FF: Time After Time | Warehouse 13 | HG/Myka | NC-17 | Part 12
There's a moment we all come to
In our own time and our own space
Where all that we've done we can undo
If our heart's in the right place
On a prayer, in a song
I hear your voice and it keeps me hanging on
Raining down, against the wind
I'm reaching out till we reach the circle's end
When you come back to me again
Blinking slowly, it took a moment for the shapes to come into focus, and another moment after that for her to register them as the concerned faces of Artie, Pete, and Claudia.
“She’s awake! Hey Doc! She’s awake!”
Myka winced. “Quieter… please…”
Claudia, unable to restrain herself, threw her arms around Myka squeezing her tight enough to break a rib. Myka weakly returned the embrace. “The machine was off, but you wouldn’t wake up, and we didn’t know what to do, and I thought we’d lost you…”
“Shh, it’s okay Claude, it’s okay. I’m here.”
Artie glowered down at her while Claudia just kept holding on. “That was a very stupid thing to do.” And then without warning, he leaned down and hugged her too. Not to be left out, Pete piled on.
Eventually they stood back up to let Myka breathe. That was when she noticed the IV in her arm and Vanessa and Jane standing in the corner looking distinctly worried.
“It was three days Mykes, and Artie was worried your body couldn’t handle it, so we had to call in for back up.”
“And now, you’re going straight to the hospital to get checked out,” Vanessa ordered.
“No, I need to get back to the Warehouse.”
“Myka, the Warehouse was destroyed.”
“Not all of it, I hope.” She tried to stand up, wobbling. “I’ve got to get back and see-” Her knees buckled, legs giving out like jelly. Only Pete’s quick reflexes kept her from taking a header into the ground. Looking far more like an annoying older brother than a knight in shining armor, he swept her up off her feet and wouldn’t put her back down. “Pete… Pete! I’m fine!”
“That’s not what the Doc says. You can punch me later, but right now we’re taking you to the hospital.”
“No,” Myka argued, “we have to get back to the Warehouse.”
“Why? It obviously didn’t work.”
“We don’t know that. Not yet.” Myka squirmed and fought to get down even as Pete hung on. “Take me to the Warehouse and if the Bronze sector isn’t still standing you can take me to the hospital.”
“The Bronze sector,” Artie muttered. “The whole place was destroyed - we barely made it out remember?”
“We ran for our lives,” Myka answered. “After the energy shield came down, we didn’t look around to see what was still standing. With the fire and the smoke, we could barely breathe, so we just ran.”
Claudia pushed in front of Artie, her eyes locked on Myka’s. “If the Bronze sector survived, does that mean…?”
“I can’t say for sure, but yes, I think so.”
Claudia bit her lip, fighting tears. “Then we have to go back. Now.”
“Someone better explain to me what the hell is going on, right now,” Artie huffed.
“Put me in the car and I’ll tell you the whole story on the way,” Myka smiled.
Seeing no other choice, Artie did just that.
~*~
Vanessa watched over Myka in the car, making sure she ate a banana and drank a full bottle of water as Pete drove them back to the Warehouse. Between bites, Myka told them what happened. She left nothing out. After all, what was the point? She had nothing left to hide.
Only with gas masks in place, and Pete holding tight to Myka’s arm lest she slip, did Artie finally okay entering the Warehouse again. It was slow going. The massive structure was dark and smoke filled. Entire sections still smoldered. Only years of experience walking the aisles every day kept Artie on track as he led them toward the Bronze sector. They had to scale an entire section of shelves that had fallen on its side, and double back when the most direct rout was blocked by debris, but eventually they made it to where the Bronze sector should have been.
Miraculously, it was still standing there.
“I… I don’t believe it…”
“How in the world…”
“There’s not a scratch…”
Around her, her friends voices rose up in amazement but Myka remained silent. Stepping away from Pete she eased through the rows of bronzed figures until she found the one she was looking for, buried in the back.
As in her dream, Christina’s statue stared serenely back at her. “Artie… she’s here.”
Claudia rushed forward, grinning. “Does this mean… is he alive?”
