Blind Faith
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Rating: K+
Spoilers: None. Takes place early 4th season.
Author's note: I wasn't sure if I wanted to post this, but…it's pretty long. I decided to go for it!
Summary: In which Matt is not perfect, Jess is fairly brave, and blind people see quite a bit.
When he gets the call, Matt is near the Anomaly site and gets there first. The words from Jess stop him cold.
"There are reports that someone's still inside the flat."
"I'm going in," Matt says immediately, grabbing an EMD.
"Wait for back-up!" Jess says in a panicky voice. Matt ignores her in favor of cautiously walking to the building.
A woman rushes towards him and grabs his arm, totally ignoring the rather large gun. "We evacuated when they told us, but my neighbor-my neighbor-" She's hyperventilating, and Matt uncomfortably pats her arm. "She has a little girl, Tamsin, not even a teenager, she's blind, they haven't come out-"
"I'll do what I can, ma'am," he promises, and hurries into the building.
It takes him about two minutes to realize that there is a creature incursion (blood) and that the girl and/or her mother have somehow gone through the Anomaly (no body).
"I'm going in after her," Matt announces, to the expected backlash from everyone.
"Matt! I said wait for back-up!" shouts Jess.
"Do not go through the Anomaly," Becker orders.
"Just wait for us, mate," Connor adds, and Abby doesn't say anything. Matt suspects she approves of his decision. His father would most definitely not.
"I'm not leaving a little blind girl in the past," Matt says, and goes through anyway.
He does what he's trained to do-he assesses, sees no creatures, no pressing danger, and currently, no blind girls or their mothers. Maybe the creatures, whatever they are, dragged the bodies somewhere else either here or back in his time.
"Tamsin!" he calls, hoping he's wrong. "My name is Matt Anderson, I'm with the government. Can you hear me?"
He listens and is about to give up when a call returns.
"Hullo? Matt?"
"Tamsin?"
"Yes, that's me!"
"Can you tell me where you are?" he asks, then realizes how stupid that is.
"It sounds nuts, but I think I'm outside now. I was in my flat with my mum and now I don't know where she is and I climbed a tree because I heard noises and something bit me before I climbed high enough," she chatters at him, sounding like she's trying hard not to be terrified. He's able to get a semi-fix on her location from her voice, and walks towards a group of trees.
"Tamsin, can you keep talking?"
"Yes, you're definitely closer. Can I call you Matt, please?"
"Matt's fine."
"Matt, where am I? I know I'm outside but I know I couldn't have left my flat. Have you seen my mum? I've been calling and listening and nothing."
"No, sweetheart, sorry," he says, finally spotting a thin girl clinging to a very high branch of a tall tree. "Tamsin, how did you get up there?"
She looks down. "I climbed. Going up is easy. Can you help me down?"
It's slow going, especially because in order for him to reach her, she has to climb down to a branch that can actually support his weight. He helps her by directing her feet, even estimating distances at her request, but she nearly slips several times. It's particularly difficult when she has to step on her left leg, which has a ragged bite wound to the calf. When she finally reaches him, he has her climb on his back and he gets them both down in relatively little time.
"Tamsin, can you walk?" he asks.
"If you help me, I think so."
He slips an arm around her waist, and they make fairly good time back to the Anomaly. He sighs in relief when he sees it's still open, and he carefully brings Tamsin through.
"Thanks for not closing the Anomaly," Matt says, handing Tamsin over to Abby, who wraps the girl in a blanket and brings her down to the waiting medics.
"You are in so much trouble, mate," Connor says, shaking his head.
When they finally finish with the debriefing, where Matt is berated but not all that much (it has been decided that going to rescue the little blind girl is a positive for publicity), they next discuss where Tamsin is to stay.
"We could put her in the Prospero apartments," Lester suggests.
"What, alone?" asks Abby. "She's twelve and she's blind. How's she going to take care of herself?"
"I've found her father's address and telephone number, but I haven't been able to reach him," says Jess. "He's in America, anyway. It'll take a bit to get him over here."
"She can't stay here," Lester says. "Not at all. Who knows what she could overhear."
"It's too dangerous, anyway," Matt points out.
"She can stay with me," Jess says with a shrug. "I have the room. If Abby and Connor don't mind." Connor and Abby shake their heads.
"I don't know if that's a good idea, Jess," says Becker. "We still don't know what and where those dinosaurs are."
"I am working on it," Connor protests. "Unfortunately, no one got a good look at them, and the only person who might've seen them...um...can't...see..."
"Well, work harder," Lester tells him, then sighs. "Despite that fact that your flat seems to be becoming a hotel, she'd best stay with you, Jess. At least you have Abby if any dinosaurs show up."
"And me!"
"If you say so."
Connor scowls.
Matt heads off to the Medical Bay to see Tamsin, who's got a bandage around her calf and a cup of tea in her hands. She's had a shower as well, and her hair is curling slightly around her shoulders.
