"Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay." Simone de Beauvoir.

Irene Frederic was humming softly as she cut several pink rose stems on the Rose of Shannon shrub in her garden. These will look nice, she thought, on her kitchen table. Her attentions in spring had paid off, and the proof was in the fully bloomed garden with three dozen or so plants and bushes. Her humming gave way to the words of the classic song; "What a Wonderful World," by Louie Armstrong.

The song, though unconscious in its choosing, did reflect how the woman was feeling. She was enjoying everything about her retirement; the least of which was taking care of the garden she never had time for before. Now, large tomatoes vines grew in abundance in corners that once were bare and dormant. Irene collected the roses and looked around the burgeoning garden of flowers, fruits and vegetables and smiled. Maybe she would take some tomatoes to her favorite couple next time she visited them in Manhattan. She wasn't sure when that would be, as it seemed the time between visits were elongating. Never one to drop in unexpectedly, Irene often waited for the invitation. She did enjoy babysitting for Cate, whenever Myka and Helena had an engagement or wanted a dinner out alone. It seemed perhaps, only next to Irene, her dear friends had been enjoying their change of work mode as well.

Irene's retirement was a direct result of the early departure of the company's CEO and Chief Counsel. The announcement had a domino effect on what was once the core staff of Wells Corp. Irene was the first to announce her retirement. "It's simply time," she told her staff, but what she really meant was that she could not bear to come to work if Helena wasn't there. Their relationship had grown and deepened over the years and she became a more willing participant in Helena's need for someone maternal.

It came as no surprise that Cate Elizabeth Irene Bering-Wells thought of Irene as her grandmother.

For the former Head of Human Resources; life was good.

Irene was the first of many whose lives were upended by Helena and Myka's decisions. Once the baby arrived, Helena announced that neither was returning to Wells Corp. For a methodical thinker, she gave very little notice before announcing their decision not to return. She left the company in the hands of her more than capable great grandniece, Eileen Sullivan-Donovan and her wife; Claudia. Eileen had been training for years to take over the company, and even though everyone thought she was a competent choice, it all happened sooner than they thought. Fortunately for Wells Corp; the new CEO was brilliant like her aunt and her wife was a technical genius. Rather than follow in the shadow the former CEO; they started anew; building the new Wells Corp from the ground up. It wasn't easy; but between the two of them, they managed to develop new ideas and a new team of people to run the company. Everyone missed Myka and Helena; but these two young women stunned the corporate world at how readily they handled the reins. They were living in Helena's gifted Penthouse apartment where Eileen's father was often the impromptu caretaker of things that didn't need fixing. Long hours at Wells Corp meant they spent their days and evenings together and they were young enough to have the energy for all of that.

In spite of all the demands of their jobs for Eileen and Claudia; life was good.

The ripple effect reached out to the couple's good friends; Bridget Cummings-Styles and her wife, Sarah. Shortly after Cate was born; Bridget gave birth to their daughter; Shannon. Myka marveled at how her friend seemed to easily return to looking fit and trim. Bridget's wife's business took off and for a while, Bridget stayed home with Shannon. Much to Helena's dismay, the play dates for the offspring started almost immediately. And yet, it was Helena who afforded the banker the opportunity to create her new job. She simply worked from home because her one client was the very wealthy Helena Bering-Wells. Many of the devices Helena had created were finished with medical trials and were overwhelmingly approved for mass production. It seemed each month; there was a new Wells device on the market for mass consumption. Even when Helena insisted that much of her share of the proceeds be used to provide free devices to people in need; the money kept pouring in. Keeping her private banker very busy indeed.

Life for Bridget and Sarah was very good.

The play dates often included Pete Junior; who was very close in age to Cate. The Lattimer-Tierney household also went through changes as his wife; Jane was promoted to Chief of Detectives; which was amazing because her main focus for years had been the Mayor's prime directive to keep Helena Wells happy. Oh, and out of trouble. A new mayor was in office and she wanted her most talented detective back on the force. With Helena retired, Pete, who had long been her stand in date, bodyguard and chauffeur, decided he would stay home with Pete Junior.

