Chapter 2 - "Aftershock" (Claudia, Artie)
Here's the second chapter, about twice as long as the first because of an element that just didn't want to be left out. :P
Title: Aftershock
Author: Gab (Milena D)
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Up to episode Burnout (1x06).
Characters: Claudia, Artie
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Family
Summary: It may be a world of ceaseless wonders but that doesn’t make any of them invincible. A health scare prompts an unexpected dive into past and present issues.
Author's Notes: So this chapter was originally 3 pages and then I got an idea last night and tried to incorporate it into this chapter but it ended up being about 12 pages long :P Just means there’ll be an extra chapter, hope you guys don’t mind! Also, I’m dropping off, in total need for sleep-time but I wanted to post this tonight so please forgive the typos that are sure to be there!
Chapter 1: What Amounts To Kidnapping
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Chapter 2: Hard, Plastic Couches
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
As soon as they pushed past the doors to Radiology, a nurse came by and whisked Claudia away to get changed into a hospital gown. Artie paced a narrow strip of the waiting room, picking up random objects only to set them down again until a jarring rendition of “The Final Countdown” nearby drew his attention. He looked around to pinpoint the sound and his eyes landed on Claudia’s messenger bag. He hesitated a moment - a part of his brain reminding him that girls had a thing with privacy - but the heavy glare of passing nurses pushed his hand and he rummaged the contents until he found her cell phone. The name on the screen was familiar and he quickly searched his pockets for the Farnsworth before mentally cursing and flipping the phone open.
“Myka, hi.”
“Artie!? Where’s Claudia? Where are you guys?” He didn’t need to see her face to know Myka looked worried and frustrated...and her neck was probably leaning to the right.
“They answered? Where are they? Do they need help?” Pete’s voice came from the background.
“Guys we’re fine, we’re just...we’re out for a bit.” Artie sighed, he used to be a better liar back in the day. If Claudia wasn’t being such a brat about anyone knowing where they were...
“Out? Out where? What are you doing? And why did you leave the Farnsworth behind? We thought you’d been kidnapped, Artie!”
Artie rolled his eyes and jumped when he caught the stern, disapproving glare of the nurse at the main desk. She cleared her throat with great exaggeration and pointed to the sign beside her reading: “Cell phones are forbidden within the hospital due to the sensitivity of medical equipment.” Artie scoffed but didn’t feel like getting into the physics of transmitting waves at the moment. He moved the mouthpiece of the phone away and pointed to Claudia’s bag.
“Could you just look after that for a second? I have to-” He trailed off, gesturing to the phone in his hand, and quickly left to find an exit when she nodded.
“Artie? Artie! Are you there? Who was that? Was that Claudia?” Myka’s voice was starting to grate on his nerves.
“What? Is Claudia not with him?”
“I don’t know Pete, stop talking! Artie? Are you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here, I just...it was noisy, just had to step outside.” He replied tiredly as he stepped into the cool South Dakotan evening breeze. “We’re fine. We haven’t been kidnapped. Yes, Claudia is with me but she’s not available at the moment. Why are you guys at the warehouse?”
“What? Artie, you guys didn’t show up after two hours and you weren’t answering your Farnsworth! I think that’s grounds to go check up on you guys, especially since whenever one or both of you don’t answer, it’s because you’re in life-threatening peril!” Myka all but yelled into the receiver.
“Peril? There’s peril? Where are they, Myka? Do they even know?”
“No, they’re not. I don’t know. Where are you guys, Artie?”
“Okay, guys, listen to me now: we are fine. We should be back later tonight so have Leena save us some supper if there’s any left and you two: relax, have a cookie, drink some warm milk and just...relax. Everything’s fine but I gotta go now, talk to you later.” With that, Artie quickly closed the phone, disconnecting the line, and breathed a sigh of exhaustion. These kids - all of them - would be the death of him. Speaking of...
The waiting room of the Radiology department had not fallen into silence after the disruption Claudia’s cell phone caused and the reason wasn’t very hard to find. Claudia’s bag was no longer on the chair where he’d left it but the girl herself was yelling up a storm in the corridor.
