FF: Twice in a Lifetime | Sanctuary | Helen/Charlotte | R 6/7
Charlotte is in the middle of helping Declan get the Sanctuary's newest guests settled - a task made even more difficult by the hurried nature of their evacuation - when the perimeter alarms start ringing like frantic church bells.
"What now?" Declan groans, already soaking wet from a fight to get a particularly feisty sentient squid into its new home.
"I'll go," Charlotte offers, sweat drenched and just as grimy as he is. She grabs a data tablet running through all the procedures Helen taught her when she first brought her to the Sanctuary. She sees three life signs on the monitor at the street level entrance on the east side. Disguised as a power junction box supposedly pulsing with 100,000 kilowatts of juice there's no way someone just accidentally happened upon the entrance. She grabs a stunner just in case, radios Declan, and runs for it.
She opens the door cautiously, leveling the stunner on one very scruffy HAP and a pissed off vampire carrying an unconscious Helen Magnus.
"You must Charlotte," Tesla smirks, somehow managing to leer and dismiss her at the same time.
"What happened," she demands, opening the door fully so Henry and Tesla can carry Helen through before securing the door again.
"Explosion," Henry answers, still in shock. "Big one."
"This lunatic," Tesla huffs, "was in the middle of it. We had to dig her out. We can chit chat later, where's your infirmary?"
"This way," Charlotte answers softly, fighting the panic rising inside her with every unconscious, struggling breath Helen takes.
The infirmary is state of the art and Declan puts it to good use once Henry relieves him from concierge duty with the guests. Tesla stays in the corner staring at Charlotte in a way that makes her question whether he wants to eat her or fuck her.
To her credit, Charlotte stares right back, not giving an inch.
After an hour Declan gives them the count: one collapsed lung, 6 broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, 3rd degree burns, and multiple lacerations and abrasions, but she is stable and will live, a feat Nicola attributes directly to the energy suit she was wearing in the blast. Something he takes full credit for. Henry just let's him, too tired, dirty, and sore to argue.
Declan and Henry leave to get the rest of the abnormals settled and for a while Tesla just sits quietly in his corner of the infirmary, staring impassively at Charlotte as she sits beside Helen, holding her hand.
"She kissed me you know," he finally says, head cocked to the side, gauging her reaction.
Charlotte doesn't even look over. "She loves me."
The simple words effectively shut Tesla up. He could make many claims to Helen's affections, but none so certain as to declare her love.
Charlotte squeezes Helen's hand. "You just always have to be the hero, don't you?"
Helen squeezes back weakly, stirring just enough to mumble, "Someone has to" before passing out again.
Charlotte smiles, kissing Helen's hand with relief. She turns to Tesla just in time to see him rubbing at his eyes. "Vampires cry?"
"We do not. I simply had some ash in my eye."
"Right."
With a burst of inhuman speed, he crosses the room, staring down at her with a menacing sneer. "She's the most amazing woman I've ever known," Tesla says softly. "And if you hurt her I will strip the skin from your body and wear it as a coat. Understood?"
Charlotte nods.
"Good." He straightens back up, adjusting his sooty tie into a modicum of respectability. "Now where the hell is the wine cellar?"
*
Unconscious for over a day, an echo, a familiar voice, pulls Helen awake, the white infirmary lights blinding her as she struggles to focus.
"Shh, go slow," Tesla admonishes, helping her sit and, his dark frame blocking out some of the light as he leans over her.
"Ashley...?"
Nikola raises an eyebrow. "Not last time I checked."
Helen blinks again, the world, and Nikola's bemused face coming back into normal view. "Nikola."
"In the flesh."
"Wha-what happened," she asks weakly, coughing.
He gives her a small sip of water, explaining, "You gave Old City one hell of a fireworks show."
"Oh, damn, that wasn't a dream."
"Nope, I'm afraid the whole place went boom, and rather nicely. Once the local yokels got the flames put out there was barely a brick left intact. When you want something blown up you don't fool around."
"Father always said I had a knack for chemistry."
He smirks. "Hmmm. I know I've always enjoyed our exchanges."
"Where are we," Helen asks, trying to sit up. Tesla glares then helps her adjust her pillows.
