When Helen awoke, it was far less violently than before. It was bright, almost too bright, and she recoiled slightly from the light. Everything felt sluggish and odd, and for a moment Helen wondered if this was real or just another dream. She brought a hand up, scowling faintly at the sluggish feeling that had overcome her. Whatever drugs that had been pumped into her system were now starting to wear off, unfortunately, leaving her with a dull pain below her waist and a headache clustering at the back of her mind again. She was in the sanctuary infirmary, surprisingly, the surroundings thankfully familiar to her addled mind.

Shifting into a sitting position, she glanced down at her wrists, noting they seemed to be rubbed raw. Well, after her last time awake, Helen assumed she'd been restrained for whatever reasons. She rubbed briefly at them, before her mind flew to her child. She looked around, but there was no sign of the fact that she had just given birth, nor her daughter anywhere in sight. Her fists clenched into the sheets of the bed as she tried to clear her head, trying to decide if this was her own reality. It certainly felt real, but then again so had the other versions and surprisingly it had been all in her mind. Scowling, Helen fidgeted for another moment, debating if she should attempt to get out of bed and go in search of answers herself or wait – she was never very patient, including when it came to being stuck in a hospital bed.

She was saved from that, however, as the doors slid open and Nikola came striding in, staring down at a tablet in his hands, a brow creasing his face. He paused once he entered, focused on something else entirely until he glanced up and saw that she was indeed awake. He set the tablet aside and was beside her in an instant, face melting into relief as she reached for him.

"Please tell me you're real." She murmured, hugging him tightly and burying her face in the crook of his neck. He carefully maneuvered his arms around the wires and tubes connecting to her, pressing a kiss to her temple.

"I'm real, Helen. Promise." He said quietly, pulling away and resting his forehead against hers. "This is reality. You're home." He added. "We had to flush several drugs out of your system after we broke you out of the hospital – you had quite an eventful time while you were unconscious, my love."

"Where's the baby?"

His hand slipped down to rest against her abdomen, which she noted for the first time still held the same bump she remembered, which had grown slightly in size. Confusion and pain marred her face for a moment as she curled her fingers across his.

"I could have sworn . . . ." She trailed off, remembering the circle of doctors and Adam at her bedside. Another dream?

"It was all fake, Helen." Nikola said quietly. "After your accident Adam did get his hands on you and injected you with a cocktail of drugs." His fingers curled tighter around hers, rubbing his thumb gently across the back of her hand in comfort. "You were out for quite some time; the drugs backfired on him, as much as he hated to realize. It was meant to bring you to term faster, and instead it nearly made you miscarry. Thankfully, demon spawn is stronger than we first realized and managed to survive until we found you in one of the local hospitals and broke you out. Adam had left you near one because he couldn't chance keeping you wherever he did. As far as we can tell, both you and demon spawn are fine. Or at least nearly fine. We found abnormalities around the fetus but that could very well be a side-effect of it being a vampire and all. We've not found enough records yet referring to pregnancies like this to compare it –."

He'd started to ramble, so Helen leaned up to kiss him and silence him. His hand came up to cup her cheek and he leaned into his touch, assured for the time being that this was indeed her reality and nothing else. It felt right, at least, for once, compared to the other so 'realities' she had experienced. She pulled away from their kiss when the need for air became apparent and gave a faint smile.

"So we're back to where we started in not knowing where Adam is or what he's planning." Helen conceded quietly, still sitting up in bed. Nikola pulled away to pace near her bedside, leaving her to fold her hands in her lap, ignoring the way her IV tugged.

"Not entirely. Wolf-Boy's been tracing his activities – he hasn't exactly been quiet about his whereabouts now that you're not with him. It's like he wants to be found."

"Well, I'm certainly not playing bait again."

"I wouldn't let you. You're staying put here from now on, locked safely away." He looked back at her and continued before she could voice any protests. "We tried it your way, Helen, with you assisting, but I am not taking that risk anymore."

Damn him and being right. Helen scowled silently to herself for a moment when he turned his back, despite the fact that she knew he was right. Again. Helen stared at where her hands were folded in her lap, at the IV running into her arm. She hated feeling so useless, but the panic she had felt over their child compared to nothing else, except for when she'd lost Ashley. Helen had no desire to have such worries, and if she was involved in any sort of way from here on out it would be likely that it would be easier for Adam to get a hold of her again – and Helen was quite sure his cocktail of drugs would not fail the next time. He was a brilliant scientist, one she knew to be very, very good at his work and who would make certain everything was perfect for the next round.

