Again, sorry for the delay. College enjoys eating my life. I will try to update more frequently, but I'm not certain how well that's going to go. Enjoy.
Flashes of her nightmare from when she'd passed out continued to plague her throughout the nights, in the middle of her very vivid dreams. She never woke up screaming, however, so Helen attributed it to her hormones for the time being, hoping they would fade away fast enough since this was an abnormal pregnancy. Entering her fifth month, Helen found her nausea finally waning and her strength returning at certain points. With the combination of Nikola's medication and enough rest, she could manage to be in her office for a few hours during the day, even if it wasn't at her desk. She was getting most of her work done, leaving the rest for Will. Now, she and Nikola were attempting to unravel the mysterious bombing of her office while Helen soaked in the bath.
"It's someone who knows me, I've figured that much." Helen said, sinking further into the bubbles, letting the warm water and bath salts soak away the tension in her back and shoulders. The baby was content at the moment and unmoving, allowing her to relax for the time being without it fluttering around like a cluster of butterflies in her stomach. Nikola stood at the sink, examining his reflection a moment.
"Who knows how to bypass your security systems as well. Security systems I helped design, mind you." He muttered, disappointment that someone had actually gotten by hidden within his tone. Helen rolled her eyes.
"Beside the point, Nikola. It's figuring out who and why that we need to focus on. Henry's already finished upgrading and repairing the system by now, so we should be fine." Helen replied, gathering a handful of bubbles and watching them disappear one by one for a long moment. Nikola scowled.
"So it's someone you know. That narrows it down to half the world, Helen. You know everyone, in case that bath you're in has pruned your mind as well as your fingers." He cast a glance toward her. Helen flicked bubbles at him, which landed across the bottom of his pant-leg and turned the fabric dark in color. He arched an eyebrow at her and she smirked cheekily.
"Don't make me come in there." Nikola warned and she chuckled softly.
"Focus, Nikola. Honestly. You're impossible." Helen rolled her eyes, trailing her fingers through the water now.
"Are you certain you don't recognize the writing?" He inquired a moment later, leaning against the sink and folding his arms across his chest. He was watching her intently, clearly more than just the mysterious note on his mind.
"If I did, I would have said so." Helen countered. It bothered her, tugged at her mind. She knew that writing, but she couldn't place it no matter how hard she thought and figured and remembered. It was nagging at her, taunting her, and nearly driving her mad at several points. They'd examined every possible aspect of the note but there had been no prints, nothing hidden – it was a completely clean bit of paper with impeccable writing on it. Even a study on the ink revealed nothing.
"I've been thinking." He began, and by the tone Helen knew she wasn't going to like this idea. Nikola pushed away from the counter and stepped closer, perching on the edge of the tub, facing her. Helen looked up at him, studying the look, trying to decipher or gain any insight as to what he was about to say to her. Something inside her stomach – not demon spawn – twisted, and sank further.
"What?" She asked warily.
"You're absolutely positive you don't know of anyone that could want to harm you?"
"Nikola, I'm on the hate listings of several people, far too many. It could be any number of them." Helen scowled. His brow furrowed a moment.
"Perhaps we ought to lure them out."
She arched a brow.
"You have my attention."
He fidgeted slightly; whatever it was, he clearly didn't like his own pattern of thinking. Helen frowned at him and shifted in the tub, leaning forward to rest her arms and head on the lip of it, looking up at him. He studied her a moment, gazes meeting, then sunk to the ground beside the bath and wrapped a hand around one of hers.
"It's not safe, but it might be the only way we're able to get any sort of clues. They're going to look for times when you're completely alone if they wish to hurt you that badly, so perhaps you should go out alone a few times, see if anything crops up." He explained, tracing water droplets across the back of her hand. Helen frowned.
"You're saying I should use my own self as bait for this bloody bastard?" She inquired and Nikola nodded.
"I don't like the idea any more than you do but the children were discussing something like it and I figured I'd propose the idea to you since they seemed far too reluctant to do so." He muttered, rolling his eyes. "But you wouldn't be alone. We'd keep watch on you, you'd be armed, all the precautions would be taken care of." He continued. Helen watched his fingers tracing on her hand rather than looking at his face, silently mulling it over. It was an acceptable idea, yes, but she still didn't like it because it but her directly in the line of danger, and the baby as well. She wasn't entirely thrilled on the matter, but he did have a point. Perhaps her attacker would indeed show themselves, or at least try something in public and slip up to the point where they'd catch enough clues to corner the person behind it all.
"Tomorrow." She conceded. "I'll turn into any normal mother-to-be and go maternity shopping or something." Helen replied. While she still had most of her clothing from her pregnancy with Ashley, a lot of it had become outdated, and it gave her an excuse to go out.
