As much as Helena pretended she was strong, she really wasn't. She kept up appearances whenever possible because she did not want people to see just how broken she was. She didn't want people to see how wounds struck over a century before were still bleeding though Helena had no blood left to give. The only way she could keep up appearances was to stuff every single emotion she felt deep down inside so she could keep her outer shell up without faltering. The problem with this, however, is that those closest to her, those who had seen beneath the shell, would know and be able to see she was starting to close herself off. Which would undoubtedly push her down the path towards world destruction again. But what else could she do? She couldn't process the pain she felt, so the only other thing she could think of to do was to lock it away yet again.
Helena had been about to respond to Irene when Irene kissed her again. She felt the added forcefulness to the kiss, the possessive hold on her hair. She returned the kiss, not shying away from it. The rational part of her mind all ready had some idea of what was going to happen, of what Irene needed to do to get her to open up, but Helena wasn't exactly using that part right now. At the invitation to telling Irene what was wrong, Helena was not yet going to yield the true answer. Not that easily. "I needed a break, and felt like dropping by to see you." All right so technically that was the truth, but it wasn't exactly what was wrong.
If Irene hadn't kept the hold on her hair, Helena would have tried to pull away, to move to the living room to sit down. But instead she remained where she was, her arms still around Irene. Helena truly was in an extreme right now. Most of the time if she was hiding emotions, she was still able to be more like herself with flirtatious overtones and so forth. But right now, she was in a place beyond that. There was simply too much for her to handle because it wasn't just Christina's death having eaten away at her very soul. Now it was about Emily prodding that open wound. It was about Moriarty undoubtedly wanting to kill her sooner rather than later. It was about Moriarty hurting Claudia and Myka just to get to her. And all of that would be done just to get to Irene.
Really, a person could only handle so much before they either lost their mind or shut down completely. This time, Helena was opting for shutting down completely.