Author's Note: Forgive me if this is really mistake ridden. I'm not sure how focused I was checking over this. My aunt's in the ER right now so my brain is sort of elsewhere. But since I'm on kid watching duty and needed something to distract myself I wanted to make sure you guys got this chapter on time. So read, review, and enjoy as always.
Myka let the cold water run over her. It was definitely not what she wanted to be running over her right now. She shivered at the memory of Helena's hands on her skin. Or perhaps it really was just the water. She was quite cold.
She shut off the water and stepped out of the tub. She walked out to the bedroom and sat on her bed in just a towel. What was she going to do now? She had to tell Artie, but she knew she had heard her rambling about being whammied by an artifact before and thought she had just been a little off from the explosion. How was she supposed to prove that she hadn't been rambling crazily?
She bit her lip. It wasn't going to seem like she was quite stable now either considering yesterday. This was not going to be easy. She sighed heavily.
Helena was worth all of this though. She would find a way to prove to Artie that she wasn't crazy, somehow. If she couldn't, well she would just try to find the pen on her own. She would start at Stanford again and branch out from there. Whatever it took until she was back with Helena.
And then the end of a dream wouldn't ruin everything.
She sighed again and started to get ready for the day.
Pete knocked on her door an hour later. "Mykes?" she heard through the door. "Are you up?"
She walked over and opened the door. "Obviously," she said once they were face to face.
Pete looked surprised for a second before he managed to school his face into a better expression. "Oh, well Artie wants to leave soon. He said we should be back at the B&B to try and look for other solutions for getting the Warehouse back."
Myka nodded. "Ok, I'm almost ready to go." Pete turned to go. "And Pete." He turned around to face Myka again. "Thanks for helping me back yesterday," she said softly.
His face softened. "No problem, Mykes."
He walked back down the hall and into his own room.
Myka started shoving her stuff back into her bag. She could be such a slob when she wasn't paying attention. She found one of her socks under the bed. She didn't even understand how that had happened, but she just threw the sock in with the rest of her stuff and shrugged. There were more important things to solve right now.
Another knock on her door stopped her packing. She walked over and opened the door to find Artie.
"Hi Artie," she said.
"Myka, you're looking…better."
"Yeah." Myka thought about adding more, about trying to discuss the pen again with Artie, but something held her tongue.
"Are you going to be ok?"
She nodded. "I'll be fine, Artie. When are we leaving?"
"Are you done packing?"
"I've got a few things more to go, shouldn't take me more than few minutes."
Artie nodded. "Then we'll leave as soon as you and Pete are done packing."
Myka noticed Artie's bag at his feet. "Ok Artie." She paused a second before asking, "Artie, are you ok? That thing yesterday with McPherson…well you seemed almost as upset as I was."
Artie slipped a hand into his jacket pocket, no doubt to caress the pocket watch. "I'll be fine, Myka. I lost James a long time ago. It just took me by surprise, that hologram. Some things never do quite stop hurting, but you get through it and it eventually hurts less. There are just things that set it to hurting again."
Myka looked at the older man sympathetically. She wanted to hug him, but didn't think Artie would take too kindly to the gesture. Instead she settled for patting his arm gently.
"It does get better Myka." He looked her in the eyes.
"I know Artie. Sometimes it's just a little hard to see that in the heat of the moment, especially when you have hope of being able to bring them back."
Artie nodded. "Get to packing. We don't want to miss our train," he said gruffly before picking up his bag and walking down the stairs towards the lobby.
Myka stared after him. She couldn't decide if telling him now was going to be easier or harder after that little speech. She shut her door slowly and went back to packing.
A few minutes later she was down in the lobby waiting for Pete with Artie. Nervous butterflies filled her stomach. She was sure she would feel this way around Artie until she managed to bring herself to tell him about the dreams. She hated not being completely in control.
She pursed her lips. Perhaps there was something she could do to make everything go more smoothly. Maybe she could research the pen without Artie's help and then bring him the results of her search. If she found some sort of proof that what she was saying was true, they couldn't think her crazy. Crazier things happened on a daily basis at the Warehouse. If only she hadn't broken down so many times before they might believe her without all the research.
