When he had wished Helen a pleasant night and left her to her rest, Nikola went looking for answers.
He found Henry on the way out of his lab, intent on his own bed. Nikola stopped him with a finger jabbed into the younger man's chest. He prodded repeatedly until Henry had backed into the room once more.
"Tell me everything you know about what happened." Nikola demanded.
With a tired sigh, Henry sank into a chair. He scrubbed his face with his hands then ran his fingers through his already-unkempt hair. He hadn't been sleeping great since the mission and it was after midnight now. He'd spent the entire day glued to a screen, working feverishly to find a cure for Magnus. All he wanted was to fix her or, if that wasn't possible yet, at least a good four and half hours of sleep.
But Henry was feeling kinda guilty for not letting Tesla in the loop sooner, he knew the guy was totally hung up on Helen Magnus. So he told Tesla everything he knew about Helen's condition, starting at the very beginning with the pre-mission briefing. By the time Henry made it to the tests he'd been running when Nikola had called, he could barely speaking for yawning and the long hand of the clock had made another circuit around.
"Transfer all the data you have to me." When the young wolf stopped speaking, Nikola shoved his tablet across the lab bench to him. Henry didnt see a reason not to shrug and comply.
As soon as he had finished, Nikola grabbed it from him, muttering under his breath as he made observations on the limited information Henry had collected on the artifact.
When Henry made to try his exit again, heading for the door, Tesla didn't seem inclined to budge. He sat there tapping at the tablet that had just been loaded with a lot of inconclusive test results and readings that raised more questions than they answered.
"You gonna stay here all night?" Henry asked.
"No." Nikola said shortly in reply, not glancing up from the data he didn't want to be distracted from. "I'm sure I will visit the wine cellar at some point."
Henry was too exhausted to even point out the fact the scientist had his own lab to work in. He left Tesla behind and went to bed.
The next morning she was to meet with Will officially. He'd asked to see her early if she felt up for it. Nikola had explained Will was a psychologist and it made sense he would want to speak to her. Indeed he was probably the best to see to her care, since they didn't exactly have a neurologist on the team. Not that Nikola seemed impressed by the younger man's status as a doctor regardless.
"Yes, we all thought Freud was brilliant for a time too." Nikola had snorted. "Later I will tell you precisely why we were all wrong."
Nikola had been outside her door that morning when she had exited, dressed and finished with her ablutions. Nikola announced he was there to escort her to the dining room so she wouldn't get lost in the labyrinth of stone walls and Abnormal habitats. When Helen mentioned her appointment, he waved it off.
"Nonsense. Breakfast first. William can wait and I am certain he would agree with me." And he would, Nikola thought, but only because Helen did need to keep her strength up. The vampire making the suggestion would otherwise be enough for Will to disagree with anything.
So they dined in full state, as directed by Nikola. Helen often took tea and fruit in the kitchens to start her workday, or tea and toast in the breakfast nook on the weekends. But Nikola enjoyed an elaborate feast and thought Helen belonged at the head of her impressive and underused table. It was laid only for two this morning but her Old Friend had created some rather impressive centerpieces with flowers from the more tropical and exotic habitats.
The furry one was happy to occupy his worried mind by preparing Helen's favorite delicacies. He hadnt been able to bring himself to see Magnus yet. He understood her amnesia but knew his heart wouldn't understand if his oldest friend was frightened of his appearance and shied away. He could wait until she was ready to meet him.
The meal was pleasant, with Nikola regaling her with hilarious stories. He wanted to dispel the cloud he had left her under last night and make sure she knew her life had been filled with joy as well as sorrow. Helen laughed herself helpless when he described her first time sampling kajmak. His storytelling was animated, with amusing imitations and expressions.
"Oh you thought yourself very clever and very quick, but i saw you spit it into your napkin when my back was turned and proceeded to lecture you long about propriety and table manners and the like." Nikola related.
"Oh dear." Helen chuckled as she wiped moisture from the corner of her eye. "I hope you weren't offended at the time?"
"Not at all. In fact I was rather embarrassed that I, in all the time i had known you, had completely failed to noticed that you despise clotted cream. I never would have served you Kajmak otherwise."
Helen glanced over the table now and noticed the absence of clotted cream. Her father had always taken it with scones and it had seemed ever-present at his table when she was a child. She smiled to realize that now she sat at her own table, and she could ban any food she disliked from ever being served on it. By all accounts, she was a rather powerful woman now, actually.
She sat a little straighter as she took a sip of her tea.
.x.x.x.x.x.
Her appointment with Will had started out rather poorly. His queries and platitudes sounded stilted and rehearsed, like he'd been googling "how to treat amnesia". Thankfully Will took mercy on them both and proposed giving her a tour of the Sanctuary. He gave her a summary of the Sanctuary's work and history, guiding her past the same habitats she had shown Will when he first arrived here. He was feeling a little amused by the role reversal and wondered if she felt half as amazed by the mermaid as he himself had.