"Your super-secret, underground, Praxian based Sanctuary. Kudos on the design, by the way, its very aesthetic. How long have you been working on it?"
"About fifty years," Helen answers. "More if you count the design phase."
"It's a good thing Henry saw your embedded instructions in the Omega protocol, otherwise we would have been forced to take you to one of those primitive hospitals humans are so fond of. Oh, and one more thing," he nods across the room. For the first time Helen looks around, her heart soaring at the sight of Charlotte curled up asleep in a chair across the room, head pillowed on her arms. "She seems to think she calls the shots around here for some reason."
"She does," Helen answers with pride. "Charlotte's been running this place for months while I've been wrapping everything up."
"She says you love her," he says, his tone nothing short of accusatory.
Helen smiles. "Smart girl figured it out."
He purses his lips in displeasure. "I suppose, if you just have to be with a human, you could do worse."
"Thanks, Tesla," Charlotte mumbles from across the room, not opening her eyes.
"I meant it as a compliment." Helen smiles that goofy, love-struck smile she used to have only for Druitt, and Tesla knows he's sunk. "I'll just leave you two alone then. I haven't made a dent in your Napa Valley collection yet. I feel a lovely Pinot calling my name."
"Save me something will you," Helen calls after him with a smile as he breezes out the door. Her smile widens when Charlotte sits on the edge of the bed, giving her a thorough once over. "You look terrible."
"Well, I've spent the last day trying to get an unruly bunch of abnormals settled into their new quarters, not to mention tending to my unconscious girlfriend who nearly died in a massive explosion after single-handedly taking on the most dangerous abnormal on the surface of the earth. Oh, and all while a vampire alternatively flirted with me and threatened to kill me. If this is going to be a normal work week, we need to talk about my benefits package."
Helen tries not to laugh, her ribs protesting even the barest movement, but she can't help it. "This is far from a normal week... it's usually much worse."
"Oh, well that's something to look forward to then." Helen takes her hand, gently tugging and pulling her closer until Charlotte rests her forehead against Helen's and kisses her softly. "You scared me," Charlotte whispers.
"I'm afraid if you stick around that's likely to keep happening."
"Why wouldn't I be sticking around," the younger woman asks, pulling back from Helen enough to fix her with an inquiring stare.
"None of this gives you pause?"
"You mean my centenarian girlfriend who secretly runs an underground facility for abnormal creatures that may or may not be a danger to humans depending on the day?"
"Yes, that," Helen answers ruefully.
"Not for a moment." She kisses Helen again, teeth nipping gently at the older woman's bottom lip. "I worked with deadly viruses for years before you came along, Helen. The slightest accident and I could have not only killed myself but a sizable chunk of the human population. I infected myself with a dormant strain of the most deadly virus known to mankind and used nitroglycerin to transfer samples. It's not like I'm a shrinking violet. Besides," Charlotte says, brushing her hair behind her ear, "I'm in love with you. It would be highly counter-productive to leave now when you're about to admit you're in love with me too."
"You've got it all figured out then, haven't you," Helen smiles devilishly.
"You're not the only one who can plan ten steps ahead."
"I love you," Helen says softly. "That's the first time I've said those words to another human being and meant them in well over a century."
"Then this is one hell of a May-December romance," Charlotte quips, unable to keep from grinning broadly.
"It doesn't bother you, being with a much older woman?"
"When she looks like you? No, doesn't bother me a bit."
"Bruises and all," Helen asks playfully.
"Bruises and all," Charlotte affirms, kissing her again to prove the point.
*
Two weeks after the Sanctuary has burned to the ground Will returns from his morning jog to find a plain manila envelope waiting on Abby's doorstop, his name written across the front. He looks around out of habit, nudges it with his foot, then picks it up.
A cell phone drops into his hand. When he turns it on only one screen appears: a GPS map with a tracking beacon. His heart trip-hammers. Magnus. He wants it to be her, but even as his heart leaps, he refuses to let himself hope. Search teams were still picking through the wreckage and debris of the Sanctuary, but they hadn't found her body, or Henry and Tesla's, but with that kind of explosion he hadn't expected them too. This is the first time he's let himself even consider, however, that there might be something to hope for.
