So, thing is: I have indeed almost finished writing this fiction. And I'm so in love with this story. But I currently can't tell how regularly it will updated. Maybe it will be updated as regular as usual and you won't have to worry at all. Maybe it won't. I'm currently facing some personal demons here, which means break up. Which means: searching a new flat, managing living alone and all that shit that comes with this. I'm in love with all of you. And I'm in love with the Bering and Wells fandom and this damn story. There is also another smaller problem: This story ends with a rather small cliffhanger, because... well I've been foreshadowing for about three parts of this story to end it in a final fourth part. But I don't know if I can currently face writing established Bering and Wells being rather happy. I'm personally conflicted about this...
So... what I am saying is: I have no idea what to do. Ugh. Just hang on, I got this.
Thanks to Aim for being one of the best friends you can have and distract me with a) spontaneously meeting and then b) beta-ing this for me for distraction.
2014
Claudia put the last artifact files back into the cupboard. She knew she was supposed to sort them alphabetically, but she also knew that sometime during the next few days, Myka would probably show up here and invent a new sorting system for them. So what did it matter? All Claudia had to do was make the files look like they were in order. Like she had done with the artifacts they had taken a look at last night. Which now lay on the redhead's desk.
Out of nowhere, the caretaker got a strange feeling. She paused, listening to herself and that living-thinking entity that was the Warehouse. It was part of her personality and she had the feeling it had just had a moment of confusion, pausing its usual work and pondering over something happening.
The redhead looked up at the ceiling of Artie's office, confused as well. Yes?, she silently asked, not wanting to worry Steve, who swept up the sweet crumbs behind her back. It was like the Warehouse shrugged in reaction to her words, still observing what it had found. Then it seemed to realize what the cause for its confusion had been. Now, it became utterly confusing for Claudia, when the Warehouse seemed to try to hide the reason for its own bafflement and went on working on the artifact observation. If the caretaker hadn't known better, she would have said it was twiddling its thumbs, whistling, and trying to look innocent.
Behind Claudia, Steve groaned slightly. The caretaker turned around and found him leaning on Artie's desk, firmly gripping onto it and clutching his broom tightly in the other hand.
"Jinksy, I am getting the feeling you didn't just have candy with HG but also booze, or something that makes you high. You're behaving like you've got a hangover." Claudia told him, still pondering over the reason for the Warehouse's behaviour. Steve didn't reply but rubbed his forehead, his eyes squeezed shut. "Oh, this wasn't a comfortable trip at all." He mumbled, more to himself than to her. His friend glared at him, confused again. "Are you alright, Jinks?"
He didn't react to her.
"Jinksy?" She asked, stepping closer when he still failed to react.
"Agent Steve Jinks?" Claudia said now in her Mrs. F tone of voice. She had practiced that, in front of a mirror, including the raised eyebrow.
Her former partner froze and then opened his eyes to look at her. And he looked horrified, which was utterly mortifying, and yes, confusing.
"Claudia?" He asked like he had never seen her before today.
"Steve?" The redhead gave back, in a similar tone of voice.
"Claudia?" Steve asked again, furrowing his eyebrows.
"Steve?" Claudia shrugged, rising her hands.
"Steve?" Steve now asked, looking more baffled.
"Claudia." She replied, still unsure why they were doing this name thing.
"PETE!" The main door flew open with a bang and the owner of the name in question appeared in it, holding a static bag triumphantly in front of him. "That's another snag for Bering and Lattimer, best artifact searching agents ever. That makes 4 for us and 3 for the second A team, Jinks and Wells." Pete did an exaggerated celebration jig on his way to Artie's desk where he dropped the purple bag. Then, he pretended to dust off his hands. Claudia's gaze fell on his black eye. She raised her eyebrows, pointing at the bruise.
"Well, at least Jinks and Wells have always come home in one piece until now. What happened?" She asked, trying to exchange a look with Steve, who stared bewilderedly at his own hands, the broom leaning long forgotten on the desk. "And also: hi, Pete."
"Ah, that." Pete waved his hand in dismissal. "That had nothing to do with the artifact or its impressive snag. You should have seen Myka, she was awesome." He plopped himself down on the top of Artie's desk. "That black eye is from some sort of really rude New Yorker, who didn't like my face the way it was. But I'm thinking about telling the ladies some different stories. What do you think: maybe I saved a child from a gang of small-time criminals? They all had knives and I almost got stabbed, but I was able to beat them all and now they are in prison and I'm the hero?"
"Let me guess." Claudia grinned while she did the math. "You had an argument with someone in the hotel and Myka had to rescue your ass. It's always that way."
"Well, this time it was a little different." Pete admitted and shrugged. "I tried to protect her but yes, she had to rescue my ass in the end. I wasn't prepared for that guy reacting this way to my attempt to calm him down."
