A/N: Apologies for the massive delay in this fic. I've been trying to get through a writer's block and hopefully this is the end of it. It'll still be confusing for a lot of you, but hopefully with this chapter the premise will start to make sense.

On the plane to Vancouver, Ms. Wells had finally succumbed to Claudia's roguish charms. The private jet they occasionally used to fly around the continent was a little… old fashioned. The 1985 Hawker 800 flew like a dream though, and Claudia often sailed to sleep as soon as they were in the air.

Finally snuggled against Helena's chest, Claudia felt different today. She couldn't settle. And when her wriggling became too much for the caretaker, she cleared her throat and pushed Claudia away. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing," Claudia grouched, refusing to look into her friend's eyes.

When she made no move to seek out any more comfort, Helena blinked and frowned. "And I'm supposed to believe that..."

"Yes, so let's leave it." Claudia sighed, rubbing her forehead and turning away from the woman to look out of the window. "Ears are popping." she muttered. She heard rustling behind her and sighed, holding back the smile that came to her when a Werther's Original was put under her nose. She let out a long breath and turned to look at the woman whose eyes were full of concern and pulled her into a soft kiss. "Thank you."

Ms. Wells simply nodded, the frown never leaving her face. She watched her closely as Claudia unwrapped the candy and popped it into her mouth with a smile. "Something's the matter."

"Is it?" Claudia curled up in her seat, her head resting against the cushioned headrest.

"Is what?" Helena asked, confused.

Claudia stared at her. "Is something the matter? Or is it just me?"

"Darling," Helena began warily, placing the back of her hand on Claudia's forehead. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

The redhead hissed and pulled the woman's face to her, cupping each cheek within her palms. She stared openly into the caretaker's eyes, searching. Helena visibly paled and looked away, to which Claudia let go with a triumphant gasp. "You do."

"Admittedly," the Victorian held onto her chest to settle her breathing, "I felt rather odd this morning."

"When you woke up…" Claudia finished for her.

Helena peered at her for a moment then nodded. "Yes." She cleared her throat and sat up, rubbing the locket that settled against her clavicle.

"I woke up… I felt… like I'd had a little too much gin the night before."

"Mine was tequila." Claudia chirped.

Helena barely heard. "But we didn't drink last night."

No… they hadn't.

Claudia swallowed and stood up, pacing quickly. She'd gripped at her hair, twisting and curling it between her fingers as her mind warred with itself.

Helena just sat back and closed her eyes, taking deep breaths. She was a nervous flyer at the best of times, always had been. She'd seen the Wright Brothers all over the news in 1903 when their world's first ever human aircraft was a success. She marvelled over planes of all kinds. Took in their ever evolving beauty. Was inspired by the complex mechanisms of each and every plane that flew thousands of feet into the air.

But being inside one? No. That was too mindboggling even for her and soon she felt herself begin to panic.

Her mind brought her back to a time she remembered fondly, albeit fuzzily, and she smiled automatically.

"Mummy, we'll be fine."

"Oh we will, will we?" Helena gave a nervous smile, her fingers clutching at her little girl's.

The young girl couldn't have been older than fourteen, and she giggled and nodded, clutching her mother's hand tighter. "Yes, we will."

The quiet confidence from the teenager caused Helena to pause her panicking and she pulled her daughter against her, pressing a kiss to her head. "You're growing up too fast."

Christina chuckled and fiddled with the locket on her mother's chest. She was a little old for cuddling, but she knew it would at least calm her poor mother down. "You never did change your locket," she reminded.

Helena let out a wan smile and shook her head. "It's a lovely photograph. You have a wonderful smile."

Christina sighed against her mother's chest. "As long as it pleases you, mum."

"Oh it does, my love." Helena chuckled in that embarrassing parental way, smiling brighter when she heard the flustered "yugh" from her daughter. "It does." She said, kissing the girl's forehead.

