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Ever since Mrs. Frederick had shown up that morning in Geneva, smirking as he fell out of bed trying to find a shirt, Joshua’s life had been a bit of a whirlwind. Moving to South Dakota, finding himself the Regent in charge of the daily Warehouse operations (Well, you are the person there with the most authority, Mr. Donovan, his boss had said), it was all a bit much to deal with. He was more than glad that Claudia had a lab ready for him. Whenever it got overwhelming, he’d run off and hide, and do Science to something.
He was definitely avoiding people when Steve knocked on the door, calling out for him. “Hey, Joshua? Can I come in?”
Joshua looked up from the bent metal spoon he was testing and sighed before he replied. “Yeah, come in, Steve. You know the code.” Before Steve fully got in, he put the spoon back on a neutralizer-painted table, stashed his goggles on his head (Doctor Not-so-Horrible, Claudia called that pose) and turned around. “What’s up?”
There was a case file in Steve’s hands, and a confused look on the other man’s face. “Well, uh, you know how Pete and Myka are off in Alaska chasing that dogsled, right?”
“Yeah, they’ve been there for a couple days. Seriously, Steve, what’s going on? You’re usually not this confused.” Steve’s confusion was getting to Joshua. He usually just rolled with things.
Steve handed the folder to Joshua before speaking. “Well, we got this ping at a college in Omaha. Claud just stared at it, and Artie tossed it at me and left before he could say anything.” Steve’s confusion deepened as he explained. “Claud said something about leaving the damn past behind and left, so I think if I want any help on this, it has to be you.”
As he was talking, Joshua started going through the folder, and his heart almost fell out of his chest. At Creighton University in Omaha, a story was going about that if students sat in one particular hallway, they would get flashes of brilliance on whatever they were working on. “Oh, thanks, Claud. You could have done this one.” Joshua sank into his desk chair, folder still in his hands. “Then again, we haven’t been back there in… four years now? Why would she want to go back? Hell, why should I have to go back?” As he was ranting, though, he realized that if it actually happened, he was probably one of, if not the only person who could figure it out.
Steve cut through his mental reverie. “Joshua? What’s going on? Can someone just tell me what’s so bad about a ping at a college?”
Finally putting the file down on his desk, Joshua stood up again, taking off his lab coat. “It’s not that it’s a ping at a college, Steve. It’s a ping at that particular college that seems to be doing that particular thing.” He paused. “That was the college where I was doing my grad work. I think what Artie and Claudia aren’t saying is that it’s likely something to do with my old lab.”
“Oh.” Steve took a couple steps toward Joshua. “Are you sure that you should…”
Before Steve could finish, Joshua cut him off. “Yes, I’m sure. Artifacts don’t affect their creators as much as others, remember? It’s possible that I’m one of the few people who can actually get in there and see what’s going on.” He sighed. “Let’s just hope that it’s something in my lab, and not my lab itself.”
“How can a lab be an Artifact?” Steve picked up the file from Joshua’s desk, confused.
“We have the B&B in here, don’t we?” Shaking his head, Joshua took a look around the lab. “Anything can be an Artifact. I think Artie said once that even a mind can be an Artifact. Anyway, we should go. Can’t let people be too brilliant.”
~~~
Driving from western South Dakota to Omaha was no cakewalk, but honestly, Joshua thought it would likely take just as much time to drive it than to hop in a tiny-ass plane and hop out again, and he needed time to think. He stopped at a Dunkin on the way out of town, getting a dozen doughnuts and a couple large coffees for the road. Last chance for hundreds of miles, after all.
After a couple hours of Jonathan Coulton punctuated by a bit of Green Day and the odd musical or Springsteen, Steve finally spoke up. “Joshua? You’re usually a lot more talkative than this. What’s going on?” Before he could reply, Steve went on. “If we’re going to be stuck in this car for eight hours, we should at least play license plate bingo or something.”
“I’m sorry, Steve. I haven’t talked much about the… well, whatever the hell you want to call it. Accident, I guess would be the best description.” Joshua sighed. “How do you talk about spending twelve years out of time? It was awkward, it was terrible, it was fascinating.” He trailed off, mid-thought.
