This was a different feeling, and one Myka didn't like. She was away from Pete in one of Artie's partner swaps. She hated his partner swaps. So today, Pete had gone with Claudia to snag a dangerous artifact in France, and Myka had gone with Steve to snag an outfit at an auction.
Artie had come into the bed and breakfast that morning, two separate sets of files in his hand. He sat down at the table, and dropped his bag at his side with a thump. "Alright." He said, as he buttered his toast. "I have two cases. The first is easy, simple snag and bag at an auction in Hollywood."
At the word "auction," both Claudia and Pete brought their fingers up to their noses. Claudia yelled out "not it!" at the top of her lungs.
"Not doing that, no way. Auctions make me sleepy." Pete explained. He closed his eyes and slumped his head.
"Everything makes you sleepy." Myka responded with her eyebrows raised. She looked over at the younger woman who had snatched her partner. "What's your excuse?"
"The last time I went to an auction, someone decided to spy on me." She swung her head to the left, and looked at Artie. "No more auctions for me!"
"We talked about the spying,"
"No." She retorted."
"It was the good kind of spying,"
"No."
"I just wanted to see you in action on your first case," He kept trying to defend himself, and Claudia just continued to shake her head.
"No, I'm not going to an auction, old man."
"Alright, fine!" He shouted, pushing up his glasses higher on his nose. Myka couldn't help but laugh at the exchange, they bickered like the father and daughter they had become after all these years.
"Okay, so Myka and Steve will travel to Hollywood California. The auction you are bidding on is an outfit worn by Matthew Perry on Friends." He handed over the file. Myka looked inside to find a picture of a blue denim shirt and black vest.
"Why is this an artifact, other than the fact it was on TV?" Steve asked, flipping through the file.
"It's not so bad, it just makes people overly sarcastic. It starts out funny, but the more a person wears it, they get less funny and more rude."
"Hey, Artie, what would that do for someone like Claude, who's already overly sarcastic?" Pete asked, shoving another pancake into his mouth.
"Hey! Rude! Considering we will be paired together for the other mission, you may want to be nice to the one who makes the travel arrangements." Claudia said with a smirk on her face.
"Yeah, don't forget, she stocks the Pete cave." Steve said. Claudia high fived Steve, and they all laughed as Pete's mouth opened wide.
"Ohhh, I see how this goes! Remind me not to mess with this one again." He pointed to the younger redhead. "Please don't stop buying cream soda, and don't put me on planes next to screaming kids!"
Artie rolled his eyes. "Alright, children! Can we get to the second case please?" He handed the other set of files to Pete and Claudia. "A number of people in France, perfectly healthy, have fallen into comas. Doctors can't figure out why, they can't find any toxins, nothing is wrong with their brain chemistry, and every specialist they send out are stumped."
"Well, do you have any leads?" Claudia asked, getting down to business surprisingly fast. She leafed through the file, taking in as much information from the first look through that she could.
"Actually, yes. It's been on my top ten list for ages, so I don't want it to get away." Artie replied.
"Care to share with the rest of the class?" Pete asked, leaning forward with anticipation.
"I believe it may be the spindle that inspired the original Sleeping Beauty story." He answered, carefully. "But I'm not 100%."
This elicited whoops and cheers from Claudia and Pete. "Awww, we are so A-team this week!" Claudia shouted and high fived Pete.
"Artie! Can I please switch?" Myka begged. "Do you know how many times I have read that story?" She remembered leafing through it as a little girl, thinking it was a very different story than the Disney version. She had read tons of old fairytales at that point, comparing them to the stories she knew from the movies. She always liked going back to them, especially now since the warehouse. Lewis Carroll's mirror and the glass dagger were some of her favorite artifacts in the warehouse, and she really wanted to go on this snag too.
"No. The teams have been decided. Besides, you and Pete are due for a break from each other." Artie answered, standing up. "Your flights all leave in a few hours. Pack your stuff and get ready, I'll see you all tomorrow." With that he left the four agents, all scrambling to finish their breakfast.
Pete was the first one done with his breakfast. He bolted upstairs, followed quickly by Steve. Myka grabbed the leftover plates and brought them into the kitchen, leaving them in the sink for Abigail later. She made her way upstairs, Claudia hot on her heels.
It was strange being in her bedroom. The bed was made perfectly, and as she thought about it, it probably hadn't been used in a number of weeks. She pulled an overnight bag from under her dresser and packed three outfits and two pairs of pajamas into it. Yes, it was just an auction, but snags at the warehouse didn't always go as planned, and she found it was better to be prepared. She almost packed the extra outfits she had for Pete in her bedroom, before she remembered he wasn't going with her.
