:) Thank you for the lovely, lovely reviews! So greatful for the wonderful feedback. Thanks guys!
xx
Sail - Part 5
Two hours later, Helen sat at the head of the bed, her legs crossed, pouring over some books Will had brought her. Nikola sat at the foot of the same bed, his eyes never leaving her face, which was set in a concentrating frown. He looked on as she searched the books for an explanation. God, she was so beautiful when she was thinking hard about something. He smiled softly and looked down at her crossed legs, he could very clearly see all the marks he'd left as she'd washed all the make-up she'd used to disguise them off. Carefully, he reached out and traced a reddish-purple bruise on her ankle. He didn't remember giving her that particular one but they had been so caught up in each other last night he could barely remember who he was when they were together.
She looked up when she felt his touch. She watched as he traced her bruises carefully, his eyes riveted to her skin.
"Nikola?" She asked softly. He smiled up at her sadly.
"Helen, what if we never figure this out?" He confessed his worries. "What if I... what if my body dies..."
She didn't want to even consider that situation so she shook her head in dismissal.
"We will sort this out. I can't lose you, not now." She said, reassuring him. He smiled genuinely at that which caused a small smirk to grace her features. Their tender moment was interrupted by Henry, who came bounding in.
"Doc," he started, faltered, looked to the end of her bed and nodded. "Uh. Vlad" He acknowledged the invisible Nikola Tesla. "Latest word from SCIU is that Tesla...'s uh... body, is stable but he's still in a coma."
"Well, thank God, now all I need to do is pull myself towards myself." Nikola interjected. Helen smiled and turned to Henry.
"Any news on the new tests?"
Henry handed her his tablet so she could take a look at the results herself.
"The scan I did seems to show that a large field of sorts has been set up around you Doc. See the white haze..." he pointed to the scans. She frowned at the blurry images. Nikola strained to see.
"May I?" he asked.
Helen looked up to him and nodded, turning the tablet around and displaying it for an empty space. Henry raised his eyebrows and shuffled his feet at the absurdity of what was going on. Nikola squinted intensely at the screen.
"Well. I've never seen anything like that before. And I know fields. Have you?" Nikola asked Helen. She shook her head. Henry gently pried the tablet from Helen's fingers.
"I've got the sound from the footage of the explosion set up." He clicked a few buttons and pulled the files up. Helen watched as the footage played, her heart breaking as she saw the form of Nikola working on the nodes and then the explosion. Nikola just stared, transfixed. What really caught Helen's attention though was the music that was playing just before the explosion happened. She'd heard that song before.
"Henry, go back to just before the explosion. Nikola, do you hear that?" They all listened intently. Nikola's eyes widened in recognition. The faint sounds of the song he'd played for her last night reached his ears.
"The... the tech guy who services my lab usually forgets to turn his music off when he leaves. I probably just left it when I walked in." He tried his best to remember, but as he thought back to last night, the first and only thing he remembered was being in Helen's room.
Helen smiled radiantly at him and he was taken aback.
"Nikola, this confirms it. You being here is definitely linked to the explosion at SCIU last night. You... you are the real Nikola." She nearly gasped in relief. She hadn't just made her own story line up for them. This WAS him. He did feel all those things he said he did. She reached for his hand and squeezed it tightly.
Henry smiled nervously and started to backtrack out of the room.
"Right, so, I'll be going. I'll have some more info for you soon Doc, there's one more test I'm waiting on. Will's bringing you some of the books you asked for..." He trailed off, darting from the room.
Nikola couldn't help but return Helen's smile. He clasped her hand in his and brought it up to his mouth to give her a tender kiss there. Closing his eyes he clung to her, she was his only anchor to reality. She was the only one he could actually interact with. He'd tried to touch Henry and Will but he just seemed to drift right through them. He'd even tried a running leap at Will's head, which did wonders for his long-time urge to clobber Helen's protégé but lacked the satisfaction of a sickening thud.
Helen brought her hand to his face and cupped his cheek.
"Do you remember anything? Anything at all? What you were doing before the explosion maybe? Anything before?"
He shook his head sadly and looked into her hopeful eyes morosely.
"No. I...I remember you breaking into SCIU and the whole inter-dimensional escapade. But then... I know I did some paperwork, stole some wine from my deputy director... that's about it. Next thing I know I'm in your bedroom and you're pointing a gun at me."
Helen smiled in understanding and dropped her hand to re-open one of the books she was scouring. She kept the tight grip on Nikola's hand though, the comfort of his touch helping her erratic heartbeat.
"Does anything look promising?" He enquired to her investigations after about an hour.
She looked up.
