"Sometimes, you have to step outside of the person you've been and remember the person you were meant to be. The person you want to be. The person you are." HG Wells

Chapter Ten All's Wells that Ends Wells

Helena worked diligently at helping Myka forget the charming visitor. All the time explaining to Myka how her magnetism differed in style, strength and intensity from her brother's. "Charles would never do this," HG said right before touching Myka, making her too weak to argue the point even if she wanted to. It was a disagreement that Myka happily surrendered in.

There had been very little that HG and her brother were not competitive about but never before had she felt so unsettled by him. She was sorry she told him the truth about his fiancé. She said it out of spite and that was not good. HG was grateful he would not remember that.

They both heard Leena crying softly that night and wanted to go into her but Helena convinced Myka that they should allow her that time to cry over Charles.

"I am beginning to learn that feelings cannot be locked away as I had once thought, Myka," HG explained.

"Well you certainly got in touch with a lot of them in the short time that Charles was here. Were you always competitive with him?" Myka asked.

"Darling, it's simply not a competition when your opponent stands no chance against you," HG explained as only she could.

"Admit it, Helena – you were jealous of Charles," Myka teased her and drew the faux threatening glare.

"Don't be ridiculous," HG tried to dismiss the accusation.

"Your brother couldn't help it, he possesses that Wells' charm," Myka continued.

"Oh and are you still saying that there is no difference between us?" HG said assured now she had made her point several times.

"Well sure there is," Myka said running her finger across Helena's lip. "He has a moustache," Myka said and ran from the room.

"That is not funny, Myka Bering," HG said following her.

Myka decided that they needed to do something nice for Leena and so everyone got up before her bright and early the next day. HG and Myka fixed breakfast, Claudia and Pete picked out movies for the rainy afternoon entertainment and Artie grumbled just to keep things less suspicious.

Leena rolled over in bed. Her pillow was still damp from the tears that flowed from her eyes. She clutched the rose petals Charles had strewn across her pillow before he left. "I will think of you whenever I see roses," Charles wrote in the note he left for her. She gathered them and pressed them in the card and got ready to face her friends.

Leena arrived downstairs surprised that the table was set and breakfast was about to be served. Pete insisted she sit down while they got everything ready. "You didn't let HG cook alone in there, did you?" she asked quietly. "Nah, Myka's is in there with her," Claudia assured her. The door opened and in walked Myka with a tray of food and HG behind her carrying the orange juice. Leena looked up at a perfectly content Myka and the flour covered Helena. "I made the pancakes!" HG announced as if one would have to guess. "Helped," Myka mouthed the word to assure Leena her kitchen was still in one piece.

"I'm sure they are delicious," Leena said stifling her laugh. She was touched that her friends would go to such trouble to take care of her.

"So HG, everything okay with your room?" Pete asked with great curiosity. Helena laughed at the odd question and assured him that it was in perfect order.

"Everything okay when you went inside?" he asked again and she said nothing was out of place. He seemed strangely disappointed.

So now not only was he going to spend the week cleaning out the neutralizer hoses, the most disgusting job in the Warehouse as punishment from Mrs. F, he had lost the bet with Claudia and would have to do her share of chores as well.

'Why didn't he do it?' Pet e wondered to himself. He had given Charles very explicit instructions on how to get HG back.

There was a beep and Myka looked down at her phone. "Oh, my sister Tracy wants to come next weekend," she said out loud.

"No more siblings!" Artie shouted as he stuffed pancakes in his mouth. "Too much trouble."

Helena actually liked the idea of Myka's sister coming for a visit. There were a couple of things she wanted to set the woman straight on.

"So Charles, you have no recollection of where you have been for the last twenty four hours?" the doctor asked because his mother insisted he check Charles out once he was back. She had been frantic, as had all the family, when Charles did not come in for dinner last night and a search turned up nothing. They thought he was so distraught over the news from his fiancé the week before that he went off to be by himself. Only Helena found it intriguing instead of frightening. She had locked herself in the basement with her notebooks and God knows what else, her mother said. Charles was the reasonable one but Helena was a complete mystery to her parents.

The doctor confirmed that Charles appeared none the worse for his absence and Mrs. Wells was relieved. His parents insisted the doctor stay for tea and went off to the sitting room. Helena came in to see her brother. She was especially interested in Charles' disappearance and wondered if there wasn't a scientific component involved. "You can recall nothing of the last twenty four hours?" Helena asked with great interest.