Her teeth worried her lip. It didn't matter now. She would be back at the B&B soon enough with what was left of the Warehouse records. Everything would work out soon enough.
She hoped.
The trip back was long, but it didn't quite annoy her as much. There were no crying babies, no fat old men trying to shove a chair in her solar plexus. She hadn't had such a mundane trip in a very long time.
Back home, she set to work immediately. She searched through files and entered what she knew into the Warehouse search engines. Thank god Claudia had been working on restoring what had been lost in the Warehouse explosion and thank god for the backup files too. She didn't know what she would have done without everything. It was hard enough finding what she wanted with them.
She didn't know who owned the pen, she didn't quite know what it did other than it had something to do with transferring people between universes. She wasn't sure what exactly what else it did, whether the dreams were actually part of how the artifact worked or if they were just something special that she and Helena brought to the table. The only thing she was absolutely sure of was that it was a pen, owned by some physics professor.
She weeded through hundreds of entries, reading them, discarding them after she hit more than one characteristic that didn't fit. She worked for hours. She felt her eyelids slowly slipping shut. She jerked awake. She couldn't go to sleep yet. She had to find the pen. She had to…
She woke up drooling on the files. Myka sat bolt upright. Oh god, she had fallen asleep. A paper stuck to her face. She pulled a sheet off that had stuck to her forehead. She sighed. It was yet another that she hadn't read. She ran a hand through her curls. She wasn't going to get much done if she was hungry, tired, and unfocused. She would fix all those things and she would come back.
Her eyes scanned the lines of the paper she had pulled off her face. A few words caught her attention and she started to read closely. She reached the end and jumped up out of her seat.
"Artie!" she shouted running out of the dining room, socked feet almost causing her to slip as she turned towards the living room.
"What Myka?" Artie walked out into the hallway.
Myka skidded to a stop, flailing her arms to balance her. "I found something you need to see." She held out the paper.
Artie took it from her and read it. He looked up at Myka after he was done. "Are you trying to tell me what I think you're trying to tell me?"
"If you think that I'm telling you that I think that the dreams are real, then yes."
"Myka are you sure? Are you sure you aren't just trying too hard to make something out of nothing?"
"Artie, I'm sure." She looked him dead in the eye, challenging him not to believe her.
"Myka…" he said softly.
"No Artie, don't Myka me. I know it wasn't a dream. I was almost convinced it was, almost, but I know it's real now. And it's not because I found that paper, no I believed before that. Artie, you know those things that no matter what happens you believe are true? This is one of them. What can it hurt to try and follow this? If nothing else we have a potentially dangerous artifact out of the way."
Artie scowled. "I suppose. You said at one point it was making college students disappear. That's worth preventing. Fine. Go. Go to, Stanford was it? And take Pete with you. Bring back Edward Witten's pen and we'll go from there."
Myka nodded and turned to go back. Artie's phone went off, playing "I'm Sexy and I Know It." Claudia had set the ringtone and Artie had yet to figure out how to change it back. It seemed that the techie had erased all the menu options that would've led to the screen to change it.
Myka kept walking, grinning.
She heard Artie flip open his phone and read the text message. "Myka," he called out just as she hit the stairs.
She turned. "What Artie?"
"Don't take Pete. There's been a ping in London at a gentlemen's club. It's a job for two. Take Claudia instead. And keep an eye on her. She's in enough trouble as it is." Artie's face grew darker.
"What? When did Claudia get in trouble?"
"While we were in France. She decided to take the metronome and bring Steve back to life, against orders. Pete's mother intervened, but ended up allowing it without the consent of the other regents. Needless to say both of them are on short leashes for the time being. I don't want the regents to think something more drastic must be done. This needs to be a clean snag, bag, and tag for her. Can you handle that?"
"Yes, Artie. It'll be fine. I know exactly what we're looking for and exactly where it is. We'll be back here by this time tomorrow."
Artie nodded. "Good." He turned toward the living room and called for Pete. Myka was dismissed.
She climbed the stairs and knocked on Claudia's door.
