Helena Wells-Quinzel is H.G. Wells (indelibleink) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-01-04 01:21:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !complete, h g wells, harley quinn |
Who: Harley and Helena
What: Helena has a dream in which she dies. Feels happen. Then Harley comes out with a surprise!
When: Morning of January 2nd
Where: Harley's place
Warnings: R for dream!death and adult content
Status: Complete
”It had to be initiated from outside the barrier.” Helena stated, an underlying note of sadness to her voice. There was a bomb in the Warehouse, a bomb tied to an Artifact and no matter what Pete, Myka and Artie had done, nothing would disarm it. So while those three had been trying to disarm it and then coming to realize they were all going to die once the counter on the bomb hit zero, Helena had used her intellect to poke into the Warehouse’s defense system and rerouted a portion of the protective barrier that had erected itself around the Warehouse to a spot on the floor that encompassed Pete, Myka and Artie.
Helena was outside of the protective barrier. Myka just stared at her, realizing Helena was about to die. Helena mouthed “Thank you” to Myka, and it was a blanket expression of gratitude. Myka had saved her in more than one way, and while she never told Myka how she truly felt about her, that didn’t completely matter right now. She said it in the thank you, she said it in the way she only looked at Myka as the seconds ticked down. They exchanged a smile, albeit sad ones, tears laced Helena’s eyes, and she could see the tears in Myka’s eyes.
And then she smelled it. A distinct scent of apples hit her, and Helena almost started crying.
”I smell apples.” She spoke, a broad, but very sad smile on her face and the tears all the more evident in her eyes. The Warehouse liked her, it had forgiven her for what she’d done. It was a comfort, one that lifted a burden from her shoulders in those final seconds. Many people would probably lose it when they knew they were going to die, especially with a counter counting down the seconds. But was ever calm, brave in the face of her own mortality.
3….2…
One final breath, her eyes locked only on Myka.
...1.
Helena was engulfed in fire. The last thing she’d seen had been Myka. Her death was instantaneous and quick. She didn’t feel it, didn’t have time to react to the bomb detonating a couple feet away from her.
And that’s when Helena woke up. She couldn’t breathe initially. She tried to gasp for air, but her lungs seemed to refuse to take anything in. A couple moments later and she felt it. Her entire body felt like it was burning from the inside out. She let out a scream of pain, throwing the covers back and leaping out of bed. Though it was more falling out of bed as she pulled at her clothes and clawed at her skin as she rolled on the floor. Her lungs were burning, her heart was burning. It even felt like her hair was burning. She was wracked with pain, though there was no external sign of damage. No wounds from her dream had shown up, only the intense burning sensation that currently wracked her body.
Harley's dreams tended to be a series of hijinks and comediac events, which was a lot better than some of the darker dreams she'd experienced. Overall, she tended to have a great time in her dreams, which usually translated to a good morning. It probably wasn't all that healthy, the psychiatrist in her understood that. But the rest of her disregarded that voice most days.
Better to keep a smile on her face than not!
A fist collided with her nose and she flailed out of bed. "Ow! What the what the fuck?"
She climbed to her feet. "H? Helena? Helena!" Harley flipped over the bed, landing on light feet next to her, afraid to touch her. "Babe? Baby?"
The pain was intense, so much so that Helena could’ve sworn the blood in her veins was fire. Her conscious thought had all but stopped in the wake of the excruciating pain. She didn’t even completely hear Harley, not with her screaming and the burning sensation drowning everything else out.
“It burns!! It burns!!!” She cried out, nails still clawing at her skin. Red welts began to appear on her arms, legs, neck, torso, anywhere her hands could reach. Some of them even began to bleed. Luckily her nails weren’t long enough to do any real damage than to simply break the skin, but she couldn’t feel the stinging from those. The burning was far more intense and there were tears coming from the corners of her eyes.
"Oh jeez. Oh jesus." Harley ran for the dressed, pulling out some supple leather rope. She quickly wrapped it around Helena's wrists to keep her hands from doing more harm than good. She didn't know what to do, it was like Helena was burning up from the inside out but she couldn't see anything! She wailed, plaintively. "I don't know what to do."
There was cursing, actually quite a lot of cursing coming from Helena between screams. She dropped everything from the typical British curses to the F-bomb (which she never ever used) and anything in between. She even protested a little bit when Harley tied her wrists together, but she didn’t do much else.
Helena writhed around on the floor, strings of curses punctuated with screams, for a good few minutes before the burning started to let up. It stopped feeling like her body was burning from the inside out, and instead her entire body was tingling, much like one may expect a fire to crackle and sputter a bit as it was being doused with water.
Finally, Helena just lay still on her side, and what had been cursing and screaming turned into crying. While tears had been coming out this entire time, the crying she was doing now was definitely not induced by pain. It was emotional crying. And the fact Harley was there finally registering in her mind, Helena blindly reached out for her, needing assurance that she wasn’t actually dead.
Harley's white face was streaked with tears and there was a little snot-bubble in one nose. She'd dug her nail into her palms hard enough to draw blood. She leaned over, trying to pet at Helena's hair. How many times had it been in a month? In two? This wasn't going to just kill Helena, it was going to kill Harley too, at this rate.
"Look at me. Look at me, I'm right here. "
As far as Helena was concerned, her dreams could go fuck themselves. While the previous couple were relatively low-key, except for that whole chess lock thing in which Helena had been controlled by an Artifact and made to play a deadly game of chess, her dream world was not a happy one. She’d suffered much, done many terrible things, and was now trying to redeem herself.
