These chapters keep getting longer - no wonder it's taking me forever to edit them!
Keep the reviews coming, guys. I'm struggling to find my mojo at the moment and your kind words are the only thing keeping me motivated.
Chapter Eight
"Who's Nate?"
Christina froze at her mother's words and exchanged a panicked look with her friend. She should have expected that question, should have prepared for it, but she'd assumed that her Mama wouldn't be interested enough to ask. Seeing the pinched expression on the regent's face though, she realised that the absence of memory had apparently not automatically erased all associated feelings. "He's Adelaide's father," she answered as casually as she could manage.
Myka frowned. "Oh," she responded with confusion. Just Adelaide's father, she told herself as she chewed over the uncomfortable tightness in her stomach. "So, you two met at school?" she wondered aloud, letting her natural inquisitiveness take over. She noticed the look that passed between the young women this time and knew instinctively that there was more to this story than they were letting on. Seeing that neither of them appeared prepared to elaborate though, she was about to let it go, but then a new voice joined the conversation and she felt an entirely different tightness pull at her insides.
"Nate and I met while I was living in Wisconsin," HG began as she appeared behind her wife. "Mrs Fredrick instructed me to take an artefact away from the Warehouse and I found a position in a forensic lab at a precinct in Boone," she explained in a matter of fact manner before turning to her daughter and Adelaide. "Girls, I believe Leena and Pete are waiting on you to start a game of Articulate. Do you want to go and grab yourselves a drink first?" As the two women made a hasty exit, she turned back to the other regent. She'd known that this conversation was going to happen eventually and had mentally prepared herself to rip it off like a Band-Aid. Seeing the hard accusation building in green eyes gave her pause though and she decided that a softer approach was needed. "It's quieter in the study," she noted as she turned to leave the high-traffic area behind.
Myka hesitated only a moment before taking a deep breath and following. Don't be afraid to take a chance, she reminded herself of Claudia's words as she entered the study and closed the door behind her.
"Damn, I'm sorry, Chrissi," Adelaide whispered to her friend as she watched the Wells-Bering couple disappear behind a closed door. "I didn't think that Myka would ask about my dad. I thought she lost her memories of us?" Though she and her BFF didn't get chance to spend as much time together anymore, they spoke often and Christina hadn't hesitated to explain all that had happened with her brother and parents.
"She did," the young Victorian agreed readily, "but since we don't know what the artefact that affected her does, we can't really predict how she's going to react to various stimuli. I think, since she has an eidetic memory, seeing or hearing about your dad usually makes her relive the moment that she met him." She cringed, having heard her Mama explain how she'd felt in tracking her Mum down and finding the inventor living a whole new life. "I guess that the feelings are still there even if the memory is gone."
"Damn, sorry," the young mother repeated. "Will they be ok?"
Christina shrugged sadly. "Things have been better lately. Ma is spending more time here and letting Mum stay for longer at the shop, but I don't know if their relationship will ever be the same." She led her friend into the kitchen and found cups for them both. "Soft drink or something stronger?"
Adelaide opted for a beer, since she didn't have to worry about her son's feeding schedule for the next twenty-four hours, and the two friends made their way to what used to be the games room.
It was no longer full of kids' toys and served as a communal area for the teens and adults alike. For big gatherings such as Thankahmas, Helena or Myka would open up the large French doors into the living room, creating a wide, open area for everyone to mingle, and at the centre of it all was the games table where prospective champions lined up to have a crack at winning the privilege of taking the trophy home for a year. On top of the mantle, in pride of place, sat a stuffed, plush turkey, wearing a Santa suit and a dreidel-shaped hat.
Since Vanessa always insisted that there be a couples' round (mostly so that she could force her husband to play), all of the adults had somehow taken over the tradition and created the 'super-league' of board games for them and a 'little-league' for everyone under eighteen. At this stage in the day, they were in the semi-finals with Pete and Lila facing off against Leena and Abigail at Pictionary.
Feeling the tension in the air as the door clicked shut behind her, Myka automatically crossed her arms over her chest and remained standing as the inventor took a seat on the small sofa. She'd not had much reason to set foot in this room beyond the few tours that Catherine had insisted they take together. The eleven-year-old had a penchant for telling stories of their family's exploits and liked to wander as she spun her tales.
