Chapter 26: Who Knew?

Our friends meet Helmut and the link between him and Niki is revealed.Can you guess what it is?

Once he had recovered his senses, Helmut took stock of his charges as they entered the lounge. He quickly noted the two small children. Both seemingly well behaved for toddlers their age who had been trapped in a plane for several hours. But then he realized the offspring of his two friends had not been strapped into their car seats for twelve hours, they had most likely been free to wander throughout most of the plane for a goodly part of the flight. He was impressed that their small party had been given the use of a private jet of that size, but he supposed when you are associated with a powerful company like Binary, and have won a Nobel Prize, that company takes very good care of you. His mind soon added, and all your friends as well.

He noticed the pretty blonde next to Cooper's wife. She was a very attractive woman, but she seemed a bit tired and looked as though every step was an immense effort for her. He could see why Leonard thought his wife beautiful, but to Helmut, her type of beauty rang no alarm bells in his psyche. She looked like a typical Hollywood manufactured actress. Her make-up was perfectly applied and her body was slender, fit, and shapely. Still, he noticed the protective way she looked at the children and the woman next to her, and realized there was more to Penny Hofstadter than met the eye.

The woman next to her was the one who had brought Helmut Hoffman's mind into full alert. Tall, extremely slender without the shapeliness of her friend, Niki Cooper was the one who had his full attention. She had sandy blonde hair that reached to just above her shoulders and which curled under slightly. Her mouth had a slender top lip and a full, almost pouting bottom one. Helmut also noted a slight dusting of freckles across her cheeks and nose which only added to his interest. However, it was her eyes that had caught his attention. They were large, expressive, and of an unusual light grey color. He had only seen eyes that color once before. In a memory from his childhood and in a photograph. A photograph of…

Helmut quickly steered his mind away from that thought and concentrated on the older woman next to Penny. He had no idea who she was, but he felt an affinity for her immediately. She had a no-nonsense look about her that Helmut admired and found oddly reassuring. He could also see that this woman possessed a very kind heart. He took in the way she shepherded their party along the jetway with compassion and caring and concluded that she was the one person who had most likely made this journey feasible. He was sure if there had been any problems among their group in transit, this lady would have been the one who had held everyone together.

With a sense of purpose that had always characterized his actions, Helmut Hoffman walked toward this small group and offered his delayed greeting, "Good afternoon. I am assuming you are the Cooper party? Yes? Very good. My name is Helmut Hoffman. I am an acquaintance of Drs. Hofstadter and Cooper and I will be escorting you to your hotel in Heidelberg."

The woman Helmut had surmised was Niki Cooper stared at him with a quizzical look and then replied, "We are very pleased to meet you. Penny told me that Leonard has said so many nice things about you. I am pleased to meet you in the flesh." She then gave a slight chuckle at the end of her sentence which reminded him of… Once again, he immediately channeled his mind elsewhere and announced to them, "Please, follow me. Your luggage is being taken care of as we speak, so we will proceed to our chariot on loan from the university and get you all safely to your hotel. Your husbands will meet you there when they are finished with their lectures later today."

They all followed Helmut through the terminal and out to the aforementioned chariot, which turned out to be a grey, medium sized Volvo SUV. Niki couldn't help but imagine that if Helmut Hoffman had been an automobile this was the make and model his form would have taken. Of a good size and structure, dependable, bland, and extremely utilitarian. Still, when she looked at him, something in her became unsettled. Her brain searched frantically for the reason, but came up empty. It was something in the way he was built, presented himself, and talked that told her she knew him from somewhere, but just where she didn't know.

Penny followed wearily behind her friend, jet lag getting the best of her. While Niki, Mary, and the kids had napped, she had stayed awake, too excited to sleep. Now she was paying the price. She was still very much looking forward to being reunited with Leonard, but she was beginning to think a nice nap beforehand wouldn't hurt her any. When they finally reached the SUV that Helmut would use to drive them to Heidelberg, Penny crawled into the very back seat and stretched out in a relaxing position. Mary was left sitting between both children in the middle seats, while Niki was seated next to Helmut in the front. Once everyone was settled, Penny closed her eyes and prepared to take a short nap. Helmut had told them that it would take them close to an hour to reach Heidelberg and their hotel. So, Penny settled back in her seat, closed her eyes, and began to drift off. The hum of voices in the background did not disturb her, until her eyes flew wide open as she began to follow the conversation taking place in the front seat.

"So," Helmut began, "is this your first trip to Germany?"

Niki pretended to be busy viewing the countryside out the window next to her, "No."

The young man pressed her for more information, "When have you been here before?"

Niki's eyes never turned from the window as she answered, "I came here with my mother when I was a teenager."

Helmut pointedly inquired, "Why?"

Niki let out a long sigh and replied, "We came here to see one of her sisters."

Hoffman couldn't help himself, he kept the pressure on his seatmate, "I see. Was there any particular reason your mother wanted to see her?"

Niki kept her eyes focused on the outside of the car and offered reluctantly, "Yes, I suppose there was. One doesn't travel across the ocean on a whim and take a petulant adolescent with you as well."

A smile played across Helmut's lips as he asked, "Were you petulant?"

She finally turned to Helmut and stated succinctly, "I've always been petulant." She then added in a kinder tone, "Sheldon says it's one of my finer qualities. He loves that I back down from no one or nothing when I'm challenged."

Again, the young man gave a small grin, turned to the woman seated next to him and asked her another question, "I see. Did your mother ever explain to you why you came to visit your aunt?"

Niki gave another sigh, shifted her body a bit, and answered the question, "It seems my aunt was having marital problems. Plus, she had just had a baby." Niki knew what was coming, but was trying to delay it as long as possible.

This time it was Helmut who shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "I see. A boy or a girl?"

