AN: This is a continuation of 'Do you remember the first time we met?'

The second time Helena met Myka Bering was when Christina was six.

She was in the body of a woman who had an inability to smile. So Helena immediately suspected something odd was happening when Myka smiled at her.

It threw her off how beautiful she looked and as an honest woman (which on occasion can be untrue), she felt obligated to tell Myka, "Your bright smile rivals the sun. You should do it more often."

"What sun?" Myka squinted at the window.

Helena chuckled. "Well, I suppose during winter the sun isn't much of a competition. Smile again when summer comes. I will compliment you again and it will matter."

"Come on, H.G.," another oddity she noticed. "You're a wordsmith. I'm sure you can think of a better compliment," Myka said, inching her face closer towards Helena's. No one knew that she wrote except Charles. The warnings signs were written in big bold letters all over the place. She should have realised it sooner.

"I'm going to tell you something very interesting about myself," Myka whispered to her ear. Then she kissed a certain spot on Helena's neck that made her knees become weak.

"Enlighten me," Helena sighed.

"I'm from the future," Myka said, trailing her kisses closer and closer to Helena's lips.

"You're right. That is very interesting."

"Do you believe me?" Myka asked.

"I'll believe in anything you say, darling."

"Oh, we've arrived at our destination," Myka said after kissing the corner of Helena's lips. Her lips were soft as she expected of a woman.

She always wondered how it would feel like to kiss a woman. And she had tried countless times to feed her curiosity. Women, it seemed, were harder to chase than men. And being a woman herself, her intentions were always misconstrued as being friendly.

"So," Myka added, her breath felt warm on Helena's lips and Helena knew that her thirst for this little bit of knowledge was about to be quenched a little more. "Would you believe me if I said I'm an agent of Warehouse 13?"

But apparently not today. Helena immediately backed away and reached for her Tesla, except it wasn't there.

"Looking for this?" Myka said, holding up her Tesla. "So do you believe me?"

She didn't but she listened to Myka's explanation. She had to. That was when she learned her name. Myka Bering. A peculiar name but she was a peculiar woman so the name fitted her. She was from the year 2013. And she had worked in the Warehouse for four years. Longer than Helena.

She came from the future to find the Cassegrain Telescope. Helena had heard of it. It rivalled Sir Isaac Newton's design of a reflecting telescope. So naturally, it was so heavily criticised that no one thought it was useful. And the poor Frenchman who came up with it didn't even come forward to defend his design.

But that was it, it was a design. No one had succeeded in building a working model. She believed that someday, a reflecting telescope would be favoured more than a refracting telescope but for now, there were still kinks that made a refractor more useful than a reflector.

And so she concluded that Myka Bering was a liar.

"There is a whole section in the Warehouse just for your inventions," Myka told her.

She would be lying if she said she wasn't flattered by it but she wasn't flattered enough to start trusting Myka. She eyed the Tesla on the counter which separated them. It sat less than inch from Myka's hand.

It didn't go unnoticed by Myka. "Obviously, you don't trust me. So what I'm going to do," Myka picked up the Tesla and aimed it at the most expensive longcase clock in the shop. Then, she blasted the thing into pieces. "There, now we both can't use it."

She collected Elizabeth's jacket and proceeded to the door. "Oh, and by the way," she continued. "I used your time machine to get here. Or as you call it the Temporal Consciousness Transfer Engine. It does sound like something you would invent, doesn't it?"

The doorbell chimed as Myka exited the shop. Helena was still startled by the exploding clock to really process what Myka just said. It took her some time to realise that Myka just told her that she successfully built or will build a time machine.

And of course it was as absurd as all the other things that Myka told her. But she built or will build a time machine! Maybe Myka was lying. But it was worth the risk as it was an opportunity to learn the mechanics of time travel. And if Myka was lying, she'll just cross that bridge when she comes to it.

She took her Tesla from the counter and followed Myka out the door. But Myka was nowhere in sight. Helena sighed. She was too late.

"Looking for someone?" said a voice behind her.

She turned around and to her relief, it was Myka. "I've decided to help you find the telescope," she said to Myka.

"And is there a particular reason why you suddenly trust me?" Myka asked with a knowing smile.

"No," Helena said. "Just feeling helpful is all."

"I see," Myka nodded. "It has nothing to do with the fact that I just told you that you invented a time machine and now, you're little curious."

"Just a tiny bit," Helena admitted.

Myka appeared to contemplate her decision for a moment. "Fine," she said. "You can help. But I'm not promising you anything."

"Of course," Helena smiled.

Myka smiled back. It was that smile again. The one she saw as she entered the shop in the hopes of getting her watch fixed. Her intention was forgotten as soon as she saw that smile. She knew that smile. It's the one men give her when she enters a room. They forget what they were talking about and the person they were talking to and focus their attention on her.

The difference was she was as hypnotised with Myka as Myka was with her.

...

They spent the entire morning knocking on doors all over London in their search for the telescope.

