til you're numb

by Default Jane

What are office Christmas parties for if not for making passes at girls who wear glasses? Helena has no intention of taking no for an answer... But how to convince someone old fashioned who isn't easily seduced despite numerous cheesy pick-up lines? Helena/Hunnigan-ship, so if you don't like Hunniper, do skip this story.

Author's notes:

1. Yes, I know GPS-tracking chips implanted in humans aren't a real thing (not with current tech anyway; no sufficient power source), but for the sake of story let's pretend they are a real thing.
2. Ussehamina isn't a real place (as far as I know), which explains why no one noticed it floating around Svalbard (which is a real place).
3. No, this is not an episode of Lost, but I assume you can tell I've played Resident Evil Revelations 2 a few (hundred thousand) times.
4. Got into a car accident, and this popped out (among several other things), so I blame the concussion and Brett Eldredge's song "Lose my mind" for this. Okay, I didn't really get a concussion, but I'm not above lying if someone asks.
This was written mostly with tongue firmly in cheek, and should be read as such.

Standard disclaimer; everything RE belongs to Capcom and pals, original content and characters to me. Please feel free to think of the side-character Jackie as a "discount-Moira".

---

Just because you spent your nine-to-five fighting zombies, mutants and bioterrorists, it didn't mean you couldn't have an office Christmas party. That seemed to be the grand idea behind the event. Technically it wasn't a simple office Christmas party as much as it was a group of friends from several different offices and organizations gathered in the same space to have a good time and discuss their lives, their experiences. One thing they all had in common was the fact that they'd survived nightmares most people didn't think even happened in real life.

Helena agreed that she'd seen some damn horrifying things, but she still didn't feel like she belonged here. Out of all the people gathered in the room, she recognized only Leon, Chris, Sherry and Hunnigan. Well, she almost hadn't recognized Hunnigan; she looked rather different with her hair down and dressed casually in jeans and a white collared shirt rather than the gray suit she was usually seen in.

Quite frankly Helena wasn't sure why she'd even agreed to come here, and she was already wishing she'd stayed at home. Then again, there was no beer at home.

"I will hurt you," she threatened when Leon walked up to her, dangling a mistletoe high above his head.
"When are you going to stop playing hard to get? You're breaking my heart here," he sighed dramatically, grasping his chest as if in pain.

"I'll break your balls if you try to kiss me," Helena narrowed her eyes at him.
"Why must you be so cruel to me? I thought I was your little studmuffin," Leon pouted.

"Sorry. Too much stud, not enough muffin," Helena shook her head.

"Fine, I'll let go of my dream of us, as devastating as it'll be," he shrugged, pretending to sniffle a little before turning his attention to a blue-eyed brunette a few feet away. "Claire! You've cut your hair, almost didn't recognize you without the ponytail," Leon smiled at her, and Helena chuckled at his quick recovery from his alleged heartbreak. She had to admit he was a sweetheart really.

"One of us had to, you've had the same haircut since 1998!" Claire laughed.
"Yes, but why tamper with perfection? My hair is beautiful," Leon smiled, running his fingers through his hair.
"Whatever you say, Captain Haircut," Claire teased him.

Helena grabbed another bottle of beer, popped it open and began to pace around the room, effectively faking mingling. In reality she was merely circling people, listening to fractions of their conversations without really paying attention or trying to contribute. She had been fake-mingling for almost an hour, and she was beginning to think she'd gotten away with it too. She'd just finished mentally congratulating herself for completing her mission of getting tipsy on free beer and was considering sneaking out after one more drink when she was finally caught.

"I know what you're doing," Hunnigan murmured as she seemed to appear out of the blue to stand next to Helena at the bar.
"What is it that I'm supposedly doing?" the younger woman inquired, her innocent act failing rather miserably.
"Faking it. You haven't actually spoken to anyone have you?"

"I don't know what is it that you're expecting me to talk about. Why did you invite me in the first place?" Helena frowned. Hunnigan shrugged, pushing her glasses onto her forehead and crossed her arms, leaning back against the bar.

"I guess I felt you would benefit from making friends who know what you've been through and understand the nightmares," she said.

"Our experiences may be similar, but I'm sure we all have our own private nightmares," Helena muttered, taking a sip from her beer.

"Want to talk about it?" Hunnigan inquired then, genuinely offering to listen if the younger woman wanted a shoulder.
"Not really, but thanks for asking," she answered.
"Okay. Want me to leave you alone?"
"Well, no. Just pretend we're talking about something very serious so that no one in their right mind would even dream of interrupting what is obviously a deep, meaningful conversation," Helena said, and Hunnigan chuckled.

They spent the rest of the evening chatting mainly about work. Or, to be more precise, Hunnigan spent the time introducing Helena to the other people in the room from a distance, briefing Helena on who was who, and what they'd gone through. Helena listened dutifully, sipping her beer and marveling at how well-adjusted everyone seemed to be considering everything they'd been through.

Realizing how long incidents involving bioterrorism in one way or another had been going on, and how she'd had no idea until recently, took her by surprise. A part of her wondered how was it possible to fool people into thinking nothing like that happened outside B-grade horror movies. Another part admitted she herself wouldn't necessarily have believed it either had she not witnessed it first hand.

Endless conspiracies, deep secrets, and political bullshit everywhere you looked. It was enough to drive a person crazy. Knowing everything she did, how was she supposed to just go on like nothing bad ever happened? How the hell did everyone else do it?

"Why do you and everyone else here do what you do? I mean... it seems kind of pointless considering there's always someone or something no matter what you do to try and stop them," Helena muttered after finishing what must've been her ninth beer and fourth shot of whiskey. She'd lost track a few bottles ago, but judging from the light swaying going on in her head she deduced she was way past a six-pack.

"You know the old saying... bad things happen because good people don't do anything to stop it. Imagine how much worse it all would be if we didn't do anything at all," Hunnigan answered, and Helena shook her head.

"But that's such a shitty sayin'!" she slurred, "It sounds like it's the good people's responsibility to fix everything when the bad ones shouldn't be stirring shit in the first place."

"True, but the bad people hardly give a second thought to anything that doesn't further their own agenda, hence it becomes our responsibility."
"I don't know if I can do this anymore," Helena grumbled, leaning to rest her forehead against her arms that were crossed on the bar.

"You have military, CIA, and Secret Service training, I'm sure you wouldn't have any difficulties finding another job if you wanted one, but I'd hate see you leave the agency," Hunnigan commented sincerely.

"Hah, you'd be the only one," Helena laughed bitterly, and Hunnigan shrugged, smirking.
"You're short-tempered and constantly question authority, that certainly won't make you any friends, but you're a good agent, and that's what matters."

"Thanks," the younger woman chuckled. "You know, I don't think I've ever seen you without the suit and glasses before," she then changed the subject, and Hunnigan's eyebrows rose in surprise. The movement caused her glasses to slide from her forehead to her nose, and Helena burst out laughing at that.

"They know you are talking about them," Hunnigan grinned, took the glasses off and hung them on the collar of her shirt.
"You have such pretty eyes though, you should wear contacts," Helena commented, and Hunnigan quirked an eyebrow.

"Clearly you've never endured the pain of contact lenses. I will not apologize for wearing glasses," she chuckled.
"And I will not apologize for stating that you're cute without them."
"Leon said the same thing once."

"Well, fuck, and here I thought I was being original," Helena sighed dramatically. "Did he at least follow it up with something cheesy like 'no wonder the sky is gray, all the blue is in your eyes' or 'do you have a map because I just got lost in your eyes'?" she continued and Hunnigan laughed, shaking her head a little.

"Actually, I think my eyes are more gray than blue. And no, he just asked for my number."
"Did he get it?"

"It takes far more than that to get my number," Hunnigan smirked. Helena pursed her lips and frowned as she pondered deeply before proceeding to voice out every cheesy pickup line she'd ever heard. Hunnigan didn't seem to be impressed, not that Helena had really expected her to be.

"The voices in my head told me to hit on you."
"I am the voice in your head, and I never said that," Hunnigan countered, her left eyebrow rising.

"Okay, okay, how about... if I follow you home, will you keep me?"
"No, I'll have you arrested for stalking."

"You really like to play hard to get."
"I am hard to get."

"Do you always wear shoes over your socks?" Helena then asked, and Hunnigan burst out laughing.
"All right, that was a new one," she admitted, nodding a little.

"Made you laugh, now you gotta go out with me. And don't even try to tell me I'm not your type, I am adorable!" Helena said, slurring slightly and almost falling off the chair as she raised her hands and leaned back while making her grand declaration.

"You're drunk, that's what you are," Hunnigan said in amusement, reaching to grip Helena's arm before the younger woman actually did fall.

"Yes, but when I'm drunk, it's adorable!" Helena hiccupped. "Besides, it wouldn't be an office Christmas party if someone didn't get drunk and make a pass at a co-worker," she continued then, and without warning, put her hand onto the back of Hunnigan's neck and leaned closer as she pulled on the other woman. Hunnigan managed to duck the attempted kiss, and retreated a little, clearing her throat as she tried to come up with something to say to the gesture.

"That's... not on the menu," she mumbled.
"Well, this is... terribly uncomfortable," Helena commented slowly.
"It's okay, just, uh... Don't worry about it."

"Okay, all the stupid jokes aside, would you actually go out with me?" Helena then asked, and Hunnigan laughed awkwardly.
"Why would want to go out with me?"
"Why wouldn't I? You're smart, we get along well, and on top of that, I find you very attractive."
"Is that so?"

"Yes, plus you always smell really nice, which is important; people under estimate the sense of smell. A lot of women wear excessive amounts of stinky perfumes that just get stuck in the roof my mouth, you know what I mean?" Helena inquired and Hunnigan merely nodded.

"And it's always some weird granny-scent too, gives me a headache and literally leaves a horrible taste in my mouth. You smell kind of sweet, but not in that childlike way teenagers do with their vanilla perfumes. You're like... some kind of creamy honey, spiked with something... citrusy. What is that scent anyway?" Helena babbled, and Hunnigan chuckled, having to admit that she was kind of flattered Helena had paid such close attention.

"It's bergamot orange," Hunnigan smiled. Her eyebrow quirked and she involuntarily tensed up a little when Helena leaned in closer and inhaled deeply.
Well, she really is kind of adorable when she's drunk, Hunnigan thought, smiling at the younger woman's antics.

"I like it."
"Um... thank you?"
"So... what do you think? About my original question I mean."

"First of all, it's gonna take a bit more than complimenting my perfume to get me to go out with you..."
"I also complimented your eyes!" Helena interjected and Hunnigan laughed, nodding in agreement.
"Okay, I'll give you that. I also think you're drunk, so how about you ask me when you're sober, and we'll see what happens," Hunnigan grinned, and Helena narrowed her eyes.
"You think I wouldn't be asking if I was sober. You think I won't remember this conversation in the morning."

"Yeah, pretty much," Hunnigan said, nodding her head in agreement.
"Well... I think I should head home before I embarrass myself any further then. Uhm... Thanks for the invite, and... sorry about the..." Helena trailed off, standing up and gripping the bar to be able to stand straight.
"Will you be all right?" Hunnigan questioned. Helena merely nodded eagerly, waved her hand a little and scuffed out of the room and into the hallway before disappearing into the elevator.

It was getting late and the party was winding down, Hunnigan didn't stay for much longer either. She regretted not making sure Helena would make it home safely, the younger woman had been in quite a state. Considering how much she'd drank it was no wonder, if anything it was a miracle she'd been able to walk at all.

Damn it, I should've made sure she got into a cab. If she passes out in the snow I'll never forgive myself, Hunnigan thought sighing as she pressed the button to call the elevator. When the doors slid open, she was startled when she saw another person in there. Helena hadn't even made it out of the building apparently; she was sitting in the corner of the small space, her forehead resting against her knees as she hugged her legs to her chest.

"Helena?" Hunnigan frowned, and knelt by her.

"Mom, there's chicken on the rug!" Helena groaned raggedly, still in a drunken half-sleep state. Hunnigan blew out a breath and shook Helena's shoulder a little. The younger woman's head snapped back, and she squinted trying very hard to focus her gaze, but couldn't quite do it.

"I'm fine," she insisted unconvincingly.
"Riiight," Hunnigan quirked an eyebrow. She moved to push her shoulder under Helena's arm and proceeded to help her up before pressing a button, ordering the elevator to go down.

"If you puke on me, I will have you assassinated," Hunnigan threatened, and Helena nodded, but put her hand over her mouth as a precaution.

---

And so concludes another boozy misadventure of drunk-Helena, she thought when she woke up. She didn't dare to open her eyes, not just yet. She could hear water running, someone was in the shower. She was thirsty and felt like throwing up, but didn't dare to move. Inhaling deeply she ground her teeth together to fight back the nausea and tried to piece together the events of last night. She remembered making a pass at Hunnigan but after that, nothing.

Maybe she bitch slapped me so hard I lost my memory, Helena thought in mild amusement.

"Mom, would you get the hell outta there, I'm gonna be late, and I need you to sign this fucking thing!" a young female voice yelled, and the shower was turned off.

