A/N: I am so incredibly sorry that this took so long to finish. I really hope that you have enjoyed this story, and will like the ending to it. Thank you for reading and reviewing it! As always, enjoy =]

Nikola leaned back the moment Helen spoke and looked at Big Guy.

"Put her back under." He instructed.

The others just looked startled and horrified at Helens words. Big Guy looked back at Nikola,

"What."

"Put her back under, now." Nikola repeated with urgency.

"Nikola," Helen cooed, "Nikola wait."

He turned his gaze to look at Helen, carefully shielding his true reactions and feelings from her just in case. Helen had reached out with the still restrained hand that was closest to the one Nikola still had resting on the bed beside her body.

"Nikola we could do it together. You and I could take over the Network," She gave him a wide grin, "and then the world. I would stand by your side as you would rule the world. Just like, you always dreamed of."

Nikola wrenched his hand from hers and looked at Big Guy,

"What are you waiting for?!"

Big Guy grunted and quickly administered more sedative and a moment later Helen's eyes fluttered closed and her head slumped to one side. Nikola instantly turned and began rummaging the infirmary in the silence that followed. Then Henry said,

"Dude, what the heck was that!?"

"Yeah," Kate said, "what's with evil Magnus?"

"Obviously the mind control drugs were not affected by the modified version of the MW." Will stated.

"Obviously." Nikola drawled.

He had found what he was looking for and bent over Helen and drew some of her blood into a small vile.

"What's that for?" Will asked.

"For me to see if I can detect any of the drugs in her blood so I may counteract them," Nikola said curtly, "Now if you'll excuse me I have work to do." and with that he walked off to his lab.

A day passed before any of the others heard from Nikola. He quite literally holed himself up in his lab and worked non-stop until,

"I think I got it." He announced during a sudden appearance in Helen's office.

Everybody turned and looked at him.

"Think?" Kate gave him a skeptical look.

"Yes, think." Nikola barked at her, "Unless little girl you would like to try and come up with a better antidote thus wasting more precious time."

When nobody made a reply Nikola turned and walked away. Will Henry and Kate swapped looks and then got up and hurried after him to the infirmary. Upon arriving they found Big Guy already standing beside Helens bed and Nikola standing with a needle containing the purplish-black antidote just pushing it into Helen's IV. When it was done Nikola placed the needle on a counter and then grabbed a chair near Helen's bed. Sitting wordlessly he began to watch. The others, exchanged a look with Big Guy, who shrugged and grunted,

"I guess we just wait now."

And wait they did. Over an hour passed before Helen stirred slightly. Her hand twitched and her body shifted and a small groan escaped her lips. Will once again was the first to speak, he came forward to stand beside her.

"Magnus? Are you awake?"

As her eyelids fluttered Nikola rose from where he had been seated and backed away until he was standing just behind Henry. Helen's eyelids fluttered again and this time they opened, and her blue eyes glanced around falling on the face closest to her own, Will's.

"William," she said quietly.

"Yes Magnus it's me Will."

Nikola felt a warmth creep over his heart and resisted the tug of the smile the desired to cover his face like the one that was covering the faces of everybody around him. Instead he lifted one hand and gently nudged Henry forward to stand on the other side of Helens bed while taking a few more paces back himself to lean on the doorway.

Helen's mind was still a little fuzzy on everything. She could vaguely remember the man in the remnant Cabal lab shooting her with one of those darts. A vision of Nikola's terrified face floating above her as she felt consciousness slipping away. The rest was all a blur with odd visions of Ashley and her own mother intermingled with the darkness. She blinked her eyes closed in attempt to clear it and then opened them to ask Will,

"What happened, after I was shot?"

Will sighed and then explained,

"We managed to get you back here and under sedation successfully allowing Tesla enough time to modify the MW to rid you of your new traits but not the brainwashing drugs. That took another day for him to create an antidote for but, here we are." He smiled at her, "You aren't feeling any odd urges to destroy the Network are you?"

Helen smiled back at him,

"No I am not."

"Doc you had us really worried there." Henry told her.

