Helena

{ continued from here }

@lovesjello​

It was unfortunate that Sarah moved to flinch away from her twin’s hand before being touched. That definitely was not going to help her in trying to seem up to scratch. Her chest stung as she heaved out a sigh and fought back the urge to roll her eyes, ❝ Helena could ye’ stop? ‘m fine meathead- s’nothin’. I jus’ got into a scuffle last nigh’ while I was out.❞

Helena shied away as Sarah spoke bluntly to her. “Scuffle?” Her mind raced as she tried to figure out what this word meant exactly. Putting together the rest of the sentence in her mind, she was able to figure it out herself. “Who did you-scuffle- with?” There was a pause as she looked over her sister’s injured features. “Did you win?”

Helena’s eyes resting on her was unsettling. S smiled. “You will be a good mum. You already are. Everything you’re doing is for your babies and your sestras. You just need to make sure you also take care of yourself.”

Siobhan chuckled when Helena said she would possibly like a hundred and two babies. The thought made S want to throw up, but it was a cute little joke. After all the years of abuse Helena had gone through, S was astounded by Helena’s capacity for love. She was a bottomless pit of love towards those she cared for. Kira saw it from the beginning. From when Helena had lured her out of the house and she accidentally got hit by the car.  But get on her bad side…well…couldn’t blame the girl for that.

“I often wish we all could see the world through the eyes of young children before they are conditioned to see the world a certain way.” S said to herself. She’d seen the violence and hatred in the world. It was those threats that had brought her to Canada with two young kids, with no more than the clothes on their backs. It was that violence that had nurtured Helena. What would Helena have been like if she had gown up in a loving home?

“Conditioned,’ Helena repeated slowly, enjoying the way the word sounded. “Yes, children are conditioned.” Feeling rather full now, she grabbed her drink and gulped it down as fast as she had eaten. Her eyes remained on Siobhan as she sat across from her, losing herself in her thoughts for a moment before she spoke up. 

Siobhan couldn’t help but envision a future with chaotic Helen cleaning up a mess  with a little one running around. Somehow, it made her think of her experience raising Sarah. Then Helen mentioned her dream. S took a sharp breath before leaning back in her chair. Twins? Helena and Sarah were twins. With normal genetics, twins do tend to run in families. But clone genetics? Siobhan didn’t know. She didn’t doubt Helena, though. Not after seeing the connection she and Sarah had or the connection between Kara and all the clones. Feckin hell! Raising one would be hard enough, if Sarah had been any indication. Sarah with Felix was another level of shit show. But a Helena and a Sarah…Jaysus! 

“Anything is possible, Helena. Whether there is one or two or one hundred and two, you will be having at least one baby. And you have me and the Sestra’s to help in any way we can. Do you want twins?”

Helena nodded her head in agreement with Siobhan, her hand remaining on her stomach as she continued to eat the chicken with the other. “Mhm,” she sounded as she finished chewing a piece of chicken. “Yes, I would like this. Maybe even one hundred and two.” Her smile widened as she echoed Siobhan’s words.

S smiled, as she sat down with her tea. “Well, that’s because I’m a mum. If you don’t clean up a mess like that quick, a little hooligan is likely to have a footful of glass.”  As the two of them sat at the kitchen table, S couldn’t help but remember when Helena had wanted to kill her at that table in Mexico. They’d come a long way since then. All thanks to the power of a hug…after Helena beat her and then she accidentally hit Helena after saying she wouldn’t fight her…but that’s all water under the bridge now. At that moment, all S wanted to do was to sit on the sofa and cuddle the pregnant clone. Her new-found daughter.

“Hm,” Helena grunted around a mouthful of food, “this is something I will need to do for my baby.” Her free hand rubbed at the small bump of her stomach. “Siobhan? I think there are two babies, I had dream I had babies and there were two in my arms.”

She shrugged off her own hope, gaze falling to the steam rising from the mug. “Maybe it is only dream.”

It always warmed Siobhan’s heart to see how much Helena loved Kira. Everyone did, but there was something about how Helena showed her love. Like a small child, almost. “No, she’s still asleep.”

S quickly picked up the larger pieces of glass, then used the broom to sweep up the rest. “There, that’ll have to do until I can vacuum in the morning. Pesky glass, always jumping about when it breaks. You never know where it’ll end up. Right, now, you had wanted the juice.” S grabbed the juice from the fridge, then grabbed a glass from the cupboard. “I was thinking I might have a cuppa. Would you mind if I joined you at the table, Chicken?”

Helena relaxed a little when Siobhan assured her that Kira was still asleep. A faint smile appeared when S called the glass ‘pesky’, not too familiar with that word. 

S went racing to the kitchen as soon as she heard the glass make impact. She got there just as Helena was setting down her food on the counter. ‘I swear that girl is going to eat me out of house and home before those babies come,’ S thought to herself.  “Helena, love,” she soothed as she reached Helena’s side, “why don’t you go sit and eat. I’ll clean this up and then I can bring you whatever you were reaching for.”

Helena spun around quickly upon hearing footsteps approaching her, her tense posture relaxing visibly when she realized it was only S. “I am sorry,” she murmured, being careful to not let her bare feet step on the glass. Her gaze shifted from the woman to the floor as her shoulders moved in a faint shrug. 

