The Domino Effect
Detective Jane Tierney was certain that she had heard every weird request in the books as a fifteen year veteran of the New York Police Department, but this took the cake.
"Bell!" she yelled to her appointed assistant, a woman so new out of the police academy her uniform was still pressed every day.
"Yes, sir?" the young officer asked, coming up behind Jane and making her jump. She was never far away it seemed.
"You know that thin blue line we cops are always referring to?" Jane asked as part of her daily quizzing of the young woman.
"Yes, sir. The Thin Blue Line is a symbol used by law enforcement, originating in the United Kingdom but now prevalent in the United States and Canada to commemorate fallen law enforcement officers and to symbolize the relationship of law enforcement in the community as the protectors of civilians from criminal elements, sir!" the young officer repeated verbatim.
Jane stared at the young woman, chastising herself for forgetting the golden rule; Never ask Bell a question before you've had three cups of coffee. "Bell, it was….a yes or no question..," Jane tried to explain.
"Then, yes, sir. Sorry, sir," the woman answered.
"You know we're not the marines…," Jane tried, but was answered with another affirmative answer with two exclamation points at the end. "I think I forgot my point. Oh, yes. Bell, whenever we have to deal with the Mayor's friend, Helena Wells, or some of her friends? There's a comparable thin sanity line," Jane said, finally making her point …..which was lost on the serious young assistant.
"Sir?" she asked sincerely.
"It means that sometimes we are the only thing that stands between Helena and her friends and their being sent to Bellevue," Jane said, referring to the psychiatric hospital.
"But you don't think they would do anything to endanger themselves, sir," Officer Bell pointed out.
"Endanger? Nah, there hasn't been any endangering since Wells settled down. Myka's been good for her. No, not endanger. More like annoy the hell out of the NYPD. What is our first charge, Bell?" Jane asked.
"To protect …," Bell started her soliloquy and Jane cut her off.
"When it comes to Wells and Company, sometimes it's to protect them from themselves," Jane said. "Just think, Bell, someday this will all be on your plate."
"Sir?" the eager policewoman asked.
"You'll be in charge of Bering-Wells and by then, probably little Bering-Wells, too," Jane said.
"Yes, sir," Officer Bell said, not understanding her superior's meaning.
Jane's rant was brought on by the text from Bridget that simply stated: – "We are planning a kidnapping and need your help. No need for handcuffs, unless they're those soft fuzzy kind. Might need a taser. Mine went off at Fashion Week and hit Ralph Lauren and since then Sarah won't let me carry one. Will need muscle. Wait for instructions."
Jane wasn't at all surprised that the people about to commit the crime came right to her. It was part of what made them insane. Asking an officer of the law to help them wasn't at all uncommon for this band of unusual friends. What surprised Jane was that she felt desperate enough to take them up on their offer.
"I read her book," the young cop said, changing subjects, but still standing at attention. Jane doubted the woman knew any other posture.
"Yeah?" Jane asked. "Did you propose marriage after reading it?" The detective was revealing something about herself and that was rare.
"Well, no I ….," the assistant stuttered.
"Well, don't! I did and I'm still waiting on an answer," Jane spat out. She wouldn't have minded if Pete Lattimer had told her he needed time to think about it or had reservations. Either of those she could have handled. Instead, he told her now wasn't a good time because something was going on with Helena and he couldn't really think about anything else. He was like those lost animals you see in videos when their owners are in the hospital. He all but bayed at the moon outside Helena's townhouse window.
Jane wondered if Helena even knew what affect her behavior of late was having on her devoted friend.
