Chapter 25

Helen sat in the seedy bar knowing she looked ridiculously conspicuous. This had been such a bad idea but she was committed now and there was no backing out.

"Dr Magnus, long time no see." A scruffy looking man with red eyes lowered his bulky body into the seat opposite her.

"You have the information?" She asked, getting straight to the point of their meeting not wanting to prolong this encounter any longer than necessary because deep in her gut she knew it had been a bad idea to come herself and not send one of her team.

"Of course, but before we get down to business let's have a drink. Ah, no wait, you won't be drinking will you, word on the street is you got yourself knocked up". He said in a way that made Helen's skin crawl. Yes, coming here had been a very bad idea, she just hoped Nikola never found out about it.

"Word on the street is correct. But you might want to spread it around that the father of my child is a very overprotective vampire with a temper the likes of which you have never seen. I have seen him try to kill when he has run out of his favourite Bordeaux." She leaned in closer to make her point. "I can't even imagine how bad that temper would be if any harm came to his child. The information please." Helen held out an envelope containing cash and was handed a screwed up piece of paper.

Nikola paced the hallway outside Helen's office. He had been pacing for well over two hours now and with each passing minute the anger inside him grew. Just when he was about to enter the office and start throwing things to alleviate some of the rage coursing through him he heard the distinct sound of the ridiculous shoes she refused to stop wearing.

Before contemplating how wise the action was he rounded on her. "What the hell did you think you were doing!" He raged at her.

Damn he had somehow found out.

"My job Nikola."

"Your job! That's all you have to say. Not three months ago you sat in your office and calmly announced you would no longer be going on missions because you were pregnant, and no, wait you still look like you have swallowed a beach ball so I take it you are still pregnant, yet I find out you have gone out to chase down some abnormal!"

"Calm down Nikola. I wasn't chasing an abnormal, I was merely meeting and abnormal contact of mine who had some information on a shipment of red-listers due to arrive sometime in the next week."

"Right. Just meeting a contact. And how many times has that gone pear shaped for you in the past?" Nikola yelled not even trying to disguise his anger at her.

"Nikola!"

"Look I know I wasn't overly excited about this whole baby scenario, but I know it makes you incredibly happy, so please explain to me why you would so recklessly endanger yourself and the peanut." He began to speak more rationally.

"Nikola, it was just a meeting, and I would never endanger our child."

"Right, just like 1945?"

Helen gasped. James had obviously filled him in on the reason for the demise of their relationship. "That was a low blow Nikola, even for you." Helen felt the tears well in her eyes and turned to head back to their room.

Once she entered the solitude of her bedroom Helen took a deep breath and let the tears fall. Nikola may have been out of line saying what he did, but she knew in her heart there was a semblance of truth to the words. She moved away from the door and removed her shoes and sat on the bed, emotionally and physically exhausted.

Nikola waited until he calmed down before following Helen to their room. He was worried enough about whether he had pushed to far that he knocked before entering. He heard a muffled 'enter' and opened the door to find Helen curled up on their bed, her eyes red from crying.

"I'm sorry." He said sincerely as he walked over and sat on the edge of the bed and stroked her hair. "I was out of line bringing that up."

Helen looked up at him through red-rimmed eyes. "I'm sorry too. I know you think I am happy about the baby, and don't get me wrong, I am, I just miss my job so much. Far more than I ever thought I would. It just seemed like too good an opportunity to do something other than paperwork without taking any risks." Helen hoped he could understand and forgive her.

"Ah Helen, I'm sorry, sometimes I get so wrapped up in how all this is affecting me that I forget how much of a shock it was for you too." Nikola nudged her over on the bed and laid down beside her, she rolled slightly so they were spooning and Nikola rested his hand on her distended stomach.

"Maybe in the future when you need to go all Lara Croft, you could let me know and I could come along to …..you know….keep an eye on things?"

Helen smiled. "Lara Croft? How very pop culture of you."

Nikola grinned. "Hey, I am apparently going to be a father, I am told I need to know about these things."

"You are right though, I didn't have any right to meet that contact and I doubt anything like that will happen again, but I promise if it does I will talk to you first."

Nikola gently pressed a kiss to her neck. "That's all I ask." Nikola was silent for a while, just enjoying holding her and feeling the gentle movement of their child under his hand, before speaking again. "Do you realise what just happened?"

Helen had been drifting off to sleep. "Hmmmm?"

"We had our first real couple fight." Nikola sounded almost happy about it.

Helen turned slightly. "And this makes you happy because….?"

Nikola flipped her onto her back and straddled her grinning "Make up sex of course."