Getting another update in earlier than usual 'cause I'm stuck in the house with a cold and I needed a little pick me up. Plus, this next chapter is one of my favourites!
Loved the reviews from the last chapter, and the birthday wishes!
A mostly fluffy chapter but a sprinkling of angst. A bit of teasing too for the KAG fans out there!
Chapter Eleven
"Is she our mole?" Head regent, Adwin Kosan asked the room as he stared into a silver bowl of moving water, into the heart of Warehouse 13.
"Possibly," an unassuming voice answered from nearby. Irene Fredrick had on her usual skirt suit, today in light blue, and held a clutch under her arm. "Though there could be many other reasons that drive her to unexpected places so often. We must be careful not to jump to conclusions. She is certainly not the only one amongst us who often strays," she added and waved a hand over the bowl to cycle through all the other agents who frequently took it upon themselves to go walkabout.
"Agent Wickes seems to be the only one amongst them who sticks to the rules most of the time," Jane Lattimer observed from her position. She shook her head in exasperation and tried not to smile as she watched her son fumble several items in quick succession.
"But as Irene so rightly pointed out," a fourth voice added his two-cents. "We can't afford to jump to conclusions. Any one of them, even the ones we trust the most, they are all subject to outside influence, even if it is not through choice."
"We will continue to observe," the caretaker said calmly as she waved her hand again and the water became still. "It is not yet time to concern ourselves with an attack. Whatever information our mole gleans, they will not have much longer to do so. As Regent Heath so rightly reminds us, they are all vulnerable to manipulation and we will not prevent what is to come by acting prematurely.
Jane stared hard at her colleagues and finally fixed her grey-gaze on Mrs Fredrick. "You're sure the Warehouse is preparing to move then?"
"And you don't know where?" Mr Heath added.
"I am almost certain that it will move this year." Irene assured them with her tirelessly even tone. "But no, I do not know where it intends to take us. Miss Donovan will likely join us while she becomes initiated and then I intend to end my tenure to live out the remainder of my natural life. It has been on hold for far too long already."
"You have served the Warehouse well, Irene, and you shall be sorely missed," Mr Kosan remarked as he led them from the secure room and through a maze of walkways before they reached a crossroads and paused. "Our agents are not likely to take the news well. I suggest that we allow Ms Cho to discuss their options with them closer to the time, though with Agents Bering and Wells so intimately linked to our future survival, I think it inevitable that we will retain their services in some capacity."
"They will need a lot of reassurance. I imagine Agent Donovan will be willing to keep them informed of any updates regarding their package," the newest of their party suggested, thinking as his colleagues were about the protests that were likely to come. "And of course, we want to know how little Miss Wells' training is progressing."
"Her siblings' too, in time," the forbidding former agent chipped in. "Though I don't suggest you tell any of them that. I know if we were talking about my granddaughter, I wouldn't be discussing her future with us so lightly."
Regent Heath flushed slightly as he realised how his enthusiasm must have sounded. "Good point," he answered.
Jane and Don took separate paths as they bid their farewells and Adwin stepped onto the centre walkway with Irene beside him. They strolled shoulder to shoulder for several metres before the head regent inclined his head forward and began to speak in a hushed tone.
"Our legacy stirs, Irene. Are you sure we shouldn't inform agents Wells and Bering of their presence in the Warehouse? It may put their minds at ease," he suggested softly.
Mrs Fredrick sighed, appearing to struggle over her answer for a moment. "It may also make them too complacent. Besides, they cannot make contact with one another yet. The timing must be right. No, they're better off not knowing, for now." She turned to him as they neared the exit and he stopped just ahead of her.
"I meant what I said, you truly will be missed, Irene," Mr Kosan repeated his earlier comment, his eyes showing a depth of feeling that he usually kept a tight lid on.
"Do you not trust my replacement to do as good a job?" she teased, eyes pinning the man over the rim of her glasses.
Adwin deliberated as he pictured the young red head, who he had contact with only on rare occasions. "She has fire, that's for sure. But none of your discipline."
The caretaker chuckled. "Be glad you didn't know me when I first started," she joked. Watching him carefully, she waited until his attention drifted elsewhere before making her customary exit.
As the head regent opened his mouth to add his farewell for this occasion, his gaze fell on an empty space. Mouth snapping shut, he smiled. Head held high, he pushed the latch on the door and immediately stepped into a stream of busy shoppers.
"We're going to be late," Myka fretted as she directed her fiancée onto the interstate and checked her watch for the hundredth time that morning.
