A bit on the short side, I know, but I've got other things in store for the next few chapters. I've already decided that, with enough interest, there might be a tiny sequel to this story once I finish it. I've got a vague idea in mind. Y'all will just have to let me know your thoughts on it. Enjoy! Tesla-cookies (which seem to be the popular currency here) to all who review!

She was impossibly small, was Nikola's first thought and unbeknownst to him, Helen had mirrored the same thought in her own mind upon seeing her. Impossibly small fingers and toes and the darkest tuft of hair he had ever seen, which just didn't want to lay flat. He was quite certain he'd never seen something so fragile to the point where he was afraid to touch her, afraid she might somehow break apart in his hands no matter how gentle he tried to be. Awe was the perfect word to describe his current state, a state he felt perfectly at ease in. There were no worries about Adam, no worries about failing as a parent, nothing but utter bliss as he studied the daughter he had helped create. He was surprised at how alert she seemed to be, with sharp blue eyes staring at him expectantly and her tiny fingers curled around one of his in a rather strong grip.

The first hour of her life had been hectic, practically insane as Helen had passed out halfway to the sanctuary and had started to seizure, a side-effect of the drugs that had been pumped into her system and of the baby's arrival – the little girl hadn't wanted to wait a moment longer. Helen had remained unconscious while a caesarian section had been performed and completed, their daughter whisked away instantly before either could see her. Helen had awakened briefly but due to the amount of pain relievers and the like in her system, she'd promptly fallen back asleep again. Nikola was waiting for the time she would wake up, and doing so was cherishing the hour or so alone he was getting with his daughter.

She yawned, fingers releasing his own as she shifted in his arms and attempted to get comfortable, eager to sleep after being active for a good two hours. She would need the rest, he knew, as the others would be in to see her later as soon as Helen had recovered and bonded with the baby as well. At least she didn't seem to be such a demon any longer, he also noted with an amused smile as she curled up in his arms and closed her eyes, settling in for sleep. A demon in disguise once she got older, perhaps, but nothing this innocent was capable of being a demon. Impossible. Then again, she was an impossible child. A vampire, partially, and the rest utter perfection. Horrifically sentimental thoughts from his own mind, yes, Nikola was aware but when faced with the thing that was now very real and now very much his responsibility of raising properly to face the world – well, he couldn't help but be just the tiniest bit emotional. He'd likely deny it to all except in the face of Helen.

"Sophia," He murmured and ran his now free finger down her rosy cheek and back up, brushing against the edge of the pink hat that covered the black tufts of hair that covered her head. Before Helen had passed out, he'd discussed names with her in a last ditch effort to keep her talking and conscious. While they had agreed some time ago the middle name was to be James either way, it had been Sophia they'd agreed on and Sophia that their little girl had officially been named. Sophia James Magnus. Sophia James Tesla. He wasn't exactly certain how that'd work out in the end. She was his either way and no one, not even bloody Adam Worth was going to take that away from him.

But Adam was gone for now. He didn't understand why. They'd gone through the trouble of kidnapping Helen and doing all of this to her, only to disappear – but not before dropping an anonymous tip as to her location. It was easy, far too easy, and Nikola didn't know what sort of game he was playing, but knew for certain that he wasn't done. He was never done. Which made him want to protect his daughter even more. For a moment, he couldn't fathom how someone could cause harm to something so small, something so fragile that even he was afraid he'd break her – but he knew she was likely far stronger than she looked. Her vampire genes wouldn't kick in for quite some time, he knew, but she was hardly the fragile little being if she had been doing such damage to Helen.

"You're going to be a hellion when you get older." He muttered and her eyes flickered back open, reacting to his voice. He smiled. "Rest, little one. Especially since you have to put up with your neurotic mummy later."

"I am not neurotic." Helen mused as she came up beside him, voice still thick with sleep. Sophia's gaze sought out her mother, whose voice she had yet to hear outside of the womb. Nikola chuckled as she rested her head against his shoulder, reaching up to brush a finger gently down Sophia's cheek.

"Want her?" He offered but she shook her head.

"I'm afraid I'll drop her in this state." She murmured, seemingly content with just tracing patterns up and down her cheek, along her jaw-line, and down to her tiny chin. She seemed just as pleased with Sophia as Nikola was, but she'd been through this before. He hadn't. He wondered if she'd felt all of this at Ashley's birth. He didn't dare ask, however, too afraid that Helen would associate Sophia with Ashley and it would just all go downhill from there. Thankfully Sophia had taken more to his looks than Helen's – something that instantly boosted his ego and he would rub in Helen's face teasingly at a later date.

"Cherish your time with her now. By morning we'll have to share her with everyone in the network." Helen said, sounding somewhat disappointed at this. Sophia curled closer to his chest, little fingers latching back on to the wrinkled fabric.

"How unfortunate." He replied. She was right. First it would just be the ones around the Old City sanctuary, but soon there would be heads calling in from all over the world, eager for news on the little one. It wasn't every century that the leader of the entire network had a child, after all. Nikola was somewhat possessive of his daughter already. Perhaps he'd just whisk her away to some secluded room in the building tomorrow and have her all to himself. Helen, too. She deserved the rest.

"Seeing as you have things under control here . . . ." She trailed off lightly, withdrawing her hand from Sophia as she fell asleep. "I'm going to follow her example and get rest. You should, too." She warned with a wry smile. "It'll be a while before you get any again."

