Nikola charged into the infirmary and halted, scanning the room until he found her. Now that he could see that she was alive and conscious and visibly unharmed, he could begin to compose himself. Take a few breaths, smooth his waistcoat back into its proper place. Will strode up during his hesitation and tried to stop him from approaching Helen.
"You don't need to be here." Will announced firmly. How cute, thought Nikola, Huggy Bear is trying to be intimidating and order me around.
"Don't be a fool, William." He wouldn't waste his time explaining that where Helen was so too would be Nikola.
He shoved past the mortal man and strode over to where she sat at her desk in the infirmary. Before it though, not behind it in her customary seat. Curiouser and curiouser. But vastly preferable to see her spread out on an exam bed. Hooked up to tubes and machines to sustain her life. It felt as if a cold wind passed through him at the thought.
"Really Helen, this is absurd." Her head whipped around to him when he addressed her. "I know how protective your minions can be but how can I be expected to complete the homework Teacher has assigned me if I can't reach you to consult on the particulars?"
Her eyes were a bit wary but that was normal. He expected that from anyone who dealt with him and felt rather unimposing if he didn't get it. He liked keeping people on their toes. But Helen's eyes were... confused as well. Unsure. Insecure? Whatever it was, they lacked the confident stare of Doctor Helen Magnus and the change was so notable, his steps halted once more.
"Hello." was all she could offer in response.
The unexplained amnesia that had popped up during their last mission had pulled the rug out from under her. She had blacked out and woken up with no idea who these people were, or even where she was. Despite the medical equipment, this was clearly no hospital. She had no idea who this man was who had charged up, talking about minions. But the other two (Will and Henry, she rehearsed the names so she had at least one solid memory, and the girl is Kate) had said she was safe. They explained the Sanctuary and the work they all did together while running her through a battery of tests. Since they had let the new arrival in after all, it didn't follow that he was likely to be a threat.
But what does one say to a person who could be anyone in the world, really? For all she could recall right now, the man before her could be the Prime Minister. Introducing herself seemed ridiculous, he had addressed her by name, they were clearly already acquainted.
"Can I help you?" It was so pathetic she almost winced. And in her current situation she most certainly could not help him, or anyone else, not even herself.
Nikola's initial reaction was disgust until he observed a lack of her usual tells. The little things that gave her away when she was joshing with him, or secretly enjoying his flirtations. That tiny laugh line, a twitch of the lips. None were there. This wasn't some childish game she was playing to deflect him when he annoyed her.
He spun to face Will and Henry, the latter flinching at being the sudden focus of vampiric intensity and Will just barely restraining himself from doing the same.
"What have you done to her?" Nikola demanded. His voice changed slightly, shifting closer to the register he spoke in while vamped out.
"Hey, what?! Nothing! We didn't do anything and we have no idea how this happened!" Henry was quick to defend himself. "We've run every test we can think of and even invented a few. There's no reason for Magnus' memories to be gone."
Henry was waving his tablet for emphasis as he babbled and Nikola had snatched it from his hands. But his hand froze before it touched the screen as Henry finished speaking. Memories… gone?
He spun back to Helen again, searching her face for any sign of recognition. He went cold again as he failed to find any. Her gaze was so vague and impersonal. Surely it couldn't all be gone. Surely his oldest friend, his only friend, must still know him somehow.
"Helen?" Nikola was surprised to hear his voice come out so steady and calmly questioning, because he felt like he was choking on his heart in his throat.
"Yes." She said, her expression was unlike her - rueful and sheepish, embarrassed almost. "That much I can remember." His brows furrowed and she mistook his consternation for confusion. "My name, that is. I know that I am Helen Magnus, that I was born in August of 1850 to Gregory and Patricia. I remember my youth clearly but distantly. When i try to focus on any adult memories they seem to slip out of my grasp. I get only a vague sense of things feeling familiar." That why her mind hadn't immediately rejected the nature of the Sanctuary and the people who lived there. Why she listened to Will and Henry and didn't doubt their answers to her questions.
And this man, slender with an engaging face and a wild shock of hair, was familiar. Rather intensely so. Did that mean she knew him particularly well, or that she had particularly strong associations with him? The two were by no means mutually exclusive. Who was he? What was his relationship to herself? Every last aspect of her life was a mystery now and it was going to be exhausting to solve them all.
Nikola barely maintained his calm. Oh how he wanted to howl and rage, to expose his teeth and claws. Smash the infirmary, destroy his lab, tear the whole damn Sanctuary down around his ears. He felt utterly adrift, no idea what course to set, what could possibly be before him. He felt… as if he had lost the only one he cared about and the only one who cared about him. His best and oldest friend, the first woman he had ever allowed into his life, his ljubav. It felt like she was dead and he had to pretend he wasn't a creature in pain because she was not dead. Helen was right in front of him, sitting primly with her ankles crossed and hands clenched tightly together in her lap. Helen was here, and she was confused and frightened and needed his strength.
As she had pulled him through the early days of his transition, creating the medicine that kept him alive without indiscriminate killing, so too must he help her through this. He quelled the panic within him, ruthlessly suppressing his pain. After all, he reasoned with himself as he expelled a shaky breath, her memories could very well return. Helen could return to him and he would help her back. No doubt Huggy-bear would consider himself better suited for the job, but someone had to keep the Sanctuary running.
The lack of trust the others had for him rather came in handy now. Nikola had no responsibilities to stop him from occupying his time entirely with Helen's recovery.
"It must be terribly distressing." he managed to say soothingly while his mind raced ahead. "Set your mind at ease. I promise you, you are among friends. Allow me a moment to ensure you are getting the very best of care and I will return to introduce myself properly."
