Still for k0505 :) Forgive the grammar, spelling,whatever, if anyone wants to beta feel free.

Chapter 2

Myka can hear them from the bathroom, and she lingers deliberately listening.

"What am I supposed to say to her?" Pete asks. "I can't keep doing this. I can't. I'm not doing this again. " He insists.

"Pete, take a breath. Calm down. If we all remain calm then Myka will be calm. She can pick up on your anxiety. It's not good for her." Helena tells him.

"What does it matter, she will forget what I say anyway, I can say whatever I want right? Why not just tell her its an artifact, tell her it's a nightmare, whatever keeps her happy. But I can't stand around and watch this again."

Even distantly from the bathroom, Myka can hear Pete's voice break. She stays there, listening for a moment. For a moment she casts aside the fact that she is certain none of this is real, and she looks at Pete. The frustration in his eyes, the rage, the pain. What did he think was happening? Did he think that what? Myka was his wife? She was going to have a perfect little family, baby, and a house with a white picket fence? What about the warehouse? Their job? Saving the world? There was no time, no room, for a baby. This life wasn't safe for a baby. And she has no desire to give up her job, her life. And Pete? Pete, her partner. The one person in the world who always had her back, who never let her down, why would she enter into any kind of romance with him? Risk their friendship and partnership over unresolved sexual tension? Seriously? Myka does feel a little bad when she sees Pete's eyes, the brokeness. If he really believed she was his wife then perhaps he would be concerned by her behaviour, but why so broken? Why almost grief stricken? What was going on from Pete's side of this? Maybe it was an artifact affecting HIM and not her? She presses her ear to the door and listens closer.

"Pete, you have to do this. Myka trusts you. She trusts you more than she trusts me or Helena. She can't do this without you. You have to help her deal with this." Claudia tell him.

Helena also tries to reassure him. "We are all working hard to find out what causes this amnesia, to find how to stop it. And we will, Pete. But all we can do for now is make sure Myka and the baby are all right. Her blood pressure is already high, its not good for the baby, it's not good for Myka. This is already a high risk pregnancy. Once the baby is born, then Artie and Vanessa can try out some of the treatments Vanessa has been experimenting with. The amnesia will stop. Things will go back to normal, she will be ok and the baby will be ok. And it won't be long now. We just have to get through the next couple of weeks."

"What if she never remembers? What if she never comes back?" Pete asks.

"She will still be Myka." Claudia tells him. "Nothing can take that away. Maybe she won't remember everything, but she will still come back."

Helena tells him "If she never remembers then she never remembers, Pete. But at least she will be ok, the baby will be ok. Myka wanted this. She asked us to do this, remember? She knew the amnesia could be permanent, and she didn't want any intervention until the baby was born."

"I tried to talk her out of that, I should have tried harder. What else is she going to forget?" Pete asks.

Myka lets their words sink in. Just for a moment, she allows herself to imagine the hypothetically this was happening. Even if it is some artifact warehouse thing, this is happening and she has to deal with it. She can't deal with it if she doesn't know what is going on. Pete, Helena and Claudia have made several mentions of this "Amnesia" that supposedly plagues Myka. And it's true, she doesn't remember things, she knows things are missing. But that could be part of some artifact. She tries to picture herself asking them to not give any treatment until the baby was born. She admits to herself, if she HAD been pregnant, which she was not, that she would be concerned for the baby, and she would do exactly that, make sure the baby was ok before trying to fix whatever artifact thing had happened to her. But she can't get her head around the fact that she would even be pregnant in the first place. Yet they are all so convinced, the three of them. And where is Artie?

"It's almost over, Pete. Vanessa said the baby can be induced in two weeks." Claudia remind him.

Two weeks? Myka thinks to herself. There is no way I am having a baby in two weeks. Just not happening. At least thats two weeks to figure this all out. Although she hopes it takes a lot less time than that.

"But the attacks are happening every day, and now she lost over a year of time. What else is she going to forget? She doesn't remember that we are married, she doesn't remember that we are having a baby." Pete sounds so lost as he speaks, and it makes Myka feel guilty for not remembering. Even though there is nothing to remember. This is a false reality. Pete is the one with false memories. His hopes, his dreams, his pain, it's all false. So Myka keeps telling herself.

"You promised her Pete, you promised her that you would make sure the baby was ok, and that you would be there when she didn't remember things, when she was afraid, you promised her you would be by her side." Claudia reminds him.

