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Helena Wells-Quinzel is H.G. Wells (indelibleink) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-11-17 00:07:00

Who: Harley, Svetlana, Helena and, later, Anatoly
What: Helena’s going off the deep end and a game of Russian Roulette ensues.
When: Evening November 16th
Where: An alleyway somewhere in Orange County, and then Svetlana's apartment
Warnings: Russian Roulette played with a real, loaded gun and a living human target, but no triggers are pulled

Ever since passing a stranger on the street, Helena had grown more and more fixated on him. Technically speaking, she’d taken to stalking him. Snapping some pictures of him with her phone and doing what she could to figure out who he was. But she’d gone so far as to figure out his habits and schedule. Luckily for her, he kept roughly the same schedule each day, just with some minor differences.

If she’d been thinking rationally, she would have known this man only bore a resemblance to a man in her dreams as opposed to actually being the man. But rationality went out the window the instant that anger had been tapped into. It was that boiling anger she’d felt ever since having the dream where her daughter had been murdered, and nothing was going to satisfy her anger until she had an outlet for it.

Helena had plans for this man. She was going to take him to a secluded area where she could torture and kill him the same way she had in her dreams. Which was why she’d quietly taken one of the handguns from Harley’s stockpile of guns. Or at least she’d thought she’d taken it quietly, she wasn’t exactly in the mindset to fully cover her tracks yet. Covering her tracks would come once she’d kidnapped this guy.

Gun in hand, she’d set off to a point where she’d determined she’d kidnap him from. She glanced around, keeping the gun concealed, but this area wasn’t well traveled. If all played out, her target would be the only person coming this way. And he should be arriving shortly.

To say that Svetlana was worried would be an understatement. She had seen Helena’s network post and it had piqued her interest. Which meant that the Russian woman had been keeping an eye on her friend ever since. One thing about being hyper aware of being followed and paranoid and finding ways to evade the KGB in her dreams? Apparently it meant that Svetlana was better at tailing people and keeping out of sight when necessary.

But really. It had been a man Helena had only seen. Once. Yet that was enough to make an impression on the woman. Helena had asked her to be her conscience and that was exactly what Svetlana would do. So between work and everything else Svetlana had to handle, she also had Helena to worry about.

Which was why when she saw the woman go into an area that wasn’t well travelled, red flags went off around her. Helena was planning to do something. And it wasn’t going to be good. So Svetlana followed her, not really caring for her own safety at the moment.

Now as it was, Helena was, in some ways, more like her dream self than she really knew. She’d inherited some of the saving graces her dream self had, such as her subconscious worked against her. She knew what she was doing, what she was planning to do, was wrong, but the impulse to go after this man and make him pay for a crime he didn’t commit was too strong. So her subconscious had worked to leave a trail for people to help stop her.

She’d made that network posting where people who knew her could see it and intervene. She’d taken one of Harley’s guns, which she would anticipate would’ve been noticed. And she was certain Svetlana was keeping an eye on her, and she was leaving breadcrumbs, though Helena wasn’t completely aware of this.

Helena knew precisely where she wanted to ambush the man. Her car was parked a couple blocks away, of course in a spot where surveillance cameras wouldn’t get it. And there weren’t surveillance cameras in her chosen ambush sight. She ducked into an alley between two buildings, warehouses that were seldom used for anything other than storage. She glanced at the time, then peeked around the building, keeping an eye out for her intended target.

Except she thought she saw something, movement, and she frowned, pulling her head back and wondering if she’d seen things or not. But it only added to the inner turmoil of emotions she felt and her hand moved towards her gun as she peeked around the corner again, searching for what she’d just seen, wondering if her mind was playing tricks on her or not.

But then she spotted someone further off in the distance coming this way. After the time she’d spent following, or rather stalking this man, she could tell it was him. Her jaw clenched and a cold anger crossed her eyes as her hand pulled the gun out. She was going to urge him into her car. Worst case scenario, she’d knock him out, but she hoped he could walk under his own power back to her car, where she’d then knock him out and drive off to the place she had ready.

Perhaps it was more than a little Dexter-like in her planning, but she wasn’t one to go halfway on anything.

In this moment, Svetlana honestly didn’t care about being spotted by Helena. If it made her stop and think about what she was planning to do, then it didn’t matter. The whole point of being asked to be her conscience was to stop the older woman from doing something she would regret when she came to. Especially since Svetlana saw a flash of a gun, which led to a string of curses in Russian in her head.

Helena was worrying Harley. While Harley tended to just accept things as they happened and encourage less-than-legal behaviour, she had certain lines that she wasn't willing to cross. Dream her might have, but she wasn't her dreams, no matter how much she felt like it sometimes.

