Thanks to Aimofdestiny for the beta. This chapter is a little longer. So intense. Much happening. Wow. Another thing: I don't know if anyone of you has read 'The Therapist', but I mentioned my job interview at the end. So, well. I have the job. Yeah! *confetti everywhere*
"No!" Helena's hands grabbed onto Myka's shirt and pulled it up. "No. This is not happening." A dark red hole gaped on the side of the Warehouse agent's stomach. Blood was running down her skin and over the writer's hands. HG was afraid. The last time she had been this afraid had been... Christina. The inventor stared down at the other woman's stomach and shivered. This couldn't be happening. Not again. How could something like this happen again?
Myka placed a hand over Helena's. "You can't leave again, Helena." She whispered with a trembling voice. "It's not your fault. It wasn't because you and the Warehouse crossed paths." She sobbed. "It was destined."
"Myka, I..." Tears fell down the Victorian's cheek as she looked into the younger woman's green eyes. "I can't lose you." Her hand curled around the agent's.
Myka managed a smile. "I'm here." She mumbled. "I'm not leaving." She took a deep breath. "But it's important that you stay calm, because I need your help. You will now take a deep breath and then you will help me save my life."
"We have to... We have to get you out of here. Into a hospital." The inventor rose from her crouching position but didn't let go of the other woman's hand. "Can you...?"
The younger woman hissed as she tried to move. "I need help." She swallowed. "Help me up."
HG nodded. She reached down and wrapped both arms around the other woman to pull her up. Myka was heavy, but Helena was sure she could manage it with her help. She had to get Myka out of this Warehouse and into a hospital. Carefully, she shifted the agent and pulled the younger woman's right arm across her own shoulders. The agent's body weight fell onto her own and Helena almost stumbled. She needed a few seconds to adjust herself and the wounded woman's body. Myka groaned in pain.
"I've got you." The Victorian said, because she didn't know what else to do. Carefully, she set one foot in front of the other. Myka was moving her feet as well, but she wasn't really walking. A shiver went down Helena's spine as the younger woman's face leaned into her neck. The agent was almost limp in her arms.
"Myka, stay with me." Helena said as they passed the still unconscious hunter on the ground.
"I'm not leaving..." Myka's voice was less than a whisper. "And you can't..." Her voice broke at those words. HG was frightened because the other woman had stopped talking. She had to keep her awake, because she was sure she couldn't manage carrying an unconscious Myka through the Warehouse.
"You have to stay awake." The Victorian's voice was desperate. "Stay awake for me. Talk to me, Myka."
"Can't talk..." The agent choked out.
"Then I will talk to you." Helena turned them both into the next aisle. "I will talk to you and you'll have to listen because you have to stay awake for me. I can't lose you, Myka. You can't die!"
The other woman made a noise at that. It sounded like a chuckle. HG*s brows furrowed in confusion; she turned her head to see the semi-concious other woman with closed eyes and a slight smile on her face.
"Do you think this is funny, Myka?" Helena swallowed. The tears burned on her cheeks.
"Interesting..." Myka managed to say.
The Victorian dropped her gaze to the ground. She managed to drag them both forward by another few steps. "Interesting?" She asked and was suprised at the almost indignat tone of her own voice.
"It's wrong, Myka. It's so wrong. I wish you would have allowed me to talk earlier. Over the last few months I've been running from the Warehouse, even though we both know it's the place where I belong. The Warehouse is my home. And I've been running from it. And you knew it. That day in Boone you knew it but you sent me away because you also knew I was denying it."
The younger woman just groaned in reaction.
"And by doing that I've been running from you as well, Myka! And it was wrong. Because, Myka, I love you... And now that I've finally realised this and how wrong I've been to run from you, you can't die and say that it's interesting. Myka, I can't lose you. You cannot die! Because I love you and I need you to stay with me. And I want to stay with you!" The words had poured out of Helena slowly at first, but by the end of her confession, she was almost shouting.
Myka quivered. "Good..." She simply said and then became completely limp in the writer's arms. At the sudden change of weight, Helena stumbled, losing her balance. Both women fell and the Victorian had to let go of Myka, so she could use her hands to break the fall.
Helena watched Myka with growing concern. As the younger woman reached out her hand and talked to herself, the Victorian decided she must be affected by an artifact. Her mind raced around every object they had come in contact with, concluding that there were none, except for the board game. So HG jumped up from her position in the grass next to Myka and walked over to the cans with the neutralisation liquid. She was really worried about the other woman. At first there had only been the pain she had described, but without a wound to explain it. Now she was interacting with someone who wasn't there. Helena had no idea what this Jumanji artifact could do to people, but she was sure that it had to have done this to Myka.
