Disclaimer: I don't own Hey Arnold, or anything else that I've mentioned.

Summary: Helga, never imagined that one rash decision at a party, would turn her life completely on its head six years later, and leave her in a twisted web of secrets, lies and deceit. The skeletons are coming out. For Hillwood, it's the crime of the century. A love/crime/triangle drama! R&R!

A/N: Hey, hey hey. See that wasn't too long to wait on a cliffhanger ending. I'm not that cruel. Some fun (not fun) stuff in this one. Some straight up dude talk so...there's a couple coarse conversations in here. Poor Helga right? What a rough morning! Anyway, onward we go!

He said to be cool.

But I don't know how yet.

"Yeah, that looks human," The balding police officer named Ted said as held the jaw bone in a gloved hand, turning it in the light the kitchen. Helga stood to the side, arms tightly crossed, wanting desperately for Arnold to hurry up and be home already. "They brought it out of the woods?" He sat it back down on the counter, she really wishing he hadn't, because she wanted the thing out of her house and definitely off of her counter top.

"Yeah, when I let them out this morning. I'm assuming the woods. They brought another one out of there yesterday morning."

Ted's brows shifted, "Do you still have that one?"

Helga shook her head, "Uh no, we uh...we trashed it. My fiancee' assumed it was a deer vertebrae."

The officer nodded, "Alright. Well, we will get some people out there and do a walk through with the K9's and see what we can find, and then run a dental record check on this. See if it matches anybody in the missing persons database. Its possible that it could be something from an old local grave. We've had a lot of rain and wash this year, things come up, animals travel, so, I don't want you automatically thinking the worst here, because it may not be the case at all."

Helga distractedly nodded, "Right...yeah." She just couldn't stop staring at it. "Let's hope."

He offered her a friendly, understanding smile, "Either way, it's a hell of a way to start the morning."

"Isn't it though," She agreed. Afterwards he returned to his car to radio in what all was needed out there and she walked back into the living area, refusing to stay in the room with that thing on the counter one minute longer. She had the desire to go call Phoebe, just to have somebody to talk to until Arnold got home, but she didn't want to go disturbing her best friend early on a Sunday morning. Her nerves were so on edge though. The whole thing was so disturbing. Even if it turned out to be something perfectly harmless, like a washed local grave, that bone had at one time belonged to a person. A person! A person who was walking, talking and covered in flesh, with feelings and probably a circle of people who cared about them.

And now it was sitting on her kitchen counter, like a discarded piece of trash. She wanted to burn that room down now. How could she ever get past seeing that anytime she was in there from then on?

How?

She sat down on the couch, her realization giving her a hard shudder in her core. How could she ever look at those woods the same way ever again either. The whole thing made her want to go out and have the biggest privacy fence ever built to surround their backyard so the dogs could never roam through there another day. She sat there for a little while, petting Rory and Jack before she heard their kitchen door open and shut hastily.

"Helga!"

"Arnold..." She breathed and jumped from the couch just in time to see him briskly enter the living room, face shadowed by exhaustion and concern.

"What's going on? What are they doing?" He immediately asked, "I saw the officer sitting in his car."

"He said they're going run dental records on it, and do a walk through in the woods with their dogs to see what the they find."

Arnold nodded, "Alright."

"And it's possible that because of the rain fall this year, it could have washed up from an old local grave and been picked up by animals and ended up back there," She relayed to him, hoping for the best at that point. Maybe if she talked about it, it would be so.

"Right."

"He left it on the kitchen counter," She looked past him and he turned and followed her stare, walking back in the kitchen to take a peak at the offensive thing that was causing such distress. He scowled as he stared at it, reaching down and running the pad of his thumb over the fillings she had agonized about over the phone.

She didn't even know how he could possibly touch it, willingly, though she supposed he'd seen much worse, and she had to remind herself that he wasn't queasy about such anatomic things.

"Yeah," He admitted, "It's human alright," When he realized that she had not followed him, and appeared to show no interest at all in ever joining him there, he returned to the living room and pulled her into a hug. "It's going to be alright. I'm sorry you had to deal with something like this."

