My grasp on the meaning of the word 'soon' is somewhat shaky. Sorry about how long it's taken to update, I've started my summer holidays (YAY!) and all i can seem to do is sleep and watch episodes of batman: the animated series. anyway, here's the next chapter.

Oh, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Helena woke up feeling the happiest she'd been for the past week. Vic lay beside her snoring gently with his arm around her. She was about to suggest some early morning fun when the hotel room's phone started ringing. The insistent, blaring sound shattered the peaceful silence as well as her good mood. Helena sighed and grudgingly picked up the phone,

'Hello?'

'Val-Val! Good morning baby,' came the sickly sweet reply. Helena muffled a scream into her pillow. What was left of her good mood disappeared and was replaced with the desire to impale Yuri's head on a pike.

'Val-Val! Are you there? Well, I'm going to spend the entire day with you today! A few boring political things first but other than that, I'm all yours.'

Helena was banging her head repeatedly into her bed's headboard. 'Sounds fun, Yuri!' she said, hoping her voice sounded perky. 'I can't wait.'

'See you soon then, we're having breakfast with your president at seven. I'll meet you in your hotel lobby at 6:50. Mwah!' With that he hung up, leaving Helena in the mother of all bad moods. Vic was still passed out in bed, for a paranoid conspiracy theorist, he sure was a deep sleeper. A glance at her clock told her she had forty minutes before the torture began. With a groan Helena dragged herself out of bed and into the bathroom. It used to take her ten minutes to leave the house. Throwing on random clothes and then brushing her teeth didn't exactly take too long. Now, it took her close to an hour every morning to leave her hotel room. Helena had also developed a passionate hatred of makeup. She dabbed randomly at her face; if it looked too weird she could always call it an acquired look or something equally stupid. Interpretive makeup! Chuckling slightly, Helena checked her watch. Shit, twenty minutes until she was late. She hightailed it out of the bathroom and looked for a pair of torture devices to strap onto her feet.

Vic was staring at her from the bed. 'Since when were you a morning person?'

'Since I became a bitchy, man-eating supermodel with serious anger issues,' replied Helena. She now stood in front of a suitcase overflowing with clothes, contemplating her choices: the slutty black dress or the sluttier grey dress?

'I thought you were going to breakfast, not street walking,' Vic's arms wrapped around her before she could hit him. He buried his face into her hair, 'I missed you.'

'I missed you too.' Helena toyed with Vic's hands for a moment before snatching up the black dress. 'And I am going to breakfast. I made the mistake of wearing clothes that actually covered my body on my first day. I was barely allowed into the building, Yuri ignored me completely and almost got himself kidnapped. So slutty, attention-seeking tramp is my new look.' Helena finished putting on the miniscule dress and jammed her feet into a pair of killer heels.

'I've got to go. You going back to those alpacas again?'

'No, they were just a red herring in the complicated world of global warming. I suspect the alpacas were being used as scapegoats by a multibillion dollar company to hide their carbon emissions. I just need the evidence...' Vic's mind was working over time again. 'Why would alpacas be used? What is the polar opposite of an alpaca?'

Helena started. The last question had been directed at her, rather than just being a thought spoken out loud. 'Vic, I really don't care what the polar opposite of an alpaca is. I'm late. I'll see you tonight?'

'Of course,' he said, 'I've got monitor duty until seven but after that, we can do whatever we want.'

'Can't wait.' With a lingering kiss, she dashed out of the room somewhat prepared for another day with the nauseating specimen of humanity known as Yuri.

Sorry about how short and plot free this chapter is. I will DEFINITELY post the next chapter tomorrow and it will have ACTION! It may be somewhat influenced by my recent Batman watching (hint hint). I have the chapter written on paper and I just need to muster up the motivation to type it up.