Pete looked questioningly at Steve, who was now raking his hand carefully through his short hair. "Are you alright, Jinksy? You look a little... well, tired and confused."
"What?" Steve asked, his voice trembling. "I'm alright, Pete. Everything is... alright. I just had a rough night."
"He and HG killed a lot of sugar yesterday afternoon and then he did some overnight artifact research with me." Claudia explained, but narrowed her eyes at her former partner, because she still wasn't sure if there was maybe more to that story. She had a strange feeling about this, a very strange feeling.
Pete looked at the heap of crumbs and leftovers of sweets on the floor, right next to Jinks. "Are those my chocolate chips cookies? Because they look like- Wait!" He suddenly froze, holding up his hands. Claudia looked at his face, which quickly changed into a slightly panicky one.
"Pete?" She asked, worried.
"I'm getting a strange vibe." He replied, firmly closing his eyes like he was listening to himself. Steve glared at him and Claudia really though that his face suddenly looked a little too worried. "What kind of vibe?" Jinksy asked in a concerned tone of voice.
"A dangerous one." Pete replied, but his voice was shaking while his eyes slowly widened. "About myself. A vibe about myself. Steve, I'm sorry!"
Then suddenly, everything happened very quickly. "ARE THOSE MY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES?!" Pete yelled loudly, jumping down from the table and spinning around on his heels. In the same motion, his fist flew forward, right at Steve's head. The other agent didn't see the hit coming, but still avoided it by ducking impressively fast. Jinks looked a little clumsy while doing it; Claudia had the feeling he wasn't really in control of his long limbs. On the contrary, tumbling sideways, the agent tripped over his own feet and fell, performing an impressive but still awkward somersault on the ground.
Meanwhile, Pete went on yelling at him. "You're HG's partner, Steve! HG's partner! You should take care of her so she feels better and they finally talk to each other! They have to talk to each other!"
Pete lifted his foot to start kicking Steve in the guts, and Claudia woke up from her state of surprised immobility.
She reached forwards, gripping his arm tightly, but her raging friend was still the stronger one. He shook her off with a simple movement of his arm, which made Claudia's neck crack a little. She groaned at the sharp pain, but pulled herself together quickly. She also realized her neck had actually gotten better.
So she teleported to Pete's other side, trying to attack him with her entire body weight. "Pete, calm down! What is going on?"
"You're an idiot, Claud! You should take care of them! Of both of them! You brought HG here, but they are still avoiding each other! That's not better than HG still being in Boone!"
Claudia wasn't short, but she was lightweight and so Pete had no problems shaking her off again. The caretaker was really worried about him. The only explanation was that he'd come into contact with an artifact. Surely, they could solve this, but first they had to calm down the roaring rage that Pete currently had and that wasn't exactly a small task.
Claudia fell down, groaning. From the corner of her eye, she spotted Steve jumping forward. He still looked like he wasn't fully in control over his arms and legs, but he ducked impressively under Pete's attempt to hit him with one of those plastic chairs. The flat of Jinks' hand reached forward and forcefully made contact with Pete's sternum. The older agent groaned in reaction and then made no noise at all, because he clearly had to struggle to breathe. Meanwhile, Steve's other hand closed tightly around the other man's arm which was holding the chair. Claudia was impressed how nimbly her former partner used both his hands to force Pete's hand open. Their raging friend groaned and dropped the chair. Immediately, Steve twisted Pete's arm onto his back and tackled him. They both fell to the ground, Pete right on his face, Steve following him closely, pushing his knee into the older agent's back painfully with the force of the fall. Jinks twisted Pete's arm up further as the other agent groaned and shifted, trying to get rid of Steve on top of him, failing miserably.
Claudia was impressed. She had seen such fighting skills on HG or on Myka, but never on her former partner. She stood up quickly, asking him if he was alright, but Steve paid her no mind. Instead, he leaned closely to Pete's ear.
"Listen, Pete." He said and his tone of voice was suddenly very gentle. "That's not you. We both know that it's not you. That's wrath. It's not yours. So please, concentrate on me, concentrate on my voice." Steve shifted a little, so he could lean closer to Pete's ear. "I'm your friend and we will find a way to solve this, Pete. You've clearly come into contract with an artifact. But I know mo- HG and Myka will find it in New York. All you have to do is to calm down a little."
Claudia stared at Steve. What was he even talking about? HG and Myka in New York? They were both in the B&B right now, with Abigail. And if anybody was going to be sent out to snag whatever artifact it was that Pete had come into contact with, it would be HG and Steve. They were partners and the caretaker couldn't be sure if Myka hadn't-
Oh frak, Myka!
Turning away from Steve, who was still speaking very calmly into Pete's ear, Claudia reached for the Farnsworth on Artie's desk and called HG. Whose face appeared on the screen after a few buzzes. The Victorian looked utterly displeased about the disturbance and didn't even really look at Claudia. She seemed to be busy with something else behind the Farnsworth.
