And here's another chapter. I hope everyone reads everything thoroughly, because... you know me, right? :D

Thanks to Aimofdestiny for the beta.

2014

In the hotel's lobby, Myka approached Pete from the side, carrying her suitcase. Her partner was writing something on a clipboard which lay on the reception counter. As he spotted her, he smiled and put the pen back on the clipboard.

"I checked us out of the hotel a few minutes ago." He said. "You don't need to do anything at all. Just prepare for an awesome calm and cuddly flight back to South Dakota. You can have my iPod with the chilly music and sleep a little." Myka's partner shrugged. "Or if you want, we can talk about fencing and literature."

She smiled at him fondly. Sometimes Pete was such a softy.

"Well, you know." Myka assured him. "I'm not ill. I'm just struggling with-"

He waved his hand and then closed the gap between them to place his arm around her shoulders. "Yeah, Mykes. I know you like handling things on your own and all. But let me help you."

Maybe he was right. She had tried to handle her feelings by herself so far. Well, she had told Claudia, but the girl was already struggling with her new responsibility as caretaker. Maybe Myka's best friend could help her get through this instead? Actually, it was an obvious choice. Pete had helped her so often already. Why hadn't she already asked him for his help? Well, she had to admit that she had never really been the kind of person who would ask anyone for help. And the fact that she had actually told Claudia, on the day she had had the accident with the watch, had been linked to her euphoria after finding out that HG was supposed to be part of her future.

Pete's partner sighed and then nodded. "Okay." She replied. "If you really want to take care of me, then that's okay." He let go of her and then took her suitcase. Myka groaned.

"Even that?" She asked, bewildered.

"You don't have to worry about anything today." Pete declared while trying to carry both suitcases at the same time. "I'm taking care of everything."

Slowly Pete waddled into the direction of the hotel lobby's exit.

She grinned smugly and followed him. "Well, okay... as long as you won't complain about your back pain again."

Then she stopped. There was...

"Do you smell fudge?" Myka asked her partner and looked around the lobby.

"Oh." Pete froze. "That's the artifact." With his elbow he pointed a little cumbersomly at the pocket of his trousers. The curly haired woman could see the purple edge of a static bag. "It won't stop smelling."

He started walking again and Myka sighed. "First off: why are you carrying the artifact around in your pants' pocket? And secondly: How exactly do you plan on getting that through the security checkpoint?"

Pete did manage to get the artifact through the security checkpoint somehow. Hours later, on the plane, Myka was still not very sure quite how he'd done it, but she didn't care anymore. Her friend had said he would take care of everything and so she let him. It wasn't like she needed to be babysat by him or anything, but if he thought that this was the right thing to do, she could certainly let him get on with it.

Currently, she had allowed herself to rest her head on his right shoulder and he had wrapped his arm around her to gently pet the back of her head. This felt indeed quite comfortable, even though Myka was not very much for cuddling. But these plane seats were not very convenient for people over 5'5", she almost coudn't feel her legs anymore and... oh god, what did it matter that she let him cuddle her? He was her best friend, for crying out loud! Besides, Myka really needed to be comforted.

Pete seemed to have noticed her internal struggle, because he suddenly decided to talk to her. "Maybe", he said, not taking his eyes off the screen - which showed Gone with the wind and the brunette was not really surprised about Pete really getting into the movie, "you shouldn't wait for her to make the first step."

Reluctantly, his partner lifted her head slightly from his shoulder to blink at him with sleepy eyes. "Huh?"

"HG?" The other agent clarified. "You're waiting for her to make the first step. I think you shouldn't."

She sighed, not sure herself if in annoyance or in agreement. "Well, when I was in the future-"

"Yeah, I think that's the problem, Myka." Pete interrupted her, looking down at her with his eyebrows raised. At least as much as the swelling of his eye allowed him to raise them.

"Huh?" Myka blinked a few times and inwardly cursed herself for being this out of words. But that was indeed what this whole thing was about. She had talked so much, expended so many words about this problem that she had no energy for it anymore. Something needed to happen, something that showed her that everything was alright. The future she'd seen might be ruined, but couldn't they still-

"You're thinking too much about this future thingy. I think you shouldn't. HG is basically recovering right now. I know a few things about recovery..." Pete paused for a second, blinking. "And I don't think she could make a single step towards you right now. So, what you should do is finding a way to get the booty. Because she has other things to do than thinking about getting yours." He grinned.

"Pete!"

"I mean to make HG talk to you and to admit her feelings to you. Do you know what I think could help? Admitting your feelings to her. That's a very interesting strategy. Don't you think?" He was still grinning brightly at her which caused her to roll her eyes, hard.

