Do not fear my pretties, this is not the end! There will be more to come :) You know me, unable to resist a happy ending! Anywho, thank you for the reviews and keep 'em comin' if you want the next chapter sooner than I planned!
xx
Helen barely made it into her tiny apartment before the tears overcame her fully and her entire body was wracked with shudders. She had to get out of here, out of New York, out of places that held constant reminders of him. Tightening the scarf around her neck she headed to the corner, just about ready to pack when a bright white light by her bedside table caught her attention. She gasped, momentarily frozen before she sprinted across the tiny room, grabbing the still warm envelope with shaking fingers.
She shuffled to the bed, kicking off her shoes as she lay down on her side, allowing the mid morning sun to warm her as she traced a finger over the Serbian scrawled across the front.
Za moju ženu...
Her heart caught in her throat at the phrase, eyes widening as she felt herself begin to lose it again. How could she have done that to him? How could she have hurt this man?
Biting her lip and snuggling further into the scarf, she flipped the letter over, carefully opening it and pulling out the thick paper that actually managed to smell faintly of him. Or maybe it was just, after all this time, she had started to associate the smell of the paper with him. Pushing the thought aside for a later date, she began to read, eyes devouring the words of the last letter she knew she'd receive from him.
Helen,
Oh my dear sweet Helen. I can't tell you how sad I am that this is my final letter to you. I know the next few years are going to be as hard on you as they were on me though at least whatever heartache you suffer you know was self inflicted. That may sound callous and uncaring but you have to understand, even all these years later I can still feel the unadulterated pain that ripped through me. I knew it, the second I began reading your tear stained letter I knew that you weren't coming to meet me, you weren't going to be by my side as I hid from the world and it almost killed me. The entire train trip I was inconsolable, I wouldn't allow anyone near me and I destroyed at least half of the upholstery. I came to forgive you in time, when I realised you truly had no choice in the matter but still part of me laments the time we should have had.
You broke my heart with that letter, it was half the reason I stayed away from both versions of you for so very long. I knew you were not the same person but, just as I had difficulty separating my feelings for you two in the romantic sense, I had the same problem with my anger. In my mind you were both the same, different people but you had both broken my heart beyond repair.
You asked me to hate you in that letter and, I'll admit, for a time I came pretty close. Of course, I couldn't actually bring myself to hate you, you know I hate to have to follow all your instructions and it was my way of rebelling, of ignoring what you asked of me but, for a time, I almost didn't want to see you. Or at least I convinced myself that I didn't want to.
As time passed, I slowly grew to distance myself, to pretend that it hadn't happened. There was even a point where I allowed myself to read your letters again because, as always, I cannot stay mad at you. I love you far too much to hold that kind of a grudge. It took many years but eventually I managed to look back on our last kiss with fondness. In truth, it did inspire my kiss in Rome, though I had hoped for a warmer reception regardless of the fact that I'd so cruelly turned down your offer to hide out with you and James. Not that I would have been able to stomach you and James in what I now know was a time of great passion for both of you.
Part of me hoped that you'd break your promise and come to me, come and destroy the time line just for the chance to be together but, at the time even I was able to realise just how pig-headed that was. While you loved me, you had bigger fish to fry and I felt incredibly petty for thinking you'd actually do it. Didn't stop me hoping though.
But I stayed away, I truly did for as long as I could stand. I figured sixty years was more than enough time for you to realise how much you needed me, how much you cared for me. I'll admit, my entrance wasn't great but I swear to you this Helen, I stayed away for as long as humanly possible. By the end I thought I'd lose it completely if I didn't get the chance to talk to you once more. Of course, I had been watching you for the majority of those sixty years, poking my head over a fence or two as I watched you grow your empire. Those little glimpses were enough for a while, they kept me going and seeing the pictures of me dotted around your various homes certainly helped me to feel as if you were keeping your promise of not forgetting me but, as vampiric as I am, I am still a man and there is only so much a man can take.
And so here I am, sitting in our sumptuous hotel room, watching you doze in the mid morning sun and finally, it all seems worth it. The heartache, the anger, the frustration, all of it melts away now that I understand what you had to go through, the pain you had to suffer because of me. For me. I can never thank you enough Helen for fighting so hard for what we have. I cannot imagine my life without you or imagine where I would have ended up and that is because of you. You have made me happier than I ever thought I could be at great personal cost to yourself.
Don't worry my darling girl, it's not long now. Soon enough things will be brighter for you and in the mean time, you have a great many things to keep you busy enough that you'll soon forget all about me. Well, probably not but I'm certain you'll be able to keep yourself distracted enough that, until we meet again you'll hardly think of me. Though I would prefer it if you were to pine over me for a little while at least. I'd never pass up a little ego stroking in that respect.
Now, before I go (because if I continue to write, this shall become nothing more than a confession of how much I love you which I think to be rather superfluous at this point), I have to ask, do you want to know a secret? Well, of course you do, I mean your curiosity is second to none but I feel I should ask none the less.
I am writing this from our honeymoon though I don't think it is much of a holiday considering the fact that we've been darting about and visiting all the right places to send your letters whizzing back through time but it is a honeymoon in name if nothing else. I know by now you've probably guessed that our relationship is a little more amorous than you are probably used to, hell, it's more amorous than I am used to and we've been together for almost a year now but I just wanted to give you a heads up. And gloat a little because truly, you are the best thing that ever happened to me.
I wouldn't change any of it. Not the heartbreak, not the separation, not the fact that I have to put up with the children for you. You mean more to me than I ever thought possible and I know now that if you asked me to spend over a century without you, I couldn't do it. I'd try if that was what you really wanted but I wouldn't survive. I know I wouldn't.
I love you Helen. Too much. And as I sit here, watching you mumble in your sleep, a sure sign that you are close to waking, I cannot wipe the smile off my face. Don't tell anyone but finally, I have everything I was ever looking for.
"Nikola?" she asked softly, blinking over at him as she stretched.
"I'm here love, just finishing off the last letter," he said softly, giving her a wide smile.
"Come back to bed," she murmured huskily, propping herself up on her elbow to give him a grin.
Nikola chuckled and shook his head.
You are magnificent, Doctor Magnus-Tesla (please?) and I promise to love you for the rest of my days, regardless of how much you may regret your decision to give me free reign when it comes to expressing my adoration for you. In private, obviously because jumping your bones in front of the children would be a very bad idea.
"Please Niko," she continued with a pout, brushing her hair back as she leant forward, allowing her sheet to slip down just a little further.
"Why?" he asked, not looking up from the desk. "What do you have planned for me?"
I love you, you crazy, psychotic, infuriating woman. Because you are mine and don't you ever forget it.
"Remember our wedding night?" she asked suggestively, dropping the sheet and turning to drop her legs over the edge of the bed. "And wedding day?"
"Vividly," he replied, looking over at her with a glint in his eye. His grin grew.
Love
Nikola Tesla-Magnus
PS:
"Give me that," Helen chastised, leaning over his shoulder as she grabbed his pen, her now silk clad body rubbing against his. Turning his head, Nikola pressed a kiss to her neck, keeping one eye on the paper as she scrawled something where he'd been just about to write his own post script. Admittedly, hers was much more creative than his planned 'I love you' and he raised an eyebrow.
"So that's how you knew..." he breathed, eyes wide at the memory of how fantastic what she'd just instructed her past self to do felt.
"Now," she said, straightening up an dropping the pen back to the table. "Back to bed?"
Unsurprisingly, Nikola readily complied.
