"Sophie, honey, do you have your sunglasses?"
The child rolled her eyes.
"I doooo Mom!" She complained, tired of Helen who was going through her checklist once again on their way through the tunnels.
Each step was bringing Sophie closer to the transportation system and away from her stressed out mother, and with that in mind, she was walking faster and faster with each question.
Seeing her daughter turn the curb, Helen redirected her stress to Nikola.
"Use the burner phone I gave you run into any kind of problem. I'll keep mine on me at all time. I've saved Robert's phone number in your contacts, just in case. He owes me, and I trust he'll be of assistance if you have any issue with your passports. He also has the means to help you exfiltrate London if need be." She instructed.
Nikola stopped and caught her by the elbow, forcing her to look at him.
"Helen, relax. I can take care of our daughter on my own for two days, even on the surface."
Her jaw contracted. He knew the organization of their little trip was not what was stressing her. She was worried her idea would not work.
"I know…" She sighed.
"I'm sorry you can't be a part of our little vacation. We're going to miss you." He confessed.
That brought a smile to Helen's lips.
"I trust you to give me a full account of Sophie's first time on the surface."
He smiled in return.
"Of course. I hope she likes it enough to go back with you but not as much as to decide she'll settle there in the future. For that would break my heart." He joked in a tone that didn't quite cover his true insecurities.
Helen shook her head, but before she could come up with a smart answer, her daughter's face appeared around the corner.
"Daaaad, we're gonna miss the plane!" she shouted.
"We're gonna miss the plane" Nikola repeated to Helen, readjusting his bag dangling from his shoulder.
She pecked him lightly on the lips and pushed him away.
"Off you go. Have fun. But not too much fun, alright?"
Once they had disappeared at the end of the tunnel, both of them sauntering like happy children going to a birthday party, Helen crossed her arms against her stomach and turned away to make her way back to the Sanctuary, biting her lower lip. Her mind would not be at rest until Nikola called her to fill her in on how her idea had turned out.
Kensington, London, a few hours later:
"What if I yelled that you kidnapped me and you're not my father?" Sophie asked innocently, still gazing at the facade of the museum, her sensitive eyes hidden behind the huge sunglasses that covered half of her face in an attempt to shield her from the aggressive light of the surface.
The old woman in front of them in the queue turned around not so discreetly, checking both Nikola and Sophie worriedly. When she was satisfied that the girl looked both very relaxed for a victim of a kidnapping and very much like the man next to her, she flashed a coquettish smile at Nikola and turned back.
"Someone would call the police. I'd be arrested, you'd be sent to the social services, who, unable to find your parents, would put you in an orphanage where you'd be forced to go to school to learn boring stuff that don't interest you. I would be sent to a freak show. And your mother would be pissed that she has to clean our mess and she'd never let us leave home again." He answered matter-of-factly.
The old lady before them turned again, this time with a bright smile, obviously batting her eyelashes at Nikola.
"Nobody would put such a handsome dear in a freak show, my love." She whispered confidently, blinking.
The vampire flashed her a conspiratorial smile.
"You have no idea…" He sighed.
Proud of her intervention, the lady turned back once again and took a few steps, following the line that seemed to suddenly move, only to stop again seconds later, gaining them three meters or so.
When the woman was far enough that she wouldn't hear, Sophie chuckled, elbowing Nikola's hip.
"I think she wants a piece of you." She said between two fits of giggles.
Nikola raised an eyebrow at his daughter's expression, only to realize she must have caught that phrasing somewhere among Ashley's memories.
He shot daggers at her and she giggled again, resuming her careful analysis of the building.
Sophie was almost nine now. As crazy as it sounded.
At first, Nikola and Helen had been devastated to learn their daughter was haunted by Ashley's memories. Some days, he had felt intense rage against Helen for letting it happen, only to be soothed by guilt, as he of course had had a part in that tragedy.
But more than a year after the fateful night when Helen had finally smashed the hard drive to pieces, they had made their peace with it. Sophie was perfect the way she was.
