Chapter 12 – A Truly Fascinating Pigeon
~~~~Spring 1880~~~~
Helen walked into her father's study, excited to welcome him home from his long trip.
He was unloading his briefcase full of his medical journals and tools.
"How was it?" she asked, not even announcing herself.
"Like any trip, rainy, dismal, long boat trip, I'm just happy to be home," he said smiling at his lovely daughter.
"Please you say that about every trip, but every trip you bring home something fascinating," she put her small hand on top of his.
"Yes, and I think I've found the most valuable of them all this time," he smiled, the genius brain spinning behind his eyes.
"I knew it," she smiled, kissing his cheek.
"What did you do while I was away?" he looked at her.
"Ever since you showed me this new life I've found myself less and less in my studies at school, and more working with James on studying those beautiful things," she smiled whimsically.
"You mean Tesla, I know you do, he's always hanging on your every whim," Gregory looked at his daughter knowingly and she blushed slightly.
"Well, Nikola is not all too interested in abnormals as much as he is on their powers, the science, but yes, we do spend a lot of time together, but as do we all, we're a team," she looked down.
"Yes, you all have your talents; I'm sure young Druitt would one day make an excellent surgeon, James is a brilliant mind, and that short little runt Nigel has his skills as well, though I'm convinced it's leading to a life of cat burgling," Gregory chuckled and poured himself a brandy. "But Tesla…"
"What's wrong with him?" Helen put her hands on her hips.
"He rubs me the wrong way is all, something in that stare of his makes me think he's got more on his mind than a career and a family," Gregory drank his brandy and Helen rolled her eyes.
"It's Nikola, all he ever thinks about is his inventions, you know that," Helen was tired of having this conversation.
"I'm only being cautious," Gregory sighed.
"Well it's uncalled for, Nikola is a good man and a close friend, I trust him completely-"
"That's what worries me," Gregory interrupted her and she bit her lip angrily, holding her tongue.
"Is that all you have to say?" she said bitterly.
"No, I have something to show you…and your team," said Gregory. "I presume they're not far behind you."
"Of course, James and Nigel are in the lab, John is in the study, and Nikola is on the roof," Helen gave him an exasperated look.
"What the devil is he up there for?" Gregory quirked an eyebrow.
"Drawing a pigeon that had roosted up there last time I looked," she said coldly.
"Have them meet me here in an hour, I'll think you'll all be very interested in what I have to show you, even Mr. Tesla," he dismissed her and she walked out briskly, her cheeks burning hot and her fists slightly clenched.
She loved her father, but sometimes he was downright intolerable.
Helen called on her friends and told them about her father's request to meet them in his study, before she made her way to the roof. Nikola was perched precariously on the edge, sketchbook in hand, one leg up, which he used as an easel for his sketches, the other dangling over the side.
"If you fall, I don't promise to catch you," she joked, breaking the silence.
"We Serbians have a great aptitude for balance, like cats, we never fall," said Nikola smugly.
"Said the man who dangled from a clock tower," she chuckled.
"That was different, I was pushed," he stated flatly.
"So, if I did this…" she pushed him, causing his arms to flail rapidly. She reached out and grabbed him by his vest and pulled him to her.
"That is not funny, Helen!" he said shakily, his arms holding her desperately.
Helen giggled and pecked his cheek.
"That's what you think," she played with his roused cowlick.
"Do you want to give me a heart attack before I've reached thirty!" he glared at her.
"Depends what you'd leave me in your will," she joked,
"At this point you'll get my pen, and that's it!" he scowled at her and she giggled some more.
"Oh, I know I mean more to you than a silly pen!" Helen laughed, and stole his sketchpad from him.
Nikola froze temporarily, his gaze traveling downward, Helen had her back to him as she flitted through his sketchpad.
"Of course you do, you're my friend, I'd leave the pen to John," Helen laughed and examined his drawing.
