Hey, my lovely readers! I'm back! I apologize for the long wait on this! I've started college recently and it's taken me a while to get settled and everything, but I'm back and should be able to update more frequently now, mostly with this story and Fragments, if you read that one as well! I hope you can forgive my absence!

Insert typical disclaimer about not owning anything here.

"Doc . . . Magnus!"

Helen opened her eyes, blinking hazily as she attempted to shift, flinching when something sharp dug into her back. She bit down on her lip, hissing furiously as a hand rested against her cheek, trying to pull her out of her semi-conscious state. Henry's face filled her vision, a concerned look taking over his features. Helen blinked again, trying to clear the fog. A pain rushed to meet her, shooting up her back and pounding into her head. She gritted her teeth against it and once again attempted to move. Henry's arms hooked under hers and helped her to sit up, pushing her gently back against a wall. Helen saw that they were in one of the hallways – well, what was left of one.

What was left of furniture scattered the hall, some pieces even embedded into the walls on either side. There was a doorway farther down that was completely destroyed that she vaguely recognized as her office. Helen's face twisted into confusion as she tried to gather her thoughts. Henry was still checking her over, saying something that wasn't quite sinking in just yet. What the hell had happened?

"Doc, come on." Henry urged and that finally sunk in, forcing Helen to look back at him.

"Henry . . ." She frowned, and using her voice seemed to trigger something within her. Her brain snapped together and a flood rushed forward. She'd been in her room and gotten the phone call from her father, which had prompted her to head to her office – she'd been almost to the door when something loud and hot had sent her flying back. Then, nothing. An explosion? A bomb?

Pain made itself known and Helen flinched again. Henry winced slightly and she noticed the cut above his brow and lacerations to his exposed arms.

"Are you okay?" Helen asked.

"I should be asking you the same thing." Henry murmured in return. "We need to get you to the infirmary. You slammed through a glass table on the way down."

So that explained the gritty feeling digging into her back and hands. She could feel blood making her clothes stick to her, and agreed silently that the infirmary was likely the best idea. Her mind was still fuzzy and she wasn't clear on the details of what the hell had happened yet – just that something had exploded in her office, likely with the intent to kill.

Helen reached out to Henry to help her up and he took hold, gently pulling her to her feet. She swayed lightly at the pain that shot through her, but she managed to make it upright and standing. Instinctively, she threw a hand over her abdomen, fingers splayed across it as if she could somehow check the status of her baby with her hand. A wave of utter panic washed through her, but she breathed quickly. It would be fine. Everything would be fine. It had to be.

"What happened?" She asked as she allowed Henry to help her to the elevator to take them down to the infirmary. Despite her injuries, she was shifting into a more professional version of herself, the version that needed to know what had happened to leave her in this state. She pushed back the pain, doing her damnest to ignore it for the time being.

"Perimeter breach. It's actually what I wanted to meet you in your office for." Henry muttered as he helped her into the elevator. She grabbed the railing and leaned against the wall, still listening. "I started tracing a lock I put on whoever broke in and was following it to your office when something just . . . exploded. I got hit with bits, but I saw you get pretty serious air down the hallway." Henry continued. "We'll figure it out later. Let's just get you downstairs."

Helen nodded silently, for once complying and putting her baby first, far too concerned for its safety than her own.

"Can you put the Sanctuary on lockdown from your tablet?" Helen asked as they descended, nodding to the machine still in Henry's hands. He nodded. "Level 8 lockdown, then, please, as soon as we get off the elevator."

In the right hall, Helen and Henry stepped off the elevator and Henry paused long enough to engage the lockdown. Helen heard the distinct noise of the metal barricades sliding into place and sealing themselves. If there was anyone in the building that wasn't supposed to be, the lockdown would ensure they didn't escape. Helen doubted they were still hanging around, but it was better to be safe and protect the abnormals and themselves before anything else blew up.

"See if you can contact the others." Helen said after they entered the infirmary. Henry nodded again, making sure she could get herself up onto a bed before he even attempted to do anything else. Helen's hands rested gently across her abdomen, still somewhat fearful if she had slammed through a glass table. Her pregnancy was high-risk enough and any blunt trauma to that part of her body was never a good thing, especially when she was still this early on into her pregnancy. It was still another two weeks until her second trimester, which put her out of the danger zone on several things.

