A/N: Written for the prompt "'You nearly died' kiss." This is version 1 of this prompt, because it's one of my very favorite tropes of all time and will probably be showing up again. Set during/after Hollow Men/Pax Romana. Enjoy!
Nikola's legs were tired.
That never used to happen, back when he was a vampire. Oh, his energy levels would flag, especially after he went without sleep for three or four days at a time in the lab. That electric chair of Edison's (bastard) wasn't the strangest place he had fallen asleep. But this dull, burning ache in his muscles, this was new, and extremely unpleasant.
Of course, it probably had something to do with the fact that he'd been pacing up and down the Sanctuary library for the last three hours and forty-seven minutes. Not that he was counting.
Damn John, anyway. Not only was Nikola missing out on the discovery of the century (including some of his own brilliant works, which was, in his opinion, quite a concession), but now that John had run off with Adam, Nikola had no way to get to the entrance of Hollow Earth quickly. Which meant that, since Helen and her team were still out of contact, absolutely anything could be happening down there and Nikola would never know.
Nikola spun on his heel for yet another trip up and down the paneled floor, clenching his frustrated hands at his sides. Damn John. Who knew what that treacherous bastard Adam was planning, anyway? Nikola wouldn't call John trustworthy on a good day, but at least he could be (mostly) relied on to help Helen, albeit with perhaps a little more murder than she would have preferred. Adam, though, God only knew what he was up to.
Pausing his circuit of the library by the floating holographic map of Hollow Earth, Nikola stared at it, as if he looked hard enough he could absorb John's ability and teleport there. But the entrance itself was many hours away, and once there he had no way of finding them in the depths of Hollow Earth itself. Then there was the minor problem that he had no extra shield to protect him from the anti-vampire defenses. And wasn't that a fun little joke of the universe? If he'd still had his abilities, he could have gotten there and found Helen comparatively quickly, but now, he had just enough useless source blood running through his veins to prevent him from even trying.
And then Helen had left him kinda-sorta-maybe in charge, somehow, and he was pretty sure her wrath if she found out he went merrily running off, leaving the Sanctuary almost entirely abandoned (except for the butler, but Nikola hadn't seen him in hours, and he had no idea where he'd gotten to) would be even worse than any anti-vampire defense systems.
The little blue lights representing the tunnels of Hollow Earth pulsed gently and twinkled at Nikola, taunting him, and he strode over and turned the holographic map off. "See how you like that," he said out loud, fully aware of how ridiculous it was for him to talk to a hologram in an empty room.
The map had been giving off a faint hum, which Nikola could easily distinguish even with his sub-standard human hearing, and now that it was off, the Sanctuary seemed even emptier than before.
Nikola decided that a raid of Helen's wine cellar was exactly what he needed right now – surely, when she returned, he could justify it as payment for his looking after the place while she was gone. Not that he'd ever really worried about explanations for stealing her wine before.
When he got there, though, he discovered he'd been beaten to the punch.
There was a clinking of bottles as Bigfoot poked his head out from behind the racks. "There something you need?"
"Since you ask, a '92 Lafite," Nikola said, frowning at his personal sanctuary being invaded. "What are you doing?"
"Cleaning."
"I can see that." Nikola gestured at the giant feather duster being waved in his face as proof. "Is there any particular reason why you're cleaning? Here?"
A grunt. "Magnus has been complaining about all the dust down here."
"Is that so," Nikola murmured, rather pleased. He had been complaining about the amount of dust in the cellar for quite some time, and Helen had mostly just rolled her eyes and told him it wouldn't bother him as much if he didn't spend so much time down there. Apparently, it hadn't been falling on deaf ears after all.
He sidled over to a rack and twirled his fingers in the air, darting them in to pull out a bottle. "Well, carry on," he said to Bigfoot over his shoulder as he left.
Since the wine cellar was denied to him, Nikola went back up to the lab to check the tracking beacon a few more times, just in case, and perhaps try to distract himself by working on one of his latest projects.
He stopped once he got to the doorway, wondering if Helen had been cloning her staff lately without telling him.
"What is it?" Bigfoot asked from where he stood by the computers, dusting.
"Uh," Nikola said. "What the hell? Weren't you just in the cellar?"
Another grunt. "I finished."
Nikola raised an eyebrow. "I see thoroughness is not your motto."
The butler gave him an affronted look. "I work fast."
"Clearly." Nikola walked over to the computers, still showing no signs of Helen's tracking signal reactivating. He sighed, casting a glance at the worktable, which was now being straightened and dusted until it was sparkling. Well, he probably couldn't have concentrated on anything anyway.
Helen's office had been mercifully spared from any cleaning rampages, and Nikola found himself there before he even realized where he was going. He dropped into her chair with a heavy exhale of breath, and opened the bottom drawer of her desk, where he had recently smuggled in a couple of wine glasses to surprise Helen with at some point.
Drawing one out, he uncorked the wine and poured himself a liberal glass, swirling it around contemplatively and settling back into Helen's chair before taking a sip. Ah, wonderful. Helen always did have excellent taste. In wine, anyway.