And, in the end, she had redeemed herself. The Warehouse had forgiven her, she liked to think that Myka had forgiven her too based on those last few moments.
Hearing Harley, Helena sniffed and lifted her head, seeing Harley. She then pushed herself up, first to an elbow, then she sat up, scooting a bit closer to Harley, then just fell onto her, her face burying itself into her neck.
Whatever had happened had been incredibly traumatic but she wasn’t going to push Helena into talking about it until she was ready. Instead, she went into comfort and reassure mode. Wrapping her arm around Helena, Harley held her tight. She moved her hand to Helena’s hair and pressed her head into her neck. Shaking a little, she rocked her, making shushing and reassuring sounds.
It took a long while before Helena calmed down enough to talk. She leaned against Harley, letting herself cry. At the same time, she was waiting for the burning sensation to completely subside. Her body tingled for quite a while until it finally stopped and she didn’t feel it any longer. Her body felt sluggish, however, which she supposed was only natural after the dream she’d had.
“I died in my dream,” she finally said, her voice sounding raw from the crying. She sniffed heavily.
Not everyone dreamed about people who died and came back a lot. Just hearing those words set Harley’s heart on edge. She hugged her a little tighter, burying her face in Helena’s hair. “I’m sorry. That ain’t right.” God, what if Helena had died here? But she hadn’t, she hadn’t. Harley clung to that fact.
It was probably fortunate that Helena hadn’t actually died here. While she may have been unable to breathe and lacked a heartbeat for a bit, she was back having a heartbeat and breathing and everything else that entailed being alive. Though that didn’t really register in her mind. She was more focused on what she’d dreamed.
“It’s alright. I found redemption and forgiveness in my death.” She drew in some slow breaths to help calm herself. “Apparently my death was far too quick in my dream that I had to feel the extended effects of it here.” She cleared her throat. “I was at ground zero of a nuclear explosion.”
Harley tried to still the shaking in her hands. She smoothed one hand down Helena’s hair. Then her hand stilled, and she pulled her head back to look at her. “You got nuked?” That kind of death was instantaneous. You shouldn’t feel anything, not at ground zero. But obviously the dream had decided to burn her up from the inside out anyway. Harley was suddenly very pissed. “That...that ain’t right, doll. Wakin’ up from that, feelin’ that.”
“In a manner of speaking,” she responded. It was a little more intricate than a simple nuclear bomb. It had been a bomb attached to an Artifact which was a piece of masonry from the British House of Commons that had been bombed by the Germans in World War II, thus the Artifact had been infused with the hate of the Nazis, making the bomb that much more powerful, having turned it nuclear.
“No, it is not.” Then her mind started catching up with itself and she looked at Harley. “I think I was dead briefly. Here, I mean. I couldn’t breathe for a while there. Perhaps it was just my body reacting to what my dream self experienced.” That’s when Helena decided taking her pulse was a good idea, and she pressed two fingers to the pulse point on the side of her neck. Yes, she had a pulse now. It was a little erratic, but considering the experience she’d just had, that was to be expected.
"You were gasping pretty loudly." Harley took one of Helena's arms to show her the welts. "Started clawing yourself up, like you were trying to dig the pain out with your fingernails. S'why I tied you up."
Harley shifted to the side, leaning on one hand. "This is really startin' to scare me, honey bunches. Ain't gonna go nowhere but I think we need to start talking contingencies an' shit if the dreams keep tryin' to kill ya."
It hadn’t been until Harley pointed out the welts on her arm that Helena realized the extent of what had happened. “Bloody hell,” she said as she stared at her arms and her legs. “Thank you for tying me up.” Who knew what she would have done if Harley hadn’t tied her hands up. She shook her head a bit and looked up at Harley.
“I’m sorry I scared you, love. But I am certain my dreams have come to an end. I’m dead in them, and there’s no way to come back from being dead.” Well, except for at least one Artifact she knew of, but she wasn’t wanting to have someone use it on her. Besides, she wouldn’t exactly have a body in her dream world.
Though Helena was completely forgetting about the fact there were Artifacts that had time travel abilities. But even if the thought had occurred to her, she still wouldn’t think her friends in her dreams would be using one to bring her back from the dead. She wasn’t that important.
“Funny you should say that, it’s like every other week a dead super hero or villain comes back in mine,” Harley deadpanned. She squeezed Helena’s hand. “But honestly I’m hoping this is the end for you. You deserve a fucking break.”
“Seems as though people in your dream world have discovered how to cheat death.” Helena drew in a steadying breath, giving Harley’s hand a squeeze in return. “I hope so as well. My dream self never found happiness, but she died to protect her friends, the very ones she’d betrayed. So it was a good death.” It was a good ending to an otherwise painful life her dream self had lived. At the very least, her dream self could be at peace now.
“Well there is that lazarus pit deal.” Harley slowly got to her feet, then helped Helena up. Sitting on the floor wasn’t doing her any good, but leery of making her hurt more, Harley was very careful about getting Helena to sit on the bed. “Ain’t that a kinda happiness? Saving someone who deserves it?”
Once on the bed, Helena brushed a hand through her hair. She then better surveyed the damage she’d done to herself before Harley had tied her hands up. “I suppose it is. One of them was Myka, and I think that’s why I was content to die for her. I loved her enough that I would die for her. Never did tell her how I felt.” Which was probably going to haunt her, but she looked up at Harley. At least she’d told Harley she loved her.
