Chapter 6
Helen had spent the entire morning choosing what to wear for her date that evening. Outfits were crucial in this kind of operation. How revealing could you be, what will you cover, how much, how little, what color? Red equals passion, black equals mystery, blue equals neutral, and green is out of the question.
She chose a sleek black dress that fir her well enough to be considered appropriate but was just revealing enough to show the doctor she was at least slightly interested. She couldn't wear too much jewelry, and her shoes could not be too high.
Nikola had stared at her for the better part of an hour like she had gone crazy as she tried to explain to him the complexities of a woman's wardrobe.
But other than that he had been relatively quiet all morning, not being the casual insufferable flirt she was awaiting when she woke up that morning. She was half expecting him to be lying beside her watching her sleep, or at least to come sneaking in on her while she had her shower. But instead he had made French toast for her breakfast and had left it outside her door for her to consume at her leisure. She'd only seen him the once when he had stopped by her room to check on her progress and she stupidly asked his opinion on which pair of stocking to wear.
This side of Nikola always unnerved her. It meant he was up to something, she knew it, and it was something to do with her date. She knew she shouldn't have provoked him last night. She didn't need the nerves. He was going to be there, watching her, watching him, and she couldn't afford him to do something drastic or petty. She wished he'd just come in here and sneak up behind her and try to fondle her or something, that's what Nikola does, that's what she's use to. The quiet subdued Nikola was a truly dangerous presence in her books.
Every sound she heard had her jumping. All afternoon. She nearly ran out in search of every stray sound; Nikola popping open a bottle of wine, a door opening, a creak on the staircase. She heard him sneeze and nearly bolted and tackled him.
What was that bastard up to?
It was nearly time for her taxi to arrive. She was dressed, her hair was perfectly curled, she wore a simple chain around her neck and a small bracelet. She looked simple yet stunning, which was appropriate for the dinner she was about to go to.
She stepped out of her room hearing the taxi pull up.
Nikola was sitting in the living room by the door. He was dressed as he usually dressed, nothing strange, he was holding a glass of wine, nothing strange about that either.
He smiled at her softly.
"Aren't you the picture of elegance?" he said gently.
"Thank you," she looked at him suspiciously. His eyes wandered all over her.
"Yes, Dr. Parsons should be quite pleased," he nodded and stood up, walking up to her casually.
"I hope so…" she tried to remain cool.
"Be sure to tell him I said hi," he grinned, leaning over and pecking her cheek. "Have fun on your date."
He turned and returned to his seat and sipping his drink, then waving at her.
"I'm doing this for you just so you remember," she made a point of saying.
"And I am forever grateful to you, meine Leibe," he bowed his head to her in a toast and drank more wine heartily.
"Alright…goodbye," Helen cautiously walked out and got in the taxi. She kept an eye on the house even as the cab turned the corner and drove down the street.
Maybe he wasn't coming after all, maybe he decided he would stay home, maybe he was finishing another bottle of red and tinkering with one of the broken clocks in the house, maybe he was…who was she kidding, he was going to live up to his promise. He was going to be there, and he wasn't going to make himself known until he chose to.
She let out a huff.
Fine, if that's how he wanted to play it, she would play hardball. He was jealous and she was going to make him burn with that jealousy. Why? Because she bloody well could, and because he had burned her long enough. She was tired of being a little pawn in his game of life, she was going to mess with him for once.
Helen pain the driver before stepping out of the cab and into the hotel lobby. She recognized the black suits patrolling in their usual places. If Nikola was to come he better disguise himself well.
Dr. Parsons was already waiting for her. She was punctual as always.
"Helena, you look stunning," he said in admiration. He looked her over from head to toe.
"What? This old thing?" she blushed slightly. "You're too kind."
"I mean it, absolutely breathtaking," he was flirting with her right off the bat. This was going to make her job easy.
"Please, Doctor, I can't stand all this flattery, I just thought it would be appropriate to look nice."
"And all I'm saying is that you look more than nice, that's all," he smiled kindly at her. "Come on, I have dinner plans."
