FIC: "The Bandage and the Blade," Helen/Will/Nikola, Sanctuary, NC17
Title: The Bandage and the Blade
Author: geonncannon
Fandom: Sanctuary
Pairing: Helen Magnus/Nikola Tesla/Will Zimmerman
Word Count: 2,432
Category: AU, Angst, hurt/comfort, drama
Spoilers: End of Nights, Vigilante, One Night, Wingman, Carentan, Out of the Blue
Disclaimer: They don't belong to me.
Rating: NC17
Sequel to: The Whisper and the Shout, but it's not necessary to read one to read the other. By special request. :)
Warnings: A bit of violence in this one as the prompt suggests. Nothing too horrible. There's also a character death. It may be considered bashing, but honestly - honestly! - she was just the most likely candidate to get the characters where they needed to be. My feelings for her didn't enter into the decision (and really, my feelings for the character were actually why I debated not doing it at all. I didn't want to be accused of "haters gonna hate.") So, yeah, a recurring character that some people like (and some people don't) dies off-camera in this fic for purposes of the story. I'm not hating! Please don't think I'm hating. :(
Second Warning: There is talk of rape in this story, in the context of a consensual situation, but regardless, it's brought up. I neglected to warn and for anyone who read it, I apologize. :(
Third Warning: Elements of this story have been called uncomfortable and disturbing in regards to the second warning. Obviously this isn't my normal fic. So feel free to give this story a pass if you're in any way concerned about triggers or squicks.
Summary: A mission gone wrong leaves Will grief-stricken... and very angry.
He didn't speak to her when she came alone, his hands gripping the baseball from his desk like it was the only thing keeping him grounded. He sat alone in his office, watching as the square of sunlight through the window slowly trekked across his desk, and he tried to stop trembling whenever he thought of what had happened. The house sounded empty around him, and he refused to call it a Sanctuary now. There was nothing safe about this place; it was the most dangerous place he had ever been.
Helen came by at least once a day to try cajoling him to eat. He let go of the baseball with one hand and pushed the tray back. He glared at her until she left.
When the door banged against the wall at twilight, Will was halfway out of his seat before he saw who his guest was. "You... get the hell out of here."
"Poor pitiful William. The only one in the Sanctuary who has ever lost someone who meant something to him. The only one here who has experienced grief. You're pathetic."
Will slowly rose to his full height, glaring at the vampire standing on the other side of his desk. "You go to hell."
Nikola raised his voice to a shout. "You do not own the monopoly on grief. My god, the number of people Helen has lost in her life could fill a telephone book. So snap out of your little pathetic doldrums and move on."
Will hurled his baseball at Nikola. It was a futile gesture, given Nikola's reflexes, but it was just a distraction. Will stepped around the desk and launched himself at Nikola. They fell to the ground and Nikola's face transformed into a vampire's visage, his teeth flashing as he pushed Will off of him. Will punched Nikola and cut his knuckle on a fang. Nikola hissed and got to his feet with preternatural ease. They faced each other, Will breathing hard while Nikola stood stock still. Will was about to attack again when Helen shouted from the doorway.
"What the hell is going on here?"
"Trying to snap young William out of his grief, that's all."
Helen quietly closed the door. "It's only been a week." She crossed the room and stood between the men. She turned to face Will. "You should take some time away from the Sanctuary. Get some air, so to speak. Just--"
"Going on vacation won't change what he did."
Nikola had wiped the blood from Will's knuckle off his lip and was daintily touching his tongue to it. He snarled at Will. "I tried to save her, you ungrateful--"
Will moved forward and Helen stopped him with a hand on his chest. "Save her? Save her. You tried to make her a thing like you!"
"That's quite enough," Helen said sharply. She took Will's hand in hers to examine the wound. "You should have this looked at."
"I'll be fine." He pulled his hand away.
Helen's voice became angrier. "Do you think that will bring her back? Turning against the people you care for, turning your back on the past three years?"
"What are three years to you? Just start training another protégé. Nothing ventured, nothing gained." He bent down to pick up his baseball. When he straightened, Helen punched him in the face and he went back down.
"How dare you?" Her voice was soft, trembling with anger. "How dare you pretend you were just another person in my life?"
