Moin! I hope everybody is alright. We're counting down to the chapter where people will probably yell 'Fina-fucking-ly!'. It's not that long anymore. Also, I really hope you enjoy Claudia/Sarah scenes, because the two of them will be hilarious. Have you read TTAW thoroughly? Because there are a lot of references to it (Claudia+ Sarah and coffee. Sarah disliking guns pointed at her. And there will be a lot more. Everytime you find a TTAW reference, you're allowed to yell at me).
Thanks to Aimofdestiny for the beta.
"You exist!" Claudia happily exclaimed and performed a little dance around the desk where Sarah sat. "You exist, for crying out loud. This is the best news since the announcement of Windows 7!"
In Sarah's mind, Paul snorted in reaction to Claudia's words. Oh, I forgot you're back in the stone age, when Microsoft ruled them all.
"Right, and dinosaurs roamed the earth, yes Littlefoot?" The older child smirked but then froze as she saw Claudia's surprised look.
"No, I'm not having conversations with myself." She quickly told the caretaker.
"But?" The redhead's confusion was evident in her voice.
"Uff, this is hard to explain." The writer briefly chewed on her lower lip. "I have a brother, you already mentioned him: Paul."
"Aaah! The mysterious brother. He exists, too! Everything turns out to be as it should!" Claudia's smile only brightened. "Littlefoot?"
"Yeah." Sarah sighed. "Apatosaurus really have a long neck. And he's quite tall. Also: he rebuilt momma's time mach-"
"You're calling her 'momma'?" The caretaker squeaked. "That's so cute! Oh god, I want to meet Momma HG! Honestly. That's the cutest thing ever. What do you call Myka?"
Tell her what you want. Paul said. She mentioned a memory loss, remember?
"Ah, uhm... when I was younger: 'Mommy' and now just 'Mom', because we grew up and that sounds strange when you're twenty."
Claudia sat down and quickly took the girl's hands - or Steve's hands - in her own. "That's the cutest thing I've ever heard. Momma HG and Mommy Myka walking around with their daughter Sarah and baby Paul in the Warehouse. Pushing baby strollers... Oh god, that picture is just wrong. They can't push baby strollers..."
I think she's gone crazy with this thought. The time traveller heard her brother chuckle.
"So, yeah. That's fine and all. But maybe you want to come back to the time machine question? And my artifact, Claud?" Sarah tried.
"Have you been pushed around in baby strollers?" Claudia asked, her tone serious. Pete snored a little more loudly on the couch.
"Alright, you do know I'm here because I have to find an artifact and not to answer questions about how I was raised, right?" Sarah clapped her hands once and stood up to head for Claudia's computer.
"So... 'Littlefoot'." Claudia tried again this nickname. "I hope he's got a good comeback for that.'
Sarah snorted. "Yeah... Ferret."
The caretaker's eyebrows furrowed. "But why that?"
The girl blinked for a few seconds, then she shrugged. "It's a reference to the circumstances of my birth..." She whispered. "Anyway, Paul has added a device to the time machine that makes it possible for me to hear him in my head. Which is slightly-"
"He did what? How did he do that?" The caretaker rose from her chair, looking incredibly interested. "I've thought about something like that myself. If you added... hmm..." Suddenly, Claudia looked to be deep in thought.
Sarah, tell her that I have added a simple system of-
"Okay, I know you're both techies, but there is no time for that. We have to find the artifact to save the family and you're not helping by starting with your techno babble right now." Quickly, the girl opened the ping research program on the Warehouse computer. "There has to be some sort of ping or something. Otherwise I wouldn't understand why I was sent to this exact particular time."
"So one could say Paul is the tech nerd?" The redhead slowly walked over to Sarah to position herself behind her and look over the time traveller's shoulder - or around it, since Steve was taller than Claud. "And you're not? How did HG handle that disappointment?"
Sighing deeply, Sarah replied: "I'm the writer."
"A writer?" Claudia's eyebrows darted up in surprise. "Well, she'll like that."
"She does, even though I don't let her add science fiction to my novels." The time traveller explained while typing into the keyboard.
"Means you're writing what?" The caretaker went into the topic interestedly.
"Fantasy crime novels." Sarah mumbled while concentrating on the screen.
"Successful?" Claudia asked quickly.
The other woman looked at her though Steve's eyes. "Well, I'm not H.G. Wells. But I have my fans."
Steve and Claudia had managed to get Myka and Helena rooms in the exact same hotel Pete and his partner had been in before. HG decided that this was a good outcome, because then, maybe, they could find the artifact faster. This would mean they could get home earlier and maybe, after two transcontinental flights, Helena would have enough time left to enjoy with Adelaide. She was currently internally scheduling her sleep, while Myka talked to the woman behind the counter in the hotel's lobby. The younger agent was busy with the late-evening check-in and casually asked about surprisingly aggressive guests in the hotel. The receptionist admitted that there had been a lot of rude people in the last few days, more than usual. And that once, they had had to call the police to get rid off an aggressive man who had beat up this one secret service agent.
Myka and Helena exchanged a knowing look. Then, Myka signed a few forms for the check-in. The receptionist smiled softly at her, then at Helena.
"So, two rooms?" She asked, skepticism evident in her voice. The Victorian's eyes widened for a second, then she bowed her head quickly. "Yes."
