Chapter 42 – The Power to be Hurt
~~~~New York – Wardenclyffe Tower – Spring, 1906~~~~
Nikola sat at his workbench, scribbling furiously at his drawings; notes on his turbines, modifications to the tower that will bring up more backers, impress more financers, and keep more people interested in his ambitious project that was on the verge of crumbling beneath his feet.
He held his pencil between his teeth as he erased something emphatically and brushed off the remnants. It was all very frustrating, this whole project was a pain since the beginning, as most ambitious ideas are, but this time he had nothing on which to stand, no loyal backers, no contracts, nothing. He was finding it hard to keep the entire facility up and running, he was considering firing all the unnecessary workers until such a time that he could afford them, anything to keep this project afloat for as long as he could.
He was working furiously, day and night, ignoring social interaction, declining visits from friends, and hardly eating because it was all a waste of time, and what did he have to show for it?
He crinkled up the piece of paper and tossed it away angrily.
Nothing, that's what he had, nothing, a whole freaking tower full of nothing.
~~~~Meanwhile – Just outside~~~~
The car stopped just outside the entrance to the wondrous building. The gravel road crunched underneath its wheels as it rolled back into park.
She stepped out a moment later, her heeled shoes finding hard purchase on the uneven ground. She ordered the driver to stay parked, and make himself comfortable…she was going to be awhile.
Her fingers fiddled with excitement, she had no idea what kind of trouble her appearance here would cause, how would he react? How would he look? Would he welcome her in kindly, or cast her out angrily? Would he be Nikola? Strange, beautiful, wondrous Nikola, who believed in free power, and true love? Or bitter, cynical, frustrated Nikola who couldn't see the answer so clearly in front of him?
She was nervous, but she was determined.
Without waiting for an escort to lead her to him she opened the door to the secret tower and walked inside. It didn't take her long to find him, she was not flabbergasted by the sights of the building's interior, though she'd never seen it before, but she wouldn't let herself be slowed down by such marvels, she had to see him.
He was in, what she assumed was, his office, tirelessly wandering about, muttering to himself, a pencil tucked behind his left ear as he fuddled about with some scraps of metal and copper wire.
She stood there and watched him, trying to hold back her laugh. He always was a bit silly when he was working. Not many could tell, but she could. He was bored, bored out of his mind, and trying terribly to convince himself he was not so. He ran around trying ideas, scribbling things down on paper, trying as hard as he could to find something to entertain himself with. He disguised it well, people rarely understood what he did as it was, but she saw right through it, he was grasping at straws.
Her laugh gave her away, and he froze in place, wondering if he had actually heard what he'd heard or if he'd imagined it.
She laughed again and he turned towards it, his furrowed brow melting at the sight of her. He was really quite adorable when he made that face, a look somewhat akin to shock, awe and confusion all rolled into one.
She shook her head.
"My dear Tesla, you must be bored out of your skull," she shook her head and smiled at him.
"Helen?...I'm working," he straightened up defensively, trying to be impressive.
"Nikola, you're ditty-fritting to make it look like you're working," she teased, walking further into the room. "I know the difference."
"I had no idea I was so transparent," he turned away dismissively, playing his game with her. He turned back, stubbornly to his drawings, pretending to study them tediously.
She smiled slightly and walked up to him to stand directly behind him.
The back of his neck peaked out from behind his collar; she eyed it amiably.
"How long has it been, Nikola?" she asked casually.
"Almost a year," he muttered in response.
"Miss me?" she asked.
"Only some of the time," he lied easily.
"Liar," she accused.
"So, I thought of you from time to time, why are you here?" he still refused to look at her,
"Maybe I missed you," she shrugged.
"Helen, please don't mock me, as much as I enjoy your presence you chose an awful time to come see me, I'm busy," he growled, he was in a mood today.
Helen eyed his neck again, then without warning, pressed her lips against the exposed skin of the back of it. She grinned as she watched his whole body tense at the contact, and continued to lazily kiss the spot, wrapping her arms gently around his shoulders in a soft embrace.
Nikola stood still as a plank, not moving, barely breathing, with his eyes wide and unsure.
"Helen, what are you…?" he asked hesitantly.
"You looked tense, I was just trying to relax you," she sighed innocently.
"Well it didn't work," he moved away from her. He was so cute when he didn't understand what was going on.
"Can't blame a girl for trying," she grinned. He looked at her funny.
"What are you doing here, Helen?" he asked with a huff.