"It's just so...creepy," She pressed the side of her head into his chest, "They can't go back in those woods anymore."

"I agree. We'll...get an invisible fence for them or something," After a moment more, he led them back to the couch, where they sat in mostly silence, him drumming his fingers lightly on the armrest while they waited to hear something. It seemed like forever, before they heard a knock and their front door open, several voices floating through.

"Ms. Pataki," She heard Ted call as he walked into view, both of them standing up as he gave Arnold a nod, "Mr. Shortman?" He asked and the blonde nodded. "We're going to get the bone bagged up," He thumbed towards the kitchen, where another officer had walked, "And they are bringing two dogs around now to run through the woods."

"How long does that usually take?" Arnold inquired.

"Depends on what they find. If you two just want to sit tight. Hopefully we can get this resolved and get out of your hair." Rory and Jack suddenly bounced to the back glass and started going berserk seeing a pair of German shepherds on very long leashes leading their handlers into the wooded chasm.

Arnold snapped his head towards them, "Come on guys! It's just a dog." They acted like that hadn't been scolded and kept on with their high pitched whines and barks.

"Take them upstairs," Helga suggested, not feeling like listening to that racket one minute longer. He walked over, scooping one up in each arm and hauled the pair upstairs, crating them in their bedroom and shutting the door behind him for good measure.

When he returned down stairs, Helga was staring out the back glass. She was starting to feel sick as an all too familiar bout of morning sickness began to creep up. It wasn't entirely that though. She felt a wicked sense of dread pooling in the pit of her stomach and what those dogs might find. Her mind raced with the possibilities.

That phone of his seemed to never stop ringing. Day in and day out. And it being a Sunday morning didn't change that either. Such was the life of a detective in a mid-sized city. Still, she wished she didn't have to hear it.

"Sid...Sid...Sid-ney! Oh for crying out loud..." Rhonda huffed and rolled from her side of the bed, grabbing her pillow and smacking her husband in the head with it, "Answer your phone!" Sid grumbled, but reached out to his bedside table, fumbled for his cell and dragged it back to his ear.

"Yeah? Alright, I'm coming," He confirmed before tossing the phone back and slowly sitting up in bed, dragging both his hands through his wild hair before sliding out of the covers. He spent the next few minutes waking up, the typical morning routines, though, he didn't feel like shaving that morning, so he wasn't. In his closet, he began pulling on one of his many long sleeved dress shirts, covering his tattoo obsession that had begun in his teens, his slacks, his tie. He grabbed his badge and phone from the night stand, gave his wife a quick kiss, an 'I love you' and was gone.

By the time he pulled his cruiser down the driveway of the house they'd been called to, his partner was already there, leaning against his own car, twirling his toothpick around the inside of his mouth. Sid parked the car and stepped out, Jeremy giving him a smirk as he pushed off of his vehicle, "About time you showed up."

"Ain't no rest for the wicked. That's for sure," Sid chuckled, still shaking sleep.

Jeremy thumbed away, "The officer's said we can just go on around the house. The good stuff is in the woods."

"It's what I hear." The pair strolled around the house side of the house, giving it a few glances, Sid remarking, "Pretty nice digs." They walked across the back yard.

"Rhonda slug you with a pillow this morning?" Jeremy snickered.

Sid side eyed his partner, and best friend for a few years by then with a smirk and replied with, "I'm beginning to think she likes doing it. How did your date go last night?"

Jeremy snorted, "A whole evening of my life I'll never get back."

"Did you at least get laid to make it all worth it?" His partner laughed.

"Hell no. She had those clingy type vibes. You poke a girl like that once, and she won't leave you alone for six months. I don't need that in my life." Sid just laughed at him. When they made it to the edge of the woods, they were greeted by an officer who assured them there was plenty to go see. When they neared the back of the property, they saw two more officers in a small clearing that was tapped off, with little flags stuck everywhere.

"What have we got here? A shallow grave?" Sid asked, ducking under the tape and pulling a pair of black gloves out of his pocket, fisting them on.

"Looks like it." One of the officers replied.

Both Sid and Jeremy had squatted down and were intently peering at the disturbance of remains scattered in a divet with pieces of a dry rotted tarp splintering through the debris. "It obviously wasn't very deep, but it's been here for a little bit."