Helena bit her tongue to prevent the teasing comment on its tip from tumbling out. She could see that Myka was not in the mood to find the situation funny and didn't want to create any more tension.
"If we are late, darling, it will not be by much and we called ahead to let them know. Christina said she understood," HG reminded her harried partner. "She was also adamant that I was to take extra special care of you. More so than usual now that I think on it." Her thoughts drifted for a moment before she snapped back to the present and placed a hand on the brunette's knee. "What happened to cause this morning's delay couldn't be helped. Least of all by you."
"I should've known they were Braxton Hicks. I've read about them a dozen times or more." She knew she was being stubborn over this point but the overall emotional upheaval of the morning, Christina sounding subdued over the phone last night, another sporadic night's sleep and now the guilt of almost breaking her promise to their daughter, she knew if she let go of her anger at herself, she would dissolve into tears.
She was upset and irritated over having spent three hours in hospital, afraid that she was going into labour too soon, only to be told that it wasn't real. She felt embarrassed for having wasted the professionals' time but on top of that, she was now terrified of actually giving birth. Those had only been practise pains!? Having thought that she had prepared herself to handle it when the contractions did arrive, she felt like she was back at square one again.
Respecting her lover's self-imposed silence, Helena picked a soothing classical album from her collection and popped it in the machine. She turned the sound down low and drove to within a mile of their destination before she pulled over and turned the engine off.
"Helena, we're not there yet," Myka complained, her irritation resurfacing immediately.
"Darling, I know you despise being late for anything, but you will only kick yourself more if you turn up to a nine-year-old's birthday party full of anger." Helena watched her partner's wall begin to crack and knew just where to tap to bring it crashing down. She felt horrible for doing it but she knew that Myka would thank her for it later. "Whatever is going on in our daughter's head at the moment, you know you don't want the first she sees of us to appear as if we've been at odds."
That did it. The carefully built damn the expectant mother had constructed around her emotions burst, a sob breaking through and followed by a flood of tears. She fumbled with her belt, her fingers shaking before she found calm hands setting her free and pulling her into a warm embrace. She wasn't sure how long Helena held her before her shaking stopped but her head remained buried between neck and shoulder for several long breaths before she could find the strength to raise it.
"Better, love?" HG wondered cautiously. She hated to see her partner cry but loved to see the light reappear in those green eyes once she was done.
Myka sniffed, found a tissue and nodded as she blew her nose. "For now," she answered and gestured to the road while reaching for her belt.
The inventor knew better than to argue and within a couple of minutes of being back on the road, she found herself pulling into a space at the ice-rink and offering her partner a hand to help her out of the car. She clicked her key-fob to lock the vehicle but before she could move anywhere, felt strong arms holding her back. Automatically, she turned to fall into a hug.
"Thank you, Helena," Myka whispered softly into the shell of an ear. "You're always coming to my rescue, even when it's from myself."
Swallowing a lump that she hadn't realised was there, HG was lost for words for several seconds. "I made good time on the interstate. I may have broken a few speed restrictions so we're only a tad late," she offered eventually.
"I know, honey. I don't encourage speeding but I appreciate what you were trying to do." Myka kissed her fiancée soundly and then took her arm. "Shall we head inside?"
"Let's," Helena smiled, glad to see her lover looking happier.
The kids were all on the ice by the time they entered and Myka felt a pang of disappointment as she realised she'd missed what she had been secretly calling 'Christina's first steps' in her head. Summoning an air of acceptance from somewhere, she walked with Helena close to where there was a bunch of party stuff and leant against the barrier to look for their child.
It was as they searched, unease growing when they couldn't spot Christina anywhere, that a cry of recognition came from behind them and they found their daughter charging towards them, skates in hand.
The grinning figure plonked her skates on a nearby chair and wrapped her arms as far as she could reach around Myka's waist. "Are you alright, Mama? Is Freddy ok?"
Myka eyed a plastic spectator's seat, trying to decide if it would hold her weight. Thinking that it was probably safe, she lowered herself into it and pulled her daughter close. "We're fine, Sweetheart. Like Mummy told you earlier, it was just a false alarm; my body trying to get ready for when your brother is." She noticed her little girl's eyes twitch towards Helena but Christina's had yet to turn to greet the inventor. Was that from this morning or part of last night's issue? The shadow over her fiancée's gaze told her that Helena could feel the cold shoulder she was being subjected to. "So why are you not on the ice with everyone else?" she asked as she put aside other matters for a moment.
"I wanted you to be here when I started," Christina replied as if there had been no question of her making a move without the agent there. "And you have to teach me how to lace my skates properly."
