Helena knew she still looked shell shocked.  Hell, she felt shell shocked.  Alice had finally run, having errands to attend to, leaving Helena on a love seat at The Planet.  She was still stunned that her mother had cut her off.

She sipped her tea and tried to think through the white noise in her head.  A hand touched her shoulder lightly and she jumped slightly, splashing lukewarm tea into her lap.  The person who presumably belonged to the hand came around the love seat and handed her a napkin.

“Shit, I’m sorry.  I come over here to see if I can help and just end up making a mess”.

Helena smiled  at the genuine concern in the other woman’s voice and her slight southern accent just make the whole thing even more amusing.  She dabbed half heartedly at the damp spot on her jeans and studied the other woman.  She was crouched by Helena’s leg, but Helena thought she was a couple of inches  shorter than her, guessing she was roughly 5’4” or 5”.  Her hair was tied back into a loose braid that appeared to hang all the way to her waist and her skin was pale and dotted with freckles.  A simple black t-shirt didn’t do much to hide the tattoos that ran down to both wrists and, Helena assumed, up to her shoulders.  

The other woman smiled up at her and Helena was struck by how deeply green her eyes were.  Stylish black frames did nothing to hide them.  Her left hand rested absently on Helena’s thigh and she extended her right.

“I’m Lilly, by the way.”  Helena took her hand and tried to convince herself that her spine didn’t tingle when she touched this intriguing woman.

“Helena Peabody” she replied, glad to hear that her voice was still steady.

Lilly got to her feet and sat down next to Helena. 

“I promise I wasn’t trying to ruin your pants.  You looked, I don’t know, lost, somehow and I wanted to find out what was going on.  I don’t usually do this kind of thing, but you looked…” Lilly stopped talking suddenly, and blushed slightly.

“I looked what?” Helena asked, softly.