A big thank you for the enthusiastic 'welcome back'. Though always a little nervous, I love starting to post a new part of the story. That's all due to the wonderful reviews from readers!
Chapter Two
On an island, secluded somewhere in the Mediterranean sea, the Warehouse's newest caretaker strutted into the conference room and zeroed in on the teen at the table. "How is our newest resident?" she asked cheerfully as she fell into the chair next to him and twirled around for good measure.
Ice-blue eyes gazed up through a lock of floppy blonde hair and blinked nervously before he stumbled through his greeting, "Ok. I mean, I'm good... No, great. A bit lost. Not now though 'cause I know where I am now but..." He stopped abruptly and flushed before mumbling, "I got lost."
"No worries, Kid," Claudia smiled at her young protégé. "This is your home now. You'll soon know every corner of this place. There's lots to explore and you know where the canteen is, right?"
"Yes, ma'am," he replied dutifully, eager to impress. "And I've been making a map, for future reference. I can be useful, Miss Donovan."
"Kid, we didn't pick you up just to kick you out. We have plans for you and they don't include Dr Evil getting his hands on you." Claudia relaxed back into her chair and swivelled slightly back and forth as she observed the boy closely.
Thomas. She remembered seeing him stepping out of a portal with Pete, his eyes wide with excitement and anxious anticipation for what might happen next. He'd had the gangly appearance of someone beginning a growth spurt and she had immediately understood why Myka asked that they keep a close eye on him, to make sure that he was taken care of. He had been pivotal to solving the puzzle with the agent trapped in Limbo and, in hindsight, it had been a lucky turn of events that he happened to know young Christina Wells.
Perhaps more than lucky. Fated even?
Claudia had logged the details of all individuals rescued from the cartouche and had written a program to flag up any concerns. For the few children they'd rescued, she had fingers in the system or with their reunited families and on the whole, nothing untoward had appeared.
However, one individual had pinged on her radar time and again.
Christina's forgotten friend had jumped from place to place for a while as they tried to find his family. When that task proved to be a bust, he was placed with a young couple for a time, until he disappeared; assumed by authorities to have run away. When found, he was adamant that he hadn't intended to go anywhere but couldn't explain precisely what had happened to him. He was given a few extra counselling sessions and moved to a new family. After the fourth repetition of this incident, he was placed with a boys group home where no one really batted an eye at the reality of runaways.
At the Warehouse however, Claudia continued to track him. A year and several unexplained disappearances later, she, Irene and Mr Kosan all agreed that they needed to take a more active role in his life. Since then, Jane Lattimer had taken him in and he was watched night and day. During the day, he appeared happy, if a bit wary of his situation after having moved around so much. At the moon's zenith however, he slithered from his bed and wandered around his room, testing the windows and door, searching for an exit. The hidden camera on his bookshelf recorded every moment and, in time, displayed a curious pattern.
They had planned to let him finish school before bringing him into the fold; he didn't appear to be a danger to himself in his waking moments, but once a lurking figure was seen watching him, Claudia insisted that she be allowed to take him home with her.
So here they were, two and a half years after his rescue from an artefact. Now just turned fifteen, the lad had exploded out of his childhood body and currently threatened to overtake his mentor.
"So, barring any bat-signals, I have set aside the entire day to be your guide to Wonderland." The redhead jumped up and gestured towards the door. "Better get started, Tommy. This place has more rabbit holes than Beatrix Potter's back yard."
Rhythmic clanking penetrated through Helena's subconscious, into the peace of her dream. So much for an extra hour of sleep, she thought to herself as she fell into reality and rolled onto her back.
"Mummy pay," Fredrick's excited voice tumbled into the room, followed by the sound of his feet hitting the carpet in quick succession and something dragging behind him.
"Freddy, baby no." Quick, light steps followed the boy into his parents' bedroom and stopped him before he could reach for the bed. "Mummy's sleeping. She'll play later."