"It's beautiful Nikola, you should do one of me," she smiled and handed the sketchpad back to him.
"I'm not that good," Nikola said bashfully.
"No you are, and I will make you one day," she warned him.
"What are you thinking? One of those charcoal drawing of you sprawled out on a loveseat…in the nude?" he smirked deviously and Helen hit him playfully.
"Nikola! Don't be bawdy, I am much too sensible for that kind of thing," she laughed.
"Oh, I think nude drawings are the peak of class, nothing speaks ladylike more than skin and breasts," he reached out two fingers to stroke her shoulder and she giggled again.
"If my father heard you talking like that he'd remove you from this house by the hairy caterpillar on your lip!" she chuckled.
"Oh come on Helen, we're alone, he'll never suspect anything on the roof! Live a little! It's the only way I'll draw you," he smirked and she sighed.
"You're serious, aren't you?" she looked at him and he smiled back.
"Of course, it will be very tasteful, I promise, and I won't look anywhere ungentlemanly," he put his hand on his heart as if swearing an oath.
"Alright, but I'm only posing long enough for you to get an outline, you'll have to fill in the details on your own," she went over to the door and wedged a piece of wood under it, in case someone walked in.
Nikola nodded and returned to his perch on the roof's edge, he found a clean sheet to work on and he studied his charcoal for imperfections.
When he looked up his eyes fell upon gorgeous creamy skin and long blonde curls.
His eyes were fixed on her as she wrapped her shawl around her to cover her dignity.
"Where would you like me?" she said softly.
He gulped slightly.
"Uhh, here..um…like that…is fine," he got up and tentatively moved towards her, his hands gently touched her body as he positioned her head. Though she was as naked as the day she arrived on this earth, despite the shawl, she had covered her most private regions, almost expertly.
Her long curls were let down, covering her breasts with their length, and the shawl surely covered the rest, leaving little for Nikola to see, but it was more than he had ever dreamed.
He moved to stand behind her, a part of him yearning to wrap her small, beautiful form in his arms, kiss her milky shoulders, bury his hands in her blonde curls, but he hadn't the courage to reach out and take her.
"Hurry up, it's cold!" said Helen, a small giggle escaping her throat.
"Just making sure you are in the right position," he said moving away and back to his sketchpad.
"We don't have a lot of time so be quick!" she said, keeping her head still.
"Don't rush the artist!" he snided back.
She chuckled nervously as he began to sketch.
"Are you done yet?" she asked after a few short minutes.
"Shh!" he hissed in response
"Nikola! I'm freezing!" she whined.
"I'm almost done, don't soil your knickers," he said casually.
"What knickers? I'm stark bloody naked, Nikola!"
He lifted his head and smirked at her and she rolled her eyes.
"Hold still," a few minutes passed. "There!"
Helen let out a sigh of relief and moved towards him.
"Finally! Let me see!" she said excitedly.
"Oh no! You don't get to see it till it's done!" he said holding the sketchpad away from her grasping fingers.
"Oh come on, I nearly froze my bloody ass off for your lewd fantasies, the least you can repay me is to let me see the work in progress!" she jumped for it, but blushed slightly when she remembered that she was still horribly underdressed.
"Nope, you'll just have to wait," he smiled.
"Fine, help me get back into my clothes, since you somehow got me out of them," she huffed.
"A magician never reveals his secrets," he joked.
"Just help before one of the maidservants comes up and sees!" she barked and he strode over to her, leering at her.
"With pleasure," he said, a mysterious hint in his voice.
She pulled her layers of petticoats and material over her hips, Nikola watched the delicious sight hungrily.
"Are you just going to stand there and watch or our you actually going to help?" she growled at him, annoyed at how difficult he was being.
"Not if you're going to be like that, I might as well just sit down and enjoy your struggle," he said pestulantly.
Helen turned to him, frowning, then leaned over and kissed his cheek.
"Please," she asked, giving him cute eyes.
