A/N: Thank y'all so much for the positive responses to this story! I'm excited about it. I know that in canon-land they probably wouldn't have had this much time to reminisce because they were in end-of-the-world mode, but if we can all suspend our disbelief I can fit a lot more Teslen goodness into this. Oh, and this chapter (and probably a lot of those forthcoming) lives up to the story's rating so just, you know, you've been warned. Reviews are love!

"Helen, forgive me for stating the obvious, but you give the Library of Congress a run for its money." They were in the library, trying to decide which volumes could eventually necessary to Helen's research. Even winnowing it down to books that were gifts from her father or that directly referenced abnormals left them with hundreds of volumes. That was before they started making decisions about first editions, autographed books, and ones that Helen simply preferred not to blow up.

"Nikola, if my library cannot beat the Library of Congress in terms of value, then I have been doing something wrong all these years." She wrapped her first edition, signed copy of Origin of the Species and placed it in the box she was filling. Helen was incredibly glad for Nikola's help; he knew these shelves almost as well as she did. After all, most of these volumes had been around since the days of The Five back in London. It was going much quicker since he knew implicitly what to leave and what to pack.

"Oh, Helen, why in the name of all things sacred do you have a copy of this rubbish?" Helen looked to see what book could possibly provoke such a reaction. She giggled when he held up a first edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula. "Because it is signed from Bram to my father," she explained.

"I don't care. It is not coming with us. It is yet another sensationalized, romanticized misrepresentation of my people. Do you have a copy of Twilight, as well?" He sneered, and Helen shook her head, laughing.

"Nikola, why does it bother you so much?" He walked over to the shelf she was currently browsing and leaned in dangerously close to her. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and allowed his nails to grow on that hand, softly running them down one side of her neck while ran his lips up the other side, finally breathing in her ear, "Because I am dangerous and sensational in a way that far exceeds anything Stoker could dream up. It's simply insulting." Helen shivered deliciously when he ran his tongue across the back of her earlobe.

"Don't start something you aren't going to finish," she warned him.

He chuckled. "Helen, you should know by now that I am always willing to finish what I start."

"We're in the library, Nikola!" She protested, indignantly.

"Yes, and if my memory serves me right, that hasn't stopped us in the past." Although she had hoped he didn't hear her breathing hitch at the memory, his breathy laugh in her ear told her differently.

They had just gotten back from Columbia a few hours ago. Helen had been to speak to Big Guy and decided it was time to reclaim the larva from Nikola. She had given him more than enough time to bask in his victory, and it was now time to put an end to his nonsense. She headed towards the labs where she assumed she would find him, but she was pulled from her course as she walked by the library and heard the beat of some kind of angsty rock music playing. She quietly opened the door and the words hit her.

Black fingernails, red wine
I wanna make you, all mine
A lot of people, underground
You wanna get there
You gotta go straight down, straight down

It had to be Nikola, she thought. It could have been written for him.

She was right. Instead of hiding in a lab working on his latest mad experiment, he was sitting in the library with a glass of wine and one of her more thorough histories on sanguine vampiris. He looked up when she walked in, nodded his head in acknowledgement, and went back to his book.

Helen grabbed a second glass and perched herself on the arm at the opposite end of the couch. She looked at him, expectantly, waiting. After a minute, he sighed and closed the book. "Are you going to yell at me again? Because while I undoubtedly deserve it, I could remind you that I did save your life today."

"Yes. After recklessly endangering it," she reminded him.

"So, basically, another day in the life," he observed, quite correctly.

"This is becoming a rather disturbing routine." She let the silence linger a moment before getting to the point. "What did you do with it?" He looked at her, confused.

"With what?" She rolled her eyes.

"The larva, Nikola. I've known you long enough to know that you found a way to keep one." He assumed that classic look of his that was half amused and half wounded.

"Helen, I'm hurt that you think I would do such a thing."

"Can it, Nikola. I'm too tired to go in circles with you tonight."

"Helen," he began, getting up to go stand next to her. "I don't have the rest of eternity anymore to accomplish my crazy list of schemes."

"Which is why you kept a larva. To extend your timeline."

"No. That's why I didn't keep one. I realized how much they bothered you, how much the idea of using them to recreate the source blood would hurt you. I think it would be the last straw with our friendship. And even if I could recreate my vampirism, conquering the world wouldn't be any fun without you around to try and stop me."

Dammit, Helen thought. Either I'm going soft and starting to buy his bull, or he is actually starting to act like a human being. "But if you're human, you won't be ruling the world, either. Where does that leave your list of plans?"

"Well, there's still one grand scheme that I may be able to pull off in my lifetime, if I play my cards right." She looked up at him questioningly, and he leaned in so close to her that his breath hit her cheek and she shivered a little involuntarily. "Prove to you that I meant what I said in Rome." He stood back up. "And I think that goal will be much easier if you are speaking to me." He grinned and returned to his place on the couch, opening the book to where he left off.

