Sorry for that smaller hiatus, I had a busy week. So, let's start solving some puzzles. And yes, of course I gave you some puzzles again and now, we will slowly solve them. :)
Thanks to Aimofdestiny for the beta.
Myka hurried into the bedroom, wrapped in nothing but a small towel. She had given Helena both of the bigger ones that had been provided by housekeeping. The younger woman was heading for a small fridge in a cupboard when she froze. As her gaze wandered across the window, she couldn't help but scream. Loudly. She jumped back: on the windowsill, there sat a big, black creature, apparently a raven, staring at her with its dark eyes like it was trying to look into her soul.
The agent stared back, anxiously, pondering what to do. Meanwhile, Helena's ongoing noisy sickness had already started to fade away. "Myka?" The Victorian asked weakly, causing Myka to snap back to herself.
"I...just..." The younger woman replied, trying to approach the cupboard without taking her eyes off the animal. This ...creature was far too big for a normal raven. And the way it looked at her was utterly terrifying.
Swathed in the two bigger towels, Helena appeared in the door frame that led to the bathroom. "Why did you scream?" She asked, still pale as death.
"There's this thing..." Myka tried and pointed at the window. The other woman looked at the raven with her eyebrows furrowed. Suddenly, her eyes widened and she looked like she actually recognised the creature.
"Munin?" Helena whispered and stepped closer to the window. Quickly, Myka took a look into her mental library and found the note about Odin's ravens: Munin (memory) was one of a pair, flying through the world and updating him on what they had seen.
"Did you just give that creature a name, Helena?" The younger woman asked in a horrified tone of voice.
The writer shook her head and slowly walked over to the window to... actually open it.
"Helena, you won't let that beast inside? I don't know, but have you heard of bird fl- ah of course you're letting that beast inside." Myka shrugged as she watched the bird make it into the room and settling down on the desk lamp.
"So... why are we letting creepy giant birds into our hotel room now?" The American asked warily as she watched Helena staring fixedly at the animal and reaching a hand out for it. "You're not going to touch it, are y- why am I actually asking?"
"Myka, it's not a bird." The Victorian replied while caressing the raven's blueish-black feathers.
"Not?" Myka asked in a high-pitched tone of voice. "What is it then... a mammal? Is it a dinosa-" Of course, then it hit her. The bird was an artifact. "Oh."
"It's the one of two which usually sit on the Warehouse's roof." Helena explained, rubbing her forehead.
"You mean there are more artifact birds and... they have a purpose or something?" Myka approached Helena slowly, eyeing the bird nervously. "How do you feel, Helena?"
"A little better." The writer replied, still staring at the bird. "I collected this artifact back in London for Warehouse 12. I don't know what happened after that, but on its purpose, those birds were able to collect information for the user. Now that I've seen them on the rooftop of Warehouse 13, I think the caretaker uses them to, well... spy on the events around the Warehouse." Helena conclued quietly.
"So, you mean it's Claudia's little way of spying on us?" Myka assumed.
"Well, at least around the Warehouse. I cannot tell why he's here now." The Victorian shrugged. "Maybe it's a sign." Again, she reached out her hand for the bird and then shook her head. "Myka, can you call Claudia and ask?"
The younger woman nodded. "Of course I can." She quickly picked up her shirt from the ground to pull it over her head. Then, after looking for the Farnsworth (still shooting disquieted glances at Helena and the bird staring at each other like they were in some deeper communication), she opened it and called the caretaker.
"Uh, I didn't know somebody installed a callback function to the Farnsworth." Claudia smiled sheepishly on the screen.
"Hello, Claud." Myka replied and furrowed her eyebrows. "You called us? I just wanted to check if everything's alright at the Warehouse."
"Of course everything's alright over here." Claudia nodded profusely. "No one is having seizures or anything."
"Seizures?" The older woman's eyes widened.
"I said there are no seizures, Myka. Why are you talking about seizures? Nobody is talking about seizures." The redhead's words tumbled out in a rush.
"Are you okay, Claud?" Myka asked, confused.
"Me? Yeah. I'm completely okay. Everything is alright. And the reason I called you is already not important anymore. Uhm, Jinksy," the redhead looked nervously at something out of sight, "who is walking right next to me and is totally fine- and I are currently on our own artifact hunt in Sioux Falls, so, I don't really know what it's like in the Warehouse. But I'm sure they are okay."
"Okay."
"Why are you asking?" Claudia furrowed her eyebrows.
"Well, because right now I've got Helena and a big black raven in our hotel room having some kind of moment with each other." Myka struggled for words.
