AN: Well, this is my first fic ever, so I hope you enjoy! Reviews would be very welcome.

This basically came from me wondering why no-one was shown to take over the security team between Captain Ryan and Becker (that is, during Series 2).

Disclaimer: I don't own Primeval. Yeah...

Big Boots to Fill

Captain Andrews prided himself on being a veteran, a man who had seen it all. At 35 years old and with numerous missions and wars behind him, no-one had tried to correct him. No-one dared.

Until now. He had just joined this Government run base, after the last Captain, a Captain Ryan, had been killed in action, which, for a start, was unusual for an operation run solely in Britain. Following this, other signs started to immerge that suggested this wasn't a normal job.

He hadn't been told what it was that the ARC actually did and the 'Anomaly Research Centre' was hardly the most informative title. The email, that practically ordered him to accept the position, only held personnel numbers and a footnote of 'must be willing to deal with abnormalities'. The man who'd hired him, a James Lester hadn't bothered with an interview, just rung up a couple of days after the position had been confirmed, told him when he began, where he began and asked him curtly to send his questions to an email address so they could be replied to later. Which they weren't. The internet held no clues. Neither did newspapers.

He marched up to the ARC in a cloud annoyance. He wasn't a common soldier being signed-up; he was going to be the new Captain. When he came up to the first security barrier, he merely mentioned his name and two soldiers immediately detached themselves from the rest and asked him to follow them. At least he was expected.

As he came to what seemed to be the main corridor, a young man, practically no more than a teenager, came rolling out on his skateboard straight into him.

"Sorry, I...Sorry," he stuttered, before quickly standing. Andrews was just about to open his mouth to pass remarks about careless oafs, when he was cut off by a vaguely familiar voice.

"I see you've meet Connor. He is a prime example of whom you'll have to contend with if you wish to stay. A bit of an extreme example, but not the worst, by any means." A black, well-polished shoe planted itself by Andrews' head. The soldier quickly scrambled to his feet.

"Mr Lester, I presume? Sir, may I just..." Someone else ran into him cutting him off.

"Lester," came a broad Scottish accent. "I need a word, now." The blond man then strode on past down the corridor, grabbing Connor as he went.

"That would be the worst. You two," he addressed the other soldiers beside him. "Take Captain Andrews down to the parade room to meet Sergeant Howard." He turned back to the speechless Andrews. "He'll fill you in."

And with that, Lester walked off. Captain Andrews stood in the corridor amazed, but quickly snapped out of it as the soldiers lead him away to a largish room, where the rest of the men were in their own little worlds mainly, checking weapons, polishing equipment or simply having a gossip. To Andrews, the whole scene was a mess and breathed out slowly and sharply in silent anger.

"WHAT ARE YOU MEN DOING?" he shouted and instantly a hush descended upon the room. Someone dropped a tin. "I was under the impression that this unit was meant to be ready to be mobilised at all times of the day. A fit, streamlined, efficient division! Instead, I find chaos! And that is unacceptable! What is it?"

The men just stared at him like he had just landed from a different planet and immediately sprouted antennae. A stifled smirk arose from somewhere near the back. Andrews was just about to comment on this when a well-built blond man hurried up to him and swiftly gave a salute. Slightly sloppy but still... the principle was there.

"Sergeant Howard, sir," the soldier introduced himself. "We may seem a little chaotic but you have arrived at the shift change and we had a small dinosaur scare yesterday afternoon. False alert, though, but the guns still needed some servicing afterwards."

"Then, I presume that should have been done last night then. And dinosaur indeed. You must be a bit over the limit if you think that excuse will cut it," scoffed Andrews, eyeing the other man up. It was never a good sign when excuses were being presented so early. Well, if that was the attitude of this place, it was going to get a shock. The sergeant, however, didn't seem to register the Captain's inner resolve and merely blinked in surprise.

