Warehouse 13
Bering and Wells
Complete

Part 11

"I swear she woke up," Myka insisted. Tears gathered in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.

"I believe you," Vanessa told her. "But there's no change in any of her stats so they want to keep a closer watch on her for a little while."

Myka slumped against the wall. "I should have gotten a nurse."

"Why didn't you?"

Myka shrugged and glanced back to Helena's room.

"She asked me to keep reading."Vanessa placed her hand on Myka's shoulder. "She woke up. It doesn't matter how long it was; it's a good thing."

Myka nodded.

"Go call the others," Vanessa told her.

Myka took a deep breath, nodded again, and pulled her Farnsworth out. She called Artie as she walked down the hall. The call was answered within seconds, but Claudia was the one in the screen.

"Any change?" Claudia's voice was full of worry and she was clearly thinking the worst.

"She woke up," Myka told her. "Briefly, but she was awake."

Claudia's expression instantly changed. Her eyes widened and the edges of her lips quirked up slightly.

"She's going to be okay?" she quietly asked.

Myka smiled slightly and nodded a few times. "She should be."

-oOo-

Thick blankets weighed down on her. A haze – drug induced by her assumptions – muted her perception of the world. The inability to sense anything dragged her mind back to her years in bronze. She fought the urge to panic.

She could not be back in the metal. They would not allow it to happen. Myka would not allow it to happen.

Yet, where else could she be? She fought through the fog in her mind until she stumbled upon the most recent memories.

MacPherson. Egypt. Warehouse 2. Myka.

They would have every reason to bronze her again after what had happened. She had been responsible for Leena's injury; for Mrs. Fredric's pain; for the death of those boys. She had been responsible for Myka finding herself on the wrong end of a firearm.

Just as she felt her panic slip to reluctant acceptance and self-hatred, a voice, not Myka's, softly filled her ears. After a few moments, she remembered the name that went with the voice – Doctor Calder.

"Can you hear me, Helena?" Vanessa asked.

"Myka," Helena whimpered out.

Vanessa let out an amused breath. "I'll get her in here."

A feeling of conflicted relief filled her. She was not encased in bronze, but she was still the primary factor in everything that had occurred. She deserved the punishment.

-oOo-

A tense atmosphere had settled over the occupants of the waiting room. Claudia, Leena, and Pete had rushed to the hospital after hearing the news. Three hours after arriving, however, they were still sitting around waiting for news.

Only Myka refused to sit. Instead, she was leaning against the wall opposite the door and had been the entire time. Her eyes had not left the door since she had taken the position.

She pushed off of the wall as soon as she noticed Vanessa walking towards the room.

The others followed her lead and were standing when the doctor walked in.

Vanessa looked at Myka and nodded. "She's awake again," she said.

The tension instantly left the room.

"Two of you can come see her."

Myka stepped forward and grabbed Claudia when she passed her. Vanessa nodded and led them away.

"She's…under the influence of some powerful painkillers," Vanessa said as they walked. "So she may not seem entirely herself."

"You got her high?" Claudia questioned with a weak smirk.

Vanessa chuckled. "We did. We hope to decrease the dosage soon, but it all depends on how her body reacts."

"How aware is she?" Myka asked.

"Not completely, but she will know that you're there and will be able to respond a little if you talk to her."

Myka nodded and crossed her arms. Claudia pressed close to Myka, wrapped an arm around her, and resting her head on her shoulder. Myka unfurled her own arm and held Claudia close.

They reached Helena's room a few moments later.

Vanessa walked right in but the agents both stopped a few feet from the door.

Myka tightened her arm around Claudia as the girl tensed.

"I can't go in there," Claudia said. "I can't. Not when she's all… and with…"

She pulled away from Myka and wrapped her arms around herself.

"No, I can't," she murmured. "I… I can't."

Myka stepped around Claudia so they were facing each other and put her hands on Claudia's shoulders.

"If you don't want to go in there, you don't have to," she told her. "It's your decision. I just thought you would want to see her, so you know she's okay."

Claudia looked at her for a few moments, then her face hardened. "I'll try."

"If it's too much, don't feel bad about needing to leave."

Claudia nodded. She raised her head, took a step forward, and froze again.

Myka instantly pressed against her side for support. She pushed her own anxiety down as Claudia tensed up even further with each step.

They stopped again in Helena's doorway. Claudia's fingers twisted around Myka's shirt. Her eyes locked onto the floor.

"Claudia."

She looked up at the voice.

Helena was reclined slightly on a few pillows. Her head was turned towards the door. Her eyes were barely open, but were open nevertheless. Vanessa stood next to her and had clearly told her who was at the door.

Still tense, Claudia stepped forward. "How're you feeling?"

Helena gave a small, painful smile. "I must admit that I have felt better, but I have also felt worse."

The tension drained from Claudia as she smiled as well.

-oOo-

Vanessa froze with her hand on the light switch. The light from the hallway lit up the room just enough for her to see the gentle scene inside.