Though she'd be all for gutting someone that deserved it. She just wasn't sure this guy did. He could be any Tom Dick or Harry. And even if he was someone from H's dreams, that didn't mean he was a dreamer, or even the same person.

She'd put two and two together, got fifteen, then decided to find where her girlfriend was going and what, exactly, she was obsessed by.

Wearing an oversized trench coat, a fedora, and dark sunglasses, she followed Helena at a safe distance.

And it wasn't just them. "Yeah okay, who's that."

No matter. She dealt with threats like that all the time even if she didn’t discuss it. It was part of the job and her perchance to go places she shouldn’t.

Then she noticed the woman’s attention getting drawn to a man and all the pieces fell into place. The stalking. The gun. The post on the network.

A quick calculation was made and it was clear to the blonde woman that she was closer to Helena than the man. As such, Svetlana moved quickly towards where Helena to place herself between her and the path she was determined to take.

This had been similar to how she’d tracked Christina’s killers in her dreams. Though in the late 1890s in Paris, it had been easier to kidnap someone without notice. Motor vehicles hadn’t been so popular yet, and most people went inside after the sun set. Only the lowlifes tended to really stay out for long periods at night. The kind of lowlifes who killed innocent children.

And Helena was convinced this man she was stalking was the man who had dealt the killing blow to her daughter in her dreams. So she was going to kill him. That was her goal, to make it as long and painful as she could before finally putting him out of his misery.

However, as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men.

Helena had come out from her hiding place only to find Svetlana between her and her target. Clenching her jaw, Helena eyed her friend.

“This is not your business,” Helena said. Though of course even in this state, she consciously knew Svetlana wouldn’t move. So instead she pointed the gun at her, though the safety was still in place and her finger wasn’t on the trigger either. “Get out of the way.” Even her voice was cold and detached, not the usual one that had warmth and life in it. No, this was one that carried only coldness.

She was aware that there was someone else in the alley, not just her, Helena and her prey. But at this moment, the Russian woman couldn’t really pay attention to that. The stakes were too high for her to get distracted.

“You made it my business when you asked me to be your conscience.” Okay so the fact was if Svetlana had seen the signs even without being asked to, she would be doing the same thing. However, Helena had asked her to be her conscience and so… here she was. Staring down her friend. She didn’t even flinch at the gun, or the coldness in Helena’s voice.

“Don’t insult me. You’re not killing anyone.”

Reaching out, Svetlana grabbed Helena’s gun hand, taking the safety off and getting her finger on the trigger before placing the barrel of the gun to her forehead, eyes boring straight into the taller woman’s, defiant. Angry.

“And if I’m wrong? Then shoot me. Look me in the eyes and kill me.” Something was in her eyes and so she kept pushing. “Do it, kill me now! I’m not that different from some stranger on the street, so what does it matter? Shoot me now. Come on, do it!”

So perhaps she was a bit reckless. But if it managed to reach through to Helena, then it was worth it.

Okay, so it was clearly time to come out of cover. Harley moved behind Helena, taking her fedora off. She twirled it on her finger. "It's all fun and games until someone gets a bullet in the brain. Is that how it goes?"

She dropped the hat on Helena's head and moved behind Svetlana. She leaned on the blonde's shoulders, as this wasn't a tense situation and there wasn't a loaded gun pressed into someone's head. "You know if you're gonna kill someone they ought to deserve it first."

When Svetlana grabbed her hand, Helena tried to resist, shaking her head. No, this wasn’t what she’d planned for, this wasn’t what she wanted to happen. And yet there was something inside of her glad that it was happening. Because it meant an innocent man could go on with his life and not know there was ever a threat against it. At least from Helena.

Once Svetlana had the barrel of the gun against her forehead, Helena looked at her, horror running through her. Svetlana’s dare to shoot her did work, it cut through the cold exterior and actually made her stop. It made her think, and it made her think. Her finger twitched on the trigger, but didn’t pull it.

And then Harley came into the picture and Helena’s gaze flicked from Svetlana to Harley and back again. No, she couldn’t do this. She wasn’t going to kill Svetlana, she couldn’t kill someone she cared about. And she wasn’t going to kill a friend right in front of Harley.

Conflict visibly ran over Helena’s face and in her eyes. There were a few tense moments that passed wherein she simply remained holding the gun to Svetlana’s head. And all at once, Helena pulled the gun away, took a step back and dropped to her knees, letting go of the gun.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered as the situation began to dawn on her and then she buried her face in her hands. Though everything inside of her was telling her to run away, to disappear, that she was a danger.

Svetlana remained exactly as she was, gaze never leaving Helena in the tense moments that followed. She did tense as Harley just drapped herself over her as the Russian woman really was not a fan of physical contact, not when it was initiated by others, and especially not from behind but her own feelings in this moment didn’t matter. What did was making sure she actually managed to get through to Helena.

