Charles started it, and Helena merely finished it
Who: Harley and Helena and Helena's family what: meeting the inlaws and surprising Helena's daughter where: London When: Recently? status: complete
If Helena were honest, it was both strange and wonderful being back in London. Strange because it had been a couple years since she’d last been there. Wonderful because it was always a home to her. Orange County had become her home, but there was something nostalgic about returning to the city she’d grown up in. And perhaps it was because of her dreams that she held all the more fondness for the city. It was also odd to be staying in the house she’d grown up in, but Harley would be able to see, and obviously stay in, Helena’s room. It had a lack of posters or anything of that sort, but Helena’s dolls were still there. Or at least the ones she hadn’t yet given to Christina.
Christina was, of course, more than excited to have Helena and Harley there, and she was an endless ball of energy because of it. It had been more than wonderful to reunite with her daughter, especially knowing that she’d be coming back home with her and Harley once they left to return to Orange County after taking their family vacation.
It was the day before Christina’s birthday, though the party wouldn’t be until Saturday the twenty-first to ensure everyone who had said they were coming would be able to be there without missing work or school. But today, Helena’s siblings were coming to spend the night and be there for a family celebration before the big party for Christina.
Coming out of the kitchen with a spot of tea, Helena glanced at the grandfather clock, one of the family heirlooms, standing in the corner of the living room. “Shall we wager upon who arrives first?” Helena chimed before taking a seat. There were some family photos in frames in the room, many of them depicting Helena when she was a child, and a couple from her teenage years.
“Uncle Eddie! He’s always the punctual one.” Christina chirped. Helena’s father was also in the living room. Her mother was, for the moment, absent from the room.
It was an exciting trip. The only time Harley had been to London had been in her dreams and that had been during the Blitz which was an entirely different kind of London than the one she was looking forward to here. London was big and yet it was old. But the good kind of old, as she spent a full twenty minutes trying to tell Helena in the car.
“Do you think I’m over dressed?” Harley was wearing a respectable, if tight, pair of pants but her top was still a little over the top, white and red and black with more cleavage than was probably necessary. She didn’t want to seduce Helena’s siblings, after all. Even if she’d be okay with that Helena probably wouldn’t be as into the idea.
“What’s Eddie like?”
“I think you are dressed perfectly well,” Helena assured Harley. It wasn’t going to be a formal affair nor was it one for seduction. Though it stood that Harley could seduce Helena anytime, anywhere and in any sort of clothing. She herself wore her typical blouse and skinny jeans with a pair of boots.
“Eddie is rather like me, actually. We always were close despite our age difference. He is my oldest sibling, being eight years older than I am.” He was without a doubt Helena’s favorite sibling. “I rather think you shall like him, love. Though I hope you do not like him too much,” she teased with a playful smile on her lips. “He is married and has twin daughters, who are sixteen this year.”
Harley had every intention of making her mother-in-law have a conniption fit at some point. But that was neither here nor there.
“Oh goodie! We can triple team your mom.” She grinned brightly. She had no intention of seducing him. Or his wife. Maybe. “Twins. I couldn’t imagine twins. Could you imagine if I had a twin, could you imagine what we could get up to? The chaos, H, the chaos.”
“Indeed we can,” Helena said with a wide smirk. Helena’s father chuckled from his chair, obviously enjoying that thought of people ganging up on his wife. At Harley’s twin comment, Helena chuckled. “Oh indeed, that chaos would be rather beautiful.” Though Helena wasn’t certain if she could handle the hotness of two Harleys. Though she’d gladly give it a shot. If she died, well, she’d at least die very happy?
Shortly thereafter, the doorbell rang. Helena then got up and went to answer it. “Eddie!” She greeted with a grin, and quickly leapt into her big brother’s arms and gave him a big bear hug, which was returned wholeheartedly.
“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?” He said while hugging Helena.
Two Harleys? Would share Helena in a heartbeat. She was kinky that way. Leaning against the counter she waited for Helena and her brother to reunite, silently studying him as though trying to figure out what made him tick. It was the psychiatrist in her. “Go give your uncle a hug, huh?” she elbowed Christina lightly.
Edward, or Eddie as he was called by many who were close to him, bore a resemblance to Helena. He had dark hair and darker eyes, though he more mirrored his father in appearance. He was tall as well, having a good five inches on Helena.
Christina grinned up at Harley. “Oh I will,” she chirped. Then waited for Helena to pull back before she took a running leap at her uncle, who caught her and gave her a great big hug. Once that was done, he set Christina back down.
“Now, this is my wonderful wife, Harley,” Helena said, turning towards Harley with a smile. Eddie approached with a smile.
“Ah ha! So you are the woman who has made an honest woman of my sister. Or at least as honest as she can be,” he said with a wink. Which garnered him a playful swat to the arm by Helena.
