Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's Note: This episode involved Steve dragging Claudia away from her research on Claire to help him investigate an artifact case at a college. The first part of this chapter is set on the car ride to the college. It's really more of a filler scene than anything, but it's kind of a fun one. And there's Steve, who I rarely write. Once arriving at the college, the two of them track down a candle that splits people in half. During the investigation, Steve gets split in two: one half of him is a grumpy goody two shoes and one half is an over the top gay party animal. What results is a pretty hilarious episode. Finally they get his two halves back together and head home. At the end of the episode Artie storms into the Warehouse and demands that Claudia tell him what she's done to Claire. When it becomes pretty clear she has no idea what's going on, he tells her that someone has taken Claire. The second part of this chapter is an extended version of that scene. Enjoy!

All the Right Friends

"I still can't believe I'm doing this," Claudia said. She rested her right elbow against the ledge at the bottom of the passenger window so she could lean her head on her hand. "I should be back at the Warehouse working on a way to help Claire."

"Claude, you've been working on it for two days straight," Steve pointed out. "Have you even eaten?"

"Myka brought me some sandwiches," Claudia said with a shrug. "Oh, and I raided Artie's snack cabinet a few times."

"He has a snack cabinet?" Steve asked in interest.

"There is much you do not know, padawan," Claudia told him in her best Jedi voice.

"Probably, but that's not the point," Steve said.

"And the point is?" Claudia asked in a bored tone.

"The point is that you need a break from this whole Claire thing," Steve said. "You've been working yourself into the ground the last two days. Your brain is probably fried."

"If you had a chance to see your sister again, wouldn't you be doing everything you could to make it happen?" Claudia asked.

"Yeah," Steve said quietly. "I would. In fact, I would probably be so focused on it that I would completely forget to think about myself. Which is why I would need friends who would drag me away from it and make me take a break."

"Fine," Claudia conceded. "You win this round, Poopy Pants."

"Why thank-you," Steve said. He glanced over at her long enough to flash his annoying smile. Claudia rolled her eyes and turned her head to stare out the window. "Oh, speaking of family. My mom wants me to drive out and visit next week so she can make me a birthday dinner. And she wants you to come with."

"I'm game," Claudia said. "Your mom is an amazing cook."

"Yes she is," Steve agreed. He tilted his head as if trying to figure out a puzzle he couldn't seem to solve. "And she really likes you for some reason. Why, I have no idea."

"You just don't like that we gang up on you," Claudia pointed out. She reached over and slugged his arm to prove her point.

"The odds aren't exactly in my favor," Steve agreed. "Especially at Scrabble."

"Dude, your mom dominates," Claudia said. "Actually, she's pretty cool all around. Besides, if Abigail's still gone by then, I will be in desperate need of something edible."

"If she doesn't hurry, we may all starve," Steve said drily.

"You know, it's funny," Claudia said, looking over at him. "Back when Abigail first got here, Myka said there might be a day when we couldn't imagine life without her. I didn't really believe her, but apparently that day is here."

"It is certainly a bleak existence," Steve agreed. "It kinda feels like my freshman year of college when I maxed out my meal plan early and had to live on Ramen for the rest of the semester."

"You went to a state school, right?" Claudia asked in interest. "Did you ever go to any crazy parties?"

"Not really," Steve said. "By contemporary standards, my college career was entirely uneventful."

"Oh, Jinksy, you're such a saint," Claudia said teasingly. "You were probably one of those boring guys that spent all his time in the library doing homework. I bet you didn't skip a single class."

"Hey, at least I went to college," Steve pointed out.

"You got a degree in criminal justice," Claudia said drily. "Which you now use... oh, that's right: never."

"Okay, Ms. Anti-Establishment," Steve said, deciding to play along. "Didn't you start to get a college degree?"

"I took a few classes through USD," Claudia said defensively. "But they were online, so it hardly counts."

"Hardly," Steve said drily.

"Besides, that was mostly just to make Myka happy," Claudia said. "And they were all way too easy anyway. Is public education really that bad, or are kids these days just stupid?"

"Probably a bit of both," Steve said.

"Or maybe public education just makes kids stupid," Claudia mused. "It's like the whole point of the institution is to suck every ounce of creativity out of their little minds so that they become these mindless drones who happily work their nine to five without rocking the boat."

"I don't know if I'd take it that far," Steve said skeptically. "But grade school is definitely over-rated."

"I wouldn't really know," Claudia admitted. "I skipped half of elementary, got shuffled around too much during middle school for any of it to count, and dropped out of high school after my freshman year."

"This explains so much," Steve said dramatically.

"Shut-up and drive," Claudia told him with a grin.

"Shut-up and drive, drive, drive," Steve sang as annoyingly as he could manage.

Claudia reached over and punched him in the shoulder.

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

"What have you done?" Artie's voice yelled. Claudia jumped and looked over her shoulder to see him standing in the doorway to the umbilicus. He stepped into the office, clearly upset about something. "I thought this was settled. What did you do?"

"Whoa, calm down," Claudia said, turning her chair to face him. She was completely and utterly confused. "What are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about," Artie said as he advanced angrily towards her. "What did you do with Claire?"

"Nothing," Claudia said immediately. She wasn't sure what was going on, but her gut was telling her that it was very, very bad. "Why? What happened? Where's Claire?"

Artie looked her over for a second before seeming to decide that he believed her. He sighed heavily.

"She's gone," he said. "Someone took her."

Claudia's eyes widened as she realized what he had just said.

"What do you mean she's gone?" she asked, jumping to her feet. "What happened? Who took her?"

"You really don't know, do you?" Artie asked softly.

"Artie, tell me what happened!" Claudia insisted as she hurried to stand in front of him.

"After your little escapade," Artie explained, "I set the security system at the regent châtalet to send me an alert if anything suspicious happened in her room."

"Your faith in me is astounding," Claudia said drily.

"Fool me once," Artie said with a shrug. "But the point is that fifteen minutes ago the cameras suddenly blipped, and then there was no Claire. Apparently they were stuck in some kind of loop. For how long, I have no idea."

"So what happened to her?" Claudia demanded.

"I don't know," Artie said honestly. "I assumed you had attempted to wake her up again. But if it wasn't you..."

"Then somebody else has her," Claudia finished. She reached up and ran a hand over the top of her head as she tried to process that information.

"It doesn't make sense," Artie said. "That location is top secret. Only a handful of people know about it. And those that do would have no interest in Claire."

"We need to get over there now," Claudia said firmly. "Maybe something there will tell us what happened."

"Claudia-" Artie began.

"Artie, somebody has my sister," Claudia told him fiercely. "God only knows who they are or what they want with her. And the sooner we can figure that out, the better our chances of finding her again."

"I know," Artie assured her. "I'll drive."

Claudia clicked open the door and all but ran out into the umbilicus. Artie was a few steps behind her, his pace not quite as frenzied but still urgent. The heavy door swung shut behind them both, leaving the Warehouse ominously silent.

Only two episodes left to cover. And since you're already at the bottom of the page, how about leaving a review to let me know what you thought of this chapter?