Title: Three Words that Halted the World
Chapter: Two
Rating: M
Pairings: Bering and Wells and Cleena, and other plot ruining pairings
Summary: Set in The Path We Walkverse (Warehouse 13 with CSI, only extending to Heathers existence in this bit), Heather has become a H.G.'s permanent therapist and one of her closest friends. Naturally, after the dust settles from artifact induced confessions of love, there are things to worked out, namely, are Myka and H.G. actually dating, or was it all just the fault of the artifact, and if they are what does that mean for them?
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended. All use of preexisting characters are covered under the Fair Use bit of copyright.
Authors Note: I am just going to go ahead and apologize for the amount of angst that is about to occur right now.
Swaying back and forth, listening to the creak of the old wood and chains, Helena sat in deep thought on the back swing, nursing a cup of tea, days later. Myka and Pete were still away, apparently the stake was more elusive than they had originally thought. As such, Artie was still hiding in the warehouse, trying to help them get the damn thing back. Claudia and Leena were driving her bat shit crazy with the tension neither of them were willing to break. So sitting on the swing, nursing her cup of tea, while pondering her thoughts seemed the sanest thing to do.
Her thoughts were jumping from one place to another so fast that it should have been giving her whiplash.
After landing in Auckland and checking into their hotel room, Helena was standing in the bathroom door way, only in frilly black boy shorts and a black and red lacy bra.
"Shower with me?"
Myka had ran her tongue over her lips – in what Helena assumed was an involuntary motion – before responding with a head shake. "I think I am just going to go to sleep."
Helena had nodded, trying to hide her sorrow from the rejection but took a shower by herself regardless. The warm water did nothing to chase the chill that settled into the pit of her stomach. Less than a week had passed since they had sex, and already Myka was pushing away. Hanging her head, her forehead pushed to the cold tiling of the bathroom, Helena felt a few tears fall before she straightened her spine, and told herself that everything would work out…It had to.
Slipping into the bed behind Myka, the cold feeling grew when she went to wrap her body around Myka's and the younger woman turned to lay on her back.
"Shall we order celebratory wine?" Helena asked, watching Myka pack the artifact under many layers of clothing.
Myka had smirked, but shook her head. "We have to leave early in the morning. Wine makes me sleepy."
Helena raised an eyebrow then and sauntered over to Myka, pulling the taller woman close. "Celebratory sex?"
Myka shook her head harder, before pushing out of Helena's arms. "I am going to go take a shower."
Helena nodded dejectedly, before sinking into an oversized chair in the corner of their room. That chair was where she woke up the following morning. She didn't know what hurt worse, her neck from sleeping at an odd angel all night, or the fact that Myka had left her sleeping in the chair.
"Such a pleasant day for tea."
Helena blinked a few times, attempting to clear her head of the painful memories, memories she couldn't do anything about with Myka somewhere in the Middle East. The swing shifted as Heather sat down beside Helena, her own cup of tea in hand. "It is." Helena whispered back after a few moments.
"We haven't spoken since you returned from retrieving that necklace and they named me a reagent." Heather commented, taking a sip of her steaming tea.
Helena nodded, mimicking other woman and sipping on her own tea. "I have missed our conversations immensely."
It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that something was eating away at Helena, but had Heather chosen to, she was sure she could have been a rocket scientist, she just preferred people over cold metal. Instead of calling Helena on it, however, she sat in silence, waiting for the other woman to talk as they swayed on the swing. Heather watching carefully as Helena opened her mouth to start speaking and then as if she had thought better of speaking, closed it again. After watching the internal battle for a few more minutes, Heather decided whatever was bothering the other woman was not something she really wanted to talk about yet. "What is all the tension in the house about?"
Helena snorted, thankful for the rerouting of the conversation. "Leena and Claudia are, "fighting"."
"And which is which?" Heather asked, still so lost in the new world she had been planted in.
"It seems to have escaped me that you have not been formally introduced to everyone. Claudia is the young woman with red hair, and an exceeding amount of energy. Leena is the black woman who is the exact opposite, tranquil and warm." Helena explained, a smile cracking her face. Despite all its flaws, her new family brought a smile to her face.
"I see…" Heather's nails tapped at the cup in her hand. "And what are they fighting about?"
