So like many people I disliked all the Pyka they shoved into Season 5 so I've written a little story to remedy it. Please R&R! :)

It had just gone dark by the time they got back to the B&B. It had been a long and emotional for them all, so they were passing yawns around as they traipsed sluggishly through the front door. "Pizza?" suggested Claudia wearily. The others nodded silently.

"I'll make some tea," suggested Myka, heading into the kitchen while the others collapsed onto the soft, inviting, sofas in the living room. In passing, Pete's hand gently caressed Myka's hip and he smiled at her, sleepily. She smiled back, but her stomach felt weird as she did so. The kitchen was quiet - she liked it; it was refreshingly cool too - the cold woke her up a little and was rather soothing. Leaning against the cool counter, she took a big deep breath, sighed heavily, and tried to let out all the tension that seemed to have built up inside of her over the past few hours. What had she done? Her mind was in overdrive, scrambling around the complex emotions of the day; her body ached all over, and she felt sick to her stomach. What had she done? "Pull it together Myka," she said aloud to herself, speaking quietly so that the others wouldn't hear. Another deep breath in... and out... . She twisted round and placed both her hands flat on the counter, lowering her head to stare at the wooden surface, trying to calm her breathing and to work out how she was feeling. She counted her breaths for a few moments, reaching fifteen before deciding that her breathing was sufficiently normal again, then she picked up the kettle and went to the sink to fill it. As she stood there, gazing out of the window, envying the tranquil trees dancing peacefully in the slight breeze, Pete came up behind her and slipped his hand around her waist, making her jump, and rested his chin on her shoulder.

"What pizza do you want?" he asked - a rather unromantic question but then it was Pete! He turned his head and kissed her on the neck. Her breath caught in her throat for a moment, but then she turned around, quickly enough to remove Pete's hands as she did so.

"Actually, I'm not really that hungry," she said, before she could even think about it, "I am exhausted though, so I think I'm just going to go straight to bed." She noticed Pete's face drop slightly.

"Are you ok?" he asked, "I really think you should eat." He looked genuinely concerned and reached out to hold her hips again. This time Myka dodged him.

"I'm just really tired," she said, "And I'll eat this." She picked up an apple from the dish on the side and took a large, overenthusiastic, bite. "Can you make tea for the others?" she asked, gesturing to the now full kettle that she had left beside the sink. Pete looked like he was about to say something, but then just nodded. Myka turned her head to let him kiss her on the cheek before she bid a quick goodnight to the others and retreated to the private sanctuary of her own room, discarding the half eaten apple into the wastepaper bin in the hallway.

She collapsed heavily on to her bed, but it didn't feel quite as soft and warm as it usually did. She wriggled around a bit trying to get comfortable, pulling off her sweater and dangling her legs over the edge of the bed so that when she pushed off her shoes they fell to the floor with a clunk. Normally she would have tidied them up, tucking the toes neatly under the gap between the bottom of the chest of drawers and the deep green carpet; but tonight she just didn't have the energy. She dragged her heavy legs back onto the bed and lay there on top of the covers, still in her work clothes, staring into space, her mind momentarily blank from tiredness. However, after just a few minutes, the sound of laughter coming from downstairs prompted a tidal wave in Myka's mind. The feeling that she hadn't been able to name, but that had been following her around all afternoon, hit her like a brick falling from the sky. Dread. That's what it was. A dull pulsing ache that managed to be simultaneously in the pit of her stomach, and her head, as well as in every other inch of her body. It filled her up and wiped her out. She was so upset that she didn't even know what she was upset about. She felt unwelcome tears forming in her eyes - she blinked them away. She shook her head, bringing herself back to the real world. This is where rational, methodical, Myka came into play. She slowly and painfully replayed each and every moment of her strenuous day. She remembered seeing that image of her face projected by the table - the far off smile that reached her eyes as well as her mouth. She recognised the emotion and it made her heart flutter a little but then, when she remembered Steve's comment, the feeling of dread sunk back in. Pete. That's where all of this had come from. She'd kissed Pete. She'd told him that she loved him. Why had she said that when she knew it wasn't true? Immediately guilt was swimming around with the dread; regret crept up and covered her like a heavy blanket. Then all of a sudden, she heard the door handle turn, so she quickly closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep, not wanting to have any sort of conversation with anybody right now.

She heard the door open and footsteps, trying and failing to be light, entering the room; she fought the urge to look to see who was there. Then there was silence again but she stayed still, feigning sleep in case the visitor was still there. They were. She listened carefully to the footsteps as they walked over to her bed, and concluded that it was Pete - it made sense that he would want to check up on her. She tried even harder to appear so be asleep, unsure of what he might do. Because her eyes were closed, her lids glowing red from the celling lamp which was still shining, her other senses were heightened. She heard Pete sigh a little, confirming that it was him who had entered her room. She felt him moving around beside her bed, then his footsteps trailed over to the other side of her room, then back to her bed. She felt a waft of cold air, then the warm, soft, weight of her favourite blanket settling on top of her. Then Pete's warm breath was on her face. He kissed her lightly on the forehead before carefully slipping out of the room, turning off the light and gently closing the door behind him. Immediately her eyes flickered open and glanced around the room. In the dim light coming through the window she could just make out that her shoes had been tucked neatly under the chest of drawers, and her jumper had been moved off the floor - she couldn't quite see where it had gone. She pulled the comfortable blanket tighter around her body, only just realising that she'd been cold before, and then she started to cry. She cried because Pete was such a wonderful person. He had tidied up her room and tucked her into bed. There was no question that he loved her immensely. She cried because she didn't, and couldn't, love him back. And she cried because she knew exactly why that was, and it scared her.