She put his outfits back in his designated drawer. She found it funny that he had one drawer in her room, and she had half the drawers in his. It just went to show how often they were in her room. She preferred his. For one, it was larger, with a nice TV they could watch movies on and snuggle during. Plus, it smelled like him, which was really comforting. Her room smelled like nothing, and she didn't like that.
She didn't like switching partners. With Pete it was easy, they always knew what the other wanted. It was harder to work with the other two agents. They were great agents, they just don't balance her out as easily as Pete does. But she knew it got bad when she and Pete were together too much. They argued and fought when they saw too much of each other, and it affected everyone at work, especially since they had been dating. So Artie had taken to splitting them once in a while, for the sanity of everyone involved. She understood it was about time for them to split. But she was so jealous of his assignment, and it was driving her crazy.
She gathered the few other things she could in here, her toiletries, hairbrush, and a minimal amount of makeup. Everything else she needed was in Pete's room. She gathered her bag and made her way down the hallway to Pete's bedroom.
She was surprised to see everything she needed in a neat little pile. Her laptop and chargers were all sitting on his bed, along with her worn copy of King John. Pete was in his closet, deciding between his suits. Myka put her stuff in her bag, and began helping him pack, gathering a few dress shirts and two pairs of pajama pants, and putting them in his suitcase. He was still deciding between the two suits, so Myka gathered his laptop, chargers, and a few issues of The Iron Shadow to keep him busy. When she saw that he was still deciding on a suit, she decided to give him a little nudge in the right direction. "The left one looks better on you." She said out loud, and watched out of the corner of her eye as he dropped his right arm.
"Thanks, Mykes." He said, placing a chaste kiss on her lips. "I hate it when I have it narrowed down to two, you know?" He explained. Myka shook her head, sometimes he was more of a girl than she was.
"That's why I decided to help you out." She explained, her eyebrows raised. She leaned in to kiss him, her hands on his face.
When they pulled away, he grinned. "So, how jealous are you?" He teased.
"Oh, don't even. I want a full report when you get back, okay?" She straightened the collar of his shirt. "I'll even tell you the original version."
"I don't want to hear that there wasn't a dragon. As far as I am concerned, any story with a dragon trumps every other version of that story." He answered.
Myka laughed. "Well, I wouldn't want to ruin that for you. I might be able to fit a dragon in it somehow." She loved how he could be mature one moment and so childish the next. It kept her on her toes, and always managed to make her laugh. She ran her fingers through his hair. "People are falling into comas, so please be careful. I really want you to come back to me." She said this to him seriously.
"I will do everything in my power to make sure I come back to you." He kissed her quickly, and then bent over to pick up his suitcase. She also grabbed her smaller overnight bag. They made sure they had their badges on their belts, and left the room together.
Claudia was coming down the hall. "Thank God. We were starting to get worried. Steve and I have each been waiting for a good ten minutes."
"Someone should have let us know sooner! We would have hurried." Myka answered.
Claudia looked back, her face red. "Well, we didn't know what you two were doing that took so long. We were debating how long to wait before..." She trailed off, and Myka knew exactly what she was thinking.
She felt her face turn red. "No. Pete is a girl and couldn't decide which suit to pack. Nothing else happened in that room." She was slightly mortified that her coworkers even thought about them like that. Myka worked so hard to make sure that their relationship didn't interfere with work.
Claudia laughed. "I knew Pete was a girl, but seriously dude? That long just to pack a suit?"
"It's even longer of you take into account the fact that I packed the rest of his suitcase." Myka added, and both women laughed. When they got to their respective cars, Myka broke her rule, and kissed Pete quickly. "Remember, stay safe." He ran his fingers through her curls, a move he had learned comforted her. Myka looked quickly at the uncomfortable looking Claudia. "That goes for you too, Claude. This artifact is dangerous, and I would like you to come home to us. Please stay safe."
Claudia grinned slightly. "Will do, Myka." She hopped in the driver's side of her Prius, and Myka hopped in the passenger side of Steve's. She waved at the other car as it left, and pulled out her book.
"Are you worried?" Steve asked.
Myka nodded, and spoke without looking up. "It's a dangerous artifact, and Pete is impulsive. And he likes to touch things he shouldn't. And Claudia can be impulsive too, so yeah, I'm worried."
