Next week and a half passed with them only seeing each other in work related manners. To Helen, it felt relieving, but odd also. She had grown rather fond of her protégé, and she had grown accustomed to the friendly banter that had been going between them before. And Helen was afraid she had severed the bond between them. Week and a half had felt longer than it had been.

Helen finished cleaning up the infirmary after she had had to do an emergency delivery to a Fihgtor. Luckily, the wolf-like woman and her little one were both already well on their way to a full recovery. A knock on the door shook Helen out of his thoughts and her posture became evasive.

"Yes, Will?"

And she immediately rushed closer. Something was wrong with him. The shade of his skin had taken a ghoul tint to it and he looked feverish. Helen quickly led his protégé towards the infirmary bed and began preparing needles for blood samples.

"Will? Can you hear me?" He nodded at her, but very weakly, as he lay back on the bed. It wasn't reassuring to Helen. Not at all. She looked worried now.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"The.. little.. figh..somethinn.." it took him a while to finish "pee."

"Oh Will! Did you not use any precaution?"

"Tha. help. veery." And he lost his consciousness.

"Bloody hell!" Helen cursed out loud. How could he have been so ignorant? The only thing that would work against the highly poisonous urine of a Fihgtor was a blood transfusion. Even then, it was a matter of time and luck. And it scared Helen. Before five minutes had passed, Helen had herself connected to Will through a tube, transfusing her blood straight into his bloodstream. It was the quickest solution. Never mind the possible consequences. With shaky hands, she radioed Henry.

"Henry, once Kate gets back, you two will take over." She forced herself to calm down, so her voice would not tremble and give away any signs of fear. The fortress could run without her, but it would run so much better if she spared them of worry.

"Sure thing, doc."

"Wait. What's happened?"

Helen took a deep breath before responding: "Will got poisoned by Fihgtor urine. I'm transfusing my blood into him right as we speak. He should be fine, but I'm afraid it will take me off today's work."

"You sure you don't need help down there?"

"No Henry, not at the moment, thank you."

She put the radio aside and began removing Will's top to locate any scratch the poison could have entered in to his body. Using scissors one handed, without shaking the transfusion tube was tricky, but she forced her mind calm and sharp, and eventually she got rid of the piece of green clothing. After locating the scratch on his left bicep, she wired Will in the heart monitor.

After drugging Will as heavily as she thought to be safe, she ran her gloved fingers carefully towards the only scratch she'd found. Helen had to stop for a while to stop herself from shaking. This was hard. So hard. Watching Will like this, clinging to his life by a string. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. With a scalpel on her hand she opened the scratch to a small cut. Bad. Bad. Very bad. Inhale. Exhale.. The skin around the scratch was rapidly turning into a forlorn color of black. With precision, inch by inch, she sliced the flesh around the scratch, dug in, and extracted the dead part of flesh. She then took out thick cream-like substance she had herself created. It would absorb in immediately and work as antibiotics did. Only it was stronger, much stronger. Once that was rubbed in, she sewed the wound close. Not the most beautiful stitching ever, but it was so suffice. If Will would survive, he'd bear a small scar on his left bicep for the rest of his life. She didn't want to think about the alternative option to survival, as it hurt her deep within. Her chest felt heavy. Finally, as she'd done everything she possibly could, she allowed herself the tears. The salt soaked her face, and her vision became blurred.

"Don't you dare and die on me my young William", she whispered through her tears, running a finger on his cheek.

Finally, Helen rolled a stool next to the bed. From there, she started staring the clock. Hours passed by, and without removing the tube, she paused the transfusion for now. Next transfusion would not be until the morning, and it was hours away. Those were quite possibly one of the longest hours Helen had countered in her long life. She was not ready to lose Will. Not like this.

She woke up somewhere middle of the night and noticed Bigfoot had brought in a tray. Helen didn't care about food for the moment. She soon discovered that Bigfoot had also removed Will's jeans. Good, it would probably make Will more comfortable once his consciousness would start to re-surface. She still refused to give alternative ending any thought. She couldn't. Helen let her head rest upon Will's chest. His heartbeats soothed her eventually back into restless, shallow sleep.

