Thank you for your reviews! Some of them gave me a huge goofy grin. I'm glad to see you like it so far:) Enjoy, and please let me know what you think.
Helena sauntered into the 12th precinct the next morning and she instantly knew Myka's walls had gone back up. Back up with a moat, alligators and guards in the form of Claudia and Pete. Myka hadn't even looked up at Helena as she said hello, instead keeping her gaze down at her notes. Clearly some sort of lead had come in in the time it had taken Myka to call her and for her to arrive at the station. Helena had figured as much would happen after she left Myka's apartment the night before. The woman was an enigma, and figuring her out was driving Helena crazy. She chose to ignore Myka's coolness, assuming she felt embarrassed about last night. Helena didn't think she had a single thing to be embarrassed about but from what she had learned about Myka so far, she did not like showing any type of weakness.
Helena couldn't remember having a nicer night in a long time. Despite the fact that it hadn't lasted very long, talking with Myka about their personal lives had been refreshing. Seeing the protective nature of Myka as she made sure that Helena had a safe way home was very sweet. Helena was used to being the caretaker, it suited her. She had learned at an early age to take care of herself with her mother off at this play, or this party or a date with some man; it was second nature. Having Christina unexpectedly had only forced herself to grow up even more; at least, where her daughter was concerned.
Helena had frozen once she saw the pain in Myka's face the night before. The taller woman's voice had broken a little as she explained that her old boyfriend had died. Helena could sense it hadn't just been about him. Myka had been melancholy the whole night, but that moment seemed to be the last straw. On instinct, Helena had moved to hold her – not sure how else to proceed – but Myka had folded into herself and pushed Helena away. She had almost pushed back, but decided it wouldn't be the best idea, as much as it pained her, she had left Myka alone.
Since she had expected it, she didn't let it phase her. Helena spoke with Claudia and Pete while Myka did whatever she was doing and gave her the few moments she seemed to need to collect herself. Helena liked Pete and Claudia more than she thought she would. The two had a sort of brother sister relationship going on and watching them bicker and work together was always entertaining. Currently, they were going on and on about some video game that Helena had never heard of. She nodded and smiled along and stole glances over at Myka. Finally, she placed her phone in its receiver and walked over to the three of them.
"Pete, Claud, I want you to check the hotel where we found the rug the body was wrapped in..."
Helena cut her off. "Technically, I discovered the rug." She said with a smirk. Myka took a breath and shot Helena a look before continuing on.
"Head over there and see what you can find." She finished. The two nodded, Pete promised to bring Helena a copy of the video game for her tomorrow and they went off.
"You play video games?" Myka asked as they made their way over to the coffee pot in the break room. Helena took the mug Myka offered, but the idea of drinking the drivel caused her to be nauseous. She decided that she was going to buy the precinct a new coffee maker, she couldn't stand this much longer.
"Video games are an excellent means of procrastination from writing." Helena said with a smile. "Though I prefer to play laser tag with Christina."
Helena looked up and saw Myka smiling into her coffee mug. "Laser tag?"
"It's a brilliant game. You should join us sometime." Helena added it casually on instinct but picturing Myka decked out in the laser equipment running through her apartment with Christina brought a smile to her face. That was something she would very much like to see.
Myka smiled softly, sipped her coffee and stood up straight. "We need to find out who the call girl was that our man was meeting with. If we can talk to her, we might be able to get some more information."
Helena took note of the complete change in subject and the fact that Myka hadn't answered her, but she sighed and nodded. She could be patient when she needed to be but she fully intended to push Myka later. For now, she followed Myka back to her desk and reached out to take the photos of the Councilman. Inspecting them with a laugh, she showed one to Myka. "I must hand it to the man, he is incredibly flexible for someone of his age. Look at that, have you ever done that?" She asked. Myka only glared. Helena ignored her. "I have, it's quite difficult, he must to pilates or yoga of some sort."
