~~~~ Chapter 6 ~~~~
"I would love to know just how you are planning to do that."
Artie turned his head so fast, he almost gave himself whip-lash. The voice didn't come from either of the twins who Artie still assumed were somewhere in the warehouse complaining about inventory. No, the voice belonged to a man, looking to be in his fifties, with graying brown hair and dark eyes, sitting in a wheel chair.
"Pete?" Artie tore his hands off Claudia's face and smiled, not letting his true feelings at the sight of the wheelchair show.
Pete smiled as his old boss pulled him into a hug. "Long time, man." He said when they parted.
Artie started to laugh for real, "Yea, yea, uh, Claudia was filling me in." She walked up and stood next to Pete. If Artie hadn't been holding her while she cried not two minutes ago, he would have never known she had just been crying. Years of experience, Artie thought. "A lot has changed."
Pete and Claudia shared a glance. "Yea, things tend to be a little different after twenty years."
None of them moved for a few minutes, Artie still a little shocked at how different his two friends looked and Pete and Claudia still a little shocked at how the same their former boss looked. Pete was the first to break the silence, "So," he cleared his throat, "we should probably find a way to get you back to your time, huh?"
"Uh, right." Artie turned and looked around the office. "Um, well, like I told Claudia, the last thing I remember was Christmas Eve back in '09. Nothing special. That I know of."
Pete turned to Claudia, "You sure that memory wipe thing will work?"
Claudia nodded. "Yes, Pete. I re-purposed it myself. It'll work."
"Wait, you were serious about that?" Artie interjected, staring at Claudia.
"Duh, geezer, why would I brag about something if I wasn't serious?" She remarked, in a tone that, to Artie at least, was rather familiar.
"Yea, while you were out, Claudia fixed up and re-purposed lots of handy dandy thing-a-ma-gigs." Pete informed Artie in his usual light tone.
"Right." Artie stated, slightly embarrassed. "What is it?"
"Well, it used to be a strobe light that cause amnesia but," Claudia walked over to her desk and rifled through her drawers, "I changed it around a bit, added a clock to it, and," she pulled out a flashlight, "presto, controlled memory wipe."
"Can I- can I see?" Artie asked, reaching a hand toward the device.
"Yea, sure. Just, you know, don't press any buttons." Claudia handed Artie the flashlight.
It was lighter than he thought it would be. It was silver, about a foot long, with a few extra knobs on the handle. Artie eyed the knobs, "So you just put in the date and time, and what? You forget everything since then?"
"Pretty much," Pete answered Artie.
When Artie continued to maneuver the light around in his hands, Claudia asked, "What are you thinking, Artie?"
Artie hesitated and kept his gaze on the light. "Well, um, if and hopefully when, we find out a way to get me back to where I belong…" He trailed off in thought.
"Yea?" Pete didn't like when Artie didn't finish his sentences twenty years ago, and he felt the same now.
"What date are you going to put into the light?" Artie looked up at the two agents confused faces. "I mean, are you going to wipe my memory before I go back?"
"That was the plan," Pete put simply, not seeing where Artie was going.
"Well, assuming it was me who touched the artifact that brought me here, the chances are good that I will need to be the one that activates the artifact again to take me back. So…"
Claudia caught on and finished his sentence, "One of us is going to have to explain to you how to use the artifact after your memory is wiped. And that means you are going to see at least one of us, and the moment you see us…"
Pete sighed. "It's a freaking cycle. So what are we going to do?"
Artie handed the flashlight back to Claudia who in turn laid it on her desk. "Well, I could take the light with me and just wipe myself when I got back to the past."
The three of them considered this for a few moments. Then Pete asked, "But won't having a future object in the past throw everything off anyway?"
Artie was getting a headache and proceeded to rub his eyes in frustration.
"Well it won't matter how we wipe his memory if we can't get him back." Claudia sat in her comfy chair and looked at Artie, "You must have touched something in the warehouse that day?"
"No, I never left the office that day. I mean, we knew what artifact we were looking for so I was just searching for MacPherson on the computers."