Harley held Helena’s eyes in her own. “Somethin’ tells me she already knew. Just a feelin’. That was brave an’ stupid what you did, an’ love makes people do brave and stupid things a lot. I’m just glad you ain’t gotta suffer here no more either.”
“Perhaps she did,” she said with a shrug. Myka was so closed off when it came to her emotions that Helena wasn’t so sure of that. But as it was, she’d never know one way or the other. “Brave and stupid and noble. All of us were going to die, but I managed to use my intellect to figure out a way to shield the others from the blast.”
“You got sexy brains. And she knew you loved her. Trust me, I totally know.” She kissed Helena’s nose, then her cheek, then lightly on her lips. “You’re brave and stupid and noble and I love ya.”
Helena returned the light kiss to her lips, and she finally cracked a little smile. “I love you, too.” She reached up and pressed a hand to Harley’s cheek. “I’m sorry for frightening you awake like that. It was undoubtedly a rude awakening for you.”
“Don’t apologize! That ain’t your fault.” She rubbed her chest. “Gonna start needing heart meds ya know? If I’m gonna keep getting these heart attacks.” She grinned, lopsidedly, and cupped Helena’s cheeks. “I got this great idea!”
“Your poor heart shouldn’t need to take this sort of thing, you’re way too young for it.” Which was a compliment. Though she arched her eyebrows a bit. “What’s this idea of yours?” Really, focusing on anything other than the fact that she’d just died in her dreams would be preferable.
"Yeah I'm young and hot an' so are you." Harley grinned madly. "Lets elope!"
The first part of that Helena was totally fine with. The second part was...extremely unexpected and Helena just kind of slow-blinked. Her brain stopped processing and went into a loop. “Elope?” She asked, mostly trying to get her brain back into gear. But it was stuck on that word, elope.
"Yeah! See it's brilliant. We get a good tax break, right? And if you're gonna give me heart attacks might as well trade hearts and all." She bounced to her feet and started to pace around. "And it ain't like we still can't invite people into our beds or something. Elopin' don't mean chainin' ourselves down!"
“Yes, under the law as it currently stands here we would.” Slowly her mind was grinding past the point at which it had stopped. Yes, there was logic there. And Helena loved Harley. Not to mention that even though it had been almost a year since they’d started dating, this was by far the longest and most committed relationship she’d had in a decade. “No it doesn’t. I can’t deny I had thought about getting you a ring for Christmas.” Because she had thought about it.
"Really?" Harley looked taken aback. Her own ideas for Christmas presents had trended towards something a little different. But Helena's comment touched her and she rubbed her arm. "I know it would be just a ring and not a ring, but..."
She stopped moving, turning to look at Helena. "We could make up our own vows. Cuz marriage to us might now mean the same as to someone us. It could be uniquely us." They couldn't legally marry a third or fourth person but they could at least legally marry each other.
Helena stood up and moved over to Harley, a gentle smile on her lips. Suddenly the fact that she’d died in her dreams was pushed to the back of her mind. It didn’t seem so important when compared to this current conversation. “Yes, really. And I was thinking of a ring. I just hadn’t seen one that I thought suited you.” In all honesty, Helena had more than one idea for what to give Harley for Christmas, and it had taken her a while to decide on what she’d ended up actually giving to Harley. Well, at least for the material gift. The sexy new lingerie and letting Harley unwrap her had been kind of a given for a present.
“I like making up our own vows. I’m not a religious person, and I would rather speak from my heart than recite any traditional vows.” She reached out and took Harley’s left hand in hers and lifted it, thumb brushing over her ring finger. “Besides, I think you need a nice ring, and I can have one to match.” This was definitely easier than Helena had ever thought this conversation would go. Perhaps it was due to the fact they had an open relationship. Perhaps it was the fact Harley had repeatedly not run away from her, and vice versa, in the face of dream craziness and real life craziness. Whatever it was, Helena was nervous about it, but she wasn’t running away screaming, which certainly said a lot.
"Oh." Harley looked suddenly wide-eyed, like she hadn't exactly expected that. Then she laughed. "We kinda share a brainlength don't we." She'd prefer to speak from her heart. Traditional vows tended to be about control and were kind of a little scary. She loved Helena, she preferred Helena's bed and her kisses, but she liked to have something on the side sometimes and she knew herself. She knew she could open her heart to someone else without closing the door to Helena. So that would be a part of her vow; never to close the door to her heart on Helena, no matter who else she let in.
She could feel her heart pounding all of a sudden, and at first she was terrified she'd done the wrong thing and ruined everything, it was going down in flames mayday mayday mayday!. But Helena wasn't running. She was here, and talking about rings and Harley let out a breath and leaned her forehead against Helena's. "Ya get me. Hardly anyone ever gets me."
It was starting to dawn on Helena just how much she’d settled into her relationship with Harley. The simple fact that she didn’t shoot down getting married or run out the door showed her just how comfortable she was with her. And it was quickly also becoming clear to her that if she had been intent on running away from the commitment she had to Harley, from her feelings for her, she would have done so months ago. She’d had a couple opportunities before where she could’ve backed out, but she hadn’t. She’d stayed. Harley had stayed. And Harley accepted Christina and Christina had accepted her, which had been one of the sticking points. If Harley and Christina hadn’t gotten along, then Helena would have broken things off because Christina was her priority. But she had to say, when they’d had the snowball fight and decorated the Christmas tree, Helena had felt like they were a family.