"Would you put those away?" Myka asked, clearly annoyed. Helena flipped through them one more time before setting them down. "Why is it always the family values guys that get caught with their pants down?" Myka asked.
"Because darling, the universe loves irony; and because most people are hypocrites."
Myka sighed. "Well, hopefully the website the PI showed us has our girl on it."
Pete and Claudia came back from a dead end with the rug, and the whole group gathered around the computer. "Damn!" Pete muttered as Claudia pulled up the site. "Those are some seriously fine five star class misdemeanors."
Helena had to agree with him. Claudia leaned over and whispered, "dude, between you and me, you ever pay for it?"
Helena smirked. "Are you counting my marriages?" Claudia laughed. "Wait! Stop there, that is the woman in the photos."
"Hot damn, Miss Tiffany." Pete whistled. Myka walked up behind him, slapped the back of his head and dropped files into Helena's lap.
"Control yourselves." She said as Pete made a mockery of rubbing his head. "We're gonna have some trouble locating the IP address, if its not local, we're gonna have to get other departments to cooperate for us."
Helena tuned her and Claudia out. Whatever they were talking about was uninteresting and sounded like it would take forever. She pulled out her cell phone, and dialed the number on the website. "Or we could just do it the easy way." She said with a smile. Claudia whipped around and stared at Helena with her mouth open. "Hello, my name is Helena and I am a very generous woman looking to arrange a date with Tiffany." Helena looked over and caught Myka's glare. The taller woman lunged and tried to pry the phone out of Helena's hands. Reacting quickly, Helena jumped up and ran around Pete and Claudia, stepping out of Myka's reach. "If you could give me a call on my phone..." Myka reached around and almost grabbed the phone as Helena twisted her body away.
"Wells! Stop it!" She hissed, trying the other way around. Helena only shoved a spinning chair in front of her and stepped to the side again. "Wells!"
"My number is 347-555-0179 thank you!" Helena said quickly and hung up the phone. Myka did not stop her advance. In fact she got right in Helena's face and began yelling.
"Wells! You can't just call and arrange a date with a prostitute." She chided.
"Why ever not?" Helena asked, smartly backing away from the infuriated woman.
"Because we're the police!" Myka yelled.
"No, no, no." Helena said with a cheeky grin. "You're the police. I'm simply a lonely upscale woman looking for a date." Myka shot her possibly the most terrifying glare yet. Helena only grinned broadly, an angry Myka was – certainly slightly terrifying – but also quite adorable. "Bet I find her first!" She said as she wriggled her eyebrows.
A delivery boy walked into the station just as Myka was probably about to begin screaming and go from adorable angry, to plain old scary angry. "Is there a Helena G. Wells here?" He asked.
Helena spun around and raised her hand, happy to be momentarily away from Myka's anger. "Right here!"
"Where do you want it boss?" He asked, indicating to a very large package. "Ah yes brilliant! Straight through there." She said, pointing to the break room.
"Wells?" Myka asked through gritted teeth.
Helena did a little hop and walked back over to Myka, placing and arm around the taller woman's waist she gave her a little shove and directed her forward. "Darling, you are going to love this." She said excitedly.
"No, I'm pretty sure I won't." Myka answered, allowing herself to be pushed forward, but not happy about it.
"Claudia! Pete! Come here!" Helena waved them over, practically bouncing on her toes. Pete jumped up eagerly and ran into the break room, pushing Myka to move faster. "Yes, just place that down right there." Helena directed. She turned to the trio and smiled genuinely. "Because you have all been so wonderfully hospitable to me, I wanted to do something to return the favor. And because your coffee is bloody awful I got you an expresso machine." Helena spun the box around with a flourish and stroked the side of it happily. Myka's expression never wavered, but Pete and Claudia grinned and Pete offered Helena a high five.
"I think my phone is ringing." Myka said. It clearly wasn't, but Myka turned and walked out of the room.