Jeremy reached into his pocket and retrieved a pen, which he used to give the skull a poke to roll it over, scowling at what he saw, "I thought they said the home owner found a jaw bone?" He said, staring at a lower jaw bone lodged in the foliage.

"She did."

"There might be the top of another skull underneath, right over there," Sid pointed.

Jeremy shifted over, reaching out with his pen and flicking some of the dirt away, revealing an eye socket. "Yep. Two sets of remains...at least, it looks like here." He shook the pen off and stood up, "So, what about the dogs? They found other shallow graves?"

"They pinged at least seven other spots throughout the woods. This is the only disturbed site that we could find."

Sid stood up, frowning and peering around through the forest. "Sounds like we have a killing field here."

Crossing his arms, Jeremy continued to look at the remains at his feet, "I'm betting that several of these are our missing girls," He speculated before glancing over at his partner.

Sid looked back at him, "No doubt."

"Which means Hillwood has its very first serial killer." Jeremy removed his toothpick and began chewing on the tip, "Dude, I think of all the things that we've seen, this is the eeriest."

Sid shook his head a few times, "This is one sick puppy."

"Detective Kirk! Detective Moretti!"

Both of the men turned around to see a third officer stomping through the brush towards them, "The dogs found a spot by the house. You want to come take a look?"

"By the house?" Sid elevated an eyebrow.

"Right on the top of the patio area. The whole thing. We practically had to drag them off of there."

"Alright, we'll be there in a second."

The officer nodded and disappeared back into woods from which he came. Sid turned back to Jeremy and shrugged, "Well, this is doing loads for this poor saps property value, that's for sure."

Jeremy shook his head, replacing his toothpick between his cheek and gum, "Hillwood's most notorious haunted house too."

The two marched back out of the woods, passing by at least one sectioned off area that was a suspected shallow grave site. Both were admittedly more observant of their surroundings on the way out than they had been on the way in. When they reached the forests edge they stopped, looking down the line, seeing what else they could spot that possibly hadn't been spotted.

Jeremy was still looking around at the woods when he heard his partner say, "Whoa, whoa..." As Sid had peered across the yard, he recognized two figures standing just by the house.

"What?" Jeremy asked, but not bothering to look.

"Is that Helga Pataki? This is her house?"

Jeremy turned, glanced at Sid and then across the long expanse of yard to indeed see her and Arnold standing on the back patio, talking to an officer, "Wow..." He raised his eyebrow, spinning his toothpick with his tongue.

"Boy Howdy," Sid grinned mockingly at him. Not being able to resist giving his friend a hard time, he continued with, "And Arnold. Remember him? The guy whose dick game was so good she forgot you existed and then forgot to break up with you too." Jeremy struck out and knuckle punched him in the arm lightning fast, Sid just coolly stepping away as he chuckled, "Has Brian ever told you what it was like when she moved in with them?"

Jeremy rolled his eyes, "No."

"He said it was a nightmare to listen to. Dude would just straight tear her up constantly."

Jeremy shot him one last look, really thinning his deep brown eyes at him, "I'm glad my misfortune has been such a topic of conversation for you two," He dully remarked, but then smirked at him, "But you wont be laughing at my game this Friday when you find me balls deep in Rhonda. Touching places you haven't ever reached."

"You sorry sack of shit," Sid faked some outrage as Jeremy chuckled. "Alright, lets go deliver some bad news," He then said and the pair began to close the distance between them and the unsuspecting homeowners.

"So this is the first time you've seen her since you broke up huh?"

"I actually ran into her yesterday getting my oil changed."

"Oh, that had to be weird. But not quite as much as this."

Jeremy chortled a bit, "I had no idea she was even still with him. Surprising I guess."

"Really?"

"It's not like I've kept up with her. Apparently she's doing pretty well with her own business. Her and doctor douche there are tying the knot, and she's pregnant too."

"Boy, you learned all that at an oil change?" Sid side eyed him with a smirk. "Must have been quite the pleasant conversation."

"She had no problem sharing all that with me. Almost like she was rubbing it in."

