Title: Aftershock
Author: Gab (Milena D)
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Up to episode Burnout (1x06).
Characters: Claudia, Artie (Father/Daughter)
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: Here's the last chapter guys! Sorry it's a little late, school and vidding kept me very busy over the weekend. Hope you guys enjoy it. ^_^

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Chapter 4: The Good, the Bad, and the New
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In record time that felt like three centuries to the teenager, the scans were done, she had changed back into her own clothes, and they were back to waiting in the plastic chairs of the waiting room.

"You're gonna be fine." Artie said softly.

"I thought we'd talked about promises you can't keep, Artie. You've already made enough for a lifetime, wouldn't you say?" Claudia replied, her voice not unkind but clearly indicating she not in the mood for platitudes.

She shifted on her chair for the third time in two minutes and started bouncing her leg up and down. Instead of trying to reassure her again, Artie went to the nurse's desk and got a piece of paper and a pen. Claudia followed him with her eyes but didn't understand what he was doing until he put the paper on her lap and the pen in her hand. On it was a difficult differential equation to solve and Claudia had never been so grateful.

She'd gone through three equations before the doctor finally called them in, only a short 8 minutes before the deadline Artie had decided upon. He hadn't been quite clear on what the deadline would have entailed but he imagined something along the lines of pulling the fire alarm, stealing her file and kidnapping anyone who looked like a doctor.

"Okay," the doctor began energetically as they each took a seat in the small office, "so there's good news and bad."

"How 'bout I take the good, you keep the bad, and we'll call it even for making me wear a tent?" Claudia suggested sardonically, a fake smile on her face.

Artie shot her a look but it quickly turned into a grimace as he pointed to his nose, letting her know she was bleeding again.

"Lovely." She said simply and dabbed at her nose with an entirely new blood-soaked cloth Artie hadn't seen before. His glare told her he was not impressed.

"That's actually perfect timing." The doctor said, rolling his chair over to get the blood pressure cuff. "I'm going to take your blood pressure while this is happening, okay? Let me know if it gets to be too tight."

As the digital read-out of the sphygmomanometer chimed, the doctor smiled.

"That's high, isn't it?" Artie asked worriedly.

"It is indeed." The doctor agreed, taking off the cuff. "That is the bad news. The good news is that it's not anything worse."

"High blood pressure? High blood pressure?" Claudia reiterated dubiously. "Seriously?"

"We found no elevation in the white blood cell count, and you don't seem to have a deficiency in anything but iron which is only deficient because of the amount of blood you've been losing steadily for this long while and not seeking treatment for." The doctor chastised her good-naturedly. "That anemia is what's been causing you to get dizzy as well. If you hadn't come in when you did you'd have been adding fainting spells to your list very soon."

Claudia didn't need to look at him to know Artie was frowning at her again.

"Cool!" She addressed the doctor instead, a real smile starting to make its way through. "So I can leave now?"

"Not quite." The doctor replied. "It's not a brain tumour but that doesn't mean your condition isn't serious. When your blood pressure gets to the point where it's bursting capillaries, that's a very dangerous sign." He gave his patient a moment to absorb his words before going on. "You said in your history that you've been through a lot of stress recently and your eating and sleeping hasn't been quite up to human standards. Has that stress been resolved?"

Claudia shot a glance at Artie, wondering how to answer. They'd successfully brought Joshua back from the painful interdimensional void, but then Pete had proven recently that the warehouse life wasn't all fun and games.

"Yeah," she said slowly, "I mean the biggest chunk of it is definitely over."

"Good, then you should have no excuse for getting a full 8 hours in every night and eating at least something that looks green once in a while, unsalted." The doctor told her sternly before turning to Artie. "Dad, you're going to have to be on the ball and make sure she's sticking to that."

Claudia snorted with glee, both at the thought of Artie being able to keep her in line, and also at the expression on his face when the doctor addressed him as her father and gave him all this responsibility. It was somewhere between a deer caught in the headlights and that same deer as the headlights vanished into the fog, leaving roadkill behind.

"Now I want to see you in maximum three works and absolutely no later because if it doesn't go down on its own with these lifestyle changes you're definitely going to need prescription medication. For the anemia, you'll just need over-the-counter iron supplements. But if the headaches, nose bleeds, dizziness or whatever other ailment gets worst I want you back in this office asap, no pussyfooting around." The doctor ordered her, commanding his full authority.

"Yes, sir!" Claudia jumped to her feet and saluted him. "Thank you, sir!" Artie just rolled his eyes and thanked the other man before pulling the beaming Claudia out of the office. When the automatic doors of the hospital's front entrance closed behind them outside, both were finally able to let go of the vice of anxiety that had plagued them. One for mere excruciating hours, the other for months.

"So, I'm...not dying." Claudia said, her smiled only suppressed for half a second before its full force was unleashed.

