A/N. This is random but you know what I just realized? A/N is like Ashley/Nikola. *shudders* That would be kind of weird. I'm so pathetic though, I wouldn't mind as long as it was Niko hooking up with SOMEONE! XD

I'm sooo sorry this took so long! Gah! I'm such a bad person! I had schoolwork and my own fiction writing and a fanfic for a GW monthly challenge and another Sanctuary fic idea that hit me upside the head like a beach ball—don't ask—but no excuses!

Yes, it's late, but here it is and I hope you like it. I cranked it out in one sitting, so its just pure fluff, but the story progresses a bit. And just a warning…THE END IS NIGH Lol. That was a bit melodramatic. Basically, I'm planning one, maybe two more chapters after this. Although, I've kind of built my own little AU here with Nikola permanently on the team, so I guess I could go on forever if I wanted to—hypothetically speaking. ^_^

Chapter 7 – Confession

"Helen, will you please, for once, listen to reason."

Helen looked up, startled. Nikola had entered her office without a sound and now stood on the other side of her big desk, a few feet behind the guest chairs. He had one hand on his hip in that attractive way of his and Helen quickly flicked her eyes back down to her work.

"What do you mean, 'for once'? I always listen to reason, Nikola. You're the one who takes ridiculous risks with minimal chances of success, remember?"

The engineering genius sighed deeply and walked a few steps forward, placing his hands carefully on the edge of her desk as he leaned over it. "Helen, it's been a week. John was no help—as per usual—but honestly, even if he did remember anything, we're not even sure if the Cabal really is back. What if there's just another electrical abnormal out there, hm?"

Not bothering to look up, Helen replied, "John wouldn't have been captured by a simple electric abnormal."

"Right, because he's superman," Nikola muttered under his breath, sarcastically.

Helen looked up with a frown. "What was that?"

"Look," Nikola barreled on. "You've gotten four hours of sleep over a span of six days, Helen. When are you going to get over your nerves and get some rest?"

Helen frowned. "My nerves?" She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms.

Nikola straightened from the desk and gestured flippantly with one hand. "You're mentally fighting sleeping with me again," he said, as if stating the obvious.

"Different word choice, Nikola," she warned, closing her eyes briefly.

"Fine. The thought of sleeping near me again is making you anxious."

Helen spluttered out a laugh that even Henry would have noted was forced. "You overestimate your own magnetism, I think."

Nikola's mouth cracked into a grin. "That was a nice pun—how long were you waiting to drop that one?"

"About a week now," Helen replied, nodding.

Nikola's amused smile returned to a flat line. "Nevertheless, as a doctor, I insist you rest."

"You're not a doctor!" Helen laughed.

All at once, Nikola launched into a Viennese accent—the same he'd used while pretending to be Dr. Heinrich Baumschlager at his Mexico clinic not so long ago. "Now, now. Even immortal goddesses-on-earth need proper rest or they get all wrinkly and gross. We wouldn't want that now, hm?"

His lips stretched into that impossibly wide smile of his and he winked. Helen couldn't help but smile at his ridiculous charm.

*

Helen didn't bother with pajamas—she'd never really been a nightclothes person anyway. What little sleep her immortal body got, she usually got from collapsing in bed fully-clothed. So, she simply took off her boots and jacket, unpinned her hair, and shimmied into bed beside Nikola—who was also basically still dressed, and had been sitting up in bed watching her prepare.

"What, no lingerie? Not even a sheer negligee?"

Helen gave him a good-natured scowl. "Cheeky…"

Nikola smiled and lay back on the pillow. Helen followed suit and for several heartbeats that seemed minutes long, they both stared at the ceiling. Helen was just thinking that if one of the young team members were there, they would have been muttering "Awkward…!" in high pitch.

"You know, I was thinking," Nikola said casually, seemingly not at all affected by the tension Helen was feeling. "Those two little ones—what're they're names. The scruffy one and the lovely but annoying one?"

"Henry and Kate," Helen said, using only her tone to sufficiently scold him for his rudeness.

"Whatever." Though it was dark, she could imagine his eye-roll. "I've been observing them over the past few days and I think you might have a budding romance on your hands."

"Henry and Kate?" Helen blinked at the dark ceiling. "Really?"

"You haven't noticed it?" Nikola turned his head to study her profile. "I thought it was quite obvious."

"I've been so busy…" Helen trailed off and shrugged.

Nikola sighed, turning to look back at the ceiling. "Well, you're still as blind to love as ever."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Helen snapped.

"It's just, back in Oxford, you and I…" Nikola trailed off and abruptly cleared his throat. "You know what, never mind. That's beating a dead horse and you clearly have no interest in me in the sense of—"

"Now hold on a minute," Helen interrupted. "You always did like putting words in my mouth, didn't you?"

"Meaning?"

"Meaning I haven't made up my mind about you, yet, Nikola Tesla," Helen said, nudging his arm under the covers with a sly smirk. "Behave yourself and who knows?"