Helena eagerly tore open the box and began assembling the device; waving away the offer of help from the delivery boy. "Nonsense, I'm an incredibly intelligent woman, I can read a set of instructions." She happily got the machine running while Pete and Claudia watched, looking rather impressed. Helena had always been good at building things. If she hadn't become a writer, she would have wanted to have been an inventor of sorts, that, or a pirate.
Myka sat perched on one of Leena's examination tables, her coat on, swinging her legs back and forth while she waited for her friend. Minutes later, Leena walked in, and began slipping out of her white lab coat. "Hey." Myka said. Leena jumped in surprise.
"Damn girl, you scared me." She accused.
"Leena, you're surrounded by corpses!" Myka protested.
Leena hung up her lab coat, and put her tools away before turning back around to Myka. "Yeah, but I don't expect the living after 7 o'clock."
"Funny." Myka said dryly. "Neither to do I."
"I'm an ME, what's your excuse?" Leena asked.
"Oh don't be mean!"
"You deserve it." Leena said walking towards Myka with a grin. "Getting a drink with me after work instead of getting your freak on with writer girl?"
Myka glared. "Yeah, well, she is a woman; not to mention, annoying, self-centered, egotistical, and completely..."
"Fun!" Leena interrupted her. Myka made a face at her. "Take it from me girl, you need some fun." She said. Myka pouted and glared at the same time, she wasn't sure it gave off the effect she was going for. "I mean how bad can she be?" Leena asked as Myka's phone rang.
"Bering?" She asked, still with a pout.
"Guess who's got a date with a prostitute!?" HG's cheerful, annoying accent filled the room. Myka didn't say a single word, she held up the phone and glared at Leena. Her point had just been proven for her. Leena only mouthed 'fun' and walked away.
Over an hour later, Myka stood in the middle of a restaurant watching as Tiffany – tall, blonde, tan, blue eyed slender woman in a very tight hot pink dress – walked up to where HG was sitting. She gritted her teeth as HG jumped up and shook her hand warmly, introducing herself. Myka huffed and walked forward, overhearing the conversation as she got closer.
"Ah, well aren't you a lady." Tiffany said seductively as HG pulled out a chair for her.
"We are a dying breed." HG responded. Myka rolled her eyes walked up to the table, enjoying the look of terror that crossed Tiffany's face as she sat down next to her at the chair HG had pulled out for her.
"Detective Myka Bering, NYPD, we'd like to ask you some questions regarding your relationship with Councilman Jeff Horn." Myka sated professionally. Tiffany looked across the table to HG and frowned.
"Sorry." HG whispered. Myka refrained herself from kicking her shins under the table.
As they walked back into the station, HG gloated. "Politics, escorts and blackmail? This just keeps getting better. And, I did find her first I might add." Myka didn't quite feel her enthusiasm.
"If he couldn't keep making payments on his own, he might have needed to use campaign money. He must have left some sort of trail." She said as she shed her coat and headed straight for the break room coffee; pointedly ignoring the fancy expresso machine, she poured herself regular old black coffee into her NYPD cup, added in a packet of sugar and tried to ignore HG watching her.
Ever since the night they had gone for a walk and HG had come up to Myka's apartment, she hadn't quite known how to act around the english woman. HG acted like it wasn't a big deal, she was still as annoying as ever, but Myka couldn't help but feel exposed. Her apartment for one was complete crap, compared to what she assumed was a huge, beautiful, expensive loft HG lived in, it must have looked pathetic. Not to mention how Myka had reacted when HG had brought up Sam. Myka had wanted the floor to swallow her up and save her rather than look up and see pity in the other woman's eyes. She was sick of pity. She had been getting looks of pity since the day the policemen came to her house to inform her that her mother had been murdered. They only became worse after Sam died. Not only was she the daughter of a murdered lawyer, she was a rookie with a dead boyfriend and partner. Thank god she had gotten Pete after that, anyone else and she might not have survived it. Pete knew when to make jokes and when to back off. The two of them became so in sync they barely needed to communicate with words out in the field. Truthfully, she wouldn't have made detective so young – maybe if at all – if not for Pete. In some ways, Myka missed the days when it was just the two of them out in their patrol cars, doing the grunt work and leaving the difficult stuff up to the detectives. While she certainly hadn't been what most would call happy – or healthy – when she was with Pete she felt better than she had since her mother died.
