"Hello Myka."
"Helena?" Myka breathed out. " What-what are you doing here?"
"Well" The other woman adjusted the bag on her shoulder "I've come in hopes of being–"
"Hey Myka who was at the door?!" Claudia yelled as she made her way down the stairs and towards the front the door. The young girl let out a squeal when she rounded the corner.
"Oh my God HG!" She exclaimed. She pushed her way passed Myka and enveloped the author in a hug. "What are you doing here?"
"Well I was just saying," Helena chuckled " that I've returned in hopes of being reinstated as an agent..again." Helena said the last part a bit softly. It was then that both Claudia and Myka noticed the suitcase and duffel bag at the brunettes side.
"Seriously?" Claudia beamed. "Dude that would be so awesome! Wait why the hell are we still standing outside? Come in. "
"Hey guys who ate all of the chocolate chip cookies in the-woah HG!" Pete said surprised. "What are you doing here? Is everything alright? Is something wrong?" He added quickly.
"Don't worry Peter everything is fine." Helene assuredhim.
"She wants to come back to the warehouse." Claudia filled in.
"That's great!" He hugged her. "That's really great. We could always use the extra hands, I have to admit I have kind of missed you around here. Hey Mykes are you alright?"
Myka had barely moved in the pass few minutes, all she did was stare at the woman before her. She wondered how it could be possible. She had only dreamed of this moment for months never believing that it would happen. Especially after Wisconsin…but now here she was and the young agent had so many emotions building up inside of her, she couldn't tell what she was feeling exactly.
"Myka." Pete waved his hand in front of her face.
"What?" she looked at him wide eyed.
"Are you okay?" He partner asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Yeah I'm fine." She shrugged. "I just..uh..forgot to bring Juliet her food." she turned to pick up the tray on the table.
"I just checked on her, she was totally knocked out." Claudia said. "And Abigail called , she said she would be here first thing in the morning."
"Oh..good." Myka nodded. "But I still wanna go check on her." And with that the curly haired woman made her away around the hall and up the flight of stairs, a disappointed Helena watching her disconcertedly.
"Do we..um..have a new recruit?" The Brit asked.
"Not exactly." Pete answered." She's kind of..sort of..Myka's kid a little bit."
"What?" Helena looked at him shocked.
"It's complicated." He sighed putting his hand on her shoulder. " But hey you're back! Yay!" he clapped his hands.
"So have you talked to the regents yet? Claudia asked as the trio made their way to the living room
"I called and she arranged a meeting with them for tomorrow."
Upstairs Myka slowly crept into her room trying to make as little noise as possible. She saw that Juliet was in fact asleep, her small face buried in Myka's pillow. The older woman set the tray on the dresser, walked over to the teenager and gently laid the back of her hand on the girl's forehead.
"Great." She sighed. "You're temperatures gone up."
She looked at the clock and saw that it was only 8:30. She sighed once more as she buried her face in her hands. She was just getting over Helena leaving to Wisconsin and living in suburbia with Nate and Adelaide. But now Helena was back, making everything complicated again. This time she really thought she could get over her. Having Juliet around made it easier to redirect her thoughts on something other than ex agent.
Myka knew that she couldn't go downstairs, not now. So she decided to just throw on pair of pajamas, slip into bed next to Juliet and finish reading one of her novels.
But it was no use she could barely get though one sentence without Helena creeping into her thoughts.
Finally at around midnight her eyes began to grow heavy. Juliet rolled over next to her and buried her face in Myka's side. The woman smiled and leaned over to turn off the lamp and then she slipped further into covers, gently laying her hand on the teenagers arm.
"Run!" A voice screamed down the hallway. "Run and don't look back! Go now!"
The sound of her bare feet hitting the ground and the pounding of her heart in her chest were the only things she could hear. The air was rushing against her face so hard that she could barely breathe.
"Run! He's behind you! RUN!"
Suddenly there was a loud BANG and she could feel the piercing of a bullet in her back, causing her to fall hard on her stomach, knocking the airout of her. She tried to crawl but the grass was too slippery and she began regurgitating blood.
She heard the cocking of a gun right behind her. She tried to stand but the pressure of a big boot stepping on her back stopped her. She felt the hard, hot barrel press against the back of her head.