He showers quickly and heads out, following the tracker on his bike across into the outskirts of Old City, into the Warehouse district, and then farther still into the abandoned industrial area long contaminated and quarantined off. At one point it had been a massive compound for privatized military research and development, a small city backed up against a small mountain where they did underground testing. He remembers something about a toxic spill of some kind sometime in the seventies that had poisoned the ground and water sources nearby, turning the whole place practically radioactive and off limits. A longstanding fight between the city, state, and federal government over responsibility had kept the area unused and continuously toxic while lawyers got paid five-hundred dollars an hour to wait each other out.
Despite the hazard warnings he parks his bike and heads into the area on foot, ducking under rusted chain-link fences and around abandoned hazardous waste containers, following the beeping GPS. He finds himself in a dank back alley, hears the rush of sewers, and rolls his eyes as the beeping grows stronger right over a manhole.
Of course.
He grunts, lifting the steel cover up and sliding it away before carefully descending the ladder. The underground maintenance tunnel is just as dark, dirty, and smelly as he assumed it would be, but the GPS tracker beeps on. He swings his flashlight around, seeing but one way to go, and heads off down the tunnel, the signal beeping faster with each step until he sees what looks like a transponder mounted on the wall. Pocketing the tracker, he steps in front of the transponder, only mildly surprised to find it has a retinal display. It scans him thoroughly before a well hidden door slides open beside it.
A push of fresh air disperses toward him, momentarily dispelling the damp smell of the tunnel. Cautiously, Will walks through the door, hearing it shut behind him automatically as he winds through what appears to be a tunnel hewn out of sheer rock.
"No secrets. I broke our deal, didn't I?"
And then she's there in front of him, smiling, waiting, and the part of him that dared not hope, dared not to dream, realizes that he actually knew all along.
"Several times."
"Can you ever forgive me?"
He shakes his head, incredulous, almost laughing. Only Helen Magnus would be brazen enough to expect forgiveness after everything she'd put him through. "I wish it were that easy."
She smirks, just slightly. "What if I offered you the chance to explore a world that you've been trying to see since you were a child," she asks, echoing one of their initial conversations that seems eons ago. "Oh, right, you already have a job."
"Had a job," Will corrects. "I quit SCIU last week."
"Well then," Helen says, trying not to smile and failing, "you might want to see this." She walks away, around the corner and further into the tunnel where he can see light ahead. And as always, his curiosity wins out, as she knew it always would, and he follows.
What he sees when the tunnel opens up is nothing short of wondrous, and even that is too weak a word to properly convey his amazement. His jaw literally drops. "Magnus..."
"Do you like it?" she asks, barely able to contain the pleasure and pride in her voice.
He stares, trying to take it all in, trying to process what it all means. "...I get a raise, right?"
"Absolutely not," she smiles, turning to beam at him. He just smiles dazedly back at her. A waterfall ten stories high, probably more, a lake, three levels of what looked to be laboratories and living quarters, a Praxian designed transport system, all of it carved out of what seemed to be the side of the mountain going up several hundred feet. And at the apex, a brilliant, glowing crystal matrix that appeared to be drawing in actual sunlight and amplifying it throughout the entire facility to nurture the hundreds, thousands of plants and trees growing all around. "Shall we begin," Helen asks, as if the answer isn't perfectly obvious from the look on Will's face.
"I... I don't even know where to begin."
"I do." She slips her arm through his, tugging him down the brick walkway that bisects the massive lake. Underneath the lily pads and moss he can see fish swimming around and a familiar mermaid. It's only as he walks across, with Helen pointing things out here and there that he realizes how truly vast this structure is.
Henry and Tesla are arguing in the laboratory when Helen shows him in. Henry lights up, hurrying over to give Will a hug and sheepish smile. Tesla nods regally, his acknowledgement of Will's presence apparently enough of a "welcome back, hey glad you're not dead."
"Man, I am so sorry. I wanted to be able to tell you but Magnus made me swear not to until everything blew over."
"It's okay," Will answers, the remnants of his anger dissipating as the vastness of Magnus' plan starts to unfold around him. "I'm just glad you all made it out okay."
"Well, most of us," Henry sighs.
Other than Helen, Henry had taken the Big Guy's death hardest of all. It wasn't difficult to understand really after so many years of them tending to the Sanctuary together. But the gap Biggie's death left would not be filled any time soon.