Everyone had joked that the two of them had been dating, it was easy to see how close they became. Myka hadn't exactly taken care of herself well after her mother's death. Sam had helped, but while she was sure she had loved him; thinking back on it now, she wasn't sure if they would have lasted very much longer. He got frusturated with Myka when she forgot to eat, or woke up screaming from a nightmare, or spent days crying in bed. Part of her didn't blame him, if their situations had been reversed, she was sure it would have been hard for her, but she couldn't help it. That first year after her mother's murder, Myka had taken time off school, and dropped into a very unhealthy routine. While her father drove himself into a drunken stupor – and stayed there ever since – Myka barely ate, very rarely got out of bed let alone showered and left her room. HG's books were the only things that were able to hold her attention and keep her mind off her mother. Joanna had bought one of HG earliest novels and loved it, making sure Myka read it too. The two of them had devoured the first five books with great vigor. Myka was sure they would only make her feel worse, since it was something they had shared and were stories chock full of murder; but somehow, they had a healing effect instead. Eventually, she dragged herself off to a shrink, got up, forced herself out of bed, showered and went back to school, applying for the police academy. She met Sam there and he certainly helped speed the process along but she had her bad days and Sam wasn't really good with grief.
His death had of course come once Myka had finally seemed to get over her mother's murder; as much as she could be. At least this time Myka had answers. There wasn't the horrible empty feeling of the unknown. Myka had been there, it was an accident. Many people had known about her and Sam. Myka had taken some grief from her superiors for it, partners dating wasn't exactly within the rules. Luckily, most people weren't aware until after his death, and they weren't about to bring it up then. Pete and Myka however, after a while, became fair game. At first it had pissed Myka off, but then she learned to just shrug it off until everyone got bored. Pete helped – again – and she stopped being bothered by people's jokes.
If not for Pete, Myka probably would have lost it. Her father was still perpetually drunk and in no state to comfort her about anything. More times than not, Pete camped out on Myka's couch, made sure she ate three meals a day, and covered for her when she needed a few minutes to herself. Once or twice, he even read one of HG's books out loud to her to help her sleep. She swore him to secrecy and threatened his life once HG had begun shadowing Myka. For all Pete's jokes and nonsense, Myka trusted him with her secrets and her life like she never had with anyone else. He still covered for her when she needed a day off, which was usually only limited to her mother's birthday, her death date, and Myka's birthday. She allowed herself those days to break down as much as she needed, stay in bed and cry, spend all day at her mother's grave, whatever she felt like doing. She got those days, and those days only other than a moment or two, otherwise, she would get back to unhealthy habits. At her very worst, she had lost almost thirty pounds, and had to be hospitalized in order to get her strength back. Myka was not about to ever let that happen again.
The night HG had come over had been one of her few allowed moments. She had almost broken down in front of the other woman, and she wouldn't forgive herself for it. She prayed that HG would simply let the matter go, or assume it had solely to do with Sam, but she had a feeling that wasn't the case. HG was biding her time, and Myka wasn't looking forward to it at all.
"Do you have something against foamy richness?" HG asked while she expertly made a show out of her coffee concoction.
"Yeah." Myka said as she sipped her coffee. "It annoys me."
HG looked like she was about to say something in protest, but luckily for Myka, Pete and Claudia waltzed in with new information on their blackmailer.
"Turns out our boy Bruce, got his badge taken away for excessive force before turning into the PI business. And, he's got a 38 registered to his name." Pete said as he made himself a cup of HG's fancy coffee.
"That's the type of gun that killed the councilman!" HG said.