"No," he complained. "Wight," he insisted as he pointed to the sunshine peeking passed the curtains.
"I know," Myka whispered as she picked him up. "But Mummy's tired, she needs to nap a bit longer."
"No nap," he pouted.
Helena smiled to herself and pushed up onto her elbows. "It's alright, Myka. I'm awake." She was so warmed by the expression of pure joy on her son's face, her weariness from the previous day melted away, leaving behind the simple contentment of being home.
The brunette shook her head as her mouth pulled up at the corner. "I thought after spending three days with Pete, you'd have developed the ability to block out external sound."
As her fiancée perched on the edge of the bed and let Fredrick run free, Helena ran her fingers through her hair and rubbed sleep from her eyes. "Well it wasn't for a lack of trying, darling. He certainly has a talent for filling a thoughtful silence with nonsensical blather." She sat up and pulled Fredrick against her torso as he climbed into her lap. Myka dropped toys onto the bed and leant in to kiss her good morning. She sighed against her fiancée's lips and then, as she pulled away, began to arrange the toys along the bedspread, making them walk about. "Good morning, Mr Postman. The weather's jolly fine isn't it," she said as a plastic, fuzzy racoon bobbed up and down on the toddler's knee. "Do you have any letters for me today?"
Myka chuckled and picked up another character: a rabbit in a dress. "What about me? It's my birthday."
Freddy giggled, his face angled towards his parents, eyes bright with joy as he waited for one of them to speak next. "Ah!" he exclaimed, pointing emphatically at the badger.
Helena quickly became engrossed with their game and, for a time, failed to notice the intense gaze that watched her closely. It was only when her son complained that the rabbit was slacking in her duties that she became aware of Myka's distraction. "I think Rebecca Rabbit has fallen asleep," she theorised and then suggested, "Perhaps you had better wake her."
Fredrick took his cue and landed a horse with uncanny accuracy on top of the plastic rabbit's head. At his Mama's startled squeak, he chuckled cheekily and grinned up at her with rapt attention, waiting for her response.
The brunette's surprised expression lingered for a moment before a smile broke through. "Did you just whack me with a horse!?"
"Wabbi eeby," Freddy explained in his own defence and then proceeded to nudge said creature with his wild stallion.
"Alright, alright," Myka conceded as she pulled her character to safety. "I'm awake. That's enough horsing about." She grinned at her own joke and then chuckled at her fiancée's snort of amusement.
After lounging about on the bed for another half an hour, the adults began to tire of the repetition and decided to call an end to the game. Myka gathered Fredrick and as many plastic animals as she could carry and left Helena to freshen herself up, ready for the rest of the day.
A steaming cup of tea waited for the inventor when she eventually made her way downstairs and found most of her family in the kitchen. "Where's Christina?" she asked over the sound of a wooden spoon hitting plastic containers.
"Next door," Myka replied around her mug of coffee. "With Jamie and Zahrah." She recalled the conversation she'd had with her neighbours the previous day and quickly began to relate the particulars. "I had coffee with their mothers yesterday and we talked about how difficult it is to find time away from the kids. Nadia and Paula suggested that we could do a round robin of sleepovers over the next few weeks. We were thinking about Jamie's this weekend, ours next and Zahrah's the weekend after." She leant her elbows on the worktop and gazed up at her fiancée through her lashes. "That gives us two Saturdays with just the little drummer boy over there. I thought we could offer to have Sophie tomorrow night and see if Pete and Lila would mind returning the favour in a couple of weeks."
"Leaving us with at least twenty four hours to spend in bed?" Helena concluded, her gaze instantly wandering over her fiancée.
Myka chuckled. "That's one option. And certainly an attractive one, but I was thinking we could take a day trip somewhere. What do you think?"
Placing her cup gently on the counter, the inventor rounded the island and pulled her partner flush against her. Her hands lingered on two hips before travelling to the small of her lover's back and resting there. "Are we thinking of a pampering day, an adventure or a day of museums and culture?"
