A/N: This is a rewrite of 'Awakening', basically what if Helen was shot by the energy beam instead of Nikola. A short wip, will probably be about four or so chapters long. Several lines of dialogue are taken straight from the episode - if you recognise it, it's not mine!

Queen for a Day

part one

...

"Oh my god, look at this. It's the ancient script of the Sanguine Vampiris," Nikola said, as he eagerly forged ahead into the newly revealed chamber.

"Vampires?" Helen said, surprised, as she entered more cautiously behind him. "According to the map, this was a Praxian stronghold."

"Not any more." He was smiling, fairly breathless with wonder. "It says here that my ancestors drove them from this place, made it a fortress of their own."

An awful thought occurred to her then, and she spoke urgently. "Nikola, wait, if this was a vampire stronghold, they'd have fortifications. The vampire shield - take off your bracelet!" She pulled hers off and threw it aside, striding quickly towards him.

He was too slow in catching on. "Bracelet?" he scoffed, holding his arm aloft. "I prefer to think of it as -"

She was at his side then, reaching to grab the thing from his wrist, but even as she did she saw an ominous glow appear from a panel tucked high up on the back wall. She moved on pure instinct, shoving him down and throwing herself bodily after him in a desperate bid for cover. They hit the floor at the same moment the weapon fired. There was a flash of light and she cried out, feeling something lance through her like white-hot metal.

"Helen!" Nikola scrambled out from under her, confusion and alarm on his face. His hands fluttered uncertainly around her, trying to support her as she attempted to sit up.

With her last ounce of determination she grabbed his arm, wrenched the bracelet off him, and hurled it away. Only then did she curl in on herself, gasping from the pain. Behind them, the heavy stone door rumbled ominously shut, but the two of them had more pressing concerns.

"What was that?" Nikola demanded. "Some kind of energy beam? How - how bad is it?"

Crouched beside her, his hands covered hers where they were pressed to the wound, blood leaking between their fingers. "My god, Helen -" The beam had pierced through her abdomen, an inch or two below her ribs.

"It's all right," she ground out between clenched teeth.

"It clearly is not."

She looked up at him, his face hovering close, his eyes intent on hers. "My back," she said. "You need to apply pressure. Get the medkit - bandages."

His hand moved round her side, feeling for the mirror of the wound on her front. He pressed his palm hard against it, making her bite back a cry of pain. He didn't make a move for their abandoned pack, however, just closed his eyes, concentrating.

"What are you doing?"

"Generating a magnetic field to keep everything threatening to spill out all over the floor inside you where it belongs."

That gave her pause. "Oh."

She could feel the effects - the pain was the same, but the bleeding had all but stopped. Gingerly, she rested her weight back against the column behind her, trapping his hand between her and the stone.

She spoke again. "How long do you think you can -?"

"It's not hard. How long do you think you can?"

"From the amount of blood loss, I'd say there's some fairly serious damage. Which means you'd be better off helping me with bandages, and then finding us a way out of here."

His expression was very serious, but he couldn't conceal the fear in his eyes. "But I can't - I -"

"Nikola."

"I didn't listen - you told me to take it off. I didn't, this is my fault."

"We came prepared for Praxians, not vampires, and we don't really have time for guilt in any case. Now bring the backpack over here."

She held his gaze, staring him down. Finally he let the field drop, his hands falling away from her, and he moved.

She had to talk him through patching her up. He was, of course, unused to providing first aid - for that matter, he was unused in general to taking care of anyone other than himself. But it wasn't exactly brain surgery, and he managed.

"No, tighter than that. As firmly as you can manage."

He rewound the bandage again, face tense in concentration.

"Better," she told him when he was done, and patted his hand in reassurance. "Now, hurry up and find us a way out of here."

He hesitated, reluctant to leave her side. His eyes travelled over her, as if trying to memorise her; as if he wouldn't see her again.

The thing was, she didn't really have time for him to be emotional about this.

"I'm going into shock," she told him. "I'll want to sleep - you can't let me do that. Make sure I stay awake and alert, and if I start to slip, there's epinephrine. Use sparingly. Do you know how to administer the shot?"

"I'm sure I can figure it out, thanks."

"If the padding soaks through, you'll need to replace it. Rip up your shirt if you have to. And give me your jacket - I need to try to stay warm."

He hastily shrugged off his jacket and tucked it over her. "Any other patronising advice to give me?"

"Stay calm, don't panic, and any mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is to wait until after I stop breathing."

"You should be so lucky."

They shared a smile, the attempt at humour a little weak on both sides, but cheering nonetheless. He got up, wavering a moment on what to do. He started at the sealed doorway, straining against it futilely as he tried to get it to budge.

