A/N: Some violence in this one. Not excessive, but a little psychological.

oOOOOo

Riley felt grass against her cheek and frowned. She had no idea where she was or how she'd gotten there. She heard a voice, "Mom- Mom- someone… just appeared on the front lawn."

She blinked up with a frown as an almost teenaged girl in a Gi stood over her, "Wh-where, who?"

Riley pushed herself up to a half sitting position and looked around. She still had no clue where s he was and then the door opened. "Mom?"

Helena came out of the house and joined the girl in the Gi. "I'm sorry, you must have me confused with someone else. Are you alright?"

Riley looked between the young girl and Helena. "I-I'm fine. Where-are we?"

"Home. I'm Adelaide. This is my mother Helena. Who are you?"

Riley stared up at Helena for a long moment, "This- this can't be real. Or, it's an artifact, or… or…" Riley saw the blink of recognition of the term in Helena's eyes and quickly continued, "I'm Riley. Leena Riley Bering Wells."

Adelaide looked between Helena and Riley, "Bering, like your friend from University?"

Riley looked around as she stood and backed up a bit, "What, why am I here, where is home? Where am I?"

No one had a chance to speak as two men came running from the woods, guns raised. Without a thought Riley drew her own weapon and shot both of them. In the blink of an eye two more men came out of the woods again. She shot them too. She kept shooting and shooting as they kept coming by twos out of the woods. Shooting and reloading, and then she was out of bullets and her gun made the sound no agent or police officer ever wanted to hear when they still had bad guys to take down.

She looked back up and blinked as the two men who had been running towards her disappeared and instead Mei Chen stepped from the cover of the trees. Still her gun was pointed at Riley, Adelaide, and Helena too, but Riley could see that Mei Chen's finger wasn't on the trigger.

"What do you want?" Mei Chen said nothing. "What- do you WANT?"

Mei Chen was nearly to them and as she opened her mouth she changed from Mei Chen into Riley herself, "To kill you. You're a liar, a disgrace, can't even find your own sister. She'll die just like Christina, she and PG and Joey. You can't save them, or your family, you're a disgrace."

Riley was frozen as two shots rang out. She looked down, but she hadn't been the one hit. She whirled. Both Helena and Adelaide were hit. She sank to her knees next to Helena, her hand over the hole in her mother's chest. "Mom- Mom- please, no…"

Helena tried to push Riley off, "Help my daughter, my real daughter- you're not my daughter, you've never done anything right. Anything-"

The woman with Riley's face still stood behind Riley, and just laughed as Helena kept repeating the same words to Riley and trying to get to Adelaide.

Finally Riley stood and turned at the same time and fired her gun over and over and over, hitting dead center every time. But then she felt pain in her own chest and looked down, she was bleeding from gunshots.

oOOOOo

Riley sat up in bed. Going from asleep to awake between heartbeats, and boy was her heart trying to beat itself out of her chest. She put a hand to her chest, she could still feel a phantom ache there.

She reached to her bedside table and picked up her phone. Calling up the video call app she dialed the second number on it. Mom. To be fair, the first number on it, while being a different number, was also labelled Mom. She'd had her brother Joey put both entries in and not tell her which was which at the time. Every once in a while when they were both home at the same time he'd also mess with her head and change which entry went to which mother.

After a few heart stopping moments Helena's face appeared on the small screen and Riley's eyes closed reflexively. "Mom."

Helena frowned, "Riley, what's wrong?"

Riley shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Nothing- just… there aren't any, ah, dream thingies missing?"

There was a pause and Riley heard some clicking, "There are not. You had a bad dream?"

Riley nodded, "I killed you and me sort of and… some girl named Adelaide." Riley shook her head, "I'm used to stress. I deal with stress very well, or, I did. This -new job- it's different. In a lot of ways it's more like I have a partner than someone to protect, and that…"

Helena smiled into the phone, "And that is quite a different set of stresses isn't it my dear." Helena paused, "I did once know a delightful eight year old named Adelaide. It was before you were born. When I believed that I wanted a normal life. Your mother…" Helena smiled, "Your mother of course knew me better than that. She had come to me for help with a case. She departed when I asked her to go, but, she also left me a present. It was hidden in one of my books on my bookshelf."

Riley interrupted Helena, "Which one?"

Helena shook her head, "You are Myka's daughterr. Sometimes I wonder if you really have half of Mr. Latimer's DNA, or if Claudia was up to no good with things that should not be taken out of storage before you were conceived."

Riley gave her mother a look, they'd had the exact discussion at least two or three times before, "You know that they have this new fangled thing called a DNA test. I've said before. Just swab me Mom. So. Book?"

"The Wonderful Visit. She had taken the original with her and replaced it with a good likeness that had one significant difference. Most of the inside pages were cut out and Claudia's first mini-Farnsworth was in it. After her visit I realized that I missed her so, and realized that as delightful as they were, Adelaide and her… father, I can't remember his name were a mistake. I couldn't bring myself to call her straight away, but when I did. When I realized that I wanted to come home, she told me where to look. Not in exact words, of course," Riley nodded her understanding, "Within the month I was back.. pursuing Endless Wonder with Steve as my partner and Myka as my everything."

Riley's eyes twinkled, "At the IRS Warehouse."

Helena smiled, "Exactly. Are you doing better now my Leena Riley?"

Riley nodded, "Yeah. I am. Thanks Mom."

"Will you be here for Artie's retirement?"

Riley sighed, "I'll try. They still plan on giving you his job?"

Helena gave Riley a look, "I don't find that very funny young lady. Be there."

"I'll try. I promise."

Helena's eyes narrowed, "Do I have to get Myka to contact your Director? Apparently they're acquainted."

"No… no. And speaking of Mom, shouldn't you be home by this hour?"

Helena shook her head, "Not a late night, but an early morning, too much to learn and not enough time. I can tell Myka to.."

"No, really, no, but thank you Mom."

Helena smiled, "Always. You're my daughter no matter how old or how far away you get. Goodnight darling. I love you." She touched part of the camera lens with her finger.

Riley did the same, "Love you too and tell Mom I love her." Riley paused for a half a second, then smirked and got one last jab in, "Night Helena Cataranga."

As Riley was disconnecting she heard Helena hurf, "Leena Riley Bering Wells."

Riley chuckled as she put the phone back on the bedside table and lay down. She stared up at the ceiling. "You wanted this- layer upon layer of secrecy. So do it." She rolled to her side, the clock still had an ungodly hour in the morning on it, "Preferably after getting some sleep."

She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again and looked towards the ceiling. "And, if anyone up there is listening, keep Sarah safe please?"