"I would do all of the above but I think we're going to have to wait until our honeymoon to fit it all in," she considered. "Once we're alone, I thought we could just have a leisurely day. Go for brunch, take a drive down to one of the lakes if it's nice out, do a bit of shopping maybe. Just play it by ear and spend a day being Helena and Myka."
"As opposed to Mummy and Mama," HG concluded with a nod. "And you're comfortable with the idea of... winging it?" she added knowingly.
"I can be spontaneous," the brunette insisted, her hands winding around her partner's neck as she leant in to brush a kiss against the corner of an upturned mouth. She had learned to loosen up over the years but spontaneity was not second nature to her.
"I know, darling. I have fond memories of every occasion that you threw caution to the wind. However, I know that you enjoy planning. You rest easier when you know what to expect and I have no qualms around your compulsive nature." Dark eyes fell into green, searching for any hint of unease. "Do not vex yourself on my behalf, love."
"I won't," Myka assured her. She kissed Helena soundly, lingering just long enough for the tip of her tongue to taste a lingering trace of toothpaste. She didn't care that their drinks were getting cold or that there was a long list of household jobs on the fridge that they had yet to start. This moment was reserved for them, to remind them of the simple pleasures that they would spend their lives protecting.
She eventually leant back and turned to look at their son, who had abandoned his container in favour of the tiled floor. "I love our life together. I couldn't be happier with where my life has taken me." She felt her fiancée's arms wind tighter around her and tilted her head against a yielding shoulder. "We've never really had a chance to do all of those 'getting to know you' dates though, have we?"
"I suppose not," the inventor agreed. "We progressed from friendly colleagues to lovers rather rapidly. Christina brought us back together but everything in between was somewhat awkward thanks for the most part to me."
"I'm not portioning blame. Our past got us here so I wouldn't change it. I don't see why we can't try to capture some of those missed moments though," Myka reasoned. "We'll be married before long and I'd like look back on our pre-marital life and remember a time when the two of us held hands around the park and stole kisses between thoughts."
Helena gazed into her fiancée's intense stare and marvelled at the fathomless love she found there. "Not that I'm complaining, but what brought this on?"
Myka's eyes flicked to one side and a blush crept along her cheeks, the change in her demeanour serving to further confuse the inventor. "I've been thinking about the possibility of extending our family," she confessed quietly and glanced over at their son.
HG's expression froze for the briefest moment before a smile tugged at her mouth. "I seem to recall someone declaring quite emphatically that they never again wanted to become pregnant." She chuckled lightly as the younger woman's blush intensified. "Unless of course, you were imagining someone else carrying this additional offspring?" she teased.
Feeling relieved at the inventor's joking, Myka rolled her eyes. "I would never ask you to do something that I wasn't prepared to do myself, but the details can be worked out later. I think the more pressing question is: do you want another child with me?"
HG smirked, mischief appearing in her eyes. "Should we put the boy to bed and try right now?"
Myka smacked the inventor's shoulder and tutted. "Behave," she admonished through a renewed flush, and then after a moment added, "Really? Do you think we should try?"
Helena looked at the hope and excitement on her beloved's face and knew immediately that they both wanted the same thing. "We should do some research first: explore our options. If you simply wish to know whether I am willing however, then wonder no further, love: the thought has occurred to me also. Often enough that I'm certain we're ready."
Sunday afternoon saw the entire Bering and Wells family at Pete and Lila's apartment, eating pizza and celebrating the hosting couple's exciting news. Christina ate as daintily as she could manage while mozzarella fell from her mouth in long ropey pieces, while her sibling and his friend appeared like wolf cubs as they growled, eyes challenging over every mouthful. At home, Fredrick was usually the epitome of a gentleman (for his tender years) and mealtime was a leisurely affair, but around Sophie, he often channelled his inner animal.
Myka, of course, blamed Pete for this. "Freddy, slow down and chew your food," the regent pleaded with her son, fearing that he would choke if he continued to push pizza into his mouth at such a rate of knots. She watched as Lila attempted the same plea with her daughter but to no avail.
