Chapter 5

Struggling with the previous night's events, Claudia runs through them systematically.

"I came by here to have H.G. look over some stuff that might be what we have going on at the cottages, she left me alone to lay down, and…oh my god! I fell asleep here at the couch reading about a brothel named Lulu White's Saloon. Lulu had been a successful Madame in the 20's, and it was said that no one ever left her establishment without a smile. It was the rabbits, you see, on the beds and everything. My headboard has a slight smell of smoke, and guess what happened to the Saloon? It caught fire in 1927, but most of the beds and furniture were salvaged. It says she had 15 rooms for guests, to ply their trade."

Grabbing Helena's attention she perks up to listen.

"Ms. Garrett has 6 cottages here. You mean there could be 9 more of these artifacts floating around here?"

Myka nods and drifts inwards before responding.

"It would explain why she's so successful at doing what she does here. I mean, not that I approve of what we ALL have been through now, but it sure explains a lot. I wonder how many of those beds are floating around out here?"

Claudia surfs furiously.

"Fifteen. I found a sales receipt to Joan Garrett, her sister, for 15 bed head and foot boards sent via UPS from New Orleans to this cottage address…eight years ago."

Sighing loudly, from frustration and anxiety, she pulls out H.G.'s compass and watches it spin wildly. Growling, she shakes it until it stops. Having moved from due east where Ms. Garrett's cottage is situated, she shakes it once, but it keeps pointing at the new location. Confused she looks up to see Helena standing at the bar refilling her cup of tea, directly in line to where the compass is pointing. Clenching her teeth she empties her mind, and slowly the needle turns back towards the location of the safe.

Myka can only try to shake off the turmoil boiling inside of her. The longer they have stayed, the memories of the previous night were sticking in her memory better than the first night's.

"Okay. Now that we all have fallen victim to these artifacts, I vote we stay somewhere else if we can't get our pen."

Almost in unison, everyone in the room agrees instantly, and Claudia suddenly stops and turns towards Myka.

"Get our what?"

Myka's eyes pop open.

"I can't believe I actually said it."

Defeated, she sighs and continues.

"We need to wrap this up and get back to the warehouse today! I am not staying another night in this area."

She turns and goes into the bedroom to fill in Artie in private on the Farnsworth.

Helena sits on the couch and lies back for a quick nap and Claudia excuses herself to check on Ms. Garrett. With her joking manner deflated from the previous night, she just exits solemnly, struck with momentary flashbacks of her last night in bed with her colleagues. Entering the small office cottage, Ms. Garrett apologetically appeases Claudia's demands about her sister's arrival time. With Ms. Garrett sitting next to her, she has her call and talk to her on speaker phone.

"Well, I'm just passing Lacey, that's north of Olympia, and I should be there by around noon."

With Myka's frustration rubbing off on her, Claudia just nods her head.

"Fine, just get here. You have a lot to answer for."

Sighing, she walks out, but is struck by the need to caffinate her body. Taking the car a few miles down the road, she returns after another half hour with three large cups of Starbucks.

As she returns, her Farnsworth squawks and she sees Artie staring at her annoyed.

"Where's Myka?"

Claudia shrugs.

"I left her at the cottage. What's the matter?"

"I talked to the Mrs. Fredrick and she said the regents aren't worried about those new artifacts you found. Apparently those artifacts are in the registry, and aren't a danger to anyone."

Claudia grumbles under her breath: "That's easy for you to say."

Artie fires back, "What? You two have separate rooms right?"

Nodding her head, Claudia can only bite her tongue.

"Nothing! Yes, we are staying in two different cottages, and I'll tell Myka. Anything else?"

Artie seems to take her answer at face value.

"No, just be safe and get your artifact back here right away."

He breaks his link, and Claudia puts the Farnsworth away. Entering the cottage, she surprised to see Helena's and Myka's coffee cups sitting on the end tables. Perplexed she drifts further into the cottage and enters the bedroom without a second thought to find Myka and Helena's clothes folded neatly on the chair and the duo passionately making love under the sheets. Turning around, she sets the cup tray down on the bar and returns to the bedroom. She tries a subtle clearing of her throat, but it doesn't faze them. Next she tries to gently get their attention by saying their names, but subtleness has no effect either. Knowing if she doesn't do something, Myka would never forgive her, and fearful to touch the bed while they are in the throes of passion might drag her into it making the twosome a threesome, she goes to the door and begins yelling and banging on the door. Fortunately for all of them, the racket makes the pair slow their enthusiastic loving and they seem to wake. Claudia turns around and leaves the room as the pair is faced with the embarrassing truth of what they had done, once again.