"I'll even make a day of it." She added, lightly teasing. He gave a faint smile, clearly worried about her. Helen reached up and ran her hand through his hair, the droplets of water coming off to wet his hair and cause it to stick in several directions. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose before he stood.
"Suppose I ought to inform the children that mother is going along with their silly little plans. I'll be back to check on you." Nikola said and Helen nodded, watching as he left the bathroom. For a moment, she was left reflecting on just how domestic this all seemed. It was almost adorable, really, seeing Nikola in such a state. He genuinely did care for her, and for demon spawn, which made her feel all the more protected. He loved her, undying so, and Helen was slowly working on returning the feeling toward him. She loved him, that was for certain yes, but it was developing further, into something deeper than she ever imagined. The type of feeling she had once expected with John, but had only breached the surface of.
The flutter of a smile crossed her face before she pulled away from the edge of the bath and began to climb out to dry. The rest of the evening promised to be filled with planning and fulfilling her current craving for grapes and chocolate sauce.
The meeting was held in her office, naturally, and was rather short compared to some. They had worked out the mechanics of everything for the next day, and afterward they had all lingered, steering the conversation away from danger and toward demon spawn, who seemed more than content to be talked about, as it started to move the moment the conversation had switched. It was amusing, how aware it seemed to be, but Helen contributed it to just a coincidence.
It wasn't until she awoke to the feeling of being carried that she realized she'd fallen asleep.
"Go back to sleep, ljubav." Nikola murmured and she blinked, clearing her vision, and realized they were nearly to her bedroom. She instead snuggled against him, quite content in his arms for the time being.
"I have more work to finish." She muttered upon realizing it, letting out a soft sigh.
"Protégé promised to take care of it." He replied, shifting her easily so he could open the door. Helen said nothing, sleep still trying to reclaim her as he deposited her on the mattress. He peeled away her clothing and tugged one of his shirts onto her torso for the time being, pressing a kiss to her abdomen. She smiled tiredly and he pressed another kiss to her throat, one to her cheek, and one on her lips.
"Very loving this evening, aren't you?" She mused, cracking an eye open to look at him. He chuckled as he peeled away his own clothing and crawled into bed with her. Helen waited until he had gotten settled before turning and curling up next to him in her usual way. He wrapped his arm snug around her waist, pulling her close and burying his face in her hair.
"I love you." He murmured and she smiled faintly. Again, Helen thought back to her earlier thoughts of domesticity. Perhaps if she wasn't the leader of an entire network dedicated to protecting creature that weren't supposed to exist and he wasn't a half vampire (nor she immortal), things would almost seem . . . normal. They could be any other couple expecting a child, very happily together and very much in love. While Helen didn't have a ring on her finger – and while she had no doubts Nikola would be willing to put one there at any time, she didn't feel like she needed one to prove her love.
"I love you too." Helen said. It was still something she was getting used to saying again, and she was hoping it didn't come out too awkward sounding. Apparently it didn't, because Nikola merely pulled her closer.
"I talked to Henry today. You know what he asked me?" Nikola inquired a moment later and Helen made a soft noise in question.
"What?"
"When we were getting married."
Helen felt her entire body react, part of her stiffening at the thought, startled at the idea seeing as it had just been something in her mind a few moments prior. Nikola, sensing this, chuckled softly.
"Calm down. He meant it as a joke." He replied. "But it did get me thinking."
"Oh?" She managed quietly, staring at the bedspread. Nikola's fingers danced along her abdomen, teasingly, and thankfully demon spawn seemed to remain sleeping for the time being and was unaware to it's father ministrations.
"Did you want to marry me, Helen?" Nikola asked and she heard the vulnerability leak back into his tone. Even if she wasn't facing him, she could tell he was somewhat wary of the topic, but she supposed it was something to be discussed.
"Are you asking?" She deflected.
"If I am?"
So they were dancing around the topic, apparently, and a faint smile crossed her lips.
"I tried the whole 'getting married' thing once, Nikola, and it ended in disaster." Helen began carefully. "I know you're not John, I know. I just . . . ." She trailed off, not entirely certain where she was going with it for the moment. Her mind was still addled with sleep and was trying to pull her back under. This was not a conversation she needed to be having at the moment.
"You could have just said 'no'." He muttered, somewhat deflated. Helen sighed, twisting in his arms to face him. He was always so testy and easily heartbroken in this state. She rested a hand against his cheek, drawing his gaze up to meet hers.
"I never said no. It's more of a . . . 'not right now'. With everything going on, I just don't think it wise to be planning a wedding on top of it all." Helen amended quietly. "After the baby is born, I should think. Once we're settled as parents, perhaps." She continued. "While I don't need a ring on my finger to make me yours, if you want to get married, I'll marry you, Nikola. Just after everything is over and we've hit a sense of normalcy again."