She watched her expression of horror changed to thinking and the thinking to conflict. She held her ground, even as the gun remained pressed against her forehead where she had placed it. So she kept an eye on Helena’s body language as she stepped away.

Letting out a slow breath, Svetlana stepped forward and dropped to her knees in front of her friend, very familiar with this behaviour from those who were scared that she worked with and took her hands to hug her.

“I know.” Then she pulled away enough to just get a look at her face as she said the next part, “But I’m calling Anatoly.” Helena knew him. She knew he was a psychiatrist. Perhaps now she realised that this was way beyond her handling everything on her own. Whatever the case, Svetlana trusted Anatoly to be able to help in a way neither she nor Harley could, for while she knew the other woman was a psychiatrist, she was also Helena’s girlfriend, which meant conflict of interest.

For all that Harley wanted to help, she knew she couldn't do it professionally and there were going to be things that Helena needed to talk to a therapist before talking to Harley about it. And even then Harley wasn't going to ask about the sessions. Helena could volunteer information, but no pressure on Harley's front.

She folded her arms, crouching. She actually sounded somewhat serious, though she was blunt and honest. "Callin' someone is good, doll. Cause if someone like me is the voice of reason than you know you got problems."

This was the problem, really. Helena had too many issues stemming from her dreams and she couldn’t handle them all on her own. It was also difficult for her to separate herself from her dream self. Where did her dream self end and herself begin? She supposed there was no real answer to that question, though.

As Svetlana hugged her, she leaned into it, though she didn’t think she deserved it. Not after what she’d planned to do. It was almost too much for her to take under the weight of everything else. But when Svetlana said she’d call Anatoly, Helena looked at her and nodded. She knew she needed help to sort out the mess that was her head, and she couldn’t have Harley do it. Not without risking Harley’s license.

She looked over to Harley, drawing in a breath. “I am sorry for putting you through this,” she said to her girlfriend. “I’m sorry to both of you. Pride is my downfall.” She lowered her head, her shoulders slumping. Everything in her was still screaming to her to run away. Harley and Svetlana deserved better than her in their lives. Christina deserved a better mother, the mother she was before the dreams started.

Perhaps she never should have come to Orange County. Then none of this would have ever happened.

Between Harley’s seconding of calling someone, and Helena nodding her agreement, Svetlana felt herself relax some. She really didn’t want to have to fight the brunette on this, but she would.

“Pride is the fall of many.” Svetlana knew that from watching Anatoly in her dreams. So for now, it was getting up and giving Harley the opportunity to take her place. Someone needed to keep Helena there just in case she decided to run. Stepping a bit away, the Russian woman pulled out her phone and called Anatoly, not even bothering to give a proper greeting.

“I need you to come to make a house call for Helena at my apartment.” She paused a moment, “And also I need you to bring me a bottle of vodka for myself.” Her mind was racing with different emotions and she wasn’t quite sure how her voice sounded, but probably not normal. However, she definitely needed a drink but she didn’t have the time to get it herself.

Folding Helena into her arms, as much for comfort as to keep her from taking off. She didn't think H would, but when someone wasn't thinking clearly they didn't act like themselves. She nuzzled her forehead against Helena's. "It'll be okay. You don't gotta be who you are in your dreams. No matter what they do to you, you got a choice. We’ve always got a choice.”

The call Svetlana made to Anatoly wasn’t out of the ordinary, it was what she said and the sound of her voice that got to him. Something was definitely off and something had definitely happened, but inquiring about it over the phone wasn’t the best idea nor was he even entertaining it. He’d find out soon enough anyway. So he agreed to get the vodka and head over to Svetlana’s apartment. All the while he was running various scenarios of what had happened and why Helena was involved. None of them were really adding up, so he would simply see what had happened when he got there.

When Harley pulled her into her arms, Helena went slack. There was no getting away, there was no running away. If she ran now, she would never stop. She would always run from her dreams and from herself, and what she needed to do was to face them. She needed to handle them, to handle herself. After all, she wanted to see her daughter again, and until she had her head on straight, she wouldn’t be able to do that.

She took in Harley’s words and some tears started to run down her cheeks. Her arms slid around Harley and she just pressed her face into her shoulder. The numbness was starting to fade away now that Svetlana had smashed through the cold exterior she’d erected. A large part of her was intensely horrified by what she’d been ready to do to that man. She couldn’t believe it, that her dreams had pushed her this far.

Somehow, some way, she needed to make this up to both Svetlana and Harley. Helena didn’t know how she could do that, but there would be plenty of time once she was thinking more clearly to figure that out.

Once Svetlana had let Anatoly know she’d leave the door unlocked for him, she hung up and walked back over to Helena and Harley.

