A/N Some of this is a behind the scenes look at what is going on for the others while the brides are away.
To see what Leena's beau - Gerald Frederic might look like (and his twin, too) check out the Heir Series boards at ManhattaniteNYC on Pinterest.
A Time to Talk (by Robert Frost)
Leena wiped a speck of sawdust off of her cheek as she walked the long tiled hallway to answer the front door. In spite of the workers efforts to keep the dust contained, it was everywhere on the first floor of the townhouse. Cleaning crews were hurriedly vacuuming up the rooms to make them spotless.
She had been left with a list of explicit instructions along with blueprints of how the work was to be done. At first, the contractor balked at the plans, saying it couldn't be done. Leena was in Helena's employ long enough to know that's what everyone said when they first heard her boss' ideas. Then they would look at the blueprint and say something like - "Well, what do you know…I never would have thought of doing it that way."
He eventually came around to doing it Helena's way and as a result, new shelving was mounted in each of the downstairs rooms and one guest bedroom upstairs. The mechanism was simple – the back of the newly installed shelf in the already present bookshelf in the library, or china cabinet in the dining room and even the shelving in the guest bedroom, could be opened and a small lift from the basement would bring up an item from the wedding inventory.
"Voila!" Helena said, quite proud of her idea. "Ms. Bering says we must be polite even if we detest most of the gifts we have been showered with, so ….," Helena said, and Leena knew there was no 'we' in any of this. Myka opened each gift they had received before the wedding and expressed her thanks. Helena moaned about where they would even think of putting the object. Now the inventor was putting Leena in charge of her latest solution.
"So when someone is coming that gave you a gift, the program will choose that item from the inventory downstairs, display it on the new shelf, and it will appear when they arrive?" Leena asked.
"Precisely," Helena said, thrilled that she didn't have to decorate her home with the gifts she found too gaudy, too flashy, too big, too everything.
Now the newlyweds were on their way back, and Leena was almost done with the project. It had not been a restful few days for the Director of the residence. When the doorbell rang, she expected it to be another wedding gift she would have to log into the inventory program.
"Oh!" she said when it turned out that the delivery was her lunch being brought to her by her boyfriend, Gerald Frederic.
"Something told me you could use a break today. I would have taken you out, but rumor has it that if you leave the premises, the walls fall down," the tall dark-skinned man teased as he stepped in and kissed her hello.
"Very funny," Leena said, very pleased to see him. "This was so thoughtful."
"What can I say? It's part of my charm," Gerald said, taking his coat off. "Is there somewhere we can eat..…that isn't covered in …what is this?" he asked all at once.
"Let's go in here," Leena said, leading the way to the dining room. The crew had finished in there and the room was back in order. She closed the door and the noise fainted away. "Oh I can't wait to hear the end of that banging," she said of the racket going in the house.
"Maybe I should have brought you earplugs with lunch," Gerald said, taking out the ready to serve lunch of over-stuffed deli sandwiches.
The two set out the plates, the drinks and opened the food wrapped in foil. "Hot pastrami!" Leena said, taking a bite of the tender meat on rye bread, lathered in mustard. "Oh, this is so…."
Gerald watched as she closed her eyes at the delicious taste. "I see you're into decadent foods," he laughed. Leena was too happy eating her sandwich and just murmured her confirmation. "I can't believe your two bosses are away, and I haven't been able to get you to go to dinner once," he pointed out.
"I'm sorry," Leena said, her mouth filled with the next bite. She chewed and swallowed before adding, "I usually have the nights to myself, but with all this work to be done before they get back, I just couldn't."
Gerald nodded, knowing fully well what it was like to work long hours – for exactly the very same boss. He found Helena demanding, but fair. She made sure they earned the high salaries she paid them to move from California. Of course, they all knew she did it less for their talents and more so their mother wouldn't retire and move out there. In the end, it seemed to work out to everyone's benefit. Gerald and his brother were producing incredible breakthroughs in bio-synthetic fabrics; their mother never seemed happier; and their boss got exactly what she wanted.
That always worked in everyone's best interest.
"So if we get married, whose side of the church will Helena Wells sit on?" Gerald asked and caught Leena off guard. They had been dating for some time now, and things were going well, but no one had talked about marriage.
"Oh…well, my side of course. Although if Helena is on my side, that means your mother will be on my side, too," Leena laughed.
"What do you mean?" Gerald asked, taking the napkin and wiping a spot of mustard from Leena's mouth.
"What do I mean?" Leena laughed. "I mean, where Helena goes, your mother must go."
"Oh, yes," he thought out loud. "She is rather attached to my mother." He only had to think about to his employment offer to confirm that thought. "Terrance still thinks we would have been hired here, but I have my doubts," he laughed.
At first, Helena's relationship with the Frederic twins was one of minimal tolerance. She found them very bright of course, but aside from their intellectual abilities, she found them brash, annoying, hyper, and immature.
She complained about them the way older siblings do of their younger family members. But Helena never thought of them like that. In fact, she sometimes was surprised when Irene wasn't at her beck and call because she was out to dinner with her sons. Helena had no idea that her annoyance at such an event, was in fact, born in part out of jealousy.