Will pushed himself up and into one of the chairs in front of the desk. Helen knelt in front of him and gently took his face in her hands. "Abby knew the risks of the mission and she decided to go anyway. She chose the risk, Will, like everyone else who walks through these doors. There was nothing we could have done. Nikola knew that he wouldn't be able to change her, but he also knew the attempt would put her out of her misery. She died at peace. Would you have preferred we carry her, injured and bleeding, back here to the Sanctuary? We'd have never made it out of that nest alive with her slowing our progress. You know that." She brushed his wounded cheek with her thumb. "You're not upset because you lost her. You're upset because you were leading her on."
Will finally met her gaze, unable to hide the truth.
"She loved you a lot more than you loved her. You've been beating yourself up because your final words--"
"Stop."
"Your final words to her were a lie. You told her you loved her." She looked at Will's hand. "That will need stitches."
Nikola sank to his knees beside Helen. "No it won't. Here." He lifted Will's hand. Two trails of blood ran down Will's index finger and Nikola licked it away, then closed his lips over the wounded knuckle. Helen and Will both watched as Nikola's eyes drifted shut, his tongue working against the cut. When he lifted his head, the skin shone with saliva and the wound was closed. Helen looked back at Will and leaned in to kiss his cheek, doing her part to heal the damage she had caused. She let her lips linger on Will's cheek for a moment before he turned his head and found her lips. It was a tentative kiss, a return to living, and Helen let Will decide when it turned into something more.
She dropped her hands to his thighs, squeezing through his denim as his tongue pushed into her mouth. Will turned his hand around in Nikola's loose grip, turning his palm against Nikola's cheek to draw him closer. When he broke the kiss with Helen, his mouth was immediately claimed by Nikola. He was breathing hard as he kissed Nikola, the first man he'd ever been with, the only man whose presence could make him hard. Helen kept her hands on Will's thighs as she watched them kiss, and then she moved one higher to touch the bulge growing in his crotch.
Helen squeezed it gently, coaxing it as she leaned in and kissed Will's cheek. Nikola turned his head and kissed Helen. Will was their buffer; these were the only times he could get away with such a brazen move without drawing her ire. His hand joined Helen's in Will's crotch, sliding under her fingers to tug down the zipper. Will had his hand in Helen's hair, his head bowed and eyes closed.
"What are we doing?"
"Moving on," Helen whispered. She kissed his temple and reached down. Nikola had freed Will's cock from his briefs, and Helen touched the tip as Nikola stroked the length of the shaft. Their touch was soft, expert, and Will absently wondered how many men they had been with like this. How many people in his history books had leaned back while Helen Magnus and Nikola Tesla gave them hand jobs?
He sat back in his chair, eyes closed. Helen's touch was soft, but Nikola was firm even now. Helen unbuttoned Will's jeans, and he lifted his hips so they could pull them down. Nikola pulled Will's briefs down as well, and Helen cupped his balls while one of them placed a gentle kiss on the rounded tip. He grunted low in his throat, his hands still roaming their bodies.
He'd tried with Abby, he really had. But nothing ever seemed right with her. He had completely forgotten their time together at Quantico. In Carentan, she had been the easiest part of his life to give up. He finally accepted the truth when he discovered Henry planned on proposing to Erika. Will couldn't see himself doing the same with Abby, and that was the moment he knew it was over. He just hadn't manned up and ended things. He could have saved Abby. He could have cut all ties with her and she wouldn't have been around to go on the mission with them.
"Focus, William." Nikola's voice was rough with desire, and Will opened his eyes to look down at them. Helen had her lips around him, eyes closed as if she was savoring a delicacy. She swept her tongue over him and then took him deeper, while Nikola continued to stroke his shaft. He took off his T-shirt, and Nikola immediately shifted his attention to kiss his chest. He grunted as Nikola teased his nipples with flat, human teeth. He moved his hand to Will's stomach, stroking there to let Helen take control of his cock.
They kissed his body, fingers touching where their tongues couldn't, and Will touched them in return. He loosened the buttons of Nikola's shirt, brushing his chest when Nikola shrugged out of it. Helen couldn't take off her top without abandoning her task, so instead she reached back to unzip her skirt. She pushed it down her hips, lifting one knee and then the other so she could kneel on the soft material.