“Look just get out of my way!” She ordered the nurse standing between her and the change rooms, she was wearing her most intimidating face but it lost a bit of impact due to the blue tent she was now drowning in.
“Ms. Nielsen...”
“Claudia.” The teenager ground out, her fists visibly tightening around her bag.
“Claudia,” the nurse tried again, her voice soothing, “you have very alarming symptoms and I think it would be best if you stayed to complete your tests to make sure nothing’s wrong.” Artie’s eyebrows furrowed deeply.
“She’s not going anywhere.” He answered for Claudia, stepping up to them and snatching her bag back out of her hands. “What are you thinking? Come on. Your butt is getting in that chair over there and it’s not moving until you’re called.”
Artie waited a moment but when his charge didn’t move so much as an inch, he grabbed her upper arm and led her.
“Sit.” He ordered her when they got to the chair, and she obeyed, very mechanically. She hadn’t snapped back or retorted something quippy yet. It was weird.
“What are you thinking? You get dressed for the show and now you’re backing out?” Artie asked the quiet girl, taking the seat next to her. “I was gone five minutes, what could hav-” Claudia shifted in her seat and stole her bag back from Artie to place it on her lap.
“Wha...Is that...I was only gone five minutes, Myka cal-”
“Yeah, you left.” Claudia accused him, a look of surprise overtaking her face as the words slipped out. She straightened in her chair and shook her head quickly. “Never mind. You said Myka called?”
“No.”
“...Yeah you did dude, you said you went to answ-”
“No,” Artie reiterated, frowning, “not ‘never mind’. Why did that upset you so much you were going to storm out of here and take out anyone who got in your way?”
“Look, it’s nothing, okay? I didn’t want to come here in the first place, if you’re gonna bail I’m not sticking around to be poked and prodded on my own whim. I’m what you’d call ‘normal’.” She defended herself with no small dose of attitude.
“Claudia.” She ignored him.
“Claudia.” The girl cringed when he used his no-nonsense, ‘stop bullshitting me’ voice. None of them had been able to evade its power yet.
“Look, dude, it’s not complicated. You left, okay? It just, it felt like last time all over again. So excuse me for making assumptions any person with a working brain would.” She griped, looking away, leaving Artie to rack his brain.
“Last time... Twelve years ago?” Artie posed carefully, his voice much softer.
“No, that other time you threw me to the wolves. Yeah, that last time.” She finally turned to shoot him a look of frustration.
“Look, Claudia...”
“I told you it was stupid.” Claudia interrupted him, and plastered a wry grin on her face for show. “Just give a girl some warning next time. Maybe I wanted a coke or something while you were out.”
“Right, I’ll do that. Next time.” Artie replied, willing to go along with forgetting this whole conversation. For about a four and a half minutes.
“You know I couldn’t have taken you with me, right?” He ventured slowly, watching her shoulders deflate and her eyes go to the ceiling. “I mean, you’ve seen now how we operate and I’d only been in charge of the warehouse and new agents for barely a year.”
“No, yeah, I totally get it. Don’t worry about it.” She dismissed him casually, hands waving away his invisible worries.
“Okay.” Artie nodded, looked away, and nodded again before sitting back in his chair.
“...but you didn’t have to just up and disappear.” She said after a long moment of silence, shrugging one shoulder uncomfortably. “I mean, you were there one second letting me blubber all over you and the next you’re introducing me to two people I’m guessing worked for Mrs. F and when I turned around you were just...gone.”
“They did.” Artie confirmed. “Retired agents living in the area. I called her...after.”
“Yeah, figured.” Claudia retorted blandly.
“Look it’s not like you would have been any better off with me, I’m not good with...children and you know how the warehouse is, not to mention-”
“Artie,” she interrupted, holding her hands up with a tiny smile, “dude, you’re circling.”
“Yeah, catch that, did you?” He grinned slightly, passing over the stubble under his chin with his fingers. Classic Artie Nielsen nervous tick.
“They don’t call me a whiz kid for nothing.” She replied, the tip of her tongue sticking out past her teeth.
