The next afternoon found Helena taking inventory of the artifacts that were due for processing. She was rather fond of the monotonous task, at the moment, as she found herself to be quite irritable after waking to an empty bed, and had no desire to inflict that tetchiness upon her colleagues.
Foolish as she knew it was, as she had only had Myka beside her for two consecutive nights, Helena couldn't seem to help herself. The previous morning, she had woken to gentle kisses against her back, placed with so much care and concern that, when reflecting upon the memory, Helena found her eyes damp. And this morning, she had woken alone, with the dissatisfying knowledge that Myka was presently more than five hundred miles away.
Helena sighed her discontent, and signed off on Ray Charles' sunglasses – an artifact that had been rather daringly obtained by Pete and Claudia two weeks prior – and, with the completion of her inventory list, she made her way back through the Warehouse to Artie's office.
The flurry of activity that greeted her, however, did not bode well.
"HG!" Claudia exclaimed nervously, dropping the file that she had been rifling through before she'd glanced up at her. "You're here! Artie, look! HG is here!"
Helena frowned, but bent to help Claudia retrieve the papers that had been dropped in the midst of her scuffle. "Is there a reason why I oughtn't be?" She asked, her interest immediately piqued.
"Guys," Helena heard Myka's tremulous voice call out from somewhere near Artie's desk.
"Myka?" Helena inquired swiftly, standing to find the Farnsworth that Artie snatched away from her as soon as she made to reach for it.
Myka offered an unsteady smile as Helena bent to lean over Artie's shoulder, which the difficult man just hardly tolerated.
"Hey," Myka said, guilt and fear melting together in one turbulent noise as she watched Myka's face shake due to a shift of her Farnsworth on the other end. "Oh God," she hissed, shutting her eyes tightly. "Guys, anything you have would be really great right now!"
"We're trying, Mykes! Just hang on, okay?" Claudia pleaded.
"Myka, darling, what's happening?"
Myka laughed, though it was clearly cynical and more than a little hysterical. "You remember that talk we had about falling off the tower? I must've been seriously jinxed or – or something, because that's looking like a very real possibility, and – Oh, God. Seriously?" She yelled, looking up the side of what Helena could now identify as Willis Tower. "Pete, come on! I'm already half way off the building! Let the cookie thing go already! Okay?"
"He's not in his right mind, Myka," Artie said quickly, jamming a sequence of numbers into his computer. "You can't rationalize with him right now; his brainwaves have been seriously impacted by the frequencies of the antennas."
Helena's heart hammered in her chest, and she found her breaths to be sparser in number than she really needed. "Myka," she exhaled rapidly, covering her mouth with her fingers. "Myka, use the Tesla!"
"I don't have the Tesla!" Myka expressed desperately. "Pete does," she whimpered. "And he's too busy shouting about those fucking cookies to fire it, but his rant sounds like it's dying down, so, Artie, any time now would be really, really okay with me!"
"Got it!" Claudia exclaimed triumphantly, shoving Artie out of the way to access the computer, and her nimble fingers quickly drew up a series of wavelengths that Helena could discern very little from.
Artie reclaimed his previous position, Claudia hurriedly shrinking out of his way.
"Artie's almost there, Mykes!" Claudia informed. "Just hang on a couple more seconds, okay?"
But Helena saw the blaring flash of light that she immediately recognized as the bolt of the Tesla being fired, and she raked in a gasp of breath, as she shouted, "Myka!"
The woman in the window of the Farnsworth had dropped no more than a couple centimeters as she swung out of the way to avoid the shot, but Helena knew that her grasp on the rooftop had to be feeble, at best, after so long a period fighting to keep her hold, and she couldn't seem to slow her heart down long enough to respond with anything but a terrified stare into the screen.
And then a raucous noise that sounded much like bagpipes roared from Artie's computer, and though it startled Helena, it seemed that Myka had very much been prepared for it, and she immediately called, "Pete!"
"Myka?" They heard, as Myka's gaze shifted urgently away from them. "Mykes!" Pete cried, and moments later, Myka was evidently being pulled upward by her partner. Helena held her breath, hoping desperately that Pete had the strength to lift her without allowing her to slip. "Mykes, are you okay?" He asked, once the Farnsworth shuffled around a bit more.
"No!" Myka's vehemence was evident, even with the Farnsworth trembling at her side. "No, Pete, I am not okay! Give me that," she snarled, and as she raised the Farnsworth closer to her face, they watched her seize the Tesla from Pete's hand.
"Mykes, what happened? How did you get down there?" Pete asked, obviously seeping with confusion and serious concern.
"You pushed me down there, Pete! Over cookies! COOKIES!" Myka screamed.
"What?" Pete asked, shaking his head quickly. "No I didn't!" He denied. "We just got out here five seconds ago. And, jeez, was that security goon suspicious about those fake badges," he said, scratching his head. "I was worried he wouldn't let us on the roof."
Myka stared at him incredulously. "Pete! You shoved me off the side of the freakin' Sears Tower, because I teased you about your cookie stash! I'm not really very concerned about the security guard right now, okay?" She snapped viciously.
"Hey!" Artie shouted, causing both of their gazes to break toward the Farnsworth again. "Goo the damn things and get out of there! You've already drawn enough attention to yourselves."
