Casting a Spell

"Everything in place, Henry?" the senior agent asked his subordinate who sat impatiently in the restaurant on Prince Street in lower Manhattan.

"If you mean are we sitting here waiting, then yes. No sign of target yet," Henry reported back by talking into the cuff on his sleeve.

"Please be careful Henry. Remember, George got himself noticed at the high school. I am running out of agents," his boss said back to him through the earpiece.

"Yeah, the most experienced agent freaks out because Agents Wells' wife stares at him. What a rookie mistake," Henry said with disdain. In spite of his lack of experience in the field, Henry graduated at the top of his class and often teetered on being pompous.

"Never mind that. I'll be there momentarily," his superior stated because he didn't trust the new agents to approach the target. He thought his underlings were a bit too overconfident for a mission they hardly understood.

Damien Blake hung up and took off into the very unfamiliar New York City traffic. He hoped the rest of his mission wouldn't be this dangerous. Two weeks ago, he was sitting at his desk in the Office of the Secret Service doing mundane work. Then he was eating lunch at an open café one day and out of nowhere, he was approached by a man who explained he had a new job for him. He was told to think of it as a promotion, but Damien was having trouble wrapping his head around that concept. Told that his training would take place out West, Damien was given two hours to pack everything he wanted to take. Hours later, he arrived in the middle of nowhere to his new 'assignment'….. a building that looked like a warehouse, somewhere in the hills of South Dakota. He was told that the site was relocating and he found it odd that they didn't say 'they were relocating it.' However, when he arrived, the team already there - who was supposed to explain everything to him, seemed to be in crisis mode.

He was transferred to a business he knew nothing about and his training consisted of a tour of the facility he would be responsible for - somehow. The information was barely enough for him to understand how the entire contents of the building were going to be moved to a new location. He asked them to clarify if he was in charge of the move, but they said, no – that was being handled by an insider. He asked what his job would be once the move took place and he was told that there wasn't time to explain all of that because there was a complication with the move that needed immediate attention.

Someone – somewhere – was demanding - something. And he was in charge of making sure they got it.

That, he was told, was all he needed to know.

When he saw the other three agents assigned to help him accomplish the vague task, he was certain two of them were recent graduates and had very little field experience. Henry seemed to be on loan from the British forces and he wasn't exactly sure where Demetri came from. The only experienced guy was someone who had worked at the Warehouse, but he'd been out of the field so long, he got made on the first day.

Everything about this new job seemed to have an air of mystery about it. Like when he visited the facility in the barren landscape, he asked what the moaning sound was that emanated from within the Warehouse. He was told not to worry about it.

What the Warehouse Staff didn't tell Damien was that they were all worried about it. Something was happening that they never anticipated. And they weren't exactly sure what the solution was. The plan about to unfold was created out of an urgent need to contain the situation, and it wasn't a very good one at best. Now it was Damien's duty to make sure that the plan was carried out.

He knew from his training that this was the most asinine operation he had ever been on.

"What time do you have?" Pete asked the waiter at the Oak Room for the fifth time.

"Still seven o'clock, Mr. Lattimer," Jeffrey answered politely. Pete had been there forty minutes already. He had informed the maître d' his plan and now Jeffrey.

"Okay, so you know what to do when she arrives, right?" Pete asked, straining his neck to see if there was any sign of Jane.

"Yes, sir. You and your future fiancée will have dinner and when it is time for dessert, you will order the raspberry sorbet and the ring will be placed in the bottom of her glass," the patient man repeated.

"Yes, good. Now, if she for some reason insists on cheesecake?" Pete asked because he had planned for every conceivable contingency.

"…then we shall place the ring carefully within the confines of the cake, sir," Jeffrey said because he prided himself on being the most helpful he could be.

"I don't see why she'd order cheesecake, because we always order the sorbet, so there's really no reason for her not to have the sorbet, but you know, just in case," Pete said, unable to stop himself from rambling.

"Very good, sir. We will do everything we can to make this the most perfect evening, sir," Jeffrey assured him.

Claudia walked the circumference of the couch in the oversized living room in the Penthouse waiting for Eileen to come home. With the place to herself, she decided to talk herself through her plan for the date next week. "We'll go to dinner, and then I'll suggest a walk. We'll be near the Apple store and I'll say I want to go in to look at the new laptops. We'll browse while the store clears out. Then, I'll start to open the laptop I'm interested in. I'll press a few keys and tell her I'm trying it out and then…..boom! Our history will play on the screen, our meeting, our first date, our vacation, and then the last shot will say – turn around – and I'll be there with the ring."