Steve laughed. "Yeah, she is. But the fact that she is so impulsive really evens me out, because I would just watch a situation forever before I acted. I feel like with her, we observe for the perfect amount of time before we strike." He was quiet for a minute. "I share your sentiment. I'm worried about them. You know, she's so much like my sister."
Myka laughed. "Trust me, I get that. Like a much younger sister. Sometimes I wonder if I drove Tracy crazy like that." She shook her head. "But I couldn't imagine life without her. So both of them on a dangerous mission without me scares me." It scared her that she couldn't look out for them.
Steve laughed. "I drove Liv crazy. I think it's a trait all younger siblings share. I'm sure we've all done it."
Myka smiled quietly, remembering back to when she used to drive Tracy nuts. She used to steal her makeup, and some of her clothes in high school in an attempt to seem cooler. It just embarrassed Tracy more. "I definitely did, but Tracy was just as bad at driving me nuts." She also thought of Tracy using her favorite books for things like fixing an uneven end table, or folding the pages in her books so they would eventually rip. She also used to take Myka's foils and have sword fights with her friends. Myka had gotten really good at hiding them.
"Oh yes! Liv was good at that, but generally sneaker than I was. She used to make this noise..." They drove to the airport telling each other stories about their siblings, and the weird tricks they used to play. On the plane, they read their files, and stayed pretty quiet. Myka also read King John, her favorite Shakespeare play. She loved her old worn copy, it had a lot of memories in those pages. There was an old lip gloss again on the cover from high school, notes written in the margins over time, and every so often, she could see the pages warp. She didn't always like to think about that time in her life, right after Sam had died, when she found solace in her favorite books.
When they landed, they were able to head right out to the auction house, as neither of them checked a bag, and just carried on their belongings. It was strange, because Steve didn't ask to stop at every restaurant along the way. They got to their destination faster than Myka had expected. They were a little early for the auction, so Myka walked around the museum and looked at some of the movie props they had on display. There were some patches and helmets on display from Top Gun that she knew Pete would love, so she took some pictures.
When it was time to start, she found Steve, and they sat in their seats. They sat through a lot of auctions, some crazy dresses worn by Fran Drescher on The Nanny, a few other outfits from Friends, mostly worn by Jennifer Aniston, one amazing Dorothy outfit that Myka really wanted (but was way out of what her price range would ever be), and the yellow plaid outfit worn by Alicia Silverstone in Clueless, before the auction they needed finally came up. And they won it uncontested. Steve leaned over towards Myka. "Is it just me, or did that seem way easier than it should be?" He whispered, and Myka nodded. This was not a first, but certainly was unusual.
When the auction was over, they went to collect their winnings. The auctioneer accepted their payment (cash, untraceable to the Warehouse), and went in the back to find it. "I hope it hasn't been stolen." Steve whispered to no one in particular.
She was surprised when he came out from the back, folded outfit in his hands. "Here you go." He handed the bundle to Steve. "I hope you enjoy it!" Myka and Steve just looked at each other in awe.
"Well, are you hungry?" Myka finally asked. "We might as well grab something to eat before we fly back."
"Or, we could find an earlier flight back, and I can cook us lasagna at home." He answered. Myka's mouth watered. She loved when Steve cooked, which he had been doing more often. In fact, he and Abigail usually took turns. But Myka always looked forward to the nights he would cook.
"Is it your turn?" She asked.
He shook his head. "No, but I know Abigail eats out when we are on missions. So, you could have my cooking two nights in a row."
Myka licked her lips. She pulled out her phone. "I'll call the airline."
They were home within five hours, and with a quick pit stop at the Warehouse to drop the artifact off, they headed back to the B&B. As Steve had said, Abigail was not there, and nothing was cooking. While Steve cooked, Myka unpacked her belongings in her room. She marveled some more about how unfamiliar her own room felt. She wandered over to the bookcase. She looked for a while and finally settled on an old favorite, To Kill a Mockingbird. Like all of her books, this one was also worn from many years of rereading. She brought it downstairs and curled up on the couch, settling in as she read. She was so far engrossed in the book, that she didn't hear Steve the first time he said her name. Or the second.
"Earth to Myka!" He shouted, and she looked up.
"Sorry, I was too far gone. Is dinner ready?" She asked.
He nodded. "Yeah. Abigail came home while I was cooking, so she is going to join us."
Myka looked confused. "I thought she are when she was out."
