Author's note: Chapter posted June 27th, 2023.
After arriving at Luton Airport almost ten hours later, Helen and Ashley hailed a cab and were dropped off at the London Sanctuary. It was quite late when they entered the grand foyer, nearing a quarter to 10pm, so many of the staff and residents where already in their sleeping quarters. A familiar face greeted them with a warm welcome.
"Good to see you again, love," chuffed Declan, giving Ashley a big hug.
"It's good to see you again too," Ashley reciprocated.
Declan then turned towards Helen, giving her a light hug and kiss on the cheek. "And you as well. Seeing you in the flesh has been too few and far between."
"I'm here to remedy that shortcoming," Helen bantered.
"I'll say. Having you here for the next three months is more than sufficient payback," commented Declan.
"I added interest," Helen cheekily smirked.
The group collectively chucked.
"Right then. Considering the time, are either of you up for a refresher of tea and scones before heading off to bed?" offered Declan.
Ashley and Helen looked to each other, nodding their agreement.
"That would be lovely, Declan. Thank you," replied Helen.
"This way then," said Declan, leading the small group towards the kitchen.
In the morning, Ashley awoke to hearing the pitter patter sounds of little feet running through the hallways. When she heard the footfalls getting closer, she opened the door to her bedroom.
The kids skidded to halt at the surprise of their aunt standing in the doorway.
"Aunt Ashley!" happily yelled almost eleven-year-old Alice. Along with her were her two sisters, Madeline who is eight, and Evelyn who is five. The three girls bombarded Ashley with hugs and squeals of laughter.
Ashley did her best to equally return each enthusiastic hug.
Helen had just finished dressing and could hear the commotion at the end of the hall, opening her door to take a peak out her bedroom.
The girls noticed this, and gave Helen the same boisterous welcome; running down the hall to plow into her. Ashley tagged along behind them as they surrounded her mother with coos of "Grandma Helen".
"You're both here!" Alice exclaimed excitedly.
"That we are," responded Helen merrily.
"We heard someone here had a birthday tomorrow. I wonder who it could be?" Ashley playfully floated.
Alice giggled, "Me!"
"Is it you? Are you sure?" Ashley teased, bringing her in for another hug.
"Yes," Alice blushed.
Erika rounded the corner and smiled, walking over to them. "I wondered what you girls were up to. Breakfast is ready," she addressed her children.
The three girls ran off unceremoniously in a whirlwind of excitement, leaving the adults chuckling in their wake.
Erika sighed. "I apologize about them. They're like this little rambunctious pack following the wind; once it changes direction, they're off," she explained.
Helen and Ashley weren't bothered.
"It's all right," smiled Helen. The younglings bountiful youth held a special place in her heart, stirring memories of when Ashley was young playing with a teenaged Henry.
"Hopefully you have space for one more?" Ashley asked kindly.
Erika grinned. "I do. Congratulations are in order. Henry told me you were expecting. He also told me you had a nasty run-in with Will's cologne. Dreadful stuff, isn't it?!"
Ashley lightly grimaced. "Ugh, don't remind me. Good news for everyone is that it's finally gone for good so no one has to experience its effects ever again."
"Thank heavens. I'm not a violent person, but with how sick I became from it, it made me want to rip his throat out," jested Erika.
"Only problem with that plan would be that you'd have to get close enough to touch him. I'm not sure if either of us would have been able to get through that repellant without vomiting all of our organs first," added Ashley.
"True," agreed Erika. She then looked towards Helen. "Were you able to figure out what was in it that was causing such an adverse reaction?"
"I was," spoke Helen. "The cologne turned out to be a knock-off synthetic fragrance. Some of the compounds I found in it were phthalates which have a negative reaction with hormones produced by the placenta. One of the first things most pregnant women develop during the first trimester is a heightened sense of smell to ward off against such harmful substances from being ingested and reaching the developing offspring."
Both Erika's and Ashley's eyebrows shot up. Ashley had totally forgotten to follow-up with her mother about the cologne's analysis with all of the drama going on in her personal life.
"So us becoming sick was an instigated bout of morning sickness?" asked Erika.
Helen nodded. "Yes. While unpleasant, it was actually a good thing as it alerted us to a danger."
Ashley's stomach rumbled. "Well, while I'll definitely not be drinking any of that for good reason, I am looking forward to eating breakfast this morning," she smiled.
Erika and Helen concurred, and the three women made their way through the house, joining Henry and the kids.
That night as Helen made her way to her room for bed, she stopped by Ashley's room to check in on her; knocking on the doorframe before she entered.
Ashley was already in her pajamas starring out one of her bedroom windows.
Helen slowly approached. "How are you feeling?" she softly asked.
"Much better, thank you. London was an excellent idea," Ashley humbly smiled.
"Hopefully the view suffices," Helen gestured towards the window.
"It does. Though if you really want to compare, this is a close second. I still miss the view we had from atop the Sanctuary in Old City." admitted Ashley.