“He will meet us at my apartment.”

It was a simple statement of fact, and it was how Svetlana tended to act anyway. She was a woman of few words and everything she said was measured. So she just waited until the two were ready before she led them to the apartment where they would be meeting Anatoly. Once there, she nodded to the living room for where Harley could lead Helena while Svetlana just headed to her kitchen to make tea. Not for herself but the others. No she would be having psychiatrist brought vodka.

The door, as she had told Anatoly, had been left unlocked, so he could just walk in and get to it. No need for pleasantries. Not right now.

The whole trip there, Harley kept an arm around Helena. She tended to talk too much in general, but especially so when nervous or worried. But maybe in this case it might have helped. She talked about her new intern at work, and segued into how she'd gotten tickets to a race track and that 'it was a gas, we should go some time.' Somehow by the time they'd sat in the living room, Harley was talking about how she'd burnt her beaver. "And he never let me live it down."

At this point, Helena simply went where she was led. There was no opening for her to turn and disappear, never to be seen again, so she just went with the flow, so to speak. And she didn’t mind how much Harley talked, she never actually did mind it, but right now it was at least something else to focus on that wasn’t wondering what the fuck had been going through her head of late.

Her head was one hell of a dark and complicated place currently, but once she sat down in Svetlana’s living room, she looked at Harley, obviously listening to her. Under normal circumstances, she would have found the beaver story to be amusing, but currently, she couldn’t crack a smile. Not when the image of holding a gun to Svetlana’s head was still flashing across her mind.

“He likes to remind you of that, does he?” She finally spoke. The entire way there, she’d been silent. She acknowledged she was listening with a nod of her head now and then, but that was it.

Anatoly, on the other hand, was still running scenarios of what had happened and what he would walk into upon arriving to Svetlana’s. He stopped to buy vodka, Russian vodka of course because there was no other kind as far as he was concerned, then made his way to Svetlana’s apartment. Knowing the door was unlocked, he didn’t knock when he got there, he just opened the door and walked in. He glanced around, then heard Svetlana in the kitchen. Upon entering he simply handed her the brown bag containing the bottle of vodka in it.

“What happened?” He asked Svetlana as he looked at her. And of course he was looking at her a bit closely, already tipped off that she wasn’t okay no matter what she may claim in that regard.

Perfect timing. Being handed the brown bag with vodka, Svetlana had just finished the tea. So she could give two of the cups to Anatoly to take to the living room with him for when he spoke with Helena. If she seemed detached, well, it was just part of the entire situation. It was mostly her processing what had happened. Not that she needed to process. It had worked out. Helena hadn’t killed a man and she finally admitted that she needed help.

The trick of course would be figuring out how to word what happened.

“Helena has expressed concern to me before that her dreams would influence her actions and she wished for me to keep an eye on her. She was correct in her concern and stalked a man convinced he was someone from her dreams and was prepared to kill him. I managed to break through with some help from Harley and she has accepted and admitted to knowing that she needs help and cannot deal with the dream trauma and bleed over on her own as she had been trying before.”

While she doubted Harley or Helena were listening in on the conversation as they were in the other room, the description was in Russian. It was easier for her to process for one, to find the words. And it was also a subconscious switch of both familiarity as well as her own paranoia and the fact that perhaps the events had left her more shaken than she was acknowledging to herself because of how she viewed her own life in these situations.

Russian was pretty much just a bunch of gobblygook to Harley. Her language skills were pretty much relegated to her version of english, Spanish and a bit of German. So even if she wanted to listen in, she couldn't. Instead, all of her attention was on Helena.

"Oh yeah, Doll. He never shuts up. It's probably a sign of my psychotic break but I don't let that stop me." She reached up to pet Helena's hair.

Alright, so clearly more had gone on than Anatoly had initially been thinking. And by more he meant something more dire than he’d thought of. With a glance to Helena and Harley, he was thinking there’d been some sort of confrontation. It hadn’t gotten physical, at least in the fighting sense of it, because all three women seemed to be in order. No disheveled clothing that suggested a fight had ensued, but that didn’t mean that there hadn’t been a harrowing experience of some sort.

And the fact that Svetlana was speaking Russian pretty much said it all. It was clearly easier for her to explain things in Russian, but more than that, he could tell she was trying to process things. Really, how had he gotten so good at reading Svetlana? Was it solely from the dreams? Probably not, he’d been around her enough to have picked up some of it from this life, and not solely from the dreams.

“So you confronted her and stopped her before anything terrible happened.” He also spoke in Russian just for Svetlana’s ease more than thinking the other two were trying to listen in on what they were saying. And even if they were listening and could understand, it wasn’t as though he was discussing private matters with Svetlana.