He smiled and kissed her briefly.
"I'll hold you to that." Nikola murmured. "Then we can have all the children we want. My lucky number is three."
"You're pushing it now." She grumbled. "You won't live to marry me if you don't let me get some sleep." Helen added, burying her face in his chest, trying to block everything out to let sleep reclaim her again.
"Goodnight, Mrs. Tesla."
"Like hell I'll be taking your name, either."
Early the next morning, Helen was already up and running, wearing light clothes for the bright, spring day. She drove into the shopping district in one of her nicer, normal cars with sunglasses covering her eyes and a large bag thrown over her shoulder. While most would not recognize her, she'd made it very easy for whoever did know her to pick her out and follow her, should they want to – which was what the plan was. Lure out the one trying to kill her. It was putting others in danger, but Helen was hoping her team would be able to stop anything bad from occurring. She was relying on them.
Her first stop was the large clothing store just off the new strip mall they'd fit in between several of the older buildings. It looked entirely out of place and Helen had never been in it, but it was large enough to lose herself inside if needed. She made a beeline for maternity clothing, acting like any other expecting mother – though, she rationed she was the only one carrying a half-vampire child.
But she was quite certain that if one more person touched her stomach without asking her permission, Helen was going to fling them across the room. She was already wary, so having the strange women also shopping and the salesclerks helping them touching her, all strangers, did not help. So far during her daunting shopping task there had been no signs of their mysterious attacker. Helen was strangely happy about it, as she didn't exactly want to have a throw down in the middle of a maternity department or baby furniture store. Seeing a pregnant woman put a man on the ground and whip out a gun might be enough to send several other expecting ladies into early labor anyway, and that was not something she wanted to deal with.
After buying several outfits that weren't in any hideously pastel shades or made her look like a deflated blimp, she tossed the bags in the back of the car and went for lunch at the café on the corner. Halfway through her mug of tea and salad, her cell phone rang and she gave a faint smile when she saw the name.
"Checking up on me, sweetie?" She inquired, pressing the phone to her ear.
"Magnus." Came Will's voice from the other end and she chuckled.
"Yes?"
"There's been no signs since we've started tracking you. Kate's not noticed anything peculiar about anything. Perhaps you should call it a day." He said. Helen chanced a glance to her left, where Kate sat on a bench just outside the park that the café was across the street from. Kate had been following her at a far distance most of the day, while Henry had hacked into security cameras and traffic cameras to follow her from there. They were all perched in a van several blocks away. Nikola had remained behind at the sanctuary, just in case.
"I think I might. I'm exhausted, my feet are killing me, and I've so much to do when I get back home." She continued to keep up her appearances, just in case. She sounded like any other wife who had plenty of housework – though she did in fact have work, it was hardly of the domestic kind.
"We'll meet you at Vine Street then follow you the rest of the way back to the sanctuary." Will said.
"See you then. Love you." She smiled brightly into the phone. She could hear Will snort on the other line before hanging up. She grinned to herself before pocketing her phone again and finishing off her meal. She threw enough money down to pay for the meal and left a generous tip before she stood and gathered her bag, setting off for her car in the neighboring parking lot. Her sunglasses pulled back down over her face, she searched for her car keys in her bag.
As she headed toward Vine Street, she glanced in her rearview mirror, surprised to see a darkly tinted car following her. Helen frowned, digging around for her phone in her bag again. She dialed Will's number and pressed it to her ear, glancing again behind her.
"Magnus?"
"Will, I'm being followed. I can't tell who it is, just be on guard. I'll be passing you in just a minute."
"We see you, and them. Just head back to the sanctuary and we'll trap them in." Will replied and she nodded, more to herself, as she sped past the van where Henry, Will, and likely now Kate were perched. Helen dropped her phone back into her bag and took another glance behind her, furrowing her brow when she realized the car had disappeared.
Her gaze, however, had lingered too long and now she heard the sounds of a horn blaring. She whipped her head back around just in time to see the front grill of a car slam into the passenger's side door. Her scream died in her throat as she felt the car jerk and flip and skid and all sorts of other actions that slammed her into the side panel of her door and caused her to hit her head on a few various things. She clenched her eyes and tried to focus on anything else as the car continued to move, carried onward by the force of the other car, who, for some reason, she realized, had yet to hit the brakes. Her head slammed into the window and she felt it crack. Everything in her body hurt and protested at the movements and she felt viciously ill suddenly, which made her then think of the baby.
Oh dear God.
The next thing she was aware of was a violent pain radiating from every which direction as bright lights passed above her – the tell-tale sign of a hospital. Doctor's faces flooded her vision, weaving in an out, but Helen was far too disoriented and in far too much pain to linger on consciousness for too long.
She slipped into the inviting darkness.