"Indeed it is." Claudia said, taking the cup HG offered her. Myka watched in annoyance as the three of them all grinned at each other and clinked their mugs together. "God this is so good." Claudia moaned.
"Delicious." HG added, shooting Myka a look. She rolled her eyes and walked away. Having the three of them becoming friends was annoying. They could gang up on her now.
Helena watched from behind the one sided mirror as Myka and Pete interrogated the PI that had taken the pictures of the councilman cheating on his wife. While Helena decided that she and Myka made a much more effective interrogation team, she could appreciate that Pete and Myka worked well together. Unfortunately, not much came out of it other than confirmation that he was in fact the person blackmailing the councilman, and that he should have been getting the money the night he was murdered. Feeling dejected, Helena bid everyone goodnight and headed home to have dinner with Christina.
Later while she was in her study, Christina came in, clad in her pjs. "Hello sweetheart, did you finish your homework?" Helena asked.
"Yep."
"Would you care to do mine?"
"That depends, how much are you willing to pay me for it?" Christina asked cheekily. Helena looked up with a grin.
"Oh darling, I've taught you well." She said proudly. Christina giggled and perched herself on top of Helena's desk.
"Gina called, she wanted me to remind you about your book signing tomorrow night."
"Oh, well that was nice of her." Helena said.
"Yeah, and if you don't show..." Christina paused and pulled open a paper she had folded in her hands. Helena looked back up at her daughter curiously. "She will, drip honey on your eyeballs and let loose a hundred fire ants." Christina smiled. Now, that sounded much more like Helena's ex-wife than a friendly reminder.
Helena picked up one of her book reviews. "Ah, now darling what sounds worse, a hundred fire ants on your eyeballs or reading to a crowd; 'prose so bad it sent me screaming out into the snow'?" She asked, quoting from the review.
Christina smiled and slipped off of the desk and onto her mother's lap. "If you really want to feel bad about yourself, then you should read the review in The Ledger." She said, pulling up the article on Helena's computer.
Helena pouted and leaned her chin on Christina's shoulder. "Ugh, that bloody elite tosser, what's he saying about me now?"
"Helena G. Wells' stirring finale reminds us what good pulp fiction is all about. It makes us desire a world of startling imperfections so we can rise above and become the heroes we always imagined ourselves to be." Christina read proudly then pulled away from her mother and turned to her with a smile.
"It used to be such a good paper, to it have fallen so far is really..."
"Shut up!" Christina yelled, wrapping her arms around Helena's neck and kissing her cheek. "I'm proud of you."
"Ah, yes, remember that the next time I sing the peanut butter song in front of your friends." Helena said, kissing Christina back.
"Have you caught the killer yet?" She asked as she leaned back into Helena's chest.
"No." Helena said with a slight pout. She wrapped her arms around Christina and sat there in silence for a few moments. "If you were in a lot of trouble and needed a quarter of a million dollars, where would you get it?" She asked.
"I'd just ask you." Christina answered, giving her mother one more kiss. "Goodnight!"
Helena smiled at her daughter's retreating form, then turned her attention back to the computer. Noticing an article on the councilman's wife next to her review, she grinned as an idea occurred to her. Grabbing her coat, Helena ran downstairs, yelling for her mother to stay home with Christina and hailed a cab. She burst into the dark and quiet station, looking furiously around for Myka. She realized maybe calling might have been helpful, the detective could have gone home, but something in her didn't think so. Myka's desk was empty, but looked like the curly haired woman had only been there moments before. Helena looked around and saw her familiar form through the break room window.
"Hi!" She said hurriedly. Myka jumped and dropped her coffee mug onto the expresso machine.
"Hi." She answered back in a high pitched voice. Helena had clearly just scared the living daylights out of her.
"There's something I need to show you!" Helena said, not really noticing how much she had frightened Myka, and turned and ran back to Myka's desk. "I found this when I looked through his records from his first campaign. Horn wasn't wealthy, but his wife came from money. She used her trust funds to finance his first campaign." Helena explained excitedly. She looked over to Myka and saw a grin creep across her face.