Helena could take no more of his condescension toward Myka, and simply snatched the device from Artie's desk, pleading frantically into the device, "Myka, darling, come home. Come home now, alright?"
With a glance that spoke of all the terror behind her fury, Myka nodded.
"Helena, I – " Myka began, but shook her head as a pool of tears welled in her eyes.
"Sh, my love. I know. I know," she murmured, her heart still thudding uncomfortably to find a proper pace. "Just finish up there and come home to me, darling."
Myka nodded again, and though the words 'I love you' didn't escape her lips, Helena could clearly read it in her eyes, and she smiled shakily in return before Myka clipped her Farnsworth shut.
"You," she growled, her voice nothing but a low rumble that abraded her throat as she rounded on Artie with a predatory glare that, she could note from her periphery, had even Claudia slinking back with fear, "should never have sent her up there without verifying that neither of them would be affected by that frequency!"
"I had no way to test that! And what was the alternative?" Artie snapped. "Sending Claudia? Either way, someone was going to end up on the side of that building!"
"Myka," Helena began dangerously, "is afraid of heights, you cantankerous, old fool. How could you have expected her to be proficient up there at all, particularly when confronted with a situation such as that one?" She finished on a shout.
"I expected her to do her job," Artie barked, "which is significantly less than what you've expected of her in recent months!"
Helena balked at the assertion, and opened her mouth to spit back a reply that was more than a little unkind, but Claudia beat her to it.
"Hey, Pooh Bear," Claudia called his attention abruptly. "That's enough. Myka forgave her, and anything outside of that is none of your business."
Helena clamped her mouth shut, despite her deeply seated propensity for having the last word. She blew out a long sigh, and leaned forward against Artie's desk, her arms feeling as though nothing but pudding rested within them.
"I apologize," she gritted her teeth. "My concern for Myka seems to have gotten away with me."
Artie offered a gruff grunt, but said nothing.
"In the future, however," she said, more quietly, and also more compliantly, "I do hope that you'll be more sympathetic to our individual reservations, if and when such things can be taken into account."
"Sympathetic to – " Artie began to splutter, but after a swift and poisonous glare from Claudia, he huffed and offered a short, "Fine. I'll do what I can."
Helena turned to face him and nodded. "Thank you."
A moment of silence followed, during which Helena fought to regain her sanity, while Artie grouchily tapped at his keyboard, and Claudia shuffled around uncomfortably in the background.
"Hey, HG," Claudia said, offering a very small grin. "Want some company? Just until Myka gets back?" She shrugged a little. "Steve's in town for some Warehouse-y goodness."
"I could do with the company," Helena admitted.
Left alone, she was certain that she would simmer in her own frustrations and deep interests for Myka's wellbeing, and that couldn't end in anything but greater anticipation for Myka's arrival.
"Come on," Claudia said, indicating with an odd motion of her shoulder that Helena should follow her. "I have the new inventory lists downstairs."
Helena trailed behind her, and offered Artie another apologetic glance, to which he nodded at appreciatively.
"So," Claudia began, fumbling with the stack of papers she lifted from the table at the bottom of the steps, "that was kinda intense, right?"
Helena couldn't help the derisive snort that emerged from her throat. "Intense is a rather mild word for that particular experience."
"Yeah," Claudia nodded, brushing back a loose piece of hair thoughtfully. "But you were super great at calming Myka down."
Helena smiled briefly. "Myka isn't very difficult to calm."
"She can be," Claudia said, shrugging. "When you're not here, she's actually really hard to calm."
"Then I'm pleased that my presence offers something beneficial for her," Helena replied, though she internally warmed at the comment. It flattered her, more than a little, to know that she had such a profound effect on Myka.
"You do more good for her than bad, you know," Claudia informed, chancing a very small glance up at her before she looked away, clearly not as talented with emotional exchanges as she'd like to be.
Helena smiled affectionately.
"No. Dude, listen, I'm being serious," Claudia insisted. "Artie's grouchy 'cause Myka went a little cuckoo after Wisconsin, but he doesn't mean it. You being around makes Myka all gushy and happy. So don't go getting any ideas about leaving just because Artie huffed and puffed and tried to blow your house down."
Helena raised a brow. "I fail to understand your reference, I'm afraid," she said fondly, and she earned a broad grin from Claudia in return, which inevitably elicited a smile from Helena. "However, I can assure you that leaving the Warehouse has not once occurred to me. I have no desire to be apart from Myka for a day," she said pointedly. "What makes you think that leaving her altogether would appeal to my interests?"
"Good," Claudia nodded. "Well, now that that's over with… We're off to 42-B!"
"Lead the way, then," Helena requested, and yet again raised her brow when Claudia hooked their arms together and began skipping down the hall.
"Aw, c'mon, HG!" She pleaded. "It's fun! And also, you get there faster."
Helena had no inclination to skip, however she made no such comment to Claudia and merely allowed her to surge ahead as she followed behind her riotous footfalls. And as Helena observed the vastness that surrounded her, she acknowledged that, indeed, the Warehouse was not the safest place to fall so dangerously in love.
But that did not stop her from eagerly awaiting Myka's arrival.
Author's Note: Being terrified of heights myself, and having seen Willis Tower just last week, typing this chapter had my heart racing a little, haha. Reviews, please! Even if you hate the chapter, they really do help me to guide my writings!