Harley craned her head up to look at Eddie. She wasn’t much taller than helena so Eddie was still taller than her. She didn’t mind. “I like your chin. You remind me of this guy I knew once, but you’re probably not as batty.” She held out her hand, a cheeky grin on her face.
“Why thank you, I do try to keep the batty in check,” he said as he took her hand and shook it. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Helena grinned a bit. At least Eddie had gotten there first. Charles and Josephine would be a bit more trying to handle without another sensible person there as well.
She squeezed his hand tightly, still grinning like a loon. “Good thing, once you let the bats loose in the belfry you’ll never get ‘em out. You’d be stuck with ‘em, for good!” And they tended to multiply, and invite in robins and nightwings and then it was just a huge mess. Though the thought of Bruce hanging upside down like a real bat was a funny one.
“Precisely. They’re good at multiplying when you aren’t looking.” He said with a chuckle. He then looked at his sister. “I like her. Well done, little sis!”
“Thank you, Eddie,” she responded with a warm grin. “Are your wife and daughters coming?”
“Yes, they should be here a bit later. My wife was finishing up some work, and she’ll be bringing the girls. I wanted to come ahead just to have some more time with you all.” He glanced around the room quickly. “And to help save you from mother.”
“You have no idea,” Harley chirped. She turned at winked at Helena, then slipped over to get an arm around her. Her wifey. Hers. She flashed another smile at Eddie. “Your mother is very interesting. I seem to vex her. But then i’m a very vexing person.”
Helena smiled, slipping her arm around Harley. “You should see the way Harley handles mother. She fits right in.”
Eddie laughed. “In that case, I can’t wait to see the show.”
There was a knock at the door, but this one let themselves in. “Hello?” A male voice called.
Helena sighed slightly. “We’re in here, Charles!” She glanced at Harley and lowered her voice. “My other brother, the one closest to me in age. Don’t mind me if I have to punch him before the day is out.”
He came around the corner a moment later. He was roughly the same height as Helena. While his eyes were about as dark as Helena’s, his hair was more a medium brown. And, well, he gave off vibes that he wasn’t straight, sexuality-wise.
“Should I hold you back?” Harley asked in a stage whisper. She gave him a bright smile and held out her hand. “Hi there! I’m Harley, it’s real nice to meetcha!”
Kill them with kindess and/or crazy antics. Sometimes literally.
Charles heard the stage whisper and eyed both Harley and Helena skeptically for a moment. “Hello, I’m Charles, it’s a pleasure.” He greeted, taking Harley’s hand in his and shaking it. He then turned to Helena. “It’s been too long, Helena.”
“It has been a while, hasn’t it?” Helena responded before giving Charles a hug. Might as well at least start things on a good note, right?
“Not gonna like, never had a big family, so this is real nice.” And her mom had ignored her and the less said about her dad the better. So despite their differences Helena’s family was still a family and Harley reveled in it.
“We are delighted to have you counted among us,” Eddie said with a smile.
“Indeed, I had not pegged Helena for the marrying type,” Charles chimed in. To which Helena gave him a slightly pointed look.
“As though you can speak, pot,” Helena retorted, referencing the saying ‘pot calling the kettle black.’
“Now now, leave your brother alone!” Sarah chastised as she graced the room with her presence and greeted her two sons. Charles received the more noticeably affectionate greeting, clearly marking him as being her favorite.
“It’s amazing what you can do when your milkshake brings the girls to the yard.” Harley clasped her hands behind her back and rocked on her heels. The favoritism was obvious and honestly she could spend a month dissecting this family.
It was exciting.
Charles eyed Harley as Eddie laughed and Helena merely smirked at Harley’s comment. Clearly he was out-numbered here.
“What can I say? I am picky about my lovers, and even more picky when it comes to my relationships.” Helena gave Harley another fond smile. She could write a novel about how she’d sworn off marriage and relationships after Christina’s father had left her, but then Harley had come along, and look at them now.
“Could have fooled me,” Charles commented under his breath. Which earned him a brotherly punch to the arm from Eddie.
“Shut it,” he warned. Clearly Eddie was protective of Helena. Not that Helena needed protecting, she could fight her own battles.
“The same way you could have fooled me,” Helena returned, a note in her voice that suggested she wasn’t talking about the number of people Charles had slept with.
“I said leave your brother alone!” Sarah warned, giving both Eddie and Helena glares.
“Charles started it, and Helena merely finished it.” Joseph chimed in, finally, in a tone that warned them all to stop bickering. Especially with Christina in the room.
Harley had been a little weasel. Weasling her way into Helena’s heart and her life and into her family. Or maybe she was a parasite. She was that kind of person. “Why don’t we all just settle down a little.”