Okay, so definitely not at my place, Helena thought, daring to open her left eye just a little. She didn't recognize the living room, but was glad to find herself on the couch, fully dressed instead of waking up naked in a stranger's bed after sloppy drunken sex.

"I'm telling you, we need to get a house with two bathrooms," the young woman continued her complaint. A door opened, it sounded like it was shoved open agitatedly.

"Yes, and when you get a job and can start helping out with the mortgage, I'll look into it."

Now there was a voice Helena would've recognized anywhere.

"If I get a job, when will I have time to do drugs with the other kids?"
"Smartass."

Helena glanced around the room. Tidy, but somehow warmer than she'd expected from Hunnigan. The bookshelf was overflowing with titles ranging from science fiction to autobiographies of people Helena didn't recognize. That at least matched her mental image of Hunnigan, she came across as someone who'd read entire libraries.

But the rest didn't fit the frame she'd put Hunnigan into in her mind's eye. Helena had always imagined Hunnigan living in an apartment decorated with sterile whites, black leather furniture, metal and glass, computers and screens on every surface and wall.

"Rather a smartass than a dumbass. Your signature, please!"
"Don't you have enough tattoos?"
"Obviously not. Thanks!" the younger voice said before the sound of her hurried footsteps passed the living room and out the front door.

Helena sat up slowly and swallowed hard, deciding to sneak out before Hunnigan would notice. She'd barely managed to step out of the living room when she heard a growl from behind her. A black and tan Shiba Inu stared her down, daring her to move another muscle.

"Nice doggie," Helena whispered awkwardly, lowering herself a little and slowly reaching her hand out for the dog to sniff. She jolted when the dog barked suddenly, and Hunnigan came down the stairs to Helena's rescue.

"Zoey, down!" she ordered the dog who dutifully sat down and turned to glance at her owner as if to question her decision to let the stranger move freely in the house.

"Shouldn't guard dogs be trained to keep people outside, not trap them inside?" Helena questioned, and Hunnigan chuckled.
"Serves you right for trying to sneak out without even saying goodbye," she commented, gathering her still wet hair into her hands before proceeding to tie it to a ponytail.

"Well, you can't really blame me for wanting to make myself disappear before your daughter and husband saw me... especially after that super awkward pass I made at you last night... for which I apologize. Being drunk isn't an excuse, but I was wasted, and I guess my gaydar got a bit wonky," Helena babbled, and Hunnigan smiled.

"It's all right. And for the record, there's no husband. As for your gaydar, it's... the, uhm... interest you showed did come from out of the blue and surprised me, and I apologize for reacting so badly," she then said.

"Well, now that that's cleared up... kind of... I think I'll go home. If your dog lets me leave, that is," Helena then chuckled.

"You're welcome to stay for breakfast if you feel like eating something," Hunnigan offered. Helena was hungry, but in all honesty she didn't think she would be able to keep anything down.

"I don't wanna trouble ya, I'll grab something from a burger joint on my way home," Helena shook her head, realizing she had no idea where exactly she was even, she'd never been to Hunnigan's before. Frankly she'd never imagined the woman would have a house and dog... not to mention the daughter. She'd imagined Hunnigan wouldn't have the time for pets or children, especially after overhearing the office gossip regarding a phone call someone had heard Hunnigan have. During it, Hunnigan had promptly informed her parents to stop trying to set her up on a blind date, that she'd rather focus on her career. Kids and pets didn't just fit the Ingrid Hunnigan Helena had always imagined.

"It's no trouble, I am going to make something to eat anyway," Hunnigan shrugged, softly touching Helena's forearm in a silent "follow me"-gesture before moving across the living room and toward the kitchen. Helena gave in and followed dutifully, fully aware that Zoey was still keeping a close eye on her. When they got to the kitchen, Hunnigan offered Helena a pint of water, and the young woman eagerly accepted it.

Helena took a seat at the kitchen table and tried to think of something to say. A part of her felt she should've offered to help make breakfast, but she knew she'd probably be about as much help as a six year old would be, cooking wasn't really her forte. Instead, she concentrated on satisfying her thirst by downing the pint of water in three large gulps.

She was about to go get a refill when the front door opened and closed, and the daughter marched back into the house. Helena's eyebrows rose in surprise at the sight of her. Her facial features resembled Hunnigan's in such detail it was almost absurd how much she looked like her mother. However, that was where the similarities ended. Unlike Hunnigan, the teen looked like she was on her way to audition for the lead role in The girl with the dragon tattoo; her ears were pierced from top to bottom, her lower lip had three piercings, there were two on her left eyebrow, one through her nostril and finally, a ring through her septum. Her brown auburn hair was intentionally messy, hanging over the light green eyes that were glaring at her mother.

"Very funny!" the girl growled, slamming a paper on the table. It was a consent form, informing the girl's friendly neighborhood tattoo artist that she had her mother's permission. Except that where Hunnigan should've signed her name, she'd written "How about no?" instead.

"What is your problem? It's just a fuckin' tattoo. You have one!" the girl whined. Helena's eyebrow quirked even higher at that. A tattoo, on Ingrid Hunnigan? No freaking way.
"My problem is that the last time you came back with a top hat-wearing ghost tattooed on your calf! If you're gonna get inked, at least get something that isn't ridiculous," Hunnigan rolled her eyes.

"He also has a red bow tie and a mustache!" the girl argued, as if that somehow made it better.
"Regardless, you're not getting another one, at least not on my watch, so this is the part where you storm out screaming how you hate me, and how all your friends have it better."

"Sure, fine, whatever," the girl grumbled, shrugged a little to adjust her backpack before turning to leave.
"Wait up! Why is this still here?" Hunnigan then demanded, holding up a glass filled with cream colored liquid.

"I forgot, okay?" the teen sighed, took the glass and drank under the watchful eye of her mother. She then slammed the glass down, and defiantly stuck her tongue out before scuffing out of the house without even acknowledging the stranger in the kitchen.

"My pride and joy, Jackie," Hunnigan introduced sarcastically after the girl had gone.
"What was that? You drugging your kid?" Helena smirked, nodding a little at the empty glass.

"Admittedly, drugging her until she behaves would be a lot easier," Hunnigan smirked back, and shook her head then. "It was just a protein supplement, she's recovering from anorexia."

"Oh..." Helena said slowly.
"Yeah. I swear, if I was anything like her when I was fifteen, I don't understand how my mother didn't kill me in my sleep," Hunnigan sighed.

"Fifteen? You had her young," Helena then commented, and Hunnigan offered a lopsided smile.
"It's your typical 'girl meets boy, girl gets knocked up, girl comes from a devout Catholic family so abortion is not an option'-story. I don't regret it though, not even when she drives me insane," she shrugged.

"Sooo... since there's no husband in the picture, I assume there was no shotgun wedding either?" Helena inquired, and Hunnigan laughed softly.
"There was a wedding, sans the shotgun. Mike was a good man, he stepped up and took responsibility," she said, smiling a little at the memory of him.

"He was killed in action back in 2004. You asked me yesterday why we bother doing the job we do... I could've added that sometimes we do it because it gets personal. I imagine you'd know that better than anyone," Hunnigan continued quietly, and Helena nodded. She understood perfectly, she wouldn't have gone through half of the things she had recently had she not been carrying out a personal vendetta.

"What happened to Mike? If you don't mind me asking."

"He was in the army, he was a helicopter pilot, and he was sent to assist Leon when he was deployed to rescue the President's daughter after she'd been kidnapped by Los Illuminados. Long story short, Mike's chopper was shot down."

"I'm sorry."

"Thanks. So, yeah. Now it's just Jackie and I... and one big stupid dog," Hunnigan cooed at Zoey, scratching the dog's neck as the pet enthusiastically swung her tail back and forth, appreciating the attention.

"You know, you aren't at all like I'd imagined you'd be outside the office."
"Sorry to have burst your bubble," Hunnigan laughed, standing up straight and going to stirr the pancake batter.

"Okay, that may have come out wrong, I didn't mean... I don't know what I meant. I guess I didn't realize there was a civilian version of you."
"Well, I can't say that I blame you, civilian-me is a rare sight," Hunnigan said, nudged the skillet tossing the pancake into the air to flip it, and caught it easily afterward.

"So you've pretty much devoted yourself to your work and raising Jackie, civilian-Hunnigan just stays in the background?"
"More or less," Hunnigan nodded.

"I take it that means all my cheesy pickup lines went to waste then, and that you won't agree to go out with me," Helena sighed in disappointment. The other pancake Hunnigan was about to flip missed the skillet as the woman turned sharply to stare at Helena and swallowed hard.

"I, uh... I didn't realize you were serious," she stuttered, scraping the fallen pancake off the counter and tossing it into the trash.
"You didn't think I'd remember."
"Well, that too..."

"I'm seriously asking, sober and all. Okay, hungover as fuck, but still... sober, and perfectly aware of what I'm doing. Go out with me," Helena repeated, this time it was more of a statement than a request.

"Uhm... I don't really know, I'm... flattered, but..."
"You already know how reckless and volatile I can be, but you've yet to find out how stubborn I can be. Rest assured that I will stubbornly keep harrassing you if I must," Helena teased.

"So you're one those 'the key to a woman's heart is stalking her'-type people?" Hunnigan teased back.
"If you genuinely want me to leave you alone, I will of course... but until then..."

"Well... you better take me to some place really nice then since it's gonna be my first date in over a decade," Hunnigan finally agreed.

---

The better Helena got to know Hunnigan, the more she found herself liking the older woman. She admitted that at first she hadn't really expected much to come out of this. She hadn't expected the conversation to flow so effortlessly, she hadn't expected to find herself talking about her life so openly, and she certainly hadn't expected to genuinely be interested in another person as much as she was in Hunnigan. Her past relationships and attempts at dating had been very brief. She didn't have the patience for a lot of people and she usually got bored with them quickly.

Hunnigan was different. Helena supposed she remained interested in the older woman because the two sides of her were so different from each other. The strictly business-Hunnigan showed very little signs of having a sense of humor, if anything she came across as a bit of a prude. The civilian-Hunnigan however could come up with a witty comeback in a fraction of a second, not fazed by anything Helena threw at her in attempts to tease her.

I think I may have met my match, she doesn't let me get away with anything... and I like that. I could easily fall in love with her. Wait, what? Helena thought, her inner musings taking her by surprise.

She hadn't really thought much about love, not even when agreeing that she really liked Hunnigan. She'd thought about going out for a few dates, having a good time, maybe eventually getting lucky and ravishing the other woman, but she hadn't prepared for developing any deep feelings.

Ridiculous, we've gone out six times in the past three weeks, and we haven't even kissed but still I get a little warm in my heart every time I think about her, Helena thought, sighing as she turned to lie on her other side, unable to fall asleep, her mind being too busy thinking about Hunnigan.

She realized she felt a bit sad, already missing Hunnigan because she knew she wouldn't be seeing the other woman for almost two weeks. She'd told Helena she'd be spending Christmas in Wisconsin with her parents and Jackie. Helena also envied that a little, she had no family left to spend her holidays with, no home to go to. She would spend her Christmas eating takeout, probably getting drunk and binge watching Here comes Honey Boo Boo, her guilty pleasure she'd never admit to watching, not even if threatened with torture.

Helena turned to lie on her back, crossing her arms under her head as she stared at the ceiling, fully aware of the smitten smile she had on her lips, but unable to stop it. She glanced at the clock. 0:26 it read, making it so late it was the next day already, but Helena decided to go for it anyway. She reached to grab her phone from the nightstand and wrote a message.

I can't sleep.

She wasn't expecting Hunnigan to respond, and was surprised when her phone made a noise. Her heart leapt a little as she eagerly opened the response.

Too excited waiting for Santa? Hunnigan inquired, and Helena smiled. She tapped the edge of her phone against her chin as she pondered, mentally composing a response before beginning to type it out. She wrote a lengthy and an honest message about missing Hunnigan, but eventually erased it. She began another message, kind of pouring her heart out, explaining that she was developing feelings for Hunnigan, and that she really hoped they could go out again once the holidays were over, but erased that one too. Too much, too soon.

I really like you, she sent out instead, groaning a little at her own awkwardness. Well, at least if all Hunnigan would say to that would be something like "thanks", Helena would know where she stood. Whatever Hunnigan was about to say, she certainly was taking her sweet time typing it out. Glancing at the clock again, Helena figured Hunnigan must've fallen asleep, it was almost one in the morning already. She was about to give up on waiting when she finally got her response. Helena almost didn't dare to open the message.

What if she'd taken so long to respond because she'd written a detailed explanation about how she liked hanging out with Helena too, but that an actual romantic relationship with her wasn't something she could see herself doing? What if it had taken her so long because she'd needed time to word out a diplomatic way to say that this would not go any further? It seemed plausible, they hadn't even kissed, for Christ's sakes, not even after both had agreed that they'd had a really good time together. That alone should've spoken volumes...

It wasn't that Helena hadn't wanted to, quite frankly she'd spent more time thinking about kissing Hunnigan than she cared to admit. But she hadn't dared to. Hunnigan had already once told her that wasn't on the menu. From where Helena stood, that meant it was up to Hunnigan to make the next move.