So this? This felt like just taking the next step.
“We do,” she said with a gentle smile. And they did share a wavelength. “It’s not difficult to get you. We have traits in common that help with understanding. Not everyone can have an open relationship, but we’ve made it work because we both know how to make it work. We both know our hearts and have trusted each other.” Helena closed her eyes briefly, keeping her forehead against Harley’s. Her own heart was starting to beat faster. “I love you and I’m definitely not going anywhere. Not now, not after everything we’ve been through together.” Not to mention, who else could possibly even try to understand the dreams both of them had? The dreams that left their marks on them.
There'd been, at times, worry that Helena would run. Or worse, that Harley would run from it. Her relationships had never been a strong point with her. There was the constant shadow of Mistah J. Luckily he hadn't shown up and Harley felt as though she could resist him now. She'd sure as hell try - she didn't want to be the Harlequin anymore. And the kid thing, Harley liked kids, she liked making them laugh and she liked Christina. Who didn't think she was a weirdo which was a bonus.
There was a squeal threatening to burst out of Harley's mouth. She bit her lip to keep it contained but she was bouncing slightly on her heels, her fists shaking back and forth in barely restrained joy.
And then it burst out. She jumped up, "WOOPEE!!" Her arms wrapped around Helena and she kissed her soundly. "I love ya so much, babe."
It was strange, in a way, that Helena had spent so long avoiding dating anyone for longer than two dates and now here she was, almost a year into her relationship with Harley, and she didn’t run at the mention of marriage. She hadn’t run before. She hadn’t even gotten jealous or upset in any way when she’d walked in on Harley having the plumber tied up in her bed. Helena would never grow jealous of anyone Harley wanted so long as she still had time with her.
And then she couldn’t contain the grin when Harley squealed. Really, it was adorable. Helena wrapped her own arms around Harley and returned the sound kiss. “I love you too, darling, so very much.”
Then a thought occurred to her. “So what would you like to do about our names? Hyphenate? Leave them the same?” Because yes, that was an important part.
"Harley Wells. Harleen Wells. Helena Quinn. H.G Quinn. Harley Wells-Quinn. Quinn-Wells?" Harley tried each of them out in turn. She giggled. "Harlequinn Wells? You know I ain't that sure? I mean it's gotta sound right you know? I got that whole Harlequin thing going an' all."
“Helena Quinn-Wells. Harley Quinn-Wells.” Helena let those roll off the tongue. “If we hyphenate, I think going alphabetical with Quinn-Wells works best.” There was a certain ring to it, she had to say.
“Say it three times real fast.” Harley kissed Helena on the nose (it was her favorite spot), then bounced in place again. She knew some kind of big party or making a big deal out of it would probably give H the cold feet. And while she could totally go balls to the wall with a wedding, Harley wanted Helena comfortable. Hence the eloping idea. “We should like, find two witnesses at gunpoint.”
And of course Helena obliged because she just had to try saying it three times real fast. And it was a slight tongue twister, though not the worst that she’d ever said. A huge wedding would probably put Helena off at this point in time, but she would more than happily do one later on if they wanted to renew their vows or something. Having a party or something after they eloped, she could deal with, but that was about it for the time being.
“At gunpoint?” She asked, arching her eyebrows pointedly at Harley. She wasn’t judging, merely thinking they shouldn’t force people to be witnesses by gunpoint.
It wasn’t that bad a tongue twister but Harley found it funny. She nodded her head enthusiastically. “Oh not real guns, they can be those fun guns with the “BANG” flags on ‘em. We could do like a whole robbery theme!” A beat. “Or an actual robbery but that’s probably pushin’ it.
Helena chuckled softly, pulling Harley close to her. “Let’s skip the real robbery. I’d rather not get arrested while trying to marry you, love.” She lightly rubbed her nose against Harley’s. “Though the harmless theme I could stand behind.”
“Well, you got a point.” Harley touched Helena’s face, then leaned in and kissed her. There was a lot of fire in that short little kiss, but she danced away. It was a new year, and a new chance for the both of them. Starting it off with felonies was probably not the best idea.
She grabbed Helena's hands agains. "Lets go out to lunch. We can talk more 'bout all this. Unless you wanna take lunch in bed."
That fire was definitely fanned by the flames of Helena’s own fire in the kiss. This was definitely a new year, and the chance for new beginnings. Helena’s dreams had come to an end, and now she could actually make headway in her therapy and fully separate herself from her dream self. She had a chance for happiness, and she didn’t want to let it go. Not after seeing the life her dream self had lived. No, she wanted to be happy, to love and be loved in return.
“How about we go out to lunch. We can always have dessert in bed later,” Helena said with a playful note in her voice.
“Damn.” Harley laughed. “Okay let me put my face on and I’ll try to find something that’s clean and not entirely inappropriate.” But Harley had to face it she really had embraced parts of her dream-self’s personality. She liked to rock the short shorts and halter tops and hair dye.
“When we come back you can put on any inappropriate thing you wish to, how about that?” Helena offered as a compromise, a gleam in her eyes. She had to say, Harley could definitely wear short shorts and halter tops and hair dye very well. She definitely didn’t mind the eye candy. Harley was gorgeous and hot and she didn’t mind any excuse to oggle her girlfriend. And soon-to-be-wife as well, apparently. She planted another deep kiss to Harley’s lips before pulling back. “I need to find something to wear myself, so you’re not alone there.”
