Title: Family Distress

Fandom: Warehouse 13

RAXS

Characters: Myka, Artie, Claudia, Pete, Steve, Jane

Rating: T

Authoress Ramblings: Tag to The 40th Floor. I'll write for the other episodes as I'm inspired to, so they'll be out of order. Family Angst.

Okay, I'm going to say RIGHT NOW that I have a DAMN good reason for not making this AU for this episode, but I'm NOT telling.

Edit: October 7th 2011: Moved to be in episode order.

Atlanta, Georgia

"We'll find another way down!" Myka called down to Artie, her heart breaking at the look on his face, they both knew the likely hood of them failing.

Artie looked up at Myka, and suddenly, the platform started moving down. Myka's face was getting farther away. His heart broke. He felt like he was abandoning his own child, and the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Myka was his daughter, not legally, or by blood, but by bond. He turned to snap at the reagent next to him, but stopped as the platform hit the ground. Firefighters rushed up to them.

"What's going on?"

Artie flashed his badge and informed them that the situation was under control. Myka didn't need Artie to be a concerned parent, she needed him to be her superior agent.

"Artie!"

Pete and Claudia were dashing around the corner.

"Artifacts created by emotion sometimes need other emotions to cancel them out."

Artie and Claudia stepped back from Pete, who was spraying a peace sign over the Anarchy symbol. Artie placed a hand on Claudia's arm, mostly to reassure himself that she was okay.

After Myka and Jane are rescued

"Myka!" Artie made his way to her side.

"Artie."

He pulled her into a tight hug.

"I'm okay, Artie. I'm okay."

"I want to introduce you to her."

Pete followed Myka to where the reagent was standing.

"Jane, I'd like you to meet my partner, Agent Pete Lattimer."

The reagent, Jane, turned. To say Pete was shocked was an understatement.

"Mom?"

"Hello Pete."

Jane embraced her son, Pete was still reeling from the revelation.

"I'm proud of you."

"Claude, you know there's no one I'd rather chase artifacts with than you."

"What's wrong? It sounds like you have bad news."

"I was…insubordinate."

"Welcome to my world."

"Seriously. I drew my gun on Mrs. Fredric…She fired me."

Claudia's heart simultaneously dropped and broke. Tears sprang to her eyes.

"I'll talk to Artie, he can talk to her…"

"No, Claude."

"But-"

"I can't do this."

Steve kissed Claudia's cheek and pressed something into her hand. Jeanne's ring.

"Take care of her."

Claudia sank to the ground as Steve walked away. Her tears began to fall.

"Not again, not again…"

Artie found Claudia on the ground leaning on a wall, crying and muttering to herself.

"Not again…"

"Claudia?"

She looked up at him, tears running freely down her face, makeup running.

"Mrs. Fredric fired Steve."

Artie, with some difficulty, sat next to Claudia, letting her cling to him as she cried. He wanted to tell her that everything would be okay, but he knew that to her it wouldn't be, not for a long time.