"Well, I'm working on the assumption that this happened because of you being a Vampire and this is, a so far as I can tell, an undocumented phenomenon of that. I haven't found anything yet about any projections of self or anything of the sought."
"Right, so that means?"
"Your body was so badly injured that your mind protected itself by latching onto mine I suspect."
He frowned, unconvinced. Helen shrugged and sighed.
"It's a working theory."
"But why you? Surely it would be easier to attach to the closest person?"
"Maybe it has something to do with the source blood. Your subconscious must have recognised the same DNA in both of our bodies."
Nikola fell silent for a few moments.
"I'm not hurting you am I? Being bound to you like this? You don't feel sick do you?" The worry in his eyes made her want to laugh and cry at the same time.
"No, all the tests we've run indicate that there are no adverse effects on me."
He sighed in relief but failed to meet her eyes. She looked at him questioningly.
"What's wrong Nikola?"
He still did not look up, instead he fiddled with the skin on the back of her hand, stroking in small circles.
"It's just... If I'd have known, about what happened, If I'd have know I wasn't really here, I would never, never have allowed last night to happen."
"You regret it?" She said incredulously.
"No! Well... yes. I would have preferred it if the first time I was with you, the first time we made love, that I was actually in the room." He smiled at the ridiculous statement he'd just made.
"But you were Niko. I love you for who you are - your mind, your passion, your soul," she willed him to understand, "Your body can come later." She jibed softly. It lightened his mood greatly and he managed a smile. The sound of her saying she loved him again made his heart flip.
"And just think, we get to have a first time twice," she leaned forwards, making sure the gown she was wearing gaped to give him a generous view, "If you could do all that last night with just your mind Niko, I cannot wait to see what you can do with your body." She whispered huskily, brushing her lips against his ear.
He shuddered and wrapped his hand around the back of her head, pulling her in for a toe-curling kiss.
"Oh, Whoa!" Will squeaked from the doorway. Helen lingered for a moment before pulling away from Nikola's eager lips.
"Yes Will." She smiled tightly at him.
"That. Was. Weird." Will managed to blurt. The sight of his boss leaning forward provocatively and snogging thin air was up there with the craziest things he'd ever seen. Helen glared at him. He entered the room cautiously.
"He's not gonna try and run at my head again is he?" He looked suspiciously to the end of the bed. "It was really bizarre knowing he was doing it but not feeling it."
Helen giggled at Nikola's comment.
"He says not to worry Huggy-bear, he'll get you back when he can actually physically hurt you."
"Oh, great" Will smiled sarcastically. "Bring it... Nikki."
"Nikola, that's not going to work." Helen sighed as Nikola got up and tried to throttle Will.
"What is he doing?" Will's eyes grew wide.
"Strangling you."
"Holy crap." Will darted to Helen's side quickly, bringing Henry's tablet into her view. Nikola gave a exasperated sigh and sat down on the bed again.
"Here are the books you wanted," he set said books on the bed and pressed a few buttons on the tablet, "Henry has just confirmed that SCIU were the people trying to hack into our system last night, they didn't get anywhere close though, they must suspect we've got a tap on them."
Helen nodded then turned to Nikola.
"SCIU hacking into the Sanctuary?" she raised her eyebrows. He held up his hands defensively.
"Not on my orders!"
She sighed knowingly and motioned for Will to carry on.
"The last test we ran shows the field we thought was around you. It's actually more like a bubble, extends in all direction for a good two hundred feet, we're standing in it right now."
Helen threw Nikola a "well, that's interesting" sort of a look. He shrugged.
"There doesn't seem to be any connection from the bubble to SCIU, though we still have a few frequencies left to check. It doesn't look like Tesla's connected at all to his body and he can only go where the field is, that's why he felt so strange when he tried to leave. It seems he's dependent on you."
Helen nodded her understanding and Nikola's curiosity got the better of him.
"And the marks... from last night?"
Helen relayed his question and Will shrugged, unsure.
"Even though you can't affect the world around you," he directed his eyes to where he hoped Nikola would be, "I suspect that because you're psyche is attached to Magnus somehow, that is why you could do... that." He said awkwardly. "It could just be the fact that you believed it was real Magnus, the mind is strange like that. Like that case where those guys in Russia believed they were drowning, so they did, despite being nowhere near any sort of liquid."
"Right," Helen sighed, "So, can I leave this infernal bed yet or do you still believe I'm insane?"
Will chuckled. "Even though it is really weird having an invisible, intangible Nikola Tesla around, I guess it is quite nice I can't hear him."
Helen smiled as Nikola fumed from the edge of her bed.
Reviews are love :)