"With respect, sir, you realise that the men aren't technically in the army any more and therefore, if a job runs past work hours, they are entitled to go as soon as any immediate danger is covered."

"Don't be stupid man. You can't leave work for the next day if it can be done now, including maintenance."

Andrews pushed passed the other man to face the semi-circle of faces that had crowded round the discussion. Time to put a stop to this.

"So, you met the new Captain yet?" asked Connor, sidling up to Abby as she investigated the inside of one the numerous plants that were growing in her lab.

"Hmm?" she replied vaguely. "Oh, no, not yet. Anyone interesting?"

"You should hear the stories going round about him. So far, he's shouted at his Sergeant, accusing him of being drunk when he was told about the dinosaur aspect of the job, had the security doing drills so he could 'assess their fitness', along with firing a couple because they left at the end of the day 'before all daily duties were completed', and, worst of all, tried to stop Stephen using guns!" Connor shook his head. "The guy's a nutter."

"You two should get along swimmingly then," jabbed Abby, smiling at Connor as he frowned.

"What's that supposed to mean? He's all 'discipline, exercise, Rah!'I have so far run into him on my skateboard. You should have seen the look he gave me." Abby slammed her hand down on the desk and stared at Connor with a perplexed gaze. She then shook her head and sighed.

"You idiot."

The warehouse was empty at this time of day; only the night-watchman remained, holding his nightly vigil over the cavernous room. The crates had been taken out earlier that day, so tonight in particular the space felt empty for him. And dark. He never forgot the darkness, because of the contrast with what happened next.

The darkness was chased away all of a sudden by a yellow and white glow that fell through the window pane on the little office. Perplexed, the night-watchman put down his book and grabbed his torch, fully expecting some fire to have been made by some tramps who had decided that this seemed as nice a spot as any to bed down throughout the chilly hours of early morning.

Instead, he found a fairly large star-like orb. It was unlike anything he'd ever seen before. He kept his distance, frightened by the prospect of this new-fangled terrorism that had been planted in his brain by numerous 'cutting-edge' dramas.

At that moment, it flickered, taking him by surprise. Leaping back, he saw the outline of something emerge. It was about two foot taller than him and so, in the interests of self-preservation, the night-watchman scuttled back into the office and called the police.

Abby's phone was always on loud enough to wake her, not that she was a very deep-sleeper.

Connor's phone was always on loud enough to wake her, so that she could wake him, a deep-sleeper.

Thus it was that when both their phones started ringing at 2.30am, Abby then had to enlist the help of Rex to wake Connor. Chucking the food on the sleeping figure, Abby began the well-rehearsed routine of 'getting-Connor-up'. It generally took about five minutes and a well-judged kick.

On arriving at the anomaly site, Abby and Connor made their way over to where Cutter and Stephen were stood, discussing/arguing in subdued tones whether of not it would be a good idea to set up a barrier, or simply position soldiers aimed to shoot at anything that came through. It wasn't really necessary, as they already had a procedure (sort of) in place to deal will open anomalies. They were only arguing really to relieve themselves of the 'elephant in the room'. Even though Cutter said he didn't care about the affair whilst in the shopping centre, the tension between the pair was building day-by-day. However, Abby and Connor needed to know what was happening and it was either this or ask Captain Andrews, who seemed to be in a heated discussion with his Sergeant and was growing redder by the minute.

Captain Andrews was not pleased with the situation. He'd already felt isolated from the entire of the ARC, who seemed to think it was really funny to wind the newbie up. Dinosaurs indeed! Now, he'd been dragged out of bed in the middle of the night to come down here and be faced with a glowing ball that couldn't be satisfactorily be explained by anyone. On top of that, someone, and he glared pointedly at Howard here, had let that Stephen loose with a gun. Like he didn't trust Andrews.

"Sir, with respect, you haven't been here long and have never faced these occurrences before. As soon as this is over, I'm sure you'll understand why Mr Hart feels the need to be armed," stated Howard, trying to keep his voice as diplomatically level as possible.