A furry hand landed on her shoulder and she looked over, not surprised to see her old friend standing there. His hand forced her gently to lie down across the bed as Henry typed something in on his tablet. Helen let her friend do his work, beginning to pull shards of glass out of her skin. Helen let him, flinching every time one of the tiny shards was removed with the pair of tweezers in his hands. Forced to hold her hands at her sides, she gripped the sheets with a fierce fist, looking over to Henry.

"Will!" He said, relief evident in his voice. "Where are you?"

"I'm in the residential corridors. What happened?"

"Just stay there, Will, and it'll be taken care of soon." Helen called, the last of her words cut off in a particularly nasty hiss as her old friend slathered up her cuts with disinfectant.

"Magnus?"

"Just, uh, hang tight." Henry said and cut off the connection before he typed something else in, likely attempting to pull up Kate or Nikola. Helen's chest constricted – Nikola had been right behind her. In her slightly panicked state she hadn't even thought to look around for him. Guilt settled in.

"The vamp isn't picking up and Kate is unreachable because she's still on mission in Peru with Declan." Henry reported.

"Thank you. Can you go get Will and start making sweeps? Take the stunners, just in case." Helen said and Henry nodded.

"Of course. I'll – I'll be back in a bit to check on you."

Helen gave a meager smile that disappeared the minute Henry left. She had rolled over on her side to expose her back to her furry friend, who was now pulling larger shards out of her skin. She could feel blood trailing down her skin, soaking further into her clothes. Helen bit down hard on her lip as he slathered more disinfectant across her back. She arched, hissing slightly, but he pushed her down and forced her to remain still.

The glass door slammed open, nearly off his hinges and Helen's head snapped up. Nikola appeared in the room, eyes fading from black to blue and claws retracting. He looked somewhere between absolutely livid and overly concerned – Helen couldn't quite decipher which one was more dominant at the moment.

"Nikola." She breathed, relieved he was all right as well. He came forward as she sat up, flinching again, her hands still resting on her abdomen. Nikola's hands pressed against hers. Helen looked down, giving a gentle smile at his hands before she wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. She fit her head in the crook of his neck and he kissed the top of her head, clearly glad she was all right as well.

"You had me worried. Don't do that." He muttered and she gave a meager laugh, unwilling to let go.

"I will grow a sixth sense and avoid where I know to be bombs, then." Helen muttered in a snarky tone, though she received no response from Nikola. She looked up at him, frowning, noting that he had clenched his teeth and the muscle in his jaw was jumping tensely. Helen rested her hand against his cheek, pulling his gaze down toward her.

"Relax, Nikola. I'm fine. Just a few minor scrapes." She said. "You worry far too much."

"You're pregnant, Helen, with my child. Forgive me if that doesn't warrant worry." He muttered tersely. Helen sighed and shook her head. Having someone worry about her as much as he seemed to was something Helen was not used to, and it almost felt suffocating. If all he intended to do was hover around her the next five months, he was quite wrong. Helen wouldn't be able to handle that, especially when her hormones kicked in full force.

When she turned and moved to leave the infirmary, she found Nikola blocking her way.

"Move, Nikola. I have work to do."

"You need to recover."

"I'm fine." She snapped a bit harder than she intended. "Someone impersonated my father to lure me into my office in an attempt to kill me in an explosion and had I been a few steps further in the corridor it would have." Helen continued. "So kindly get the hell out of my way so I can figure how who it was and why."

Without another word, she brushed by Nikola and swept out of the infirmary.

The corridor to her office looked like a tornado had hit it, really, and her office practically didn't even exist. Thankfully the walls and floor had held up, but the windows had shattered out and almost everything had been destroyed. She leaned in the blackened door frame, studying the room as a whole for a long moment as Henry and Will pilfered through debris, looking for any clue. Helen was still concerned whoever had set the explosive had impersonated her father, who (as far as she knew) was still safe in Praxis. Whoever it was knew how to get in and out quickly, though, which made her consider people she had already known. A pissed off abnormal, perhaps, or something else. She wasn't sure, but anyone that threatened her or demon spawn would pay the price. Helen crossed to Henry and Will, picking her way around charcoaled debris.

"Anything?" She inquired.

