A/N: Sorry for the delay…I was shopping and attempting to wrap gifts for my gazillion family members. A word to the wise: never, ever leave your Christmas shopping for the week of Christmas. It is absolutely crazy. And again, thank you for the absolutely wonderful reviews. They seriously make me smile when I read them Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate it!
Chapter 7
The roar of the engine was the only sound that permeated the deafening silence. Both figures sat stiffly, staring straight ahead at the rolling landscape. Neither Pete not Helena wanted to be the one to back down from the argument that had yet to be resolved since they left the B&B.
The teamwork and trust they had shown each other in the barn as they apprehended Calamity Jane's rifle seemed to have disappeared in the wake of the situation to which they were returning. Pete sighed quietly gripping the steering wheel in a white-knuckled hold. It would be hours before they got back to Leena's. He debated if he should disturb the silence and risk an argument.
The silence stretched on. Helena staunchly ignored the quiet sighs that punctured the stillness, not out of actual desire for the silence to continue but more from lack of anything to say. She had no wish to continue to fight with Pete but the man seemed to be directly contrary to everything she wanted (solely on principle if not direct opposition). Quietly sighing her own dissatisfaction, Helena's heart thumped a slow, aching beat. She missed Myka now more than ever. The younger woman knew how to translate her intent to all parties. Without her, Helena could not seem to see eye to eye with anyone on the team. Staring fixedly out of the window, Helena lost herself in thought, almost missing the moment Pete began speaking.
"Thank you," Pete said softly, his voice breaking the widening silence that separated them like a great chasm. His eyes skidded to briefly take in Helena's profile. "Thank you," he repeated after a beat, slightly louder, "for saving me back there." He could only handle silence for so long, and he had exhausted all his patience with it on Helena. He knew they needed to work together to get Myka back. He just hated backing down when he was right, but his pride would take a backseat to his desire to save his best friend.
"Contrary to apparently popular belief, I do not want to see you harmed Peter," Helena said after contemplating his statement for a moment. "Myka would kill me if I knowingly let something happen to you," she mumbled, almost as an afterthought.
The first real ghost of a smile in over a week graced Pete's lips at Helena's admission. "She's gotcha on a short leash, huh?" He teased, trying to dissipate the still palpable tension in the car.
Accepting the olive branch Pete was extending to her, but still momentarily confused at his statement, Helena mulled over a suitable response. "No leash involved," she said after the silence began to stretch again, "or necessary."
Pete made a motion as if cracking a whip and accompanied it with the appropriate sound as a small smile curved his lips. Helena merely lifted her brows and slanted her eyes his way before turning back to the passing landscape, "Myka does have an affinity to taking the lead," a faint, sad smile touched her lips, "and I find that I do not mind letting her."
"And while that is fascinating information," Pete lobbed back, intrigued despite himself, "I doubt Myka would want you divulging the things she has a particularly special type of affinity toward."
Helena barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the overgrown boy next to her, "Did anyone ever tell you that you have an exceptionally vivid imagination?" Pete shrugged noncommittally, allowing a much more comfortable silence to descend upon them.
Helena finally turned away from the rolling plains outside her window and looked at Pete's profile. She considered the man for a moment. Pete really was a good man. He could be more stubborn than a mule, but he was loyal to those he loved. He was loyal to Myka. She could not fault him that. At the moment, his stubborn loyalty presented more problems than she wanted. But, she needed his help in getting Myka back. So, she prepared to extend a peace offering of her own. "Thank you as well, Peter," she said sincerely, no teasing in her tone, "for saving my life in turn."
"Are you kidding me," he replied playfully, "I was saving my own hide. Myka would have my head on a platter if anything happened to you."
"I see we are both submitted to the same woman," Helena observed, knowing she had touched on a sensitive subject when Pete tensed perceptibly.
"We made a good team, didn't we?" Pete asked, avoiding meeting Helena's eyes as he tried to avoid her previous statement.
"Surprisingly," she glibly responded.
"Well, look at us, bonding over mutual appreciation of saving one another's lives," Pete said a bit mockingly, automatically going on the defensive after Helena's statement.
Looking hard at the man next to her, Helena mentally prepared to broach a subject she felt she did not have enough energy to pursue. Knowing, however, that they had to move past this particular barrier in order to work together, she proceeded, with unerring accuracy, to pierce the problem at hand. "She is mine, Pete," she enunciated clearly so there would be no mistaking what she was saying, even using the shortened version of his name to get her point across. "She chose me," she said it softly but firmly. Her intent not to injure the man, but to have him understand.
"Myka loves you dearly; she loves you deeply. But, she is not in love with you Pete. Myka is in love with me. And, I with her. I do not wish to continue this pissing contest with you," she expelled on a weary tone, "I just want to bring her home. And to do so, I need your help. So, please do stop this petty competition where you measure yourself against me," Helena softened her tone to take as much sting out of her words as possible, "I am not sorry that I am the victor in this, but I am truly sorry that you are in love with someone you cannot have."
Helena ploughed ahead, wanting to finish now that she had started. "I know you do not like me. And much of that dislike stems from Myka's choice. Another part of that is that you do not know me, or care to know me. But, at least for the next little while, you need to set that aside and help me figure out a way to save Myka." She averted her eyes after taking in Pete's clenched jaw, rigid back, and fisted hands; she afforded the man as much privacy as she could given their confined space.
After a tense several moments, Pete pulled over at the first rest stop they came upon. He parked hazardously, killed the engine and stepped out of the SUV without a word. He slammed the door as he walked off in the direction of the small stone building that housed the restrooms and vending machines. Helena let her head fall against the dashboard and released a heavy sigh. "That certainly could have gone better," she whispered.
