Unwavering Loyalty

Helena was livid when she found out an insider was trying to usurp Wells Corp private information. It could have been about trade secrets, or their latest developments. Helena's worst fear was that someone would try to infiltrate the genetics lab. It had momentarily made her feel she was off her game and that frightened her. Helena had too many life lessons that taught her the consequences of not being ready for – anything.

Then Irene got sick and Helena was sharply reminded of what was important. It was a big step forward for Helena to admit that it was her connections with her friends that mattered, and not exacting revenge.

Still, she was going to address the issue…her way.

"What do you think Helena wanted with that address?" Eileen asked Claudia - after cleaning up the chicken and pasta dinner. As instructed, there were no utensils and although Claudia balked at first, saying 'dude, I am on duty here,' – she eventually got into the spirit and fun.

"She sounded pretty calm when I told her I was sending the recording to her email and that we got everything we need," Claudia said. Then the techie stopped and thought – "The boss did say 'not yet we don't' after that."

"I hope Ms. Bering is with her," Eileen said worried.

"Wouldn't you take me? You know if you were in Helena's shoes and were going? Would you take me?" Claudia asked.

Eileen stopped and leaned against the sink and thought about it. She didn't have trouble imagining confronting the woman. After all, the woman was privileged enough to work for Wells and she was betraying Helena. No, she really thought she could slap the woman for doing what she did. Since she saw no danger in actually confronting the woman, she decided she would ask Claudia to join her.

"Yes, I would," Eileen said sincerely.

So how come Helena didn't take Myka?

Helena huffed and sighed and finally got out of her chair and walked over to the lifeless body and shook her. Adelaide thought she was waking up from a scary dream.

"Would you mind? I'm actually on a rather tight schedule," Helena said to the woman just coming to. The Brit went back and took her seat again.

"What are you doing here?" Adelaide said, pulling herself up. She steadied herself long enough to sit on a foot stool across from Helena. She was trying to figure out how her boss got in her apartment.

"I am taking these items," Helena said, again dangling the jewelry and passport.

"You are….. robbing me?" Adelaide said upset.

"Oh so that's what it's called when you take something that does not belong to you. I'm going to give these trinkets to the first person I see on the street," Helena mused as she looked up at the ceiling.

"You can't…oh I get it. You know that I was with Mr. Grayson. Did he call you or something? Did he double cross me?" Adelaide asked.

"Oddly enough, Ted is a man of his word. If he promised you something in exchange for that information you gave him, I'm sure he'll follow through," Helena said calmly.

The air in the room felt colder to the resident and she felt as if a web was being spun around her. "Well, it doesn't matter. You have nothing on me and you're breaking and entering."

"I have the entire conversation between you and Ted. I have you on video accessing the private program and passing the information to Mr. Grayson tonight," Helena said.

"How is that possible?" the PhD asked. She was certain she left no trail – electronic or otherwise.

"This is what truly upsets me. Not that you stole information and passed it along and showed your true colors, which I am grateful for. What really maddens me is that you thought you could get away with it. That you wouldn't be caught by my brilliant staff. Now that upsets me," Helena said, and her expression turned dark as she locked eyes.

"I will press charges! Breaking and entering and stealing," Adelaide tossed her last hope.

"And the police will ask if you found any locks broken and ask if your alarm was set and was the safe still closed and you will answer yes to each of these questions. Then you'll hound them to dust for finger prints and they will – maybe - but find nothing. Then your passport will show up – somewhere – and you will be held for questioning and perhaps if you're lucky, the only thing you'll be charged with is insurance fraud," Helena relayed calmly.

"It's too late, Ms. Wells. Your secret is out," Adelaide said nervously. She had seen Helena in meetings, had seen her be tough when someone wasn't prepared, but she never saw this look on her face.

"Do you know what the company slogan is, Dr. Nathenson?" Helena asked, pacing herself carefully. She did not want to be late.

"What? The company slogan?" Adelaide asked confused.