"She did." He laughed at the puzzled expression on her face. "She wants to eat again. Some people do that, you know. It's not just Pete." She grinned at that. Sometimes, she felt like Pete was a bottomless pit. He could eat anytime he wanted to.
She walked into the dining room to see Abigail already choosing down on her food. "Wow! Are you the female version of Pete?" Myka asked, sitting down to her own plate of Steve's amazing lasagna.
Abigail shook her head. "It was my friend's turn to pick a restaurant, and the one she picked was terrible!" She are another mouthful. "I barely ate, and didn't bring home leftovers. I'm starving!" Myka and Steve both laughed.
"So, who is cooking tomorrow then?" Myka asked them, raising her eyebrows.
Abigail pointed at Steve. "It doesn't make sense to mess up our routine. Plus, Pete and Claudia are missing out today!"
"You just don't want to cook!" Steve accused, and the two of them laughed.
At the mention of Pete and Claudia, Myka pulled out and glanced at her phone, something she tried not to do, but she realized that she hadn't heard from either of them all day.
"Yeah, I haven't heard from Claude either." Steve said knowingly.
"Do you think I should try to call?" Myka asked, holding her phone in front of her with uncertainty. She wasn't sure if she should dial Pete's number, or put the phone away.
Abigail shook her head. "Don't do that." She took a sip of her drink. "They could be in the middle of something important. Let him call you."
Myka sighed, but ultimately put her phone away. "Yeah, you're probably right." She went back to eating. "Mmmm!" She swallowed the food that was in her mouth. "Did anyone call Artie and let him know that Steve cooked?"
Abigail smirked. "I tried calling," she started, "but he was seeing an old lady friend." She glanced at Myka knowingly.
"Vanessa?" Myka guessed, and Abigail remained silent. "Please tell me he finally contacted Vanessa!" Abigail grinned, which Myka took as confirmation. Myka practically bounced in her seat with this news. "Claude has been bugging him to call her for months! That is so exciting!"
"Yeah, I guess he found a new restaurant to take her out to, called her up and said he still owed her, big time, and would love to see her again." Abigail answered.
Myka was smiling. "Good for him! He was so much happier when he was with her!" Steve nodded in agreement. "I really hope they have a good time." She finished.
When she was done eating, she thanked Steve, grabbed her book, and headed up to her bedroom. At her door, she stopped. Her room didn't feel like hers anymore, and she ultimately decided that it wasn't where she wanted to spend her time. So she walked a few doors down to Pete's room. Once inside, she closed the door and curled up on the bed, continuing to read her book.
She only read for a few hours before she felt her eyes slowly starting to flutter. She chuckled to herself. She didn't know why she even tried to be productive. She knew the things that made Pete sleepy, fancy words, auctions, and surprisingly, sex, so she tried to avoid two out of the three of those. But with her job that took her all over the world every day, she found it difficult that planes had the same effect on her as Shakespeare movies (yes, movies because he still wouldn't read any of the books) did with Pete. She would usually stay up for another two hours working on paperwork, but she knew she would get nowhere tonight.
She changed quickly into a pair of short shorts and an old t-shirt and climbed into Pete's bed. She felt like she was falling asleep fast until she heard her phone chime. She rolled over to grab it off of the table. Pete's name and picture flashed quickly on her screen, he finally texted her. She swiped the screen and opened the message.
I MISS YOU. She grinned in spite of herself.
I MISS YOU TOO. She sent back. HEY, I HAVE OUR FARNSWORTH. WANT TO GRAB CLAUDE'S SO WE CAN CHAT? She sent to him after a while.
The response was quick. CAN'T, CLAUDIA HAS IT AND SHE IS SLEEPING. I CAN'T SLEEP, WHICH IS WHY I AM TEXTING YOU.
Myka thought for a moment, and came up with a different idea. SKYPE? She sent.
SURE.
GIVE ME A MINUTE. She got out of bed and walked down the hallway to her room again. There she found her overnight bag still packed. She pulled out her laptop and brought it back to Pete's room with her. She plugged it in and powered it up. She set her computer up on Pete's side of the bed, and laid on her side, hugging a body pillow. The pillow wasn't the same, it didn't fit her body in all the right places like Pete did. She faced her computer and waited for what seemed like forever for it to start up.
Skype started immediately as it windows started, and Pete was already online. C00k1em0nster. She grinned and clicked on his name. When his goofy face filled her screen, she couldn't help but grin. He was shirtless, and lying in bed, his arms wrapped around one of the hotel pillows, and Myka wondered if he felt the same disdain for it that she felt for the body pillow she was currently wrapped around. "How is France?" she asked.