Helena was fast asleep – asleep, not unconscious – in her bed. Myka was passed out in the chair next to the bed. For once, however, she wasn't curled up in the chair. Instead, half of her torso was on Helena's bed and her head was resting on her arms. A book – not a Harry Potter book, Vanessa noted – lay next to Myka's head.

Vanessa smiled and shook her head.

Helena had been awake for a few days and they were having a harder time pulling Myka away than before. So far only Pete and Claudia had been successful; only for food, and only when Helena had been asleep. Every time anyone else tried, Myka insisted that she needed to stay incase Helena woke up.

Everyone else had flowed through Helena's room as she was still only allowed two visitors at a time. Claudia was usually the second visitor, as if she was trying to make up for her refusal to visit before. Any time Claudia wasn't there, Pete was. Pete tried to claim that he visited more for Myka's support, but everyone knew that he had come to actually care for Helena.

Leena visited when she could. She spent a lot of time at the Warehouse, however, sorting through the still numerous Warehouse 2 artifacts that needed shelving. Artie had shown up a few times, mainly when transporting someone back and forth. Steve had visited for the same reason. He had come to pick up Claudia, and the girl had insisted that he meet Helena.

Even after years of working for the Warehouse, she had never seen a team so connected, so reminiscent of a family.

Vanessa let her hand fall from the switch. She could get Helena's stats using the hall light and there would be less chance of waking the women.

-oOo-

"She nearly died for you."

Helena wasn't surprised when Pete spoke. They had persuaded Myka to go fetch something to eat, but Pete had made the unprecedented decision to decline the promise of food. It hadn't been hard for Helena to figure out that he wanted to talk to her while Myka couldn't hear.

If she was completely honest, the conversation topic wasn't a surprise either.

"I am aware of that," she told him. The thought was constantly on her mind. The noise of Myka's crutches hit her hard. The constant tired waver in Myka's voice only reminded her of how Myka had fought to keep her strength in Egypt.

"I think she would die for you if it ever came to it," Pete continued. The slight pain and resentment was clear in his voice.

Helena took a deep breath. "Regrettably, I think she would. If only the honor belonged to someone more worthy."

She could almost hear Pete bristle at her words. "What? Someone more worthy to die for you?"

"Someone more worthy of her sacrifice," she shot back. "Do you truly think that I believe myself worthy of her? I am blessed by the mere fact that she gave me the chance to have a new life. That she deems me worthy to be gifted the time of her day is overwhelming. That she would place her life over my own…" she just shook her head, unable to put the feeling into words. She should be imprisoned for her involvement in Myka's pain; she should not be regarded so highly by the woman.

Pete was silent for a few moments. "Maybe you're more worthy than you give yourself credit for," he finally said.

Helena gave a short laugh. The man was clearly more foolish than she had thought if he believed that. "If there is a soul in the world who is worthy of such regard from Myka, it certainly is not mine."

"Maybe it's because you believe that that makes you worthy."

Helena's head snapped in his direction. "I do not believe it, I know it."

"Good luck convincing her that."

-oOo-

Helena gritted as the nurses hand gripped slightly too hard around her forearm in an attempt to help her into a wheelchair. The pain wasn't as bad as some she had felt before – her time unconscious seemed to have let her skip over the severe sensitivity – but it was still worse than it had been the month or so before Egypt.

That the woman did not appear to even care about the sensitivity did not help in the slightest.

A softer hand landed on her shoulder once she was settled in the wheelchair. She did her best not to flinch under the touch, but the way the hand lifted slightly let her know that she had failed.

Since she had woken, Myka had carefully treaded the line of increasing their physical contact and being weary of Helena's pain. Helena had refused to push her away as she perfectly understood the need behind each of Myka's touches. She felt it herself; the desire for a reminder that Myka was still there, still alive. Myka, however, always seemed to know when it was too much, which was more often than Helena was willing to admit.

She would also never admit to the second reason she moved away from Myka's touch, at least never to Myka. How would she explain anyway? Explain that she simply was not worthy of such care?

"You ready?" Myka asked. Her voice was soft and did nothing to sooth the turmoil in Helena.

"Exceedingly," Helena replied. She attempted to mask her true emotions, but feared she had failed.

Myka said nothing further and Helena knew she had caught the slip.

The chair started to move and the sound of Myka's crutches – soon to be unnecessary, and Myka had excitedly told her early the same day – served as a reassurance that the woman was still there.

"You're room's ready. Leena's been prepping it all week. The shelves are filled with Braille books. We found an artifact buried deep in the Warehouse that translates any book to Braille, so your options are unlimited now."

"And if the option I prefer is to continue allowing you to read to me?"

Despite her reserves, that was one thing she could not give up. Myka had been reading from a collection of short stories Helena had read as a girl. She didn't know how Myka had found the book or if she even knew the significance behind it, but the way Myka's voice wrapped around the words soothed the conflict that battled in Helena.