Morning came, and Helen made another transfusion. Seamlessly, morning changed to noon, and she fell asleep again. The day passed in such manner; she drifted on and off the sleep. Giving so much blood had made her tired, too. That, and the gut wrenching worry.

Bigfoot had came in again, and this time he refused to leave until Helen agreed to down a bowl of soup. She couldn't taste a spoonful, it might as well have been boiling hot, and she wouldn't have noticed. Her mind was all focused on Will for the time being. Bigfoot left and Helen settled into the now familiar routine of listening Will's heartbeats while resting her head.

The tickling sensation on his chest finally brought Will back from the depths of near death. It took him a while and whole lot of focus to open his eyes. More focusing and a beginning headache later he figured out the source of the tickling. Magnus's head lay on his chest, chestnut curls sprawled across the pale of his skin. Wow.. Things must be bad. Clumsily, he tried to coordinate the less pained right arm at her head. It took him two tries, and third clumsily landed his palm on her head. He felt the softness of the curls around his fingers and squeezed. It had never felt so good to be alive, never mind the pain and the heaviness in his whole body. And the violets.. The violets..

"Magnus." The sound came out rasp, near grumble, but it woke her up. And then she was sobbing and wetting his chest with her tears.

"No." His thumb landed on her upper lip. "Don't.. cry.. Can't.. bare see you.. cry." Never mind the pain.. Never mind the pain as long as she would stop crying.

"Oh, Will.. Oh Will!"

No. Was not working. She was still crying. Will fought against the clouds that were persistent to have him unconscious again.

"Sssshh.. It's alright.. Helen.. Don't cry.. Shhhh.." And the clouds won, blurred his vision and shut his consciousness for much needed rest in order to heal.

He was completely oblivious to the kiss planted on his lips and softly spoken words: "Don't you ever dare to frighten me like this again!"

This time around, Will was more aware, and his mind was much more clear. The tickling sensation of his boss's curls on his abdomen was still there. He couldn't help but to think how good it felt. He opened his eyes only to look into the deep oceans of Magnus's blue eyes. Will's hand reached her head without clumsiness now. Something had changed between them and Will couldn't quite figure what it was. Her head on his chest, his hand caressing the soft of her curls… It felt intimate. And those blue eyes.. He felt as if they were looking straight into his soul. He was drowning and for a moment, he forgot how to breathe. That earned him a smile from his boss, and the spell was broken.

"Any nice beats there?"

His boss lifted her head and part of Will wanted to tell her not to do so. Her hair was all tousled, and it struck Will that she must have not left his side at all.

"Quite a scare you gave us all."

Focusing wasn't without effort, and he then remembered why he had ended up in the infirmary in the first place. He frowned and shifted uncomfortably. He directed his eyes on the wall instead of Magnus.

"How long have I been here Magnus?"

"Three days."

"Ouch!"

"Indeed."

No more words were spoken, and all though Magnus's head wasn't resting on him anymore, she was close enough for him to smell the violets. Will studied his boss's features with new eyes. His brows furrowed. He couldn't quite put it together, couldn't quite name the subtle change in the way he now saw her. When Magnus suddenly straightened her back and rolled the chair away, Will noticed waving Abby behind the glass wall.

"Oh Will.. My Will-pumpkin!"

What Will didn't see was how his boss wriggled her nose in obvious disgust.

Helen made a quick exit from the infirmary as Abby came in. She straightened her skirt and flexed her muscles and steadied her pace now. On her way towards her room, she saw Henry walk by her.

"Hey, boss, you look like you could use some rest!"

Oh, the ever so blunt Henry.

"Nothing a decent cup of tea won't fix", she smiled gently.

That night, Helen lay on her bed, and sleep refused to come and ease her from her thoughts. God knows, she was so tired it would have made the perfect sense for her to pass out as soon as she'd closed her eyes. It wasn't the case. Something was missing. And just then, it occurred to her that what she missed was the soothing sound of his protégé's heartbeats. Her eyes widened in shock of the pandemonium of the realization and the darkness of her room suddenly felt hostile. She hadn't felt quite so defenseless for years. Helen folded her arms around the pillow and stared into the shadows for a long, long time before she fell asleep.

And in her dreams, she heard that soothing sound of his heartbeats again.