Nikola rose up until his face was inches from Will's. Will finally opened his eyes and, after examining Nikola's face for a moment, kissed him. Nikola parted Will's lips with his tongue, rising so that he was partially in the chair with Will, a long stretch of warmth along Will's side. Helen reached out and undid Nikola's trousers, pushing them down just enough that his cock fell out against Will's thigh.
Helen moved between Will's legs, taking Nikola in her hand, and alternated between them. She flicked her tongue against the head of Nikola's erection before she took it into her mouth, then stroked it while she went back to Will's. Will turned his hips toward Nikola, and Helen pressed their erections together. She curled her tongue around them, wetting the warm flesh as she stroked them both.
Will turned away from the kiss with Nikola and looked down at Helen. She met his gaze and intuited what he wanted, what he needed. She gave both men a final, lingering kiss before she moved away. She sat on the floor and peeled off her top, letting it fall and leaving herself in just a peach-colored slip. Will slid from the chair and covered her body with his. He pushed up her slip as he kissed her, Helen moaning at the near primal energy behind the kiss. He settled between her legs, his cock caught on the silk of her underwear. Helen reached down and gently freed him, squeezing him as their tongues parried and thrust against each other.
Nikola stood and shed his remaining clothes, kneeling beside them. He bent down and kissed his way down Will's back, rubbing his ass before rising to kneel behind him. Will pressed his forehead against Helen's, his mouth parted in a gasp as he braced himself. Helen kept her eyes open, locked on Will's, and she reached between them. She took his cock in her hand and pressed it gently against her labia.
"Wait," she whispered. She pushed down the straps of her slip, and Will pushed it down until her breasts were exposed. He trembled at the strain of not thrusting into her immediately, grunted as Nikola pressed against his anus, and he put his hands on Helen's hips so the force of Nikola's penetration wouldn't push her away.
Nikola pushed inside, and Will's body was rocked forward. Helen cried out as she was filled, her voice matching Will's. He slid one hand from her hip to her breast, holding it as Nikola retreated and then pushed back in. Will let Nikola and Helen choose the rhythm, their bodies straining and relaxing against his. Helen tightened around him, and Nikola massaged Will's hips with long, slender fingers before one hand slid down to split around Will's cock.
Will came first; he was always the first with these two experts. They knew things about orgasm control and teasing that he couldn't begin to guess. He pulled out and let Nikola stroke him until he came on Helen's stomach and hip. Helen pulled Will back down, letting him use her body as a pillow. She stroked his hair, his head resting on her breasts, and moved with him as Nikola continued to thrust.
Will knew they were looking at each other, Nikola's eyes dark with passion while Helen looked utterly calm and collected. He heard a grunt, a growl, and then Nikola slammed into him so hard that Will had to cling to Helen to stay in place. Nikola was fully inside of Will when he came, throbbing as he ejaculated. Will's eyes were closed, his lips parted in a shock of pain and pleasure, and his trembling hands cupped Helen's breasts again.
Nikola pulled back, and Will rolled to the side. He wasn't sure he would be able to stand any time soon, but Helen didn't seem to be in a hurry to make him leave. She rolled onto her side and stroked his chest as Nikola stretched out on Will's other side. They lay together, their hips touching, Will and Nikola's cocks lying partially erect against their thighs. Will's glistened with Helen's juices, while Nikola's still had a ribbon of pristine white come streaking across the head. Helen reached out and circled them both with her thumb, then brought it to her mouth and sucked the tip.
"You do this every time you lose someone?"
"Yes." Helen lay on her back and looked at the ceiling. "After Ashley, I made John and Nikola rape me. I told them to ignore my protests as they tore my clothing off and took me on the desk in my office." Will remembered seeing the mess, and he'd assumed it had been caused by a sudden fit of frustration. He shuddered at the mental image. "After that, I felt... alive again. It's not something I'd ask for in normal situations but right then... in that moment... it was what I needed."
"Anything for a friend," Nikola said softly. "So when it happens again..."
"And it will happen again," Helen admitted.
Nikola took Will's hand in an uncharacteristic show of solidarity. He brought it to his mouth and kissed the knuckles. "When it happens again, we'll find a way to move on."
Helen took Will's other hand. "It's how we survive."
Will nodded and closed his eyes, focusing on the pressure of their bodies against his side and the smell of sweat and sex mingling in the air over him. After a long moment of silence, he drifted off to his first dreamless sleep in days.
