Warehouse 13 - The Locket
A/N: This is dedicated to a dear friend of mine that I lost recently. This was written very early in the morning in a hospital bed. Any mistakes are my own.
I hope this is good. Its my first WH13 fic.
I don't own Warehouse 13 or anything else I mention. I only own the plot of this fic.
Please leave a review. Love goes out to the first person to spot the Doctor Who reference.
"God damn Artie. God damn Inventory, God damn Warehouse." Claudia grumbled as she scanned yet another Artifact in the Jewellery aisle. She had made a small prank on Pete's birthday. She had only used Alexandros of Antioch's tools to turn the cake Leena had baked into a block of marble. She didn't know that he was going to face-plant it. He ended up breaking three teeth. Now she was stuck on Inventory duty for the next month. At least Leena understands. The dark skinned woman had baked her some cookies to keep her strength up. Claudia loved Leena's cookies. She always baked them to perfection. Even the thought of one of Leena's cookies made the redhead want one. She reached into one of the pockets on her tool belt. It had been clearly marked 'Leena-cookies' with Artie's Be-dazzler. As she bit into a warm cookie that tasted like heaven with chocolate chips, Claudia saw a glimmer out of the corner of her eye. She turned to see a silver locket with a leafy design laying on the shelf. She felt drawn to it. As she reached out to touch it, She felt a spark shoot up her arm. All she could see was a blinding light, then Leena's face and finally darkness.
Artie was sitting at his desk, talking to Myka and Helena through the Farnsworth. As Myka took the Farnsworth from Helena, Leena entered Artie's office. "Hi Artie, Is Claudia around?" The bearded man looked up. "She's down in the aisles doing inventory." Leena smiled at her friend. "Don't you think you're being a little bit harsh on her? She couldn't have known that Pete would trip." Artie stood up. "Yes, I suppose so. I think she has learned that all actions have consequences. She can go." As the turned to exit the door to the balcony, an explosion rocked the Warehouse. "Oh no." Artie and Leena ran as fast as they could. When they reached the explosion area, Artie noticed some blood drops in the middle of a large scorch mark. "Oh no." He rushed forward and started moving the debris of artifacts and pieces of crates and shelving. He turned to see Leena crouched down, touching the scorch mark. "Artie, tell me she's okay." He sighed and made his way over to her. "C'mon Leena, I need to make a few calls." All the way back to the office, Leena kept asking him. "She's okay isn't she Artie? This is just one of her jokes? Tell me she's okay." Artie sat his friend down before grabbing his Farnsworth and his phone. He stumbled outside only to bump into Mrs Frederic. "Arthur, what's wrong?" He pointed to the Warehouse. "Go inside, Leena needs comfort." Mrs Frederic left him to go comfort the Innkeeper. Artie raised the Farnsworth to call Myka and Helena. When their faces appeared on the devices screen, Myka's hair was a mess and Helena was trying to adjust her shirt collar. "Hey Artie, What's going on?" The man pinched the bridge of his nose. "You need to get back to the Warehouse. There's been an incident." "We're on our way, what's happened?" Artie fixed his glasses. "Just, Just get back here." He closed the device and dialed Pete's number on his phone. "Pete, I need you to come to the Warehouse." By this point Artie was crying. "Get here as soon as you can." He hung up before Pete could ask any questions. Tears were running down his face as he made his way down the Umbilicus.
He entered his office to find Leena sobbing heavily as Mrs Frederic looked out of the window. "I assume the agents are all on their way here?" Artie's reply was a gruff "Yes." The door to the Umbilicus opened as the three Warehouse agents stepped into the room. Myka noticed the sobbing Leena and instantly made her way to comfort her. Helena was the first to speak. "What's going on?" Pete sat down. Mrs Frederic spoke clearly and precisely. "Ms Donovan has been involved in an incident." Myka's head popped up. "What sort of incident?" Helena saw Artie's jaw clench. "Ms Donovan was involved in an explosion." "Is she ok?" The question was out of Helena's mouth before she could process it. "There's no trace of her except for a few drops of blood." Artie said with a grimace. A few tears leaked from his eyes. Claudia was gone. She was like a daughter to him. He had sworn to himself that he would protect her and now she was gone. "So, Claudia's..." Before Pete could finish, Leena burst into tears and ran from the room. Myka chased after her as Helena sat down. The tension in the room was thick. She could feel it, forcing its way down her throat. She jumped up and ran to the wastepaper basket next to Artie's desk and emptied the contents of her stomach. Pete held her hair back as she continued heaving.