The HG Wells Museum, housed in the Belvedere Castle in Central Park, was a huge success and the newly married Leena embraced her job as the docent and curator. She no longer managed the household for Myka and Helena, and in spite of her best attempts to help them find a replacement, she was politely turned down. Instead, Helena build a state of the art automated kitchen that included glass encased mechanical arms that, once given instructions, procured and prepared any meal they desired. Myka was hesitant at first, believing the human touch added something to meals, so Helena created a space for her wife to cook when she wanted to. It didn't have the homey touch that Leena had afforded them, but Myka understood that Leena was enjoying married life to Gerald Frederic.

Life was really good for Leena and Gerald.

Myka was new to motherhood and in spite of having many hands to help, the perfectionist in her took over and she spent the day carefully thinking through everything. It was easier for Helena in one sense, because her strong ego prevented her from ever doubting she didn't know what she was doing.

And yet, a storm of dark feelings was brewing in Helena that no one; not even Helena, saw coming.

The first year of Cate's life, the couple were constantly housing guests and entertaining. The media swarmed them and they decided it was better to manage the news. They allowed only certain associates to take a look behind the door into their private lives.

A huge spread was done in Vogue of the couple and child - now deemed as New York's Royalty; a title the native Brit took offense to, but allowed nonetheless. "You Americans are in desperate need of something," Helena confided to her wife. Myka took that opportunity to remind her wife of her dual citizenship, and that their daughter was American. "Not in spirit, my dear; not in spirit," Helena teased back.

Life was good for the new parents and both seemed to embrace their new roles. They shared in Cate's caretaking much of the day; and deepened their connection by spending time alone in the evenings. Myka always thought she would return to practice law in some capacity, but with Wells Corp being taken care of so well, she knew it wouldn't be there.

The trickledown effect had radiated through much of Wells Corp. Myka's leaving meant her trusted assistant, Millie, had to decide about her future. She adored Eileen and Claudia and would have done anything to help them, but the changes that were taking place within the walls of Wells Corp was too much for her to handle. She consistently found herself saying; "Helena would never approve of that," and soon realized, neither did she. She retired shortly after the new management took over. Unlike Irene, Millie did not settle easily into retirement and longed for the day when Myka might need her. She started giving food courses at the local community center; but truth be told; her culinary talents were going to waste on teaching senior citizens the importance of a balanced diet.

Some of the changes at 1866 Central Park West were not good. Once Leena left, the internship program that was run out of Helena's clothing closet, ended and Helena was left with no one to organize her clothes and accessories. The changes accumulated until finally, Helena's inability to put her clothes away in their place cascaded into making the two story room unrecognizable. In fact, it looked more like a bomb went off in it. Helena simply resorted to buying new clothes and hung them on the doors.

It wasn't the only room that Helena let go. She turned her basement laboratory into something out of Home Depot now that she was focused on building toys instead of biomedical devices. She found it was rewarding to see Cate smile when presented with a child safe version of the balls and rods that when placed together comprised the molecular shapes of amino acids.

"She's only one," Myka would remind her wife; which often sent Helena into frenzy that Cate might be already behind in her intellectual development.

The one constant was that the only thing that reined Helena in was often the combined efforts of Myka and Irene. But Myka was tired and Irene was enjoying her garden. That often left the burden to one person. Gloria Brown.

The nurse had been employed after Myka gave birth to watch over the baby and new mother. The delivery had been smooth and the only hiccup in the entire process had been Helena's interference. She barked orders; told the doctor her presence was barely needed; and proceeded to threaten staff members. Dr. Vanessa Calder, Chief of Staff, was summoned to calm the irate mother. But there was no calming Helena until she saw that everything went well and the baby arrived in perfect order. The Chief's wise words to the nurse who was about to be deployed to the Bering-Wells household was to keep a tranquilizer gun handy.

Gloria Brown felt more than confident that she could handle the newborn and the new birth mom. She had to admit; she had not seen the likes of Helena in all her thirty years as a nurse. When it was obvious that the baby was thriving and Myka was doing well, the nurse informed her employer that she felt it was time to return to her full time nursing job. Helena wouldn't hear it. She fought the woman, who went toe to toe with her on the many reasons she was not needed. Left with no other choice; the genius pulled the ace card from up her sleeve: she summoned Irene to their home. Upon arriving, the Brit answered the door wildly and simply waved both hands up and down at the nurse as if Irene would know what to do.

And… of course she did.

Walking in calmly to the hell storm, Irene smiled and turned to Gloria after reading Helena's body language. "Whatever it is…," she said calmly, "… Helena says no."