"Why?" retorted Andrews. "Don't say it. Probably, a T-rex could emerge at any moment from... from... whatever that thing is and eat Mr Hart if he isn't in arm's reach of a firearm."

"Something like that, Sir," replied Howard, pointedly not acknowledging the sarcasm in his boss' voice. Foolishly. He was a mild-mannered man, but, like all soldiers, contained a natural firmness and discipline within his pale, blond exterior, a fact that had been sourly humiliated by the accusations of drunkenness that Andrews had been throwing at him ever since the two met.

"Damn it, man! There are no dinosaurs and I think it highly unprofessional for you to be on duty and be spewing such utter nonsense! If a dinosaur enters here, I eat my boots!"

As if on cue, a shout went up, causing the two men to spin round to face the anomaly, which appeared to be flickering slightly, before spewing out a large reptile. A cry went up from Connor who immediately identified the creature.

"ALLOSAURUS! FROM THE JURASSIC PERIOD!"

"NEVER MIND WHEN, CONNOR! WHAT DOES IT EAT?" came the feminine response.

There was a pause, followed by the familiar Scottish accent. "LET'S JUST SAY, I WOULDN'T ADVICE THIS AS A PET!"

Howard had automatically moved back into the defensive position that the other soldiers had formed, kneeling down and targeting the thick-set skull. The dinosaur itself wasn't too frisky and seemed to merely be looking around in a bemused fashion, causing no reason to open fire, but Howard found it was always best to be prepared.

However, he wasn't prepared for the reaction of his superior. Andrews froze, staring into the six foot tall animal's eyes, which were hooded by red eyebrows of bone. Nothing he had seen in all his years of service came close to the fear that ran through him now.

Suddenly, his arm was tugged from behind. "Get back, you fool," said Stephen, yanking the Captain behind the line of soldiers, before leaving him there to assist Cutter in his attempts to entice the Allosaurus back through. Unfortunately, the dinosaur seemed to be having none of it and the tranquilisers were in their boxes, in the car, on the other side of the aforementioned problem.

Connor and Abby, meanwhile, were trying to catch the attention of the Allosaurus by whooping and cheering, but the dinosaur let them fall into its background hearing. It was more taken to the one figure that seemed to be off-balanced to the others, using the same techniques that a lion does in locating a tiny defect in a prey. This figure remained standing while most others were crouched; an easy target.

It attention clearly diverted, Cutter checked what had caused this reaction.

"Howard! Get your Captain out of here!" Howard frowned and glanced back to see his Andrews swaying slightly in disbelief. Typical that pompous oaf; ever since, he'd come here, it was clear he wasn't suited to the job. He'd swanned in thinking this was just a routine Government position. Well, Howard would be blowed if he was going to ruin the operations now. Especially after Ryan.

Getting up he grab the arm of the bewildered Captain, who put up very little resistance, and dragged over back to the guard's office, well away from the incursion, and shoved him, very unceremoniously, through the door, slamming it behind him. And immediately regretting it.

The Allosaurus, following their moves in great detail, must have been startled by the quick actions and started paw the ground, ducking his head in time. Despite everything, or possibly because of it, Howard had to suppress a laugh. It looked comical.

The next few seconds Howard can only remember in slow-mo.

"OK!" came Abby's voice. "IT'S LOOKS WORRYINGLY LIKE HE'S MARKING HIS TERRIOTORY OUT TO HOWARD. ANY MINUTE HE COULD..." The rest of the sentence was cut off by the roar that came from the creature and the sound of feet starting to pound on the floor. Howard couldn't hear any of this though over his pounding heart. He was trapped in the corner. This was ridiculous. He was going to die, killed by a dinosaur and an incompetent Captain; it was stuff like this that made court investigations.

The beast was up to a fair speed and Howard could almost feel the hot-breathe gently flowing over his face. It contrasted to all else that was happening around him.

