Disclaimer: I don't own Warehouse 13. I only own Nigel, who is my first OC.

Chapter 4

An Alternate Reality

"Hello?" A small boy peeks out from behind the door.

"Hey, you must be Nigel." Claudia says, smiling at the boy. God, he looks just like Pete, she thinks. The boy nods.

"Please come in." He opens the door all the way and motions for her to enter. The movement on such a little boy makes Claudia snort with laughter. He doesn't seem to notice her rudeness or, if he does, he ignores it.

Claudia enters the small apartment and asks, "Hey, where are your parents? I need to talk to them." Nigel shakes his head.

"They're not here. Myka's at work and Pete's at the bar again."

At the bar? Claudia thinks. Well, that's new. She clears her throat. "Do you know what time they'll be home? I really need to talk to them, dude."

Suddenly Nigel's face lights up. "You're Claudia, aren't you?" he asks, beaming.

Claudia is taken aback. "Yeah, I'm Claudia. How did you know that? You're not even supposed to exist, sorry to break it to you."

Nigel smiles sadly. "I know. I shouldn't be here. I am a direct result of your tampering with the space-time continuum."

Claudia stares at the boy. "What?"

"You don't remember, of course. But this universe – everything you see around

you – is how it is because of you. You created it."

As they have been talking Nigel has been leading Claudia to the living room. She sinks into an armchair. "I... created it?" she says faintly.

"Yes. There was an artifact that allowed the user to travel through time-"

"The Hangman's Friend noose." she interrupts.

"That's the one. Anyway, you discovered how to use it to send you to a specific time. You went back to save your parents from the car accident." He waves his hand around at the room. "It worked, obviously."

He sighs. "You created an alternate reality, one in which you had loving, rich parents. Because they could provide for you and Joshua, he was never as motivated as the Joshua you knew. He never went to that college and was later killed in an accident, not lost outside of time for twelve years. You never joined the Warehouse because you never met Artie at Joshua's school." He shrugs. "Paradoxically, because you never joined the Warehouse and traveled back to 1969, Artie never joined the Warehouse either." Claudia leans forward and puts her head between her knees, shaking her head as she tries to absorb this.

But Nigel continues to talk. "Because Artie died and didn't go on to pick Pete and Myka as new agents, they stayed on as Secret Service agents. Pete never recovered from his brief bout with alcohol and later married Myka. He beats her quite often."

Claudia is still shaking her head. "So this is my fault."

Nigel shrugs. "Well yes, but you had no way of knowing THIS would happen."

Suddenly remembering Leena, Claudia looks up again. "So what happened to Leena?"

Nigel chuckles. "Surely you must have realized the striking resemblance she bears to both Irene Frederic and Artie?"