Each morning, Pete hoped he'd see Helena come down the front steps of the townhouse with Myka. Instead, each day, he saw his other favorite friend in the world, walk to the car distressed. It broke his heart when he glanced in the rearview mirror and saw how upset Myka was. He felt totally helpless to help his friends. Myka wasn't even aware of it, but Pete often sneaked over on his lunch hour to visit the Townhouse in hopes that Helena would be upstairs. He went by one day even though Leena explained that Helena's hours were so erratic, she never knew when the genius would appear. That day, Pete left after not seeing Helena, but forgot his phone and came back in to get it. There she was, standing by the staircase. Pete was so taken aback by how she looked, that he was speechless.
"Boss?" he finally asked as she started to walk away.
"I'm fine, Pete," Helena said, but in a tone he hardly recognized. It wasn't angry, or upset. It sounded – defeated.
"We're not," he all but whispered, but Helena never heard him. He, too, went straight to Irene's office when he got back and begged her to do something. That was when she made up her mind to visit Helena. Now, she too was feeling helpless as her time with Helena seemed to do no good.
While pandemonium was creeping in a little more each day, the one bearing the brunt was Eileen Sullivan. Helena's sudden disappearance thrust her into the hot seat of handling most of Helena's duties. "Baptism by fire," Helena said to her one day and she knew then, she was either going to sink or swim, but it wasn't going to be with Helena's help.
Claudia was taking it the worst. She had all but gotten Helena to promise that there would be a plan in place to gradually ease Eileen into her new position. Helena had taken what seemed like the necessary steps. She hired Morgan Styles as their Chief Engineering Officer after deciding that Eileen needed someone with experience in the biomedical field. Morgan accepted the job, realizing he wanted to experience first-hand what it was like to work at such a visionary company. In spite of having been in dozens of meetings with Helena, he saw a different side of the entrepreneur from his new seat. He was certain he had made the right choice.
Then everyone went into crisis mode.
Claudia thought at first, Helena was doing this as a worst case scenario – to test the woman she had been grooming. But then the absence became consistent and Claudia had a front row seat to see how Eileen was doing. By all accounts, things were running smoothly. Meetings were reduced because Eileen knew most of them were a waste. Helena knew that too, but she enjoyed the showcasing of unadulterated power that she got to display. Eileen didn't even know how to do that. What was happening at Wells Corp was a slow migration toward cooperative management where the next possible CEO made the departments responsible for meeting their project deadlines on time.
Now, no one was working out of the fear of Helena's wrath – and everyone – was – miserable. Even though Helena had softened over the years, she was in control at Wells Corp and that's how everyone liked it.
To Claudia, it only proved that people wanted Helena there and would resent anyone who was in her place. Regardless of the amount of planning, nothing they would come up with would soften the ache people felt when their boss wasn't there. Claudia didn't want to talk to Helena, but that didn't mean she didn't try to get her point across. The techie retaliated the only way she knew how.
She hacked Helena's computer.
"STOP!" was the first message that appeared on Helena's computer screen and she knew immediately who had done it. But Helena had learned a thing or two from her most trusted IT Director and she reprogrammed the code so that any further attempts to hack caused the Wells Corp computers to shut down.
"Damn, she's good," Claudia said, even though she was seething at the response.
She was next in Irene's office asking what they could do. Irene suggested they help Ms. Sullivan all that they could. Irene didn't share her thought, but had she; she would have told the young executive that if Myka couldn't help Helena, she seriously doubted anyone could.
At first, everyone went along with their boss' absence. She was involved in many different projects now, including bringing the captains of industries to local high schools to talk about what it was like to work in their respective fields. The press paid special attention to the seminar that Helena gave on how to deal with your competition. She asked Ted Grayson to come along and the man agreed. It seemed he had finally given up any personal vendetta against Helena and the two talked about the benefits of a healthy competitive environment. The press decided that Wells was acting more like the level headed Bering and social media exploded with the news that Helena G. Wells finally learned to fight fair and play nice.
It seemed odd that at the pinnacle of her social outreach, Helena seemed to withdraw. Bridget was right that they press thought she was involved in top secret business projects, but then they started to notice she was not attending any social functions either. She was a no show at the high school symposiums and hundreds of high school students were disappointed. No matter who showed up, the crowds seemed to want Helena.
