A/N: The relationship between Yahweh, Asherah, and the ancient Hebrews is historically accurate, but I made up everything regarding the tree.
Leena knelt down, trying to see what MacPhearson had done to her. "Claudia," she crooned, using as soft a tone as she possibly could, "I need to see how badly you're hurt."
When she gently touched Claudia's bare shoulder, the young woman jerked back violently. She glared at Leena and bared her teeth, looking positively feral. Leena, puzzled by an aura she had never seen from Claudia, went toward the young woman to comfort her and find out what exactly happened.
"Leena, stop. She might try to kill you if you touch her again."
She looked up into Artie's eyes, their normal shade of brown made darker by worry. "Artie, MacPhearson did something to her." Artie bent over to look at Claudia's wounds, fighting the urge to vomit at all the blood as the young woman slipped into unconsciousness.
Leena gasped; Artie's aura began to radiate pure hatred like she had never felt from him. It filled the whole room and made her throat feel greasy. She swallowed hard, a metallic taste in the back of her mouth. "Artie," she choked out, "what is it?"
Pete and Myka stepped into the room, and Pete immediately pressed himself against the far wall. "Oh God, this is bad." Myka shot him a questioning eyebrow. Bad, as in really bad? Pete pressed his lips together tightly and gave her a small nod. Really really bad. Myka took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
Artie locked eyes with Pete, and the younger agent pressed himself as far back against the wall as he possibly could when Artie began walking toward him. "You have no idea, Pete, no idea at all," Artie said, his voice low and smooth, dripping with venom. Myka cringed when Artie's malevolent gaze fell on her. "You and Pete go check the tree out by the sign in the yard and see if any branches have been removed." He turned back and knelt down in front of Claudia.
Myka's inquisitive mind got the best of her. Before she could even think, she cocked her head to the side and asked, "What does the tree have anything to-"
"Just go check the damned tree!" Artie roared, whirling around and looking for all the world like he was going to fly at Pete and Myka and flay them alive. The two agents fled, grateful to be anywhere that didn't involve Artie being so scary.
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************
"What does Artie think is so special about this tree?" Myka wondered out loud, wracking her brain to figure it out.
Pete kicked leaves on the ground, pouting about Artie yelling at them. "I don't know, but we better find out quick or he's gonna bronze us and play Justin Bieber for a week."
Myka shot him a withering look. "Pete, be serious for just a moment, will you? The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can go back inside." She walked to the other side of the tree, using a flashlight to peer up into its leafy darkness. After a moment Pete brought out his own flashlight and helped Myka look for anything missing on the tree.
They had been checking the tree in silence for nearly an hour when Pete spoke. "I'm not sorry he didn't pick you."
Myka stopped, unsure if she had heard Pete correctly. She moved her light from the tree to where she had heard him speak. "What did you just say?"
Pete was still circling the tree, his light pointed at the branches above him. "I said, I'm not sorry he didn't pick you."
Eyes wide with surprise and hurt, Myka found herself unable to speak for a moment. She finally cleared her throat and asked in a small voice, "What's that supposed to mean?"
Pete looked her up and down, taking her in: tousled curls, white satin robe over blue satin pajamas, fluffy pink bunny slippers. He gave her a sad smile that pulled at her heart, because she knew quite well how it felt. "You are so wonderful that if Artie can't see it, he doesn't deserve to have you."
Myka nearly went to him, but memory pierced her heart with an icy drop of venom, flooding her with bitterness. She felt like such a fool, sleeping with him without ever sleeping with him, feeling safe in his embrace, only to remember the passion with which he had pursued other women that he had never shown her. "Were you thinking that before or after you fucked Kelly in every room?" She felt a twisted sense of satisfaction when Pete flinched as if she'd slapped him.
She advanced on him, shining the light in his face so he had to look away. "I saw how you pursued her, how you lusted after her, the sounds you two would make in the morning before everyone else was up. I remember the passion you lavished on her, how you loved her so much that she was your one," Myka spat, giving full voice to all the built-up envy and pain. "Of course Artie wouldn't pick me," she laughed, a sound so full of harsh self-recrimination that Pete cringed. "How could he, when I was beneath the notice of even horn-dog Pete Lattimer?"
Pete was stunned. Is that how she really thinks I see her? He stepped forward only to be blinded by Myka's flashlight again. "Would you put that damn thing down?" After a moment Myka lowered the beam.
"I never 'pursued' you," he said, "because I didn't want to hurt you."
Myka scoffed. "Oh how noble of you, Pete." She spread her arms wide. "See how whole and unbroken I am." Her voice rose in mock triumph. "Look at how undamaged I've become from you falling in love with Kelly and leaving me in the dust." She advanced on him, her eyes flashing in anger. "Look at how flawless I am from twisting my unwanted love for you into even more unwanted love for Artie." She stood in front of Pete, her nose almost touching his. "Don't give me this bullshit line of pity that you were trying to protect me, because you did a piss-poor job of it."
She backed away and raised her flashlight. "Now, if you're glad Artie didn't pick me because you wanted to, if you wanted us to go beyond sleep, then we have things to discuss. Otherwise shut the fuck up and let me do my job." Myka walked away from him and pointed her flashlight upwards, resuming the search for missing branches.
