I'm iffy about this chapter, but hopefully you guys will like it! Reviews make me smile.
It'd been a long time since Helen had awoken next to a man, and she could only remember doing it about three separate times before. That particular morning had felt different, however, with Nikola pressed tightly to her back and one arm thrown around her abdomen. One of her legs was wrapped around his, and the both of them were still in the same clothes they'd fallen asleep in the night before. Helen smiled ever so slightly to herself before she paused, thoughts processing themselves a bit further to the point where all her doubts from yesterday began to sink in again.
Was this truly the right choice? To attempt to be a parent again, especially with the man she had been determined would remain her best friend and nothing more? That had clearly been shot to hell, and while the reality likely hadn't settled in yet, her mind was already trying to predict what the future could hold should she continue down the path of being a parent with Nikola. She shifted, cheek brushing against the soft material of her pillow case as she tried not to give away that she was indeed awake.
It was far too late, it seemed, as she felt Nikola's lips press against the back of her neck. She twisted easily enough in his embrace, finding that when she rolled over onto her other side his face was mere inches from her own. She studied him in silence for a long moment, gears in her mind turning. She loved Nikola, that was without question, but would it work? The time they spent around each other was often filled with anything from bickering to sexual innuendo, and everything in between. That had just been with them as friends. Now that it was clear she loved him – and since she couldn't retract her statement from the previous night, it was going to be quite the challenge to adjust.
"Good morning." He greeted in a low rumble, smirking.
"What are you so happy about this morning?" Helen asked, voice still clouded lightly with sleep, unlike Nikola's. Clearly he'd been awake for a while.
"We slept together last night."
"Not in the way you were hoping, I'm afraid." She muttered, refusing the urge to roll her eyes. "That's the reason we're in this mess to begin with anyway."
"You liked it." Nikola teased in his usual manner. Helen shook her head a fraction of an inch before she relinquished completely to Nikola's embrace, burying her face in his shirt as she tried to put off getting out of bed. She needed to do it soon, as she had far too much work to do. There was a staff meeting scheduled for later that morning as well for a briefing on another mission. Clearly, it would be then she would have to inform her team of her current situation.
"There's no turning back once I tell the others." Helen warned quietly, sighing heavily as she realized it herself.
"I'm well aware of that fact, thank you. Genius, remember?"
"I'm serious, Nikola. We made the decision to do this, now we have to see it through."
"You talk as if it's one of your experiments, Helen." He drawled, threading his fingers through her hair. Helen decided instantly she liked the action. If she hadn't been so adamant at getting out of bed anytime soon, the action would have put her back to sleep in mere seconds flat.
"It's not." He continued. "It's something much more than that."
"I know, Nikola. I've been down this path before." Helen stated before letting out a lengthy sigh. "Should I expect you to be at the meeting, or will you be skipping this one like all the others?"
"I might be able to pencil you in." He grinned. This time, Helen did roll her eyes.
"You're impossible."
"But you love me anyway."
The statement was so simple, but it made another gentle smile come to Helen's face. To have the freedom to admit it, to be able to banter this easily with Nikola without him attempting to piss her off was nice. More than nice. Perhaps it wouldn't be such a challenge to get used to after all.
Nikola reluctantly withdrew to his own room to change into different clothes, allowing Helen to grab a long shower and change into something else as well, pausing every once in a while to force down the morning sickness that seemed intent on plaguing her. It wasn't as bad as it had been in the past several days, but it was enough to make Helen wait a bit before she dared to leave her room.
Tea was waiting for her on her desk, along with the vitamins from the day before and several saltine crackers. She smiled when she noticed them in her office. Her old friend really was aware of far more than most realized. She nibbled on a cracker as she started her computer back up and pulled up any emails and the usual programs she had running in the background. The meeting wasn't for another half an hour at least, which gave her some time to prepare how she wanted to break the news.