"It appears a hopeless task, love," Helena soothed from beside her fiancée, her eyes avoiding the boy's only present male role-model.
Over the last couple of years, she had learned to relax some of her instilled rules around etiquette and table manners. There was a line that she wouldn't cross but in some circumstances, like around their close friends and family, she was increasingly less offended by her children indulging their messier sides. Had it been only Pete's influence, she might not have come so far, but her surrogate niece was adorable and she quickly realised that there was benefit to abandoning some of her mother's early lessons on class and superiority. She made sure to gently coax a more reserved approach out of Sophie whenever her father wasn't around though. There was no harm in encouraging balance.
"They're good, Mykes," Pete waved off his friend's concern, thankfully having sense to swallow before attempting to talk this time. "This is how pizza is supposed to be eaten."
Lila tried to hide a smile as she shook her head at her boyfriend. "You might try to teach our daughter how to pace herself though. Some days I wonder how I didn't give birth to a litter of cubs."
"You love the animal in me," Lattimer replied. "Aoowwww!" he yowled.
As both toddlers grinned and mimicked the howl, three mothers suppressed simultaneous groans of exasperation and returned to their meals. Experience had taught them that when Pete was around, some behaviours were impossible to curb. For Lila, this was a daily burden to bear.
"I don't know why I agreed to reproduce with you again," the blonde grumbled playfully. "I could have picked up a stray from the pound and avoided the whole rigmarole of growing my own."
"You're just powerless in the face of all this," Pete countered as he gestured to his manly physique.
Christina grinned around her last slice of Hawaiian as she watched the banter across the table. Meal times were vastly different from the distant memories she had of her life in London. At home, the atmosphere around the table was often chatty and relaxed but with the Lattimer household, it was chaos. Uncle Pete liked to pull faces, joke and laugh. He was always incredibly hungry and shovelled his food into his mouth with abandon. It was usually noisy and she knew that her Mum despaired at the whole event but Christina secretly loved it.
Her grandmother would have fainted with shock, and the thought of Genevieve's expression brought a broad smile to her face. She wasn't the kind of person who wished anybody ill but grandma Wells had always made her feel uneasy and not one part of her missed the stern woman like she did with other relatives.
Once they had finished eating and Christina had helped to clear the table, she played with her brother and Sophie while the adults remained at the table and chatted. It wasn't long before she was bored though and asked if she could have her Mama's tablet to play with. With the device in hand, she took herself out onto the balcony to Skype with Adelaide.
Around the dining room table, which overlooked the area where the two toddlers were happily playing, the conversation turned to Pete and Helena's mission in Turkey.
"Do we know why Claudia asked you guys to do this and not the new crew? I'm not sure I can see why this artefact is any more dangerous or useful than others they've captured recently. I mean, what about the parchment that poisoned anyone who touched it? Surely that is more of a threat to us in the wrong hands." Lila shook her head, her voice low as she considered what they might have to face one day.
Since the Warehouse's move, the new caretaker had kept her friends up to date with every new addition to the inventory. With Myka's eidetic memory, they didn't have to concern themselves with hiding valuable information but they did have to appear to be living regular, civilian lives, completely separate to their supposedly former occupations.
"Claudia must calculate every risk," HG began to hypothesise. "The Warehouse must be seen to be operating within normal parameters. That includes the expected yield of artefacts."
Myka nodded along in agreement with her partner. "If business drops too rapidly, the other regents will catch wind and they might begin to suspect our continued involvement in their affairs. We have to assume that they're watching us."
"I didn't spend half a day shopping with 'Miss Nothing-Is-Good-Enough-for-My-Love Wells just for my own amusement," Pete complained, thinking back to the hours he and Helena had wandered around the heaving market place in Istanbul, pretending to be simple tourists.
