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“Not that I’m complaining about lying on the grass watching the stars with you,” Nikola began with his typically smooth tone, the one he knew Helen had come to associate with him shamelessly flirting with her, “but remind me again why we’re in Montana?”
“Because of the rumours of a warp-capable space ship,” she answered, settling her head back against his shoulder. “Or was it faster-than-light technology? I’ve forgotten the terminology you haven’t stopped using since we got here.”
“Why, Helen, are you admitting that your memory is failing?” he asked her with a tone of mock disbelief.
“Perish the thought,” she replied with a secretive smile he could half see from her position against his side. “You’re the mad genius, remember?”
“Denying it and calling mine into question in the same breath,” he chided her, making a soft tsking sound as he went. “Oh how the mighty have fallen. Tell me. What should I do with you?”
“Be my lover,” she answered without hesitation.
For a minute, he couldn’t hide the grin that slowly slid across his face. Over fifty years had passed since they had begun their relationship and he still had not gotten used to hearing her offer things like that so freely. In its obvious way, it was an admission that she liked where their relationship was and didn’t want to lose their intimacy. On a much more hidden level, she was saying that she also loved him.
Less obvious statements of love and affection were how they usually showed both. His flirting always meant that he loved her, but it was easy to brush off if she thought he’d overdone it. When she flirted back or made statements like that, he treasured each one because she meant them entirely.
Shifting carefully so as not to disturb her, Nikola gently pressed a kiss to the top of Helen’s head. “Always, my love,” he murmured in Serbian, grateful again that he had taught her his tongue. Over the years, it had become their language, something they used together, both as a secret way of communicating and as a connection between them. It was one thing just for the two of them and that made it all the more special.
Helen tilted her head to capture his lips with hers, giving him the familiar feeling of drowning in her. The way her pulse hummed with adrenaline in her veins, her breaths hitched as the hand not holding her body close migrated to tangle fingers in her hair, and a soft humming sound escaped her as he gently nipped at her lower lip. He could drown in her so easily and as she pulled back to catch her breath, he thought he would not mind that.
A green streak across the sky well beyond the true reach of Helen’s head distracted him entirely. It didn’t look like anything natural, certainly like nothing created on Earth, not even during the most recent war. His mind immediately jumped to Data and Guinan and for half a second, he wondered if this would be the day aliens were discovered.
The explosion that followed quickly convinced him otherwise and as he wrapped his arms around Helen to hold her close, he could see his fear echoed in the confusion in her eyes. Fear not for himself, but for her. Always for her.
“Bloody hell!” she cried as the force of the shockwave thrust her flush against Nikola’s body. Not exactly the way he preferred to have her on top of him.
By the time the second explosion hit, far too close for his comfort, he’d flipped them over so he could shield her body with his own. When they had a few seconds to spare, he thrust himself to his feet, leaning over to pull her up with him. They both knew that the bomb shelters would be their best bet for safety. This wasn’t their first go round with explosions falling from the sky.
However, he had a feeling that for Helen very little would ever compare to living in London during the Blitz.
She scrambled to her feet with his help and as her hand slipped into his, another explosion rocked them. Slightly farther this time, and certainly moving along a trajectory. But what and why? His pause for study gave her enough time to mutter something about Phoenix – it took him a second to realize she meant Cochrane’s Phoenix craft and not an Abnormal – before she took off running, slipping out of his grasp without warning.
“Dammit all to hell!” he yelled after her, realizing that she wasn’t heading for the shelter, but instead for the bunker where the ship rested. It didn’t take him much effort to catch up with her and she had to have known that would be the case. Rather than try to convince her otherwise, he took her hand as he had so many times in the last few years and ran with her. In some ways, this had become something of a sign of their connection, their strength together. They might not always have agreed and sometimes their banter did turn into fights, but when it came down to it they were absolutely at each other’s sides. She did support him and he would follow her to the ends of the Earth.
As her fingers threaded between his, he knew she was feeling that bond, too.
They were far enough away from everything and everyone that the run to the compound was fairly long. Long enough for a few other people to beat them to it. Catching Helen before she caught their attention, he shook his head and tucked them back in one of the maintenance shafts inside the bunker. She gave him a quizzical look.
“Not yet,” he whispered into her ear so only she could hear. “I would rather not find out which side of the timeline Data is on.”