"Of course, that's the thing about traps," he said in frustration as he quickly gave it up as useless. "What would be the use if we could just walk out?"

"They wouldn't build it without an exit of some kind," Helen reasoned, watching him pace. "There might be some clue in the writings."

"You're right. But there's a lot of writing. Vampires - a chatty bunch."

"Then hurry up and read."

He nodded once, features fixed in grim determination, and turned to the nearest column.

She watched him work, murmuring to himself as he thought aloud, sometimes reading out a line or two for her to hear. There was nothing for her to do but wait - something she'd never been particularly good at.

She wasn't about to give up. She would hold on as long as she could. But the truth was she wasn't sure she had the time - even if he found a way out soon, it was too far to any medical aid, her injury too severe. Barring some miracle...

"Take me home," she said.

"Yeah, I'm trying, if you didn't notice."

"No, after. My body - I want to be interred with Ashley."

His only response to that was his jaw tightening before he whirled away to the next column.

"Don't worry, the arrangements are all in my will. Just make sure I get home. Now, about the Sanctuary - promise me you'll help them. Will is young, but I always meant for it to be him, and he'll be a decent head of house. Until he becomes a good one, however, he'll need support."

"What on earth do you think I could do? In this scenario I've just gotten you killed, you realise. Not so sure I'll be welcome at the old homestead after that."

"Then don't give them a choice. I want you there. You're the last of the Five who can... Besides, I need you to handle John."

"Oh now we come to it - handle John when he comes to unleash bloody vengeance on me, you mean?" He was at her side again suddenly. She realised she'd stopped watching his progress through the room - her vision was blurring. Probably not a good sign. "You may have decided to die already, but I'm still aiming for a slightly more rosy outcome here. So if you're done telling me all the wonderful fun I'm going to have dealing with the various messes you've made of your life after you're gone...? Helen? Helen!"

She could feel his hands on her face, could tell he was shouting, but it seemed to be happening at some great distance.

Then suddenly the shock of pure adrenaline racing through her system like fire.

"Bloody hell!" She sat forward, gasping, clutching at her pounding chest. He'd used one of the epinephrine shots. Clearly.

"Don't do that!" Nikola snapped. "Come on, I expect better of you, Helen. You're the strong one, remember? My god, you had to come rushing in, didn't you. Had to be the hero - whatever happened to good old fashioned self-preservation? As if you even know what the term means."

"If I hadn't, you'd likely be dead already, or dying in my place."

"As it should be. I don't even particularly like my life; you shouldn't be giving yours for mine."

"Tough."

"Besides, you're not even dying - a little scratch like that? Just - buck-up or whatever you British do in situations like this. And would you let me, you know, work already? Stop trying to distract me with all this melodrama."

Still panting at the effects of the epinephrine, she watched him move away, starting over methodically from where he'd left off.

"You're in denial," she said.

"Interesting - it says here that the great Queen Afina was laid to rest in state... here. She's buried here somewhere. This is a tomb."

"Fitting. Nikola -"

"'The warrior-queen Afina and her court were laid to rest here in state to rise again in the after-time, to rule into eternity.' Strange, you know I've never encountered much reference to the beliefs of Sanguine Vampiris concerning an afterlife. They were a culture devoted to reason and science. Wonderful atheists, my people. But perhaps royalty gets a better deal."

"I know you think you won't be able to handle it, but you will. I know I can count on you. Reason and science - that's you to a T. That's why I trust you, even though you can be so..."

He was barely listening to her, if at all, so intently was he scouring the ancient script. But she needed him to listen. "Nikola." He didn't react. Her voice was weaker than it had been. "Nikola," she gasped again. Then she scrabbled in the medkit for another epinephrine shot. It was the last one. She hadn't much time left; she had to get through to him.

It was enough, the sudden jolt of vitality - she propelled herself up, employing what she knew literally to be the last of her strength. She staggered over to him. "Nikola."

He turned, shocked to find her on her feet. "You crazy woman are you trying to - what are you doing?"

"Dying. I'm dying, you idiot! Just listen will you?" His arms came up to catch her as she collapsed against him. Her momentum drove them both back into the wall behind him, and they barely registered the faint click of some mechanism being triggered by their combined weight as they fell against it.

The large section of wall suddenly falling away into the floor definitely caught their attention, however.

They both simply stared at the revealed chamber and its contents.

Nikola turned his wide-eyed expression on her, his face just inches from hers. "I think you found Afina."