"It's my day off." She said, annoyance showing clearly in her voice, underscored by her typical eyeroll. "Adelaide is here and I'm winning this round of Scrabble. So I do hope you have a rather good reason to disturb me."
"Yeah, quite a rather good reason." Claudia replied and briefly eyed Jinks and Pete on the floor. They hadn't changed their positions yet and the redhead couldn't hear what Steve was telling their friend. But the older agent seemed to be calming down recognizably.
"Uhm, HG? Is maybe Mykes anywhere near you?" The caretaker asked in an innocent tone of voice.
"Yes, and she has her own Farnsworth." HG rolled her eyes again and then made attempt to close the communication device, but Claudia quickly told her otherwise.
"Stop! HG, is Myka alright? Could you maybe take a look at her for me?" Now the writer finally looked at the redhead, her eyebrows furrowed worriedly.
"Should there be something wrong?" She asked surprised.
"Well, I think you would clearly recognize if there was something wrong, HG. She's not... like ...beating the crap out of you or anything else?" Or is kissing you passionately? Claudia thought. We still don't know what that artifact is doing, maybe it just unleashes strong emotions.
HG sighed and apparently turned the Farnsworth around. The caretaker could now see a scrabble board and Myka, who seemed to be deep in thought, glancing at the board and trying to arrange something on the retainer right in front of her. She had apparently joined in this round of Scrabble. Adelaide sat right next to her, arranging stones on the game board.
"Okay, looks alright. HG?"
The Brit's face now appeared on the screen again. "Yes?" She asked, now sounding a little bit more concerned.
"Could we maybe talk in private?" Claudia pleaded. HG stood up and the redhead could see her walking through the B&B. A few seconds later, the Victorian looked at the caretaker with one eyebrow raised, clearly a sign Claudia that was now allowed to speak.
"So, uhm. It seems Pete has come into contact with an artifact in New York."
"Oh." HG replied dryly. She didn't look surprised at all.
"So, he was about to renovate Artie's office, using only his own body, if you see what I mean. Oh... and a chair." Claudia gave the agent a shy smile and grinned when she nodded.
"So, I think you and Steve have to go to New York and find out what they've come into contact with."
"I can't." Steve said while he stood up from restraining Pete. The older agent lay on the ground, wearing Ernst Kohlschütter's Night Cap which had been lying on Claudia's desk with the other artifacts. Pete smiled happily, his eyes closed firmly, and snored.
"He's asleep!" Claudia exclaimed, a little worried.
"Well," Steve replied, "he's calm when sleeping, isn't he?"
"Claudia, I can't go to New York with Steve, I have Adelaide here." HG stated in a pleading tone of voice.
"I can't go to New York." Steve mentioned in an equally pleading tone of voice and looked very nervous. "I have... such a bad headache. And I think I'm getting ill and... I feel extremely exhausted. Helena and Myka should go together. I... uhm... don't think Myka is affected by that artifact like Pete is. And also it looked like... Pete needed a trigger so the rage was ...happening." He shrugged and then added a careful "Guys." to his speech.
Claudia surveyed him carefully and then looked at HG on the screen of her Farnsworth and then at Steve again. Quickly, she pressed the communication device against her chest, trying to muffle the sound of her words as she adressed Jinks.
"Are you suggesting we should send Helena and Myka on artifact hunt together, searching for something that unleashes strong emotions while they sleep in the same hotel in New York?" She quickly whispered.
"That's what I'm sayi-" Steve froze, looking like he suddenly had some sort of revelation. "Wait, a hotel in New York?"
"This is the best idea of setting them up with each other ever, Jinksy. You're a genius!" The caretaker exclaimed happily.
"Setting them up with each other? In a hotel in New York?" Her former partner asked emphatically.
"Yes? Is there a problem?" Claudia tilted her head questioningly.
He blinked for a few seconds, his eyes darting to the upper left like he was listening to himself. Then, he shrugged. "No." Steve said in an innocent tone of voice. "I just realized what this means... but... oh wow!"
"HG?" Claudia again looked at Helena on her Farnsworth. "You're going to New York with Myka looking for that artifact that has affected Pete! You're taking Myka with you instead of Steve because... Myka's eidetic memory can probably tell you what the Pete monster has touched over there."
"Claudia!" The Victorian huffed. "I've already told you I can't do that. I've Adelaide with me in the Inn and I want to-"
"Oh, I'm pretty sure Abigail will babysit her." The redhead tried to hide the grin that made an attempt to appear on her face. "I'm pretty sure she will. I can call her for you."
"Claudia!" HG's eyes widened and suddenly, there it was: the death glare.
Claudia put on her best Mrs. Frederic face and showed her the raised eyebrow. "No backtalk, Agent Wells. You're still restricted and I'm your boss."