So, less of my yapping, on with the story!
Chapter One
Panting, fingers almost numb from scrambling over icy rocks, lungs dragging at sharp air as it thinned with each step higher – she climbed.
A cloying dread weighed down her feet but she pushed through the pain, through the doubt, ever upward. Jagged edges clawed at her trousers, tearing her apart piece by piece, but still she didn't pause, didn't falter.
Just one more peak, one more twist or turn, surely? And then... then, all would be well again. Her harsh words could be smoothed over; apologies would mean something if they didn't fall on unheeding ears.
"I can't let them down. I can't let it be my fault...
... All my fault."
The world shook, knocking her off balance. As she tried to regain her footing, a voice pulled her into the light and the nightmare faded.
"Christina...? Sweetheart, wake up."
The soothing solidity of her Mama's voice gave her direction and, with a gasp, the dreamer fell into consciousness and into her mother's waiting embrace. "Mama?"
Myka's arms wound securely around her daughter's shoulders and she began to rock gently. "I'm here, Sweetheart. It's ok. It was just a dream... Just a dream."
Despite the reassurances, Christina's imagined scramble kept her heart pounding from the adrenaline while tears welled now from the safety of her bed. "I'm sorry," she choked, feeling the lingering guilt. "I didn't mean to."
Myka frowned, her features etched with concern. "Didn't mean to do what, baby?"
"I don't know," came the plaintive reply as Christina's head tried to burrow further into her mother's shoulder.
"Well, whatever it was, you don't need to worry." Myka pulled back far enough to gather the child's face in her hands and stroked tears away with her thumbs. "I know you would never choose to do anything malicious."
Christina sniffed and nodded. She sank back into her mother's arms and stayed there until the effects of her nightmare began to wear off and drowsiness pulled her eyes closed again.
"Are you ready to go back to sleep, Sweetie?"
The girl stiffened and drew back to gaze up through long lashes. "Can I sleep in your bed, Ma?"
Fingers played with wayward locks of hair as Myka contemplated the request. Eventually, she sighed and nodded. "Since I'd like the company too, it won't hurt."
Christina grabbed her raccoon and hastily dragged the covers up to the pillow. Roquefort usually stayed quite contentedly on her bookshelf with Theodore and Angelina but, on nights like this, she needed his comforting presence.
After a quick detour to the bathroom, the pair jumped into Myka and Helena's bed and met in the middle. The adult waited until her daughter had settled before tucking the covers around the girl's shoulders and reaching behind her to turn off the lamp.
"Comfy?"
"Mm-hm," Christina hummed, contentment beginning to seep into her bones with the feeling of safety. "Your bed is much bigger than mine," she added with a yawn.
Myka chuckled lowly as her head sank into the pillow. "It needs to be. Mummy wriggles a heck of a lot some nights."
"May we have a party when Mum comes home?"
Unseen in the dark, the regent rolled her eyes. "Any excuse," she mumbled before adding, "A small one perhaps. Now, go to sleep. I'm right here if you need me."
"Love you, Mama."
Myka felt her chest tighten as it did every time she heard those words from her little angel. She placed a lingering kiss on the girl's crown and pulled her closer. "I love you too, my little princess."
Morning arrived with a knee in the kidney and a punch to the back of the head. Myka winced and jerked away from her attacker before rolling over to watch the child sleep. Careful not to move too fast, she reached across the divide to run her fingers through silky hair. Almost immediately, the young girl's slumbering acrobats faded away, leaving behind a soft snore and the ghost of a smile.
"Just like your mother," she whispered lovingly.
In the two and a half years since finding her daughter, Myka's adoration of this precious little girl had only grown in intensity. It would be easy, with hindsight, to say that their blood bond had them intrinsically connected from the very beginning but that wasn't entirely the case. It went beyond biology; her daughter completed a part of her soul. Christina was beautiful, inside and out, and it was impossible to believe that she could love the girl any less, no matter their origins. Fredrick added to that bliss and, despite having sworn that she never wanted to be pregnant again, recently she had contemplated the possibility of trying for a third.