Claudia momentarily panicked as she ran to the end table and unlocked it. There inside, safe and sound, was the ring she had picked out for her soon to be betrothed. She had brought it with her to Brooklyn when she visited Eileen's parents alone. She was certain Kathleen Sullivan could keep it a secret, but she was worried about Eileen's father, John.

"Oh Lord, I thought you'd never ask," he blurted out when Claudia shared she what she was going to do.

"We couldn't be happier," Kathleen cried and Claudia knew right then and there, it was going to be an emotional wedding.

"She will ….I want…..we will want your blessing," Claudia said, choking up because she had never felt so close to any adults, aside from her Wellsian family. And on most days, only Irene and Myka counted as adults.

"You have it," John Sullivan said, tears filling his eyes. "You've had it from the minute we knew you were meant to be together."

"Now, John, you can't say anything," Kathleen warned him and although he promised he wouldn't, his entire face was light up with joy.

Claudia told the couple of her plan and said that as soon as she told Helena, she would put things into place. She noticed the slightest wince in Kathleen's eyes when she said that. As much as Kathleen had grown to like Helena, her motherly instincts made her fearful of Helena's plans for Eileen's future. She decided she had to trust that her daughter would have the final say.

Now alone in the large apartment, the soon to be proposer held the ring to her chest and took a deep breath. She had never known herself to be this anxious over anything. But she wanted it to be perfect for the woman whom she swore was perfect for her. She placed the ring back in the drawer and locked it and went back to the computer. She pressed some keys and the image of the Apple Store which Helena had secured for her, appeared on the screen.

"Oh my God! What was I thinking?" the techie yelled out loud and fell back on the couch. The store located on the upper West Side of Manhattan was constructed with glass from ceiling to floor. Bad enough she had picked a public place to do this in, but one where there wasn't a chance for privacy? No! She wouldn't be able to get the words out. She hurriedly looked at the other locations. There! Prince Street! That location was a renovated post office that would afford them some privacy from the street. Surely, Helena could request any location she thought. She looked at her watch. Plenty of time to go downtown see the store before Eileen got home from work. She grabbed her satchel and headed out the door.

Thirty minutes later, Claudia approached the Apple store on Prince Street. She realized it was near their favorite pizza place. She would scope out the store, get pizza and be back in time for Eileen to arrive home for dinner.

"Any update?" she texted Eileen to be sure of the timing.

"Ten at the latest," the text said in reply.

"Miss you," Claudia texted as butterflies took flight in her stomach as she entered the store.

"Miss you more," came the response.

"This is perfect!" the techie yelled out loud when she saw how much better this location was. "I said that out loud, didn't I?' she asked the saleswoman in the uniformed blue polo shirt with the Apple logo on it.

"I don't think anyone noticed," she tried to assure Claudia as people turned to stare.

Claudia could feel her face turning red as she pulled her head down into her shoulders and walked away. She decided to move slowly around the store and pick out the best spot for her plan to unfold. She had no way of knowing what was going on.

Under the impression that Claudia was meeting her at eight o'clock, Eileen had been across the street waiting in the restaurant. She couldn't wait to tell her girlfriend about the meeting where she had unleashed her frustrations on the executives by telling them hell would freeze over before she allowed them to air another episode of HG Wells. She would break the contract and find a network with the brains to appreciate what they had in the show. Then, with Wells blood coursing through her veins, Eileen Sullivan told the group of overpaid executives that the meeting was over.

She sat there trying to call herself when Damien sat down in the booth across from her. He explained that he knew Helena and that he had been sent to give Eileen a message. With that, he touched the cufflinks he had been given by the man at the Warehouse and repeated what he had been instructed to say.

"Ms. Sullivan, you will refrain from speaking or acting out in any manner. I mean you no harm and promise you, nothing will happen to you. We need you to come with us and I want you to know, it's for a very good reason. Do you understand?" he practically whispered to Eileen.

Eileen felt as if she had been taken control of because she couldn't speak and could only move when the man told her to stand and come with him to the car outside. Somehow, he had complete control of her. Unsure of what his intentions were, she had to think quickly. She had to leave a clue.

