Hi All. I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own any Warehouse 13 material, only the story lines. All character's belong to SyFy Tv.
Please review! I'm debating whether I should go into writing or not and would love any feedback!
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All in all, Claudia was exhausted. The momentary reprieve from endless inventory turned into a day gone wrong as the dance of artifact retrieval became more and more deadly. It was stressful, this job. No one said it wasn't. But she's more than happy to fall back into routine at the B&B for the night. As usual, Myka curls herself up in the cushy armchair by the shelf reading some new novel; while Artie grumbles as he callously looks through stacks of paper, his glasses falling down his nose. Claudia carefully stretched herself across Pete and Steve on the couch, head resting on Steve's thigh; her feet on Pete's lap, listening to the vicious storm outside and half-heartedly watching the movie Pete and Steve were so amped up about.
Everything was blissfully normal. Then suddenly, it wasn't.
BANG. BANG. Leena frowned as she dried her hands in a small towel before cautiously walking toward the unexpected knocking on the door. Surprise written all over her features, she said nothing as she took in the violent aura of the man in front of her. Raindrops splashed down into his dark brown eyes as he nodded at the innkeeper, before pushing past her into the small entryway.
Her head foggy and tired, Claudia craned her neck to get a good look at the unexpected visitor before-
"Joshua!" Claudia jumped out of her nest getting small but indignant "Hey!" from Pete and bounds into her brother's arms, positively beaming in ecstasy. Too soon, she pulls away and walks back towards the couch, all remnants of tiredness gone, dazzling smile lighting up her small features.
"Geez! You didn't tell me you were coming! Come sit with-"
But she lets the sentence fall as she catches the look in his eyes, his powerful determined stance, and she knows something is very wrong.
"Claudia." Joshua begins in a formal, tight voice, his eyes sweeping across the room, anger emanating from every pore of his being. He pulls out a poster from inside his jacket, no bigger than the size of a breadbasket. Claudia turned back to him, wary concern written all over her face.
Deliberately, with the precision of one opening a bomb, he opens the foreign ad. Obviously found in a city alleyway, the edges are worn and tainted by the rain. Even so, there is no mistaking the scantily-clad red haired girl on it, eyes smoky and dark, brandishing a whip, and inviting the viewer in.
The reaction is instantaneous. The smile slides off Claudia's face and she pales to gray.
"Where did you get that." She demands flatly. But the only response he gives is pulling out a small picture to accompany, and throws it at her feet.
And suddenly, the air is thick. It's stagnant and heavy and it's pushing her to the floor. It's impossible to breathe and it's suffocating her on the spot. Breathing is beyond excruciating, the hot air is all-consuming, it's unbearably agonizing and it's everywhere. For a moment, she thinks she'll be able to recover but then she catches the picture of a group of semi-hard old men standing around it, goading each other on with leering eyes, catches the look of horror on Artie's face, the grim disgust radiating from Joshua and it's too much. The overwhelming nausea consumes her, bile rises in her throat, coating her dry mouth before she collapses and throws up violently in the fireplace.
Broken out of his reverie, Steve stands up eyeing the intruder with loating.
"Okay. Who the HELL do you think you are?" Steve walks right up to Joshua and tears the poster from the intrusive man's hands and throws it behind him. He pulls out his badge. "Look pal, you'd better leave THIS INSTANT, or a whole load of hurt is going to hit you right in the face. You picked the wrong day, and the wrong family."
"No," Joshua demands, sparks flying out of his eyes, "The real question is who the hell are you?" He searches the room for an answer but Pete is staring blankly at the poster on the floor and Artie has turned into a statue. His eyes land on Myka, who tears her sympathetic eyes from Claudia at the fireplace before standing up to diffuse the situation.
"Okay, Steve? Steve, look at me." she demands, putting herself in between the two puffing men facing Steve. The situation would only be worse if it turned violent. Her eyes lock on the blue angry but confused ones in front of her. "This is Joshua. You know, Claudia's brother?" "Joshua, this is Steve."
The two men, obviously recognizing the other's name, eye each other warily but stand down. Steve falls into a chair where his head falls into his hands because he can't protect Claudia from her own brother.
"You know, perhaps we should leave Claudia and Joshua to ... discuss." Myka shifts on her feet, unsure of how to handle the situation.
But Claudia is shaking her head and she gets shakily up to her feet, spitting the last remains of bile out of her mouth. She turns to face her brother, features pale and defiant.
"Where did you get that." She demands flatly.