“You don’t have to…”
Joshua cut Steve off before he could finish. “No, I probably should talk about it. It’s not as if we have anything else or anything better to do. Almost… eighteen years ago now, my parents died in a car wreck. I was a month from graduating college. That was really just the beginning of everything going to hell. I’d been accepted to a couple grad programs out East, but did some last-minute flailing and was able to switch to Creighton for Claudia.” He paused, all of the memories returning in a wave. “I didn’t want to uproot her, so I drove from our house in Omaha back to Lincoln every day to finish classes, and then started in Omaha the next year. Eventually, Reynolds, better known to us as MacPherson, started teaching. Hell if I know how he heard about me - Creighton’s not the most prominent college out there, unless they have a good basketball year, and it wasn’t as if I really talked about my research. I kept to myself, much more than I had in college. Anyway, I was almost done with everything, I had my thesis done, I had the math finally ready, and then Artie showed up.” He was suddenly glad that they were driving, because fighting back the tears was easier when he was watching the road instead of just sitting in a plane. “I don’t know how he did it, I don’t actually think he was intending to do it, but he pushed buttons that even I didn’t realize I had. In that moment, I didn’t care. I didn’t care that Claudia didn’t have anyone other than me. I just had to prove I could teleport. Nothing else mattered.”
By this point, the tears were coming and he couldn’t stop them.
“Pull off, Joshua, there’s a Mac’s at this exit,” Steve spoke up, and Joshua complied, not even realizing what he was doing.
When he finally parked, he just sunk in the seat, burying his face in his hands. “I’m sorry, Steve, I shouldn’t be acting like this. We have a job to do, and I can’t let my own personal crap get in the way.”
“For fuck’s sake, Joshua.” Steve’s tone was so sharp that Joshua actually sat up and turned. “Don’t you think that I’d be in a similar boat if we were tracking something down on Livvy’s campus? Or even something related to the asshole who killed her? You’re allowed to have emotion, Joshua. You’re the only one who thinks you have to bottle it up.”
It was a couple minutes before he found his voice again. “I don’t even know, Steve. It’s not as if there are that many people out there who I can talk to about being out of time for twelve years.”
“I don’t think that’s the biggest problem, Joshua. I think you haven’t actually dealt with your parents dying, not to mention you haven’t forgiven yourself for the accident in the first place.” Steve reached out, tentatively putting a hand on Joshua’s arm. “Am I really the first person you’ve talked to about this?”
“Who else have I had, Steve?” Joshua sank back in his seat, not tossing off Steve’s touch. “Claud, well, she has her own issues, I can’t very well talk to anyone else around the Warehouse about it, and CERN? That’s a laugh. They liked to pretend that emotions were a thing that happened to other people. Listen, I’ll be fine. Let’s get a sandwich since we’re here, and then get going. We have a good four or so more hours to go.”
After a couple cheeseburgers, and a change of subject, they were back on the road, somewhat more cheerfully, and definitely less quiet. He put his convertible’s top down and just let the wind fly through the car, and let his mind wander, until the fourth time Steve caught the case file and glared at him. The hours passed and eventually they pulled into a hotel and went up to the room. After television snark (somehow, they’d never realized they both loved cop shows) and some sleep (Steve threw a pillow across the room at him halfway through the night for snoring), they were off to Creighton the next morning.
A few questions to students brought Joshua and Steve to a science building in the western part of the campus. Students lined the hall on both sides, leeching off of the building’s wifi. Some enterprising soul had brought a surge protector which was full of laptop plugs, the cords winding up and down the hall from one outlet in the middle. Joshua wondered to himself how early that particular student had to get there to get that prime real estate. One of the students most of the way down the hall seemed to be the least committed to what was going on, and after a handwave at Steve to stay behind, Joshua approached him. “Hey, what’s with the hallway camp?”
The student looked up from his laptop with a shrug. “Rumor has it that if you sit here, you’ll get a flash of brilliance on your papers. I’ve been here a couple days, but all I’ve really gotten is a sore ass.”
“Huh. What’re you working on?” Joshua leaned against the wall, trying not to stare down the corridor any more than he probably should.