Author: geonncannon
Fandom: Sanctuary
Pairing: Helen Magnus/Nikola Tesla/Will Zimmerman
Word Count: 2,432
Category: AU, Angst, hurt/comfort, drama
Spoilers: End of Nights, Vigilante, One Night, Wingman, Carentan, Out of the Blue
Disclaimer: They don't belong to me.
Rating: NC17
Sequel to: The Whisper and the Shout, but it's not necessary to read one to read the other. By special request. :)
Warnings: A bit of violence in this one as the prompt suggests. Nothing too horrible. There's also a character death. It may be considered bashing, but honestly - honestly! - she was just the most likely candidate to get the characters where they needed to be. My feelings for her didn't enter into the decision (and really, my feelings for the character were actually why I debated not doing it at all. I didn't want to be accused of "haters gonna hate.") So, yeah, a recurring character that some people like (and some people don't) dies off-camera in this fic for purposes of the story. I'm not hating! Please don't think I'm hating. :(
Second Warning: There is talk of rape in this story, in the context of a consensual situation, but regardless, it's brought up. I neglected to warn and for anyone who read it, I apologize. :(
Third Warning: Elements of this story have been called uncomfortable and disturbing in regards to the second warning. Obviously this isn't my normal fic. So feel free to give this story a pass if you're in any way concerned about triggers or squicks.
Summary: A mission gone wrong leaves Will grief-stricken... and very angry.
He didn't speak to her when she came alone, his hands gripping the baseball from his desk like it was the only thing keeping him grounded. He sat alone in his office, watching as the square of sunlight through the window slowly trekked across his desk, and he tried to stop trembling whenever he thought of what had happened. The house sounded empty around him, and he refused to call it a Sanctuary now. There was nothing safe about this place; it was the most dangerous place he had ever been.
Helen came by at least once a day to try cajoling him to eat. He let go of the baseball with one hand and pushed the tray back. He glared at her until she left.
When the door banged against the wall at twilight, Will was halfway out of his seat before he saw who his guest was. "You... get the hell out of here."
"Poor pitiful William. The only one in the Sanctuary who has ever lost someone who meant something to him. The only one here who has experienced grief. You're pathetic."
Will slowly rose to his full height, glaring at the vampire standing on the other side of his desk. "You go to hell."
Nikola raised his voice to a shout. "You do not own the monopoly on grief. My god, the number of people Helen has lost in her life could fill a telephone book. So snap out of your little pathetic doldrums and move on."
Will hurled his baseball at Nikola. It was a futile gesture, given Nikola's reflexes, but it was just a distraction. Will stepped around the desk and launched himself at Nikola. They fell to the ground and Nikola's face transformed into a vampire's visage, his teeth flashing as he pushed Will off of him. Will punched Nikola and cut his knuckle on a fang. Nikola hissed and got to his feet with preternatural ease. They faced each other, Will breathing hard while Nikola stood stock still. Will was about to attack again when Helen shouted from the doorway.
"What the hell is going on here?"
"Trying to snap young William out of his grief, that's all."
Helen quietly closed the door. "It's only been a week." She crossed the room and stood between the men. She turned to face Will. "You should take some time away from the Sanctuary. Get some air, so to speak. Just--"
"Going on vacation won't change what he did."
Nikola had wiped the blood from Will's knuckle off his lip and was daintily touching his tongue to it. He snarled at Will. "I tried to save her, you ungrateful--"
Will moved forward and Helen stopped him with a hand on his chest. "Save her? Save her. You tried to make her a thing like you!"
"That's quite enough," Helen said sharply. She took Will's hand in hers to examine the wound. "You should have this looked at."
"I'll be fine." He pulled his hand away.
Helen's voice became angrier. "Do you think that will bring her back? Turning against the people you care for, turning your back on the past three years?"
"What are three years to you? Just start training another protégé. Nothing ventured, nothing gained." He bent down to pick up his baseball. When he straightened, Helen punched him in the face and he went back down.
"How dare you?" Her voice was soft, trembling with anger. "How dare you pretend you were just another person in my life?"