"Pete, she's avoiding me completely and I'm afraid she'd be lea-"

"Ah, yes." He nodded like he had figured everything out and looked back at the screen. "You know what both your problems is? She is the one who struggles with letting herself into other people's life. And you're the one who struggles with letting people into your life." Wiggling his head a little from the right to the left, he went on speaking. "I'm an expert at this point, you know? It took me a long time to make my way into your life and now there's HG... So, she's the one who likes to leave and you're the one who likes to let people go. She is currently becoming aware of this, you know that already. What to do?"

Myka raised one of her eyebrows in anticipation of what he was about to say.

"Stop doing that, Mykes. Cling to her. Hold on to her. Make her a part of your life. Do something that allows her to understand how much she means to you." He looked down at her again, eyes narrowed. Well, at least one of them was narrowed on purpose. The other one was just swollen. "Maybe you should just yell at her or shake her until she decides that it's better to kiss you so you won't look that scary anymore. Or tie her to the heating and make her stay until you admitted your feelings to her. Or something. Anything, Mykes, if this behaviour of looking at each other but not talking to each other is supposed to stop. And you know what? It has to stop! I'm tired of seeing it!" He had gotten a little louder with the last sentences and on the seats around them in the plane, the other passengers had started staring at them, either a little scandalised or actively embarrassed.

The flight attendant showed up, briefly glanced at Pete's face and especially his black eye, and then looked questioningly at Myka. "Does your boyfriend maybe need a drink?"

Myka shook her head. "He's not my boyfriend." She declared in a calm tone of voice. "He's my best friend." She looked over to Pete, who shot her a glimpse out of the corners of his eyes. "And of course he doesn't need a drink. Thank you very much. But maybe those people who are so scandalised by him could use one." The flight attendant was clearly unsettled by the agent's indignant glare and walked off without another word.

Then, Myka rested her head on Pete's shoulder again and decided that Gone with the wind wasn't a bad idea.

2044

In the front passenger seat of Paul's Ford, next to her brother, Sarah groaned frustratedly into her hands. Paul cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Explain this to me." The young woman huffed, muffled. Then she took her hands away from her face and watched him turning the car into the street that led to the Warehouse. "I'm come back after I've been home only once or twice in three years. Just wanting to introduce my family to my best friend. And the very moment I show up, everything gets strange and mysterious. And I have the feeling there's another artifact ruining my plans to prove to Julia that I'm a normal woman living in a normal family."

Her brother snorted. "Normal family. Well, Ferret, I have news for you." He hit the gas pedal hard and the car speeded up.

"No. That's alright." The older Bering-Wells child shook her head. "I know we aren't a normal family. I'm okay with that. I've always been okay with this mess. Because I grew up in it, you know. Same as you, Littlefoot." She nervously tapped her fingers on the dashboard and slightly grinned as Paul shot her a mock-offended glance out of the corners of his eyes in reaction to the nickname. "But Julia has been asking questions from the beginning. I have the feeling she sensed something is wrong. Which is why I wanted to pretend that there is nothing to worry about. So she would stop asking questions. And the moment I try to do that, of course something goes wrong. This isn't normal, Paul. I'm jinxed."

Paul drove the car close to the Warehouse's entrance, stopped it with squealing wheels between several other cars, and then turned off the engine. "Alright!" He exclaimed and then turned his head towards her to fix her with a serious gaze. "It might be a bad idea, but have you thought about not trying to make her believe you're normal? Because, Sarah, you aren't. And sooner or later, she will find out. I'm very sure of it. Julia is quite intelligent, that's why she is your best friend, am I right?"

Sarah leaned over to open the car's door. "You know what you're implying?" She asked, showing him her perfectly arched eyebrow. Then she left the car, closing the door behind herself with a loud bang. Her brother groaned and rolled his eyes while clambering out of the car as well.

"All I'm saying is that she might be the person you should consider telling. We all have this one person. And sooner or later, we want to inform that person about our secret. And maybe you and Julia aren't in love or anything -" He held up his hands in defense when Sarah - who he just had approached from the side - shot him a death glare. "But you're close. Look, Pete maybe has his wife but Momma has Adelaide, and you cannot say she's in love with her."

"I left Julia with Adelaide in the B&B." His sister pursed her lips in disapproval. "I don't even want to think about what she will try to talk her into."

"So the conversation about you making Julia your one is over, right?" Paul surveyed her carefully. "I'm just asking, because I've prepared some ironclad arguments and if you'd agree on talking this out-"

"Conversations you haven't had in the first place cannot be over, Littlefoot." Sarah playfully slapped his shoulder and then walked towards the Warehouse. She stopped mid-walk and looked up to the roof. Recognising the black raven staring at her, she suddenly got a strange feeling. In annoyance, she clicked her tongue and then reached for her remote to open the Umbilicus' door.

