So Long & Goodbye

Prologue

On the 12th hour of the first day of October 1989, 43 women around the world gave birth. This was unusual only in the fact that none of these women had been pregnant when the day first began. Sir Reginald Hargreeves, eccentric billionaire and adventurer, resolved to locate and adopt as many of the children as possible. He got eight.

Number 7 — The Soul — Helena Hargreeves was one of them. Cursed with the ability to absorb emotions, and without the ability to filter them out, living in the mansion was a constant nightmare. So, sixteen and traumatized by the loss of her second brother, Helena followed Klaus out of the mansion and out of their siblings' lives. The next several years of her life passed in a blur of drugs and drinking, until an overdose landed Helena in rehab. Thirty days later, and sober for the first time in years, Helena promised herself that she would keep it that way, and two years later she finally left Klaus. With help from Diego, she got her life together, got a job, and started her life over without Klaus or her siblings. And she was fine, she was good, until Diego showed up one night, begging her to go home with him for their father's funeral.

Disclaimer: I don't own TUA or anything other than Helena and my changes to the canon plot

Warnings: This fic will explore addiction (namely drugs and alcohol) extensively. It will talk about sensitive subjects such as suicide, abortions, self-harm, abuse, and the like. This will not be a particularly Klaus friendly fic and will not shy away from the damage that his addiction causes his siblings. He is not an irredeemable villain by any means, but he will be held accountable for his actions and the harm that he causes.

So Long & Goodbye

Prologue

Helena sighed, running her hand through her hair for what felt like the millionth time. She wasn't supposed to have downtime in her field; that was one of the reasons she liked it so much. People died every day, funeral homes were always busy, Helena wouldn't have time to think about... well, about anything.

But apparently the universe had missed the memo, and somehow she had found herself with nothing to do except file paperwork that she could do in her sleep, which left time for her mind to wander.

She flipped over to the next page that needed to be filled out, uncapping her pen and getting to work. Although she had only become funeral director a year earlier — inheriting the home from the lovely elderly woman who had taken a liking to her from her very first day — she had been helping with paperwork for most of her five years at the job, and it had long since become an effortless task for her.

As it always did in her limited downtime, Helena's mind soon wandered back to Klaus. Try as she might, she could never stop herself from wondering about him. Did he miss her? Had he ever read the letter she wrote when she finally left him? Did he ever ask Diego, or any of their other siblings, about her? Did he miss her? Was he angry? Had he even noticed that she was gone?

But she forced herself to push those thoughts away. It had been five years since she had seen him. While she might never be able to stop thinking about him, she knew that she was better off without him in her life. As much as she hated him, she could never lie to herself and say that she didn't still miss him — but she was always quick to remind herself of everything that had been horrible and miserable about that time in her life, and to shut down the thoughts as fast as she could.

Just as soon as she pushed Klaus from her mind, thoughts of Diego replaced them. She often wondered about him too, her favourite brother and the only one she'd seen since she was sixteen. He had respected her need for space; ever since she moved out of his apartment he hadn't attempted to contact her, and as much as she always missed him, she appreciated it. She wasn't ready to face him again, to face anyone from her past.