"Do you want to sit?" Helena asked cautiously, breaking the brunette from her brief reverie. She eyed the space next to her uncertainly before gesturing to one of the desk chairs.
Myka hesitated. The continued twisting in her stomach told her that she really didn't need to know who some random guy was, but deep inside she knew that the question would never leave her. Reluctantly, she pulled an office chair close and sank into its surprisingly comfy leather. "You were involved with Nate, weren't you?"
Helena's eyes widened in surprise before she realised that the question was an obvious one to ask. She nodded with a sigh. "I met him at a cooking class."
"And you hit it off?" Myka assumed, picturing the brash, flirty inventor she'd met in London. Stabbing into her thoughts came an image of Helena flirting with a chisel-jawed stranger. That it occurred less than a year after she and HG had shared many magical evenings beneath the sheets, and not so long after the events in Egypt, made her jaw clench with renewed anger. "How fortunate for you," she added stiffly.
"I learnt that he was a widower and that he had a young daughter who was about eight years old," HG elaborated calmly, ignoring the irate tone as she waited for the spark of understanding behind her wife's eyes. She smiled sadly when it appeared. "Rather than see the obvious, I deluded myself into thinking that it was meant to be. I wanted nothing more to do with the Warehouse, curiosities or anything that could tempt me toward the supernatural. A ready-made, normal family seemed like the best choice for a recovering megalomaniac."
The American's eyebrow rose at the label and the explanation. It made sense for the most part, but they both knew that the Victorian was missing out the key point. "Adelaide reminded you of Christina."
A low nod came from the inventor before she sank her head into her hands and pulled fingers through her hair. "I wasn't prepared to admit that at the time, but you were quick to reach the same conclusion back then too. I've spent many hours since in conversation with Abigail – alone, with you and even once with Christina and Adelaide. Nate was never more than a distraction from a person I no longer wanted to be, but Adelaide was the beginning of a road to recovery."
"And she became friends with our daughter?"
Helena took note of the possessive pronoun but didn't linger on it. "They were inseparable from the moment they met," she smiled. "Christina is God Mother to Adelaide's son, Darwin. Though the title is more symbolic than conforming to a religious conviction."
Myka felt her jaw loosening and a smile crept onto her face. She thought about her daughter and the young, happy woman she'd just met. Helena had been a mother to them both and that fact was worth more than any amount of jealousy or anger she might feel for the inventor's insignificant ex-lover. Curiosity on the subject didn't leave her entirely though. "How did it end?"
Dark depths locked onto green with all the intensity of one trying to divulge a secret through telepathy. "You invaded my peaceful little delusion and turned it on its head," she sighed loudly. "You tore through every excuse I had and left me in tatters. Even had Nate not been made aware of my true identity, I could not have ignored the impact your brief presence made on my life in Wisconsin. Delusions only have power when you believe in them and I no longer did. I made my way to Rapid City, closer to the Warehouse than I was comfortable with, but closer to you and in a better position to mourn and heal the way I should have allowed myself to do long before that point."
"And then I found Christina?" the brunette managed to ask after swallowing the lump of emotion that found its way into her throat.
"I had been trying to find the courage to visit the bed and breakfast for some weeks when Claudia turned up on my doorstep to inform me that you were missing. I could not conceive of a world where you too were lost to it and so I vowed to do everything in my power to bring you back." At her wife's hard, questioning look, she smiled and hastened to clarify, "Within reason; at the risk of my own life but not at the risk of others'."
Myka's eyebrows pulled together. "This is becoming a theme," she commented. "Do we need to have another talk about expendability?"
Helena chuckled at the unexpected link. "No, dear," she said without thinking and immediately flushed. This conversation was progressing better than she could have hoped and the last thing she wanted to do was ruin it. "That was a long time ago. I would still give my life for yours, or the children – you cannot fault me for that, but I would not be so quick to jump to that decision now. I have far too much to live for," she concluded and responded to the brunette's nod with a smile.
