Chapter 2: Divergence

Artie slumped into the cushions of the armchair and groaned. "If I ever suggest again that I race Claudia for cookies, just shoot me."

Leena brought a tray of cookies and sat it down on the coffee table. "What drove you, anyway? This is very unlike you."

He gave the young woman a dirty glare. "Just because I was physically active for once doesn't mean something is wrong with me, okay?"

Leena only rolled her eyes at him, the ghost of a smile on her lips. "Here, have a cookie, then. You're extra grumpy when you haven't eaten enough."

Artie narrowed his eyes at her. "Evil woman," he muttered around a cookie. "And it's not like I ran the seven miles from the Warehouse. I drove. Not that this wouldn't make it any less sadder, but still."

After waiting long seconds for the witty comeback he expected from her which never came, he turned around in his seat to a sight he didn't want to see. Leena was leaving the room and Claudia entered, the two women barely acknowledging the other with wary glances as they passed each other. He sighed inwardly. This was going to have to be addressed some day soon, if they wanted to continue working together efficiently as a team, not to mention living together as a big dysfunctional family in the B and B.

Claudia gave a sigh of her own and let herself plop onto the couch. "Have Pete and Myka called already? They should be in Detroit by now, right?"

"Yeah. They haven't had any luck yet, though," Artie replied after swallowing the last pieces of his cookie.

"Sweet," she muttered and yawned slightly, pulling her feet up on the couch, "meaning we can actually call it a day before dusk for once, right?"

"Don't jinx it," he groaned. "That's right up there with, 'I have a bad feeling about this', and 'What could possibly go wrong?'"

Claudia snorted, but didn't answer. When he looked over to the young redhead's form, he could see her jaw move, and a quick glance to his plate confirmed his suspicion. "Thief," he grumbled under his breath. Oatmeal scotchies, too!

His youngest apprentice winked at him, as if she knew that he had only just realized the theft.

"What about Leena?" he asked.

"What about her?" she asked right back, trying her best to look innocent. Too bad that Artie was having none of it and shot her a flat look instead.

"You know I will not let up about this. She hasn't done anything wrong, and I thought you knew the Warehouse well enough to get that. And, that you knew Leena well enough to know that she would never hurt any of us intentionally, including you."

Claudia grimaced. She could have sworn this was instant karma for that snagged cookie, but she was not above admitting that Artie was right.

"I know," she whined, "still, I may know that rationally, but that doesn't change how I feel about her at the moment. Give it some more time? Please? It's only been a few days, Artie."

This felt more and more like bargaining to him every second, but it was a start. Miscommunication had cost many a good Warehouse agent their lives. At least she had given him something to work with, which was honestly more than he had expected from breaching the subject for the first time with her. He had no problem keeping the two of them occupied and separated for as long as they needed to talk things out.

There was always inventory work.

Leena had been trying unsuccessfully to ignore the pain since she had woken up. The headaches, she could deal with. What really got to her were the sudden dizzy spells that always came at the most inconvenient moments. On ladders, for example, when she was doing inventory. Or like just a few minutes ago, when she grabbed the oven to right herself after a particularly bad one, because burns were so much better than bruises. She glared at the angry red skin on her left hand as she dialed a number on her phone with the other.

"Yes, Mrs Frederic. You said I should call you if it gets worse?"

Artie was pouring over some of the tomes that he had spread out on the table in his office overlooking the Warehouse, several sheets of paper strewn about that were already marked with notes. Deciding to take a break from the analog search for the artifact that sent him apparitions of his former partner, he swiveled around and made his way towards the computer system.

It was just like James to send him on one final artifact hunt, giving him the finger from the grave; they had worked together for far too long for Arthur to be fooled by James' posh accent. He frowned when the system coughed up General Patton's helmet. "No, no, no… you're not the one doing this," he muttered.

"Doing what, Arthur?" a familiar voice with a posh accent asked from behind.

Artie swiveled around in his seat, only to look into the concerned faces of Leena and Claudia instead of MacPherson's ugly mug.

"Artie… not doing what?" Claudia asked, clearly perturbed.

"Nothing," came the quick answer, as automatic as ever. "Nothing did anything." He could've come up with a much more believable lie if he hadn't been so caught off guard by James' apparition. Probably. As it was, the lie was so threadbare, if you could have worn it, you would've been arrested for indecent exposure.

He had cracked mere seconds after that, to no one's particular surprise. It was a cheap and easy way to just push all the fault for that onto the apparition of James MacPherson, but Artie was doing exactly that. He had more important things to do. They (meaning the Warehouse's Holy Trinity of Artie, Leena and Claudia) were all assembled around a glorified washing machine filled with the precious and slightly nauseating purple neutralizer goo, and since two seconds ago, Rasputin's prayer rope.

"Well, a good scrubbing should get rid of MacPherson," he said with more hope than he actually felt and dropped the lid onto the goo.

In all his wishful thinking, Artie almost forgot the intensified effects of the goo reaching into the deepest pores of the artifact, and barely got his hands up to shield both Leena and Claudia from the flashing lights, who were just watching on in barely concealed interest.

A thick silence hung over them after the light show died down, only disturbed by the slurping sound the prayer rope made when Artie pulled it out of the goo with some barbecue tongs.

Waiting a long moment, he looked around the Warehouse. "James? Do Svidanya!"

It had been an eventful day in Univille; and yet, the cozy innards of the Bed and Breakfast helped them all unwind a bit, each in their own way. Leena, after dealing with the whole ordeal with the Pearl of Wisdom and the amber orb, was armed with pen and paper, lazily drawing in a corner, while Claudia enjoyed some alone-time with the Tesla gun.

"So, Claudia…" Myka piped up from her chair and book.

Hearing her smirk through her voice had the young redhead look up in worry. Nothing good ever came from smirks. "That's a scary tone," she murmured, but to no avail.

"Todd's cute," Myka continued, undeterred by Claudia's trepidation.

"Todd who?" she asked automatically; Artie had been a bad teacher in terms of lying. Or a good one, depending on how you looked at it.

Myka only snorted in victory, having gained the reaction she wanted.

"This is me ignoring you," Claudia offered and snapped shut the Tesla's wooden case and hastily retreated from the awkwardness.

Saved by the popcorn, she thought as a grinning Pete strutted into the living room clutching a giant bowl filled with the puffy treat, and a DVD featuring their new favorite actor. It didn't take much convincing to lure them all in for the movie night; with the popcorn of course, they had had enough of that particular fellow to last a lifetime.

Following a very excited Pete upstairs for a chance at some of it, she was quickly followed by the women who were ganging up on her about her love life.

Pete, please save me, was on repeat in her mind, and suddenly, a movie night starring the actor that almost annihilated Univille was looking more and more tempting by the second.

Unbeknownst to all of them, Mrs Frederic stared at their retreating forms and tore Leena's drawing from her notepad. Her caretaker senses tingled all over, and not in a good way. Nonetheless, or even more so now, she would find the reason for the young owner of the B and B to draw a house.

Heeeeeey, I'm not dead! :D Just terribly busy with university. Despite life's best efforts, I got a new chapter for you, aptly named, I must say. Because in this one, we diverge from canon! At least a little bit. It's a start. You'll see soon enough.

Anyway, I have hope that I can update my stories soon-ish, at least. Life, work, multiple stories to juggle, it's not that easy. But, most of you know that feeling I suppose, so, all I can say is, bear with me, other new stuff is in the pipeline, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, leave a review if you like, and I'll see you next time :)

Also, shoutout to the wonderful Tafferling, whose reviews were a much needed kick in the buttocks to get on with my writing :D