Hunnigan stepped out of the shower, wrapped a towel around herself and exited the bathroom only to stop in her tracks at the sight of her clothes on the floor. They were stained with Helena's blood, the copious amounts of it soaked into the fabric, and even if there had been a way to get rid of the mess, Hunnigan wouldn't have been able to bring herself to ever wear that outfit again. She grabbed the clothes, went downstairs and threw them into the trash, tied the bag and then yanked it out from the container underneath the sink before marching to the front door and stepping out into the hallway, dressed only in her towel, but not caring about that right now, and finally crossed to the garbage chute and shoved the trash bag and the bloody clothes within down.
Afterward, she returned to the apartment and got dressed, finishing just a moment before there was a knock on the door. She went to answer it and Olivia walked in, yanking the lid of her laptop open as she walked.
"Okay, so, here's what I got," she told Hunnigan, put the computer onto the coffee table and sat down without as much as a greeting.
"I thought we were gonna..." Hunnigan began, frowning but went to take a seat as well, turning her attention to the screen of Olivia's laptop.
"We are, but I just wanted to do this so we know exactly what happened, plus the cops would surely appreciate knowing all this too, I'm doing everyone a favor," Olivia said and brought up a video she'd put together, having edited separate sources of security camera footage together to show the events side by side, matched by the time stamps in the corner.
"Claire took that group selfie and tagged people in it, and a few minutes later, Ryan shows up," Olivia began to explain, pointing at Ryan's car as it pulled up on the footage from the security camera from the building opposite to the bar.
"All right, so that's how she knew where we were, what about it?" Hunnigan muttered.
"Look at this," Olivia said, now pointing at the footage from inside the bar from a few seconds before Ryan entered the establishment.
"Yeah, I know what happened, I was there," Hunnigan sighed impatiently as she watched Helena stumble a little and grab a hold of Hunnigan to regain her balance. On the other side of the screen, a moment after Helena holding onto Hunnigan, Ryan got out of her car and marched across the street.
"Goes to motive," Olivia shrugged, spoken like an attorney whose line of questioning was being challenged. Hunnigan really didn't want to see it, but forced herself to keep watching, trying to get herself to look at it like these people on the screen were strangers. Like it was just another pointless shooting. She winced when she saw Helena get shot. It all happened a lot faster on the screen than it had felt like when she'd been there.
"I've seen enough, just turn it off."
"What did you see?"
"My friend get shot by her ex-girlfriend who then promptly shot herself afterward, what else!" Hunnigan snapped, "Why are you even bringing this up?"
"I told you, motive."
"What difference does it make now? She's dead."
"And you don't even want to know why? You're joking."
"You could've told me without having me look at this," Hunnigan scoffed and Olivia sighed deeply, closing the laptop's lid.
"I was hoping you'd see it yourself," she muttered.
"See what!"
"That Ryan wasn't aiming at Helena, she was aiming at you. She was stalking Helena outside the bar, just sitting her car and waiting until she saw Helena grab a hold of you."
"This is ridiculous," Hunnigan groaned and ran a hand over her face.
"So, she marched in and tried to shoot you because to her, you were the threat. Maybe she even thought Helena'd dumped her for you."
"As I said, ridiculous," Hunnigan shook her head again, but Olivia ignored her and continued voicing out her theory.
"And Helena took the bullet for you."
"Yeah, because of a stupid misunderstanding! My God, all Ryan had to do was ask about it, this was all so unnecessary!" Hunnigan shouted furiously.
"I know," Olivia said quietly and pulled Hunnigan into a hug, tightening her hold on the other woman, realizing she needed the hug probably more than Hunnigan did.
"You shouldn't be here," Deborah sighed deeply, shaking her head a little with her hands on her hips. She stood in the middle of the living room, the living room of their childhood home. Their backyard should've been visible through the window, there should've been a swingset and dad's old motorcycle that he said he'd fix but never got around to doing it... but when Helena glanced outside, there was nothing. Just a gray void, almost like a thick fog surrounding everything. Helena thought it was weird, but at the same time, it didn't faze her, just like being back home didn't faze her.
"Well, I guess it's not your fault, but you can't stay here," Deborah continued then and sat onto the couch, reaching for the PlayStation's controller and continued playing through the level of Crash Bandicoot she'd been playing before Helena had shown up unannounced.
"But I want to stay," Helena argued, "This is my home," she continued as she crossed the living room and took a seat next to Deborah, only now pausing to wonder how she'd gotten here. She couldn't remember.
"Not anymore. You know how they always say that there's a light?" the younger sister asked and yanked the controller stubbornly to the side and out of Helena's reach as she tried to claim it for her turn.
"There was no light," Helena muttered.
"Exactly, because you don't belong here. You have things to do. Like have those ten kids you always said you wanted to have."
"Well, that was just stupid and unlikely to happen anyway," Helena scoffed, crossed her arms over her stomach and slumped against the back of the couch, pouting at Deborah refusing to let her stay and play.
"Be that as it may, letting you stay would be cutting corners, and whenever someone cuts corners, there's no telling how severe the consequences could be or who ends up getting hurt because of it. You don't belong here, you have things to do elsewhere," Deborah reasoned.
"Stop saying that!" Helena snapped and stood up furiously, "I do belong here, more so than you do! I should be here!"
"If that were true, we wouldn't be here, having this conversation right now," Deborah chuckled softly.
"I should be here. I let you down. I should've been able to take care of you, but I fucked up, and now you're here because of that. It's not right. It can't be. You and I should switch places."
"Helena," Deborah sighed, put the controller away and turned to face her older sister. She gestured toward the empty spot next to her on the couch and Helena sat back down again and let Deborah take her hands into her own.
"You didn't let me down, on the contrary, you always took care of me, and you never asked for anything in return. I should've done better by you. I should've taken care of you too," Deborah said.