Many of the inquires and then complaints, fell to Sui Generis – the android Claudia and Helena had invented and who manned – or womanned – depending on his mood – the front desk for Helena. Right now, Sui had reverted back to his original Caucasian male form, perhaps because that was how Helena had initially designed him. Sui had changed his gender, race and nationality in an effort for him to understand what being human was really like. He had learned the most from his interactions with the people he considered to be his friends at Wells Corp. It didn't matter what form he decided on; he always knew he wanted to be a part of that group.
Sui rose to the occasion and handled all of Helena's calls, both those who called out of concern and those who called out of anger. He made it his mission to help Eileen Sullivan in Helena's absence and did so with his usual aplomb. He calculated what needed to be done at any given moment. He even came close to figuring out what the reason was for Helena's absence, although he was discrete in not sharing it with anyone.
The only thing the android had difficulty in figuring out was the painful sensation he felt in his chest cavity. That was, until he spoke with Irene and she explained that what he might be experiencing was – missing. 'When you care about someone, and then they are absent from your life, even for a short time, you miss them,' she explained.
No one seemed surprised that even the mechanical humanoid experienced Helena's absence.
But no one was hurting quite like Myka.
When no response came back from her text, Myka gave in and allowed the burgeoning tears to fall. How could Helena cut her off like this? How could she withdraw so far down her genius rabbit hole that she lost touch? How could this happen, she asked over and over again. Myka fought off the answer she dreaded the most, but it kept rearing its ugly head; Helena didn't love her anymore. The lawyer pushed back hard – putting her theory on trial – the way she handled everything. Helena was consumed by her work. That didn't mean she didn't love Myka.
It did mean, however, Myka was no longer first.
Myka looked at the stack of papers that she now had to correct since giving the law students that pop quiz. She hadn't thought about that. She picked one up, read it, but couldn't concentrate. All she could think of was that Helena was several blocks north of her - - in the basement - - unaffected by Myka's pain.
She picked up the phone and dialed her friend, Professor Calvert. He greeted her warmly and was about to share all the positive things he'd been hearing about her class. Instead, he heard Myka speak in a tone he didn't think she possessed: "Do I get a Teacher's Assistant with this job you threw at me?" she asked briskly.
"You said you didn't want one," the man reminded her.
"Well, I need one. I don't know what you want from me, but I can only do so many things in a day. Pick one and send them down to help me immediately, " Myka requested aggressively.
"Sure thing, Myka," Mike Calvert said and frowned when he heard the phone being hung up. "What the devil has gotten into her?"
Myka regretted it, just like she regretted not teaching that day. She was desperately trying to discharge the anger inside of her and it was coming out all wrong. In fact, it was coming out on the wrong people. They weren't the cause of her pain and it wasn't fair that they should suffer her fury.
Myka knew exactly who deserved it.
She grabbed her pocketbook, hastily making plans to go home and scream at Helena, when her copy of Helena's book – 'The Time Traveler's Guide to Romance' fell out of her bag and opened to the dedication page.
To Myka, My One, – you not only inspired these words, you created the world in which all of these lessons were made possible. As we travel through time together, I am your most devoted passenger. Thank you for the ride of my life. Love, Helena
Pain surged inside Myka now and she couldn't hold back the tears. She remembered telling Helena how beautiful those words were. And how Helena told her she was her inspiration to do wondrous things. Myka knew then what Helena meant and they went home that night making plans together on how to realize their dream of being a family. Helena made it all sound so possible; so simple, that Myka went along with the plans.
And then things didn't work out as they had hoped. No, as she had hoped. The problem was that things had not worked out as Helena demanded.
And all hell was breaking loose.
Thank you for all your posts, I do appreciate them. Thanks to "Guest" for alerting me to the coupling issue.
Now, what will Myka do?