Been reading too much TW recently, so I apologise if that's rubbed off in this fic; though I think if it had the rating might have been a little bit higher...*cough*

So this is the last "planned" story in this collection, as it has pretty much come full circle from the comment these were meant to be based on, in fact this is probably the most similar. Oh, and I couldn't resist the flashbacks. Or the OC. You might want to have a quick look back over The Promise – story number three to refresh yourself about Adam Johnson. Contains spoilers for that, Sleepers, and set AU after Sleepers; Nikola stays at the Sanctuary to help out, in the same universe as numbers 3, 5, 7 and 8, but only related to number 3 (slightly). Unbeta'd. I disclaim it all! Flashbacks in Italics.

So yeah, I hope you enjoy.

The Closet

Some things were not meant to happen. This was certainly one of them; although Helen had a feeling that the man she was currently squashed against would happily argue the contrary. Surprisingly, she was wrong. Normally this would be a dream come true for Nikola: himself, Helen, pressed up against and holding tightly to the other in a very confined space: what more could a man ask for? But in these dreams the two of them weren't hiding from the bad guys with the big guns after he had royally screwed up, and she hadn't spent the last quarter of an hour silently fuming instead of fulfilling Nikola's fantasies.

***~o~***

"Is this the place?" Helen whispered to the figure crouched beside her outside the factory.

Nikola nodded. "One chemical explosives manufacturing plant slap bang in the middle of New York. You would have thought someone would have noticed."

"They did."

"Really? What happened?"

"They called us."

Nikola looked at her pointedly. Helen sighed and consulted her PDA. "According to your information the two guards should now be on the other side of the building. Are you sure your sources are trustworthy?"

Her almost life-long friend bristled. "Helen, surely you don't still doubt me?" Nikola didn't expect a reply: he didn't get one.

Suddenly a voice made itself known over their earpieces. "Alright guys," Henry's usual tone doing nothing to build up suspense; "Security cameras are down, heat-sensors are down, big fat ray guns mounted on the roofs are...nonexistent. All clear boss."

Nikola ignored that he wasn't included in this last exchange of information, whilst Helen couldn't help but smile at her techie's antics. "Well done Henry; now let's keep it that way. Keep monitoring the system, and make sure you warn us in good time if anything changes."

"Will do boss." The line cut out.

"Shall we?" Nikola gestured to the door on their right. Helen nodded, and they switched to military signals, or simply mouthing words once inside to keep as low a profile as possible.

~oooooo~

"Impressive." Nikola whistled at the sight before them.

"I'd be more likely to use the word disturbing, and most likely more dangerous than we had imagined."

"Well, this certainly makes our job...trickier."

"Come on now Nikola, you're not going to let a few more vat-fulls of liquid explosive put you off the task now are you?"

"A few? I think we underestimated the number produced by at least a warehouse or two."

The sight spread out before them was somewhat astonishing. Having reached the lower level the duo had expected to encounter a couple of rooms full of lethal chemicals; what they found however was a cavern the size of two football pitches under the lowest level filled with suspicious looking containers. They didn't need to open them to know what they contained.

"The more the merrier." Helen grinned childishly.

"I think you mean the more explosive." Nikola turned and reached inside the backpack Helen was carrying. He pulled out several complicated pieces of equipment, and then slotted them together to make something that looked like a textbook drawing of a virus - the one's that look like 60s alien spaceships - although the effect was almost ruined by the glowing white circle pulsing in the top of it.

"Will this still be enough to neutralise the chemicals?"

"Helen," Nikola spoke condescendingly but didn't look up from twiddling some buttons on the device, "I'm a genius, and being a genius I realised that something was bound to go wrong, so I gave this thing triple the dosage you suggested."

"Will it work?" Helen repeated, trying to refrain from batting her friend over the head.

"Of course."

"Then set it up and let's go."

Nikola grumbled something about unappreciated scientists ruling the world someday. Helen ignored him.

Two minutes later, the device was primed, and the room was devoid of life once more.

~oooooo~

Things had gone far too well so far, and both scientists knew it; their job done, they proceeded cautiously back the way they had come.

Maybe it was fate, maybe it was bad timing, or maybe it was just incorrect information: whatever it was, Henry's voice was suddenly heard over the comms again.

"One guard, fast approaching, right on your six. Couple of minutes away max."

Helen froze, Nikola did the same, looking for somewhere to go. Now that they were silent the nearing footsteps could be clearly heard.

"What about the other one?" Helen asked, striding over to check a door only to find it was locked.

"Other four."

"What?"

"There are four other guards."

Helen turned and glared at Nikola. "You said two!" She didn't wait for an answer, speaking again to Henry instead. "How close?"

"They're not too far away; close enough to hear a shot, shout or a thump."

"Damn." Helen swore as the next door proved inaccessible as well.

