Fic: Relics 1/4 (Sanctuary)
Mar. 29th, 2011 09:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grav_ityAN: Oh, Crossovers! They always seem like such a good idea.
Spoilers: This is set after season two of Warehouse 13 and sometime between "Trail of Blood" and "Breach" in Sanctuary. There aren't really any spoilers for Sanctuary, but there are some HUGE ones for Warehouse 13. That said, if you've never seen W13 and don't plan to, you should be able to read this (and then go watch the show! Because it's awesome!). Oh, I also blow the ending of "The Invisible Man", just for good measure. ;)
Disclaimer: I do not own or make money from Sanctuary or Warehouse 13. I love them anyway, though. ;)
Rating: Teen
Characters: Oh, gosh, EVERYONE? Except maybe John? Seriously, flashbacks really open up your casting pool. Helen Magnus and H.G. Wells are the big ones, though.
Summary: After nearly destroying the world in grief, H.G. Wells is taken to the Sanctuary for "a fate worse than Bronzing".
+++
Relics
Prologue
Magnus wasn’t in her office when Kate went looking for her. A quick scan of the security cameras revealed that she wasn’t in the lab, the SHU or any other public area. For a moment, Kate wondered if her boss had simply broken precedent and gone to bed for the evening. Kate wouldn’t have blamed her. Trying to keep Will and Henry out of trouble was exhausting enough before you added Nikola Tesla to the mix.
Then Kate remembered the parapet. For a moment, she hesitated. For all that Magnus trusted her, for all Kate knew she’d earned that trust, the roof was Will’s domain; the protégé. Kate didn’t envy him his job, or his career track, having spent enough time with Declan MacRae to understand what running a Sanctuary, not to mention prolonged exposure to a member of The Five, did to a normal person. She did acknowledge that he outranked her, though, and she wasn’t sure it was her place to go looking for Magnus up on the roof. It wasn’t like her news was particularly important. If Will wasn’t off on a mission with Henry, Kate would have just reported her news to him and turned in for the night.
Kate sat down on the sofa to wait, and pulled out the well read copy of “The Invisible Man” she’d bought at a used bookstore a few weeks before. Kate hated being caught unawares, and when it became apparent that running into certain historical or presumed-fictional character on a regular basis would be part of her job description, she’d set about doing her research.
The library had been sufficient for all the other members of The Five. The biographies of Jack the Ripper had been nearly pristine, as though no one ever actually read them or wanted to think about the theories. The copies of Sherlock Holmes had been mauled nearly to death, as though they’d been read as homework by someone who would rather have been wrestling a gundark. The Tesla biographies were heavily annotated, and sometimes quite sarcastically so. Kate had no problem leafing through them,
Magnus’s copy of “The Invisible Man”, however, was a first edition, and Kate didn’t really trust herself with anything over fifty. Her nervousness with the book, coupled with the fact that, since he was most likely dead, Nigel seemed the least probable to show up at random, had contributed to her getting to him last, but when she saw the title in the used bookstore, she’d decided to take it as a sign. The story was more than a little bit creepy, it turned out, and Kate found herself hoping that Nigel was, in fact, safely in the ground somewhere.
She was just about to call it a night when Magnus came in, wrapped in a shawl and deep in thought. Seeing her face, Kate was almost sorry she’d stuck around. It didn’t look like her boss needed to deal with anything else tonight, but Magnus was already looking at her, so it was too late.
“Just wanted to let you know,” Kate said apologetically. “There’s going to be a shipment of keiro beetles coming in tomorrow. My source says the buyer is someone we should probably pay attention to. I can take care of it, if you like, but I thought you should know.”
“Thank you,” Magnus said, looking less tired than she had when she’d arrived. It was like the day to day dealings of the Sanctuary had been enough to lift her out of her funk. Then her eyes fell on the book in Kate’s hands, and her face darkened again. “Homework?” she said, curiously.
“It seemed like a good idea,” Kate replied, shifting uncomfortably.
“Your timing is excellent,” Helen said. Her voice was slightly sharp, and there was a tightness around her eyes that only appeared when she was thinking of the past.