"None," Charles said.

What he didn't tell anyone was that when he opened his eyes and found himself in the living room, he had no sense that any time had passed. It wasn't until his mother was screaming that he realized something had happened. Only then did he put his hand in his pocket and find the contents; rose petals and a note. Both things started him pushing to remember something.

Helena's questions only subsided when she heard the butler announce that the detective that Charles had hired to find the man responsible for his broken engagement had arrived. Helena attempted to excuse herself but Charles insisted that she stay. In fact, he beat her to the door and closed it and instructed her to sit. Helena felt she had no business hearing about Charles' personal affairs. Charles went outside for a moment then returned with the older man to the room.

"Detective Samuels, I believe you know my sister, Helena?" Charles said. The man bowed his head and Helena smiled.

"Well as I was saying sir, we've gotten a new lead, Mr. Wells and I promise you we will not give up until the scoundrel is found," the hired investigator said.

"Good! Remember, I will spare no expense to find him," Charles said and noticed how uncomfortable his sister seemed to be. "I am going to have him drawn and quartered when we find him," he added and watched Helena swallow hard.

"We're very close, I can feel it," the older man said and Charles watched as Helena draw deep breaths as if she was having trouble breathing.

"Now remember, Inspector Samuels, I want to make an example of this rogue. Breaking up an engagement is a serious offense and the perpetrator must be taught a lesson. Maybe you could arrange for a public flogging?" Charles asked and the man said he was more than happy to arrange it. He bade them good day and left.

"Are you okay, Helena? You look pale," Charles asked noting the change in his sister's demeanor.

"I think you are perhaps taking this a bit far, Charles. I mean, yes of course Miss Wellington's unfaithfulness is egregious, Charles but…," Helena said getting up slowly from the chair. She seemed oddly nervous.

"Helena, I am sparing you the details of what I intend to do to him when he is found, out of respect to your delicate nature," Charles said and knew his sister was distracted because that phrase usually got a rise out of her.

"I think drawn and quartered covers it, Charles," HG said looking around uncomfortably. "I really must go now," his sister said and left the room.

Charles couldn't explain the weird sensation he was having. The rose petals, the note in his pocket from a man named Pete, the sense that he was somewhere for the past few hours but couldn't say exactly where. It was as if his senses were heightened and he started to see that his sister knew more than she was letting on about his ex-fiancé's tryst. Charles had put the investigator up to saying all of that. The truth was, all leads went nowhere and he was going to call the investigation off. Something made him think that whatever happened was right under his nose…. and Helena knew something about it. He took the note out of his pocket and read it with great curiosity.

Then he sat back in the chair with a sudden urge to read….. Hamlet.

That evening, Charles sat with his parents at the dinner table as they waited for the youngest member to join them. There was the usual sound of Helena rushing up the stairs from the basement where she had lost all track of time. Being late to supper in the Wells' household was a huge no no and so the young woman rushed upstairs to get freshened up.

The was a loud noise that sounded like a bucket of water falling and then the screams of a woman taken by complete surprise as she was suddenly engulfed in that cold water. The maids ran to clean up the mess and wondered how someone managed to attach the bucket to Helena's door so that upon entry it tipped over, spilling its contents all over her.

Helena stood in the dining room doorway, soaked. "Mother!" she yelled because she wanted Charles punished immediately if not sooner.

"Oh Charles, you take this teasing too far," was all his mother said.

Charles laughed at the sight of his drenched sister and professed his innocence even though they all knew he did it. Mrs. Wells took her daughter back upstairs to change all the time answering her protests of - "But Mother…," with "Yes, Helena I know, I know."

"What is that?" Mr. Wells asked when he noticed his son reading something.

"Oh just something from a friend I think," Charles said and put the paper with the instructions on how to do the trick back in his pocket.

Charles had pulled off the prank just as Pete instructed …. the timing was perfect. Even if he was a hundred and eighteen years too soon.

Thank you to everyone who read along, posted comments/suggestions. I do appreciate them and as always,
try to incorporate what you suggest to make this more enjoyable. Since it was a 'light' story line, I appreciate
your tolerance with the liberties I took - the years I used, the other story plots I ignored (Christina) etc.
As always - I appreciate all of your comments.