Meanwhile, Myka had frozen a little, looking at everything but her partner on duty and then nodded profusely. "Right." She said, with her voice slightly higher than usual.
"Oookay." Helena disliked the way that woman behind the counter overstreched the vowels in her exclamation.
"So, here are your keycards." The young woman's tone had returned to business. "It's on the third floor, right next to each other." She smirked at Myka and then pointed at a clipboard on the reception. "That's a petition which will go to the mayor. We're collecting signatures for the children's hospital on the other side of the street, which needs a new addition to its building. If you and your partner on duty" The receptionist read those words from the form Myka just had handed to her, "would like to sign it, Miss Bering?" The receptionist also took the ballpoint pen from the younger Warehouse agent, who had slightly blushed and was now rubbing the back of her neck. Helena could see that and it caused her to worry again. She had no mind for those kind of thoughts right now. She still wasn't sure how to handle the fact that Myka had seen a child in her future. Their future? HG didn't know. She had listened to Abigail's words during their therapy session, but listening and understanding those words was something different from knowing how to handle them. Getting the Victorian to trust herself again with the help of Myka. But wouldn't allowing herself to slip back into Myka's life also mean danger for the younger woman? And of course for that chi-
No. Helena didn't want to think about this. Especially not right now.
So she decided to take her keycard and began to walk towards the elevator, while she caught Myka from the corner of her eye, taking the pen on the clipboard and signing the petition.
"Helena!" The Victorian froze in front of the elevator as the younger woman approached her from behind a few seconds later. "Yes?" HG asked, her voice trembling a bit. She quickly pressed the button of the elevator to keep herself busy from thinking about how strange the words partner on duty sounded if one overemphasised them.
"So it seems that the artifact may actually be in this hotel." Helena could feel Myka's gaze resting on her face while the American stood next to her, waiting for the elevator as well.
"It does?" HG asked, being a little at a loss. She briefly looked at the other woman from the corners of her eyes. Then, the elevator doors opened. While both women stepped inside, Myka asked:
"Yes, didn't you listen to the receptionist?"
Helena turned around next to her to watch the elevator doors close. Suddenly, she realized how small this elevator actually was and how close it brought Myka to her. Helena quickly inched away and tried to get space between the other woman and herself to be able to keep herself away from her.
"Indeed, I did listen to the receptionist." The Victorian replied, trying to recall what that woman actually had said, besides commenting salaciously on the nature of their relationship. "Aggressive guests in the hotel. But that could also be a mere coincidence, couldn't it? She also clearly only talked about Pete fighting with that one aggressive patron. Couldn't it be that this man has come into contact with the artifact outside of the hotel?"
Helena turned her head to look at Myka, who seemed to ponder her words. The American chewed on her lower lip with her eyebrows furrowed and - How long did an elevator need to get to the third floor? Helena had to get out of it quickly. Handling Myka so close was hard. The Victorian realized she had forgotten to press the button to actually get to the third floor. Someone else had called for the elevator in the fifth floor and they went up there instead. Awkwardly, Helena reached behind Myka's back to use the button for the third floor. Her view fell on the American's long neck. Her beautiful long neck...
The younger woman looked at her and then, HG caught her eye.
And that had been definitely a mistake, because now she could feel this unbearable pull inside her chest, could feel herself gravitating closer to Myka. Which actually wasn't quite possible anymore since they were already so close due to the size of this bloody elevator.
The elevator doors opened and HG quickly looked up to find someone joining them. Fine. Now they were three people pressed closely to each other, while making their way down to the third floor. Helena pinned her gaze to the man's back instead of Myka while waiting.
When they finally reached their destination, the doors opened and the man who had joined them gave them some space to let them leave the elevator.
Still deeply in her mind, thinking about the way Myka had chewed on her lips, and what her neck looked like, Helena headed down the hall. She was checking hastily on the numbers on the doors.
"Helena, where are you going?" The younger agent asked behind her. The writer froze at those words because Myka suddenly sounded so different than before: Angry, hurt and... well, mostly angry. Why was the American doing this now? Helena had tried so hard...
"I'm heading for my room." The Victorian replied calmly, not turning around.
"Of course." The younger agent's words sounded so full of bitterness that HG felt forced to slowly spin on her heels. "Myka?" She looked at the other woman questioningly, finding her clenching her jaw and glaring at her with her eyes narrowed.
"Yeah. No." Myka huffed. "That's exactly what you're doing, right? Not admitting that there just was something... something. Oh, well, no. Wait. You know that there just was something. But you decided to ignore it. To leave that situation, like you always do."
HG stood there, thunderstruck, staring at the other woman, who now turned to the door of her own room. "It's not like I'm not making steps towards you, right? It's not that I've been waiting for almost nine damn months now only for you to decide that you cannot bear coming anywhere close to me. And that I... that I cannot do more..."
Under Helena's disbelieving eyes, the American quickly ripped the key card out of the pocket of her coat and pressed into the device on the door. Three quick strides, and Myka was gone, closing the door with a loud bang behind herself.
Hesitantly, HG walked to the door. She didn't understand what had just happened. Myka's behaviour had changed in mere seconds. Reaching out her hand to knock, she froze, realising that the other woman had just gotten angry because Helena had tried to avoid her again.