Chapter One Explosions
"Love is like war; easy to begin but very hard to stop." Henry Louis Mencken
"What is it Trailer?" Artie asked concerned when the dog shot up from his nap and ran under the desk. 'Come here, boy," Artie tried, but the dog was having no part of it. He ran from his hiding place and scratched frantically at the file room door. Artie knew this behavior was unusual for the mild-mannered animal, but his whimpering meant only one thing. He was looking to escape some impending doom - and right now, doom was dressed in dark attire practically running up the umbilicus. Artie opened the door for the poor pooch and went to his screen. HG was halfway through the tunnel, but he could hear Myka yelling at her even though she was not yet in view. He stepped back away from the entry door just in time as Helena pushed it opened and walked past him. She crossed the room and grabbed the Warehouse inner door so fast it almost caught her. He was about to lecture about protocol or at the very least, basic manners when the door swung opened behind him and Myka filled the doorway.
"Where is she?" she yelled at Artie. "I swear I will kill her," she shouted as she looked around the room as if she expected to see HG's presence. "Are you hiding her because if you are, well maybe you better hide her because if I get my hands on that English neck of hers," Myka said, her hands stretched in front of her forming the circle she's like to have around her partner's neck. "She is so thick; did you know that about her, Artie?" Myka said running her hands through her hair, curls cascading back down in disarray.
Artie was so tempted to say something – anything in response to the question he had waited years to be asked - and several of his top choices were starting to form on his face when Myka's attention went to the door.
"Did she go into the Warehouse?" she asked without looking at him. She went to the computer because she had a very good idea where Helena was headed.
"Maybe she …," Artie started to say, but Myka was infuriated.
"Don't defend her, Artie. Not this time," Myka said as if that had ever happened – ever. She went through the door almost running into Pete. "Outta my way, Lattimer," Myka barked.
"Hey, first your friend bites my head off and now you? A guy could get sick of this," he yelled defensively down the stairs at Myka.
"Fifty says it was HG," Pete said to Artie, as he pressed keys on the computer to find Myka on the security camera.
"That's a suckers bet. Make it seventy five and I'll take it," Artie said grabbing a chair to sit next to Pete. They watched as Myka marched down the aisles on a mission.
"Helena, I swear to God, if I get my hands on you," Myka yelled as she walked with vigor. "This time, I will … I mean it, Helena. You just make me want to scream!"
"You'd have to actually catch up to me first, darling," she heard HG's voice right in her ear. She swung around - certain she would see HG, but there was no one there. She could hear Helena laugh softly and remembered what it was.
Any other day, Myka would have marveled at the Inventor's latest Warehouse security measure – the juxtaposition of parabolic dishes made of unbreakable glass that when activated, caused the Warehouse to have its own 'whispering gallery', like the one in St. Paul's Cathedral in London. In fact, it was Helena's time spent in the church's dome that gave her the idea. Mrs. Frederic praised it and Artie even patted her on the back – the closest thing to 'good job' he could come up with. Myka had smiled broadly at how easily these ingenious ideas came to HG, but today she just wanted to throttle her!
Myka only had this kind of strong reaction when she butted heads with Helena's stubbornness over what she considered to be a total misunderstanding. When Helena was in this mood, she had a way of misconstruing what Myka said and once she started down that road, she rarely turned back. Myka was the first to admit it when she made a mistake, but Helena found it close to unfathomable that she made any. Most of the time Myka didn't care as long as they sorted things out, but this time things spiraled and Myka let Helena have it. She reflected back to what was said –
They were in bed that morning, just a short time ago it seemed. Myka was assuring Helena that a lack of heavy breathing in no way meant anything was wrong for either party. She was distracted perhaps, preoccupied with work. Helena took the feedback the same way she took any news she did expect – not well. Perhaps if she took a step back and realized that it was really her frustration over her latest invention that had her upset, she would not have become so defensive. This was two weeks into her building the Warehouse's version of a drone and it was not going well. Six had already exploded over the Warehouse and one inside. They were very small and very expensive and Artie had been harping on the cost of HG's experiments. She was frustrated and short on patience. So when Myka teased her that morning that - 'not every experiment has positive results' - Helena was insulted. She rarely had negative outcomes in her work – and of the few there were - none of them had ever been in the bedroom.
"I didn't say I was an experiment, Helena. I said you were a scientist by nature and ….," Myka tried.
"So you think that I am experimenting with you, that I am trying you out because at my core I am a brilliant scientist?" HG asked back defensively.
"Wait? I never said ….no. When I said…experiment…I meant … I was your experiment, I meant it …affectionately," Myka said, but her hesitation made HG angry.
The Brit had no patience for anything less than a constant stream of consciousness in arguments. Myka however, detested these exchanges. It made her second guess herself, but she knew she had not said anything intentionally insulting. Had she? As Myka was busy reflecting back on her own words though, Helena was taking off.
"You think my diary about us is just another journal for my scientific collection? Fine, then I shall put it with all the others," HG huffed and stormed out of the house. What? Myka couldn't remember saying anything about a journal, had she?
Myka tried to stop her, but HG was too fast. She took the car and headed to the Warehouse. Myka had to follow in the SUV and the time it took her to get the keys, gave HG a head start to the Warehouse and now inside it. Myka was getting angry that Helena would not listen to reason, to her about what happened. Her frustration mounted as she tried to catch up.
Now Myka walked in the direction she was certain Helena had gone.
