The Journal of the Time-Lost Joshua Donovan

He'd settled into what was almost a routine. Get up, do paperwork, do bills if they were needed, and then have an afternoon for Science. All of his current linear experiments were turning up nothing, so he decided to get a random Artifact from a shelf. Putting random letters and numbers into the computer elicited a small hand mirror in Raleigh Sector. He dutifully went and got it, returning to start his research.

At first, nothing was out of the ordinary, but before Joshua could even think, as he turned the mirror, a huge bright flash pushed him to the ground, knocking him out.

The shiny gold nonsense, not that gold nonsense, something else entirely, swirls around him as he lies on the floor, and scenes start appearing in the mist.

I'm pregnant, Joshua. ... How the fuck did that happen? ... Your father and I had sex, you dipshit.

Joshua? What are you. ... Oh, fuck. Claudia, don't be scared of me! Please! ... Your curtains are on fire. ... DAD WHERE IS THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER?

Why do you have to go so far away? I'll be lonely. ... I'm not that far, and you have Mom and Dad. ... But I want you! You're my brother.

They're not coming back, are they? ... No, Claudia. ... But Mom and Dad! They can't be gone! ... I know the feeling, baby sister.

Why are we going to court? ... They're finally agreeing to let me have you. ... But I was always going to be with you! It's always the two of us! ... It is now.

Artie! Make him stop! ... Claudia, remember that I will always... No!

You abandoned him once, why shouldn't you do it again ... It isn't like that. ... Oh, no. It's exactly like that. Me and Joshua on our own again. Good thing I'm used to it.

And then everything changed and the scenes changed, more chaotic, more blurry, not linear. Two small children, a second gravestone, incoherent flashes of people, Claudia huddled on a park bench, Claudia in a hospital, Helena with a trident, Helena huddled somewhere alone, then walking through a chair, explosions, Claudia screaming bloody murder, Artie with some sort of navagational object, Myka in a doctor's office, and finally, a man in some strange clothing facing Claudia down an aisle of the warehouse and a name. Claire.

And as quickly as it came, in a flash, it went away, and everything settled as he slowly started to wake up.

When he finally came to his senses, lying on the floor of his lab, he shouted at the walls around him. "Who the fuck is Claire Donovan?" The only response he recieves is a faint skittering of faiance wings.

"Hey, Joshua? You've got mail."

Leena's voice cut through Joshua's midday perusal of case files.

"Come on in, Leena." Once she got in, Joshua waved at the table next to his desk. "Dump the mail over there. I'll get to it at some point." Nodding, Leena dropped the mail on the table, and chatted with him for a while.

After Leena left, he went back to the case files he was reading. Lunchtime came and went, and so did a couple hours of science, some inventory to break up the day, and finally, around six, he remembered the mail.

A couple people wanted to give him a credit card (why would he want another credit card considering he currently had one with no limit?), someone wanting him to change his cable service (which he was pretty sure he never had in the first place.)

As he was about to open the last letter, which he was pretty damn sure was yet another bit of junk mail, his phone rang. Absentmindedly, he answered.

"Yeah?"

"Is this Dr. Joshua Donovan?"

"Depends on who you are, but yeah, this is Joshua."

"I'm calling from the Nobel Media Foundation in Stockholm where it was just announced that you won the Nobel Prize in Physics."

"I what the fuck now? You have to be kidding me."

"Not at all, Dr. Donovan. Did you not know you were a candidate?"

"Uh. No. I might have lost that memo in a move I made not long ago. Shit, I just googled myself and it's true. Er."

"Can I ask you a couple questions about your work in antimatter?"

"Uhm... sure."

Ten minutes later, as he hung up the phone and stared at the wall of his lab, he had no clue what to do.

Joshua has not been doing science today. What has has been doing is making a pile of notes about things that he's observed in the Warehouse in the past couple weeks. He's come to the conclusion that there are a few holes in the way things are being run. However, instead of fighting Artie about it, he decides to take matters into his own hands.

Thus, he picks up his Farnsworth and buzzes his sister.

Looking back, Joshua realizes as he pulls into the B&B, he should have realized that he could have just gone through the bar for this move instead of travelling for the better part of a day. Hindsight is 20/20, though, and he's finally here now.

He leaves pretty much everything in the car, locks it (force of habit) and goes upstairs. Faced with a hallway of doors, he prays to whomever is listening that he remembers which door leads to which room. He doesn't really like the thought of waking up next to Pete, or worse, his sister.

Counting down the hall, he opens a door, and to his vast relief, walks into Helena's room.