“So I’ve heard.” Artie chuckled emptily, distracted by this perpetually incomplete heart-to-heart. The teenager beside him seemed content (if one can be content while tense and awkward) to let sleeping dogs lie, sitting back in her chair, submerged in faded blue cotton, aimlessly scrutinizing the room and its sparse populace. He wasn’t though. Content, that is. He knew she was holding a lot back. Whether she just wasn’t comfortable with the topic or she wasn’t used to expressing herself honestly...he didn’t know. This conversation was going to kill him, he knew that, but since when had the certainty of impending misery stopped him from rushing in head first?
“I didn’t mean to make it seem like I was abandoning you. I knew you’d be better off with the other agents.” Artie tried to explain haltingly, startling her out of her observations of the nurses. “And I...I guess I figured you’d realize you hated me soon enough and I probably shouldn’t be around for that. And that I know I’m right about, you did hate me.”
Claudia looked at him blankly for a good moment before nodding deeply.
“I did.” She admitted freely, her lips pursing. “But I only started hating you after you left, Artie.”
He stayed quiet, knowing she needed to speak her piece. Though in all honesty, her words had punched him square in the gut and he wasn’t sure he could say anything anyway.
“You really don’t get it, do you?” She balked incredulously. “It doesn’t matter what you did for a living or whether you were trained at Toys ‘R Us. You were the last person I trusted, you were the very last person on the face of the Earth I felt safe with. And you were the only one who voluntarily walked away.”
“But why-”
“Why?” She parroted mockingly. “Because, professor, I don’t know if you remember but Joshua was my entire world. He raised me, took care of me, protected me. And he admired you. So I admired you. He trusted you, so I trusted you. It’s not that complicated. I had zero friends my age because I was that weird kid, no adult was comfortable around me as soon as they knew I could beat their SAT scores. So I had Joshua, and you by extension. The only adult who didn’t keep a wide radius of me. I mean Joshua was older than me by a hell of a lot but you were a certified, bonafide adult who didn’t treat me like a freak. Add in the fact that you tried to reassure me when I was scared and then when the world went to hell you let me cry on your shoulder in an expression of the world’s biggest cliché... Why do you think?”
“I didn’t realize-” Artie tried to say, his voice oddly strangled.
“No, I know.” Claudia bit back somewhat harshly before closing her eyes and making an effort to calm down. “I know that. Now. But back then, I trusted you to be there. And you just disappeared as soon as I turned around, and you never came back. No note, no goodbye, no ‘have a good life, kid’. You just left without a second glance like I didn’t mean a thing.”
“I’m sorry.” Artie whispered pleadingly, laying a hand on hers on the arm rest. “I didn’t- I never...I was just...a d-bag.”
That somber utterance prompted a short burst of laughter out of her that took them both by surprise.
“You were.” She agreed, smirking. “That you were, professor.”
“I am serious though, Claudia.” He repeated, needing her to believe him. “I am sorry for leaving you.”
“I know.” She assured him. “And...I mean, you know I don’t hate you anymore right?”
“Yeah, I know.” He nodded. “Well I do now. Earlier when you almost made the nurse cry I might have thought differently.”
“She was not going to cry!” Claudia protested. “Besides, she’s lucky I didn’t zap her with the Tesla.”
“I never gave you a Tesla.” Artie frowned with consternation.
“I know.” She replied impishly. Artie’s frown lowered into a solid glare of suspicion.
“You made your own Tesla?”
“Well it wasn’t exactly hard.” Claudia beamed mischievously. Artie’s glare didn’t lessen. “What? It’s not like I’m mass producing them and selling them on the street. A girl just needs protection!”
“Give it.” Artie ordered, her hand opened.
Claudia huffed but reached into her bag and very conspicuously plopped the strange-looking device in her mentor’s hands. He paused a moment to admire the handy-work before stuffing it in his jacket pocket.
“Remind me never ever to give you free time again.” Artie grumbled, sending her a sidelong glance. “And may I remind you that although I am a lot older, I’m also a lot smarter than you are and if you really think you managed to successfully get me off the topic, you’re only proving my point.”
Claudia groaned and let her head fall back.
oooooooooooooooooooo
Next chapter up in a couple of days! :) Thanks for reading.