"Helena, I know what you're going to do and you're being ridiculous," Myka let out. Any other day she would have taken that back, but not today. Today she was fuming. 'She probably didn't hear that,' Myka thought.
"Ridiculous?" echoed off the plates loudly and into Myka's ears.
"Oh boy," Myka whispered.
"I heard that too, Myka," HG said. Myka forgot that the elliptical dishes captured and transported even the slightest murmurs.
Pete took a cookie from the plate Artie brought in. "Whef shay goin?" Pete asked as crumbs fell to the floor and Trailer ate them.
"How would I know?" Artie said as he punched some keys to get HG's location. "Oh no, no you don't," he said to the screen. Pete turned to see the dot on the screen nearing the Personnel Quarters Archive.
"Uh oh," Pete said shoving another cookie in.
Helena dialed the four digit code into the rotary dial security box. The numbers "1866" appeared one by one in the nixie indicator light. Loud noises filled the Warehouse as giant gears rotated until the right room was found. Things clicked into place and when there was silence, Helena put her hand on the doorknob of the door in front of her, opened it, and stepped into her room.
The cool air hit her in the face – not only was it exactly as she had left it in London, it was lit up by an afternoon light. Usually agents had their rooms at the B&B transported here, but given the fact that Helena was presently at the B&B, they took her room from London instead. She walked with her diary in hand over to the desk where she had spent countless hours writing down her experiments and ideas for Charles' stories. She slowly ran her hand over the bindings, lovingly. She missed this room. She knew every square inch of it. She walked to the window that possessed the exact duplicate of what her street looked like out that view. It would be spring in London it seemed by the buds on the trees that swayed in the holographic image.
Spring? Helena thought and turned quickly. There in the door way stood the object of her deepest affections.
"Myka don't," HG said putting her hand out, but it was too late.
"Helena, I'm sorry," Myka said shutting the door behind her.
Artie pushed the plate of cookies out of the way and spilled the contents onto the floor, much to Trailer's delight and Pete's dismay. He managed to grab only one cookie and didn't care that Trailer had licked it and banged his head on the way up. "Ouch," he yelled.
"Oh she didn't. She didn't. Oh she has outdone herself this time," Artie yelled as he watched Myka enter the archived room.
"Wha dith she do?" Pete asked.
"Helena activated the Personnel Archive Room sequence and entered her room in London. I told her not to do that without authorization," Artie yelled as he got Claudia on the Farnsworth.
Pete watched the screen as Artie yelled into the device – "HG, London room, Myka closed door. How long?" he shouted.
Claudia was an expert now in speaking Artie's cryptic language and answered, "Twenty minutes tops. I'll be right there."
Artie frantically pounded keys as Pete moved out of the way. "What can I do?" he finally asked.
"Pray that Claudia can figure out the security system HG put on her room when she was in one of her moods not to share with the Warehouse," Artie said disdainfully.
"Is she allowed to…?" Pete asked and then thought better of it.
"No she is not allowed to. And the Regents gave her explicit directions to remove that security system and when I asked her about it, she told me it was on her 'to do' list," Artie ranted.
"Are they… going to suffocate?" Pete finally put the pieces together.
"Suffocate? No," Artie said and Pete felt relief. "Much worse."
"I do hope you can forgive me," Helena said moving slowly towards Myka. Myka was so relieved that Helena was finally coming to her senses.
"Oh Helena, I'm so glad you're not being stubborn about this…," Myka started and Helena pushed her up against the wall.
"Myka," HG said in a breathy tone that made Myka's knees go weak. Myka couldn't explain it, but an apologetic Helena was an incredible turn on.
"Oh Helena, it's ok. I forgive …..," Myka said forgetting what the stupid argument was over, her head dizzy from HG's touch..….but then she was abruptly released. It jolted Myka back to the moment. Helena was across the room now, under the desk. Myka shook her head, trying not to let her annoyance surge. Was that a half-hearted apology to appease her?
"Helena? Did you ….just apologize or did I dream that?" Myka asked looking at the only part of her partner that she could see at the moment.
"What darling?" HG said getting up and going over to the bookcase where she ran her hands across the books.
"Did you just apologize for flying off the handle because I thought you did, but then you ….," Myka said.
"Apologize for flying off …. What? Oh no darling, not for that," HG said honestly. Myka felt deflated.
"What was all that 'I do hope you can forgive me,' then?" Myka said in her worst imitation of HG's accent because she knew it would annoy her.
"Myka, when the Regents took my room from London to place in the archives I agreed, but I put my own security system in place lest they think my ideas and inventions were simply here for the taking," HG explained as she pulled down a book and reached behind it. "Dammit!" she said.
"So your security system…did you trigger it?" Myka asked looking around, unsure of what she was searching for.
"You did, when you closed the door," HG said nonchalantly.
"Well, you could have warned me, Helena," Myka said annoyed, pointing out the obvious.
"I did try," HG said truthfully.
"Well I followed you in here remember. So what happens now? We are locked in here? For how long?" Myka said because she wasn't sure she wanted to be locked up with Helena right now. She was getting on Myka's last nerve.
"I'm afraid for …eternity, darling," HG said.
"Artie?" Claudia said rushing into the room.
"No luck, kiddo," he said after nothing he pressed into the computer worked.
"What's worse than suffocating?" Pete asked worried.
"Being inside a room that is going to explode in 14 minutes and thirty seconds," Artie answered.
Even though this is intended to be short, I appreciate your comments/feedback always.