I don't own Warehouse 13. This fanfic came from an idea prompted by Mari. This takes place during "Trials", so spoilers for up to and including that episode.

girltechcoyote- I think we need more Artie and Claudia stories too! Fanfic writers, unite to write more Artie and Claudia fanfics!

Mari - Well, I really liked your prompt. Here's hoping that you like what I do with it.

Lady Anne Boleyn - There will never be a time when I don't love your username. I love the Boleyn history. Also, thanks for the review.

Chapter 1: First Impressions

Artie was not having a good day – he had been to a Regent funeral, had his knee hurt by that stupid altercation with the butcher knife and had made Claudia think that he didn't trust her whatsoever.

He knew he shouldn't have gotten out of the car to grab the butcher knife, but years of artifact retrieval had trained him otherwise. Besides, who knew what that man was planning to do with the knife? Of course, none of that mattered because he had gotten away.

Jinks and Artie were looking for him, but couldn't find anything.

And they couldn't find Claudia, either.

Running off was something that Claudia would do – she had to remove herself from a situation sometimes. Staying away from other people was also something she would do, to try and figure out her emotions. But staying away for two hours? Something wasn't right.

Jinks had been walking the streets, trying to see if she was simply cooling off in a coffee shop or restaurant somewhere, but so far he had turned up nothing. Artie grabbed the laptop that Claudia had left in the car, bringing up the tracking device for the Farnsworth with just a few taps of the keyboard.

"Oh no." He whispered. He got out of the car, running as best he could on his lame knee. Just a few feet away Jinks was walking towards him, obviously unsuccessful at finding Claudia.

"What?" He asked, seeing Artie hobble past him, muttering curses under his breath at the man that had wounded him. Artie was looking in every street and alley, but not for Claudia.

"Claudia's Farnsworth. It's not transmitting."

"Maybe she shut it off?"

"No, even shut off those things give off a homing device."

"Did she shut off the homing device purposely - "

"No. She knows better than to do something like that." But still, Artie was hoping that this was what had happened, that this was just a fit of rage from a hostile Claudia.

His hopes were destroyed when he saw the smashed Farnsworth at the end of an alley. The beautiful black and gold Farnsworth that he had polished and cleaned for hours before giving it as a gift to Claudia lay smashed into pieces in the alley, wires lying limply around it.

Claudia didn't remember much of what had happened in the van – she had gotten in, and in typical fashion, had tried to drive her kidnapper mad with questions. Finally, he had threatened to break off every single one of her fingers to make sure she couldn't escape. That had shut her up real fast.

There was a layer of chained wire, like a cage, between the back of the van and the front, preventing her from fighting back. The only things in the back of the van had been a bottle of water and a sandwich. Claudia had tried to keep from eating and drinking as long as possible, but eventually she had to have a sip of the water.

After that she couldn't remember anything.

It was like she had suspected before her lips had even touched the water – it had been drugged.

She woke up in a small room that didn't exactly look like a facility where a kidnapper would take his hostage, especially one prepared to take on the Warehouse. It was a room with light yellow walls, and wood furniture painted white to match gossamer white curtains blowing in the breeze. Quickly Claudia hurried to the window, which was open – but had bars separating her from the outside world. Looking outside, she could see nothing but land. Maybe she was on farm somewhere, she mused. That would explain the kidnapper's confidence in leaving the window opened – he obviously didn't think she could yell for help.

She crossed to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked. She hadn't really had any hope that it would be unlocked. Instantly she began to comb through her hair, locking for a bobby pin. Ever since Artie had left her handcuffed to the oven back on their first official mission outside the Warehouse together, she had remembered to bring something to help her pick locks. But her hair had been swept clean of any traces of bobby pins.

Claudia bit her lip, trying to figure out what her abductor's end game was. He had kidnapped her at gunpoint, destroyed her Farnsworth and had been smart enough to remove anything that could have helped her escape this room. But…

She was in a bright, beautiful room. She wasn't bound or handcuffed or gagged; she wasn't being tortured; aside from the fact that she was extremely hungry and thirsty, she wasn't feeling too bad.

She decided to investigate the rest of the room, to see what else it could tell her. The small closet held nothing, nor did the drawers of a desk that had been placed against a wall. She found another unlocked door leading to a bathroom, which held a shower and a toilet. Everything, from the lamp by her nightstand to the chair of the desk, had been bolted down.

She sighed and slumped down to the side of the bed, resting her body on the wooden floor. She turned her head, liking the rich smell of it. Suddenly her eyes registered something in the dim lighting under the bed. She slowly began to reach out, but began to hear footsteps. She scrambled back onto the bed, not sure whether she should try and look deadly or deceptively harmless. Her decision was cut short when the door opened up, so she just looked confused. Which was a pretty accurate description of how she felt.

She hadn't been able to get a good look at her abductor when he had first grabbed her – she had been too panicked and preoccupied with getting away. But now that he was standing in front of her, bathed in the sunlight, Claudia was slightly surprised by what she saw.

The man in front of her was stick thin, with pale red hair coming down to his chin, resembling almost a lion's mane. The stubble on his beard didn't help wave away the image, either. His eyes had a sharpness only intellect could show – Claudia knew just in that moment that nothing got past this man. However, there was something else in them, something she couldn't identify. She wasn't sure if that look wasn't dangerous. Which meant that she couldn't tell if he was dangerous.

Of course, the fact that he was carrying a gun kind of negated all her analyzing.

"Here," the man said. In his right hand he was carrying a gun, but in his left he was carrying a bottle of water and a paper bag. He put the objects in his left hand on the ground and nudged them forward with his foot. "Well," he motioned with his gun, "go get them."

Claudia slowly moved off the bed, her eyes trained on the man at all times as she leaned for the items. She grabbed them and went back to the bed. She opened the paper bag to see a hamburger and French fries. She looked up to ask him something – anything to get him to reveal information about why she was here, but the man had already disappeared. She could hear the click as the door locked behind her.

Claudia eat her meal and was surprised but pleased to find that it didn't hold any drug to knock her out. After she was finished, she got down on her hands and knees and reached under the bed for the object that had first caught her eye. She pulled it out, covered in dust, and her eyes widened.

It was a child's teddy bear.