Chapter 10 - Helen needs her help.

"Of course I will be, I'll be back at the first chance I can."

"Alright sweetheart, have a good night but don't even think about leaving tomorrow before I get the chance to say goodbye."

"I wouldn't dare." With this they both headed into their rooms, Magnus didn't want her daughter to see that she was a little upset to hear her daughter was wanting to leave, it seem like she had only just got there. Natalie went into her room and started to get her things together, she didn't want to tell her mom the real reason that she wanted to get back to work, that was that she wanted to begin her process of leaving her job so that she could move back home to be with her mother.

…..

Natalie knew that her plan would take a while to execute, she knew that she couldn't just leave her work in a position without her especially after all that she had done for them. She would take the time to help find her replacement and see through the changeover period so that she knew her regular patients trusted her replacement. This also afforded Natalie the time that she knew she would need to be able to convince her mother to let go of her secret and allow her to live under her true identity. It had been 27 years of living a lie and now the main reason for her secrecy was gone.

The next morning Natalie was almost ready to leave, so she made her way up to try and find her mother and say goodbye. Helen was a little harder to get alone that morning as everyone seemed to need her help with something, it was almost and hour later that Natalie finally got her chance. Helen was now alone in her office and everyone else seemed to be busy enough that they would need her for a while, Natalie headed into the office,

"Hey mom."

"Natalie, how are you?"

"I'm good thanks, it's good to finally get you to myself for a minute." What Natalie didn't know is that Helen had deliberately been staying near other people so that her daughter would have to stay longer, but unfortunately everyone had work to do and so did she. She really couldn't avoid her daughters goodbye any longer.

"Ah I see, your here to say that you're leaving now."

"Yes I'm sorry mom, I need to go I've got so much work I will need to catch up on that I really can't avoid any longer."

"I understand darling, I just hate to see you go. Just know I love you and please be safe."

"You know I will, and I love you too. I'm gonna miss you."

"I'll miss you too. Now you have a safe trip home and call me when you get there ok?"

"Will do." They finished their conversation with a long hug, that neither wanted to end. Unfortunately Natalie had to be the one to break it, she needed to get going otherwise she was going to miss her flight. After saying their final goodbyes Helen watch as her daughter disappeared out into the hall, off to collect her things and leave for the airport.

It was now three months later, Natalie was working her last shift at the hospital. It took her a couple of weeks after returning to work to tell her boss that she was leaving, she helped to find a suitable replacement and once that was done she stayed on to monitor the changeover so that if there was any issue she was able to jump in and help. Her replacement quickly found her grove at the hospital so for the last couple of weeks Natalie wasn't needed to watch over her, this meant that Nat was able to spend her last few shifts helping out in the emergency room. Now on her last shift at work Natalie received a call from her mother, Helen wanted to know if there was any chance that she could come out to the Sanctuary sometime soon as she needed help with a plan she had. Helen would need Natalie there to supervise things just in case it didn't go according to plan. They worked out that Natalie would be able to be there in 2 weeks time as she had a few things that she wanted to get sorted before arriving. Natalie hadn't yet told her mother that she had quit her job or that she was planning on moving back home. She was going to take the next 2 weeks to get her things sorted and packed so they were ready to be sent when she settled back home.

Two weeks later, after going through the plan Natalie headed back to the place she was renting to keep an eye on things as the unfolded, this was so that Natalie could monitor things without being seen. Magnus's plan was to set a course of events that would lead to a mole in the network to be found, she had her daughter create a set of fake brain scans and place them in her file at regular intervals with each scan progressively showing more and more deterioration. This was to make people believe that Helen had a degenerative brain disease and it was starting to effect her work, Magnus then had her daughter place an Ozone Beetle in her brain so she would start to manifest the symptoms to go along with her supposed condition, she knew that the next few days were going to be crazy and she was just glad that she had her daughter there for backup. Before the effects of the beetle began to take effect Helen and Natalie needed to talk to the Big Guy, as they were also going to need his help in their plan, they explained to him that they would need to make it look like Helen had purposefully murdered explained how they would be able to do this and that was why she had Natalie here so that if anything went wrong she was there to stop it. The Big Guy agreed to the plan and went to work on what he needed to do, it was only 2 days later when the plan was set in motion.