"Are you sure it's in London?" Helena asked after they had knocked on twenty six doors, or was it twenty two? She had lost count.

Myka hadn't said anything about her time machine and Helena was beginning to suspect she was never going to. She even tried subtly bringing up the subject after a round of flirting to distract Myka. But Myka just went back to the topic they were talking about.

Her childhood. Myka seemed very interested in getting to know her. She asked about Charles and Christina. Her mentor, Caturanga. Did she enjoy working at the Warehouse? What would she choose? The Warehouse or writing?

She told Myka that writing was her first love. No, it was books. Then she wanted to try her hand on creating worlds of her own to see if she could incite that love in others. But when she joined the Warehouse, it was like entering a whole new world beyond her imagination. Without the Warehouse, there would be no writing. Or her writings would forever be dull because now, it wasn't just about thinking of a world where miracles happen. She was living it. Not many people could appreciate it but the truth is always a much interesting story than a made up one.

Myka asked a lot of personal questions, she realised but somehow she felt at ease with her like no one else.

"It's in London," Myka said. "I'm sure. I have a list. It's a big list."

"How do you remember all these names and addresses?" Helena asked.

The only thing she knew about how Myka travelled to this time was that it was only her consciousness that was transferred not her body. So it was impossible for her to bring a piece of paper with all the names and addresses of the people they were bothering.

"I remember things easily," Myka said. "They call it eidetic memory."

"That's a handy skill," Helena said, impressed.

"Sometimes," Myka said, looking at a faraway object Helena couldn't see. "But sometimes there are things I want to forget."

"I find the remedy to that is a bottle of scotch," Helena said, tilting her head, trying to find Myka's gaze again.

Myka laughed. Oh, that laugh. Why was it making her heart thump so wildly?

"It's not so much the inebriation," Helena continued. "It's the headache the morning after. It's so painful that you can't think of nothing else except the pain."

"You're a bit of a masochist, aren't you?" Myka's eyes returned to her.

Helena tried to smile seductively but she suspected she only succeeded in making it goofy. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Whatever it was, its charm seemed to work because Myka was smiling adoringly at her. "Alright, Casanova. We have another ten doors to knock on."

"Another ten?" Helena grimaced. "I have an idea. How about we ask for help from the Warehouse?"

Myka shook her head. "What do I tell them? Hello, I'm Myka Bering and I'm a Warehouse agent from the future. Please help me find this artifact," she said. "They won't let me leave the Warehouse until they've figured out who I am and I won't have enough time with," she immediately stopped herself. "With finding the artifact."

"And yet, you trust me?" Helena asked. "I could stun you with my Tesla at any moment and bring you to the Warehouse myself."

Myka said calmly, "In these three hours we've spent together, do I seem untrustworthy to you?"

Helena didn't answer. She had met a lot of people who seemed decent and honest but turned out to be manipulative and corrupt. What she learned was these people always want something. But so far, Myka had only expressed interest in her and the Cassegrain Telescope. The former was not unusual for her and the latter didn't necessarily require her presence. The only other thing she could think of was her access to the Warehouse and clearly, Myka didn't want anything to do with it.

"I know enough about you," Myka continued, "that you wouldn't harm anyone unless you know that they would bring harm to you. Besides, I don't trust you completely. Check your Tesla."

Helena took out her Tesla. It wasn't charging. It should be fully charged by now.

"A little trick I learned from Claudia," Myka said, already walking towards the next address in her list.

Helena was still examining her Tesla when Myka glanced back and called out to her, "Are you coming Wells?"

She thought for a moment if it was a wise decision to go with Myka. The woman knew things that she didn't. She could be a danger to Helena and it was obvious that she would never willingly tell Helena about the time machine.

But Helena was a curious person. And Myka was a mystery. At the moment, they were a good match.

She felt her legs moving towards Myka. It seemed her body had already decided for her.

...

They finally located the whereabouts of the Cassegrain telescope. It was currently in the possession of a man named Daniel Cooper. He was a wealthy man and according to his brother, Mr. James Cooper, he had a room specifically built for the telescope and the room was guarded day and night. So he didn't see Daniel letting them or as they called themselves, the London Space Institute to borrow it for their archive.

"We'll need the Warehouse for this," she said to Myka. "They're the only ones with the resources to obtain this telescope."

Myka stubbornly refused.

"Unless you have a blueprint of Daniel Cooper's mansion in your head, we're not going to get the telescope," Helena tried to reason. "You don't, do you?"

"No," Myka said. She appeared to be in thought for a moment. "We can't convince him to give it to us but we can ask nicely to have a look at it," she looked at Helena, a wicked smile on her lips. "A little convincing from a beautiful woman like you, I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

Helena gasped. "That is entirely inappropriate," she said. "But also true."

Myka laughed. "Good. Because I'm sure I can figure out what kind of security measures they've set up in the room."

She felt quite like a puppy. Too ready to follow Myka around. It was disconcerting.

