Hello everyone, I am sorry for the hiatus but that thesis kept me busy.
thanks to the-social-recluse for the beta.
July
With a frustrated sigh, Helena looked at her own mirror reflection. Myka closed the drawer from which she had just took out her shirt and chewed on the inside of her cheek. She eyed her girlfriend from the side and then pulled the shirt over her head. However, Helena was shirtless and had her hair tied back in a strict pony tail. Currently, the Victorian was fumbling with the fly of her trousers and this was what had made Myka struggle internally. HG looked deeply concentrated, her eyebrows pulled together, eyes slightly narrowed as she kept working on the button of her trousers, nimble fingers trying to pull the fly together while pulling up the zipper.
And with another frustrated sigh, Helena gave up. Myka knew that these trousers had been the last ones that had fit properly and now... The American had promised to take the older woman on a ride to Pierce to look for maternity fashion together, but then, another artifact case had appeared out of nowhere and Myka had been busy. And now, these trousers didn't fit anymore, too.
Carefully, the American approached the raven-haired woman from behind and put her arms around Helena's swollen stomach. Gently, she started drawing circles with her fingertips on HG's soft skin and nuzzled her neck. But the Victorian just groaned, disgruntled, still watching the fly under her fingers. Mission to distract: failed.
"So these are too small too. Are you good at sewing?" Helena questioned with that undertone in her voice. Myka knew she was mad at her. But what could they do? It wasn't easy to have a child while working for the Warehouse. They had already struggled with their private lives when there hadn't been Sarah growing in the older woman's stomach. Claudia and Artie worked hard to arrange their schedules with each other so the two women could spend time together and plan their life. In the next months Pete and Steve would start working together as a team, so Myka would be able to take some time off, just like Helena. But internally, the curly-haired woman already saw images of herself missing her daughter's birthday or first words or anything like that because of artifact hunt and saving the world. If Myka was sure of anything, then it was that having a child and working for the Warehouse wouldn't be easy for either of them. They could call themselves lucky that they were living in fact with the people they were living with and that Pete, Claudia, Artie, Abigail, Vanessa and Steve would support them. Advanced co-parenting, Myka thought.
"No." She admitted humbly. "I have to say that I pretty suck at sewing." Myka sighed deeply, her hands still roaming over HG's naked stomach. The Victorian clicked her tongue in reaction to Myka's words. "I am sorry, Helena. I promise that next weekend, we will go to Pierce and get you a few new pants." Gently, the younger woman kissed the inventor's neck, her lips wandering over Helena's skin towards her shoulder. Myka reached up to give the older woman's bra strap a slight pull. Instantly, it brushed down her upper arm. The American smirked and continued kissing Helena's shoulder. Her left hand was still resting on HG's stomach, while her other one slowly caressed her upper arm.
The Victorian snorted but Myka felt her shift against her. Helena was arching her neck to give Myka more space. "And what will I do until then? Shall I walk around with my trousers undone?"
"Why not?" Tenderly, Myka reached her right hand around the older woman's upper body and brushed her fingertips over HG's breast. She stroked over the fabric first, before her hand moved up and teased the skin in the inventor's cleavage. In the mirror in front of them, the younger woman watched Helena's eyes flutter. But the Brit was fighting hard to keep them opened. She considered Myka with a determined facial expression. As their eyes met, the curly-haired woman grinned against the skin on Helena's shoulder. Myka's left hand reached downwards, while she purred: "Then, the access is definitely easier."
"Myka." Helena warned when the younger agent's hand met hers on her fly. But then, Myka's fingers teased HG's nipple through the fabric of her bra which caused the older woman to whimper. "Anything you want to share?" Myka asked playfully before she pushed the Victorian's hands away and started caressing the skin that Helena's opened fly revealed. Her fingertips brushed against the rim of the older woman's undergarments.
"I..." Helena murmured. "No time... it's... not..."
"Well, am I the one to blame, Helena?" Myka breathed into her ear. "You stood there with no shirt on, talking about being unable to close your pants."
"I meant that more literally." The older woman forced out and audibly sucked in the air when Myka attempted to reach into her trousers. But then, the curly-haired woman pursed her lips. "They are really tight." She admitted ruefully, brushing her hand over Helena's stomach again.
"Well, I am pregnant." Helena mentioned with a smirk. With a possessive growl, Myka spun her around to kiss her, hands reaching up to open the older woman's pony tail. "I don't like that." She breathed against the inventor's lips. The older woman chuckled into the kiss when Myka's hands roamed again over her swollen stomach. "But this I like."
