Will was on a video call trying to reassure Declan McCrae that the Sanctuary was under control despite the fact that Declan hadn't heard from Magnus in a while, long enough to get suspicious. All the necessary reports were being filed so it wasn't as if the Sanctuary had gone silent. But Declan was observant and had noticed that most of the paperwork coming out of there had Will's signature instead of Helen's. Declan knew she was grooming Will to head another Sanctuary at the very least, if not actually take over her own duties some day. But Declan also knew that Helen Magnus was a incurable workaholic with a control freak's need to have her finger on the pulse of everything.
He and Helen usually spoke once a week as a general way to touch base and keep each other updated on their respective Sanctuaries. On occasions when no pressing matters were attending them, they often socialized after business had been attended to, staying on the line to chat casually. She usually called him just as he began his day and he had come to think of these regular conversations as 'having breakfast with Magnus'. They would video-call while he fortified himself with whatever he found in his Sanctuary's kitchen that morning. Magnus would sip her tea, he suspected more to keep him company in breaking his fast than because she was in need of a late night tea break. It was a reassuring routine.
Now he hadn't heard from her in days, not even on official business, and every time he tried to reach her he got the runaround from Will or Henry. Today he was determined not to get off the line until he had spoken with her. A fact he made plain to Will who was doing a terrible job at extricating himself from the conversation or his boss from suspicion.
"Its going to be a little tricky to get you in touch with her right now, Declan." Will was hedging. He didn't have a believable lie prepared and there was no hope McCrae wouldn't sense an off-the-cuff falsehood.
"Where is she, Zimmerman?" Declan glared as he demanded to know why Magnus couldn't speak to him.
Suddenly Will's image on Declan's computer was replaced by a pale face invading the frame. Sideways. As the camera refocused, Declan recognized Tesla. Behind him, he could hear Will trying to shoo Tesla away from the videocall. To no avail.
"Helen is currently resting after what i assure you was a very enthusiastic and inventive ravishing. Poor woman, she is thoroughly exhausted." Nikola announced with a smarmy smile. "Now do run along, McCrae, I'm sure Helen with get back to you when she is ready to deal with you."
Tesla's face popped out of the frame again, leaving Will looking gobsmacked. His jaw dropped a moment before anger could take over for shock.
"TESLA!" Will shouted, both outraged and embarrassed, barely remembering to end the call before he jumped up from his chair.
Declan felt a bit gobsmacked himself and turned from his computer with a shake of his head. He was glad he wasn't in the middle of that mess. Best give Helen some time to sort it out.
"Is it true? That you-, that Helen…" Will couldn't bring himself to say the words.
Nikola didn't confirm or deny, he didn't say a thing. He just stared Will down with his characteristic expression. That smug insufferable smirk that Will so hated. Tesla worked his last nerve every second of the day, but Will has really thought he'd seen the worst that Tesla had to show him. To take advantage of Magnus though, when she was so vulnerable. Will felt his rage begin to boil. He would summon Henry and Biggie and the three of them would find some way to subdue Tesla so he couldn't hurt anyone else. As much as he wanted to kick Tesla out and never see him again, the man was capable of finding a way back in. Sanctuary defenses were good, but they were not impenetrable. And Will couldn't risk letting a sociopath like that hurt anyone else.
"I knew you couldn't be trusted! I should have locked you up before you could even speak to her, let alone lay a finger on her!" Will's voice was dark with hate as he stalked towards Tesla. His hands clenched and unclenched into tight fists but he knew trying to strangle a vampire was not a fight he was going to win.
"Who is laying their fingers on me?" Helen's voice interrupted suddenly from the door, bringing Will to halt on the rug in front of Helen's desk.
She stood in the doorway a file in hand, open so she could peruse it as she wandered the halls learning the layout of the building. Her hair was tied back, not a strand out of place, and the crease of her slacks immaculate. She look thoroughly unravished. She also looked a touch reluctant to interrupt what was obviously an argument as she stepped through the doorway, but at heart Helen really was a peacemaker. She wanted to bring people (and Abnormals) together to live in peace not strife. She couldn't know it but this wouldn't be the first time she had jumped between Will and Tesla when they battled with words. She never worried about what the argument stemmed from. She strode right on in to settle the issue before anyone got hurt.