Lila flushed, feeling like the outsider that she was. "I know," she huffed. "But do any of you know how she's selecting these artefacts or why? Have you even asked her?" They were silent long enough that any offence she'd taken fizzled away. "Where is she keeping them?"
"We don't know," Myka admitted after an uncomfortable silence. "Lila, I'm sorry, none of us meant to undermine your concerns or questions, we're just used to working in the dark while we investigate and piece things together."
"Babe, we're not ignoring all the flashing blue lights," Pete tried to console his girlfriend. "But Claudia's family, we trust her."
"None of us enjoy the position we are in or the implications that our fates are not our own, least of all myself," Helena added her own thoughts to the mix. There were no perfect solutions. The caretaker's island fortress seemed like the preferable vault for anything that they wanted far from unworthy hands, including her own frozen child. "Trust can be a precarious state but I believe that Claudia is in the best position to coordinate our efforts without revealing too much to any one party. We have to accept the fact that we could also become vulnerable to manipulation, whether or not we are willing."
Myka watched some of the colour drain from the blonde's face and reached a hand over to comfort her. "We are in no immediate danger, Lila. Believe me, if we were, none of us would be satisfied with wedding plans or pizza parties. If the last few years have taught me anything, it's that we have to live, not just survive."
Lila sighed deeply and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "I know all this already." She placed a hand over her abdomen and glanced down. "I guess it just became real again. You're seriously not worried?" she asked, mostly staring down the two regents.
Myka reached for Helena's hand and squeezed it. "No, I'm not worried. Not yet anyway," she amended after a beat. "There may be dark days ahead, but we have time to prepare and we will be ready." Her tone was steady and confident, an air of certainty surrounding the ex-agent, as if a hand reached across the eons to guide her thoughts.
Helena caught her fiancée's eye and felt that same conviction filling her too. "We will not allow this threat to harm your family, Lila. Nor our own. Claudia knows what she is doing and will have all the information we require the moment it becomes necessary."
From the regents' joined hands, a wave of energy emerged. It dispersed through the air, invisible to the naked eye, and saturated the room. Thoughts that were previously building with panic began to calm and the atmosphere returned to the pleasant warmth that had accompanied their meal.
Lila took a deep breath, stroked a thumb over her soon-to-be bump and sighed a smile. "Alright then. If you're sure then I'll accept that. Now, how are those wedding plans coming along?"
"Is this place really called Wonderland?" Thomas asked as he chomped through his burger enthusiastically.
They'd spent the last four hours exploring and he was both ravenous and overwhelmed. The facility was huge, self-sustaining, heavily guarded and full of the kind of things that would make any kid wet them self with excitement. Obstacle courses, an Olympic sized swimming pool, science laboratories, virtual reality imaging software, a seemingly inexhaustible supply of research equipment and the comfiest looking dorm-room he'd ever imagined.
"I was thinking of something like Camelot. So we could be like the Knights of the Round Table, you know?" She picked at the fries on his plate, waving one back and forth as she spoke. "But I thought Wonderland sounded cooler. Despite the uncomfortable associations with madness," she muttered to herself.
"As long as the Queen of Hearts isn't here," he said around his food. "I like my head."
"You probably want to keep your heart too," Claudia added and then waved off her young friend's confusion. "Never mind. I have to cut down on my Netflix marathons. Do you like it though?"
"Are you kidding me!?"He all but shouted. "I'm almost glad some creepy person was stalking me: this place is awesome!"
Claudia chuckled but her expression soon softened and turned serious. "I'm glad you like it, kid. You're special and I'm gonna make sure no one hurts you while you're here."
Taking his hint from the tone of her voice, he swallowed thickly. "While I'm here?"
"Until you come of age, you have to stay on this island. I'm responsible for you now and it's the only way I can guarantee your safety." She shoved another fry into her mouth and winced when she realised that it was stone cold. "When you're old enough, you'll be given the option to leave, if you want to. Once you step off this island though, you'll be vulnerable. Do you understand?"