"Aw, screw it. Do your worst," Helena muttered in the darkness and finally opened the message, her heart beating harder and faster than it really should've considering that all she was doing was lying in bed.

I really like you too, Helena. Try get some sleep, you know Santa won't come if you stay up.

Grinning like an idiot, Helena hugged her phone to her chest for a moment before putting it away and turning onto her side again, closing her eyes and managing to finally start drifting off to sleep.

---

Helena was certain she was the only one who had been looking forward for the holidays to be over, and was excited to go back to work. Having something to do was good, too much free time left her with too many opportunities to sink into the abyss of her own soul where she'd feed the dark thoughts her inner demons kept washing to the shore of her mind. Today she was happy, she had work to do, and on top of it all, she'd get to see Hunnigan. Frankly, the latter excited her more than anything else did at the moment. Her good mood didn't go unnoticed either.

"Helena, you're almost smiling, what happened, did you run over a puppy?" Leon teased the woman.

"No, it was a small child. His damn wheelchair did a number on my car's paintjob, but it was still totally worth it," she quirked an eyebrow at him, stepping out of the elevator with him.

"Wow, that's really dark even from you!" Leon commented as they headed to the briefing room.

Hunnigan was standing by the large screens mounted to the wall, dressed in a black pinstripe suit and a carnation pink collared shirt, a color combination which made Helena think of liquorice and raspberries. When everyone was present and sitting down, Hunnigan and agent Mayer began their briefing.

Helena knew she should've paid more attention, but she was finding it difficult to concentrate on the briefing. Stolen samples of the viruses recovered after the recent incidents should've been enough to warrant her full attention but her mind kept wandering. She was too busy chewing on her tongue, almost being able to taste the liquorice and raspberries as she stared at Hunnigan and wondered what she tasted like.

"Our priority is to find the samples before anyone has a chance to modify the virus and sell it on the black market. Unfortunately there aren't many leads or witnesses, but we'll just have to make do with what we've got," Hunnigan said.

"Please tell me there's a plan B," Leon requested, crossing his arms over his stomach as he leaned back in his chair.

"Plan B is to locate Jake Muller and obtain more blood samples from him. We've already set up a joint task force with the BSAA trying to locate him. However, until we know what we'll be trying to vaccinate everyone against..." Hunnigan trailed off.

"So basically what you're saying is we can't really do anything until the thieves make the first move," Helena muttered.
"Unfortunately you're right, there isn't a lot we can do pre-emptively," Hunnigan admitted.

"Since you piped up, how about you go have a chat with the witnesses, and see if you can come up with at least an idea of what the suspects look like," agent Mayer told Helena, and the young woman bit her tongue.

"Yes sir," she said, dispassionately. Legwork, talking to witnesses, boring shit she was pretty sure she wouldn't have needed to endure had she not been the rookie of the agency.

After the briefing, Helena got the addresses of the few people who'd allegedly seen something and began heading out, but decided to make a last minute detour. She nodded silent greetings to the F.O.S. agents she passed, strutted down the stairs and went to Hunnigan's desk.

"Take me out to lunch," Helena said, perched herself on the edge of the desk and leaned back, crossing one leg over the other.
"It's barely nine in the morning," Hunnigan quirked an eyebrow.

"I didn't mean now, but later."
"I don't think I'll have the time to go out for lunch, I'll probably just grab a bite at my desk," Hunnigan muttered absently, reading through the steady stream of field reports flowing on her screen, updating in real time.

"Also, please don't sit on my desk like that."
"Are you calling me fat, worried I'll break something?" Helena teased, but Hunnigan wasn't amused.
"No, but we're at work, so let's keep it professional, okay?"

"Got it," Helena mumbled standing up, having to work very hard not to sound as hurt as she felt. She admitted Hunnigan was right and had a point, as she usually did, but still. She had to admit she felt rather disappointed that Hunnigan didn't seem to share her enthusiasm regarding their reunion.

"Would you tell civilian-Hunnigan that I missed her, and would very much like to take her out to dinner tonight if she's available. I believe it's my treat," Helena then said, and Hunnigan offered her a lopsided smile and a quirked eyebrow.

"Pick me up at seven."

---

"Mom, what the hell? You look... good!" Jackie gasped, pausing at Hunnigan's bedroom door. Hunnigan raised an eyebrow at the girl's comment as she glanced at her through the mirror she sat in front of, fighting with a particularly stubborn earring. Only her left ear was pierced, and she usually wore a simple stud, but had decided to replace it with a hoop for a change. A decision she was beginning to regret as the earring refused to lock.

"Thank you for sounding genuinely surprised by the fact that I could possibly look good. You mock, but in twenty years, this will all be yours," Hunnigan teased, gesturing at her face.

"You better be talkin' about the jewelry," the teen scoffed, fully aware that she was practically a carbon copy of her mother.
"Hot date?" Jackie inquired as she stepped into the room and went to assist Hunnigan, snapping the earring's lock in place for her.

"Something like that."
"Will you be back tonight?" she then asked.

"Yes, so don't even think about throwing a party while I'm away," Hunnigan responded, offering her a stern look through the mirror, and the girl rolled her eyes.

"Hey, I don't need to host a party to hang with the cool kids, I get invited to other people's parties," she shrugged smugly. "I take it it's the same guy you've been going out with a lot recently," the continued then, wiggling an eyebrow.

"It's... the same person, yes," Hunnigan responded slowly.

"What's he like? Where'd you meet? What does he look like? Oh, and most importantly, what kind of a car does he have?" Jackie ranted, and Hunnigan laughed at the girl's priorities. Ever since she'd seen 2 Fast 2 Furious, she'd been more than hinting she'd be wanting one of the cars from that movie for her sweet sixteenth birthday. Hunnigan had promptly told the girl she'd be lucky to get a tricycle.

"Good Lord, I don't think you've asked that many questions since you were four," Hunnigan chuckled.

"Teeelll meee, teeell meee, teeelll meee," Jackie repeated, wrapping her arms around Hunnigan from behind and swaying her from left to right to the rhythm of her mantra.

"All right, fine, just stop before I get seasick," she chuckled, and Jackie let go before moving to sit on the edge of Hunnigan's bed.

"Okay, you look so serious there's gotta be something really wrong with him. He's old? He's ugly! Or both, but has a big dick which compensates for his other shortcomings... no pun intended."

"Jackie!" Hunnigan scolded, but admitted privately that the girl wasn't exactly wrong, Helena had massive balls, figuratively speaking.
"Well, there's gotta be something wrong with him if he's been voluntarily dating you for... what, a month?" Jackie taunted.

"You know... I'm this close to cutting off your allowance," Hunnigan threatened, holding her index finger and thumb up, pinching them together to leave barely a millimeter of empty space between them.

"All right, all right, I'll be quiet, just tell me."
"Well, to answer your questions, we met at the agency..."

"Duh, that was a sarcastic question," Jackie rolled her eyes, despite her promise to keep her comments to herself. Where else would Hunnigan have met anyone, Jackie couldn't remember ever seeing her go anywhere that wasn't work-related in some way. Other than the grocery store anyway, and somehow Jackie didn't think her mother was the type who'd pick up a guy from a chekout line. Although stranger things had happened.

"She worked for the CIA and the Secret Service, and was recently transferred to the D.S.O., I've known her close to a couple of years..."
"Wait, what? She?"
"Yes. As for her looks, you've seen her, she was here to witness your meltdown when you couldn't get a tattoo a few weeks back."
"The drunk chick you dragged home from the Christmas party!" Jackie exclaimed, her mouth hanging open when she realized who they were talking about.

"Her name is Helena. And thanks a lot for making it sound like I clubbed her over the head and dragged her back to my cave by the hair," Hunnigan laughed. Some dragging had taken place, but only because Helena had been too drunk to properly lift her feet. Besides, she'd "dragged" Helena home with her merely to offer her a place to sleep, she hadn't intended for this to come out of it... not that she really minded the end result if she was honest.

"Sooo... It's not like you've had a lot of luck with guys, but switching teams seems rather drastic."

"Is that... a problem?" Hunnigan frowned. She'd never really discussed things regarding sex and relationships with Jackie, she hadn't needed to. When she'd tried, the girl had made it perfectly clear she knew everything already.

When you're old enough, do what you want with whoever you want regardless of gender, as long as you use protection and it's between two consenting adults, was how Jackie had put it, and Hunnigan hadn't had anything to add to it. However, being open-minded and accepting was one thing, hearing your mother was dating another woman was still a different story.

"Hah, I don't care who you're sleeping with, I just never got a gay vibe from you," Jackie shrugged nonchalantly, genuinely not minding.
"I'm not sleeping with anyone!"
"Actually, I don't think I've ever gotten any vibe from you, I've never considered you a human being with that kinda feelings."
"What am I, chopped liver?" Hunnigan quirked an eyebrow.
"You know what I mean! You're my mom, not a sexual being as far as I'm concerned," Jackie laughed.

"Gee, thanks. I'm beginning to see why we have these mother-daughter heart-to-hearts so often, they're wonderful for my self-esteem," Hunnigan said sarcastically.

"I'm just glad to see you're doing something other than working and curling up with a damn book. I don't think I've ever seen you go out on a date," Jackie then commented, frowning a little as she pondered.

"That's because it hasn't happened," Hunnigan laughed. She'd spent the past decade focusing on work and on trying to ensure Jackie would grow up to be a decent person. She felt she'd done a decent job considering everything. Despite the girl's filthy mouth and the fact that she looked like the stereotypical renegade and troublemaker, she had a good heart.

"Exactly, so I'm glad to see you're finally doing something for yourself."

"Yes, and I'm sure you hoping that me dating would mean I'll be too preoccupied to keep you in check has nothing to do with that," Hunnigan quirked an eyebrow and Jackie scoffed.
"How cynical of you," she commented before proceeding to tug on the front of Hunnigan's shirt with the hook of her index finger.

"Don't tell me you're wearing this. She's an agent so I assume she sees you in a suit on a daily basis, wear a damn dress for a change," Jackie then sighed in disapproval before turning to rummage through Hunnigan's closet. Finally she dug out a black strapless dress and held it up.

"You expect me to wear that, in the middle of January? You're out of your mind."
"Well, at least change your bra into something hotter than what I spied on you," the girl groaned and put the dress away.

"No one's gonna be seeing my bra, or anything else for that matter, thank you very much!"

"She's been wining and dining you since before Christmas and you're keeping your legs crossed? What are you trying to do, regain your virginity or something? You're the one who is out of her mind," Jackie scoffed, and Hunnigan groaned loudly, burying her face into her hands.

"This is officially the most uncomfortable conversation I've ever had."
"Even worse than the one we had when I asked you what anal sex is?" Jackie chuckled. Frankly, having to explain that one to her seven year old in the waiting room at the dentist's office, fully aware of the conversation being overheard by everyone else in the room, had been more uncomfortable.

"Well, no, that one trumps everything," Hunnigan admitted, laughing a little.
"I will never forget the way that old lady looked at you when you told me that it was something one should never do before oral sex."
"I never said that!" Hunnigan scoffed.
"I wish you had, would've saved me from a nasty learning experience."
"Jackie!"

"I'm kidding! Still totally a virgin, in pretty much every meaning of the word!" the girl rolled her eyes, and Hunnigan sighed.
"Oh, get outta here so I can get ready in peace before Helena shows up," she then shooed the girl out of the room.

"Too late," Jackie teased as the lights of the car arriving into the yard washed over the wall, casting shadows. Zoey rushed over, barking loudly at the guest on the other side of the door. Jackie went to let her in and pet Zoey's head to assure the dog everything was okay. Helena hadn't even managed a greeting when the girl gasped, "Is that a Skyline R34 GT-R?"

"Uhm... R33 actually. Good eye though," Helena responded, nodding toward her silver colored car.
"You wouldn't be interested in selling it?" Jackie asked, stepping aside from the door, allowing Helena to enter. Zoey sat by Jackie's legs, a low growl emanating deep from the dog's chest.

"Sorry, no," Helena chuckled. "What is your problem?" she then frowned at the dog, who responded with a bark.
"Don't worry, she's loud but harmless," Jackie assured.

"I suppose I'm an acquired taste," Helena snorted, kneeling down and slowly reaching to pet the dog in an attempt to make friends. The dog's response was to bare her teeth, and Helena decided to give up before she'd lose any fingers.

---

To Helena's surprise, Hunnigan accepted her oh so transparent invitation to come over to her apartment for coffee after dinner. It wasn't a big apartment, but Helena had utilized the space well, making it seem more roomy than it actually was.

Hunnigan paused by the bookshelf and tilted her head to the side as she read the titles. Apparently Helena was a fan of crime novels judging from the amount of Carol O'Connell's works on the shelf among the impressive collection of Donald Duck pocket books. Hunnigan had read a few of said author's books herself, but couldn't really remember in detail what they'd been about. She rarely could, she'd read probably about three thousand books in her lifetime, and when you reached numbers like that, it became kind of difficult to keep track of individual plotlines.

Hunnigan then turned her attention to the young woman's CD and DVD collection. Aside from Abney Park and Milo Greene, Hunnigan didn't recognize the bands. As for the movies, she had to admit the titles weren't something she herself would've bought. Then again, she didn't let the obvious difference in her and Helena's tastes bother her too much, it would take more than liking or not liking the same bands and movies to make or break a relationship.