Will rounds corner obviously agitated with Declan who is following behind him. Declan had explained to him what was happening just as he arrived back at the Sanctuary after being gone for the last couple of days.

"Where is he?" Will asked.

"Just calm down." Declan told him.

"Don't tell me to calm down. I want to see him. Where is he?"

"Come on." Wills say as he stops in front of the elevator, pushing the button repeatedly. The doors finally open and both Declan and Will enter, Will asking for answers.

"How the hell did this happen?"

"We're still piecing it together. They found him last in an alley near the shipyards." Explains Declan.

"And who found him?" Asks Will.

"An anonymous tip; by the time they got there it was too late."

"And when did you get here?"

"This morning; Henry called, I caught the next flight."

"Well, why the hell wouldn't anyone tell me as soon as…"

"You were already on your way back. You wouldn't have done any good." Declan interrupted Will.

When the elevator doors open again Will rushes out, he stops in front of the door that leads to the morgue. Declan moves in front of him and opens the door allowing Will to enter the room, he then moves towards the row of cabinets and open one up. He pulls out the body that is there and removes the blanket to reveal to Will that it is the Big Guy under there.

"I'm sorry." Declan says.

"Do we know who did this?" Will asks.

"I'm still looking into it."

"But you have some idea."

"We...we should talk when you're settled."

"Why? What's going on? Who did this?"

"Look, it's too early to know for sure, but so far all the evidence I've gathered points to Helen Magnus."

Will couldn't believe it, there was no way that Magnus could of done this. But the evidence was there and Declan went on to say that the Big Guy had called him only a few days earlier to raise his suspicions about Magnus's mental heath, saying that he had recently come across the information in to her current medical condition. Will didn't believe this and came to the realisation that they must have put Magnus somewhere if they believed that she had murdered someone.

"Wait a second. Where is she?" He asked Declan, who responded to where she was. Will angrily left the room on his way to see her yelling as he left,

"She didn't do this."

He goes up to the room where she is being held, to see if he can find any indicators as to what was going on. After asking Magnus a few questions he sees that for some reason she can't remember anything that has happened the last couple of days. He decides to leave her as to not make her anymore upset, and to begin to find the answers to what has happened, he calls a meeting with Henry and Kate so that they can work out a plan to prove Helen's innocence. With both Henry and Kate not knowing what had happened the night before, Will decided the next course of action was to check the crime scene with Kate telling him she would come too, Henry adding that he would investigate her files to see if he could find anything suspicious. Natalie was back at her place keeping a eye on the security cameras of the Sanctuary to keep in the loop as to what everyone was doing, she was glad that when Will got back and started to investigate that he hadn't yet thought about contacting her in regards to the possibility of her mother's health degrading. Luckily for her she had a plan for if he began to think about her help and letting slip to the triad of her existence, for one she no longer looked exactly like her mother thanks to her new hair but also that she could use makeup to slightly change her face to cover her relationship to Helen. But two she would get a chance to use some technology that she had invented to disrupt and empaths ability to read your thoughts, she hadn't been able to test this yet so this could be a good chance to as long as it worked. Otherwise things could go badly and their plan could be ruin.

It was now the next day and the triad just arrived. They made their way up to Helen's office to discuss what had be found so far and to plan their interrogation with Helen. After visiting the crime scene yesterday Will and Kate had found that there was a street camera that should have been there that would have caught the shooting on camera, but for some reason it wasn't there anymore so they had Henry looking into it. He had found that there was no reason for the camera to be gone and that for some reason the footage from the server had been deleted, after more investigation it was found that Helen herself had messaged the chief to delete it. He had also shown Will and Kate the images of the brain scans that he had found off of Magnus's computer, seeing these Will still didn't believe they were real as they should have been able to see the effects this degeneration had on Helen. Back with the triad they had no luck with being able to read Magnus's mind which was exactly how Helen had planned, after the interrogation Will was now in Helen's office confronting Declan as Henry had caught him sending a message asking to be put in charge of this Sanctuary. During their argument Henry called to let them know that he had been able to track own the footage from the alleyway and it was downloading as they spoke, This made Will and Declan hurry down to meet him so that could know the truth as to who shot the Big Guy, after watching the footage they are all in shock as it shows that it was indeed Magnus the shot him. With this information it was all that was needed to charge Helen with the murder and to agree to have her sent off to receive treatment for her condition, and Declan was to be placed in charge of the Sanctuary. Will still not believing this to be the truth heads to see Magnus before they take her away to see if there was any chance that she remembered anyone doing anything to her so they could set her up, but during his visit she knocks him out and escapes from the Sanctuary.

