Chapter 3

Nikola's sleep was short and fitful; he kept turning over in his sleep, comfort not coming to him. He stilled in the bed for a moment before sensing a presence and opening his eyes.

There she was; he nearly gasped.

Helen sat serenely at the foot of his bed, hands on her lap and moonlight on her face.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you?" she asked, her voice soft.

"N-no," his voice was caught in his throat and he coughed to clear it.

"I couldn't sleep," Helen whispered. "I kept thinking about you."

Nikola gulped slightly and sat up on his elbows to look at her better.

"I couldn't sleep very well either," he confessed.

"Something happened tonight Nikki, something I can't explain," she shifted closer to him.

"Me neither...I felt it too," he admitted.

"It was something...I've never felt before," she placed her hands on his shoulders and Nikola's mouth went dry again. "Not even with John."

"I..."

"I know you know, Nikki, I saw you watching us tonight...like a voyeur," she teased.

"I swear Helen, I..."

"Shhh," she cut him off. "I don't mind. In fact..."

Helen raised the skirts of her nightgown and lifted her long gorgeous leg over his waist to rest on the other side of his body so that she was hovering above him before she slowly lowered herself to straddle his hips

"...I find it rather intriguing," she smirked deviously.

Nikola gasped feeling her this close to him.

Her hands rested on his chest.

"I saw the look in your eyes, Nikki," she continued to smile. "I know you desire me as more than a friend and colleague...and I like being desired."

Her hands slid over to the buttons on his shirt.

Everything about this was so surreal; Nikola could barely process it all.

Before he could comprehend Helen leant down and kissed him. Without thinking his hands came to her sides and he was instantly kissing her back, savoring the sweet taste of her lips as they slid against his. He involuntarily jerked his hips as he felt Helen's hand slide under his shirt and against the skin of his chest.

She broke the kiss and smiled down at him.

"Someone's eager," she teased.

Nikola groaned as she continued rubbing his skin.

"Helen..." he moaned, trying to gain some sort of sanity before he let this get out of control.

"Nikola, please," her voice changed from teasing to surprisingly sincere. "Just let me do this. We can talk about it later."

Nikola met her eyes and couldn't help the desperate whimper that escaped his mouth.

Helen shifted back slightly to remove the catches on his pants.

He couldn't believe what was happening right now.

"What about John?" the words escaped before he could reign themselves in.

Helen stopped and met his gaze again. She broke into a crooked smile before reaching in the front of her gown and producing the lovely engraved locket John had given her earlier.

"John is asleep," she whispered. "And Nigel is sleeping on the couch."

Nikola looked over to the empty side of the bed.

Helen leaned over and dropped the silver locket on the nightstand.

"Nothing else matters at this point," she leant down and kissed him once again and he couldn't help but wrap his arms around her.

Helen pulled away from him and sat up, her hands coming up to the laces down the front of her nightgown. Nikola's eyes widened and darted from her eyes to her mouth to where her hands were. He gulped again, and slid his hands carefully from her waist down to her knees, slipping underneath the light fabric and cupping the soft skin.

Helen finished with the laces and grabbed Nikola's head hungrily pulling him up to her in a ferocious kiss.

God, this was so inappropriate, Nikola couldn't even fathom what would happen if they got caught...and at this moment he didn't have the capacity to care, his mind was on fire having Helen this close and rubbing against him. It was...it was...it was...

Gone.

Nikola's eyes opened slowly to the sun blinking through his window. It was morning, he was still fully clothed, and Nigel was snoring lightly beside him.

Aside from the rather painful annoyance between his legs, nothing had changed.

He groaned, rubbing his eyes. He needed to shave, piss, and probably change his shirt. With a huff he got up and dragged himself over to the door to the Jon. It was an adjoining bathroom that looked like the owners had found the ugliest wallpaper they could find to cover up a murder scene. It was atrocious...but clean, as far as he could tell.

After he did his business he got out his shaving kit, quickly, and with a deft hand, shaved the shadow beginning to form on his cheeks and trimmed his mustache.

He was clean and changed in about twenty minutes.

He walked out into the living room. It was early; everyone else was still sleeping except for one.

She was curled by the furnace reading a book, chewing one of her fingernails as she read.

Nikola's breath caught in his throat.