The caretaker's eyebrows darted up. "Your hotel room? Like the two of you are sharing one?"
"Claudia! There is a creepy giant raven here and he looks like the one from the Warehouse roof." The agent ignored Claudia's attempt to get information out of her about Helena's and her relationship status.
"Munin?" The redhead asked interestedly. "What is he doing in New York?"
"That's what I'm asking you, Claud! Since I didn't even know that we had him!" Myka grunted.
"Yeah, I don't know. You're saying he's with HG? ...in your shared hotel room?" Claudia grinned.
"Claudia!"
"Maybe he just wanted to be with the woman who snagged him. Right now I can't tell what he's doing, the connection to him decreases with the distance between us, I'm sure it shouldn't, but I haven't learned to manage that properly, yet. But let me assure you that ...Steve and I are alright." The caretaker stated, shrugging. "We're about to talk to some lawyers."
The conversation with Claudia didn't help Myka any further, so she called Abigail - after a pleading look from Helena - to check on her and Adelaide. The former therapist assured them as well that they were alright and waiting for the mattress delivery.
"I'm still not sure, Myka." Helena whispered after she had opened the window again for the bird to allow him out. "I have the feeling something's wrong."
"That's not very specific, Helena." Myka shrugged. "But if you think we should go home, then we will."
The Victorian turned her head to look at her, mustered her for a few seconds. "Yes." She replied, nodding. "I really wish to go home as fast as possible."
Helena still didn't feel that good, but at least a little better. The nausea was gone, but the dizziness was still there.
Besides that, she was impressed at how fast Myka managed to pack their things and check out of the hotel with her. How fast the younger woman managed to get them to the airport. The American flashed her badge everywhere, even if not particularly neccessary.
"Emergency!" The younger agent told the woman behind the counter at the airport. "We need to go to South Dakota as fast as possible."
"And you are?" The woman asked annoyedly.
"Federal agents. Secret service." Myka flashed her badge for a second time at the woman. "Agent Myka Bering and..." She looked at Helena. "Agent Wells, agent under me."
The Victorian grinned. Myka had to say that. Of course she had to.
"So you want to go to South Dakota? I thought the president was currently in Washington." The woman blinked and leaned back in her chair.
"Listen, lady." Myka leaned over the counter, closer to the woman. "I am a very busy agent with a very stressful job and this is a case of..." She again looked up to the Victorian next to her. "...of a matter of national security. So get us two seats in a plane to Pierce or so God help me, I will pour your Starbucks coffee over your files. And then send somebody to you who will thoroughly check if you're paying your taxes the way you should. I am deathly serious right now!"
Hours after Myka had called Claudia, the caretaker and Sarah walked out of the lawyers' office. Both women were annoyed. The time traveler felt better, had recovered from her seizure, but they hadn't gotten any closer to anything artifact related. Sarah was frustrated. Utterly frustrated. With the help of Adelaide, Paul and even Julia in her head, she had asked questions suitable for a secret service agent. They had even talked the lawyers into letting them search through their office for the artifact, but of course there hadn't been anything. The time traveler started doubting her purpose in this time. She had made it through one and a half days of entirely pointless artifact investigation with Claudia. Sarah was usually a calm person, who liked things to go peacefully, but she was also very impulsive and got frustrated easily.
So it was no wonder she kicked her foot against the Prius' wheel in annoyance now. Claudia sighed deeply.
"Sarah. It's my fault we wasted time on that, okay? Not yours. It was my idea to investigate the attourney's office." She carefully patted the girl's shoulder - Steve's shoulder, actually. She had to reach up to do that. "Now it's time to get to the next shop in this building. That's no reason to get mad or ...damage Steve's Prius. We both know that the Prius is a sacred thi-"
"I'm frustrated, Claud. There must be something. Look, I've wasted a whole day on artifact investigation with you which was completely pointless." Sarah looked at the caretaker, who showed her a slightly hurt facial expression. "No offense." The time traveler added quickly.
"Yeah, no problem." Claudia crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"The thing I don't understand is why Claudia - my Claudia - has send me back through time so I'm here yesterday-"
"Is this sentence even grammatically right?" The redhead grinned.
"...when there isn't even happening anything today that brings us any closer to rescuing my parents? I mean, it's clear that everything that happened today... and yesterday - has already happened, right?" Sarah shrugged.
"Well, maybe she - I? - She wanted you to set your parents up with each other? I've heard they now share a hotel room." The caretaker tried, smiling brightly.
"No, it cannot be just that." The other woman looked around the street. "We're missing something. We are actually missing something. Everything that has happened that day has already happenend..."