Helen was in a little bit of shock. Damn him and his ability to knock her off balance. How does he just throw all that in her court and walk away? And why is it that, even though she should be worried about getting that stupid larva back, all she could think about was how close his lips had been to hers? He had almost died today. She had always assumed they had forever to continue this game, but he was right: forever was just shortened by a lot. Helen warred between leaving him to the book she was quite certain he wasn't really reading and kissing him senseless. Before she could decide on a plan of attack, he spoke.

"Penny for your thoughts, Helen?" He asked, and she could hear the smirk in his voice. She wondered how much of the heat she was fighting was evident on her face. Apparently, quite a bit, because Nikola stood back up, moving directly in front of her and dangerously close. Before she could stop herself, Helen placed her hands on his shoulders, gently pulling him closer. As he leaned forward, he rested his hands on her hips. He looked into her eyes and couldn't believe that he saw the same lust that he was sure was reflected in his own. Helen opened her mouth to say something, but he raised a hand, pressing a single finger to her lips to silence her. They didn't need words, anyway.

She grinned against his finger and, to his surprise and utter delight, opened her mouth and pulled his finger in, gently sucking on it as she stood up and pulled their bodies flush together. Nikola's breath caught and he moaned softly as he wrapped his free arm around her waist. She let his hand go and pulled him into a kiss that had held a remarkable amount of electricity considering that those powers of his were gone. Nikola deepened the kiss and they both lost track of time, tongues battling for control and hands taking on a mind of their own. His hand was somewhere deep up the hem of her dress when they finally had to pull apart for breath.

"Bedroom" was all he could manage to gasp out between kissing every inch of her bare skin he could reach with the unacceptable amount of clothing she was still wearing.

Helen shook her head. "Screw it," she made out between moans. "I'll fix the security tapes tomorrow." He pulled back momentarily, amazed. He gave her a questioning look, offering her the chance to cool down and change her mind. She answered him by pulling him in for another searing kiss. "Unless it bothers you," she challenged. He turned to concentrate on the door and Helen heard the click of a lock turning.

"Not at all," he breathed, before launching an attack on her neck. Helen took the opportunity to start working on the buttons on his shirt. She made quick work of them and began to undo his belt. He pulled her wrists away before she could reach her goal, however. "No. You are wearing entirely too much," he protested, shrugging out of his shirt. He reached for the hem of her dress and slowly snaked his way up the inside of her thighs as he pulled the dress up. When he got close enough that he could feel how aroused she already was, he held his ground and pulled her in for another long, languid kiss. Helen pulled away after a moment, breathless and frustrated beyond belief. "You can tease later," she moaned, encouraging him to get on with it already. He smirked and pulled her dress over her head, taking a moment to enjoy the sight of Helen, face flushed, lips swollen, eyes filled with lust, in a delightful red lingerie set.

"Are you sure I didn't die in that explosion?" He whispered as he reached around to unclasp her bra. He took one of her newly freed breasts into his mouth and rolled his tongue on her nipple. She moaned and involuntarily thrust against him.

"Only if I died, too. And if this is death, it is welco-oooh!" she gasped as he roughly grabbed her other breast. Impatient, she hastily undid his belt and, frustrated with the button on his pants, just pulled the damn thing off with a pop. She reached in and pulled him out, working his length with her hand. He moaned, giving up on her breasts and returning to her mouth. This kiss was fierce, bruising with mutual need. Nikola kicked his pants off and made short work of the scrap of lace that passed as Helen's underwear before guiding her down onto the couch. He reached a hand between her legs and pressed his thumb to her clit, reveling in how damp she already was.

Helen was already dangerously close and when he started working his thumb in circles she fell apart, clamping her legs around his hips and moaning out her orgasm into his mouth. When she had started to come down from her high, he shifted so that he was pressed up against her, then slowly sank inside her. He took a moment to revel in the fact that he was finally claiming her as his, but the moment was cut short when Helen began to thrust against him. He quickly matched her rhythm, kissing her everywhere he could reach as he moved inside her. When he felt himself getting close, he reached his hand between them and found that spot again. A few moments later, Helen, trying futilely to hold back her moans, dug her nails into his back as she came again, hard. He tried to keep pace to draw it out but quickly felt himself fall apart, moaning out his own release as they collapsed onto the couch…

"You forgot to fix the security cameras," Nikola reminded Helen, breaking her from her memory of their first time together. She sighed.

"Poor Henry. At least he figured out what was coming and shut the tape off before he was completely traumatized." Helen leaned in and kissed him. "These walls are going to take a lot of secrets with them when they go," she mused.

"Oh, no," Nikola corrected her. "The record of that night isn't going down with the building." Helen looked at him, suspiciously. He grinned. "I made a copy of the security tape." He paused, waiting for her reaction. He wasn't disappointed. "OWW, you mean thing!" He said, rubbing his arm.

"Dobby, go pack my house," Helen ordered, turning away from him with a grin.