Planning their wedding might be their immediate priority but it would be useful to know what Helena's thoughts were beyond their nuptials. Now was a good time in their lives to make that decision if it was something they both wanted.
Making sure not to disturb Sleeping Beauty, Myka slipped out of bed and tiptoed across the landing into her son's room. A few books lay scattered in a corner behind Christina's half-built train track, several open drawers and a dozen jigsaw pieces, lay like breadcrumbs in a path to the door. Myka scanned the mess with a sigh, knowing that she should have made more of an effort to encourage her children to tidy before bedtime, but after the third round of Freddy enjoying the removal of his toys as much as putting them away, she was just too tired to see the task through to its desired conclusion. She settled for the knowledge that at least she had given them some practise. Some routines were just easier with her partner there to tag-team with.
As she checked on the little prince and found him still fast asleep, Myka pulled the door closed softly behind her and made for the stairs.
Her slipper-clad feet patted across the heated flag-stone floor of the generous kitchen as she made her way over to the caffeine station. She checked the water level and pressed a few buttons to begin brewing her statutory morning coffee, and then propped her tablet up on the breakfast bar before opening up the scrapbook folder she and Christina were working on for the big day.
Though Claudia had wanted to be more involved, her new duties as caretaker prevented her appearance at many of their planning 'meetings'. Whenever she spotted something she thought they would like though, she sent a photo or a link directly to Christina. As she insisted that the couple were the perfect living representation of steam-punk, she refused to be cut out of the process entirely. From place cards, invitations and party favours to designing her own outfit, the young redhead was determined to put her (approved) mark on the proceedings.
Myka opened up a folder with her favourite selections and sipped her coffee with a small smile tugging the corners of her mouth. During moments like this, she often had to pinch herself to check that she was awake. Marrying her soul mate, the woman who completed her - it was a fairy tale come true. How could it possibly be real? Yet, here she was, looking at colour swatches, fabrics and dress designs.
In the beginning, once she had officially allowed her eager relatives to begin planning, she hadn't really been concerned with the details so long as, on the day of her wedding, her bride-to-be joined her at the altar. As time moved on and more people insisted on badgering her with their ideas though, Myka realised that she had to take more of a lead role, unless she wanted her hair full of flowers and her bridesmaids covered in pink frills.
As it turned out, she was pleasantly surprised by how much she was enjoying herself. A lot of the process involved research and scrapbooking anything that she took a liking to, both of which she could do from home. Of course, that also meant spending hours with Christina at the dining room table, searching for and cutting out images from magazines and organising their favourites; combining three of her favourite pastimes.
Helena spent a good portion of her day in her workshop. Since the move, she had been on a mission to turn their home into some kind of fortress. With Kevin's help, she had excavated a tunnel under the garden and into the woods just within their property boundary. As she needed to keep the project as secret as possible, she was forced to do much of the work herself, which meant waiting until Kevin, Pete, Claudia or Steve were available to lend a hand. She found the pace of their progress frustratingly slow but since Myka wouldn't allow her to partake in any construction singlehandedly, she had to find a way to deal with it.
Currently, the inventor was assisting Pete with a job for their redheaded friend. A ritual drinking horn, which Norse warriors once used before battle to give them courage, had made an appearance in Turkey. Considering the political unrest in that part of the world and the potential for misuse by future adversaries, Claudia had bypassed the usual channels and sent the information to the newest regents.
With Steve and Jason playing at tourists while they chased a sacrificial dagger through Peru, and Meghan having recently fallen off the grid, Myka and Helena had resorted to flipping a coin to see who would go with Pete. Though their positions within the organisation were supposed to be non-combative, there was always a risk that the mission could take a turn for the worse and force them to fight for their lives.