She can’t believe she was agreeing with her mother-in-law. “It’s a good time! Party happy family time. And that’s something I’m not personally used to so I’d like to enjoy all five minutes of it I’m gonna get.”
“And it is my birthday, so no fighting because I say so!” Christina said pointedly and crossed her arms.
“You heard the birthday girl. Now behave,” Helena said to everyone before she reached out to gently stroke Christina’s hair.
And that was when Josephine arrived, knocking and showing herself in. Helena’s sister was shorter than Helena, but had similar coloring to Charles. Though her hair was perhaps slightly lighter than Charles’.
“Hello everyone,” she greeted as she came into the living room, taking turns to greet her parents, brothers, and Christina. “Hello, Helena,” she said.
“Hello, Josephine,” Helena responded and hugged her sister. “This is my wife, Harley.”
“Hello, Harley. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Josephine said, holding her hand out.
“Howdy!” Harley took Josephine’s hand and shook it enthusiastically. This was the woman with a PhD, years of college and university and years of a successful psychiatric practice. And it looked like she needed a psychiatrist herself most days. Which was partly true.
It was okay, Harley was trying.
Helena smiled, and yet felt a bit odd at being with her whole family again. She hadn’t seen Josephine in at least four years. The last time she’d seen Eddie and Charles had been about three years earlier.
“Well now, I suppose we should savor being all together in the same place.” Helena said. It was an odd thing, truthfully, but she was more than happy that she had Harley there having her back.
“For very good reasons!” Harley still wanted to do a proper wedding with Helena’s family about. Especially Christina. Who got her hair ruffled from her step-mother every time Harley walked past her. “It’s all your fault, lady!” She wrapped an arm around the girl and lifted her up in a hug. “Look at you, bringing us all together. Ain’t that grand?”
Helena couldn’t help but to grin, watching Harley with Christina. She more than treasured the sight of them, and she was more than looking forward to the three of them being a proper family. Once the birthday festivities were over and the three of them would be on vacation, she’d use the opportunity to do some wedding planning with Harley. Helena was still intent on having one, and she’d love having Christina, Eddie and her father there.
Christina grinned and threw her arms around Harley’s neck, hugging her tight. “I like bringing people together. And I’ve missed you.” Christina had said that before, when she’d first seen Harley after she and Helena had arrived, but she felt like saying it again.
“Look at the two of you. My girls, and I love you both.” Helena slid her arms around both Harley and Christina and kissed their cheeks.
Oh. Christina was going to make her cry if she kept that up. She squeezed her again and looked over her head at Helena with the most profoundly touched expression on her face. She’d never particularly wanted a child of her own (and was about 99% sure between what the Joker did to her and what Ivy’s modifications to make her immune to poisons had done that she couldn’t anyway.) But being a mom to a kid who needed another one? She could do that. “Gross you’re being affectionate.”
Helena chuckled. “I am indeed being affectionate, love.” She pressed another kiss to Christina’s head before she stole a proper kiss from Harley. “So deal with it,” she quipped playfully.
“I don’t know about any of you, but I’m ready for some food,” Joseph said now that most everyone was here. If the timing was right, they would only have just started eating by the time Eddie’s wife and daughters arrived.
“Yes! I’m starving!” Christina piped before bounding off to the dining room.
Harley made a show of wiping her face for Christina like ‘yuck kisses’ even though Helena could kiss her anywhere or how she wanted. Though some places were probably not for minors.
“What Chrissy said.” Harley bounded after her. “Wait up!”
Helena just playfully shook her head as Harley made the show of wiping her face. It still amazed her some days just how well Harley and Christina got on. And it only made her love them both more to know they got along.
Everyone made their way into the dining room. There was a long table set. Helena’s family had been well off, or well enough, anyway. They weren’t upper class, but they were definitely upper-middle class. The room was very English in decorating style, and everyone had a seat.
The food was brought out shortly thereafter, the first course being soup or salad. Helena went for the soup this time.
It was swankier than Harley’s childhood. She still had memories of surviving on bread and peanut butter and fake mac and cheese. Though she loved her mac and cheese. When she’d gotten successful she’d lived in a modest house that was still lavish compared to her childhood, and this place was several steps above that. Of course, thanks to some early crime sprees she was pretty well set up for life.
She’d turned over a new leaf, promise. Taking a seat, Harley paid attention to how everyone else acted around the dinner table. At the very least she didn’t want to be less mature than the 11 year old.
And she wanted to see if the siblings acted like...siblings.
Helena’s father had done well for the family. Besides, funding four children’s educations was no small matter, after all. And Helena had gone to the University of Cambridge, which was definitely not known for being a cheap university. Though she, at least, had earned a hefty academic scholarship due to her performance on her A Levels, but even with that, it still had cost them some money.
