Time Won't Tell

by tantedrago

H.G. Wells is back to the Warehouse. Mrs. Frederic gives Claudia a puzzle to solve and she needs help. Myka and Pete are about to leave New York, where they have been for artifact hunt. And then there's the future, running havoc again. Part 3 of the 'The Time Travelers' Daughter' Series.

29. Author's notes

Author Notes. Again. We know I'm strange.

Well, around ten months ago, when I wrote The Time Traveller's Almost Wife, I made Myka swap places with her future counterpart. That's all. I only made them swap places (and somehow this whole series happened! Oo by mistake!). I did it because Jo Kelly's "Somebody kicked my puppy right in front of me" faces during Instinct made me incredibly sad. And because I kept telling myself HG would come back to her. Until she would, Myka needed to know everything would be alright for them, she needed something to hold on, because BLOODY PUPPY FACES JO!

So, uhm, I wrote that body swap before I actually knew what I wanted to do with the plot. I think you got that already from reading it. I had the concept of the watch and I had Sarah, and I didn't know what to do with them. What I had was a suitcase full of cheesy lines, bad characterisation (oh god, I didn't know how to write HG), domestic scenes and sport metaphors.

So my first version of the story was Sarah and Paul working together to chase some bad guy through time. But, well, I was lacking the English to write that properly. Also I thought that I already gave you Sarah as an OC to get to know so I didn't want to put Paul there as well. That would have been too much OC characterisation for one story. So I put that idea away, made Sarah the bad guy and yeah, wrote TTAW. And I'm still rolling my eyes like hell because of that story but it's where I'm coming from and after I hadn't touched a pen to write for around five years, I feel so glad that I finally did it again. The Bering and Wells fandom got me back to writing after a long time of anxiety and depression and I'm grateful for that. :) (I even started writing a novel now... and I really like it...).

So basically, TWT is more or less that what I had in mind when I wrote TTAW. I'm glad I was able to work it out.

But the spontaneous concept of TTAW left some problems for Myka's and Helena's future and I had to handle after Sarah's reckless time travel. That was TLS, that was also TWT.

I have to say that Time Won't Tell was giving me the worst headaches. Because seriously, that concept of time travel - where everything has already happened - is really annoying. You have to plan it really thoroughly because nobody in the past is allowed know anything of what is happening (and suddenly, you're waking up in the middle of the night, thinking: Shit, I still have Adelaide and Abigail in the B&B!). l always had to step back from some of my ideas because if this or that would happen, they would know what's going on and Sarah wouldn't need to travel this way into the past. God, kill me! How would you even write plot twists this way?! *heavy breathing*

Some things were really annoying me. I really love the body swap trope (I think after TTAW, TWT and Transient you might have noticed), and I really loved the idea of somebody inhabiting Steve's body and Claudia finds out. And god hell, I really loved the idea of Sarah and Claudia investigating together, because I already liked them with eachother in TTAW. But this would have meant Claudia had to lose her memory afterwards because otherwise she would know what has happened in the future... So... I had to hit her with a stick. I didn't like that, but... okay. Claudia has been a side character in the first part of the series, but while writing it, I realised how much I enjoyed writing her so she slowly turned into a main character in this series. I think everybody is okay with that.

Actually, I wanted to have Claudia as the protagonist of this story and Sarah as her companion, but it kind of happened that Sarah became the protagonist. And I'm sorry for the fact that Myka and Helena just stumbled through this fic as some sort of not-protagonists. But I had reasons. When I sat down to write TWT, I thought "And now I'm sending them somewhere where they can do the do and talk and won't get disturbed by anyone." So I sent them to New York.

And we all know that Sarah's story is nothing else than HG's and Myka's story, right? ;) And by following Sarah you learned a lot about their future. There were rather a lot of things left in the dark after TTAW - for example Sarah's conception, Paul's character, or the childrens' relationship with their mothers at all. We had this now, and we will have more of this in the next and final part of the series. :)

Myka and Helena have finally become a couple in this one and actually, this has been one of the hardest parts to write. To finally make them talk. It's easy to write them tip-toe-ing around each other... but talking? Ugh... I actually re-watched Instinct for research and it was horrible!

