Helen awoke to a face pressed into her shoulder and a body tightly wound around her arm holding her just below the elbow and her hand. Sara was lying diagonally across the bed, Helen squished to one side while her daughter took over the rest, her feet practically touching the opposite edge with almost all the blankets wrapped around her tiny form. Sara was deep in sleep, but Helen had to get up, she was supposed to leave late in the morning and be home by dinner, of which she was planning on sharing with Will. However, John had left, couldn't be found, as her daughter had put it the previous night. Where on Earth could he have gone?
She tried to slip her arm away from the girl, but to no avail she was stuck. Sara had quite a grip. Not really wanting to wake her, but finding no other option, Helen began to stroke the girl's cheek attempting to bring her into consciousness. "Sara, darling, it's time to wake up." The girl shook her head, her nose rubbing deep into Helen's shoulder and made a negative sound in her throat. "Sara, love, I have to get going."
Sara sat straight up at that, "Don't leave."
Helen leaned up, bracing one hand behind her and letting the other caress the soft skin of her offspring. "I need to get dressed and do some work before I leave; I'm needed at home." Sara looked like she was going to burst into tears, but she just nodded her head and grabbed for her dolly. "Come on then, I'll make you a breakfast that I bet your father never let you have."
Sara perked up at that. "Daddy says we have to eat 'hearty breakfasts.'" Sara tried to imitate John and failed miserably, but it was adorable to say the least.
Helen giggled, "I'm sure he does." Leaning over she kissed Sara quickly before extracting herself from the mass of tangled blankets. Dressing, Helen couldn't believe that Sara woke so quickly—she was currently jumping excitedly on the bed as her mother sat down in front of the vanity.
Sara stopped suddenly giving the woman an odd look that Helen didn't miss in the reflection of the mirror. "What are you doing?"
"Putting on makeup." Sara's nose wrinkled slightly, but she hopped off the bed, her nighty brushing her ankles as she made her way over. She watched with curious eyes as Helen patted concealer via a wet sponge smoothing the color over her cheeks and neck, brow and eyelids. Sara poked a finger at one of the things on the counter.
"What's that?"
It was a squat and small container containing a black gel in it, "Eyeliner." At the quizzical look she received, Helen continued, "Here watch." She drew up a tiny brush and dipped it into the gel coating both sides equally. Pulling her lid down with her other hand, Helen swiped the brush along her lash leaving a dark and straight line. "See, it's not so hard." She did her other eye quickly before glancing at the girl again, she could read the thoughts or rather, sole thought, running through her brain as the child's finger played with the mascara, rolling it over and over. She wanted to play makeup, something Ashley had never been interested in. "Do you want—" Sara was nodding her head vigorously before Helen could even finish. "Here this is more your color I think."
Picking up a dark blue eye liner, Helen swept it quickly over the girl's eyes beckoning her to close the lids. Placing some silvery shadow above the liner and swiping the mascara brush through her lashes and sat back. "Beautiful." Sara climbed into Helen's lap to look in the mirror grinning at her reflection. Helen smiled and kissed her cheek, pulling the girl's shoulders until she was standing again. "I'm almost finished, and then we can get you dressed and breakfast." Finishing the routine readily she grabbed Sara's hand and made for the child's room, there was still no sign from John.
Helen poured the containments of the box into the bowl, Sara watching with wide eyes at the colorful circles spilling into the white porcelain. "Fruit loops, one of my favorite things to eat for breakfast." Helen reached to the side and began pouring milk into the bowl before she made herself one as well. Sara took a tentative first bite, but with the smile that resulted Helen was sure she had a winner.
Finishing up they made their way to Declan's office so Magnus could finish her duties with him. Sara was clinging to Helen's leg the entire time the adults were talking; her face was buried in the woman's skirt and her tiny hands cleaved tightly to the fabric she found there. Helen left her hand on the girl's head, stroking her hair. Apparently Sara was shy, which was something she had not been with her mother at all. "Have you seen John?" The Head of House shook his head in response and she paused before she attempted her next request. "Can you make the medical usages disappear? Since no one has seen him and he's obviously not here, I'm going to take Sara with me."
Her unspoken request was quite clear; she wanted to keep this entire situation off the radar of the Network. He nodded sharply because he had known this was coming. "Already done."
He surprised her. She wasn't used to relying on people, when she had been Head of the Network she would have been able to do this all by herself, but now that she was reduced to a mere scientist she had to trust in these people. "Thank you." The look she gave him was one of great sincerity, "Come, love, let's go home." Helen turned to leave with her daughter who still hadn't moved her face from her mother's hip.
