This was so completely heartbreaking. Helena hadn't even though her all ready broken heart couldn't possibly break anymore, but here it was. Now, she knew what Claudia said was true on a rational level, she did. But she wasn't exactly rational right now. Her emotions had a tight grip on her, and she couldn't shake that hold. Not that she was really trying because logic and reason had escaped her currently. But she did at least force herself to focus on what Claudia said, which should be taken as a small miracle right now.
Then, in a moment of needing validation that she herself wasn't a hologram or something, she reached for Claudia's hand. Because really, if Christina was some type of ghost or hallucination or something, then why was she able to touch her? But Claudia's words did hit her hard. After all, she never had the chance to say goodbye to Christina, never got that closure. Even when she'd used her time machine to try and save her daughter, she was in someone else's body and had to pretend to be that person. She wasn't able to be there as Christina's mother. And even then, she'd failed in changing anything. After holding her dead daughter in her arms for who knows how long before she was returned to her own body, Helena had just given up, and she gave in to her inner darkness, became a monster because she felt it was easier than feeling the pain.
"After one hundred and twenty years, how do you say goodbye to the one person who had been your pride and joy and reason for working to make the world a better place?" Helena had just mirrored a comment she'd made to Myka when she was saying her goodbyes before Pete was to destroy the Janus Coin, and it was quite relevant in this situation. For the moment, Christina remained silent, letting her mother try to find some inner balance before they could actually talk.