Nikola's a rare surviving member of The Five in that he is actually well acquainted with the times. He blends in easily with the people and the era, and not just because he's learned how to guise that thick Slavic accent that would otherwise coloring his voice. John and Helen, on the other hand, are oftentimes still far too Victorian to function in this modern century. James had been the same way before he'd been lost in the depths of Bhalasaam. Yet Nikola, in spite of his grumpy disposition and antisocial tendencies, got along just fine with the 21st Century.

(He did help usher it in, recorded history's accounts be damned.)

"Something like that." Because his relationship with Helen was as complicated as it was simple, stagnant, and impossible.