Tuesday April 9 1912 11:48 am London
For Dr. Helen Magnus, the day started out like any other. She awoke early, worked for some hours before breakfast with her friends, Nigel Griffin and James Watson and then went back to work. She considered skipping lunch to stay in her lab. A knock sounded at the door and she sighed.
"Helen? Could we have a word? " James called.
Helen rolled her eyes."I'm quite busy, James. Can it wait?"
As much as she appreciated his motives, she hated when Watson turned his mind to her. It didn't take superhuman intellegence to see she had been out of sorts for the past forty years. But it was not something she wanted to discuss. Least of all with James Watson.
"Helen, it's time for lunch. Come on out here," James returned, undaunted. "And don't try claiming you aren't hungry."
Helen sighed and put her equipment away. Watson smiled at her when she opened the door, despite her stony expression.
"I could always eat in my lab," she said stubbornly.
Watson raised an eye brow and dragged her from the doorway.
"And risk contaminating your experiments? Hardly sounds like you."
Helen ground her teeth but allowed James to pull her along down the hall.
"To be frank darling, Nigel and I have been worried about you."
"You needn't be," Helen growled.
"My dear Helen! I think we do!" James said with conviction. "It's so very obvious, even Nigel has noticed."
"Oi!" Nigel materialized on Helen's other side and looked sternly at James. Helen laughed in spite of herself.
"Nigel, I hope you plan to at least put pants on. I would like to eat alfresco, and the air is still a bit cool."
Nigel looked down at himself and nodded. James lead Helen out to the veranda. "Even Nikola is worried, Helen," he said, holding up a letter with Tesla's slanted writing. "He was talking abut booking a ship and visiting us."
Helen sighed and read the letter. "I better write him back. There's no reason for him to worry. I would hate for him to waste time and money he doesn't have." Helen turned toward her study, mumbling about 'worrisome men' when James spun her back toward the veranda.
"Not to worry, my dear. Nigel and I already wrote to him. But he did hit upon an idea."
"Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later, he is suposed to be a genius, after all," Nigel said, coming down the stairs completely dressed, "what with all the vampire blood he has."
"And what idea is this?" Helen asked cautiously as Nigel pulled her chair out.
With great fanfare, James pulled out a ship ticket and passport for the RMS Titanic.