"Oh it does, my love." Helena chuckled in that embarrassing parental way, smiling brighter when she heard the flustered "yugh" from her daughter. "It does." She said once more, kissing the girl's forehead.

"We've been whammied." Claudia's voice brought Helena back to the present pretty swiftly and she sat up, wide eyes staring at the source of sound. "I'm tellin' ya… we've been whammied."

Helena placed her hands into her lap. "And what makes you so sure?"

Claudia ticked it off of her fingers. "Fuzzy long term and short term memory, right? Check. No alcohol taken. General feeling of uneasiness. Check-"

"And how do you know we're not affected by some bizarre and rare illness?" HG had the decency to smirk. It seemed her daydream had calmed not only her fear of flying but also the strange situation she and Claudia had found themselves in. And watching the twenty-three year old flailing around was pretty endearing.

"You think this is funny," Claudia scowled, hand on hip and clearly owning her Princess Sass title.

"No, I don't." Helena took a shaky breath and stood up, walking to her lover.

Standing in a flying metal can was just not right.

She held Claudia's hips and sighed, wrapping her arms around and up until her fingers were playing in the younger woman's hair.

Claudia's eyes immediately closed and she pushed herself as close to Helena as she could. "You don't…?" she asked in a whisper.

"No." Helena kissed her softly. "But I do think we need rest. And I will buy the most expensive room available. How does that sound?"

"Heavenly," Claudia groaned and went in for another kiss but Helena pulled away quickly and went to sit back down. The grumble coming from the guardian went unheard as Helena redid her seatbelt, but Claudia looked up at the plastic ceiling of the plane, clenching her fists in frustration before joining and sitting next to her partner once more.

The plane landed two hours later with a spectacular bump. Helena readily sought out Claudia's hand, much to the young inventor's amusement. But instead of teasing, she lifted the Victorian's hand in her own, kissed the back of it, and finally released her seatbelt after downing the last of her orange juice. "See? We survived."

"Now who's being funny?" Helena sighed and rubbed at her forehead. They watched patiently as the plane came to a stop and gathered their things before leaving the aircraft.

Helena Wells had never been much of a bargain keeper. So Claudia wasn't too surprised when Helena did not, in fact, pay for the most expensive room in the hotel.

But at $235 a night for a standard room, she didn't do half bad. Claudia lay down with a smile on her face. The pillows were perfect. The mattress was even better than perfect. There was a Bose ipod dock to her left on the nightstand, and a dimming switch above her head that not only turned down the lights, but worked the curtains. "Ugh, just marry me why don't you?"

Helena looked up from the door to the bathroom and raised her eyebrow. "I think you'll find I require a ring for that." She said sniffily, "And anyway, your proposal was rather rude." She shouldered her purse and fit her Farnsworth inside, one hand on her hip.

She wasn't even sure why they carried Farnsworths anymore. It wasn't like they were easily separable. Nevertheless, they did, on occasion, lose each other from time to time so she guessed they weren't such a bad thing to carry around after all.

She looked at Claudia with a hopeless roll of the eyes. Claudia was barely awake, and to be fair to her, was desperately trying to sit up. "Are you coming?"

"Yes," Claudia whined, her eyes still closed. She exhaled loudly, and then catapulted her body upright to a standing position. "Jeez, it was a three hour flight."

"I know." HG wrapped an arm around the woman's shoulder. "But you always have been a confusing specimen." She kissed Claudia's cheek.

Claudia feigned outrage with a pinch to the woman's side, but let herself be guided out of the room. They had the world to save after all. She just wished her life wasn't so damn tiring all the time.

"What are you thinking?"

Claudia jumped despite the soft tone of the voice and sneered. "Quiet." She clenched her fists. Her eyes remained closed, and she stood quite still in the middle of the busy street in Kitsilano. Vancouver was the kind of city that Claudia felt welcome in. Laid-back coffee shops and trinket shops were scattered along roads. Surfers eating ice-cream on benches dotted along the sidewalks. It was a haven of sorts. But something was odd. Something just seemed…off.