"I'm not going to complain about it," Myka responded with a happy lilt in her voice.

-oOo-

The soft rustle of paper underlay the words that filled the air and Helena could only imagine that Myka's thumb must be flicking the poor corner of the page she was reading. Myka's voice flowed as she spun the tale of a man finding his own consciousness in a dystopian future in which doing so was outlawed.

She vaguely remembered Myka mentioning the book, Anthem, before everything had happened. The premise had captured her fascination, but her mind currently lingered on another piece.

"What were you reading, when I first woke?" she asked, cutting across Myka's words.

Myka stuttered to a stop. Helena knew she had surprised her. She typically allowed the passage to be finished before presenting her own thoughts. For her to just jump in, let alone about something entirely different, was new.

"It was a children's book published a few years ago," Myka finally answered. "The fifth in a series of seven."

"Could you read those?" Helena slowly asked.

"Of course."

-oOo-

Myka paused her reading. She had just finished with the troll in the bathroom scene in Philosopher's Stone, and something about it had impacted Helena. She had tensed up about halfway through.

"Something's bothering you, Helena," Myka softly said.

Helena blinked a few times, but didn't say anything.

"You can tell me," Myka pushed.

"It's entirely my fault," Helena relented in a small voice.

Myka froze for a moment. "What do you mean?"

Helena's jaw clenched momentarily. "Everything. The entire mess with Warehouse 2. Leena getting attacked. Mrs. Fredric nearly passing. You getting…" she trailed off.

Myka moved slightly closer to her. She could see Helena tracking her motions.

"That was not your fault," she said. "That was MacPherson."

"And where did he get his information? From the research I completed in order to accomplish an even more heinous goal than his."

"…What?"

"A part of the Minoan Trident was stored in Warehouse 2. I found the other part while working at Warehouse 12 and put it somewhere I would be able to locate even after being bronzed. It was a desperate plan reserved solely for the possibility that the world had gotten worse during my incarceration."

"Helena…"

"No, Myka." Helena's voice was harsh. "If I hadn't been so presumptuous to assume that I would be required to take on the roles of judge, jury, and executioner for the world, none of this would have happened."

"You would still be bronzed." The softness of Myka's voice contrasted with the roughness of Helena's.

"Perhaps that would have been for the best. What good has happened since my release?"

Her words felt like a physical blow.

"Is that really how you feel?" Myka's voice had shrunk even more.

"You were shot! I don't know if I can handle being the cause for any pain you feel."

"What if I don't care?" She moved slightly closer to Helena's bed. "What if I think some pain is worth it, if it means I get to know you, get to –"

Helena's eyebrows furrowed as Myka trailed off. Myka took a deep breath to calm herself.

"To love you, Helena." Helena's eyes widened, and her head turned towards Myka. Myka's heart sped up, but she pushed forward. "Because that's what's happened. I've fallen in love with you, and I will take as many bullets for you as I have to."

"Please don't." Helena's voice had lost its rough edge and was nearly as small as Myka's.

Myka fought her tears down. She had been wrong. "It's not something I can just choose not to do. I love you, Helena, regardless of how you may feel."

"You misunderstand me," Helena said and she forced her torso to sit up straight. "Myka, what I feel for you terrifies me. I have only ever felt such a strong bond with Christina, and yet that was an entirely different feeling. I fear, however, that regardless of how much love I hold for you, I do not come anywhere near worthy of your love."

Myka's heart skipped a beat. "You…you love me?"

"It seems the fate have been cruel enough to allow me to fall for a goddess among women. A goddess to whom I have only caused pain."

"I'm no goddess."

"But you are. You have the most pure soul, the most beautiful essence of any person I have met, and yet you continue to insist that I, with my darkness and shattered being, am worthy."

Myka didn't respond for a few moments. Her lower lip quivered slightly. Tears silently slipped from her eyes. The woman before her was more broken that she had thought.

She took a deep breath and rested her hand on the bed next to Helena's. The pinkie on Helena's hand twitched slightly.

"Let me prove to you. Let me show you that not only are you worthy, but that I wouldn't care if you weren't.

Slowly, she slipped her hand beneath Helena's and tangled their fingers.

"Let me prove that the love we feel for each other is enough, and that nothing else matters."

Helena gently squeezed her hand. Myka couldn't stop herself from lifting Helena's hand and pressing a kiss to the sensitive skin.

Okay, a few notes.

First, thanks to everyone for reading, sticking with it, and reviewing. It took me way too long to write eleven chapters.

Second, thanks to the people who pushed me to continue with the Touch storyline. I'm really glad I gave into the pressure.

Third, how many of you either forgot about Touch and Sensations, never heard about them, or thought they were set during this story? Cause there were a few people who were legitly scared I would let HG never wake up.

Finally, this is the end of this story. I have three more planned for this universe, each involving the three senses I haven't used yet, thanks to a suggestion by bluellaby. They will be one-shots and will fill the gaps between the three stories I have already posted.

Once again, thanks to all of you.