June 2012, Geneva, Swizerland

[damncompass]

The morning sun is breaking through Joshua's windows, reflecting even more off of the five feet of snow that's starting to melt in the June heat.

Inside, Joshua is snuggled up to the woman beside him, sleeping with a smile on his face.

Comments

[damncompass]

Joshua squeezes her hand. "You thought you did, but anyone who's so bad that they want to kill themselves thinks they want to do it too."

[timelessinventor]

There's a brief flicker of a wry smile. "I have never once accused myself of thinking clearly at that time." Come to that, she rarely accuses herself of thinking clearly now (she certainly wasn't last night).

[damncompass]

"Generally if you're that bad off, you're not thinking clearly." Joshua reaches over and touches her hand on the locket. "Is that your daughter?"

[timelessinventor]

"Yes. My Christina." She opens the locket and shows him the photo (the only one she has left, these days; god only knows what happened to all her personal effects). "I... if I get my hopes up like that again, it'll be the end of me."

[damncompass]

"She was adorable." Joshua squeezes Helena's hand. "And really, we can't have that." He pauses. "Can you promise me something? If you feel like ending the world again, talk to me?"

[timelessinventor]

After a long moment, Helena nods. "I doubt I will just now in any case. For one thing, I'd need to come up with a new plan - oh, bollocks. May I borrow your phone?"

[damncompass]

"Sure." Joshua reaches over, deposits the pin that had fallen to his lap on his nightstand, and grabs his phone. "Shit. I need to call someone too, but I'll do that when you're done." He hands it over to her.

[timelessinventor]

"Thank you. If your sister wakes up slightly faster than you do, this shouldn't take long." As she suspected, Claudia's number is very easy to find, and she makes short work of dialing it.

[claudiometer]

Meanwhile, back in South Dakota...

It's just a jump to the left! AND THEN A STEP TO THE RIIIIIIIIIIIGHT.
Claudia's had A Day Or Two, and she was sound asleep before her phone started ringing. But she does still get to it before the pelvic thrust. "bzuh?"
Eloquent, we know, but you'll have to forgive her.

[timelessinventor]

"Hello, darling. I do apologize for waking you."

[claudiometer]

"...oh. you're not Joshua. hi."

[timelessinventor]

"No, I am certainly not. Do you have some paper? I need to tell you something."

[claudiometer]

"'k. One sec."
A bit of fumbling later, she says, "Got it. 's up?"

[timelessinventor]

"There was an Artifact in Egypt. The very first Artifact, in fact. It is a trident, and there is a piece missing."

[claudiometer]

"...well, shit, son. Which piece, the spear part or the horseshoey doodad?"

[timelessinventor]

"The cross-piece. I guess you could call it a horse shoe. I know for a fact it was not in Twelve, at least at the same time I was. I was under the impression it was in one piece."

[claudiometer]

"Aaaand that was your diabolical plan, wasn't it." Claudia yawns. "'k, I'll look for it... in the morning. When I'm actually awake."

[timelessinventor]

"I do apologize, dear. I just wanted to tell someone before I forgot. Do sleep well, and we will talk to you soon."

[claudiometer]

"'s okay. I'm just glad you didn't follow through on it. Tell Joshua I said hi."

[timelessinventor]

"Will do, darling." Helena hangs up the phone and passes it back to Joshua. "Thank you. I needed to get that off of my chest."

[damncompass]

"It's alright." He takes the phone and dials, waiting, then has a conversation in French. After a moment, he nods. "Oui. Oui. Merci, je vais téléphoner lundi." He hangs up. "Well, at least I have a couple more days before I have to defend." He puts the phone down and relaxes a bit against the headboard.

[timelessinventor]

"What is it you're defending?" She does hope she didn't interrupt anything important.

[damncompass]

"My dissertation. The time travel that Claud was so worked up about." He sighs. "I was supposed to talk about it today, but obviously, the snow's kinda precluded that."

[timelessinventor]

"Just a bit." Helena leans back to join him, a bit of a smirk on her face. "Five feet of snow in June. Let the 'climate change experts' chew on that one for a while."

[damncompass]

Joshua laughs. "And what, pray tell, do you have against climate change people?" It's not his area of science, but the research does at least somewhat seem to make sense.