“Soap,” Krystal repeated, dumbfounded. “They keep telling me we’re related, but I’m still looking around for the hidden cameras, you know? Waiting for Ashton to walk out. Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do. Get in the car. We’re going shopping. I’m just gonna… find something to put over the headrest, and I’ll be right out.”

“Shopping? What are we shopping for?” She stood up from her seat position and began to make her way outside, wondering how she got stuck with Krystal. Maybe if Alison hadn’t urged her to ask the other blonde for help with her hair this wouldn’t have happened. Getting into the passenger seat she let her head lean back against the seat, either not caring or remembering that Krystal had said she wanted to cover the headrest. 

“As much as you want. When you think you have enough, add more.” With a cheeky grin, Arcadia scooped hefty amount of peanut butter into each bowl. Screwing the lid back on, the wolf nudged the chocolate syrup towards Helena. “Please do the honors. I have to find the final touch.” Leaving the kitchen island, she headed for the pantry and reached on the highest shelf, pushing soup cans around until she found the golden ticket. Unwrapping the Reese’s cups, she crushed them up in her hands and tossed some on top of each of the mound of sugar in the bowl. “The tooth fairy should pay me for how many teeth people have lost with this treat.”

Helena smiled wide when Arcadia gave her the chocolate syrup. She flipped the cap up with her thumb and poured a generous amount into each bowl...and then added a few squeezes more. Her eyes widened as she watched the other woman place candy on top of the ice cream, peanut butter and chocolate syrup. She grabbed a spoon and began to eat without a ‘thanks’. “Mm, I’m sure it is many teeth.” A happy sigh sounded from her as she continued to eat the ice cream concoction. “I cleaned up blood from the bean chair.”

“Finally someone who knows how to keep a secret secret.” Placing a hand on the blonde’s shoulder, the wolf gave a soft squeeze. “Come with me. You’re like is about to change.”

After arriving in the kitchen, she opened the freezer to search through the drawers for the ice cream. “Get the biggest bowls and spoons you can find,” she called back over her shoulder. Grabbing the chocolate syrup from the fridge and peanut butter off the counter, she set the gathered ingredients on the island counter. “First, we portion out the ice cream.” Popping the lid off the carton, the wolf used one of the spoons and dumped out the entire carton between the two bowls. “Maybe a little overboard…”

Helena stayed back, observing Arcadia as she set everything up for the dessert. “There is no overboard with ice cream.” Her gaze shifted to the peanut butter and chocolate. “Put a lot of this into the bowls too.” Stepping forward she leaned her hip against the counter to get a better look at what the other woman was doing. While others might still be stewing over the fact that the woman next to her had only just a short time ago been covered in blood, she had already forgotten about it.

“Yeah, a big one. I mean, like, Britney’s comeback big. Lucky for you, I’m kind of a miracle worker. Okay, just so I know what I’m working with here, talk to me about your conditioning routine.”

“Routine? What does this word mean?” Her eyebrows creased, trying to figure out what the question was. “I wash hair with soap and rub dry with towel.” Rarely did Helena have access to shampoo and conditioner until just shy of a year ago. Most days she couldn’t even wash her hair, let alone try and take proper care of it.

“Okay, first thought? Burn it. Just shave it all off, throw it in the trash and set it on fire. Can I be honest? I’ve always thought I could pull off the bald look. We’ve got the right head shape for it, don’t you think? But then if I’m wrong it’s like, now I have to shop for wigs? Suddenly, I’m a wig person? I just don’t need that kind of responsibility in my life right now, you know?”

Krystal took a deep breath, drawing in a strong whiff of bleach.

“Oh god, right, your hair! So, I do have an emergency kit for… minor hair disasters. I don’t know if this one is, uh… well, do you believe in miracles?”

Helena tensed when Krystal’s immediate idea was to shave off all of her hair. “No,” she said, trying to cut off the other woman. When she asked if she believed in miracles she nodded her head just slightly. “Yes. We will need miracle for this?” She reaches up to touch her own hair now, feeling at the rough texture.

“That should be a very colorful biography.” A long sigh fell from her lips as she pushed herself out of the bean bag chair, leaving a lopsided, bloody stained print on the vinyl. “A peanut butter parfait is only the most delicious thing you’ll ever taste. Let me clean up and slip into something less sticky…and we’ll make one. Ali and the kids are at skating practice, they’ll never know we raided the fridge.”

After scrubbing down the entire tiled bathroom for any traces of blood, Arcadia raided Donnie’s color coordinated wardrobe for a loaner pair of clothes. “We don’t speak of this, ever…Right?”

Helena perked up when Arcadia offered to make them the parfait. As the other woman went to shower, she studied the blood that had been left on the chair. Standing up she went to grab paper towels that she dampened and cleaned the blood off with. Tossing them into the trash can, she put away the scrapbook just in time for Arcadia to come out of the bathroom. “There is nothing to talk about.” She placed her index finger to her own lip to show she would keep it a secret. “We can make the food now, yes?”

“What I need is a beer, a joint and a peanut butter parfait. And maybe a shower.” Taking a moment to catch her breathe, she pointed to the closed scrapbook. “Alison’s taught you well. What’s inside?” For fear of dripping blood onto the cover, the wolf brought her hand back to rest in her lap. 

Helena’s eyebrows creased catching onto the latter part of her sentence. “What is a peanut butter,” she paused, carefully sounding out the last word, “parfait?” Her gaze drifted to the scrapbook, fingers tracing over the stickers on the cover. “It is for my babies. Alison said to make a book about who I am as person for them.”