"Hullo, Matt," she says before he announces his presence.
"How'd you know it was me?" he asks, slightly disconcerted.
"I recognized your footsteps. Everyone's are different, you know."
"No," he says, smiling a bit. "I didn't."
"It depends upon your height and weight, of course; shoe size; the types of shoes you wear; the way you carry yourself," she explains seriously.
"That sounds pretty useful," he says, and she shrugs.
"I can't see who comes in, so I figure it out other ways."
He sits next to her on the bed. "How are you feeling, Tamsin?"
"All right, I guess. They gave me pretty good drugs, I think, because it doesn't hurt and I thought it might."
"Did they tell you what's going to happen to you?"
"Yeah," she says with a sigh. "I'm to stay with Jess until you find my mum or my dad gets here from 'cross the pond."
"Have you met her?"
"She sat with me when I was getting the stitches in, and she was the one who brought me tea."
"Jess is sweet," Matt tells Tamsin. "You'll like her. A bit talkative, though."
"I like people who talk a lot," Tamsin says. "I always know where they are." She smiles a bit. "It's people like you I have to worry about."
"I'll keep that in mind."
Her face goes serious again, and she bites her lip and fidgets for a bit before asking, "Matt? Do you think you'll find my mum?"
He takes her hands and squeezes them. "I promise I will do everything in my power to find her, Tamsin."
Those sightless blue eyes tear up and his heart can't help but ache for her. "She's the only one I have here," Tamsin says, her voice wavering as she tries not to cry. "She and Dad split up two years ago and he moved away and I only see him in the summers. She-she-" And here Tamsin does cry, pulling away to swipe at her eyes. "She's gotten so much for me, a refreshable Braille display and a Mountbatten Brailler and she's trying to get me a Seeing-Eye Dog and-and-she's my mum, Matt, she's my mum!"
Tamsin is sobbing now, and Matt pulls her into a hug despite his usual reluctance to provide comfort to anyone. "Hey...hey..." he says awkwardly. "We'll find her...and when we do, Tamsin, you'll be the first to know."
"What if she's dead?" Tamsin asks, a note of hysteria entering her voice.
"We'll figure something out," he promises. "We will."
The little girl is quiet as Jess drives them home. Part of it is the drugs-there was codeine involved-but Tamsin's eyes are red and Jess knows she's been crying. Jess tries her best to fill the silence and keep the girl distracted.
"I have a few cousins around your age," Jess says cheerily. "They're into all sorts of weird things; Harry Potter for sure, a few in cheerleading, couple in football, 50 Cent, the Internet of course, texting. One went half mad about the Royal Wedding and then they're all excited about the Olympics. A couple of them are all into Doctor Who, the new one, you know, Matt Smith? Then there's Justin, what's his name, Justin Beiber. Thank god none of them are into Lady Gaga; I think she's awful. The girls are boy crazy, the boys are trying their hardest to stay away from the girls. Kind of a weird age if I remember correctly."
"I read Harry Potter," Tamsin offers shyly. "And there's a lot of research about cell phones for the blind so we can text."
"Do you read Braille?"
"My mum made sure I went to a school where we learned." Tamsin yawns and rests her head against the window as her eyes droop closed. Jess takes the hint and is quiet for the rest of the drive, only waking Tamsin up when they reach the apartment.
"How can I help you get around the apartment?" Jess asks once they're in.
"I just need you to walk me around a bit, so I can get an idea of where everything is," Tamsin says, although she's half-asleep on her feet. "Better do it now, just in case I'm up and you're not. Walk me to where I'll be sleeping, please?"
"I hope you don't mind the couch?"
"No...fine with me."
They walk to the couch, from the couch to the bathroom, from the bathroom back to the couch, from the couch to the kitchen and fridge, from the couch and bathroom to Jess's room as well as Abby and Connor's, and then they go around the entire apartment once clockwise and once counterclockwise, after which Tamsin unerringly finds her own way to the couch, drops onto it, and is out like a light. Jess smiles and covers the girl with a blanket before going to her desk and connecting to the ARC remotely to write all about how the team bravely rescued a little blind girl from an infestation of giant lizards in an apartment building.
It is an excellent article.
After she's finished and sends the article to Lester, she hears a small whimper from the couch, and hurries over to find the girl sleeping fitfully. Cautiously, she brushes hair off Tamsin's forehead to find it slightly warm, and is startled when Tamsin startles awake.
"Mum!" Tamsin chokes out, gasping, tears in her eyes. "No! Mum!"
"Shhh, shhh, you're all right," Jess says soothingly, though she's again startled when Tamsin throws herself into Jess's arms, sobbing. She holds the girl tightly until she quiets, stroking the red hair and murmuring comforting noises. "Hey...a little better?"
Tamsin sniffles. "My leg hurts. And my head."