If only she could come up with a proper way. Coming right out to say it seemed too blunt, as her team was likely to react rather negatively, most especially Will. The thought made her sigh aloud as she took a drink of tea, swallowing a vitamin with it before she stashed the bottle in the bottom drawer of her desk. As she did so, a glinting caught her up. She grabbed the picture frame and pulled it from it's spot in the drawer, smiling faintly at the photo of Ashley. She'd been about eleven, her face bright and eyes lit up as she chased after a butterfly in the photo.
On sudden impulse, Helen placed the photo on her desk near her computer.
Part of her felt as if she was betraying Ashley in a way almost, but it was a silly notion. Helen knew Ashley would be happy for her, and happy to have a little sibling – she used to ask Helen quite frequently when she was younger why all the other kids at school had little brothers and sisters and she didn't. Helen would have given them to her if at all possible, but it wasn't as if she was going back to John anytime soon. Ashley had deserved better than John as her father.
Pinching the bridge of her nose almost tiredly, Helen grabbed another cracker. Things were going to get complicated very quickly. Will would have to prove his worth rather quickly as the months started to progress and she was no longer able to lead missions or travel to the other sanctuaries in person to visit. Hopefully the other sanctuaries would be as accommodating as last time she'd dealt with this, and stick to video conferences. But Helen did have faith that after three years, Will had the capabilities to take charge for a short time.
There was a knock on her office door frame and she glanced up. Speak of the devil, Helen mused as Will entered, followed shortly by Kate, Henry, and her old friend. To her surprise, Nikola appeared a few seconds later as well. He didn't enter the room, merely leaned against the door frame, arms folded across his chest. Taking a breath, Helen pulled out the folder with mission details and began to brief them on the simple 'bag and tag' mission in the rainforests of South America that would land them another rare abnormal.
" . . . Henry, I trust since you're still working on the modifications to the security system and EM shield, you'll be able to hold the fort down here well enough."
"Biggie and I got it covered." Henry grinned, tilting his head back to look at her towering friend who lingered near the back of the room, behind the couch that Henry and Will were sprawled across.
"Will, you and Kate need to be ready to leave in the early hours of Thursday morning. We'll need to be in Brazil relatively early to get as much daylight as possible." She looked at them. The pair nodded and Helen continued.
"Now, a few housekeeping notes . . . with updates to the security system and EM shield going on, Henry's informed me that the power may fluctuate and alarms might go off on their own. If they do go off, please check them just in case." Helen pretended to be staring at something in her folder for a long moment before she swallowed rather thickly, taking a drink of tea to help. This was certainly harder than expected.
"Will, I need you to start preparing yourself a little more thoroughly to assist me, especially within the coming months, and I need the rest of you to cooperate with a slight shift in power to Will. I'll still have direct say in things, but I'll no longer be able to go on missions to travel when the other sanctuaries demand in person meetings. Those duties will fall to you, Will."
"Are you going somewhere?" Kate asked, lips twisted into a frown.
"No, not at all. It's a health reason."
"You're not dying again, are you?" Will said, alarm creeping into his voice. A smile ghosted across Helen's face and she glanced momentarily at Nikola in the doorway, almost rolling her eyes at the knowing smirk plastered across his own face.
"I'm pregnant." She replied conversationally, shrugging her shoulders as if it were no big deal. She took a long drink of tea the minute the words left her mouth and watched the four of them for any sort of reaction. Will was the first to pull it together and actually let out a forced laugh.
"Funny Magnus. Nice joke."
Helen frowned.
"I'm not kidding, Will. I ran the tests yesterday and will gladly run them again in front of you if you need the proof." She said seriously, resting her arms on her desk as she studied him.
"But . . . ." He faltered slightly, frowning again. There was silence another long minute before he glanced sideways, Nikola's slight movement catching his attention. Will looked at him, then back at Helen, a look of what she could only describe as disbelief written across his face.