"Is that a... Here comes Honey Boo Boo box set?" Hunnigan then questioned loudly, and Helena stuttered awkwardly in the kitchen as she poured them the coffee.

"No judging!" she finally managed to respond as she emerged with two mugs and handed the other one to Hunnigan before taking a seat on the couch.
"Oh, Helena, that is disturbing even from you," Hunnigan teased and went to sit next to her, accepting the hot beverage.

"They make my family seem harmless in comparison."
"I suppose that is part of the attraction," Hunnigan shrugged and took a sip of the coffee. "So how strange was your family if you need such extremes to compare to in order to feel normal?" she then quirked an eyebrow.

"Well, not very to be honest. Mom was a secretary, dad was a builder, we weren't rich but we were pretty happy I suppose. They died in a car accident when I was seventeen, and my grandma looked after Deborah after that while I joined the army. And when grandma passed, I transferred to the CIA... and the rest you know," Helena shrugged. "What about you? You said you went to Wisconsin for Christmas, that state makes me think of dairy farms... so how did a farm girl end up becoming a hotshot at the D.S.O.?" she then questioned, and Hunnigan laughed heartily at the younger woman's assumptions.

"Sorry, no dairy farm, dad's a cop, and mom's a doctor," she began, sipping her coffee before continuing. "As for me, I wasted my youth and a ton of quarters at the arcade, playing Terminator 2: Judgment day. Needless to say I've seen the movie a million times too, and the idea of Skynet just swept me away, so I got into computer science."

"So we have a mass murdering AI to thank for your career choice. Interesting," Helena grinned.

"Well, cyborgs and artificial intelligence in real life aren't quite what they're made out to be in Hollywood, so after getting my degree, I worked as a network security specialist for a while, then saw an opening at the agency, and went for it. That's about it," Hunnigan finished shrugging.

"So, you're one of those cool moms who understand video games," Helena smiled, and Hunnigan burst out laughing.

"Doesn't matter who you are, your teenager will never think you're cool," she commented. "As for video games, she hates me because most of the time she can't beat my high scores, and the rare times she does, I go and immediately beat hers," she then added, grinning.

"You monster," Helena chuckled.
"Speaking of, I should head home to see if the house is still standing or did Jackie invite her monster friends over," Hunnigan sighed and began to stand up, but Helena stopped her, gently but firmly gripping her arm.

"Wait..." she said quietly and took Hunnigan's hands into her own. The older woman sat back down, and looked at Helena curiously.

"Look... we've been at this for a while, and I really need to know what you're thinking because... I want more. I mean, if you've been agreeing to go out with me just to humor me, then we should probably stop before I fall in love with you any further," Helena muttered awkwardly, noticing how Hunnigan swallowed hard at her words.

"And what exactly is it that you want, where do you see us going?"

Other than my bedroom? Helena wondered privately.

"Well, I hadn't thought about this much further than a good night's kiss for starters, to be honest," she said out loud instead.

"I'm the... super old fashioned, mates for life-type of a person, that's the level of commitment I'd be expecting. You say you want more, but the truth is there is no middle ground with me, so... you'd end up getting a lot more than you wanted," Hunnigan explained, and Helena frowned.

"You make it sound like a life sentence."

"Well, that's how seriously it should be taken. And you're only twenty-four years old, so it hardly seems realistic that we'd..." Hunnigan trailed off, shrugging a little, not really wanting admit out loud that she didn't think this potential relationship would last the rest of her life.

"Are you always this pessimistic?"
"Only when I have to be brutally honest."

"Usually I get what I want and move on, no deep feelings, no attachments, just a bit of fun and that's all," Helena began, and Hunnigan quirked an eyebrow.

"Exactly, and I don't do that, so if that's what you're expecting from me, we're wasting our time," she said and Helena shook her head, sighing a little impatiently.

"What part of 'I'm falling in love with you' did you not hear me say? That's what I'm trying to tell you, that this is different from what I've usually done. I want to get to know you, and your kid... and even your dog who seems to hate me for some reason," Helena smirked.

They were quiet for a long moment, Helena feeling oddly excited and anxious at the same time. Excited because she'd finally managed to say it out loud, and Hunnigan hadn't just left after hearing it. Anxious because while she hadn't ran away, her reaction also wasn't quite as enthusiastic as Helena had hoped it would be.

"I'm not going to deny the certain chemistry we have, but the truth is, I don't know if I'd even want to be in a relationship at all," Hunnigan said, and Helena felt like she'd just been punched in the stomach. Actually, getting punched in the stomach would've felt more comfortable than hearing that did.

"It's been just me and my things for so long, I don't think I'd even know how to be with someone anymore."
"What the hell is there to know how?" Helena asked in exasperation.

"Whatever it is that people usually do. You'd just end up disappointed because the odds are I don't have what it takes to randomly call you to say hi," Hunnigan sighed.
"Fuck normal people, and their boring normal lives, I don't want that, I want you."

"What about what I want?" Hunnigan snapped then, and Helena ground her teeth together. This was infuriating, but now was not the time to lose her temper... even if what she really would've wanted to do was to grab Hunnigan by the shoulders and shake her until she understood how ridiculous her arguments were.

"All right. Look me in the eye and tell me you honestly don't want me, and I will leave you alone," she challenged instead, and Hunnigan hung her head a little, exhaling deeply.

"I can't do that."

"Then stop arguing with me already," Helena whispered impatiently and moved closer, not giving Hunnigan another chance to object or turn away. She pressed her lips to Hunnigan's hard enough to almost bruise them, inhaling deeply at the contact she'd been longing for. She captured Hunnigan's lower lip between her own, tracing her tongue over it, relishing the taste of Hunnigan's breath. She pressed her body against the other woman's, wrapping her arms around her tightly, sliding her fingers up along her back slowly, one vertebra at a time.

"Helena, wait... I can't..." Hunnigan muttered when Helena broke the kiss and trailed her lips along Hunnigan's jawline.
"Want me to stop?" Helena whispered into her ear before biting on it softly.

"No. That's the problem," Hunnigan breathed, sinking her fingers into Helena's hair and tugging on it as she balled her hand into a fist.
"Then what do you want?" Helena asked, moving her hands over to Hunnigan's sides, dragging her fingernails on the fabric of her shirt as she brought her hands up to the front, slowly beginning to undo the buttons.

"I don't know," Hunnigan swallowed, firmly gripping Helena's wrist to stop her before she'd make it to the fourth button. Helena paused, and leaned to rest her forehead against Hunnigan's, straightening her fingers and pressing her palm against the other woman's chest. She smiled at the feel of her heart racing.

"I want you," Helena murmured.
"I want you too... and that's what scares me."

Hunnigan inhaled sharply as Helena's fingers continued to work their way through the rest of the buttons, and this time she let them. When they were undone, Helena pushed the shirt back and had to pause to stare for a moment when she noticed the tattoo. It was Ouroboros, the snake eating its own tail tattooed in black and gray ink and in the shape of an infinity symbol, the lower loop of the snake circling Hunnigan's navel.

Oh God, how I want to trail my tongue over that.

Helena put her arm around Hunnigan, pulling her to herself with ease, and sunk her teeth into the side of Hunnigan's neck, biting hard enough to make the other woman whimper. She urged Hunnigan to lie down on the couch, and she gave in, but when Helena began to trail her tongue over Hunnigan's collarbone and down toward her chest, Hunnigan pushed herself back up.

"I can't do this. I'm sorry," she breathed, shaking her head and stood, buttoning her shirt back up. Helena sighed and ran her hand over her face.

"Why? What's wrong?" Helena asked then, standing up as well.
"I don't think you'd understand even if I managed to explain it," Hunnigan sighed.

"No, I really don't understand any of this! If you don't feel the same way about me, then why are you even here? Why did you even agree to—?" Helena frowned, and Hunnigan interrupted her. She turned to Helena and cupped her face firmly in her hands, looking straight into the amber eyes filled with impatience and confusion.

"I do feel the same way, that's the problem! You're an agent, I can't put myself through everything that comes with that. Not after what happened..." Hunnigan trailed off, let go of Helena and sighed.

"You're afraid I'll get killed in the line of duty like Mike did?" the younger woman realized. Hunnigan didn't confirm or deny anything, instead she mumbled another apology, pulled her coat on and headed out despite Helena's repeated request to wait.

---

Hunnigan avoided Helena's calls the following weekend. Come Monday, Helena marched straight into the F.O.S. agents' floor at the HQ and made a beeline for Hunnigan's desk.

"You're not Hunnigan!" she then blurted out, startled when the chair swiveled and the agent occupying it turned out to be a young man.
"Glad to see your eyesight's fine, agent Harper," he chuckled. "Agent Jones," he then introduced himself.
"Where's Hunnigan?" Helena demanded as she offered him a half-hearted handshake.
"I don't know, all I was told was that the agent working this job requested for a transfer," Jones shrugged.
"What!" Helena gasped, but didn't have a chance to ask any further questions. Agent Mayer poked his head in through the door and pointed at her.

"Harper! Briefing room, now, you're being deployed," he ordered. Sighing, she followed him wondering where she'd be sent this time. Considering the amount of shit jobs Mayer had assigned for her, she was beginning to think he had some kind of a grudge against her. While a swarm of actual zombies wasn't really preferable, Helena still hated being sent to investigate what almost always turned out to be nothing but a flashmob of very convincing cosplayers.

"We tracked down the person responsible for stealing the samples. He was one of the researchers at the Kansas facility."
"Wasn't that one supposed to be evacuated when the tornado hit town?" Helena frowned, and Mayer nodded.

"That's what we thought, the samples were supposed to be destroyed, the animals put down... Doctor Nicks volunteered to do that, but instead he stole the samples and a batch of infected mice. No one noticed because the area is still a mess."

"So I'm going to Kansas?"

"No. Nicks sold the samples, agent Hunnigan traced the transactions, and if her intel is on the money, the buyer is... or was in Svalbard islands. I want you to go find them. Pack a bag, your flight leaves in three hours. And watch out for the polar bears," Mayer smirked.

Helena nodded, and accepted the plane ticket from Mayer before turning sharply and heading out. Once on the plane and in her seat, she dug out the files Mayer had provided for her.

Her destination was an island called Ussehamina, best known for its amusement park which had been a tourist attraction during summers a decade before Helena had even been born, it had been abandoned for over seven years now. As had been the coal mine and the research station the island had. The brief didn't say what the station had been used to research. Population zero, the entire island had been abandoned. Or at least that was what everyone were expected to believe; what could be a better place for illegal experiments than an uninhabited island?

Helena would need to switch planes in Oslo, and from there it was a few hours more. She glanced at her watch. She'd have over twelve hours to kill. Twelve boring hours stuck on a plane with her thoughts. She hated the idea of that even more than she did the idea of having to spend the next few days on an island where the weather undoubtedly was freezing cold, and trying to interview people who probably didn't even understand English.

I can't believe she requested for a transfer. This level of rejection is beginning to really hurt. Then again perhaps I should just take a hint and let it go, Helena then thought, sighing. Why did this have to be so complicated, Hunnigan had said she wanted her too, so why did she keep running away? It made no sense. Things involving feelings, especially love and attraction, rarely did though.

Helena was beginning to wish she could've shrugged this off as easily as she had her past relationships when they'd gotten too complicated and serious... but this was different because this time, she didn't really want it to end. It had barely even started, and she'd already put more effort into it than she had into anything else before, this mattered.

Falling in love with her has to be by far the dumbest thing I have ever done... and I've done a lot of stupid shit, so that's saying something, Helena scolded herself, leaned her elbow against the edge of the window and rested her chin in the cup of her hand. She stared out, tried to think of something else, but the view, as nice as the sun above the clouds was, wasn't enough to distract her.

Her mind kept stubbornly wandering back to Hunnigan, rewinding the kiss over and over. Helena wasn't usually picky when it came to her lovers' gender, but even then she admitted that there was something specifically exquisite about a woman. The way she licked her lips, that particular shape of her mouth when it opened in a moan. How her chest heaved, her back arched, her hips bucked.

I bet that snake on Hunnigan's belly looks alive when she breathes hard... like when she's about to... Oh God, why am I doing this to myself? Helena sighed deeply. She blinked a few times to try and chase away the vivid mental image of Hunnigan straddling her, grinding, moaning, breathing heavily, sweat glistening on her skin. Helena swallowed hard, finding herself feeling not only ridiculously turned on but oddly sleepy.

This isn't normal, she frowned and fought to stay awake. Looking around, she noticed everyone else seemed to have passed out. This wasn't good. Helena struggled to get out of her seat but couldn't, a deep darkness was already taking over, forcing her to slump back and pass out.

---

Hunnigan sat on the edge of the bunk bed in the dim back room. The room itself was just a small space furnished only with the bunk and decorated with piles of boxes containing old case files. Hunnigan was pretty much the only agent who hadn't used it for its intended purpose, taking power naps during shifts that stretched to go on for days.