“Nigel Griffin is – ” Kate began, sitting up quickly.
“No, not Nigel,” Helen said, sadly. “And thank heavens. He is safely dead.”
“Then who?” Kate asked.
“The author,” Helen said, holding up a hand to stall Kate’s next question. “It’s a long story, and we don’t have time for it before their arrival.”
“Who’s they?” Kate said, feeling like she was back at school and had missed several lessons in a row.
“H.G. Wells was not the man history remembers,” Helen said, her voice full of memories. Some of them might even have been happy, once, but time had poisoned them. “There was violence and murder, and my agency was not consulted in the matter.”
“What happened?”
“The process is called Bronzing.” Helen’s expression was pained and repulsed. “The subject is turned into a sentient bronze statue. H.G. was, for some reason I do not know, unBronzed a short time ago, and for a while it appeared that rehabilitation might be achieved.”
“No dice, huh.” Kate didn’t say it as a question.
“No,” Helen said shortly. “And rather than submitting to Bronzing again, the Regents have honoured my original request to be Wells’s keeper for the foreseeable future.”
The intercom on Helen’s desk buzzed and the Big Guy’s voice was heard: “The Regents are here.”
“Come on, then,” Helen said. Kate swallowed a dozen questions and followed her down to the main foyer.
Three people stood waiting there with the Big Guy. A tall Indian man, who managed to look both serene and extremely pissed off at the same time, was talking to the Big Guy. Behind him, a stocky woman kept a close eye on the third member of the party. And the third figure, her long brown hair tied back gracelessly and her hands and feet cuffed, looked up at Helen with an unpleasant smile.
“Hello, Helen,” H.G. Wells said, her voice as cold as her expression.
“You know,” said Kate to no one in particular, “I’m not even surprised.”
+++
Chapter 1
1893
Caleb brought the card in on the tea tray, setting it down on the wooden desk out of reach of anything that looked particularly flammable or poisonous, and waited politely to see if Dr. Magnus would need anything else. She didn’t usually, but Caleb couldn’t help but glance at the note as he brought it upstairs, and even though he hadn’t read it in its entirety, he did notice who it was from. He was doing his very best not to project his feelings to her, having become rather proud of the measure of control he’d attained since moving into the Sanctuary all those months ago, but perhaps he leaked a bit around the edges, because Dr. Magnus straightened and came over for the tray without bothering to turn down the Bunsen burner.
“I’m terribly sorry,” Caleb said, restoring some sense of order to his mind.
“No harm done,” Dr. Magnus said, returning to the bench to adjust the flame. She was always understanding of his slips, which he appreciated. “What is it?”
“A telegram, doctor,” he said, and handed it over.
Dr. Magnus read quickly, telegrams were always brief anyway, and Caleb didn’t have to be empathic to realize the exact moment she’d understood the message. It was going to be as exciting as he’d thought.
“Please pass this along to Dr. Watson,” Magnus said. “And then send a message to Nigel Griffin, inviting him for dinner this evening.”
“I’ll tell the cook it will be five for dinner,” Caleb said.
“Thank you,” Magnus said, already turning back to her work. Caleb let his guard down just a little bit, and sensed waves of apprehension but also tremendous curiosity emanating from the doctor. Her face betrayed none of it, of course. If nothing else, dinner was going to be absolutely fascinating.
“And the wine?” he said as lightly as possible.
“Don’t bother,” Dr. Magnus said. “He’ll probably have raided the cellar before he rings the bell.”
Caleb didn’t allow himself to smile until after he’d quit the laboratory. Yes, dinner was definitely going to be interesting.
+++
“I’m almost positive you’re supposed to be in Chicago right now,” James said. He managed not to sigh when it became apparent that Nikola was going to pick up every single item on the mantelpiece and fiddle with it, but only just.
“If I stayed around much longer, I mightn’t have been able to control my gloating,” Nikola said. “I would hate to be unseemly.”