"But you're not going to make me leave?" he wondered, an uncomfortable churning beginning in the region of his stomach.
"You can stay as long as you like," she reassured him. "But I think there will come a time when even comfy apartments and endless toys are no match for friends and freedom. We can cross that bridge when we come to it though, and hope there are no trolls under there," the techie joked as she turned in her chair and stood up. "Well, kid, it's been a blast. Lessons won't start until Monday so you've got today and the weekend to do some exploring and settle in. I know it's kinda sleepy round here at the moment, but we have other peeps arriving after the weekend, so you won't be alone for much longer."
Thomas nodded as he pushed his empty plate away (the cold fries hadn't bothered him so much). His nerves were beginning to kick in again but the last thing he wanted to do was show it. "I think I'm gonna head back to the archery range," he told her with forced bravado.
Claudia slid into her jacket, smiled knowingly and pushed her hands into her pockets. "Don't go poking an eye out Mr Hood. I'm the only one who's allowed to channel Nick Fury around here. Just remember there's the simulator if Archie isn't out on the range."
"Is that her real name?" Tom wondered abruptly, thinking it was entirely too coincidental that the instructor was named for the sport she had mastered. When his mentor simply gave him a sidelong glance and a raised eyebrow, he realised that it was just her way of making the archer feel at home. He briefly considered what she might end up calling him. "Sims don't compare to the real thing, but it's kinda cool anyway."
She winked at him as she rocked on her heels. "I gotta go, kid," she announced. "Got a couple of legends to reanimate and they're gonna need some serious orientation."
She glanced behind his head, gazing for a moment out of the window at the decorative fountain in the peace garden. It was empty now but their team was slowly growing. Before long, the facility would be teeming with life, soldiers in the making, preparing for the big show down.
Thomas followed the caretaker's gaze and wondered what was going on behind her intense stare. By the time he looked back at her to ask if she was ok though, the young woman was gone.
Claudia whistled as she wandered the aisles of the Warehouse, set on a particular destination. Everything appeared as she had always known it but the absence of her friends was not subtle enough for the young caretaker to ignore. New bodies and voices filled the spaces, and while they were pleasant enough, they were not her crew. She took care of them, guided them and tried to channel enough of the previous caretaker to fulfil her responsibilities, but beyond that, she had her own mission.
Her footsteps brought her to a large metal shutter, reminiscent of the entrance to the 'Pete Cave'. With a thought, the aperture opened and the sanctuary welcomed its master inside. Excitement skittered up the redhead's spine as she skipped around a shelf and sidled up to a dusty, old crate. On close inspection, hinges lined both sides of the lid with no opening in sight, but as the caretaker pressed a palm to its centre, the surface shimmered and a lock appeared along the front lip.
Claudia reached into the front of her jacket and pulled out an oddly shaped key. Its handle twisted like the trunk of a tree and the lock-end nothing but a blank plain; it seemed useless for the task ahead. As she approached the chest with the item though, it sprang to life; the metal folded in on itself, pushing and pulling every which way until the appropriate wards appeared.
Offering her newly made key up to its lock, the redhead turned it and listened as the levers inside moved the corresponding amount to release the catch. Satisfied by the audible click, she removed her tool and watched, fascinated as it reverted to its former 'useless' state before placing it back in her jacket.
A lumpy piece of cloth lying on the bottom of the chest, amidst nothing but darkness, might have disappointed anyone else, but Claudia plucked it from its home with a grin and held it reverently in her palm.
Beneath the fabric was a stone, roughly the size of a golf ball but misshapen – bulbous on one side and elongated on the other. The pink blush hue marked it quite clearly as rose quartz and its smooth surface hinted at centuries of handling by countless individuals.
"The time has come, caloo calay," Claudia muttered to herself. She wrapped the stone back in the cloth and slipped it into her pocket with the key. After closing the lid of the chest and watching the lock revert to a row of hinges, she strolled back through the inventory of the Warehouse, soaking up the energy before she disappeared entirely.