Work Text:
“Sometimes it feels as though I have nothing to offer anyone,” Helena refused to look at Myka as she said it, breaking the silence that stretched between them like a rubber band. “My hands are empty and there is nothing in me worth redeeming.”
Myka was silent for so long that Helena feared to speak again for risk of shattering whatever peace was left between them. But when she finally dared to glance towards Myka, she was looking at her, or rather, Myka was looking at her hands.
Then in a movement so determined it reminded Helena of their earlier days, before her actions in Egypt and in Boone, before this hesitancy had arisen between them, Myka got up and strode over to the nearby desk returning to Helena holding a pen.
Myka knelt in front of Helena and without saying a thing took one of Helena’s hands in her own and began to write on it.
Intelligent. Secretive. Compassionate. Ambitious. Impulsive. Tempestuous.
“Myka, what–?”
“Shhh.” Myka shushed her and kept writing, filling the palm of Helena’s hand and moving on to the back.
Literate. Pioneering. Charming. Arrogant. Imaginative. Persistent.
When Myka filled all the space on that hand she let it go and took hold of the other, still writing.
Forceful. Brave. Vain. Adaptable. Independent. Maternal.
At that word, tears came unbidden to Helena’s eyes but she feared to use her ink covered free hand to wipe them away and Myka was still writing on her other hand.
Exuberant. Overbearing. Intuitive. Unpredictable. Witty. Resourceful. Loving.
Myka finally stopped when she ran out of space and she set the pen down on the floor by the chair though she stayed kneeling in front of Helena.
She read over what she had written then she carefully lifted and kissed first one hand and then the other before she reached up and brushed the tears off Helena’s cheeks with a gentle touch.
“What is in you is as visible to me as words on a page. And all of it is worth redeeming because it is what makes up all of you.”
Myka stood up then and looked at Helena for a long moment before bending down to kiss her softly on the lips.
“Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean that you have nothing to offer.”
She touched Helena’s shoulder before she walked out of the room, leaving Helena staring at her hands and pondering her words.