His grin was positively wicked, and James realized that whatever had brought him back to England would have be momentous in order to have pried him away from his triumph in America. Caleb, having poured the brandy into the decanter, hesitated over the cigar box. It was early, but it was also Nikola Tesla, and sometimes in the face of the man’s company, Watson let propriety slide a little bit for the sake of his own sanity.
“Out with it, then,” he said impatiently. James had any number of things to do this week, and had not counted on an interruption. He made eye contact with Caleb and shook his head slightly, which Caleb took as his cue to leave and head back to the kitchen.
“I can hardly get on with it without my guest,” Nikola said. “As she’s the reason I came back at all. You’ll just have to wait for dinner, like everyone else.”
James had not seen the young woman who had been Tesla’s traveling companion. Nikola had come straight to his study, but she had gone upstairs to change out of her traveling clothes. Apparently she, at least, had the proper sense of English decorum. Even without seeing her, however, James was able to deduce a few things about her. She wasn’t sleeping with Nikola, for a start. Nikola would be even more insufferable if she was.
“I love watching you try to figure everything out without being told,” Nikola said, returning James’s look. “Reminds me of the old days.”
“For heaven’s sake, don’t mention the old days at dinner,” James said. “It’s not the sort of discussion we should have in mixed company.”
“Oh, I think Helena might surprise you,” Nikola said with a grin. James realized with a sinking feeling that the vampire had probably already outed the lot of them.
“Helena?” James said.
“Miss Wells, if you’d rather,” Nikola said.
“It would be less confusing,” James pointed out.
“I’ve never had any problem telling them apart,” Nikola said, somewhat salaciously. James ignored him.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to bring members of the general public round for tea just because you happen to like them,” James said pointedly.
“My dear James, if Helen hasn’t offered her your job by dessert, I won’t darken your doorstep until the new millennium.”
James glared at him. In a room below them, a bell sounded, signaling that the table was laid.
“Shall we go down then?” James said, gesturing towards the door.
“I can’t wait,” Nikola replied, and led the way to the dining room.
+++
Present Day
“So I’m guessing there’s more to the story than, you know, the story,” Kate said, waving the copy of The Invisible Man she still held in her hands in a vague manner.
It had been a couple of hours since their new visitor had arrived, and so far there was no sign that Helen was going to get any less tense, much less go to bed. Kate had passed over any number of opportunities to set the book down because she had the feeling she’d be more comfortable with something to worry in her hands.
H.G. Wells had been confined to a bare cement cell in the SHU, which Kate thought was a bit extreme. A single glance at her boss revealed that Magnus felt the same way, but neither of them said anything as they watched Wells’s jailers check and re-check the security around her cell. When they finally deemed it secure, they retired to the guest rooms, guided by the Big Guy. Kate had followed Helen back to her office, because she had a lot of questions, and even though she was pretty sure Magnus was in a bad mood, she was equally sure that this was one of those times when her boss should not keep secrets.
“There always is,” Helen said. She poured a cut of tea and extended it to Kate, who took it and headed to the sofa. “Shall I start at the beginning?”
“I think that might make it worse,” Kate said. Stories involving The Five rarely turned out to be simple. “Why don’t you start with who everyone is.”
“Fair enough,” Helen said, settling on the sofa with her own teacup in both hands. “As you know, the Sanctuary was created to protect abnormals from humans and vice versa. What I didn’t realize was that when I started the network, there was already a much older organization in place. It doesn’t protect animals and people, but rather collects and stores artefacts, strange things that have unexplained powers.”
“I knew this was going to be good,” Kate said as Helen paused for a sip of tea. Helen raised an eyebrow, but kept talking.
“It’s called the Warehouse, and there have been 13 of them to date. In America, the Warehouse is under the purview of the Treasury Department,” she said. “When I met Helena, she had just been apprenticed to Warehouse 12, which functioned as an offshoot of the British Museum.”
“How old are we talking?” Kate asked.
“Warehouse 2 was hidden from the Romans when Caesar invaded Egypt,” Helen said. “Warehouse 1 was started by Alexander the Great.”
“Why are we talking about the Warehouse?” said a voice behind her. Kate jumped and nearly spilled her tea all over her lap, and turned to glare at the intruder.
