Authors Note: Hey guy's sorry for the lateness in updating...i'll try to speed it up. But i hope you enjoy this chapter. Don't forget to review!
Tsia had excused herself only moments before to find the restroom when Myka asked:
"What did you do?"
"Whatever do you mean?" Helena asked, acting completely oblivious.
"What did you do to Tsia?" Myka clarified.
"I did nothing." Helena stated.
"Yeah, right, she just decided to hug me out of nowhere after barely speaking a word for the past four hours."
"I simply told her that everyone just wants to help her, especially you." Helena confessed.
"Why?" Myka asked, not quite catching onto what Helena meant.
"Darling all that I told her was that I know what it's like to be thrown into completely new surroundings, and that everyone at the warehouse genuinely wants to help her feel at home, and that you are bending over backwards to make sure she feels okay with all of this." Helena explained further.
"Oh…" Myka said, looking down at her coffee.
"Well that hug was progress, don't you think?" Helena asked her.
"Yeah, I didn't think that would ever happen, with...you know…" Myka trailed off.
"That just shows she feels safe around you my dear. And that is a very big step." Helena said sweetly.
"Yeah…I guess…"
"Come on now, just give it a bit more time and she'll be calling you 'mom'." Helena joked, trying to ease some of Myka's worries.
Just then Tsia appeared back at the table and sat down saying:
"What's next?"
"Well, we got all your clothes, school stuff and electronics...so I guess hygiene stuff...like shampoo, body wash...that kind of stuff." Myka told her.
"Do they have that kind of store here?" Helena asked, curious to see if the mall did indeed have everything.
"No, we'll have to go to one of the pharmacys on the way back home to grab that. But we did promise to go to the bookstore, and that's in here."
"Ah, I see...Shall we then?" Helena asked, getting up and grabbing her tea.
"Ready?" Myka asked Tsia, getting a nod of the head as her response before they got up and started following Myka in the direction of the bookstore.
When they arrived at the rather large book store front Helena turned to Tsia and said "Now, you go in there and you get as many books as you want, don't worry about price or anything else. Alright."
Both Myka and Helena watched as a smile broke out on the girls face before she said "seriously?"
"Yes, now run along, find whatever you want." Helena told her with a small laugh at her reaction before Tsia ran off into the store.
"Are you sure the two of you are not related?" Helena joked, turning to Myka as they entered the store as well.
"No, but she does remind me of myself when I was that age." Myka told her.
"How so?" Helena asked.
"Well she's quiet, and she loves to read…I guess that's all." Myka said with a shrug.
"Do you have any photographs from your childhood?" Helena asked, as they walked nearer to the registers of the store.
"You wanna see pictures of me as a kid? No way." Myka said, completely dismissing the idea.
"And why not?" Helena stopped walking.
"Because I wasn't the pretty one, or popular. I had glasses Helena. I was the nerd." Myka explained.
"That does not impede with my curiosity, it only furthers it." Helena said with a smirk.
Myka let out a sigh before continuing to walk until she reached the register and asked the clerk:
"Do you mind if we leave the rest of our bags here while we look? It's kind of hard to carry them all with one arm." motioning to her sling again.
"Yeah that's fine, just put them back here so no one takes 'em." The elderly woman behind the counter said with a smile.
"Thank you." Myka replied, setting the bags down behind the counter, followed by Helena doing the same.
"Take you time, I'll keep an eye on them." The woman told them before they walked into the rest of the store to look.
"I still want to see those photographs." Helena said once they were out of earshot of the clerk.
"Really? You're just gonna keep bugging me till I agree to show you?" Myka asked.
"Yes."
"Fine. I'll show you one picture when we get home. One." Myka told her.
Helena smirked in her victory and said "I bet there are ways I can convince you to show me more than one…" before running off into the next aisle.
Just as Myka was about to run after Helena her cell phone rang from it's place in her back pocket. She let out another sigh and answered her phone.
"Hey Pete, what's up?"
"Nothing...we just wanted to know how it's going?" He said.
"We?"
"Yeah, Jinksy, Claud, Abigail and I...How's Tsia doing?" He asked again.
"Good, we're in the bookstore right now and HG gave her permission to buy as many books as she wanted so she practically sprinted off." Myka told him.