"I know." HG replied with a smug grin. The younger woman pulled back to regard her fully.
"Lie down on the bed." Myka commanded, her facial expression set.
"Myka." Helena interjected again. "Is this-?"
But the younger woman just growled for another time, causing HG to shudder and then comply. A little cumbersomely, the Victorian lay back and watched the curly-haired woman clambering on bed, too. Leaning on her right elbow above Helena, Myka kissed her girlfriend, firmly and passionately. Her tongue teasingly brushed against HG's, causing the older woman to whimper again. "When Dr. Calder talked about an unpredictable sexual desire," Helena panted, wincing when Myka's left hand caressed the inner side of her thigh. "I thought she was talking about me..." The American just grinned when she was pulled closer by her lover in reaction to her knuckles running over Helena's womanhood.
"Like I said." Myka replied, paying attention to the older woman's neck again. "It's not my fault."
Helena was breathing heavily now, her hips moving slightly when the American pulled carefully at her shoulders to shift her on her side. Myka reached behind HG's back, to open her bra, her stomach making contact with Helena's swollen one.
Myka paused, her fingers resting on the clasp of Helena's bra.
"Myka." Helena pressed out, rather impatient. Her fingers gripped the hem of Myka's shirt.
The American's eye brows shot up in surprise and then, she looked down at the older woman's stomach. She let go of Helena's bra, ignoring the inventor's frustrated groan.
"Myka!" HG demanded, rolling her eyes when Myka responded with a loud "Shhhh!" The younger woman reached her hand down to press it softly against Helena's stomach.
"You cannot just work me up like this and-" In reaction to the Victorian's disappointed words, Myka shook her head. Helena whimpered once more, sounding annoyed this time. But then, the American smiled, because there it was again: the tiny thud against her hand, imperceptible when one wasn't paying too much attention. But Myka... had an eye... or maybe also a feeling for the details. The curly-haired woman grinned, giggling with glee, almost child-like.
"Helena." She whispered, voice cracking in her throat. "I can feel her."
Helena looked down at Myka whose head rested on her chest, a hand pressed tightly against the older woman's stomach. Again, there was a tiny movement under it.
"Hm?"
"She's kicking, Helena!" Myka proclaimed, keen. Softly, Helena smiled, and carefully pushed her hands through the younger woman's curls. "She's been doing that for quite some time now, Myka." HG covered Myka's hand on her stomach gently with her own.
"Yeah, I know, I know." Myka muttered, shaking her head slightly. "You were able to feel her kicking. You're even able to feel her in the Warehouse and I'm not, but Helena, now I can feel her." The younger woman laughed when she felt another kick against her hand. Then, she looked up at the Brit who had curled up a corner of her mouth. "I am glad you can feel her, Myka." Helena stated with her eyes gleaming. The American's smile just brightened when there was another thud. She looked down again and leaned closer to the swell of HG's stomach. "Hello, Sarah." Myka whispered, overwhelmed with joy. After all these pictures she had seen and after watching Helena's stomach grow, it finally felt real. These thuds against her skin felt like the first real proof of Sarah's existence. Carefully, Myka brushed her lips over the spot where she had felt her daughter kicking. "It's me, your mommy." The American whispered in reaction to the movement against her lips.
"So... you are the mommy?" Helena asked, smirking.
"Yes, of course I am." Myka replied, not even looking up to her girlfriend. She was distracted, she really was. "You can be the momma or anything like that, but I'll be the mommy. No discussion." Again, the American shifted, resting her cheek against Helena's stomach. "Hello, Sarah." She whispered for another time.
"Well." Helena sounded a bit disappointed. "I guess she has your undivided attention now."
Quickly, Myka looked up at her, realisation growing on her face. "Oh, Helena, I'm sorry, I just-" There was another kick which caused Myka to interrupt her sentence and look back down, smiling.
Helena sighed deeply and then pulled slightly at Myka's shirt. "Come up here." She murmured. Lingering her hand on HG's stomach, the curly-haired woman moved slightly up to be embraced by her girlfriend. "She's quite active today." Helena explained in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. "So you can stay this way until she becomes tired, which I hope will happen soon."
"Helena, again, I am-" Myka started, but the older woman just shook her head and leaned in to kiss Myka tenderly.
This was how they stayed for quite a long time. Pressed closely together, giggling every now and then whenever Myka felt another kick, a proof of her daughter's existence under Helena's skin. Helena kissed her girlfriend every time it happened, watched Myka's joyful face attentively, the American could feel that. In fact, Myka couldn't help but feel completely overwhelmed. After all this time, a physical proof. And so her hand rested on Helena's stomach, Myka spoke to her daughter as though the girl could hear her, feeling HG's loving gaze on herself... just until those movements faded away.