"What Artie? Come to yell at me again? I'm still not sorry, you know. I SAVED Jinxy's life. Why should I be sorry about that?"
"It's not Artie. It's Myka."
She heard the girl jump off her bed and walk towards the door. The red head opened the door a second later. "Oh, hey Myka. Sorry, Old Man Grump has been a little more of a grump than usual."
"So I've heard. I seemed to have missed everything until just now."
Claudia nodded. "You were doing research during most of it and sleeping the rest. What were you looking so hard for? I don't think the Warehouse blowing up all over again could've distracted you."
"It's what we're going after now. Get packed, we're going to Stanford."
Claudia arched an eyebrow. "McGrumpy Pants said no more field work for me until the end of time or until all the inventory for the whole Warehouse is done once it's back, whatever comes first."
"Yeah, well he needed Pete for a mission in London and I'm not so sure he trusts me to go alone right now, so you get to go with me."
"But why doesn't he trust you? I mean out of all of us you're probably the most capable of going it alone. You're Myka."
"It's a long story Claud. I'll tell you on the way. Get packed."
Claudia nodded and stepped back inside her room.
Myka walked to her own room and grabbed up her still packed bag. She had thrown it in her room upon arriving before immediately setting to work in the dining room. She withdrew the dirty clothes from inside and quickly repacked fresh new ones. In less than five minutes she was back downstairs awaiting the younger agent. Myka paced the hall. She supposed she should be used to waiting for everyone else. It seemed to happen to her perpetually. Still, it didn't make her any less fidgety.
Claudia thumped down the stairs a few minutes later. "Ready?" she asked.
Myka nodded and headed towards the door. Once settled into the car and on their way Myka decided to ask a question that had tugged at her mind since Artie had told her Steve had been resurrected.
"So where is Steve? I mean I know I was pretty concentrated on those files, but I think even I would've noticed a dead man walking around the house."
Claudia winced. "He's with the Regents. They're making sure the artifact didn't affect him in some horrible way. They want to make sure they don't have another Marcus walking around the Warehouse freely, or so they said." She shrugged. "For all I know they could be stringing him up by his toes or something. The only reason I'm not trying to break him out at this very instant is because Jinxy asked me to let them do their job. I couldn't exactly deny him anything he wanted after everything, you know?"
Myka glanced over at the younger agent. Claudia's eyes stared blankly out the window, her hands clasped so hard they were white. Myka reached out with her free hand and settled it atop the other agents. She squeezed gently.
Oh, she knew alright. She knew everything the girl was going through first hand. Stopping at nothing to get the person they loved back. It may have been different types of love, but it was there and it was strong. The strongest driving force a person could ever experience.
"It's ok, Claud. He'll be back. Everything is going to be ok."
She felt Claudia's hands relax slightly under hers.
"Thanks Myka."
They rode a while in silence. Myka eventually had to remove her hand to navigate a particularly sharp turn, but she felt that the red head had gotten the point. Myka was there for her. She understood.
"Why wouldn't Artie trust you to go out on your own?" Claudia asked quietly.
Myka swallowed. She figured this would follow. "I think he believes I'm not far away from a psychotic break."
Claudia whipped her head around to stare at Myka. "What? I know a little something about crazy, and you're nowhere near it."
Myka smiled slightly. "I'm not sure you would say that if you had been with us in France or even with us at the Warehouse when it blew. Trust me, I understand where he's coming from and while it's frustrating, it's deserved. I think he's only trying to protect me."
"Wait, what happened?"
She sighed and launched into the story, telling Claudia everything, not just the bare minimum Artie had gotten. From the time she had woken from that final dream of the Warehouse blowing up until she had gotten back to the B&B from France. Well, she did leave out a few key parts about the dreams, but mostly everything. She felt better getting it all off her chest.
Claudia stayed silent through the whole thing, nodding to show she was still listening, until Myka was done. Her face had stayed blank throughout the story, worrying Myka a little, but she had kept on talking anyway. Once she started she found that she couldn't stop.
When she was done Claudia spoke up after a few seconds of silence. "So you love H.G.?"
"I do. A lot. It's almost scary how much."