Both Pete and Claudia sighed in frustration. "Okay," Claudia finally said, "just go through everything that happened that day. Everything you did. Everything you touched."
"Okay. I got up at 7 like I usually do and headed to the warehouse a little bit after that. I was in the office doing a search on anything out of the ordinary when I got a hit off of the Santa's hat. I found where it was and got everything ready to go so you," he looked at Pete, "and Myka could go get it. Then I headed back to the B&B."
"Okay. I remember that," Pete said.
"Yea, I remember you whining about it being Christmas Eve," Claudia teased.
"And I had a perfectly good reason, too. Right Artie?" Pete defended.
Artie couldn't help but smile at the two older versions of his friends. Even after everything, they still could still make light of any situation.
Artie decided to take the middle road and ignore that question. "Anyway, after getting you guys settled, Claudia and I went back to the warehouse for research. That was when I got your," he looked at Pete, "secret Santa present but –"
"Wait." Pete interrupted, "what present?"
"What? Uh, the butterfly thing. It was on my desk when Claudia and I got to the warehouse." Artie answered, a little confused.
"Artie," Pete started, "that wasn't my present."
"What do you mean? Yes it was."
"Artie," Claudia said hesitantly, "you said you didn't get the present until after you left in the morning and then went back with me. Pete was with us the whole time. There's no way he could have gotten to the warehouse to leave that for you."
"Yea, and besides, I wouldn't get you a girly butterfly thing. Please, I got you…" Pete cleared his throat, "well, I'm not going to ruin the surprise." He gave a sly grin before continuing, "Anyway, that thing has got to be the artifact. Now we just need to figure out how you got it."
"That's easy, MacPherson." Artie said, as if it was obvious.
Claudia's brow furrowed, "Um, ok, but why would he give you something to see the future with?"
"Cause he's a creepy maniac, that's why," Pete stated. There was an undertone of pain.
"Right." Claudia nodded, "well we need to find it and figure out how to get you back to your time."
"No need. Hand me a pair of neutralizer gloves, please," Artie reached his hand towards Claudia.
Confused, Claudia quickly reached in her desk drawer and pulled out the familiar purple gloves and handed them to her mentor.
Artie took one and without putting it on, reached into his pocket. He grasped the cold metal with the plastic glove and extracted it from his jacket pocket.
The blue piece of metal shined in the fluorescent light as Claudia and Pete bent over to inspect it.
"Freaky," Pete stated before straightening up. "Alright, well the hard part is done. Now we just have to figure out how it works."
Claudia also straightened up and let out a chuckle, "yea, that was the hard part?… Artie, what were you doing while you were holding this?"
"Lying in my bed, about to fall asleep." Artie's eyes went wide, "I was thinking about the future! Whether Claudia would take my place, whether, um, you," he pointed to Pete," and Myka would get together, what would happen to me."
Pete and Claudia shared a glance. "I bet that's how it works," Pete said.
Claudia was still confused though, "again, why the hell would MacPherson give you this?"
"Maybe he was hoping I would get stuck in the future and therefore lost forever so I wouldn't screw up his plans anymore," Artie guessed.
"Well, so far it's working, we're still not sure how to get you back," Claudia explained grimly.
After a moment, Pete perked up, "why don't we just take him back to where he came to our time and have him think about the past, er, present? I mean, if that's all it took for him to come here?"
Claudia looked at Artie, hope in her eyes, and shrugged, "It might work."
Artie nodded, "it's the best we've got."
Pete smiled, "alright then! Let's go!"
"What about the memory wipe problem?" Claudia asked a bit nervously.
"We'll figure that out on the way there," Pete said as he began to wheel his way out of the office.
Artie and Claudia looked at each other, both hoping the crazy idea was going to work. After a brief moment, they both nodded. Claudia grabbed the re-purposed flashlight and followed Artie out of the office.
Before Artie and Claudia reached the stairs, a loud alarm went off and red lights began flashing all around the warehouse.