“Maybe we can buy a new inappropriate thing.” Harley made a fist and then acted like she was jerking it off. “Eh? eh? Eh?”
She dropped her hand to her side, after a quick pinch of Helena’s rear end. “Race ya?”
She didn’t wait for an answer before tearing through her closet. She was about half way through digging through a pile when something hit her. She poked her head out. “Hey. Maybe we should live together huh?”
Helena had to laugh. “Perhaps we could make a stop and see if there’s something we like?” She said, arching her eyebrows. Oh she hadn’t forgotten that time Harley had been a man for a couple days. That had been an odd experience with Harley having been temporarily male, but it had given her some new ideas for things they could do now.
She was sifting through her own clothes, trying to decide on what to wear when Harley brought up another point. She looked up at Harley. “I would like that. I mean, we do sort of already live together, just between two different places, depending. What do you think about where we should live? In one of our houses, or should we buy a new house together?” Helena didn’t exactly have a preference. If they bought a new house together, it would obviously need to have enough room for Christina once she was back for good
Harley had loved that experience and she wouldn’t mind replicating it. Again and again and again….”We should, doll.”
She chewed her lip, looking at Helena. “Ain’t like we can’t afford it. Maybe we could find something that suits us both, yanno?” She liked that idea. That idea of building something together. The two of them and eventually Christy. “With like a garden and a trophy room!”
“Then we’ll do that. “ Helena wouldn’t mind replicating that either. It had been quite an experience once they had both adjusted to Harley’s new physiology. “Also perhaps looking for rings as well?” Since they might just be in need of a set of wedding rings and all.
Helena smiled. “And we can certainly do that. A yard for the puppies as well. Perhaps a swimming pool?” They both made decent money on their own, but pooling their resources would allow them to be able to buy something quite nice and suited to both of their tastes.
“Yes, yes and yes. We’ll have a thousand puppies! A thousand and one pugs! My babies would love to have some more friends.” Harley sat on the bed as she got dressed. “And a ginormous swimming pool! On the roof!”
“Then we shall give them some more friends. I know Christina will love it.” How long had Christina been pestering Helena about getting a pet, anyway? This would at least give her several animals now that Helena was going to actually be staying here long term now. She turned to face Harley as she buttoned up the blue oxford shirt she’d pulled on. “A pool on the roof? We’ll have to see if there’s any houses like that currently on the market. Or we could always simply purchase land and have a house built the way we want it?”
“Ooh. That’s a smart idea. Then we can plan our own place!” And have an architect tell Harley her madcap ideas weren’t structurally sound. But it would be fun, at least. “Then we’d own the land too, not just the house. Gives us more freedom.”
“Then we can ensure everything we want will be in the house.” Helena said with a smile as she tucked her shirt into her pants, then closed them and buckled her belt. “We can start looking into available land and such. As all that will take some time, should we move into one of our houses here?” It would take a bit to find the right piece of land, then it would take a while to find an architect and get the plans for the house finalized. Not to mention the construction time of the house itself.
“I want a secret lair. Underground.” Harley folded her arms, looking a little stubborn. “Like a bat cave.” Maybe not exactly, they obviously had some bat people but Harley tried to avoid them. “A villain lair. Anti-hero lair? You know what I mean.”
She dropped her hands to her side. “Which house is biggah?”
Helena smiled. “Let’s go with anti-hero lair because you aren’t a villain.” And she was steadfast about that. Helena herself would categorize her dream self as an anti-hero considering she would occasionally do terrible things if there was no other way to get the job done. “I also want a workroom for myself. I think the mechanical engineer genius my dream self was is starting to rub off on me.” She was having quite a few ideas and wanting to build them, at least.
“I want to say mine, but that may only be because I have three bedrooms in it. Though I think we really only need three bedrooms to begin with, maybe have a room in our house that can be converted into one at a later date.” You know, if they decided they both wanted another child at some point in the future. “Though perhaps we could always let the puppies decide for us?” See if they had a preference for which house they were in for the time being.
“Ooh I can’t wait to see what you build.” Harley bounced in place again and squealed. “We should do your place. You have a bigger bedroom anyway and your bed is bigger and it’s much comfier except we’ll need my comforter.”
“Perhaps I’ll build something for you, love,” Helena said with a smile. Which was more a given than it was just a possibility. The question was what to build for Harley. “Then we can certainly do that. You can bring whatever furniture you would like to have, and we’ll do some redecorating. The rest we can put in storage until we decide what we want in our new house. How does that sound?”
“I like the thought of that. Ya can surprise me.” Harley took Helena’s hand. They were both decent now and she started to drag Helena out. “Now, I’m starvin’ an’ I really want a cheeseburger, so we’re gonna have a cheeseburger. An’ maybe some fries. Definitely some fries.”
Helena gave Harley’s hand a squeeze and they headed out. “Where would you like to get a cheeseburger and fries?” It wasn’t as though there were a shortage of places that served such food. Helena wasn’t yet certain what she wanted for lunch, but she’d just have to take a look at the menu of wherever they went.
“I don’t want In & Out or something, I want a real burger. Why don’t we drive around and find like a cafe or something.” She opened the door for her fiancé, grinning profusely, all moon eyed over Helena and their pending nuptials.
“A cafe sounds perfect to me.” Helena grinned when Harley opened the door for her, and she leaned in and gave her a kiss to the lips, unable to resist. It was certainly something that she was soon going to be marrying Harley. And she was happy about that. It was a big step and she had some butterflies about it, but she did want it.
