Claudia had cleaned the blood from Artie's back, Leena had cleaned the blood from the floor so Artie wouldn't faint when he woke up, and they had both watched in fascination as golden thread appeared from nowhere and stitched Artie's wounds. He had asked Claudia to stay with him that night, and they did nothing but sleep, Artie spooned around Claudia, holding her as tightly as he could without crushing her.

This went on for a month. Artie would yawn and fix her with a look that was hopeful, longing, and unsure, and Claudia would smile, nod, and follow him to his room. They would undress, get into bed, and he would spoon her, burying his face in her hair as they fell asleep. When Claudia would stir in the middle of the night, Artie awoke instantly, shifting his weight in order to make her more comfortable.

Artie had made no move to kiss her or make love to her, and Claudia's impatience and frustration were getting the best of her. She managed to corner him at the B&B after he had sent Pete and Myka to retrieve an artifact in Romania.

"Artie, we gotta talk, dude."

Artie closed his bag gently. Fixing her with a false smile, he said, "Is there something I can help you with, Claudia?"

She nodded her head. "Oh you bet there is."

Sensing that Claudia was truly upset, Artie's smile faltered. "What's going on, Claud?" He leaned forward, suddenly concerned. "What happened?"

Claudia snorted. "Nothing has happened, Artie. That's the problem."

For a moment Artie's brows furrowed in confusion, and then a look of dawning comprehension spread over his face. He grabbed his bag and walked towards the door. "I don't think we should discuss this right now."

Claudia stepped in front of him, blocking his exit. "See, I do." She put her hands on her hips and glared. "You've not laid a hand on me in a month, old man, and I want to know why."

Artie spread his arms in defense and played dumb. "What are you talking about? We've slept together every night."

"That's not what I mean and you know it."

Artie moved to step around Claudia, and she moved to block him. He moved to the other side, and she blocked him again. In a low, even tone, Artie said, "Claudia, let me pass."

Crossing her arms, Claudia shook her head. "Nope. Not until you tell me what the hell's going on."

She had expected him to either yell or blow her off, but she was entirely unprepared for his reaction. He pulled out a chair and slumped into hit, holding his head in his hands. He ran his fingers through his hair, and after a moment he said, "I'm afraid I'll hurt you."

Caught off guard, she stammered, "Uh, what?"

Just then Leena poked her head into the room. "You two should really take this discussion upstairs. Mrs. Frederic will be through here in a few minutes, and she won't be happy."

Artie pushed his glasses up on his nose, grateful for a change of subject. "Has she told you what's going to happen?"

Leena shook her head. "She doesn't know yet, but you two," she said, looking from Artie to Claudia, "have told me that your issue will be resolved upstairs, so that's where I suggest you go."

Claudia was puzzled. "What do you mean, 'we told you?' We haven't even seen you all morning." When Leena simply stared, Claudia realized what she had meant. "Ah, the aura thingy, right." Leena smiled.

Artie sighed, resigned to his fate. "What else did we say?"

"That I should activate the soundproofing for Claudia's room and the energy dampeners for the building structure, which I have." Leena walked away, smirking.. "Apparently whatever you two are up to will cause quite a bang."

Claudia shot a sideways look at Artie to see him blushing furiously. He smiled and took Claudia's hand as he walked towards the stairs. "Let's go see what this is all about, shall we?"

Artie and Claudia sat side by side on Claudia's bed in an awkward silence. Artie was thumbing the catch on his bag and looking down at the floor. Claudia was looking at Artie, willing him to say something. Claudia cleared her throat when it became apparent that she would have to be the first to say something.

"Artie, what did you mean earlier, about hurting me?"

Artie looked up and gave her a rueful grin. "Getting right to the point, are we?"

She growled in frustration. "Telling me 'I'm afraid I'll hurt you' is bullshit. I want to know what's really going on!" Her bravado faltered as Artie glared at her. "I mean, are you trying to let me down easy or something? Do you not want to be with me anymore?"