They all began chatting lightly as Will and Henry gently removed the restraints. Nikola bowed his head, hiding his smile, and turning left the room. Helen was looking at Kate who was speaking and saw Nikola smile and leave. She knew how he felt about these kinds of situations and figured she would just thank him once she was on her feet.

A moment later she tried to get up so she could so sleep in her own bed, but everybody insisted that she should remain in the infirmary at least another day just to be safe. She acquiesced, knowing they were right and they all bid her goodnight with a hug that served to reassure both parties involved. Settling in she turned on her side and was soon sound asleep.

Three days later Nikola glided into Helen's lab. She had asked Will to find him and send him to her. Walking in and finding her standing beside a microscope sipping from a wine glass.

"Well this is giving me some serious déjà vu," Nikola quipped.

Helen looked up and a smile grew on her face.

"Hello Nikola. It's nice to finally see you."

"Yes well I have been busy as usual."

"Ah," Helen replied, "well that is exactly what I wanted to talk to you about."

Nikola, cocked an eyebrow at Helen and crossed his arms saying to her,

"Oh really?"

"Yes," Helen nodded, "Come look at this."

She motioned him over to the microscope. Walking around the lab table he crossed to the microscope, bent and peered into. Then he straightened up saying to her,

"So you have a sample of my cells," He leaned his side against the lab table crossing his arms, "that's a little odd but not a big deal I suppose."

"And how are you so sure that it is your cells under there?"

"Well what gave it away was that the cells are clearly aged to somewhere around 150 but are now clearly aging at a normal mortal rate." He stated in his usual confidently snarky tone.

"Actually Nikola, the cells are one hundred and fifty-eight to be exact."

Confused Nikola stammered,

"But…that's…how old you are..?"

"Precisely." Helen smiled at him. "Something in either the MW or that antidote you created undid what the Source Blood did to me."

She stepped closer to him and taking his hands in her own said,

"Nikola, I am now as mortal as you."

"Helen," Nikola said, shocked, "That was never my intention. I am sorry."

"I'm not." Helen replied without missing a beat.

"You're not?" He looked at her confusion written in his expression.

"No. Longevity has not been a true gift for me but a curse. I have outlived everybody I care about, even my own daughter. And it seemed," she took another step forward bringing her inches from him, "as though that I was going to outlive the only man left I really care about."

Helen finished squeezing Nikola's hand gently. He stood for a long moment just staring at her, unable to find words he found quite right. Finally he settled on,

"Helen, I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to," she murmured, "you said it all in Rome."

They stood there, unmoving, just looking at each other as they had before. As Helen looked at him she saw a familiar, though rare, expression develop in his eyes. The expression was one that was completely unguarded and showed a warm emotion that she had only witnessed in the rarest and fleeting of moments between the two of them. And one of those times had been in the catacombs of Rome. It was then she understood that every time he had looked at her this way he had been trying to tell her he loved her, but did not know how.

This knowledge gave Helen the confidence she had been looking for, and she leaned forward and gave Nikola a small kiss on the lips. Nikola was slightly taken aback, but not enough that he didn't lean into it. When Helen tried to pull back he lifted his hands to her face, pulling her back to him and deeper into the kiss. She moaned, parted her lips to let him in and reached her hands up to wrap around his neck. As both savored the interplay of their mouths, Helen slipped her hands from Nikola's neck to grab his shirt and spun them both around so her back was to the lab table. Nikola grunted from sudden action and in response Helen pulled him closer and simultaneously pressed her hips to him. He groaned a little and pushed deeper into her mouth and abandoned his hold her face to grab her waist and keep him pressed to her as objects around the room began to rattle slightly. Finally they both needed to breath and pulled back but remained in their positions.

"Helen are you sure…?" Nikola asked her in a whisper.

"Yes Nikola," She answered, "I was sure before all this, and I am sure now."

"Before?"

"I have always been unsure of how I felt about you Nikola and it wasn't until you got de-vamped that I knew I loved you because I could not bear the thought of losing you." She smiled, "And now it doesn't matter because we have the same amount of time."

Nikola smiled and leaned to kiss her gently and then said,

"Very well Dr. Magnus, you're stuck with me."