Her hair was down in long beautiful curls, and she was wearing a light blue skirt with a thin petticoat underneath, her shoes were off and she had her feet tucked underneath her. She had a thin white chemise and blouse with a light brown vest overtop. Her thumb and forefinger played with the chain around her neck and Nikola felt his heart sink.

"Good morning," he said, breaking the warm silence in the room.

Helen started and looked up, her face breaking out into a bright smile.

"Nikola," she greeted warmly.

"How are you feeling?" he came to sit next to her.

"Hmm? Oh...uh, nothing yet," Helen shrugged. "I feel...I feel normal honestly."

"Is it a failure then?" Nikola asked.

"No...I'm not dead am I?" she meant it teasingly but Nikola couldn't help the twinge in his stomach at the thought.

"So..."

"I think we should try again...with one of you guys, maybe John, or Nigel, see if we get a different result, now that we know that it won't kill any of us," she teased.

"How about me?" Nikola asked. "What if we tried it on me?"

Helen opened her mouth to say something then closed it, shaking her head.

"No. Not yet, I mean. We still need your steady hands," she took his hands gently. "Steadiest ones I know." She flipped them palm up and traced her fingers down them.

In light of the dream Nikola had during the night, the touches were affecting him more than they should.

He grasped her fingers to stop their feather light scratching across his nerves.

"All right, when shall we continue?" he asked.

"Tonight, I think," Helen decided.

Nikola nodded and caught Helen's gaze again...man he could swim in those cerulean orbs.

"Morning," James entered, half-dressed and unkempt. He trudged all the way to the kitchen.

"Tea's on," Helen called to him, sharing a smile with Nikola.

" Marvelous," James muttered.

" Rough night?" Nikola asked teasingly.

"Hmm? Oh...yeah, John, uh, snores," James came over with his cup and flopped into the rocking chair across from them.

Nikola and Helen tried not to laugh at his state.

"Morning chaps!" Nigel walked in happily. "Tea?"

They nodded, and he hopped off to the kitchen with a skip in his step.

James looked at him disdainfully.

"How does he do that?" he growled.

"He's an early bird," Helen grinned.

John stumbled in looking as grumpy as James did. He came right up to James and stole the cup straight from his hand and took a generous sip of it.

"Hey! Get your own!" James scowled.

Helen laughed.

Nigel bounced back in.

"Oh, morning John, want a cup? Take this one!" he smiled and handed John the cup and hopped back into the kitchen.

"I hate him," muttered John.