BANG BANG
Juliet shot up in the bed gasping for air, a sharp pain piercing her back. It took a while for her eyes to adjust to her surroundings.
'Where am I?' She thought, looking around the unfamiliar, dark room. She felt something pressed against her, she turned to see Myka's sleeping form beside her. She let out a sigh of relief, letting herself relax into the backboard .
All of a sudden she was overcome with nausea.
"Oh god." she covered her mouth, jumped out of bed and ran to bathroom, slamming the door behind her.
Myka rubbed her tired eyes as she began to awaken. She felt the mattress beside her but she was only met with emptiness. She quickly sat up and scanned the room for the teenager.
"Juliet?" She called. "Julie-" She stopped when she saw that the bathroom light was on.
She climbed out of bed, made her way across the room and softly knocked on the door. "Juliet? Are you in there?"
"Yeah." The girl answered meekly.
"Are you okay?" Myka asked as she slowly opened the door.
She was met with the small girl curled up next to the toilet bowl, her head buried in her knees.
Myka was at her side instantaneously. "Juliet are you alright?!" She ran her hand softly up and down the girl's back.
"Yeah I'm fine." Juliet said as she lifted her head. "I just got a little nauseous."
"Do you feel better?" Juliet began to stand up, using Myka as leverage.
"Yeah." She said shakily.
"Do you wanna go back to bed?" Myka tucked a strand of teenager's hair behind her ear.
"No. I think I'll just take a shower first." Juliet tried to muster up a small smile.
"Okay." Myka nodded. "Well I'll be right outside if you need me."
"Okay thank you."
When Juliet finally got out of the shower she immediately laid back in bed. Myka rubbed the young girls back until she finally fell asleep. The agent wasn't sure why but when it came to Juliet she wasn't as shy as she normally was. There was something so fragile about Juliet, even though the girl was quite independent for her age, there was still so much frailty to her. Myka would find herself constantly checking on her, even if they were in the same room, she would look up from her book or whatever she was doing to make sure the teenager was alright. She understood now just how hard parenting could be. The children weren't necessarily the hard part, it was the pressure of making sure they were always safe, the anxiety you would feel when they were away from you that made it difficult. Myka had so much respect for her sister now…
Unfortunately Myka was also still wide awake even though it was well into the late hours of the night, so she decided to go downstairs and finish some paperwork.
First however, she walked into the kitchen to get herself a glass of water.
While was standing in front of the counter, she suddenly heard the back screen door open. She held her breathe and slowly turned around, scared of what she might find.
"AH!"
"Oh my God Myka you scared me!" Helena exclaimed, holding her hand over her chest.
"I scared YOU?!" Myka shot back. "It's the middle of the night what the hell were you doing out there?"
"I was just drinking some tea on the patio." Helena raised the mug in her hand. "What are you doing down here?"
"I couldn't sleep." Myka turned her back to the other woman and proceeded to pour the water into her cup.
"Oh I see.." Helena walked around to the other is of the counter so she could look at Myka face to face. "You know I'm glad that we have this time alone because I would really like to talk to you." Myka just kept staring at her water. "Myka," Helena pleaded. "Please look at me." Green eyes met brown and both women stared silently at each other for a while. "I am so sorry." Helena began.
"You know what? I don't think now is a good time to talk." Myka grabbed her glass and started to walk out of the kitchen.
"Why not?" Helena followed behind her.
"Because I'm busy." Myka answered.
"Doing what?!" Helena asked but the other woman just kept on walking. "I just want to have an honest moment alone with you."
Myka stopped in her tracks, causing Helena to slightly bump into her. When the younger woman turned around they were so close to each other, Helena could smell Myka's shampoo. "You want honest?" Myka's voice was low. "Fine, I'll give you honest. I DONT want to talk to you right now. Why? Because I can barely stand being in the same room as you let alone have a conversation. So just leave me alone okay?" Myka turned around once again and started walking up the stairway.
Helena reached out her hand but soon retracted figuring it probably wasn't a good idea. She couldn't understand why the younger agent was so mad, sure she had left without saying goodbye but she was only doing what she was told. But she also knew that she had put Myka through so much over the past couple years and maybe the younger woman had just had it. Maybe she finally decided that she wasn't going to be on Helena's side for once.