regarded as the “problem child” of the cia, helena quickly rose through the ranks, top of her class and the agency’s first choice for a new agent. despite her hard work and skills, she lacked the ability to control her emotions (notably her temper) which would only worsen as time went on. still, the cia recruited her and pushed her into more and more investigations.
during an investigation into a serial murderer, helena succeeded in apprehending the suspect - in the process using excessive force and almost killing the suspect as they were making threats to the victim’s families. she was suspended for one month without pay, and quickly gained a reputation amongst many of her fellow agents as stubborn, reckless and a bitch.
due to her record though, hunnigan of the dso had begun talks and had shown a desire to recruit helena into the organisation - eventually she would join, but not after being recruited into the u.s secret service.
the suspension did little to change her attitude however. deborah, her sister, was much more sociable than helena and had a string of boyfriends - her last relationship with an abusive boyfriend. at first, she managed to dissuade helena’s concerns by saying her injuries had been from drunken nights partying, but when she attempted to break up with her boyfriend, she was hospitalized due to the physical violence he retaliated with. upon finding out about this, helena quickly abused her privileges as a cia agent and found the home of the boyfriend, once again resorting to violence and culminating in her shooting him. despite any possible charges against him with domestic violence, helena had shot an unarmed civilian - which resulted in her punishment being far greater.
unwilling to fire her, but also unwilling to overlook her gross misconduct, her superiors transferred her to the u.s secret service in july 2012. national security advisor derek c. simmons, looking to assassinate president benford before he could reveal the u.s’s involvement in the destruction of raccoon city, quickly found that helena would be the ideal agent to manipulate and coerce into doing the task - knowing how far she would go for her sister, and how her quickly diminishing reputation would work against her should she refuse. kidnapping her sister - and unaware to helena, using her as a test subject for the c-virus - he blackmailed her into luring the secret service away from president benford by informing them of an assassination attempt in ivy university.
regretting her choice immediately, despite her love for her sister, she alerted the rest of the agents that it had been a false claim and to return to the president’s side, however she was quickly dismissed and they refused to believe her again, especially with the claims that simmons had been the one to kidnap her sister and blackmail her. due to this, when the campus was infected, they were unable to save the presidents life.
following the events of tall oaks, tatchi and lanshiang, helena was eventually recruited into the dso by hunnigan - who had declared that she was not responsible for simmons’ actions or the presidents assassination, and that it would be struck from her record and kept hidden from the public.
however, due to the family’s continued attacks after simmons’ death against the dso - and particularly at helena due to her involvement - her career has continued to be a turbulent one. the explosion that killed many of leon’s fellow agents was meant for her, and since that event hunnigan and leon have gone though great lengths to allow her to work without being put at risk.