"Really, Wilheim. It's not that hard of a concept to grasp." Nikola drawled, pushing off the door frame to step further into the room. Helen sighed, shaking her head at Nikola. His voice seemed to finally make it click in the heads of Kate and Henry, however, because they too looked between Helen and Nikola with a look that matched Will's from a few moments earlier.
"I always wanted to be a big brother." Henry said quietly, clearly attempting to break the silence. Helen looked him and smiled faintly, before her gaze circled the room once more. Nikola had moved to lean against the corner of her desk now, the both of them studying Kate, Will, and Henry like a set of parents trying to explain something very serious to their other children. Helen almost smiled at the thought.
"That's all for today." Helen concluded after several moments of rather awkward silence. "Will, Kate, again, be ready early Thursday morning. You're all dismissed."
Kate and Henry shuffled out silently, Henry flashing her a brief thumbs up. Her old friend followed, but Will remained rooted to the spot.
"Something on your mind, Will?" Helen inquired conversationally as she picked up her pen and shut her folder, using it to swat Nikola who was sitting on the papers at the edge of her desk that she needed. He moved and she snatched them up, pulling her toward her so she could get started as she waited for Will to speak.
"So I have to take over for you for the next nine months because you're having his kid?" Will asked, nodding toward Nikola, whose upper lip curled. Helen's pen paused in the motion of signing her name to the bottom of the report and she looked up at Will, frowning slightly.
"Nikola, I need to talk to Will alone, please." She requested quietly. Nikola growled but the look Helen threw him silenced him effectively enough. He left the room muttering several Serbian words that Helen knew all too well, shutting the door a bit too hard behind him.
"Will, this is as much of a problem and a shock to me as it is to you, all right?" Helen began quietly. "Trust me, I didn't plan for it to happen."
"I was under the impression you hated him and now suddenly you're having a kid with him? That's . . . messed up, Magnus." Will ran his fingers through his hair and sent it sticking in several directions.
"Well I can't change anything about it now, I'm afraid." She said and grabbed another cracker. They'd been her best friend during her first pregnancy and she seemed to be holding them down with relative ease at the moment, which made her a lot happier.
"I will need your full cooperation, Will. As much as I'd like to think I can and pretend to do so, I won't be able to run the sanctuary on my own once I hit my third trimester, if not before then. I'd ask Henry, but you're the one I chose for this job in the first place those three years ago. Think of it as a test, really. You won't have to do it long, even. I'll be able to get back on my feet once the baby is born. It'll be challenging, but I'm always up for one." Helen smirked, more to herself than to Will. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he stepped toward her desk, leaning against it.
"Fine. I'll help, mostly because I know if it wasn't serious you wouldn't be asking. You never ask for help." Will muttered.
"Cheeky." She warned, glancing back down at her reports. "But thank you."
"Don't expect me to be that happy about it." He warned. Helen almost laughed. Almost.
"Take that up with Nikola. It's his fault." She shook her head, brushing hair aside and tucking it behind her ear as it fell into her face before signing off on another paper.
"To much info, Magnus."
"Sorry."
Will shook his head in imitation of Helen before he slipped out of the door and she returned to her work. Naturally, it didn't take Nikola long to wander back in, looking thoroughly irritated.
"I've decided something." He announced with mild flourish as he twirled a flower between his fingers before holding it out to her. She took it silently, eyebrow arched in hopes he would continue. What was he possibly up to now?
"What would that be?"
"I'm going with you Thursday."
"No, you're not." She reacted instantly. "I need you to stay here with Henry and help with the EM shield upgrades." She elaborated. Nikola's eyes flashed darkly.
"You know good and well Henry is far than capable on this own to upgrade the system without me hovering over his shoulder. You're most important at the moment, so wherever you go, I go. It's for your own good, really, so I can protect you." Nikola said, leaning closer toward her, hands planted firmly on the surface of her desk. Helen stood – rather, sat – her ground and didn't waver from her position, even when his face was inches from her own.