While she was certainly appreciative of Sally, she didn't seem particularly astounded. Not like he had been. In fact, her gaze turned assessing and in a very Magnus-y way, she pronounced her opinions. (In normal moments, a Magnus opinion was really a Magnus order when it came to her beloved Sanctuary and its residents)
"She looks hungry." Helen remarked. She had been speaking really more to herself than to Will but he had heard, of course.
"All the residents are fed on a regular schedule." he assured her. Magnus may not be able to remember she was the boss but Will couldn't forget and he wanted the whole ship running smoothly while she was… out of commission. Whatever you wanted to call it.
"You sound like a zookeeper." Helen mused, not entirely sure she approved. "And she still looks hungry."
"Look Magnus, I promise you-" Will made sure to speak in a calm and neutral manner. Amnesia victims reported a lot of anxiety caused by other people getting emotional over their inability to remember.
"Actually, she is right" Henry spoke up as he and Nikola arrived to join them.
"With all the excitement" Henry gestured vaguely to Helen "Big Guy got a late start on his rounds."
When Helen frowned, Henry rushed on, wary of disappointing her even when she couldn't possibly remember when lunch time was. Of course, her empathic bond with Sally could be alerting her to the finned woman's hunger.
"He and Kate are on it, and they even whipped up some special treats for anyone who had to wait. Don't worry, Doc, we've got it covered." his smile was wide with reassurance before he scampered off to personally assist with lunch detail. Just to help speed things along.
"Doc?" Helen turned to Nikola, distracted from her concerns for a moment. "As in Doctor?"
Nikola nodded and Helen beamed a radiant smile. So carefree, not shadowed by grief. Nikola started to wonder if this temporary reprieve from her normal lifestyle might be beneficial to her stress level.
"I did it? They let me practice medicine?" her voice was wondering, excited, proud, disbelieving all at once.
Nikola recalled that struggle from their youth. That no one believed a woman could attain the skills to be a competent doctor had infuriated Helen. He remembered her storming around his lab, ranting about backwards small-minded men who kept her from helping others. She was glorious when she was in a rage, even back then. If he closed his eyes, he could almost hear the swish of the long skirts she had worn in those days, rustling with each furious step as she paced back and forth before him. Her color had been high and her bosom had heaved with each indignant breath and Nikola had spent the next century annoying her just so he could see that beautiful fiery anger again and again.
"To say they LET you would do a disservice to yourself, Helen. You didn't give them a choice. You attended their lectures and called out their asinine mistakes. You burst into their surgeries and corrected their erroneous treatments right in front of their patients. You lured their patients away from them and even convinced their own wives that a woman could treat a woman better than a man."
Her eyes went wide. It sounded very forward of her. She had never worried about her reputation overmuch but women simply were not allowed to behave in such a way. At least they didn't used to be…
"They all LOATHED you, my dear." Nikola smirked, knowing Helen, at least a Helen in full possession of the facts, would delight in that. "Of course they were perfectly polite to your face. Your father was very influential, and they didn't want to lose their reputation as gentlemen. But many a medical practitioner of the day cursed your name over a glass at White's. But you were simply too good at being a doctor for anyone to stop you."
Helen glowed with pride. She had always known she could do it. Not a hundred narrow minds had ever made her doubt that she was capable of saving lives. Nikola devoured her with his eyes. Gorgeous in her anger and radiant in her joys, a hundred lifetimes couldn't be enough to dull his appreciation of her.
She was full of questions, bursting with curiosity, but she didn't know where to begin. 150 years. How many lives she must have saved! How many thousands of people had she been able to help?
Nikola stepped beside her, insinuating himself between her and Will. He cocked an elbow, delighted when she settled her hand on his arm and he led her off away from her young protégé.
"You studied at Oxford, though the bulk of your true education came from your travels. After your father was hospitalized- Oh, just a minor ailment, my dear, nothing to be concerned about." He hastened to assure her when she came to a stop in shock. With a gentle nudge from his elbow he set them in motion again. "But afterwards you were very cautious with his health and insisted on accompanying him. Actually, you insisted he stop traveling and and stay home to take a great deal more rest, but your father was ever as stubborn as you. Finally you reached the compromise that if he was to travel, you would go with to care for him."
This seemed right to Helen. She had always resented her father leaving her behind. As a child his vague explanations had never been enough to justify his frequent absence from her life.
"You researched medicines and surgical techniques everywhere you went. Even holistic methods and homeopathy. You sought out yogis and gurus and even mystical tribal shamasel, learned everything you could about 'magical' elixirs, transcendental meditation, spells and hexes. Even when you thought them to be complete codswallop, that insatiable curiosity of yours drove you. And my dear, you have a rare talent for finding things."
Will shook his head as the two immortals disappeared, arm in arm, Helen's chuckle the last sound he could distinguish as they left. He'd feel a lot better about this if he could prove or disprove Tesla's stories about Magnus' personal history.