"That's good right?"
"Yeah Pete, that's good."
"Oh are Artie said that Vanessa is coming to do an exam on Tsia sometime this afternoon or tomorrow. She's staying overnight with Artie." Pete said, singsonging the last part of his message.
"Why so soon?" Myka asked.
"Artie said something about making sure she doesn't have any contagious diseases or something…" Pete recalled.
"Well, I guess that makes sense. Listen Pete, I'll call you when we're on our way home, we should be back by this afternoon. Now I have to go find HG." Myka told him.
"You lost HG?" Pete asked, clearly amused.
"I didn't lose her, she ran off too." Myka clarified.
"Okay Mykes, have fun with your HG hunt." Pete said before hanging up the phone.
Myka put her phone in her back pocket again before beginning to search through the closer aisles for Helena and just as she turned the corner into the science fiction section she caught sight of her.
"Did you go straight for your own book?" Myka asked happily as she walked up to her.
"Well, I wanted to see what version they have here...almost every store has a different version." Helena said engrossed in flipping through the pages of The Time Machine.
"That's because it's so good they had to keep reprinting it to keep it up to date." Myka said, leaning in from behind and kissing her on the cheek.
"What do you mean 'up to date'? Did they change it?" Helena asked defensively.
"No, they just had to keep the cover art and the binding up to date, they didn't change any of your writing, I promise." Myka said, getting softer and moving to stand in front of Helena.
"Are you positive?" Helena asked, looking up from the book.
"Very." Myka said with a smile.
"Good. They haven't changed any of my books have they?" Helena asked, taking a step closer to Myka.
"No, trust me, I've read the first editions from the warehouse and they are the same as the newly printed ones." Myka assured her.
"Ah, so you've read my books then." Helena said, leaning in even further.
Myka turned slightly red and sputtered out a "yeah…" before taking a step back and staring at the ground.
"Ah, don't be embarrassed about that my dear…" Helena said reaching out and pulling Myka toward her before continuing "It just feeds my ego."
"That's what I was afraid of…" Myka said, looking back at Helenas face.
"Do you know what else feeds my ego, Darling?" Helena teased.
"What?"
"This…" Helena said softly before leaning in and softly kissing Myka's lips.
"Mmm…" I think that feeds mine too Myka said, pulling away with a smile.
"Indeed." Helena said, smiling as well.
"Maybe we should go find Tsia before she decides to buy the whole store." Myka said with a laugh, grabbing Helenas hand and starting to walk forward.
"I'm completely certain that she would, so you are correct, we should find her." Helena said with a laugh too before rotating her hand in Myka's palm to intertwine their fingers.
They walked through the aisles quietly passing a few scattered people that were engrossed in the shelves in front of them. They glanced through the aisles they passed looking for their new addition and finally ended up spotting her in the fantasy section, holding a stack of about five books.
"Well she's only got five, so that's not too bad." Myka said as they walked nearer to her.
"Well we've only been in here for fifteen minutes, My Dear." Helena reminded her as they got a few feet away from Tsia.
"Did you find some you like?" Myka asked Tsia.
Tsia jumped slightly as quickly turned around to see the two of them standing there. She glanced down at their hands and shot her eyes quickly back up before saying "Yeah, I think so."
"Why are you buying your own book?" Tsia asked, seeing the book Helena was still holding in her other hand.
"Oh, I'm not, I suppose I forgot to put it back." Helena said just realizing she was still holding her book.
"Oh...Okay…" Tsia said, looking down at the stack of books she was holding.
"What other books would you like? Maybe we can help you find them." Helena suggested.
"I don't really know...These are good." Tsia replied, looking up at the two again.
"Are you sure? You only have five books there…" Myka pointed out.
"I'm sure." Tsia said.
"Well, shall we go purchase them then?" Helena asked.
"You have to go put that book back first." Myka reminded her.
"Oh, yes. I will be right back, meet me by the registers." Helena told them before walking back in the direction of the science fiction books.
"So, all we need to do after this is stop at the drugstore to get the rest of your stuff. Then we'll go home. But we should be home by around one or two. Do you want to stop somewhere to eat on the way home or find something to eat when we get there?" Myka asked as they made their way to the registers.