He took her arm and began to lead her outside of the hotel to his car.
"What is this?" she asked.
"A slight change in plans, but I have reason to believe it's not safe for us to talk here, I made reservations," he helped her into the car.
"What happened?" she asked. She was slightly nervous with the change, and hoped Nikola wasn't that far away now.
He didn't answer her question but got into the seat next to her as his driver began to pull away from the curb.
"You met with him didn't you?" he turned to her seriously.
He pulled out a folder of pictures. She knew it, Nikola was always so bloody careless.
"Yes, h-he was waiting for me. He had asked me about you…I mean, about why I was with you," she twiddled her thumbs nervously. "I didn't know what to do, so I decided to play along, tell him things he wanted to hear. He really does think him and I are in some kind of relationship…he acted all suspicious like I was cheating on him. I told him nothing, only that you had asked me some questions and that I had told you nothing about us. I thought it best not to tip him off until the festival…I wasn't sure you were around."
"You did the right thing, Helena, the exact thing that will solidify his presence at the festival on Saturday, I just wanted to make sure you were okay," he added affectionately.
"He was surprisingly sweet about it, he seems to really care about me…I don't feel right using him this way but I know it's for the best, it's just hard, I've never had to abuse someone's affections for me like this before."
He patted her hand.
"I'll be sure to let him down easy," he said reassuringly. "Did he hurt you at all?"
"No, no! I mean he kissed me, but I let him, it was just a brief kiss…"
"He didn't hurt you or touch you inappropriately?"
"No, he was a perfect gentleman despite being deranged," she shrugged.
"That's good," he smiled at her softly.
"May I ask, though, what's going to happen to him when he's captured? What are you going to do to him?"
"He'll be taken back to the states and court marshaled, and from there he will have a trial, and he might get off on a section 8, depends on the level of his insanity," Dr. Parsons reassured her.
"You won't hurt him though, will you?" she asked.
"Not unless we have to," he sighed.
"Alright then…I had to know, I couldn't live with myself if I delivered him into the hands of his executioners."
"No, he won't be killed, the worst is a fifteen year stay in prison, twenty if they decide to charge him for fleeing, and less if they declare him insane."
Helen nodded.
"Good…so, where are we going?"
"You'll see," he smirked and turned to face the window.
~~~~Later~~~~
The evening had gone by pleasantly. Dr. Parsons had taken Helen to a nice restaurant and they had chatted easily. He was very charming, despite how dangerous Helen suspected him to be.
She kept looking around, checking faces, trying to spot him. He was around, he had to be.
Parsons was regaling a story about his military experiences and she was listening to him blather the lies with complete attention. Having spent enough time with James, she had been taught how to read people's body language, to a certain extent. She could tell if they were lying or not, of course she could never tell with a certain vampire, he had this skill to pull the wool over her eyes despite how she tried, but she could tell Dr. Parsons was lying very carefully. He was a learned liar, someone taught to lie professionally. They didn't make the same mistakes as normal people do when they lie, and he laced enough truth in it for anyone to believe it was plausible.
If he wasn't military he definitely had been once.
Helen had spent enough time in the war services to recognize military training when she saw it. It moved a certain way, breathed a certain way, held itself up a certain way. Marine, air force, or army, it didn't matter. They all had some evidence left on them of where and how they trained.
From what she could tell Parsons was ex-marine, possibly stationed in Britain.
She continued to flirt with him, observing him the entire evening to understand him more. James would be proud.
"…and then we crawled about seven miles to get back to base," Parsons finished his story.
"Fascinating," Helen smiled widely. "You've certainly led an adventurous life, Dr. Parsons."
"I would've preferred it to be less so," he shrugged.
"May I ask where you earned your title of doctor, Dr?" she asked.
"I was originally a field medic for the war, but my position has since changed," he answered.
A nugget of truth amongst the lies, she noted.
"A Doctor turned bounty hunter, I'd say there was quite a change," she teased.
"Oh this, this is just a one time thing, I have a degree in psychology, the big military top guns figured I'd be the best suited to bring our defector home in one piece. We've suspected his mental instability for some time we just didn't know to what extent, now we do."