“So, Harley, tell us about yourself,” Eddie invited.
“I’m not sure where to start!” She couldn’t very well tell them she and Helena had started as an online hook-up. Oops. "I went to Yale," And she played up the accent there, and definitely wasn't going to bring up the meth-lab her dad had run. "PhD in psychology. Finished my residency a few years ago and I've got my own practice. I don't specialize in anything in specific but I prefer helping women and police."
There was some irony there.
“Congratulations, Yale is not an easy school I hear, and to have your PhD is quite the accomplishment,” Eddie praised. “It also means that you are easily able to keep up with Helena.”
“She tends to rant and rave about nonsense quite a bit,” Charles piped in.
“Hush you, simply because you don’t understand it does not mean what I have to say is nonsense,” Helena shot back.
“Uncle Charles, you know better than to say that sort of thing.” Christina said with a bemused smile, one that looked eerily like her mother’s.
“It was a lotta hard work.” She almost quoted Clueless, but refrained. It was harder than Yale honestly. But oh, now that was something she could unload on. “Your mama is brilliant yanno! She’s solved mysteries that were decades old because she knows how the human body works!”
“Helena is certainly brilliant. Did she tell you she was valedictorian of her class at Cambridge?” Joseph asked, pride in his daughter obvious in his voice. “She probably didn’t, she doesn’t always make note of that. But it is good to know there is another brilliant woman in this family,” he said with a smile at Harley.
“Father, please,” Helena said with a smile. She wasn’t blushing, but she was probably as close to blushing as she ever would be.
“I am very proud of her,” Christina chimed with a big, proud grin. She knew Helena worked hard to support them, it was why she didn’t fuss much when Helena had to take extended trips for work.
“Valedictorian.” Harely looked Helena accusingly. “That’s somethin’ that never came up. What else have you been hiding, huh?” But then Christina spoke and she felt a huge amount of pride on Helena’s behalf. Having her daughter be proud of her had to hit her right in the feels.
Helena gave Harley a bit of an ‘oops’ look. “I do not brag about that much.”
“Except when you’re around me,” Charles piped up.
“And that is only to remind you of how you weren’t valedictorian of your class.” Helena returned. None of Helena’s siblings were dumb, though Charles tended to play the brainless fop more often than not, but she was certainly the smartest of them. Though at Christina’s words, she looked at her and felt that sucker punch to the feels, but it was a good one. She felt some tears starting to sting her eyes and she smiled warmly. “Thank you, love, I do want to make you proud of me.”
“We all got something that makes us special,” Harley said, mostly for the benefit of Christina, but she thought maybe Helena’s family at large might need to hear it too. “Sometimes it ain’t always so obvious, and sometimes it takes awhile to come out. It could be something big, like your mom’s brains, or it could be something small, like knowing how to talk to people. In my experience, everyone is a little bit crazy.”
Christina smiled at Harley. “That’s what makes us all individuals is that we each have something that makes us special, right?”
Helena smiled, watching Harley and Christina silently for some moments as she ate some of her dinner. She loved her family, both the one she had with Harley and Christina, and her parents and siblings. Even if she fought almost constantly with her mother and tended to fight with Charles more often than not, she still loved her family.
“Exactly!” She ruffled her hair, then turned to her food. If this was what having a real family was like, she could get used to it. Warts and all.
Christina laughed. Not many people could get away with ruffling her hair, and Harley was one of them.
Helena knew this was something good. She and Christina had been alone long enough. Now they had Harley added to their family, and Helena wouldn’t change anything about it for anything. Except for having a proper wedding with their family and friends in attendance. But that was going to be remedied, after all. Reaching out under the table, she nudged Harley’s leg with her foot, giving her a knowing smile.
“So, putting the feelers out there for good measure, Harley and I were going to have a proper, large wedding and celebration later this summer. We haven’t set a date as of yet, but would you all be interested in attending?” She asked. Proper invitations would be sent out, of course, but it couldn’t hurt to get some vocal preliminary responses from the family.
“Of course!” Both Joseph and Eddie chimed in immediately. Sarah remained silent, but she’d come anyways because Joseph would make her. Charles and Josephine also agreed at a slight delay from the others.
“Perfect! We’ll let ya know once we have a firm date an’ make sure you got enough time to get things all hunky dory.” She’d offer to help pay but looking at this family and honestly they could afford it. She nudged Helena back.
“Brilliant! It will be wonderful to have you all there.” Helena said with a wide smile. Of course the real reason she wanted her mother to be there was for the whole making her uncomfortable and irking her to an extreme because Helena was marrying a woman, and not a man. Served Sarah right for never clarifying that Helena should marry a man, right? Right. She winked at Harley.