InsaneJournal

Who: Myka and Helena
What: Myka finally gets the stubborn Victorian woman to confront why she's being haunted and thus getting rid of the ghost by confronting this.
When: Sunday afternoon
Where: Myka's sitting room
Warnings: Mentions of Helena falling down a flight of stairs and breaking her leg, some angst, possible language but will update as needed
Status: Closed | Begun in a gdoc, to be finished in the comments



The day had been far more exciting than Helena had anticipated. The thrown objects and so forth had been largely expected, it was par for the course of the past couple days. The writing on the wall had been added to Friday, and things started to become clear about why the ghosts were there. Well, at least it had after Helena had time to think over it between bouts of dodging thrown objects. But being the innately stubborn woman she was, she was ignoring it. Really, she didn’t want to think about the deeper meaning for Vincent haunting her.

So that morning she’d been heading to breakfast with Myka when Vincent had made himself known. Helena hadn’t seen what object had been thrown, she’d only felt the impact against the back of her knee. The impact had made her knee buckle and she fell (there was undoubtedly also a scream of surprise, but Helena would never admit to having screamed). She’d been at the top of the stairs at the time, so the fall she took had been down an entire flight of stairs that had left her with a broken leg. There had been copious amounts of swearing through the pain, something highly uncharacteristic of her, but she doubted it was frowned upon given the circumstances. Myka had quickly come to her aid and gotten her to a doctor. A few hours later, with the broken bone set and her right leg in a cast from the knee down and sporting a pair of crutches, Helena and Myka were back at the castle.

Setting herself down on Myka’s couch, Helena propped her broken leg up on it for comfort. “Of course it had to be my right leg,” she grumbled. Her right leg had been the one she’d broken as a child, an injury that had subsequently led to her love of literature being born. Though at least this time around there were far more efficient pain medications she was able to take. Speaking of, she was going to be due for another dose soon.

~*~

Myka had been properly sympathetic through the whole ordeal - well, from the moment Helena took the hit, the fall, and the injury, and then on through the cast setting. Had this been Pete, Myka would have started in earlier on the scolding, as soon as it was clear Pete would be alright. When it came to Helena, Myka bit back her ‘Miss Know-it-all-ness’ until they were settled back from the doctor’s, simply because Helena shared Myka’s bed. Sorry Pete, but that’s how Myka played favorites.

Myka set the tea service down on the coffee table within Helena’s easy reach. If Helena wanted, Myka would certainly pour her a drink. She wasn’t without feeling after all, she just needed to talk some hard truths into Helena.

“Okay,” Myka said, direct. “We need to talk, Helena.”

~*~

Once the tea service was set down, Helena leaned over and poured herself some tea. Yes, she could’ve asked Myka to pour some for her, but Helena was prideful. She didn’t like being catered to in these situations. She had working arms, she could still do things for herself. It was just like when she’d been sick several months prior, she was fully capable of doing some things and she would throw a fit if someone else tried to do things for her with or without asking her if they could. She wasn’t an invalid, and after falling down the stairs, she had bruised pride she needed to nurture. After adding the dash of milk to her tea, she took a sip of it and settled back on the couch, making herself comfortable.

And then Myka uttered those words. Helena eyed her for some moments as she took another sip of her tea.

“What do we need to talk about?” She was certainly aware they needed to talk but Helena wanted to avoid the discussion as long as possible. She disliked drudging up her fears and insecurities, but she knew Myka wasn’t going to let it go.

~*~

Oh, Myka did notice right away how Helena dug in. Myka had been around the Victorian woman long enough to know that quirk to the corner of her mouth and eyes and the stiff line of her shoulder all screaming she was being difficult. All while still being prim and proper. Myka would never tell the younger this, but those same tells were present in her as well.

Myka forewent calling Helena on her feigned ignorance over the topic and zeroed in on what needed to be said.

“I know you know what you have to do. You are far too clever and skilled with words to not have figured it out by now. And if you really don’t know, I am taking you back to the hospital to have your brain scanned for head injuries the doctor missed when we were there, so don’t try to tell me you haven’t the slightest idea what I’m talking about.” If Helena was paying attention, that was slightly complimentary of Helena’s natural brilliance.

~*~

Just as Helena had dug in and Myka saw it, Helena saw how Myka dug in. There was that scrutinizing edge to her green eyes, the way she held her face and squared her shoulders ever so slightly. She’d seen that look plenty of times over the time they’d known each other. And Helena did catch the slight compliment, but she didn’t bask in it like she normally would. She just let it pass by as she took another drink of her tea. Which she was sort of inhaling it given she’d not only missed her morning tea because of falling down the stairs, but she was also a bit of an emotional wreck. She’d just merely been in far too much pain until the pain killers had kicked in to allow her to really focus on her deeper emotions.

But right now, one of them had to give in, and in this case Helena she had to relent and give up being stubborn. If she didn’t, she would undoubtedly lose Myka, and that was not what she wanted. So drawing in a breath and setting her largely empty tea cup aside for the moment, she relented, her shoulders sagging ever so slightly as her fingers attempted to fiddle with a non-existent ring on her right ring finger. Ring fiddling was one of her quirks, but despite the fact she wasn’t wearing one currently, her fingers still fiddled idly.

“I am afraid. I am afraid of ruining what we have.” Which okay, that was probably a silly fear given she’d sort of already ruined their relationship once with the whole betrayal and attempt to destroy the world and yet they’d come back from that. So short of Helena killing Myka or killing someone else, she probably couldn’t actually ruin their relationship beyond repair. But fears weren’t rational, and this wasn’t exactly something that occurred to Helena. “I am afraid of bringing out the devil in you. I do rather have that tendency to bring out the worst in people when they’re around me long enough, and I don’t want that to happen to you. Misery and disaster tend to follow me wherever I go, and the last thing I want is for any of that to affect you.”

Despite the fact she’d started talking, Helena was very much afraid that this would all come across as her doubting their relationship. There was also a part of her that felt incredibly silly for admitting to this fear because she shouldn’t be afraid. Of course Helena had perfectly good reasons for being afraid and insecure given this was her first monogamous relationship, so she had every right to be afraid when it was something new to her. She just didn’t see it that way.