"Had you been paying attention you would know it like the back of your hand. Wells Corp – Where the future is already happening – " Helena said beaming.

"Yes I know it," the scientist spat.

Her attitude was beginning to wear on Helena. "Then you must know that the news your partner in crime thinks he is giving the world - is in fact already out there," Helena said laughing softly.

"How? No one knows it!" Adelaide asserted. "It would be all over the news."

"Oh no doubt the masses will know tomorrow, but the key people in the media have been informed. The board members of Wells Corp have been informed, as well as our biggest clients. Interviews have been set up already. Oprah or something. So you see, when Ted gets up there to make his big announcement, it will be like publicizing yesterday's weather," Helena said. "And he will have you to thank."

Indeed, as soon as Helena decided to leak this information, the plans she and her team had worked on weeks before were set in motion. She had explained to Eileen that she must be prepared for this announcement at any time and that her family must be ready. She told Eileen the importance of always having control over information. So rather than be upset by the intruder, Helena Wells used her to deliver a message – one that was already in the hands of key people.

"So what are you going to do now?" Adelaide asked, looking around the room for options.

"Dr. Nathenson, I've had a very tiring day. I don't have much time left. Please don't make me hurt you," Helena said and Adelaide stopped looking – and breathing. "Good. Now, I will share with you that the thought of Ted Grayson thinking he could partner with someone who would catch me off my game infuriated me. And then I remembered …," Helena said leaning forward in the chair. Helena's eyes were black and only the outside of her lips curled up and her voice became deep.

"...…I-am-never-off-my-game."

With that, Helena stood up and walked over to the woman who pulled back.

"I am going to ask Miss Sullivan what to do with you," Helena said. "Your future rests in her hands now." She dropped the jewelry and passport back into the woman's lap and walked out of the apartment.

Adelaide scrambled to call Ted Grayson, but it was just before the 11 o'clock broadcast and he was too busy calling a news conference.

Helena left the apartment, went down to the garage level, and went out onto the street. A block away, she pushed on an abandoned door, long forgotten as an entrance to the underground subway. Once inside the littered hallway, Helena placed her hand on a concealed glass pad and a door within the brick wall opened up. So far, there were twenty five of these secret passages underneath the streets of Manhattan and on the other side of them – an enclosed shuttle that would carry Helena through concealed tunnels and back to the basement in her townhouse.

Within minutes, Helena emerged from the newest door in her lab and shut the lights. She took off her shoes, climbed the stairs out of the basement, and put her coat down in the hallway. She went up the carpeted staircase to the first landing, all the time checking her texts from Claudia and Pete. All in all, Helena was pleased with the outcome. She hadn't been entirely sure what she was going to do when faced with the defector, but she was content she made her point – and foiled the woman's plans.

'Good job, Helena,' was literally being played in her head when she reached the top of the stairs and looked up. There was Myka, standing outside the bedroom door, arms crossed with a annoyed expression. Helena stopped in her barefooted tracks.

"Do you know that Ted Grayson has promised to make a major announcement about Wells Corp this evening? " Myka said. She had heard the teaser announcement in the news.

"I can explain all of this," Helena said – sounding as guilty as she was.

"You've prepared Eileen for this? And her family?" Myka asked, her concern for the youth taking precedence. This wasn't Myka asking in an accusatory tone, but rather the Chief Counselor making sure protocol was followed.

"Yes, I promise you I put everything in place. Myka, that intruder wanted information. And I would have told you from the start, but Irene got sick and it made me think – if I couldn't be at Wells, it was time for Eileen to start taking on things. And I wanted to tell you – that we were initiating the release – but it just came to me to allow the group to leak it so the intruder would take us to her source," Helena explained, slowly moving closer.

"So you authorized the release of that?" Myka wanted clarified. Myka had been part of the team that put the elaborate announcement together.

"Yes. We needed something that would interest Ted Grayson and that was it," Helena said, each time ending her answer with a 'so everything's okay?' expression on her face.

