[ when she woke up that morning, helen hadn't been expecting this. she'd been expecting to go about her business as usual without any other reminders of her past. she'd been horribly wrong, as evidenced by the first board she'd come across in sector 0. she'd merely glanced at it to see what it was and why it was there, as it was very definitely not there yesterday. and now, as a direct result of that, she finds herself looking at a picture she'd thought couldn't exist here, a person she'd thought she would never see again.
her breath catches painfully in her chest and for a long moment, she stares at it. that blonde head of hair is so frighteningly familiar and after losing rebekah to the dimensional stabilizer and nearly losing jean-luc to locutus recently, helen isn't certain she can handle this reminder. she knows a certain date is coming up in less than ten days, but she'd been hoping she wouldn't be reminded of that day until it came.
she'd been wrong about that, too.
slowly, carefully, she reaches a trembling hand up to grasp the picture and bring it down. ]
Dear god. Ashley...
[ her voice is barely above a whisper and it takes all of her self-control not to flee the scene so she can go cry in her apartment alone. instead, she simply tucks the picture into one of the pockets on her chest and looks around at the board again. she only manages to find twomore and quickly takes them with her, leaving the sector as fast as she possibly can without appearing to run from something and hoping no one stops her along the way.
she can be found in her apartment for the morning, where she's got the pictures strewn across her small kitchen table, and in the clinic in the afternoon, where she is very obviously distracted. ]