"I think you can have some more medicine if you'd like. It'll make you sleepy, though," Jess warns.
"It's okay," Tamsin says, and takes the proffered pills. She stays cuddled up with Jess, who continues to idly stroke her hair. After a few minutes, Tamsin murmurs sleepily, "Jess?"
"Hmm?"
"I remembered something. The dinosaurs screamed really really high-pitched. Could that help find my mum?"
"Definitely," Jess says softly. "I'll let Connor know, okay?"
"Okay...thanks, Jess..." Tamsin's breathing finally evens out, and after a few more minutes, Jess situates the little girl comfortably back on the couch.
She goes into her bedroom to call the ARC when the phone suddenly rings. To her great surprise, it's Matt.
"I was just about to call. Tamsin remember that the dinosaurs had a really high-pitched roar," Jess says after she gets her bearings.
"I'll let Connor know." Matt pauses. "How is she? Tamsin, I mean."
"She's running a bit of a temperature, but the medics said she might just from the stress," Jess reports, thinking it rather sweet how worried Matt is about a little girl. "I'll let her know you asked after her."
"Oh, that's all right," Matt says, sounding embarrassed. Jess holds back the giggle.
"How's the ADD? Connor isn't mucking about, is he? Last time he had full control he changed all my settings," she says to give Matt a way out of the conversation.
"I'll make sure he doesn't run wild," Matt promises. "See you tomorrow, Jess."
"Bye, Matt," Jess says, and starts giggling as soon as she hangs up the phone.
Jess cooks dinner around 6, happy that she can; she usually doesn't get around to it during the week and they live off leftovers and take-away. Tamsin wakes up halfway through and sits at the table in a bit of a drugged daze, chopping idly at some vegetables for a salad. Jess is sort of concerned for the girl's fingers, but she seems to know what she's doing.
"Hey, we're home!" Abby calls cheerfully.
"Smells good," Connor says, throwing his kit on the floor.
"Connor, seriously. How many times do I have to tell you, no-"
"No kit on the floor," he grumbles good-naturedly at Jess.
"Do it in your own room," she says primly.
"You'd better not," Abby tells him, throwing her own kit at him. "C'mon, go put this away; that smells delicious, Jess. Hi, Tamsin, how are you feeling?"
Tamsin looks like she's barely followed half the conversation. "Ummm..."
"I'm sorry," Abby apologizes, sitting next to the girl and rubbing her shoulder. "We're a touch loud, aren't we? How are you feeling?"
"Tired, I guess. Have you found my mum yet?"
"Not yet, sweetheart, but we're trying as hard as we can," Abby says.
The girl nods, picks at her dinner, and just about falls asleep at the table. Connor carries her back to the couch, where Jess wakes her a bit for her antibiotics and one last round of codeine.
Jess, Connor, and Abby proceed to be exceptionally quiet for the rest of the night.
Jess is always the first one up-she likes a bit of time to herself in the mornings-but this time she finds that Tamsin is already awake, eating a bowl of cereal and listening to the news.
"I was hungry," Tamsin says before Jess even gets halfway out the door from her bedroom. "You don't mind, do you?"
"Of course not," Jess says, rubbing her eyes. She's surprised not only that Tamsin knew she was awake, but that the girl was able to get cereal, a bowl, a spoon, and milk without waking Jess, a light sleeper. "Do you want anything else? Fruit, maybe?"
"No, thank you," Tamsin says politely.
"Here's your antibiotic, and do you want some paracetamol? The medics say you probably wouldn't need any codeine today."
"That's good," Tamsin agrees, taking the medicine without any fuss and curling back up on the couch. Jess gets an apple and a muffin and sits on the couch as well; nothing much interesting in the news this morning, except-
"And in other news, a heroic rescue was made yesterday by ARC team member Matt Anderson, who risked his life going into an apartment building infested by giant lizards to save Tamsin Green. Miss Green is a pupil at the Dorton House School, associated with the Royal London Society for the Blind. Unfortunately, Miss Green's mother is still missing, so if you have any information on her, please call the number listed below."
Tamsin draws a shuddering breath. "Do you think that'll really help?"
"I hope so," Jess says honestly. "There's an article in quite a few papers as well."
"Thank you," Tamsin whispers.
They listen to the news for a bit longer, then Tamsin's head turns towards Connor and Abby's room. "What is it?" Jess asks.
"They're getting up."
"You can hear something in there?" Tamsin hums in assent. Jess listens, but it takes her a few minutes before she hears Connor grumbling something at Abby. "Wow. I'm impressed."
Tamsin smiles. "I've got good hearing."
"Incredible hearing, really," Jess corrects her, and they both laugh. "So I've looked up where your school is, and I think if we leave in half an hour or so I've just enough time to drop you off before getting to the ARC."
Tamsin's expression immediately changes, her face going pale. "I have to go to school?"