Helena stayed silent and watched the woman with a steady gaze. When she brought up the courage, she spoke again. "Your senses are getting stronger."

Claudia's eyes slowly opened. "True… That, or things are getting worse."

Helena smiled tenderly. "Your pessimism definitely is."

The Warehouse guardian took in a deep breath and released it slowly, then nodded. "You have an address? Or you gonna make me guess where this place is?"

Helena looked down at the sheets of scanned newspaper in her hand and shuffled over to Claudia, keeping her voice down from sneaky passersby. "Café owner, Lucy Marton." She pointed at the blonde whose lips were painted a dark red. It was obvious even in the black and grey newsprint.

"Cute," Claudia grinned at the beautiful woman on the page. "And?"

"Running for mayor." Helena tapped her chin.

Claudia all but squawked at the bigoted sounding utterance, her mouth hanging open. "HG, come on. I know you're Victorian but-"

An eyebrow rose which halted Claudia's rant. "Are you questioning my feminism?" She giggled. Claudia simply gulped. Helena rolled her eyes. She didn't seem fazed, though, and continued speaking in a hushed tone. "She was homeless until 3 months ago. Suddenly she's got a successful café, seems financially stable. She is extremely popular here."

"Not surprised," Claudia traced the image with her finger. "She sounds amazing."

Helena snatched the newspaper article away. "Definitely suspicious. The café is…" She swiveled around and pointed to a building on the corner of the road. "Ah! There." A pretty light pink canopy hung above the coffee shop. It was dainty and rather old fashioned, but equally inviting. Claudia found herself already drawn to it and began to walk across the road. It took Helena a while to realize her best friend had vanished and she jogged off the sidewalk to catch up.

The guardian stood motionless at the door of the establishment. Her hand came up to trace the door handle as she watched the proprietor inside. Lucy certainly looked harried, dashing around the café, a pen resting behind her ear (just in case).

Helena watched Claudia closely, noting the redhead's nose pressed against the glass. She was acting more than a little strange. "Are you alright?"

"Hmm… what?" Claudia blinked and looked behind herself, now nose-to-nose with the Victorian author. "Yeah…" The younger woman brushed herself down. "Can you feel it?" She took a long, deep breath and shivered slightly when Helena chuckled against her neck.

"I'm not you, darling. I don't sense the artifacts."

"That's not what this i—" Claudia's argument died on her lips and she accepted her ability with a huff. "It's powerful, whatever she's got."

Helena nodded and brushed passed her friend. "Well then, we won't find out what it is if we're faffing out here, will we?" She turned to look at Claudia's face. "Focus, Claudia. Deep breaths. Whatever happened last night – we'll figure it out."

Claudia swallowed down the feeling of nausea and nodded, reaching out to quickly grasp her friend's hand. "Alright. Let's do this." And the two women walked straight in and up to the counter to "order some tea."

oxoxoxoxo

Poor old (or perhaps we should call it 'new') Time was confused. Time was unsettled and still reaching out, moving past oceans and remaking the world as it should have been. As it once was.

But things weren't quite the same, were they?

Time was now a thing, not a concept. A stressed, troubled, barely newborn sentient thing worrying about whether it had done its job well enough.

And it hadn't, as Warehouse guardian and caretaker would soon discover.

In another world, another lifetime, another story entirely, one Artie Nielsen had reset and rebirthed Time. That world had been chaos, as this one was now.

But this time, Time wasn't alone. Time had clever Warehouse agents, potential and current, scattered around the globe. They would help Time get better. They would fix the fate of the world. Unbeknownst to them, they were now the soldiers of Time. The guardians.

And soon, when everything was fixed, Time could rest and the world would once more feel right.

But for now, Time watched the two women investigate the coffee shop with a relieved conscience. Time would be fixed and healed.

All in good time.