"Magnus…" He wanted to ask, to make her think about it, but was it his place? Hell, she needed to be considerate in this matter. "Have you talked to Will, about your recent decision?" At her look, he knew her answer. "You should, before your arrive in Old City." She ignored him and turned to leave with daughter in tow—she really should call him, but what was she going to say? "They were going to give it back to you, Magnus, the network. Or at least they were going to let us work together on a more permanent basis."
She turned her head at him in question, "Advise on two fronts? So unlike you, Declan."
The man shrugged, "James said you always admired forwardness."
Pausing for a moment to consider what Declan had said and what her own response would be her voice finally sounded. "James was correct in his assessment." Untangling Sara from her leg Helen moved forward quickly and kissed Declan on the cheek before leaving his office and the London Sanctuary.
Sara had never been on a plane before, but with the confines of a small compartment, even on Magnus' private jet and her energetic excitement caused her to crash somewhere over the Atlantic. Unfortunately they had to make a stop to refuel the airplane before they would reach home. Luckily being on a privately owned jet had its perks and they were only laid over for half an hour, in which time Sara awoke with more questions and unrestrained enthusiasm.
The two arrived in Old City just before the evening meal; the car had arrived with her old friend driving readily through the streets until they could see the front gates. He hadn't said one word to her, until they were inside the front door, his voice was low and in Helen's ear so she was the only one to hear him, "Should have called." Helen ignored him and made to her rooms, bringing hers and Sara's bags to the respective sleeping quarters.
Will and she had not spoken for two days about anything of consequence. Anytime he had gone to see her, Sara was present and he hadn't felt comfortable talking to Magnus in front of the girl. After the first day of stopping by her office multiple times, Will had given up and taken up residence in his office, hiding away from the problems. She had purposefully left him out of the loop, not telling him what had happened to change the circumstances surrounding Sara.
Whether she had done it because she was the girl's mother and really thought that no further input of his was necessary or because she was not used to having someone else in her life where that input might occur he didn't know. She could be very unapologetic in her actions, finding that with her many years of experience in life and leadership she needn't make nice with everyone. Yet this is something he would have thought deserved his input, or at least a forewarning on what was happening. It miffed him, really, that she could be so inconsiderate of him at times.
Magnus knocked on his office door late in the morning of the fourth day of their strained silence. It had taken her this long just to even convince Sara to leave her for a few hours. The first thing she had done was take a long hot shower, alone; she reveled in the steaming water and the personal time she had been allowed. Secondly, on her list was this lovely discussion she needed to have with Will. Their relationship had become strained at best and nonexistent at worst: friendship wise and romantic.
It took him a moment to look up from his computer screen to see her in the doorway, his face revealing nothing about his thundering heart and clenching stomach muscles. He was not happy that this conversation was going to take place, but it was one they needed to have. The silence strained on for minutes: Helen in the doorway and Will at his desk, fidgeting with a pen. It was she who broke the quiet and tension filled atmosphere. "I'm sorry."
It was rare she ever apologized and rarer still that she explained exactly what it was for, but he felt he needed one, deserved clarification. "For what exactly?" He really wanted to continue on, to list the disgraces she should be sorry for, but his lips remained tightly squeezed together.
Her spine stiffened in reaction, she hadn't expected this hostility from him, but maybe she should have. Her eyes flicked to the floor only momentarily before focusing on his face. "For putting this responsibility and stress on you, having her here will cause many problems between you and the Network and I apologize for placing you in the middle." He remained silent and seated in his chair, pen still clutched between his fingers. She remained stoically in the doorway looking at him, uncomfortable in the threshold, the no-mans-land that they had created.
That was not the answer he had been hoping for. She was still avoiding and easily enough, it had been something of a habit for her in life. The silence between then was beginning to take over again. Shaking his head to himself Will finally spoke, "You know what, screw this." His frustration and determination spoke volumes, "Do you want to be in a relationship with me? And be honest, Magnus, because I'm tired of playing games."
What was it with people being pointed with her lately: first Declan, her old friend and now this? Tears sprang unbidden into her eyes and she turned her head to hide them. Leaning she braced her hand on the doorknob, her eyes locked with his in an instant, the unshed salt drop still clinging. "I'm sorry," she whispered softly before pulling the door shut and moving away from the room.
