Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's Note: This episode showed Steve and Claudia trying to help Artie with stopping Brother Adrian from stealing artifacts. They go to a supposed address of his, and Steve and Claudia are nearly buried alive. Artie makes a few verbal slips, and I think Claudia, with her psych ward experience, would be starting to worry about his sanity. Also, HG shows up at the end to confront Artie about the astrolabe. Since she also shows up in the next episode, it seems to me that she decided to stick around for a day or two while they sorted everything out. So I decided to let her make an appearance at the end of this chapter. :) Enjoy!

An Apple a Day Keeps the Crazy Away

Claudia's desk was covered in books, and her computer had about a dozen separate internet tabs open. Her mind tended to run in a hundred different directions while she worked, and she had learned long ago that it was best to indulge all of the various tangents because eventually one of them would lead somewhere. But so far she had yet to find that one.

A knock at her door pulled her out of her thoughts. Myka was leaning around her partially open door with a smile on her face.

"Hey, Mykes," Claudia said, pulling her face away from the computer screen. She tended to lean closer when she got engrossed in reading. Pete often joked that one day she was going to fall in.

"Dinner's almost ready," Myka said.

"Okay," Claudia said. "Be down in a sec."

She turned her attention to her desk, trying to figure out the best way to mark her spot in all of the materials so she could pick up where she had left off. The door behind her creaked open further as Myka came into the room.

"What are you working on?" she asked curiously.

"The case of the missing artifacts," Claudia told her. She pulled a pen out of the center of one book and stuck in her mouth. Then she started tearing a blank piece of paper into strips resembling bookmarks.

"Sounds like a Sherlock Holmes novel," Myka joked as she stuck her hands in her pockets. Claudia shrugged while she began placing the paper strips.

"Too bad we don't have the master detective here," Claudia said, pulling the pen out of her mouth. "He could probably have this whole mess solved by tea time."

"Well, if we can't have Holmes, at least we have the next best thing," Myka told her. She leaned to the side a bit so that her arm bumped into Claudia's shoulder.

"Thanks for the confidence," Claudia said with a glance up at the older agent. Then her eyes returned to the stack of materials in front of her and her shoulders sagged a bit. "The problem is that I don't have all the facts. Artie Clause has decided against sharing, and it's a little hard for me to plan a game-winning strategy when I can only see half the board."

"So he still won't talk about it?" Myka asked. She took a few steps back so she could sit on the end of Claudia's bed.

"Nope," Claudia said. She spun her desk chair around to face Myka. "All we really know is that this Brother Adrian guy is a member of a spin-off of the Knights Templar, and for some reason he has a serious grudge against Artie, so he's stealing artifacts to get back at Artie, and he won't stop until Artie does something that Artie refuses to do."

"That's actually a lot," Myka said, impressed.

"Of the big picture, yes," Claudia agreed. "But I need the details. If we knew what Adrian has against Artie, maybe we could lure him into a trap. In fact, if I knew more about him at all it would make it so much easier to get inside his head. The guy made mistakes today. I'm pretty sure I could beat him at his own game if I had the chance."

"But first you have to know the rules," Myka concluded.

"Exactly," Claudia said. "But Artie is being extremely unhelpful in that department."

"Has he said why?" Myka asked curiously. Claudia shrugged.

"He seems to think he's protecting us from something," she said. "But wouldn't it be better protection for us to know exactly what we're up against?"

"Artie isn't good at letting people in," Myka pointed out. "He's lost a lot of people, and he doesn't want to go through that again. So he tries to protect us."

"By shutting us out?" Claudia asked skeptically.

"Remember when MacPherson made everyone think you had betrayed the Warehouse?" Myka asked. "Instead of telling us your side of the story, you ran away to CERN because you thought the best way to protect us was to remove yourself from the equation."

"It's not the same," Claudia said with a shake of her head.

"Maybe it is to Artie," Myka told her. Claudia sighed and looked down at the floor.

"I'm just worried about him," she admitted.

"Artie's been doing this longer than any of us," Myka pointed out. "He knows how to take care of himself. And he has all of us to help him."

"But he won't let us help him," Claudia countered. "And it's not just that. Lately he's been... weird. Well, weirder than normal. It's like he's off somehow. He jumps every time I come into the room."

"He gets absorbed in his work," Myka said. "You do that too sometimes."

"I guess," Claudia conceded. "But it's other things too. Sometimes I'll do something and he'll look at me with these big eyes like he's terrified of me. It's almost like he doesn't even see me at all."

"Maybe he's just jumpy about this whole Brother Adrian thing," Myka offered.

"But he doesn't do it with anyone else," Claudia told her. "It's just me. And sometimes he says things that don't make sense. I don't mean like normal Artie speak. Today he said he was worried that I had been buried alive again. Only I've never been buried alive before. And when I asked him about it, he changed the subject."

"That doesn't sound like him," Myka admitted. Artie was usually quite good with remembering details.

"Leena said she heard him talking in the Dark Vault last week," Claudia said quietly. She was looking down at the floor now, something that immediately put Myka on alert. "Actually she said he was yelling like he thought someone was there. Only there wasn't anybody else. It was just him. But he kept yelling about how they were a coward and he was going to stop them. She said it was almost like... like he had snapped."