"I thought-I thought you might want to, to see your friends-"
"What do I say when they ask me what happened to my leg?" Tamsin asks, breathing rapidly.
"You fell?"
"Please don't make me go to school, Jess, please," the girl begs, now shaking. "I can't, not yet, please."
Jess is concerned by the magnitude of Tamsin's reaction, and pulls the girl into a hug, stroking her hair. "Shh, Tamsin, I won't make you do anything you don't want to do, okay? I promise. I promise. Just...calm down. Deep breaths."
Abby comes out of her room, frowning in concern at the shaking girl in Jess's arms. "What happened?" she mouths.
"I don't know!" Jess mouths back.
"You okay?"
Jess just shrugs.
Luckily, the girl is calm when Connor stumbles into the living room, mumbling a gruff hello before heading for the shower. A thump confuses Jess, but makes Tamsin giggle just a little.
"He walked into the door," Tamsin says with a shrug.
Abby laughs from where she's making tea, and Jess can't help but giggle. "Women!" yells Connor, prompting more giggling.
"I'm not sure what I have for you to do around here," Jess says once they all have tea. "The TV of course. I can pick up some Braille books for you on my lunch break, if you'd like."
"Oh, you don't have to," says Tamsin airily. "Matt stopped by about 15 minutes before you woke up, I guess. He went back to my flat and got a whole bunch of my stuff. My refreshable Braille display-so I can surf the web-and some books, and my Brailler to write with and a whole bunch of my books and my clothes." Her voice drops to a whisper and her face turns a lurid red up to the tips of her ears. "He even got my underwear."
Jess notices a suitcase she hadn't seen before, and she and Abby exchange knowing smiles. "I'm sure he didn't look too closely, don't worry," Abby says.
Later in the day, Matt skips out during lunch and returns late for the first time anyone can remember. "Visiting Tamsin?" Jess asks, amused.
"Wanted to make sure she's not lonely," Matt shrugs. "She didn't want to go to school?"
"She freaked out when I suggested it. Can't imagine why."
"She's just been through a traumatic experience, and she still hasn't got her mum," Matt says, then places a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, dinner's on me tonight. I'll bring something over."
"I'm sure that'll make Tamsin happy," Jess tells him, not at all able to keep the huge smile off her face. He scowls at her and she just giggles.
Matt certainly hangs around Jess's apartment quite a bit in the next few days, but as the girl steadfastly refuses to go to school and seems comfortable with Matt, no one says anything about it. She keeps asking after her mother and Jess keeps trying to reach her father, but no one is getting anywhere, good or bad.
Until about four days after Matt rescued Tamsin, when they finally find the nest of the creatures-though not the creatures themselves-and Tamsin's mother is most definitely not alive. Jess sees the pictures and has to excuse herself.
"Don't tell her tonight," Matt murmurs to Jess when he finds her. "Let her have one more night of peace. I'll tell her in the morning."
Jess can only nod.
She paints Tamsin's nails and toenails for her for a bit of distraction, and tries her very hardest not to give anything away.
"You know, I can't see my nails and toenails," says Tamsin, "But it feels good to get them pretty. I like to look nice."
"How do you manage it? Getting everything to match?"
"Well, all my pants and skirts and shorts are black, so then I can have all sorts of fancy shirts," Tamsin tells her. "It's not like you, all bright things."
"How do you know I wear bright things?"
"'Cause you're bright. It'd be awful for you to have to wear black or grey all the time and if you did, you wouldn't be so happy. But you get to wear what you like and what you like is bright things."
"You...how did you...?"
Tamsin giggles a little. "I can't see what you wear, so I have to figure it out other ways. I can use what I hear and smell and touch and taste, of course, but I've also read a lot about people. I've built up a general base of knowledge about human behavior and I draw on that to figure out what I can't see."
"What else do you know about me?"
"Nothing creepy, I promise," Tamsin says earnestly. "Well, I know you're cheerful and bright and happy, and also that the people you work with find you occasionally annoying but are awfully fond of you, even Matt although he doesn't like to get close to anyone, and Captain Becker and Abby especially."
"How do you know...Becker especially?" Jess asks before she can stop herself.
"Before we left that first day, he gave me his number and told me to call if anything weird happened and then told me not to tell you. Which I kind of just did, so if you wouldn't tell him, I'd appreciate it. And now you're blushing."
"No, I'm-how do you know that?"
Tamsin shrugs. "An educated guess. You're embarrassed 'cause you fancy him. You have a bit of Irish in your voice and Irish people tend to be pale and pale people tend to blush easily when embarrassed."
"Tamsin, that's amazing. You made all those connections in your head in seconds?"
"All you have to do is look at someone to know they're blushing. I have to be that fast, too."
"Still," Jess says, gobsmacked. "That's incredible. I am truly impressed."
"Thank you," Tamsin says, and now she's the one blushing. "I really want to be a psychologist for blind people, especially for blind kids. I think being blind can help me really understand people. My mom gets me all sorts of psychology books."
