TEXT MESSAGING

Chapter 1

PG-13

CLAUDIA/ARTIE

I own nothing…just like playing

Summary: Claudia and Artie have a much needed talk.

"Not now Claudia!" Artie barked over his shoulder.

"Artie, I really need to talk to you about this." Claudia protested

"You have a case, Myka is waiting for you and I am busy! GO…Out the door!" Artie pushed the button that opened the door and tried to push Claudia out of it. Claudia put all her weight into her legs and tried to hold herself in place.

"Artie this is important!"

"Claudia everything with you is important, and I don't have time right now. Now go!"

Claudia was hurt that Artie wouldn't listen to her, letting her anger get the best of her she turned and poked him in the chest.

"You know one of these days, something might happen and you won't be able to talk to me anymore if you could ever make the time in the first place."

With that said Claudia walked out of the warehouse to meet Myka, Artie squinted his eyes at the door made that she blew up on him like that.

A FEW HOURS LATER…

"Artie we need to talk" Mrs. Fredrick's voice brought Artie out of his chair and papers spilling off his desk.

" ' I see you're still perfecting you ninja skills." Artie eyed her over the top of his glasses as he bent down to retrieve the papers that had fallen.

Artie quickly gathered the papers; tossing them back onto the desk he turned his chair to .

"And what do we need to talk about?" Artie asked, pushing his glasses up and crossing him arms over his chest. pulled a chair over and sat down in front of Artie. "Oh this can't be good she's sitting down." Artie quickly told himself.

"We need to talk about you and Claudia." Artie quickly turned and looked at her.

"Talk about what?" Artie was confused, what could Mrs. Fredrick's possibly have to talk about that would involve the two of them?

rested her elbow on her knees; clasping her hands together she gave Artie a sympathetic smile, seeing that he was getting worried.

"Arthur, Remember when warehouse 2 was trying to come online and the only way to save warehouse 13 was to transfer it to a new caretaker?"

Artie shook his head yes.

"All though started the transfer between Claudia and me it was never finished. Pete and Myka were able to shut down warehouse 2 in time."

"Yeah, and?" Artie was very confused at this moment

"And for a brief time Claudia and I were connected and we have stayed connected. Call it a kind of telepathic ability if you will. I can feel when Claudia is hurting, when she is sad, when she is happy. I have flashes of images, most of the time I can't make since of them until the event happens. For example, if Claudia is crying, if feel her hurt, but I also get glimpses of what the even was that caused it, sometime I get glimpses of things that may happen or may not. It's hard to explain."

Artie sat there just looking at her not really sure what to say at this point.

"I am still not understanding why you're here?" Artie told her, he was up out of his chair at this point leaning against his desk, arms still folded over his chest. Mrs. Fredrick's stood and walked over to Artie.

"There is something wrong with Claudia, I feel hurt, confusion. And then I get these images of an empty room and a door closing."

"What do you mean something is wrong, is she in trouble?" Artie started to panic at this point, he couldn't let anything happen to his Claudia, and he had to keep her safe at all cost.

"Artie, I don't know what it is, but something is wrong and you need to figure it out and fix it before it is too late!"

Artie turned and rested his hands on his desk.

"But how…" Artie turned back around to find gone.

"I'm I going to do that?" he finished asking his question throwing his hands up in the air not sure what he was supposed to do from here. Artie sat at his desk for what seemed like forever to him trying to figure out how he was going to help Claudia what he didn't even know what was wrong. Claudia was out on an assignment with Myka so Artie figured he would start there and check in with Myka. Artie picking up his Farnsworth, staring at the blank screen until Myka picked up.

"What's up Artie?" Myka asked

"How you guys doing?" Artie asked.

"We have nothing; Claudia is talking to some suspects trying to get a few leads." Artie quickly interrupted Myka

"How is Claudia?" Myka wasn't sure why Artie was asking about Claudia all of the sudden but she has learned that with Artie there was not telling were he line of questioning was coming from.

"She's fine."

"You're sure?" Artie asked moving the Farnsworth closer to his face.

"Yeah…What's going on Artie?"

"Uhhh…nothing, get done as quickly as you can and let me know if you notice anything out of the normal."

Artie snapped the lid closed on the Farnsworth, Myka looked down at the black screen, making a note to herself to get on to Artie about how rudely he ends calls, as Myka put the Farnsworth back in her pocket Claudia came walking up.