"Hurry up doc, you've got less than a minute."

"Yes, thank you Henry; requesting radio silence from now on. Send backup if we haven't made it out within the hour."

"Roger that, Foss out." Another time she would have laughed at his theatrics and the way the sci-fi nerd in him had a tendency to come out at the most inopportune moments.

"Back up?" Nikola questioned. "The geek, the butler and the bounty hunter do not count as a retrieval squad."

"Not now!" Helen hissed as they ducked down another corridor. Both stopped stock-still as it turned out to be a dead end.

The footsteps were closing in. More door handles were twisted. More curses uttered silently.

Just as the footsteps were about to round the corner Nikola grabbed Helen's arm and bundled her through a half-open door into a small alcove beyond. Helen just had time to register some shelves, boxes and a broom before she was pulled roughly into an awkward embrace to accommodate the both of them in the space: then the door shut, and the lock 'clicked'.

***~o~***

Nikola sighed and moved slightly, shifting the arm behind Helen's back along the shelf there - dislodging pencils as he went – and pulling the arm wrapped around her waist – and consequently Helen – further towards him. Helen harrumphed as the pointed sticks tumbled down her jacket, and moved backwards: but there was nowhere to go and she grumbled as her back hit the shelves.

"I can't believe you locked us in a stationary cupboard!" she hissed (again).

Nikola pulled a face even though it wasn't visible in the darkened room – the bulb broken, the only illumination came from the cracks above and below the door.

"It wasn't my fault! How was I supposed to know-?"

"You're information was old, you should know by now that stupid mistakes cost lives."

"It's hardly a life-threatening situation; we're locked in a cupboard!"

"Yes! We're locked in a cupboard in a known terrorist stronghold; I'd say that's a dangerous situation. If you hadn't pushed us in here-"

"We would have been caught!"

"We wouldn't be stuck!"

"I didn't know it was self-locking!" Nikola interrupted before Helen could really get going. "I mean what a ridiculously stupid thing to do: self-locking closets! I can see why you might want to lock the door, especially if you're with a hot young – or not so young – lady, but what about when you want to get out?" The slight leer in his voice wasn't quite enough to make Helen blush, but she was thankful for the darkness all the same.

"Well," she said, not willing to give up the blame game just yet, "I would think that only employees – who have keys – would be using the storeroom after all..."

"You might be surprised..."

"Nikola!" Helen was already fed up with the situation without his childish behaviour.

"Quite right Helen, quite right. But that still doesn't solve our problem and this broom is sticking into my ar-"

"Nikola!"

"What?" he asked, adopting a tone similar to that of a child with their hand caught in the cookie jar, desperately trying to sweet-talk their way out of punishment and into being given a cookie. Helen glared: Nikola rolled his eyes. "Honestly Helen, it's sticking into my arm;" he shifted, "not my ar-"

Helen suddenly clamped a hand over his mouth as some footsteps walked close by. "For goodness sake Nikola!" she hissed. "Keep your voice down."

Nikola smiled into her hand. "Anything for you my dear," he mumbled sarcastically, but the placement of Helen's hand meant it came out more like: "Imfing furr ooo ii ear."

Helen turned her head back towards him from the door with a puzzled expression on her almost invisible face. As she did so the arm wrapped around Nikola's head to keep her upright knocked some erasers off the shelf. "What?"

Taking his arm from around her waist he lifted her hand from his mouth. Helen, having just lost her main support, was forced to grab the front of his shirt to keep from falling. There was a small ripping noise. Nikola didn't notice that, or the quiet footsteps approaching their cubbyhole. Rather pleased with this new position, he continued. "I said, anyt-"

There was a larger ripping sound, and then Helen was falling backwards, just as the door opened.

***~o~***

Adam Johnson had finally found a new job: it had taken approximately twenty years, and it wasn't a particularly interesting one; but it was still a job. Adam considered himself lucky; after all, there weren't many jobs on offer for security guards who'd been fired for wrecking government kitchens and causing power failures in two states, even if – as he had explained – it hadn't been him, it had been the vampire. Fortunately for Adam, his father was pretty rich, so he had paid for Adam's survival – plus five psychologists, three therapists and even an expert on hallucinogens – until a new job could be found. Twenty years on and Adam was offered a trial place at a chemical factory that was increasing its security force. He was one of ten new guards, and so far everything had been "Just swell Dad."

It was the day before the end of the trial and Adam was confident about securing the position: nothing untoward had happened to see that he wouldn't. Then again, nothing at all had happened, and Adam (on his usual one-man patrol) didn't really understand why the chemicals needed so much protection. As far as he was aware, vat loads of garden fertilisers weren't high up on terrorist wish-lists.

He walked past a stationary cupboard – why they needed stationary he'd never know – but then paused at the muffled sounds coming from behind its door. Adam suddenly thought that he didn't know as much about terrorists as he'd believed.