"There are some burnt and melted pieces of something that could have been an explosive. Nothing recognizable though." Will replied with a huff, looking thoroughly irritated that it had happened. Helen sighed, running her other hand through her hair lightly, tugging at the dark strands in thought. The bomb had likely been made to explode in just the right way so there would be no evidence left behind, naturally, which made their job a hell of a lot harder.

"Henry, can you scan the security video to see if there's anything?"

"Already did, Doc." He nodded to the tablet in his hand. "There's nothing. Either they tampered with the tapes or we've got an invisible man."

"Perfect." She muttered sarcastically, already feeling a headache blooming to life at the back of her head. Despite whatever her old friend had put on her wounds, her back was starting to throb – not painfully, but enough to be an annoyance whenever she walked. Henry turned back to his tablet.

"So he bypasses the shield and alarms, gets in with us barely noticing, doesn't show up on any of the security footage, imitate's Magnus' dad's voice, plants a bomb, and manages to escape before we can throw the building on lockdown?" Will asked no one in particular.

"Ridiculous, I know." Helen said. "With the updates to the systems going on, however, it may seem easier than it looks. He could have gotten in at any of the times the system was flickering, and it likely would have been very easy to bypass some of the remaining firewalls in order to alter the security footage so they wouldn't be identified. Even so, whoever did this knew exactly where my office was – which means somehow they've got their hands on blueprints to the sanctuary, also accessible from the system." Her brow furrowed. "Henry, can you run a trace to see if there are any bugs or other programs attached to one of ours that might be getting information?"

"Sure thing. I'll go do that now." He assured before ducking out of the room. Helen picked her way over to what was left of her desk. Everything completely gone – her papers burnt to a crisp, only bits and pieces left of her computer, anything and everything valuable gone from her drawers. Thankfully she didn't keep too many valuables in her office – they were mostly in her bedroom. Anything worth anything of value like decorations around the room had been replicas, the real ones stored away safely for this precise reason.

Still, the idea that someone was likely trying to kill her unnerved her. It wasn't really anything new, but for some reason this time it made her far more nervous than before. Whether it was because her pregnancy was making her paranoid, or something about this situation felt different she couldn't quite decipher, she wasn't sure. Just something was making her feel this way and she didn't like it. She shook her head, trying to clear her head.

"Magnus."

She lifted her head at Will's voice, frowning when she saw the pristine white envelope he held up. There wasn't a single charred mark on it, making her believe whoever had set the bomb had remained in the building until it had gone off to place the note. Even from her distance from Will, she could see her name scrawled neatly across the front. She closed the distance between them and plucked it from his fingers. Nothing else was on the outside of it, so she gentle tore it open and unfolded the piece of paper inside. It was crisp, perfectly folded, and made her somewhat wary. The message on the paper was written in the same handwriting as her name on the front of the envelope.

Miss me?

Helen stared at the letters, trying to figure out what it meant. Nothing sprang to mind so she none-too-gently forced the piece of paper back into the envelope, shaking her head.

"We'll get this cleaned up and I'll have Henry hurry up on those security updates. We'll be on high alert, but otherwise we will continue as normal. This is just a minor setback." Helen announced to Will, who was studying her. She knew he knew that she wasn't entirely calm about this particular situation, but either way he didn't dare press it.

"You should rest, Magnus. It's been a long day." Will offered and she shook her head.

"I need to get things set up in the library. I'll be using it as a temporary office." She said, quite irritated at all the people telling her she needed to rest. There was no way in hell she was resting in the near future, even if she wanted to. Besides, she was perfectly fine and perfectly capable to work. She wasn't a piece of glass that would shatter at the smallest of incidents – she didn't intend to be shoved up on a shelf for the remaining months of her pregnancy just because someone was trying to kill her and they thought she'd break. If anything, this made her more determined. Whoever was out to kill her – she'd find them first.

"I'll be there if you need me." She added a moment later, giving Will a curt nod before she picked her way over to the door and headed toward the library. She wanted to recognize the writing, but nothing was springing to mind unfortunately. The calligraphic-like style reminded her something from her own era, as the style was less common now days – an old enemy exacting revenge, perhaps? How cliché. But no one she knew was alive, or had the capabilities to plant a bomb in her office without getting caught.

She nudged the door to the library open and sought out the spare computer she kept in the large open room. Helen sank into the chair in front of it and began to pull up her usual programs, letting out a soft sigh. A new wave of nausea swept over her and she ducked her head, lips thinning into a tight line as she attempted to push it back. Footsteps across the room caught her attention, but she didn't lift her head.