Gloria all but burst out laughing at the interpreter and her command performance. "You will tell her majesty that the answer is still no, won't you?" Gloria relayed, even though Helena was right there.

Irene might have left her Human Resources job, but she could still read firestorm when she was in the middle of one.

"I believe… what we need here…," she said in her best negotiating tone, "… is a compromise."

Both women liked the sound of that and Gloria Brown agreed to sit down and discuss it. If she insisted on returning to her nursing job; would she at least consider being on call for the Bering-Wells? She said she would be available, of course, but that she lived in Westchester now, an area that was a good hour away. Helena then asked if she would consider relocating. She explained that the rents were much higher in Manhattan and she'd never be able to duplicate the amount of space she had. Helena promised her that would not be an issue. The nurse relented and agreed, but only if Helena could find an apartment that would cost the same as the one she now had.

Irene knew such a feat would be impossible, unless of course, you were Helena Bering-Wells.

Weeks later, Gloria Brown was handed a lease and a key to an apartment in the tall building to the left of the Bering-Wells townhouse. Gloria was stunned; Irene suspicious.

Proving that absence didn't mean she still couldn't read Helena, she simply asked; "You bought that building, didn't you?"

"Yes, and there are plenty of apartments available, so you best be on your good behavior," Helena threatened her dear friend.

Of all the things that had changed in their lives; trying to rattle Irene's cage was not one of them.

The purchase of that structure surprised Myka and their private banker; Bridget; but it did something else to Helena. It sparked something inside her; the answer to an old fear that sometimes kept her up at night. And it sent her out on a mission that she had trouble putting into words. What Myka saw was her wife buying buildings in Manhattan. The quiet of the townhouse home at 1866 Central Park West was suddenly broken by the invasion of deals that needed Myka's immediate attention. It seemed her wife shopped for real estate in Manhattan the way she used to shop for clothes. In abundance and often.

At first, it was preserving historical buildings by purchasing them and turning them over to the community to restore and look after. But suddenly, the purchases seemed more outlandish. And yet, Helena always seemed to explain why she bought that particular property.

Myka's expertise was corporate law; but she was soon getting on the job training in real estate law; as she called on the best and brightest for their help. When Myka finally pulled her head up from the stacks of paperwork one day; it dawned on her what her wife might be doing.

She looked up at her wife who was grinning from ear to ear at her latest coup. In spite of the pleasant smile she had while talking to Cate on the couch across from her; Myka knew something was going on.

And it worried her.

"Helena, sweetie," Myka called out that day to get her wife's attention. "We… don't really know anything about hotels," she pointed out gingerly.

"True," Helena agreed and watched as Cate took the soft rods and poked at holes in the different colored Styrofoam balls, "… but you kissed me in the back room of the ballroom when you first started to work with me."

That truth jarred Myka's memory and she stared out into space with a smile on her face as she drifted back to that time. It was when she and Helena first met, and she was torn between wanted to kill her new boss and kiss her. That night, she chose. "I did, didn't I?" she said.

"Your mommy is a very good kisser," Helena said to a very busy Cate who was concentrating on the rods and balls.

Just then, Cate finished her work and handed her mother her completed project.

Helena took the structure slowly; her mouth agape. "Myka, darling; look at what Cate made!"

"Oh, what a great job!" she said, getting up from her desk to sit on the floor with her daughter. Cate kissed Myka when she came to her level. "Did you put that together by yourself?"

"By myself," Cate said because she was entering the age where one becomes quite aware of their own capabilities.

"Do you know what she just made?" Helena asked amazed as she touched the particular way Cate arranged the sticks and spheres.

"What did you make?" Myka asked Cate as she rubbed her face in the child's tummy and made her laugh.

"She made an amino acid!" the Genius said of her daughter's molecular structure.

And then much to Myka's surprise and Helena's delight, Cate showed a definite sign on her own intelligence.

"You don't think… she actually knew what she was making, do you?" Myka asked, to be sure.

Helena held the configured structure up and asked: "Cate, what did you make?"

Amino acid would have been a mouthful for any two year old.

But Cate looked her mothers straight in their eyes and said; "Asparagine."

This was the particular amino acid structure that she made.

Yes; Cate was wicked smart.

Myka was amazed, but Helena could not have been more thrilled in the confirmation that their offspring was truly gifted. They sat next to one another on the floor and played with Cate; laughing and enjoying the warmth of their little family.

Life for Helena and Myka was very, very good.

For now...