The world reappeared with a sharp flash of light and jolt of electricity that raced up her spine and played havoc with her nerves. Helen clenched her eyes shut as she felt her head split into two. The sheer agony of jumping through a gash in space and time was overwhelming and it never got easier.
John held her hand, folding it beneath his fingers while he waited for her to wake up. He watched as she murmured and frowned, no doubt suffering through the pain.
Will was unconscious, draped over the lower half of Helen's body whilst a sand creature twitched, teeth embedded deep in his ankle. It was currently a dusky orange, unaware of the deep mahogany floor boards of Helen's library.
John tilted his head and eyed it curiously, wondering what new pet Helen had been hunting in the desert. Suddenly he felt Ashley start to slip loose from his shoulder. Shifting his daughter's limp weight, John whispered Helen's name. He wanted her to see this – wanted her to know.
Helen's eyes shot open.
"Don't," she rasped, coughing and struggling for breath.
John let her hands slip from his hold as he stepped back, his placid look evaporating into a comfortable state of malice. He revealed Ashley, slumped carefully over his shoulder.
"Ashley..." Helen tried to get up but Will was heavy and her body was weak.
"Don't bother," he said softly, stepping out of her reach. "I just wanted you to see her – know that she was safe," John finished with a strange smile forcing its way over his harsh features.
She eyed him in warning, "What do you mean – John!" Helen hid her face beneath her arm as John tore another hole in the universe. It was a violent action which ripped pieces from his soul, scattering them across time. To blame him for a gift that devoured the John she remembered was unfair but sometimes she couldn't help it – especially when he had their daughter in tow.
"Stupid, stupid..." she beat at the ground. Ashley was gone again, dragged well beyond her reach.
"Ow... that hurts," Will staggered into consciousness.
Helen tried for a second time to roll him off of her sore body but it was an action that was going to require his input. "Teleporting tends to hurt," she said, slapping him hard across the face to snap him out of delirium.
"Oh god, that hurt more."
She half heartedly apologised, helping him to lift his head and roll to the side. "You were crushing my bruised ribcage."
"Remind me not to do that again," he coughed up a mouthful of sand. Will's face contorted in pain, "It really hurts..."
Helen rolled her eyes but then realised why Will was whining.
"Will," she half-whispered, making a point of keeping her voice steady. "Keep still and – uh, tell me how many books are on that shelf over there."
Will's forehead crinkled up. "What shelf?"
Helen glanced over her shoulder and re-adjusted her point to a non-descript library shelf. "Just do it."
Helen slipped her knees out first and then, with Will's assistance, shuffled out from underneath him. She crawled around his body to the point where the sand creature had attached itself. Its body rose as it inhaled, causing a ripple of colour to propagate from its shoulders down its bony back. Helen's hand stopped short of touching the alluring surface.
Craning her head, she saw a set of small, sharp teeth embedded in Will's ankle amidst a mess of blood. Even in sleep this thing was biting down hard.
"Little bugger," Helen cursed, to which Will tried to whip his head around and have a look, still unaware of his travelmate.
"What – what?" he demanded, squirming in vain.
"Nothing," Helen roused. "Stop moving and count the books."
Will's attention was instead drawn to a set of footsteps approaching from the right. Puffing, a dishevelled Henry rounded the entrance to the library, stopped at the site of them and placed his hands on his knees breathing heavily.
"How – the hell – did you get – what is that!" Henry pointed at Will accusingly.
Will frowned, offended. "What do you mean, what? I'm not a 'what' I'm a 'docto-ooraaargh!'" he yelled in fright, seeing the creature conjoined to his ankle. "Get it off, get it off, get it ow!"
Helen held him down with one elbow digging into his throat, "If you keep moving like this, you're going to wake it up. Henry, go get the tranquiliser gun and load it with 4's."
"Hi Henry, how was your week? Good – yeah, heard you had a bit of trouble. No, it was nothing. Your deranged ex only tried to rip me into little pieces and feed them to the exhibits while you were gone but I'm over that now, no permanent damage. He did, however, take down most of our security network and release a few abnormals for good measure but other than that everything here is –"
"This century please!"
*~*~*
"Aren't you going to help?" Helen and Will grunted their way down the corridor toward the lift, dragging the snoring body of the sand creature. It was heavy and awkward made more difficult by the fact that both of them were injured and sore. Indeed, the only reasonably healthy individual was waiting at the lift doors, holding them open with an impatient look.
