Astray

Connor was the first to wake up. Every breath he took set his ribs on fire. He knew his injuries were worse then he was letting on, but he could never tell Abby that, never worry her. He was there to protect her and in that one moment of stupidity, that he was still kicking himself for, had taken that all away from him. So the least he could do was not burden her with his troubles.

Abby shifted in her sleep. Connor just watched her, noting how beautiful she looked in the sunlight streaming through the leaves. Her stoic expression soon turned to frown. She turned over again kicking Connor on his side. Connor bit his lip as pain shot through his body. He let out a silent scream and quickly removed Abby's foot from his ribs. Abby slowly opened her eyes and watched as Connor clutched at his ribs looking paler then usual.

She creased her brow with worry. "You okay?"

Connor took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "Yea I'm fine. No worries."

Abby pushed herself up into a sitting position and scanned the area for possible predators. "We should probably get moving. I don't want to stay in one place for to long. Danny's probably wondering where we are."

"Yea," Connor glanced down trying to find the easiest way down the tree. He didn't even have the faintest idea how they got up there in the first place. He shifted his weight over to the edge and heard a loud snap. The next thing he knew he was plummeting to the ground. He let out a blood-curdling scream as his broken body hit the uneven earth.

Abby climbed hurriedly down the tree. "Connor! Are you okay? Connor answer me!"

Connor took in a few gasping breaths. He felt shattered and sore. He managed to say, "Yes I'm fine…" before blacking out.

******

Sarah knew that this time it had to work. For a month now she had been trying to duplicate the anomaly device Helen stole from the future to get her teammates back. Lester told her to give up, that they should be declared dead, killed in action, or some such nonsense. He had forbidden her to work on the device, saying that her talents were better spent elsewhere, but she continued to dabble during her free time and whenever Lester wasn't checking up on her. Which seemed to be more frequent these days. As if he suspected her of disobeying his orders. As she tinkered with the poorly constructed device in front of her, she thought of Connor, Abby, and Danny lost and afraid of never coming home, which made her resolve strengthen. This time it would work.

******

Danny never felt so alone in his life. The anomaly had closed and who knows when the next one would open or if there will ever be a next one. He wanted to scream. He didn't know how this could happen. He was right there! Right fucking there! And now there was no way home. He thought about home with his cat, Ellie and his friends. Then there was that coy smile. The way her lips moved when she spoke. The way her eyes dug holes into your heart.

"Jenny." His whole body filled with rage at the frustration he was feeling right now. He had to lash out at something, do something.

He got to his feet and ran over to the nearest tree, kicking and tearing at its bark until his fingers bled. He picked up rocks and started throwing them at the herd of early elephants nearby. Which was probably not a good idea since they spooked easily. He felt the ground shake beneath his feet as a stampede of elephants, he guessed, sped towards him. He paused, frozen in the sight of their sheet might. Then coming out of the spell he ran. He ran for his life, back towards the cliffs. He figured if he got there he would be safe.

The fragile rocks broke and crumbled in his hand as he tried to climb the cliff surface. Finally he grabbed hold of a ledge and pulled himself up. He found himself at the opening of a cave. As his eyes adjusted to the light her saw 6 pairs staring straight back at him.

******

Abby got down next to Connor and looked him over. She didn't want to move him, for fear of injuring him more. She checked his ankle, which had become swollen and purple. It was definitely broken. She lifted up his shirt and saw a horrific mass of black and blue lining his ribcage. They had obviously been like that for a while. Abby closed her eyes; she was hurt that he would keep something like this from her. She pressed her ear to his chest and listened to his struggled breaths. She knew they would have to find a way back soon or… she didn't even want to think of the other possibility. She would find a way to bring them back.

Connor moaned beneath her and slowly opened his eyes. He gave a few pained laughs. "I need to stop doing that, the falling thing." He tried to push himself to his feet and by the end of this his face was an unnatural sickly green color. "We should head over to where we last saw Helen, Danny would have gone that way." Connor remarked, glancing over Abby's worried expression.

"Yea." She mumbled quietly. She pulled Connor's arm over her shoulder and wrapped her arm gently around his waist. They pressed forward at a painfully slow pace. She didn't want to strain Connor and didn't know what she was going to do when a larger predator came along. Connor couldn't run and his fighting skills weren't much to brag about even before he was injured.

