A/N-I posted this over on Archive of Our Own under the pen name Myka Wells, and decided I might as well post it here too. It's Bering and Wells fluff-ish, so it's naturally not going to be completely canon compliant...Still, I think the timing of the fic is vague enough that you could read it as canon or AU depending on what version of events make you feel better, because creating happy feels is what I aim to do here.
Can we all agree that it's safe to assume that a person writing Bering and Wells fluff does not own Warehouse 13? Yes? Good, now on with the show...
It was all Pete's idea. Helena really should have been prepared for just about anything so long as it was equal measures shocking and absurd. They were staying the night in Provincetown after snagging Grace Darmond's wedding ring, which was causing women in committed same-sex relationships to marry men they hardly knew before returning a few days later with no memory of the events.
It hadn't been all that difficult to find the ring, and, in comparison with other missions, the snagging went smoothly. It helped that they had three agents on the job: Pete and Myka were the main agents, while Helena accompanied them as part of her probationary period as a reinstated agent.
It seemed awfully ridiculous to Helena that they were essentially suppose to be babysitting her, that a third agent went on the mission for the sole purpose of keeping an eye on Helena. It seemed particularly ridiculous when Helena had actually been the one to snag and bag the artifact.
But she put up with it because the third agent was Myka. Had she been a full agent, Helena would have been paired with Pete for this particular mission, which might have tested her sanity a bit more than necessary. With Myka around, some of Pete's excessive boyish energy was spent elsewhere.
Then there was the matter of simply enjoying Myka's company. They'd been able to spend the plane ride in quiet conversation about the latest books Helena was reading as part of her ambitious goal of catching up on the best literature since 1899. Myka lit up when she spoke about books, and she was so brilliant about it too, with an incredible eye for detail. Helena often just sat and listened, speaking only to prompt Myka to keep explicating her chosen text.
But now Myka was nowhere to be found. Instead, Pete had somehow managed to get Helena to accompany him for a night out on the town. He wanted to show her what a 21st century gay bar looked like and thought that Provincetown would be the very best place to do it. Helena still couldn't quite understand how it had happened, why she was going with Pete Latimer to Ladies Night at a gay dance club.
But there they were, standing in front of the place, having just been dropped off by a cab. Helena could already hear the music and feel it vibrating under her feet. She had a fleeting memory of walking past a place like this while in New York and thinking that only a person looking to achieve permanent hearing loss would enter such an establishment.
"Must we go in there?" Helena asked. "And how did Myka manage not to get pulled into this madness?"
"She didn't want to," Pete said.
"Did I give an impression that I felt any differently?" Helena replied incredulously.
"No, but she may or may not have offered to do all my paperwork for this mission if I shut up and left her alone. Besides," Pete said, then added in his humorously atrocious imitation of her accent. "You are Miss. Many-of-my-lovers-were-men. We can't very well leave P-town without showing you a right proper gay bar."
"Good lord," Helena said as she rolled her eyes. "Fine. I am giving this exactly one hour before I leave you here."
"Challenge accepted," Pete said as he pulled her towards the door even thought there was a line already forming outside.
"But Pete, there's a wait to get in," Helena said.
"Yeah, but you're hot. Hot girls never wait in line, and I'm with you, so I'm kind of hot girl by proxy," Pete said. "You just have to work the girl at the door."
"I'm not working anyone, Pete," Helena said. Pete was never shy about calling herself and Myka hot in an entirely platonic way, so Helena'd learnt to ignore it.
"Would you rather spend 45 minutes of your hour standing out in the cold with me? At least if you get us in, you'll be warm and getting free drinks from other hot women," Pete said.
Much as she was loath to admit it, Pete was right. Helena would rather be inside, warm and drinking alcohol than outside doing nothing in the cold, raw weather. Even if the music was obnoxiously loud, at least they'd be doing something. If nothing else, years in bronze had instilled in Helena a desire to be in constant motion.
"Alright, just this once," Helena said as she strode towards the woman at the door.
Myka loved her little, dysfunctional Warehouse family dearly. She really did. But she was also an introvert by nature, so she also enjoyed her alone time, and much preferred being in her hotel room reading to being out on the town. If that meant doing a little extra paperwork when they got back, then so be it.