Ignoring the fluttering that filled her at the sight of HG's gentle smile, the younger regent pushed on with her questions. Now that they were on the topic of their reunion, she found that she was desperate to hear the story from the horse's mouth. She just hoped that the depth of her need was not too evident on her face. "So, after you found me…?"
"You were trapped inside an artefact along with roughly two dozen other civilians. Thomas being one of them," she added as an afterthought.
"Thomas? Christina's Thomas?"
"The same," HG confirmed. "Unbeknownst to me, when I used my time machine to attempt to save Christina, the artefact pulled something… her essence… into it. The interference between the two artefacts caused it to malfunction and it lost its nomadic ability."
"So, it held people in stasis?" Myka abruptly hated herself for not having asked about her daughter's rescue before. How could I have been so remis? "She was trapped there like you were in bronze?"
"No," Helena reassured the suddenly worried mother. "She had no memory from one day to the next. Thomas recalls the years that they were friends – he grew while she remained the same, which was what tipped you off to her being the key to your escape."
"She wasn't affected by her time there?" Myka asked and felt relief fill her at the inventor's nod. Tears prickled abruptly at her eyes and she rose from her chair so she could turn to gaze out of the window.
Helena itched to offer comfort but had no idea if it would be well received so she simply waited and gave the brunette some space. She watched Myka's eyes travel over the photos on the walls and tried to guess what her companion was thinking. The subject of old flames seemed to be at an end but something else was brewing and she had no way of knowing how to help until her fellow regent decided to share.
As her arms wrapped around her torso and she studied the faces of her family, Myka breathed slowly and tried to calm herself down. "Sorry," she muttered after a few minutes of quiet. "I probably shouldn't have had that drink with Claudia," she huffed and wiped furiously at her eyes. "I've forgotten so much," she whispered as she turned back to the inventor. "I probably should feel worse about this guy, Nate, right?"
"You were rather perturbed with his presence whenever we were required to meet with him," HG confirmed.
Myka huffed another humourless laugh. "Yeah, I can imagine that. I guess it wasn't much fun seeing the woman I loved shacked up with a guy just a few months after she tried to kill me." The words fell from her lips without censor, causing the inventor to wince sharply. They felt justified in her head, but the moment she saw Helena's face, she regretted giving them shape. "I…" she began but her apology was waved off.
"Don't apologise for being honest," HG advised as she buried the sting of her wife's words. "Some thoughts are better exorcised by voicing them. We have each taken our turns at making poor decisions that caused the other pain. My past relationship with Nate hurts you and I regret that. I do not regret the time spent with Adelaide or the time it gave me to develop a healthier view of the world. No lesson is learned without a price, I would just rather you had not had to pay it."
With her emotions in turmoil and a need to lash out at someone, Myka decided that this was a good time to end the conversation and with a mumbled 'Thank you', she made a hasty escape. Had it been less than an hour since she'd been talking to Claudia about her attraction to the Brit and the possibility of rekindling a more intimate bond with the woman? How could she take a leap like that when dark thoughts still invaded her mind without warning? One minute she'd been solely focussed on needing to know her daughter's potential hardships, and the next she'd jumped right back into jealousy over a man she'd never met. It was the idea of Nate and the knowledge that Helena had lived with him so soon after being released from the Warehouse that caught her attention. Her little green monster had been sniffing the air, waiting for an opportunity to make itself known again, and she felt powerless to stop it.
These things always take time, she reminded herself of Claudia's wisdom again and stepped into a thankfully empty kitchen. She could hear the teens and children upstairs, chatting, laughing and occasionally shrieking their enjoyment of the day's festivities. Still able to live in the moment somewhat, they had managed to distract themselves with whatever games they'd chosen and Myka envied them for it. Now you're turning on the kids? her brain admonished her.
She heard the study door open and stiffened as footsteps approached. Panicking, she grabbed a cup and turned sharply to find the bottles of soda. In her haste, she caught one with her elbow and watched helplessly as it tumbled to the floor and rolled across the tiles straight into the inventor's path. "Crap," she muttered and shot HG a look that spoke of frustration and nerves.