Myka swallowed the sob that jumped into her throat but couldn't stop the wide smile that lit her features or the tears that filled her eyes. She took the skates in hand and tapped her knee. "Left foot please," she smiled, full of pride and anticipation for this moment.
The skates were typical hire quality, robust but clunky, heavy and probably not very comfortable. She talked the nine-year-old through the lacing steps, explaining why they needed to be tighter in some places and looser in others. She imagined how it might be at the end of the summer when they could go out on the ice together and thought that they could invest in some leather skates if Christina decided that this was a hobby she wanted to stick with. Myka was fairly certain that her old pair were still at her parents' home somewhere. She would have to ask her mother next time they spoke.
Helena shared a look with her fiancée as Myka held Christina's hand, guiding her towards the rink. Taking her phone from her pocket, she accessed the camera function and switched it to video. Several short clips later, as her battery slipped into the red, she wiped a tear from her cheek and turned away from the scene.
She spotted Nate with a group of other parents, briefly taking note of the buxom red head who hung on his every word, occasionally touching his arm. Must be Kirsty, she thought to herself and smiled at the expression of contentment on her ex's face.
Recognising one or two of the parents, she wondered how much Nate had told them of her departure from his life. Drawing in a steadying breath, she focussed on her need to investigate her daughter's strange mood and wandered over to join the adults.
"Helena," Nate greeted once the Brit was close enough. "I see you made it at last. How's Myka?"
"Shaken," the inventor replied. His genuine concern for her partner put her a little more at ease and she relaxed slightly. "Some things I don't believe we truly appreciate until we experience them. The contractions took her by surprise this morning."
He nodded, his hand falling to his companion's lower back as he appeared to drift into a memory. "Lucy was the same with Adelaide," he referred to his late wife with a tender tone. "I didn't think I could feel so helpless before then. Of course, that was before actually having a baby to look after," he added with an amused huff.
"I sympathise," Helena said, her head turning to catch sight of her fiancée who was walking the perimeter of the rink, talking their daughter through her first time on the ice while Adelaide and various other more skilled children whizzed past. "I've experienced it first hand and I still felt helpless this morning."
Nate nodded his understanding and then turned to the woman beside him. "Helena, this is Kirsty. She made Adelaide's cake. She was excited about being able to make it today to get the birthday girl's opinion."
"And I'm sure that light in her eyes has nothing to do with seeing you, Nate," she teased. Recognising that he was nervous, Helena put on her most charming smile and held her hand out to greet the red head properly. "Another chef in the making? By the looks of that masterpiece over there, I'll wager you're a damn sight better than me in the kitchen. Unless of course you want things to explode?"
"I love cooking," Kirsty replied, sounding a little nervous herself. "And eating," she added, rolling her eyes and gesturing to her hour-glass figure as if the statement was self evident. "I think Adelaide's exact words were 'that's awesome', so I'm sure that's a big thumbs up."
"I've not known her to mince her words often so I believe we can safely assume that she approves." Taking a breath, she continued before anyone could comment further. "I'm awfully sorry to have to ask, darling, but may I borrow Nate for a quick chat? I have reason to believe that I'm in the 'dog house' with my daughter and he may be able to shed light on my predicament."
Nate's serious expression belayed his knowledge of the subject and he placed a reassuring kiss on his girlfriend's lips before following the Brit to a space a few yards away.
"Something happened last night," Helena jumped in immediately, her arms halfway crossed over her stomach, hands resting lightly on her elbows. Her tone was almost accusing, but directed mostly at herself. She had a hunch that she knew what he was about to say.
He scratched his chin and sighed. "After... everything that went down last year, my sister visited a lot and I didn't have many good things to say about you. Apparently, my niece, Jenny, had a few things to say to Christina last night. Adelaide had to fill in the blanks."
HG clenched her teeth and ran a hand through her hair as she closed her eyes. "Lord," she cursed and shook her head.
Nate watched her reaction with a perverse mixture of satisfaction and sympathy. A small part of him still resented her lies but he couldn't help the fondness that remained either. "You didn't tell her..."
"What? That she died?" Helena hissed, her anger beginning to get the better of her. "That I was desperately seeking... something while I mourned her absence?"
"That you did your best to continue to live while she wasn't there?" he offered with compassion, effectively diluting her distress. "I'm not going to pretend to understand your life, Helena. I understand that you were trying to leave all the complications behind when you fell into my life. But it's obvious that you belong to whatever weirdness follows you around and if I'm reading things right, Christina is a part of that. She deserves to know some details."