As soon as he had seen her closing the door he dropped the offending office supply and pushed back in his chair, rising. This conversation was not going to end there. He pulled the door open and stalked out to find her still walking. His voice boomed in the quiet, "That is not an answer, Helen." She turned and his feet carried his body over to her. Grabbing her arms he thrust her back against the wall, her head collided with the stone causing her neck to bounce awkwardly. She winced as the pain sliced through her skull and shut her eyes tight against the flash of John doing exactly the same, but no. John had a knife. Will never carried a weapon within the Sanctuary walls and certainly wouldn't be one for choosing steel.
When she lifted her lids he saw fear in her eyes before she quickly masked it. Letting go of her arms, he took a tentative step backwards, giving her time and space to compose. He opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off. She had seen his reaction, knew he had seen hers. "It's alright Will, just a moment." He again opened his mouth to object, it had not been alright, but she spoke first and changed to a more comfortable subject. "The answer is yes."
He quieted; his body and his mind waiting for the rebuttal. She didn't speak further, only remained plastered against the stone cold wall with her muscles tense and her eyes watching him closely. Will didn't move, he wanted to run hands over his face, wanted to shove his fingers deep into his pockets, but he feared that any movement from him, sudden or otherwise, and she would be fleeing down the corridors. He had gotten his answer, but instead of proceeding with this new line, he questioned. "Who?"
She let the beats pass along with a choked sob. He knew the answer, but he wanted to hear her say it, so she acquiesced. "John." A great force of air escaped his lips that he didn't know had been harboring in his chest.
"Ok." He moved closer to her and repeated himself, "Ok." Reaching a hand up to caress her cheek and flitted the hair away from her face. She leaned into the warmth, letting her eyes drift closed, "You do know—"
"I know," she nodded vigorously before he could even think about completing the statement. "It was just a moment, hasn't happened in many years."
"Do you know why it happened now?" The psychiatrist in him was taking over, but he couldn't help it, this revelation of his and confession of hers changed far too much.
She looked at him directly, "Yes," her hand covered his that was still resting against her face, "but neither of us is ready for an explanation so just leave it be." He agreed with her only because she had revealed far more to him in the past ten minutes about her personal life than in the years he had been working with her.
He wanted to kiss her in order to erase what he had just done, but he dared not. Instead he rushed an apology on his breath, "I'm sorry, for being so rough."
"Me too. For not calling you to tell you what was going on, I just…didn't know how." He nodded and she pressed into him, her lips gentle and soft against his. When she tilted away from him, her eyes glittered with mischief. He took advantage of her mood change and captured her mouth once again. After moments of enjoying, she bit his lip lightly to gain his attention, "Sara's at the carousel with Henry." She paused and waited for him to catch up to her, "Lunch?" Smiling against his skin when he nodded she pecked his lips before hooking her arm in his and leading the way to the kitchens.
Sara returned giddy and all smiles just as Helen and Will were finishing their meal. She ran into the room with a cotton candy stick and colored sugar stained her lips and chin. Will looked at his watch deciding he needed to go back to work, since Magnus hadn't taken Declan up on his offer of working with him, Will had been had taken that role. He had just increased his workload and needed to get back to the endless amounts of paperwork before he got a nasty phone call. Smiling at the incessant babbling of the girl who was recanting every event since she had left her mother's presence, Will stood to leave and pointed at the door to inform Magnus of his intentions.
She held up a finger for him to wait as she waited for a good place in interrupt Sara. Finally she had gotten the girl to stop talking by asking her to run along and clean her face. Shooing her along, Magnus walked up to the man, and pressed her lips to his quickly. "See you at dinner then?" She entwined their fingers and squeezed lightly.
He tugged her body into his and leaned his mouth close to her ear and whispered, "What about I work through dinner and you make me something special tonight as a reward for finishing all my paperwork?" His other hand reached up to slide down her side.
She giggled against him and planted a sizzling embrace on his lips. When she pulled away, his entire body followed her, not wanting to end it. She was laughing at him flirtatiously.
Sara had stopped at the door to wait for her mom and she was watching them from the doorway. She had never seen her mom like this before, smiling and laughing. Happy, her mom was happy. But she wasn't so sure about him. He hadn't been very nice to her mom since they had gotten here, but he did make her smile.
Helen was still grinning like a schoolgirl when she and Sara and finished cleaning the cotton candy and ice cream from her face and clothes. It was afternoon by the time Helen returned to her office; Sara needed to start some studies and she thought that now would be any time as any. John had taught her how to write and read and count, but he had done little in the way of mathematics, language skills and history. They would have to work hard to catch the girl up, and even harder still because of her rapid growth—she would always be awkward in what she knew compared to her "apparent" age.