Finding the whole scene amusing and adorable, Helena bent down and retrieved the wayward object. "Myka, you do not need to feel guilt for what you said a moment ago," she reiterated. Calmly, she grabbed a marker pen from the notice board near the fridge and began to write along the cylindrical side in large, bold letters. "Thought's like that have a tendency to fester if you keep them bottled up. I would rather deal with them while we're on the subject and not be blindsided six months down the line." She recapped the pen, put it back in its place and turned the bottle round for the brunette to read.
Unable to help herself, Myka chuckled as she read PROPERTY OF PETE and watched the Brit as she slid it into the fridge door. The attempt to lighten the mood worked and she felt her muscles relax a little. "Do you think he'll fall for that?"
Myka leant back against the counter and played with the cup in her hand while she considered the woman before her. HG was trying hard to be transparent to allow Myka to feel comfortable and free to express her thoughts without fear, but she couldn't help but wonder how much her outbursts hurt Helena at the end of the day. She regretted her sharp words and vowed to herself to have better control.
"One never knows. Though if karma works too quickly, it'll end up all over our kitchen." She appeared to consider the consequences and eventually shrugged it off with a slight movement of her shoulders. "I am not entirely devoid of mischief," she told her companion with a small grin.
Caught unawares, a smile formed and when Myka glanced at an answering one staring shyly back at her, she ducked her head. The silence began to get uncomfortable, but for once, she didn't want to run away. As she wracked her brain for a safe topic to open, the sound of heavy footfalls on the stairs reached them and she watched Helena mouth 'Catherine' before their youngest burst into the room.
"There you are!" Cat yelled with excitement. "We need a pit-crew," she told them before grabbing Myka's hand and pulling her abruptly towards the door. "You too, Mum," she insisted and made a bee-line to the stairs.
Helena followed dutifully, trying not to watch her wife's posterior too closely as they alighted on the landing and then began up the stairs to the attic. In the tight space at the top, she was forced temporarily into the other regent's personal bubble and blushed as a raised eyebrow captured her attention. "Sorry," she mumbled uncharacteristically and stepped over the front part of the hatch to put some distance between them.
At the sound of a slight squeak, both adults turned to find their daughter grinning manically at them. Myka cleared her throat (and her mind) and glanced around to find Jake lying on his stomach, a remote controller in his hands and a slight grin on his face as he pretended to be watching the cars on the track in front of him. Next to him, copying the twelve-year-old move for move, was the almost seven-year-old, Mikey.
"What do you need us for then?" the curly-haired brunette asked as she lowered herself towards the cushions opposite the boys.
"No, Mama!" Catherine cried abruptly, stopping the regent in her tracks. "That's my seat." She pointed to a small bench that doubled as a storage locker. "You and Mum have to sit there."
Both women eyed the bench, assessed its size and came to the same conclusions – it was going to be a tight squeeze.
"I can find space on the floor," Helena offered magnanimously.
A mixture of relief and disappointment hit the younger regent and she shook her head. "No matter how much Pilates or yoga you do, I'm sure sitting on the floor isn't going to do you any good, old lady," Myka answered and smirked at the responding glare. "Come on," she added, making her way over to the bench. "I'm sure I can manage not to squash you."
HG followed, her thoughts and feelings in conflict as she anticipated the close proximity she was about to experience with her wife. She caught a glimpse of an interesting expression on her daughter's face too, but it was gone before she could begin to analyse it. "Righty ho," she said with faux reluctance. She decided that if she was being given a chance to spend extra time with Myka, then she was damned well going to make the most of it. "Just make sure that you keep your hands to yourself; I'm a married woman, you know," she teased and sat next to the blushing brunette, bringing their bodies flush along one side.
The following forty-seven minutes were sweet torture as the regents were required to work against each other to aid their respective competing drivers by keeping their cars on the track. Every time one of the tiny vehicles hit a corner too fast and went tumbling over, one of the adults had to leap forward and scramble to affix it back to the metal strip that gave it motion. While HG could not help explaining the mechanics and physics behind the toy, Myka found hereto-undiscovered enjoyment in attempting to sabotage the inventor's every move, resulting in several occasions where the couple narrowly avoided tumbling off their undersized seat.