With a few quick movements, the writer opened the goo can, gripped it firmly in both her hands and marched towards the point where the box made of brown wood that was the board game lay in the grass. She kept her distance, opening the game's cover with the tip of her shoe. Interested, she looked at the playing pieces standing on the board as though they were waiting for the next turn.
Behind her, Myka giggled. Helena took a deep breath in reaction and poured the neutralisation liquid over the opened board game. At first, there were small sparks emerging from the game, but then suddenly everthing around them started glowing. The rainforest setting was literally sucked back into the game like dust into a vacuum cleaner. HG dropped the goo can; the grass under her feet disappeared, making her fall down on the hard, but blessedly normal Warehouse floor. Sparks and flashes of light flew around her head. The Victorian was sure that those were energy representations of everything that had left the game in the past hours. After a few minutes, the lightning decreased and then stopped completely. The board game closed by itself. Suddenly, it was completely silent in the Warehouse. Helena knew that the animals and all those other things that had run havoc in the Warehouse after coming out of this board game had disappeared, stowed safely away back in their box. But, well, apparently the mess they had caused hadn't. The writer looked around the aisle. The shelves were still damaged from the plants which had grown on them and in the middle of the floor, there was a broad, but not very deep hole. It had apparently held the swamp.
Myka had sat up and was looking attentively at HG. The writer smiled shyly at her, asking an unspoken question.
"You neutralised the board game." The Warehouse agent stated. Helena narrowed her eyes at her, unsure if this had solved Myka's... state or not. She looked normal. But she had also looked normal when she had been talking to herself.
"How do you feel?" She asked, hoping that the neutralisation of the artifact had also had an effect on the younger woman's mind.
"I'm feeling great, Helena. Why do you ask?" The agent tilted her head and looked questioningly at her. Now Helena was sure that something had changed, but she didn't know if it had changed for the better. Myka didn't seem to remember what had happened in the last minutes.
"It seems you were affected by an artifact." Helena explained, moving closer to the other woman. The agent stood up and dusted herself off. She smiled at the Victorian.
"Really? Oh. Well, it's a good thing you neutralised it, then." She replied with a shrug.
"Indeed." HG nodded, still worried. "Indeed, Myka. I neutralised the board game. Do you feel better?"
"I'm feeling great." Myka laughed. "Let's put that game back on the shelf where we got it from and then go neutralise those other artifacts on the list."
"Alright, then." Still eyeing Myka skeptically, HG picked up the goo-dripping board game from the ground to put it back on its shelf.
"Could you hurry it up a little?" The agent asked, turned around and picked up their belongings. "I want to have this finished before Sarah comes home from school."
Under the attentive gazes of both Warehouse agents and the keeper of the inn, Dr. Calder gently wrapped the ribbon around Mrs. Frederic's arm. The Warehouse's system hads booted to the point that they could reconnect the the elder woman to it. Now their heads turned to watch the caretaker being reconnected to the Warehouse. Claudia was sure that she saw the ribbon glowing, she had expected it to glow but then...
Mrs. Frederic opened her eyes and looked directly into the girl's. She narrowed her eyes and bit her lip. Claudia glared at the older woman. She had never witnessed such an act of weakness from Mrs. Frederic. She could tell the woman was confused and afraid.
"What's going on?" Abigail asked with furrowed eyebrows. Claudia already knew what Mrs. Frederic would say before the caretaker turned her head to face the therapist.
"It's not working." She spoke with a voice that showed that she was seriously concerned.
"Maybe I did something wrong." Dr. Calder said, fiddling with the ribbon.
"No." Claudia said in a monotonous tone and looked at the ribbon. "You didn't. The ribbon is placed right."
She looked up and watched Mrs. Frederic's worried face.
"It's not the ribbon." Irene explained and turned her head towards Dr. Calder. "It's the Warehouse."
Abigail and Artie exchanged a confused look. "What do you mean?" They asked in unison. Claudia was very quiet in her chair. She lowered her gaze to the ground and waited for the fear to overwhelm her. The Warehouse didn't want to have Mrs. Frederic back. She could feel it. And this could only mean one thing...
Apples. Claudia could smell them since the caretaker had expressed her worries about her connection to the Warehouse. But the redhead had managed to deny this. She had managed to deny the teasing feeling in her stomach. The feeling of being needed by this entity that was the Warehouse. Slowly, she shook her head.
Mrs. Frederic was as quiet as Claudia and watched the girl attentively.
"What is going on?" Artie asked with a voice that mirrored the confusion that he, Abigail and Dr. Calder all felt.