After they take separate showers, they wander back into the front room and sit quietly, scrutinizing the past day's events, which were becoming clearer as time passed. Claudia tries to break the awkwardness of their predicament with humor, but it putters out almost instantly.

"These beds have some serious mojo huh? God! We can't take naps in the same cottage…"

Myka arrives and fires back defensively.

"I WAS IN THE CAR! ASLEEP! I just don't understand it. I just…I just want to get this done and never comeback this way ever again."

Helena snaps out of her inner trek, to comment about their dilemma.

"I'll never look at a bed the same way again."

As Mrs. Joan Garrett walks into the office, she's immediately faced with three tense and perplexed women staring at her. Trailing behind her a county sheriff shuffles in and flashes his chest, as if no one couldn't see who he was. Myka immediately jumps up and closes by flashing her secret service badge.

"Ms. Joan Garrett? Would you please open the safe?. We believe you have stolen government property inside of it."

The sheriff immediately steps forward and orders her to stop speaking.

"Listen girlie, this is my county, and you have no authority here. I'm the one who put that box in there, and you have no right to put your dirty paws on it."

As the situation quickly escalates, a loud crack of thunder and a bright flash of lightning drops down from the ceiling and strikes the sheriff as he reaches for his gun. With all his armor and equipment on his belt, he drops hard to the floor unconscious. The old women sit clutching each other by the kitchen door.

As Myka and Claudia stare at each other in confusion, a feminine shape solidifies from the far corner of the room. No taller than Claudia, it slowly becomes apparent who she is. Wearing the same purple spectacles from the fish market, their foreign courier steps out holding a 12 inch glass rod wrapped with brass and wood. Dressed in an expensive Valentino black leather and lace gathered dress, black stockings and matching short boots, she seemed to be out of place in the rustic and contemporary surroundings of the cottage.

Claudia can't stop from staring and blurting out the obvious.

"I thought you were dead?"

The woman only nods and replies in her thick Ukrainian accent.

"Da, if I only had a ruble for every time I heard that. Let's get this over with, my flight leaves in a few hours, and traffic is a bitch here."

She whips her black locks out of her face as she walks with the women to the back safe. After the second safe is opened, the contents become obvious. In a small innocuous beige box, no larger than a box of pencils, their artifact laid. The woman opens the box, verifies the contents, and exaggerates putting the box into Myka's hand before speaking.

"I officially hand off the artifact to your country, Agent Bering. I pray no one in your country ever tries to use it like it was done in ours."

Myka nods meekly.

"Thank you. That's why we're locking it away."

With little fanfare, she pushes her way out of the pantry and leaves the cottage. Myka tucks the box into the top pocket of her jacket. With the FBI carting the sheriff away for the double murder of the foreign assassins, the small bed and breakfast slowly returns to its original sleepy exterior. After clearing their bill, the three depart leaving the old sisters to sort out how they will continue. As they clean the first cottage, Joan looks at her sister and asks bluntly:

"Why did you put the two of them into this cottage? You know this one will aggressively put people together. You can't even have brothers or sisters together in this one. You should have put them in the one the spunky redhead was in."

Her sister only shrugs.

"I don't know, they just looked like they'd make a good couple."

Sharing a good laugh, they finish up cleaning and head back to the office cottage to share some tea.

Arriving at the warehouse, Myka and Claudia enter and hand the box to Artie. Opening it up, Claudia sees a simple gold pen set in the wooden case. Artie scrutinizes the item and finally closes it. Claudia is dancing around to know its back story. With a heavy sigh, Artie shoos her back and explains.

"This pen was Stalin's pen. He and every leader until Gorbachev used it with horrible consequences on the victim whose name was written using it. Our eastern counterparts were worried it might fall into the next leader's hand, and asked us to put it into permanent storage. Good job you two. Any problems pop up?"

Myka and Claudia share a subtle glance and shake their heads no. Claudia replies for the both of them.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, considering we had to see a woman have her belly torn open and be stuck in artifact riddled cottages. Basically your usual weekend hunting artifacts, right"

Artie mulls over her words and nods his head.

"Got a point. Good job, nonetheless. This was an important recovery."

Artie returns to his computer and the pair quietly leave for the day.

Myka sits on her bed staring at the ceiling, sorting the past week's events. Images of Helena fill her mind, and everything they did together. As she falls asleep she struggles with her feelings and emotions Helena generates inside of her. As the quiet of night descends over the quaint bed and breakfast, the moonlight illuminates a chair in the far corner of the room. Clearly outlined are Myka's clothes folded neatly and her naked form sleeping under her sheets. At the breakfast table, the two sit sipping on their coffee unwilling to discuss how they found their clothes when they woke up.

The End