Five Hours in Ye Old London

Chapter 10: Distract and Grab

The group reassembled down in the main room of the London Sanctuary. Tesla and Helen busied themselves by inspecting the device's charging progress while the younger Helen stood in the center of the room watching her daughter entertain herself. The large, central space was open enough for the child room to spin around in her dress and her giggles echoed in the space, along with the occasional woofs of Winston as he waddled excited around her.

Suddenly, Ashley slipped in her socked feet and fell backward, luckily barreling into the blonde, who caught and clutched the child to her waist to stabilize her.

"Oops," Ashley said, giggling as she looked up at her 'cousin.'

"Careful," the blonde gently reprimanded with a smile as she stroked her daughter's back. She had often wondered what her child would be like and now, as she held her in her arms, she realized how incredible it felt to be a mother to this amazing little creature.

"I'm dizzy," Ashley said with a wide, goofy, jam smudged grin.

"You're silly," young Helen teased, staring down adoringly at her future offspring.

"I'm not silly, you're silly," the child chanted back with a giggle.

"You're both silly," John tossed out with a smile as he walked by and headed over to stand by the tall table that he had used earlier in the day to set Ashley upon. He then slowly pulled off his long leather duster, laying it over the back of a chair, and stretched his long limbs as he watched the two golden beauties still locked in an embrace. His movements caught the eye of the older one, whose breath caught as she stared at his handsome, lean form. Noticing her watching him, he raised an eyebrow at her in a leering fashion and laughed softly to himself when she began to blush and lowered her eyes.

"Where is James?" she asked, glancing back up at him as the child pulled away and turned to go to her father.

John shrugged, feeling it crude to mention that Watson had gone to the men's room. "He'll join us shortly I'm sure."

Eyeing her father's jacket in which she knew he tended to tuck items into his many pockets, Ashley walked towards it thinking maybe she would still manage to find candy in one of them. On those rare occasions when they went outside of the Sanctuary grounds, John often carried small treats with him for the child. Both were very fond of soft caramels. She had just started to put her hand into a pocket when he grabbed her wrist to stop her.

"Ashley," he hissed sternly, "What have we told you about reaching into our pockets, young lady?"

The child screwed up her face guiltily. "Not to?"

Startled at his reprimand, the blonde rushed over to stand beside the child and glared at him defensively. "What's wrong?" she demanded as her first thought went to John's penchant for carrying a knife.

"Why are you not to reach into our pockets without our permission?" John prompted his daughter as he ignored her mother. It was important that she remembered this fact considering the types of things her parents often carried in their clothing.

"Um, because you carry a weapon in your coat?" Ashley correctly guessed as she stared down at her feet to avoid her father's strict face. Meanwhile, though her father still had a grip on her wrist, she wiggled her fingers and managed to get them half way into a pocket of his coat. It was enough for her to figure out what the square item was.

"Your knife!" Helen cried and wrapped her arms around the child to yank her away.

"It's not a knife," the girl said as she tried to shrug her 'cousin' off of her. "It's an iPhone and I want it," she demanded as she tried to pull it out of John's pocket only to be stopped by her father.

"What's an iPhone?" the blonde asked in confusion as she continued to challenge Druitt.

"A communication device," John answered as he pulled his daughter's hand out of his pocket and pushed it away. "And no, you may not have it. You keep breaking mine," he reminded the child before looking Helen in the eye. "And just for the record, both of Ashley's parents carry weapons on their persons… with good reason," he firmly shared. While he understood her concern, he was also a bit insulted that she would think he would do something to harm their child. That version of Druitt had ceased to exist for several years now. Not that the younger version of Helen would know that.

"I do not," the child protested and tried to reach for the phone again.

"You have broken two of mine already," John retorted, pulling his coat out of her grasp and catching the phone as it slipped out of the pocket.

Insulted, Ashley pursed her lips in a pout and crossed her arms angrily. "Those were accidents, daddy!"

Arriving on the scene, Watson looked between the quarrelsome three as he asked, "What's going on?"

"John and Ashley are arguing over some sort of communication device," Helen answered as she continued to stand behind the child at the ready to interfere if necessary.

"Communication device?" James repeated, his green eyes lighting up at the prospect. "Like the one Helen carried?" He noticed the blue item in Druitt's hand and grinned.

"Exactly like the one I carried," the older version of Helen answered as she and Tesla joined the group. "And no, you may not look at it," she forbid the eager sleuth. Watson frowned back at her then returned his attention to the item in John's hand.

Meanwhile, father and child continued their battle of wills. "The first one crashing down the staircase may have been an accident," John told his sulky child, "but you smashing the second one with the paperweight off your mother's desk does not qualify as an accident."

"Does too. Omnom was stuck and wouldn't go," Ashley defended. "I only hit the phone to make the game work again."