This time both Helen and Nikola couldn't contain their laughter.

~~~~Later~~~~

The group decided that this day was a perfect day to take the afternoon off.

That morning they had all decided to continue the experiments tonight since they it proved to be, at least, non-fatal. So, in preparation for their late night workings the boys decided to take Helen on a relaxing trip down to the riverbanks.

John and Nigel spent the morning carving fishing rods out of long branches, twine, and some bits of twisted metal found in the workshed. There weren't any worms so they took some stale bread as bait and packed a picnic lunch and trekked the long sunny path down to the bank.

John and James immediately made a bet for who could catch the biggest fish, and Nigel had joined in for sport. Nikola sat with Helen on the blanket underneath a shady elm, and let her read to him from the book she had brought with her.

There was cheese, and some sausage and biscuits to eat and Nikola brought some wine for himself to drink...didn't stop Helen from casually reaching over and taking his glass straight from his hand and having a sip for herself.

"Nikola? You wanna have a go?" asked Nigel for the third time.

"My mind has not changed since the last time you asked," Nikola muttered.

"Aww come on, you'd love it," Nigel prodded.

"I don't want to smell like fish for the rest of the day, I'm in much better company over here," Nikola nudged Helen's arm with his head and she shoved him playfully.

"Honestly, Nikola, stop distracting me," Helen growled.

Nikola smirked. She was trying to hide it from the others but the dear Dr. Helen Magnus had a secret love for trashy novels. She went so far as to put false covers on them to hide their appearance so she could read them out in the open. Nikola was the only one who knew, because he had dared her to read one aloud to him once in her father's library and she had admitted her fondness for them. Since then, Nikola had always enjoyed listening to her read sections of the novels to him. She would read up until the parts got steamy and then trail off, either by being too engrossed in the subject matter or too shy to have one of the others come by and hear her.

Nikola savored her blushes and bitten lower lip. He could watch her read all day, and not even pay attention to the words.

"Catch anything yet?" asked James.

"Not even a nibble," sighed John.

"Probably should've checked that there was actual fish before you know...fishing," teased Nikola.

John and James sneered at him.

Nikola leant over and rested his head on Helen's shoulder, peering at the words.

"I like this part," he whispered. "When Elizabeth confesses her love to Julian."

Helen shushed him, peering over at John briefly, before shuffling her arm so that Nikola was forced to sit up.

"It's a good scene," Helen nodded, keeping her voice low.

"It's a shame she goes back to her fiancé...what's his name?"

"Thomas," Helen answered.

"Right," Nikola nodded. "It's...it's a good book, well-written."

Nikola looked away shuffling on to his elbows. He cursed himself inwardly for talking like that. Helen could probably read him like the book she had in her hands and know that he had seen what had transpired between her and John last night, or see the dream he had in his eyes; his wanton, ungentlemanly desire for her. Then she'd ask him to leave, forever.

"Ah ha!" cried James suddenly. "Got you, you bastard!"

James was pulling hard on his rod, his heels digging into the muddy bank as he struggled to pull up his catch. Suddenly he lurched forward dramatically and both Nigel and John dropped their rods to grab their friend around the middle. Nikola, hearing Helen gasp immediately stood up and went to help.

"Don't let him fall in!" cried Nigel.

"The current is too strong for him," agreed John.

James kept being pushed forward.

"Damn, he's strong!" James cried.

The water at this edge of the river was deeper and less rockier than some of its other places. Nikola could easily swim across, but James was like a lead rock when it came to swimming, even in the bathtub. James didn't swim, he sank.

"Let go, Jim!" Nigel shouted.

"I've almost got him," James said determinedly.

"He's almost got you, there's a difference!" Nikola cried, trying with all his might to pull the three men back further on to the bank.

"James! Just let it go!" Helen cried.

"One more tug and..."

The twine on James rod snapped and all three men fell forward, losing their grip on James. Nigel and John tumbled forward into the grass and Nikola fell on top of them while James was pushed off the ledge into the water.

"James!" Helen cried.

Nikola immediately pushed himself off of John and Nigel on to his feet.

He could see James bobbing like a child in the water.

"Nikola, help him!" Helen shouted and Nikola growled in the back of his throat, quickly removing his jacket, vest, cravat, and shoes and diving effortlessly into the water.

He reached James with a couple of powerful strokes and immediately grabbed him by the waist.

James spluttered and hacked.

With a bit of struggle Nikola managed to drag him back to the bank and hoist him on to shore with the help of John and Nigel.

James coughed the water out of his lungs and shook his head to get the water out of his ear.

It was only in this moment when Nikola noticed James was still holding his fishing rod.

John laughed.

"James, you are one stubborn bastard!" Nigel and John shared a hearty laugh while Helen draped the blanket over him. Nikola stood at the bank, watching as they fawned over James who was still slightly bewildered by the fact that he had almost drowned himself.

Nikola shook out the water from his fully drenched shirt and trousers. He went over to his pile of clothes and scooped them up and began silently trudging up the path not even bothering to say a word to the group.

Helen watched Nikola leave with his tell-tale silence...he was not happy with this turn of events, or probably for not being acknowledged for his contribution. If there was one thing Nikola hated, it was not getting the recognition he deserved, even if it was just a simple thank you.

"You go after him," said Nigel, noticing Nikola leave too. "We'll get this fish home soon."

James glared at him.

"We'd be eating fish if my line hadn't broke," he huffed.

"I'll see you guys when you get up there," Helen smiled warmly and went to retrieve the picnic basket, then ran to catch up with Nikola. Luckily, his wet trousers were making it hard for him to move anywhere quickly.

He had apparently stopped briefly to put his shoes on, but he still carried his jacket and cravat begrudgingly up the path, ringing out the corners of his wet shirt every once in a while.

"Nikola!" Helen called, picking up her skirts so that she could catch him. She was at his side in a moment. "Thank you, Nikola, for what you did back there."

Nikola was expressionless.

"You saved James' life," Helen continued.

"You asked me to," Nikola turned and kept walking.

"You still did it," Helen followed after. "You were very brave."

"I am a very adept swimmer, I was confident I could do it," Nikola shrugged.

Helen grabbed his hand and pulled him to her. Without warning she leant up and kissed his cheek, melting away whatever mood he was just in.

"Come on, let me help you get out of those wet clothes."