"I'll sleep when my agents are home," she'd always said. She wasn't there to sleep now either; she was there to take a moment to herself. She'd requested the transfer, she'd intentionally avoided Helena... and then she'd been yanked back; Jones had called her to tell her he hadn't been able to locate Helena. At first she'd assumed the kid just didn't know how to use the software, but when she'd gotten there, she'd realized that wasn't the problem. Helena genuinely was missing.

For the past thirty-two hours Hunnigan had had hope. Helena was missing, her phone was off, and Hunnigan hadn't been able to pinpoint her exact location, but Helena's ID chip had been online. Had been until fifteen minutes ago.

Those things were implanted quite firmly and built to last, taking it offline would require some effort. Quite possibly at least a partial destruction of the bodypart it was embedded in. Yes, there was a possibility that Helena was still alive, merely missing an arm... or was just injured badly enough for the chip to have gone offline... but somehow it didn't seem likely. At least not as likely as Helena being dead did.

It didn't make sense, planes didn't just disappear. There hadn't been a Mayday or anything else that would've indicated a mechanical error. There was no reason to assume it had been hijacked either. And had it crashed, evidence of it would've already been discovered.

The fact that it had gone off-radar was normal, they'd been in oceanic airspace which had made it so that tracking the plane and communicating with it had required a bit more effort than a simple push of a button, but even then there should've been communication between the plane and the air traffic control. So either all the communication equipment had somehow failed, or the pilot had intentionally switched it off.

Assuming the pilot had done it, the question why still remained. Why would anyone steal a commercial jetliner full of passengers? Unless the intention was to fly the plane into a building, it made no sense. No crashes had been reported, accidental or otherwise, and by now the plane would have ran out of fuel. It hadn't crashed, but it couldn't be airborne anymore either... where the hell was it and why?

"Unless it wasn't the plane they were interested in, but the passengers," Hunnigan muttered to herself as the realization of that hit her like a ton of bricks. She knew better than anyone that people went missing on a daily basis, and more than often the reason was that organizations like The Family and Neo-Umbrella abducted them.

Hijacking a plane and landing it in secret would be difficult no matter how remote the location, but undoubtedly still very much doable. Just last year they'd hijacked a Navy submarine right from under everone's noses. They'd build laboratories and facilities all over the world, and even underwater, and they'd managed to keep it all a secret. Surely snatching plane would be child's play compared to all that.

Planes went missing all the time and eventually the wreckage was found in the bottom of the ocean, the crash was shrugged off as a mechanical issue or human error. The idea of Neo-Umbrella, or The Family, or whatever the organization behind this would turn out to be, bribing a pilot or planting one of their own to work at an airline for the sole purpose of abducting people didn't seem impossible at all.

"Hunnigan?" Leon inquired quietly from the door. "You okay?"

"Yeah," the woman responded and stood up, pinching the bridge of her nose to chase away the headache. "I have a theory..."

---

Helena woke up to the sound of wind howling as it rushed past branches and through the loose boards the shack was built of. Several pains and aches registered, but none of them seemed overwhelming. The only thing that felt overwhelming was the stench of rotting wood as it invaded her nose, making her feel sick. This felt like a nasty hangover, or the aftermath of getting punched in the face. At least nothing was broken, and all the bodyparts moved as they were meant to.

She sat up slowly. The floor was... there was no floor, just frozen solid ground. Helena ignored the discomfort of that, removed her jacket and focused on her arm. There was a crude bandage wrapped around her forearm. She peeled it back slowly and unveiled a deep cut on the spot in the middle between her elbow and wrist. That was where her ID and GPS tracking microchip had been implanted.

It's been dug out. Whoever's responsible knew what they were doing. Where the hell is everyone else though, I wasn't the only one on the plane, Helena frowned. The plane hadn't crashed, and nothing she remembered suggested anything had gone wrong either. She couldn't remember anything being out of the ordinary, no commotion, no nothing. She'd felt a bit sleepy but other than that...

Sighing, she told herself she wouldn't find any answers by sitting here on her ass, and got up, zipping her jacket and turned to leave. She had to push hard to get the door open; the wind pushed back with such force it almost shoved her down. A mixture of rain and snow blew into her face, the flakes and drops stinging her skin like tiny cold needles. Growling in frustration, she raised her hand to shield her face with her palm and looked around.

The shack was a part of the abandoned amusement park, she realized as she looked up and found herself standing beside a rusting and rotting roller coaster track. The structure groaned and grumbled as the wind tore at it and the snow weighed on it.

Helena saw no signs of the plane, or of anyone else in the vicinity. With a resigned sigh, she put her hands in her pockets. The cold was already numbing them, piece by piece gnawing at the tips of her fingers until she couldn't feel them anymore. Shoulders hunched, she began to walk forward, away from the roller coaster and past the collapsed Ferris Wheel, toward the entrance.

The toy soldiers standing in attention on both sides of the gate had once been smiling and welcoming visitors, now they looked like they were sneering, the streaks of rust running along their faces looked like blood. Helena didn't know what possessed her to do it, but she decided to peek into the ticket booth by the gate.

I don't know what I was expecting, she thought when she saw the booth was empty. A part of her had been expecting a rotting corpse to jump at her from there, stranger things had happened to her, and that was something not a lot of people could say. Helena straightened her back and was about to turn and exit the park when when she heard a metallic click behind her, followed by a stern command, "Don't move."

---

"We meet again, agent Harper. You sure have a knack for getting into trouble," Ada said as she slowly circled Helena, her bowgun firmly aimed at the agent's chest.

"And you have a knack for showing up wherever there's trouble," Helena scoffed, finding it difficult to believe Ada just happened to be here by coincidence. "Where are we, and why?" she demanded.

Ada pursed her lips as she thought about the request. She put the bow down and crossed her arms over her stomach.

Helena had to admire Ada's ability to look so well prepared even in situation like this. Then again, surely she'd known beforehand what she'd be getting into. Although, there was something about Ada that said she didn't even go grocery shopping without being prepared for the apocalypse. Helena couldn't blame her really, considering the frequency at which the world seemed to be on the verge of coming to an end.

The long fur-lined leather jacket undoubtedly hid several weapons and Lord only knew what spy-gadgets, but right now Helena would've preferred having the jacket even more than the weapons. It looked so damn warm and comfortable.

"We're on the island Ussehamina. My guess is that you're here because you just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The fact that you're still alive suggests they figured out who you are and decided to use you as a part of their experiment," Ada explained, the fact that she hadn't said who "they" were not escaping Helena.

"Why?" Helena frowned and Ada shrugged.

"Using you to see how well their B.O.W.s handle in a real life against an experienced agent is smarter than wasting you by infecting you," Ada responded, her tone the definition of nonchalant, like she was talking about what she'd had for lunch today.

"How did they know who I am?"

"Well, apart from the obvious paperwork you did to be allowed to carry a weapon on board, hijacking your information from your ID chip during a routine scan isn't much of a trick," Ada chuckled at the stupid question.

"What about the plane, the others?" Helena then demanded, and Ada quirked an eyebrow. The amount of questions was beginning to border on rude. Helena should've been glad Ada had told her as much as she already had.

"The plane is probably being salvaged from the bottom of the ocean as we speak... or from wherever the pilot was told to crash it to make it look like an accident. As for the passengers, well... who can say?"

"You could! You know something, you always seem to! Just fucking tell me!" Helena yelled and lunged at Ada. She managed to take the spy by surprise and they tumbled in the snow, Helena landing on Ada. She seized her chance and pressed her forearm against Ada's throat to pin the woman down.

"What are you doing here, who is behind this, where's everyone else?" she demanded, snarling at the spy as she leaned so close their noses almost touched. She could feel Ada's throat move as the older woman swallowed hard, and smiled at Helena sweetly, the smile reaching all the way up to her eyes.

"And if I won't tell you, then what, you'll kill me? I can't talk if I'm dead, dummy."

"I could just cripple you by shooting your spine to pulp," Helena threatened. She'd barely managed to finish her sentence when Ada kissed her. As Helena recoiled at the sudden contact, Ada pressed her foot against Helena's abdomen and kicked her off, sending the agent tumbling backward.

"Bitch!" Helena grunted as she sat up, bringing her hand to rub the sore spot where Ada's heel had dug into. "What the fuck did you do that for?"

"That was what you least expected, and that will be your downfall, you don't prepare for the unknown. It also makes you infuriatingly predictable," Ada said, the familiar smug smile curling her lips. She picked up her bowgun, hung it over her shoulder and pulled out the grapple gun from its holster on her thigh.

"If I were you I'd follow the black smoke coming from the coal mine that's supposed to be abandoned. It shouldn't take you more than half a day to reach the other end of the island... provided you don't run into trouble or get lost," Ada said, aimed the grapple gun and fired.

"I also suggest you hurry. There's a storm coming... and these people aren't exactly patient, so unless the experiment yields results soon, the odds are it'll be terminated... the test subjects with it."

"Ada, wait!" Helena yelled and scampered to her feet, trying to grab a hold of Ada, but she was too late, the spy was already zip-lining away, disappearing into the snowy branches.

---

Thirty-nine hours and counting. The most infuriating thing about the waiting wasn't the wait itself. The most infuriating, and terrifying, thing was the uncertainty. Not knowing what was happening, if Helena was still alive or not, hoping against hope that she would just pop back up on the map. That feeling of being absolutely powerless to do anything.

It wasn't new to her... not after all the times she'd had to listen in, to read the endless stream of requests for help flooding her screen when something went wrong... and all she could do was... make promises of sending backup, knowing that most of the time it was already too late. Hunnigan had never been there to see it all in person, from up close. But she had her own nightmares, and they all usually began almost the same way.

"Oh my God! Oh... no, no, no! What is that thing?! What do I do?! Oh my God, what the hell is—?!"

Then screaming, followed by dead silence. What could anyone do? What the hell was she supposed to do? It was her responsibility to coordinate the missions, it was her responsibility to ensure the agents wouldn't end up in dead ends, that they'd go in prepared. But damn it, even after all this time, there were things even she couldn't prepare for.

Hunnigan buried her face into her hands and sighed deeply. It seemed that the harder she tried fixing things, the more they fell apart.

"I'm moving into position. It looks like there's some nasty weather coming my way though," Leon's voice came over the radio, and Hunnigan sat up straight.
"I might not be able to re-establish a link if the connection is lost... but I should be able to track your movements," she told him as she typed out commands to zoom in on his location.
"Don't worry, I got this," he said, confident as always. Hunnigan smiled at that, admitting he'd more than earned the right to that confidence.
"Be careful. Hunnigan out."

---

Helena struggled to breathe. Having the wind knocked out of her due to a fall was one thing, but being slammed in the ribs with a damn shovel immediately after was bordering on ridiculous. She recognized the woman wielding the shovel, it was one of the flight attendants. Or had been. Judging from the damn tentacles sticking out from her mouth, she was long gone, and served merely as a host to whatever the hell it was that she'd been injected with.

Grunting, Helena rolled to her side to avoid the follow-up. The sharp pain radiating from her ribs suggested the impact had probably fractured a bone. Worst case scenario one of her ribs was actually broken and would end up puncturing her lung. Not a pleasant idea, but she didn't have the time to worry about that right now. Right now she had to focus on getting up, and getting the hell out of there.

Come on, Helena, you've done this literally a thousand times, she encouraged herself as she ducked another hit, grabbed the woman's arm and yanked the shovel away from her.

It's either them or us, and they don't hesitate, Leon's words echoed in her mind as she stared at the woman, who took a moment to comprehend her weapon had been taken. When she realized what had happened, she lunged at Helena, letting out an agitated scream as she did. Helena side-stepped the assault easily, and now it was her turn to swing the shovel. The sharp edge of it sunk deep into the woman's head, leaving her convulsing for a moment. Helena waited for the body to stop moving and pulled the shovel back.

Breathing in slow, shallow inhales, Helena continued her way through the town, marching with determined steps along the one and only road on the entire island. She hadn't seen anywhere near as many infected as she'd expected, and she'd managed to avoid the few there had been.

Of course her luck had to have ran out at some point, the slip and fall and getting beaten with a shovel had been just the beginning it seemed. She could hear several footsteps in the snow, the flakes making a crunching sound as they were stepped on. If she could hear them, they could certainly hear her. In addition to that, the storm Ada had mentioned earlier was approaching fast, and the temperature was dropping. Helena wasn't sure if she was genuinely just tired or if hypothermia was settling in, but she needed to find shelter.

The town certainly had an abundance of abandoned buildings, but most of them seemed rather useless. They'd been abandoned years before the island had been taken over and converted into a science experiment, the only ones that seemed to have intact walls, door and windows were the ones near the mines. Trouble was getting over there without being spotted. Gripping the shovel firmly in her hand, Helena squared her shoulders and began to make her way over.

---

Leon pulled the hood of his coat over his head and tightened it. He settled to lie on his stomach in the snow on the ledge on a cliff looking down over the town and peered into the sniper rifle's scope. He saw a lot of movement... but the movements of these people were jerked, and slow. A tell-tale sign of their brain being devoured by a virus, reducing them into mindless zombies... or perhaps it was the result of being puppeteered by parasites. Either way, he'd seen enough of both to be able to tell these people weren't people anymore. He couldn't see Helena anywhere though.