Seeing this slightly concerned Natalie as either her or her mother thought the beetle would have this much effect on her to completely lose her memory of the plan, she wanted to jump in and call the plan off but she knows that her mother wouldn't want her to just yet only if her life was in great peril. This meant she would have to continue monitoring the situation from the distance and hope the Will works out what's is happening soon, back at the Sanctuary after Helen's escape Will goes to see Henry to see if he's been able to find out anymore information through Magnus's file. Henry has had no luck and Will explains that it might be because Declan had one of the telepaths helping him to discredit her, that's when Will phone starts to ring.

He looks and sees that it is Kate calling him he answers,

"Hey."

"Hey, meet me at the pier in twenty." Kate replies then swiftly hangs up the call. Hearing a dial tone will looks at it confused, but decides he should head out to meet her and see what she knew.

Will met Kate at the pier, where she then leads him down a staircase down into the basement of on old building that's when she tells him,

"I had to get you out of the range of the telepaths before I brought you here."

"What is this place?"

"Storage facility, part of the university before they shut it down. My guy swears he spotted her coming in."

"Magnus?" He asks Kate. She just looks at him before calling out,

"Doc? Are you down here?"

"Magnus, its Will and Kate." Thats when all of a sudden Helen comes at them swinging a board at them.

"Hold on a second!" Will yells.

"Leave me alone! Stay back!" Helen pleads.

"We don't want to hurt you. We're here to help you. Come on, Magnus. Now, you already knocked me out once today. One per day, that's your limit."

"Will?" Helen drops the board she has and turns away from them.

"What's happening to me?" She asks.

"Magnus, let me help you." Will asks her.

Meanwhile back at the Sanctuary Henry is working on his computer,

"No, that can't be right." Henry looks puzzled at the monitor.

"What the..? Oh, yeah? Try this one on for size." He taps keys on his keyboard.

"Oh, come on." Just then an encrypted file appears.

"Oh, man."

Henry decided he needed to call Will to tell him what he had found, but will confused him by asking to meet at Dead Bridge. This was because Will knew where Magnus was and couldn't risk going back to to the Sanctuary where the triad was as they would be able to read his mind and find out Magnus's location. Once Henry arrived at Dead Bridge Will was already there waiting so when he pulled up Will hopped into the van so they could talk,

"So I was going through her backup drive when I stumbled across a ghost directory labeled "Big Bertha." I tried to open it, and I found this." Henry began to explain.

"What is this?" Asked Will.

"Some sort of encryption cipher. Csis-level coding, so whatever's in there's got to be important."

"I wasn't aware Magnus was capable of this sort of coding, but you think this is what Declan's after?"

"I wasn't aware either, if I had my guess is that she had some help from someone to hide this. I'd say it's a fair bet that this is what Declan wants."

"Do you know who could have possibly helped her?" He asked Henry who just looked at him as to he should be able to guess.

"Natalie?" Will questioned.

"That would be my guess, I mean you have seen what she been able to do with the system haven't you?"

"Oh yes, she had me following down a rabbit hole trying to locate some information last year. So Big Bertha? Does that mean anything to you?" He asked reading what was on Henry's tablet.

"No. No clue."

"All right, stay on it. Let me know what you find out."

"Yeah. You got it." With that Will got out of the van and made his way back to Kate and Magnus unaware that he was being followed.

Natalie had bugged the van so that she was able to keep up with how the investigation was going, she was now aware the Will had found out about her input into the files, so it was only a matter of time before word was out to Declan and the triad who would be asking questions about her. This now meant that she had to create some sort of back story as to her relationship with Helen, and put together a disguise so they didn't know what she truely looked like. She was somehow able to find a wig that would transform her normal long dark hair to a short blonde hairstyle, she also used the help of some makeup to cover the resemblance with her mothers face to also deter any suspicion.

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