>> Chapter 3: Ominous Corridors
Title: Aftershock
Author: Gab (Milena D)
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Up to episode Burnout (1x06).
Characters: Claudia, Artie
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Family
Summary: It may be a world of ceaseless wonders but that doesn’t make any of them invincible. A health scare prompts an unexpected dive into past and present issues.
Author's Notes: So this chapter was originally 3 pages and then I got an idea last night and tried to incorporate it into this chapter but it ended up being about 12 pages long :P Just means there’ll be an extra chapter, hope you guys don’t mind! Also, I’m dropping off, in total need for sleep-time but I wanted to post this tonight so please forgive the typos that are sure to be there!
Chapter 1: What Amounts To Kidnapping
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Chapter 2: Hard, Plastic Couches
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
As soon as they pushed past the doors to Radiology, a nurse came by and whisked Claudia away to get changed into a hospital gown. Artie paced a narrow strip of the waiting room, picking up random objects only to set them down again until a jarring rendition of “The Final Countdown” nearby drew his attention. He looked around to pinpoint the sound and his eyes landed on Claudia’s messenger bag. He hesitated a moment - a part of his brain reminding him that girls had a thing with privacy - but the heavy glare of passing nurses pushed his hand and he rummaged the contents until he found her cell phone. The name on the screen was familiar and he quickly searched his pockets for the Farnsworth before mentally cursing and flipping the phone open.
“Myka, hi.”
“Artie!? Where’s Claudia? Where are you guys?” He didn’t need to see her face to know Myka looked worried and frustrated...and her neck was probably leaning to the right.
“They answered? Where are they? Do they need help?” Pete’s voice came from the background.
“Guys we’re fine, we’re just...we’re out for a bit.” Artie sighed, he used to be a better liar back in the day. If Claudia wasn’t being such a brat about anyone knowing where they were...
“Out? Out where? What are you doing? And why did you leave the Farnsworth behind? We thought you’d been kidnapped, Artie!”
Artie rolled his eyes and jumped when he caught the stern, disapproving glare of the nurse at the main desk. She cleared her throat with great exaggeration and pointed to the sign beside her reading: “Cell phones are forbidden within the hospital due to the sensitivity of medical equipment.” Artie scoffed but didn’t feel like getting into the physics of transmitting waves at the moment. He moved the mouthpiece of the phone away and pointed to Claudia’s bag.
“Could you just look after that for a second? I have to-” He trailed off, gesturing to the phone in his hand, and quickly left to find an exit when she nodded.
“Artie? Artie! Are you there? Who was that? Was that Claudia?” Myka’s voice was starting to grate on his nerves.
“What? Is Claudia not with him?”
“I don’t know Pete, stop talking! Artie? Are you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here, I just...it was noisy, just had to step outside.” He replied tiredly as he stepped into the cool South Dakotan evening breeze. “We’re fine. We haven’t been kidnapped. Yes, Claudia is with me but she’s not available at the moment. Why are you guys at the warehouse?”
“What? Artie, you guys didn’t show up after two hours and you weren’t answering your Farnsworth! I think that’s grounds to go check up on you guys, especially since whenever one or both of you don’t answer, it’s because you’re in life-threatening peril!” Myka all but yelled into the receiver.
“Peril? There’s peril? Where are they, Myka? Do they even know?”
“No, they’re not. I don’t know. Where are you guys, Artie?”
“Okay, guys, listen to me now: we are fine. We should be back later tonight so have Leena save us some supper if there’s any left and you two: relax, have a cookie, drink some warm milk and just...relax. Everything’s fine but I gotta go now, talk to you later.” With that, Artie quickly closed the phone, disconnecting the line, and breathed a sigh of exhaustion. These kids - all of them - would be the death of him. Speaking of...
The waiting room of the Radiology department had not fallen into silence after the disruption Claudia’s cell phone caused and the reason wasn’t very hard to find. Claudia’s bag was no longer on the chair where he’d left it but the girl herself was yelling up a storm in the corridor.
“Look just get out of my way!” She ordered the nurse standing between her and the change rooms, she was wearing her most intimidating face but it lost a bit of impact due to the blue tent she was now drowning in.
