Epilogue - Ampersand

Hunnigan frowned at Leon, becoming uncomfortably aware of his stare as she stood in front of the group of agents delivering a debrief to them. As she glanced around, she realized Leon wasn't the only one who appeared amused by something.

Do I have something on my face? she wondered silently. She proceeded to finish the debrief and dismissed the team. Leon came up to her afterward, tucked his hands into his pockets and swayed back and forth a little.

"What is it?" she sighed.

"That's a mighty fine lookin' hickey you're sporting, officer Hunnigan," Leon responded, his velvety voice dripping with syrup and honey.

"What!" Hunnigan exclaimed and brought her hand to feel her neck. She cringed at the sore trail of bruises her fingertips discovered in the spot between her neck and shoulder, stretching all the way down to her collarbone and across it to her chest. How the hell had she not noticed those before? Well, granted, she'd been in quite a hurry this morning, but still...

"Oh, Christ, I've been walking around with these on display the entire day," she groaned as she studied her reflection in the small round mirror of the compact she'd dug from her bag.
"Pretty much, yeah," Leon taunted.

"That thing is huge," Hunnigan blushed as she pushed the collar of her shirt aside a little, revealing more of the most obvious bruise in the shape of Helena's mouth on the side of her neck.
"Well, you gotta forgive her, she's young and overly eager to mark her property," Leon smirked and Hunnigan's blush deepened.

"I'm not 'property', you jerk," she muttered, but didn't manage it quite as convincingly as she'd wanted to. Frankly, the thought of belonging to Helena was oddly... exciting.

"So, you two a couple now? 'Cuz I gotta know so I'll know if I should go and buy you a turkey baster for Christmas."
"Turkey baster?"

"Well, my knowledge regarding lesbian stereotypes might be a bit rusty, but isn't it that lesbians bring a moving van or a turkey baster to the second date? A turkey baster is easier to gift wrap, so you'll have to settle for that. To Lenny&Hunny, with love from Leon, please name your first-born after me and don't be shy to ask for a donation, I'll happily provide... on the condition that I get to do it without involving any plastic cups in the process," he commented sweetly, wiggling his eyebrows a little and Hunnigan rolled her eyes at him.

"You do realize that you wanting to exclude plastic cups from the process would also mean that a turkey baster wouldn't be necessary either?" Hunnigan taunted after having spotted the obvious flaw in his logic.
"We could find some other use for it," he said slowly and Hunnigan made a face at that.

"I'll remember this conversation the next time you're stuck in a foreign country after a drunken misadventure and need me to come rescue you," Hunnigan narrowed her eyes at him.
"Well, excuse me for openly supporting Hunniper," Leon pouted and Hunnigan shook her head.

"I'm glad I do not understand what you're talking about. And to answer your question, I don't know, we didn't discuss any details regarding relationships or being exclusive. We'll see, I guess," Hunnigan responded, not bothering to tell him she was certainly hoping for this to grow into more. Leon didn't respond exactly, instead he began humming The Turtles' "So happy together"before proceeding to scuff away along the hallway. Hunnigan chuckled at his antics and entered her office. Her phone rang and she reached to thumb the screen to pick up.

"Helena, everything okay?" Hunnigan asked as she circled to sit behind her desk, placed the phone on the table and concentrated on attempting to hide the hickey with a generous amount of concealer. It was an exercise in futility.

"Uh... Well, yeah, sort of," the younger woman mumbled awkwardly and Hunnigan narrowed her eyes, knowing Helena had done something she shouldn't have. She put the make up away and turned her attention to Helena.
"What did you do?" she asked.
"I figured I'd feed your snake for you... but it didn't, uhm..."

"Did he escape? Because if he did, he likes to hide in the-" Hunnigan began but Helena shook her head.

"No, Carl/Coral is fine and where he's meant to be," she said before pausing to chew on her lower lip nervously. Hunnigan was silent for a moment as what must've happened dawned on her. Her lips curved into a wide smile slowly.

"You tried to thaw a mouse in the microwave, didn't you?" she inquired. A very common mistake people tended to make.
"It... exploded," Helena admitted slowly and Hunnigan doubled over in laughter, disappearing from the frame as she did.

"Don't laugh!" Helena pouted.
"I'm sorry, I'm sure it was very traumatizing for you," Hunnigan giggled, sat up straight and pushed her glasses to her forehead to be able to wipe the tears of laughter from her eyes.

"I'm not hurt, but I'm startled," Helena pretended to sniffle and Hunnigan inhaled deeply, trying to suppress another gigglefit as she thought about it.

"You'd better have cleaned that up before I get home," she teased, "Why were you feeding Carl/Coral anyway, I just fed him yesterday."
"Well, I was trying to do something nice for my girlfriend, and I was under the impression that living creatures need to eat daily," Helena quirked an eyebrow.

"Not snakes, he doesn't have to be fed more than twice a week, so he's not due for another meal for a few more days," Hunnigan explained.
"Oh. I did not know that," Helena mumbled.

"It's okay, honey, I appreciate the gesture anyway."

"Did you just call me 'honey'?" Helena grinned and Hunnigan paused.
"Did you call me your girlfriend?" she countered and it was Helena's turn to pause.

"I may have let that slip," she responded awkwardly.
"Well, that escalated quickly, I guess Leon's lesbian stereotypes-speech had a point after all."

"Do I even want to know why you were talking with him about lesbian stereotypes?" Helena quirked an eyebrow.

"After he... and everyone else... saw these, I kind of had to say something and things took off from there," Hunnigan said, tilting the phone a little and pulling the collar of her shirt aside to reveal the trail of hickeys still clearly visible despite her efforts to conceal them

"Did I do that?" Helena's eyebrows rose in surprise.
"Well, they're not from playing paintball," Hunnigan commented.

"Okay, I can see why Leon is having a field day with that."
"He insists on calling us Lenny&Hunny."

"That sounds like it could be the name of a law firm ran by bunnies," Helena laughed, the kind of a genuinely happy laughter emanating deep from within her. The kind of a laughter Hunnigan didn't recall ever hearing from the younger woman before. The sound and the happiness it represented made Hunnigan's heart swell.

"I gotta get back to work," she finally had to change the subject.

"Yeah, okay," Helena nodded, still chuckling at the mental image she had of bunnies in suits, one of them wearing Hunnigan's glasses and yelling "OBJECTION!"

"Will I see you after work?"
"You will... unless you lose your glasses, then I don't know."

"You think you're so funny," Hunnigan chuckled at the terrible joke.
"You bring it out in me. You make me happy," Helena then said more seriously, offering a warm smile.

"Likewise," Hunnigan murmured, "Okay, now I really gotta go before we get diabetes from all this sweetness," she then quirked an eyebrow.
"I'll risk it and prepare something sweet for tonight. See you later," Helena said huskily, her smile growing into a seductive smirk she followed up with a wink before ending the call. Hunnigan stared at the darkened screen for a couple of seconds, stunned by the younger woman's tiny but incredibly sexy gestures.

"Hu," she exhaled and shook her head. She returned her attention to her work, fully aware of the smitten smile curling her lips as she considered being on one side of an ampersand and Helena being on the other. It felt like the most natural thing in the world, made her feel complete. Life had begun.

End