I'm glad I had Abigail as some kind of psychologist character who was able to point out all their issues I had to handle after they had finally admitted their love to each other. And I'm also glad about all that meta that you get thrown at your head on tumblr. I think that the further I went with this series, the more I understood the characters, especially Helena (also writing some AUs with her in it made it easier to write her as well).

And as Myka mentioned already in TLS, I didn't like the fact only she remembered the events of TTAW, so I made Helena remember. This is some new situation we will handle in the final part. But as we all know, it won't change Sarah's existence, because everything that happened that day during which HG remembered and after that day has only lead into Sarah using the time machine. (Yeah, time travel made me start writing sentences like this). So she's safe.

To find an actual reason for the girl to travel through time was annyoing me. Why would she do that, what reason could she have to travel through time without the help of her mothers and her family? It was really hard to get her into that time machine and took me like... five chapters. She really doesn't like time travel anymore after the events of TTAW. I'm not really satisfied with the whole "Frozen in stone" concept, but it was the best it could get. In a review, Roadie said that I always have really creative artifacts... I hate imagining artifacts. It's the part of Warehouse fanfictions I dislike writing most. Because I'm really not that creative with artifacts, but okay... I managed that.

When I planned TLS and TWT (and yes, I planned them simultaneously), I was getting really excited about Claudia and Mrs. Frederic, because the show has given us so many mysterious aspects of the Warehouse and the caretaker they've never really resolved. And I really enjoyed writing Claudia exploring why Mrs. Frederic did things she did on the show. How does she know that shit's about to go down in the Warehouse? The idea with the ravens was imagined by Aimofdestiny, while we watched the first episode of the show together. There is indeed a raven on the Warehouse's roof. And it has about... 0.003 seconds screentime. Let's imagine a whole headcanon for that thing! It's one of Odin's ravens and they make Mrs. Frederic know everything, okay? And I loved this idea so much that I put it into the fic. In TLS, Artie is already mentioning the raven as some kind of joke. He doesn't want to have this animal inside the Warehouse while Claudia replies that there are already other animals in it.

That's also how the thing with Sarah and the tea kettle developed. Also not my idea. I really didn't have an artifact for Sarah's conception when I wrote TTAW, all I knew was that it would be a wishing artifact that created Sarah. One evening, Aim, Spacegiraffesloveunicorns and I sat together on Skype and I mentioned my struggle with the wishing artifacts and the how the wish would disappear after the artifact gets neutralised. And we realised that there is only one wishing artifact where the wish (the ferret!) stayed after the artifact was neutralised and this has been the tea kettle. So, I I used a lot of artifacts that appeared in WH13 season 1. And I'm quite happy about that.

Coming back to Sarah's story and Adelaide's watch. I know I promised to never touch this watch again, but for the next part, the artifact is getting kind of important again. I won't ruin anything with it, but I have had some ideas about that watch and finally, I found a way to be satisfied with the watch. We all know I hated that watch, but now, I like it. Stay tuned, it will be fine. :)

There is something on the show that has always been annoying me like hell. I have a lot of feelings about it and I know they only used it to make plot happen. But for me, this... aspect is so disrespectful and cruel, that I will write a whole part of the series about it. The final part: Time Heals Most Wounds. Yeah, what will it be about? This series is still a baby fic. I mean... a really weird baby fic, but that will never change. And so, now that we finally face established Myka and HG, we can explore that form of time travel Helena has been mentioning in the hotel: Living.

There is also another thing I promised not to do: And that's going with Sarah and Julia there.

I'm unsure about that. Julia was never planned. Really. I didn't want another OC in my story, especially not one that has no connection to the characters on the show. That's why I never explained the two Warehouse agents further who are working for the Warehouse in the future. They just exist because I truly believe that at some point, agents should be allowed to retire, especially Myka and Helena.

But Julia...

There is a funny story about her:

She already appears in TTAW, in the last chapter. And she didn't have a name in the original version of the chapter. I sent that chapter to my beta ready Lastminutegenius and she sent it back with the words "That room mate needs a name." I was confused, because that room mate wasn't really important. She should only make Sarah notice she's appearing at the point of time before the watch thing happened and then give her a reason to stay on campus instead of going home. The room mate's name was 'room mate'. And she really wasn't important. So I asked why she would need a name. Lastminutegenius told me "Somebody who is that emotionally invested in Sarah needs a name..." And I realised... "Wait! Are you shipping them?!"