"The Warehouse." The caretaker said, looking at the agent. "Has its own mood. It has its own wishes and needs."
Claudia closed her eyes and tried to keep herself from tearing up.
"There is a point at which it no longer prefers its old caretaker and requires a new one. Not all wonders are endless, Arthur. I have served for a very long time now. The Warehouse seems to feel that I am tired. And it decided that it's the best to retire me." Mrs. Frederic took a deep breath and rose from her chair. "Warehouse 13 doesn't want me as its caretaker anymore. Over the last year it tried to get Claudia's attention. My disconnection may have been a coincidence, but the fact that it rejects me now isn't. Claudia." She said softly, then turned towards the girl. Claudia didn't open her eyes. She pressed her lips together in one thin line and shook her head.
"No." She simply said, her voice trembling.
"Claudia. When the Warehouse calls for you, you have to answer." Mrs. Frederic spoke with a calm voice. She stepped closer to the young girl to gently place her hand on her shoulder. "The time has come to-"
She was interrupted by the redhead. "No. Don't say things like 'The time has come for you, Claudia. Accept your destiny.' I have accepted my destiny, Mrs. Frederic, okay. I have accepted that I have to be in charge over this strange facility at some point in my life. But, damn it, it's too early. I'm too young. This is happening so fast." She took a deep breath and shook the older woman's hand from her shoulder. Shaking her head, she rose from her chair.
"Claud-" Mrs. Frederic began, but stopped speaking when Claudia glared at her. With big steps, the girl passed Artie's office and left it towards the gallery.
She gripped into the banister and took a deep breath. The tears were now running over her cheeks and she couldn't stop them. She was afraid. She hadn't planned on this. How had she gone from installing a simple program to discussing the caretaking again? Discussing the caretaking... The redhead snorted. It wasn't like she had any choice, now that the Warehouse was openly rejecting Mrs. Frederic. How could it take this decision from her? Claudia was mad.
Suddenly she felt someone taking positon next to her. The girl turned her head and recognised Abigail, who had placed her hands on the banister, too and looked out over the Warehouse aisles.
"We won't talk about this." Claudia growled.
"Hm? What?" The keeper of the inn turned her head, looking for all the world like the redhead had pulled her out of a deep thought. She shrugged. "Of course we won't. It's not like the Warehouse is running away, is it? Even though you have to admit that the current state of being without a caretaker connected to it is a little unsettling." Abigail turned and leaned her hips and ellbows against the banister without breaking eye contact with Claudia. "We could talk about other things." She grinned. "Maybe about the fact that the B&B's water bill is incredibly high this month."
The young agent snorted and looked back at the aisles of the Warehouse.
"Claudia, you had a lot of 'me time' in the shower." Abigail spoke. "I think you needed time for yourself and your thoughts. I don't think that you were struggling there." She took a deep breath. "I think you have accepted that the Warehouse wants you, like you told me that day we were in the Warehouse to fix the problem with your ...uhm.. Goozooka?"
Claudia rolled her eyes and tried to hide her smile.
"Back then you told me you wanted to become caretaker in the future. You wanted it badly. And I think in the last month you realised it wouldn't be a problem for you to take over the job soon. And now you're afraid of yourself. Because suddenly, it feels so real for you." The keeper of the inn paused.
The redhead took a deep breath. "I'm afraid of being on my own. This is so much responsibility and I'm sure I can't handle it alone." She felt comfortable admitting it to the woman.
Abigail nodded. "But, Claudia, well. There's this one point you have to consider."
Claudia looked directly into her eyes, her eyebrows knit together, head shaking slightly in confusion.
"You're anything but alone in this." The therapist said,gesturing towards the open office door. Claudia turned her head; her eyes landed on Artie, who leaned in the frame, arms folded, not meeting her eyes.
"We will help you." He simply said without looking up. "Me and Abigail. And I'm sure Mrs. Frederic won't throw you into the job all alone. I'm sure if Steve were here, he would say the same." Artie swallowed. "We are a family, Claudia. Everyone in the Warehouse. And we will help you as much as you need us to."
Claudia watched him and felt a growing warmth in her heart. He was right. She wasn't alone. She had all of them with her. And they would help her. Drying her tears with the palm of her hand and sniffling, she walked towards Artie and hugged him. The older agent leaned into the hug. Claudia's relationship with the Warehouse was built on the relationship she had with the family around it. And she was grateful for every last one of them.
Slowly, she pulled back from the hug and looked through the door at Dr. Calder and Mrs. Frederic, who had watched the three of them with worried faces.
Claudia bit her lip. Then, she took her first step towards Dr. Calder.
"Let's do this quickly." She said. "Before I change my mind."