Leon frowned when he felt like someone was watching him. Gripping his knife, he turned around quickly, expecting to see someone about to attack, but there was no one. At least no one he could see, he could still sense a presence.

"I know you're there. Just come out," he said. In a matter of seconds Ada had moved from the shadows to stand next to him. Or it wasn't so much like she'd moved as she'd just disappeared from one place to appear at another.

"Leon, we have got to stop meeting like this," she smiled.
"Every time I meet you I end up having to outrun a sterilization missile, I'm beginning to think you're a jinx."

"I disagree, if it weren't for me, no one would've warned you," Ada said, and Leon shook his head.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, but even as he was saying the words, he knew it was a stupid thing to ask.

"Oh, you know... hiking," she smiled. Leon quirked an eyebrow, glancing at the briefcase Ada had handcuffed to herself. Whatever it was that she'd been sent to pick up, it had to be pretty important.

"Will you at least tell me what it is that I'm up against?" he then requested and Ada reached to cup his face with her free hand and smiled sweetly.

"Nothing you can't handle, hon," she said, patted his cheek and turned to leave. "Oh, your friend is holed up in the yellow wooden house by the entrance to the mines. You might wanna hurry, she wasn't looking too hot," Ada then said over her shoulder before firing the grapple gun and disappearing into the snowstorm.

"Ada, wait!" he called after her, but it was pointless. When had she ever waited?

---

Helena kept drifting in and out of consciousness. She was feeling tired, disoriented. She'd made it to a house which served as decent shelter, but it wasn't much warmer in there than it had been outside. At least the infected hadn't noticed her, and she dared to close her eyes for a moment.

"Wake up, dead girl!"
Helena's head snapped back, and she frantically reached for her gun, which wasn't there.
"Simmons," she hissed from between her teeth. "You're dead!"

"And you aren't?" he sneered. He stepped to her and knelt by her side, putting his hand onto her shoulder. When she turned to look at him, she found herself staring at Deborah's face.

"Do you remember the time grandpa took us to the carnival and we went on the pendulum ride... and it got stuck, and you freaked out?" Deborah asked and sat down next to Helena, wrapping her arms around her knees and leaning back.

"I think that's the one and only time I ever saw you scared," she said, and Helena shook her head, closing her eyes and inhaling deeply as tears began to sting behind her eyelids.

"I was scared you'd get hurt, that I'd lose you."

"Well, look on the bright side, now you never have to worry about me ever again," Deborah giggled, her face now streaked with thick red veins, her eyes a shade of dead pale instead of the hazel they'd been when she'd been alive. She pressed her palm against Helena's chest and shoved her down, straddling her legs and thrusting a sharp tentacle through Helena's shoulder like she'd done before, only this time it went all the way through.

"We both know that you want to come with me, here's your chance, stop fighting it!" Deborah yelled at her, furious at the older sister's reluctance to join her.

Where's the pain? Helena wondered as she struggled to push Deborah away, and realized the wound didn't hurt. With so much blood pooling out of it, surely it should've hurt? When Helena looked up, Deborah was gone, the person now hovering over her bearing the face of her grandfather, but there was something wrong with it.

"You disappoint me, Helena. You shouldn't have been sticking your nose to where it didn't belong," he growled at her, and she realized what was wrong with the picture. When he spoke and his mouth opened, she could see through a wound in his head. A wound he'd gotten when he'd decided to put a thirty-eight revolver into his mouth and pull the trigger unaware of the six year old Helena spying on him at the doorway.

"I'm sorry. I'm so tired, I just want to... I just need..." Helena whispered, letting her eyes close as a myriad of familiar voices layered over each other spoke to her, some screaming, others laughing.

Oh, I do hope she will forget, how could a child understand—
Tic-toc, Laney, time's running out, don't you have—
You're so fucking emotionally stunted I can't even—
I know you've thought about it, I just wish—

"Helena!"

Join me. It would be so easy... You wouldn't feel a thing. I promise. It's like falling asleep.

"Wake up!"

Come with me, I'll introduce you to my horde of spiders, everyone's waiting for you, dying to meet you, Laney!

"You have to wake up, I don't know how much time we have."

"I have to let you go."
You can't!
"Please... Forgive me."

"Helena!"

The pain finally registered, not in her shoulder though, but in her back. It moved up along her spine, slowly slithering toward her neck. Something was...

"What are you doing!" Leon hissed when Helena suddenly began to frantically tear her jacket off. He'd heard that sometimes people with hypothermia undressed for an unexplained reason, but this was so not the time for that. Besides, Helena seemed to be running a fever rather than suffering from a low body temperature, it didn't make sense.

Regardless, he didn't have the time to deal with anything excess now. The infected outside were quickly making their way over, and the furniture Leon had managed to pile up in front of the door and windows wouldn't keep them for long. Not to mention that according to his experience, they were smart enough to figure out how to use power tools... if they were to find any that was. A chainsaw wielding maniac chasing him was the last thing he needed; the mob with their shovels and pitchforks was more than enough.

"Something's inside!" Helena said, pulling her shirt up after finally managing to get rid of her jacket.

"What are you talk—" Leon began to ask but left the rest unsaid when he saw the lump on Helena's lower back, slowly making its way upward along her spine underneath the skin.

"Jesus," he breathed.

"Cut it out of me! Cut it out of me now, Leon!" Helena screamed at him.

He grabbed his knife and pressed the blade firmly against her skin before running it down along the side of the lump, making an incision that would've left a lot to be desired had he been a surgeon. The people outside were making more noise, slamming their weapons of choise and themselves against the doors and windows. Leon heard the glass break but the bookshelf in front of the window was still holding. Getting out of here would require some creative thinking for sure... but he didn't have the time to worry about that now.

"Just get it out!" Helena ordered, and yelled out in pain when he dug the blade into the slit and wiggled it around, trying to stab the thing within her to drag it out. Finally he caught it, the knife piercing through it and he pulled it out. It kept wriggling in his hand even after he'd stabbed it. Persistent little bastard, like they usually were. He threw it to the floor and stepped on it repeatedly until it was just mush.

"Helena? Can you hear me? Talk to me!"
"Ada was... wrong..." Helena breathed.
"What?" he frowned, but she didn't answer; her eyes rolled back and she lost consciousness.

"Shit," Leon spat through his teeth. "All right..." he then grumbled, grabbed Helena's jacket and hastily pulled it on her after patching her up as best as he could with what he had –namely a sleeve he cut off from his shirt.

Now he'd need to get out of here with Helena, make it all the way to the shore where his snowmobile was hopefully still waiting, and then pray Helena would survive the half hour it would take to get back to the mainland... and however long it would take to get from there to the nearest hospital.

"Piece of cake," Leon muttered sarcastically after picking Helena up onto his piggyback. He kicked the dresser aside from in front of the door, gripped his weapon and prepared to run.

---

Helena listened the sounds around her. The footsteps echoing on the hallways, the hum of the machines. Two clocks ticking almost in sync, but not quite. She struggled to open her eyes, it felt like someone had glued her eyelids together. Grunting, she ran her fingers over her eyes and blinked repeatedly.

"Hey! How are you feeling?" Leon asked her, knowing it was a stupid question but what else was there to say.
"My everything hurs, but I'm still above ground, which is nice. Where am I?" Helena inquired, her voice merely a hoarse grumble.

"You're home. We got you out of Ussehamina and you were in a Norwegian hospital for a while, but as soon as you were stable, the agency sent their own medical team to pick you up. You're fine," he assured her.
"What happened? How did I even..?" she continued questioning as Leon handed her a cup of water.

"The pilot of your plane worked for the people who bought the samples Nicks stole. He intentionally depressurized the cabin, effectively knocking everyone out, and you were all then taken to the island where the experiment took place," he explained.

"What about the others, and the island?" Helena then inquired, sitting up straight. She made a mental note to buy Leon a beer if she'd ever get out of this damn hospital bed. Hell, she owed him a six-pack, maybe even an entire keg.

"The island... it sunk. Whoever was responsible for the experiment had built their lab in the abandoned mines, so when the lab self-destructed, it took out the island with it. As for the others, you were the only survivor," he responded, and Helena brought her hand up to feel the back of her neck absently when she remembered the thing inside her.

"You, uhm... told me that Ada was wrong. What did you mean?" Leon inquired then.
"She was there. She was pretty sure I hadn't been injected with anything, that they wanted to use me to see how their monsters would do against an agent. She was wrong, they did inject me."

"Yeah, from what we've managed to put together, the parasite injected in you was superior to the others, an alpha if you will. It required more time to hatch and mature, luckily."
"Hurrah, I'm so special I was worthy of their superior parasite," Helena cheered sarcastically, and Leon chuckled.

"So... I take it we don't know who was behind this?" Helena then asked, and had to pause for a while to cough. Her injured side, that had been hit with a shovel not long ago, hurt like hell when she did that. Leon waited for her to manage to catch her breath before speaking.

"No one's claimed responsibility," he shook his head. "New organizations keep popping up, this is beginning to feel like a ridiculously big game of whack-a-mole," he sighed then.
"Yeah, and all for what? Can't we just retire, preferably somewhere sunny."
"You think bioterrorists wouldn't strike at the Bahamas?" Leon smirked.

"If they did, I would personally strangle every single one of them for ruining my retirement," Helena threatened, and Leon chuckled warmly at her bravado. "What happens now?" Helena then asked, taking another sip of the water. She was slowly becoming more aware of being very hungry as well.

"The same thing as always... We chase the few leads we have, and let the politicians duke it out publicly. I don't even want to know what kind of a story Hunnigan and Mayer are having to spin to the Norwegians to explain why our agency would drop in unannounced and snatch a patient from their hospital," Leon smiled.

"What about Ada? Did you see her?"
"I did, briefly, but don't ask me why she was there, she didn't say. Knowing her, she was there to steal a sample of the parasite for God only knows who."

"How the hell does she do that? How does she keep getting away and makes it look so damn easy?" Helena frowned, and Leon chuckled. Even after all this time, he still had no idea, Ada had always had a knack for disappearing and reappearing. He'd lost track on how many times he'd thought he'd witnessed her get killed. That woman had to be part cat, that was the only explanation for the nine lives and her grace.

"Here," Leon then said, dug into his breast pocket and handed Helena a phone. "Call Hunnigan."
"I'm pretty sure she's busy," Helena avoided, shaking her head a little.

Not to mention that she kinda sorta dumped my ass and even requested a transfer to get away from me, I doubt she wants to talk to me, she added privately.

"She swore to personally search the entire Arctic ocean if that was what it would take to find you, I'm sure she'll make the time for you and would want to know you're okay," Leon said, his smile widening when he noticed Helena seemed to blush a little.

"Trust me," he winked, put the phone in her hand and stood up, getting ready to leave.
"Leon... Thanks for rescuing my sweet ass."
"Thank Hunnigan, she's the one who found you. Besides, I'm pretty sure I owed you one anyway."

"You still owe me one for saving your ass from being shoved into the meat grinder by that regenerating monster we ran into at the marketplace in China," Helena grinned, and Leon laughed.

"I gotta admit, you tackling me out of the way and pushing that thing into the meat grinder was kind of awesome," he nodded.
"I know, I wish we had that on video."
"All right, I still owe you one... But for now, please excuse me, I've gotta go write up a ton of nasty paperwork since Hunnigan isn't around to do it for me. Behave yourself," he then smiled and left the room.

---

As if having to spend the entire day in a conference room with politicians and other intelligence agents from various agencies- Norwegian, Russian, and American- wasn't bad enough, Jackie also had decided to make Hunnigan's life a bit more complicated unless she got what she wanted. She insisted she needed new snare wires and drumheads for her set... and a new set of sticks.

With a little push this could turn into a long, childish war, like when Hunnigan had hidden the treadmill's safety key to keep Jackie from exercising herself to death. In retaliation, Jackie had hidden Hunnigan's Playstation controller. In the end the girl had literally paid for it though, Hunnigan had used Jackie's allowance money to buy a new one. Come to think of it, the girl hadn't bothered getting into big fights with her mother since, she'd learned it would be futile, she'd never win.

"I give you an excessive amount of money weekly as it is, what do you waste it all on?" Hunnigan sighed, putting her laptop bag down on the kitchen table. She'd been home barely ten seconds when Jackie had cornered her and began making demands. There were times Hunnigan wondered just how badly she'd spoiled the girl in an attempt to compensate for not being home more, for the girl having to grow up without a father. Considering her line of work, a simple family life was hardly an option. Now that Hunnigan thought about it, she realized the majority of the people at the agency were married to the job, and it wasn't a surprise. But... no matter how much easier it all would've been, how much less guilt she would've felt... she wouldn't have traded Jackie for any of the comforts of having no family would've provided. Not even when the girl did everything in her power to annoy her.

"Drugs are expensive," Jackie shrugged. In reality she was saving the majority of her allowance for a car since her mother had made it clear she wouldn't be getting her one any time soon. She had no intention of being the only sixteen year old in the city who didn't have a car. It wasn't looking very good at the moment though.