As Myka sat, savouring the calm before the daily storm of parenthood, she sent a prayer into the ether that her love was not in danger and would be home soon. She would know if anything untoward happened though; her engagement ring connected her to Helena more deeply every day. To a certain extent, it even gave her warning when the little ones were not at their best. The day Fredrick had pulled a basket of washing down on his own head and became trapped under the avalanche of damp towels, she had sensed his panic before hearing his cries from the next room.
As if knowing where her thoughts lingered, her phone let out a whimper, the 'nanny' app signalling movement from the nursery. After draining the dregs of her drink, Myka wandered back upstairs to her son's room.
As she pushed the door open and stepped inside, her gaze fell on the cot and the little boy staring intently over the side. So many moments she cherished each day but this first glance at her little prince, with his alert eyes and happy grin, was one of her favourites.
"Hello, handsome," she cooed as she approached the crib and reached down for the toddler. "Did we have a lovely night's sleep?"
Anticipating his mother's kiss, Fredrick leaned in; almost head butting the adult in the process. He grinned at her chuckle before turning his attention on the room and beginning to point at random objects with a questioning 'ah?'
Myka dutifully answered each query with a noun and occasionally a sound or associative word. "Books... puzzle... train. Choo-choo!" She carried him over to the changing table and continued chatting as she quickly swapped his damp diaper for a dry one. Knowing that he would likely end up with breakfast all over his clothes anyway, she chose to leave them for now.
Hefting him into her arms once more, she continued to take inventory with her son as they wandered onto the landing. "... door..."
Fredrick's excitement and volume increased outside his bedroom and he pointed emphatically at the room next to his. "Ah! Eena!"
Myka chuckled. "She's not in there. Look..." She opened her daughter's bedroom door to reveal its empty contents and then looked back at her son with an expression of exaggerated shock. "Where is she?"
Face frozen for a second in confusion, Fredrick appeared to think about the mystery of his missing sister. After a brief moment, he turned towards his parents' room and pointed. "Ah?"
"I can't pull the wool over your eyes, can I?" Myka noted as she bounced him on her hip and walked into her own room. She put her finger to her lips and pointed at the lump in the bed, and then set her son down.
Like a newborn giraffe walking for the first time, Fredrick wobbled his way across the duvet on all fours. The lump stirred and squeaked, followed by the appearance of two arms and then a head. The toddler paused, watched his sister's face appear and then quickened his pace until he threw himself across her prone figure.
Myka reached for the phone in her pocket, snapped a picture and sent it to Helena before climbing in beside her children. She grinned at the giggles that exploded from her daughter and the excited babble from her son.
"Wake up, sleepy-head!" The regent teased as she prodded the covers to encourage more giggling.
"Eeby eb," Fredrick repeated as he tried to crawl under the duvet with his sister.
Within seconds, all three of them were under the covers, the taller two creating a canopy with their head's. Fredrick crawled into his mother's lap and she immediately began to sing one of his favourite songs. Christina joined in and they rowed their boat all the way down the stream, keeping a vigilant eye out for crocodiles.
As predicted, breakfast involved much mess. Since it was the weekend, Myka and Christina decided that they should get the paints out and create a masterpiece - the mass clean up could be saved until later. The remainder of the morning involved a lot of broad interpretation and keeping Freddy's fingers away from his mouth. By the time both children were bathed and clothed again, it was lunchtime and guests were at the door.
"Here, let me take that," Myka offered as she ushered Lila into the house and relieved her of the huge diaper bag she was carrying. "Come on in. The partners in crime are in the playroom. We've just finished our art and craft portion of the day so lunch is running a bit late I'm afraid."
Lila released part of her burden with a sigh of relief and a breathless 'thanks'. "I never understood why parents needed to carry so much stuff just for one baby but, even with that entire bag; I still never seem to have everything I need."
"Well, at least here, if you don't have it, I probably will," the brunette consoled her friend as she led them through the living room and into the back room, which looked out onto the garden through two large French-windows.
"Don't worry about rushing with lunch on our account. Sophie decided to lie in this morning so we had a late breakfast." The blonde settled her daughter on the floor next to Fredrick and his stacking cups before flopping into a seat.