She'd half hoped that Helena might also find a way out of Pete's plan because a night in with Helena doing nothing in particular sounded absolutely perfect. They'd spent so much time apart that little things like their conversation on the plane and playful banter during the mission made Myka crave Helena's company more than anything else.
But Pete had conned Helena into joining him, and they'd left a few hours ago, Helena's lack of enthusiasm more than made up for by Pete's excitement at showing H.G. a good time.
Myka closed her book and placed it on the nightstand. For a mystery novel, it lacked the tension she'd come to expect out of a good thriller, and Myka found herself nodding off during what was suppose to be the climactic chase scene.
She looked at the clock on the same nightstand to see that it was 1:03. No wonder she was getting sleepy. Myka flipped off the light mounted on the wall and slipped under her sheets.
What felt like only a few minutes later but could have been closer to an hour, Myka was startled out of a shallow half-sleep by the jarring metallic buzz of her Farnsworth. She groped around the nightstand, grabbed the Farnsworth, and clumsily turned the light on.
"Pete?" she asked, her voice thick with sleep. "Why are you on the Farnsworth? Why do you even have a Farnsworth while you're out at a bar?"
"Chicks dig the Farnsworth, Mykes," Pete said. "It's retro, and steampunk is totally in."
"What do you want, Pete?" Myka said, not even willing to expend the energy to roll her eyes at him. "Because this clearly isn't an emergency."
"H.G. wanted me to, and she's pretty scary when she demands stuff," Pete said, then he looked off to his right and appeared to wave someone over. "Hey, H.G.! No, not that way come back this way. I got Myka on for you."
A few seconds later, Helena joined Pete in the frame.
"Well, will you look at that! There she is," Helena said, her speech lacking the usual crisp, precise diction and her accent even more pronounced than usual. "I demanded Pete use his Farnsworth because I wanted to see you."
"Yeah?" Myka replied for lack of anything better to say.
"Yes, you've such a pretty face. I like looking at your face," Helena said, then she looked to Pete, who'd nearly slipped out of view. "Doesn't Myka have a delightful face, Pete?"
"Yeah it's great," Pete said uncomfortably. "A great face. Do you think we can keep walking back to the hotel now?"
"But I just want to talk to Myka," Helena said. She pouted. The other woman actually pouted, and Myka knew with absolute certainty that Helena was at least three sheets to the wind.
"I'll tell you what Helena," Myka said. "Helena, can you look at me please?"
Helena refocused her attention on Myka and smiled.
"Yes, I am quite capable of looking at you," Helena said. "It's become one of my favorite things, actually."
"Good," Myka said, willing herself not to react too strongly to Helena's advances. Helena was drunk enough that she would probably regret most of what she was saying and doing, so Myka definitely did not need to be reading anything into this conversation. "Listen, if you do what Pete says and come back to the hotel, I will talk to you as much as you'd like."
"I'd like to walk and talk," Helena said. "Can we do that?"
"Yes, we can do that," Myka sighed as she sat up in bed. "But that means you have to come back here, alright?"
"Obviously. It would be quite foolish of me to run away after being offered a stroll with a beautiful woman," Helena said. "Don't you agree, Pete?"
"Yep, super foolish. Now please come on," Pete said. Myka couldn't help a little smirk at Pete's exasperation. He'd insisted on taking Helena out, and he was realizing a bit too late that drunk H.G. Wells was way too much for him to handle on his own.
"We'll be there in a jiffy, darling. Meet us out front in five minutes," Helena said. She winked and closed the Farnsworth.
By the time Myka got dressed and made her way through the lobby of the small hotel and out the door, Pete and Helena were approaching the building.
"Myka!" Helena said as she put her arm around Myka and leaned on her probably a bit more than necessary. "Glad to see you could join us. We missed you terribly this evening. Didn't we, Pete?"
"Sure did," Pete said. "But can we call it quits on the walk now, H.G.?"
"Well, you are not invited to walk with us, so your walk is over," Helena replied.
"Are you sure? I mean, do you think that's safe?" Pete asked.
"Pete, as you know from experience, my hand to hand combat skills are first rate, as are Myka's, and," Helena said giving Myka a quick up and down. "If I'm not mistaken, Myka is carrying a concealed tesla. That, or she's very happy to see me."