“If he got this far, I don’t know why he wouldn’t be.”
“Then where are they? If they managed to escape, where did they go?”
“I don’t know…” Myka whispered, her heart pounding in her chest, “but we’ll find them.”
~*~
Helena still remembered the first time she had walked into the Warehouse - that vivid scent of apples, the miles of shelves containing wonder after wonder. She’d never stopped being surprised by the artifacts they’d recovered. She’d never stopped being curious about what might be out there yet to discover. That wonder, that possibility had kept her going, given her purpose, at the darkest moments of her life. When the Warehouse had been under attack, when Myka’s life hung in the balance, she’d acted then, without thought of the consequences. She’d already lost too much in her life to see the only home she’d ever had and the only woman she’d ever loved, be lost in the flames. In those last moments, there had been no fear, for what could she fear? Darkness? Pain? All that she had suffered, ten-fold, and lived to tell the tale. At the end, all she could see was Myka, and all she could feel was the love swelling inside her, knowing that finally, finally, she’d made recompense for all her sins.
And then, out of nowhere, some idiot had tackled her to the ground and that was the last thing she remembered.
Groaning, she put all of her strength into the simple task of opening her eyes, and was rewarded with a blinding shaft of light aimed straight at her cornea. “Bugger all.”
“Hey… I think she’s waking up.” The words were said at a normal decibel but to Helena they sounded like a great roar echoing inside the cavern of her skull. “Someone get the doctor.”
“Bloody hell,” she half-muttered, half-slurred. “I thought I was supposed to be dead.”
A hand slipped into her own, squeezing tightly. “Not yet, Helena. Not for a very long time.”
Helena pried her eyes open, forced them to focus. “Myka?”
Myka kissed the back of her hand. “I’m right here.”
“But… no, it can’t be… that was all a dream… I was in the Warehouse and it exploded…” She looked around the room, taking in the familiar faces, and one that she only had the vaguest recollection of. Steve, dressed in a hospital gown with an IV pole and bandages to match her own, grinned back. “You… you tackled me,” she accused, highly offended by the notion.
“Sorry about that,” Steve answered only somewhat penitent, “I was running kinda short on time.”
“How did we escape?”
“Harry Houdini’s cape,” Artie answered. “After so many years of wearing it during his ‘magical’ escape routines, it became imbued with the power to transport it’s wearer instantaneously from the building they were standing in to outside the door. A neat little trick all things considered.”
Helena tried to sit up and groaned in pain again. “All this just because Mr. Jinks tackled me and transported me outside the Warehouse?”
“Not exactly,” Artie continued. “We think that the bomb exploded at the exact moment Steve tackled you - which none of us really saw, because quite frankly, we couldn’t bear to watch. When he did, the artifact’s powers were amplified by the explosion and the mystical forces inside the Warehouse, so the effect was… exponential.”
“So where did we end up?”
“New Zealand,” Pete answered with a smile. “You two have been unconscious for about a week now. The authorities found you with burns and broken bones in the middle of Christchurch. You’re lucky to be alive.”
Helena looked at Myka, fighting tears, and knew that it hadn’t been a dream. Myka had saved her - in more ways than one. “Very lucky.”
Myka beamed. “Helena, there’s one more thing…”
“Mommy?”
Helena’s breath hitched, her entire chest constricted to the point she couldn’t breathe. It was a voice she’d been haunted by for over a century, a memory that took her soul to the depths of pain and the height of love. She forced herself to sit up, despite the pain, tears falling without measure as she looked into the eyes of her beloved daughter. “Christina?”
“You’re awake! Good. Myka said you would wake up. She promised.”
Helena fought to control the sob welling up in her chest, but as Claudia picked the little girl up and set her on the hospital bed, there was no containing it. She pulled Christina to her, hugging the child fiercely as she wept. “You’re alive.”
“Of course I am, Mommy. Myka said she’d bring me back to you and she did.”
Helena blindly reached out, but she didn’t need to reach far as Myka sat on the edge of the bed, and wrapped both her child and her lover in her arms. “Are there no limits to what you can do?” she whispered in awe.
