Helena Alexandra Coleman

by **Helena Coleman** Sat Sep 01, 2012 1:43 pm

Helena Alexandra Coleman
Helena Alexandra Coleman 582_sarah-carter-interview

Nickname/s: Lena, Jeanne D'arc, Butterfly (her dad calls her that)
Age/DOB: 26; born October 30, 1985
Marital Status: single
Sexuality: straight
Play By: Sarah Carter

Original Character

Occupation: CSI – DNA Specialist and Expert on Asian Swords, LVPD Detective
Apartment or House: (small) house

"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."

Albert Einstein

Personality:
Sweet, charming and always knowing what she wants. That's the way how many people describe Helena. Character-wise she takes a lot after her father Eric Coleman, who works as a lawyer in Las Vegas. But that's not everything about Helena. She's got her good and strong sides, but she also has her weaknesses.
Her worst weakness is her Cleithrophobia, her fear of being locked in an enclosed place. Which is why she never, ever uses an elevator, at least not if she doesn't necessarily needs to and if she does, she makes sure that she's not alone inside one. Otherwise she'd just take the stairs. Sometimes Helena wishes she could just make that fear go away, but until now she hasn't really found a way to do so, yet. She knows that she could go into therapy, but unless she really needs to, she's comfortable and more than happy with just using the stairs. Besides, she's trained herself to use the elevator for just a few floors, but up to the Crime Lab, she still uses the stairs.

When it comes to reaching her goals Helena is very ambitious and doesn't step back from hard work if it means that she'll reach whatever she wants to reach. It's the exact thing that got her through College and university and that got her the job with Gil Grissom at the Crime Lab and that pushed her through Police Academy. But she also has a very strong will when it comes to reaching something. Even she's knocked down once, she just gets up and tries again. And when she wants something really badly, she's not going to give up easily anyways. That comes from her being quite stubborn sometimes, which isn't always a good thing as she came to realize on more than just one occasion. Now she's just stubborn about things that are really important to her.

Another strength is her independent. She can do things on her own, she wants to do them on her own, like she has to prove a point or something. She doesn't want to rely on someone else, she's learned that very quickly in life, that sometimes if you rely on the wrong person, you are doomed. And that's why it always takes her quite long to let someone else help her. Sometimes her independence really is a strength, but sometimes it does get in the way. Especially work-wise.

Helena also is a very loyal person. She'd always be loyal to the people she works with and even more to her friends. She's been let down by a good friend in the past, which kind of made her the person she is now, loyal to her friends, no matter what. She'd only let go of that if that friend or co-worker really did a bad thing. But if you got her mad at you for something... try buying her a Frappuccino, preferably with Caramel or Coconut Cremè flavor and she'll most likely forgive you. (that of course only works, if you know her good enough to know it's her favorite).

History:
A long time ago her family came from Scotland to America to live the American Dream and make themselves a better life. It didn't quite work out to millionaire, but at least they managed to make a better living than back home, good enough for them to stay and start their own Coleman family in America, but with their roots and hearts still in Scotland.

Now, two generations later, the Coleman family still lives in Las Vegas, yet never forgetting where their family came from. Parents and grandparents would always make sure of that by taking their family back home every once in a while.
On October 30, 1985 Maria Coleman (wife of Eric Coleman) gave birth to her first child, a baby girl whom they named Helena Alexandra. Because of an abnormality in Maria's uterus, doctors believed that she would miscarry if she was to fall pregnant and keep the baby. To them it was a miracle that she carried Helena to full term and not only that: the little baby girl grew up to be a strong and healthy child.
However, three months after being born, Helena got a pretty nasty pertussis (whooping cough) and had to be taken back to the hospital. It looked pretty bad for the little girl and the Coleman's thought that they might loose their little girl, but in the end, Helena got over it just fine and the bond between the family got even tighter.

As a child and then continuing on for as long as she lived with her parents, she'd often travel to Scotland with them, loving the land that her great-grandparents came from and that was kept in the memories of the family for so long. It was kind of a tradition to take your family back to Scotland and show your own children where their family once came from. When Helena can make it, they still travel there together.

When Helena was ten, another family miracle happened... her mother got pregnant again and only 9 months later that very year, she gave birth to another baby girl: Jessica Marie. Earlier that year Helena started to take self defense classes and later switched to Martial arts and Asian Swordsmanship. Her weapon of choice: Katana. Her training of course would only be with a bamboo Katana, but she could use a real one in a fight if she had to. With more than 10 years of training in Martial Arts and Swordsmanship, she became an expert on both, but it's something that she really doesn't brag about. It's like her secret weapon if her life depended on it. It was exactly her expertise on Martial Arts and that Asian Swordsmanship that gave her the nickname Jeanne D'arc.

Helena was a very good student at school, smart enough to skip a year in Middle School and go to High School a year sooner. In High School, when she was a Sophomore she got harassed by a jock, who really thought that he was a big man in school. On a school dance, it took it's worse showdown. He just wouldn't let her off his hook. That was the very night that she met Patrick, a Senior at that time, who came to help her with that jock. Of course, being stubborn, strong and independent, Helena gave him a hard time, before she finally agreed to letting him help her, since she had enough of that jock. After that, her and Patrick became good friends, but when he left to join the army, they lost contact for a while, not really keeping up to date all the time. And so they both surprised to meet again at the same place of work. Because after High School Helena went to join the Police Academy, graduating after 7 months of training and then worked two years as a beat cop. Then she was offered a promotion to detective, which she gladly took. It was then that she decided to go to uni again and study biology and forensic science, graduating three years later with a great degree and applied for a job a the crime lab.

In her spare time, Helena either spends time with her little sister Jessica, or she practices her Martial Arts or Swordsmanship. Or she just goes shopping, or visits her parents. She's also Roller-Skating a lot, as a way to keep herself fit and in good shape, too.

"If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."

Albert Einstein

Alias: Michi
Means of Contact/s: PM (or E-Mail for admins)
Other Characters: none (yet, but who knows about the future? Wink