"Leena has a touch of psychic powers. She receives visions, can see auras, and such. Recently she has been seeing Claudia playing with a baby, which she has convinced herself is not in any way related to her in their relationship, and she is currently allowing the idea to fester that Claudia is going to leave her for another. Claudia has not been allowed into this inner circle of thought by Leena and the bloody tension between the two of them is absurd." Helena said with a sigh, recalling the night Leena let her in on the thoughts, and the perfectly good white shirt she had been wearing that was completely ruined by mascara stains now.
"I would be lying if I didn't say I was impressed. It takes great skill to actively involve someone in a fight that they don't even have an inkling of what it is about." Heather admitted. "So Helena, I feel like you have some things to tell me, seeing as I have a nagging suspicion that in all the phone calls we shared over the month details were left out. You know, with me not being privy to such details at the time."
Helena placed her tea on the arm rest and turned in her seat and stuck her hand out for Heather to shake. "Pleasure to meet you Ms. Kessler, I am H.G. Wells, world famous author, who was bronzed in 1900. There was also this spout where I tried to end the world, which is responsible for the reagents hiring you at all I believe. I spent a year in a holographic form, post trying to end the world, and just recently have been allowed to resume my duties as an agent, under carful supervision."
Heather's jaw went slack. "But… but… H.G. Wells, is dead. And a man. But mostly dead."
"Nonsense dear, I was bronzed after my daughter was murdered and I requested it in a brief moment of not well thought out sanity. As for the man portion, that was my brother who posed as me, Charles. Imagine, how scandalous, a woman writing science fiction, an unmarried mother at that, in the 1800's." Helena said before adding, "And stuttering over my existence is quiet unbecoming."
Heather blinked, hard. "Sorry." She finally muttered as her brain started to process all this new information.
Helena flicked her wrist, as if flicking the whole thing away. "You have so much to learn yet."
"Apparently." Heather muttered, taking a sizable sip of her tea.
"What brings you here?" Helena asked, as if it just became obvious to her that it was strange for Heather to just show up.
"After much debating, the reagents had decided I should live here. Ease of access to me for you and rest of the agents, and I agreed." Heather explained. "And, we hadn't spoken since you and Agent Bering gave me the tour of the warehouse, and that was almost two weeks ago. I was starting to worry."
Helena took a sip of her tea, effectively ending the conversation for the time being. Both women sat in a comfortable silence, swaying on the swing, pondering everything from the current state of their lives to what made the universe work and back. Had the sound of a shattering plate coming from the kitchen not stirred them from their thoughts, they probably could have sat in the silent company well into the night. But the plate shattering did happen, and both women practically leapt off the swing to race into the kitchen, only to see Claudia standing over a shattered plate, with Mrs. Fredrick looking at her, amusement, a rare emotion, on the much older woman's face.
"How many times do I have to tell you dude, that is not cool Mrs. F!" Claudia all but shouted, crouching down to clean up the shattered plate.
Heather leaned into Helena's side. "What is she talking about?" Was whispered into her ear, breath moving along the folds of Helena's ear, causing a small shudder to occur. How much longer could she go without Myka reciprocating her love, if Heather's innocent whisper was sending chills down her spine?
Shaking her head slightly to try to clear her thoughts, Helena leaned over to repay the favor. "Mrs. Fredrick has the habit of just appearing and disappearing. I think she has an artifact." Helena whispered back, watching the same shiver she had experienced work its way through Heather's body.
"I heard that Ms. Wells. I do not have an artifact. It is just a skill." There was no room for questioning in the statements, and Helena straightened her spine, properly chastised.
"Artie is in the warehouse." Claudia said, still pushing bits of the plate together on the floor.
"I am quite aware of this Ms. Donovan. I was here to speak with Ms. Wells as it were."
Claudia lost most of the tension that was apparent. The thing about Mrs. F, was when she showed up it was almost never a good thing. As such, everyone had this immediate reaction if she just showed up and agents were still out trying to locate some artifact, and that reaction was to tense up and prepare as well as you could for news of capture or injury.
All the tension that left Claudia immediately seeped into Helena. The last time Mrs. F saw to her personally, she was left to be a hologram. Leaning over to Heather, she whispered, "Wish me luck."