She did. A little. But I only shrugged and told her that that room mate was unimportant and would probably never show up again. But I gave her a name so my beta reader would be satisfied and she appeared as Julia in the chapter.

Then I planned TLS and TWT and realised I need another character in this story to give Kurt Parker access to the Warehouse. Well, I could have made Adelaide a physician, now that I think about it, but I already had given Sarah some "I just want to be normal" issues and I thought that a friend who doesn't know anything about the Warehouse would be a good thing to go with. But I didn't want Sarah to be saved by some random dude... because for some reason (Instinct *cough*) I don't like random dudes appearing out of nowhere.

And then, it hit me: I already had another OC in this story: Julia. She could be like... Sarah's medicine studying bestie! Then, I started imagining back story for them. How they went to that party Julia mentions in the last chapter. What Julia would think about Sarah's novel. What Julia thinks about Sarah being all mysterious "I don't live in area 51". And whoops, I started shipping them. Like hell. That was never intended, because I dislike this thing that often shows up in fanfiction: 'My parents are doing the gay, so I'll do the gay as well'. It's not that I dislike the thought in general, it's just that it shows up way too often. But well, I was shipping them and I went to lastminutegenius, saying "Julia will show up again and Sarah and her are in love and wonderful with each other. In the moment Sarah loses connection to the time machine she will declare her love to Julia and her mothers will hear it and ship them from the moment they meet."

And lastminutegenius replied: "Well... I don't like that."

Me: "WHAT?! You made me ship them!"

Her: "Yeah, but... well, I don't want them openly declare their love to each other. What about implying them? I really like the idea of them being only implied."

Me: *blinks* "That's some kind of idea."

So I just wrote them implied. Subtext-maintext-whattext? Gestures, gazing at each other, making each other uncomfortable. Maybe I would go with them there in the next part. Maybe I wouldn't... my readers should decide for themselves if they have to become a couple or not. That's the point of being implied, right?

But I wanted to imply them so much that other people would start to ship them as well. So I can maybe go there with them in the next part of the story. :P Let's see what happens...

There are again a few details I want to point out here, so everybody can facepalm and ask themselves why they didn't see it coming. Or to give you something to think about until the next part is coming. You know I love details. Appreciate the details!

The ravens

They already get mentioned in TLS by Artie.

Steve is jolting upright on the couch from his dream, yelling "Watch the birds". ;) I mean, yeah, that was a referrence to the show and the episode with the creepy birds. But well. Claudia explains that HG has snagged the ravens for Warehouse 12 and that they've been the update for Warehouse 13. Every Warehouse has an update. Hugin and Munin are Odin's raven, "Memory and Thought." Munin is going to New York to call HG to come back to the Warehouse and meet her daughter. Basically, Memory is literally calling her. He is also sitting on a tree next to Myka, Sarah and HG when Helena finally remembers. We know that the ravens are the Warehouse. But... well, I can't tell too much or I would spoil you on the next part. But... memory is some dangerous subject to deal with. ;)

Helena's dreams and her memory

HG's dreams look like the dreams Myka and Sarah have in TTAW. It's dark and the figures in it seem to have light emerging from their bodies. In TTAW, the dreams have been connected to the watch. Sarah and Myka have been able to see alternative time lines and the possible future in them. Sarah has been watching the accident with the help of a dream in the end of the story and realised the intruder of the Warehouse has been her. The dreams in TTAW are connected to the watch. In one of the earlier chapters, Sarah already says that there are three people to remember her time travel with the watch. She means Myka, Helena and herself. Come on, I could already have written there: Helena is going to remember her daughter. It should have been clear that she does after she described her dream and Sarah's green eyes in them. In TTAW, Helena sees Sarah's eyes and reacts 'Myka'. It's quite the same here.

The watch and the Warehouse

In TLS, Leena already mentions that Myka and HG will get along and states that time works differently for the Warehouse. (I clearly expected some people to go all like 'WHAT?! It's like the watch!') Just as it does for the watch. Sarah, Claudia and Mrs. Frederic talk about this in TWT. Sarah is the only one who mentions that there are only two things who have time working differently for them: The watch and the Warehouse.