Sid snorted, "And you don't sound bitter about it or anything. Nope."

Jeremy gave him a 'get real' look, "Please. She hasn't crossed my mind in a long time. But that doesn't make him any less of a douche bag and her any less of a...they deserve one another."

Sid nodded, still chuckling to himself, "I get it, man. I do."

The two ceased talking as they neared the patio and stepped up onto it. "Wow, I've seen you more in two days than I have in six years," Jeremy walked up, choosing to speak first to Helga while giving Arnold the briefest of looks. The blonde's head snapped down at his fiance', a question looming in his eyes as he looked back at the detectives.

Helga sighed, mostly out of annoyance, "I bumped into him at the dealership," She clarified, crossing her arms.

"How's it going Arnold, Helga?" Sid said, much more friendly. "It's been awhile."

Arnold popped his head at him, "A little..." He clearly wasn't in a chatty mood, but he didn't appear unfriendly in anyway. Sid thought that he looked like he was running on some terribly depleted batteries if anything.

Helga at least gave him a hint of a smile, "Hey, Sid." But whatever, he got it. This was not something anybody would want to be dealing with. Ever.

Jeremy smiled at the two before clearing his throat. "Alright, so, let me explain how this works and why Sid and I are out here now. Our dogs sit whenever they've smelt decomposition. They've identified seven different spots and we've found a skeletal bed that we think the bone your dogs brought you may have come from. Our dogs also sat at your patio here, which mean, we may have to remove it to get below."

"Jesus Christ..." Arnold rolled his eyes and looked up before fixing Jeremy with a hard look, "Do you even know if those other seven spots are bodies."

"We're going to start excavating as soon as possible," Sid answered.

Arnold slipped his gaze to him, cocking a brow in question, "So you don't know then."

"Technically no. Not before we dig," Sid admitted.

"How accurate are these dogs anyway?" Arnold then crossed his arms, now thoroughly scowling at him.

But this time Jeremy butted in again, "Pretty accurate. Why does it matter?"

The blonde rolled his eyes, again glancing off before giving the dude another narrowed look, "I don't want you tearing up my patio, only to find out that they're smelling a damn...deer carcass down there."

The dark brunette laughed a little, shaking his head and then removing his tooth pick and pointing it at Arnold condescendingly, "I'm tearing it up, whether you like it or not."

Arnold sharply inhaled, his jaw flexing a bit as he felt himself puff up a little at the detective. "Don't you need a warrant or something before you start destroying other people's property like that?" He heatedly gestured to the ground.

Helga quickly realized, this was probably going a little beyond destruction of property, and she needed to nip that residual personal feeling of his in the bud and fast. Arnold wasn't a hot head, nor was he the confrontational type, but Jeremy hadn't left a good taste in his mouth many, many moons ago, and he'd certainly never had anything positive to say about him afterwards. No matter how solid and lovable of a guy he was. And it was no surprise that the feeling was still mutual for Jeremy, who appeared in no mood to be diplomatic about the problem or remotely understanding of their frustration, "Babe, it is what it is. Just let them do their job," She said, wrapping her hand around his arm, shooting Jeremy and Sid her own weary and displeased look.

Jeremy sighed, "I've never seen the dogs throw a false positive. This is a lot to process, and I understand that its hard to accept, but your property may be a dumping zone for a serial killer."

Helga felt sick, but Arnold seemed to not have been effected one bit as he continued to stand there, throwing them both, but mostly Jeremy, an inconvenienced look, "I'll be sure to bill you for the replacement," He finally smarted back at her ex, shaking his head and then walking off towards the house, Helga sparing them one last apologetic glance before scooting off after him.

Sid looked over at his partner the minute the door clicked, "Well, that went well."

Jeremy popped his head at the door, perching one hand on his hip, pointing to the door with the other, "Dude can sit and spin for all I care. This patio is coming up," He then pointed to it and walked off.

"Seriously?" She asked after she had closed the door behind them. Arnold didn't respond he just continued to walk away, "You know what? I've had to try, really hard to keep it together today, because I am hormonal as hell. And crimeny, the last thing I want to listen to is you pick a petty fight with him when they're telling us that a serial killer might be using our woods as a Goddamn graveyard!"