Myka placed another tray of toys next to the toddlers and followed suit. "We haven't long had a snack so I suppose it could wait half an hour or so. How's she coming on with the baby-sign?"
"She loves it," Lila beamed. "Whenever Aunty Jean comes round, she's fascinated. I find it hard to keep up with the two of them. Can you imagine what they'll be like when Soph' is a precocious pre-teen?"
"I have a precocious pre-teen and there's not a language she knows that Helena or I don't, but she still manages to run rings around us sometimes." Myka glanced down at the toddlers and felt a twinge of longing, both for a glimpse of her eldest at this early stage and a chance to have that tiny babe in arms again. "They grow up too fast."
"Where is CJ? I normally have to undergo an inquisition before she'll let me in the door," she joked fondly.
"Upstairs," the brunette nodded towards the ceiling. "She started reading The Hunger Games and once she gets going, she's in a world of her own."
"They're quite gruesome, aren't they?" Lila frowned with concern. "What about Harry Potter?"
"She devoured those in a few short weeks." Myka frowned and bit her lip. "I was hesitant to let her start The Hunger Games but when I think back to me at her age, I was reading the likes of Frankenstein, Dracula and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Plus HG Wells," she smiled the way she always did when she remembered how far back her love for her fiancée went. "Some of Helena's stuff is quite dark. Christina's nightmares don't seem to be about Panem so I'm not too worried. It's nice to see her getting lost in literature."
"I suppose when you put it that way..." Lila fidgeted for a moment as if she wanted to say something but wasn't sure how, or perhaps whether she should.
Observant as ever, the regent noticed and studied her friend more closely. "Lila, is everything ok?"
The blonde started. "Yes, I'm fine," she insisted quickly.
"But...?"
Blue eyes darted back and forth from green and teeth gnawed at her lower lip. "I know I should wait until Pete gets home but I just have to tell someone." She gazed down at her daughter with a proud smile and a hand fell to her belly. "So, remember what you were saying about them growing up too fast..."
Catching on quickly, Myka's borderline concern morphed into a wide grin. "Really? You're pregnant?"
"I'm pregnant," the blonde confirmed with a smile and what looked like nervous excitement.
They immediately fell into conversation about due dates, doctor's appointments and their individual experiences of labour. All the while, in the back of Myka's head, a little voice asked repeatedly whether she would like another of her own.
After a surprisingly trouble free grab in Turkey, Pete and Helena landed in New York for their connecting flight with an identical sense of relief. It was rare that either of them were called upon to venture out these days and, secretly, they had both worried about being a little rusty. It was one thing to be training in your own back garden, but quite another to be fighting off attackers in an unknown place with barely any idea of where the exit points were.
Needing to stretch their legs and having three hours to wait for the flight back to Denver, the unlikely pair wandered out of JFK and immediately pulled their coats tighter around their bodies. Though Turkey had been a little too dusty for their liking (particularly for Helena, who was reminded sharply of their misadventure in Egypt), it had been warm at least.
Winter was officially over, with March in full swing, but a frigid chill clung to the air and grey clouds muted what few spots of green had dared to brave the weather. People bustling about the streets did so with heads lowered and a no-nonsense pace, destinations in mind and even less time than usual to wander off course.
"So, how nervous are you about the wedding really, HG?" Pete asked as soon as they stopped for a bite to eat.
Helena glanced up from her sandwich, chewed for a moment as she stared at her colleague, and then wiped her mouth slowly with her napkin. "What makes you think that any part of me is the least bit nervous?" she challenged.
"Come on," he countered around a mouthful of food. "You're marrying Myka, your dream bride, who happens to be a bit of a neurotic perfectionist."