The moved to the spot where they last saw Danny. Abby set Connor down on a log. He panted heavily. She looked around for any sign of their friend. Connor looked down, noticing something shinny wedged between the logs. "Abby? What is that?" He pointed to the object.

Abby picked it up and excitedly wiped off the dirt. "It's the anomaly device! The one that Helen had! She must have dropped it! Does it still work?" She shoved it into Connor's hands. Her heart leapt as their hands touched.

He began tinkering with the little handheld. "I think I can get the last coordinates. Danny probably followed her through." He pressed different combinations of buttons and pointed it towards the spot where that anomaly was and the shards of light burst open. Connor felt like jumping for joy, but figured that wouldn't be a good idea.

Abby lifted Connor to his feet and they proceeded through the anomaly.

******

Sarah and Becker exchanged a look as the anomaly detector sounded its screeching alarm. He knew what to do. While Sarah was here at the arc working on the anomaly device, he was to go through the new anomalies and look for any signs of their friends. He hated to admit it, but he missed them too. Two months had passed since their disappearance and he would give anything to hear one of Connors quirky remarks right about now.

He assembled his team, which now consisted of a few odd soldiers and moved to the anomaly site. It was in a field, easy for containment. Everything seemed quiet, almost too quiet as they moved across the grassy field. He motioned for his team to surround the anomaly. He wanted to go through, see if there was any sign of Abby, Connor, or Danny. He left his second in command in charge while he went through.

He would never get used to the feeling of going through an anomaly. It felt almost like a tingling sensation moving from one time to the other. He emerged in a jungle. It was hot and sticky; sweat was already starting to form on his brow. He wiped it away with his sleeve and marched forward, his tranquilizer gun in hand. He had stuck to Nick Cutter's No Killing Rule, except when the future predators were involved.

There was a growl and the rustling of leaves beside him. He paused as razor sharp teeth lunged toward him. He used his gun to swat them away. It was to close to shoot. The vicious jaws of the creature tore his black shirt. Scratches ran up his arms, and warm blood trickled off his arms and chest. He began to run back towards the anomaly. He figured his friends weren't trapped here and if they were they probably wouldn't have survived long. The tares in his shirt kept getting caught on the tree branches as he made his escape, that soon the shirt was just strips of cloth hanging off his body.

He jumped through the anomaly and ordered his team to lock it. They had made a more portable version of Connor's locking mechanism in the months he was gone. After all the excitement had died down he looked down at himself assessing the damage and noticed that his shirt was completely gone.

"Why am I always coming back shirtless…" this had been the 4th time that month that he had lost or completely destroyed his shirt while going through an anomaly. "Fuck."

******

The early humans inched closer to Danny at the mouth of the cave. They were more curious then anything else. Especially one of the female Australopithecus. She moved closer her eyes wide as she took in the sight of Danny. She pressed her hand against his cheek then excitedly jumped around the cave, hooting in some primitive language.

Danny backed away confused. He wasn't sure what to expect out of these early humans. He moved towards the ledge. The herd of elephants had passed and he wanted to get back to the anomaly sight just in case anything happened. He moved to climb down the side of the cliff. The female "monkey" as Danny called them, followed after him shifting from rock to tree. He felt almost flattered by the creature's interest. But it didn't matter what he thinking, he had to get back, he had to get back and tell Jenny how he felt about her.

He made it back to the site and still there was nothing. No sign of another anomaly. He would wait; if no anomaly formed on its own, his friends would find a way to save him. He made a sort of nest of leaves and grass; it was starting to get dark. The monkey was still watching him. He lay down on his makeshift bed and watched the stars. He had never seen a sky look so alien. He was used to the haze of factories smoke and the sound of cars speeding through the English night.

All of a sudden a large hairy head blocked his gaze, staring down at him. He let out a startled scream, which caused the creature to run frightened behind a tree. It peered out at him again. He had to laugh at the sheer humor of his situation. He was lost in the past, with no way home and he already had a girlfriend. He lay down again and closed his eyes. He didn't realize how exhausted he was. Within seconds he was fast asleep. He didn't even wake up when the shards of time opened up in front of him.

******

Abby and Connor stumbled through the anomaly. It was dark on the other side and it took a few seconds for their eyes to adjust. They saw a large figure laying on the ground while a second shadow crouched over it. They recognized Danny lying on the ground. Abby rushed forward shooing the hairy creature away.

"Danny! Danny, are you all right?" Abby shook him.