"Who was that?" Myka looked at Claudia for a moment, still trying to figure out why Artie had called to check in on her.

"It was Artie. He was just checking in." Claudia nodded.

"Glad he could make time to talk to you." Claudia said under her breath.

"What?" Myka asked, she was sure she heard what Claudia had said but she wanted to double check.

"Nothing, can we just finish so we can go home?" Myka nodded and the girls continued what they were doing.

A few more hours passed as Artie paced the warehouse office trying to figure out what to do. he know what he would never be able to sit down and talk to Claudia face to face, that much human interaction made him very uneasy. So he thought he would try another route, Claudia had recently taught him how to use the text messaging on his phone, Artie though back to a couple weeks ago and Claudia telling him "Live in the now old man, everyone text's instead of calling!" laughing at the whole memory of the couple hours they had spent together in the hammock upstairs while she taught him. The thought of Claudia snuggled against him and the warm feeling he got when her hands would touch his to take the phone away from him made him smile even more. Artie was not a stupid man, he knew all too well that he and Claudia were fighting feeling for each other, but he also felt it would never work and it was a bad idea all around. Since that day they spend cuddled in the hammock it had been harder and harder for him to hide his feelings and there had been a few time Claudia had tried to talk to him about it, but he would have no part of it. He knew that early that morning before Claudia left, what she wanted to talk about. And not knowing how to handle it, it was easier for him to push her out the door. He started thinking about what Claudia had said that morning, that what if he never had another chance to talk to her, and then what Mrs. F had said about an empty room and a door closing, Artie started to put the puzzle together.

"Claudia's going to leave; I'm going to lose her." Sitting back in his chair Artie grabbed his phone.

Artie: Hey…

Artie waited for a few minutes, and then his phone beeped.

Claud: Busy old man, what u wants?

Artie quickly read the text, that wasn't quite the response he was looking for but at least she was responding.

Artie: I want to talk…plz

A couple minutes later

Claud: Now u want to talk, your jk right?

Artie knew this was not going to be any easy conversation to start.

Artie: ok, I talk u listen.

He hit send and waited for a reply

Claud: talk then…

Artie got a little nervous it was now or never, he needed to tell her the truth. He couldn't stand the thought of losing her. Claudia was laying in the back seat of the SUV while Myka drove they had finally solved the case and was in the middle of their 10 hour drive home. Myka could see that Claudia had been texted someone and by the way she was pounding the key board on the phone she was not happy.

"Claud are you ok?" Myka looked at her through the review mirror.

"Fine!" an annoyed Claudia called out from the back of the car. Myka raised both her eyebrows. "Artie must have texted her." she thought to herself, Claudia had told Myka about Artie pushing her out of the office. Claudia had confided in Myka a couple times about her feeling for Artie, Myka's advice had been to just be honest with Artie and tell him.

"Why don't you just tell him to leave you alone until we get back to the warehouse?" Myka asked. Claudia let her phone drop to her chest and covered her eyes with her arm.

"Cause he just said he wanted to talk, and I kind of wanna know what he has to say." Claudia went back to her phone and texted Artie back.

Claud: So talk…

Artie's phone beeped at him, he picked it up and took a moment to figure out just how he wanted to say everything.

Artie: I'm sorry I didn't want to talk this morning. Believe it or not I'm scared Claud.

Claudia quickly read the message, her heart always fluttered a little bit when Artie called her Claud. "He's scared? And why is he wanting to be so open all of the sudden?" questions were running through Claudia's head now. Myka and Claudia were only a few hour away from the warehouse, and Claudia didn't want to finishes the conversation via text messaging, whipping out her Farnsworth she called Artie. When Artie's Farnsworth stated to vibrate he just assumed to be Pete calling him, so when Claudia's face came up on the screen Artie froze for a moment just looking at Claudia and gave her a loving smile. Claudia took pity on the man looking at her like a lost puppy, Claudia, as mad as she was still knew that this was hard for Artie and could see that he actually was wanting to try and talk.

"Listen we are going to be back in a couple hours, I'll meet you at the hammock and well talk. Ok?" Claudia spoke softly. Artie just smiled at her and nodded his head.

"Meet you there." Artie told her, Claudia smiled back and closed the Farnsworth, closing her eyes and resting the rest of the ride home.