Nikola smirked at her from the doorway. He had put off his suit jacket and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. The ever present wine glass was in his hand as he made his way across the room and made himself comfortable on the other couch. “Also, we’re out of wine.”
“I don’t particularly care about that at the moment, Nikola,” Helen said. “Besides, if you spent any time at all out of the library, you might have learned to take care of yourself by now.”
“I get busy,” Nikola said.
“You smell,” Kate said.
“You’re not answering my question,” Nikola said. “Why are we talking about the Warehouse?”
“Helena is here. In the SHU.” Helen said the words quickly, as though trying to get it over with as soon as possible.
“Helena is in the SHU?” Nikola repeated the words slowly, seemingly stunned. He shook his head as though to clear it. “Helena is alive?”
“They Bronzed her, Nikola.” Helen’s voice was suddenly gentle.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t want you in there with her,” Helen said.
“I need to see her.” Nikola started up from the couch, but Helen raised her hand and he stopped.
“Nikola, give her tonight,” she said in that same gentle tone. “Wait for the Regents to leave.”
Nikola slumped back on the sofa and took a long drink of his wine. Kate looked back and forth between her boss and the former vampire, putting pieces together as quickly as she could.
“So, you and H.G. Wells?” she said finally, once it looked like Nikola had more or less gotten a hold of himself.
“It was nothing like that,” Nikola said with a careless wave of his free hand. “It was entirely professional. We collaborated on a number of projects, both for Warehouse 12 and the Sanctuary. She was my friend.”
“She was mine too,” Helen said.
“What happened to her?” Kate said.
Again, Helen and Nikola exchanged a long look. It was Helen who spoke. “Her daughter died. Was murdered, actually. She was never the same after that.”
Kate took a sip of her tea to cover his discomfort.
“I tried to help her,” Helen said. “But the Warehouse wouldn’t let me.”
“But they’re letting you help now?” Nikola said.
“For whatever reason, they’re not Bronzing her again,” Helen said. “I offered years ago to contain her, and they are taking me up on it.”
Nikola drained his glass and stood up. Kate noticed that he rocked ever so slightly on his feet. Under different circumstances, she might have smiled at that. Nikola usually forgot about his newly reacquired ability to be affected by alcohol, and he was proving to be an amusing enough drunk, when he didn’t turn maudlin.
“Nikola?” Helen said, sounding worried but firm.
“I’m so depressed I’m going to bed,” he said, and shuffled out of the room without another word. That in and of itself was worrying, Kate thought.
His departure seemed to take the last bit of resolve out of Helen as well. Kate watched as her boss all but deflated into the sofa, her cup still cradled in front of her like tea really would solve all her problems. That too might have made Kate smile under different circumstances.
“The guys’ll be back tomorrow,” Kate said, hoping that the reminder would make Magnus feel better. “Strength in numbers and so on.”
“I’m not sure how much that will help,” Helen said. She had a faraway look in her eyes, and Kate couldn’t tell if she was thinking about Ashley or Oxford. Or both.
“So what do we do now?” Kate asked.
“I am going to bed,” Helen said with a shrug. She finished the last of her tea and set the cup down on the table in front of her. “I recommend you do the same. The next few days are likely to be interesting.”
“Good interesting or bad interesting?”
“Ask me in a week or so,” Helen said.
It wasn’t precisely a dismissal, but Kate chose to take it as such and stood up. She bid Magnus good night, and headed back to her room, The Invisible Man still in her hand. She was way too wired to sleep, but she got into bed anyway and opened the book to where she’d stopped reading a few short hours ago. It felt like an awful lot had happened in that short time.
The Invisible Man wasn’t her usual kind of reading material, and until tonight she was having trouble wresting her way through it. Now, she found herself turning pages like one compelled, all thoughts of sleep driven from her mind. As she read about the fictionalized Griffin’s descent into insanity, plans for a Reign of Terror and eventual demise at the hand of his own best friend, Kate couldn’t help but wonder whose fictionalized life she’d spent the whole evening holding in her hands.