"I don't need anyone to take care of me."
"Yes, you do. As much as you hate admitting it, you're only human, Helena. You need someone to look after you and love you, to take care of you. No one ever has, not since mom and dad died. Not since I died, and even I wasn't exactly great at looking after you."
"Ryan was there."
"No, she wasn't. You looked after her in the hopes of her returning the favor one day or at the very least showing some appreciation for you doing it for her, but we both know she didn't care."
"Don't be mean..."
"I'm not being mean, I'm being honest. It wouldn't hurt you to admit it too, Ryan wasn't exactly a sweetheart even on the best of days," Deborah quirked an eyebrow and Helena sighed.
"I guess."
"Yet you stayed with her. Why?"
"Because I loved her."
"And?"
"...and it was nice to have someone to hold me and love me too, even if that someone wasn't... I don't know," Helena muttered, her voice quieting toward the end of the sentence.
"You need to be loved more than anyone else I know."
"Doesn't mean I deserve to be loved, though."
"Were you always such an emo?" Deborah chuckled softly, "You don't have to always put yourself in harm's way and be the hero, you know? People would still love you even if you admitted that sometimes you need help too. You deserve to be loved and you deserve to be happy, just like everyone else does, with no strings attached."
"I'm sick and tired of it all, I just want to stay here and... not have to worry about stupid things like that," Helena complained.
"I told you, you don't belong here. I love you, sis, but get lost," Deborah smiled sweetly.
Helena opened her eyes and blinked slowly, running her tongue over her teeth in an attempt to banish the dryness from her mouth. She stared at the unfamiliar ceiling, needing to take a long moment to remember what had happened and understand where she was.
Helena looked to the side, realizing she was alone in the room. It was dark, she couldn't make out the clock on the wall opposite to the bed to be able to tell what time it was. She tried to sit up properly and sucked in a whimpering breath when the pain in her shoulder registered.
Ryan, she remembered, swallowing hard and closing her eyes at the memory. She inhaled deeply and tried moving again. She needed to... she just needed to get out of here, she had things to do, Deborah had said so. She thought she was moving, but it was just a wave of dizzyness washing over her and she slumped deeper into the mattress.
"I need... could someone just..?" she muttered, her voice refusing to carry far enough to get anyone's attention. When she looked down, she realized she did have some company after all.
"Hey," she chuckled tiredly at the teddybear that had been tucked between her left arm and side. Namely, Hunnigan's teddybear.
"Watch out for me, okay? I'm tired, I think I'll take a nap... I'll do things later," she mumbled, her eyes already closing again, the pain in her shoulder still there, but slowly dissipating into the darkness that moved to embrace her, gently pulling her back into unconsciousness.
"I take it this is from you?" Helena asked, holding up a card that had the words "Get well soon, I miss you and your big boobs around the office" written on the inside. Helena had to admit, it had been nice waking up in the morning to find people had thought of her. Maybe Deborah had been right, she did have people who loved her even when she herself felt like she didn't deserve it.
"Meant every word," Olivia assured with a smile and Helena chuckled.
"I'm gonna go get a coffee, do you want one?" Olivia then asked from Hunnigan and the other woman shook her head a little, just as oblivious to Olivia's excuse of leaving her alone with Helena as the younger woman was.
"All right, I'll be back in a bit," she then said and exited the room, softly closing the door behind her.
"May I ask you something?" Hunnigan inquired.
"Sure, anything," Helena nodded.
"After you got shot... you kept telling me that you wanted to stay. What did you mean by that?"
"Oh, I... uhm," Helena scoffed awkwardly, "I guess if one were the religious type, one might say I went to heaven for a while there. Either that or I was just hallucinating, which is probably more likely. I was back at home, with Deborah, and she told me that I can't stay there."
"Well, I'm glad she didn't let you stay," Hunnigan smiled ruefully.
"I am too... I mean, I did want to stay, but now... And it's not like I have a death wish or anything, I just thought, you know, since I'm there, I might as well stay, right..? Okay, this is not going where I'd want it to go..." Helena trailed off in an awkward chuckle and Hunnigan merely nodded.
"How are you feeling, besides that?" she asked then.
"I'm fine. I know they want me to stay here for a couple of weeks, but... I'd rather just get out of here," Helena shook her head.
"Helena, you can't just discharge yourself, you could get an infection or there could be other complications, and even though the got all the bullet fragments out, it's still..."
"Yeah, because the germ-infested building full of sick people is the best place to be if you want to avoid getting an infection," the younger woman interrupted Hunnigan's argument with a smirk.
"You know what I mean, I just want you to be safe and a hospital is the best place to be if, God forbid, there would be any sudden complications."
"Hunnigan, I appreciate that, but I'll feel better when I'll get out of here. And don't worry, I promise not to bleed all over your apartment and I promise I'm going to keep looking for a place of my own and move out as soon as possible," she assured and Hunnigan scoffed.
"Please, that's the last thing I'm worried about. In fact, I'd rather you stayed at least until you've recovered completely."
"I appreciate it, but I don't want to burden you, I'm fine."
"You're not a burden to me, you're my friend, and I'm gonna take care of you, okay?" Hunnigan insisted gently.
Someone to take care of you and love you, Deborah's voice whispered in the back of Helena's mind and the younger woman slowly turned to look at Hunnigan, then becoming aware of the fact that she was staring at Hunnigan and that the other woman was frowning at her, like she was expecting a response.
"Sorry, I... zoned out," Helena shook her head, "What did you say?"
"I just said that you're welcome to stay as long as you need to and that I'll look after you. And don't argue with me over it, I'd win because I get the feeling your doctors would agree with me too," Hunnigan smirked and Helena chuckled quietly.
"All right."