Myka turned when she heard Pete's rapidly approaching footsteps. He said nothing as he spun her around and slammed her backwards, pinning her to the trunk of the tree. She opened her mouth to yell at him when Pete kissed her, silencing any objection she had. Myka's arms wrapped around Pete and pulled him to her, kissing him back for all she was worth.
After nearly a minute, Pete pulled away, breathing heavily. He touched his forehead to hers. "Myka, I am an addict." Her heart nearly broke at the torture in his voice. "Inside me is a monster that turns everything he touches into shit. You are so precious, so priceless to me that I never wanted his hands on you."
Myka gazed at him. "I can't stand lies, Pete. I hate them." She placed a hand on the side of his face and smiled. "But I can love monsters."
Pete growled softly and kissed her again, his hands snaking into her robe, mumbling into her mouth about "titons." He pulled her hands up roughly and held them above her head against the tree.
"Ow!"
Pete jerked back, stunned. "Oh my God, Myka, I'm so sorry, I told you I didn't want to hurt you-"
Myka silenced him with a kiss. "You didn't hurt me, Pete. My hands jabbed into something pointy. Here, give me my flashlight."
Up on the tree, almost too small to be seen in the dark, was the sharp jagged remains of a torn branch.
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
"Artie, that's enough."
The older man turned his fury on Leena. He rose up from where Claudia lay and advanced towards the dark-haired woman. "Don't you dare tell me what I can and cannot do."
Leena stood her ground. "You know why this happened. It's Capra's Principal: 'After three, the multitude.'"
Artie's rage abated for just an moment. "What?"
That moment was all the time Leena needed. She stepped forward and put her left hand on Artie's chest, instantly grounding out the hateful energy that consumed him. Artie stumbled, gasping, and Leena walked him to a nearby chair so he could sit down before he fell down.
Once she was satisfied he would be okay, Leena turned her attention to Claudia. The young woman was still unconscious, but her wounds had all scabbed over. Leena pulled Claudia up onto her bed and drew back in horror when she her hands lightly grazed across the scabs on her face. Tree bark?
"I'm sorry, Leena," Artie said quietly, exhausted by the amount of energy she had to ground out of him. He ran a hand over his face and down his beard. "I'm not quite sure what came over me."
After making sure that Claudia was stable, Leena turned her attention back to Artie. "Surely you must have known this would happen."
Artie shook his head. "It never occurred to me that Capra's Principal would apply." He gazed at Claudia with a mixture of love and guilt. "What two can keep to themselves becomes public knowledge if shared by three." He sighed heavily. "As soon as I bound Claudia to me with the glory blossom, it was only a matter of time before James was strong enough to emerge on his own."
Their attention was drawn away from their mistakes when the downstairs door opened and closed. Pete and Myka came upstairs, whispering and giggling. When they stepped into Claudia's room they fell silent, each one expecting Artie to rage at them.
Artie raised a hand in greeting and was instantly filled with remorse and shame when Pete and Myka flinched. He got up from his chair and stepped towards them. "I'm, uh, I'm sorry, guys. I don't know what came over me."
After an awkward silence, Pete punched Artie lightly in the shoulder. "Hey, no prob, Artie." He fixed the older man with a piercing look. "I know what it's like when someone hurts the one you love." Artie only stared in confusion.
Myka cleared her throat loudly. "We did fine something on the tree, Artie. There's a place about a third of the way up where a small branch was torn from the tree. It juts out pretty sharply." She unconsciously rubbed her wrist.
Artie walked back to his chair and sat down roughly. He groaned, putting his head in his hands. "I was afraid of this." He put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. "The tree out by the sign isn't just any tree, it's Asherah's tree." When he was met by blank stares, he sighed and began to lecture.
"In the early versions of the Bible, and in many of the apocryphal texts, ancient Hebrews worshiped a god, known as Yahweh, and his wife, a goddess named Asherah. Asherah symbolized wisdom, fierceness, protection, female sexuality, all the things that make a goddess great. When a wave of misogynistic fury swept the land, everything having to do with Asherah was destroyed except for her tree, which is planted outside this very building." Artie paused, momentarily startled that he had everyone's rapt attention. "Legend has it that during Yahweh and Asherah's time, if a man wanted to declare his undying love for a woman, he would kneel beneath the Asherah tree and beg for a sign. If his love was deemed pure the tree would produce an apple that he would share with his beloved, binding them together."
"So that's where the apple in the Garden of Eden story came from."
Artie nodded his approval at Leena. "Exactly. If his love wasn't pure enough, though, the tree would grow a branch for him to tear off which would become whatever was necessary to either purify his love or atone for his love being too weak. If the man used the branch to the satisfaction of Asherah, the tree would drop an apple for the pair to eat, but if the man doubted the purity of his love and wasn't able to redeem himself to the satisfaction of Asherah, the branch would turn on him and make him shred his skin with his own hands."
A terrible realization dawned on Pete, Myka, and Leena as their gazes fell on Claudia.
"James and I are connected, which means he feels what I feel. For the wedding I was going to go to Asherah's tree for Claudia, but James read my mind and beat me to it. When he realized the love he felt wasn't his, the branch turned on him, and he must have found a way to transfer that punishment from himself to her."
For the first time ever, they all heard Artie choke back a sob. "And if I don't find a way to fix this, Claudia will die."