"And now she's asleep. Finally." Helena whispered after a while and looked playfully at Myka, who had her eyebrows in a knit. - "Wouldn't we dist-"
"Darling." Helena cut in strictly. "She did just interrupt my sex life so I am in no embarrassment to disrupt her sleeping schedule." Now, the inventor smirked. "And judging by her sleeping habits so far, I would say that she rather doesn't care for that."
With a sly grin, HG tilted the younger woman's head up with the tip of her index finger so their lips could meet again. Once more, Myka let her hands roam over Helena's back to open her bra clasp. When she had reached it, the door bell rang downstairs.
Helena groaned loudly in obvious frustration. She glowered at Myka, who had instantly jumped up. "Oh hell! I totally forgot about that!" Myka exclaimed, moving through the room to get her jacket out of the closet. "I'm rarely forgetting things so it clearly must be it!"
The Victorian on the bed sighed deeply and rolled her eyes, when she heard Pete yelling up from downstairs. "Mykes, the Berings are here."
"We're coming!" His partner shouted back, slipping into her jacket.
"Apparently not." Helena murmured and then got up from the bed. "I have to make clear, darling, that this is not over."
"Yes." Myka nodded before looking into the mirror to brush her fingers through her curls.
With a deep sigh, HG looked down at her trousers again. "And with this, we're back to the main problem: my trousers." Helena didn't catch Myka's smirk when the American pushed her backwards against the wall all of a sudden. Quickly, the American knelt down in front of HG who shook her head. "This doesn't help at all, dear." But instead of pulling Helena's trousers down, Myka carefully pulled up the zipper and then fumbled with the button. When she was finished, she watched Helena look down with a genuine interest on her face. The younger woman had hooked the Victorian's hair tie onto the fly and the button. The trousers weren't closed, but the hair tie held the fly together so Helena wouldn't walk around risking to lose her trousers somewhere during their meeting with Myka's family.
"That's innovative." Helena admitted and laughed loudly.
Helena and Myka had spent time with Jeannie and Warren on the B&B's terrace, chatting. The topics had been pretty light so far. But now, HG had taken Jeannie by the hand and led her into the kitchen. They wanted to make tea, leaving Myka and her father alone. HG and her girlfriend had planned on this. This was the agent's chance to talk to her father, and talking to him was really something she wasn't that used to.
So she has profusely cleared her throat, feeling awkward before starting with:
"Dad." Well, this was a good first move. Mr. Bering looked up at his daughter, drawing his eyebrows together. He seemed to be interested, which was fine. But then, Warren frowned and Myka struggled. She bit her lip.
"This is a Bed and Breakfast, Myka." Warren muttered, sounding absent. "You are both living in a Bed and Breakfast."
His daughter nodded thoughtfully in reaction. "Yeah." She shrugged, looking to the upper left to search for words. "I am aware. I'm living here for almost ten years now, dad. Since I have that job, you know. You just never visited me."
"How do you want... well." Mr. Bering seemed to look for words, too. "Raise y- a child here?" Uncomfortably, he dropped his gaze to the table.
Myka mentally noted his choice of words but then decided to ignore it. She knew his problem and even though she felt sad about this particular problem, she would interrupt his struggle with accepting Sarah right now. "We aren't going to raise her here." The agent stated. "Helena and I bought a house, just a little down the street. There's currently a big renovation going on in there."
"A house." Her father repeated and looked up at her.
"Right." Myka responded, bowing her head for emphasis. "Enough space for Helena and me to raise your granddaughter."
In response to his daughter's last words, Warren sharply sucked in the air. "Myka..." He began, shook his head slightly and then spoke on. "You know... I am alright with this. That you have a ... girlfriend instead of a husband. That you're living out here. That you won't marry, that you-"
"Dad, she is your granddaughter." Myka looked directly into his eyes, strict, determined. He froze.
"What?"
"Do you remember Edgar Allan Poe's notebook?" Myka interrogated quickly.
"Uhm... yeah, that day I had a stroke." Her father replied easily, but looked confused about her change of topic.
"You didn't have a stroke." The curly-haired woman gave back.
"I know." He nodded without breaking eye contact. It was his daughter who looked down to the table again. Before Myka continued, she briefly pursed her lips.
"Dad, you already figured out that Helena is in fact H.G. Wells. I have no idea how you did, but you did."