"That does not justify smashing my phone to bits," John argued back and moved the phone to his other hand as the child tried to grab at it.

"I want the phone," Ashley demanded as she tried to leap up for his hand.

Pointing at the brunette, John said, "Get your mother's phone. You can break hers for once."

Scowling, Helen replied, "I don't have my phone anymore. I had to dispose of it along with my clothing when I arrived here. And she has broken my phone before."

"Well, that was certainly foolish of you, Helen" Nikola interjected. "If I was stuck back in the sticks… oh wait, I am!" he said with sarcasm, "I would keep every bit of modern technology I had on hand just so that I wouldn't die of complete and utter boredom in this backwater of a city."

Before Helen could reply, Ashley suddenly leapt at her father with her little hands raised in a martial arts stance yelling "E–ya!" Instinctively, John blocked her and she in turn came back at him with a series of fast hand movements. "I want the iPhone, Daddy!" she called out as she came close to almost grabbing hold of it.

Grinning, John challenged, "Come and get it!" and continued to carefully block his daughter's blows as he switched the phone back and forth between his hands, keeping them low enough so that she could actually reach the phone if she were to succeed getting past his blocking. It wasn't as if she could really harm him due to her small size. Her spunk and determination, on the other hand, made him quite proud of his little offspring.

Horrified, the younger version of Helen had raised her hand to her chest as she watched father and daughter battle with one another. "Stop it!" she demanded.

"It's alright," her older version said calmly. "They are just playing."

"Playing?" the blonde gasped in disbelief. "She's going to get hurt!"

"She is a bit young for fighting," James noted though his tone and face clearly registered his amusement at the sight. From everything he had observed about Druitt since the child's arrival it was apparent to him that his old friend clearly adored his only child and would not harm her.

"She'll be fine," Nikola reassured with a dismissive wave of his hand as he leaned up against the other end of the table to watch the free entertainment. "I see her training is coming along well though she needs to work on putting more power behind her strikes," he critiqued. "She hits like a little girl."

"She is a little girl," Helen reminded him as she kept an eye on the match. "That's all the power her little six year old body has." Ashley's hand to eye coordination was very good for a child of her age, but then she wasn't any ordinary child. Seeing the anxious concern on the blonde's face, she reminded her, "We did warn you that our style of parenting would be different from that of the Victorian age. It is not uncommon in our time period for children to have martial arts training starting at a very young age."

"Really?" James said. "Even the girls?"

"Especially the girls," Helen answered. "One should always be able to defend themselves."

Frustrated her blows were being blocked successfully, Ashley began using her legs to kick out at John.

"She needs work on her kicking technique," James assessed, finding the sight of the little one rough housing with her father comical.

The right side of Helen's mouth turned up in amusement. "I will be sure to pass that on to her tutor. The good Dr. Watson does take so well any criticism of his training techniques," she mused as James' head whipped around to stare at her with an open mouth. "What?" she chuckled. "John told you were Ashley's godfather the first time."

"Whereas I am her godfather the second time," Tesla reminded them.

Moving aside to avoid his daughter's second kicking attempt, John added, "Only because you nagged at Helen while she was in labor." He jerkily motioned to Watson with his head as he kept his focus on the energetic child. "He's still my preference."

"I did not nag," Nikola shot back. "I asked nicely, didn't I, Helen?" he prompted with a lopsided smile to encourage her agreement.

She gave him a raised eyebrow in response. "I was in heavy labor. I would have agreed to anything to move the delivery along faster… but yes, you did ask nicely," she agreed as she reached over and pinched his cheek.

"Anything?" Nikola repeated in surprise.

"Too late," Helen laughed.

Meanwhile, Ashley's third attempt resulted in her getting her leg tangled up in the full skirt of her dress and pitching forward. Her father easily caught her before she fell to the floor and stood her back upright.

"And that is why we do not wear dresses when we fight," John gently reminded his daughter while giving her mother a pointed look.

"I had to put the dress on to blend in," she defended. "You know very well that this big gown with its restrictive corseting is last thing in the world I would want to wear." She looked over at her younger version and added, "No offense."

"None taken," the blonde replied. "I would gladly give up these gowns for something less restrictive and heavy."

"Oh, Helen, you didn't blend in to society the first go round," Nikola interjected. "If you had been born 100 years earlier they would have burned you at the stake for being a witch… you know, for all your uppity ideas such as equality for women and all that," he teased, giving her a toothy grin.

"And a 100 years later people are still trying to drive a stake through your heart for being a vampire," Helen teased him back, "you know, for all your uppity ideas such as world domination and all that." The old friends exchanged an appreciative smile of admiration for one another.

"They wouldn't have to keep trying if someone just got a good aim in," John said, breaking up the appreciation fest.

"The same could be said of you, Jack-O," Nikola retorted.