Helena's right hand covered her mouth, fingers shaking against her lips. Those same fingers graduated to her hairline again and dragged through inky locks, never once snagging from root to end. "I hate it when you're right," she murmured as she left his company and made her way back to the barrier around the ice-rink.
Myka sat, captivated by the sight of her daughter's Bambi-like movements as she left the safety of the barrier and wind-milled her way to the flow of bodies near the centre of the rink. She felt more than saw Helena's return. Her hand reached out automatically to find the digits that slid along hers. "She's a natural," she commented with pride. "Did you find anything?"
Helena took a few moments to watch her pride and joy find her feet on the slippery surface while she organised her wayward thoughts. "She knows about Nate and me," she answered succinctly.
"Ah," Myka added, understanding the whole picture with those few words. "I take it she interrogated Adelaide after hearing something you were hoping she wouldn't?"
"Myka..."
"She's just like you... like us," Agent Bering began to explain. "She was bound to find out something sooner or later, and just like us, she won't rest until she has what she wants."
"Bollocks," HG muttered to the floor. Leaning close to her partner, she kissed the curve of a jaw. "Remind me why I was ecstatic to discover that she shared your DNA?"
Myka recognised the teasing and turned to meet soft lips. "Because you love me," she answered, not the least bit offended by her lover's words.
Helena enjoyed the few minutes she had to absorb her fiancée's scent and enjoy a rare moment in public to demonstrate her devotion to this incredible woman. Far from forgetting the fix she was in, the inventor settled next to Myka, an arm around her shoulder, lips at her ear, while they enjoyed the sight of their daughter's growing confidence. When the kids were signalled off the ice for cake-cutting, Myka called Christina over and kissed the top of her head before leaving her alone with Helena.
Ignoring the fact that the nine-year-old's eyes were avoiding hers, HG knelt in front of her child and placed her hands on the girl's elbows. "Christina," she began softly. "I know you are not best pleased with me at present, and I promise that I will answer your questions as well I as I am able, once we are home, but right now, I expect a proper greeting." A tentative grin played at the corner of her mouth. "Kiss me or I will tickle you until you can't stand," she threatened playfully.
Christina's mouth too turned up at the corners, her efforts to prevent a grin in vain. She hesitated only a moment before she threw her arms around the inventor's neck and kissed her cheek. "Hello, Mum... May I have cake now?" she asked cheekily.
Helena's eyes narrowed, not only at the attitude, but the change in address. She reserved her opinions for now though and found ticklish spots with her fingers to elicit a series of wriggling giggles. "Go. Eat cake," she offered and freed the girl from her grip. They grinned at one another before Christina turned and clonked her way across the solid floor towards the rest of the youthful gathering.
Keys jangled in the door as a tired family arrived home the next day after spending another night in Wyoming and driving through most of the afternoon. Helena placed hers and Myka's bags near the bottom of the stairs and instructed her daughter to do the same before heading to the kitchen to put the kettle on for a much needed cup of tea.
Though she hadn't taken over much of the driving, Myka felt her exhaustion fill her body and collapsed on the couch with Christina by her side. A heavy head fell against her shoulder and she pushed her fingers into soft waves as a small hand played with the hem of her oversized t-shirt.
"Did you enjoy your weekend at Adelaide's?" she asked tentatively.
"Yes," Christina offered softly. "We watched Ice Princess last night and threw all of our blankets on the settee so we could sleep there. Addy found some tent poles and we made a den." With just her best friend beside her, she had found that she was more easily distracted and less prone to slipping into her own thoughts. Despite the emotional turmoil of the weekend, she had enjoyed herself a lot.
"I'm glad you had fun." They could hear Helena in the kitchen, a teaspoon clinking against the rim of the cups and Myka knew she would return in a minute or two. "Sweetheart, I know you want to ask Mummy lots of questions but please try not to be too hard on her. It's not an easy subject for her to talk about."
Christina's dark eyes squared on her American mother's, her thoughts unreadable. "She made you sad, Mama. Adelaide and her daddy were sad too."
At that moment, Helena entered the room and it was clear from her expression that she had overheard their daughter's last comment. She placed their drinks on the coffee table - tea for her and Myka, and milk for the nine-year-old. Squeezing in beside the young girl, the inventor pulled the small body into her lap and shuffled into position.
"What do you wish to know, love?" she directed at her daughter, having decided that the best way forward was to let Christina lead with her questions.
The girl's gaze dropped to her lap for a long moment as she considered what she wanted to know. "You said that I travelled through time in the cartouche," she began carefully. "I don't remember it all but I wasn't sad. I knew you would find me." She noticed the sudden influx of tears in her mother's eyes and pressed on, almost whispering her theory, "But you didn't know... Did you."