Danny woke up with a start and couldn't believe his eyes. One day and his friends had already found him. He couldn't say anything he just stood up and gave Abby a long crushing hug. Connor smiled as Abby struggled in his arms.

"Dan…ny. Can't… breath…" Abby struggled to catch her breath. Danny reluctantly let Abby go and sported a huge grin on his face.

"Sorry. " He ran his fingers through his hair. "How did u get here?"

Abby rushed back to Connor and helped lower him to the ground. He gasped with each movement. "He- Helen left this behind when she came through the anomaly. We got it to bring us to the last known coordinates, which is where we found you. Tah Dah!" Connor still managed to keep up with his witty remarks through all the pain he was in.

"Great so now we have a way home!" Danny said enthusiastically.

Connor felt something rummaging in his coat pocket and screamed when he cam face to face with a large hairy monkey face. It stared at him in surprise, clutching the anomaly device in it paws. "No. No no no no! Give that back!" He tried to snatch it back, but the quick movement sent a surge of pain through his body almost causing him to black out again.

Danny went after the creature, cornering it by the rock. He tried to sooth it with his voice. "There now. You don't want to break it. Give it back." He reached out for it, hoping she would understand.

Instead she proceeded to throw the device on the ground and run away. Danny swiftly picked it up and cursed himself for not getting there sooner. Along the front of the device was a large crack. He gave it back to Connor, Connor fiddled with the device and he managed to get it to glow again, but his brow creased with worry.

"It still works, but it's not as precise as I'd like it to be. I mean I can get us back to our time but it might be a few days difference or a few years..."

"Years!" Danny didn't want to hear of it. "No that's not an option. We need to go home and we need to go home now."

Connor slowly pushed himself to his feet. "I will try, but it's not as easy as all that!" he slumped over and Abby quickly moved to steady him.

"Hey! Both of you stop! Right now I think we should rest and try to work this out in the morning!" Abby tried to clear the ever rising male testosterone.

"Fine." Danny sat back down in his bed, making room for Abby and Connor.

Danny fell a sleep first, then Connor. Abby was last, she stayed up listening to Connor's breathing. It was ragged and shallow. She was so afraid for him. Watching him like this hurt her. She knew in that moment just as she had known when he had saved her life that she loved him. She loved him with all her heart and nothing was ever going to change that. She just didn't know how to tell him. She curled up next to Connor, keeping him warm with her body heat and slowly drifted off to sleep.

******

Connor felt the pain in his ribs becoming worse, but he needed to fix this, he needed to get Abby home. Danny sat on a rock nearby waiting impatiently for the device to work. Abby sat near Connor, watching as each movement weakened him. He put the coordinates in for home. The time setter was still off the closest he could get was two months in the future. It was going to have to do.

"Okay I think I've got it. The time will be a little off…"

"How far off?" Danny interrupted.

"About two months." Connor gritted his teeth as he got to his feet. Danny didn't say anything he could live with that. Connor continued. "Okay here we go." He pointed the device in front of him and an anomaly sprung to life. Abby looked back at him, a large grin spread across her lips. Then her smile began to fade. At first he didn't know why. He had opened the anomaly and they were going home. Then he felt the warm trickle of blood on his chin. His whole body erupted in coughs. He fell to his knees coughing out his lungs. He spewed blood on the sandy colored earth. That was the last thing he remembered before delving into darkness.

******

Becker jumped to his feet as the anomaly detector sounded its alarm. He wasn't too enthusiastic. He expected to find nothing of his friends. They were gone and he had to accept that fact. Sarah could play with her gadgets all she wanted, they were never coming back. His team assembled as usual and headed out. They spotted the anomaly from a mile away. This time it had appeared in an old warehouse. Another easy containment area. All they had to deal with were the few odd homeless people and who would believe them?

Becker and his team surrounded the anomaly. It began to quiver and shake indicating that something was coming through. They aimed their guns at the anomaly and waited in silence. To Becker's surprise, Abby appeared, tears streaming down her face. Becker lowered his gun and rushed over to her.

"Abby! You're alive! What's wrong where are the others?" Becker braced her shoulders.

"Danny is coming through with Connor. Connor's hurt bad! We need a medical team now!" she was in hysterics by the time Danny came through carrying Connor.

This scene felt eerily familiar. When Connor had carried Nick Cutter out of the burning building in his arms. This time would be different, Becker assured himself. Connor would live. He ordered his teammates to call for a medical team. Danny laid Connor on the ground. Blood stained the front of his shirt.