“History. I’m borrowing...” The student blushed. “With permission, I swear! a rant I found online about the Sons of Liberty being the first true American terrorist organization.” He moved a bit, stretching out his legs and wincing. “Damn floors. Anyway, they say that you get better inspiration if you’re doing math or science. The physics kids rock their papers if they sit here, but there was this one girl who literally lived here for a week, even had pizza delivered, but she got so sick they had to take her to the hospital. I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t just exhaustion or lack of food.”
“That sounds a bit disturbing.” Joshua glanced back down the hall to Steve, but turned his attention back to the student on the floor. “Any idea why this particular hall? There has to be some school scuttlebutt about that.”
The student shrugged, and waved a hand at the lab at the end of the hall. “The only thing that I’ve got is that everyone says that lab’s haunted. Some guy had a physics experiment go wrong, and people say he died in there. I mean, how the shit can a physics experiment go wrong? I doubt the guy was trying to make antimatter in his spare time or anything. I don’t know much about physics, but that just doesn’t seem to make sense. It’s probably just urban legend or something. I should look it up on Snopes.”
Joshua shook his head. “I doubt a story from Creighton would make it to Snopes, dude. Besides, there’s probably a grain of truth in everything. Maybe he just got sick or something.” He glanced at Steve again, taking a deep breath. “Anyway, thanks for the information.”
“What’re you so curious about people in a hallway for?” The kid looked up at him a bit curiously. “I mean, people in suits don’t generally wander around asking why college kids do what they do.”
“I’m just curious.” Joshua waved Steve down to where he was. “I’m a writer. I go around figuring things out. I might use this in a story one day.” It was almost shocking to him how easily he lied, but things did have to be done. Steve, as he came over, made a face, but didn’t call Joshua’s bluff.
The kid shrugged and went back to his laptop. “Whatever, dude. I just hope I get some new ideas about Samuel Adams that aren’t about beer before I graduate.”
Joshua grabbed Steve’s arm and led him to the end of the hallway to a padlocked door. A few moments of Lockpick later, he opened the door, shuffled Steve through, locking the door behind them. He turned his attention to the dusty and dishevelled room in front of him. Papers were still crumpled on the floor, and the dust that he had stirred up flying around incorporeally had settled. Walking to the center of the room, he knelt and put a hand on the blue symbols that he wasn’t exactly sure if he or Claudia had drawn
Before he could get up, a ball rolled out of his bag, settling smack in the middle of the symbols. The ball was a fairly recent addition to Joshua’s research tools. Pete had found it when he was unpacking Warehouse 2. It was made of a thick glass with metal bands crossing it in all directions. Carved into both the glass and the metal were Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Pete had pointed it out in the first place, because it seemed to act as an Artifact detector. White fog inside the glass ball turned purple when in the presence of an Artifact it had not encountered before, or one that was recently active. Joshua wasn’t sure what it was truly meant to be, or how it worked, but he watched the ball do exactly what he’d see it do in the Warehouse last week; the fog swirled around itself, quickly darkening into the deepest purple he’d ever seen in it.
“Fuck. I have a bad feeling about this.” Joshua turned, but paled quickly. “Steve? Are you alright?”
Steve was clinging white-knuckled to a table across the lab. He winced as he wiped a bit of blood from his nose. “I… don’t think so. I’m going to step out for a moment.” Joshua grabbed the ball, then crossed the distance between the middle of the lab and the door in less time than he ever thought possible. Steve was already outside. “Shit. Joshua? I’m better. This can’t be good.”
“Fuck.” Joshua leaned in the doorway, glaring at the lab as if it was the cause of all of the problems. It probably was. “I’m going to call Claudia. I mean, we figured it was an Artifact, but if you’re having this many problems with it, I don’t know who we have who can get anywhere near it.”
“Right. I’m going to head outside. I’m feeling better, but…”
Joshua cut him off. “Do what you need to, Steve.” He pulled his Farnsworth out of his pocket and went back into the lab.
It took him a moment before he opened it to call his sister. There was an air in this room, something more than just dusty disuse and mouldering papers. It was at the same time disconcerting and comforting.
After about five minutes, he finally called his sister. When she answered, her eyebrows went up into her bangs. “Holy blast from the past, Batman. That place really hasn’t changed.”