He deflated and let out a breath.
"Fine, if you'll stop looking at me like that, is that how you got your father to send you to Oxford?" he joked.
"Mostly," she shrugged letting out a small laugh and he tied up the straps on the back of her dress.
"There you are, a respectable lady once again, though since you rushed me we might have to do another session," he smiled cheekily.
"Not on your life," she chuckled, "Now move it, my father is expecting us shortly, something important."
"If I have to spend another night trekking through a sewer for a bog monster I will shoot him," said Nikola, raising his finger pointedly.
Helen laughed and pulled him with her down to her father's study.
The rest of them were there, and patiently waiting for them to arrive, James was in small conversation with Gregory and John and Nigel were talking in their own corner. All stared at them as they entered.
"What took you so long, it's nearly a quarter past the hour," said Gregory, taking out his pocket watch.
"It was Nikola, he refused to leave until he had finished drawing," said Helen straight, Nikola smiling slight. It was not exactly a lie.
"Really? Drawing a pigeon? Must've been one fascinating pigeon, my dear man," said Gregory in half mockery.
"A truly fascinating pigeon, I promise you," Nikola said with a smile and he sat down on the settee.
"Now that you're all here I can show you what I've brought back," Gregory opened his kit and pulled out a vial of what looked like blood.
"What is that?" asked James.
"This is the key, my friends, to abnormal life…it belonged to a race called Sanguine Vampiris…"
"Vampires?" said James.
"Indeed, been reading up I see my good man," Gregory smiled at James.
James nodded.
"They're kind was made sterile and nearly wiped out by the church centuries ago, this is all that remains, I believe it was extracted before the species was sterilized, and it's rumored to contain amazing properties, unfortunately I am heading out soon, for Mecha, a small excursion to a 300 year old tomb, said to contain a abnormal in stasis, so my contact says."
Helen sighed, she was always upset when he left on these excursions.
Gregory looked at her apologetically.
"I leave the source blood in your hands, I believe the properties of it may crack the foundations of science."
"Why not just inject it into one of your homemade goons and see what happens?" said Nikola disbelievingly.
"It's too dangerous, this blood is powerful, not Vitamin C!" growled Gregory Magnus.
"Then how can we test it?" interjected Nigel.
"That's for you as a team to discover, now I really must be on my way, my boat leaves this evening," Gregory made his way past the small group and Helen followed.
"But you just got back!"
"I know my darling, and I'm sorry, but this find could be another breakthrough of science, it cannot wait," He pecked her cheek and walked out briskly to his carriage, leaving Helen in his wake.
Nikola came up behind her and put her hand on her shoulder comfortingly.
Helen just glared at the spot where her father had stood.
"Good riddance," she huffed.
"Helen, as much as I am not too fond of the man myself, he is your father, and I know you don't mean that," he said softly.
She turned to him and hugged him tightly.
"I just want my father back," she mumbled into his chest.
"You've got us, James, Nigel, John, and me…you've always got me," he said almost quietly.
"It's not the same," she released him and strode away.
He watched her leave, visibly deflated by what she had said.
Helen sat before the fireplace in her room, pictures of her parents, and her father holding her as a child splayed out in front of her.
She heard something at the door and looked just in time to see something slipped under the crack.
She ignored it for a moment, but her curiosity triumphed her stubbornness.
It was a sheet of sketch paper flipped upside down and she reached down and picked it up.
It was the sketch of her Nikola had made on the roof earlier that evening, she sighed staring at it.
This was either Nikola's idea of a joke or through some sick twisted logic he thinks that a semi-nude drawing of her would actually be comforting to her right now.
She didn't want to look at it, she wanted to forget about it, her own frustrations taking prominence over the simple gesture. She walked over to the fireplace and tossed the drawing into the flames.
She wanted to forget about it, so she did.
Not realizing the door was opened a crack, a certain pair of blue-grey eyes watching behind it.