"I was in the neighborhood," she said as innocently as she could. "I thought I'd pop by and see how you were doing."
"Is that it?" he asked her, eyeing her suspiciously.
"Well, no…I did have a small proposition to make for you…but I will touch on that later," she stepped closer to him.
God, she'd missed him, more than she was willing to admit, and the moment she had walked in and saw him…well, she had only one thing in mind.
Her hands caressed the lines of his chest, her eyes watching his as they darted down to her fingers then back up to her, looking even more confused.
"Helen, what are you…?"
"Shush," she cut him off. "Don't try to understand it, Niko, just play along."
Before he could even try to understand what that meant she kissed him, her tongue soft and plying, and his whole brain did somersaults.
He broke the kiss.
"Helen, you're not acting like yourself, are you drunk?" he asked, using his arms to hold her at bay.
"You would think that would you?" she teased, her fingers grabbing one of his hands and entwining it with hers. "Nikola, this isn't going to make sense right now, and it probably never will for a long time…but what I need you to do for me, is to just let it happen…don't analyze it, or coat it with anything. Can you do that for me?"
Nikola looked at her, just as lost, but nodded his head anyway.
She smiled, leading him by the hand to his workbench and hopping on to it with her legs dangling over the edge. It took her a moment of shuffling to hike up her skirt high enough so that she could open up her legs to let him through. He let her lead him right to her.
She took the hand that she held and draped it around her side, then took his other arm and draped it over her shoulder, making him stand impossibly close to her.
"Nikola, listen to me, and listen carefully," she instructed, he wordlessly nodded his head. "I need you to do something for me, don't ask me why, just do it."
He looked down at their near touching bodies with a weird look of contemplation, then looked back at her and nodded.
"It's about your work…and I'll explain to you exactly what I need before I leave," she kissed him tenderly then pulled back. "It won't make any sense, but you have to trust me." She kissed his jaw gently. "And when you see me again I will deny this ever happened, so don't bring it up, and don't look into it." She peppered more kisses across his face. "You're going to help me with this project, and I will tell you when, but I need you to get started." She pulled a folded piece of paper out from her bosom and slipped it into his pocket. "That contains all your instructions, including a date on which we will meet again where I will instruct you further, only then will we talk about it, got it?"
Nikola nodded still unbelievably thrown off by her behavior.
She began undoing his cravat gently.
"I'm sorry, this must be so confusing for you, and it will be for a long time, but I promise one day I'll explain it to you," she tossed the cravat away and began working at the buttons of his shirt, pulling the tails out of his neatly tucked trousers. She kissed him along the jaw several more times before claiming his lips with her own in a very suffocating kiss that left him clutching at her side.
When she broke apart, she began to pull at the laces of her top, and his Nikola's eyes widened dramatically.
"Please be a dear and help, I do have a car waiting," she prodded him.
"Uhhh," he stumbled over his words.
"Don't ask questions, just do," she reprimanded him, forcing his hands to her chest to cup her bosom gently; he made an unintelligible gurgle at the forward action.
"Helen, wait," he mumbled, his hands not leaving her chest.
"Suspenders are annoying aren't they?" she ignored him, shoving his suspenders off his shoulders to hang loosely by his hips. She also kicked off her shoes, and tossed her hat away, letting her long hair cascade down in front of him.
She used the suspenders to pull him closer, nearly causing him to lose his footing and collapse into her.
"That's better," she muttered, pulling him into another heated kiss.
He pulled back, gasping deeply.
"Helen, please, just," he begged, trying to grasp ahold of the situation. "Your not yourself!"
She still ignored him and began fiddling with his pants, causing him to jump away slightly, but she held him there by hooking her legs around his hips, and kept attacking the zip of his trousers.
"Helen!" he barked. He grasped her shoulders and pinned her down on the surface of the table, it was a rather awkward angle, but with his strength he managed to hold her down, though he was also closer to her. She shifted so that her leg was more comfortable, letting the knee bend towards the ceiling to reveal her stocking-clad leg. "Helen, please, tell me what is going on," he pleaded.
"I can't, Nikola," she said honestly. Her hand reaching up to stroke his face. "I don't know why, but I want this, in this moment I want this…and I know how that must confuse you, god knows I don't want to hurt you…which I will…time and time again, Nikola," she sighed sadly.
Nikola looked down at her, with a look she could only assume was the most genuine expression of love she'd ever seen, his face inching impossibly close to hers.