Magnus had asked her old friend to work with Sara so that she herself could catch up on some much needed research that she had fallen behind in. All three were in her office, Magnus seated at her desk and her old friend and daughter huddled together on the couch learning how to add. What a sight, if only she had a camera to capture the moment. She glanced back at her monitor when she saw a new email arrive. Clicking it open to read she found a link. Further opening the link a black window popped on the screen before a live image came into focus.
It was her office. The image blurred out of focus as it further zoomed in on the child and abnormal seated a few feet away from her. Glancing up, Helen saw they were in the same position as the camera saw—this was a completely live feed. Quickly her eyes searched the room, before the camera on her screen zoomed in even more to show her daughter's concentrated face.
Words flashed across her monitor, super imposed on the image before her. "Don't get too attached, Helen." They disappeared only for a moment as more blinked forth, "Her first purpose has been served." Again the sentence disappeared and more words took its place, "All that's left is for her to die." Once more. "Then her second purpose will be fulfilled."
Closing the link quickly, Helen stood. "I'll be right back." She stated to the room forcefully before striding as fast as she could without alerting her old friend to her tension. Sara would be safe with him. She moved as quickly as possible to Henry's lab, ordering him instantly to trace the email. With the link no longer active, it was much more difficult for him to complete and would take hours if not days for him to trace the signal. The hacker had been ingenious in method and hiding the trace, but Henry was determined after listening to Magnus recount.
The entire building was set on high alert, mission teams and contacts utilized as best as possible to find more information on the whereabouts of Dana Whitcomb or any Cabal remnant that John and Nikola could have missed. Without learning any new information in the past months, the search for information and people had waned off. She was now going to bring it back full force even if it meant she left her research on solving Sara's exponential growth and seizures on the backburner; this was something that needed to take priority.
It took Henry two and a half days to trace the email and even then he could only trace it back to somewhere in England. Magnus hadn't slept since she before she'd received the video and was preparing to fly back to London to join Declan in the search. She had decided to leave Sara in the capable hands of her colleagues while she went out, but Will had other ideas. He stopped her in her office as she was placing a few manila folders into a small black bag resting on her chair.
"Helen." She stopped at his voice looking up into his face.
She groaned, "Oh this is not going to be good."
He wanted to ask her to sit, she was far less intimidating when she was seated and maybe it would even help her to keep calm concerning what he was about to tell her. He didn't though; instead he remained standing as did she with the desk between them, her hands leaning on the wood finish, his on the chair in front of his legs. "You're not going to London."
Her hand bounced in the air heavily as she fought against the rage blooming rapidly, "You can't tell me what to do."
"Actually, I can. You see when you handed in your resignation as Head of House the responsibility fell to me. Now I am your boss. You are not going to London." She opened her mouth to respond but decided against it; instead she made to grab her back and started around the corner of the desk. Will's fingers closed a circle around her wrist sharply pulling her body to a halt. "I'm serious." Taking a different tack he voiced a new concern, "Sara is not ready to be this long without you. She needs you."
"She will adjust."
"She will adjust easier because you will remain here. This is not a request, Helen." Her fingers let go of the leather handles and her eyes moved from the placement of his fingers, up his arm to his eyes. She would not win this argument. The tears threatened to burst forth again, but she held them in against their will. Tilting her head back she prayed the drops of water would not be able to escape gravity.
Giving up the pretense she moved into his arms allowing him to encircle her. Helen buried her face in his shoulder as the tears broke the dam and spilled forth. He made soothing sounds and rubbed her back in circles as her body shook and trembled. "I'm afraid."
He whispered into her ear, "I know." He dropped a kiss into her dark brown locks. "I know." They stood like that for minutes longer until she heard an alert from the computer behind her. She turned in his arms to make towards the screen. Will followed close behind and made sure to not lose much distance between them. She leaned over and clicked the email open to find another link. Radioing Henry so he would be prepared to trace the signal in order to narrow down the location she double clicked. Will was leaning into her back, a hand on her upper arm showering her with support.
The video this time was of her and Will from moments before, only of him holding her close into his body. "You make me sick." Words sprawled across the screen. Then it changed to the two of them in the hallway from days ago, their lips locked in embrace. "Druitt should have killed you like one of his whores." Then it was the two of them in the infirmary. "You receive a second chance at a daughter and defile her good name." Finally it was of Sara, in the front courtyard with Helen's old friend. Sara was running circles around the Sasquatch as the sun flitted through the girl's curly hair. "You have decided her fate and forced me to take action." Finally the screen went black and closed itself.
Helen only turned her face to look at the man standing close beside her. "We're in trouble."