The next day, Helen walked towards the door after the three distinctive knocks from the doorknocker, knowing exactly whom it was calling on her, her heels echoing in the room's near empty state. Once it was open, she smiled.

"James, so good to see you." She walked out to the bearded man, making sure she didn't crush any of the wires or tubes of his life machine strapped to his chest and wrapped around his body as she put her hands on his arms, giving and receiving a kiss on each cheek. The leg braces, however, were a bit easier to avoid.

Even though it was hard to work around sometimes, it was necessary for him to live so long. He was, now that Helen though about it, older than she was, though not by much, and the only reason he was alive was because of the exoskeleton he'd created near to one hundred and thirty years before.

"You haven't changed a bit," he said, walking inside, his eyes taking in the changes since his last minute, though there weren't many.

"Since last fall in London?" She remembered Victoria square, the red leaves of the trees surrounding them, the cool breeze and the light rainfall that came with it. It was abnormal British weather, being so dry, but she had loved it all the same.

"No as in spring of 1886." When they were injected with the blood.

Helen smiled inwardly, "Coming from such a keen observer I'll take that as a compliment." She put her hand around his upper arm and began to lead him down the corridor.

"Now, I'll need help. I have a driver and a truck at the loading dock, I brought some things."

"Things?" What exactly did he bring with him?

"Of course Helen. You didn't expect me to arrive without a gift did you?"

Their walk to the central hub was mostly uneventful, apart from a few laughs from memories revisited; the second world war, America in the fifties… so they found themselves in the company of the team (bar the Big Guy) sooner than expected. She momentarily wondered where he was but remembered the tasks he had left to do.

"Doctor James Watson, Ashley and Henry you know of course…"

"Hey!" Ashley exclaimed, wrapping her arms around the man's neck, forcing him to put his bag on the floor. He was more of an uncle than anyone she'd ever known, and she always missed him when he wasn't there.

"Lovely to see you again my dear." He escaped the hug and held his hand out to the technology buff, "And Henry, the new server's working perfectly."

"Aw thanks doc, I try." He tried not to blush from the compliment.

"And my new colleague, doctor Will Zimmerman."

Will shook the man's hand tentatively, a little confused at the man's appearance. "Hello."

"The protégé. Yes, I've heard quite a bit about you." James said, looking the man up and down.

"All good I hope."

"Some." He watched as the young man looked at him. "A profiler, right?"

"Yes. Doctor Magnus told you?"

Helen smiled. She knew where this was going.

"Actually I was watching you look at me."

Will looked away for a moment. "Really?"

"A profiler looks, listens, gauges, senses, calculates, compares; am I really a doctor? Am I really who I say I am? The tells, give aways, twitch of an eye, the odd unna-tural pause…"

"You have dirt under a single finger nail," he pointed out. "Did you scratch at something?"

Watson frowned and looked at his nail as if he hadn't noticed it. This kid was good. "Did I?"

"I think so." Will didn't notice the exchange of looks from the two women. "Something green, verdigris." He looked up in triumph, "Oxidised bronze."

"Hmm…the doorknocker."

"To test its age."

Very good. He turned to his host. "Reproductions of Rampodine would have been so disappointing."

Helen nodded toyingly. Of course he expected only the best, and she was more than ready for this.

"And from that you got profiler?"

"More your instant threat assessment. Was that a bomb strapped to his chest? Is the accent authentic? Is he casing the room? That's a profiler."

Will's eyebrows rose, "Wow. I'm impressed."

"Yes, of course you are."

He and Ashley laughed, "And people tell me I sound like Sherlock Holmes."

Helen grinned to herself as James looked off to the side, trying not to be too obvious and failing badly. "Actually Will, that's exactly who he is."

It was while Helen and James were removing their protective suits from the autopsy they had just performed that the Big Guy finally decided to tell them about John's little party teaser. They were almost completely packed away when he came in.

"Hello, I haven't seen you all day." Magnus said, smiling at him, causing her friend to turn to see who it was. His face brightened dramatically as soon as he did.

"Ah! It's good to see you again my fine fellow!" he exclaimed, though he was unable to shake hands as his were full with a biohazard suit.

"Likewise." He paused, trying to figure out how he was going to explain this to them.

The man finished clearing his hands and turned back, frowning lightly, "What is it?"

How does he always know? "I need to show you something." He replied, wondering if it was the best way, but exited the room before he could change his mind.

Once they had finished packing everything away, they joined him and began to walk down the corridor.

"I don't suppose you're likely to tell us what it is before we get to our destination are you?" James asked, the pistons in his leg braces creaking as he moved.

"You won't believe me." He remembered when the man had first woken, how he'd panicked and he had to hold him down to make sure he would actually listen. Luckily, he had calmed down considerably after he'd heard the explanation and agreed to stay in the room, but it had been locked just in case. "All I know is that Druitt brought him here."

"Him?"

They arrived at the room about five minutes later, the only sound was a steady thud against the door. After about five, there was a scraping noise before it started again. Seems he'd found his knives.

"Adam…" Big Guy proceeded to unlock the door, the door no longer shuddering from the small impact. "…you've got visitors."

"Who'd want to visit me?" came a very British sounding voice from the other side, "Unless they want to kidnap me of course…"

As the door swung open, there were several gasps. There, next to the bed, stood a younger version of doctor James Watson.