“Where you’re concerned? I’d like to see someone try and stop me.”
Part Thirteen
In our own time and our own space
Where all that we've done we can undo
If our heart's in the right place
On a prayer, in a song
I hear your voice and it keeps me hanging on
Raining down, against the wind
I'm reaching out till we reach the circle's end
When you come back to me again
Blinking slowly, it took a moment for the shapes to come into focus, and another moment after that for her to register them as the concerned faces of Artie, Pete, and Claudia.
“She’s awake! Hey Doc! She’s awake!”
Myka winced. “Quieter… please…”
Claudia, unable to restrain herself, threw her arms around Myka squeezing her tight enough to break a rib. Myka weakly returned the embrace. “The machine was off, but you wouldn’t wake up, and we didn’t know what to do, and I thought we’d lost you…”
“Shh, it’s okay Claude, it’s okay. I’m here.”
Artie glowered down at her while Claudia just kept holding on. “That was a very stupid thing to do.” And then without warning, he leaned down and hugged her too. Not to be left out, Pete piled on.
Eventually they stood back up to let Myka breathe. That was when she noticed the IV in her arm and Vanessa and Jane standing in the corner looking distinctly worried.
“It was three days Mykes, and Artie was worried your body couldn’t handle it, so we had to call in for back up.”
“And now, you’re going straight to the hospital to get checked out,” Vanessa ordered.
“No, I need to get back to the Warehouse.”
“Myka, the Warehouse was destroyed.”
“Not all of it, I hope.” She tried to stand up, wobbling. “I’ve got to get back and see-” Her knees buckled, legs giving out like jelly. Only Pete’s quick reflexes kept her from taking a header into the ground. Looking far more like an annoying older brother than a knight in shining armor, he swept her up off her feet and wouldn’t put her back down. “Pete… Pete! I’m fine!”
“That’s not what the Doc says. You can punch me later, but right now we’re taking you to the hospital.”
“No,” Myka argued, “we have to get back to the Warehouse.”
“Why? It obviously didn’t work.”
“We don’t know that. Not yet.” Myka squirmed and fought to get down even as Pete hung on. “Take me to the Warehouse and if the Bronze sector isn’t still standing you can take me to the hospital.”
“The Bronze sector,” Artie muttered. “The whole place was destroyed - we barely made it out remember?”
“We ran for our lives,” Myka answered. “After the energy shield came down, we didn’t look around to see what was still standing. With the fire and the smoke, we could barely breathe, so we just ran.”
Claudia pushed in front of Artie, her eyes locked on Myka’s. “If the Bronze sector survived, does that mean…?”
“I can’t say for sure, but yes, I think so.”
Claudia bit her lip, fighting tears. “Then we have to go back. Now.”
“Someone better explain to me what the hell is going on, right now,” Artie huffed.
“Put me in the car and I’ll tell you the whole story on the way,” Myka smiled.
Seeing no other choice, Artie did just that.
~*~
Vanessa watched over Myka in the car, making sure she ate a banana and drank a full bottle of water as Pete drove them back to the Warehouse. Between bites, Myka told them what happened. She left nothing out. After all, what was the point? She had nothing left to hide.
Only with gas masks in place, and Pete holding tight to Myka’s arm lest she slip, did Artie finally okay entering the Warehouse again. It was slow going. The massive structure was dark and smoke filled. Entire sections still smoldered. Only years of experience walking the aisles every day kept Artie on track as he led them toward the Bronze sector. They had to scale an entire section of shelves that had fallen on its side, and double back when the most direct rout was blocked by debris, but eventually they made it to where the Bronze sector should have been.
Miraculously, it was still standing there.
“I… I don’t believe it…”
“How in the world…”
“There’s not a scratch…”
Around her, her friends voices rose up in amazement but Myka remained silent. Stepping away from Pete she eased through the rows of bronzed figures until she found the one she was looking for, buried in the back.
As in her dream, Christina’s statue stared serenely back at her. “Artie… she’s here.”
Claudia rushed forward, grinning. “Does this mean… is he alive?”
“If he got this far, I don’t know why he wouldn’t be.”