Will pushed himself up and into one of the chairs in front of the desk. Helen knelt in front of him and gently took his face in her hands. "Abby knew the risks of the mission and she decided to go anyway. She chose the risk, Will, like everyone else who walks through these doors. There was nothing we could have done. Nikola knew that he wouldn't be able to change her, but he also knew the attempt would put her out of her misery. She died at peace. Would you have preferred we carry her, injured and bleeding, back here to the Sanctuary? We'd have never made it out of that nest alive with her slowing our progress. You know that." She brushed his wounded cheek with her thumb. "You're not upset because you lost her. You're upset because you were leading her on."
Will finally met her gaze, unable to hide the truth.
"She loved you a lot more than you loved her. You've been beating yourself up because your final words--"
"Stop."
"Your final words to her were a lie. You told her you loved her." She looked at Will's hand. "That will need stitches."
Nikola sank to his knees beside Helen. "No it won't. Here." He lifted Will's hand. Two trails of blood ran down Will's index finger and Nikola licked it away, then closed his lips over the wounded knuckle. Helen and Will both watched as Nikola's eyes drifted shut, his tongue working against the cut. When he lifted his head, the skin shone with saliva and the wound was closed. Helen looked back at Will and leaned in to kiss his cheek, doing her part to heal the damage she had caused. She let her lips linger on Will's cheek for a moment before he turned his head and found her lips. It was a tentative kiss, a return to living, and Helen let Will decide when it turned into something more.
She dropped her hands to his thighs, squeezing through his denim as his tongue pushed into her mouth. Will turned his hand around in Nikola's loose grip, turning his palm against Nikola's cheek to draw him closer. When he broke the kiss with Helen, his mouth was immediately claimed by Nikola. He was breathing hard as he kissed Nikola, the first man he'd ever been with, the only man whose presence could make him hard. Helen kept her hands on Will's thighs as she watched them kiss, and then she moved one higher to touch the bulge growing in his crotch.
Helen squeezed it gently, coaxing it as she leaned in and kissed Will's cheek. Nikola turned his head and kissed Helen. Will was their buffer; these were the only times he could get away with such a brazen move without drawing her ire. His hand joined Helen's in Will's crotch, sliding under her fingers to tug down the zipper. Will had his hand in Helen's hair, his head bowed and eyes closed.
"What are we doing?"
"Moving on," Helen whispered. She kissed his temple and reached down. Nikola had freed Will's cock from his briefs, and Helen touched the tip as Nikola stroked the length of the shaft. Their touch was soft, expert, and Will absently wondered how many men they had been with like this. How many people in his history books had leaned back while Helen Magnus and Nikola Tesla gave them hand jobs?
He sat back in his chair, eyes closed. Helen's touch was soft, but Nikola was firm even now. Helen unbuttoned Will's jeans, and he lifted his hips so they could pull them down. Nikola pulled Will's briefs down as well, and Helen cupped his balls while one of them placed a gentle kiss on the rounded tip. He grunted low in his throat, his hands still roaming their bodies.
He'd tried with Abby, he really had. But nothing ever seemed right with her. He had completely forgotten their time together at Quantico. In Carentan, she had been the easiest part of his life to give up. He finally accepted the truth when he discovered Henry planned on proposing to Erika. Will couldn't see himself doing the same with Abby, and that was the moment he knew it was over. He just hadn't manned up and ended things. He could have saved Abby. He could have cut all ties with her and she wouldn't have been around to go on the mission with them.
"Focus, William." Nikola's voice was rough with desire, and Will opened his eyes to look down at them. Helen had her lips around him, eyes closed as if she was savoring a delicacy. She swept her tongue over him and then took him deeper, while Nikola continued to stroke his shaft. He took off his T-shirt, and Nikola immediately shifted his attention to kiss his chest. He grunted as Nikola teased his nipples with flat, human teeth. He moved his hand to Will's stomach, stroking there to let Helen take control of his cock.
They kissed his body, fingers touching where their tongues couldn't, and Will touched them in return. He loosened the buttons of Nikola's shirt, brushing his chest when Nikola shrugged out of it. Helen couldn't take off her top without abandoning her task, so instead she reached back to unzip her skirt. She pushed it down her hips, lifting one knee and then the other so she could kneel on the soft material.