Arnold finally turned around, planting his hands on his hips, eyes cast to the floor, "I know..." He let out a tired sigh and ran one of his hands through his newly disheveled hair, "Sorry...I'm sorry. I am just...so tired and so stressed and all of this going on is just...unbelievable." And she suddenly felt badly about scolding him. In the tornado of events that had kicked off in the early A.M., shelved completely was the fact that he had just worked all night in the E.R., after having been awake all day, and now it was going on mid-afternoon. Of course he was cranky and short fused.

Helga walked over and wrapped her arms around his waist, peering up at him, "Why don't you go take a shower and try to get a little sleep." Arnold hugged his arms around her and kissed her forehead out of habit.

"Yeah. I'm going to go upstairs and get some great rest..." He grumbled and rested his chin on the top of her head.

"If you aren't going to go to sleep. Promise me you aren't going to be a tool if he comes back around to drop more bad news on us."

Arnold sighed, "I wont." He pulled away, guiding them away to sit on the couch. "You didn't tell me you ran into him yesterday."

She quirked her brow as she propped her elbow up on the arm rest and rested her head on a loose fist, "We were so busy that I forgot. It was the most awkward thing on the planet, and jackass me proceeds to overshare how wonderful everything is for us." Arnold chuckled lowly before throwing his legs up on the couch and laying his head in her awaiting lap, "Obviously I was expecting to get back to never seeing him again."

"I'm sure the feeling is mutual," He smiled slightly and rested his eyes.

She sighed, "Oh Arnold, what are we suppose to do now?" She asked, now looking out the back sliding door again.

"About what?"

"All of this going on. We can't stay here now."

He opened his eyes, "We can go to a hotel a little later."

"No I mean. How are we ever suppose to live here normally again. What if they do find something under the patio? What if there are bodies under our house or something?" She wanted to berate him for being so calm about the situation, again having to remind herself that he was tired. Her mind was running a million miles a second and he was trying to nap in her lap. It was beyond frustrating to her.

"Can we cross that bridge when we get there? I don't even want to have to think about it right now."

"I don't know how you can't think about it now."

"Sweetheart..." Arnold groaned and rubbed his palms into his eyes, "Please..."

"Fine...crimeny..."

By nightfall, they had officially vacated their house. The police didn't want them there as they started the excavation, nor did Helga want to be there, and after Arnold and Jeremy had gotten into a second dispute about the damn patio, he had basically told them to scram. Helga had been livid at her fiancee' and was very relieved to be in a hotel and for him to be out like a light in the bed. When she walked out of the bathroom, drying her hair in a towel, she saw him laying on his stomach, arms tucked underneath his pillow, some very light snores emanating from his slightly a gap mouth. Their dogs were happily laying on the other bed, and they could stay there. She didn't feel like dealing with them either.

After all, she partially blamed them for this nightmare, though it really wasn't their fault.

God she was just so burnt out by that day.

She rummaged through her duffle bag on the table and pulled on a tee-shirt and a pair of underwear before she climbed in next to him. She had a freakin' busy ass day ahead of her too, and she knew it was going to be even longer because it would be especially impossible for her to sleep well in a bed that wasn't hers. And that was if she didn't have a row of sick sickness crop up too. With a sigh, she slide her phone off the bedside, illuminating the screen only to see a missed call from Phoebe, which she immediately swiped right to return.

She had gotten into a brief text message conversation with her before they'd gotten settled into the hotel and she'd opted to go take a shower.

"Helga, hey!" she sounded as if she'd rushed to grab her phone.

"Hey."

"Sorry, that was a little too much to process via text message."

"I know. We were just in a rush, I didn't have time to sit on the phone for a minute."

"So let me get this straight. The police have found...bodies in your woods?"

"At least two, so far. We don't know how many more," Saying it made her start feeling sick again. "If any..."

"Oh my..."

"They are tearing up our patio because they think there might be one underneath it too, and..." Helga exhaled a depleted sigh, "I...I don't even know what to think at this point Pheebs..."