"Nope," replied Henry, one hand in his jean pocket. "Creature goes in the cage. Computer guy stays by the computer."
She loved what Henry had done to the place whilst she was away. All the flowers were dead, weeping over the edge of the vases stationed along the corridors. He'd left the curtains drawn, most likely out of fear whilst several mice had escaped from her lab and taken up residence under the Inquires desk.
"You're perfectly replaceable," she grunted, hauling the sand creature's arse into the lift. Both she and Will fell against the iron-grated walls in exhaustion.
Henry hit the basement level button causing the lift to lurch into action, overbalancing Will who fell on top of the sand creature – squeaked in panic, and then returned to the elevator wall with an embarrassed look.
"Not likely," Henry acted decidedly dejected. "One look at the job description and you'd have to increase the pay which brings me back to –" He stopped when Helen pushed herself off of the wall to tackle him with a hug.
A mass of dark hair obscured his view.
"Hi, how are you – missed you," she grinned into his shoulder.
*~*~*
They deposited the sand creature in maximum security. The door to its cage clicked shut but Helen didn't sigh with relief until the double locks slipped into place. It looked sad, lying there on the floor. In what she guessed was a rarity for its kind, the creature looked out of place – starkly alive against the dreary cell walls.
"One down. You've got about three more high security threats on the loose though," Henry moved to one of the inbuilt display systems on the wall. A floor plan of the manor appeared on screen decorated with three flashing dots.
"First," she straightened up, sweat streaming off of her. "I'm stitching the pair of us up," she pointed at Will who continued to drip blood wherever he went, ruining her good carpet. They both looked a mess and in need of a decent cup of tea, or in Will's case, coffee.
Henry watched nervously as the red dots moved about the screen. "I don't suppose that I can..."
"Yes," she wacked him on the back as she left the secure area. The whole level was too dreary for her liking. "You can come too."
*~*~*
"You're thinking about Ashley," Will winced, as Helen smeared alcohol over the deep claw wounds on his back. "We could go and look for her."
Helen shuffled through a metal tray. She was dressed in a white coat with her hair tied back while she attended to Will's injuries which were quite impressive for someone who 'didn't fight'. Finally happy, she selected a dangerous looking implement with a sharp hook on its end. Will suddenly wasn't so sure that he wanted to be fixed.
"John's too clever for that," she said, lining the horrific thing up where the bullet had clipped his arm. "He knows which strengths to play on – he'll take her where I can't follow."
"She's inured though?"
"I imagine so – though I didn't get a good look." It was clear that Helen didn't want to talk by the abruptness of her answers.
"For what it's worth," said Henry, sliding off a nearby gurney, "I don't think he wanted to kill her."
Will looked away as Helen picked a layer of his skin up with the tool.
"Even so..." Helen trailed off. With John, even his best intentions had a habit of attracting the worst outcomes.
An alarm went off over by the door to the lab, filling the room with flashes of red. The emergency lighting kicked on a moment later, bringing the room back to full brightness. Henry tapped away on a nearby computer and frowned, deep with worry.
"One of the loose abnormals is having a go at the windows. They managed to trip the power in the process."
"All right," Helen's eyes were back to their steady façade. "We better go and round them up before they do any real damage. Yes Henry, you're coming too. Without Bigfoot or Ashley it's going to take all three of us."
"I'll try and contact him again before we go," said Henry, hunting around for his headset. "He said he was heading off back towards the tomb looking for you. Hopefully we'll catch him early and save him the walk."
*~*~*
A desert wind had blown itself in from nowhere. Bigfoot was certain that whole dunes were gusting over their heads. Their flashlights were utterly useless against the turbulent layers of sand swishing around like schools of ocean fish.
The desert people whom he had brought with him as part of the expedition were huddling on the ground with thick layers of cloth pulled over their heads. Whenever he passed one, he thought that they looked like boulders, thrown at random by the ancient volcano on the other side of the dune.
Bigfoot stopped when he felt a hand reach out and grab hold of his leg. Bending down, he saw another of those 'rocks'. This one appeared to be shouting at him, though it was difficult to tell through the noise of the wind.
"Go to ground, mate," yelled the man. Only the profile of his nose was visible underneath the layers wrapped around his head. "Only thing to do."
For all Bigfoot knew, they had been walking in circles for hours. The desert man was right. Not even sand people would be out in this...