The car accident

Sarah constantly tells Paul and Claudia to drive carefully but is the one who crashes into a tree at the end. In general, most people in this part of the story drive recklessly.

Kut Parker

Appears already in chapter 2 at the bus station. Only one person in the reviews spotted him and was like "I shall remember him, you are going to do something with him!"

In the last chapters, Abigail, Claudia, Myka and Helena are repeating they've created monsters, not aware of the fact that there was actually a monster created that day. When Julia and Adelaide get into the Warehouse, Julia feels some kind of draught in her neck, but doesn't find anything. That has been Kurt, too. And holy shit: That forcefield thingy?! I added the thing with Adelaide introducing Julia to the Warehouse later because I got reminded of that damn forcefield that would probably totally react to Kurt. I think people thought I was criticising the forcefield, being all like "this has never been useful!". In fact, I've just realised I made a mistake.

Everyone ships Bering and Wells

Everyone! Even the receptionist and Mrs. Frederic (for about 70 years now). Or Julia, who thinks that the two women in Sarah's novel should become a couple. Sarah has basically written her mothers' story.

TTAW and TLS references / Continuity / Running Gags / Intertextuality

- Claudia and Sarah and coffee

- Sarah's and Myka's scar

- Sarah shoots Kurt Parker just the way she shot Myka in TTAW, mentioning she's really fast and incredibly good at aiming. In TTAW, the physician mentions that Myka has been shot by either a really bad or a really good shooter. And Myka replies that is has been a really good one. Sarah also mentioned that she's really good at aiming while she told her story to Myka, HG, Pete and Claudia in TTAW. She said she learned it with Pete.

- In TTAW, Sarah shot Myka with Helena's gun from the future. In TWT, Kurt shoots Paul with Claudia's and Steve!Sarah's Tesla from the past.

- Sarah constantly dislikes guns just as she did in TTAW. "You really don't want to point a gun at me"

- Sarah fights Pete just the way she fought Helena in TTAW. Actually, Myka kind of fights the random angry man in the hotel lobby in a similar way. It's the way Helena fights Briggs in Instinct.

- Sarah and the scent of apples in the Warehouse that leads her.

- During her showdown with Parker in the Warehouse, Sarah thinks that 'this time there is an intruder in the Warehouse she's able to fight.' She has been unable to fight herself during the events of TTAW

- Helena refers to the familiar looking girl in her dreams as 'the intruder of her dreams'. In TTAW, HG has figured out that Sarah has been the intruder in the Warehouse

- Sarah and the lightnings and flashes in the Warehouse

- The guide that appeared in TLS appears again for Sarah in Artie's shape. It has already appeared for her once but they aren't talking about details (Sarah refers to the apparition back then as "Her", but I haven't told you yet who that has been). The Warehouse appears always in the shape of dead people towards its caretaker. I really didn't have this as a concept when I wrote TTAW, but well, after Myka had this damn accident with the shelf, and Sarah angrily yelled at the Warehouse after her mother's funeral, she already hears her dead mother's voice talking to her. It's not like I did that on purpose back then, but I really like that I did.

- Sarah mentions her baseball practice with Pete

- In one of those Flashforwards into the 'original time line' ... chapter 7, the one with the sex, Helena tickles Myka on her chest. In chapter 14 of TWT, Helena notices that Myka is ticklish on her chest /rib cage

- Listening to Adelaide and Paul talking, Julia thinks that a Farnsworth is no retro Iphone (like Sarah mentioned towards her in TTAW, a statement that is originally made by Claudia), and she's aware of that because she has done research

- Mrs. Frederic always mentions she's a quiet walker. In the epilogue of TWT, Claudia tells her that this isn't really true

- Mrs. Frederic's dementia: Is already mentioned in TTAW, Sarah mentions this towards Claudia in TWT.

- Elephants! In TTAW, TLS and TWT, there are elephants mentioned everywhere as well as the Addams family is mentioned in all three parts. Those are running gags. Just as Claudia and Pete trying to get people into watching TV shows and movies with them and do crappy popcultural references: Claudia always does references in front of Sarah and the girl doesn't understand them. In the end, Future!Claudia makes a Harry Potter reference and Sarah understands immediately. Future!Claudia notes that she's always sure Sarah would get a Harry Potter reference.