If anyone had asked her later, Jess wouldn't have any idea what she did or said that alerted Tamsin to the fact that her mother was dead. Maybe it was the hitch in her breath or the way she said, "Yeah, that's great."
"Jess," Tamsin says in a voice that makes Jess go very, very still. "What's happened to my mum?"
"Tamsin, they're still-"
"Jess, I'm blind, not stupid!" Tamsin screams, and Jess jumps. "What happened to my mother?"
"Tamsin, they, Matt wants to tell you, he said to wait, he'll tell you in the morning what happened, please, Tamsin," Jess babbles, trying to calm the girl down. Tamsin starts to sob and jumps to her feet, backing away from Jess.
"My mum is dead, isn't she? Isn't she? Isn't she?"
"Tamsin, she-yes, she-they found her-"
"I want my mum! I want my mum! I hate you and I want my mum! I hate all of you!" Tamsin cries, nearly tripping over a coffee table. Jess gets up and tries to stop her and Tamsin lashes out, catching the side of Jess's face in a painful blow. Jess presses forward regardless, and manages to get her arms around Tamsin, who struggles for a few more moments and then collapses against Jess, sobbing and sobbing in heart-rending gasps and saying over and over, "My mum is dead, I want my mum, I want my mum, I want my mum." Jess starts to cry herself, and she brings them backwards towards the couch, where they sit and cry and mourn a little girl's mum until neither of them has any tears left. And then they cry more.
When Matt follows Abby into the flat, he knows something's wrong. It's quiet. Jess is never associated with quiet, and he's fairly sure 12-year-olds are not quiet creatures. He and Abby share a glance, then walk into the flat to see Jess sitting on the couch with a sleeping Tamsin's head on her lap.
"Hi," Jess says quietly, subdued, another word never used to describe Jess. "I didn't know you'd be over, Matt."
"Jess," Abby says gently, like she's trying not to startle a frightened creature. "What's wrong?"
"We were just talking, you know," Jess says, not looking at anything in particular. "Just talking."
Matt crosses slowly over to the couch and kneels in front of her, noting the bruise with concern, noting how much it stands out on her nearly white face. Her eyes are red and tear tracks stain her cheeks, and he has an idea of what happened. He reaches out and traces the bruise on her face.
"Does it hurt a lot?"
"No. It was an accident."
He nods. "Jess, I'm going to take Tamsin into your room, all right? Give you and Abby a chance to talk."
"Okay," Jess whispers, and actually looks at him. Her eyes are full of tears, and he realizes for the first time how young she is. It's easy to forget, when she's behind the ADD coordinating everyone and everything, that she's only nineteen. She's all of seven years older than Tamsin, and she shouldn't have been the one to take the backlash for this. "I'm sorry, Matt. You said to wait."
"It's okay, Jess. She can hear and understand a lot more than most other people. I shouldn't have said that to you."
He pats Jess on the shoulder and carries Tamsin into the bedroom. He can hear Abby and Jess murmuring in the other room, can hear Jess crying again, can feel the guilt weighing on his shoulders.
It takes him a minute to realize Tamsin is staring at him. "Matt, tell me what happened," she demands in a rough voice.
"Okay," he says, because she deserves to know and he deserves to be the one to tell her. "We think that the dinosaurs-whatever they are, we're still not sure, because we didn't find them-took her from the flat. They brought her to an abandoned construction site where they made a nest and laid eggs and...Tamsin, she didn't feel a thing. From the moment they took her..."
Tamsin nods and holds it together for a minute longer than he'd expected before breaking down again, and he gathers her back into his arms. "It was my fault, Matt," she sobs. "I was late to school. I woke up late and I was doing my hair special because we had an assembly and she kept yelling at me that we had to leave now. And I kept yelling that I was almost ready, I was almost ready, stop yelling and that's when I heard it. The screaming. It wasn't my mom, I know it wasn't, and I ran into the room and I couldn't find her, and that's when I ended up in that weird outside place. If I hadn't been late, if we had gotten out on time, we wouldn't have even been in the flat. My mom wouldn't have gotten killed!"
"Hey...hey, it isn't your fault," he sooths her. "Okay? There's no use in saying what if, what if. It was not your fault. It was not your fault."
Tamsin's fallen back to sleep again when Abby pokes her head into the room, looking worn out herself. "Jess is asleep, finally. Can you move her in here? I don't want Connor to wake her up when he comes in."
"Yeah, sure," Matt says. Jess seems just slightly heavier than Tamsin, and her face is even paler and more tearstained than before. He shuts the door very quietly behind him, and sinks down on the couch. "I screwed up, Abby."
"Yeah, you did," Abby agrees. "Jess is pretty traumatized."
"I should've just come and told Tamsin. You know, she blames herself? She was late getting ready for school."