"A boy."

The young man dreaded asking his next question, but he felt oddly compelled to query, "Did they tell you the child's name?"

Niki turned her head to look out the window once more, "Yes. Helmut."

Their host exhaled through his teeth and pushed Niki even further, "Have you kept in touch with your aunt since that visit?" He pretty much knew the answer to this one, but he needed to hear it from her lips.

Sheldon's wife stared down at her hands and slowly shook her head, "For a short while. But after that? Sadly, no."

"Why is that?" he inquired, even though he saw the pain this was bringing her.

Niki answered through gritted teeth, "I think you know why."

Helmut's eyes left the road ahead of him for a moment to better focus on the woman who may have had the answers he had long been searching for, "Maybe. But I'm not sure."

Niki turned her head towards Helmut and looked directly into his eyes as she spat out, "My aunt just disappeared one day a few years later and we've never heard from her again."

The young physicist's voice was almost a whisper as he asked, "Perhaps she was kidnapped?"

The woman seated next to him shook her head and answered in the negative, "Not likely at all. She left a note. And took most of her things with her."

"The baby?"

Once again, she shook her head, "No. My aunt left him behind with his father."

Helmut nodded his head sadly as if her answer was an affirmation of his own, unspoken thoughts, "Yes. She did. What was your aunt's name, if I may ask?"

The answer came quickly, "Helga."

"Last name?"

Niki stared straight at the man next to her, all pretense abandoned, "Hoffman."

Helmut pulled the car over to the side of the highway and looked at Niki with a strange intensity, "What was your mother's maiden name?"

"Graf."

Before Helmut started the car back up, he shared what he had been thinking since he first saw her emerging from the jetway, "Dr. Horner, my mother's name was Helga. Helga Graf, before she married my father. I do believe my mother was your aunt."

Niki looked at the young man through the tears in her eyes and nodded, "I know. I felt something like that the moment I saw your face."

Helmut reached out and wiped a tear from her cheek, "Likewise. My mother had your eyes." He then looked toward the back of the car, "And your daughter's."

"Your father showed you pictures of her?"

Helmut moved the car back onto the road and then answered, "Yes. Many times. That, and I have some actual memories of her. She left when I was five, so I do have a bit of recall. My father also talked about her quite a bit as I was growing up. He frequently mentioned her eyes and how they had captivated him."

Nikita thought about this for a minute and then asked the obvious, "So…I guess we're cousins?

The impersonal veil he perpetually wore returned to Helmut's face, "It does look that way. Look, do you prefer Dr. Horner or Mrs. Cooper?"

The older woman turned to him and stated, "Actually, I prefer Niki. We're family. There is no need to be that formal, is there?"

Helmut gave an open, honest smile, any cool remoteness had fled, and asked her, "Niki, have you or your family ever heard anything from my mother?"

"Not that I know of, but I can text my mother tonight and we can go from there. I do believe Helga's in Europe somewhere."

He momentarily took his eyes off the road to ask her in an earnest voice, "How is that?"

Niki's face and voice were both somber as she inquired of her cousin, "Can you handle the truth, Helmut?"

He let out a long sigh and answered her, "I do believe so. The worst truth is always better than the best lie."

Niki's thoughts went back to her husband, "That's what Sheldon has always said, in so many words. He's real big on the unvarnished truth."

Helmut chuckled softly under his breath, "Yes, he is. I've found him to be quite blunt at times."

"To some people that's off-putting. But I like it. I always know where I stand. At least I did until he got here."

Helmut misunderstood the meaning of her words and blurted out, "What do you mean? Are you referring to the Heather Powers incident? Believe me, nothing happened between them for you to worry about."

Now it was Niki's turn to chuckle as she waved off Helmut's suggestion, "Oh, I know that. Sheldon doesn't cheat. No, it was more his communication style with me."

"Continue."

Helmut's cousin gave him what she hoped was a clear explanation of what had been troubling her, "It was almost as though he had put up a mental partition between the two of us. And we're usually pretty close, but I felt this great distance. I'm not going to lie, it hurt."

He nodded soberly and put the question to her, "So you came here to rectify things?"

"No, I came here to bring something to him he forgot. And don't ask what it is. That's private."

Helmut responded in a resigned voice, "Very well, I won't ask." He then added in a more positive tone, "I will tell you this, Sheldon misses you and Lori very much. He just has strange ways of dealing with it."

Niki pulled out her phone and checked for any messages while she replied to Helmut's words, "I understand. I'm sure things will be fine once we see each other. Now, on to the truth about your mother. From what my mother has told me, it seemed Helga always had this great desire to live in Europe and your father fell in love with her and made that possible. She also shared with me that your mother had a thing for European men and European living. She hated living in the States. She always yearned for adventure, Old World charm, forests, royalty, and castles. That's what leads me to believe she's still over here, somewhere. If she is, we'll find her. Now, Helmut, who tells the guys we're cousins?"

A voice called out clearly from behind them, "Well, if one of you doesn't, I sure will. One of 'the guys' is my son and the other is my stepson. They both have the right to know this."

Niki gave a little laugh and reassured her mother-in-law, "Don't worry, Mary. I think the proper thing is we tell him together. Right, cuz?

Helmut did a most unusual thing for him, he laughed loudly and agreed with her, "Whatever you say, cuz. This ought to be quite entertaining."

Penny spoke up for the first time since the cousins had begun their conversation, "You got that right, mister. I'm gonna make sure I record every second of it on my phone!"

Niki nodded, looked to Helmut, and informed him, "I was expecting that. Penny and her phone have a history of capturing interesting moments in the life of Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper."

Helmut smiled back at his newly discovered cousin and declared, "Well then, as you Californians would say, let's get a move on and let the party begin!"

Is it just me, or did this visit just get a tad more intriguing?