he was still at the Sanctuary, she now missed him desperately. Knowing that he was always there if she went looking for him had been comforting.

One night, as she sat up on the roof, looking out on the city and contemplating her life, Will came up to join her. "You okay?" he asked.

"Fine, just…there's been a lot to take in recently."

He nodded. "Yeah…I'm gonna ask you a question, and feel free to tell me to go mind my own business."

Helen exhaled. "All right."

"Level with me – what's going on with you and Druitt and how concerned should the rest of us be about it?"

"I believe that was two questions," she pointed out. Will just raised an eyebrow. She knew that he wouldn't allow her to avoid giving an answer. "I don't know what's going on with me and John. That's the problem."

"You still care about him?"

She sighed. "I never stopped loving the man that he originally was. And now that he may be that man again…In some ways it feels like nothing has changed, and in other ways, everything has changed."

Will slowly nodded. "So to my second question… The treatment you came up with is working?"

"As far as I can tell. I'll do more scans when he returns."

"So we don't need to worry about…"

"I don't know if I'll ever stop worrying, Will. But if it happens, I'll figure something else out. I can't…I can't give up on him. Not now."

He accepted that and got up from his seat on the wall. He shrugged off his jacket and placed it around her shoulders, since she wasn't wearing anything over her dress shirt. "Goodnight, Magnus," he told her before heading downstairs.


Over the next few weeks, they all had enough work to do that Helen barely had the time to think about John or their future – or their past.

A couple of the Sanctuaries that were attacked by the Cabal had been declared total losses, but the rest were rebuilding. Helen headed to Moscow in order to see how their efforts were going. The Russian team had been working hard, but much of the damage was still clearly evident. It made her heartsick to know that her daughter had been involved in causing so much death and destruction after spending her short life working at her mother's side.

"We hope to have Section One reconstructed within two months," the Moscow Sanctuary's leader told her as they walked through the facility. "At that point, we would be able to accommodate a few of our residents again."

Helen smiled. "I look forward to seeing them return to their home. You've been doing excellent work, Gennady. I had not expected that any of the repairs would be done so quickly."

Gennady nodded. "Please thank Henry for his assistance. Walls and doors are easy, but getting our security system back online is our real challenge."

"I will pass along your message. When do you think that the rest of the facility will be ready?"

He shrugged slightly. "Perhaps within a year? We will see if luck is with us."

Helen smiled. "Hopefully it will be."


When Helen returned to Old City, the Big Guy picked her up at the airport. "How was your trip?" he asked as she slid into the backseat of the car.

"It went well. They are making steady progress and are ahead of the New Delhi facility."

"You did not tell Gennady that?" he asked.

Helen laughed. "Of course not. He and Rakesh have enough of a rivalry going already."

She was quiet for most of the rest of the ride back to the Sanctuary, and once the car was stopped in the driveway, the Big Guy looked back and saw why. Helen had fallen fast asleep.

She works too hard, he thought to himself as he got out of the driver's seat and came around to the back door. He opened it, but paused before reaching to awaken his friend. Now that her defenses were lowered, he realized that she actually seemed frail – a word he never would have thought of using to describe Helen Magnus. Has she been eating? he wondered. Is she ill? We are supposed to be her friends; we should be looking out for her better than this!

He gently laid a furry hand on her shoulder. "Helen?"

She opened her eyes and smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry; it's been a long day. I don't think my body knows quite what time zone it's in."

"Go to bed."

Helen shook her head. "No, I need to speak with Will and Henry and check in on a few of our residents. Don't worry; I'll be fine."

But the Big Guy was worried. As he watched her head into the house, he promised himself that he'd start paying more attention to her condition. If something was wrong, it was up to them to take care of her now.


A few days later, Will, Henry, and the Big Guy were waiting in Helen's office for their normal staff meeting. "Good morning," she told them as she joined them.

"Morning," Will replied.

"You feeling okay, boss?" Henry asked. "I can't remember the last time you actually slept three nights in a row."

"We've all been quite busy recently," she pointed out. Upon her return from Russia, they'd had a bit of an adventure when one of the residents of the Shoe got out of its enclosure.

As they all sat down, Will picked up his mug of coffee. The smell of the caffeinated hot beverage was far more aggravating to Helen than normal; she hadn't been feeling well since she woke up and it was only getting worse now. "How's our newest resident doing?" she asked, trying to ignore the fact that her stomach was doing somersaults.

"Fine," Will replied before launching into a detailed description of the environment that they'd set up for the abnormal they'd picked up a week earlier. Helen tried to force herself to listen, but most of her attention was going toward not becoming ill in the middle of the meeting. She'd been tiring easily recently and hadn't been feeling terribly great, but this was definitely the worst.

Luckily, neither Will nor Henry seemed to notice her preoccupation. They both reported on the latest happenings and what they were currently working on before heading off to take care of their responsibilities. Once they were gone, Helen headed for the nearest bathroom and emptied her stomach of the tea and meager bit of toast that she'd had for breakfast. As she reentered her office, she found that Big Guy was waiting for her with a cup of tea.

"It's ginger," he told her as he handed it to her, seeing that she was about to protest against ingesting anything at the moment.

Helen smiled weakly as she sat down and took a sip. "I don't know what I would do without you," she told her friend.

"You have been sick as of late?" he asked, although it was more of a statement than a question.

"Maybe I'm a little under the weather," she replied. "It's nothing to worry about."

Big Guy regarded her carefully. "You have been ill like this before, Helen. I remember."

She shook her head. "I'm fine, really."

"No, you are not," he asserted, and for some reason, she couldn't continue to pretend. She had no one else to confide in at the moment and needed someone to know the truth.

"No, I'm not," she whispered.

He nodded, satisfied. "Do you know for certain?"

"I haven't done a test, but I'm relatively sure. I'm pregnant."


TBC...