"Yeah, I...don't really know what to think about it either. It's...hard to believe." Phoebe agreed, sounding just as mystified as Helga was, "You guys love that place."

"I know...and...at the risk of sounding incredibly self absorbed, some psycho ruined it."

"No, I know what you mean by it. And to think, that psycho is likely running around in Hillwood somewhere," Phoebe's voice was very hollow as she spoke, almost as if she'd just realized that cold hard reality. There was a serial killer still on the loose in Hillwood. "Are you guys staying there? Do you want to come stay with us instead?"

"Uh, we're in a hotel now. It's probably only for a few days," The last thing Helga wanted was to be a burden on anybody.

She heard Phoebe sigh, "Helga. Seriously. We have that extra room. You two are more than welcome to stay here."

"I know, and if this drags on, we'll consider it. I don't want to come barging in on you and Gerald, but I appreciate it."

"You're never barging in." Phoebe reminded her, "How are you feeling these days, everything else aside?"

Helga groaned, "Ugh...about the same. I just...so desperately want to feel somewhat normal again."

"I wish I could offer some comfort, but I was sick for all of two weeks with Niko. I am clearly not the one to compare notes with."

"I know. Alright, well, not trying to rush off the phone with you, but I've got a some work to get done before tomorrow."

Four Days Later.

Nine. Nine was the number of bodies pulled from the Shortman/Pataki woods. Bodies was a nice term. Remains was the more appropriate word for most of what was recovered, and the others could be referred to as a corpse. And keeping with their word, Jeremy and Sid had indeed put in the request to have the concrete ripped up by a state construction crew. They demolished it in a snap, and the forensic crew had taken care of the rest, starting what from an outsiders point a view would look like an archeological dig site.

They didn't have to dig far before shovel tips bumped into more familiar rotted tarps. Two to be exact.

Sid and Jeremy stood by the side, both with their arms perched on their hips, watching their crew carefully begin pulling the two bodies out. Both tarp wrapped and bound with a nylon rope. Sid shook his head, "Dogs don't lie."

"No they do not," Jeremy agreed.

Five Days Later.

And for Helga and Arnold, five days was all it took for the news to hit the local airways. Hillwood wasn't a small town, by any stretch of the imagination, but something like this happening? Eleven bodies being discovered on a single property? There was no way it wouldn't be big news.

Absolutely impossible for it not to make headlines.

They both sat on the edge of the bed, in stunned silence, watching the local nightly news. Watching a reporter feed the story to their audience right outside of their house. Their house! Their house that had been tapped off! And then the helicopter view of their destroyed back patio, now a shallow pit. Helga laid her head in her hands, and Arnold, who had been chewing on the top of his thumb, reached over and rubbed his palm across the expanse of her back soothingly. He didn't say anything, and she figured he really didn't know what to say. Nothing was going to make the situation any less surreal.

Of course this was the first time she was finding out how many had actually been found. They had had no contact with Sid, Jeremy or anybody else at the Hillwood Police Department, basically being told they they'd hear from them, when they heard from them.

How shitty though. To find out via the news-scratch that-via ones mother calling them and saying, 'hey your house is on the news, did you know that?'

Arnold sighed and stood up, walking across their hotel room-that they were still in-and peered out the window, his arms tightly crossed in front of his body. Helga finally pulled her head from her hands and glanced over at him, seeing his ashen face, creased with stress and worry. She felt sorry for him. She was so stressed she felt prickly, but he had so much on his plate with his residency, and now this going on in their personal life. She was afraid for his sanity.

For her part, she had to keep it together. She couldn't afford to allow herself to get too stressed by it all. She had a busy business to continue to run, she had Arnold, who had become so distracted by everything that she couldn't rely on him to be the voice of reason for her anymore, and she had a baby that really needed her to chill out. What was she to do?

"Babe..." She called to him, but he didn't even hear her, "...Arnold." She tried again and this time he turned his head towards her, eyebrows slightly raised.

"Hmm?"

"It's going to be okay," What else could she say? What else?

Arnold gave her a single nod, "Yeah..." He replied and went back to staring out the window.

Fourteen Days Later.

