Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's Note: We've almost reached the end of the first season. Craziness. Episode eleven centered around Edgar Allan Poe's notebook (which was sent to Myka's father) and his pen. This chapter takes place late that night between Myka and Claudia. I really wish the two of them had more screen time together because I feel like they could have a really cool big sister/little sister sort of relationship. This is my take on how that would get started up. Myka is really hard for me to write for some reason, so hopefully I did a decent job. Enjoy!

Shelter From the Storm

It was almost midnight by the time Myka and Pete got back to Leena's. Pete headed straight up to bed, but Myka knew she wouldn't be able to sleep even if she tried. No matter what she did, she couldn't get the image of her parents stuck in the lantern light out of her head. She had known MacPherson was bad, but now she knew just how evil he truly was. Things had just become personal. She was going to get him if it was the last thing she did.

Rather than lying in bed waiting for sleep she knew wouldn't come, Myka flipped on her bedside lamp and picked up her copy of The Time Machine. It was one of the four books she had packed back when she had thought South Dakota would be a temporary assignment. She had bought a few books since deciding to stay, but most of her collection was currently floating through the postal system in a footlocker. Until it arrived, she would have to make do with what she had.

It was just after one in the morning when she heard a knock on her door. It was so quiet that at first she wondered if maybe it was her imagination.

"Come in," she said. The door slowly cracked open to reveal Claudia standing outside.

"I, um... I saw your light was on," Claudia explained awkwardly. She stood there for a moment, fidgeting with the doorknob as if she couldn't decide whether to go in or not.

As an older sibling, Myka had always had a fierce protective instinct. There was a time when that had come in handy for taking care of Tracy. Somewhere early on, however, Tracy had become a fierce independent who neither needed nor wanted her older sister. Myka had been forced to pull back and quietly watch her sister from the sidelines. That instinct, however, had never quite gone away. And now it was telling her that something wasn't right.

Myka scooted over in the bed, pulling the covers aside as a clear signal for Claudia to join her. The redhead only hesitated for a second before quietly shutting the door behind her. Then she crossed the room and slipped under the blanket.

"You can't sleep either?" Claudia asked as she leaned back against the headboard.

"Nope," Myka said. She closed The Time Machine and laid it on the bed beside her. Then she leaned back against the headboard beside Claudia. "I keep thinking about my parents. I always knew this job could put me in danger. But today it almost killed them."

"But it didn't," Claudia reminded her. "We saved them."

"I know," Myka said quietly. "But MacPherson's still out there."

Silence fell as they both drifted off into their own thoughts. Myka had never admitted it to anyone, but she had spent her entire life wanting her dad to be proud of her. She had wanted it more than anything in the world. Finally hearing those precious words from him that day had meant more to her than she could ever explain. It was like she had finally found a piece of herself that had been missing. But she had come so close to losing him before he ever got the chance to say them. If that had happened, she knew something inside of her would have died with him.

She pulled herself out of her thoughts and looked over at Claudia. The younger girl was staring down at the blanket, lost in her thoughts. She was being strangely quiet. It was only then that Myka noticed her reddened eyes.

"What about you?" she asked. "What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep," Claudia said. She didn't look up as she said it.

"Nightmare?" Myka asked. Claudia hesitated for a moment. For a moment Myka wasn't sure if she was going to answer.

"Yeah," Claudia admitted quietly.

Two weeks before, Myka had woken in the middle of the night to hear noises coming from Claudia's room. When she had gone to investigate, she had found the younger girl in the middle of a terrible dream. It had taken a good deal of work to finally wake Claudia up. They had never mentioned it afterwards, but Myka knew from the terror in Claudia's eyes that it had been a bad one.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Myka asked carefully.

"No," Claudia said, firmly shaking her head.

"Okay," Myka said. "Just know that I'm here for you."

Silence fell again. It was admittedly a little bit awkward. Neither of them quite knew what to do with the situation.

"It's this whole MacPherson thing," Claudia finally blurted. "I finally found a place that I fit, you know? And now psycho Harvey Dent is running around trying to destroy everything."

In any other scenario, Myka would have smiled at Claudia's geeky analogy. But at that moment, she really didn't know what to say. Claudia had just verbalized Myka's own fear as well. The Warehouse had become her home and she was ready to fight to defend it. But how could they possibly defeat MacPherson?

Claudia looked over at her expectantly.

"This is where you tell me not to worry because the Bat Gang is going to save Gotham," the techie informed her. "You know, the whole 'good always beats evil' thing."

This time Myka did smile a little.

"You're not a kid, Claude," she said honestly. "I'm not gonna lie to you. I don't know if we can beat MacPherson. But I know we're going to try as hard as we can. At the end of the day, that's all we can do."

Claudia nodded thoughtfully as she mulled over Myka's words.

"Nicely put, Oracle," she said finally.

"Oracle?" Myka asked.

"Batgirl was already taken," Claudia informed her.

"Since when?"

"Since a few days ago," Claudia said. "Pete said I should be Robin because I'm the sidekick. But I'd rather be Batgirl. You're the walking encyclopedia, so that makes you Oracle." She paused suddenly, a wince on her face. "Okay, that may have been a bad choice of words."

"So who's Pete?" Myka asked, ignoring Claudia's last comment.

"He wants to be Batman," Claudia said. Her face made it clear that she didn't agree with his choice.

"I'm not seeing it," Myka admitted.

"Me neither," Claudia agreed. "He seems more like Robin. A really goofy Robin."