"It's going to take awhile, Matt. A good while, and probably some therapy," Abby says with a sigh. "But Connor did finally get hold of Tamsin's dad. He was on a camping trip and he'll be on the first flight out."
"Good...at least she'll have someone," he says with a sigh. Both of their phones ring and they make a face at each other. "Anomaly alert."
"Let's not wake Jess. Connor can keep handling the ADD."
"Agreed."
They go in and deal with whatever it is, Matt's not sure; for once, he isn't really paying attention. Becker asks after Jess, but Matt can only shake his head.
"Guys," Connor says all of a sudden. "I've figured it out."
"Connor, we've already locked the anomaly. There's nothing to figure out," Becker says testily.
"No. I've figured out what the dinosaur is! The one that attacked Tamsin and her mum! And it is not good."
"What is it? Connor, do not play around!" Matt snaps.
He rattles off the name of the dinosaur, which Matt doesn't hear, because the next words out of Connor's mouth are, "They hunt by scent. They'll go after Tamsin next; you've got to get her and Jess to the ARC!"
Becker curses. "Dammit! Call Jess, get them out of that apartment!"
Jess is awakened abruptly by a hand patting her face. Her eyes hurt and her head hurts and she's not sure where she is. "Yeah?"
"Jess?"
"Tamsin?"
"Where am I?"
Jess blinks and sits up, turns on the light, and blinks uncomfortably. "Oh. We're in my bedroom."
"I heard something," Tamsin says, sitting up as well. "Do you hear anything?"
"No, but that means nothing, not with your hearing. C'mon, let's check it out. Stay behind me." They both climb out of bed, and Tamsin takes Jess's arm. Slowly, they creep out into the flat and look around. "I don't see anything."
Tamsin is very still. "Shh." They both listen very carefully, and they both scream when the phone rings.
"Oh my god," Jess says into the phone. "You just freaked us both out."
"Listen, Jess, you need to get out of the flat!" Matt yells. "Get in your car and get to the ARC, right now."
"Matt, why-"
"Just do it!"
"Okay, I-"
Tamsin suddenly gasps and holds onto Jess more tightly, and they both look out the window. Jess doesn't see anything, but then she hears the clanking, the clear clanking that means something is out on the fire escape.
"Jess? Jess?" The voice on the phone is Becker's, and he seems a tiny bit panicked. "Jess, do you have an EMD there? Black boxes? Earpieces?"
"Yeah, in my car," she whispers as she and Tamsin back slowly towards the door.
"When you get in your car, put the earpieces in and the black boxes on both you and Tamsin. We're going to need to track you, just in case."
"I'm thinking just in case is good," Jess says.
"Jess! It's outside!" screams Tamsin in terror, and Jess looks up to see that Tamsin is exactly correct. She can hear Becker yelling her name, but as the dinosaur bursts through the window from the fire escape, the only thing Jess really cares about is running as fast as she and Tamsin can to the car.
They throw themselves in, and Jess speeds away as fast as she's comfortable with. "Tamsin, reach behind you-no, more to the left-yes, that's it, in that bag, there's boxes and earpieces, do you feel them? Yes, that's them. Put the boxes on my wrist and yours-there you go, and now the ear pieces in our ears, yes, Becker, Matt, do you hear me?"
"Jess!" Becker says, his voice heavy with relief. "Are you okay?"
"Tamsin heard them just in time," Jess says.
"Tamsin, you're all right, too?" Matt asks.
"I haven't decided yet," the girl says shakily, her breathing heavy with terror.
"How far are you from the ARC?"
"We're about 15 minutes out," Jess tells him. "You should be able to track our position now; we've black boxes on."
"Let me see...yeah, I see you," says Connor, who must be at the ADD. "Fifteen minutes and counting."
Jess takes that minute to look in the rear-view mirror and sees something that sets her heart pounding-the dinosaur is coming after them, and it is running faster than Jess can drive, safely or unsafely.
"We don't have 15 minutes," she whispers, and squeezes Tamsin's hand. "Tamsin, is your seat belt on?"
"Yes, why?" Tamsin asks, trembling.
"Because this is going to hurt."
A lot of voices are screaming into her ear, but she tunes all of them out as she takes a deep breath to prepare herself for what she's going to do. That done, she throws her arm across Tamsin's chest, puts the car in reverse, and drives right into the dinosaur.
The next few minutes are a world of confusion, loud noises, screaming, and pain.
And then there's just black.
She comes to hanging on her side. Her side is screaming in pain and she can hardly breathe. She looks down and Tamsin is unconscious below her.
"Ta-Tamsin," Jess says, coughing, trying not to moan in pain, but she can't help a slight whimper. "Tamsin?"
The girl stirs and opens her eyes. "Jess? What happened?"
"I think we killed it," Jess murmurs. "Can you move?"
