I wanted to get this chapter up so as not to leave you hanging. This isn't really where I wanted to end it so I'm hoping I can get a chapter 4.5 up within the next few days. I didn't get a chance to edit so please forgive any typos. My writing is a little rusty. Chapter 4.5 should be a little easier to write.
Chapter 4
Helena sipped her tea and set it back down before looking at her watch. Her fellow agents were already fifteen minutes late for breakfast. Sighing, she reached down into her coat pocket for her phone so she could awaken her tardy friends from their slumber. Her fingers had just fallen upon the object she had grown so attached to as of late when she spotted Pete walking in from the lobby. He did a quick sweep of the hotel restaurant before acknowledging her presence.
As he approached the table she couldn't help but notice the absence of his usually prompt partner.
"Good morning." Pete said jovially before sliding out a chair and sitting down. He picked up the menu at the same time Helena lifted her cup for another sip of tea. "Ah, enjoying a spot of tea this morning, are we?" He asked, putting on an offensive British accent.
Rather than chastising him for the offense she instead gave him a small smile. "And where is your cheerful partner this morning?"
"Myka is on the phone." He paused and looked down at his hands as if contemplating something. "With her girlfriend." He finished slowly, all the while studying Helena's features for a reaction.
If it was a physical reaction Pete was expecting, he certainly did not receive one. She bore the same rigid, poised, slightly amused face she had on when he first sat down at the table. The rest of Helena's organs were quite a different story. She felt as if a giant hand had tugged her heart from the place where it sat before dropping the beating devil into her stomach. She failed to take note of her right leg which was now bouncing up and down of its own accord. And her throat became unspeakably dry, prompting Helena to lift her cup to her lips and take a few gulps of hot tea. She sincerely hoped Pete's vibes were having an off day.
She cleared her throat before attempting to speak again. "I was not aware that Agent Bering had a-a-" She uncharacteristically stumbled over the word before completing, "Girlfriend." She finished, taking yet another long drink of her tea.
"Ohhh yeah. I was surprised too. Turns out she's gone full on les." He wiggled his eyebrows then focused his attention on the menu in front of him.
"Your eloquence never ceases to amaze me, Pete." She responded letting out a chuckle, relieved he didn't seem to sense her uneasiness at learning of this news. She tried to look at her menu but found it hard to focus on the words in front of her. Myka moved on. With a woman no less. Thinking it again brought back the pain that had settled in her stomach. She looked up and noticed the curly haired agent walk into the restaurant, causing her stomach a very different, not quite pleasant feeling. "And there she is now…" She muttered.
Pete turned to look at Myka and then looked back at Helena who willed her face to mask any emotion she might be feeling internally. She could feel his eyes searching her face as she looked down. "What, Pete?" She whispered looking up to meet his eyes.
"Nothing." He replied then turned his eyes toward his approaching partner. Shit. He knew. His damn vibes always knew. "There she is!"
Myka ignored him and pulled out the chair opposite her and sat down. "Sorry I'm late." She gave Helena a tight lipped smile.
"Not a problem." She returned the smile. Myka turned her attention toward the menu.
"So, how's Charlotte this morning?" Pete grinned. Helena tried not to pay attention to the other woman's reaction but could see her freeze even out of the corner of her eye. Learning the name of Myka's new significant other did little to quell the fire in her stomach. She looked up at the wrong time and Myka's stunned, almost apologetic eyes met hers.
"Ah yes." Helena began before Myka had to explain herself. "Peter was just telling me about your new… romantic interest." She finished, clearing her throat. She had seen the look that crossed Myka's face many times before. It was the look she got just before she was about to physically hurt her partner. Unfortunately for Helena she always found the look quite adorable, which added yet another emotion to the others swirling around inside her. "Tell me about her." She managed, swallowing down all pettiness in order to present her most mature side in this awkward situation.
Myka's voice was soft when she spoke. "Helena, you don't have to-"
"Oh Charlotte is awesome!" Pete butted in. "She's really nice and funny. And she's got this sexy librarian thing going on, you know with the glasses and all. And she has a really nice ass-"
"Pete!" This time rather than hold back her urge to hurt him, Myka slapped him hard on the arm. Her face was various shades of pink. From embarrassment or anger, Helena couldn't tell.
Pete winced. "Owwww. Assets I was going to say assets, Mykes."
"No. You. Weren't." She replied between slaps.
Helena watched, amused and sipped her tea.
Seeming satisfied that Pete was now grasping at his arm, Myka turned her attention back to Helena. "Can we please talk about the case now?" Her eyes were pleading which Helena could never resist and so, with a less hopeful outlook surrounding their assignment, she obliged.
Myka rested her elbows on a balcony railing stirring with one hand a drink she held in the other. Booming music vibrated through her body. She sighed and took a sip of the drink. This wasn't something she regularly did – drinking on the job. But the case was taking longer than anticipated and the stress was getting to her. Not so much the stress of the missing artifact and suspect, but the stress of working with HG with Charlotte far away. Not that HG had been anything but kind to her that day but she couldn't help but feel uneasy and awkward being around the woman. And worst of all – guilty. She hadn't intended for HG to find out about her new relationship that way. Or at all, really. She couldn't gauge how the woman was feeling and was reluctant to ask. Myka wasn't even sure why she cared how HG was feeling about the situation, but, she did. Her whole life her inability to control her feelings drove the control freak in her insane.
Myka was pulled from her thoughts by a gentle bump at her shoulder. She looked over to her partner holding out a drink to her. "For you." He shouted in her ear over the music. "I'm sorry for being insensitive." Myka took the drink in her free hand and gave him a small smile. "I realize it wasn't my place to tell HG about Charlotte."