The dead queen of the vampires was entombed in some kind of glowing crystal. "Fascinating," she said, and meant it. It was only a shame - such a find, and she would never learn much more about it than this. "They must have mastered crystal replication on an atomic level. Just think, we're the first people to see this tomb in thousands of years."

He shifted her weight off him and helped her to sit down. Then he left her there to approach the entombed queen.

"Look at her, perfectly preserved," he said, "Like an insect in amber."

"Lovely, yes. You can have all the time you like to study her later, but please, will you come back here?"

The adrenaline had left her, and the pain was much worse now. And she was so tired...

He didn't answer, busy staring at the queen.

It was a strange time to feel jealous but bloody hell what did a girl have to do to get a little attention around here? She almost laughed at the thought. Nothing had ever been able to compete with the glory of vampires in Nikola's eyes.

"Don't mind me," she mumbled. "I just thought you might hold my hand. It would be nice, that's all."

"No time for canoodling just now, Helen."

He was close again, though her eyes were closed, and she might not have been able to see his face even if they were open.

"Don't you see what this means? Listen!" He had hold of her shoulders and gave her a shake. Then he slapped her.

"Ow!" Her eyes opened and she glared at the blurry circle of his face hovering over hers. "Just let me die in peace will you?"

"It's source blood! If there's even an ounce of the stuff in that corpse - it's kept you alive this long, what's another century or two more?"

"Oh." She blinked, trying to clear her vision. "That's actually not a bad idea. Worth a try."

"Just stay awake. You stay awake - I will never forgive you if you die just when I come up with a brilliant plan to save you."

It was too much trouble to speak, so she didn't reply, just nodded to show she understood. And she could do it, stay awake, it was nice to have a goal other than 'lie down and die'. But gradually the details began to escape her. Nikola's increasingly frantic attempts to get through the crystal went on in the background, and she was finding it difficult to care.

At some point, sitting became lying down.

When Nikola appeared in her line of vision, his lips moving - he seemed to be saying something very urgently, but she couldn't hear a thing - she smiled, or thought she did, and would have lifted a hand to touch his face.

But her body was so heavy, and she was drifting further and further away.

.

.

She did not drift easily back into consciousness; she was torn from oblivion and hurled back into the world with a gasp wrenched violently from throat. She sat bolt upright, crying out hoarsely as something took hold of her, raced through her veins, changed her - something that felt almost familiar. But her mind was alight with this new sensation and in the first few, confused moments she couldn't identify it. Couldn't be sure of anything, really, except that she was suddenly and most unexpectedly alive.

And that something was very, very different.

She realised Nikola was beside her then. "What is this?" she gasped. "What's happening?"

"Wow... I... honestly didn't think that would work," he said.

They stared at each other in mutual shock. But where hers only persisted, Nikola's face was quickly transformed into a grin of pure delight.

"Wait, the blood," she remembered suddenly. "So it worked?"

She reached over to grab him and perhaps shake the answers out of him, and in doing so registered that she was not only alive, but strong, and whole. She let go of his shirt to tear away the bandages wrapped around her middle, finding the blood-soaked gash in her shirt and beneath it only smooth, unmarred skin.

"The blood," Nikola began. "About that. Well, it didn't exactly preserve your life. Actually, I was too late administering it. You sort of... died. Technically. And then when I used what was left of the stunner's juice to shock your heart - well, actually that worked really well. I'm thinking you're just inhuman enough for the vampire genes to activate without entirely taking over and creating a mindless, bloodthirsty monster. Been there, done that, not as much fun as you think it's going to be. Of course, the source blood is already bonded to your DNA from the first go round, I suppose that might make up for your lack of a hereditary connection. Anyway, the point is, you seem to be a vampire now, and you're fine. I mean, you certainly look fine. Not that you don't normally, but, may I say, this is a great look for you."

She was still in the process of catching up, barely hearing the majority of Nikola's babbling and focusing only on what seemed to be the most pertinent fact.

"You turned me into a vampire?"

He spread his hands. "With only the very best of intentions."

She had more to say to him about this, much more. Most of it would involve yelling. But before she could begin there was a sound suddenly from behind them, and they both turned their heads to look.

The crystal was starting to crack.

...

Endnotes: How did Nikola break through the crystal? Science! Magnets! Something like that. Or he just bashed the crap out of it like a certain someone else we know. Also, apologies for the sciencey nonsense about how Helen became a vampire - I'm still not sure how it's supposed to work on the show (it seems to change every time!) and I figure vampire-queen blood is just magic and Helen is so special it just worked, that's all. :D

Next chapter - Afina is just not that into Nikola, Helen is the worst vampire ever, Nikola hates everything, and someone gets thrown in the pit.