October, 2026.

"I made it," Helena whispered to herself, still having trouble actually believing it. The past decade she'd focused so much solely on the milestones and checkpoints she'd set for herself along the way, she could barely comprehend she'd made it to the goal. She technically still had a few weeks of school, but she already knew she'd made it.

"You are looking at a licensed, independent healthcare provider, baby!" Helena announced as she entered the living room and held up the paperwork confirming this. She'd known she'd graduate, she'd planned for it and specifically had it delayed by a semester so she would have the time to deal with everything life outside of school was throwing at her, but still, it took her by surprise because she hadn't actually believed this day would come, she'd spent such a long time telling herself that if she could just get through one more thing, it would get easier. And now it was finally getting easier. For the moment, at least.

"Just don't tell Nolan you're allowed to write prescriptions," Hunnigan grinned, got up and hugged Helena tightly. "I'm proud of you," she then said and kissed Helena.
"I couldn't have done any of this without you."

"Yeah, well, I'm forever your support agent, it's what I do," Hunnigan shrugged, and Helena laughed.
"And here I thought you were doing it because you're my wife and you love me."

"No, no, being your wife means I accept being the target of any misdirected anger, and that I'm obligated to back you up when you're making a scene and you're super wrong."

"That almost never happens," Helena smirked. "Jokes aside, seriously...thank you, Ingrid. Not just for this, but for...well...saving my life, figuratively and literally," she said, becoming more serious as she took a seat on the couch, her hand in Hunnigan's as she tugged on her gently to silently invite her to take a seat as well.

"I keep thinking about that time we got snowed in at the cabin."
"Any particular reason?" Hunnigan inquired.

"No, just...wondering sometimes. What would've happened if you had decided not to participate in Shepard's 'fun and games'. What if there hadn't been a storm at all. Do you think we still would've ended up here?"
"I do," Hunnigan nodded confidently.

"How do you figure?"

"Well, didn't Hawke already tell us years ago we were meant to be," Hunnigan grinned, and Helena rolled her eyes, perfectly aware of Hunnigan's general skepticism toward such things. "I've also heard that some people believe that you will meet all the people you are meant to meet during your life. Regardless of the length of the encounter or if it's good or bad, you're meant to meet that person and something about that meeting changes your life or theirs in some way."

"Do you believe that?" Helena asked, leaning into Hunnigan, lifting her feet onto the couch.

"Not wholeheartedly, no; I think it's just an attempt to insert some semblance of order in life by convincing yourself that things happen for a reason. That said, I like the idea, I like thinking that such details have meaning, it makes some things easier to accept if you can believe it was meant to happen that way," Hunnigan said, put her arm around Helena's shoulders and held her as she rested her head on Hunnigan's chest.

"So, why are you so convinced we would've ended up together even if the circumstances had been different?" Helena asked, moving her arm across Hunnigan's midsection and holding onto her.
"Because I'm certain that no matter what, I would not be able to keep myself from falling in love with you," Hunnigan smiled.

"Oh, that is such a good answer," Helena chuckled.
"So, what do you want to do to celebrate?" Hunnigan asked.

"I was thinking about doing something really wild...like, sleep."
"Oh, wow, that is wild, good thing I didn't plan anything like taking you out to dinner or something."

"Well, I could eat," Helena smiled. "Actually, there's something I'd like to discuss with you over dinner."
"I think I already know what it is, and my answer is yes, I would be happy to go with you to see Claire about the kids she mentioned."

"Don't give me that tone of voice, I think I had every right to assume you'd chickened out, you never spoke of it again after I brought it up originally."
"Because when you did, we agreed to look into it after your graduation, I didn't think there was any reason to talk about it before that," Hunnigan reasoned.

"You can just file something like that away for later and not think about it until it's relevant?"
"I didn't say I don't think about it, I just don't talk about it until it's time to do something about it."

"I love the way your mind works, like, I am in genuine awe with you sometimes," Helena said, and Hunnigan laughed.
"First time in my life I believe someone really does love me for my brain."

"I don't get it," Leon called out from the kitchen, and Helena rolled her eyes.
"What's there to get, she's terrified of being pregnant and I can't get pregnant, so this seems like the obvious solution to me," she said.