"Aside from creating a relationship with me in his head, he didn't seem all that dangerous," she said, taking a sip of her wine.
"In truth, he isn't. It's what he knows that has the potential to be dangerous, I would never put you in the line of fire if I believed he would hurt you," Parsons took her hand.
Helen forced a blush.
"You don't think I can defend myself, Dr. Parson?" she flirted with him shyly.
He chuckled and shook his head.
"I do have one request though, Doctor," she looked into his eyes.
"What is it?" he smiled softly.
"When you take him to wherever you take him to…I-I want you to…to take me as well," she averted her gaze to the floor.
"Pardon?" Parsons asked a little confused.
"I am miserable here, can't you tell? My husband and I have grown apart, he's hardly home and when he is I'm practically dead to him. He moves me around like a piece of luggage and abandons me for months at a time in these cities where I don't know the language, and he expects me just to live with it. I want out, Dr. Parsons. I want out of this loveless marriage, out of this country, and before this all happened I didn't think there was one until you came along," she grasped his hand tightly. "Please, Dr. Parsons, save me."
He chuckled slightly.
"If that's what you wish…"
"It is my only wish, I want to be taken somewhere where I have friend, where I understand people when they speak to me. I want to find a home, a permanent home that I can call mine. I want to be loved by a man full of adventure and romance who truly appreciates me," she focused the last part at him, watching his normally cool demeanor become only slightly flustered before reigning it all back in again.
"I will then, Helena, I'll take you wherever you need to go," he said calmly.
"You will? Oh thank you, thank you! If I didn't think my admirer was watching I'd kiss you, Dr. Parsons."
"You can call me Neil," he kept grasping her hand.
"Neil, what a charming name," she batted her eyelashes at him.
"So, are you clear on tomorrow's order of business?" he asked, switching the subject abruptly.
"Yes, and if I run into him again I'm to give him this note and leave," she held up the small scrap of paper.
"Excellent, one of my men will be following from now till then, just as a safety precaution, you'll hardly know he's there, but he'll be there to make sure he doesn't get any ideas beforehand," Parsons released her hand and leaned back in his chair.
"I trust you, Neil," she smiled.
Suddenly a young man, about nineteen came inside the room and rushed to their table.
"Are you Dr. Parsons?" asked the young man, his accent was very thick but his English was good.
"Yes, who are you?" asked Parsons.
"A man outside told me to tell you that there is a bomb in the vicinity, and if you don't release the girl he's going to set it off," whispered the man.
Parsons sprung up.
"It's him. Everybody needs to leave…their may be a bomb close by!" he shouted to the entire restaurant. The young man took the initiative to translate what Parsons was saying into German.
Everybody quickly dropped everything and got out of their seats, trying to get out of the restaurant as quickly and as smoothly as possible.
"You need to go, walk a few blocks, see if he'll follow you, then hail a cab and go home, my man will be behind you, don't worry," Parsons escorted her out but was blocked by an old man.
The old man uttered something in German, and Helen looked at him nervously.
"Neil!" she lost her grip on his arm and was starting to get pushed out of the restaurant by the crowd.
"Just go, it'll be fine!" he said then his attention to the old man. "Move sir, uh, bewegen, bewegen!"
Helen got outside and decided to follow her instructions, knowing without a doubt Nikola had caused all this.
Police cars came screeching up as she started casually walking down the street. Her tail behind her, not quite as hidden as promised but then again, she was looking for him.
After going about two blocks without seeing him she hailed a cab, just like she was told. She'd talk to him when she got home…oh no, he be at home…not knowing that she was being closely followed.
The master of disguise better think fast.
She got in the cab and instructed him to go the scenic route. Hopefully Nikola would get there before her.
~~~~Later~~~~
Helen walked through the front doors, glad to see all the curtains drawn up still.
"Nikola!" she whispered.
"That was quite fun, wouldn't you say?" he stepped out of the downstairs bathroom, and Helen rolled her eyes.