"What is it?" Her brother asked, eyeing the raven carefully.

"I was right." Sarah entered the Umbilicus quickly, closely followed by Paul.

"And that's what the raven has told you?" He asked and then grunted when Sarah just shrugged. "Ah, right. I've forgotten I'm talking to the 'Warehouse's decision'. Its love child, the one and only: Sarah Bering-Wells, kettle kid, chosen one... Do you agree on the titles, your majesty, or do I have to-"

"Paul, I can neither explain my connection to the Warehouse nor the raven's way of communicating with the caretaker - or me." Sarah stated and knew he wouldn't be satisfied with it. The problem was that she'd just lied to him about the last part but that she had no interest in talking about being forever destined to serve the Warehouse.

They hastily made it through the tunnel and then almost bumped into Claudia's figure. The caretaker stood there, completely frozen in stone, in the frame of the door to Artie's office, holding a piece of paper.

"Fine!" The older child ranted, obviously angry. "Fine! Here, Julia, meet my aunt! She's currently been turned to stone. Basically she's a damn statue! I hope you don't mind. No, I'm not living in Area 51!"

"Okay, that's enough, Ferret." Paul placed his hands on his sister's shoulders to turn her towards him and looked deeply into her eyes. Sarah had to crane her neck upwards to meet his gaze, because Paul was still the tallest one in the whole Warehouse family. "You will now take a very deep breath." He inhaled the air loudly. "Hear that? Like me."

Sarah squeezed her eyes shut and then breathed calmy through her nose. "I'm calm." She said monotonously.

"Your aura tells me differently." The writer could hear her brother chuckle.

"I'm as calm as this situation allows me to be." She replied, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Alright. Then I'll let you go and we will take a look at how huge this mess is and then we will ponder over how to 'un-mess' it. There's always a solution, Ferret." Paul gently squeezed his sister's shoulder through her coat.

"You are using that nick name rather excessive today, Littlefoot." She smiled softly and then opened her eyes to look up and find her brother's dark eyes, gazing down at her fondly.

"So do you, accident." Paul sticked out his tongue at her. "I'm glad you're home." He said and then patted her shoulder. "So, can we focus again?" He then asked sheepishly.

In reaction, Sarah turned towards Claudia's stone figure and carefully loosened the paper the caretaker was holding.

"'One of the medusa's stones'" The writer read out loud. "God, Claudia's handwriting is a mess. 'Don't look at it!' is written in capital letters and with five exclamation marks."

"Yeah, I wouldn't recommend that." Paul scratched his chin in thought. "It'll turn you completely into stone."

Sarah looked at Claudia and then at Paul and then back at Claudia. "You don't say." She mumbled and then read the rest of the note. "'Can't be neutralised.' Thanks, Claud, so we won't waste time on that."

"So, does she offer a solution?" Sarah's brother carefully asked.

"I don't know. Everything else on the note are only numbers." The writer held up the yellow paper so he could take a look at it. "99-95-09-21-18-66." Sarah sighed. "That's an easy one. The year Christina died, The year The Time Machine was written, and then momma's birth date."

Paul was suddenly too quiet for his sister's taste. So she looked up at him and caught him biting his lower lip and scratching his chin excessively.

"What is it?" She asked and narrowed her eyes at him.

"Oh, nothing." Paul shrugged a little. "This is the code number for one of those big lockers down in the Warehouse. You know, where Claudia keeps the important stuff we shouldn't be looking at or know anything about."

"So why do you know that this is a code number for one of those big lockers we shouldn't know anything about?" Sarah asked, a little worried.

He slowly stepped from one foot to the other, looking nervous. "I think we should get that stone." Paul said and made an attempt to take off his coat. Apparently, he planned to cover the object in question in it so they wouldn't run risk to look at it.

Sarah raised both her eyebrows at him and glared. Her brother nervously blinked. His sister was maybe much shorter than him but her Mrs. Frederic glare was very impressive. "Paul?" She asked, her voice soft, even though her body language clearly showed that he was walking on thin ice.

"It might be that there's something in that particular locker I have been working on in the last year... while you were gone." Paul mumbled.

"What is it?" Sarah asked, still scaringly calm.

"You know, I've been practicing for engineering school because I want to be prepared for it after college and..." Her brother babbled but was interrupted by her.

"Paul?"

He took a deep breath before he dared to meet Sarah's eyes again. "You won't like this at all."