He'd gone through a pretty big chunk of the cellar while he was living at the Sanctuary these last few months. Helen had enjoyed pointing out that he'd have none left if he kept up at that rate, although since she'd found a way to restock after he'd depleted it last year, he was sure she would do so again after he left this time.
Nikola took another sip of wine. Would he leave this time? Helen seemed happy to have him here, and even if his help on the holographic map wouldn't be required any longer, he was sure she could put him to good use somewhere else. Shoring up the criminally shoddy work from the rest of her staff, for example.
Still, he had his own projects to work on, his own goals, and they couldn't all be moved easily to the Sanctuary laboratory. He was pretty sure Helen didn't exactly support his plan to bring back the vampire race, for one thing.
Nikola stayed in Helen's office for a long time, his mind racing through almost every subject available to him except one, contemplating everything from recalibrating the stunners to how he was planning to regain his immortality, particularly under Helen's watchful eye to make sure he did so without his usual unethical means.
It was all moot, of course, if she didn't come back. He had carefully avoided thinking about it up until this point, but now it struck him like a ton of bricks.
That's what Adam had said, wasn't it? That she wasn't going to come back, and Nikola was hard pressed to think of a reason why he was wrong. There was nothing that couldn't go wrong on this mission. Even if their tracking signals had gone dead just because they were too far underground, any number of things could have happened since. Hell, they weren't really even sure if the citizens were friendly – for all he knows they could have shot Helen on sight.
Nikola swallowed, his fingers tightening on his wine glass as he set it stiffly down on Helen's desk.
Then they had thrown John and Adam into an already uncertain situation, very possibly making it worse, knowing those two, and Nikola in his blind worry and enthusiasm to see Hollow Earth had gone along with everything quite contentedly.
Even if, by some miracle, everything had went right, there was no guarantee that Helen would come back cured. Her radiation sickness had been more advanced than most of the Sanctuary realized. Nikola had seen it, though he had spent the majority of his time over the last few days locked away in the lab making Helen's vampire shield. Her hands would shake, or she would stumble just a little as she walked, and Nikola would be forcibly reminded every time that immortal she might be, but not invulnerable. Come to think of it, that was probably why he'd spent every possible second closeted in the laboratory.
Helen's death was not something Nikola was prepared to think about on any level. His own hands were shaking now, and he twisted them together on top of Helen's desk, the smooth wood surprisingly warm under his fingers. One of his only consolations, during his recent loathsome re-acquaintance with humanity, was the absolutely sure knowledge that she would survive him. The thought of a world without Helen…
Nikola raised his folded hands to his chin, leaning forward. As if that weren't bad enough, the thought of her dying while he just sat here, totally helpless, doing nothing…
His hand slammed down onto the desk with more force than he thought he had left, the wine glass tilting worrisomely before he caught it with his other hand, bolting to his feet. To hell with this. Helen could stake him in the heart for leaving his post when she got back if she liked – the butler could go on a murderous rampage while he was gone if he wanted, or go try to polish the Eiffel Tower – he didn't care if he had to cross eight mountain ranges to get to her, he wasn't going to stand around impassively waiting for the only person left he really loved in the entire world to die.
Nikola waved his hand, using his magnetism to pull Helen's office door all the way open with a bang as he practically ran towards it. He had just made it to the threshold when the phone rang.
He skidded to a halt, fixing the phone with a glare. There went his dramatic exit. Sighing, he went back to the desk, wrenching the phone up to his ear.
"Call back later, I have to go find the woman I love."
The phone connection crackled with static, but no one was speaking, and Nikola was half a second away from slamming the phone down and retrying his exit.
"Nikola?" Helen's voice cut in and out, but it was definitely her, sounding amused and a little surprised.
Nikola wouldn't have given a damn if she'd greeted him with hysterical laughter. "Helen!" His vision wavered a little and he clutched the edge of the desk for support. "Helen, Helen, you're – you're alright." He forced his voice to steady and tried to dial back his desperation a notch, but he was pretty sure it wasn't working.
"I'm fine," Helen answered, downright laughing now. "I wasn't expecting you to answer. Are you in my office?"
"Yes," Nikola said, too relieved to dance around the question, drinking up the sound of Helen's voice like the very finest vintage that it was. "Your butler was invading my space."
"Ahhh," Helen said. "He stress cleans."
"Yes, that has become readily apparent. Are you alright?"
"Yes, Nikola." Helen still sounded like this was the most hilarious conversation she'd ever had, and Nikola belatedly realized 1) she had already told him she was fine, and 2) exactly how he had answered the phone.
"Uh," he said. "John and Adam went after you when your tracker went dead. Have you run into them?"
"We certainly have," Helen said grimly. "But that's a story for another time. I need you to arrange passage back to the Sanctuary for us, as we seem to have been stranded here."
An interesting story for another time, apparently. "I take it John isn't with you."
"He is not. Here's what I need you to do…"
Nikola's legs were on fire. He had been pacing the entryway for the last three hours. He hadn't slept in…he really had lost count of those hours, which indicated something about how tired he was.
Helen's plane should have gotten in two hours ago. Factoring in potential delays, getting through the airport, drive time…Any minute now, Nikola told himself, pacing even faster.