His grin was so wide, it glinted in the darkness. Suddenly the image of the two of them lying flat on their backs, staring at the ceiling, fully-clothed and not touching one another, sank in and Helen burst out laughing.

Nikola frowned. "What?"

"Look at us!" Helen spluttered, barely able to speak around her laughter. "Both of us over a hundred and fifty, lying the dark, chatting about young love?"

Another uncontrollable fit of laughter racked her body and Nikola chuckled just because she was laughing. "And why is that so funny?"

"I don't know!" Helen gasped, still cracking up.

"Ah," Nikola feigned the Viennese accent again. "'Tis a case of the slaphappy, yes? Where the laughing is uncontrollable? This is usually brought on by sleep deprivation, young lady."

Helen's laughter only escalated. Her head thrown back, she laughed from her gut so hard that she was barely breathing. Rolling over she slapped Nikola's shoulder, nearly crying because of the unstoppable laughter. Caught up in her ecstasy, Nikola laughed as well. It was several moments before either of them calmed.

When they were still once again, Helen realized that she'd sidled up to Nikola in the laughing fit and her hand rested lightly on his chest. Her knee-jerk reaction was to flinch away, but she forced herself to remain still.

John was history. Nikola was her friend. He was there for her. She would certainly take this progression of emotions cautiously, but there was nothing wrong with the current situation.

Nikola felt her tense up and prepared himself for her customary distancing maneuver. When she didn't move, instead relaxing against him again, he felt his pulse spike in joy. She'd done something out of character. He fully expected her to flee his closeness, but instead, she had ducked her head, her cheek against his shoulder. He could feel every distinct line of her body against his side and the outline of her feminine hand felt like it was burned over his heart, but he didn't dare move, too afraid to startle her off.

"You know, you're right?" Helen murmured drowsily after several long minutes of warm silence.

"Yes," Nikola replied immediately. Then he frowned. "About…what. Specifically."

Helen giggled sleepily, sounding once again like the young girl he'd first met over a century ago. "About Henry and Kate. I see it now. Actually…they kind of remind me of us."

"Us?" Nikola questioned. He was glad for the evenness to his voice, though his mind shook. He'd only dreamed that the word 'us' would come out of Helen's mouth in reference to himself and her together.

"Yeah, you know," Helen went on, fast fading to sleep. "They seem mismatched at first glance. She's tough, he's a braniac…they always have these battles with their words…they're both too stubborn to admit—" She cut herself off.

"Admit what they feel?" Nikola finished for her, his voice nearly inaudible.

Helen was silent and Nikola feared for a moment that she'd fallen asleep. But then her hand moved over his chest, rubbing lightly, absently.

"Yeah," she said simply. Then she sighed. "For the sake of their happiness, I hope Henry's like you and confesses his love. Though maybe not just after being impaled, hm?"

She giggled again, a lightly rippling aftermath to the slaphappy fit from earlier. Nikola grinned at the ceiling and closed his eyes as Helen nuzzled her face against his shoulder again, sliding her hand across his stomach to hug him against her tightly.

He wanted nothing more than to reciprocate the squeeze and never let go. His fingers actually twitched where his arms lay at his sides. But if he'd learned anything from his parents' farm growing up it was that you couldn't approach a nervous animal all at once, no matter how tough they appeared on the outside.

"You know," he said, presently, "that part of my speech wasn't supposed to be in there. But when you were being so beautifully petulant and scolding, it just kind of came out. I meant to convince you to help me, not frighten you."

"I wasn't frightened." Helen took a deep breath and sighed it out, clearly half asleep already. "Truthfully, I was wondering what had taken you so long. I waited a hundred years, Nikola…. Literally, a hundred years for you to…"

His eyes snapped open. What had she just said?!

"Helen," he murmured.

When she didn't respond, he lifted his head from the pillow, looking down at her tousled head. She shifted and looked up at him with half-lidded eyes. He had to know. Reaching his arm across his body, he nudged a curl out of her eyes and brushed his hand across her cheek. When her eyes opened a little wider, he spoke.

"Helen, sleep can induce a near-hypnotic state and sometimes people say things without knowing it. What did you mean by what you just said?"

All at once, Helen's eyes flew wide and focused on nothing, while at the same time her face went expressionless and her entire body froze. Someone else might think she had abruptly dropped dead or gone into shock, but Nikola knew that this was what she looked like when an idea struck her.

"What is it?" he ventured only after giving her a few seconds to collect the idea into a workable theory.

"Hypnosis," she breathed, suddenly very lucid. In one motion, she released her hold on him, rolled out of bed and raced for the door—barefoot and jacketless though she was.

"Will can hypnotize John to find any memories the Cabal might have repressed when they captured him!" she yelled over her shoulder in excitement.

Then the door swung open and slammed shut behind her and Nikola was left sitting up in bed in the dark bedroom. Groaning, he shoved both hands into his hair and fell flat onto his back.

Damn it to hell.

TBC