Just as the dinosaur was about to reach him, it swayed. Its head jarred to the left and the subsequent body twisted and rolled. A great thud followed and reverberated around the warehouse.

The Allosaurus fell silent, the heavy breathing just audible.

Howard looked up and noticed a very pleased-looking and definitely smug Stephen hold up his tranquiliser rifle and waved it to the crowd. Connor stood behind him, panting and red-faced from where he'd dodged and weaved to the car. Howard just smiled with the same patient smile of millions of Mums who indulged their children occasionally. It broadened at Stephen's next floating comment.

"And he said I shouldn't be allowed within fifty feet of a fire-arm.

The clean didn't take too long. All the soldiers knew that the anomaly could wink out of existence at any second and therefore realised the importance of returning the beast in haste. Cutter created some barbaric, stuttering reason to the night guard about hidden-camera shows and 'the special effects they use these days'. The lightened mood was suppressed for a short while after he walked away, complaining about how Claudia would have fixed it better. Howard, a soldier from the beginning of the project, knew there was no Claudia, yet somehow...

One thing that wasn't tackled until everything was ready to go back was Andrews. Every time a soldier reminded Howard that he 'really ought to be the one to let him out, as he put him in, and besides, you're of a higher rank, and better at calming people down', Howard merely shrugged and said he'd 'do it in a minute'.

When the minute arrived, Howard had a firm wish to simply leave the Captain there, but, unfortunately, Howard suffered from a fully-active conscience. He reluctantly unlocked the door and Andrews wandered out slowly.

While the dinosaur was being stopped and pushed back through, Andrews watched. Every now and again, his mind would replay how he could have acted and become the hero, but every time, the thought ended with him being eaten, or being place in a situation that would have given him nightmares and meant he had to go to a therapist and being classed insane when he brought up dinosaurs in the sessions. This job would drive him to Bedlam.

By the time the door was unlocked (he hadn't pounded on the window or made loud remarks), he had come to the decision. He had dignity and at the moment, it was being threatened.

"Dinosaurs?" He said, leaning against the wall.

"Yes, sir," replied Howard, picking his words carefully.

"You fight dinosaurs?"

"More capture them and put them back, sir." The phrase clanged about in the Andrews head for a moment, breaking the dignity part, before it settled in and made itself at home.

"Put. Them. Back. They ARE dangerous. They should be killed instantly, man!"

"No, sir."

"Sorry?"

"They are lost. They shouldn't be killed for that, sir." There was a pause as Howard checked his superior's face and noted the flame of anger and frustration that had become so familiar in the pas four days light up again. "No offence, sir."

"YOU are insane! The WHOLE outfit is insane! These creatures are... They just are and that's bad enough! And that you should feel compassionate towards them! IT'S ABSURD! I don't work with Sergeants who are so... AHHH." The captain cried out in frustration. Howard kept his voice level for his next few words.

"Then leave, sir."

"What? How dare you!"

"This job entails dinosaurs and you will quickly find that killing them all is NOT the answer. And I dare because this is NOT the Army and you have to be willing to accept comments being made by inferiors, because they may be right, and no-one has complete and unquestionable experience, so we need the input. So if you can't take that, then LEAVE." The final word was squeezed through gritted teeth; Howard was very protective of his job. He'd lost men to it and he really, really didn't want to end up in control, but neither did he want someone unsuitable ruining everything.

Andrews did a commendable impression of a dick, squashing his lips together to try to hold his anger. It didn't work.

"FINE! I will leave! But you mark my words, when it all goes wrong and you suddenly want to kill them all, DON'T COME TO ME!" And he stormed away.

Howard turned to watching men. And sighed. Connor was smirking.

"So... you're stuck with the Captain's paper work still then?" Howard groaned.

"Don't. Just don't." And with that, he dragged his feet towards the car which would lead him to the paper mountain which Howard was sure would kill him before any dinosaur.

So, what did you think?