Funny, Myka thinks to herself, that Claudia was so concerned about Pete staying with her, at her side, when even though Pete is right there, way too close for comfort, Myka feels more alone than she ever has. No one else remembers the real way things are supposed to be. They are all fooled in this delusion. It's all up to her. And if that wasn't bad enough, there was this uninvited person living inside of her. You would think that might bring some small comfort, but no. It makes Myka feel outnumbered, invaded, isolated, insane.

"I didn't realise how hard it would be. Did you see the way she looks at me? She doesn't remember loving me." Pete continues, and he is almost in tears. "You didn't see the look on Myka's face when she looked over and realised she was in my bed. When she realised she was pregnant. It horrified her. As if she could imagine nothing worse than being with me, as if it disgusted her. As if it was a sick joke." There is that stab of guilt again, at hurting Pete in this imaginary life. He has always been a friend, a partner, a professional partner that is. Someone that she trusted. And even though she knows Pete would never hurt her, she feels violated. If this is true, all this is true and she really forgot a whole year of her life, it still makes her sick to think of Pete being so close to her, so intimate, married, a baby, it isn't right. Myka knows in her heart, she did not want this. This did not happen. No way.

"She is disoriented , Pete, she doesn't remember things that happened, she is confused and she is scared. I mean she woke up and out of nowhere she is married and pregnant, there is a little person growing inside her that she doesn't remember. Just give her a chance to calm down, and don't take it personally. And look on the bright side, it's not just the good things she forgot. There are a lot of things she is better off not remembering." Helena tells him.

There it is again, it's not the first time one of them has insinuated that Myka is "better off not remembering", and she makes it a point that she was ask them what the hell that means.

"It is just getting harder to keep her calm without explaining and filling in the gaps." Claudia acknowledges. "She is smart, and insightful, we need to be upfront, just enough to keep her calm. We can't just keep dodging questions and telling her lies, hoping she will fall asleep and forget it all the next day anyway. She can't really miss the fact she is heavily pregnant, I mean how are we supposed to explain that to her every single day and keep her calm. Maybe we should tell her the whole truth, no matter what Vanessa said, there is no way to keep her calm if she is going to wake up every day not remembering the last year of her life and suddenly find she is pregnant."

"Seriously?" Pete asks. "How would you go about explaining it to her even once, let alone every single day? It's too hard, I couldn't do it, It's not fair to her to keep doing that every day, just tell her it's an artifact, tell her when she wakes up everything will be fine, just like we do every other time."

"I just don't think that's going to work anymore." Helena tell him.

"It's not." Claudia agrees. "She is losing more and more time, and the episodes are more frequent, and I can imagine that as the pregnancy gets more advanced it becomes more real to her. I don't think we can get away with telling her nothing."

"What about the note she wrote, to herself, do you still have it?"Helena asks Pete.

He pulls a piece of paper from his pocket and hands it to here. "Here, take it. I'm not sure it will do any good, but you can try."

"I can try?" Helena asks him. "And what will you be doing?"

"What I should have been doing all along. Something helpful. I should be out there with Artie, looking for answers, helping Vanessa find treatments for the amnesia. Anything but sitting around here doing nothing."

"You're not doing nothing." Claudia tells him.

"You're right , Claud, I'm not doing nothing. I'm doing more harm than good though. I'm only scaring her more. I think it would be best if I was out there doing something, Claudia you and Helena can stay with Myka, I know you will take care of her." Pete tells them.

"What has got to you about this time Pete?" Helena wants to know. "Myka has forgotten you were married before, but this time something has really got under your skin."

Myka wants to know the answer too, what has got Pete so upset in this imaginary pretend universe.

"I don't know." Pete answers. "Something in her eyes, when she saw me by her side in bed. As if she was afraid of me, as if I would hurt her, or as if she was disgusted, you saw how upset she is. She forgot our marriage before yes, but she always looked at me like she believed we could be married, like she believed I loved her and that she loved me. Like she believed we could possibly be having a baby. But now she doesn't even remember that. It's all so unbelievable to her, so horrifying to her. She doesn't want me, she doesn't want a baby. There is nothing in her eyes when she looks at me. Just a partner, a "work" partner. And maybe thats how she really feels, maybe she was just scared when she found out she was pregnant, maybe she wasn't in her right mind when she married me, I mean all these amnesia attacks, who knows when they started, maybe I took advantage of her." Pete confesses.

