Part 3

Helena sat up in bed, woke in the middle of the night, breathing heavily, and in a cold sweat. She had had the same nightmare she had been having, reliving what happened with Deborah, over and over again in her sleep. She heard something, and looked over, seeing someone standing in the open doorway of her room. She usually slept with her door shut, but she had left it open in case Piers, who had been sleeping on the couch, needed anything. She prepared to defend herself from an intruder until she heard a familiar voice.

"Helena, are you okay?"

Helena recognized the voice, as she had heard it enough over the past two days of him staying at her apartment. It was one that she also thought happened to be a very nice voice, a thought that she had had more than once over those two days.

"Piers. What are you doing?" she asked.

"I heard you screaming. I came to see if you were alright." he said.

"Oh." she said, pausing for a moment before she spoke again, "I'm alright. Thanks for checking up on me." In her voice, however, she sounded anything but fine. Even she knew it. She was just putting up her usual emotional wall, trying to hide how she really felt. Piers could tell, too. He tried once more, hoping that she might possibly tell him what was wrong, finally let him in.

"Are you sure?" he asked. Normally, Helena's first thought was to just tell him once again that she was fine and tell him to go back to bed, but she finally gave in. She was just so tired of fighting this alone, keeping it all in. Sometimes she wondered if she was somehow keeping herself from moving on. What happened to Deborah was devastating to her, yes, but, maybe she just needed to deal with it instead of beating herself up emotionally over and over again. She sighed.

"Come sit down." she said, flicking on a small lamp that sat on her bedside table. It produced a dim light. Piers walked over to her, sitting down beside her on the bed. He was shirtless, wearing just some dark colored pants, the clothes which he had been sleeping in. Though he was short and thin, his muscles were taught and defined. She couldn't help but stare for just a moment before catching herself. The look on her face became solemn and somewhat distant, as if she could still see clearly in her mind what she was about to tell him.

"My sister, Deborah, and have always been close. Our parents died when we were youby, so I always looked out for Deborah, like an older sister is supposed to. Once, she had an ex boyfriend who abused her, and even put her in the hospital once. I shot him, not to kill him. I just injured him. But, Deborah's death, it was because of me. Chief security advisor, Derek Simmons kidnapped Deborah and me. I begged him to take me, not to hurt her, that I'd anything... He told me that if I assisted in the attack, if I breached the president's security, that he would let Deborah go, that he wouldn't hurt her. He knew I would be able to. I was an agent in the secret service. I was supposed to be protecting the president. I was stupid. I believed Simmons, and I did what he wanted. I breached the president's security. I didn't know what else to do. But, Simmons didn't keep his word. His scientists experimented on Deborah using the C Virus, then they just dumped her off in the mines somewhere, like some... piece of garbage or something. Leon and I found her there, but it was too late. She had already been infected... We tried to get her out, but, she changed, right there in front of my eyes, she went into some kind of cocoon, and came out as some... creature. She was slimy with yellow eyes and these huge, sharp spider legs growings out of her back... She attacked us, and... we had to kill her. I see it sometimes at night in my sleep." she said. She looked away, starting to cry.

"I'm really sorry." Piers said, putting his hand on her hand. He brushed some of her hair away from her face. "Hey, look, it's not your fault, Helena." he said. She looked at him, her blue eyes still moist, her cheeks tear streaked.

"What?" she said.

"It wasn't your fault. You can't blame yourself for something Simmons did. If he hadn't used your sister, he would have found another way. And your sister didn't blame you. You did everything you could. You were willing to give up everything for her. And, what you did, it may have been wrong, but it doesn't make you a bad person, because you did it for a good reason. Anyone would do the same for someone they love." Piers said.

"Really?" she said.

"Of course. I'm sure Chris would have done the same for his sister, and he's the greatest person I know." he said.

"Thanks, Piers. I mean it." she said, even smiling, just slightly.

"No problem. Are you okay now?" he said, lightly touching her cheek without even thinking about what he was doing.

"I think I will be." she said. She noticed that his arm was completely healed, though it was covered in scars. She placed a hand gently on his arm, a solemn look on her face.

"It doesn't bother me. It's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe." he said, looking at his arm, then looking back at her, "Thanks for trusting me enough to tell me. About what happened with your sister."

"Thank you for listening to my whining." she said, smiling again. Suddenly, he leaned in and kissed her, but he pulled away quickly.

"I'm sorry. I don't know... That was completely disrespectful to you. I'm sorry." he said, hoping he wouldn't throw him out of her apartment right then and there. Helena laughed a little, and Piers looked confused.

"It's alright." she said.

"What?" he said, "Really?"

"Really. I liked it." she said. She smiled, leaning in and kissing him. He, of course, kissed her back, a little surprised that she was happy about it, and thinking that he was really glad that she was. When they broke the kiss, they looked into each other's eyes for a moment.

"You're beautiful." he said. Helena was somewhat taken by surprise by this. Deborah was always considered the pretty one, the one who was popular with men, even though she and Helena did resemble each other. Helena was always the rough-and-tumble one, not the one the men chased after.

"Thank you. You're pretty nice looking yourself." she said. She layed back down and patted the empty spot next to her on the bed, her way of gesturing for Piers to lay next to her. It was a double bed, even though she lived alone. She liked having more room to sleep. He lay next to her, and she cuddled up against him. He smiled as he watched her drift off to sleep. He wasn't used to this kind of thing. He hadn't had much experience with women at all, and even at 27 years old, this was the first time he had even kissed a woman. She was beautiful. He had noticed that the first time he had later eyes on her. At the moment, she was peacefully sleeping, not plagued by nightmares as she had been earlier that night. He finally wrapped his arms around her and drifted off to sleep.