He knew she would remember what he had told her about Data. Of all people in the entire world, Helen Magnus knew the importance of not messing with the timeline.
A small nod told him he was not mistaken. Releasing his grip on her arm, he stepped towards the shaft’s entryway. From here they were high enough to peer over the edge of the ladder without being seen by anyone below. The entire building echoed the words of the people below; even Helen with her very human senses should have been able to make out what Data and the other man were saying.
Nikola couldn’t help eating up the hints of the future that Data and his “captain” gave them. Apparently they were on the brink of an amazing discovery. Perhaps that meant the launch tomorrow would be a success. Chancing a glance at Helen, Nikola could see his excitement mirrored in her smile and the wide-eyed intrigue written all across her face. Whatever would happen in the next two days might change the course of their lives, as well as history itself.
The idea was almost more stimulating to Nikola than the woman beside him.
The presence of a friend was often a good thing. If not to Nikola, then to Helen. The presence of a friend during a tense situation was less so. He could feel Helen’s muscles contract beside him as they both spotted Lily below them. Reaching a hand over, Nikola wrapped his fingers around Helen’s arm to stop her from thinking about going down. He needn’t have bothered. Lily opened fire on Data, practically pinning them down and preventing them from going anywhere anyway. So instead, they both kept watching, remaining as still as possible.
After Nikola moved close enough to whisper in her ear, “Well, that was unexpected.”
“Radiation poisoning,” she whispered back, heatedly. “Bloody hell.”
She’d been through that once before and nearly died from it. Neither one of them really wanted to repeat that performance. Nikola’s hand slid down to hers and squeezed, a silent assurance that if everyone were poisoned, they could and would cure it. If nothing else, Helen would know well that he would never let her die, especially not of something so mundane. They had plenty of Praxian medicine at their disposal.
He shook his head, distracted by the appearance of someone else he recognized. A frown crossed his face. A doctor. The same one he had seen with Data before?
“She’s blonde. Why is she blonde?”
As if this were the only important thing about the woman. He could have chosen her dress or her lack of glasses or any number of other things. But no. It was her hair.
“Does it matter?” Helen inquired with a note of exasperation in her tone.
“When I first saw her, she was a redhead, not unlike you when you went through your ginger phase, but with more ginger and less fire engine.”
She shot him a scathing glare in return. He deserved it.
They watched as most of the group began walking down one of the maintenance shafts below. Beyond, Nikola’s senses picked up the words from the blonde doctor.
“Crusher to Enterprise. Two to beam directly to sickbay.”
He made note of the terminology used – Enterprise, beam, and sickbay – before he and Helen watched as the doctor and Lily disappeared in a shower of white. If that did what he thought it was supposed to do, then they just stumbled upon futuristic technology that really would change everything.
“Teleportation,” he breathed, his voice the picture of excitement.
“Dear god,” Helen murmured in return.
“Just think, Helen. We could be standing on the edge of a monumental discovery. This could change everything we know.”
“Yes, and your involvement is what has me worried,” she returned wryly as she started sliding back down the maintenance shaft they were in. Everyone else had long since disappeared.
“You wound me,” he retorted, following her as he always did. “All I’m saying is that this could usher in the new era for all mankind. We’re already on the verge of space travel. Adding teleporters could well make everyday life easier.” He paused thoughtfully. “And better.”
She stopped long enough to roll her eyes at him. He let his lips curl into that smirk he was known for as she turned back around, almost as though he just wanted to be difficult for her. Chances were, he did.
“Why do I sense this will turn into another Montana Phoenix?” she questioned with the tone of a long-suffering companion.
“Oh yes badger and berate me now—”
“Don’t mind if I do.”
“—but when this becomes a global, no, interstellar phenomenon, you know who to thank.”
“Indeed. Thank you, Dobby!”
His entire expression soured, nose wrinkling at that reminder and the implication that he was still her house elf. Even in a place that wasn’t hers! Huffing with mostly feigned irritation, he followed behind her. They bickered all the way out and into the night, and though several people shot them glares for it, Nikola didn’t stop until he received the cue from Helen that she’d had enough.
With that, he decided to find trouble elsewhere. Helen remained close to the Phoenix to be sure the launch had not been called off on account of unnamed explosions.
