It was another trivial fight, Claudia and Steve were reorganizing a series of shelves after the bouncy balls got out again, it was a mess.
"I just think they should be in a cage!" Steve protested.
Claudia chuckled "Oh, Jinksy…" she simply said, balancing a pile of books as she put them back into place.
Steve griped in agony as he pulled his hand back, beginning to suck on a finger wound.
"What's wrong?" Claudia asked.
"I cut myself." he managed to get out, keeping his finger in his mouth.
Claudia shuffled over to Steve to see his finger bleeding, she gasped while beginning to look for something to contain the bleeding until they got back to the office.
She didn't think twice about the box of bandages on the shelf as she snatched them up, removing one from the box and opened it up before wrapping it around Steve's wound.
"There you go." Claudia said before putting the box down.
Steve nodded "Thanks." He said.
They both went back to work when Steve began to mess with his band-aid.
"What's the matter?" Claudia asked.
Steve shrugged "I don't know, this bandage doesn't feel right." He said as he pulled the band-aide.
Claudia watched as Steve looked at his wound, then at the band-aide, trying to find a source of the discomfort; but there was none.
"Did the bleeding stop?" Claudia asked.
Steve nodded "Yeah, but this bandage…it's weird." He said.
Claudia hummed to herself as she walked down the isle to try and find the box of bandages, when the noticed how peculiar the box did look.
She picked up the box and examined the contents inside the box, noticing how old they looked when the decided to start looking for its place on the shelf.
Claudia hoped that this probable artifact wasn't anything severe, otherwise she would have to report to Artie on her stupid decision.
Steve yelped as he dropped the bandage onto the floor, Claudia turned around to see some sort of goop beginning to form out of the bandage.
"Holy crap!" Claudia proclaimed while Steve began to take a few steps back.
The goop was forming more and more before both Claudia and Steve began to run out of the isle and several over before deciding just to run back to the office.
"ARTIE!" Claudia yelled, with Steve following close behind.
"What? What is it?" Artie asked, sounding annoyed as ever as he turned to the both of them.
He noticed the box of bandages in Claudia's hands when looked up to them "What did you do?" he asked.
Claudia shrugged "I don't know…Steve cut himself really bad and I didn't think about it; I wrapped one of these around his hand and then it just…started…eww." She said, unable to explain the occurrence any further.
Artie stood up from his chair "You touched that?"
"Yes." Claudia remarked.
"…and then wrapped it around Steve's hand?" Artie asked.
Claudia nodded again "Yeah…Artie, what type of an artifact is this?" Claudia asked.
Artie thought for a moment before grabbing his case "Follow me."
"Those bandages belonged to Friedrich Miescher, he discovered DNA, or he discovered the Nucleic Acid that are in DNA; those bandages contain power to create life from cells…like skin cells," Artie explained, getting closer to the isle.
"...if someone was to touch a bandage, the DNA from their skin cells would cause a reaction to create another person from the DNA." Artie said.
Claudia raised an eye brow "Like a clone?" she asked.
"Yes, exactly," Artie said, only two isles away from their destination "…but if TWO people touch the bandage, their DNA morphs together," Artie said.
Crying was beginning to be heard by all three of them, Claudia looked around the Warehouse "Is that crying?" she asked.
Steve shrugged her question off "Causing what to happen, Artie?" he asked.
Artie turned into their isle and stopped "Causing this to happen." He said, pointing to a three-year old girl sobbing in the middle of the isle.
Claudia was trying to understand what Artie was explaining "…so…what did I do?" she asked.
Steve gasped for air, looking at the child in pure shock "…your skin cells…and my blood…" he managed to get out.
"Okay?" Claudia said, asking for more information.
Artie huffed "Claudia, when two people love each other very much; they want to show their love…by…well…mating—"
"EW! Stop, I know what sex is, we don't need to have that talk; can somebody just tell me straight up why a bandage turned into a 3-year old girl?" she asked.
Artie sighed heavily, rubbing his brow "You and Steve created offspring."
Claudia let it sink in for a moment "…a daughter?" she asked.
Steve gently fell to his knees "I think I'm going to be sick." He muttered to himself.
Claudia walked towards the crying child, who looked at her with fearful eyes as her sobs began to die down; Claudia swallowed hard as she covered her mouth "Oh my god." She muttered.
"Jinksy, she has your eyes." Claudia said.
Claudia motioned the little girl to come closer to her as she looked over the child for a moment: red hair, blue eyes, pale skin, was pretty much a spitting image of Steve Jinks.
The little girl stopped in front of Claudia, sniffling her tears with snot coming out of her nose.
Claudia smiled "Hi." She muttered.
The little girl just glared at Claudia.
"Can you talk?" she asked.
The little girl nodded.
"Say something?" Claudia asked, taking her hand.
The little girl looked behind Claudia at Artie and Steve, who was still on the ground trying to get himself together, before looking back at Claudia "Hi." She simply said.
Claudia swallowed hard; she made this, Steve made this. Needless to say, their friendship was going to be tested with this.
"Are you hungry?" Claudia asked.
The little girl nodded.
Claudia smiled "Okay…how does Peanut Butter and Jelly sound?" she asked.
The little girl smiled "Okay."
"Okay?" Claudia asked, standing up and taking her hand and walking back to Artie and Steve with her.
Artie was helping Steve up off the floor as Claudia stopped in front of them, Artie glared at Claudia who nodded, knowing there would be words, and probably a punishment, later as Claudia walked past them and made her way with the little girl back to the office.