“Ms. Nielsen...”
“Claudia.” The teenager ground out, her fists visibly tightening around her bag.
“Claudia,” the nurse tried again, her voice soothing, “you have very alarming symptoms and I think it would be best if you stayed to complete your tests to make sure nothing’s wrong.” Artie’s eyebrows furrowed deeply.
“She’s not going anywhere.” He answered for Claudia, stepping up to them and snatching her bag back out of her hands. “What are you thinking? Come on. Your butt is getting in that chair over there and it’s not moving until you’re called.”
Artie waited a moment but when his charge didn’t move so much as an inch, he grabbed her upper arm and led her.
“Sit.” He ordered her when they got to the chair, and she obeyed, very mechanically. She hadn’t snapped back or retorted something quippy yet. It was weird.
“What are you thinking? You get dressed for the show and now you’re backing out?” Artie asked the quiet girl, taking the seat next to her. “I was gone five minutes, what could hav-” Claudia shifted in her seat and stole her bag back from Artie to place it on her lap.
“Wha...Is that...I was only gone five minutes, Myka cal-”
“Yeah, you left.” Claudia accused him, a look of surprise overtaking her face as the words slipped out. She straightened in her chair and shook her head quickly. “Never mind. You said Myka called?”
“No.”
“...Yeah you did dude, you said you went to answ-”
“No,” Artie reiterated, frowning, “not ‘never mind’. Why did that upset you so much you were going to storm out of here and take out anyone who got in your way?”
“Look, it’s nothing, okay? I didn’t want to come here in the first place, if you’re gonna bail I’m not sticking around to be poked and prodded on my own whim. I’m what you’d call ‘normal’.” She defended herself with no small dose of attitude.
“Claudia.” She ignored him.
“Claudia.” The girl cringed when he used his no-nonsense, ‘stop bullshitting me’ voice. None of them had been able to evade its power yet.
“Look, dude, it’s not complicated. You left, okay? It just, it felt like last time all over again. So excuse me for making assumptions any person with a working brain would.” She griped, looking away, leaving Artie to rack his brain.
“Last time... Twelve years ago?” Artie posed carefully, his voice much softer.
“No, that other time you threw me to the wolves. Yeah, that last time.” She finally turned to shoot him a look of frustration.
“Look, Claudia...”
“I told you it was stupid.” Claudia interrupted him, and plastered a wry grin on her face for show. “Just give a girl some warning next time. Maybe I wanted a coke or something while you were out.”
“Right, I’ll do that. Next time.” Artie replied, willing to go along with forgetting this whole conversation. For about a four and a half minutes.
“You know I couldn’t have taken you with me, right?” He ventured slowly, watching her shoulders deflate and her eyes go to the ceiling. “I mean, you’ve seen now how we operate and I’d only been in charge of the warehouse and new agents for barely a year.”
“No, yeah, I totally get it. Don’t worry about it.” She dismissed him casually, hands waving away his invisible worries.
“Okay.” Artie nodded, looked away, and nodded again before sitting back in his chair.
“...but you didn’t have to just up and disappear.” She said after a long moment of silence, shrugging one shoulder uncomfortably. “I mean, you were there one second letting me blubber all over you and the next you’re introducing me to two people I’m guessing worked for Mrs. F and when I turned around you were just...gone.”
“They did.” Artie confirmed. “Retired agents living in the area. I called her...after.”
“Yeah, figured.” Claudia retorted blandly.
“Look it’s not like you would have been any better off with me, I’m not good with...children and you know how the warehouse is, not to mention-”
“Artie,” she interrupted, holding her hands up with a tiny smile, “dude, you’re circling.”
“Yeah, catch that, did you?” He grinned slightly, passing over the stubble under his chin with his fingers. Classic Artie Nielsen nervous tick.
“They don’t call me a whiz kid for nothing.” She replied, the tip of her tongue sticking out past her teeth.
