Wow. Okay so this came as a teeny idea when talking to my little goat and I had to write it down. And it came pretty quickly. This is going to be a long, torturous road. The worst thing is, I know you masochists will love that lol.
Enjoy.
It was Myka who had noticed it first. After dinner, the small makeshift family had all gathered around the television. Pete wanted to watch The Simpsons, Claudia wanted to watch Doctor Who on BBC America. They had been arguing for about 15 minutes. Myka happily failed to mention that her friends were arguing their shows away and she just watched, occasionally taking a sip of her tea. "Hey…" Nothing, just more elevated discussion. "Ummm, guys?"
"How can you even compare the Doctor to Homer Simpson?" Claudia looked at Pete in disgust. "How, on Earth can you even…you know what… I don't care, watch it—"
"Hey guys?"
"What!" Both Pete and Claudia glared at Myka.
"Where's Leena?" The brunette frowned.
Pete shrugged and turned over the channel sneakily, finally able to watch the last 10 minutes of his show. Claudia's brow furrowed. "She was just…" She pointed to the empty space, then pursed her lips. "Oh."
Their ears perked up when the front door sounded, and even Pete scrambled to the window to see what was going on. They watched as Leena, dressed in a gorgeous turquoise flowing dress and tights tugged the woollen cardigan further around herself. She shivered as she got into the passenger side of a maroon Hyundai Sonata. "What the…" Myka blinked. "Where's she going?"
"Ooooh!" Pete chortled, rubbing his hands together. "Someone's got a hot date!"
Claudia frowned. It definitely looked like a date. Those were date clothes, she wasn't blind. "Why didn't she say anything?" She loved the woman, but this mysteriousness was getting on her nerves. Her eyes squinted as the car pulled out and drove down the driveway pretty speedily. Huffing, she walked over to the couch and flopped down on it, then flicked the channel over to watch the half of Doctor Who that she'd missed.
Myka held up her hands with wide eyes and shared a look with Pete. They both knew that the more Leena kept things secret, the more Claudia felt unable to trust the woman and their friendship had become strained. When Claudia asked where Leena came from, or more, how she joined the Warehouse 13 team no matter how small her role, Leena excused herself and began to clear the dinner table away with annoyed mutters. Pete winced as Claudia turned up the volume of the television but tried not to chuckle at Myka's eye-roll.
"Hey, Claud…" Myka began sensitively as she made her way to the couch. "Maybe she's just just sh—"
"She's not shy, Myka…she's just… She's secretive. And you know what? That sucks monkey ass." Claudia sighed. Myka gave the younger woman's shoulder a quick squeeze, silently cringing at the mental image she'd just received from her friend's colorful language.
Over the years, the innkeeper and Claudia had grown close. They lost Mrs. Frederic together. Then they gained her again. But before the bittersweet reunion and the use of MacPherson's pocket watch, the girls were left alone together with two dead bodies while they waited, and waited for their friends to return, overwhelmed with grief and shock.
They'd held each other that day. And when Steve was brought back, but chose to take a long leave of absence to regroup (somewhat forced by Mrs. Frederic who bribed him with travelling the world with his current boyfriend) the women had become joined at the hip.
For the rest of the evening, Claudia stayed grumpy, but Pete and Myka stayed by her side and the friends played games and watched countless hours of TV trash until they heard a car pull up outside. Like they had earlier on in the evening, the three Warehouse agents dashed up and peeked through the window to see a woman get out of the same Hyundai. In the moonlight she had what was perceived to be shoulder length brown hair, and was dressed in a warm, long winter coat. She had a confident stride and the group frowned as they watched her walk around to the passenger side of the car, where she opened the door and Leena gracefully stepped out, conveniently pressing herself into the shorter woman's arms.
The three friends watched silently, mouths ajar at the new revelation. The slim, slightly androgynous woman in Leena's arms had apparently said something funny, and the innkeeper began to laugh before she bent down, leaving a soft kiss on her lips. The kiss deepened, and Myka punched Pete's side to stop him from drooling. She shut her own mouth to make sure she didn't embarrass herself.