"Doesn't matter…" Tsia said quietly.
"Well it's up to you, just let me know…" Myka said as she spotted Helena walking back to them.
"um…" Tsia said, about to say something, before she shook her head and closed her mouth.
"Hey, What were gonna say?" Myka asked, turning toward Tsia, concerned. just as Helena reached them.
"Nothing…"Tsia said, looking down.
"Look Tsia, I want you to feel comfortable telling me whatever is on your mind, and what you want or need okay? I wanna help, but I can't read your mind, so I need you to tell me okay?" Myka said sincerely, hoping she could get Tsia to look up at her. Which she did.
"Um...It's just that…" Tsia stammered before she gained a little confidence and said "No ones ever really consulted me on decisions before…even on the small ones, like where to eat or something. So I'm not very good at making decisions like that when people do ask."
Myka was stunned for a moment at how Tsia had opened up but she quickly smiled slightly and said "Well now you will be okay, but if you don't feel comfortable yet you don't have to." Myka told her.
"Thanks." Tsia said with a small smile.
"Why don't we finish up here, and at the drugstore, then i'll call Pete to see if they've eaten yet, and if they haven't we'll stop somewhere on the way home and grab food for everyone at the warehouse." Myka suggested.
"Sounds good." Tsia said.
"Well then, I am a bit peckish myself so that sounds like a marvelous idea." Helena said, grabbing the books from Tsia's hands and giving them to the cashier who had allowed them to put their bags behind the counter earlier.
The cashier checked out the books quickly and Helena paid, then they grabbed the rest of their bags and distributed them throughout the three of them before leaving the mall going back to their car and loading it up. They drove in a comfortable silence listening to the radio as they drove to a small drug store they passed on their way into town. They went into the drugstore and Tsia picked out the various hygiene projects before they paid and were out of the store by one o'clock.
"Hey Pete, We just got done and we're headed back now." Myka said into the phone after they were headed back to Univille.
"Cool beans, Artie said Vanessa's running a bit late so she'll be here around like four or five. Did you guys have fun?" Pete asked.
"Yeah, we got a lot of stuff...did you guy's eat lunch yet?"
"Nope, we've been doing inventory all morning, I'm still down on the floor right now with Steve and Claudia." He told her.
"Okay, We'll grab some food and bring it back to the warehouse for you guys, what do you want?" Myka asked.
"Ooo...how about chinese from that one place on elmwood." Pete suggested.
"Hold on." Myka said, taking the phone from her ear and turning slightly around "Hey Tsia, do you like chinese food?"
"Yeah…" She replied from the back seat.
Myka turned back around and put the phone back to her ear before saying "Okay Pete, ask everyone else what they want and text me their orders, we should be getting back within a half an hour so hurry up and ask them please."
"Okay Mykes, I will let them know. Kirk out." Pete said, before hanging up the phone.
"Well it looks like we're getting chinese food once we get back into town." Myka said to them after she put her phone away.
"I'm afraid to say that I have never had chinese cuisine before." Helena said from the drivers seat.
"Seriously?" Myka asked with a laugh.
"Yes." Helena replied.
"Well there's a first time for everything I guess." Myka replied.
"Well what kind of food is it?" Helena asked.
"Um, there's General Tso's chicken, fried rice, Sesame Chicken, Egg Rolls, Crab Ragoons." Myka listed off.
"Well, I am unsure of what any of that means…" Helena said.
"I'll just get you the sesame chicken to start out with, and an egg roll to try. I'm sure you'll like it once you've tried it. Myka told her, picking her phone back up once she heard Pete's text tone go off.
"Well I've got their orders, Tsia what do you want?" Myka asked pulling up the resteraunts number on her cell phone contacts.
"Just some of the general tso's." She replied.
"Okay, I'm gonna call it in now so it should be ready by the time we get back into town." Myka replied before pressing the call button and relaying their order to the woman on the other end.
She hung up the phone and put in in her lap.
"I'll tell you where to go whe-" She stopped as she saw a truck barroling toward them as they crossed an intersection.
"HELENA LOOK OUT!" She shouted, just as Helena was about to break the truck slammed into the side of their car. The last thing Myka heard was the crunch of the steel before everything went black.