notsocommon | for Nikola

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nikola

for Nikola

Helen had actually not been expecting any visitors and with Will out seeing patients and teaching classes, it was just she and Gregory tucked into the tidy penthouse for the time being. When she heard the bell ring, she imagined it was Will and buzzed him in without a thought, thinking that he must have forgotten something.

She opened the door, smile wide, only for it to fall a bit in confusion when she saw Nikola there. "Ah, Nikola. I wasn't expecting you." She shifted Gregory a bit and opened the door a bit wider to let him in.

"Do come in. Tea? I'm afraid I don't have any wine on hand."

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"Well, I suppose not, but try to hide that bit," Helen said, rolling her eyes a little at him.

"Look, I just think you and Will would get on much better if you acknowledged that you respected one another. He's a good man, Nikola, and good to me. Surely you want that for me, don't you? Rather than...other alternatives? I know you don't like to see me hurt."

"Yes, well I'll start acknowledging that I might have respect for him if he does it first." Nikola replied childishly. Not that he really did respect Will's field. Psychology was not, and never would be, a proper science to Nikola. Ever. "Of course I don't want to see you hurt, you're my best friend Helen. Just get your husband to admit I'm brilliant and then I'll get along splendidly with him. And admit it in public or the paper."

"He already knows you're brilliant. It's your manners he takes issue with," Helen reminded him dryly. "As do I, upon occasion, but I'm older and more tolerant."

Helen brushed her finger back against the baby's cheek. "Is my darling hungry? He's so very quiet with his Uncle Nikola, yes he is."

"What manners? Helen, I'm over a hundred years old I don't need manners." Nikola replied with a smirk. "Of course he's quiet with me, he already loves, fears and respects me."

"Everyone can stand to have manners, Nikola," Helen said, exasperated. She gently adjusted Gregory's blanket, straightening it even though it didn't need straightening.

"I'm glad you're here. I know I don't always seem that way."

"Everyone is not me, everyone is just that everyone. Mediocre... boring." Nikola replied, helping Helen fuss a little over Gregory. If Nikola had his way there would be nothing ordinary about Gregory. "You and everyone, in some ways I'm glad I'm here as well and in others I still wish we could get off this damn island and get back to being immortal."

"I'm tired of living forever. I want someone to grow old with," Helen said, shrugging a bit. "I want someone who knows me, inside and out. I have that here, so I'm just as content to stay as you are to leave. I know it's a different circumstance, of course, but it's how I feel."

Nikola thought to say that living forever with the person you loved was surely more reasonable, more romantic than dying with them. He thought about telling Helen he cared. What he actually settled for was-

"You can't die. I forbid it," Nikola said simply. "You're not leaving me alone."

"It's not up to you, Nikola. I have made my own choices and my choice is to remain here, with Will, and to have my mortal life. I have no doubt that eventually someone will crack the mystery of the island but I have no interest in it. Not when everything I hold dear is here. I've made peace with that."

Helen sighed and stretched her arms out to take the baby once more. "I've grown tired of political machinations and trying to cheat death and everything after. I want to be ordinary once more."

"Why can't it be? Why must you all leave me? I won't allow it not again." Nikola said, jaw tense as he looked at Helen seriously. He wouldn't allow her to settle for a mortal life, he wouldn't allow her to leave him alone like Nigel and James. Like everyone he had ever cared for. "You might have made peace with it but I haven't. I never will."

Nikola could feel his hand tensing, Gregory stirring in his arms. He offered him back to Helen, once safely out of his arms Nikola stood up unsettled and annoyed at her. She couldn't die, he wouldn't allow it. Not now, not ever. "You're not ordinary, you never were."

"Perhaps I'm not but I will not watch Gregory grow up and die while I remain the same. I won't lose Will. It's just not an option, Nikola."

Perhaps it was selfish but Nikola was selfish too, in his own way.

"There are other options, we have the source blood Helen." Nikola replied, crossing his arms sulkily across his chest.

"That likely doesn't work," Helen pointed out. "Besides, I doubt Will would concede to that for himself or our child. Again, the point is rendered moot."

She softened her voice. "Can't you be content with mortality, Nikola?"

"What and grow old and die before I've changed the world? Never, I'll never be content with that Helen. It's not romantic, it's resignation." Nikola replied simply. He would never be satisfied fully with a mortal life, immortality or at least his name memorialised was his life's ambition. Change, bringing that about was his goal. "William doesn't know what's good for him."

"No, Will just doesn't feel the need to seek glory and make a name for himself. Since he's the one in my bed, I think it's not entirely a bad path to take."

Helen laughed a little. "It's conceited of me to assume that all of you want to sleep with me, isn't it?"

"Not any more so than I think you all want tto sleep with me, Will included." Nikola replied with a lighter look on his face. "You won't leave me alone, will you Helen? Not like James."

"Will does not want to sleep with you. I don't think he has a single homosexual inclination in his body," Helen said, laughing loudly. She sobered for a moment and touched her hand to his.

"Darling, I will be here as long as I can manage. You know that. You know I care about you, Nikola."

"No, then how do you explain all this unresolved sexual tension between us?" Nikola said with a smirk at Helen. His smirk turned softer as she touched his hand. "I know, shame you won't ever listen to me or do what I want, isn't it? Then I wouldn't have to lose you as well."

"You're not playing fair, Nikola," Helen pointed out but, really, what was fair in situations like this? Very little. She'd made her choice and she was determined to stick by it. She didn't want to leave Will or Gregory alone ever again.

"When have I ever played fair?" Nikola replied with a tired smirk. "Playing fair is boring."

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