"Mum, knock her over – I want to win!" Catherine complained as she watched Jake's car go whizzing past as hers lay in a ditch waiting to be retrieved by the Brit, who was having difficulty reaching due to the arms that kept batting hers away.
Opposite the eleven-year-old, the other pre-teen laughed with unbridled joy. "Keep it up, Aunt Myka, this is great!"
Helena pushed half-heartedly back at the brunette, but her motivation for helping her daughter to win was struggling against her motivation to keep facilitating Myka's excuses to touch her. Teaching her daughter a life lesson about the balance of success and failure was a very valid reason to give into her own weaknesses, wasn't it? As a hand brushed across her stomach, dangerously close to sensitive parts, a shiver thrummed along every nerve ending in her body and dragged a keening sound from her throat. With her nose so close to the floor, she faked a sneeze and a cough, hoping to cover her body's involuntary reaction. When she managed to regain her seat and came face to face with the other regent, she swore that there was a definite hint of redness to the brunette's skin. Her fingers curled around the lip on which she was precariously perched, holding her in stasis.
Their eyes locked for a fraction of a second before a yell of triumph jolted them out of the moment and HG lost her grip on the bench. The last thing she saw before the room toppled was a twinkling green light that brought a goofy grin to her face.
A series of giggles erupted from the children. "Mum?"
"I am perfectly fine!" Helena assured them from the floor, instigating another bout of giggles.
"Your great-grandparents are hilarious!" Adelaide told her friend as they finished their turn at the games table and sank back into the sofa with new drinks.
Christina chuckled and watched the older Victorians closely for a moment or two as they settled into a game and their teamwork begged questions of telepathy from other players. "They have certainly adapted well to the modern world. My grandparents would have been like fish out of water. I'm tempted to say that it's something that skips generations, but that wouldn't bode very well for me." They shared an amused look as she sipped her wine. After watching the older regents for a moment and taking in their obvious joy, she let her mind wander a bit. "I do sometimes still wish that my Uncle Charles could be here. You'd have liked him; he'd have driven Mum up the wall."
As the party was in full swing, most of the guests had chosen to hang out in what used to be the toy room to watch the progress of the tournament. Usually, the young Victorian liked to do the same – sticking close to her boyfriend for the night while they got steadily squiffy and enjoyed the entertainment inherent in the friendly competition. With Adelaide managing the trip this year, Thomas had happily given her space to spend with her best friend and was splitting his time between the adults and the older teens.
Since they had the living room to themselves for the time being, Christina decided that now was a good moment to catch up on her companion's news and share something that she'd been bursting to get off her own chest for a couple of weeks now.
"Anything that makes Helena all prickly and proper gets my thumbs up," Adelaide laughed in conspiracy with her friend. "Remember how funny it was when we had sleepovers and we made bets on how many times we could get her to come and tell us to be quiet and go to sleep before she'd actually get mad? Man, I feel like we should get awards for bravery for that."
"Lord, I dare not tell her that," the young Brit replied. "I wouldn't put it passed her to try and ground us."
"Yeah, good times. I can only hope that Darwin doesn't have a sadistic streak in him like that," Adelaide commented through her tears of laughter.
"Kismet," Christina threw back with a smirk.
Adelaide scowled. "Like I said about the toys, you'll get yours when you and Tommy add to the Wells-Bering brood."
"That's not going to happen any time soon," the young agent said as her expression became serious. "With destiny knocking with a battering ram on my door, kids are way out of reach."
"You're gonna put your life on hold 'til this… whatever, happens?"
"My parents didn't really have much of a choice – Rick and I were a happy accident, and by then, adding a third kid was probably a no-brainer," Christina answered succinctly. "Tommy and I have a choice, and I'm not prepared to be unprepared, if you know what I mean."
Adelaide frowned, "I'm not sure I do. 'Not prepared to be unprepared'?"
"I need to be prepared for whatever comes next from this psycho," the young Wells-Bering answered with unusual odium. "I can't afford to let unnecessary or overt responsibilities take away from my focus. I nearly got Rick killed," she added with a pained whisper.
"You said he was taken from school," Addy frowned in confusion. "What could you have done about that?"