"You know... my parents didn't just give me money, or pay my bills for me. When I was your age, I had to make my own money," Hunnigan quirked an eyebrow at Jackie before turning to look into the fridge. Of course it was empty on a day when she really didn't feel like doing something as mundane as going out to buy groceries. Well, empty apart from the one slice of cheddar that looked like it had been there for at least a year.

If nothing else, being in a live-in relationship with someone would mean that I'd have someone to call and ask to pick up something on their way home from... Wait, what? Oh, God, this is bad, Hunnigan sighed at the mental image of Helena marching in with shopping bags and announcing "Honey I'm home!" or something equally cheesy.

"When you were my age, you were pregnant, is that what you want to happen to me? Because it might if I have to start prostituting myself."

"Well, clearly math is not your forte either, I was eighteen when I had you, not fifteen," Hunnigan rolled her eyes, slamming the fridge door shut. "If you end up prostituting yourself, to hell with Catholic values; I'll buy you all the condoms you will ever need," she then said.

"You think you're so funny."

"Look... I'm sorry, but I will not just give you two hundred bucks just like that, I'm not made of money, for Christ's sakes!" Hunnigan snapped and reached for her bag to dig out her phone when it rang.

"Don't even!" she then held up her finger at Jackie before the girl had a chance to argue. She mouthed a slew of profanities at Hunnigan before turning on her heel and leaving in a huff as Hunnigan answered the phone.

"Hey, Hunnigan, I'm reporting in," Helena's tired voice grumbled amusedly at the other end of the call.
"I'm so glad you're all right," Hunnigan breathed in relief and sat down.

"I'm fine... I, uhm... I dunno why I called. I just..." the younger woman trailed off awkwardly.
"Would it be okay if I came to see you? I think... we should talk."

---

When Hunnigan entered the hospital room, Helena was asleep. Looking at her and how peaceful she seemed, she looked rather harmless compared to the spitfire she was when she was awake. Hunnigan pulled up a chair and placed it by the bed, taking a seat and waiting. She'd cleared her schedule and turned off her phone to ensure she wouldn't be bothered. She needed to talk to Helena, and she couldn't afford any interruptions.

Growing up in a pretty strict Catholic family, the subject of same-sex love had been more or less a subject that was never really mentioned, not in good or in bad; as far as her parents had been concerned, gay people just didn't exist. Her own experience with same gender lovers was limited to having a crush on a teacher (a nun nonetheless), and later making out with her best friend in high school at the age of sixteen... and even that had lasted barely half a minute before they'd both decided it had just felt strange, not exciting, and definitely not worth the fuss people were making.

But then, Helena had come into her life. She'd fought her feelings from the very first moment she'd realized she'd been even developing them in the first place. Even if Hunnigan ignored the issue of having to reconsider her sexuality entirely, developing feelings for a co-worker, an agent nonetheless, would be downright idiotic. She'd managed rather well in her futile war against her own feelings until Helena had tried to kiss her at the Christmas party, and Hunnigan had found herself really wanting to give in.

Until Helena had come along, Hunnigan hadn't thought of women in that way, she'd had no reason to. She respected and admired a lot of women, but it hadn't been like this. It hadn't been this... ache, this desire, this need to reach out and find out if her skin was as soft as it looked.

As much as she wanted to find out, when the opportunity had been there, she'd ran away. Her excuse had been valid, but that hadn't been the only reason. Yes, she was afraid of losing Helena, but even more than that, she was afraid of what could be. And still, as afraid as she was, her mind kept wandering, she found herself imagining Helena in her daily life, and not just as a co-worker, but as a lover, a spouse.

She was embarrassed to even admit she'd taken a few seconds to imagine Helena being there to take on certain responsibilities around the house, and regarding raising Jackie. Embarrassed because she knew that Helena Harper was a lot of things, but realistically, Hunnigan didn't think there was a universe in which she would settle down to raise a teenager with her. Hunnigan almost laughed out loud when she tried imagining Helena being a step-mom to Jackie. She admitted Helena was a responsible and mature young woman, even somewhat serious at times, but still. Besides, she and Jackie would probably kill each other in ten minutes if they were left alone for fifteen minutes when both were having a bad day.

"Hey... How long have you been there?" Helena asked quietly, pushing herself to sit up straight.
"Uh... not long. Are you okay?"
"I'll live."

They were silent for a long moment, both of them aware of the elephant in the room, both unable to address the issue immediately. Finally, Hunnigan spoke up.

"Helena, I'm... sorry about running away like that. It was childish, and stupid... but the truth is, I'm terrified."
"Hunnigan, you don't..."
"Please, don't interrupt, I've practiced this speech and unless I follow my stupid script, I won't know what to say," Hunnigan said awkwardly.
"Okay," Helena muttered, swallowing hard. Practiced speeches were rarely a good sign.

"I haven't been with anyone other than Mike," Hunnigan began, and she could see Helena biting her tongue at that. She admitted that it probably sounded ridiculous, who in this day and age had been only with one person, especially if they were pushing thirty-four? Even when considering the fact that she was a workaholic single mother, it still sounded like a lie. But Helena didn't comment, and Hunnigan was grateful for that.

"Since he died, I haven't been with anyone, not for fun, not romantically, not in any way. It takes... a lot before I develop any feelings for another person, and I don't do anything unless there's feelings involved... When you said you want more, I understand it, but..."

"Please don't tell me there can't be more," Helena couldn't resist interrupting.
"I want you in my life, but I'm afraid that if I let this grow beyond what it is now, and it fails... I'll lose you completely."

"Need I remind you that the last time we met, you literally ran away from me, and then avoided me? You requested a damn transfer just to get away from me for fuck's sakes, how is that not losing me?" Helena spat, and Hunnigan sighed.

"I know! I know I'm not making any sense, that's why this is so damn difficult and frustrating! I want to be with you but I don't know how!"

"If you want to be with me, then just fucking be with me. I'm right here!" Helena said, realizing she was suddenly on the verge of breaking down in tears. Tears of frustration, of anxiety.
"It's not that simple! I come with a lot of baggage, and you're..."

"Stop! Just... stop!" Helena yelled, raising both her hands in a stop-gesture to emphasize her words.

"What, you think I'm just a kid? Yeah, okay, I'm a few years younger than you, so what? Does that somehow make my feelings any less valid or less serious? No! I admit I don't know everything about you, but we've spoken for hours, I know enough to be sure I want you. I want you in my life, and I want to be in yours! Your kid and your damn dog included!" she snapped. "Even if I don't know why that bitch of a dog you have hates me so," she then muttered, and Hunnigan let out a stifled laugh.

"It's your boots. Zoey's former owner was abusive and used to kick her around, he wore those pointy-toed cowboy boots... just wear something else and she'll shut up," Hunnigan said.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Helena scoffed, and Hunnigan shook her head, chuckling quietly.
"You're not the first she's been like that with."
"And it took you this long to tell me?" Helena quirked an eyebrow.
"I only tell that to those who need to get along with Zoey because I want them in my house on a regular basis," Hunnigan confessed, turning to look into Helena's eyes.

"I'm gonna take that as an invitation to come over when I get out of the hospital in a few days... and then you'll have to take care of me," the younger woman smiled. She'd made the comment in jest, and Hunnigan knew as much, but instead of brushing it off as a joke, she reached to touch Helena's arm softly.

"I'll take care of you."

Helena swallowed hard at that, her heart skipping a beat.

"I can be a pretty demanding patient," Helena grinned, but didn't really know for sure. No one had ever taken care of her, usually it had been the other way around, she'd been the one doing the caring.

"I'll take care of you," Hunnigan repeated, "I promise."

---

Helena found herself agreeing to give Jackie driving lessons in exchange for the the girl staying out of the house for the evening. Quite frankly she didn't even know how she'd ended up in the situation. One moment she'd been arriving at the house (sans her boots, and as Hunnigan had said, Zoey had stopped growling at her), the next Jackie had cornered her and said she'd happily go spend the night a her friend's house... give her mother and Helena bit of privacy... in exchange for Helena letting Jackie drive her car. Little did Helena know Jackie had been planning to go out anyway. Not that Helena herself had been expecting anything X-rated to happen anyway.

"Why do I feel so violated right now?" Helena wondered out loud after Jackie had exited the house.
"Because you were just conned?" Hunnigan suggested chuckling a little.
"That kid is gonna be a politician."

"Probably," Hunnigan nodded in agreement as they made their way into the living room. Helena sat down gingerly, still careful of her injured side. The fever had gone down at least, so that was good. There weren't any signs of any other complications or infections, but she was kind of tempted to fake being sicker than she was just to have Hunnigan take care of her.

"She gets that from her father's side," Hunnigan then commented, and Helena quirked an eyebrow. She'd known Hunnigan long enough to know just how persuasive she could be when she wanted something or needed to push something through despite her superior officers' objections.

"Says the woman who always shrugs severe indiscretions off by saying 'I have my resources'," Helena narrowed her eyes.

"Well, I do! And the less you know about it, the better."
"Now, making comments like that makes me wonder just what kind of 'strings' it is that you're pulling with the big boys..."

"If you're implying...!" Hunnigan almost yelled at Helena, her voice rising to an outraged falsetto. Helena burst out laughing at the disbelief on the other woman's face at the mere suggestion that she was sleeping with her superior officers.

"Stop making me laugh, it hurts!" Helena complained, holding her arm over her side... which didn't really hurt as much as she pretended it did.
"Serves you right," Hunnigan quirked an eyebrow. "So, what do you want to do?" she then inquired.
"We could play strip poker," Helena grinned.
"You'd lose."
"I don't care."

Hunnigan chuckled, pushed her tongue into her cheek as she pursed her lips and pondered. She didn't notice how Helena stared at her mouth, and how she inhaled deeply when Hunnigan licked her lips before breaking the silence.

"How are you at chess?" she inquired. It took Helena a moment to even comprehend she'd just been asked a question.
"I, uhm... I'm not half bad actually."

"Okay. Two out of three, loser has to do anything the winner wants her to," Hunnigan challenged, tilting her head toward the chess set on the small table by the window.
"Bring it!" Helena agreed, not even caring what exactly "anything" could be. Realistically she figured she might end up doing the dishes or something like that.

Because frankly, it's not like I'm gonna win now, is it? I have only one trickier move, and there's no way I'll be able to slip it past Hunnigan, Helena thought as she began her preparation for the move, moving a pawn out of the way.

She then moved her bishop to where the pawn had been, and waited. Now if Hunnigan would just make the mistake of moving her pawn out of the way, Helena could ease her bishop across the board and capture Hunnigan's rook while it was still boxed in in its corner.

"You didn't think I'd actually fall for that, did you?" Hunnigan smirked, moving her knight to block Helena's bishop.
"Well, I figured that maybe it was such an amateur move you wouldn't notice," Helena shrugged.

"This is fun, I haven't actually played with a real person, face-to-face in forever," Hunnigan then commented, capturing a pawn and setting it aside.

"Of course you're having fun, you're winning," Helena pouted, chewing on her thumbnail as she contemplated her next move.
"I didn't realize you were the sore loser-type," Hunnigan teased, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

As was to be expected, the matches didn't last very long, and after losing for the second time in a row, Helena was tempted to flip the board over.

"All right, so what's my punishment?" she sighed instead.
"Well, I have a ton of laundry that needs to be folded... Zoey needs to be walked... The books could do with a bit of dusting..." Hunnigan listed, and Helena groaned.

"Fine, which way to the laundry room?"
"I was joking, those are Jackie's chores!" Hunnigan laughed. "I didn't actually have an evil plan in case I won, so how about we just... watch a movie or something?"

"If you had no plan, you could've just let me win, I have lots of ideas!" Helena quirked an eyebrow, and Hunnigan rolled her eyes at the younger woman.
"I know, which is exactly why I didn't let you win!"

A few moments later they were back on the couch, sitting on opposite ends, a bowl of popcorn settled between them. Helena sighed inaudibly. She would've wanted to move closer, but she figured if Hunnigan would've wanted the same, they would be cuddling already. Or maybe she just hadn't noticed or paid attention to the distance; maybe that was what she'd meant when she'd told Helena that she didn't think she knew how to be with another person after being by herself for so long.

Helena tried focusing on the movie, but it was a wasted effort; all she saw was insignificant people talking about insignificant things. She was just about to move the popcorn out of the way, scoot closer and put her arm around the other woman, when Hunnigan suddenly gasped, "My chicken!"

"What?" Helena deadpanned as Hunnigan bolted up and rushed to the kitchen.

I'm never gonna get past first base at this rate. Fuck, I've barely made it to the first one even, she grumbled internally as she leaned back on the couch, listening to Hunnigan move around the kitchen, the pans clattering as she made haste movements to save dinner.

Zoey's claws clicked on the wooden floor as she jogged across the room and parked herself next to Helena, leaning to rest her head on Helena's knee. She gave Helena the sad puppy dog glance, expecting that to be enough to get her attention. The young woman quirked an eyebrow at the dog and reached to pet her head.

"Oh, so now you love me all of a sudden? You're one bi-polar puppy," she smirked at the dog, who yawned and let out a high-pitched mewl.
"And you sound like Chewbacca on helium," Helena teased Zoey who didn't get the insult. Instead she perked up at the sounds coming from the kitchen and left to check it out, perhaps in hopes of getting a treat or two.