“Yeah, well. You were right. It’s totally an Artifact. Steve was in here less than five minutes, and started to feel like crap.” He sighed, leaning on what used to be his desk.
“Oh, shit, son. That can’t be good. So if Steve can’t be in there, I’ve got a one-way ticket to nosebleedville. I’m not going to touch that snag with a thirty-nine and a half foot pole.”
He shook his head, shrugging. “See, that’s the problem, Claudia. Not only can we not figure out how the shit to snag it because of personnel issues, how do we even take a lab out of a building?”
Claudia waved a hand lazily. “That’s Artie’s department. I’m sure he can figure out what to do, and if he can’t, your boss might have a tip or two. Anyway, brother dear, you probably should stay in Omaha for a while, at least until we know what we’re doing with this.”
“No shit, little sister.” Joshua rolled his eyes. “I was just going to leave without figuring out the snag.”
Claudia turned, looking over her shoulder at something, then turned back. “Artie’s back. I gotta go. Just do me a favour and finally take Steve out on a date. You two have been pining for each other for ages now. Bye!”
She hung up before Joshua could even swear. Great, now Claudia was getting in on the matchmaking game. Shutting the Farnsworth, Joshua shook his head. It had been about a month since the snag where they’d kissed, and neither man had brought it up in the interim. He was beginning to think that it was just a relief one-off, and it didn’t mean anything in particular.
Leaving the lab, he turned, glancing one more time at the room that had consumed so much of his life, both literally and figuratively. In spite of what Claudia would likely say, it would be good to be able to see it again every so often.
~~~
By the time they had finally gotten a table at the tiny, noisy little pub in the somewhat quaint (Even though this was Omaha of all places, Steve had to admit that the Old Market area wasn’t bad) downtown, Joshua had gone beyond quiet to distant. Something from the lab earlier was bothering him, and Steve was getting worried.
“Hey, Joshua?” Steve looked over the top of the over-sized menu. “You’ve been quiet since we left your lab. Is everything alright?”
“This place never changes. Mom and Dad brought me here for birthday and holiday dinners.”
Joshua’s irrelevant answer wasn’t helping Steve’s worries. “That’s nice, Joshua, but what’s eating you? Did something hit you in the lab? Do we need to goo you?”
“No, I’m not whammied, Steve.” Joshua sighed, waving off his concern, which made Steve even more concerned.
“You’re thoughtful. When you’re this thoughtful, there’s always something bugging you.”
It’s a couple minutes, and a waiter coming for drink orders before Joshua finally speaks. “It’s… I just didn’t realize how much I’d have to process with all of this. Sure, it’s old history, but I didn’t realize how much I hadn’t moved on from it.”
“Hey, I get it.” Steve just watched Joshua for a moment, letting the other man take things at his own pace. “Like I said earlier, if we were tracking down something connected to the jerk who shot Livvy, I’d be in the same boat. Stop being so hard on yourself.”
The waiter came with drinks, left with their food order and Joshua fell silent again. Steve just sat there for a moment, and before he could second-guess himself, reached over and took Joshua’s hand.
Joshua looked up with a start, and smiled, much to Steve’s relief. “Thanks, Steve. I’m glad that I’m here with you.”
“Hey. Whatever I can do. I want to help, Joshua. I know that it’s not really the same, but I do get it.”
They both fell silent, holding hands, people watching, and eventually eating. The ride back to the hotel was quiet, as Steve didn’t really want to break Joshua’s internal thought process. Once they got to their room, Steve sat down on his bed, taking his shoes off. When he turned around, Joshua was sitting on the other side of the bed. “Joshua? What…” Steve was cut off by Joshua leaning over and kissing him full on the mouth. He kissed back, instinctually, but pulled back. “Joshua… as much as I really do want that, don’t get me wrong, it’s…” He sighed. He’d wanted to kiss Joshua again since they kissed the first time. If he wanted, he probably could have anything and everything in this moment. “It’s not the time. You’re hurting, you’re out of it, and if we do anything, I want it to be because we both want it, not just because you need an outlet for whatever’s going on in your head.”
