The Journal of the Time-Lost Joshua Donovan

Joshua had been putting this off for a couple weeks, avoiding all of the publicity that kept trying to find him, even down to his YouTube views exploding, even on the stupidest little videos. (A video about playing moving Tetris? Really?) However, before the meeting, he finally had a moment to catch his boss in his office.

As he walked down the hall, Joshua took in the somewhat imposing office wing. It was strange, having these offices, as he knew damn well that very few people actually used them. He had one, a space that he's almost certain was bigger than a couple apartments he lived in, but at the moment, it was pretty bare, other than a couple photos (one of Claudia, one of Helena), a computer, a coffee pot, and a mug. His boss' office was at the end of the hall, opening up on most of the front of the office building. The last door on the right was his office, and the one across the hall he was pretty sure was Jane's.

On the ebony double doors at the end of the hall were two symbols, an obvious eye of Horus on the right door, but on the left was a star-like symbol that Joshua couldn't place. He knocked on the door, a bit timidly.

"You are allowed to just come in, Joshua." His boss called out from behind the door.

Opening the door, and going in, Joshua shook his head. "How did you know it was me?"

"You are the only person who would bother showing up and knocking."

Shaking his head, Joshua went into the office. "So, I, er... I sort of got offered the Nobel Prize."

"Congratulations." His boss stood up and walked over, taking Joshua's hand and shaking it firmly. "You deserve to be recognized for your work, as this is likely the last time it could happen."

"Yeah, but..." Joshua just stared at him. "Regent shit. And I can't be recognized, and stuff."

His boss shook his head. "Honestly, Joshua, we just have to not be known for Warehouse business. I hear you're quite the thing on YouTube."

Joshua bit his lip, staring down at his shoes. "So, you're not giving me a reason to back out?"

"Quite the contrary. I think you should take it. It's a once-in-a-lifetime honour that you have certainly earned."

"I don't really feel like I've earned shitall. Half-research here, someone else's data there. It's not mine."

"Yes, but you're missing the point." His boss stood there, almost military-straight, looking him in the eyes. "Most people who make discoveries do it by observing how the world works. That is what you did, both in your teleportation research and your latest research. It's what you're doing with Artifacts, Joshua. You deserve that recognition."

There was something in his boss's earnest expression that cut off all of Joshua's comments on the matter. He just nodded, sighing deeply. "I guess I need to get a tux, then."

"That you do, Joshua. Now, shall we go to the meeting?"

The meeting went off without much of a hitch. Theodora made her opinions of Joshua running the last meeting known, but both his boss and Jane seemed to take that under advisment, which Joshua was pretty damn sure meant they ignored her totally.

After the meeting, everyone just nodded at him and went on their way. Joshua got into his car, thoughtful, and prodded at his phone, to see where the hell one would get a tux in Featherhead. The answer? Nowhere.

The past couple weeks had been pretty close to hell. Too many meetings, too much going on, too much to process.

Once he'd fired off an e-mail to the relevant people, he impulsively bought a ticket to Boston for the next morning. He announced his departure at dinner, which was met mostly with shrugs, and an expression from Myka that he just couldn't completely place.

The next morning, after leaving a note under his sister's door (Love you, call me if you need me.) he drove to the airport, and was fairly quickly settled on his first leg, to Minneapolis. As the plane took off, mostly empty, he stared out the window, watching the clouds wander by. His mind wandered back to the previous weekend.

He'd gone out to Denver, pretty much on a moment's notice to be there when Mrs. Frederick talked to Myka. Once he'd met Mrs. F at a hotel, she took his hand, startling him, and before he could really say anything, they were in Myka's parents' bookstore.

Joshua sat in his seat on the plane, grinning like a lunatic to himself. He knew it now. It was so simple now that he realized exactly what he did. No messing about with compasses or interdimensional spaces. He knew how to teleport. Sure, if someone asked how he did it, he wasn't so certain that he could tell them how it worked, but he knew. It was like riding a bike or reading a book. The knowledge of how to do it was there, and it was solid.

He sobered a bit as he remembered his conversation with Myka. She was uncertain, she was so worried that she was going to wreck everything, but she missed the Warehouse. Frankly, Joshua didn't think he did much at all to get her to come back. She was ready, she knew on her own, she just needed the knowledge that she could come back.

Now that she was back, however, even though Helena hadn't come back from her travels yet, everything just seemed so much more settled. Artie wasn't fussing as much as usual, Pete was back to his cheerful joking, and even the new guy seemed to be settling in.

Sure, things were still a bit unsettled, but the hole was gone. The family was fixing itself, and Joshua for his part was damn glad.