The medical team arrived in minutes followed by Lester. He was unable to contain his joy and he lost his usual stoic expression for a few seconds at least. Abby went with Connor when they took him away. Leaving Lester to deal with questioning Danny.

"What in God's name, happened to you all?" Lester wanted to hug Danny, but thought that would be entirely inappropriate.

Danny explained about following Helen through the one anomaly after the other and the flash bomb that had caused Connor to injure himself. He told him Helen's ingenious plan to wipe out the human race. "Helen's dead. A raptor got to her."

Lester chuckled at the irony. "Got what she deserved."

******

Abby paced back and forth in the hospital waiting room. The arc didn't have the proper facilities to deal with Connor's injuries. Their cover story was an unfortunate mountain climbing accident. After a few hours it seemed like the entire arc was in the waiting room, all anxiously awaiting news of their friend. Sarah sat next to Abby, holding her hand and squeezing it every once in a while for reassurance. Abby was almost inconsolable, but Sarah didn't need her to say anything. Just her being there put her more at ease.

All twenty pairs of eyes looked up as the doctor came through the door. Abby got to her feet, nervous. "How is he? When can I see him?"

The doctor responded calmly. "We got him through surgery. He had several broken ribs and one had punctured his lung, also his ankle was shattered. We were able to repair most of the damage and now have him in a medically induced coma. Now all we can do is wait."

"Okay… Um… can I see him please?" Abby shifted from foot to foot, anxious to see the man she loved.

"Yes right this way." The Doctor motioned for the door and all twenty people began to follow. "No. Only her."

Abby and the Doctor made their way down the long white corridor. Abby felt sickened by the harsh smell of bleach and cleaning chemicals. Finally they made it to his room. "I'll leave you two alone." With that the Doctor turned on his heels and walked back down the corridor.

Abby walked slowly into the room. Connor looked so fragile on the hospital bed. Now that he was clean, his bruises showed up a brighter purple. She sat in the chair next to his bed and took his hand in hers. It felt natural for them to be this way.

******

Abby hadn't gone home since they arrived back in their time almost two days ago. She barely left Connor's side. The Doctor said they were slowly taking him off the sedatives and he should wake up any day now. She was exhausted with worry and had fallen asleep in the chair beside him.

Connor awoke feeling sore and groggy. He opened his eyes to find the world spinning. Blinking, he adjusted to the harsh fluorescent lights. Abby sensed the movement and immediately went to check on him. Her heart leapt for joy, as she shouted for a nurse.

"Hey… How are you feeling?" Abby sat beside him on the bed.

Connor scrunched his face in thought. "I'm so sorry. Do I know you?"

Abby looked horrified. No, Not now. Not after all they've been through. "No, Connor. I'm Abby! Abby remember?" Her voice shook in desperation.

Connor began to laugh, but was cut off by the pain in his ribs. "I'm only joking!"

Usually something like this would piss her off to no end. Instead she took his grinning face in her hands and planted a tender longing kiss to his lips. This unfortunately was how Lester spotted them on his way in. he quickly turned around, a red tinge spreading across his cheeks.

******

A few days later the hospital let Abby take Connor home. She wheeled him to the car, racing him over the speed bumps in the parking lot. They drove away from the hospital for hopefully the last time. As the roads became more and more familiar, a broad grin spread across Connor's face. Abby parked in front of their flat and helped Connor out with his crutches.

Abby unlocked the door and was immediately blown away by "If You Wanna Be My Lover" by the Spice Girls. She helped Connor cautiously up the stairs. In the lounge was Lester in his boxers and undershirt singing in a deep gravely voice. He had Nancy in his arms and Sid danced at his feet. Rex flew figure eights around his head. Upon seeing Abby and Connor, he chirped excitedly and flew into Abby's arms, nuzzling against her breast.

Lester paused and turned around, finding Abby and Connor giggling to themselves. He almost dropped Nancy, trying to preserve his stoic manner. He set Nancy on the ground with Sid, as Abby switched off the music.

"What are you doing here?" Abby asked, laughter in her eyes.

Lester glanced down, clearing his throat. "I uh… Well you have been gone for two months and your little friends… I mean pets needed someone to take care of them. And it's bloody hot in here! And I'm glad you're better!"

Lester quickly put on his clothes, ran down the stairs and out of the apartment.

Abby and Connor just stood there and finally burst into laughter.