Myka felt her cheeks burn hot and was grateful for the fact that she was standing half in the shadow of the building. She had to say that she was impressed by Helena's perceptiveness given how drunk she appeared to be; Myka generally did an excellent job of concealing her weapon.
"We'll be fine, Pete," Myka said after swallowing to regain her composure. "It won't take long."
"Good luck with that and, just so you know, she's got a habit of wandering," Pete said as he turned towards the hotel door. "Now Uncle Pete is going to get some shuteye. Night kids."
"He's a good man," Helena said after Pete disappeared into the hotel. She walked in the general direction of the center of town, and Myka followed on instinct. "As far as men go."
"Yeah, he is," Myka said.
"Although he needn't have warned you about my wandering," Helena said as she linked arms with Myka without breaking stride. Myka knew that was a fairly common practice among platonic female friends in centuries past, so she allowed it without comment. "I intend to stay by your side. I only wandered because he bored me and there were more interesting things in the window of the sex shop down the street. It's a real pity they weren't open."
Myka smiled to herself and looked at the ground as they kept walking.
"So I assume you had a good time then?" Myka asked.
"I did. I got so very many free drinks, and no one to share them with," Helena said. "It would have been a shame for them to go to waste. I do think I underestimated the amount of alcohol good looks alone can get a woman in the 21st century. You would have receive a great number of free drinks too."
"I doubt I'd get nearly as many as you did," Myka said with a little self-deprecating laugh.
Helena stopped walking, which forced Myka to do the same. She turned to face Myka.
"Why do you do that, Myka?" Helena asked as she leaned closer. Myka couldn't tell if Helena was simply unsteady on her feet or if she'd moved that close on purpose. It wouldn't be the first time that she intentionally invaded Myka's personal space.
"I saw a lot of very attractive women tonight," Helena continued. "But none of them struck me in the same way that you did the very first time I saw you."
"That's probably because I had a gun pointed at your head the first time we met," Myka said as she resumed walking, this time with her head down. "That usually tends to leave an impression."
"No, that was the second time that I saw you," Helena said as she walked by Myka's side. "We met before the tour of my house, and I had the pleasure of watching you watch that foolish tour guide blather on about my brother. You've always fascinated me, Myka. Even then I was quite taken, and that is not something I would lie about."
Myka let a second of silence pass.
"Come now, darling," Helena said. "Do you find it that difficult to trust that I am capable of such embarrassingly truthful admissions? Because my consumption of alcohol has made me quite amenable to admitting any number of things."
"I believe you," Myka said. "I just, I don't know what to say to that kind of thing."
"Now, this may be a strictly Victorian notion," Helena said with mock seriousness. "But one generally says thank you when one receives a compliment."
"Well, then, thank you," Myka said smiling to herself at Helena's insistence that she acknowledge the compliment as a valid one, even if Myka didn't believe it.
"You're very welcome," Helena said. "Now I have a question in return."
"Yeah?"
"What did you think of me when we first met? Not guns and teslas," Helena said as Myka immediately opened her mouth to reply. "I know that you've a near photographic memory. You must recall having seen me before I put the tesla to Pete's head."
"I remember," Myka said, thinking back to that moment, a memory that was in fact remarkably vivid, given how long ago it had been. "Thinking that you had a beautiful smile. And when I heard you talking to the tour guide I thought your diction was nearly flawless. And fascinatingly unique."
"So you were intrigued as well then?"
"I guess, I mean, I was kind of distracted by trying to find, well, you," Myka said hastily, though that did nothing to get rid of the smug grin Myka saw when she glanced over at Helena.
"I daresay it was intrigue at first sight then," Helena said gesturing grandly with her free hand. "Which would be something like love at first sight without the instant romantic inclination. So not really love at all I suppose."
What started out as a grand idea to drunk Helena had apparently devolved into a troubling puzzle that Helena actually stopped walking to ponder.
"Intrigue at first sight, it's much like…what is it like?" Helena asked, more herself that Myka.
Myka sighed. She decided to help Helena out with this one because it would allow Myka to take control of the course of both the conversation and the walk. Much as Myka enjoyed Helena's company, it was cold, and the company could be just as good in the warmth and comfort of the hotel room. She linked arms with Helena and turned her back towards the hotel.
"It's chemistry," Myka said simply. "We have great working chemistry."