"It would be so much better if you were here. Seriously, you are way faster than Claudia's translation software." He grinned, and Myka giggled. The fact that she knew multiple languages was something that he teased her about regularly, but Myka knew he admired it.
"I bet. I love France. I really want to see it some day when we have time, and aren't on a stupid mission." She told him. It was supposed to be a nudge, they had vacation time coming up, and Myka was shamelessly telling Pete exactly what she wanted to do.
Pete never acknowledged that he got her hint. Instead, he furrowed his eyebrows at the screen. "Are you in my room?" He asked, and Myka nodded. He scrunched his face. "Ewwww, you are going to make it smell like girl!" He teased. Myka laughed and stuck her tongue out at him.
"I didn't want to sleep in my room. My room is strange. Besides, your room reminds me of you, and makes me happy when I miss you."
"My room has pretty much become our room. It's like the warehouse version of moving in together."
Myka laughed at his statement, although it was true. They might as well have moved in together. Half the stuff in his room was hers, she stored a few books in there, her clothing, and essential electronics all had homes here. "Well, I'm glad we got that hurdle out of the way!" she joked. She watched him laugh on her screen, and she wanted to reach through and just touch him, hold him close. But there was literally an ocean between them, and she hated that she couldn't reach through the screen. I wonder if there is an artifact that would let me. As soon as she had the thought, she tried to shove it away. Artifacts were dangerous, and not meant to be played with. Speaking of dangerous artifacts… "How did your snag go?" She asked him.
He sighed, and she could tell she was in for a long story. "Well, Claude noticed that all the victims were male, so she started digging into their past. A ton of them were ex-boyfriends of this one girl, Brigitte Dubois. Claudia found this one guy that used to date her that wasn't in a coma, and talked to him, and I talked to Brigitte. Well, that was a mistake. Turns out, the only unaffected ex, Victor Lyon, was, like, some crazy jealous stalker guy." Myka chuckled to herself and shook her head. "So he saw me talk to her, and thought I must have been trying to go after her or something, and attacked me with the spindle."
Myka's mouth had dropped. "Did he get you with it?" she asked.
Pete held up a finger. "Hold on, I'm getting to that. So I left this Brigitte girl's house, and he's out there waiting, and he is mad. He kept asking me what I wanted with his girl, and I kept saying, 'Nothing, man! I have a girlfriend, and I don't go for redheads.'" Myka couldn't help but laugh. "Okay, so maybe I didn't say that exactly, but you get the idea. But this guy was relentless. So he pricked me with this stupid thimble, and I guess I fell asleep."
Myka shook her head. "So you did get pricked." She was annoyed, but had to keep herself calm. Obviously, Claudia snagged the artifact, because Pete was talking to her now, and not in a coma.
"Yeah. Sorry, Mykes. I tried to be safe." He looked at her sympathetically. "But I guess Claudia was hot on her heels. She tried to explain all the tracking she did to find out what was up, but I had trouble following it. But yeah, I wasn't the only person to just talk to Brigitte casually and be attacked by this guy. One was a gay coworker, and another one was happily married with four kids who sees Brigitte as a cousin. And I think one more victim was a cousin. So this Victor guy was super jealous."
"Wow. I guess so. Well my snag wasn't quite as exciting." She relayed to him her snag with ease. She told him all about the other movie props she saw, told him that she got a few pictures for him. Again, she felt her eyelids begin to flutter. Pete was yawning and shaking his head a lot, a sign she knew meant he was exhausted, yet trying to stay awake. It was around five in the morning in France right now. "Hey, babe," she started. "I'm still listening, I'm just going to close my eyes. Okay?" She laid against the pillow and did just that.
"That's fine, Mykes. I might do the same soon. My flight leaves at two, I will be up at eleven, so I should try to rest. But I will be back tomorrow in time for dinner."
"Mmmmm." Myka moaned, thinking about dinner, and slowly feeling herself drift off to sleep. "Steve cooked today."
"I missed Steve cooking? Not fair." She heard his voice, and it sounded like he was far away. "Tell him I want lasagna tomorrow."
"No, that's what he made today, so I don't think he will do it again. But I promise to save you some leftovers." Myka could feel herself slipping away, soothed to sleep by the sound of Pete's voice.
"Sounds like a plan. This is why I love you, Myka." He answered.
Myka grinned. "I love you too, Pete." This was the last thing she said, and the last thing she remembered Pete saying before she finally lost consciousness for the night.