For the better part of an hour, Claudia moved slowly around the long tables, deciding on which location was the best to put the laptop with the video on it. She tried to appear nonchalant, but the more she tried, the more she failed. "Just looking," she said to more than one staff member. "just…..looking," she repeated, making it worse.

She finally decided she better leave before they asked her to leave. She went outside and walked towards the restaurant. That's when the oddest thing happened. Claudia could have sworn she saw a woman who looked exactly like her future fiancé get into a black Ford Explorer SUV. Two men got into the car, one alongside the woman.

"I just saw your doppelganger," she texted to Eileen, hoping she wasn't interrupting her work.

"Really? Where?" came the return text.

"On Prince Street. I'm going to get us pizza at Rays," Claudia texted, certain Eileen wouldn't be suspicious.

"Yum!" came the reply.

"Yum?" the agent in the front seat repeated when Henry said his responses as he typed them back to Claudia.

"Yeah, what's wrong with 'yum'? It's a perfectly good word," he said in his British accent.

"If you're five!" his partner said from the front seat.

"Who are you talking to?" Damien asked from the driver's seat.

"The girlfriend," Henry answered. "She's apparently close by."

"Good. We need to get them to follow us as soon as possible," his boss said.

"You know, I've heard the stories about Agent Wells," Henry said because he was the kind of person who read anything he could get his hands on.

"I think they make most of that stuff up," Demetri scoffed.

Eileen had a general idea of what was going on and even though she felt afraid, she sat there planning on what she would do to them if they hurt one hair on Claudia's head. She wanted to warn them that they were making a mistake and that Helena's wrath would weigh down on them as soon as she found out, but unless she was asked a question, she found she couldn't speak.

As Damien pulled out into traffic, he cut off a taxi. Aside from the profanity being thrown his way by the taxi driver, everything else had gone according to plan.

The car pulled away just as Claudia approached the restaurant. She was frustrated that she hadn't been able to reach Helena to ask if she could change the location of the proposal, but would ask her tomorrow.

Helena never saw the text because her phone, like most things she carried into the townhouse that night, lay strewn across the floor. Since stepping into the house that night, her full attention was on Myka.

After putting the champagne glasses down, Myka pulled Helena over to the couch. There in front of them on the table, was the food Myka had prepared.

"What is all of this?" Helena asked, smiling at Myka's attempt to be in charge.

"This is our romantic dinner. The one you raced up the stairs to get to," Myka answered knowingly.

"Oh, Myka, you're mistaken if you think it was the dinner I raced home to," Helena teased. Her warm breath touched Myka's neck as she kissed it. Myka feared Helena would want to skip dinner altogether - and that was not her plan - so she gently pulled back.

"I want you to try this," Myka said of the sweet fig covered in honey as she slowly placed a piece of it in Helena's opened, waiting mouth. Helena's tongue tried to push the food out of the way to get to the fingers holding it, but Myka let go of the morsel. "Isn't that delicious?" she asked, slowly glossing over Helena's bottom lip with her honey coated thumb. Helena moaned her confirmation, but almost forgot to chew and started to cough when she went to swallow the piece of fruit.

"Are you okay?" Myka asked, holding Helena by her jaw and looking into her eyes.

Helena all but melted into the pools of jade that held her. The look in Myka's eyes portrayed the love Helena never thought she'd know, the salve to all her wounds, the caring that she lacked for over a century, and the tenderness she longed for.

"Yes," Helena said and meant it from her fiber of her being. "I always am, when I am in your hands."

Myka smiled at the sweet sentiment. "Good, because …," she continued as she picked up a piece of butter covered lobster, "….my hands want you."

Helena instinctively opened her mouth and accepted the food without question. The sweetness tantalized her tongue as her lips tried to hold onto to Myka's finger. Helena glanced over at the table and took a piece of the dinner and presented it to Myka. Two could play this game, she thought.

"Wherever did you come up with this menu?" Helena asked as her finger lingered in her wife's mouth.

"Meeyee," Myka tried to say with her mouth full.

"That woman deserves a raise," the CEO stated.

The tide was turning and any second now, Helena would be in charge. Myka had to see to it that it didn't happen. She swallowed quickly, and fed Helena another morsel, this time allowing Helena to suck on her long finger.