+++
Chapter 2
In the mean time, here is the H.G. Wells W13 wiki entry, which will fill you in nicely.
Spoilers: This is set after season two of Warehouse 13 and sometime between "Trail of Blood" and "Breach" in Sanctuary. There aren't really any spoilers for Sanctuary, but there are some HUGE ones for Warehouse 13. That said, if you've never seen W13 and don't plan to, you should be able to read this (and then go watch the show! Because it's awesome!). Oh, I also blow the ending of "The Invisible Man", just for good measure. ;)
Disclaimer: I do not own or make money from Sanctuary or Warehouse 13. I love them anyway, though. ;)
Rating: Teen
Characters: Oh, gosh, EVERYONE? Except maybe John? Seriously, flashbacks really open up your casting pool. Helen Magnus and H.G. Wells are the big ones, though.
Summary: After nearly destroying the world in grief, H.G. Wells is taken to the Sanctuary for "a fate worse than Bronzing".
+++
Relics
Prologue
Magnus wasn’t in her office when Kate went looking for her. A quick scan of the security cameras revealed that she wasn’t in the lab, the SHU or any other public area. For a moment, Kate wondered if her boss had simply broken precedent and gone to bed for the evening. Kate wouldn’t have blamed her. Trying to keep Will and Henry out of trouble was exhausting enough before you added Nikola Tesla to the mix.
Then Kate remembered the parapet. For a moment, she hesitated. For all that Magnus trusted her, for all Kate knew she’d earned that trust, the roof was Will’s domain; the protégé. Kate didn’t envy him his job, or his career track, having spent enough time with Declan MacRae to understand what running a Sanctuary, not to mention prolonged exposure to a member of The Five, did to a normal person. She did acknowledge that he outranked her, though, and she wasn’t sure it was her place to go looking for Magnus up on the roof. It wasn’t like her news was particularly important. If Will wasn’t off on a mission with Henry, Kate would have just reported her news to him and turned in for the night.
Kate sat down on the sofa to wait, and pulled out the well read copy of “The Invisible Man” she’d bought at a used bookstore a few weeks before. Kate hated being caught unawares, and when it became apparent that running into certain historical or presumed-fictional character on a regular basis would be part of her job description, she’d set about doing her research.
The library had been sufficient for all the other members of The Five. The biographies of Jack the Ripper had been nearly pristine, as though no one ever actually read them or wanted to think about the theories. The copies of Sherlock Holmes had been mauled nearly to death, as though they’d been read as homework by someone who would rather have been wrestling a gundark. The Tesla biographies were heavily annotated, and sometimes quite sarcastically so. Kate had no problem leafing through them,
Magnus’s copy of “The Invisible Man”, however, was a first edition, and Kate didn’t really trust herself with anything over fifty. Her nervousness with the book, coupled with the fact that, since he was most likely dead, Nigel seemed the least probable to show up at random, had contributed to her getting to him last, but when she saw the title in the used bookstore, she’d decided to take it as a sign. The story was more than a little bit creepy, it turned out, and Kate found herself hoping that Nigel was, in fact, safely in the ground somewhere.
She was just about to call it a night when Magnus came in, wrapped in a shawl and deep in thought. Seeing her face, Kate was almost sorry she’d stuck around. It didn’t look like her boss needed to deal with anything else tonight, but Magnus was already looking at her, so it was too late.
“Just wanted to let you know,” Kate said apologetically. “There’s going to be a shipment of keiro beetles coming in tomorrow. My source says the buyer is someone we should probably pay attention to. I can take care of it, if you like, but I thought you should know.”
“Thank you,” Magnus said, looking less tired than she had when she’d arrived. It was like the day to day dealings of the Sanctuary had been enough to lift her out of her funk. Then her eyes fell on the book in Kate’s hands, and her face darkened again. “Homework?” she said, curiously.
“It seemed like a good idea,” Kate replied, shifting uncomfortably.
“Your timing is excellent,” Helen said. Her voice was slightly sharp, and there was a tightness around her eyes that only appeared when she was thinking of the past.
“Nigel Griffin is – ” Kate began, sitting up quickly.