Sid and Jeremy stood in the morgue, staring at the eleven different tables for the eleven different bodies that had been pulled from their temporary shallow graves.

"Well, they are all women, between the ages of 18 - 25, and all strangled to death." The coroner said between them.

"How the hell can you tell? Some of them are nothing but bones." Sid asked and the older chubby man walked over to one of the bodies.

"Everyone of them have a fractured hyoid bone in the neck here," He tapped the neck area. "Your guy has some hand strength. On the two that were not completely decomposed there is bruising pattern on the neck tissue that suggests he used his hands and not a ligature, or suffocation."

"Any other injuries? Signs of sexual assault?" Jeremy asked. "On the two that aren't skeletons at least."

"No injuries and, unfortunately they are all far too gone to determine if sexual assault did occur," Both Jeremy and Sid sighed disappointingly, "We're still going through them all with a fine tooth comb. And you boys will be the first to know if I find even a single hair that doesn't belong."

"Thanks." They both turned and began walking out of the corners lab, Sid looking over at Jeremy, "Hopefully we can get some ID's on these ladies soon."

Nineteen Days Later.

There was some joy to be had in Helga and Arnold's unbelievable situation. They had a pretty exciting doctors visit looming that had finally arrived and it felt like vacation for her. For a brief moment, she got to stop thinking about what was going on with their house and enjoy the wonders of the little life stitching itself together a little more every day inside of her.

She had an ultrasound appointment. And her little avocado was being quite the mover on screen, though she was bummed she couldn't yet feel a bit of it.

"Any chance at an early but accurate gender guess?" Helga asked, watching the screen as the ultrasound tech roamed around her stomach with the probe. She was impatient and didn't think she could possibly wait until the anatomy scan at 20 weeks. Of course, if not possible, then she had to wait.

The woman smiled cheerily, "Actually, they are in a good spot to tell."

Helga looked up at Arnold who was standing beside her, "You want to know?" She asked. She desperately wanted to know, because she was impatient and she really wanted something positive to think about. Like their impending wedding wasn't or something. She'd almost forgotten about it. That was a little different though. The biggest change from them getting married was her last name. They were already doing all the other married couple things. This was different. And thankfully, he seemed to be in the same boat, looking down at her and cracking a small smile while giving her hand a gentle squeeze.

"Of course I do."

The tech looked at the both of them before shifting her eyes back to the screen, "Alright well, you've got yourself...a little girl." Helga's free hand flew to cover her mouth.

"Wow, would you look at that," Arnold was chuckling quietly as he peered down at her, "You aren't going to have a house full of nothing but boys anymore." Helga glanced back up at him, beaming proudly, eyes glossing with happy tears.

"A girl..." She repeated in wonderment, before chuckling at his last comment, "She's going to wrap you around her little finger. You watch."

He smiled warmly, "I know she will. And I fully expect to get extorted for a sports car when she hits college too."

"You think she's going to be a mini me then huh?"

"Uh huh," He said, trying not to laugh.

Jeremy and Sid sat at their connected desks, both running over some routine paperwork when Brainy walked over to their desk leaning against them, "What's up guys."

Sid looked up, but his partner didn't, "The usual."

"Anything come back on all those girls yet?"

His childhood friend sighed, "No, not yet. Seems like everybody is taking their sweet ass time."

"Actually, we're not." An artsy-ish young woman glided up to their desks and slapped a thick pile of folders down on Jeremy's half, "That's eleven freaking sets of teeth to sift through dental records for every missing girl over the last ten years for, assholes."

Jeremy looked up at her and smirked, "Haley...my girl. Is this all of them?" Sid was already reaching across his desk to get his hands on the folders.

Haley rolled her eyes at him, "No. It's nine of the eleven. And if you call me your girl again you're going to be missing an important body part." She warned and then flashed him a quick full teethed smile before saying, "Toodles...losers," and breezing away, leaving Brainy gazing off after her a bit longingly.

"I really need to ask her out..." He muttered, and then turned back around, seeing his co-workers not paying him a bit of attention.

"Brian!" Another detective called across the precinct. "Have you got that blood report yet?"

"Dammit!" He swore. "I'll talk to you guys later."