Helen nodded in acquiescence. Nikola sketched a quick little bow before he turned to Henry and Will. Summoning them with a tilt of his head they stepped out of her range to speak.
"How long as this been going on?" It was hard to sound properly demanding when one had to keep voices lowered, Nikola seethed.
The other two glanced at each other awkwardly, unable to bring themselves to respond.
"How. Long." Tesla's tone was approaching the cold rigidity of stone. He'd only seen the index of test results on Henry's tablet but that was data in itself. They really had tested everything, and that assault of medical pokery took more than one afternoon in the infirmary.
"Three days." Henry finally murmured, rubbing the back of his neck.
Nikola choked back an outburst that may very well have featured his vampiric self. Will tried to defend the fact that Helen had been injured three days ago and no one had informed him. Nikola knew he had been caught up in his lab a lot lately. Between his dedication to his work, Helen's dedication to her busy schedule, and her foolish and tormenting habit of occasionally choosing to avoid his company, he hadn't particularly expected to see her.
He'd been working on the latest non-lethal pacifying weapon Wolfboy had designed that he encountered a dilemma of sorts. It would be nothing to modify a few parts and improve both the range and energy efficiency of the weapon. But Helen had expressly forbidden him from deviating from the design schematics unless she personally approved the changes. Tedious and pedestrian he thought, but it did give him an excuse to seek her company and wheedle out a bit of her highly selective attention. She couldn't get angry with him for approaching her with such professional considerations.
Speaking of 'pedestrian', he thought shortly thereafter, having trekked the length and breadth of the Sanctuary looking for her. An exaggeration, but only a trifling one. He'd checked her office and library, the kitchen, even the wine cellar (one never knew. he may not have found Helen but he did find a bottle-shaped friend down there) before finally approaching the wunderkind protégé's office only to find it empty as well.
With a long-suffering sigh, he reached into the breast pocket of the immaculately tailored jacket he had put on before seeking Helen. He stabbed blindly at his speed dial. The only numbers programmed in the phone were the few Sanctuary members he interacted with these days. It didn't matter to him who he got on the line as long as they had an answer to his question.
"What's up?" young Heinrich answered his call.
"Where is Helen?" Nikola didn't bother with pleasantries or things like "hello" because he had suffered a minor aggravation in locating her and was working up a good petulant pout about it. With any lucky she might even devote herself to soothing him when he finally found her. He could usually talk her into a glass of wine; in those situations his pout always disappeared immediately so he could turn on the charm.
Henry's lack of immediate response drew Tesla from his hopeful thoughts.
"Uh.." There was a rustling over the line: Henry muffling the phone. But vampire hearing could catch a word here and there.
"…for Doc." he was saying.
"…not Tesla's business…" That would be Helen's puppy dog protege.
"..her friend! if it was…"
The exchange went on in furious whispers and he could catch no more. But soon Henry was back on the line.
"Tesla?" The young HAP's voice was hollow. "We're down in the infirmary. You better come. It's Magnus…"
So he had come running, quite literally, to find himself a stranger to the woman with the vacant eyes. Tesla drummed his fingers against his chin as he rather impressively, he thought, suppressed his urge to do violence. The inept bungling of these mortals was not going to endanger Helen further. He would see to her care.
"Right. Here's whats going to happen, kiddies. You two are going to work on finding a cure. Recruit the Sasquatch to help you, he has shown himself surprisingly adept at human physiology. William, i expect you can see to official business, young Katherine can be recruited to help with the feeding schedules. "
"But the Doc.." The concern was clear in Henry's voice. That as well as the fact that Henry, as far as Nikola had barely managed to hear, had actually advocated on behalf of the vampire, endeared him to Nikola.
Not precisely a lot since it had taken him three days, but Nikola could overlook a lot of sins in a man who loved the great Helen Magnus, albeit in a very different manner than he himself did.
"Worry not, Heinrich, Helen will be kept under observation by myself. My vampire senses can detect changes in her vitals faster than your medical machines and after all, I have known her the longest, who best to fill in the blanks?"
That seemed acceptable to Henry but Will was instantly suspicious.
"No. No way. Who knows what you would tell her?" Will was sure Tesla had an angle here, here, he always did.
"Why, whatever she asks, of course." Tesla smiled in a parody of innocence, not above goading the boy.
"I don't buy it. You could fill her head with any lie you wanted. I don't trust you. For all we know, you had something to do with this." Will accused.
"Right, because making her forget all my redeeming features, which are many, will help my cause. Really, William, didn't you used to work solving crime? You would have made a terrible detective." Nikola's grin hid a wealth of fury at the other man. As if Nikola would risk Helen's magnificent mind. "And frankly, you don't have a choice in the matter. If you try to stop me, the resulting chaos will only frighten her further and make it harder for her to trust all of us. You wouldn't want that, now would you?"
Will fumed but remained silent. Externally. Internally he cussed Nikola Tesla out with his entire vocabulary of vulgarities. And resolved to meet with Magnus daily, both to discuss how she was coping with the memory loss and to fact check every word out of Tesla's smarmy mouth.
"I'm so pleased we sorted that out amicably. Now, i have a patient to attend to." Nikola said as he left them. The matter was serious enough that Nikola didn't acknowledge any obvious innuendo about 'playing doctor'.
Henry could tell Will was worried. "I don't know, man. I don't think he'd hurt Magnus, not these days. And he's right, he knows things we could never tell her. Maybe he can jar some memories loose. Tell her stories that remind her who she is"
"Yeah. Maybe." Will took a deep breath. Getting Magnus back to normal was the most important effort right now. "Lets double check all those test results, make sure we didn't miss anything."