Myka continued following Leena until she came to an area where the ground was scorched. There were pieces of debris laying around and Leena was stood in the middle of the aisle. "Leena, honey, Is this where it happened? Is this where Claudia died?" As soon as she saw Leena's face, Myka regretted it." Claudia's not dead, I can feel her. She's still here." Myka looked at her. "Leena, she was in an explosion, I'm sorry, but she's gone." "No, She's not." Leena growled. She looked furious which was odd for fhe normally passive innkeeper. She looked like she would actually strike Myka. Before she could, there was a swishing noise and Leena collapsed. Myka rushed forward and caught her before her head collided with the thick concrete floor. She looked up to find Helena standing looking triumphant with a strange looking rifle. Myka quickly checked Leena's vitals. "She's still alive." Helena smiled. "Of course she is, This gun belonged to early 20th century hunter and explorer, John Riddell. No one knows where it came from. It only shoots tranquilizers. Do you really think I would I would shoot Leena with live ammunition?" Myka shrugged her shoulders. She picked Leena up and signaled for Helena to help her.
Myka and Helena placed Leena's sleeping form on the couch in Artie's office. Mrs Frederic and Artie were arguing about Claudia. "I think you should know that Leena thinks Claudia is still alive." All the heads in the room turned to Myka. "She says she can feel her." Artie had a slight smile. "See, Leena might be right. Claudia could just be trapped in an artifact, or transported between dimensions like Joshua or even teleported away from the Warehouse." Mrs Frederic scowled. "Or she could have been killed in the explosion and we need to accept that we have lost an extraordinary agent." "How dare you." None of them had noticed Leena waking up. They all turned to see Leena sitting up with a glare on her face. "How can you refer to Claudia like that. Claudia isn't just an agent. She's brilliant, She's a genius, She's funny, She's beautiful and the only word you can use to describe her is 'agent' well, I'm sorry to tell you, but she is more than that and do you want to know the worst part of all this. I love her and I never got to tell her. I'm going to find her and I'm going to tell her. No matter how long it takes. I will walk to the ends of the earth if necessary." Everyone in the room stared at Leena as if she had grown two heads. Myka walked over to Leena and hugged the woman before walking over to Helena and pulling her into a passionate kiss causing Pete's jaw to drop. Pete turned to Artie. "Please don't tell me that you and Mrs F are shacking up?" Artie chuckled. "Oh no. I don't think Vanessa would be happy about that." Leena turned to Myka and Helena. "Please tell me that you believe me?" Myka nodded and Helena smiled. "Of course, now lets go find your girl." Leena smiled at her friends. Suddenly the Warehouse started shaking.
Three Weeks Later
Myka braced herself as the Warehouse shook. It had been doing that every six hours since 'that day'. Helena had been working on a device to try and find Claudia. Myka and Pete had been continuing their duties as agents while Myka was searching databases for any traces of their young friend. The closest she had come was Claudia's psychiatric records and a photo that had been hidden behind numerous firewalls on Artie's computer. She was glad Claudia had shown her some basics of how to hack. The picture was one of the team at Leena's. Myka and Helena were staring lovingly at each other, Pete was stuffing his face with cookies as Artie looked on in laughter. Leena was looking at Claudia. The redhead's eyes were looking at a mirror. Myka thought about their positions that day and realized, that mirror would have given Claudia a perfect view of Leena's back or more specifically her ass. She smiled at the thought. Ever since the Hacker's disappearance, Leena had become rather withdrawn. She had set up a makeshift camp at the explosion site. She had begun spending her days cleaning the area and trying to discover what had caused the explosion. Myka had seen inside Leena's makeshift camp. There was a tent, an electric heater, a meditation mat and the entire area was decorated with charms and pictures. Myka would bring Leena her lunch everyday with Helena taking her dinner and Artie would take her breakfast. Pete was taking care of the B&B in the Innkeeper's time of need. Sometimes Myka would sit with Leena and they would talk about all the good times they had together. Myka walked over to Leena's camp. "Leena, Sweetie? Are you awake?" She entered the camp to find the aura-reading woman, sketching Claudia from memory. "Why don't you and Helena come here at the same time?" Myka looked down in shame. She had hoped Leena hadn't noticed. "I didn't want to rub it in your face that my relationship is in a good place while Claudia is missing." Leena looked up from her sketch and turned towards the curly haired agent. "Just because I'm not happy, it doesn't mean you can't be. You and Helena have gone through all these tests of love and you are still together. It gives me hope that this will just be one of those situations." Myka had tears in her eyes. "Leena, that's beautiful. Thank you." The two friends embraced.
