An: It's been a long while since I wrote some fanfiction. This last week, though, I went through and completed some old fics I started a long while ago, and decided hey? Why not go ahead and post? so I am. Hopefully they're good and you guys enjoy them. This was written for Helix, season 2. One of my friends on tumblr, whatwouldlaurahollisdo, got be hooked onto this ship, and I just can't let it go.
Disclaimer: I do not own Helix. Sci-fy does.
For some reason, even when it was just the two of them, safe behind the walls of their home, Julia still wore her contacts.
At first Sarah had thought her shy, as weird as that might be. In every other way Julia was confident, sure of herself almost to a fault. A dozen years unaging, hundreds of diseases utterly destroyed by her hands alone could do that to a person, but eyes could be a sensitive subject. It had taken Sarah herself more than a little while to get used to the silver that greeted her each morning, and it normally took a prompt from Julia when she returned home for her own contacts to be removed. So, if Julia was uncomfortable about her eyes and wanted to wear her contacts when she was home, who was Sarah to stop her?
But the next time they were summoned to the Ilaria headquarters, Julia practically tore them out the moment they arrived, smiling widely the moment her eyes were free. She met the gaze of all who looked at her, practically daring them to comment on their youth, barely fifty when the next youngest was almost a thousand. Within the confines of the headquarters, surrounded by others like them, it was clear Julia was proud of who she was and what they had become.
But the moment they were getting ready to leave-even though they had a private car to take them straight home-she quietly ducked into the bathroom and returned with eyes brown once more, her smile almost sheepish as she took Sarah's hand as they left.
Maybe, Sarah then tried to rationalize, it was so she would always be comfortable wearing the contacts when they were out in public. Maybe it was the coloring, or maybe it was the sheer fact that something was always so close to her eyes, but wearing the contacts had always been a pain for her. A slight annoyance, one that Sarah was able to ignore after a few moments of rubbing at her eyes and blinking away the stinging, but a pain nonetheless. And it wasn't like, when the contacts started to rub wrong or got grit in between the plastic and their corneas, they could pull them out and slide on a pair of handy glasses.
Their eyes were their markers, and they had to be used to any pain to keep themselves a secret, no matter what.
But a dozen years, all spent wearing the contacts on an almost constant basis, and Julia should have been used to them by now. Sarah knew her theory couldn't hold water, and she was just grasping at straws to explain her partner's behaviors.
Finally, she decided just to ask.
"Why do you always wear your contacts when we're home?"
Such a casual question, thrown in between them finishing dinner and settling on the couch to read or watch their nightly movie- a tradition Jules had suggested they start, so they could remain updated on the cultural references their jobs at the CDC would almost certainly put them in contact with. The question she had wondered for so long it rolled off her tongue so easily she almost thought she hadn't said it; but Jules was staring at her with that look, the look that she gave particularly difficult viruses that she hadn't cracked and couldn't quite figure out. The look she only gave when she was confused and perhaps a little bit hurt.
Sarah hated that look, hated when it caused Jules forehead to crease and her eyes to take on that 'kicked puppy' tone that she couldn't stand. She hated being the cause, but couldn't take back the words now that they had become airborne.
"Well," Julia said, as if she was carefully picking each word out to frame her delicate reply, "I thought you liked the brown better."
"You thought…" Sarah repeated slowly, her mind taking a moment to catch up with the words the other woman had said, well aware of the fact that Julia was staring at her intently, waiting for her response. When she finally understood, finally realized just how far off the mark her guesses had been, what all of this was about, all Sarah could do was laugh. Laugh and attempt to sooth the pout that crossed Jules' face from her laughter.
"Julia," Sarah finally said, slowly shaking her head. "Jules, you're such a dork." Crossing the room, Sarah stood on the tips of her toes so she could press her forehead to her partner's as her hands cupped Julia's cheeks, smiling softly as the other woman leaned into her touch. "Julia," Sarah said again, "the earth is warm and beautiful and comforting…" Lifting her hand, when Julia didn't flinch away from her touch Sarah carefully, oh so carefully removed the contact, throwing it off to the side somewhere on the floor. "But the stars are so much prettier to see."
"Why did you turn out a science major," Julia laughed, silver and brown meeting Sarah's gaze, "when literature is obviously better suited for you, Shakespeare?"
"Would you just shut up and let me be poetic?"
Julia didn't reply, at least not verbally. The press of her lips against Sarah's was all the response they both needed, and it didn't need to be heard for them to understand.
The contacts remained off after that, for both of them, within the safe walls of the little home they both shared.