Also, because he knew Svetlana and could read her, he knew something bad had happened, but it hadn’t crossed the line into terrible. Thus why he’d differentiated “bad” and “terrible” in his response. If something terrible had happened, he had a feeling at least two of the three women here would be in worse states than they actually were.

Meanwhile, Helena did actually know Russian. Or rather her dream self did and she’d gained it by osmosis of the dreams. But even though she understood Russian, she wasn’t actively listening to Svetlana and Anatoly. She was trying to keep her focus on Harley because it was the only thing that was keeping her from drowning in the mess inside of her head currently.

“You shouldn’t let it stop you.” She took a slow breath as Harley touched her hair. She lowered her head, pressing a hand to her forehead. Everything was a mess, and she didn’t know how to make it better. She wasn’t even certain Anatoly could help because while talking may help some of her issues, there were some things that simply couldn’t be fixed. Such as the grief she felt from her dream self. That was one of those things that wouldn’t really go away. The mess in her head was weighing on her, and she couldn’t quite come to terms with herself.

Lately, she had wondered if she was any different from the Joker and found little difference from what she knew of the man from Harley’s dreams.

“Yes. Precisely.” There was no need to go into what exactly had happened. Because it had happened, it had worked out and she knew that Anatoly would focus on her role in the confrontation and miss the point. Just as he was able to read her, Svetlana knew how Anatoly was, could read him. It wasn’t just from the dreams, she had always been able to read him. The dreams just gave her a bit more insight.

Handing him the two mugs of tea for himself and Helena, the Russian woman looked to where Helena and Harley were before looking back to Anatoly before motioning he should go talk to Helena. She was the one who needed help. Not her.

Harley thought that she might have to leave, or at least go into another room. She couldn’t be here, not for certain conversations, not when she was a head shrink herself. “I won’t let it stop me.” She kissed Helena’s forehead. “I’ll be nearby, if you need me, but I don’t think I should be here for any conversations you have with Anatoly.”

As much as he wanted to press Svetlana for what exactly had happened, he well knew he was here to talk to Helena first and foremost. And she’d no doubt end up telling him what had happened tonight. At least after he had gotten her to tell him what was going on with her.

Helena drew in a breath and gave a little nod to Harley. “Alright.” She reached for Harley’s hand, giving it a little squeeze. She’d certainly need her to be there for her after this, and as she moved forward. Somehow, she’d find a way to make it up to everyone after Helena pulled herself back together.

Taking the tea, Anatoly headed over to Helena, giving Harley a friendly nod and handing one cup of tea to Helena. Once he was seated and Harley had gone elsewhere, Anatoly began talking with Helena. It was like pulling teeth at first, Helena didn’t exactly find it easy to talk about these aspects of herself. But finally, she started talking more. She told Anatoly the basic rundown of her dreams, focusing on the murder of her daughter and the toll it had taken on her. Though she did explain what the Warehouse was and Artifacts and the like so it was easier for him to follow how she had gone from the late 19th Century to the early 21st Century. And then, subsequently, him understanding her spiral. Some of it had been the Minoan Trident’s effect on her, yes, but most of it had been her grief, anger and hate.

Finally, after a little while of talking and Helena explaining, she’d gotten to the events of this evening. Which in Helena’s recounting, included the part about the gun to Svetlana’s head. Now, Anatoly could have thrown an absolute fit at the moment of hearing that, but to his credit, his only outward physical response was the widening of his eyes. Inwardly, yes he was having a heart attack. Metaphorically speaking, anyway.

“I’m sorry, what?” Anatoly asked. Of course he’d heard Helena, he simply just needed it to sink in.

“Svetlana stopped me by making me put a gun to her head and dared me to shoot her.” Helena recounted again. Anatoly looked over to Svetlana. Yes, he was inwardly freaking out, but he was a therapist and had long mastered the art of keeping his personal emotions inside when talking with someone who needed his professional help.

“You had a gun pointed at your head?” The question was in English, mostly because of the shock and internal heart attack he was having. Yes he was going to flail about this later, once he and Svetlana were alone. Now it made sense why Svetlana was acting the way she was.

And no, he wouldn’t let this go.

When Harley came to join her, Svetlana just nodded to her before handing the woman the last cup of tea. With that done, the Russian woman just took a sip of her vodka. Really, it was just needed after everything that had gone down that night. It wasn’t like she drank all that much. But the stress and everything just made it necessary.

She was content to stand in silence, drinking her vodka and processing everything that had happened. So when Anatoly looked at her and asked about what had happened, she was momentarily caught off guard, though it made sense Helena would mention it. Honestly, this was why she hadn’t told him. It would distract him. Not like her response would do much better as Svetlana just shrugged. “I knew she wouldn’t pull the trigger.” As if it were that simple.