"You're barren?" he asked, and Helena scoffed.
"Reproductively challenged! And just so you know, that's not a thing you should just ask a woman," she told him, but Leon still had questions, the second one aimed at Hunnigan.

"And you're scared of being pregnant? Wouldn't most women be more afraid of giving birth?" he wondered.

"The last time I was pregnant, it fucked up everything in my body, but the actual moment of giving birth was quick, I barely made it off the stage before Seeley was out, almost like my vagina was damn Slip 'N Slide. I mean, it hurt, but it was over very quickly, so I'd take that over what being pregnant did to me; being temporarily unable to walk, then there was the acne, heartburn, constipation, boob ache, back ache, everything-ache..." Hunnigan listed.

"I get the picture," Leon sighed in defeat.
"Well, frankly, the point is moot anyway, I'm forty-six years old and definitely not trying to conceive, there would need to be one hell of a divine intervention to get me pregnant," Hunnigan commented.

"You didn't used to be this bitter, what happened to you?" Helena then teased Leon. Of all the people she hadn't expected he would be the one who would openly be against the idea of adopting a child.
"I'm a cynical, bitter old man, that's my thing now," he said, bringing over a tray that had four mugs, a pot of coffee, and a container of milk on it. He placed it on the table and gestured toward it to encourage his guests to help themselves.

"You can't be a bitter old man convincingly at all, you're too adorable," Hunnigan shook her head as she poured herself and Helena coffee, and Leon laughed, taking a seat in the chair opposite to the couch where Helena and Hunnigan were seated.

"So, what does your son think about this?" Leon then asked.

Seeley had actually been almost more excited than Helena about the idea of having siblings, and he'd enthusiastically encouraged Helena and Hunnigan to get started on planning and preparing for having more children, like reminding Hunnigan about getting started on any paperwork in a very fake-nonchalant way. He'd also been the first to pack his things and get a move on when they had made the decision to move to a place that had more room for children.

"He's more than fine with the idea," Hunnigan answered.
"So, based on your comments, I am assuming you're against the idea of adoption?" Helena queried, and Leon shrugged one shoulder a little.

Knowing everything she did about how cruel the world could be, Helena had to admit that she too had concerns about trying to raise a child. It wasn't bad enough that there were real, literal monsters out there, other people could be even worse monsters than those. At least a zombie would just straight up try to eat you, it wouldn't lure you into a windowless van with promises of cookies and puppies, and then sell you to the highest bidder.

However, being aware of everything that was out there had never done anything to actually deter her from wanting children. At least she could say it wasn't entirely selfish since she had no intention of having a baby of her own, on the contrary, the plan was and had always been to adopt.

"Not against it, exactly, it's just...why would you want to adopt a teenager? They're almost legal age already, it makes no sense to me."

"Right, right, and what happens when they age out of the system? Just because you're eighteen and no one is legally required to look after you anymore doesn't mean you stop needing a family," Hunnigan told him, and Helena smiled a little as she glanced at her wife, feeling herself fall in love with Hunnigan all over again for the millionth time just this year.

"...you have a point," Leon mumbled, and sipped his coffee.

"Here we are," Claire Redfield announced as she entered the living room, holding up a folder triumphantly above her head. She went to sit between Helena and Hunnigan, placed the folder on the coffee table and opened it, slipping her glasses from her forehead to her nose.

"These are the girls I told you about, they've been waiting to be adopted for a while now, most people don't want to adopt both siblings," Claire explained, and Helena took that to mean that people would've been happy to adopt the younger sister but no one wanted the teenager, and the people at TerraSave hadn't wanted to separate the sisters either, not yet anyway; perhaps if they needed to make room for new arrivals that might become a problem. Helena was hoping that by the time that would become an issue, the girls would already have a home with her and Hunnigan.

"The six year old's name is Robin," Claire introduced that blonde little girl in the photo. "One thing you should know about her is that she can be indiscriminately affectionate, she's likely to hug you and tell you she loves you after having known you for ten seconds, according to the shrink, that's how she copes with the trauma of having been deprived affection as a child," Claire continued, shifting her attention to the older sister then, a fourteen year old with auburn hair, a somewhat square jaw, and hazel eyes.

"Avery is more to the opposite, she's not quick to trust, and she's extremely protective of her sister, which, uh...has led to some problems," Claire trailed off.