“No, not Nigel,” Helen said, sadly. “And thank heavens. He is safely dead.”
“Then who?” Kate asked.
“The author,” Helen said, holding up a hand to stall Kate’s next question. “It’s a long story, and we don’t have time for it before their arrival.”
“Who’s they?” Kate said, feeling like she was back at school and had missed several lessons in a row.
“H.G. Wells was not the man history remembers,” Helen said, her voice full of memories. Some of them might even have been happy, once, but time had poisoned them. “There was violence and murder, and my agency was not consulted in the matter.”
“What happened?”
“The process is called Bronzing.” Helen’s expression was pained and repulsed. “The subject is turned into a sentient bronze statue. H.G. was, for some reason I do not know, unBronzed a short time ago, and for a while it appeared that rehabilitation might be achieved.”
“No dice, huh.” Kate didn’t say it as a question.
“No,” Helen said shortly. “And rather than submitting to Bronzing again, the Regents have honoured my original request to be Wells’s keeper for the foreseeable future.”
The intercom on Helen’s desk buzzed and the Big Guy’s voice was heard: “The Regents are here.”
“Come on, then,” Helen said. Kate swallowed a dozen questions and followed her down to the main foyer.
Three people stood waiting there with the Big Guy. A tall Indian man, who managed to look both serene and extremely pissed off at the same time, was talking to the Big Guy. Behind him, a stocky woman kept a close eye on the third member of the party. And the third figure, her long brown hair tied back gracelessly and her hands and feet cuffed, looked up at Helen with an unpleasant smile.
“Hello, Helen,” H.G. Wells said, her voice as cold as her expression.
“You know,” said Kate to no one in particular, “I’m not even surprised.”
Chapter 1
1893
Caleb brought the card in on the tea tray, setting it down on the wooden desk out of reach of anything that looked particularly flammable or poisonous, and waited politely to see if Dr. Magnus would need anything else. She didn’t usually, but Caleb couldn’t help but glance at the note as he brought it upstairs, and even though he hadn’t read it in its entirety, he did notice who it was from. He was doing his very best not to project his feelings to her, having become rather proud of the measure of control he’d attained since moving into the Sanctuary all those months ago, but perhaps he leaked a bit around the edges, because Dr. Magnus straightened and came over for the tray without bothering to turn down the Bunsen burner.
“I’m terribly sorry,” Caleb said, restoring some sense of order to his mind.
“No harm done,” Dr. Magnus said, returning to the bench to adjust the flame. She was always understanding of his slips, which he appreciated. “What is it?”
“A telegram, doctor,” he said, and handed it over.
Dr. Magnus read quickly, telegrams were always brief anyway, and Caleb didn’t have to be empathic to realize the exact moment she’d understood the message. It was going to be as exciting as he’d thought.
“Please pass this along to Dr. Watson,” Magnus said. “And then send a message to Nigel Griffin, inviting him for dinner this evening.”
“I’ll tell the cook it will be five for dinner,” Caleb said.
“Thank you,” Magnus said, already turning back to her work. Caleb let his guard down just a little bit, and sensed waves of apprehension but also tremendous curiosity emanating from the doctor. Her face betrayed none of it, of course. If nothing else, dinner was going to be absolutely fascinating.
“And the wine?” he said as lightly as possible.
“Don’t bother,” Dr. Magnus said. “He’ll probably have raided the cellar before he rings the bell.”
Caleb didn’t allow himself to smile until after he’d quit the laboratory. Yes, dinner was definitely going to be interesting.
+++
“I’m almost positive you’re supposed to be in Chicago right now,” James said. He managed not to sigh when it became apparent that Nikola was going to pick up every single item on the mantelpiece and fiddle with it, but only just.
“If I stayed around much longer, I mightn’t have been able to control my gloating,” Nikola said. “I would hate to be unseemly.”
His grin was positively wicked, and James realized that whatever had brought him back to England would have be momentous in order to have pried him away from his triumph in America. Caleb, having poured the brandy into the decanter, hesitated over the cigar box. It was early, but it was also Nikola Tesla, and sometimes in the face of the man’s company, Watson let propriety slide a little bit for the sake of his own sanity.
