Chapter 6

Present Day

Old City

It was a cool night. They had just gone through a lengthy period of scorching hot weather, and while the Sanctuary was air conditioned, Helen had chosen to concentrate most of the electricity in the complex on the levels containing the abnormals. The rest of her team and those abnormals that could be in the warmer climate, were forced to sweat it through their daily routine.

When the heat wave finally broke she gave Will, Biggie, Henry and Kate the night off. They had begun to snap at each other and she knew they needed a chance to blow off steam. With the reduction in temperature outside, Helen had allowed the air conditioning to be resumed throughout the Sanctuary. They had closed the many opened windows and by night fall the complex was livable again.

She had been focused on getting work done in her office before checking on the SHU and taking over the midnight feedings herself for once. She was fully determined to get the night's work done so that she could enjoy the next morning free of responsibilities, at least for a little while.

At ten o'clock the grandfather clock chimed and broke her concentration. She tried to ignore it but a thought had popped into her head when it went off that she couldn't let go of. She stared at the budget spread sheet on her computer screen for five minutes more before she realized she was wasting time.

Helen sat back in her seat, breathed in the wonder of cool air blasting toward her thanks to a fan on her desk. She pulled her hair back and up away from her neck and closed her eyes to track down the illusive thought that had burst into her mind.

An hour of research later and she had a name and an address. She was heading through the halls, excited, a little perturbed, slightly angry, and perhaps even afraid when she bumped into Biggie.

"Whoa, baby." Was the only comment at first as Big Foot took in her appearance. The reddened eyes, the scraps of paper in her hands, the speed at which she had been travelling down an empty hallway. The lack of emergency alarms blaring. "Shredder eat the budget reports again?" He asked.

"No…no. Nothing like that I've just got to-"

"He's not in his lab." Biggie said.

"No it's nothing to do with Henry."

"I wasn't talking about Henry." Biggie said and stood with a slight smile hidden behind thick lips. He grunted a few times, a noise that began to sound like a chuckle as he turned to continue down the hall.

Magnus felt her cheeks start to burn, and wasn't at all amused.

"Where is he then?" She demanded.

"Roof…" Biggie said, over his shoulder, nodding his head once toward the ceiling.

"Really?" Helen asked, shocked. She had never known Tesla to find reason to go to the roof. He wasn't the outdoorsy type but the sudden drop in temperature might have been lure enough to draw the vampire from his den.

She was about to ask Bigfoot how it was that he knew Tesla was on the roof but he had already disappeared from the hallway.

She found not just Tesla, but most of the rest of her key staff on the roof. When she emerged into the cool night air she heard laughter. Henry and Will with Kate's higher pitched voice in the mix. Then Tesla's voice jumping into the gap, saying something she couldn't quite understand and more laughter following it.

Kate, Will and Henry laughing together was no surprise, she thought starting toward the sounds. The three of them laughing at Tesla was a shock. That the four of them were on the roof enjoying themselves without blowing anything up…

"No no no, those need to go at the end." Tesla's voice directed.

"Oh!" Kate sighed expectantly. "Are these the green ones? The really big ones?"

"You should'a seen the simulation. Especially when I put hydrogen into the mix." Henry told her, his volume dropping a little in conspiracy.

"Yes, I believe the disaster of the Hindenburg comes to mind." Tesla said. Henry and Kate laughed and Helen finally weaved her away out of the complex maze of chimneys and antennae coming to a stop a few yards for the eastern edge of the roof.

Kate and Henry were maneuvering a length of PVC into place. The top half was leaning against one of the parapets, the bottom had part of an aluminum funnel attached to it. About twelve similar lengths of PVC had been set up in varying spots along the roof's edge. Tesla, wine glass in hand, walked along the low stone wall itself, lording over the operation passively.

Will stood off to the side with a pile of PVC pipes, sliding aluminum foil wrapped parcels into each one after he had attached fuses.

They were all so wrapped up in their work that it took them a full minute before Kate and Henry were turned enough to face her and notice her presence among them.

"Uh oh." Kate said, which drew Tesla and Will's attention. Tesla immediately grinned at her and jumped down from the parapet managing not to spill any of his wine.

"Helen! You're early, but you might as well join us now that you're up here."

"Wha-"

"No no. It's a surprise and we all know how those work." Tesla said guiding her to a lawn chair that had been set up with half a dozen others near the center of the roof.

For a brief moment Tesla spared a glance to the others, who were still frozen in guilty indecision. He twirled a single finger in the air, indicating that they should get back to it, before he turned his attention to Magnus.

"Nothing better for a summer's night, eh?" He asked, his eyebrows jumping.

Helen snapped her mouth closed and narrowed her eyes at the Serbian before she reassessed the materials collected on her roof.

"These aren't…" She said finally and heard Tesla's cheery, "Mmhm!"

There were a number of reasons why shooting off fireworks from the Sanctuary roof would be a bad, strike that, very bad idea. The biggest problem she saw at the moment was that she didn't know why Nikola had turned her employees into an explosives crew.

"Why?" She asked, putting her hands on her hips. The paper she had come to show Tesla crinkled when she did, reminding her of its presence.

Tesla's eyes were drawn briefly to it before he refocused on her. He grinned at her, shrugged and asked, "Why not?"

Helen sighed and shook her head watching as Kate and Will carefully set a handful of loaded tubes to the side as there were no more places to lean them anymore. She noticed that they had chosen the side of the Sanctuary that faced the river, instead of choosing to explode things over buildings and homes.

The three moved to the loading table, adding varying bits of metal and powder to tubes of aluminum foil temporarily supported by small sections of PVC. Once the foil was full they secured the ends with a complicated series of folds, slipped the cylinder of foil out of the four inch section of PVC pipe and into a longer, four foot section before it was set to the side.

Fundimental, and she could only assume, functional as there were four highly intelligent adults putting the explosives together.

"Was Biggie sent to find me or distract me?" She asked after a moment. Tesla, in the process of sipping from his glass, shrugged again.

"He had mentioned something about snacks for the children. You are quite early, we haven't even begun the fun part."

Helen slowly turned toward him her mouth once again open in shock. "You mean I was to be drawn by the sounds of explosions?"

Tesla had a look of impish delight on his face that was so infectious she could hardly ignore it.

"Happy 4th of July, Helen." Nikola said, his voice dropping a little and affecting a sense of intimacy between them.

When Big Foot returned with cold beer, bags of popcorn and chips the group settled back into their chairs. Tesla and Henry insisted on being the ones to ignite the first few, just to be certain that their formula worked correctly. The first three exploded high above the sanctuary in a spectacular show of red, white and blue.

After the first ten had been set off Kate and Biggie declared it was their turn and went about setting up the pipes along the edge of the roof.

Helen realized that it was July 4th, but only by an hour. Somehow the time had slipped by since their return from France and she had completely lost track of the days. Between watching the fireworks, and watching the people that had become family over the years, she found herself contented for the first time in months.

Kate and Biggie worked together seamlessly setting off each firework. Henry and Will bet over how big each explosion would be, how high it would fly, what colors would be produced. Tesla stood slighltly apart from them, watching the skies. His face bright, amused, returned to the same old Tesla.

She thought about the paper in her hands; about the pandora's box that she had been intending to reopen. She wondered if it was worth it. Magenta, green, blue and white exploded over head, their splendor echoed in the glassy surface of the river. Tesla turned to look around and caught Helen staring at him and grinned a little more holding her gaze.

It wasn't worth it. She decided. She liked things the way they were, and for a brief moment she was going to be selfish and think about herself instead of the rest of the world. She shoved the paper into her pocket and forgot about it.