- I kind of made a joke out of the fact that I had to get rid of Pete to make Myka and Helena become a couple. Which is happening in fanfiction a lot. Because in my story, Myka and Pete are still partners, that's really important for me. And now, we forgot Pete completely. Whoops!

- The characters of Sarah's novel are basically only another version of the show. Julia's rant of Susan and Matthew is just our rant of Pyka. Julia is basically us. Also Kurt thinks that Susan and Matthew should become a thing, he clearly didn't get it. Also there are a few jokes about Sarah being a writer and not a Warehouse agent, detective or techy (and yeah, the 'I'm no detective, but the main character of my novel is' thing playing with the fact that the Bering and Wells fandom has adopted Meghan Ory as Detective Bering-Wells, Myka and Helena's daughter.)

- Paul's and Sarah's banter. It is said in TTAW that Sarah was the Warehouse's decision. In TLS, Claudia thinks that the Warehouse has a big impact on HG's and Myka's life so she doubts that Sarah would never exist. Paul literally calls Sarah "The Warehouse's decision" to mock her. Also he calls her "Ferret, Accident and Kettle Kid", referring to her conception mockingly. She calls him "Little Foot" and "Idiot". It is often mentioned that Paul is really tall and has Myka's long neck.

- Body height is also some kind of running gag: Myka is complaining about the seats in the plane, Paul is really tall (1,93 m - that's around 6'4'' I think), Julia is really short (something around 1,56m, that's 5'1'') and still Julia slaps the hell out of baby Paul. Also Sarah constantly struggles with the fact that she's in Steve's body and suddenly very tall. She hits her head everywhere, she presses Claudia to hard while hugging her. It leads to the fact that she is unable to Tesla Kurt Parker properly when he runs away with the artifact. (Just to be clear: Aaron Ashmore - Steve's actor - is 1,83m that's 6'0''. Sarah is 'slightly taller than Helena'. Jaime Murray is 1,70 m - 5'7''. I decided that Sarah is 1,72m, that's 5'8'')

- Claudia is constantly criticising my writing. She already did it in TTAW about the watch and that it's far too powerful and the part of it stealing time from whole towns looks like something somebody would have imagined to get the attention of Warehouse agents. In TWT, Claudia says that the 'Emotion Element Stones' sound utterly cheesy and she complains about all that 'Time Travel Shitfuckery' in the story. Myka has started doing this as well, she thinks that the scar on her shoulder stayed there so she gets reminded that she really has seen that future and it hadn't been only an imagination. When I wrote TTAW, I really made it because of that, because I wanted to remind her that she has really seen it. But in TLS, I started messing with this concept, Myka doubts everything she has seen and carries on with it in TWT. But now I also used the scars to give HG her memory back.

- Julia continues calling Sarah "Bells" just as she did in TTAW. Even Paul calls Sarah "Sarah Bells"

- Paul is driving Myka's green Ford from Transient and The Therapist.

- Ruth Thompson from Transient appears on the list of employees Paul is reading to Sarah

- Transient already had the concept of the time machine and losing and regaining memory in it. I did that on purpose. Yes, I foreshadowed in Transient for TWT.

There's probably more, but I can't remember. ;)

I want to thank Aimofdestiny for the beta of this and for being a wonderful friend.

Furthermore, I want to thank Spacegiraffesloveunicorns for printing me a shirt with the type "The day that never happened because I undid it even though I caused it." I'm wearing it a lot and people are looking really strange at me. I love it.

And I also want to thank claudieelf and ck-slayer for being the guinea pigs of this story, reading un-beta'd parts and telling me their honest opinion.

I want to thank everyone who has read this story and everyone who has written a review. But I have to say, the review part disappointed me a little bit this time. I know there were a lot of OCs in this one, but ... maybe I'm spoiled, but I'm used to more reactions from you. Maybe we can come back to this in the next part? ;)

But at first, I have to write my bachelor thesis. Cross your fingers for me, please

Greetings from Germany, MaLu

(another story marked as complete...)