"Did you burn the chicken?" Helena then asked Hunnigan.
"Hell no, Iggy don't burn her chicken!" she called out, and Helena laughed heartily at the uncharacteristic words and tone the older woman had used.

"Iggy?" she then inquired as she defiantly moved the bowl of popcorn onto the table.
"Dad's nickname for me."

"I don't think I've ever called you by your first name," Helena realized then, and Hunnigan chuckled as she returned to the living room.
"Yeah, you know how every group of friends has that one person who is always referred to by their last name, that's me," Hunnigan shrugged as she took a seat.

"Hunnigan... that's an English name isn't it?" Helena then pondered out loud and Hunnigan's eyebrow quirked.
"Irish originally I believe."

"So... based on that and on what I know, you're an Irish girl from Wisconsin," Helena continued.
"Okay?" Hunnigan nodded slowly, getting curiouser and curiouser about where exactly this was going.

"If I'm right then tell me how the hell do you have the complexion of a Hispanic goddess. Nobody tans that well in the middle of winter!" Helena questioned and Hunnigan doubled over in laughter, laughing for almost a full minute before pulling herself together slowly, taking a deep breath and wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes.

"I like your ability to draw conclusions, but there are a couple of big flaws in your reasoning."
"Which are?"

"Well, first of all I could've inherited my looks from my mother and my name from my father. And even if we ignore that... you're basing your entire theory on the assumption that Hunnigan is my maiden name... which it isn't," she answered, grinning at the blank expression on Helena's face when she realized the error in her logic.

"I'm an idiot," she deadpanned, and Hunnigan chuckled heartily.
"You're adorable," she said and leaned to plant a soft kiss onto Helena's cheek, the gesture taking both of them by surprise. They paused at that and just stared at each other for a long moment before Hunnigan awkwardly cleared her throat a little.

"An adorable idiot?" Helena then offered, having to fight real hard to keep herself from putting her arm around Hunnigan and pulling her back when she slowly retreated to her spot on the opposite end of the couch.

"Soo... what is your maiden name?" Helena inquired to try and steer away from the awkwardness that was beginning to land over them.
"I think I'm gonna leave you guessing," Hunnigan grinned, and Helena quirked an eyebrow.

"Is it... Rodriguez? Garcia? Martinez? Ingrid Martinez has a ring to it, that's it, isn't?" Helena listed, and Hunnigan laughed, shaking her head at the younger woman's antics.

"Torres? Morales? Diaz! It's Diaz. No? God damn it, this is hard," Helena pouted.

"Are you done?" Hunnigan chuckled.
"Did I say Rodriguez?"
"Yes."
"Then I'm done... for now," Helena said, moved to lean back against the arm rest and smiled at Hunnigan.

"Come here," she said then, raising her arm a little, offering Hunnigan a spot to rest against.
"But what about your side?" Hunnigan frowned, and Helena shook her head.
"It's the other side, and even if it weren't, it would take more than you leaning on me to break anything. Come on... Delgado..?"

"Wrong."

"Bah. Come on, Hunnigan, it's just human contact, I promise you'll like it," Helena then teased.
"I bet you say that to all the girls," Hunnigan quirked an eyebrow as she leaned to rest her head on Helena's chest, letting her arm wrap around the younger woman's waist, her fingers instinctively finding their way under the hem of Helena's hoody, lightly caressing the skin they discovered.

"Yes, but only because boys don't usually have to be coaxed," Helena vexed.
"I know, and you've been very patient with me," Hunnigan mumbled, tilting her head back a little and reaching to plant a soft kiss onto Helena's cheek.
"I don't mind being patient with you," the younger woman smiled.

But at this point I'm starting to think I'm practically entitled to your body... maybe served to me with whipped cream on it, she mused privately, and chewed on her tongue as she thought about it.

"Are you hungry?"
"God, yes! Oh... Um... you were talking about dinner."

"What else would I have been..? Helena!" Hunnigan scoffed and laughed.
"Well, I wouldn't mind dinner either to be honest, but I'm not sure I want to let go of you now that I managed to lure you so close."

"What if I told you I'm even cuddlier when I'm not hungry?"
"Let's eat!"

---

"Oh boy," Helena breathed when she exited the bathroom after brushing her teeth and saw Hunnigan. She was standing underneath the stairs, reaching to grip a step and slowly bending her knees, letting her weight hang from the step. Her spine and shoulders let out muffled popping sounds as her body straightened. She did go for long walks daily, but sitting at her desk from nine to five (and more than occasionally longer) kind of negated all that. Thankfully, most of the time hanging from the stairs was enough to stretch her protesting back and relieving the ache.

"Helena? What are you..?" Hunnigan began to ask when she more felt than saw the younger woman move behind her.

"Don't make me spoil the surprise," Helena murmured smiling. She rested her chin on Hunnigan's shoulder and reached her hands over to the frontside to undo the buttons of Hunnigan's shirt. To Helena's surprise, the other woman didn't argue, didn't protest. Instead she smoothed into the touch, lowering her arms and shrugging her shoulders a little to help Helena ease the shirt off of them. She then raised them back up as Helena put her hands onto Hunnigan's sides, sliding them to her hips and finally circling her arm around Hunnigan. She pressed her body against Hunnigan's, and leaned to kiss the back of her neck, trailing her mouth down along the side of Hunnigan's shoulder blade.

Helena could barely contain a moan that threatened to escape her lips at the mere feel of Hunnigan's naked skin underneath her hands, the feel of her body melting into the touches, moving smoothly like it was semi-liquid. Raking her fingernails up and over Hunnigan's ribs, Helena brought her hands back down, slipping her fingertips underneath the waist of Hunnigan's jeans, tugging on them, effortlessly pinching the buttons open one by one. Hunnigan let go of the stair she'd been holding onto and turned around, lowering her arms to rest on Helena's shoulders.

If she tells me to stop now, I swear I'll drop dead from mere frustration, Helena thought, but Hunnigan didn't do that, instead she leaned in to kiss her. She let her hands roam, sliding them underneath Helena's hoody, being careful not to touch the injured side while still hungrily reaching to feel the warm skin. Silently, Hunnigan nudged them toward the foot of the stairs, and Helena obediently followed her as they slowly began to make their way to the bedroom, leaving behind a trail of clothes as they went.

---

"Hunnigan?"
"Mmm?"
"May I have my hand back, please?"

Hunnigan was lying on her stomach, Helena ontop of her, her hand still very firmly settled between Hunnigan's legs.

"No," Hunnigan grumbled sleepily, and squeezed her thighs together harder. "After all the trouble you went through to get it in there in the first place, I'd imagined you'd want to enjoy it longer," she chuckled then.

"Well, when you put it like that," Helena murmured and moved her middle finger's tip in a slow circle, making Hunnigan squirm a little, Helena relishing the feel of her her body undulating underneath her.

"I refuse to believe this was your first time with a woman, you're way too demanding to be as innocent as you claim to be, and you knew exactly what you were doing," Helena then commented. Hunnigan finally released Helena's hand and turned to look at her.

"First of all, you're confusing inexperience with innocence; once you wipe off the cobwebs there's no stopping me... and secondly, I've been alone, not dead. Of course I know my way around the female anatomy," she laughed softly. "You really were the first," she continued then as Helena settled to lie next to her, wrapping her arm around Hunnigan, pulling her close, spooning her.

"Why does hearing that turn me on?" the younger woman mumbled against the skin of Hunnigan's neck before kissing it gently. Hunnigan stretched in her arms, reaching behind to sink her fingers into Helena's hair, letting out a soft moan at feel of Helena's breasts pressing against her shoulder blades.

"I wouldn't know, but I don't mind," Hunnigan murmured smiling.

"I'm just glad you don't regret this. I was worried you might," Helena muttered then. Hunnigan turned around to face her and leaned to kiss her lips softly, moving to rest her leg on Helena's hip, snaking her arm around her.

"No regrets," she whispered into the kiss, her fingers kneading the muscles on the back of Helena's shoulder.

"Good," Helena responded, tightening her grip on the other woman and leaning her forehead on hers, chuckling a little as she rubbed the tip of her nose against Hunnigan's. She then drew back a little to be able to look into the blue-gray eyes that regarded her warmly.

"I love you," Helena whispered, the look on her face becoming very serious all of a sudden. She looked almost concerned, wondering if it was too much even now. The feeling of dread melted away and was replaced with a sweet warmth when Hunnigan smiled at her.

"I love you too."

They lied still in silence for a long moment, and Hunnigan was already beginning to fall asleep when Helena whispered her name to get her attention.

"Hm?"
"So... I just made you come like... five times..."

"I counted seven. The last one was kinda multiple," Hunnigan smiled slowly, biting her lower lip in a gesture that was somehow seductive and shy at the same time.
"...damn I'm good," Helena breathed smugly, and Hunnigan chuckled, nodding a little.

"You were saying?" she asked then.
"I was saying don't you think I deserve to know your maiden name?" Helena requested once more.

"You don't give up, do you?" Hunnigan quirked an eyebrow, and Helena shook her head, moving to lean over Hunnigan.
"As I recall, my determination was one of the things you held in high regard when you evaluated me in the first place," she grinned before kissing along Hunnigan's jawline and the side of her neck.

"I did and I still do when I'm not falling victim to it," Hunnigan jested, and Helena bit her shoulder for that.
"I'm going to tease you until you tell me, and we both know you can't resist anymore because now you know what you'll be missing..."

"Oh my God, you're evil!" Hunnigan gasped, wrapping her arms around Helena's shoulders and arching her back a little almost involuntarily as Helena's lips trailed further down along her chest, and left behind soft kisses on the breast, carefully avoiding the nipple that was yearning for a touch.

"I'm merely doing whatever it takes to get what I want, sometimes that requires playing dirty," Helena murmured grinning before circling the nipple with the tip of her tongue, making silent promises she'd gladly fulfill if Hunnigan would just give in.

"Fine," Hunnigan grumbled, and Helena turned to look up, her eyebrows rising a little bit as she waited.

"It's Solis."

---

Helena woke up slowly when she felt Hunnigan sit up on the edge of the bed. Frowning, the younger woman squinted at the alarm clock; it was six-thirty in the morning.

"Hey," she grumbled and reached to softly touch Hunnigan's back.
"Hi. Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," Hunnigan smiled over her shoulder.

"Where are you going?"
"Work, silly," she chuckled, and Helena turned to lie on her back, crossing her arms over her eyes.

"I'd kind of hoped the world would stop turning for a couple of days," she groaned and began to get up as well. She wasn't allowed back at work for another week at least, so she wouldn't need to go there, but she figured she should go home.

"You don't need to get up, go back to sleep," Hunnigan told her quietly with a smile as if having read her mind.
"You'd trust me around your house unsupervized? What if I'll steal something?" Helena jested as she settled back to lie on the bed.

"I can track your movements in China, and I can evidently find you even if you're in the middle of the Arctic ocean, if you think you can steal something and hide from me... you're mistaken," Hunnigan chuckled. "And that's assuming I'd have something worth stealing in the first place," she then added.

"Naw, I wouldn't steal, I'll just read your diaries and eat all your food," Helena muttered grinning as she buried herself deeper under the blanket, closing her eyes and taking a moment to enjoy the warmth and softness that surrounded her.

"I don't keep diaries, but you're welcome to eat anything you'd like," Hunnigan smiled and stood up. She wrapped a towel around herself before exiting the bedroom to go take a shower. Helena would've kind of wanted to join her... but at the same time she really didn't want to get up. She'd nodded off for a few moments and woke up again when Hunnigan leaned over her to kiss her lips softly, already dressed and ready to head out.

"I'd really like it if you were here when I get back, unless you have somewhere you need to be of course," she smiled, and Helena nodded.
"I never want to leave this bed," she said, and Hunnigan chuckled, leaning to kiss her again softly.

"When will you be back though?" Helena then inquired and Hunnigan shrugged a little.
"With Leon on vacation and you on sick leave, I think I might actually be able to leave work early, none of the other agents get in trouble as much as you two do," she teased, stood up and reached for her glasses.

"Hunnigan?" Helena called after her just as she was about to step out of the bedroom. The older woman paused and turned around, her eyebrows rising in a silent question.

"Thank you."
"For what?"

"For taking a chance on me."
"Believe me, the pleasure is all mine," Hunnigan smiled warmly and headed out.

Helena closed her eyes and smiled. For the first time in over half a year she felt like she was where she was supposed to be, like she was on the right path again. She was a bit surprised by the ease with which she could see herself waking up in this bed every morning in the future. Surprised, then pleased because this felt right despite the fact this certainly wasn't where she'd ever imagined herself being. It wasn't what she'd expected from her future, but it felt right, this was where she was supposed to be.

She wrapped the blanket around herself and inhaled the scent of it; it smelled of Hunnigan, of oranges and winter, and for this one precious moment, everything was right in the world.

End

---

Author's note: The conversation regarding Hunnigan's last name and lineage is something I put in there because I've seen a few people argue over Hunnigan's race and to me personally she's always seemed caucasian, BUT a lot of people don't seem to realize that just because she's caucasian, it doesn't mean she's the stereotypical white Anglo-Saxon protestant. :P