"I don't know how you deal with such spoiled, self-centered, impatient, bossy people!" Helena once complained to the woman responsible for their existence. "I have practice," Irene said to the person who was describing herself.
Leena and Gerald finished lunch and he asked her to take a short walk in the park. "I would really love to, but I have to have things finished up here," Leena said regretfully.
"What exactly is going on here?" Gerald ask.
"Well, let me show you," Leena said, grabbing her tablet and accessing the wedding list. "When the Mayor visits for dinner next week, I will be able to produce …..," Leena said, tapping the keys and putting things into motion.
Gerald watched as the back of the top shelf of the china cabinet moved and a Waterford vase was moved forward into place. "If the Queen comes….," Leena said, and put in the sovereign's name and the contraption removed the vase and in its place, put her gift.
"And this was Helena's idea?" Gerald asked, wondering where in the inventory his gift was.
"Yes. She doesn't share …everyone's taste," Leena said, trying to put it politely.
"Well, if the Queen and the Mayor don't call for tea on the same day, you should be okay," he laughed as they walked to the front door and he kissed Leena goodbye. "I will talk to you later."
Leena kissed him goodbye again and watched as he descended the stone steps of the townhouse. Then she slowly closed the door when he was out of sight, and sighed.
"We're all done here," the contractor announced. The only thing left to do was to clean up the debris. Leena went to the kitchen to make sure all the foods that the honeymooners enjoyed were in stock. She looked down at the place where Bandit's bowl was. Even though it was good not to have him underfoot with the work going on, she missed him. She and Gerald had dinner with his mother one night and it gave Leena a chance to see how the pup was doing. He never left Irene's side. It was easy for Leena to see it was a perfect match.
She wondered if Myka would agree.
"My…our…priority is of course, the safety of our bosses," Eileen said at the beginning of her meeting. Then she apologized. "Sorry, I know you all know that."
Claudia looked up from her laptop and smiled. She thought it was sweet that the temporary CEO was still her sensitive self. Claudia didn't think for a minute that finding balance would be easy for the young executive. Eileen was finally settling into her role as an Assistant Director of New Projects when Helena threw this at her. Of course, Claudia knew that Helena's faith in a person to do the job could fill the crevices of doubt with certitude.
"Has there been any activity?" Pete asked, looking through the notes that were forwarded to his laptop.
"There hasn't been any communication between them, as far as we can tell," Claudia reported.
"That's why it makes it very hard to move forward. We're playing a waiting game," Eileen said, her voice firm.
"So no texts, no call, nothing to indicate that Sam has gotten any information that Grayson wanted?" Steve asked.
"He had dinner," Claudia said as she tapped on her keys, "…last night with an old friend from the service. The guy works for the IRS. Maybe Sam's trying to get information from Helena's old tax forms?"
"She's going to lose it when you tell her," Pete said, looking directly at the woman they all wanted to be the messenger.
"I know," Eileen said, thinking about Helena's reaction. "Perhaps we'll have something more to go on before we….I do."
"Have you told Irene yet?" Pete asked. The woman's absence at the meeting was quite noticeable.
"I'm going to tell her now," Eileen said, who didn't see the point of worrying the woman before they knew anything more. Minutes after the meeting ended, Eileen made her way down to the HR Director's office.
When Helena told Irene that she thought her phone would be intrusive on the honeymoon, Irene couldn't have agreed more. She didn't remind Helena that it was exactly what she had proposed the day before. Irene knew that it took time for the seed to be planted in the genius' brain, but once it did, it would blossom as her own thought. "So if there is an emergency, you will have to leave a message on the house phone," Helena said, hoping Irene would point out the limitations of such an arrangement.
She didn't.
While Helena had gotten past the worst of the withdrawals, Irene was reaching her own limit. She had been pleased and relieved that Helena kept her promise to herself and wasn't using the phone. But by the end of the time, Irene was getting anxious to hear from her. A text, a tweet, anything! The woman reprimanded herself and went about her business. But that didn't stop her from asking Sandy, her Personal Assistant, if there weren't any messages. Several times a day.
"Is Mrs. F in?" Eileen asked Sandy.
"Oh yes, she's in and she'll be out in ten seconds to ask me if I've heard anything from the newlyweds. Why would I hear from either of them? She's desperate," Sandy laughed as she told Irene there was someone to see her.
Irene opened her door and welcomed the young executive, practically pulling her in to sit down. Truth be told, the experienced HR Director found that without the numerous interruptions she usually had, she got her work down rather quickly. Instead of several trips upstairs a day, she could pace herself and go about her work. There were no emergencies, no tantrums, no ridiculous projects, and no whining.
Irene hated it.
"How are you?" Irene asked, asking the younger woman if she wanted something to drink.
"No, thanks, Mrs. Frederic. I am here because I want to bring you up to speed on a…situation," Eileen said, sitting in the chair in front of Irene's desk.
"Oh?" Irene asked.
