She'd been gone for a week chasing down an artifact with Pete and all Myka wanted as she walked into the B&B was a hot bath, a decent meal, and most importantly Helena. Heading up to the room she and her girlfriend shared Myka was really hoping to find her raven haired Victorian waiting for her since Helena hadn't been at the Warehouse, but when she walked in she found the room empty. After dropping her bag on the floor Myka went over to her dresser to put her gun in the lockbox she kept it in. She smiled as she ran her fingers over the beautifully carved design and the words "Destined to Meet at Gun Point." The box had been a gift from Helena, built with her own two hands. Myka triggered the lock and something inside clicked. She lifted up the top to relive a place in the bottom half for her handgun, while the top half housed Helena's Tesla. Well at least Myka knew Helena wasn't on an assignment, other wise the Tesla's space would be empty.
When Myka turned away from the dresser she noticed Helena's tablet leaning against their pillows with a post-it note on the screen that read, "Wells and Bering. Solving Puzzles. Saving the day." Walking over Myka couldn't keep the smile off her lips. She and Helena did this from time to time, they left each other little notes, little puzzles to solve. It was fun, and silly, and so very them. After turning the device on Myka found it was locked, but when she tried Helena's lock code and it failed she frowned. She thought it out for a moment, Helena had clearly changed the lock code for a reason, but why and what was it? She idly tapped her fingertips against the sticky part of the post-it until she realized what she was doing. Looking at the post-it again her face lit up as her mind flashed back to that moment in the Regent Sanctum. When she typed in "Bering and Wells," the table unlocked.
The tablet popped up a text message that read, "She's beautiful, and therefore to be wooed; She is woman, and therefore to be won." Myka knew instantly that the quote was from Shakespeare's Henry VI, so she searched the table for the play but found nothing, so she scanned the room. Then she realized her copy was most likely down in the small library where she and Helena spent a lot of their downtime. As she made her way down the stairs she wondered what her clever inventor slash author had up her sleeve. Myka felt a rush of excitement as she picked up her copy of Shakespeare's plays and quickly flipped to the page where the quote could be found. Stuck to the page was another post it.
In Helena's elegant script Myka read, "We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams." Myka blinked. That was one of Helena's quotes, well it was an "H.G. Wells" quote, but it had been Helena who'd told Charles to say it. Myka looked for her copy of The Time Machine, flipped through it, and then bit her lip when she didn't find anything. After checking every one of Helena's books and finding nothing she had to take a moment to think. "We all have our time machines…" She said out loud twice before it hit her. Helena's time machine in the H.G. Wells section of the Warehouse!
Any jetlag Myka might have been feeling before wore off in the thrill of Helena's game. Driving over to the Warehouse she made her way down to the section that housed all of the inventions and artifacts they had that were Helena's, and sure enough tucked into the crate that held the brilliant woman's time machine was an envelope. Inside on Helena's stationery in Helena's elegant handwriting was a jumble of letters and numbers; Myka would have to solve this clue before she could move on. She retreated to the Pete Cave so she could work out Helena's code in peace, and when she did she was just as confused. "Captain Crunch peanut butter cupcake. 3pm." She looked over the coded puzzle again and got the same phrase. Sitting back in Pete's recliner she looked at the sentence for several minutes as she tried to figure out what the heck it meant. Helena didn't really like cold cereal, and certainly not the surgery kid's cereal Pete liked. But it didn't said cereal, it said cupcake, so Myka racked her brain until she remembered something. The walk in the park when Helena had come across the shelter's adoption event where she'd gotten Lulu, she'd been on her way to her favorite bakery for a treat, a Captain Crunch peanut butter cupcake! The name of the bakery had been Lulu's, which is where the little white pup had gotten her name.
Her mind flashed back to coming home and Myka realized that Lulu hadn't greeted her the way she always did, in fact the little white Maltese mix hadn't been anywhere in sight. Lulu at 3pm? Myka checked her watch, it was 2:30, so she had to be somewhere at 3 for Lulu? Well, the only place Lulu could be other than home or with Helena was the groomer or the vet. Pulling out her phone Myka tried the groomer first because there really wasn't a reason for Lulu to be at the vet unless she was hurt or sick. After a quick chat on the phone it was confirmed that Myka was suppose to pick Lulu up at 3pm, so she got back into her suv and drove into town. Now she was really curious about where this was going because this seemed liked a lot of effort just to get Myka to pick the dog up at the groomer. These little games normally ended in something more romantic, so Myka was hoping this was just another piece in the game because other wise she was going to be really disappointed.