"No, you're not, you nihilist." Artie returned good-naturedly.

"Hey, you were the one worried enough to drag me almost all the way to Wyoming!" Claudia scoffed, poking him in the arm. "Who knew you were such a mother hen...pops."

"What, are you from the 50's?" Artie complained, starting off for the car.

"Oh, big talk from the guy who was probably there for the inauguration of Warehouse 4, pa." She teased him, trailing along after him.

"And now you're from rural Tennessee?" He protested. Claudia was quiet for a moment and when he turned around, he found himself with an armful of teenager.

"Thanks, Artie." The muffled voice spoke on from a spot near his shoulder. "You know, for dragging me here against my will and making me undergo medical procedures I didn't want."

"Well sure, when you say it like that..." He smirked and pat the tiny girl on the back. After a final moment of indulgence, Claudia stepped back and nodded decisively.

"Okay so I'm starved. Let's hit a taco place on the way back." She suggested, hopping into the passenger's side of the bombastically red middle-aged crisis known as a sports car.

"Uh uh, no way." Artie admonished her. "The doctor said green, not...well, just no. Leena will have saved something for you that's a lot healthier."

Claudia groaned and let her head hit the headrest. "I just had a flash of the next year of my life with you hovering. It's very unpleasant."

"You better believe it, kid." Artie smirked at her before pulling out of the parking lot and heading for home. He had made a huge mistake by leaving her to the system twelve years ago but there was no way he was going to let anything happen to her now that she was back in his care.

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A few days later, an extremely bored Claudia dragged herself down the stairs of the bed and breakfast to reach the heavenly smell of the breakfast Leena had made for her. When she spotted the french toast, she forgave the caretaker for becoming Artie's in-house spy.

Claudia had been right on the money when she'd predicted Artie would become insufferable. He had schedule out her life. Her life. He'd scheduled it. For the last half of her life she'd grown accustomed to coming and going as she pleased...and yet here she was submitting to his tyranny. She couldn't even count on the guys to back her up. Pete had tried to sneak her goodies or kidnap her into town beyond her new curfew but Myka and Artie had caught on and now kept their hawk eyes on him.

"Good morning, Claudia." Leena greeted her warmly, setting the all-natural syrup next to her plate.

"Morning?" She grumbled back, trying to pretend she didn't see the fruit lining her plate. "I could have sworn it was the afternoon already." Among his many new rules, Claudia was banned from going to the warehouse before 10 am and wasn't allowed to stay past 6 pm. This was his attempt at making sure she got enough sleep and she disliked him greatly for it.

Leena smiled compassionately and went to the counter to retrieve something.

"Artie left this for you this morning." She said, placing a cell phone and a written note on the table.

"This is my cell." Claudia said with confused surprise, turning to ask Leena about it but she'd already left the room. "Who jacks a person's phone?" She muttered to herself. She went to the note for answers but all it said was "Speed-dial 1".

"Okay then, not mysterious at all." She mumbled, opening her phone to do the note's bidding. As she pressed the correct keys, the phone screen showed "Calling Artie..." which only served to confused her more.

"Hello?" Came an out-of-breath voice after four rings. Claudia frowned.

"Artie?"

"Claudia, hey, good morning." Artie's digitized voice greeted happily. "You got my note?"

"Yeah..." She trailed off, her brow furrowing more deeply. "Dude, when did you get a cell phone?"

"Oh um, yesterday." He answered, his sheepish tone making her smirk.

"You know this is totally newfangled right?" She teased him, picking up the syrup and covering her french toast with it in a way she knew would make him frown.

"Yeah...I know." His voiced sounded strained but resigned. "But I figure, you know, the next time you have...doubts...at least you won't need to hunt me down. Or you know, break into a top secret facility. Or scare a nurse."

"I got it, geezer." She replied, rolling her eyes before letting the impact of his motivation settle on her. "Thanks, Artie."

"Yeah, no problem." He returned quickly, obviously discomfited. "Well I uh, I gotta get back to work."

"Yeah, no, totally. I'll be in soon." She said needlessly, he knew she'd be showing up at exactly 10:00 am like every morning since the hospital trip.

"See you then." He replied before severing the connection.

Closing her own phone, Claudia set it down on the table gently before leaning back and grinning. One good turn deserves another, and she felt very strongly that she should return Artie's gift of bedazzling with her own artistic touch to his cell phone. As she conjured up different flamboyant styles to use, she remembered her forgotten syrupy breakfast. When she went to dig in, however, Artie's frown of worry crept into her head and refused to leave. With a sigh, she started scraping off the syrup from her toast and stabbed a piece of fruit with her fork.

He was lucky she was starting to believe in this whole 'there for you' family thing. Very lucky. And so was she.

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The end! My first finished W13 fic! I'm psyched to be posting it, and thank you to everyone who's read and reviewed. It's been a great encouragement! ^_^