Heather's hand trailed down Helena's arm, trying to reassure the woman. After all, it would be incredibly stupid to bring Heather on to take care of Helena's rather fragile psyche only to send her to some form of prison as Heather was moving in.
"Is your room sufficient?" It was prosed as a question but Helena knew better. She could have had underwear strewn all over her room and a naked woman in her bed, and Mrs. F would still insist that they speak in her room.
"Of course." Helena answered, following the woman up to her room, immensely thankful that neither a naked woman nor underwear were present in her room.
Sitting as eloquently as possible on the bed, Helena waited for Mrs. Fredrick to say whatever she had to say, knowing that any attempt to probe the woman for information would just prolong the conversation. "How are you doing?"
Had Helena not trained herself years ago to hide behind masks of emotions, her eyes would have bulged out of her face with disbelief. "Well, thank you…" She answered hesitantly.
"Is the concept of Dr. Kessler living her satisfactory for you?" Helena nodded slowly, still thrown by the conversation, her mind racing. Did they really think she was so unstable that something as simple moving another person into the B and B might throw her? "Wonderful. I hope she helps bring you back to the wondrous woman you once were Ms. Wells." And with that, Mrs. Fredrick turned and left Helena sitting on her bed, dumb struck.
By the time she managed to pull herself from her room and go back downstairs, she was meet with Heather standing at the foot of the stairs, her finger placed to her lips. Helena raised her eyebrow, finding the concept of Heather ease dropping incredibly amusing. Straining to listen, never the less, she caught snippets of the conversation she told Leena to have with Claudia days ago. When the voices finally stopped, Heather deemed it safe sneak back into the kitchen, with Helena in tow. Standing in the middle of the kitchen, Claudia held Leena, whispering reassurances that she had no intention to leave any time soon, while pressing soft kisses to her forehead.
Helena's heart tugged, she was thrilled they finally talked after three days of tension, but she wanted that connection so badly, and taste Myka gave her was enough to leave her hungry for it but not enough to even begin to take the edge off. Walking past the tow, Helena and Heather retreated to the swing on the back porch and to their now very cold tea.
"Are you sure you don't want to talk about anything?" Heather asked after they settled back into their seats.
For the first time in a long time, Helena shrugged. "There are things I should talk to you about, but I don't even know where to start."
"I find the beginning is a good place." Heather said with a chuckle.
"I suppose I can skip most of that, since you were part of that." Helena said, struggling to find the words she wanted to say next, her fingers playing with her tea cup.
"Why don't you say it anyway, just give yourself a sound starting point." Heather suggested, seeing the struggle on the other woman's face.
Helena nodded slowly. "You told Myka to make a choice, but you were wearing the bracelet so it compelled her to make that choice or die. She chose to love me, at least in that moment." Helena finished with a dry laugh, which contained everything that was the opposite of amusement.
"What do you mean, in that moment?"
"Well, we had amazing sex, and she told me she didn't regret it, but then when I tried to make any form of advance after we left Las Vegas, she shut me down completely. She let me sleep in a chair one night instead of waking me to come sleep in the bed with her." Helena said, her hand moving from the tea cup to her hair, spinning it around her finger. "I am driving myself crazy."
Heather took Helena's other hand in her own, rubbing her thumb over the back. "Perhaps she needs time to adjust?"
Helena shook her head. "The morning after, she seemed so happy to be with me, and then everything just fell apart, and I am afraid that I am going to lose my sanity again trying to figure this all out."
"I won't let that happen." Heather promised, pulling the smaller woman close to her, wrapping her arm around the woman, who was so obviously falling apart at the seams. "Do you know when Myka should be back?"
Helena shook her head, laying it on Heather's shoulder. "Was supposed to be an easy grab, but she's been gone for almost four days now."
"You have had no time to talk to her at all then?"
Helena shook her head again, content to stay curled up next to Heather. The warmth of another person holding her, soothing some of her hunger already. Heather made a noise that indicated she was deep in thought, but left the conversation where it was, content to just hold the smaller woman for now.
They jolted awake at the barks of Trailer. The sun had set some time ago, and either Leena or Claudia must have come out and taken their tea cups and place a blanket across them while they slept. Struggling to shake off sleep, they were both attempting to move from the swing when Myka closed the screen door and stared right at them both, confusion and the hints of heart break evident in her eyes.