“So I’ve heard.” Artie chuckled emptily, distracted by this perpetually incomplete heart-to-heart. The teenager beside him seemed content (if one can be content while tense and awkward) to let sleeping dogs lie, sitting back in her chair, submerged in faded blue cotton, aimlessly scrutinizing the room and its sparse populace. He wasn’t though. Content, that is. He knew she was holding a lot back. Whether she just wasn’t comfortable with the topic or she wasn’t used to expressing herself honestly...he didn’t know. This conversation was going to kill him, he knew that, but since when had the certainty of impending misery stopped him from rushing in head first?
“I didn’t mean to make it seem like I was abandoning you. I knew you’d be better off with the other agents.” Artie tried to explain haltingly, startling her out of her observations of the nurses. “And I...I guess I figured you’d realize you hated me soon enough and I probably shouldn’t be around for that. And that I know I’m right about, you did hate me.”
Claudia looked at him blankly for a good moment before nodding deeply.
“I did.” She admitted freely, her lips pursing. “But I only started hating you after you left, Artie.”
He stayed quiet, knowing she needed to speak her piece. Though in all honesty, her words had punched him square in the gut and he wasn’t sure he could say anything anyway.
“You really don’t get it, do you?” She balked incredulously. “It doesn’t matter what you did for a living or whether you were trained at Toys ‘R Us. You were the last person I trusted, you were the very last person on the face of the Earth I felt safe with. And you were the only one who voluntarily walked away.”
“But why-”
“Why?” She parroted mockingly. “Because, professor, I don’t know if you remember but Joshua was my entire world. He raised me, took care of me, protected me. And he admired you. So I admired you. He trusted you, so I trusted you. It’s not that complicated. I had zero friends my age because I was that weird kid, no adult was comfortable around me as soon as they knew I could beat their SAT scores. So I had Joshua, and you by extension. The only adult who didn’t keep a wide radius of me. I mean Joshua was older than me by a hell of a lot but you were a certified, bonafide adult who didn’t treat me like a freak. Add in the fact that you tried to reassure me when I was scared and then when the world went to hell you let me cry on your shoulder in an expression of the world’s biggest cliché... Why do you think?”
“I didn’t realize-” Artie tried to say, his voice oddly strangled.
“No, I know.” Claudia bit back somewhat harshly before closing her eyes and making an effort to calm down. “I know that. Now. But back then, I trusted you to be there. And you just disappeared as soon as I turned around, and you never came back. No note, no goodbye, no ‘have a good life, kid’. You just left without a second glance like I didn’t mean a thing.”
“I’m sorry.” Artie whispered pleadingly, laying a hand on hers on the arm rest. “I didn’t- I never...I was just...a d-bag.”
That somber utterance prompted a short burst of laughter out of her that took them both by surprise.
“You were.” She agreed, smirking. “That you were, professor.”
“I am serious though, Claudia.” He repeated, needing her to believe him. “I am sorry for leaving you.”
“I know.” She assured him. “And...I mean, you know I don’t hate you anymore right?”
“Yeah, I know.” He nodded. “Well I do now. Earlier when you almost made the nurse cry I might have thought differently.”
“She was not going to cry!” Claudia protested. “Besides, she’s lucky I didn’t zap her with the Tesla.”
“I never gave you a Tesla.” Artie frowned with consternation.
“I know.” She replied impishly. Artie’s frown lowered into a solid glare of suspicion.
“You made your own Tesla?”
“Well it wasn’t exactly hard.” Claudia beamed mischievously. Artie’s glare didn’t lessen. “What? It’s not like I’m mass producing them and selling them on the street. A girl just needs protection!”
“Give it.” Artie ordered, her hand opened.
Claudia huffed but reached into her bag and very conspicuously plopped the strange-looking device in her mentor’s hands. He paused a moment to admire the handy-work before stuffing it in his jacket pocket.
“Remind me never ever to give you free time again.” Artie grumbled, sending her a sidelong glance. “And may I remind you that although I am a lot older, I’m also a lot smarter than you are and if you really think you managed to successfully get me off the topic, you’re only proving my point.”
Claudia groaned and let her head fall back.
oooooooooooooooooooo
Next chapter up in a couple of days! :) Thanks for reading.
>> Chapter 3: Ominous Corridors