"We were all there, Pete, you didn't take advantage of her. She has real feelings for you , you know that. She is just really disoriented and confused. It's understandable." Claudia tells him.

"She was scared, about the baby, she was scared what was happening to her, Maybe she never had real feelings for me?" Pete sighs.

"She loves you pete, and she knows she is safe with you, that the baby is safe with you, she knows you love her. You would do anything for her." Claudia tells him.

"She doesn't know that anymore." Pete says, and this time, there are tears in his eyes.

So, in this reality, which Myka maintains is not real, supposedly she is married to Pete, she is pregnant, very pregnant, and she has some sort of amnesia, which according to their conversation has been persistently worsening. And Pete is upset because apparently they have been married for a year and expecting a baby and she doesn't remember it. Ok, when what really has happened is some artifact- something affecting THEM, Myka deduces, that they all believe in this false future version of events, and somehow their belief had caused these circumstances, kind of like before when Pete wished her pregnant, maybe he or someone else wished for this, God only knows why. Or maybe it was an artifact affecting Myka herself, some kind of artifact that made her worst nightmare come true. Whatever it was, she was the only one who could see it, the only one to set things right.

"She may not remember, Pete, but she knows. Deep down she does know. She is just really overwhelmed." Helena reassures him "And leaving her now, it is the worst thing you can do."

Myka feels bad for Pete, bad that he is so hurt, but she can't take responsibility for it, she didn't do anything to him, there is some weird artifact thing going on. And as much as she hates seeing Pete in pain, Pete is right, he is making her more uncomfortable, and she wants him to leave. She can't even imagine being married to Pete, waking up pregnant in Pete's bed. It's embarrassing, shameful. She can't deal with him, as bad as she feels for being the cause of pain in his eyes. She just needs some space away from him. She will talk it through with Claudia and Helena, one of them is bound to see sense eventually. Pete won't see sense, not this version of Pete, Myka can see that clearly. If someone is going to help her, it won't be him. He will only hinder.

"I just need some time. To think. I'm not helping anything, one of you can stay with Myka tonight, right?" Pete asks.

"Of course Pete." Claudia tells him. "But why are you really leaving? Because you think it's better for Myka? Or because it's easier for you?"

"Does it matter? Come on, you can't think this is good for her? To keep waking up totally disoriented to reality. Freaking out about being married to me, about being pregnant."

"No, you are right. She remembers less and less, and is more and more upset and overwhelmed. But you don't have to disappear all together. She still needs you to be there in whatever way she remembers you."

"I agree." Helena tells Pete. "We will take the rings off. Let her move back into her room, Vanessa said it's not good for us to tell her anything that she doesn't remember. If she doesn't remember being married to you, then we will just pretend it hasn't happened yet. Just for a little while. But Pete don't leave her, not now."

"You promised you would be here." Claudia reminds him. "What if she wakes up tomorrow and does remember and you aren't here? What about the day she wakes up in labor and has no idea what is going on and she is scared and alone, she will need you. I know it's hard because you can't be there the way you want to be there, but she still needs you. Who knows how much more she will forget, and you are the person she has known the longest, you can't leave her." Claudia begs him.

"Fine." Pete nods. "But I just can't do this tonight. I'm heading over to the warehouse for a few hours ok? You don't need me tonight, I'm making it worse."

"But you will be back?" Claudia insists.

"Yeah, I'll be back in the morning. I'm sorry but I just can't do this tonight."

"It's ok, Claudia and I will take care of Myka tonight. Don't worry about it. And we will work out a longer term plan tomorrow, ok?" Helena suggests.

"Ok." Pete agrees. And heads for the door.

"You're not even going to say goodbye?" Claudia asks.

"It's better I just go. Call me if you need me." And with that, Pete was gone.

Strangely, after just wishing Pete would walk out the door, Myka feels a pang of abandonment as he leaves without so much as goodbye. I mean, supposedly she is his wife, carrying his child, and he just up and leaves because it's all too hard for him? Asks Helena and Claudia to "Take care" of her as if she were a child? There are so many things that don't add up. Now that Pete is gone, Myka has to know what is on the piece of paper that she supposedly wrote to herself. Maybe she had left herself a clue as to how to get out of this mess.