"Hi." Myka said with a smile. "I'm here to pick up Lulu Wells."
"Of course Ms. Bering." The young woman behind the desk said. "Give us one moment and we'll bring her right out."
Myka thanked the young woman and the stepped away to look over the community board while she waited. A few minutes later a man came out with Lulu prancing beside him on her leash. They exchanged pleasantries, the young man praised Lulu for being so sweet and then just before Myka was about to leave he said, "Oh, I almost forgot." He pulled out a Smartphone and held it out to her. "Ms. Wells forgot this when she dropped Lulu off this morning."
"Thanks." Myka said as she accepted the phone with a smile. Once she was back in the car she looked the phone over. It wasn't Helena's but it was one of the spares they kept around. She turned it on only to find it locked. She hummed as she gave the lock code some thought. It seemed to be another phrase but what? When Lulu nudged her hand Myka automatically started to pet her, and that's when she noticed the pup was wearing little doggy barrettes in the fur by her ears. "Aww, Lulu, you look so cute." She smiled as she pulled the little dog into her lap and laughed when Lulu shook her head as if to shake them out. "Now, Conner said Mummy asked for those specifically. You have to leave them in until she sees you." Upon closer examination Myka realized just what Helena had asked for. "Wait, are those apples?" She fingered one of the barrettes and then picked up the phone again. She tried apples but that didn't work, she thought it through a moment and then tried, "I smell apples."
When the phone unlocked it went right into a GPS app. Myka set Lulu into her doggy car seat, put the phone in a cup holder, and pulled out of the parking lot. "Lets hope we're not about to pick up the dry cleaning." Lulu just shook her head again in another vein attempt to get the barrettes out of her fur, and it made Myka laugh. She followed the GPS's directions out to a farm where it then had her driving down a long dirt road and into an orchard. That's when she realized that Helena had tinkered with the phone and the app because after it told her she had arrived at her destination it told her to bring Lulu and start walking north into the cluster of apple trees. Myka walked until she came to a small brook that separated the apple orchard from the farm's cheery orchard and she smiled. Not far from here was the spot where Rebecca and Jack had awoken following their possession by herself and Pete. She walked a little more and then the GPS told her to stop and turn around.
Myka gasped softly. Tucked under an apple tree several feet from the brook were a blanket and pillows and a picnic basket off to the side. As she got closer to the setting she noticed that in the middle of the blanket was a book, but still no sign of Helena. After setting Lulu on the blanket Myka sat down as well and picked up the book. She smiled brightly; it was the copy of Jane Eyre Helena was currently reading to her. For Myka there was hardly anything better than a rainy night tucked into Helena's side while a fire burned and she listened to Helena reading to her. When Myka went to open the book it opened right in the middle because it had been turned into a clever hiding place. On the left side of the book Helena's stationery had been pasted into place and she'd written out another quote.
"I have for the first time found what I can truly love–I have found you. You are my sympathy–my better self–my good angel–I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my centre and spring of life, wrap my existence about you–and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one."
"Oh Helena." Myka said softly as her fingers brushed over the elegant handwriting.
All of the pages of the right side of the book had been fused together and a hole dug into them. Nestled into that hole was a cylindrical cryptex made of wood and brass with a set of four rotating synthetic ivory disks with letters on them, each set contained a different number of single disks to spell out four different words. It was clearly something Helena had made herself, and it would require another phrase to unlock it. Myka bit her lip as she looked at the device in her hands and tried to figure out what the phrase could be. For a moment her bright green eyes flicked back to the book and she reread what Helena had written, she read it again and that's when she noticed that there was a small mark under the letter m in flame. That triggered her eidetic memory and it allowed her to recall all of Helena's handwritten notes. The letter w in wooed had a mark, the y in carry, the m in pm, and finally the m in flame. So maybe those were the first letters in each word of the cryptex phrase? Myka rolled each letter into place and those disks locked, triggering their assigned gears to move inside the cylinder. Myka felt a trill as she worked out Helena's puzzle.