As they expected, Daniel Cooper showed them the telescope. It didn't take much convincing to Helena's relief. She felt reluctant to flirt with another person in the presence of Myka. Apparently, Mr Cooper had tried convincing the astronomy community for many years of its existence. No one believed it. He claimed it was because no one with enough prestige had been successful in incorporating the Cassegrain design into a working telescope.

Myka's eyes flitted around as soon as they entered the mansion. Once in a while, she would compliment on some random feature of the mansion so Mr Cooper wouldn't be suspicious of her wandering eyes.

After unlocking the door to the special telescope room, Mr Cooper did a little dance before letting them enter the room. Myka concentrated on his feet, following each step he took. The room was empty except for the telescope. It was placed on a stand under a glass casing right at the centre of the room. Myka inspected the glass casing without touching it.

"Usually people couldn't wait to get their paws on the glass," Mr. Cooper remarked. "Have you had police training, Miss Bering?"

"Oh, no," Myka said. "Just being polite."

"Your politeness just saved your live," said Mr Cooper. "If you had touched the glass, thousands of volts of electricity would be coursing through your body right now causing your death."

"That's something to think about regarding our manners," Helena quipped. "Do you have any other sensitive spots in this room we shouldn't touch? You know for the sake of our lives."

"There are," Mr Cooper. "But I've disarmed them so you don't have to worry about it."

"Just the glass then?"

"Yes, just the glass."

Mr Cooper was about to disarm the glass when suddenly Helena cursed.

Helena quickly apologised and asked, "May I ask what time is it? I'm afraid my watch isn't working."

"It's a quarter past two."

"I'm late," she looked at Myka. "I'm really sorry but I have to get my daughter from school." She turned to Mr Cooper, "It was a pleasure meeting you. I hate to be rude and run off like this but I suppose I have to."

"I'll meet you back at the shop," she yelled as she rushed out of the room.

She was late again. She promised the last time that it was the last time. Mrs Brown always warned her that someday Christina will grow up to be someone who can't keep promises because her mum did the same thing to her. Obviously, she was concerned about that.

But she was more worried with the fact that Christina will someday resent her when she realises that when people say the word 'promise', it means they're going to do it. The sweet girl. Every time Helena was late, she wouldn't cry or throw a tantrum. She would just wait for her patiently and then smile when she finally turned up.

And there she was. Except she wasn't waiting this time. She was playing with some other children. Well, at least she knew she wasn't the worst parent of the day.

"Miss Wells!" it was Mrs Douglas, the headmistress, right on time to give her a lecture on tardiness.

"I know," said Helena. "I'm late. It won't happen again."

"I'm afraid it's not about that," Mrs Douglas said. "Although I would appreciate it if you pick Christina up earlier. I don't have all day to wait for you." She looked at children, "Do you know Miss Scott?"

"You mean Elizabeth Scott?" Helena asked. She was the woman Myka was currently possessing. Helena panicked. Had they been found out? "I'm familiar with her," Helena said as calmly as she possibly can.

"Those are her children," Mrs Douglas pointed at them. Well, this was worse.

"All five of them?" Helena asked.

The headmistress nodded. "Unlike you, she is usually at the gate by the time school ends but as you can see, she's not here," Mrs Douglas said, frowning. "I have sent someone to the shop she works at and they said it was empty. I'm worried. Her husband works with the East India Company in South East Asia so they're basically orphans if something bad had happened to Miss Scott."

Helena knew for a fact that Elizabeth was fine. She was just unavailable until tomorrow. She had to think fast before Mrs Douglas could alert the police about Elizabeth's disappearance. The artifact was within their reach. The last thing they needed was for the police to be chasing Myka.

She slapped her forehead dramatically. "I completely forgot. Elizabeth asked me to take her children home because she had a very important appointment she couldn't reschedule. You see, I'm a regular customer at her shop because my watch keeps malfunctioning," she patted the pocket where her watch was. "She knew that I had a daughter who goes to the same school as her children so now I'm here to bring them all home."

"For goodness sake, Miss Wells," Mrs Douglas sighed. "I was worried for nothing. It was highly irresponsible for you to do this. Doesn't your word mean anything?"

Helena waved at Christina when she saw her daughter waving at her excitedly.

"I have a family you know," Mrs Douglas continued to babble on. "And I don't have a housekeeper to do everything for me. I need to fold today's laundry, cook dinner, not to mention—"

As Helena pretended to listen to Mrs Douglas, she watched the children play. Christina seemed to like them. It was certainly something since her daughter was a very shy girl. It's not every day that she gets to see Christina enjoying herself like that. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea.

She gathered all six children and said goodbye to Mrs Douglas.

"Buy a new watch, Miss Wells," the headmistress told her. Helena wondered if she still thought of her as a little girl. It could be the reason why every time she asked Helena to do something, it sounded more like an order than a request.

The only thing to do now was to tell Myka about the children. That should be fun.