Claudia nodded. "Then let's go get that pen so you two can be together."
Myka smiled warmly at the younger agent. "Thanks, Claud."
Claudia returned the smile. "No problem." She snorted. "I guess I do win the bet with Pete."
"Bet?" It was Myka's turn to raise an eyebrow.
"Pete and I made a bet a year or so back when H.G. first started showing up on whether you two would end up together. Pete said no way. I said you guys would. I guess I was right, even if I'm not right in this universe."
Myka glared at Claudia, but her heart wasn't in it and it had no real threat. "Of course there would be a bet about that." Myka laughed. "You two." She shook her head.
"What? I'll split the profits with you fifty-fifty."
Myka shook her head. "No, enjoy your spoils, if you can get Pete to fork over the money. He probably figured that if he was wrong at least he'd get to watch two women making out to make up for it."
Claudia grinned. "Probably. And I have my ways of getting my money. I'll stop stocking the Pete cave with cream soda. Provided we ever get the Pete cave and the Warehouse back, anyway."
"We will Claud, we will."
An expression that Myka couldn't quite read flashed across Claudia's face. It was gone before she could really understand it.
"Yeah, we will."
They rode the rest of the way to airport in companionable silence. The flight was uneventful as well. Myka dosed off for a few minutes, but wasn't rewarded with a dream with Helena. Both of them probably had to be asleep, at least for the ones where they were both in that in between world.
Myka remembered the first dream she had with Helena in it, being that odd disembodied voice as Helena had barreled down the road in her SUV crying. She had never discussed that dream with Helena. As far as she knew the author still thought that dream a figment of her grieving imagination. Perhaps that had been why she had been drawn to Helena even though she hadn't been asleep. Maybe her intense emotional state had drawn her consciousness across the gap of universes. It all sounded incredibly cheesy, incredibly romantic, and incredibly just like a normal day at the Warehouse.
They arrived in San Francisco and wasted no time driving to Stanford. This time Myka didn't have to drive a dinky little car. She got the SUV that she wanted. Yet, she sort of missed the Mini Cooper, if only for the laughter it had provided Helena.
They walked onto Stanford's campus, and straight to the Physics lecture hall. Myka flashed her badge to the professor who was in the middle of lecture. While the professor was distracted Claudia slipped over to the drawer and looked for the pen Myka had described. She dug around quickly, but didn't see the one she was looking for. After a few more seconds of looking, she stopped looking.
Claudia tapped Myka on the shoulder. When Myka turned to look at her she shook her head. Myka scowled.
"Excuse me professor, my partner Miss Donovan will continue questioning you about the physics students believed to have a terrorist plot against the president."
She felt more than saw Claudia's 'what the hell look,' but she disregarded it. The girl was creative. She'd figure out something.
Myka rushed over to the drawer and scrabbled through it. The pen wasn't there. It. Wasn't. There. Where the hell was it? She ran her hand through the drawer again. Fuck.
She walked back over to Claudia who was enlightening the professor on just how students could take the lessons he taught and apply them to terrorist plots. The professor looked sufficiently horrified. Myka stopped Claudia's little spiel midway through a sentence.
"Miss Donovan I take it you've gotten all the useful information you can out of this fine educator?"
Claudia nodded. "I have."
"Good. We'll be going now professor. If we have any more questions we'll come to you. Hopefully, not in the middle of lecture next time. We're dreadfully sorry about that, but you know the life of Secret Service agent waits for no man."
With that Myka and Claudia swept from the room. Once the door was closed behind them Claudia turned to her.
"Physics student terrorist plot? That's what you came up with?" Claudia shook her head. "I take it that Pete does most of the lying when you guys are on missions."
"What? I thought it was perfectly valid."
Claudia stared at her. "Right. Anyway, did you find the pen?"
Myka shook her head. "No. It wasn't there. I don't know where else it could be." She bit her lip hard.
Claudia pursed her lips. "You said you knew whose pen it was right?"
Myka nodded. "Edward Witten's, why?"
"Well that gives us some place to start searching, doesn't it? We aren't going back to the Warehouse without that pen."