Thankyou all so much for the wonderful response to this story it has truly amazed me and made me ridiculously smiley - your reviews have really inspired me to update it.
Helen looked at the bottle sitting on her desk, debating once again if she should take it down to his lab. She had been debating back and forth for over an hour.
It was silly and frivolous and Helen Magnus was neither silly nor frivolous. She mentally shook herself – this was bloody ridiculous, it was a bottle of wine for heaven's sake. She got up and grabbed the bottle as if leaving it sitting on her desk any longer would be an offence and she stalked out of the office in search of…once again Helen was thrown into a dilemma. They weren't lovers – yet and boyfriend sounded far too juvenile for someone of her advanced years, significant other didn't really adequately describe what they meant to each other. She was still pondering as she approached the door of his lab.
Helen knocked gently and waited for him to reply.
"Helen!" Nikola's eyes literally lit up with happiness at the sight of her and he immediately stopped what he was working on and approached her to give her a light kiss on the cheek. A far cry from what he wanted to do but he had been waiting for over a century, a bit longer would make no difference.
"So, to what do I owe this pleasure?" He asked caressing her hand.
"Here." She thrust the bottle at him. He took it and looked at the label and whistled.
"Are you feeling guilty about something? Or perhaps done something you know I won't like. I have to say it makes for a nice change for the tables to be turned, normally it is me begging forgiveness." Nikola grinned maddeningly. Helen tried to withdraw her hand, liking the way Nikola was caressing it just a little too much .
"No! Nothing like that. It's just…..well it's July 5th."
"Yes it is." Nikola drawled. "While I am certainly not going to return this exquisite drop, I'm still not seeing the correlation between the wine and the date."
"Never mind. It was silly. Just forget I said anything about the date and enjoy the wine."
"Oh have no fear I fully intend to enjoy this particular bottle." Nikola pulled her over to the couch. Helen resisted for a moment, just wanting to escape back to her office and get away from this dangerous sentimentality she was feeling. "Helen?"
Helen sighed, exasperated knowing Nikola was not going to let this go. "July 5th 1948." She said quietly.
"Ahhh" Nikola said, finally understanding. "Happy death day to me". He grinned at her wickedly, remembering the day she had faked his death and the first day of their sixty year separation.
"It was another of my sad anniversaries. I thought maybe if we shared the wine over dinner tonight we could make some happier memories for this date." Helen said sounding almost vulnerable.
"I like that idea." Nikola grinned at her mischievously. "I like that idea a lot."
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"Cheers." Nikola said, lifting his glass to gently touch hers. "It was a lovely meal, your hairy friend did you proud."
"Mmmm" Helen responded. Nikola wasn't sure if the lack of comment had more to do with the fact that she had something on her mind or she was so relaxed in his company that she didn't feel the need to make any more response. Knowing Helen as he did it was more likely to be the former.
"Spill it Helen." He demanded in the same tone she usually reserved for him.
"Sorry. What?" Helen said as she focused on the man sitting across from her in her private dining room.
"You clearly have something on your mind. Whilst I am always happy to be in your company, regardless of your mood, you clearly have something playing around in that delightful head of yours and I merely want to know what is it that could distract you from my charming company."
"Conceited thing." Helen laughed. "If you must know it was you that had me distracted."
"Helen, I may not be overly experienced in this whole man-woman relationship thing but even I know that if you were being distracted by me you would have looked at me occasionally, perhaps even blushed a bit." Nikola grinned cheekily at her.
Helen laughed again. "I haven't blushed in over 150 years."
"Ohhhh, a challenge. I'm sure if I put my mind to it I could make you blush." Nikola told her in an intimately hushed tone leaving her in no doubt as to how he thought he could get her to blush.
"Fine!" Helen said exasperated. Perhaps if she spoke about it she would stop thinking about it. Although she knew full well that if she did say something to him his already over inflated ego would probably grow to epic proportions. "This afternoon when I bought you the wine I was trying to define our relationship."
"That's what's got you so worked up?" Nikola laughed and then saw the look on her face. "Oh you're serious. Helen why an earth would you, of all people, feel the need to define our relationship. What we have together defies definition."
"Not helping Nikola!" Bringing this up with him had been a very bad idea and he would do just about anything to take the words back but she knew Nikola well and knew that was not an option so she continued. "Imagine we were at a party and you wanted to introduce me to someone, how would you do it?"
"Helen this is ridiculous."
"How would you do it?" She demanded gently.
"I would say 'I would like you to meet the late Helen Magnus, she blew up her home a few months back , perhaps you saw it on the news? Well here she is alive and well'."
Helen grunted in frustration and got up from the table and began pacing.
Nikola looked at her and realised she was quite seriously confused about their relationship. He got up from the table and grasped her hand to stop her from pacing, gently her turned her to face him and made her look into his eyes. "I would like you to meet Helen Magnus, the love of my life".
Helen's breath hitched. Nikola, in that one sentence had managed to sum up their relationship. It didn't need any other definition than that, he was the love of her life – it had taken her a while to realise it and even longer to acknowledge it but without a doubt that is what he was.
Helen gave him one of her most radiant smiles. "Happy death day Nikola, let's go to bed and celebrate being alive."