Still, she did switch to Russian for the next part as it was still easier to speak in her native language as opposed to English following everything, “You’re here to talk to Helena, not worry about me.” And that was all she was going to say on the matter.

Vodka sounded nice. It sounded really nice. Harley didn’t realize that her hands were shaking until she’d taken the cup of tea. She took a sip and tried to steady her hands. It was easy enough to worry that everything was falling apart and it bothered her that she couldn’t help. She wanted to. She hated not doing anything, she hated feeling useless.

She let the others talk, turning the day over and over in her head and looking uncharacteristically sullen.

There was so much Anatoly wanted to say to Svetlana then. For starters, mentioning that knowing Helena wouldn’t pull the trigger didn’t negate the whole having a loaded gun pointed at her head. And she wasn’t alright, no matter what she claimed. So he just rubbed a hand over his face, then through his unruly curly hair. But he was here to talk to Helena, he was here in a professional capacity.

He’d talk about things with Svetlana later, once the immediate issues with Helena were taken care of.

Such as the fact everyone in that room, including Helena, knew she’d done some illegal things that she very well could get arrested for. She could very well get arrested. She could turn herself in to the police, and face justice. But Anatoly wasn’t going to do that. What would it accomplish for Helena in the long run? He could already tell she felt guilty enough, and she needed psychiatric help that the prison system couldn’t actually give her. Partly because the largest stressors and the catalyst for the entire current situation came from her dreams. Helena didn’t belong in an asylum, which is where she’d end up if she mentioned the dreams in a court of law or to a lawyer. She didn’t necessarily belong in prison either because what she needed was help. Besides, with the way the dreams tended to work, Helena would undoubtedly get her comeuppance sooner or later from her dreams.

“First of all, I’m not going to hand you over to the police because that’s not going to fix the underlying problem here. It will only make it worse. Secondly, this isn’t something that will be fixed overnight, as I’m certain you already know. I will help you with this, but only if you let me.” Anatoly said to Helena.

Helena did relax a bit knowing Anatoly wasn’t going to turn her over to the police. Everyone in the room had every right to turn her in, but she had no desire to sit in a prison cell. It would drive her crazy, crazier than she already felt.

“I need help,” she said as she looked at him. Helena felt broken and rather lifeless currently. At this point, she certainly could go crawl into bed and sleep for a couple weeks and not precisely care. But she also knew what would keep her from giving up completely on herself. “I want to work through this so that I can be good enough for Harley. And I want to be a better mother to Christina.” She felt herself tear up and she sniffed lightly, trying to hold her tears back. “They both deserve so much better than what I am now. I love them both, and I need them. But I don’t want Christina around me until I have my head on straight again.”

“For what it’s worth, the fact you want to keep your daughter out of the middle of this is what makes you a good mother. All of this is the guilt talking, and that’s good that you feel guilt. It makes it easier to choose to work through things. Forgiveness is infinitely harder, but you have people who care about you, who love you despite what happened tonight. Svetlana and Harley are both still here, they’re helping you because they believe in you. No matter what you think of yourself now, they both still see the good in you because you are good. If you weren’t, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

Anatoly didn’t need to say that if Helena wasn’t good that she would’ve pulled the trigger. It went without saying, and he was certain that both Svetlana and Harley would agree on that matter. They both believed in Helena enough to want to help her, to stop her from doing something stupid and crossing a line from which there would be no return.

Of course, at his words, Helena couldn’t hold back her tears, and she finally let the wall holding her tears break. She pressed a hand over her mouth as she let herself cry.

Svetlana didn’t like that look. She knew that it meant this wasn’t over when it really didn’t matter. She was content to go about her day and forget the whole incident in the alleyway happened. In the end, while Helena had stalked the man, they had stopped her from making it a permanent issue. He was unaware he had even been in danger.

This was why Svetlana had called Anatoly, though. Because while he understood the dreams and what came with them, she just trusted him in matters like this. He helped the girls she brought him and she trusted him with one of her closest friends. So while she couldn’t hear what was being said, she could at least tell whenever she looked over that he was getting through to Helena and that he could help her.

That was enough to let her shoulders relax even slightly. She hated not being able to do more, but Svetlana had long learned that sometimes this was all that could be done. So she remained as she was. It wasn’t like she was super talkative on a good day.

Keeping the police out was probably a good idea. Harley wasn't exactly innocent of any crime. And then there was the fact that she could probably bust Helena out rather spectacularly - it would just mean fully exposing herself to the Hero community in Orange County, and thus far she'd avoided much suspicion. They didn't trust her but they certainly had the right not to.

But that would also mean losing herself to the ongoing psychotic madhouse that was her dreams. Would she do that for Helena? Possibly.