Helena ran into Leena's temporary home with her device. She had modified John Riddell's rifle. Leena and Myka looked up to see Myka's girlfriend setting up some apparatus. "Hey, what's that?" Helena smiled at her lovers question. "Well darling, this will bring back our dear Claudia." Leena jumped up. "Really?" She had tears in her eyes at the thought of bringing back her favorite inventor. Helena nodded. Leena embraced her second favorite inventor. "What do we need to do?" Helena started moving items. "We need to clear this aisle. Have you discovered which artifact sent Claudia away?" Leena motioned to a shelf. "It's one of these lockets." As Myka cleared the charms and pictures away, she looked at the lockets. Two were gold and one was silver. She turned to see everything else away and Leena and Helena moving the last of the sketches. As the three women pulled on Neutralizer Gloves, Helena spoke. "We will try all three lockets." She hung the first locket on a stand with a hook and positioned herself behind the device. Leena stared at the gold locket as Myka gave her girlfriend a kiss for good luck before hugging Leena. She felt the Innkeeper tense up as the device shot a beam of light. They waited until it turned off then stared for five minutes before nothing happened. "Try another." Myka replaced the locket on Leena's command. As she hung up the second locket, the gold coating seemed to wink at her. She hugged the Innkeeper as the ray fired again. They waited and again, nothing happened. Leena was crying as she replaced the gold locket with the silver one. She stood with Myka as the ray fired at the piece of jewellery. When the device turned off there was no change. Leena fell to her knees and let out a heartbreaking sob as Helena checked her calculations. "It's true. She's gone." Leena wailed. "I never got the chance to tell her I loved her." Leena's entire body shook with tears. Myka tried to wrap her arms round her friend but she was pushed away by the distraught woman. Pete and Artie appeared down the aisle to see the Innkeeper in tears. Pete reached his hand out but stopped at her voice. "Don't Touch Me." She spat the words with venom. As she looked up, tears were streaming down her face. "The woman I love is dead." Leena stood and tried to walk away but she was stopped by Helena. "Leena, darling. I could be wrong with my calculations." Leena looked at her. "Let me go, or I will hurt you." Helena shook her head and was stunned when she ended up on the ground with a stinging cheek. Leena stood above her, looking both angry and shocked. As Helena turned her head, she saw something glinting under a nearby shelving unit. She reached under and pulled out a silver locket. She looked up to see Leena's hopeful face staring at the locket. She jumped up and hung it on her apparatus. Leena grabbed Helena's and Myka's hands as the device shot its beam of light forcing them to turn their heads away from the intense light.
As they turned to look at the locket, they were met by a confused Claudia Donovan, stood in the middle of the scorched area. "What the hell? Why is my cookie cold?" Claudia turned her head to see her friends. Leena noted that the Inventor had a nosebleed. "Claudia? Is that you?" Leena asked cautiously. The redhead locked eyes with the Innkeeper. "I damn well hope so, otherwise someone has some explaining to do." Leena rushed forward and pressed her lips to the younger woman's. She could taste her own salty tears mixed with a flavour that was uniquely Claudia. Claudia's hand wove its way into Leena's hair as she deepened the kiss before pulling away. "Wow." The Innkeeper smiled. "I think I can safely say, that was awesome." Claudia watched as the older woman's face brightened. "I love you Claudia, I didn't know if I would ever see you again and it killed me. I never got to tell you before, but I love you." Leena could feel the heat radiating from her face. The redhead tilted Leena's chin up to face her. "I love you too. The last thing I saw before this happened was you. How long have I been gone?" From the sidelines, Pete shouted. "Three Weeks." Claudia looked at him. "Damn, really?" The man nodded. "Ah fudge, I've missed so many episodes of Terra Nova." Leena blushed. "Actually Claudia, I set it to record on my TiVo." The techno-wiz pulled Leena to her and kissed her passionately. "And that's another reason I love you." Leena's blush deepened as Claudia tangled their fingers together. "Lets go watch some awesome Sci-Fi." Leena was happier than ever before as she walked home with the gorgeous redhead holding her hand. From behind them, Pete shouted. "Hey Claude, Myka and Helena are together now." Leena laughed at Claudia's reply. "I know. H.G. told me a few months ago."
As Helena watched the two lovebirds walk away, she wrapped her arms around her girlfriends waist. Myka relaxed before looking at her watch. The Warehouse was due to shake soon. She braced herself for something that never came.