"I don't know." All of the merriment abruptly left her body and she pushed her fingers through her hair in a gesture that was very reminiscent of her raven-haired mother. "But even if I couldn't have prevented Hugh from taking Rick, I should have been better prepared to mount a counter attack. A rescue mission that would have reached him before… before anything bad could've happened."
The blue-eyed visitor sighed in sympathy but her eyes said that she thought her friend was taking her involvement too far. "I'm pretty sure you did everything you could, Chrissy."
Christina was having none of it, "Yes, but I could have done better if I'd been better prepared."
"I have a feeling that this is leading to something uber-non-parent-worthy," Adelaide commented and waited for the worst.
A nod followed; she dreaded having this conversation with her mothers. "I don't want to disappointment them."
Time ticked between the two friends as the tension built.
"What are you planning?"
"I'm dropping out of college."
"Seriously!?" Adelaide whisper-shouted and immediately covered her mouth with both hands as they glanced quickly around them to check that no one was listening to their conversation. "But, aren't you on the verge of being Doctor Wells-Bering?"
The Victorian nodded morosely. "Which will mean nothing if I have no family to share it with or if I'm dead."
"Good point… Do you really think you're in that much danger?"
Christina shrugged. "I have no idea. There's no way to know for sure, but we both know that artefacts can be deadly. Whatever is at the end of this line, it's coming whether I like it or not. I can always go back to school and get my doctorate at another time, but I can't train to be at my best after the fact."
"I kept up with the kenpo, y'know?" Adelaide added abruptly. The comment didn't have quite the impact she'd hoped though and she watched dark eyes narrow angrily.
"No, absolutely not," Christina said emphatically. "Addy, you have a son and a life away from all of this crazy mess. Don't throw that away," she implored.
Taken aback by the response, Adelaide was torn between anger at the idea that she was being told what to do with her life and love for the friend who wanted to protect her like a sister would. If it came to a choice between her son and her best friend though, no one could blame her for choosing her son. "Fine," she replied unhappily. "But even if you don't want me to be involved in whatever this Chapman guy wants, I am your best friend and I have the right to be one of your emotional lifelines. That means that you have to keep me in the loop, bitch to me when you've had a bad day and promise not to be reckless with your life."
Christina rolled her eyes like the deal would be a huge chore for her and pretended to think about it. At the sight of an exaggerated scowl, she chuckled and threw her arms around Adelaide's neck. "Of course! I just don't want more people to be in harm's way than have to be."
They turned the topic to lighter things for a while, though it took some time to brighten the mood around their space on the couch. Eventually, they were all talked out and wandered back to the games to await their next turn. Before Christina could become completely absorbed in the hype around them though, she heard a summons from across the room and followed Claudia out to the kitchen.
Myka sat in the living room listening to a newly reappeared Claudia while she valiantly tried to banish images of Helena with her ass in the air. "I'm sorry, you want us to do what?"
"Get back in the field," Claudia replied. She held up her hands. "Just for a day or two."
HG's relaxed demeanour stiffened. "Our last field mission was fraught with complications. I'm not certain that I'm prepared to leave the children so soon after Fredrick's attack," she said, leaving out any of the difficulties involved with losing the spouse she'd known.
The caretaker's gaze flickered over to Myka, who met her with an unreadable expression for several seconds before the regent found interest in her nails. Claudia barely held back an eye-roll at her friend's response, knowing that the ex-secret service agent was stubbornly avoiding her feelings. If she hadn't genuinely thought that Steve and Pete were currently unsuitable to deal with this mission, she would have passed it over to them. As it was, she couldn't risk letting her new agents getting their hands on this particular artefact and hoped that she could kill two birds with one stone by giving it to HG and Myka.
The younger regent glanced sideways at the inventor and considered her options. On the one hand, she too was worried about leaving their children after what had transpired just a couple of months ago, but on the other hand, she was itching to be back in action, hunting down artefacts for the Warehouse. While Helena had mostly outgrown the thrill of the chase, Myka still felt like she'd missed out on so much and she was ready to jump at the chance to be an active agent again.