Bigfoot had now apparently decided the staircase needed vacuuming, and for all that he was such a fast cleaner, it was taking him a suspiciously long time to finish.
There was a rattling at the doorknob, and Nikola stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the door. The next few seconds seemed to slow down almost as if he had his inhuman speed back, as the door opened and Helen stepped through with the relieved air of someone who hasn't been home in far too long.
She looked tired and a bit battered, but the bone-deep weariness of her sickness was gone, and her eyes sparkled when she looked at him. Nikola realized his mouth was open and he hastily closed it, barely paying attention to Henry, Will, and Kate all filing in after Helen or Bigfoot putting aside his vacuum to descend the stairs and greet them.
After glancing back to make sure the children were all accounted for and nodding at Bigfoot, Helen made her way toward Nikola, smiling at him. "Well, how did you like your taste of Sanctuary leadership?" she asked him, her tone teasing.
Nikola had thought that talking with Helen on the phone had dulled his intense relief a little, that he would be perfectly composed now that he knew she was alright and was expecting her. He even had a few sarcastic quips prepared for the occasion.
He was completely wrong.
"Helen," he said, his voice unsteady, dragging out her name because he loved feeling it rolling past his lips.
"Nikola." Helen's smile stretched even wider. She stepped closer and put a hand gently on his shoulder. "Thank you for looking after the Sanctuary."
Nikola looked down at Helen's hand as she dropped it, swallowing. He should say something gracious at this point; "It was my pleasure" was a good standard, although if he put his mind to it he was sure he could come up with something equally good that included a pun.
"Helen," he choked, and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close against him, nestling his face in her neck and rocking them back and forth, pressing kisses lightly to her neck and moving little by little up the side of her head.
Absorbed as he was with breathing Helen in, he could still feel it when Helen folded her arms around his waist. She said something, her voice muffled by his collar. It was his name again, he thought, and she hugged him back tightly.
Nikola kissed his way up to Helen's forehead, stroking her hair, and then he pulled back slightly; Helen contrarily snuggled closer to him.
"Are you alright?" he asked again, softly. "They cured you in Hollow Earth, then?"
Helen sighed. "They did. And it only took surgery on an abnormal the size of a ship." She must have felt his confusion, because she added, "it's a long story."
"And did John and Adam screw things up too badly?"
"That…might be even longer."
"But you're alright." Nikola didn't ask, because he had asked so many times already, but he had to say it one more time, just to convince himself. He ran his fingers through Helen's hair again.
No matter how tired his legs were, he would have very much liked to stay like this forever, though he was running out of questions. "Was Hollow Earth cool?"
He could feel Helen laughing against him. "Yes, Nikola, it was very cool. There were dragons, zeppelins, everything you could wish for."
"That's so unfair."
"I'll make it up to you," she promised. "By the way, dare I ask about your rather, uh, abrupt greeting on the phone? I hope that's not how you plan on answering all of my calls."
"Well. Uh, I was…it was a very…"
"Plotting to swoop to my rescue, were you?" Helen sounded entirely amused by the idea.
It did seem a little ridiculous now, though Nikola still felt that his motives were about as noble as he ever managed. "I thought – I thought you…" Nikola trailed off. Speechless wasn't a word he frequently had to use, but words were eluding him just now. He settled for sighing Helen's name again, burying his face in her hair and kissing her once more.
"I know what you thought, Nikola," Helen said, pulling a little back from him, solemn now. "And I will say it was a closer call than I would have liked a few times. But we all made it through safely, there's no need to dwell on what might have happened."
Nikola knew that she was right, of course. But that didn't mean he didn't want to keep holding her in his arms for the next several years.
Helen took his face in her hands. "I'm glad to be home, Nikola," she said, still serious but with a small smile pulling at her mouth, and she kissed him lightly.
She was so close to him, and she was alive and safe and immortal again, and Nikola leaned forward to kiss her again, relishing every last second of her lips against his, and gave a tiny kiss to just her upper lip as he pulled away, cradling Helen's head in his hands and stroking her temples with his thumbs.
"Um, if you guys are done…" Will said, appearing at their side.
Nikola rolled his eyes, dropping his hands to Helen's shoulders. "Well, we are now."
Helen chuckled and turned slightly to Will, one of her hands coming up to hold Nikola's. "What is it, Will?"
"Were you wanting to check us all over, just to make sure that…zombie thing didn't have any side effects?"
"Ah, yes, of course. I'll do it in the infirmary."
Helen kept ahold of Nikola's hand as they started walking, and he wound his other arm around her shoulders.
"Zombie thing?" he echoed. "No, wait, let me guess…it's a long story."
"Absolutely correct. Oh, Nikola, there's something I have to tell you."
Nikola's breath caught as Helen stroked the back of his hand with her thumb. "Yes?"
She smiled sunnily at him. "Your vampire shield needs work."
A/N: My timeline on how long Tesla stays at the Sanctuary may be a bit shaky, but I can't remember them ever quite telling us concretely - in my head he lived there for a few months over the course of just before Animus through Breach.