Artie's jaw dropped. "My God, Claudia, how could you even think that?"

Claudia pulled back, defensive. "You wouldn't kiss me, touch me, anything! What else was I supposed to think?" She got up and turned to face Artie. His heart sank when he saw she was crying. "After the needle incident, you looked at me differently. I thought maybe seeing me reminded you of how much it hurt, so you didn't want to be with me anymore." She wiped her nose on her sleeve and shrugged. "I didn't have any info from you, so I had to fill in the blanks on my own."

Artie stood up and gathered her in his arms. "Claudia," he said fiercely, "I am so sorry I made you feel that way." After hugging her for a long moment, he pulled back so he could look her in the eyes. "I will always want to be with you." He gently tucked her pink streak of hair behind her right ear. "I love you, kiddo."

In a shaky voice, Claudia asked, "Then why won't you make love to me?"

He pulled her close to him in a desperate embrace. "Because I'm still under the effect of the Panacea Needle." He let go of Claudia and reached for his bag, pulling out a small knife. "I discovered it when I got a paper cut a few hours after it healed me." He put the knife to his wrist. "Observe."

Claudia jumped forward to stop him, but she was too late. Artie had pierced his skin with the knife and cut a deep slice into his arm. She froze when no blood came from the wound and watched breathlessly as golden thread whipped across the gash and sewed it shut. Artie's skin glowed for a moment and became whole, as if the cut had never been made. "This is why I am afraid I will hurt you."

Claudia was baffled. "What on earth does that have to do with sex?"

Artie shifted, still slightly uncomfortable with Claudia's bluntness. "Well, you see, I would be-um, sort of..." He sighed with exasperation and decided to just spit it out. "During sex I would be penetrating you, and I don't know if my penis would act as a makeshift Needle."

"So, what, are you afraid you'll..." Claudia struggled to find a word that fit, failed, and made up her own. "stitch-fuck me or something? Is that it?"

"Well, ah, I wouldn't have put it quite that way, but, yes." Artie sighed now that the cat was finally out of the bag. His relief was short-lived, though. Claudia pulled back, her eyes wide with anger.

"And you took it up on yourself to decide this, without any input from me? Did you not consider, even for a moment, that I would have been open to trying it?" She stood in front of him. "Damn it, Artie, why didn't you tell me! I've just spent the last month walking on eggshells, waiting for you to finally tell me we were through!"

Claudia stepped back when Artie suddenly stood. "I was trying to protect you!" he yelled, startling Claudia into silence. "Do you have any idea what it was like knowing that I whipped you with an artifact?" He stepped towards her menacingly, his finger pointed at her chest. "If it wasn't for Leena, I would have killed you!"

Claudia finally understood that his anger wasn't aimed at her, it was aimed at himself. She gently put her hand to the side of his face, gently stroking his grey whiskers. "But you didn't," she whispered, her other hand coming up so that she held his face. "Artie, you didn't kill me. I'm okay."

She wanted to cry again when Artie fixed her with a desperate look. "I almost did, Claudia." He grabbed Claudia's hands and brought them to his lips, kissing her fingers. "You have no idea how much it hurts that I nearly killed the one I love most."

Claudia froze. "What did you just say?"

Artie stopped kissing her fingers. "Um, that I nearly killed the one I love most."

She shook her head. "No, right before that."

He thought a moment and said, "I said it hurts that I nearly killed you."

Claudia put her hands on Artie's shoulders in order to look him square in the eye. "I know why you're still under the effect of the needle."

Artie stared at her in wonder. "Why?"

"It was something Leena said the night you used it on me. She said that the Panacea Needle not only healed the person it was used on, it healed the person who was using it."

"So what does that have to do with what I just said?"

Claudia smiled in triumph. "Artie, if you're still hurting over what you did, or almost did, to me, it means that you aren't fully healed, which is why you're still under the effect of the needle."