"I have to agree. You can always go back and visit the city," stated Helen. She still owned the property. After the implosion and subsequent investigation concluded, Helen had the property dug out and properly backfilled to stabilize the ground. The only part of the original infrastructure left was the stone perimeter fencing; the gates were currently locked to prevent trespassers from invading the empty plot of land that was their own private park with some scattered trees and a few benches alongside the river.
"It's not the same," Ashley dismissed.
Helen bit her lip. "Actually, I have something to tell you."
This caught Ashley's attention.
Helen moved a little closer. "I haven't told anyone this, but around the time you lost your teleportation ability I had started to contemplate on the need for having a facility again on the west coast of North America."
Ashley was surprised. "You have?"
"A few more years went by until three years ago when I finally began work on drawing up plans to build a new house there. Construction commenced fifteen months ago. Many delays later, current completion date is set four months from now. I had intended for it to be completely finished before making an announcement," revealed Helen.
Ashley's face lit up. "Really? Cool!"
Helen held her hand up to try to temper Ashley's expectations. "Before you get too exited, it's not the same as before. While it's still of a similar stone architectural styling, changing from neo-gothic to high Victorian gothic, it's a lot smaller, the overall footprint similar to here at the London Sanctuary. It's not intended to be a true Sanctuary permanently housing abnormals like before, more so just a glorified house to reestablish a presence in the city." Helen then motioned to the door. "Follow me."
Ashley followed her mother into her mother's bedroom, where Helen sat at her computer desk and brought up the building blueprints and property landscape designs.
Compared to the old version, the new house was pulled forward away from the river, centered on the huge lot. Instead of the previous seven levels, it has five; three above ground, two below. What was the north wing is now an above ground attached garage and storage area with a loading dock. The south end of the property along the river was built up into a concrete pier and floating boat dock. The entire church half of the property was still completely gone and turned into a really nice park garden landscape with trees dotted about to provide shade. On the backside of the house, next to the garden on was a large in-ground pool (screened in and heated) and on the west half of the property was a helipad and a small hangar with the capacity to store one rotorcraft.
"This looks pretty neat! A lot less walking that's for sure. Who's going to be the head of house?" inquired Ashley.
Helen paused a bit, taking a breath. "I don't want you to feel pressured, but ever since I first thought about this building, the only person I could ever think of was you," she admitted. She stood from her chair to stand in front of her daughter "I know you've been trying to have a life away from the Sanctuary, and now everything happening with David and the baby's impending arrival, it's a big ask. You don't have to make a decision right away, and you can always say no. All that I ask is that you please just think about it." The look on Helen's face was very sincere.
Ashley inhaled at that statement and stayed silent, contemplating. She wasn't expecting that opportunity of being default first choice, though when Ashley thought about it, it did make sense considering that the only other person who would be interested would be Will, however he was already in-line and currently transitioning to take over the New York Sanctuary; he and Abby had put down roots there with their family, meaning that a transfer would be a hard sell. Ashley on the other hand felt lost. For the majority of the past few years, her life on the surface was anchored by her husband. With him now cutting himself out of the picture, Ashley wasn't sure if she wanted to continue to try to "be normal" aside for the sake of the baby. There was an interesting dichotomy, where she liked the house she had in Toronto; it had a good neighborhood and school system, yet without her husband, it'd mean that she'd be alone and away from any family raising the child. On the other hand, having the baby caused Ashley to have a gravitational pull towards her mother, and she liked Old City and New City across the river a lot; the only reason she stayed away was because she had wanted to try to completely cut ties with her life at the Sanctuary - a reason that now seemed baseless. "Yes," replied Ashley. Verbalizing her answer felt like she dropped a burdening weight.
Helen herself wasn't ready to receive an answer so soon. "I'm sorry? Yes, what?"
Ashley doubled down on her answer. "Yes, I'll do it. I'll move there once the building's finished."
"Are you sure? You know what this means," Helen cautioned.
Ashley exhaled and nodded. "I do. My life is at a crossroad right now, and returning like a prodigal daughter seems to be the best course of action to take," she shrugged.
Helen gave her a heartfelt smile, reaching forward to take both of Ashley's hands in her own, giving them a caring squeeze before placing a kiss to her forehead and embracing her in a hug.
"Plus you and Dad can teleport back and forth whenever you want without a fear of alerting the neighbors," Ashley tacked on, resting her head on her mother's shoulder.
Helen hummed in agreement, rubbing Ashley's back.
Author's note: According to a flight time calculator, travel time between Toronto, Ontario and Luton, UK is 7 hours 35 minutes. It also takes close to two total hours to prep a jet including making, submitting, and approving a flight plan. London is 5 hours ahead of Toronto. So if Helen and Ashley departed the house in Toronto around say 6:30am and the flight took off at 8:30am (1:30pm in London), it means that it's around 9:05pm when they land in Luton just on the outskirts north of London.
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