Nikola rose up until his face was inches from Will's. Will finally opened his eyes and, after examining Nikola's face for a moment, kissed him. Nikola parted Will's lips with his tongue, rising so that he was partially in the chair with Will, a long stretch of warmth along Will's side. Helen reached out and undid Nikola's trousers, pushing them down just enough that his cock fell out against Will's thigh.
Helen moved between Will's legs, taking Nikola in her hand, and alternated between them. She flicked her tongue against the head of Nikola's erection before she took it into her mouth, then stroked it while she went back to Will's. Will turned his hips toward Nikola, and Helen pressed their erections together. She curled her tongue around them, wetting the warm flesh as she stroked them both.
Will turned away from the kiss with Nikola and looked down at Helen. She met his gaze and intuited what he wanted, what he needed. She gave both men a final, lingering kiss before she moved away. She sat on the floor and peeled off her top, letting it fall and leaving herself in just a peach-colored slip. Will slid from the chair and covered her body with his. He pushed up her slip as he kissed her, Helen moaning at the near primal energy behind the kiss. He settled between her legs, his cock caught on the silk of her underwear. Helen reached down and gently freed him, squeezing him as their tongues parried and thrust against each other.
Nikola stood and shed his remaining clothes, kneeling beside them. He bent down and kissed his way down Will's back, rubbing his ass before rising to kneel behind him. Will pressed his forehead against Helen's, his mouth parted in a gasp as he braced himself. Helen kept her eyes open, locked on Will's, and she reached between them. She took his cock in her hand and pressed it gently against her labia.
"Wait," she whispered. She pushed down the straps of her slip, and Will pushed it down until her breasts were exposed. He trembled at the strain of not thrusting into her immediately, grunted as Nikola pressed against his anus, and he put his hands on Helen's hips so the force of Nikola's penetration wouldn't push her away.
Nikola pushed inside, and Will's body was rocked forward. Helen cried out as she was filled, her voice matching Will's. He slid one hand from her hip to her breast, holding it as Nikola retreated and then pushed back in. Will let Nikola and Helen choose the rhythm, their bodies straining and relaxing against his. Helen tightened around him, and Nikola massaged Will's hips with long, slender fingers before one hand slid down to split around Will's cock.
Will came first; he was always the first with these two experts. They knew things about orgasm control and teasing that he couldn't begin to guess. He pulled out and let Nikola stroke him until he came on Helen's stomach and hip. Helen pulled Will back down, letting him use her body as a pillow. She stroked his hair, his head resting on her breasts, and moved with him as Nikola continued to thrust.
Will knew they were looking at each other, Nikola's eyes dark with passion while Helen looked utterly calm and collected. He heard a grunt, a growl, and then Nikola slammed into him so hard that Will had to cling to Helen to stay in place. Nikola was fully inside of Will when he came, throbbing as he ejaculated. Will's eyes were closed, his lips parted in a shock of pain and pleasure, and his trembling hands cupped Helen's breasts again.
Nikola pulled back, and Will rolled to the side. He wasn't sure he would be able to stand any time soon, but Helen didn't seem to be in a hurry to make him leave. She rolled onto her side and stroked his chest as Nikola stretched out on Will's other side. They lay together, their hips touching, Will and Nikola's cocks lying partially erect against their thighs. Will's glistened with Helen's juices, while Nikola's still had a ribbon of pristine white come streaking across the head. Helen reached out and circled them both with her thumb, then brought it to her mouth and sucked the tip.
"You do this every time you lose someone?"
"Yes." Helen lay on her back and looked at the ceiling. "After Ashley, I made John and Nikola rape me. I told them to ignore my protests as they tore my clothing off and took me on the desk in my office." Will remembered seeing the mess, and he'd assumed it had been caused by a sudden fit of frustration. He shuddered at the mental image. "After that, I felt... alive again. It's not something I'd ask for in normal situations but right then... in that moment... it was what I needed."
"Anything for a friend," Nikola said softly. "So when it happens again..."
"And it will happen again," Helen admitted.
Nikola took Will's hand in an uncharacteristic show of solidarity. He brought it to his mouth and kissed the knuckles. "When it happens again, we'll find a way to move on."
Helen took Will's other hand. "It's how we survive."
Will nodded and closed his eyes, focusing on the pressure of their bodies against his side and the smell of sweat and sex mingling in the air over him. After a long moment of silence, he drifted off to his first dreamless sleep in days.