“Great!” Then they were kissing and Harley wasn’t interested in words. Macking on her fiancé in broad view of the street? Sure, she was totally into that. Making a show of it even. She broke the kiss, and flipped over the top of the car. “I promise I won’t speed. Much!”
Helena totally didn’t mind the show. She had no issue with public displays of affection, especially when it was with her fiancé. Watching Harley flip over the car, she couldn’t help but to admire her agility. “A little speeding is fine. Just nothing that will cause an accident.” Because that was the last thing they needed was for something awful to happen right then. Even if Helena was sort of thinking something awful might happen, or something would steal this happiness from her. But she was bound and determined to ignore that and just focus on being happy. So she got in the car and buckled herself in.
“Yeah yeah, party pooper.” Harley started the car, then peeled out of the drive-way. “Hey I been meaning to ask but how’s work been treating you?”
Helena just smirked at the party pooper comment. “It’s been alright, uneventful, really. Mostly lab work. I haven’t been called into the field recently.” Oh wait, she’d gotten a letter at work recently. “Though I’ve been called as a witness at the trial for one of the past cases I worked on. So that should be immensely fun.” She hated appearing in trials, mostly because defense lawyers tended to be assholes in her experience.
“Do you need a ride? I love going to the courthouse, especially when I’m not the one on trial.” Though Harley would probably end up on the funny farm, or the modern equivalent. Between the dream talk and the other antics she was a prime candidate to lose her license and go to the asylum. And she was okay with that.
“I would not mind a ride. I dislike going to court. And I suppose I should ensure the suit I typically wear to court is cleaned.” Helena always dressed nicely when going to court, ensuring to make the statement that she was a professional and taking matters seriously. She took her job seriously, and did what she could to ensure murderers were locked up so they wouldn’t hurt or kill anyone else.
“”I hope your testimony actually helps.” There were some people that deserved to be locked away and half of them were the kind of people that Harley used to hang out with on a regular basis and they generally tended to deserve worse than what they got.
“It should.” Helena knew the evidence she’d collected and so forth had been definitively linked to the defendant in this particular case. So the prosecution had an open and shut case. It should be an easy time for her on the stand. Not like one trial she’d been at where the evidence hadn’t pointed directly at the defendant, and she’d been grilled hard by both the prosecution and the defense. “Luckily I know how to hold my own on the stand, and the little traps lawyers like to set don’t work on me.” She smirked a bit.
No one beat H.G. Wells at word games. She was too much a master of them, and more than knew her way around manipulation to recognize when it was being used on her.
“How long has this one been waiting for?” Harley bounced in her seat, paying more attention to Helena than to the road. Helena was a lot more interesting than the road. “Do you enjoy this part?”
“About a year, maybe a little more than that.” It had taken authorities a little while to actually track the defendant down. He’d covered his tracks well when he’d gone on the run, but he couldn’t hide forever. “I do sometimes, mostly in the cases where the evidence clearly says the defendant is guilty. I largely hate the cases where the evidence is either inconclusive or there is little to nothing connecting to a guilty party.”
“What’s the oldest cold case you’ve ever done?” She realized she had never really asked all that much about Helena’s profession, and now was as good a time as any. Besides, she liked listening to her voice.
“One that’s gone to trial? I uncovered remains in France that had been buried for about thirty some years. They got the guy who had done it. But I worked on a mass grave in Germany dating back several thousand years.” It was difficult to think about the mass grave. Though she at least hadn’t had to excavate anything from the Holocaust in World War II. “I think that was the oldest case I worked on. I had a couple in Egypt as well, but they weren’t that old.”
“Do ya know what the mass grave was from?” It was a morbid question and if Helena didn’t want to answer it she wouldn’t push, but she was really curious. Talk about the ultimate cold case!
“Considering it was about 7,000 years old, it’s difficult to tell the actual cause, but the fact that all twenty-six people had similar wounds of smashed skulls and broken legs, it stands to reason it was the result of some massacre. That was a difficult job to work. There were children’s remains in that grave.” The grave had held quite an impact on her back then, but it had an even new one now, after having the dreams she’d had. “Still, it was an experience that I am glad to have had.”
“I’m sorry. Do ya think it was some kinda sacrifice?” Harley pulled into the cafe parking lot, cutting the engine and turning to look at her fiancé. “You were glad for it? Why?”
“It’s possible, though that’s the job for an archaeologist. I simply dig up the remain and examine them. I don’t know much about the Neolithic period in that area of the world to make a guess there.” She looked at Harley, unbuckling herself once they were parked. “I am glad for it because not many get the chance to see history in quite that way. It was difficult seeing the remains of all those people, but I would much rather have worked on that than, say, find a mass grave from World War II in that same area.” That would have had a lot more impact and been far more difficult to take.
“Ye-aaah.” Harley dropped the subject, sliding out of the car and waiting for Helena to join her. “If you could do anything, and I mean anything, what would you do, doll face?” It was amazing how many questions she found she actually had.
Helena quickly slid out of the car and joined Harley, taking her hand and threading her fingers through Harley’s. “That is difficult to say. I like traveling, and sometimes I wish I could travel more with the job I have. Suppose I could’ve stayed in Archaeology for my advanced degrees, I would have been able to travel more for my job then.” She gave a little shrug. “I sort of stopped thinking about that after Christina came around. I didn’t want to be constantly on the move with a young child.”
There was no rush to get into the cafe and Harley squeazed helena’s hand. “That makes sense. But I don’t think you resent her for it, do you? She’s a beautiful child and I think she’s made your life better.”