“Then where are they? If they managed to escape, where did they go?”
“I don’t know…” Myka whispered, her heart pounding in her chest, “but we’ll find them.”
~*~
Helena still remembered the first time she had walked into the Warehouse - that vivid scent of apples, the miles of shelves containing wonder after wonder. She’d never stopped being surprised by the artifacts they’d recovered. She’d never stopped being curious about what might be out there yet to discover. That wonder, that possibility had kept her going, given her purpose, at the darkest moments of her life. When the Warehouse had been under attack, when Myka’s life hung in the balance, she’d acted then, without thought of the consequences. She’d already lost too much in her life to see the only home she’d ever had and the only woman she’d ever loved, be lost in the flames. In those last moments, there had been no fear, for what could she fear? Darkness? Pain? All that she had suffered, ten-fold, and lived to tell the tale. At the end, all she could see was Myka, and all she could feel was the love swelling inside her, knowing that finally, finally, she’d made recompense for all her sins.
And then, out of nowhere, some idiot had tackled her to the ground and that was the last thing she remembered.
Groaning, she put all of her strength into the simple task of opening her eyes, and was rewarded with a blinding shaft of light aimed straight at her cornea. “Bugger all.”
“Hey… I think she’s waking up.” The words were said at a normal decibel but to Helena they sounded like a great roar echoing inside the cavern of her skull. “Someone get the doctor.”
“Bloody hell,” she half-muttered, half-slurred. “I thought I was supposed to be dead.”
A hand slipped into her own, squeezing tightly. “Not yet, Helena. Not for a very long time.”
Helena pried her eyes open, forced them to focus. “Myka?”
Myka kissed the back of her hand. “I’m right here.”
“But… no, it can’t be… that was all a dream… I was in the Warehouse and it exploded…” She looked around the room, taking in the familiar faces, and one that she only had the vaguest recollection of. Steve, dressed in a hospital gown with an IV pole and bandages to match her own, grinned back. “You… you tackled me,” she accused, highly offended by the notion.
“Sorry about that,” Steve answered only somewhat penitent, “I was running kinda short on time.”
“How did we escape?”
“Harry Houdini’s cape,” Artie answered. “After so many years of wearing it during his ‘magical’ escape routines, it became imbued with the power to transport it’s wearer instantaneously from the building they were standing in to outside the door. A neat little trick all things considered.”
Helena tried to sit up and groaned in pain again. “All this just because Mr. Jinks tackled me and transported me outside the Warehouse?”
“Not exactly,” Artie continued. “We think that the bomb exploded at the exact moment Steve tackled you - which none of us really saw, because quite frankly, we couldn’t bear to watch. When he did, the artifact’s powers were amplified by the explosion and the mystical forces inside the Warehouse, so the effect was… exponential.”
“So where did we end up?”
“New Zealand,” Pete answered with a smile. “You two have been unconscious for about a week now. The authorities found you with burns and broken bones in the middle of Christchurch. You’re lucky to be alive.”
Helena looked at Myka, fighting tears, and knew that it hadn’t been a dream. Myka had saved her - in more ways than one. “Very lucky.”
Myka beamed. “Helena, there’s one more thing…”
“Mommy?”
Helena’s breath hitched, her entire chest constricted to the point she couldn’t breathe. It was a voice she’d been haunted by for over a century, a memory that took her soul to the depths of pain and the height of love. She forced herself to sit up, despite the pain, tears falling without measure as she looked into the eyes of her beloved daughter. “Christina?”
“You’re awake! Good. Myka said you would wake up. She promised.”
Helena fought to control the sob welling up in her chest, but as Claudia picked the little girl up and set her on the hospital bed, there was no containing it. She pulled Christina to her, hugging the child fiercely as she wept. “You’re alive.”
“Of course I am, Mommy. Myka said she’d bring me back to you and she did.”
Helena blindly reached out, but she didn’t need to reach far as Myka sat on the edge of the bed, and wrapped both her child and her lover in her arms. “Are there no limits to what you can do?” she whispered in awe.
“Where you’re concerned? I’d like to see someone try and stop me.”
Part Thirteen