But if Helena really did want to get better for her, well, there wasn't many other things that could possibly mean more to Harley.

She finished her tea, and set the empty cup down. In a low voice to Svetlana, she said. "You know the craziest thing about all of this is right now with us in here and them in there I kinda feel the most normal an' sane that I've felt in a month."

This was a delicate situation all around, Anatoly had known that from the instant Svetlana had asked him to come. It would take a lot of finesse on his part, but that was what he was good at. He was patient, and he knew when to push and when not to. So when Helena started crying, he well knew that he was getting through to her. He reached out and set a comforting hand on her shoulder, enough to let her know he was still there, but not crossing the professional line. And he just let her have it out. There was no use in having prodded the dam open just to shove a cork in it right away. No, Helena obviously needed to release the emotions she’d been locking inside of herself that had effectively turned her into a pressure cooker.

It took a couple minutes, but finally Helena calmed down enough to where they could get back to talking again. This time he focused solely on what had happened that evening, of what had been going through Helena’s mind. The talking went far easier now that Helena had released some of the tears. And he would keep her talking for a little while, letting her get things out until he was satisfied that she wouldn’t just walk out of Svetlana’s apartment and try to go after the guy again.

Though he certainly wouldn’t be leaving without telling Helena to come to his office the next afternoon. He had a spot open for an emergency and he considered this an emergency. From there, they could have regular sessions, and with luck make some progress. Though he already could tell it was going to a very complicated case. But he wasn’t going to back down from it. Helping people is what he did, and he knew Helena was Svetlana’s friend as well. He wasn’t going to just let her suffer because she had a complicated case.

Helena didn’t know what to expect from this. She didn’t even think the issues from her dreams could be completely made right. After all, how did one get over the grief of losing a child when one’s child was very much still alive in this life? Then there was that whole being bronzed issue that had broken her mind. Her dream self was worse than she was, but it still wasn’t an easy task to help her put herself back together. Helena had done some bad things in recent times, and she needed to find a way to keep that darker side under control. Which is precisely what she ended up telling Anatoly. She needed to know what to do to stop herself in the future, to try and learn to control that part of her.

That was, perhaps, one of the larger and more immediate issues at hand.

Svetlana wasn’t exactly sure how to respond to Harley’s comment on how all of this made her feel sane. She had a feeling it was just a break the silence type thing since the entire situation was tense and they were both concerned about Helena.

“It is a rather intense situation. Yes.”

Yeah. Svetlana was awkward. But given she was in her own processing mode and not quite sure what to think? It was stilted sentences in a secondary language.

Harley nodded her head. She didn't say anything else, it had been mostly to fill the silence, and if it was with someone she knew she probably would have been a little more her weird self. She dealt with tragedy through laughter and morbid jokes, but she just couldn't process it all right now, and part of her wanted to appear professional and okay a little normal for Helena's ... whoever Svetlana was to Helena.

The talking went on for another hour or so, though it could’ve been longer or shorter. Given the topic and how much Helena had kept locked inside, it made the talk with Anatoly go by rather quickly. But finally, the talking had dwindled from emotionally-charged to being almost normal conversation. Anatoly kept it going until he was certain that Helena had calmed down enough where he could leave her be for now.

“Come to my office tomorrow afternoon a little before 1 pm. You’ll have paperwork to fill out, then we can talk some more. But for now, I think it’s best to let you relax.” Anatoly pulled out his wallet, found a pen and jotted down his cell phone number on the back of it. He then handed it to Helena. “If you find you need something tonight or tomorrow before you come, do not hesitate to call. I do not care what time it is, just call if you need anything.”

Taking the card, she looked it over momentarily before nodding. “Thank you. And thank you for coming on such short notice.”

“You don’t need to thank me. I enjoy helping people, and I am here to help you.” Anatoly gave her a little smile. Sometimes it shocked him just how well he could communicate when he was talking in a professional manner and yet be so people awkward in pretty much every other situation. “I will see you tomorrow, alright?” At that point, he stood up and went over to where Svetlana and Harley were.

Helena drew in a deep breath and hung her head. So much was going through her mind, but she was at least calmer now than she had been when she’d first arrived here.

“Helena’s calmer now. I’ll be seeing her for an appointment tomorrow afternoon.” He looked to Svetlana, then to Harley and back to Svetlana. “You stepped in at just the right time. But there is a lot of work to be done.” Piecing someone together after the dreams that Helena had outlined was going to be a very difficult process. But he wasn’t going to shy away from it.

Silence was Svetlana’s main mode of dealing with thing. Small talk was uncomfortable for her so she was fine once she and Harley fell into a silence again. Instead she just remained as she was, staring at nothing until Anatoly was there and letting them know that the immediate concern was at rest, even if just for now and that Helena had agreed to actual sessions. Good. Because there really was only so much she could do.