Joshua snorts in derision. "Oh I'm so glad you asked. I was walking down the seedier streets of Moscow with some buddies after a late conference and saw this group of old men gathered around this old poster. I walk up to it and realize: "Oh, THIS IS MY SISTER."
Claudia's entire body visibly shakes as she balks at the image.
"How old are you there Claudia? 15? 16?" Joshua's harshness cuts her across like a knife.
It's all she can manage so unstick her throat thoroughly constricted by fear and choke out a jagged, "sixteen."
Joshua throws up his arms, in a mock thinking position.
"So. So, what? You decide to be a prostitute at 16 and abandon all the values our parents or I taught you? You worthless, good-for-nothing whore. What the hell happened, Claudia? Explanation. Now."
His words bounce around in her head, opening a cascade of memories, bringing back with it the heavy shackles of fear, of danger, of necrotic tendrils that in seconds creep up and consume the entirety of her mind like the plague. And suddenly she's forgotten who she is. Anger with more than a touch of insanity fills her dark eyes and she puffs her chest and crosses her arms, bracing herself against anything to come her way in the manner only someone who has had years of experience being alone can do.
"What the hell happened, Joshua? You left. Everyone left. It was me on my own AGAIN. What, you think that was going to be some sort of magic fairytale? Life happened. My 7th foster father… Well, he was a heartless bastard. He was an angry drunk, and that was the only way I saw him for more than half the time he was around. One day after he was finished inflicting pain in the most inconspicuous of ways, he tore up my shack of a room and found the evidence of abuse I was planning to turn into the authorities. Then he got real mad. He left me for dead in the streets of Toronto."
She forced down the awful memories welling up inside her and only grew angrier at the mixture of shock and stone on her brother's face.
"So. What was I supposed to do, Joshua? I was too young to get a job, too young to find a place to sleep. Well. A man caught me breaking into a computer lab to sleep for the night and offered me a deal. I was starving, nearly dead by the time he found me, okay? He was sympathetic; he took me in with his other "projects," promised me the ads would never see the light of day in English speaking countries. Made us think we were doing good, twisted our mind to want to please him. I danced every night. But eventually I saved up enough, buried my trail and got the hell out of there."
She took a breath and glared around at her audience.
"Are you happy now?" Her voice was caustic in the silence addressing her brother once more. Bitter and harsh and unforgiving, egging the world on to show her anything besides pity. "Did you really want to hear that?" She grew angrier by the second, all logic fleeing her brain as anger clouded her mind. "Are you happy now? Do you want to hear how I checked myself into the insane asylum, how Dr. Mitcher would strap me down against my will, knock me up with anti-psychotics so powerful I wouldn't know who I was? How his method of so called "treatment" involved his penis being shoved into me every day while I was tied down? Telling me it was a hallucination?" Her voice drops. "Do you want to hear how I wasn't sure he was lying? That they WEREN'T hallucinations? So hope you're happy now, Joshua. I hope you wake up with that image of me being violated in every possible way not knowing if it was real or not. How DARE you."
The silence in the air spoke volumes. Joshua's no longer emanated anger. Instead he looked lost, pity and revulsion twisting in his stomach at the thought of his younger sister being the subject of so much abuse. As he looked at Claudia she could no longer keep up the tough girl act and her knees gave out, the cool hardness of the floor welcome as her body shook and wracked with years anguish and brokenness, and unadulterated misery.
And it all made sense, thought Pete. The way she flinched or jumped whenever someone surprised her. The way she was unable to depend on anyone besides herself, but covered the fear with a mask of sarcasm and wit.
Joshua's eyes flickered between agony and guilt. He winced her when her body flinched as he placed his hand on her back and whispered "Claudia-"
"Just go." She whispers, cutting him off. "I am so so sorry I can't be anything else. I tried, Joshua." Her voice breaks and she buries her head into her small shaking frame a little more "I really did. Just go."
"Hey." Joshua says firmly but gently. "I'm not going anywhere."
"Neither am I" pipes up Pete and the others nod in agreement.
She didn't believe them. She didn't know if she had enough humanity left inside her to believe them. But life goes on. And she knows that better than anyone. Either way, the warmth radiating from her make-shift family lets her take down her carefully constructed walls for just a moment, allows her to mourn for a brief second before she pushes herself back up asking about CERN's latest projects.
She's no longer able to function like a human being.
But she'll be damned if she lets anyone else know.
PLEASE REVIEW! Like I said above, I am currently debating between going into writing or not and would love any feedback. Thanks! Hit the button!