"Later man," They both said in unison as he walked away.

Sid began opening each folder and reading the names aloud, "Jessica Tolberson, runaway" He said and tossed the open folder to Jeremy, "Marie Styles, prostitute" Toss, "Britney Ross, prostitute" Toss, "Stephanie Peterson, student" Toss, "Amy Fredrick, prostitute" Toss, "Morgan Harris, prostitute" Toss. He grabbed another folder, opened it, went to say the name but stopped and said, "Wait...what?" His eyebrows pulled down into a deep frown, as he flipped the folder around for his partner to see the name and photo.

Jeremy looked up from the other folders in front of him to see the open one in Sid's hand. His eyebrows rose very high onto his forehead as he grabbed his toothpick from his mouth, "Holy shit..."

Later that night Arnold and Helga were laying in bed, the TV murmuring lightly in the background. She was steadily typing away on her laptop, putting together some reports to submit the next day. He laid there, with one of arms tucked behind his pillow, propping his head, the other absently petting one the their dogs beside him. He was watching the TV but his mind was elsewhere.

Thinking. Thinking about everything. Thinking about how much they both needed to get away. Get out of Hillwood. Get out of the state. Hell, even out of the country. They were headed that way. They were two weeks away from Belize.

But he had other plans, if he could just get her to agree. He had to get her to agree.

Had to.

He turned his head towards her, watching her click away on the keyboard for a moment before asking, "What do you think about going to Mexico?"

Her typing ceased, her eyes flickering over to him in curiosity, "Like after we leave Belize?"

"No. Like...now."

Helga frowned, "Why?"

Her blonde counter part sighed, and ran his free hand over his face, looking back at the TV, "Because I'm burnt out of everything and...thought it might be nice for us to take a nice long vacation on top of our wedding and honeymoon." He looked back at her, his eyes pleading.

She sighed, "Babe, I can't just up and go to Mexico. I've got work to do. Besides, neither can you."

"Yes you can. Have your two employees absorb your work from awhile. You can run everything from a laptop. And yes I can. The hospital has already okayed me to take as much time as I need."

"You already talked to the hospital? How long have you planning this?"

Arnold sighed and sat up, "I just talked to them today about it. I didn't say I was for sure going to take some time off. Come on, we both know that we really need to get away for awhile. With all that's been going on..." He trailed off, scratching his brow, "...I think it would be good for us if we just...got out of here for awhile."

Helga sighed and gave him a small smirk out of the corner of her mouth, "Spending a couple extra weeks on vacation would be nice."

"It will be. Trust me. It'll be the best thing."

"I know. You're right."

"So lets go then. Lets just...we can leave in a couple days and go have the time of our lives."

Sid walked into his favorite local dive, where he, Jeremy, and Brian often met for happy hours and the occasional dinner to blow off work related steam. When he arrived, his old friend was already sitting at the bar, beer in hand and in what appeared to be a very animated conversation with the bar tender, Lindy. They were regulars and she knew them well. He slid into the seat beside Brian, Lindy already pouring him his favorite lager.

"What's up Lindy?" He greeted her as she sat his beer down in front of him. He was feeling a little on edge about that day.

"Same shit, different day. And this guy," She pointed at Brian with smile while shaking her head.

Brian turned in his chair towards Sid, "Dude, where did you and Jay run off to so fast earlier today? I wanted to hear about your girls. What's the story, who is our guy after?"

"We just had some stuff go on," He answered, taking a sip of his beer and sort of looking around. The stuff that was twirling around in his head was tough to deal with. And it didn't make sense. None of it made sense.

Brian lifted an eyebrow and adjusted his glasses, "Everything alright?"

Sid glanced back at his friend, sure that Brian could make out the visible strain in his face. He licked his lips and took a large gulp from his beer, "We found something that doesn't make sense..."

A/N: Sorry (not sorry) for another cliffy. Wonder what doesn't make any sense to them? What's Arnold planning? What else will we find out about those girls? Poor Helga seems to be caught completely in the middle of it all.

Thanks again for your comments! I enjoy reading everybody's theory of what's going on and what's going to happen. This is about to get a little bit crazier too.