"She stabbed a TerraSave member with a pen because she saw Robin hugging him, and assumed he was about to take her away or do something bad," Leon elaborated and Claire looked like she would've kicked him in the shin had she been able to do so discreetly under the table. Leon noticed the look too, and that only fueled his fire.

"What, you don't want me to tell them about that? This is just another reason I don't think it's a good idea to adopt older kids, you never know what kind of disorders they have until they're living with you, you could end up adopting an arsonist, or an axe murderer, or...or..."

"A Kennedy?" Hunnigan interjected, and Helena snorted.

"It's gotta be considered," Leon smirked.

"As crude as his words are, Leon is not entirely wrong; caring for children isn't TerraSave's bread and butter, we try to find homes for them as best we can since we can only offer temporary housing until social services can take over, we have a psychologist who interviews the children, but time and resources are limited, there is only so much we can do," Claire admitted.

"Look, as long as there's no history of actually harming others for the fun of it, I don't see this as a problem," Helena said.

"Well, you would excuse stabbing someone with a pen," Leon snorted into his coffee mug, and Helena narrowed her eyes at him, but considering her personal history, she had to admit he wasn't wrong.

"Avery was protecting her overly trusting little sister from an unknown man, if that isn't a valid excuse for stabbing someone with a pen in your books, then I suggest you re-evaluate some things," Hunnigan said and Helena's eyebrows rose at that.

Hunnigan had a knack for still finding ways to surprise her. Of course she knew that generally, Hunnigan was on her side by default, but Helena still wasn't used to people taking her side, not even when the person taking her side was her wife. Sometimes she wondered if she'd ever get to a point in her life when she'd stop assuming she was on her own. So far it seemed she still had a ways to go.

"Excuse me, darling," Helena said then, took the glasses from Hunnigan's face and put them on her own to be able to read the file Claire had presented them.
"Really, Helena? Really?" Hunnigan sighed, and Leon laughed.

The girls' mother had been a doctor and their father a cello player in the Anchorage symphony orchestra, they'd died roughly nine months ago because the mother had gotten infected when a group of people infected with a then-unknown deadly virus had gone to the hospital where the mother had worked. Fortunately for the girls, she hadn't had a chance to make contact with them after becoming infected, but her husband hadn't been that lucky because he'd met her for lunch after the fact. They had no living relatives that anyone had been able to find at least, so TerraSave had taken them in.

All that because people had been overworked to exhaustion which had made it so that some of the most basic security measures had not been taken simply because tired people don't think straight. Either that or it was just stupid carelessness, but Helena doubted that anyone who would even be careless about such things would be allowed to work on the field.

To this day Leon, Hunnigan, Claire, and various others were still looking for who was responsible for creating the virus which had caused the deaths of these girls' parents and many more after them, and while no one had officially claimed responsibility, it didn't take too many guesses to figure out the roots and origins of these things, at least not if you had worked in anti-bioterrorism for more than five minutes. They had no definite idea of what the motive was, though. If it were an act of terror, it made no sense that no one had claimed responsibility.

Helena had suggested it was perhaps instead another case of an outbreak engineered by a pharmaceutical company to test their virus because if you wanted to sell a vaccine, you needed a disease first. In a couple of years the pandemic would run its course to be replaced with something else, like it always did. But in the meanwhile a fraction of people would have access to a vaccine, the others would be left to fight for scraps or die, and in the middle of it all, a small window for the entity in charge of creating the disease and the vaccine stood to make billions by squeezing out everything they could from countries full of people growing scared, angry and frustrated while desperately waiting for everything to go back to "normal", blissfully ignorant to the fact that normal as they had known it had stopped existing ages ago.

But, whatever the normal was now, Helena wanted to do anything she could to help make sure that at least these two girls would have a shot at having a normal, loving home. A place of warmth, comfort, trust, and love, a home she wished she could've had a child instead of growing up walking on eggshells and afraid of doing anything to infuriate the woman who was supposed to nurture her and care for her but had done nothing of the sort.

"So, what do you think? Should I set up a meeting?" Claire broke the silence. Helena glanced at Hunnigan, silently asking for her confirmation once more, before finally giving Claire an affirmative nod.

Helena wasn't sure if Robin was holding onto Avery's hand, or if it was Avery who was holding onto Robin's for emotional support as the girls entered the house, both taking slow steps as if they were expecting something to jump out at them.

