I think you really gotta do something about this or you’re gonna lose your mind.
Who: Harley and Helena What: Helena has a mid-life crisis When: Recently Where: Their house Status: complete Rating: PG-13
There’d been some thoughts on her mind of late. Ever since Helena had started doing more inventing and poking around in that sort of thing, she’d been losing interest in her day job of being a forensic scientist. She didn’t precisely hate her job, she just felt more of a draw to do something else with her life.
Which, really, seemed almost silly now that she was on the doorstep of forty. At least physically. Mentally she was going to be one hundred and fifty-one years old in September. She was starting to feel old, while also panicking about what to do for a job. If she quit her job as a forensic scientist, she needed another one to keep money coming in. Yes Harley made decent money herself, but they needed to save up for Christina’s future, for their own future, so on and so forth.
Helena was sitting at the table with a cup of tea (which had gone cold by this point), and she was ‘reading’ a newspaper, which was more appropriately described as starting at the newspaper because her mind was trying to figure out this problem and she wasn’t having much luck with that.
It was ironic that Harley’s dreams made her love her job more. Oh, she still wanted to do zany antics and occasionally rob a jewelry store, but her day job helped people not become what she’d become.
But she could get wanting to do something new, if Helena would ever actually admit that.
Or whatever it was that was on her mind. Using one of those grabby claw hands, she gripped the news paper from across the table and pulled it down. “Two bits for your thoughts?”
Helena jerked out of her thoughts when Harley pulled the newspaper down. She blinked a bit as she looked at her wife. She let the paper drop from her hands as she hadn’t even been reading it. She couldn’t even tell anyone what the headlines were.
“I’ve been wondering about my career. Lately I’ve been finding more joy in inventing and building things than I have doing the forensic work I’ve been doing. I’m just not certain quitting my day job is viable when I do not have another job lined up. Or if that is even the correct choice to make.”
Harley made the little fingers go click click then used it to pick up her toast. “Invent something you can sell. I can go rob a place to get you the seed money? But the correct choice is the one that’ll make you happy!”
“That requires something that would even be marketable to someone. It’s not precisely cost-effective to market a shrink ray.” Helena brushed a hand through her impossibly silky hair as she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. A downside to her genius was having far too many ideas, and not enough that she could easily turn into something the common person may use or want.
“Why not? Could you imagine how much that would reduce cargo and shipping costs? Not to mention saving on fuel! Shrink enough stuff for a thousand trucks to fit into just one!” There would be lost jobs, but on the environmental front it was a great idea, if she did say so herself.
“Perhaps, it would need some logistics. Though I’d shudder to think what people would do with that kind of technology upon getting their hands on it.” Such things were fine if people were altruistic with their intentions, but not everyone was. “Perhaps something a bit less fantastical if the public is going to get their hands on it.” Because, after all, nothing was 100% safe from falling into people’s hands. Computer hacking and so forth happened quite frequently. Files got stolen or replicated. Helena would hate to see her shrink ray used for less savory things. By which she meant things worse than theft and robbery.
“Good point.” Even tightly controlled, there were downsides. Though Harley thought they could shrink C4 to below detection levels, then unshrink it. Perfect for breaking into vaults!
“Could always use it for sex. People gots all kinda size kinks!”
Harley waggled her eyebrows. “But maybe invent something new. You got the brains and the imagination. When was the last time you invented something? Get your creative juices flowing!”
Helena had to chuckle at the comment about the sex kink. “Are you insinuating that you have a size kink, love?” She asked, a little smirk on her face and a glint in her eyes.
Though at the question, Helena actually had to think. “Never in this life. It would’ve been in my dreams.” Here, she’d mostly just reconfigured and reconstructed her dream inventions. She hadn’t actually invented anything new. Which was probably where part of the problem was.
Harley opened her mouth, but even that was too lewd for her, so she shut it and shrugged. “Then do it in this life. Make something new! I’ll help. I’ll be your test subject, your guinea pig, your pet rat!”
“We shall see what I come up with. Though I assure you that whatever it is will not harm you in any way. I don’t create things that are dangerous to a person’s physical health.” Which was true. Helena hadn’t liked killing, before she’d gone insane with grief over Christina’s death of course. All of her inventions were non-lethal, though obviously the time machine had cost her the rest of her sanity for a while.
“Of course. I trust you, honeycake.” Harley reached over with her clicky fingers and played with Helena’s hair. “But I think you really gotta do something about this or you’re gonna lose your mind. You’re not you and you know it, deep inside.”
She touched Helena’s chest with the toy.
“No, I’m not me. It’s frustrating. Working on the projects I have with Asami have been rather freeing. I feel more myself when I’m working with parts and figuring out a mechanical puzzle. Putting the pieces of death together is no longer as satisfying as it used to be.” And if Helena thought about it, she missed being a Warehouse Agent, hunting Artifacts and locking them away to protect the world. But there wasn’t any chance of that line of work happening here. There was no Warehouse, there were no Artifacts from her dreams here.
Harley understood not feeling like herself. Not just for herself, but watching her wife, and other people like Blake. Even before the dreams she had felt like a part of her was missing. Her dream self had been something she’d been looking for.
Not everyone felt the same way, but Harley at least felt that the person she’d become was someone new. Not old Harley, and not any of the Dream Harleys. But someone formed from all of them. “We’re gonna need a workshop.”
Helena chuckled. “A bigger workspace would be needed. And probably one separate from the house.” She didn’t want Christina to accidentally wander in when Helena wasn’t paying attention. Or if Harley and Helena had any other kids, she definitely didn’t want them wandering in on accident either.
“Good idea. What about a shed in the backyard?” It might cost a pretty penny, especially if there was climate control, which would probably be necessary. “Do you got a pension or IRA we could loot?”
“I have some funds set aside, yes. A lot of my money I funneled into a fund for Christina’s schooling, but I also saved money in a retirement fund. I suppose this is as good a time as any to dip into it.” Especially if she built something that could get a pretty penny in return, that would make things easier. It was just a matter of dreaming up that invention, building it, testing it and refining it until she had a finished product.
“It’s a risk, but i’m behind you one hundred and fifty percent.” Harley produced a second toy so she could cup Helena’s face with them. “And I know Christina will back you too.”
Helena smiled warmly, even with the toys cupping her face. “Thank you. I love you, and all of your support.” It felt strange to not feel herself when she was almost forty years old, but clearly no one was too old to do some soul searching and find a new calling in life.
“Lucky for you, I do love an older woman.” Tossing the toys aside, Harley crawled onto the table, replacing her fake hands with her real hands and giving her a surprisingly chaste kiss.
“Good, and I love a younger woman,” Helena responded with a smile. She kissed Harley back, lifting a hand and pressing it against Harley’s cheek. Oh, she definitely loved her wife. She always seemed to know what to say to help her better focus on things.
“So about those kinks,” Harley whispered, eyes glittering with mischief.