"What's the mission, Claude?" Myka asked, hoping that more details would convince HG that they could manage it. You could always request Pete, her inner voice suggested belatedly, but for whatever reason, she quickly shrugged it off. "What are we looking for and where are we going?"
The redhead smirked internally at the obvious desire in the brunette's wording and tried to smother the expression before it could fully manifest on her face. "After looking over Meghan's research, we've been keeping an eye out for one or two suspected artefacts. This one," she pulled a file from inside her jacket, laid it open on the table and pointed to the photo, "we think, is responsible for several gatherings of zealots."
"The cults that Agent Coombs was investigating?" Helena enquired further.
"Yes," the Claudia confirmed. "We had a ping from a bar in York, Montana. In the last couple of weeks, the wolves in that area have been acting strangely. At the same time, all of the church groups that Meghan listed have disbanded. Are the two linked? I think it would be best if we found out the answer to that, and at the same time, bagged whatever is making the canis lupus more single minded than usual."
Claudia described how the wolves had been seen gathering at various spots near human-centred places and waiting, as if for instructions. Locals told tales of incidents when it had happened in the past, dating all the way back to the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Since it seemed too much of a coincidence that these sightings occurred shortly after significant events within the Warehouse or Helena and Myka's lives, they all agreed that they needed to get their hands on the artefact and figure out how it worked.
"Montana isn't too far," the brunette noted to the inventor. "We'll be in the same time zone, so keeping in contact with the kids won't be as difficult."
HG was still wary of being personally involved but one look at Myka's barely controlled eagerness and she began to second guess herself. She was reminded of the fact that it was only after working together on things like finding Joshua's trumpet and the jawbone that Myka had started to trust her again. If they were to build that trust once more, she would have to prove herself. What better way to do that than to work together in the field? "When would you want us to leave?"
They spent some time working out the particulars of when they would leave, how they would travel and where they would stay before they called Christina out into the garden to relay their plans. As Helena had expected, her eldest was not overly pleased but she hid it well.
Taking her time to think it over, the young woman looked between her parents and saw what the redhead had – an opportunity for the regents to spend some alone time and rebuild a relationship that wasn't just based around their children. "How long do you expect to be gone?"
"I am willing to give this mission forty-eight hours," Helena told them as she looked Claudia in the eye. "No longer."
"It shouldn't take you more than twenty-four to get to the bar and back. That'll give you a whole day to get eyes on the artefact and bag it. Piece of pie!" the caretaker declared with a grin.
Myka chuckled. "Ok. Sounds good to me. I'm going to go and grab the whiskey glasses that we left up in the treehouse. Then I'm going to enjoy the rest of my first Thankahmas. We can work out the details for the mission tomorrow." She bumped her fist against her daughter's shoulder and smiled shyly at HG as she trotted across the grass to the ladder that led up to the treehouse.
Helena watched as Myka disappeared from sight. Was it just her imagination, or had the brunette's eyes lingered on her longer than necessary for a casual glance? What would she do if Myka did openly ogle her? Had they reached a point yet where she could flirt with her distant wife? Would it help to bring them closer or push them further apart? She turned distractedly to her companions and found herself looking at identical expressions of amusement and knowing. "Is something amiss?"
"I don't know what's more disturbing," Christina commented as she smirked and sat back on her bench. "Watching one of my parents blatantly checking out the other, or the fact that I'm enjoying it."
The red head in the adjacent seat sniggered. "I gotta go with the kid here, HG. You're making a sex-crazed cartoon wolf look like a cloistered nun with the googly-eyes you've got going on there."
"What a charming visual," Helena snarked to hide her embarrassment while her companions giggled across at each other. Normally, she flaunted her desire for her soul mate quite openly, feeling neither shame nor regret for doing so, but since she still wasn't entirely sure that Myka returned her interest, she preferred not to be so obvious with her distractions. "She is a vision though," she added eventually. "I hardly need to feel ashamed for being attracted to my wife."
"Nope, that you do not," Claudia agreed as she leant forward to add in a whisper, "and just think – you're gonna have her all to yourself for a whole forty-eight hours."
Rather than balk at the thought, Christina laughed aloud and levelled a teasing look at her mother. "Lots of ogling time!"
Need to sleep!