"All this time we thought Horn was hiding his affair from his wife..."
"Yes! But what if she knew about the affair, what if he got the blackmail money from her?" Helena asked. Myka's grin widened.
"Good job Wells." Myka said, standing and already arranging for Mrs Horn to come in to be interviewed in the morning. Helena sighed happily to herself and watched Myka work.
The next morning, Helena was allowed in the interrogation room; this time however, she sat back and – mostly – let Myka do the talking. Helena watched in awe as Myka pulled the confession out of the woman. Rather than allow herself the shame of being one of those wives that stood by their unfaithful politician husband, she conspired with her husband's best friend to murder him.
As they walked out of the interrogation room, Helena's phone rang. "Hello?"
"Mom! Where are you?" Christina asked.
"Where am I supposed to be?"
"Fire ants? Eyeballs?" Christina reminded her.
Helena panicked. Gina was not above finding fire ants and breaking into her home in the middle of the night. It was half of what had attracted Helena to the woman in the first place. "Stall for me!" She yelled to her daughter, hung up the phone and ran out of the precinct without saying goodbye to Myka.
She managed to get to the bookstore only fifteen minutes later than she was originally supposed to be there. Gina was thankfully nowhere in sight. She was going to buy Christina a pony, perhaps two. Right at the end of her reading Helena looked up to the crowd, and nearly choked on her words. Strutting into the bookstore in a very tight, very sexy, and very short, pink dress was none other than Detective Myka Bering. Myka grinned as she slipped out of her coat and Helena managed to finish her paragraph without making a complete fool out of herself.
The crowed dispersed and Helena lost sight of Myka for a few minutes as she quickly signed a few books for some fans. Catching sight of her talking with a man Helena didn't recognize, she quickly made her way over to the tall woman.
"Detective Bering, to what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?"
Myka turned away from the man after saying goodbye, then smirked deliciously at Helena. "I just figured if you're gonna bother me at my work, I should bother you at yours. That was quite a reading, very moving." She said.
"Are you making fun of me?" Helena asked, crossing her arms.
Myka grinned and very dramatically – along with mimicking Helena's accent – said, "good, she thought as the wind gathered up her hair, no one will see my tears." Switching back to her regular voice, she smirked. "How does wind gather up hair I'm just curious."
"Oh, you're telling me how to do my job?"
"Irritating isn't it?" Myka said, biting her lip in a way that if Helena wasn't annoyed would have caused her to feel quite a lot of inappropriate things. Before she could respond, her mother and daughter ran up behind her.
"Oh, well look at you!" Martha said complimenting Myka. "Everyone is buying your book!" She yelled happily to Helena as she hooked their elbows together. "Let's just hope Nikki Heat does just as well."
"Nikki Heat?" Myka asked.
"The character she's basing on you!" Martha said, probably thinking she was being helpful. Helena watched as Myka's eyes flashed dangerously.
"Nikki...Heat? Can I talk to you for a second?" She asked.
"Of course." Helena said, slipping out of her mother's grasp. This was certainly going to be interesting.
"What the hell kind of name is Nikki Heat?" Myka practically growled once they were out of earshot of Martha and Christina.
"A cop name."
"It's a stripper name."
"Well darling, I told you she was a little slutty." Helena said with a grin.
"Change it now Wells." Myka insisted.
"Now dear think of the titles, Heat Wave, In Heat..." Helena trailed of as Myka moved closer.
"Change it." She ordered. Helena backed up, throughly enjoying herself.
"No." She said simply.
Myka pushed forward. "Change it Wells."
"No."
"Change it."
"No. I have artistic integrity." Helena insisted as she spun around and began walking away from Myka.
The curly haired woman scoffed. "Artistic integrity? Change the name Wells." She yelled as she followed Helena through the bookstore. "Wells! Change it!"
"No."
"Yes!"
"No."
"Wells!"