"Chemistry," Helena said, trying the word out. She nodded. "You are quite good with words, Myka. It's quite a useful skill, and one that I can appreciate as a writer. I do, however, have to disagree with your word choice. I don't care for your qualifier."
"No?"
"No," Helena said decisively. "I believe we do have excellent work chemistry, but our intrigue at first sight could not have been a product of work chemistry. It was simple chemistry."
They were coming up on the hotel, and Myka was glad for that. She was distinctly uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation, particularly give the fact that Helena was drunk. Maybe not incoherent, blackout, blind drunk, but Helena was still obviously under the influence.
"Maybe," Myka admitted as she lengthened and quickened her stride, moving Helena along with her. "But it's pretty much the same thing."
"Not at all actually," Helena insisted. "Work chemistry is 'oh I think that person would be someone whose skills and personality compliment mine in a way that gets a particular task done efficiently.' Much like you and Pete. Chemistry, on the other hand, is 'oh, I find you endlessly interesting, am attracted to something about you in a way that makes conversation engaging. This results in a very real possibility that I will develop feelings for you, feelings occasionally accompanied by the urge to take you on the nearest available surface.' Like you and I. Do you not see the difference?"
"I, I do," Myka said. "It, it's quite a difference."
She swallowed and looked directly at Helena, whose smile was somehow both soft and predatory. Myka had only a vague recollection of Helena maneuvering their position so that Myka leaned against their hotel building as Helena stood less than a foot away from her.
"You don't feel this way when Pete stands this close, do you?" Helena asked.
"No," Myka said thickly, not trusting herself to say anything more.
"You know," Helena said thoughtfully as she brought a finger up to trace along Myka's jawline. "You might have noticed that alcohol makes me eager to confess things. But I want you to know that these things, this praise and attention I'm giving you is merely an expression of my own barely concealed thoughts while sober. Alcohol, at least the quantity that I've consumed, merely loosens my lips. It does not cause them to speak falsehoods or exaggerations."
Myka thought fleetingly that, drunk as she was, Helena had no right to be so eloquent. Her speech might have lacked its usual crisp clarity, but she still had a way with words.
"Do you understand that? Because I am afraid that you will wake up tomorrow morning and convince yourself that I couldn't possibly have meant any of this," Helena said.
"Yes, I understand," Myka said.
"Good," Helena said, bringing her other hand to Myka's face. She looked at Myka for a long second. "Because I—
Helena paused mid-sentence as if the word slipped her mind and took a half step forward to press her body against Myka's body and her lips against Myka's lips.
Myka kissed back almost without thought, because kissing Helena like this felt like the most natural thing in the world. Her hands rested automatically on Helena's hips, then in Helena's hair, then around Helena's neck before Myka pulled herself together enough to stop the kiss.
"We shouldn't," Myka said breathlessly. "You're drunk."
"And you're the country's best secret service agent," Helena said. "Neither are reason enough to stop kissing me."
"I will not take advantage of you, Helena," Myka said.
Helena laughed out loud.
"Darling, I have you pinned against a wall, and my tongue was in your mouth moments ago. I am not the one being taken advantage of here," Helena said.
"You can't consent to anything right now, Helena," Myka said.
Myka hadn't removed her hands from Helena despite her protests. Part of it was wanting Helena to know that this wasn't a 'never happening' thing, just a 'not right now' rejection. It also just felt good to be so close to Helena.
"I disagree. However, I will consent to a postponement so long as we try this again when I'm sober," Helena said, then added with a mischievous glint in her eyes as she took a step back from Myka. "You'll find my tongue can be quite a bit more effective when my fine motor skills are not so compromised."
Myka swallowed hard as all the positively filthy things Helena could do with that tongue flitted through her head. Helena certainly didn't miss that reaction and smirked.
"We have ourselves a deal then?" Helena asked as she smiled that brilliant smile of hers.
"Yeah, definitely. We definitely have a deal," Myka said as she took Helena's outstretched hand and let Helena lead her inside.
A/N-Given feedback I got over on Archive of Our Own, I'll probably/maybe try to write one more chapter of this little thing. Thoughts on that front?
Speaking of Archive of Our Own (AO3), I'll probably be using that site more often, possibly even posting over there before I mosey on over here, so if you want to, you can find a link on my profile to AO3.
Reviews are as delightful to me as post-it notes are to our friend Helena G. Wells!