Another door on the far side of the lab opens letting Charlotte in with a stack of mangled radio equipment. She dumps it on Henry's worktable. "The deloruspod you said was 'super friendly' didn't take too kindly to the feedback in my radio," she says sarcastically. "Please get it fixed before it's time for its evening feeding."
"Right, on it."
Charlotte turns to Helen and rolls her eyes, leaning in to kiss her girlfriend's cheek in greeting.
"Everything all right, love?"
"Other than a startled deloruspod that's eating breakfast off the floor, everything's fine." Charlotte sticks out her hand. "You must be Will. I've heard so much about you. I'm Charlotte Benoit."
"Uh, Will Zimmerman... I've heard absolutely nothing about- hey, wait, did you just call her 'love'?"
The look on his face is priceless. Out of everything he's seen in the last twenty minutes, it is Helen's girlfriend that throws him for the biggest loop.
"Come on Will," Helen laughs. "We'll go have some tea in my office and have a nice, long chat. Hold down the fort Charlotte, will you?"
Charlotte smiles, prodding Will on the way past, "Make sure she tells you about the Twenties - amazing stories."
Helen smiles and shoos her away, taking Will through a brief tour of the rest of the laboratories and up to her office. It has the same cozy, old world feel as the original with it's bookshelves and deep leather couches, but there's none of the familiar knick knacks or paintings. Like the woman at the center of the room, it is at once hauntingly familiar and yet completely new. She pours them both tea and then pours out her story.
Nepal, New York, Argentina, England, Mexico, Australia. All of it. This time she doesn't leave anything out, save a lover here or there. She tells him everything. Including the money. It takes hours just to get the basics out with a few side-stories that are too amusing to wait to tell. By the end he only has one question left:
"But, how will you keep the government from finding out about you, about this place, and coming after the abnormals again?"
"Funny you should ask," she smiles, eyes lighting up at her own ingenuity. "The thing about men and governments and power is that they always react in predictably the same way. They lash out before they understand, they use force when diplomacy would do. And the only thing they respond to is someone with more force, more power."
"And that's you? What, do you have national secrets that will take down every major government on Earth?"
"No, actually, something much worse. I own a significant portion of the world's debt."
Will blinks. "What...?"
"Oh, Will, I made so much money," she laughs, as if she is telling him about purchasing a new hat. "I played the stock market and rode it to the crash in '29, walked away from that with tens of millions. I bought coal, oil fields, diamond and platinum mines. I bought shares in GE and Ford and General Motors. I owned shares in all the major Hollywood studios, music and recording companies, and television stations. Every fad, every invention, every patent, every celebrity... I invested in them all - split up of course between several different shell companies - and I walked away at just the right time, every time. By the eighties I owned approximately 2% of the global wealth. By 1999, I owned 8%. And then I started buying up debt. Not much, but enough. Europe, Great Britain, America especially - they all run on deficit spending, and I own a rather large chunk of it. Enough that if they should ever, ever try and come after me or this Sanctuary again, I could take down the global economy in minutes by calling in the debts."
"Are you crazy... why would you do that?"
"I have no intention of actually carrying it through," she laughs, "but I need the leverage, I need something they will be afraid of and respond to, otherwise we might as well give up on the Sanctuary entirely. We've already seen what this government will do when it thinks it's being threatened by abnormals."
He let her words sink in, tried to imagine the global calamity that would occur if she did what she said. It would be chaos; overnight the world would be swept into a massive depression. The minimum wage would become the maximum wage.
That threat would be more than enough to keep the governments of the world off their backs for a nice long time.
"You really did plan for everything, didn't you?"
"Not everything," she smiles, immediately thinking of Charlotte and the unexpected joy the younger woman has brought into her life. "But all in all it worked out well enough I'd say."
"Very well indeed."
"Oh, and one more thing..." she reaches into a drawer in the side table and pulls out a baseball before tossing it to him. He stares down at the inscription.
"Magnus is this... are you kidding me? Babe Ruth!"
"So what do you say now Will, think you can forgive me?"
"I'd say we are definitely on the right track... what else do you have in that drawer?"
Epilogue