"What are you saying?" Myka asked. Her brow was furrowed the way it always was when she was thinking hard.

"Well, it's pretty clear this is getting to him," Claudia said. "What if... what if it's too much? What if Artie's finally lost it?"

"You think he might be having a psychotic break?" Myka asked.

"I don't know," Claudia said with a shake of her head. "But he's talking to people that aren't there. And sometimes I'll come up behind him and he jumps up with this confused look like he doesn't know how he got there. I love the Warehouse as much as anybody here, but most of the agents it doesn't kill end up going cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. I spent time in the loony bin, okay? I know crazy when I see it. And I seriously think that Artie may finally be losing it."

"He has seemed pretty out of sorts lately," Myka admitted thoughtfully. "More than usual. It could be that this is going to his head, or it could be that this is just all stress."

"So what do we do?" Claudia asked.

"Well," Myka said, "for now I think we should focus on dealing with Brother Adrian. If this is just stress, then catching Brother Adrian is the fastest way to fix that."

"And if it's not?" Claudia asked quietly.

"We'll keep a close eye on him for the next few days," Myka said. "You and Leena and I can take turns. If in a few days it seems like he's getting worse, then we'll call Doctor Calder and ask her what we need to do. And I think for now we should keep this conversation between us and Leena. At least until we know for sure what's going on."

Claudia nodded in agreement.

"Okay," she said.

"Artie's going to be okay, Claude," Myka said reassuringly. "We'll get this whole thing figured out."

A knock on her door caused them to both look up. The door swung inward to reveal Steve standing outside.

"It's time to eat," he said.

"We'll be there in a minute," Myka said.

"Everything okay?" Steve asked curiously. Claudia and Myka exchanged a look. Then Claudia nodded slowly.

"Yeah," she said. "We're good."

"Okay," Steve said. He gave Claudia a long look before seeming to decide that he believed her. "I'll see you guys downstairs."

He turned and walked out, letting the door swing nearly shut behind him. They could hear his feet hitting the stairs as he walked down them. Myka stood to her feet and then turned to Claudia.

"You coming?" she asked.

"Yeah," Claudia said. She turned back to her desk and quickly sent her laptop into hibernation mode before closing the screen. Then she got up from the chair and headed to the door. "Come along, Watson. The meal is afoot."

"Lead the way, Mr. Holmes," Myka said in her best British accent.

The two of them stepped out of Claudia's room and began making their way down the stairs. They could hear voices coming from the direction of the dining room. Each of them was clearly discernible in the small B&B. Artie, Steve, Leena, Pete, and...

Claudia suddenly froze mid-step, causing Myka to nearly run into her from behind.

"Do you hear that?" she asked.

"Hear what?" Myka asked innocently.

"I know that voice," Claudia said slowly.

In a sudden burst of energy, she dashed down the rest of the stairs two at a time and ran toward the dining room. A familiar figure with long dark hair was standing at its entrance. She turned around and a bright smile crossed her face at the sight of Claudia.

"HG!" Claudia yelled.

She ran the last few steps and launched herself at the inventor, locking her arms firmly around HG's neck. HG laughed as she stumbled back a step to catch her balance. Then her own arms wrapped themselves around Claudia in a fierce hug.

"Hello," she said warmly. "It's good to see you."

"I didn't know you were coming," Claudia said, pulling away.

"It was meant to be a surprise," HG told her with a smile.

"Even I didn't know," Myka said as she came up behind them.

"You didn't tell me she was here!" Claudia cried, rounding on Myka. Myka quickly held up her hands in surrender.

"She wanted you to be surprised when you came down," Myka explained.

"Are you staying for dinner?" Claudia asked as she turned back to HG. "Please tell me you're staying."

"Actually, I thought I might stay the night if that's acceptable," HG said. Claudia squealed with delight and gave a small jumped.

"Sick!" she cried. HG and Myka both laughed.

"Hey!" Pete's voice called from the table. "Are you ladies coming or not? I'm starving."

"We're coming," HG assured him.

Claudia linked arms with HG as they headed together into the dining room.

"I have to show you all my new projects," she said excitedly. "I've been working on some really cool stuff."

"I look forward to it," HG said with a chuckle.

Myka shook her head as she followed after them. The two inventors were always so excitable together. It was like watching small kids at Christmas.

When she reached the doorway to the dining room, Myka hung back for just a moment. Everyone was already gathered around the table. Pete had pulled up an extra chair for HG and was now trying to stuff rolls into his mouth while Leena scolded him. Claudia and HG were both talking animatedly back and forth about a possible project as they sat down together. Across the table, Artie and Steve were engaged in a lively debate about some philosophical concept. Artie didn't look any worse for the wear. Maybe it really was all just due to stress.

Myka hadn't entirely believed it when she told Claudia they would be okay. She had really just said it to reassure the younger agent. But as she looked at her family gathered around the table, she decided that she believed it now. Come what may, at least they had each other. She had a feeling that would be more than enough.

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