"Yeah...just my head..." Slowly, Tamsin moves out of the way, and Jess unbuckles herself. It is not a wise move, as she falls onto the door and hurts her side again.
"Ow ow ow ow," Jess moans, curling into herself in pain. She can barely move. She wonders if this is how Becker feels all the time.
"Jess?" mumbles Tamsin. "Everyone's talking in my head. It hurts."
"Earpiece...earpiece, here," Jess says, reaching out to take it, and even that leaves her breathless. "Yeah?"
"Jess? Thank god," says Becker, sounding so relieved it makes Jess's heart hurt. "Are you okay? Both of you? Are you injured?"
"Tamsin's hit her head, and my ribs, I think...broken or cracked..."
"Listen, just stay there. We'll come get you."
"No," says Connor. "They have to get out of the car."
"Didn't you just hear Jess? They're injured!"
"There's more than one! Remember, they were nesting-there's at least one more adult out there, and who knows how many juveniles?"
Beside Jess, Tamsin moans in terror, clutching Jess's arm hard enough to bruise.
"Listen, you'll never be able to outrun them; you'll have to outmaneuver them instead. Are you near any buildings with a lot of rooms?" comes Matt's voice.
"Uh, there's a museum quite close; it'll be closed this time of night, though."
"Connor, get them into that building without the alarm going off. Tamsin, Jess, we will be there as soon as we can, okay? We are coming to get you."
"Come on, Tamsin...up we get," Jess mumbles. Getting the two of them up is an adventure, but somehow they manage by sheer willpower and more than a little adrenaline. Tamsin's face is grey and Jess knows she can't look much better, as every breath makes her hurt a little bit more. She manages to reach into the car and grab a spare EMD.
"You guys are doing great," says Becker encouragingly.
"I'm going to throw up," Tamsin slurs, stumbling drunkenly to her knees and doing just that. Behind them, they hear a high-pitched roar.
A new wave of adrenaline is exactly what they need to get them the rest of the way to the museum and into it.
The museum is silent when Becker, Abby, and Matt enter, carrying live rounds for once. No one wants to take any chances when it comes to Jess and a little girl. "How many blips you have, Connor?" Matt asks.
"Just one. Someone's box must've been damaged in the crash," he reports.
"I'm going to kill Jess for that," mutters Becker. "What was she thinking?"
"She was thinking of trying to save herself and Tamsin," Matt snaps. "Connor, where is it?"
"Up one floor, I think, and then another hundred feet. Let me check the map...ah. It's in the T-rex room."
There are any number of comments any one of them could make, but they all stay silent as they creep through the building. Museums are fairly creepy to be in at night, but Matt supposes it could be worse. They could be in a zoo and have no idea what it was that was moving just within sight range.
They make it to the T-rex room suspiciously without running into any dinosaurs, and Matt rather hopes they weren't able to get into the building, or perhaps were trapped somewhere. "Tamsin? Jess?" he calls quietly once they get into the room.
"Matt!" Tamsin sobs from somewhere, somewhere high. Matt looks up and realizes she's curled into the skull of the T-rex.
"What is with you and high places?" he asks, relaxing in relief.
"This one was Jess's idea," Tamsin says. Matt stiffens again when Abby asks,
"Where's Jess?"
"I don't know," Tamsin mumbles. "She told me to get up here and then she left. Or not. She left with the thingy, the thingy..the shooting thingy...down not up...are we outside again?"
Matt frowns at the way Tamsin has stopped making sense. "Abby, Becker, go look for Jess. I'm gonna get Tamsin. Stay in radio contact at all times."
"Got it," Becker says, and he and Abby move out.
"Tamsin, do you think you can climb down?" Matt asks, looking up at how high the T-rex skeleton is and how fragile it looks. Maybe a skinny twelve-year-old can make it, but he doesn't think he can.
"Bones and trees," Tamsin says, slurring her words together.
"Okay...I'm going to try and come get you. Just...don't move," he says. "And keep talking to me, okay?"
"No...tired..."
"I know you're tired, but you need to stay awake for me, okay? Tell me-tell me about school or something."
He carefully climbs up as Tamsin babbles a mix of nonsense words and words that make sense, but not in the context she's using them. He finally reaches a point where he can almost grab her, and tugs at her leg.
"Dad," she mumbles.
"No, it's Matt. Can you slide towards me? Towards my voice."
"M'think'so," she says, scooching very slowly towards him. He breathes a sigh of relief when he finally pulls her into his arms and makes his way carefully down to the ground. The T-rex doesn't fall on top of them.
He shines a flashlight into her eyes, making her moan and flinch away, and dislikes what he sees. "Abby, Becker, Tamsin's got a blown pupil. She needs a hospital."
"We haven't found Jess yet!" Becker reports.
"Jess fell," Tamsin mutters.
"Jess what?"
"Fell. Jess. Not up, down."
Matt frowns, picks Tamsin up, and walks around the T-rex skeleton and is once again relieved. "She's here...she must've fallen trying to get up on the T-rex."