Helena tried to repay the gesture, but Myka took her wife's hand and began to lick the butter off her palm. The sensation of Myka's wet tongue on her flesh made Helena shiver. She was certain she could hear the crackling sound of sparks going off in her entire body.

"I really think you'll like dessert," she said later and Helena's eyebrow rose out of intense curiosity. She was beginning to feel as if her eyebrow was the only part of her body she could move – everything was passionately under her wife's enchantment.

Myka pulled back the white napkin that was covering the dessert and took one of the long red strands of candy. She let the tip of the candy slip across her own lips as the action mesmerized Helena, who swallowed hard in response. Then she took the other end and placed it in Helena's mouth. The Brit clenched her teeth as she began biting off tiny bits of it to shorten the distance between their mouths. The smell of sweetness intoxicated Helena in much the same way her Chanel No. 5 affected Myka. With the sugary treat still in their mouths, Helena pressed her lips onto Myka's, her tongue probing to taste her wife's sweetened lips. The couple pulled apart only momentarily to swallow the candy.

"I do love when you eat these," Helena said gleefully.

"They were my idea," Myka said proudly. "Millie…. suggested this," she said as she opened up a covered bowl that had been kept warm. Sliding her finger into it, she then presented the chocolate covered digit to Helena's lips. "I had it warmed up because I know you like it…..hot," she said, in such a seductive voice, that Helena clamped her mouth around the finger instantly.

Any hotter and Helena would combust.

Myka slowly pulled her finger out of Helena's mouth, now void of any confection. "Would you lick that off if I put it.…," - was all Myka got out before Helena flew at her and kissed her so hard, they fell back onto the couch.

"Anywhere," Helena said, staring down at her wife.

As much as Myka enjoyed the playful banter and jockeying for control, what she really loved was staring into Helena's dark eyes and feeling their Oneness enwrap them in a warmth that made her feel like anything was possible. The couple lay together on the couch, Helena's head on Myka's chest as she listened to the rhythm of her heartbeat.

"Helena?" Myka said, her tone softened and sweet now.

"Yes, love?" Helena responded. When Myka hesitated, Helena looked at her, but she was all smiles and there was a twinkle in her eye.

"I've been thinking, Helena," Myka said, pushing Helena's long locks back. "I think we should try again."

"Try again?" Helena said, unsure of what she meant.

"To start our family," Myka said, the idea born from the love in her heart that burst for Helena.

Helena blinked and looked at Myka as those words sunk in. After having made such a mess of things last time, Helena had decided she would not broach the subject and let Myka bring it up.

"You mean….?" Helena asked slowly because she wanted to be sure.

"I want our baby," Myka said and tears immediately flowed down Helena's cheek; she was so overcome with how much she wanted this, too.

Myka pushed her head up and kissed Helena with a mixture of tenderness and urgency that made the Brit lightheaded. "I …would…have…to…..get…," Helena said slowly trying to complete her thoughts. It was no use.

She was intensely, madly, and insanely in love with Myka.

"Yes, can you?" Myka asked, because the feeling that this was the right moment filled her very being.

The hardest part for Helena was letting go of Myka's lips after kissing her so passionately. "Yes," she finally said and kissed Myka three more times before she told her to wait and that she would be right back. Within minutes, she reappeared and beckoned Myka to come with her to their bedroom.

After gliding their hands over each other's bodies as they undressed, the two embraced as they lie down on the satin sheets. The cool sensation was lost on the warm bodies that heated up with each loving caress and every tender kiss.

Helena looked down at Myka as they lie together. She swore she had never seen Myka look more beautiful. Her gloved hand moved slowly up Myka's thigh and teased her skin with its touch. All Myka could feel was Helena's skin – as if nothing were covering it. Helena achingly caressed Myka until she begged for a merciful release.

In that moment, their Oneness forged like it had never done before and bathed the room in a white light more intense than on their wedding day.

In that moment, both women swore they felt an energy surge in both their bodies as if sharing the pinnacle of their love making and union.

And in that moment, the future was going to make good on its promise to bring them an Heir.

Just as Claudia was leaving the pizza place downtown, she noticed something in a booth on her way out. Something drew her to it because it looked so familiar. She bent down and picked it up. She had put it around Eileen's neck that morning before she left for work. She recognized it because it was one of a kind – she had made it for Eileen. She looked around, but there was no sight of her girlfriend.

So what was Eileen's scarf doing in the seat?