"Are we gonna stay here?" Robin asked her sister, both of them looking around as they toured the house. Hunnigan would've settled for an apartment, but a proper house with a decent yard was something Helena had insisted on. It had a front porch, a large fenced backyard, four bedrooms (the master bedroom on the third floor with its own separate bathroom and large alcove almost made the room feel like a studio apartment rather than a room, so in essence Hunnigan did kind of get her wish of having an apartment), and plenty of space.

It had cost way too much, but for once Helena had not felt too bad when Hunnigan had told her not to worry about money, which was what she always said about everything, and Helena still didn't know what exactly Hunnigan did that paid so well, and honestly, she didn't want to know, but she did suspect it involved exchanging favors with Isabela; Hunnigan had grown less idealistic and more realistic during the past decade, accepting that if she intended to get what she wanted in life, she had to take it and be willing to give up naive illusions of fairness in life.

Helena had noticed the hardening in her, but she hadn't known what to do about it, she still didn't. Maybe once things settled down a little, Hunnigan could afford to leave her job at the DSO. Wishful thinking, Helena supposed, because even if it weren't about the money, she doubted Hunnigan would want to leave. But she kept hoping that one day she would actually retire. An impossible thought currently, she knew.

"We would love it if you would like to stay," Helena said.
"Do you wanna see your rooms?" Hunnigan asked.

"Hey!" Seeley called out as he got out of the car, Major giving a wave from the driver's seat before driving away after dropping Seeley off. "Sorry I'm late, he had a thing," Seeley said poking his thumb over his shoulder to indicate Major as he jogged up the driveway and stopped to kiss his mother on the cheek.

"It's all right, we just got here too," Helena assured.

He introduced himself to the girls and told them he'd love to be their big brother if they'd have him, and Helena smiled. He was a good kid. Robin reached to grab his hand into her own as they headed upstairs to check out the girls' rooms.

"Oh, nice! May I?" Avery asked when they returned downstairs after a while, and she noticed the piano in the living room.

It had been an extravagant and completely unnecessary and ridiculous housewarming gift from Nolan. He'd also made a point to leave some sheet music on it just to tease his sister. Hunnigan knew how to play a little, but her reading sheet music was like a child reading a complex book; she could technically manage but it took a lot of effort.

Helena knew how to play even less, she liked messing around occasionally, but she didn't know how to actually play anything. Hunnigan had tried teaching her to play the guitar, and Helena had learned "enough chords to play in a punk band", whatever that meant, but it wasn't something she cared to keep up with. Plus, it made her fingers sore.

Avery took a seat at the piano and placed her fingers on the keys, reading off the piece of sheet music Nolan had left on the stand.

Wow, Helena mouthed to Hunnigan who blinked in surprise when Avery began to play what according to the title on the sheet music was "Dance of the little swans" from Tchaikovsky's "Swan lake".

"Well, Nolan will be happy to finally have someone who shares his passion for the piano. Uh, if you decide to stay, of course," Hunnigan smiled.
"So, what do you think, Robin?" Avery asked, turning around in the seat and looking at her sister who was still holding onto Seeley's hand, smiling widely.

"I wanna stay," she said in a loud stage whisper, and Helena chuckled quietly at that.
"Yeah. Yeah, I wanna stay too," Avery finally smiled as well.

"Are you going to stand there the whole night?" Hunnigan asked quietly from Helena who was still at the door, staring into Robin's room as the girl slept.
"I'm just scared that if I look away, it all just disappears."

"Nothing is going to disappear," Hunnigan assured, put her arm around Helena's waist and held her close
"It used to. Before you came into my life and made the happiness permanent anyway," Helena smiled.

"Come on, let's go to bed. The girls will still be here in the morning, just like they have been for the past three weeks," Hunnigan said, kissed Helena's temple and gently tugged on her.

"Oh, wait, I have to check something," Helena said and headed outside to the porch. Hunnigan frowned as she watched her wife kneel down and dig around the evergreens planted in the pots that decorated the porch. She then pulled something out and returned to the house.

"What's that?" Hunnigan asked as Helena unfurled the rolled up piece of paper.
"Seeley said he'd told Robin to write up a list of what she wants for Christmas and leave it on the porch for the elves to find and deliver to Santa," Helena explained.