She swallowed, throat constricting tightly for a moment as she felt the need to cry, something she hadn't done in quite some time. Damned hormones. She lifted her head to look at Nikola who was still pacing.

"We named her Sophia." Helen said quietly and he looked back up at her, question on his face. "In my dreams. Nightmares. Whatever you call it." She continued. "We had a daughter and we named her Sophia."

"I thought you didn't like that name?" He inquired and she shrugged.

"I was out of it when we were discussing it and it seemed like a good idea at the time. It's grown on me, if you want to consider it." Helen said, now steering the conversation away. "But we also considered Olivia and Charlotte and Amelia -."

He laughed suddenly and Helen frowned slightly.

"What?"

"You've just woken up from quite the ordeal, you look as if you're about to break down at any moment, and you're discussing baby names." He stated, coming back toward her as she gave a watery chuckle.

"It's these hormones." Helen used as an excuse as he reached up to wipe away a tear that had escaped and begun to roll down her cheek. "I can't help it." She added. He sat on the edge of the bed and gathered her up in his arms, running his fingers through her hair and rubbing soothing circles on her back.

"We'll discuss all that business later. You need to finish recovering." Nikola muttered. "You've no idea how hard it's been putting up with Dr. Expendable and Heinrich without you. Not to mention the girl – all of the children have been very annoying since mummy up and disappeared. Now that you're back you can kindly take control of them again."

Helen smiled faintly to herself, snuggling closer to Nikola as she carefully avoided tugging on any of the wires connected to her body, monitoring her. With any luck she'd be able to convince him to let her leave the infirmary that night and just sleep in her own bed for the first time in a while. Not to mention she needed a damned good cup of tea to settle her nerves.

That night she found herself in her own bed, alone for the time being as Nikola met with Henry and Will about things – thing she was being kept out of the loop on. It annoyed her, partially, but the more rational part of her mind knew it was for the best. The more irrational part of mind, however, was starting to take over and regressing back into the odd nightmarish realities she had shuffled through in the past . . . whatever. The more she thought about it, the more upset it made her. She still wasn't confident that this was her reality. The others had seemed real, just as this one did.

When Nikola entered their room, he found Helen on the verge of tears again. She refused to look at him as he entered, instead much interested in her hands in her lap as she sat with her back resting up against pillows and the headboard. Nikola sat on the side of the bed, reaching for her hands.

"Helen," He began, sighing softly. "What's wrong, love?"

"I can't tell if any of this is real, if this is just another one of Adam's tricks. Not to mention I'm stressed about trying to find him, worried beyond reason about being a parent again, and my brain is trying to plug all of this into the same moment and same feeling and I feel like an utter wreck." She mumbled quickly, staring down at her hands encased in Nikola's. Her emotions were indeed a complete train wreck and after her entire ordeal, Helen wasn't exactly certain how to react with anything. Certainly she'd settle into her normal routine again, but how long would that last before Adam interfered again? Or she woke up in some new reality? The whole thought process was making her ill and she closed her eyes, shaking her head.

"I can't do this, Nikola. Any of this. I'm done."

His fingers tightened on her hands, brow furrowing. Reaching up, he tilted her head up to look at him, brushing away the few tears that had escaped.

"Helen, don't you dare start that." He warned. "You're stronger than this. Stronger than Adam. You can handle it, and I know you will because I've seen you do a hell of a lot tougher things." Nikola stated, reaching up to cup her face in his hands. "You're only thinking this because of those nightmares. After you get some rest and get settled back in, you'll be fine. And in a few months you'll have demon spawn in your arms to deal with, and you won't have the time to think about any of this that's happened."

Helen sighed heavily, nodding. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and enveloped her in a hug, letting Helen bury her face in his neck. She remained like that for a moment before she mumbled something against his skin. He furrowed his brow, pulling away.

"What was that?"

"I'm hungry for pineapple and pickles." She said, looking at him with pleading eyes that still shone with fresh tears. He chuckled.

"Stay here. I'll get them." He relented, kissing her once more before he left the room. Helen waited until he'd left before she pulled out her phone and began to dial, crawling off the bed. She still felt somewhat fuzzy, but her mind was running at full force. Rubbing her face to clear away the tears, she tucked the phone between her ear and shoulder.

Richard picked up on the third ring.

"Helen?" His voice was filled with sleep.

"I need a favor." She said, grabbing the bag from beneath the bed she had stuffed there earlier while Nikola hadn't been in the room. She threw it over her shoulder, pulling a note out of the side pocket and setting it on her pillow, Nikola's name scrawled across it.

"What's wrong?"

"How quickly can you meet me at the airport?"

Still with me?