Myka closed her eyes. She knew that she hadn't exactly lied to Helena. She was afraid that it was too late for them. But that didn't mean she wanted it to be. She was so scared, though, of opening herself up in that way again, like she had in Wisconsin, only to be rejected again. She brushed her soft, straight hair back with long fingers as she sighed.
Wait. Wasn't her hair curly a minute ago? She looked down at her body and realised that those boobs were bigger than hers, that her skin was paler and slightly freckled, and that the hands were more slight, the fingers longer and more tapered than her own muscular, calloused digits. She closed her eyes as she realised what was happening.
"You have GOT to be kidding me!" she said, the voice coming out in some sort of pseudo-English accent, the voice deeper and more seductive than hers had ever sounded. She opened her eyes and saw herself staring back, mouth open. Or rather, saw Helena stare back, from Myka's body. This was going to get confusing.
As it had before, the voice coming from nowhere made them both jump.
"Hey ladies!" came Claudia's annoyingly cheery voice. "We're sorry to interrupt, but the Warehouse decided it was time for some more drastic measures. You guys have swapped bodies, but it's not like it was with you and Pete, Myka. Because of the combination of artefacts we used, you can both feel what the other is feeling, and see through the other's eyes. And everything you experience here is real, it's the truth. If you can stay in that bed together like this, and you, Myka, still say it's too late, then you'll be out of there, I promise. But I can't see it myself. Good luck. Donovan out."
The silence between them was thunderous. Myka didn't know how to begin. She wouldn't meet the other woman's eyes, but she could feel a mixture of amusement and something profound that she could not name rise up in her own chest. Helena's amusement, Helena's feelings. She looked up, meeting her own green eyes, dazed with the strangeness of it all.
"It appears the Warehouse has not quite finished with us, Agent Bering," said HG. She laughed Myka's laugh, and smiled Myka's smile, goofy but somehow sultry. But when their eyes met, Myka felt the blaze – no, the inferno of her love, the pressure in her chest as Helena looked at her. It was so strong, so sure, and so overwhelming that she didn't know how Helena stood it. There was also some, very tangible, evidence of Helena's more...physical response to her nearness that she could not mistake.
"Is this...is this really how you feel?" she managed to get out, forgetting how to breathe.
"Every bloody time I look at you." She almost growled, trying to soften the words with Myka's own lopsided smile, but the agent could feel the tightening in her chest, in her belly, as Helena's feelings for her washed through her.
There was silence for another moment, broken only by their soft breaths.
"And you? Is this truly how you feel when you look at me?" The words sounded odd coming from Myka's mouth, in her own accent. Helena marvelled at how Myka's heart beat, slamming against her chest wall, and how the ever-present blush felt on her skin, the blush that touched her face and neck so often when she looked at Helena.
Myka-as-Helena tried to hide her face in her raven-dark hair, but said softly, reluctantly, "Yes." Helena's heart soared. Myka was a mystery to her, could hide herself so well in her conscientiousness, her books, her smart mouth and her gun. But thanks to Claudia's meddling, the river of molten gold that ran through her veins when she thought about Helena Wells was no longer a secret from the author.
She tried not to, but Myka could not stop herself from moving closer to the other woman. It was as if she were a magnet drawn to a lodestone. She had no choice, could not keep herself from touching Helena's hands. Well, her own hands, she supposed, but she tried hard not to think about the artefact aspect of it all. She couldn't lie to herself or to Helena anymore. She was in love with HG Wells, and had admitted that to herself at least, but she had never let herself really believe that HG loved her, especially not after Boone. But now that she had been exposed to the insidious virus that was Helena's love for her, she was infected, powerless to resist the draw of the other woman's nearness. She opened her eyes and looked at Helena, surrendered totally, finally, to the other woman's love and desire.
There's truths you have to grow into.
There was an audible snap and a flare of light that quite blinded them both for a few moments. But when Myka opened her eyes, she was back in her own body once again. Unfortunately that also meant that she was once again looking at the very naked figure of Helena Wells. She was filled, somehow, with a strange kind of peace when she looked at the woman who, she now knew, loved her without restraint, and with the kind of passion that Myka never believed herself capable of rousing in another human being. She was suddenly extremely, uncomfortably aroused, and didn't know whether to squeeze her eyes shut or lunge at the woman.