"I did." From the corner of her eye, Myka could see him nod. Before looking up again, the agent clenched and unclenched her fists under the table. "So..." She met his eyes. "You can believe me, dad, when I simply say that the child growing in my girlfriend's stomach really is my daughter." Now, Myka closed her eyes. She could feel Warren staring at her, thunderstruck.
"What-"
"Dad, I am not really working for the Secret Service anymore even though my badge says so." Myka opened her eyes and looked directly into his while she spoke, free from her chest. She felt liberated somehow. "Instead, I am working for another top secret facility and it's really hard to explain."
To her surprise, Warren's face softened at those words. "You could try." He suggested. "For me. I... I have accepted your girlfriend is H.G. Wells."
Myka smiled briefly and then took a deep breath. "There is endless wonder in this world, dad." She began. "Like... supernatural objects. Artifacts." The curly-haired woman's eyes started gleaming while she spoke. Her job was her passion and in some way, she was really comfortable talking about it. "We still don't know how they work and... the world isn't ready for them, yet. So... we store them in a really big Warehouse to keep the world safe from them."
"Objects." Warren looked surprised, but then he narrowed his eyes at her like he understood what she was talking about. "Like Poe's notebook?"
"His pen, dad." Myka clarified. "Everything you write with that pen becomes reality. Most artifacts have an upside and a downside. That's why we try to lock them away because they can be really dangerous."
"Downsides." Her father murmured, obviously struggling with making sense of this.
"Feeling those written words flow through your body when you come into the contact with the ink, - this can feel like a stroke." Myka explained naturally and eyed her father in anticipation.
"That really is a lot to understand, Myka." Mr. Bering watched her for a moment and then looked down at his own hands.
"It is, dad." Myka agreed. "But after all of this there are basically only two things you really need to understand." She cleared her throat and then shifted a little closer with her chair. "Firstly: I am working as an agent for this facility and we are only allowed to give this information to one person in our lives. Which means that now, you are my one person."
Warren's face changed and Myka couldn't tell at all how to read the expression on his face. It looked like a glimpse of pride, but she wasn't sure. "And what about your mother?"
Myka sighed before smiling briefly. "I think mom has her own way of figuring things out, dad. She is something like a quiet observer, isn't she? For all those years now." At that, the agent pursed her lips.
"I can't talk to her about this?" He concluded, sighing.
"You cannot talk to anybody about this, or we would have to kill you." Myka laughed nervously until he looked up at her, horrified. "That was a joke, dad."
"It wasn't funny." He responded, sounding mortified.
"Yeah, but I tried." Myka took another deep breath. "The second thing you have to understand, and that's the reason why I am telling you this in the first place – even though it doesn't matter for me at all – is that... Sarah is my daughter. Helena's and mine. We had... some kind of accident with an artifact, dad, with one of those objects. She wasn't planned and that's why Helena and I didn't marry. Or why our house won't be ready before she'll be born. Because... it was a surprise for us as well." The agent shrugged. "But she is my daughter – she would even be my daughter if her DNA wasn't mine. But she's 50 percent... made of me. And that makes her your granddaughter, dad." The curly-haired woman once looked again deeply into her father's eyes. "She would also be your granddaughter if there wouldn't be a blood relation. But I think that this makes it easier for you, doesn't it?"
Warren stared at Myka, his face completely blank. Myka wanted to add something, but she was interrupted by his whisper. "Sarah."
His daughter snorted in relief. "Yes, dad. That will be her name. That will be your granddaughter's name." When she caught the corners of his mouth twitching until he curled them up into a slight smile, she laughed briefly.
"And your mother?" He asked, eyeing the entrance to the B&B. There was a loud laughter coming from the kitchen. "I think..." Myka muttered, lost in thought. "I think it doesn't matter to her. But in her own way, she already knows, don't you think?"
"Sarah." Warren Bering whispered again.
Myka smiled fondly, meeting his gaze. "I felt her kick for the first time today, dad."
"I am proud of you." Helena whispered in the darkness of their room. Myka turned in bed, reaching forwards to pull her girlfriend closer. Slowly, she wrapped her arms around Helena's naked middle and then rested her head against the swell.
"I don't think I have to say that." The older woman made clear. "But sometimes, one cannot say this often enough. I am proud of you. You did well."
"Mhm." Myka mumbled, sounding drowsy. Helena chuckled at the realisation and brushed her hands over the younger woman's naked back, up her neck and then lingered at the nape. Fondly, she rubbed the soft skin there.
"We both did well." Myka hummed, proving that she was actually awake.
Helena smiled thinking about her girlfriend's words.