Much to Helena's surprise, Myka's expression hadn't changed. She now realized why Helena was talking so quietly to Eileen, Claudia, and Pete. "And it would have taken too long for you to update me on this? At the hospital, in the car, at dinner, when you were kissing my lips before?" Myka asked. Unfortunately, reminding Helena about that kiss made it harder for Helena to get back on track. Her eyes immediately held the object of her affection in their gaze.

"I …didn't want…I should have," Helena said, speaking as she let out a heavy breath.

"Do you know I sense when you're not here?" Myka asked, speaking solely as her girlfriend now.

"Oh that's very sweet, darling as I sense your absence….," Helena said moving in until Myka snapped back – "Not your absence next to me, Helena. I sense when you've left the building, when you're MIA."

"Oh you mean….," Helena said, pointing to the bottom landing and retreating just the tiniest bit.

"Yes Helena," Myka said confirming the jig was up.

"Well, I have a very plausible explanation for my absence ….which I would love to share ….if we could …..…or no, out here is fine," Helena said assessing quickly that Myka was not moving from the door. "I do not wish to disturb Irene …," Helena tried, but Irene shouted from the bedroom with the door ajar – "Don't worry about me. I want to hear how you're going to get yourself out of this, Helena."

Helena rolled her eyes in complete frustration at the woman's remark and swore she would deal with her tomorrow. Myka didn't budge.

"Well Myka, the reason I didn't alert you to my activities this evening was because I had decided to take things into my own hands …"

"Oh Lord, here we go…," Irene said, still keeping up her worst guest ever routine.

"…and I paid a visit to Dr. Nathenson this evening," Helena explained.

"Adelaide?" Myka and Irene asked at the same time.

"Could you please close your door?" Helena barked at her house guest who replied, "Not when it's getting good." At this rate, she thought Helena would pack her bags for her tonight.

"Bloody hell!" Helena let out and if Myka wasn't so annoyed, she would have informed the Brit she was losing the witty repartee game to Irene. "I was using my …former job experience to make a point."

"What does that mean?" Myka asked.

"I went…," Helena said, drawing out the word slowly, "….to Adelaide's apartment and removed some items from her safe and waited for her."

Myka's eyes widened with each detail that Helena revealed.

"I'm getting up for the rest of this," Irene said and meant it. She got her robe and sat on the end of the bed.

"You broke into her apartment? You stole her belongings?" Myka asked astonished.

"Yes, well technically I gained access and allowed myself in," Helena explained. "But this is why I didn't tell you! I didn't want you involved in anything like this."

Instead of looking appreciative, as Helena had hoped, Myka narrowed her eyes on her. "So you get to choose when to do the stupid and insane things, but I don't? Is that it, Helena?" Myka asked.

Helena wanted to take offense at the adjectives, but noticed that it wasn't the words as much as it was how Myka said them. Myka was hurt.

"I was protecting you," Helena tried. There was practically nothing more chivalrous in the Brit's mind.

"….So I could protect you?" Myka responded quickly. "You didn't want me to know in case you were in trouble and I had to come and get you? Or represent you in court? It's okay to ask me to go along with injecting stem cells into Mrs. Frederic because you needed me to distract the doctor, but you didn't invite me to breaking and entering because you were….. protecting me?" Myka said.

Helena should have learned by now that you need to be ready when you are stating your case with a skilled lawyer such as Myka. She simply shredded Helena's explanations into pieces. Helena looked down on the floor as if she was hoping something was still intact. It wasn't.

"I am sorry, Myka. You're right. I was so upset that someone was trying to get at Wells Corp. Then the 'incident'….…"

"I can still hear you," Irene interjected.

"…this morning …was …difficult," Helena said, whispering the last word. It reminded Myka what she felt in the ambulance.

"I know it was, Helena," Myka said, now closing the distance between them. She didn't want Helena to feel that awful pain again. In a much softer voice, Myka said - "Helena, this is your company. You can do whatever you see fit. I just wanted to know where you were."

Helena's face lit up that Myka was next to her, touching her arm. "I was going to tell you everything when I got home."