"Nikola, if you've come to berate me further, kindly take it somewhere else for the time being." She muttered. He chuckled softly before she felt his fingers knead into the tense muscles of her neck and shoulders. She let out an inhuman noise and slumped forward, yielding to his fingers for a moment. He pressed a kiss to the top of her spine and she sighed heavily.

"It'll be all right, Helen. Whoever this freak is, he's not going to get to you." Nikola promised as he relented and she straightened up, rolling her shoulders and neck.

"You sound confident of that." Helen pointed out as he circled around to the front of the desk, leaning against it. Helen looked up at him and found him mere inches from her face, so close that she nearly went cross-eyed trying to keep him in view. He was intoxicatingly close.

"Because I'll kill them before they lay a hand on you." Nikola muttered, then closed the distance between them to kiss her, as if sealing his promise. Helen didn't want to point out that he hadn't protected her from the bomb, but she still found the promise reassuring. Helen reached up and rested her hand against his cheek a moment.

"I believe you. Just don't get upset if I happen to get a minor paper cut."

"Helen, you slammed through a glass table. That's a bit different from a paper cut."

"You know what I mean, Nikola." She sighed. "You can't have a fit if I get hurt and choose to ignore it. You were practically ready to build a tower and lock me in it right there in the infirmary."

Nikola pulled away slightly to study her.

"Helen." He said, and for a moment she saw genuine vulnerability reflected in his eyes. "You don't get it, do you?" Nikola asked and Helen was surprised how frustrated he sounded with her. Confusion marred Helen's features.

"What?"

"I have waited more than a lifetime for this. I watched as you fell in love with John, only to have your heart ripped to pieces. I watched as you froze the embryo of your unborn child to give her a better life. For over one-hundred years I've watched you grow into an even stronger, more beautiful woman than I fell in love with, and it only made me want you more. I had to watch you glow with happiness when you finally carried Ashley to term, how proud you were to be a mother. I was jealous, ragingly so, knowing it should have been me by your side. Not James. But you wouldn't have it. The one time you finally give in and I get my chance is years later, and now that I have you, and whatever child you carry now, I intend to keep you, with me, in one piece. If that means I have to lock you up for a certain amount of time to keep you safe, then so be it."

He paused, studying Helen's somewhat stunned face.

"I can't lose you, Helen, not now. And I know you won't be able to suffer the loss of another child if something were to happen to you. Just, please, actually listen to someone else for once in your life and take it easy, or so help me I'll lock you in a room."

She blinked at him, once, twice, trying to gather herself back up from his little outburst. He pushed away from her desk and began to pace the length in front of it, and Helen couldn't quite figure out what sort of expression his face held now. Regret, possibly, among other things. Her stomach twisted in its own way that had nothing to do with the baby and left her feeling slightly sick at her actions. Sighing softly, Helen raked her hair from her eyes and stood, circling the desk to stand in front of him and stop his pacing. Her hands came up to rest on his forearms and he looked at her.

"Nikola," She began, and had to clear her throat before she could continue, unhappy with how seemingly vulnerable her voice sounded. She'd never been confronted in such a way. Sure, James had yelled at her for all of what Nikola had just listed, but she'd brushed him off. Something about when Nikola said had sank into her head that time – that, and the look of pure fear written in Nikola's eyes. He was genuinely afraid something was going to happen to her, then, and it was driving him mad, clearly.

She opened her mouth to continue, but a sharp pain ran the length of her body and she very nearly crumbled in pain then and there. It was Nikola's turn to grab her as her knees gave out and she went crashing to the floor. Helen hissed as the same pain came circling back around, radiating from her spine and spreading forward around her abdomen. She ground her teeth together and dug her fingers into Nikola's arm, where they clung like a life-line to him.

"Helen, what's happening?" He inquired and she could hear the fear that laced his tone. She shook her head, trying to find words.

"I don't know!" She cried a bit louder than she intended as the pain became a steady one that made it impossible for her to move without making it hurt worse.

"Nikola . . . ." She breathed, trying to catch her breath, the edges of her vision swirling and fogging, turning black. She heard him say something, but everything suddenly sounded as if it were under water. Her eyelids fluttered as she struggled against remaining conscious. Unwilling to suffer the pain, however, Helen gave in and let the blackness consume her entirely.