Title: Personnel Quarters

Rating: PG

Spoilers: None really, but it assumes Claudia and Fargo are at least friendly.

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. Infringement is not intended, if you think I am infringing just send me a cease and desist email.

a/n - I've been sitting on this one for weeks. I'm still unhappy with the ending, but if I wait any longer I'll never post it.

Steve walked in to the Warehouse office and spotting Artie at his desk, headed in his direction.

"Agent Jinks, we have disturbances in the Warehouse, go find out what they are." Without looking up from his computer, he waved a piece of paper in Steve's general direction.

Grabbing the paper, he headed down the Warehouse stairs. Reading the locations on it, it seems he was headed to the maritime section and the personnel quarters archive. He knew better than to ask Artie what he was looking for, but sometimes it would be nice to go into the situation with some sort of idea of what the problem might be.

Walking to the locations gave him time to think. With Claudia off on a short vacation with Fargo, he was spending more time walking the Warehouse floor than ever. He was learning the shortcuts to get where he needed.

He quickly arrived in the maritime section and found the shelf location Artie had given him. It was empty, not that it was unusual for items to not be in their locations. Some do tend to wander off. Looking at the card, this one was only dangerous if you struggled with it. Pulling out his small container of neutralizer - Claudia had created a small dispenser that was about the size of a can of pepper spray – he carefully looked around him.

Nothing looked out of place, but he spent a few minutes inspecting the surrounding shelves making sure they only housed what they should. With everything else in order, he decided to check out the next reported disturbance. He'd let Artie know about this one and then they could decide how to conduct a search for it.

Twenty minutes later he arrived at the doorway to the archive. Looking around he saw nothing out of the ordinary. He donned the required protective gear – hairnet and gloves – seems silly for a man without much hair, but the rules are the rules.

Moving to the keypad he entered the room number Artie had given him, 1866. Oddly the Archive never whirred as it prepared the room, in fact it just beeped at him that it was ready. It seemed as though the room was already queued up. Steve took a last look around before opening the door.

As quickly as he opened the door he closed it. More like slammed it shut. Hard. Twin screams followed his hasty exit.

"Steve!"

"Oh, bollocks!"

He had certainly found the rope from the Mary Celeste. Now that he knew what the "disturbance" was how was he going to explain it to Artie?

Wait, why was he the one that was going to have to explain it? Myka and H.G. were the ones practicing their rope tricks!

He cautiously approached the door and knocking on it he waited. Faint words could be made out through the door. "Bloody… kill him." Followed by, "Nobody… visits… area!"

When the door opened the women had composed themselves and were, thankfully, fully clothed now.

"My dear boy, what can I help you with?" H.G. asked with her smirk firmly in place.

Steve, deciding the better part of valor was discretion, refused to meet Helena's onyx stare. "There were a few disturbances reported in the Warehouse, Artie asked me to check them out."

"What sort of disturbances?" Arching a fine brow, Helena had a look on her face he could not define.

"A, um, he didn't tell me, just told me to look." He squeaked out dropping his eyes to her brown boots. Odd, he could have sworn she had black ones on earlier.

"Well, I can assure you everything is in order." Her firm tone implied his time here was done.

"Okay then, I'll… uh, just head back to the office." Shuffling his feet he started to turn away.

"Take the long way, we wouldn't want Artie to ask unnecessary questions, now would we?"

Steve just kept walking. Some things did not need responses.

"Well, darling that could have been worse." The raven-haired writer turned and advanced on Myka, her intent of picking up where they left off clear.

Myka held up her hand, causing Helena to pause. "We need to get back to work, I don't really want to have to explain this anymore than we already have to."

Helena sighed, "I suppose you're right, darling. Care to switch boots now?"

A half-hour later, Steve arrived back at the office. Myka and Helena had beaten him and were in a discussion with Artie.

"… Mary Celeste seems to have taken a liking to Myka. We neutralized it and returned it to its shelf." Helena spoke in her smoothest voice.

He looked at Myka, she was busy studying her hands. Even knowing what he knew did not quell the gut reaction that silently screamed, "LIE!"

"Yes well, now that it's resolved, back to work!" Artie returned his attention to his computer.

H.G. turned with a satisfied look at Myka, "Shall we?"

Myka looked at Steve and smiled. "I think it's our turn to buy lunch, right Helena?"