“Out with it, then,” he said impatiently. James had any number of things to do this week, and had not counted on an interruption. He made eye contact with Caleb and shook his head slightly, which Caleb took as his cue to leave and head back to the kitchen.
“I can hardly get on with it without my guest,” Nikola said. “As she’s the reason I came back at all. You’ll just have to wait for dinner, like everyone else.”
James had not seen the young woman who had been Tesla’s traveling companion. Nikola had come straight to his study, but she had gone upstairs to change out of her traveling clothes. Apparently she, at least, had the proper sense of English decorum. Even without seeing her, however, James was able to deduce a few things about her. She wasn’t sleeping with Nikola, for a start. Nikola would be even more insufferable if she was.
“I love watching you try to figure everything out without being told,” Nikola said, returning James’s look. “Reminds me of the old days.”
“For heaven’s sake, don’t mention the old days at dinner,” James said. “It’s not the sort of discussion we should have in mixed company.”
“Oh, I think Helena might surprise you,” Nikola said with a grin. James realized with a sinking feeling that the vampire had probably already outed the lot of them.
“Helena?” James said.
“Miss Wells, if you’d rather,” Nikola said.
“It would be less confusing,” James pointed out.
“I’ve never had any problem telling them apart,” Nikola said, somewhat salaciously. James ignored him.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to bring members of the general public round for tea just because you happen to like them,” James said pointedly.
“My dear James, if Helen hasn’t offered her your job by dessert, I won’t darken your doorstep until the new millennium.”
James glared at him. In a room below them, a bell sounded, signaling that the table was laid.
“Shall we go down then?” James said, gesturing towards the door.
“I can’t wait,” Nikola replied, and led the way to the dining room.
+++
Present Day
“So I’m guessing there’s more to the story than, you know, the story,” Kate said, waving the copy of The Invisible Man she still held in her hands in a vague manner.
It had been a couple of hours since their new visitor had arrived, and so far there was no sign that Helen was going to get any less tense, much less go to bed. Kate had passed over any number of opportunities to set the book down because she had the feeling she’d be more comfortable with something to worry in her hands.
H.G. Wells had been confined to a bare cement cell in the SHU, which Kate thought was a bit extreme. A single glance at her boss revealed that Magnus felt the same way, but neither of them said anything as they watched Wells’s jailers check and re-check the security around her cell. When they finally deemed it secure, they retired to the guest rooms, guided by the Big Guy. Kate had followed Helen back to her office, because she had a lot of questions, and even though she was pretty sure Magnus was in a bad mood, she was equally sure that this was one of those times when her boss should not keep secrets.
“There always is,” Helen said. She poured a cut of tea and extended it to Kate, who took it and headed to the sofa. “Shall I start at the beginning?”
“I think that might make it worse,” Kate said. Stories involving The Five rarely turned out to be simple. “Why don’t you start with who everyone is.”
“Fair enough,” Helen said, settling on the sofa with her own teacup in both hands. “As you know, the Sanctuary was created to protect abnormals from humans and vice versa. What I didn’t realize was that when I started the network, there was already a much older organization in place. It doesn’t protect animals and people, but rather collects and stores artefacts, strange things that have unexplained powers.”
“I knew this was going to be good,” Kate said as Helen paused for a sip of tea. Helen raised an eyebrow, but kept talking.
“It’s called the Warehouse, and there have been 13 of them to date. In America, the Warehouse is under the purview of the Treasury Department,” she said. “When I met Helena, she had just been apprenticed to Warehouse 12, which functioned as an offshoot of the British Museum.”
“How old are we talking?” Kate asked.
“Warehouse 2 was hidden from the Romans when Caesar invaded Egypt,” Helen said. “Warehouse 1 was started by Alexander the Great.”
“Why are we talking about the Warehouse?” said a voice behind her. Kate jumped and nearly spilled her tea all over her lap, and turned to glare at the intruder.
