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Sanctuary Fic: 'Time Streams'
Disclaimer: Not owned by me.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Helen and Nikola...together.
Spoilers: Finale Sanctuary for None Part 2 big time
When she arrives on his doorstep in 1901 there is something off about her. Nikola can’t place what it is. It’s been years, decades even, since they last saw each other and he suspects she’s changed. James wrote to him after the whole Adam Worth affair, though uncharacteristically he didn’t say much of anything and instead explained mostly about John. Nikola knows that would change a person, but the Helen Magnus on his doorstep is unlike anything he’s ever known.
Nikola can read people; perhaps not as well as James, but it’s served him well enough in his life. As he works alongside Helen, something he has secretly longer for since their Oxford days, he tries to puzzle her out. His theories are far reaching, even for him, and Helen gives away few clues. She is more determined, more confident, and yet more guarded than she should be.
He begins to notice little tells, but they don’t add up and he can’t make sense of them. He and James aren’t on speaking terms; the letter about Worth and Druitt had been a politeness and nothing more, and so he doesn’t write to London and ask what the hell happened to Helen Magnus in the last decade. Instead, he watches and waits.
But it is Helen that catches him off guard. He’s loved her since Oxford and never once has he thought she returned the feeling. He is positive she didn’t, until now. 1901 Helen Magnus, however, feels a bit differently and there is no hesitation when she comes to him seeking more than friendship. It’s been thought out on her part and long longed for on his, but they fit well together.
And for a while, Nikola stops wondering and enjoys the moment. He is a scientist first, however, and the questions inevitably return. He realises after a while that part of what he doesn’t recognise in her is in her eyes. She has secrets – they all do – but hers run deeper even than his and have a larger story to tell. Not that she’s going to tell the story, of that he is certain. Whatever has happened to her; whatever haunts her nightmares and drives her on by day and night alike; whatever problem she is trying to solve by being in New York in the first place, she isn’t going to share it with him.
In 1904 she leaves; on to the next step in a plan that Nikola still hasn’t parsed. She kisses him goodbye like she might never see him again and the look in her eyes mirrors the weight of the world. When the ship has sailed and he is still standing there watching the ocean the thought that maybe that wasn’t the goodbye kiss he thought it was enters his mind. Helen Magnus is a puzzle tied up in a conundrum and it bugs him. He’s never not known the answer before and it haunts him for the next century. She leaves clues here and there, but then never quite add up to an answer and he becomes just that bit more intrigued every time he fails.
A century later when it all comes to a head he still has no idea, but one thing has changed: he trusts that she knows what she’s doing.
So he kisses her with everything he has and leaves her to get on with it.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Helen and Nikola...together.
Spoilers: Finale Sanctuary for None Part 2 big time
When she arrives on his doorstep in 1901 there is something off about her. Nikola can’t place what it is. It’s been years, decades even, since they last saw each other and he suspects she’s changed. James wrote to him after the whole Adam Worth affair, though uncharacteristically he didn’t say much of anything and instead explained mostly about John. Nikola knows that would change a person, but the Helen Magnus on his doorstep is unlike anything he’s ever known.
Nikola can read people; perhaps not as well as James, but it’s served him well enough in his life. As he works alongside Helen, something he has secretly longer for since their Oxford days, he tries to puzzle her out. His theories are far reaching, even for him, and Helen gives away few clues. She is more determined, more confident, and yet more guarded than she should be.
He begins to notice little tells, but they don’t add up and he can’t make sense of them. He and James aren’t on speaking terms; the letter about Worth and Druitt had been a politeness and nothing more, and so he doesn’t write to London and ask what the hell happened to Helen Magnus in the last decade. Instead, he watches and waits.
But it is Helen that catches him off guard. He’s loved her since Oxford and never once has he thought she returned the feeling. He is positive she didn’t, until now. 1901 Helen Magnus, however, feels a bit differently and there is no hesitation when she comes to him seeking more than friendship. It’s been thought out on her part and long longed for on his, but they fit well together.
And for a while, Nikola stops wondering and enjoys the moment. He is a scientist first, however, and the questions inevitably return. He realises after a while that part of what he doesn’t recognise in her is in her eyes. She has secrets – they all do – but hers run deeper even than his and have a larger story to tell. Not that she’s going to tell the story, of that he is certain. Whatever has happened to her; whatever haunts her nightmares and drives her on by day and night alike; whatever problem she is trying to solve by being in New York in the first place, she isn’t going to share it with him.
In 1904 she leaves; on to the next step in a plan that Nikola still hasn’t parsed. She kisses him goodbye like she might never see him again and the look in her eyes mirrors the weight of the world. When the ship has sailed and he is still standing there watching the ocean the thought that maybe that wasn’t the goodbye kiss he thought it was enters his mind. Helen Magnus is a puzzle tied up in a conundrum and it bugs him. He’s never not known the answer before and it haunts him for the next century. She leaves clues here and there, but then never quite add up to an answer and he becomes just that bit more intrigued every time he fails.
A century later when it all comes to a head he still has no idea, but one thing has changed: he trusts that she knows what she’s doing.
So he kisses her with everything he has and leaves her to get on with it.