Eileen then told Irene about noticing that Sam Martino had not returned to DC right away, but stopped in at an address they believed was Ted Grayson's. They couldn't put a connection together, but her gut feeling was that Helena was somehow their joint interest. She told her how Claudia did everything she could – legally – or close to it – to procure any information and that the GPS device in his body told them that he was at a diner last night. Accessing public webcams across the street from the diner, Claudia could see that he was talking to a man who she later identified as someone who worked for the IRS.
"Oh, he's such a fool!" Irene said when Eileen was finished. "She will kill him."
"Claudia …may be able to access …..the other man's phone which might allow us to see any texts or emails. I've authorized her to do this," Eileen said, jutting out her chin because she wasn't completely confident about the legality of the actions.
"Good," Irene said, and Eileen let out a breath.
"I think Sam's a desperate man," Eileen said, sharing her well thought out insights. "He never really believed Ms. Bering was making her own choice. That's why he keeps coming back. He's bordering on stalker now and we have to protect them."
"If Helena finds out, he will be the one who needs protecting. You and Ms. Donovan keep watching. Let's see if we can head this off….. before we have to tell Helena," Irene said and it was easy for Eileen to hear how worried Irene was.
"Before we tell her? I was hoping we could handle this before she gets back and maybe not tell her," the naive woman shared.
"I know you think that would be the easier way, Ms. Sullivan, but I think it would prove very difficult for you to withhold anything from Helena," Irene smiled.
In spite of not wanting to worry the woman, Eileen felt better that Irene knew everything now. So did Irene.
Helena wanted their last night on the island to be perfect. She had a special menu drawn up, hired a quartet of violins and insisted that they dress up for their last dinner before heading back the next morning.
"Helena? I'm going to come out now, okay?" Myka playfully called from the dressing area in the bedroom. It was deja vu because Myka had tried this an hour ago, but upon seeing her, Helena's eyes became heavy with lust and she proceeded to undress Myka so that they could make sweet, passionate love in their oversized bed. Myka loved the spontaneity of their lovemaking, unrestricted by schedules or having others around. She was especially enjoying Helena's threats of what she would do when they were back at work. "You might want to get your office soundproofed, Myka," Helena teased one afternoon as Myka lay there panting from exhaustion. Being totally alone in the house allowed Myka to let go of some of her inhibitions, and expressing her deity's name loudly, when she wasn't calling Helena's, was becoming her signature scream.
"I love when you try to say my name…and can't for lack of breath," Helena teased her one day.
"You just wait until the feeling comes back….. to my legs… and I can move them," Myka said back, "Then we'll see who can't utter names."
Myka made good on her promise.
The four course meal was sumptuous and it was the only time Helena allowed anyone to serve them. Soft music from the violins played throughout dinner. Then Helena took Myka by the hand and when they reached the gazebo and stood inside, the violinists played their wedding song. Helena took Myka's hand and led her around the floor as the music played. Myka started to sing the lyrics. Helena pulled her in closer as they moved across the floor slowly.
"How long will I love you? As long as stars are above you and longer if I may," Myka sang and her voice cracked and her eyes filled with tears that Helena felt fall on her own shoulder.
"Myka?" Helena said, stopping and looking at the watery green orbs.
"I have never known this happiness, Helena. You make me feel …," Myka said and stopped until she could stare into Helena's smiling eyes. "Loved. Totally loved."
Helena smiled and pulled Myka to lean on her shoulder again as they continued to dance slowly. "I think what you're feeling Myka, are the effects of my falling in love with you – over and over again."
When the music stopped several minutes later, the women didn't stop moving. Their bodies touched as they held onto one another and moved through the warm evening breeze.
"Having all this time alone with you, Helena, has been just perfect. I have never felt this wonderful. I wish we could do it more often," Myka said, when they finally took their last walk along the beach.
"It will always be my desire to make all your wishes come true," Helena said sincerely.
"What about your wishes, Helena?" Myka asked, stopping to watch the moon drip light over the soft waves lapping at the shore.
Helena pulled Myka to face her so she could look into her eyes. "You are living proof that mine have all come true," Helena said and meant it.
As the honeymoon couple spent their last night on their island, Irene Frederic was making her way across town to a restaurant. She had asked Eileen to keep her updated on any new developments after their meeting. Having heard nothing more, she decided to take matters into her own hands. She called Ted Grayson directly. Ted was a sharp, albeit obsessed, businessman. He recognized Helena's weak spots. He only needed to spend a short amount of time observing Helena Wells to know how much she depended on her HR Director. He heard the stories about how her sons were hired simply to keep her from retiring.
It helped to have a mole inside Wells Corp.
"Mr. Grayson? Thank you for taking my call," Irene said in a very professional, yet friendly voice.
"Have you come to your senses, Irene?" Ted asked and it made her shudder that he called her by her first name.
"I have thought about your offer. Can we meet?" Irene said, walking straight into the lion's den.
"I would love to," Ted said, thinking he had Irene right where he wanted her and she was walking in willingly.
Unfortunately for Ted Grayson, Irene Frederic always walked tall and carried one helluva stick.