"Ah, Helen my dear! Just who I was seeking." Nikola deflected nicely, changing the subject with smooth polish. "I wish to show you all my best inventions. You've always had such appreciation for my work and now your wonder at my genius will be so fresh and new. I simply can't resist the opportunity for you to feed my poor starving ego with your praise."
Nikola gave such an outrageous grin that Helen had to bite back a smile at the silly bantering man. He really was terribly amusing and it charmed her.
"You wish to show me all your most brilliant inventions?" Helen asked with a straight face.
Nikola nodded in confirmation.
"Very well. I certainly have the 5 minutes to spare." Helen gave a tiny smile as she zinged him.
Nikola couldn't restrain a bark of laughter. Ho-ho, she had scored one on him. It appeared nothing would dull that sharp wit he so relished. He gestured her to precede him from the office. While she led the way out, he leaned in to speak quietly to Will.
"Maintain your calm, young Wilhelm. If you are going to be in charge, you'll need to learn that a well-placed lie is often necessary when stalling for time." he said.
Nikola offered it as if it was friendly advice to someone who hadn't just been on the verge of throttling him. His casual aplomb made Will grind his teeth. He had definitely enjoyed making Will uncomfortable both by letting him believe the lie and again when shattering his unflattering assumptions on Nikola's integrity. Tesla had enjoyed toying with him only too much.
Nikola however definitely did not enjoy the knowledge that Helen's protege thought Nikola capable of absolutely anything when it came to hurting and manipulating Helen. He had practically worshiped the woman for over a century, and Zimmerman thought him incapable of being a gentleman? If such unsavory business was all Nikola wanted from Helen, well... he'd seen her overindulge in wine enough times (and one time in particularly excellent scotch) to have been faced with dubious temptations before. No amount of lust had ever made him consider it, but how many thought him capable of it? Did her entire team think him a lecher? Did Helen think he had the potential to be so monstrous?
Nikola caught up to her in the hall where she had paused to wait for him to take the lead since she didn't know where to go. He realized now why Will had left Nikola's lab off the tour. He had been determined to keep Helen away from Nikola from the first, convinced Helen was vulnerable to the vampire's influence.
"What was that about?" Helen asked him directly when he joined her.
The manners learned at the knee of her mother and various nannies and governesses screamed that it was terribly invasive to ask. But everything else within her rebelled at the thought of such things with this man. Society manners were a sort of artifice really, a persona put on to make one more acceptable to others. But nothing about Nikola hinted that she needed to behave a certain way to retain his respect, least of all behave 'like a lady'. In fact, he seemed to delight in telling her stories that highlighted "what a hellion she is" as he had put it.
Nikola was still determined not to lie to her if he could help it. He would have enough to answer for when Helen's memories returned. He had spent the last century answering to her for one offense or another. So he answered her question.
"The fact of the matter is, Helen, that your counterpart at the London Sanctuary is getting rather antsy about your silence. You inspire such adoration in men, darling, that he simply can't bear not speaking with you." He said. Nikola was now being facetious again, clearly, Helen had learned quickly that hyperbole was one of his favorite things. "If we reported your missing memories, he would insist upon coming in to oversee things. If word got around the Sanctuary Network, everything about your operations could be called into question. Rather than bring that down on our heads, I'm afraid i had to tell a rather scandalous falsehood that young Wilhelm took offense to."
"What falsehood did you tell exactly?" she asked, already suspicious. Helen could only imagine what such a flirtatious man might term 'scandalous'
He didn't answer but Helen could insinuate quite well from the overly lustful grin he shot her. Her suspicions were confirmed when he waggled his eyebrows at her in the most absurd way. If it weren't indeed scandalous, his over-the-top manner might have made her laugh. But this was no laughing matter.
Helen gasped in outrage. "How dare you! These are my colleagues! Why, they might be thinking the worst of me now!"