"Even how you got there? From the basement?" Myka said.

"Oh oh," Irene said and Helena bit her lip. This was Myka not letting up.

"I…have…a type of transit system …that can take me to various parts of the City," Helena said.

"And of course you have permits that allow for the underground digging and procuring of space?" Myka asked.

"Can we discuss that another time?" Helena said, knowing she was going from the frying pan into the fire.

"And when were you going to tell me that you had your own subway system?" Myka asked, and the tenseness returned to her voice.

"When it was done?" Helena said and it was the truth.

"Done?" Myka asked and had images of the underground carts that you see in adventure films with scenes in old abandoned mines.

"Most of the tunneling is complete, but there is a section that goes across town that is giving us trouble," Helena explained and Myka wished she hadn't.

"And you take this when you're on your subversive adventures?" Myka asked. She wondered how Eileen had gotten from the townhouse to the hospital so quickly.

"I…have only ..used it…," Helena stalled.

"Just say yes Helena, so we can all get some sleep," Irene said from the bedroom.

"Yes," Helena said.

Myka had been with Helena long enough not to be surprised that they were talking about the woman's own underground transit system that she somehow had built without anyone in the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority knowing about. Yet.

"We'll deal with the magical mystery tour tomorrow," Myka said, holding her head.

"And am I forgiven for not including you on my rendezvous this evening?" Helena asked. She shifted her weight onto one foot, pursed her lips, and waited for Myka to answer.

"Yes, you are forgiven," Myka said and leaned in to kiss Helena, but stopped short of the intended target. "But this is so not forgotten."

Helena pulled back a little to see the seriousness of those words very clearly in the green eyes. "I understand," the Brit said, even though she didn't really know what that statement meant.

Myka smiled and kissed Helena's waiting lips, renewing the calmness and excitement both at the same time.

Only Myka could do that to Helena.

"Are you ready to come to bed or do you need to leap tall buildings in a single bound?" Myka teased.

"I would very much like to come to bed," Helena said, and didn't say sleep on purpose.

Inside the guest bedroom, a very quiet Irene smiled - finding Myka more endearing -if that was possible. She knew what a challenge Helena could be, but she also knew that there was no one in the world who could handle her better than Myka Bering. Still, Irene had a job to do.

"Oh Helena?" Irene called out and heard the deep sigh. "Would you be a dear and bring me some tea?"

Myka pursed her lips and pressed down hard so she didn't laugh. Helena opened her mouth to say something, but she knew better. She was after all, the one who insisted on Irene being here. And she still needed to keep an eye on her. Myka didn't know which was funnier – Irene's uncharacteristic demanding tone or Helena's exasperated look as she went to get the tea. The tea was made and poured and brought up on a small tray, but when Helena went into the room, Irene had fallen asleep. Being a pain in the rear was actually a chore for the woman. Helena sighed when she saw her guest sleeping. She put the tray down, lifted Irene's feet back into bed, and covered her with the covers.

"Sleep well, dear friend," Helena said softly, and left the room, leaving the door ajar.

Then she went back to her bed, where she worked very hard at getting Myka to forget her transgressions.

Somewhere in midtown, in a conference room where local media gathered with a guarantee to break into the evening news if anything was worthy, Ted Grayson told them he had it on very good authority that Helena Wells had a living relative, who was a possible heir to the Wells fortune.

Ted was expecting loud murmuring and then a flood of questions. Never in a million years was he expecting laughter. But that was what he got as the crowd realized they were wasting their time.

"Seriously Mr. Grayson?" the New York Times reporter shouted.

"Dude, like so yesterday's news," the Rolling Stone reporter said up front.

The papers had been advised with the push of a button by Claudia Donovan at exactly the time that was specified in the newly renamed… Project Starfire.

Can you guess how many more chapters are left?
Unless of course, something else happens to our duo.
Thanks for reading along - and for your posts, thoughts and questions.

Thank you to those of you who make sure I keep Helena and Myka - whole.
I especially appreciate that.

Cheers,
NYC