"Oh puke," Claudia groaned and moved away from the window. "So freakin' over this!" She muttered angrily and trudged upstairs before she slammed her bedroom door behind her. This was why Leena would never be Steve. She was dishonest, and secretive. Steve had come out to her the first time they'd been alone together. Leena had plenty of moments to tell her whatever she needed to tell her. The two women had shared countless movie nights together, cooking lessons, inventory shifts. And all for what? For Leena to go behind her back and not tell her a thing about her love-life? The hypocrisy drove Claudia insane and she punched the pillow on her bed in sheer anger. Leena knew everything about her dating fiascos. Todd, Fargo… Everything. Wriggling underneath her duvet, Claudia shut out the world, knowing she needed time to stew.
Myka and Pete were still frozen in the moment, until Leena waved goodbye to her mystery lady-friend and chased her to give her one last peck on the lips. "Pete?…ohhhh shoot, she's coming!" Myka frantically dragged the drooling man over to the couch where they promptly sat down and she turned the channel over hastily, for reasons she didn't quite know.
The key sounded through the door and Myka 'casually' looked behind the sofa to see a giddy looking Leena stumbling through the living room. "Well hello there Houdini, where have you been?"
Pete was still in a quiet little dream world of his own. "I had a date," Leena gushed in a conspiring tone. She couldn't keep her mouth shut.
"And? Successful?" Myka smiled. Leena nodded, edging towards the kitchen. She needed to decompress. It had been far too close. Kissing in front of the B&B? Completely and utterly uncalled for. She did feel bad though, she didn't deserve Melissa, and though she knew it wouldn't be the last date, she knew her own inner demons were keeping her from any kind of commitment.
She'd never get her 'one'.
Pushing that thought into the back of her head, she looked at Myka with a grin. "Are you drunk?" Myka chortled and observed closely, pushing her head up on her fist with a grin. Pete finally snapped out of his funk and twirled around, both friends grinning at their innkeeper with mushy expressions.
"Not drunk. A little wine," Leena waved it off. They didn't believe her and she simply rolled her eyes with a cute scoff. "I'm just going to get some water before I go to bed. You guys need anything? Any snacks?" She stumbled a little in her heels and pulled them off clumsily despite herself.
"We're fine." Myka grinned even wider as the pumps clattered to the floor. "Goodnight."
"Night," Leena nodded and disappeared off into the kitchen, then scuttled away off upstairs. She hovered outside Claudia's room and frowned. Usually she'd be able to hear music, but now there was just silence. "Claud?" She tapped on the door a little clumsier than she'd hoped. "Claudia?" Silence. The door creaked as she pushed it open and her eyes strained in the dark to see her friend curled up in bed, red hair tousled from the duvet, several naughty locks poking out in a disarrayed fashion.
Leena smiled instantaneously at her sleeping friend and whispered a "we'll talk in the morning," mainly to herself.
Claudia's eyes snapped open as she heard the murmur. She closed her eyes again and held her mouth shut to stop herself from saying anything or bursting into tears. She was so tempted to shout out 'wait!' and pull back the covers to reveal that she wasn't actually sleeping; but something was stopping her. For some reason she resented her friend for not telling her that she was even going on a date. And with a woman. She hugged the covers closer and tried to let her mind rest, but it was too hard. Kicking off the covers when Leena was safely in her own quarters, she hopped out of bed, then approached the door. Her eyes focused on the wood grain mere inches from her face but her body froze. "God damn it…" She couldn't move. Turning back around, she sprinted back to bed and under the warm covers. After several tries, the redhead finally stopped her thoughts from racing around her head and gave into sleep. She'd just have to deal with this shit in the morning.
Unless they got a ping tomorrow, they were down to do inventory in the Canned Food aisle; Leena's least favourite sector. A fond smile wormed its way across Claudia's face. There had been a time when Nicolas Appert's jam jar had opened on its own accord and the gooey excuse for two-hundred-and-sixteen year old jam had attacked Leena's hair. Claudia had learnt that day that nobody messed with Leena's hair. If looks could kill, Leena would have murdered the entire Warehouse team there and then after hearing their giggles. What was worse, she had to endure being gooped with purple goo. It took a whole week to get back to normal and Claudia had to help wash her hair, so the thought of doing inventory tomorrow… Claudia grinned. So what if Leena kept her dating life to herself? Maybe she was just uncomfortable. And though she should have known Claudia was okay with it, she understood… Kinda.
Having calmed herself down, Claudia was finally ready for sleep and snuggled down, hugging the old worn out teddy-bear that Joshua had given to her when she was four. Her eyes grew heavy and despite the strangeness of this evening, Claudia fell asleep with a fixed smile on her face. Leena did too, but for a completely different reason.
TBC.