"You've never bothered to protect me before, so you shouldn't have to start now. Besides, I'm more than capable of protecting myself. I've done it all my life and now should be no different." Helen replied.
"If we're going to do this, you're going to have to let me in past that ice queen façade, you know." He mused. "It is going to be different because unlike a certain serial killer, I intend on being there to protect the mother of my child whether she wants it or not. Understand?"
"Oh, I understand. But it's not going to happen."
He leaned impossibly closer and she felt her breath hitch involuntarily. He did have a point – Helen was going to have to stop being so dependent on only herself, especially if they were in this together. She let out a lengthy sigh and glanced away from his smoldering gaze for a long moment.
"Fine. Just don't get in the way."
"You won't even know I'm there unless something happens to you." He assured with a triumphant smirk before closing the rest of the distance between them and steal a quick kiss from her. She eyed him suspiciously when he pulled away.
"Is this going to be a new occurrence? You defending and protecting me like some damsel in distress and stealing kisses when you think it's appropriate?" Helen inquired, folding her arms on the top of her desk with an amused expression on her face. Nikola shrugged lightly, one hand lifting from her desk to play with a tendril of hair that hung about her face.
"It's likely. I intend to take advantage of the situation. You should consider it as well." Nikola told her. "I love you dearly Helen, you should know that by now. With it comes my promise to protect you. I may be a few years late, but I intend to keep you and demon spawn safe. If anything were to happen to either of you -."
She held up a hand to cut him off.
"Nothing will happen to either of us. I won't let it." She insisted. "The fetus is barely the size of a peanut, and you're already attached to it?"
Another smirk.
"Aren't you?" He retorted. Another kiss, this time to her forehead. "Just do me a favor and don't go running off like you generally do. I'd hate to lock you up."
"Only in your dreams, Nikola."
"Every night."
"Cheeky bastard."
"See you bright and early Thursday morning." Nikola stated before he slipped out of the door. Helen flowered at the door for a moment before she finally returned her attention to her work before she fell too far behind.
Helen had to admit, however, it did feel nice having someone there to protect her. John had promised her that at some point, but that had been shot to hell not long afterward. While Henry and Will and Kate did protect her during missions, there was just something else about Nikola. Hearing him say it, seeing him so determined did things to her mind and her heart. It was that side of Nikola she had fallen in love with in the first place – it had all been quite even more endearing when he'd had such a horrible accent with his words. Even now, however, Helen did like the feeling of knowing he was so determined to protect her, and their accidental child.
Helen was convinced this was going to be quite a different experience than her pregnancy with Ashley, by a long shot. Nikola had no experience being a father, but at least he already had the over-protectiveness down pat. A crucial part of being a parent was to worry far too much over your child and if he already had that sort of dedication now, she could only imagine what it would be like when the baby would be born.
Pausing in her work, she moved to rest a hand against her flat abdomen through the silk of her blouse, smiling faintly to herself as she did so. It was hard to believe another little life now resided there, and would for the next several months.
"Your parents are crazy, demon child of mine." Helen said aloud to the empty room. "But we already love you quite dearly. Never forget that."
Like she was ever going to let it forget.
Again, insecurities and doubts filtered through her mind momentarily, but Nikola's promises of protection came flooding through as well, pushing all negativity out of her head. It was an odd sensation to say the least, but to feel that protected, that unbelievably loved was a feeling she wasn't entirely used to. Clearly she'd need to get used to it, and very soon. It was cautious territory for sure, and for a moment Helen felt as if she were about to begin to step off a cliff blindly, hoping like hell Nikola would be there to catch her at the bottom. He would be, she knew, but it was finding that trust in him and herself to take that first and only step off that cliff that she was trying to do. Finding it was difficult, but Helen had faith enough in herself that she'd be able to. After all, she'd certainly faced more dangerous situations before. This would be no different.
Glancing back up at the door, Helen let another smile fall across her lips before she picked up her pen and began her work anew, eager to get it finished so she could perhaps eat lunch with the man she loved.