Title: Pertinax
Disclaimer: Warehouse 13 and its characters belong to SyFy. This is a transformative, not-for-profit work of fiction.
Word Count: 490
Spoilers for 1x04 "Claudia" and foreshadowing of season 1
She hears about the failed experiment as a rumor, a warning to the other graduate students. While Claudia is busy with her coding project, she's not so busy that she can't spend a few hours a week in the university library, researching Joshua's project. Physics is interesting as a theoretical subject but computers are her passion; that said, the idea of teleportation becomes more fascinating, the more she learns.
A year's gone by unremarked, then Joshua comes to her in a vivid dream to ask her name. The man is cute, dark hair falling in his eyes and sleeves rolled up. He looks to be only a few years older than her and Claudia spends the dream time talking to him in snatches about the project. Sudden pain flashes across his face and Joshua's gone. It begins a pattern of short discussions between them, learning more about the other and the progression of the project.
She comes across the name of the professor involved in the original project and runs a search to track him down. She finds Professor Reynolds a bit oily, clearly with a larger project in mind that Claudia's not sure she wants the details of, but he's willing to help her break into this Warehouse that Arthur Nielsen works at.
It's now been three years of research and phone calls and calculations and poring through books written in the 16th century and Joshua's original notebook before Claudia meets the man who abandoned Joshua. The nose bleeds are more frequent now, and the flashes of Joshua in her dreams have been occurring three or four times a week.
Artie helps her with a bit of convincing from the electromagnetic cuffs Claudia dreamed up, two strangers bursting into the lab with a babbled conversation about secret panels and rules. Artie yells over the howling wind as the stranger stare, Claudia propped against him weakly. Joshua's appearances take a lot out of her lately.
She and Artie end up in the interdimension, which was not part of the plan at all but there's Joshua standing there. He looks at her in silent wonder as Artie figures out the secret panel on the compass and Claudia's brain fires into action, supplying the combination of T-H-O-M-A-S to unlock it. Joshua watches them calmly, reaching out to touch the compass with a hand that only shakes a little.
The three land back in the lab, Artie swarmed by the two strangers almost immediately. Claudia hangs back as Joshua looks around, hand running up the dated sweater vest to confirm he's in the real world after twelve years. He turns around, meeting her eyes. She grins, closing the space between them for a tight hug.
"Thank you for not giving up." He says, voice deep and sending shivers up Claudia's spine. His hand cups the back of her head gently and Joshua leans down. She meets him halfway and everything is perfect.
pertinax: adj. Latin; tenacious, obstinate