So the blonde woman just nodded. There wasn’t much to say and she was feeling the strain of everything as time went on. She wanted sleep even though she knew Anatoly still had plans to talk to her about everything that had happened.

"Thank you," Harley said. "And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. Its so easy to get messed up from these dreams. Not knowing where one version of you starts and the real you ends." She moved her hands around, animatedly. "And there's only so much I can ethically do for her, and even some girlfriend comfort stuff is toeing the line."

Oh Anatoly certainly had plans to talk to Svetlana. It was obvious to him that Helena had needed to be stopped, but the fact that a loaded gun had been pointed at Svetlana’s head was not exactly the kind of intervention he’d envisioned. And no matter what Svetlana thought, she wasn’t okay, especially not after staring down the barrel of a gun with an obviously emotionally disturbed person on the other end of it.

Not that he was down-talking his newest patient, but everyone in that room knew that this current course of events wasn’t the only way things could have ended tonight. Had Helena been any further lost in herself, she could have pulled the trigger.

He looked at Harley and gave her a little nod. “You’re welcome. I’ll do my best to help her untangle herself from her dreams. It certainly is not easy to differentiate between the two at times, and the lines between them can be easily lost when emotions run high.” Which is clearly what had happened with Helena. Her emotions had grown too strong and controlled her.

“At any rate, while she is calm, she should not be alone. I can already tell her guilt is starting to set in, and it could consume her just as easily as the anger and grief did.”

Svetlana remained silent. She had nothing to add to the conversation and really just wanted to be left alone. Take a bath. Go to sleep. She wasn’t going to rush anyone into leaving given everything that had happened, but she could tell everything was winding down. Which meant that once she managed to get Anatoly to leave, she could do just that. The trick was getting him to leave after everything that had happened.

She was fine. Just because Helena could have pulled the trigger had she been a bit more unhinged, had she not been fast enough, that didn’t change anything. Could haves didn’t matter because there was no use stressing about something that didn’t happen.

“I could take her back to my place for the night,” Harley suggested. “She got me an’ my dogs. The babies can keep her company with me.” The little wiener dogs just loved Helena, but then they loved just about anyone who pet them once or twice.

She was grateful that H hadn’t pulled the trigger. Dealing with the law was messy at best and then there was the fact that that would have been the point of no return.

Anatoly nodded a bit. “That would be the best. I gave her my cell phone number, so if she needs anything overnight or before she sees me tomorrow, do not hesitate to call.” He hoped that by at least having the company, Helena could remain stable enough to get through the night and through tomorrow until their appointment. And of course, once Harley and Helena left, Anatoly would have some words with Svetlana. Oh he could recognize that she was clearly trying to process things, which was why he’d keep his flailing rather concise and to the point.

More or less.

Helena still felt like taking the opportunity to slip out the door and disappear, but she didn’t have the energy to get up and do that. So instead she just sat there with her head hung, her shoulders slouching and wanting to do nothing but to disappear into herself.

Svetlana gave a small nod, not that it affected her. She wasn't going to be there that night. But things were winding down so it was walking the three to the door to let them out. Honestly, there was nothing for her to say at that point.

“Okay dokey.” Harley nodded, and got up. She hesitated then very quickly and enthusiastically hugged them both. “Thanks. You’re both world class.”

Taking a breath, she returned to where Helena was sitting, and offered her a hand. “Lets go home. The babies miss you and we can watch the tube or you can watch me pretend I know how to knit. I’ve been practicing.”

The hug from Harley was a bit unexpected, and Anatoly was a little awkward about it, but he managed to return the hug before she pulled away. Hey, hugs were always good and after the tense situation that had transpired earlier, hugs were definitely called for. And hugs were better than some other means of running things. As it was, he let Harley and Helena leave first so he could turn to Svetlana and flail about things. He’d at least kept it inside to this point, so there needed to be some credit given there. Had he not had to be professional and address Helena’s issues immediately, he would have flailed a lot earlier than he was about to do.

Because sometimes, just sometimes, Svetlana needed to not do reckless things and to be selfish once in a while.

Looking up at Harley as she came over, she drew in a slow breath and gave a slow nod. She reached out and took Harley’s offered hand as she stood up. Giving Anatoly and Svetlana a nod of thanks, she headed off with Harley. She doubted that she would sleep that night considering everything running through her head, but at least she wouldn’t be alone.

Being alone was the very last thing that she needed right then. Even if she felt that she didn’t deserve it, Helena was glad that Harley was there. Things were going to be rough, and Helena was going to be a mess for a time, but perhaps if she worked at it, she wouldn’t be a lost cause.

Even if she felt like one.