“No, not at all. I don’t regret having her, not for one second.” Helena said with a smile. “Without her, I probably wouldn’t be here, and wouldn’t have met you. And that is not something that I wish to even try to imagine. I am more than happy having both you and Christina in my life. My girls.” Her smile widened.
“An’ we both love ya.” She smoothed Helena on the cheek, then headed inside. The waitress stared at them for a moment then led them to a booth.
“What do you want, ladies?”
“The biggest cheese burger ya got!”
“And I love you both.” Helena had a warm grin on her face. She also couldn’t help the little smirk as she noticed the way the waitress stared at them before leading them to a booth. “I will have a chocolate malt and a cheeseburger as well.” She didn’t eat burgers that often, but right now? She’d eat just about anything.
“Strawberry malt for me!” Harley kicked back and leaned against the back of the booth, resting her hands behind her back and grinning. “You that hungry, doll?”
“I’ve worked up a bit of an appetite, yes. Besides, there’s good reason to indulge.” Helena said with a grin, crossing her legs under the table. “Not to mention I could use a little more meat on my bones.” Helena was on the skinnier side of things, after all.
“I like your meat, and your bones, but you could use more meat for me to love. I mean you could blow up into a balloon and I’d still be all over you.” She leaned in and grinned, nudging her feet with her own foot.
“I like it when you’re all over me, and I like being all over you.” Helena also leaned forward with a grin that was also partly a smirk, a matching gleam in her dark eyes. She gazed into Harley’s blue eyes, feeling like she could fall into them quite easily.
Harley could think of a few ways to celebrate that involved being all over each other in a public place. She glanced around, noting where the bathroom was and getting a devious glint in her eyes. “I can arrange that.”
Oh Helena could see those wheels turning in Harley’s head as she saw her glance around. She arched her eyebrows a bit, a smirk crossing her face at Harley’s words to her. “Oh you can, can you? Well, I have to say that I quite like the thought of that.” She had to say that she did have a knink for doing such things in public places. Well, Helena had a lot of kinks, but this was definitely one of them.
Harley got up and sauntered to the bathroom, figuring Helena would get her mental telegram. Could they finish before the food arrived? There was only one way to find out and Harley reached into her purse to check that she’d brought something to assist in that endeavor. Because a Girl Scout never left home unprepared.
Mental telegram received. It didn’t take long for Helena to see where Harley was going, and she followed after her, trying not to look like the cat that ate the canary before she even got said canary. Though it was difficult to say which of them was the cat and which was the canary in this particular scenario. Though if they worked quickly enough, they both would be both then be able to be back at their table to enjoy their food.
Both were the cat and the canary. Harley pulled Helena into a stall and kissed her hard against the door. “Almost didn't think you'd come, but I can fix that.”
Helena groaned softly and kissed Harley back just as hard, pulling her hips close against hers. “Yes, do rectify that, and then I’ll give you one in return.” She kissed her again, her body pressing tightly against Harley’s.
“Oh goody.” Harley flicked something on and it buzzed. The sound was so out of place in the stall that Harley started to giggle and once she started she couldn't stop.
She alternated between kissing Helena and giggling uncontrollably.
As Harley started giggling, Helena couldn’t help but to chuckle. The giggling was contagious. Considering Harley was left with only one hand, Helena started to undo her belt and pants to allow for Harley to use that ever so mysterious buzzing object.
They couldn’t be very long, and Harley was more interested in give Helena a good time than with having a good time herself. She tried to silence them both with kisses, even as she used the mysterious object on her fiance. Maybe they’d get caught. The thought only made her get into it more.
Helena could be good at keeping her noise level down when needed, but it was a little difficult to do that at the moment. Still, she used the kisses to muffle the sound she was making as much as possible. And the thrill of potentially getting caught made her feel like a teenager again. She was nearly there when she vaguely heard the bathroom door open.
Harley stifled her giggling and froze. She flicked off the toy, but replaced it with her fingers, having every intention of pushing her fiance over the edge while some poor soul was in the bathroom with them. She grinned, wide and wicked, and pulled her head back to look Helena in the eyes.
When Harley turned the toy off, Helena only barely stifled a whine. Though her body shifted as though it was whining for the loss of contact. Though she bit her lower lip hard when she felt Harley’s fingers replace the toy. She gazed back into Harley’s eyes, managing to keep herself quiet. At least until she felt herself ready to go over. Then she grabbed the back of Harley’s head and kissed her hard and deep to muffle her sounds of pleasure as she was thrust over that edge and into the throes of pleasure.
It was the best damn time that Harley could ever had. She almost cackled, but luckily the kiss muffled her. She didn’t even stop for another full minute, hoping to give Helena an encore, but eventually she had to give her fingers a break. Harley grinned at her and mouthed, I love you.
Multiple orgasms were definitely something Helena enjoyed, but considering the fact they were on a time schedule at the moment, that needed to be pushed by the wayside. She grinned back at Harley, fingers lightly stroking the back of her neck as she mouthed I love you back to her. And Helena totally looked like the cat that ate the canary.
Beaming all moon eyes, Harley stepped back, cleaning her fingers with her tongue. She popped out, startling two poor old ladies at the sink when she dragged Helena out with her. “Oops.” She formed a surprised O with her lips. One lady stared, hand on her chest.
“Oh my. Agnes, remember that time on Coney Island?” The other said.