Helena's body, so recently occupied by Myka, was her own again. If she had to share her body with anyone, she would rather it be Myka than anyone else in the world, but she'd rather not have to surrender it again to anyone. Not a problem that would likely arise in a normal lifetime, but when the Warehouse was involved, anything was possible. She breathed a sigh of relief, and opened her eyes to meet Myka's again. Strapped as they were to this bed, it was awkward to move, but she nonetheless shifted her shoulders so that she could hold Myka's hands in her own. Myka was looking at her with something like wonder in her eyes.
"What is it, my dear?" she murmured softly, stroking the agent's palms with her thumbs.
"I always hoped, Helena. I knew how I felt, but I didn't dare let myself think that you could feel the same. But now that I've felt it, I don't know what to say." Her eyes glistened a little as she took in Helena's face, the full lips, slightly curled up, the perfect brow, so often drawn up in mock surprise, the dark brown eyes that seemed to draw her in to this woman's soul.
"You don't need to say anything, my dear agent," said Helena, softly. "After all, there are no secrets between us anymore. Perhaps we can communicate in some other way, now?" She smiled, a little wickedly, but with eyes ablaze with an intensity that made Myka's breath catch. Helena moved one hand to Myka's face, her eyes asking permission. Myka nodded, once, and Helena held her gaze for a long, electric moment before moving closer, pulling Myka to her.
Helena's hand was on her cheek, caressing softly. Her other arm burrowed underneath Myka and pulled her so close that Myka could barely breathe. When their lips met, however, that didn't matter, because Myka forgot how to. Helena's lips were full and soft, and her skin against Myka's felt like silk. The scent of her, that was so indefinably her, filled Myka's nostrils. Myka opened her mouth to Helena's soft, insistent pushes, and felt the Englishwoman's tongue inside her own mouth for the first time. This tongue, that held so much power over her already, was sweet and warm and was taking charge in a way that she had imagined but never before experienced. She gave herself over to the feeling, grasping the hair at the back of Helena's head and pulling softly. She was rewarded by a moan from the other woman, and long fingers pulling, teasing at her own curling locks.
Helena kissed Myka, glorying in the taste of the agent's lips, and in the way that Myka's hands grasped at her hair as they finally gave voice to the music that had filled their hearts since they had first laid eyes upon one another so long ago in London. She lost herself in the physical sensation, the release of the tension that had so long existed between them. But unlike her encounters in the past, this one had an overwhelming dimension to it. She was finally at peace with herself, yes, but this feeling was pure and honest and true – everything that Myka herself was. Helena knew that the Warehouse approved of her, had been given the rare gift of its regard, but this gift – to know, to feel what Myka felt for her – it was a gift beyond price. Tears of pure joy escaped her and streamed down her cheeks.
Myka pulled back when she felt the moisture against her face.
"Helena...what's wrong?" She drew back reluctantly to look at the woman, concerned.
Helena smiled at her, tears still running down her face as she spoke.
"For the first time in my life, Myka Bering, there is nothing wrong. I just have never been so happy before. This is what you do to me."
Myka's expression of concern was replaced with a look of almost...reverence, as she looked at Helena.
"You do know that I have never been with a woman before, don't you?" she asked, a little nervously.
Helena smiled at her, teasing slightly. "Well, my dear, I have never been with someone I loved before. So we can learn together."
Myka smiled broadly, and shook her head a little at Helena's reply, her simple yet elegant words that, as always, saw to the heart of the matter and never failed to make her breath halt in her chest.
"I love you, Helena Wells."
"And I, you, Myka Bering. Now, bloody kiss me!"
And Myka did. Neither of them heard the soft sniffling noises that were barely audible inside the room where they made love for the first time. Claudia and Steve replaced the handset softly ("before things get weird," Claudia thought), hugging each other tightly and crying with joy as their friends finally made their legendary romance official.
