Author's note:

Let's just get this straight before we start: Helena is back. There is no season 5.

/

They were looking for a bottle of perfume.

Various private blog entries – all from the same location – all including the words "strange" and "unusual" had pinged the Warehouse system's radar. Apparently employees working in a small office complex claimed to know their boss' feelings about them, their work, and personal matters. Someone confusedly wrote about feeling the chief's stomach grumble, and they all insisted she was in desperate need of new glasses.

After some research, Claudia and Artie had concluded that the artifact must be the perfume bottle agents Bering and Wells were presently looking for. It had once belonged to a woman showing such empathy and ardor towards the people around her, that one of her possessions absorbed the ability. If smelled by two people at the same time, the fragrance made one person sense what the other one was feeling.

Myka and Helena had deduced the bottle to be in the chief's possession and were therefore in the middle of persuading her to let them go through her bag. Unfortunately, she had grown rather fond of the perfume and held her bag in a tight grip. A slight struggle ensued, ending with Helena securing the artifact. But not before a small flowery-smelling cloud encased her and Myka.

Helena quickly bagged the perfume bottle as Myka held the head of the company back, and as soon as sparks flew the disheveled woman relaxed. Myka let her go, and she all but fled the scene in embarrassment over her actions, not understanding what came over her to make her resist a Secret Service agent's request.

But the case wasn't over.

/

"Did you by any chance scratch your nose just now?" Helena asks, turning to Myka, "… because I felt a somewhat foreign urge to do so myself. I believe we might be under the influence of the artifact."

She is suddenly quite nervous. But the thing is, she somehow knows it isn't her own feeling. It's Myka's. Helena looks at her friend with a puzzled expression.

"What's wrong darling?"

"Oh uh… nothing. Just want my feelings to myself you know?"

"Right."

Myka steps from one foot to the other. "How long do you think the effect will last?"

"Well… we have neutralized the bottle. I suppose it might last until the scent has left our noses? … and for that to happen I think a shower is required."

The nervousness gets worse and Helena moves towards Myka and starts to reach out her hand.

"No! Stop!"

"What?" Helena looks momentarily hurt, but Myka doesn't need to apologize. Her regret over the outburst is felt by both of them.

"It's just… I can't be close to you right now."

"Why ever not?"

Myka is growing more and more uncomfortable.

"Oh, Myka, I had plans to destroy the world. Whatever it is you don't want me to find out about… I won't judge."

"That's not… that's not what I'm worried about." She delves into Helena's eyes for a moment, then takes a deep breath and comes to her decision. "I guess it's time you find out anyway. Come." Myka drags Helena into a nearby supply closet and wraps her arms around the smaller woman.

Helena immediately feels the warmth and affection surround her and lets out a happy sigh.

The sigh, however innocent, proves to be Myka's final undoing and she is suddenly very much aware that their breasts are touching. She knows there is no stopping what is going to happen.

After a normal, friendly amount of hugging-time, Helena lets her arms fall and steps back. She is just about to ask what had Myka so preoccupied when she feels it, the warmth in her stomach traveling lower. "Oh."

Myka looks away then, mumbling something incomprehensible.

As soon as the stunned surprise eases and Helena is able to form words, she takes Myka's chin in her hand and turns her face towards her own. "I'm so glad we got 'whammied' darling," she whispers, before closing the remaining distance between them.