First word has four letters starts with w? Will? Disk locks, gears click, and Myka smiles again. Second word is three letters starts with y? You? Disk locks, gears click, Myka's smile falters a little and her heart gives a hard squeeze. Third word, five letters and it starts with m? Marry? Disk locks, gears click, and Myka gasps as her heart begins to race and her eyes burn with tears. Last word, two letters, starts with m, ends in e. Me? Disk locks, gears click, and the cryptex opens. Myka can't breath as a beautiful emerald ring falls into the palm of her hand as her tear blurry green eyes read over the whole message. Will you marry me?
"I have for the first time found what I can truly love." Helena said softly from where she stood after coming out of hiding. Her heart had stopped beating in her chest and she'd forgotten how to breathe as she'd watched Myka solve her final puzzle. When Myka looked up at her with those beautifully glistening green eyes she continued, "I have found you."
She walked towards Myka as she spoke. "You are my sympathy, my better self, my good angel. I am bound to you with a strong attachment." Helena knelt on the blanket in front of Myka and took her hands in her own. "I think you good, gifted, lovely. A fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart." She raised their joined hands and pressed Myka's to her chest, over her heart. "It leans to you, draws you to my centre and spring of life, wrap my existence about you, and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one." Helena reached out to brush at the tears on Myka's cheeks.
"Helena." Myka breathed out the other woman's name as if it were something sacred.
Helena's dark eyes sparkled as she smiled, "I went into the bronzer hoping to find myself in a better world, a brighter future, and what did I find? I found you." Myka smiled, which made her smile. She wiped away a few more tears and then asked, "So what is the answer to the puzzle, darling? Will you marry me?"
"Yes." Myka said, her voice cracking. "Yes!" She repeated before tackling Helena to the ground and kissing her hard. The kiss was long and passionate and full of promises for the future. When it came to an end for the want of air both women laughed, and cried, and rode the wave of emotion that crashed over them as Helena slipped the ring onto Myka's finger.
"It's beautiful Helena." Myka said after staring at the ring for several long moments.
"Emeralds are said to be the gem of hope, and faith. You had faith in me when I didn't even have faith in myself." Helena said as she held Myka in her arms, her back pressed against the tree, and Myka sat between her legs. "It's sacred the Goddess Venus, and it was believed that it preserved love."
"And it's green." Myka said with a smirk.
"Yes." Helena replied with a smirk of her own.
"And you like green." Myka said as she shifted in Helena's arms to look at her.
"Yes." Helena answered.
"Because my eyes are green." Myka said smugly.
Helena laughed. "Yes."
Myka leaned in close to press a kiss to Helena's lips. They basked in the moment for a while, whispering words of love and dreaming of days to come. As Helena began to pull their meal from the picnic basket Myka looked down at the ring on her finger and then up at the woman she loved and asked, "Did Pete tell you about this?"
"Did Pete tell me about what, my love?" Helena asked as she opened one of the plastic containers.
"About me trying to figure out if this is something you wanted?" Myka clarified. When Helena looked up at her the look in Helena's eyes answered for her. "You had no idea I was thinking about marriage did you?"
"I didn't." Helena admitted. "I was aware that something has been on your mind, but when I've asked you've always spoken of your concerns regarding the baby. Why did you not mention you were thinking about marrying me?"
"Because I wasn't sure how you felt about marriage now." Myka answered honestly. "You were against it in your past."
Helena smiled softly in understanding. "What I was against was having my legal standing in society relegated to the status of a child. I would have become the ward of my husband and his estate. That is what I refused to do." Reaching out Helena tucked a strand of hair behind Myka's ear. "There is also the fact that I have loved no one the way I love you. I could not marry in my past because you were in my future."
Myka grabbed Helena's hand and brought it to her mouth so she could place a kiss on Helena's wrist. "How long have you been planning this?"
"The cryptex took a couple of months." Helena admitted. "Mostly waiting on materials and finding time to work on it. I wanted it to be a surprise."
"Best surprise ever." Myka said before pushing herself forward so she could kiss the woman she was going to marry. "Helena." She breathed softly at the end of the kiss.
"Yes my love?" Helena replied, her voice just as soft.
"Read to me?" Myka asked with a smile.
"For the rest of our lives." Helena replied.