For the love of two women.
Chapter 1
Myka shifted carefully in her seat trying to find a more comfortable position. Unfortunately the movement garnered the attention of her partner driving the car.
"Are you okay? We can find a place to stop."
Pete's worried tone made her smile. "God no. As sore as I am I would rather keep going than stay in another motel!"
"Well it was so nice of you to break that guys fall by letting him land on you!" His humor belayed how worried he had been seeing his partner nearly crushed when their quarry had fallen off the second floor landing on top of the much smaller Myka. Fortunately she had had the presence of mind to pull the artifact they had been searching for from his pocket before he could run again.
"Next time I chase. You catch." Both too tired to carry on their usual banter they slipped back into silence, and Myka turned her gaze back out the window at the darkened landscape speeding past.
It was early evening, but the sun had set reducing the vast landscape down to the limited area illuminated by the SUV's headlights. Their plan was to drive through the night back to the Warehouse rather than staying another night in a crappy motel like the one they had just spent two weeks in. Not really two weeks for the world as it had been more like four days, but for the agents and other motel guests caught in the grasp of a time manipulating artifact it had been two very long weeks.
They drove in silence for a few more miles before Pete's quiet voice broke into her thoughts. "Cheyenne is kinda on our way... If you wanted to stop...Maybe..."
Myka turned to face him as his words trailed off. He was such a good guy. Far more sensitive than his brash exterior implied. "Thank you Pete. But its getting late..."
"Yeah, but I seem to recall hearing the words 'any time your are in town Agent Bering'."
"Pete! Were you eves dropping on us?" Myka was immediately indignant. Her interactions with Helena, Emily, were something she tried very hard to keep separate from her professional life. But on a previous trip through Cheyenne their conversation had run long and Pete had been waiting impatiently nearby as Myka and Emily said their goodbyes outside the restaurant they had met at for lunch.
"Of course not! I was... monitoring the situation." This earned him a patented Myka frown, but he tried to cajole his partner into action knowing that seeing Emily would improve Myka's mood. And a happy Myka made for a happy Pete. "Come on. Just give her a call and see if she is available."
Myka sat quietly contemplating her desire verses what she felt was the 'right' thing to do. Pete was wonderfully encouraging towards her slowly evolving relationship, but not everyone agreed. Specifically her bosses. But what had been done was just so wrong. After saving them all from the Warehouse explosion Helena's reward had been to have her memory purged once again and sent back to her life as Emily Lake.
The whole team, Artie included, had been aghast. Helena had not. She had simply nodded her acceptance and walked quietly away with her handlers disappearing behind the dark tinted windows of a nondescript black sedan.
That lack of fight, the lack of seeming to care about her own fate, struck Myka then. Helena Grace Wells had given up. Sacrificing her life in the original time line to save them all was both noble and in no small way a suicide. An exit from a life whose burdens had gotten too heavy for even the indomitable HG to carry any longer. And if she had managed to save the only people who connected her to the world then that was a bonus.
It broke Myka's heart. And for some months, as the team recovered from the tragedy it stayed that way. Until one odd day she and Pete found themselves driving through Cheyenne on their way to collect an artifact when the realization hit her: Helena was still out there somewhere.
When they returned from the mission Myka had subtly asked Claudia to do a little digging to see if she was still teaching in Wyoming or if the Regents had moved her. Much to both their surprise Emily Lake had been returned to her life. Of course Pete and Steve caught them discussing what they should do and weighed in. The shouting match of options, from stealing the Janus Coin from the Regent Vault to simply doing recon on the woman, resulted in the group realizing that as far as they were concerned Helena, a.k.a. Emily Lake, was one of theirs and they weren't going to leave her adrift. And to hell with the Regents or anyone else.
But how to approach it was left to Myka to decide. And, the next Friday, when the sun was bright and Lincoln High School would be on early release, she told Artie she was taking the day off and wouldn't be available over the weekend. Myka had waited in the hall outside Emily's classroom and tried to act calm while her heart beat out of her chest when the school bell rang. When no more students filtered out of the open door she had slowly approached. Knocking on the frame before entering and greeting the long lost friend that barely knew her. "Hello, Emily? I don't know if you remember me..."
Emily had turned at the sound of the knock on the door. Immediately recognizing the other woman she smiled brightly. "Agent Bering! Of course I remember you!" Without thought she hugged the other woman. Inexplicably happy she pulled back from the hug and felt her stomach drop at the distressed look on her visitors face. "Unless you are here to tell me I'm about to be kidnapped again?"
Myka pulled back from the hug and shook her head. "No no. Nothing like that. I actually just..." She had been ready to lie and say she was just passing through town, but something stopped her. "No. I actually just wanted to see how you were. We never got a chance to talk after everything... and..." Getting embarrassed she could feel a blush start to form on her face. "And I probably could have just called huh?"
Emily, sensing Myka's distress dismissed her worry. "A call would have been lovely, but seeing you in person is an even greater pleasure."
They spent most of that weekend together. Myka stayed in a hotel near Emily's apartment and the woman showed her around her town. The small art gallery, her favorite book store, some hiking trails. They fell into the easy pattern of longtime friends despite being virtual strangers. Much like it had been when she first met Helena. Myka was fairly quiet letting Emily's enthusiasm and natural talkative nature fill the air.
It wasn't till brunch on Sunday that Emily had reached across the table and held Myka's hand. They were both a little startled but neither pulled away. And then Emily had finally asked the real question: why are you really here Myka?
Myka remained silent staring at Helena, no Emily's, concerned eyes. Unsure how to explain things knowing how much of the truth she had to withhold, so she settled on speaking her own truth. "I had...something bad happen at work. A tragedy really. I lost someone that I should have been able to save. And, when everything is said and done, I realized that it is the people in your life that matter most." Squeezing the hand in hers she smiled, "And then I remembered this charming school teacher in Wyoming that I had wanted to get to know better but had let work distract me from."
Emily had been quite touched at Myka's words. They agreed to call. Email. See each other the next time Myka was free. And see what came of it all. Myka had driven all the way back to Univille with a smile on her face. Until she got to Leena's B & B to be greeted by a very agitated Artie who had been left out of the loop about who she was visiting. Oddly he had been quite sympathetic and after they talked a little more about where Myka's head was he had simply admonished her to be careful. The Regents were already aware of the visit.
But they hadn't explicitly said she couldn't visit Emily. And so she had. Many times since that first trip to check on their missing Agent. But Myka couldn't pretend any more that it was just a friendship they were forming. That she was just looking out for a fellow Warehouse Agent that the Regents seemed to have abandoned. All of which had her stymied though because she really hadn't expected it. How in the world could a simple school teacher compare to the memory of H.G. Wells? Which quite honestly did a huge disservice to both Emily and Helena, but Myka couldn't seem to get her head around it all.