He had disguised himself, almost mistakenly as none other than the old man that had blocked Parsons way at the restaurant.
"You bastard!" she growled.
"Told you, you wouldn't recognize me," he chuckled.
"You bastard!" she growled again.
"Hey, I wasn't sitting behind you with a fake mustache," he raised his hands defensively.
"Why'd you do it? Why'd you have to end the evening so…so chaotically," she growled. "You jealous bastard!"
"I'm not jealous, I just though you may want to skip sleeping with him for tonight," he shrugged.
"That wasn't going to happen!" she cried.
"I don't know, he looked like he was getting ready to sweep you off your feet," he went back into the bathroom.
"Well thanks to you, I'm being tailed! Now, master of disguise! Why don't you go into your little kit and disguise yourself as Mr. Basil Heathering, so we can keep this ruse to save your ungrateful ass!"
He rolled his eyes.
"Fine, I'll get myself ready and you can draw the curtains, make sure he gets a good show of our failing marriage. What are you thinking, abusive or indifferent?"
"I was thinking more controlling," she took off her coat and earrings.
"Do I think you're cheating?" he asked.
"Oh most definitely, even though I've just been to a simple party…I might leave you after the fight."
"I might love you just enough to beg you to stay," he called from the bathroom.
"I might already be in love with another man," she called back.
"I might change my ways and take you back to England," he exited out of the bathroom with a new mustache, and enough changes to his physical appearance to disguise him.
Helen was upstairs changing out of her dress and into her bathrobe, She came out a moment later and descended the stairs to him.
"I might think you are sleeping with one of your partners wives!" she grinned at his disguise.
He went over to the window and pulled back the curtains.
"I might think you're crazy!" he spun to her.
"Well, you're never home, Basil, what am I supposed to think?" Helen switched the charade. She spotted her tail, she couldn't tell if he could hear them but she thought she might as well sell it just in case. Nikola picked up on her change and went with it.
"You could think a little more of me, Helena. I am doing this for you, for us!"
"All this traveling is for us?"
"I want to give you the life you deserve, is that so wrong?"
Nikola stepped up to her, moving his hand in specific hand gestures they had made up their travels. Communicating silently with each other.
"No, but you keep on uprooting me to a strange foreign town and then abandoning there. I'm sick of it!"
Helen gestured to him to come closer, he obliged without hesitation.
"I work 24/7 for you, we agreed we'd do this together so we wouldn't grow apart!"
"You haven't touched me in months, you barely look at me."
"You want me to touch you, I'll touch you! Is that what you want? Do you want me to make love to you on the dining room table to prove that I still love you?"
Helen signaled no.
Nikola smirked slightly.
"I'm not asking for extremes, Basil, I just want to go home, to our home; start a family, settle down. I don't need Buckingham Palace to do that."
"I can't just leave in the middle of my work. I have responsibilities and duties. Promise to keep."
"What about your promise to me?"
Helen signaled to Nikola for him to hit her. He gestured back no.
"I am your wife! I'm giving you a choice Basil!"
Helen gestured again for him to hit her. Nikola again said no.
"You either choose me or the job! You decide."
She gestured for him to hit her once more, saying it was important and Nikola relented.
"Helena."
"I will walk out those doors Basil, I swear!"
"You won't!"
"I will!"
"You won't!"
He backhanded her hard across the face. Then grabbed her fiercely pressing her to him and kissing her. He pulled back and leant near her ear.
"Abusive and controlling enough for you?" he whispered.
"The kiss was completely unnecessary," she whispered back to him.
"Just putting on a show for the camera monkey, hopefully it will put you in a more damsel in distress light for your little friend…Neil, was that his name?"
Helen pretended to fight against him.
"By what? Having Helena's husband abuse and sexually assault her," she whispered as he tore open her bathrobe. Luckily she had the presence of mind to put clothes on underneath. Nikola kindly enough grabbed for her waist, instead of her breasts, thighs or bum.
"Just enough until I can close the blind again," he kissed her gently.
"Hit me again," she ordered.
"Can I kiss you first?" he grinned.