"Maybe Artie could be Batman," Myka offered. Claudia shook her head.

"He's more like Lucius Fox," she said. Seeing Myka's confused look, she added, "The smart guy who's in charge of all the gadgets. Did you not see the new movies?"

"I started the first one," Myka offered helpfully.

"Your education has been sorely neglected," Claudia said in amazement. "Clear your schedule Saturday. We're gonna have a Batman marathon."

"Does that mean Leena is Alfred?" Myka asked curiously.

"Apparently," Claudia said, wrinkling her nose. The idea was definitely a bit odd. "Kudos for knowing his name, by the way. But that does not get you out of Saturday."

"Fine," Myka huffed. Claudia grinned in triumph.

"We still haven't decided who Mrs. Frederic is," Myka said, her brow furrowing.

"Good point," Claudia agreed. They both sat in silence as they thought it over. Then they both looked up at each other.

"Batman," they both said at once.

"She definitely has that air of secrecy," Myka pointed out.

"And she's got the disappearing thing down," Claudia agreed.

"I can see her in a black costume," Myka said thoughtfully.

"It would definitely be intimidating," Claudia agreed. She looked over at Myka. "Maybe that's how we defeat MacPherson."

"With Mrs. Frederic in a Batman suit?" Myka asked skeptically.

There was something extremely hilarious about that mental image. The two of them looked at each other and then it was all over. They both started laughing.

"Speaking of terrifying," Myka said when they finally calmed down. "Today was your first day in the field, right?" Claudia nodded. "You did really well."

"I didn't really do that much," Claudia said, shrugging it off.

"But you did it well," Myka assured her. "And it meant a lot to me." A small smile slowly crossed Claudia's face. "Besides, sometimes less action is better."

"Meaning what?" Claudia asked curiously.

"Meaning that my first day as a Warehouse agent wasn't exactly smooth," Myka said. Claudia's expression silently asked for the rest of the story, so Myka explained. She held up her hand, ticking off the incidents one by one. "I was in a car crash, ended up in the hospital, had a hallucination of my dead former partner, got whammied by an artifact that almost made me shoot myself, and narrowly avoided having a front a row seat at a human sacrifice."

"Wow," Claudia said, looking impressed.

"Yeah," Myka agreed. "It was not one of my better days."

"And you still stayed," Claudia said. The older agent nodded.

"You know how it is," Myka told her. "Once you've seen the Warehouse, you can't imagine being anywhere else."

"It's kinda like the Island of Misfit Toys," Claudia said quietly. "Except that we actually have a purpose here."

"Yeah," Myka agreed fondly. "I guess it kind of is."

There was another short moment of silence. But it wasn't an uncomfortable silence. Rather it was the silence of two people who were just being together. Suddenly Myka was incredibly glad Claudia had come in. Though she would never have admitted it, she was in desperate need of company after everything that had happened. She needed someone to distract her from her fears and doubts. And Claudia had accomplished that perfectly.

"Thanks," Claudia said quietly.

"For what?" Myka asked, looking over at her.

"For being here," Claudia said. "And for not treating me like an irritating kid."

"You're not," Myka assured her. A hint of a smile tugged at the corner of Claudia's mouth. Suddenly Myka found herself wondering how many people in the girl's life had ever told her that she was worth something. She made herself a mental note to do it more often.

"What're you reading?" Claudia asked, looking over at the book on the bed.

"The Time Machine by H.G. Wells," Myka said. She held up the book so Claudia could see the cover.

"Never read it," Claudia admitted.

"Apparently I'm not the only one whose education is lacking," Myka said.

"Josh used to read to me all the time when I was a kid," Claudia told her. There was a twinkle in her eyes that told Myka it was a pleasant memory. "I haven't really done much fun reading since then. I never seemed to find the time."

"Well, then I think it's time we change that," Myka informed her. She glanced over at the clock. It was nearly two in the morning. They should be heading to bed, but she had a feeling neither of them was quite ready for that. She looked back over at Claudia. "You up for a little story time?"

"You don't mind?" Claudia asked carefully.

"Not if you don't," Myka said. Claudia only had to think it over for a second.

"Why not?" she said.

Myka pulled out her book mark and flipped back to the very first page of the book. Claudia scooted over next to her so she could read along.

"Chapter 1," Myka began. "The time traveler (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding a recondite matter to us..."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Pete woke him up at 3 a.m. just like he did every night. His stomach was grumbling irritably, telling him that it was time for a sandwich. He was more than happy to oblige.

As he stepped out into the hallway, he realized that there was light coming from under Myka's door. She was probably having trouble sleeping after everything that had happened with her parents. Pete headed over to her door and gave a small knock.

"Mykes?" he said quietly. There was no answer. Pete turned the knob and opened the door into the bedroom. The sight that met him caused a huge smile to cross his face.

Myka and Claudia were slumped against the pillows, both fast asleep. Claudia's head was on Myka's shoulder and Myka's head had come to rest on top of Claudia's. They looked more peaceful than he had seen either of them look in a good while.

There was a book still open in Myka's lap. Apparently she had fallen asleep while reading. Pete crept quietly over to the bed and picked it up, inserting Myka's bookmark in the proper place before putting the book on her bedside table. Then he carefully pulled the blanket up over Myka and Claudia. Satisfied with his work, he turned off the lamp and crept back to the door.

"Good night," he whispered.

He quietly closed the door behind him.

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