"Thou hast not half that power to do me harm as I have to be hurt," he muttered to her, kissing her soundly, and with a vengeance. His hands released her arms, and slid down her body to her legs, stroking her through the silken fabric of her stockings, roughly, before unclipping them and pushing them down her calves. Her hands came up to his face, cupping his cheek gently, before sliding in to his hair, eliciting a sharp and sensual groan from him.
In a matter of seconds, he had pushed up her skirt as high as she'd allow and had climbed onto the table, atop her. Papers fell to the floor, odd things and fingle-fangles that he'd been playing with clunkered to the ground, but she didn't care, just as much as he didn't.
She gasped as she broke the kiss, extending her neck for him to continue his assault.
"It'd be just like you to melt me with Shakespeare," she teased, laughing as she felt him snigger against her skin.
Soon after that, their world began to blur in a haze of passion and emotion, she felt him, in the purest notion of the word, she felt him lose sense of reality, of logic, of time and space and just let go, just like she had asked him to. Even when his work lay strewn across the floor, even when she had flipped him over and pressed her hands into his chest, even after all that when he fell asleep with his arm draped easily around her.
And especially…when she quietly climbed off the workbench, dressed, and paid him a simple, genteel kiss to the forehead and left in her car just as simply and unannounced as she had came.
Nikola was jarred awake by a loud noise, sounded like a banging…something banging.
"Wake up, genius," came a familiar voice.
Nikola felt groggy…where was he? He blinked and then realized as he rolled off his side and laid face up…on his desk…in his office…at Wardenclyffe.
"Rough night?" came the voice of his old friend.
Nikola sat up…he was dressed only in his trousers and undershirt, and his whole office was in disarray.
"I must've…fallen asleep," Nikola mumbled, scratching his disheveled head.
"After what? Fighting a wild baboon? Good lord! This place is in shambles!" cried Robert Underwood Johnson.
"It wasn't a baboon," Nikola snickered.
"I'm glad that at least you did sleep, probably long overdue too," Robert sighed, walking further into the room and starting to picking up the papers scattered all across the floor.
"Yah," Nikola began looking all over the room. "You didn't happen to notice anybody…leaving as you came in, possibly?" he asked.
"No, no one…was there someone here?" Robert looked at Nikola skeptically.
"No…must've been a dream," Nikola shrugged simply. He climbed off the table, running a hand quickly through his hair.
"How long have you been sleeping for?" asked Robert.
"What day is it?" asked Nikola.
"Thursday, noontime," answered Robert.
"Then about a day and a half then," replied Nikola.
"Are you serious?" Robert laughed.
"Well, depends…is it still April?"
Robert laughed again.
"Come on, I'm taking you out of here to get some fresh air and a good meal," Robert handed Nikola his shirt and cravat.
"Will Katharine be joining us?" asked Nikola.
"Afraid not, she hasn't been well these last few days, she's at home resting," answered Robert.
"Well, send her my best regards," Nikola did as best he could to hide his sigh of relief.
"Send them yourself, it's not like you live in Colorado anymore," joked Robert.
"Oh Luka, your simplicity astounds me," teased Nikola. "Go, get the car ready, I'm just going to make a quick phone call and I'll be right behind you."
Robert nodded and left, taking his cane with him…so that's where the banging came from.
Nikola smirked and picked up the phone, dialing the number quickly until it was picked up on the other line.
"James! My dear fellow, how's England…so nothing's changed…yes, it's me Nikola…nothing serious, just leaving a message for Helen for when she gets back, if you could just…oh…she's there…she hasn't?...I see…no nevermind, it's not important…goodbye James," Nikola hung up the phone, his face fixed with a frown, his mind perplexed. Helen had been in England for the last three months…not even left the Sanctuary in that time…yet she was here last night…with him.
Nikola tapped his chin, worriedly.
Maybe it had been a dream. He reached into his pant's pocket and pulled out the folded piece of paper with his instructions on it.
"Helen…?" he unfolded the paper and read it.
His mind sparked as he read the words on the page…it was…genius, to say the least, but if Helen was in England…then who had given him this…and if it wasn't for Helen, then what was this for?
He folded the paper back up and tucked it into his breast pocket. He'd figure it all out later, for now, he had lunch plans to attend to.
~~~~Author's Notes~~~~
Here's a quickie for you guy, hopefully this will tide you over for awhile :)
Fun little Helen time warp here...couldn't stop myself...but this will probably be the only appearance of Time Warp Helen, the rest of Helen will be normal time Helen, just so you know. I hope it will warm up your Teslen spirits for a bit.