That's the essence of travelling through time with momma's time machine. Paul agreed.
-Wait, if we're talking about travelling with H.G. Wells' time machine... Julia suddenly mentioned. ...then you really mean H.G. Wells, the famous author... has built a time machine?
"Yes, Julia. She has." Sarah replied automatically.
Claudia looked up at her, raising an eyebrow.
What do you mean by 'She'? And talking about that... your last name is 'Bering-Wells'? It seemed that the blonde struggled a lot with putting the obvious sense into the information she just had received.
"I mean that Helena. G. Wells, the H.G. Wells is currently upstairs, frozen in stone. She's a woman." The time traveler explained.
Your mom is H. G. Wells? Your mom - who is a woman - is H. G. Wells - who is a woman. Julia squeaked.
"Paul?" Sarah asked hopefully. Now, she could hear the voices of Paul and Adelaide trying to explain the reason Sarah had always been quiet during lectures in University that were about literature from the Victorian age.
The writer paid no mind to that. Instead, she looked around the street, still looking for a reason, a reason to be here... a small detail she was missing. A-
Sarah grunted. "Of course!" She exclaimed.
Claudia looked questioningly at her. She had been quiet during the other woman's discussion with the people inside her mind, but now she seemed to be unsure if Sarah was talking to her or not.
"You talking to me?" The caretaker asked carefully. Sarah started walking over the street, staring at the building in which they had investigated for hours. "Of course!"
"Yeah, okay... can you be a little less Mrs. Frederic and a little more Myka or something? Please explain your thoughts, I cannot follow you, currently speaking figuratively." Claudia quickly walked right behind the writer.
"Mattresses." Sarah shot her a glance like it would explain anything.
"Alright. Yeah! Mattresses. That's... what the frak are you trying to say?" The redhead still seemed to be struggling with the other woman's words.
"This is a delivery service. Look at the truck." Sarah pointed at a big, white truck with type on it saying 'McKenzie Delivery service'.
Heading for the delivery service's door, the time traveller looked at Claudia "Abigail is waiting for a delivery of king sized matresses, I suppose?" She asked. Sarah struggled a little bit with finding words, because in her head, she could still hear Paul, Julia and Adelaide whispering with each other.
"Oh, frak!" Claudia's eyes widened.
They quickly entered the office behind the service's door, approaching the counter. Sarah straightened Steve's shoulders and flashed his badge. "Secret Service, Agent Steven Jinks."
Well done.
The woman behind the counter looked surprised. "Secret Service? In Sioux Falls?"
"Yeah, I have a question. A quick question." The time traveler leaned over the counter, close to the secretary.
"Is there a delivery of king sized matresses for a small city four hours away from Sioux Falls called 'Univille' today? Customer should be Abigail Cho." Sarah spoke quickly, but with a calm tone of voice.
"Is this important for the-"
"Yes, this is important for the president's safety." Claudia nodded profusely.
"Oh, okay." The woman behind the counter started typing into her keyboard. She sighed when she looked at her computer screen. "Yes, indeed there is. Came in yesterday. But they are already gone. The truck left about an hour ago."
Without another word, Sarah spun on her heels to leave the shop. She headed for the Prius, hearing Claudia walking closely behind her.
"So what I am saying." Sarah huffed. "Is that yesterday I didn't merely cause my parents to visit New York together, it's also that I ensured that Abigail would need a delivery service for mattresses because I was investigating the building with this particular delivery service in it."
Claudia blinked a few times. "That's confusing." She stated.
Sarah glared at her, stopping in front of the car's door. "That's time travel and all the - how did you put it? - 'shitfuckery' connected to it, Claudia. The older you sent me here to do things that allow her to sent me here. Probably without her knowledge."
"I will get headache." The caretaker exclaimed.
"Yeah, you should have seen me when I did the thing with the watch back then." Sarah admitted and watched the redhead's eyes widen. "Wait, that was really you? Not some alternate time line Sarah?"
The time traveler pulled the gun out of her belt and handed it to Claudia. "You can teleport. You should go to the B&B immeadiately, while I'll drive there by car. So you can make sure everything will be alright until I'm in Univille. It probably won't get dangerous until I show up. But you have to keep an eye on Adelaide and Abigail."
Claudia looked questioningly at her. "You think it'll get dangerous then?"
Sarah shrugged. "I have an incredibly bad feeling about my connection to the events linked to this artifact hunt, Claudia. Time travel is not only confusing, but also dangerous. I would stop here, but we both know I can't. And we still need that artifact."