Inside, the inventor acknowledged some small measure of trepidation but she was determined not to let it show. "I assure you, I couldn't be more content. After all, I only have to look presentable and arrive on time," she explained, deliberately downplaying her role. "Which, let's face it, shouldn't be too taxing as we both know my penchant for punctuality and that Myka finds me irresistible. You have more to be concerned about I'd wager. I believe unintentional disasters are your forte. Should anything untoward happen, I think you are aware of who will be first in the line of fire."
Pete gulped, almost choking as he swallowed a half-chewed morsel of steak and cheese. He failed to notice the mischievous twinkle behind the Brit's gaze as his thoughts turned to the wedding and his position in it. Myka wouldn't be too irked with him if he goofed up without meaning to, would she? "Oh, damn," he cursed. "Think she'd miss me if I gave the job to Steve?"
Helena waved a hand nonchalantly in the air. "I'm sure she'd only murder you the once."
"Comforting," he bit back and then proceeded to take his feeling out on the rest of his lunch.
With the last leg of their journey remaining uneventful, the pair reached Denver right on schedule. Agent Lattimer's self-conscious gorging on sweets soon made HG regret her teasing and, as she exited through the security gate, she was never more pleased to see her beautiful family.
Myka was the first to spot them, having the height advantage over most of the moderate crowd. She tapped Christina on the head and pointed for the youngster's benefit. Her gaze locked on her fiancée and she barely glanced away, even as she tried to derail Fredrick's attention from his need to escape and explore.
Myka felt a tightening in her throat and a prickling of tears behind her eyes as she bathed in this reunion with her soul mate. Warmth tingled along her arm from the metal on her finger but she was so used now to the link between her emotions and the accessory that she barely paid it any attention.
Finally, having spotted his Mummy, Freddy shrieked his delight and lurched forward. Two arms held him tightly until HG reached their little group and whipped him into her arms. His chubby fists bunched around her hair and giggles erupted as kisses rained down on his face. Beside them, Christina threw herself at the inventor and grinned up into her mother's tired eyes.
Pete passed them, heading for his own family, any concern he might have for weddings momentarily forgotten. Sophie was half-asleep on her mother's shoulder and simply smiled around her pacifier as her daddy kissed her cheek and stroked through her hair.
Glad to swap loads, Lila settled the girl into Pete's arms.
It was with a sense of contentment that Myka linked fingers through Helena's and took Christina's hand with her free one. Her daughter had insisted on holding the weary traveller's carry-on bag and, even though Helena tried to pack lightly, she hunched slightly under the weight of it.
Farewells in the car park tested the inventor's patience somewhat and, rather than snap at her little princess for her interrogation of Pete and his gastronomic habits, Helena hefted Fredrick onto her other hip and strolled along a footpath to where a short wall surrounded a flower bed. After inspecting the cleanliness of the surface, she perched on the edge and set her son on his feet.
"Owa, Mummy," Freddy declared, pointing to the leafy evergreens.
"Not quite yet, my darling," she responded, smiling at his indignant frown. Didn't she know a flower when she saw one? "They're bushes," she elaborated, indicating the size of the plant before pointing to a small off shoot. "With leaves."
"Weav?"
"Yes, Munchkin, leaves," Helena praised him.
She pulled him into her lap and began chatting with her son about dirt and bugs, sunshine and rain, and thought back to similar conversations she and Christina had had in the garden of their home in London. Some days, it seemed like such a long time ago, another lifetime. Other days it was like yesterday and she could hardly fathom how she had come to be the mother of this beautiful boy as well as her precious angel.
Pete's words from earlier in the day drifted back to her and she began to consider them anew. Was she nervous at all about her 'big day'? Perhaps a little. She wanted everything to go off without a hitch and for her family to enjoy themselves but, mostly, she viewed the ceremony as a pleasant way to show everyone else what she already knew – she and Myka belonged together.
She was looking forward to being able to call Myka her wife and, surprisingly, to changing her name. Since the American had given birth to their son, his surname was different to his sister's. Once she and Myka tied the knot, they would be a family on paper too, and signing her name as Helena Bering-Wells was a skill she had been perfecting for some time now.