"Vampire, remember?" Nikola said, sneaking a quick kiss to her cheek before she slipped away, back toward her infirmary bed. While Nikola was unwilling to depart from Sophia, he knew she likely needed to sleep on something softer than his arms. Besides, he needed to change and go tell everyone that everything was fine, and blah, blah, blah. He could have cared less, but he felt like playing nice today, but only because of the rather lovely mood Sophia's appearance had put him in. While Nikola was still apprehensive that she had arrived this early, he was suddenly filled with the slightest bit of hope that he could at least manage to raise his daughter into something acceptable, with Helen's help of course. Plus, the entire network was at her feet, probably willing to do anything for any offspring of Magnus'.

But as Nikola left the mother and daughter sleeping in the infirmary under the hairy beast's watchful eye, he couldn't help but think of Ashley once more. How she had turned out, all leather and guns like her mother. He didn't want that dangerous, risky life for Sophia. It was dangerous enough with the fact that he and Helen were her parents, but she didn't need to be holding a gun by the time she was thirteen and off running errands for abnormal soon after.

The strong sense of overwhelming protection he had suddenly developed in the last hour for her would make him stand firm on the matter. Certainly she could be exposed to the abnormals – the nicer, not-murderous ones – and know about them without having to hunt them down. He would much prefer her to be a writer or inventor or something much smoother and less-frightening. She could be anything she liked – a doctor or scientist even – just not the damned abnormal hunter. It had ultimately been Ashley's demise, and Nikola would not have it for Sophia. He already wasn't looking forward to the day he would be telling his little girl about her older half sister that she never got to meet because of the hateful group that had indirectly caused her death with their experimenting.

"Hey! Tesla!"

His head snapped up to look at Henry, pulling himself from his thoughts long enough to actually recognize the young man who had come around the corner up ahead.

"Wolf-boy." Nikola greeted with a smirk.

"Well?" He asked, looking very much like an excited little puppy as he rolled back on the balls of his feet.

"I suppose I ought to tell you that you've a little sister now." Nikola drawled and Henry grinned brightly and out of nowhere hugged Nikola tightly. Nikola, unused to that sort of contact, faltered slightly and froze. Henry, sensing what he'd done, took an awkward step back and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Oh . . uh, sorry, dude. Just got a bit . . . excited." He shrugged as Nikola straightened his jacket.

"Yes, well, I'm sure it's . . . understandable." He conceded, knowing only minutes before he'd been smiling just the same as Henry was now. He couldn't help it. "But I wouldn't bother them right now. They're asleep."

"Right. I was just . . . I'll see them later, yeah?" He asked, somewhat hopefully. The puppy look returned to his face and Nikola chuckled quietly.

"If you must."

Nikola managed to make it to his – well, his and Helen's now – room, where he changed into something less wrinkled and freshened up, rubbing away any smells of the infirmary, displeased with the way they lingered on him. He wrinkled his nose at the very thought. As he studied his reflection in the mirror, his mind briefly drifted back to Adam.

He didn't understand it. Why had Adam let them both go so easily? There was more to it, he knew, but what? He was worried, very much so. Perhaps he could whisk Helen away into hiding, get her somewhere safer than the obvious sanctuaries. Somewhere in the woods or the mountains or the rural country, just away from Adam. She wouldn't agree to the plan, obviously, but maybe he could convince her to take a vacation, away from it all, and bring Sophia along. Nikola had already engraved in his mind that he was going to protect them at all costs, it was just figuring out what Adam's next move was before he made it so he could prevent any harm from coming to Helen and Sophia. He sighed and ran a hand over his face. There was no easy solution, that was for certain, except to not let either of his girls out of his sight for very long.

Later that evening once Helen had awakened completely and Sophia had been fed for the first time, Nikola stood by and watched as his daughter was adored by the children, Henry especially. Nikola could sense the same sort of protection in him as he himself felt toward his daughter, and then and there Nikola knew that Henry would do anything to protect his little sister. Perhaps the wolf-boy wasn't that bad after all. Smart, too. There was use for him yet.

"Feeling better?" Nikola inquired quietly, lifting Helen's hand to his lips for a lingering kiss on her knuckles. He stood faithfully by her bedside, glancing between her and Sophia quite frequently.

"Much." Helen replied, resting her head against his arm. "But I'm still worried."

"Everything will be fine. Nothing's going to happen." He reassured quietly, though he wasn't certain if he was trying to reassure Helen or himself more. She seemed to accept this response, at least for a moment.

"I want her with one of us at all times. I don't even want her sleeping in a separate room right now." Helen murmured, her gaze on Sophia now as Henry toyed with tufts of her hair and spoke to her in low tones, Will and Kate on either side of him, clearly all of them just as fascinated with the baby as Nikola had been hours before.

"She's safe here, Helen. Safe, protected, and very much loved." He said.

"But for how long?"

Making sure the others were still distracted with his daughter, he turned to Helen, placing hands on her shoulders. Tenderly, he reached up and brushed hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear.

"Helen, listen to me. You're the one who said we can do this, so take your own advice, all right? Secondly, we've upgraded the systems and triple-locked them with massive firewalls and all sorts of other protections. There is no one getting in or out of this building without our permission. In the meantime, yes, we'll keep an eye on her and protect her as we can."

Helen studied his face for a moment, then nodded once.

"I'm out of this bed and I'm already being over-protective." She said with a soft, almost forced little chuckle. Nikola returned her small smile with one of his own.

"Not always a bad thing. I've already decided there'll be no dating until she's fifty."

This earned a larger smile from Helen, who finally seemed to rest a bit easier. Nikola released her shoulders and straightened, turning his gaze back onto the others, who were still clearly holding his daughter hostage from her parents. He had half a mind to go and take her back, but refrained from doing so.

After all, he had the next eternity and beyond to spend with her.