He eventually drifted off to sleep, only to wake up, switch planes, and drift off again on the way to Boston. When he finally got off the plane at Logan Airport, a huge grin was securely on his face, and he shouldered his bag with a bit of a laugh. Maybe this job wasn't as bad as he'd originally thought.

He'd barely been in Texas ten minutes, and he was annoyed. Baggage claim was a pain, the airport was a pain, picking up a rental car was a pain.

On his drive out to El Paso, he mused that he was probably just easily annoyed and predisposed to severely dislike the cocky confidence of the state in general. The radio and its commentators weren't helping either, waxing poetic about how Romney was going to turn the country around. Joshua plugged his phone into the car and blasted Jonathan Coulton while finding his way to the Border Patrol office.

Halfway there, he stopped at a McDonald's for lunch, and rummaged in his bag, pulling out a small static bag. He just shook his head at himself as he stared at the pile of cloth inside. Perhaps hauling out this particular Artifact for this particular purpose wasn't the best thing in the world, but try as he might, he couldn't find a damn actual border-related ping in West Texas to save his life, so this would have to do. Finishing his sandwich, he looked around, and snuck into the bathroom, returning about five minutes later, hair longer, and wearing dusty jeans and t-shirt.

Joshua (now temporarily Jennifer) jumped back in the car, and a few minutes later, checked into a hotel and left everything in the room, save only his room key and passport. Half an hour later, he was hiding in some Mexican scrub watching a couple agents check border-crossers, and wondering what the hell he was doing. Twenty minutes went by before one of the guys, the one he was watching, actually, spotted him.

"Hey! You! What're you doing over there?"

Instinct took over and Joshua got up and bolted toward El Paso. The agent crossed the short distance quickly and tackled him to the ground. "What do you think you're doing?"

Wincing, Joshua struggled a bit. "I, was, er, out for a run." He started to panic a bit, realizing that first, he hadn't told anyone where he was going, and second, he hadn't actually thought that far ahead as to what he was going to say or do. Confront someone with an Artifact, sure. Get arrested and sent away? Probably not his greatest idea.

"Out for a run across the border? I doubt it, ma'am. What're you trying to smuggle? Heroin? Cocaine?" The agent looked him over from head to toe.

"No, honestly. I'm just... I'm out for a run, and I got lost." Joshua panicked, wishing passionately for once that he'd figured out getting a badge before doing this.

The agent looked at him for a moment, shaking his head. "Ma'am, I dare say that you're just a bit too stupid to run drugs. I might actually believe you."

As the agent let go, Joshua sat up. "So you're letting me go? Just like that?"

"A pretty girl like you out here? Of course I am."

Joshua gaped. Either his luck just got crazy or there was something more here. "Uh. Alright then." He stood up, but the agent caught him on the wrist.

"But really, darlin', don't you want to go somewhere else? It's too dirty and dusty around here."

Joshua pulled his wrist back, the panic returning. "Are you hitting on me?"

"Not hitting, per se, just thinking that there has to be a better place for you than running around the border."

"Ok, dude, this is not cool." Joshua took a couple steps back, wishing that he'd gotten Helena to teach him some self-defense. "I don't know what the fuck you're playing at, but I'm out of here." With that, he turned and ran flat-out back to El Paso.

Once he got back to the hotel, he leaned on the outside of the building panting. He'd lost the agent after about a block and a half, and now the man was nowhere to be seen.

"Well, that's a bullet dodged." He winced, and shook his head. There had to be a better way to find agents, than files. Hopefully the dude in Jersey was better.

Joshua has realized two things over the past half-week. First, he loves his new job more than anything ever. He can do all of the science he wants, or he can just sit in the office and watch other people do what they're doing while poking on the internet.

Second, he needs a damn car. The rental's fine for now, but he'd checked the other day, and he'd only officially rented it for two weeks. That goes on a to-do list for the weekend.

This day, however, he's locked himself in his lab to finish setting it up and take stock of what he's going to need to get or order.

Travelling is hell, especially when you're half-moving anyway. Joshua had decided that he was going to take some books and the Artifact to the B&B, to just have a few less things things to take when he actually moved a week later.

Flights were late, Customs was eying Joshua's papers like they were in Greek, and the closer they got to South Dakota, the more unsettled Helena was. So, when they got to the airport finally, Joshua decided to fuck it, and get the flashiest car that the Hertz place rented: a red convertible something-or-other that suited Joshua's mood just fine. However, to his vast embarrassment, he'd almost forgotten how to drive in the fifteen years that he didn't actually need to. He was able to get the car in gear and going, with a minimum of offers to drive from his Victorian now-girlfriend.

Driving into the address that he'd been e-mailed a couple days ago (how they got his e-mail, he wasn't actually going to ask at this point), he parked (very poorly) and looked around, wondering where the shit everyone else parked, as the lot was mostly empty.