"Not in front of the b-a-b-y," Helen hissed at the quarreling duo. Honestly, she was surrounded by children and only one of them of hers and under age seven.

Placing her hands on her hips, Ashley frowned at her mother. "Mommy, I am not a baby. I'm a big girl!"

Helen smiled at her clever child. "Of course you're not. I apologize."

"Well, perhaps as a big girl, you'll want to sleep in your own bed when we get home," John suggested to his child hopefully.

"Uh uh," Ashley vigorously shook her head. "No way. I'm sleeping with you and mommy forever," she declared, grinning as her parents both loudly groaned.

"Big girls sleep by themselves," John tried again. His daughter was a kicker in her sleep and he kept hoping that she'd finally start sleeping in her own bed regularly. The only reason they allowed her to share their bed as much as they did was that the child was plagued by night terrors at times, possibly caused by faint recollections from her former life. Her most common reoccurring dream was about being taken from her mother by a "bad lady."

His suggestion was quickly shot down. "Nuh uh. Mommy's a big girl and she sleeps with you all the time," Ashley said, crossing her arms again and glaring at her father. "You're just making that up," she accused, "so you don't have to share the bed with me. It's a big bed, daddy."

"You set him straight, little one," Nikola egged his godchild on. With her sleeping in between John and Helen every night there would be little extracurricular activity going on in the bed. The parents both shot him a look that clearly said they knew exactly why he was encouraging the child to sleep with her parents.

"Your mother sometimes sleeps alone, when I'm out on a mission," John tried again. Granted, that was few and far in between when that he was not able to return to her by bedtime.

"No she doesn't," the child smartly answered. "Cuz I sleep with mommy then too."

All the adults chuckled, except John, who sighed and said to the mother of his child, "I guess we stay with plan B."

"Plan B," Helen agreed, amused by John's many attempts to get their daughter out of their bed. The poor fellow was going to be in for a shock with the future addition of another child. They were going to have to get a bigger bed eventually.

"What's plan B?" her younger counterpart asked.

"We wait until she falls asleep and move her into her own bed," Helen replied in Latin. "She's not particular happy about waking up in her own bed but it does afford us a few hours of peaceful sleep without a little pair of cold feet pressed up against our backs."

"Or other parts of our anatomy," John complained.

Using her father's distraction, Ashley quickly seized the phone, calling out "Ha ha, I got the phone," and raced away to hide behind her mother's full skirt.

Helen gave John a smug look. "I guess the old saying 'divide and conquer' would be 'distract and grab' in your case, Mr. Druitt."

"Something she no doubt learned from her mother," John smirked back. "Sneaky little thing, like her mother."

"Clever little thing," Helen corrected, pointing a finger at him, "like her mother."

"Touché," he said as Ashley peered around her mother's skirt to stick her tongue out at him. "I got your phone now!" she called out gleefully.

With a puff of red, John disappeared only to reappear behind the child. "And now I have you," he grinned down at his startled daughter who squealed and raced around to the front of her mother and clutched at Helen's skirt. Peering around at her father once more, Ashley grinned. "I have mommy and I have your phone. I win!"

John laughed. "Well, I suppose having mummy does give you the win," he said as he winked at the mother of his child, who had turned to look at him over her left shoulder.

Taking advantage of their distraction, James said, "Speaking of the phone," and scooped up the child to placed her on the table next to him. "How about you show me how that device works, little one?"

"You don't know how an iPhone works?" Ashley asked with a crinkle of her little nose.

Helen frowned at Watson. "You do not want to see that," she instructed seriously.

James snorted. "The devil I don't."

"The devil he doesn't," Ashley repeated, earning her a pat on the head by Watson.

"Such language for a little girl," Nikola sniffed and shook his head at the pair. "As a good godfather I would never use such phrases," he loftily promised to Helen, causing her to give him an incredulous look. "Aren't you glad you chose me to be her godfather?"

"Thrilled," John mocked and rolled his eyes.

James ignored the jab and leaned in close to stare at the device as the girl swiped her little hand across the screen to unlock it. It didn't work. "I need the password," Ashley pouted, looking up at her father.

John shook his head. "I'm not giving you my password."

"Daddy!" Ashley whined and kicked her feet out in annoyance.

"Give her the password," James repeated, giving his old friend a hopeful look. He really wanted to see the communication device at work.

"I will enter the password myself but I'm not giving her the password," John insisted and held out his hand to his pouty child who glared grumpily back at him. She finally relented and was rewarded a minute later with an unlocked phone.

"Excellent," James declared as he took in the illuminated images as Ashley began flipping through the screens with her little hand.

Giving John a shake of her head, Helen muttered, "This is so wrong."

"What? James looking at technology he shouldn't know about or Ashley showing him how to use the technology he shouldn't know about?" Druitt questioned in amusement. The sight of his six year old instructing a member of The Five on how to use an iPhone would be something that would remain with him forever.