"Can I scream?" she retaliated.
He nodded and grabbed her hair roughly, pulling her in for another harsh kiss. Helen screamed, he pulled back and walloped her across the cheek. She fell to the ground with a hard thump and held her hand to her face, faking tears. She could tell by his face that he didn't enjoy doing that.
He marched over to the window and drew the curtains. Once they were completely drawn he let out a deep breath and pulled the mustache of his face.
Helen wiped her eyes.
Nikola came over and kneeled in front of her. Examining the growing bruise on her cheek.
"Don't ever ask me to do that again," he pressed a soft kiss to her cheek and then handed her a handkerchief to wipe her eyes.
"I won't," she accepted the cloth and dabbed her eyes, wincing slightly.
"I'll get you some ice," he said softly.
He stood up and headed into the kitchen. Helen watched him leave, feeling slightly guilty for making him do that. She knew he was up for anything when it came to a ruse, but that was something she knew really cut him. Hitting her, abusing her in anyway, even a pretend assault, it irked him severely, but in this case it had to be done. This little act would hopefully be taken back to Parsons, and he would be even more determined to pull her into his trust, she was only sorry that it had to be Nikola.
Nikola returned with a small cloth bundle filled with ice. He sank to his knees and gently placed it against her cheek.
"This should help with the swelling," he said somberly.
"I'm sorry, Nikola, there was no other way," she took his hand. "It's ok, I've suffered worse."
"Don't tell me that" he stood up in a huff. "I know what you mean when you say that and I don't want to hear it. I don't want to think about what that glorified murdering nazi bastard has done to you in the past. God knows I had to live through some of it, I don't need to be reminded."
It was remarkable how he could see right through her.
"I won't do it again, Helen, don't ask me to, when I see you tomorrow at the festival I'm going to see it and I'm going to be enraged."
"As you should be…you're in love with me," she noticed him tense slightly.
"Helen, I…"
"It would only be natural for someone as delusional as we've made you out to be, to be outraged at someone hurting the one you've created this relationship with," he relaxed slightly.
"Right," he sighed.
"And hopefully it will also enrage Dr. Parsons enough to get me even closer to him…close enough to spill secrets," Helen got up off the floor and moved to the couch.
"I need a drink," Nikola groaned and went to find a wine bottle.
"I'll have one too," Helen chuckled.
"When this is over Helen, I won't…I mean, I promise…I'll go into hiding…real hiding…I won't do this ever again."
Helen smiled slightly.
"I'm glad to hear it," she chuckled.
He came back with a bottle and two glasses.
"It's all fun and games until…" he muttered.
"Just pour the damn wine," Helen rolled her eyes.
He smirked and obliged her.
He handed her a glass and then sat down beside her.
"We could always make love on the dining room table if that'll make you feel better," he teased and Helen rolled her eyes and smacked him.
He chuckled and rubbed his cheek.
"In fairness I did hit you twice, so you really should be hitting me again," he smirked and offered her his cheek.
"Well, I did shoot you earlier, so I think we're even," she patted his cheek.
He shrugged.
"Suits me."
"And now…all's left is tomorrow," Helen sighed, leaning her head against his shoulder.
"Yes there's that," he mumbled.
"I'm meeting Neil in the morning, he's probably going to make me wear a recording device so we'll have to feign it again," she sighed.
"Alright," he relaxed slightly and draped an arm around her.
"Then you'll be captured…make it convincing," she teased.
"Helen, when am I never anything but completely convincing," he stated smugly.
"Whenever you lie," she teased.
He frowned.
"Be safe," she leaned up and kissed his cheek.
"You as well," he looked at her.
"Yes, well, I'm headed off to bed then, tomorrow is going to be busy."
Nikola nodded and released her as she stood up.
"Sweet dreams."
"You too."
Nikola looked down at his glass and then chugged it all in one go.
Tomorrow was going to be fun.
~~~~Author's Notes~~~~
A new chappie! I hope you guys haven't been waiting too impatiently.
A fun chapter to be sure. I'll try to have another one for you...eventually. :P