"Christmas? We haven't even made it past Halloween yet!" Hunnigan exclaimed.

Seeley truly had taken after his father when it came to Christmas. Back when she'd still been married to Major, Hunnigan had needed to literally hide the Christmas decorations unless she wanted him to prematurely decorate the house. Sometimes he'd literally wait until midnight so that when it officially became November, he could immediately start putting up the Christmas decorations. It was ridiculous, but endearing in its own way, she supposed.

"Don't look at me, I'm not responsible for any of this," Helena said and reached to grab the glasses from Hunnigan's face and proceeded to put them on.
"You really need to get glasses," Hunnigan sighed, never having understood why Helena kept arguing she didn't need reading glasses when she clearly did.

"I just did," Helena responded.
"Glasses of your own, smartass."

"Why would I do that when I can just borrow yours?"
"Because I need mine!"

"Well, then that sounds to me like you're the one who needs to get glasses," Helena smiled, so smug and proud of herself, and Hunnigan laughed.
"You're a loony," she whispered and kissed her. "So, what does Robin want from Santa?"

"Uh...an ice cream machine."
"Really? Well, that could be fun."

"I think she means like one of those big soft serve ice cream machines, she might be under the impression that they just magically give you as much ice cream as you want," Helena laughed gently.
"You realize what this means, don't you?"

"...I hate to say it, but I have no idea," Helena admitted.
"We have to get one and make sure there's always ice cream ready when she wants it but we gotta prepare it secretly so she won't know it's not a magical machine."

"Darling, I love that idea, but I don't think it's possible to pull that off."
"Fine, we'll just get the machine. Not the big one from McDonald's, one of the tiny ones."

"The one at McDonald's always broke anyway," Helena smirked.
"I read somewhere that they're rarely actually broken, they are just a pain in the ass to operate and clean, so people might tell you it's broken when it's not. I also read that they're almost never properly cleaned, so if they don't give you a shake, they're doing you a favor."

"Don't tell me things like that, now I'll never be able to get a shake without thinking about that!"
"Well, I read it online over a decade ago, so it might not be true anymore if it ever was in the first place."

"Doesn't matter, that's already in my head!" Helena complained.
"Now we really have to get the machine then," Hunnigan chuckled.

They went to bed, Hunnigan having already managed to doze off when Helena's phone made a noise on the bedside table. Grumbling in annoyance, she picked it up and opened the message she'd received.

"Hah, look at that," she then chuckled and turned the screen toward Hunnigan. She squinted at the brightness of it and blinked rapidly for a moment to be able to see properly. She was looking at a message from Hawke, it contained a series of pictures of Hawke and Harding's adventures in Las Vegas, the last picture of the set from what appeared to be a wedding chapel, the guests consisting of various celebrity-impersonators (mostly Elvis).

"A wedding in Vegas, officiated by a Dolly Parton-lookalike is somehow so Hawke I can't even say how like Hawke it is," Hunnigan laughed.
"Agreed, I'm just amazed Harding agreed to it."

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around Harding and Hawke even being a couple," Hunnigan shook her head.
"It's been two years, you have to accept that your loremaster now has a real life."

"I will never recover, you can't seriously expect me to keep track of my own campaign myself !" Hunnigan scoffed in disbelief, and Helena laughed.
"Well, maybe if you didn't write such complicated stories keeping track of it all wouldn't be an issue..."

"Honey, I assure you, I haven't had any control over the world of Eisix in decades, which is why Harding and her assistance are crucial."
"I don't understand how you can lose control of it, you're the creator, it's your story, shouldn't it go how you want it to go?" Helena frowned, and Hunnigan laughed heartily for a long moment before taking a deep breath and blowing it out.

"Ahhh, clearly you've never dabbled in creative writing," she smiled. "Now, message Hawke and tell her to return my loremaster in one piece and let's go to sleep, we have a busy day tomorrow," she then said.

She'd already promised the girls and Seeley that they'd take the Friday off and spend a long weekend in New York, dropping in to visit Isabela and Garrett to introduce the girls, but mostly the plan was to have fun and spend time together as a family.

"We're gonna spoil the hell out of those kids, aren't we?" Helena chuckled as she lay back down, resting her head on Hunnigan's shoulder.
"Most definitely," she confirmed with a smile, kissed Helena forehead and closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep shortly after.