2 years later

South Dakota, KYZZZ on the North American grid

Leena's Bed & Breakfast

Claudia's P.O.V.

I parked the Prius outside of the B& B, and then hopped out, before opening the driver's side rear door. I just stood there for a second, admiring my little girl. She stirred softly in her car seat, and my face fell.

"No…. no, please….." I murmured, slowly filling with dread. Leena had caught a case of the flu recently, and spent the first hour of the car ride screaming before finally falling asleep.

I quickly grabbed the diaper bag, then unbuckled her belt – it was ridiculous how many straps were n car seats these days – and pulled her out, resting her on my hip. I walked up to the front door, bouncing slightly as I sung under my breath, trying to calm Leena Claire down before she started bawling.

"When I grow up… I'll be sta-ble….." I sang softly, as I hit the doorbell with my elbow, since my hands were kind of full at the moment.

Pete pulled open the door, his face lighting up when he saw us.

"Claude! Leena!" he said, pulling us both into a bone-crushing hug.

"Pete! Pete, watch the baby!" I heard Myka call out as she came hurrying down the hall, one hand holding a book while the other held onto her wife's.

I extracted myself from Pete's grip, before placing Leena into H.G.'s arms and giving Myka a hug as well.

"Claudia!" I heard Artie from in the kitchen, before he appeared in the doorway, wearing a flower-patterned apron and oven mitts, a fresh tray of oatmeal scotcchies in his hands. "You're early!"

I laughed, slinging my arms around Pete and Myka's shoulders.

"What can I say? I missed you guys, and I missed home. So I arranged for Zane to watch over my projects at GD while I came home for a week or so." I told him, before 'sneakily' grabbing a cookie.

"Yum!" I said happily, before stealing Pete's cookie too.

"Hey!" he protested, before he began to chase after me. "Get back here, you thief!"

I was so busy looking behind me, watching for Pete, that I didn't even notice that the front door had opened again until it was too late.

"Oof!" I cried out, as I ran into a warm chest.

"Hey, watch where you're….." I began angrily, but trailed off once I saw who it was.

"Hey, Claudia." My older brother Joshua said.

"Josh." I whispered, before wrapping my arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.

"When did you get here?" I asked him a minute later.

"Just now." He responded. "Artie said that you would be up here for a while and that you would have a surprise for me. Please tell me it's not your husband."

The younger Donovan laughed, and was joined a few moments later by the sound of her toddler crying.

"Claudia!" H.G. called, before appearing in the doorway. "It appears that Miss Leena here is hungry."

As soon as Leena saw me, she stopped bawling and smiled at me, holding out her arms.

"Mama!" she said happily.

I laughed, walking over to take her from H.G.

"Jinksy!" I said, turning to my B.F.F.E.W.Y.L.I.O.N. "Can you be totally awesome and grab my bag from the car?"

"Jinksy!" I called, turning to my gay bestie. "Can you be totally awesome and grab my bag from the Prius?"

"Sure thing, Claude." Steve said, before walking out the door.

"C'mon." I said excitedly to Josh, pulling him towards the living room. Once we were there, I scooped up Leena Claire and carried her over to Josh.

"Say hello to my little friend." I said, doing a really bad impersonation, making Josh, Pete, and Abigail groan.

Five minutes later found the whole family in the living room. We had already introduced Joshua to H.G., and established the fact that yes, H.G. and Myka were married; and Josh had met Steve and Abigail when they came to pick him up at the airport, so now all that was left on the agenda was catching up.

"So how is CERN, Joshua?" Artie asked, as he tried to grab a cookie off of the plate that was sitting on the coffee table. Without even looking up, Myka smacked his hand away, earning her a grumpy pout from Grumps.

"It's great." Josh said enthusiastically, before turning to me. "That reminded me of something, actually. A year or two ago, a colleague of mine said she knew you, Claudia. A Dr. Grace Monroe?"

"Grace!" I said, surprised, before I remembered. "Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that."

We continued talking about random topics for a while, until Josh brought up the Warehouse.

"So, no more evil crazies to worry about, then?" Josh asked.

"None." Artie answered gleefully.

"Although we never did find out how Volta's lab coat ended up in Eureka." H.G. said thoughtfully. "And that was over two years ago now."

"Yeah, that's been eating at me for ages. Although I've been doing routine checks since then, and nothing else has gone missing." I said, watching as Josh bounced Leena Claire on his knee. "And I've looked at the records for that time over and over again. There was a record of an artifact disturbance, but no signs of an intruder anywhere. No one even went near the coat."

"Like a ghost." Pete joked, and I rolled my eyes at him good-naturedly before turning to Artie.

"Please, please, please tell me we have a ping!" I said hopefully. "I haven't been in the field for so long that I can feel the rust building up on my artifact-hunting skills."

Everyone chuckled at my subject change, while I continued to give Artie puppy-dog eyes. It turned into a stare-down for a minute, before he finally caved. Pulling the personal pinger that I had made for him out of his pocket, he growled, "Fine."

I clapped. "Squeal of delight!"

"Settle down!" he mock-scolded, before pulling two folders out of his bag, handing one each to Steve and I.

"You're going to Whitechapel, Utah." He told us. "Locusts have been swarming fields like crazy, leaving nothing behind. Only a few farms in the area haven't been touched, and it's your job to find out which one of them has the artifact."

"Alright!" I cheered, before turning to Abigail. "Can you guys take care of Leena Claire for me while I'm gone?"

"Of course!" Abigail said happily, and I grinned.

"Awesome!" I said gratefully, before picking Leena Claire up off of Josh's lap.

"Are you gonna hang out here with your aunts and uncles and Grumps?" I asked her seriously. She nodded seriously at me for half a second, before bursting out in giggles.

"I will take that as a yes." I said, then handed Leena to Abigail, and ran upstairs to pack a bag.

Meanwhile, outside of Eureka….

A woman sat in the front seat of her car, staring at her laptop screen.

"Hurry up, Jinksy!" Claudia Donovan-Fargo called up the stairs. The audio quality on the cameras that she had placed within the B&B was horrible, but it would suffice.

The woman rolled her eyes as she watched Claudia go over the toddler's schedule with an Asian woman and some old dude…. Again.

"God, over explaining much?" She muttered vindictively, and then sighed in relief a few minutes later when the 2nd A Team pulled away from the inn.

The woman shut her laptop then, and grabbed an antique kettle from the passenger side. She had grabbed it – along with a few other artifacts – when she broke into the Warehouse a while back.

Gripping the kettle tightly, she whispered, "I wish that every person in Eureka would forget every second that Claudia Donovan was in Eureka."

Fweeeet! A blast of steam coming out of the spout was her answer.

Now for her next wish.

"I wish that every shred of evidence of Claudia Donovan's presence in Eureka was gone."

Fweeeet!

Holly Marten smiled as she made her third wish.

"I wish…." She began, before stopping to take a calming breath. "I wish that Douglas Fargo and I….. were married."

Fweeeet!

A/N~ Cliffy! So, I have a challenge for all you readers out there in the interwebs:

There are at least 3 loopholes in Dr. Marten's wishes. Can you figure them out?

If you can, please PM or review. Whoever gets it right will get virtual cookies!