"You are a bloody frightening young lady. And your mother must be a fearsome woman indeed."
"Indigo."
Charlie's eyes caught the Inventor's in a brief lucid moment registering both the relief and subsequent bewilderment, at the odd expletive, that had passed through those dark eyes. Though her head was pounding relentlessly and her body burning up, the young woman responded with an oddly affectionate smirk, "Funny you should say that." She winced as searing pain nailed her eyes shut and she seemed to be on the verge of losing consciousness completely. She felt herself drifting in and out of a thick fog. The soft Irish lilt of her own voice almost unrecognizable to her. Where were her words coming from? She was a disembodied voice, floating. She and the fog were one and the same. No, she was...She was...a small faint sound. A lost girl. Lost between the universes. Crying out to all of them simultaneously.
HG had quickly rattled off a series of tasks. Claudia had found a safe enough ice-making artifact, Roald Amundsen's ice pick to create more. Since they'd quickly exhausted their supply after emptying all the icetrays into ziplock bags and placing them around the girl's head, neck, under her armpits and knees. Pete had carried her to the tub where HG had drawn up a freezing bath for her. Placing her with the utmost care, he almost whispered, "She's so light. She shouldn't be so light." Steve and Claudia were attempting to figure out the artifact that was responsible while Leena tried to get a hold of Dr. Calder. Everyone had forgotten about Giselle for the time being.
The Warehouse's resident Time Traveler/Writer/All-Around Genius was crouched at the side of the tub. She tucked loose strands of the girl's wet hair away from her face and behind her ears. Gently cupping that almost angelic burning face. Angel. Burning. If she hadn't heard the expletives so effortlessly spill from that pretty mouth she would have quite easily believed that this was one of them.
Eyes shut. Eyes open. "Mum...Mum?"
This time HG's heart lurched at the word. Observing her so closely she couldn't deny she recognized this face. Somehow this face was so familiar to her. A familiarity that made her ache inside. The word jarred. The word clawed at her from the inside.
Eyes shut. Eyes open. "Mum..I lost Myka. Almost reached her. I think. I think. I think she heard me this time. I think. I think she saw me too. It was dark. It was so very dark. Ma... Ma...Why didn't you look for me? Why did you only care about Christina? Why is it so warm in here? Why am I cold?
Eyes shut. Eyes open. "W-Wait. Where's Christina gone again? She was right here. She was with me. She's safe Mum. You saved her. Chris is safe. And she's brilliant. She's bloody brilliant." The girl was slurring her words. Speaking in pauses. Her brilliant green eyes murky with confusion and pain, her body felt like it was breaking up into a billion billion pieces, her atoms all vibrating at different frequencies. It felt like being ripped apart, like she was everywhere at once. Her eyes were open but unseeing. "Bollocks." A knife-like sensation sliced through both her eyes and clear through her sternum, her body arching in response.
Helena knew how to mask her emotions. Helena was well practiced in the art. But this slip of a girl had her mind in knots, her heart wrenching and her face naked with stunned pain. And also fear. Who was this young thing who had burst in on them at the awkward hours of the morning. Who was she to look so alike the two people she loved most in the world. Who was she to so casually name them. Names that only passed her lips now as sacred prayer.
An unnamed tightness was forming at the back of her throat. She gripped the girl's face as if to rouse her, to make her look squarely in the eyes with clarity. "Who are you?" She was practically screaming into her face, hands tightly grabbing hold of both cheeks. She was pulling her out of the icewater with the force of it. Her soaked clothes not enough to weigh the girl down. She was so light. So disconcertingly light.
Pete put his hands on her shoulder. "HG, you're going to hurt her." He stepped back allowing the scene to unfold and yet watching with silent concern. Ready to step in if necessary. He suppressed the urge to grab the stranger himself. Ask her how she could have seen Myka. How she knew any of them. It took all his will power to fallback and wait for answers that HG deserved more than him.
Charlie had been slipping through doors since she was born. How that came to be was still a mystery even to her. The more universes she crossed the more fractured the picture became. The more she traveled to the past the more she came to believe that she had to find the present in order to make things right.
But what she had seen in every universe where her mother existed in the present stream led her to the same conclusions. She had to find a universe where Christina survived past the age of 8 years 4 months and 3 days...and she had to make it home in time for Myka to live.
The problem was Christina always died.
The problem. Until it wasn't the problem.
The problem was that Charlotte was trapped in a fog trying to piece together a puzzle whose pieces were scattered over multiple universes and disparate timelines. The problem was that she had been deliberately kept in the dark in order for those with knowledge of her origins to further their dark purposes.
The fog was lifting. She felt her face tighten. She was gasping for air and broke free of the older woman's hold on her face. She gripped the sides of the tub to pull herself up into sitting. Her green eyes now fully open, turned to face HG who again, but gently reached for the girl's face, lightly caressing her left cheek with her thumb. The Victorian's face was wet with tears as she pleaded, "Who are you?"
"I'm...I..." She sighed. Startling green eyes focussed on darkest brown. She was tired of this question. She was so tired of this. More than anyone who asked it, she would like to know its true and full answer. She clambered out of the tub with Helena's help. Still holding onto her she slowly lowered the both of them so they were sat on the bathroom tiles. Charlie was weak but no longer burning up. Her temperature was returning to normal.
HG was still holding the girls calloused hands in hers. "Who are you?" She asked again. The need in those three words much louder than she had voiced them.
Who was she indeed. The girl started with the one thing she knew for a fact. "I'm Christina Wells' younger sister. I'm Charlie...Special Agent Charlotte Seraphina Wells, Warehouse Division. Helena George Wells is my mother. I've been crossing universes to find her."
"Who are you?" This time it was Charlie asking the question.
"I don't know anymore." Helena almost whispered. Pete was going to faint.