Nikola smirked at her from the doorway. He had put off his suit jacket and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. The ever present wine glass was in his hand as he made his way across the room and made himself comfortable on the other couch. “Also, we’re out of wine.”
“I don’t particularly care about that at the moment, Nikola,” Helen said. “Besides, if you spent any time at all out of the library, you might have learned to take care of yourself by now.”
“I get busy,” Nikola said.
“You smell,” Kate said.
“You’re not answering my question,” Nikola said. “Why are we talking about the Warehouse?”
“Helena is here. In the SHU.” Helen said the words quickly, as though trying to get it over with as soon as possible.
“Helena is in the SHU?” Nikola repeated the words slowly, seemingly stunned. He shook his head as though to clear it. “Helena is alive?”
“They Bronzed her, Nikola.” Helen’s voice was suddenly gentle.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t want you in there with her,” Helen said.
“I need to see her.” Nikola started up from the couch, but Helen raised her hand and he stopped.
“Nikola, give her tonight,” she said in that same gentle tone. “Wait for the Regents to leave.”
Nikola slumped back on the sofa and took a long drink of his wine. Kate looked back and forth between her boss and the former vampire, putting pieces together as quickly as she could.
“So, you and H.G. Wells?” she said finally, once it looked like Nikola had more or less gotten a hold of himself.
“It was nothing like that,” Nikola said with a careless wave of his free hand. “It was entirely professional. We collaborated on a number of projects, both for Warehouse 12 and the Sanctuary. She was my friend.”
“She was mine too,” Helen said.
“What happened to her?” Kate said.
Again, Helen and Nikola exchanged a long look. It was Helen who spoke. “Her daughter died. Was murdered, actually. She was never the same after that.”
Kate took a sip of her tea to cover his discomfort.
“I tried to help her,” Helen said. “But the Warehouse wouldn’t let me.”
“But they’re letting you help now?” Nikola said.
“For whatever reason, they’re not Bronzing her again,” Helen said. “I offered years ago to contain her, and they are taking me up on it.”
Nikola drained his glass and stood up. Kate noticed that he rocked ever so slightly on his feet. Under different circumstances, she might have smiled at that. Nikola usually forgot about his newly reacquired ability to be affected by alcohol, and he was proving to be an amusing enough drunk, when he didn’t turn maudlin.
“Nikola?” Helen said, sounding worried but firm.
“I’m so depressed I’m going to bed,” he said, and shuffled out of the room without another word. That in and of itself was worrying, Kate thought.
His departure seemed to take the last bit of resolve out of Helen as well. Kate watched as her boss all but deflated into the sofa, her cup still cradled in front of her like tea really would solve all her problems. That too might have made Kate smile under different circumstances.
“The guys’ll be back tomorrow,” Kate said, hoping that the reminder would make Magnus feel better. “Strength in numbers and so on.”
“I’m not sure how much that will help,” Helen said. She had a faraway look in her eyes, and Kate couldn’t tell if she was thinking about Ashley or Oxford. Or both.
“So what do we do now?” Kate asked.
“I am going to bed,” Helen said with a shrug. She finished the last of her tea and set the cup down on the table in front of her. “I recommend you do the same. The next few days are likely to be interesting.”
“Good interesting or bad interesting?”
“Ask me in a week or so,” Helen said.
It wasn’t precisely a dismissal, but Kate chose to take it as such and stood up. She bid Magnus good night, and headed back to her room, The Invisible Man still in her hand. She was way too wired to sleep, but she got into bed anyway and opened the book to where she’d stopped reading a few short hours ago. It felt like an awful lot had happened in that short time.
The Invisible Man wasn’t her usual kind of reading material, and until tonight she was having trouble wresting her way through it. Now, she found herself turning pages like one compelled, all thoughts of sleep driven from her mind. As she read about the fictionalized Griffin’s descent into insanity, plans for a Reign of Terror and eventual demise at the hand of his own best friend, Kate couldn’t help but wonder whose fictionalized life she’d spent the whole evening holding in her hands.
+++
Chapter 2
In the mean time, here is the H.G. Wells W13 wiki entry, which will fill you in nicely.