It was hard on the girl too, but way easier than on her parents. She was mostly glad to have a special connection to the sister she had never known, although she was admittedly lost sometimes, having to juggle between what was purely hers and what came from Ashley. It would sometimes culminate into teenage-like identity crises.
Some days, Nikola felt excluded from the special bond between Sophie and Helen. It was a weird rollercoaster between these two, that would go from an intense complicity over Ashley's memories to Sophie rejecting her mother completely, feeling she was loved only for the part of her sister she was sheltering. They were like two magnets.
Helen did her best to anchor her daughter into the knowledge that she was loved for what made her unique, and to help her navigate between Ashley's 'burden' and what was inherently Sophie. But the whole process was challenging and exhausting.
Somehow, this whole situation brought their family closer. Nikola was their pillar. The one to turn to when they felt insecure. The one in whose arms you felt safe, warm and loved simply for who you are, flaws included.
Will and Archibald were also very present in that new dynamic, helping Sophie to put what she felt into words and Helen to come up with creative ideas to get her daughter to find her inner self. Such as flying to London's Natural History Museum, one of Ashley's favorite places growing up, which Sophie seemed to circle back to regularly these days.
Helen Magnus' face was too well known here to be able to bring Sophie herself, which was why Nikola was there, but he knew for a fact that she was anxiously waiting for his call.
At last, the line had been swallowed by the entrance of the building and Nikola and Sophie were able to set foot in the hall of the museum.
Feeling his daughter's hand clench in his, Nikola glanced at Sophie, who was stuck in awe. She had taken her sunglasses off, as the light there was dim, and her grey eyes were glistening with wonder, taking in the vaulted painted ceiling, stained glass windows and arches, the majestic stone stairs and architectural details that made the Hintze Hall magical to her.
"First time here, huh?" Nikola asked with a satisfied smile.
Sophie nodded, not once looking at him. She recognized the place, as Ashley had been there quite a few times. But it wasn't as she remembered. Or rather, it didn't feel like what she remembered. What she remembered of the hall was Dippy, the diplodocus skeleton in the middle of it, which had fascinated her sister. Dippy was nowhere to be found, replaced by a giant whale hanging from the ceiling. But it did not matter to Sophie. She was awestruck by the wonders of the building.
They spent about half an hour in the main hall, Nikola following his daughter as she studied the arches and how black and white stones were interlaid, as she took in the painted ceiling and the majestic stairs.
Her wonderment didn't cease as they made their way through the exhibits, her eyes barely registering the collections, only focused on the architectural achievements of the building.
Nikola was having a field day. Seeing his daughter's face as the plane had taken off had already been quite an experience. But this? He had rarely seen Sophie in such a trance. Helen would be jealous to have missed such a magical moment, and so he was quietly committing Sophie's reactions to memory to give her a full account of how good her idea had been.
"You don't seem very interested in the animals." He said at last, stopping in front of a dodo looking at them weirdly behind its disproportionate beak.
Sophie shrugged, studying the animal.
She was ill at ease, surrounded with all these dead piles of fur and feathers. She was used to the Sanctuary, with its – living and breathing - wonders of biology. It was strange to her, to be standing where Ashley had stood decades before her, lost in the thrill of seeing so many dead things, trying to discern life in all the glittering glass eyes.
"Ashley didn't really love them either. She only had a weird attraction to dead things." She explained.
Nikola stood still. But he was screaming in victory inside, praising Helen and that brilliant mind of hers.
"So… You're very different from Ashley, right?" He asked with a soft smile.
Sophie squinted at him. She was young, of course, but she was not a complete idiot. She had suspected that this little trip was not innocent, from the moment when she had realized that Ashley's memories and feelings were far different from what she had experienced in the Hall.
"I'm a unique edition." She confirmed with a side grin.
Her father's heart clenched. That smile was a Tesla trademark, but Sophie's eyes looked quite identical to how Helen's looked when she was bursting with happiness.
Feeling lightheaded with love, he slid his arm around Sophie's shoulder to press her against his side, ruffling her hair with his free hand.
"So, what do you want to see next, Kiddo?"