“Alice!” She screamed, drawing the blonde in to a hug. “What are you doing here?” She was obviously already drunk.

“I was worried about you!” Alice screamed back.

“What?”

“I was worried! Will you turn it down? Turn it down, Helena!” The dark haired woman finally heard her and fumbled a little with the remote and the stereo finally went dead.

“It got awfully quiet now, didn’t it?” Helena said and seemed to listen to the silence. “My ears are ringing.” She tried to rub them a little.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve got tinnitus now. I know I have.” The journalist murmured, stroking the other woman’s hair. “What’s up Helena? What happened earlier?”

“Oh, that. I just got a phone call from my impossibly incompetent lawyer Waaaalter who is telling me my EX Winnie Mann will be the soul guardian for our sorry HER children. Which means I won’t be able to see them without her consent, which means never, never, never. Because she despises me. She used to love me, you know. I don’t know why she hates me so now. I really don’t. She hates me. And soon they’ll hate me to.” Helena breathed fast. Alice had slowly moved her to the couch to sit down. The blonde could feel Helena was about to break. “I just I just wanted to be so much for them. Do you understand? I wanted to give them everything. I wanted to be their mother in the way my mother, the almighty PEGGY, never was. You see? And now they will just forget completely how I am. I will be nothing to them.” Tears were now falling down Helena’s face, and Alice let them fall, stroking the other woman’s hair, trying to sooth her.

“Helena, this is not the way to deal.” Alice murmured softly.

“I know.” Helena chuckled through her tears. “My Gran always used to say: ‘Helena, one should not drink when one is either sad or alone!’”

“She sounds like a very smart woman.”

“She was.” Helena smiled. Then she turned to Alice, looking at her seriously despite her troubles to fixate her gaze. “Thank you for coming. I’m saying thank you now, because tomorrow I’ll be to humiliated to speak to you ever again.”

Alice could not help but smile at the sincerity of the other woman’s words. “You’re welcome, Helena.” She whispered.

To be continued