“We weren’t quite so bold then,” Agnes complained, good naturedly.
Harley’s jaw dropped.
Helena fixed her clothes so she was presentable again and followed Harley out of the stall. Only to be confronted with the old ladies being...exactly the opposite of what Helena would have expected. She blinked a bit, a little stunned. However, she recovered enough of her wits to smile quickly.
“Have you become more bold now?” She queried. And she reached out and took Harley’s hand in her own, mostly an unconscious action on her part.
“Well you stole our idea.” The lady who wasn’t Agnes cackled.
Harley didn’t know whether she was embarrassed or if she wanted to fan girl the old ladies. She decided they’d best leave before she did something really bad. Or perhaps highly entertaining depending on who you asked.
Okay so she couldn’t resist, and as she dragged Helena out she shouted back, “I’m a real big fan of youse ladies!”
Then she rushed back to their booth and collapsed in it laughing.
“I’m dreadfully sorry,” Helena apologized with a smile. “Though the bathroom is now yours.” And then she was being dragged off by Harley, and she just cast a smile at the two old ladies before settling herself back in in the booth, laughing as well.
Setting her elbow on the table, she propped her chin in her hand and eyed Harley. “That was quite exhilarating.”
“That was hysterical! I was expectin’ some kinda like...scandal! Scandalizing the old broads! But no, they’re like us!” Harley loved that. If those two old ladies could last that long, maybe she and H stood a chance!
“So was I, honestly. That situation is quite rare for me to experience. Though it was quite welcome, especially with our pending nuptials.” Helena said with a smile. They certainly did stand a good chance of making it. Besides, Helena well knew if she would’ve run from this relationship, she already would have done it.
“I’ve worked up an appetite,” Harley said. She looked around and spotted their food headed their way. “Hey look! We timed it perfect and shit!” She probably should have washed her hand but there hadn’t been time, and honestly it wasn’t something that bothered her.
“You aren’t the only one.” Helena could undoubtedly devour her burger without any trouble now. “That is indeed excellent on our part.” In Harley’s favor for not washing her hand, Helena was healthy, thus there was less risk there.
“Hopefully my burger won’t taste too fishy,” Harley said, the picture of innocence. She waited until Helena was either taking a bite or trying to drink. Because she was a jerk like that.
And of course Helena choked a bit as she took a bite of her food. She coughed a bit, but eventually got it to go down and she was still alive. “Even if it does, I don’t see you being one to complain about it, love. You’ve never complained about my taste before.” She countered, also waiting until Harley was taking a drink or a bite of food. Helena could be just as much of a jerk when she wanted to be.
Harley coughed, then swallowed a too huge chunk of burger. She wasn’t able to answer right away, instead focusing on finishing that bite. Her face turned noticeably red. “Okay ya win this round, doc.”
Helena smirked a bit and took another bite of her burger, followed by a drink of her chocolate malt. “How is your burger, love?” She went for a more polite question, mostly because she didn’t actually want Harley to choke on her food.
“Fuckin’ delish!” Harley demonstrated by taking another too-big bite. Not that she needed to impress Helena anymore, she just liked trying to impress her anyway. Anyway and always. “So we gonna steal rings or buy ‘em?”
Helena smiled, not minding at all that Harley was trying to impress her. Which a retort came to her mind and she just couldn’t quite bite her tongue enough to not say it. “Seeing that large bite you just took almost makes me sad that I wasn’t the one who was male for a few days.” She waggled her eyebrows a bit playfully. Helena had put her mouth to good use when Harley had been male for that period of time. “I prefer buying, less risk of stolen property being traced.”
And then another question came to mind. “Do you want to go on a honeymoon somewhere?”
“Next time, I promise. I know a few tricks that I can do with my tongue that would make a guy’s toes curl three times ovah.” She set her burger down, tapping her finger against her chin. “Okay I know a jewel place that we didn’t knock over that does some real nice rings. And that would be nice. Where would you wanna go?”
“I do look forward to that.” Helena said with a bit of a grin, eating some more of her burger. “Excellent, we can see what they’ve got there. Hmm I’ve always wanted to travel to Asia, Japan and South Korea in particular, but I’m pretty open. Do you have any place you wish to go?” Helena would be more than happy to compromise and divide time between two places if they didn’t have a common place they wanted to go to.
“Why not South Korea? Ain’t never been there. Was in Japan once. Pretty country.” Harley perked up. “Or hey! Why not both?”
“We can certainly do both. It would be quite easy to do that.” Considering the two countries were close enough that they wouldn’t be spending more than a day travel by plane. “Where in Japan were you?” Helena was quite curious about that.
“Up in the north, Koriyama. There was a conference there, some new studies on mental health. I went back when I was actually mentally healthy.” She giggled.
“I do hope it was a nice conference. How do you feel about going to Kyoto? Perhaps spend a couple days in Tokyo to just experience the city? Or, possibly more accurately, our hotel room in Tokyo?” Helena managed to say with a straight face but there was a playful gleam in her eye.
“That sound good to me!” All of the above, especially the inside of the hotel room. They could get one in a really tall, expensive hotel overlooking the city. At the tippy top. Harley’s mind whirled with ideas and her own eyes gleamed.
“Then that is what we’ll do.” Helena said with a smile. And she was going to need to buy some new lingerie for that trip. And also for their wedding night. She had some shopping to do, a slight smirk on her face as she thought it over for some moments.
“This is gonna be a good wedding,” Harley decided. And if you believed it, it would come true!