Myka pushed the fear to the back of her mind, in fact, she forced away all her emotions and she started to pack. She had always promised herself that she would never leave again, never run, but in this case she decided that her staying would hurt the others, especially Pete, more than her leaving. She carefully folded some of her clothes into a large rucksack, adding in her toothbrush, some books and her laptop. She wasn't going to leave forever - the Warehouse was her home - but she did need some time away to get her head strai... urm... well... sorted. As soon as Pete discovered that she had been lying about loving him, he would be furious, or devastated, or both; it would be easier on everyone if Myka wasn't around when that happened.

The next morning, Claudia trudged down the stairs, heavy with sleep. She went into the kitchen to pour herself some coffee from the pot that Myka always made when she first got up. Myka was always the first one awake, often because she had usually been the first one to go to bed; Claudia and Pete liked to stay up late and mess around watching movies or playing video games. But when Claudia reached for the pot, she noticed it was empty, in fact, when she glanced around the room, she realised that there was no sign that anyone had been down here since last night. She shrugged, assuming Myka had just slept in after yesterday's craziness, or maybe she was in Pete's room! Claudia set to making some coffee, it wouldn't be long until Artie arrived for their morning briefing; when she turned around she noticed a neat white envelope leaning up against the fruit bowl on the other counter. She picked it up, intrigued, and noticed that there were actually two identical envelopes; one had "The whole team" written neatly across the centre in Myka's tidy, precise, handwriting, the other said "Pete".

Suddenly Claudia was nervous, why had Myka left these letters here? Had she gone somewhere? Still carrying the unopened envelopes, Claudia went back upstairs quietly. She knocked gently on Myka's bedroom door. When there was no answer she knocked again, harder. Still no answer, so she carefully pushed open the door and peered through. The room appeared empty so she went in and looked around. Myka's bed was neatly made, pillows propped up against the headboard; the curtains were open and the sunlight streamed through the windows lighting up the room. She noticed that the wardrobe door was hanging open so she looked in - it wasn't completely empty but it was obvious that lots of Myka's clothes had gone. Taking a closer look at the room she realised that there were several books missing from the shelf and that Myka's laptop was gone. Claudia's heart was beating really fast now, she wasn't sure what was happening but she knew that it wasn't good. She rushed back into the hallway and loudly knocked on the others' doors to wake them up. Pete and Steve both emerged from their rooms bleary-eyed and still in their pyjamas. "What's up Claud?" asked Pete.

"I don't know!" exclaimed Claudia, flapping her arms about. Then she remembered about the envelopes that she was holding. She shoved Pete's into his confused hands, then ripped open the other one rather frantically. She read it out loud:

Hi guys,

I'm really sorry. That's the first thing. I'm really really sorry. But I have to go. I just need some time. I'm not leaving forever like before, I'm just taking some time off; surely I'm due a holiday. Keep up the good work while I'm away.

You are all so special to me,

Myka

When she finished they all had a look of complete and utter shock. What was going on? Claudia and Steve looked at Pete expectantly, he opened his envelope. Tears welled up in his eyes. "What the hell?" he said, blinking furiously. Claudia and Steve looked at each other and then at Pete, startled. Pete shoved the letter at them then stormed back into his room. Claudia cautiously unfolded the crumbled piece of paper. It simply said:

I'm sorry.

Myks

She showed it to Steve, they were both speechless. What was happening?

Once Artie had arrived, and Claudia and Steve had solemnly explained to him what had happened, he called Pete downstairs so that they could work out what to do. Tensions were high so they sat around the table arguing about where Myka may have gone, not even broaching the topic of why. Pete was yelling about whether she was more likely to go to her parents' or her sister's, when they were all surprised by someone clearing their throat in the doorway. They jumped when they saw Mrs Frederick standing there, watching them. They all went silent, and Mrs Frederick slowly stepped into the room, glancing at Claudia's laptop which was displaying Myka's personnel file and a map of Colorado. The faces of the team were tired and stressed, Pete's eyes were red, but still they looked at her expectantly, hoping that she would have a quick and simple solution to their problem.

"Good morning," she said politely, "I assume that you are trying to locate Agent Bering?" They all nodded.
"There must be some artifact-y locator device right?" said Pete frantically, "I mean, there must be! Right? We can find her and get her back and all go back to normal," he babbled, until Mrs Frederick's stare stopped him and he went silent again.

"I have spoken to Myka myself," she announced to the others' surprise, "and I have granted her permission for some time off work."

"WHAT?" Claudia, Pete and Steve shouted simultaneously. Even Artie looked taken aback.

"I have given her some time off," repeated Mrs Frederick, "You are all to go about your work as normal." Pete opened his mouth to interrupt again, rising from his chair, but then slumped down again, giving up.