Artie gaped at her. It was so simple. Why hadn't I seen it? "So how do you propose we heal me?" Moving too quickly for Artie to dodge her, Claudia put her arms around him and kissed him.

He was about to push her away when a sense of rightness filled him. Artie groaned and kissed her back, his hands moving almost of their own accord to undress her. When Claudia was done helping him get her top and bra off, he helped her get his shirt off. He pulled her close to him and growled softly when he felt her nipples harden against the friction of his chest hair. Nuzzling her neck, he whispered in her ear, "I want you so much, Claudia."

Claudia led them back to her bed, both of them losing the rest of their clothes in the process. He loomed over her, kissing her neck, trailing his tongue down to her breasts. Each time Claudia gasped in pleasure, Artie was filled with the same sense of rightness, that in the cosmic plan of the universe he was right where he was supposed to be.

He squeezed Claudia's breasts and licked her nipples in long sweeping drags, the surface of his tongue doing marvelous things to her. He blew on her wet nipples, chilling them so that goosebumps erupted out all over her chest, and then he sucked each one in turn, enveloping the sensitive tips in the warm heat of his mouth. "God that feels so good, Artie! Holy shit..." she panted, gasping and squirming under his rough hands. It had been a month since she had felt his touch, his heat, his weight upon her, and her body was hungry for it.

Before Claudia knew what was happening, Artie had slid down the bed and positioned himself between her legs. He attacked her moist head with his tongue, one solid lick from the bottom of her opening to the very tip of her clit, and she bucked in pleasure, squishing Artie's nose in the process. She opened her mouth to apologize, but the words never came out. All she could do was growl in ecstasy as he continued assaulting her folds with his tongue, licking and sucking her clit from its base to its tiny tip. Artie brought her to the edge of a huge orgasm, and with a primal scream Claudia felt herself explode into the heavens.

With each pulse of Claudia's flesh, with each drop of honey that fell on his tongue, Artie was more and more enveloped in his sense of rightness. Each time her core squeezed, he was less broken. When she came down from her high, he gently licked her sensitive flesh until a new climax began to build. He flicked his tongue against her heat, slipping in a thick finger to rub her from the inside and the outside at the same time. When Claudia cried out and came again, her core poured out honey, bathing Artie's tongue and hand in sweetness.

Artie pulled himself up and kissed Claudia deeply, his hardness becoming even harder when he realized she liked the taste of herself. He rubbed the tip of his shaft into her core, and when she nodded, he buried himself into her wet warmth in one smooth stroke, the rightness nearly overwhelming him. Artie and Claudia moaned in pleasure as he began sawing in and out of her hot wetness. Claudia gasped as she felt a third orgasm building.

"Artie, oh yes, please, fuck me..." Baring her perfect teeth, she snarled and threw her head back, the cords in her neck standing out as she started coming, her nerves singing with orgasmic fire. When she floated back down from her high, she was amazed to find that Artie hadn't come yet. In fact, he was still hard as iron.

"You gotta be kidding me," she panted in disbelief.

He grinned at her wickedly and began slowly thrusting back and forth again, adjusting his angle to strike all the inner spots he knew she loved. He plumbed her depths, feeling her out, and when Claudia moaned and shook as her orgasm began to build, he knew he was going to explode. She screamed in bliss as her inner walls began pulsing for a fourth time. Artie felt the tell-tale sensation that let him know he was about to come as his hips began thrusting of their own accord. Just before he went over the edge, the rightness that had been with him ever since he kissed Claudia surrounded him, and as he roared out his own climax, firing his essence into Claudia, the rightness collapsed into him, permeating every part of his being. Redemption flooded into him, and he fell down on the bed, utterly spent. Falling into exhausted sleep, neither of them saw the glow as it suffused Artie for just a moment and faded, taking the golden thread with it.

Downstairs, Leena smiled to herself. She was grateful for her gift of seeing at times like this, because the entire B&B was lit up with the most beautiful colors she had ever seen.