She raised her first drink to him and held it to her lips, emptying the cup then leaned into his ear. "Thank you."
"Woah, drinking to forget?"
She was leaning her head in toward his shoulder answer when she noticed HG enter the downstairs area of the bar and lost the ability to form words. They had intended for HG to be the "bait" for their still unidentified suspect tonight but she had taken the term to an extreme. She was wearing a tight red dress so low cut and so short that it really left little to the imagination. Even from a balcony. She noticed even without taking her eyes off of the other woman that hers was not the only attention she garnered. Many men and even a few women were paying attention to the woman in red. Pete noticed her too and elbowed Myka, ripping her gaze away. She looked over at him and nodded towards HG. As if she could miss her.
"She knows how to make an entrance, huh?" He yelled into her ear. They watched as HG's eyes searched upward, probably seeking out her backup. Pete held a finger up to his ear then spoke, "9 o'clock, HG." Myka watched as she subtly glanced in their direction and gave a barely detectable nod before walking to the bar in the center of the room.
It didn't take long for a group of men to approach the agent and Pete and Myka watched from their position on the balcony as they surrounded her and handed her a drink. HG always was a great flirt and Myka watched her charm the men with intrigue and a hint of something else that she didn't dare name. No doubt the men were falling all over themselves at her enchanting accent, witty banter and infectious laugh. That laugh. She found herself wishing she could trade places with one of those men in order to hear that laugh.
"HG, keep an eye on the tall one with the black hair. He's giving me a vibe." Pete's voice in her ear broke her out of her thoughts and back to her job. Her job. She was here to do a job, not to ogle her fellow agent. Oh, God. Was that what she was doing? She shouldn't be… Charlotte. She had a girlfriend who was not HG. She should not be thinking about HG. And yet, her eyes still searched for the other woman among the crowd, who she could not see anymore.
"HG, I lost visual on you. Can you move somewhere where I can see you?" Myka held her finger to her ear. She continued to search the crowd but didn't see her anywhere. "HG? Pete, do you see her?"
"Negative." Came the response in her ear. Panic started to set in her chest.
"Pete, I'm going to go down there." She pushed off the railing and turned to go downstairs.
"Myka, wait-" Pete's voice began in her ear but she had stopped listening. She all but ran to the spot where she had last seen HG. She pushed through a crowd toward the bar and stumbled falling right into HG, pushing the smaller woman up against the bar. HG's hands were on her arms and her eyes were concerned as she regained her composure.
"Sorry." She squeaked out feeling ridiculous under her stare. Straightening and removing herself from HG's grasp she remembered the crowd that was previously being entertained by the lively inventor and she felt even more ridiculous.
HG smiled warmly to the group, "Excuse me gentlemen." Before pushing Myka apart from the men and whispering. "Is everything all right?"
"Yea uh-" Myka whispered back, "We lost visual on you and I got worried when you didn't answer."
"Oh, this blasted device must not be working again." She pressed a finger into her ear. "Next time, I'm building it myself." She winked and then before Myka could protest, looped their arms together and pulling her back to the crowd.
"Gentlemen, this is my dear friend Anastasia."
Myka froze under the glare of the men. Anastasia? What the hell. She gave a nervous smile then glanced toward the balcony, finding Pete and giving a small nod to let him know everything was okay.
Myka was correct about HG's flirting. She seemed to have all five men around her under some sort of trance. She watched each of their faces for anything out of the ordinary but besides looks of interest and lust, none of them seemed extra shady. Satisfied, Myka politely removed herself from the group and sat down with her back against the bar at one of the stools. She sipped on the drink she had let one of the men buy her before excusing herself from his attention. After sitting there a few moments, her eyes never leaving HG, she felt her pocket vibrate.
Pulling out her phone she saw Charlotte's name and felt a sharp pang of guilt course through her. She opened up the message to find a picture of Charlotte laying on her bed with a frowny face, the pillow aside of her empty and the message reading 'I miss you'. Myka felt her mouth form into a smile and quickly typed her reply of 'I miss you too'. She was looking at the picture again when she felt a warm breath at her ear then, "She's quite beautiful." She jumped slightly then turned to meet HG's eyes with a hand at her heart.
"You scared the crap out of me."
The other woman chuckled as she slid herself onto the stool next to her. "My apologies."
Myka glanced around, noticing the crowd of men had dispersed. "Where are your admirers?"
"Oh," She waved a hand. "I was growing quite bored of them so I told them I was married and away they scampered like frightened mice." She laughed.
"HG, what about the case?"
"Trust me, I've encountered many people under the influence of an artifact. These gentlemen may have been spellbound but it wasn't the work of an enchanted object." Myka rolled her eyes at her arrogance. "Besides, since you and Peter did not charge down here I figured neither of you suspected foul play either." Myka nodded. "Well, at least Pete did not." She gave her a smile and Myka looked away embarrassed.
As if on cue Pete's voice came in her ear. "I think this night is a wash Mykes. If you girls are okay I think I'm going to call it a night. This bumping bass is getting to me."
Myka looked up to where Pete was standing and pressed her finger to her ear, "We're all right. Night Pete." He gave her a small wave before walking from the railing and out of her sight.
"So Agent Bering, what can I get you to drink?" She turned her attention back to HG who wore a beaming smile. She hoped the bar was too dark for the other woman to see her blush.
Her head felt a little cloudy, something she did not notice before. She was definitely feeling the effects of the few drinks she had consumed. When did she become such a lightweight. "You know, I could use a beer." She replied, returning the smile.