Joshua pulled back. “Steve, if you didn’t want to, you could have just said, instead of diverting like that.”
“No, Joshua, it’s not that.” Taking a deep breath, he scooted closer and put an arm around him. “I just don’t want you to do something because you’re so emotional. If we’re going to do something, I want the first time to be special, not out of your pain.”
Joshua just stared at him for a moment, and in that moment, Steve was becoming increasingly worried that he’d broken the entire damn thing. Eventually, Joshua found his voice. “Thanks, Steve. You’re right. I shouldn’t be channeling this in this particular way.” Timidly, Joshua put his head on Steve’s shoulder.
Cracking a smile, Steve pulled Joshua closer. “Doesn’t mean I won’t hold you if you want, but let’s leave anything else to when you’re a bit more settled.”
“First times are important.” Joshua kissed him on the cheek, which made Steve smile and shake his head. “Try again in a few days, or when we get back home. Trust me, it’s not unwelcome.”
Joshua smiled again. “Good to know, Steve. Maybe I’ll actually ask you out on a real date when we get home.”
“You’d better not just be teasing me and getting my hopes up.” Steve actually blushed a bit. “Because I don’t really take too well to that sort of thing.”
“I promise, Steve. And you can hold me to that.”
“I will.”
~~~
When Joshua got up the next morning and went to shower, he lingered for a moment, just watching Steve sleep. He had been right, last night wasn’t the time to start something. There would be plenty more time for that. Twenty minutes later, when he got out of the shower, towelling his hair, Steve was sitting on the side of the bed in his boxers, closing his Farnsworth.
“Claudia called while you were in the shower. Artie’s got an idea for your lab, but it won’t be ready until the end of the day.”
Joshua nodded. “Well, how about we get some food, and then I want to run a couple errands.”
Steve got up, and started to dress. “Sure. Do you want company?”
“You don’t have to, Steve.” Joshua sighed, shaking his head. “I’ll be fine. You probably don’t want to go to a random cemetery in Nebraska.”
Before Joshua could even get his pants, Steve walked over and put a hand on his arm, startling him. “Joshua, I want to go with you, if you want company. You’ve been unsettled since we left the Warehouse, and I want to help.”
He nodded, honestly relieved more than he knew how to say. “Alright. Breakfast, flower shop, and then the cemetery.”
Once they dressed, they left the hotel room and found flowers in a local shop staffed by an over-inquisitive woman who Steve wanted to punch in the face by the time they left.
Joshua stayed quiet at first, but as Steve asked a question about something they were driving by, the memories started flowing out. Trick-or-treating at Warren Buffett's house, high school dramas and competitions (including the time his team absolutely stole the physics competition from under the noses of the much better-funded and snooty schools out west) and just little memories of the city in general. As opposed to yesterday’s overwhelming emotion, this was fun. It was comfortable memories, things that he remembered, but didn’t hurt.
Eventually, they got to the cemetery, and Joshua drove through the front gate. Steve turned, looking behind the car. “Uh, Joshua, what the shit was that statue?”
Joshua rolled his eyes. “Fuck if I know. It’s new-ish, I don’t think it was here when my parents were buried, but I always called it Surfin’ Jesus.” Steve just stared and shook his head at the terrible statue. Eventually, Joshua parked, and they got out. The Donovans’ grave was pretty much in the middle of an area, a fairly simple stone with two names: Peter Donovan and Claire Donnelly-Donovan, and their dates. Kneeling, Joshua put the flower bouquet down and fell silent for a good five minutes.
As he stood up, he turned, only to see Steve standing there with an odd look on his face. “What…” He trailed off when he realized that the damned ball had rolled out of his bag to the middle of the grave next to his parents’. A grave with an even simpler stone:
Joshua Alan Donovan 1973-1997
Steve came up behind him and took his free hand just a Claudia picked up the Farnsworth on her end. “Brother dear, I already told Steve that it’s going to…”
“Claudia, hold up. We have a bigger problem.”
About ten minutes later when he’d finished explaining things, and Claudia had finished spluttering, he and Steve were leaving the cemetery, hands still intertwined. Things had gotten odd, but he also realized as he smiled a bit doofily at Steve, things had gotten a hell of a lot more awesome.