***
Eventually, with Nikola off tracking some of the crew he knew from Data’s time, Helen followed the ear-shattering jukebox noises to see what she could find. Her eye for recognition was not nearly as good as Nikola’s, she hadn’t met them after all, but the woman doing shots with Zefram Cochrane distracted her. She paused, eyebrows shooting upwards. The woman was still standing. Or, more accurately, sitting upright. Impressive all the same. Whoever it was didn’t have the strength or stamina for tequila. Not that Helen could blame her.
As Cochrane moved off to do god knew what, Helen slowly approached the brunette sitting at the bar. The noise from the juke was too loud to do much decent talking, but Helen decided to try all the same. She could sooth her ears later with “Rhapsody In Blue.”
“Not exactly the best drink to start with,” she commented as though the shots were her fault. Glad she almost always had a thermos – water this time rather than tea – she pulled that from her bag and passed it over. “Helen.”
“I’ve never met someone who named their water cans,” the woman replied, eyeing the thermos suspiciously.
Helen couldn’t help it; she laughed. “If I were to name it, I likely would have named it Nigel, after a friend who always got into trouble. My name is Helen. And you should drink some water to stave off the hangover you’re likely to have from those shots.”
“You know… I’ve decided on something very important.”
Helen’s eyebrows rose again. She had a feeling the woman was too far gone to get anything decent out of. Either way, this would prove entertaining and Nikola was bound to be jealous.
Or perhaps not. There was no good wine up here.
“I have decided… I don’t like tequila.”
“I don’t blame you,” Helen replied, working hard not to laugh again. “May I ask your name?”
The woman seemed to consider. “Deanna. Dee-an-na. Not Diana.”
“Deanna, of course. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
It was about that time that Cochrane turned back up with another shot. “Time for another round. If you want one, Magnus, you’ll have to get your own,” he informed them both, words slurred as always.
Helen pursed her lips and slid off her stool again. “I think that’s my cue.”
Deanna eyed the shot in front of her with the distaste of someone taking a hit for the team. Whatever the reason for her actions, Helen sympathized. The only person she’d ever known who could drink Cochrane under the metaphorical table was Nikola, due to his vampiric heritage and the fact that he couldn’t get drunk. Helen tended to avoid drinking with Cochrane and they all knew it.
Slipping outside, she pulled her jacket further around her shoulders and glanced around for Nikola. She found him fairly close by just as the sound of breaking glass could be heard inside. Helen traded looks of surprised interest with Nikola.
“Who pulled the plug on the music?” he wondered.
“No idea,” she replied, sliding her hand against the crook of his elbow and starting a slow stroll around the makeshift building. “Perhaps we’ll be able to hear something other than that noise now.”
“Mmmm you’re hot when you’re brilliant.”
She rolled her eyes, lips twisted wryly, and she nudged her hip against his to tell him what she thought of that. He smirked at her, but that was all and they both settled into their walk to try to hear what was going on inside. Whatever Helen couldn’t hear, she knew Nikola would, which was really why she’d suggested they take a walk. If it was important enough, he would relay the information to her.
“The people here are so fascinating,” he breathed, right before he tilted his head thoughtfully, as though listening to something she couldn’t hear. “Oh, that was perfect timing–”
Judging by his emphasis, she had a feeling he was making a terrible pun she wouldn’t understand. Unfortunately, the jukebox turned back on and both of them were forced to give up listening to save their hearing.
“They’re here for a reason,” Nikola insisted as he and Helen made their way to the shelter they’d been using for the last few weeks. “I’m almost certain it has to be the launch tomorrow.”
“I think you may be right.”
“Are you agreeing with me?” he asked in mock disbelief.
She ignored him. “If so, then tomorrow’s launch is even more important than we anticipated. The question is why.”
Nikola shrugged as they entered the shelter and settled in for the night. They rarely slept, even these days, but Helen had taken to resting alongside him in the darkest hours when his restless nature could manage being still for so long. Sometimes they would talk, but more often they would either have an intimate night or Nikola would simply hold her until she fell asleep and she found that she did not mind.
“Even you can’t deny, Helen,” he commented as she settled her head against his shoulder, “I was right about this changing everything.”
She snorted. “Don’t let it go to your head.”
“I never do,” he replied with amusement and she rolled her eyes yet again, smiling secretively against his skin.