"But my dear, your reputation is unassailable, i assure you." Nikola dropped his playful leer quickly and set to assuaging her. "The name Helen Magnus is respected near and far. No one who has worked with you could ever doubt your abilities or professionalism. You could go on a mission wearing sackcloth and ashes, speaking in limericks and all your underlings would assume you had perfectly legitimate and scientific reasons for doing so. In fact, they would be heartbroken if you were unable to find a rhyme."
Helen found herself smiling reluctantly with a rueful shake of her head.
She did manage to suppress a chuckle because she really was irritated that he would speak about her in such a manner. Even if the story had been true, she would be furious with any man for kissing and telling. Boasting about an affair was no behavior for a gentleman. But Nikola had done nothing else to offend her, that she was aware of at any rate. His motivation appeared sound even if his course of action was poorly chosen. And it seemed every word he spoke was designed to assist her, to amuse or please or comfort her, to aid her. Nikola seemed devoted entirely to setting Helen at ease by making her smile whenever she required it.
"I still don't approve." she warned him.
"Yes, well, I rather didn't expect you would thank me for that one." Nikola admitted. "However crude, it was effective and we have more time for your recovery."
Nikola offered his arm and she took it, letting him lead her to his lab. As they made their way through the Sanctuary he chattered about the various inventions he wanted to show her but she tuned it out. She was sure she would get to see them all, explained in greater depth, very shortly. Instead she was wondering how long her recovery might take. Helen hadn't realized there might be a sort of ticking clock on her return to normalcy. The Sanctuary staff -her staff- were apparently coping admriably but how long until this McCrae fellow came knocking? Suppose it took a while for her memories to come back?
Suppose they never did? With no way of knowing what she would or would not subconsciously remember, none of her skills or knowledge could be trusted until tested. It would make her a dangerous liability in this line of work. She supposed there were plenty of ways to be useful in the Sanctuary if she couldn't go back to her field work, yet she chafed at the idea of filing lab reports or delivering room service to the Abnormal residents. Where was the adventure in that?
There was nothing to be done about it though, until or unless her memories returned. Till then they had to muddle through somehow. So, she decided logically, they would address the most immediate problem. Namely that of a Declan McCrae.
"Is he a threat?" she asked the man beside her.
"Hmm?" Nikola had paused to wrack his brain for more example of his genius to display for her. He had to think for a moment before he remembered their previous topic, but then he snorted at the very idea of Declan McCrae going up against Helen Magnus. He wasn't a bad sort, really, but there was simply no comparison. "A threat to you? Not even if he wanted to be. Rest easy on that score, Helen. McCrae wants a promotion, not to harm you. As far as I have been informed, you interactions with him are civil and cooperative."
"Besides," He turned to her, halting them in front of the door to his suite of research facilities and taking her hands in his.
Nikola was now rather hypocritically glad the big hairy one had invaded his personal space to address the worst of the mess inside the lab. Gone was the plethora of wine bottles, and dirty cravats that had been unknotted and discarded heedlessly at 3am. She couldn't remember the mess that had been his dormitory at Oxford, but he would bet her fastidiousness was a trait she carried with her from the womb.
"You are not without protection." He assured her "This madhouse is full of beings that would defend you."
He settled for rubbing gentle circles over the back of her hands because he certainly couldn't impart the entire truth. That he himself needed no encouragement to fight for her. That he would kill for her, die for her. That indeed he has done both of those things in the course of their many years. Because he loved her.
Normally she could handle that, she would smile, roll her eyes and return a riposte so clever it would ease the sting of her rejection to an offer she didn't see as sincere. But Helen now would have little reason to doubt his sincerity. If such a passionate declaration didn't complete overwhelm her, she might see straight through his bluster to the heart of him. And the idea of her taking him seriously for once was suddenly terrifying.
So he dropped her hands, turning to key his code into the security panel and tap the door release. Then he stepped forward and extended his arms with the flare of a ringmaster as the heavy double doors of his lab swung open grandly to admit them. It would have been more theatrical for a gong to sound or 'Princes of the Universe' to play as they entered, but one works with what one has available.