He slowly crept closer.

Yep; there was definitely someone in there. Knowing that the four other guards currently patrolling were far too sensible/uptight to be messing around in closets and should have been at least fifty metres away, he put his ear to the door to try and discern how many terrorists there were.

There was a muffled ripping sound and some more scrabbling around. Adam, one hand on his gun, reached for the doorknob.

Some more words, a louder rip, and he pulled open the door.

A brunette in black leather toppled out and onto the floor in front of him. He stared. The fact that she was alive was the only thing different about her: it was the dead woman with the vampire from all that time ago.

"Nikola..." the dead lady groaned, placing a hand on her head to check for damage. Adam looked up, automatically pointing his gun at this Nikola fellow. He swallowed and dropped the gun, pointing dumbly instead. The thoughts racing through his head mainly consisted of; Do you know how impossible this is? I must be drunk. I'm hallucinating. Father was right, you are insane.

"V...v...v...vampire!" he finally choked out. The man looked at him strangely. "Don't you know," he began as the dead brunette got up, "there's no such thing as vampires."

Adam was too much in shock to notice the butt of his gun come crashing down towards his head.

***~o~***

Helen stared at the man she had just knocked out. Although usually she would have preferred to stun or talk her way out of such situations, her current temper and lack of a stun gun had prevented either course of action.

She certainly didn't know the man now lying on the floor, but she had seen recognition in his eyes when they'd locked with hers, and he'd accused Nikola of being a vampire, which up till recently had been true.

Helen looked over to the not-vampire in question, but saw as much confusion in his eyes as in her mind. There was also a brief look of loss, or maybe longing, but that was quickly covered up as he met her gaze.

Before either of them could speak the klaxons positioned on the corridor walls started blaring.

Nikola raised an eyebrow. "I think we've been discovered!" he shouted above the noise.

Helen rolled her eyes as she took off down the hall towards the exit. "You don't say," she muttered as the two friends fled the scene of the crime.

***~o~***

Adam Johnson woke up in a white room, with a rather large and painful headache. Then he remembered the events of his last patrol and sat up straight, ignoring the pounding in his skull. It had been them again; the lady and the vampire, the ones who had caused him so much trouble and now had probably wrecked his chances at getting this job as well. Adam sighed, and that was when he noticed that the white room was actually still the corridor, and that there were all the other guards standing around him.

Uh oh. He thought. This seems familiar; waking up in a situation with disapproving faces looking down at me – pretty much the story of my life.

Suddenly one of the guards – Barry – saw that he was awake and ambled over, causing everyone else to notice too and gather around.

Expecting a lecture, Adam was very surprised when they all burst into applause.

"Well done mate," said Barry.

Adam looked up at them all, confusion written plainly across his features. "What did I do?" he asked warily.

"You fought off those terrorists, man!" another guard said. "They saw what they were up against and fled, quick as all that!"

"They did?" Adam asked incredulously; as far as he had been aware he was pretty sure he hadn't presented a threat, certainly not enough of one to cause two terrorists to abandon their plans and flee.

"Yeah, you setting off the biohazard warning alarms was a stroke of genius, you stopped 'em. I mean sure, they beat you up a bit, but hey, you were outnumbered."

Adam nodded; at least that bit he could agree with: outnumbered; two against one. He sifted through the rest of the information in his head: he'd put the biohazard alarm in his back pocket, being pretty sure he wouldn't need it. He must have fallen on it when he'd been knocked out – or beaten up apparently – and set it off, spooking the intruders. But something didn't make sense...

"Did you get a good look at them mate?" Barry asked.

Adam crinkled his forehead as the pieces slotted into place. "Didn't the CCTV capture their faces?"

"Nah, all the cameras were down – they did somethin' to 'em, none of 'em was recording for 'bout two hours."

A smile slowly alighted on Adam's face. "So...you didn't see any of what happened?"

"Uh uh; we were kinda hoping you could fill us in." All the guards were looking at him expectantly. Adam's smile widened, maybe things were going his way after all. He gave himself a mental reminder to not mention vampires, or un-dead women.

"Sure guys, I'll tell you everything you want to know..."

***~o~***

"The neutralising agent should have detonated by now." Nikola declared when they were safely tucked away in the back of the van and on their way to the Old City Sanctuary.

"Detonated?" Helen asked incredeously. "I thought we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves!"

Nikola smirked. "Honestly Helen, it's not a bomb." Helen glared. "Fine, I'll start again: the neutralising agent should have been released by now. There, better?"

Helen couldn't help but smile. "Much." She settled back against the wall.

Silence fell as they both turned to internal reflection.

"By the way," Nikola interrupted after a while; "Why was there a broom in a stationary closet?"

THE END

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