It was said as more of a statement than a question, as if the girl had made her mind up on this point and HG wasn't sure whether to be proud of her daughter's deductive reasoning or concerned that she would figure too much out before she was ready to understand and process it.
Helena bit her lip, wrestling with the wobble that threatened to capture it. She shook her head, her voice heavy but stubbornly steady, as she answered, "No. I was allowed an alternate method of travel and I... I did not..." She struggled with the words to complete her thought. I thought you were lost to me forever, her heart cried.
"How long were you awake before you found me?" the girl wondered aloud.
Elegant fingers reached to stroke a soft cheek. "Approximately two years," HG answered, deciding that 'awake' was a relative term in her case and choosing to interpret the girl's meaning as 'mobile'.
Innocent features pulled into a deeper frown. She remembered a time when her Mummy had gone away on business for weeks at a time but she had always known that she was coming back and they would spend every waking moment together afterwards. What would it feel like, to be apart from either of her parents for years, without knowing if she would ever see them again? "Why didn't you know where to find me?"
Feeling that half-truths were her only way through this conversation safely, Helena wracked her brain for the best way to phrase her answer. "I was not told that you were there. Until Myka found herself pulled in with you, I was unaware of your location. I am not certain that anyone knew you were there, save perhaps the Warehouse. As it turned out, fate seemed intent on bringing us together." She smiled a little at that thought, the gesture chasing away some of the shadow behind her little girl's expression.
Myka held her tongue, but couldn't help feeling slightly uncomfortable with the direction of this conversation. Helena was good at not telling complete lies but the evasion reminded her too much of the early days, with HG Wells as the new agent who had deceived them all with her tall tales and misdirection. She was on the fence with her opinion of how well Christina would handle the bare truth so she was letting Helena take the lead, but that didn't mean the alternative sat well with her.
The comment about the Warehouse knowing though, reminded her that their lives were tangled in a web of tragedies and miracles. Perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing to want their daughter to enjoy being a child for as long as possible before destiny dropped whatever it had in store onto her small shoulders.
"Will you tell me the story about you going to live with Adelaide?" Christina finally responded as she laid her head on the Brit's shoulders and held her Mama's gaze.
Myka smiled encouragingly at the two figures next to her. She reached a hand out to grasp two petite feet and pulled them into her lap. "Do you think Mummy could manage to make it sound like a fairy tale?"
"Like one of my story books?"
Christina's eyes lit up at the suggestion as Myka had hoped they would and Helena smiled though she threw her fiancée a look that seemed offended by the insinuation that she might not be able to manage the style of retelling.
"Very well," HG began, rising to the challenge as she took a second to decide how to start.
"Once upon a time, a foolish knight named... Henrietta thought to bend the world to her whim – with science as her companion, grief as her motivation and mystical trinkets as her weapons, she betrayed friend and foe alike in an effort to reach her goal; to avenge the darling daughter she could not bear to be without and find peace in oblivion.
"Her heart blackened from years of anguish, she thought it irrevocably damaged. Certain that she could never feel love again; she sought company for her misery and found herself in the arms of an enchanting young maiden.
"Hair a mass of untameable curls, wild, unapologetic but soft to the touch, and shining with flecks of gold in the light of the sun; skin warm and yielding; lips irresistible and inviting, words of defiance, intelligence and compassion spilling from their borders; eyes captivating in their intensity, crystal green boring into the knight's cold heart, searching for warmth - she was more beautiful than Helena had ever seen.
"The enchantress' name was Michaela."
Helena paused to gauge the reactions of her lover and their daughter. She was trying not to hide or excuse her own mistakes but as the story came alive in her head, it felt natural to include the reasons behind her actions. Her motivations. But was it too much? Too dark? Myka's eyes appeared to approve but it was Christina who spoke up.
"Why did you stop, Mummy? It's good, keep going," the nine-year-old encouraged.
There was a part of the girl that already wept inwardly for the knight. Knowing that the character was based on her mother, she couldn't help imagining the pain she had felt that blackened her heart and stopped her feeling able to love. She also knew that the story had to have a happy ending though because they were all sitting together now. Mummy's stories were always worth listening to, even if they were sad and scary in places. Plus, she really did want to know what had happened before they were reunited.
HG smiled and kissed the top of Christina's head. "Very well..."
Have already had some thoughts on HG's tale; thank you Duvetsnuggler and Aeternus Eternus!
More thoughts are always welcome though. :-D
Stay tuned for the rest of HG's story...