Anxious energy coursing through her, Helena exited the vehicle and breathed in the crisp air dispelling some of the built up tension in her body. She could feel the cold carried on the wind. Winter was creeping in with quiet but insistent subtlety. She hugged her coat closer to her body attempting to keep the chill at bay. Looking over at the building Pete had disappeared into, Helena debated whether she should follow him but quickly decided against it. He needed a moment away from the scrutiny.
Following the well worn path on the other side of the pavement where the SUV was parked, Helena walked a short distance until she was surrounded by still green grass. Gazing across the distance she took a moment to simply enjoy the beautiful colors of autumn she could see visible in the distant woods. The sun, still rising from its eastern perch, shining brightly on the valley, illuminated the natural beauty all around her. She closed her eyes against the feeling of hollow loneliness the scene in front of her engendered in her soul. She startled slightly as a hand landed on her shoulder pulling her attention back to the present.
Pete handed Helena a bottle of water before promptly plopping down on the grass and fiddling with the cap of his own bottle. He looked out across the valley lost in thought for a moment as Helena sat herself beside him gently. Pete finally looked over at Helena, who cocked her head to be able to look him in the eye. Seeing the pain and sadness in his gaze almost made her want to look away.
"I know," he began softly looking away from Helena's eyes, "that she's yours." He blew out a short breath before taking a sip of his water. "It's never been like that between me and Myka," he continued, "she's never…" He trailed off shaking his head. "Even before you," he cut his eyes to glance at Helena, "Myka has never been interested. And, I haven't really ever seriously considered it," he said in a slightly defeated tone. "But, it's hard not to be a little bit in love with her," he finished so softly, Helena would have thought she imagined it had she not been looking into his eyes.
He tried to smile as he shifted his eyes away again but it came off more as a grimace. Helena understood, so she gave him as much time as he needed while he composed himself after his confession. Pete took another drink of water, giving himself more time before he continued. "You and I are more alike than you think Helena," he said after some time, not needing to see Helena's raised eyebrow to know she was giving him an incredulous look.
"You have this darkness inside you that you try to hide with charisma and bravado," he could see Helena's face shift into a blank mask the longer he spoke. "It eats away at you constantly, and you allow it free reign." He shifted so he was facing her. "I admit that I'm extremely protective over Myka, and that may play a role in why I innately distrust you." Helena gave him a look, "Okay, it definitely plays a role in it." He held up his hands to concede the point. "But, that's not the main reason."
Helena nodded at him to continue. "It's the fact that you have the potential to be a very dangerous woman. And the longer you allow whatever keeps eating at you to grow, the more solid that potential becomes. Despite any appearances otherwise, Helena, I am not a stupid man. Neither am I ignorant nor inexperienced. I know you think you don't deserve Myka," he tried seeing through Helena's exceptional poker face, "and you really don't," at that something flashed in her eyes but she still remained quiet. "But, Myka knows you better than anyone. She knows you have the capacity to be very dangerous, and all she can see is good in you. Trust her. She is never wrong." Helena lowered her gaze at those words, her mask slipping slightly as the truth of his words cut deep.
"What I don't understand," Pete continued, "is why you fight so hard against it?" He looked at her bewildered. "Myka is so in love with you, and it's apparent you are as in love with her as she is with you," he scrunched his eyebrows, "so why play with her?"
"It is complicated. And convoluted. And I cannot entirely explain it all." A pained look flashed across Helena's features as she gave the answer almost automatically. "Mostly, because I do not rightly know all that is transpiring myself," she finished, looking away from Pete's probing eyes. She was quickly finding out that the man was entirely too skilled at reading people.
"That really doesn't answer my question," he shook his head at her, slowly rising to his feet. Helena, feeling a weird sense of déjà vu, looked up as he extended a hand to help her up. "We still have an eight hour drive ahead of us," Pete said clasping Helena's smaller hand in his, "you can give me the highlights of your complicated, convoluted story."
Helena sighed but nodded her assent, "I will do my best to be concise. I have a feeling I know exactly where Myka has gone, but I am at loss as how to retrieve her."
"First," Pete said pulling out his Farnsworth as they walked back to the SUV, "let's call and check in with Artie. Claudia could've already hacked her way to an answer."
"They knew Artie," Claudia said furiously. "They know. Even now," she was sitting still in one of the dining room chairs but her eyes burned with pent up energy and steely anger. "They've known this whole frakking time and that's why we haven't seen hide nor hair of them," Claudia was working herself into a rage, "or Mrs. Frederic." Her loyalties always in the people she loved and trusted, Claudia could not fathom how the higher ups had somehow managed to forget to mention the very conspicuous fact that one Myka O. Bering was present in the Warehouse at two different intervals in time one hundred years apart.
Artie's mind raced with implications and possible ramifications of what they had discovered. If their Myka was also the Myka in the sealed file, things had the possibility of becoming very complicated very quickly. A big part of him agreed with Claudia's anger over the situation. But, he was old enough to know that things were not always what they first appeared to be. "There must be a reason," he spoke into the now quiet room.
"Whatever their reason, it's not good enough," Claudia exploded into motion pacing back and forth making Artie dizzy in her frenzied motion. He was thankful when the girl's Farnsworth went off in the adjacent room. Belatedly realizing that the caller could only be Pete and Helena, Artie quickly moved to try and intercept the ball of furious energy about to divulge everything they had learned to the two people who would turn the world upside down for Myka. He was decidedly more concerned about Helena's reaction, hers being an unknown factor in the grand scheme of things.
"Claudia," Artie spoke from behind the door separating the dining room and the living room, "we need to be careful what we tell Helena," he rushed through the door.
"What is it you cannot tell me?" Helena's distinct voice came through the tiny speaker on the Farnsworth.