"We'll be right there," Becker says immediately.
He bends down next to Jess and shakes her shoulder lightly. "Jess?"
She coughs weakly and tries to sit up, but cries out in pain and flops back down. "Di...di..."
"Shh, Jess, Becker's on his way. He'll get you out of here, I've got Tamsin, it's going to be okay."
"Dinosaurs," Jess says, panic in her eyes. "Tamsin heard them. Climbed up. Tried to get them to go after me. Kept trying to jump on the skeleton. Shot them with the EMD and scared them off. Tried to climb and fell. Where are they?"
Tamsin seems alert first the first time. "Dinosaurs?"
They hear a high-pitched roar. "Jess, I need you to stand up. Can you do that for me? Becker, Abby, what's your ETA?"
"Maybe three minutes?" Abby responds, panting.
Matt pulls Jess up with him, although she's whimpering in pain and holding her side with one hand and keeping the other wrist close to her. He's carrying Tamsin, who's barely holding onto consciousness, and supporting most of Jess's weight, and there's no way he'll be able to shoot anything successfully.
The dinosaurs burst through the door, knocking into several of their ancestors-their contemporaries?-on their way to Tamsin. "Jess, you need to shoot!"
"I can't," she sobs. "One of my wrists-"
"The other one, can you shoot with the other one?"
He doesn't wait to find out, shoving the gun into her good hand. She closes her eyes and shoots blindly, and the world is an explosion of bullets and glass and screaming and high-pitched roaring. Jess eventually collapses harder against him and drops the gun, but bullets are flying and he surmises that the cavalry has arrived just in time.
The silence is deafening. Jess slides down Matt's side in a dead faint, and Becker only just gets there in time to keep her from hitting the ground.
"That's all of them," Abby says, breathing heavily into the quiet, sounding unnaturally loud. "That's all of them."
It turns out Jess has one broken and two cracked ribs on her left side and a broken right wrist and a surprise very mild concussion a CT scan picks up. Tamsin's concussion is far more serious, and she's in a coma for a very scary two hours before waking up and having no idea what happened from about the time she learned about her mum.
Matt thinks it's probably for the best.
When she's finally awake and aware, he's the one sitting next to her bed. "Hey, Tamsin...how are you feeling?"
"I'm...better," she says, reaching for his hand. He takes her hand and squeezes it. "How's Jess?"
"She's okay...she's got a nice purple cast, and she's on strict bed rest for at least two weeks, maybe three."
"I dunno how Jess can stay down that long."
"It's going to be interesting. We'll have to take shifts once the good drugs wear off," Matt says. "Tamsin...do you remember anything?"
"A couple bits and pieces...a T-rex skeleton, most often," she says, then bites her lip. "The last thing I really remember is...my mom's dead." She sniffles a bit. "What's going to happen to me now?"
"Well, there are a couple of options, but before you decide, there's someone who has been waiting to talk to you. I sent him to get some coffee, but he should be back soon..."
Tamsin sits up when she hears the footsteps. Matt smiles and lets go. "Dad?"
"Tam? Oh my god, Tam, my Tam," her father says, rushing into the room and sweeping her up in a hug. She's sobbing and her father is crying. "Tamsin, Tam...I was so worried, baby."
"Dad, Dad, Dad, don't leave."
"I won't Tam, I won't, I love you. Oh god, I love you."
Matt leaves them be.
A week later, Tamsin is mostly recovered, and Jess is recovered enough to be a pain in the neck. She is not a person who sits still for any length of time, and she seems to be making up for the lack of movement in the rest of her body with extremely rapid movement in her mouth. If there is anyone near her place on the bed or the couch, she talks the unlucky person's ear off. They can all tolerate her in short bursts, but they make sure she is medicated on the proper schedule so that they can get a break.
Tamsin and her dad have been staying with Jess, so they get the brunt of the talking, but they don't seem to mind. They do a lot of talking amongst themselves as well, and it seems like Tamsin is getting a little better every day. Eventually, she's deemed well enough to go on a plane back to her father's place in America.
"I'd rather go there, I think," Tamsin confides in Matt, already looking teary, as she's just said goodbye to Jess just after saying goodbye to Connor and Abby. "Here, everything reminds me of Mum. But...I'm going to miss you."
"We'll miss you as well," Matt says, surprised at just how much he will. "Listen...I have something for you. Courtesy of Philip Burton and Prospero Industries." He hands Tamsin a pamphlet and waits while her fingers dance over little dots. Her breath catches.
"A Seeing-Eye Dog? Really?" Tamsin asks, mouth dropping open.
"I know your mom wanted to get you one, and I looked up quite a few programs online, and this one seems the best-" He breaks off as Tamsin launches herself into his arms.
"Thank you, Matt, thank you, thank you," she says, crying into his shirt.
"You go and do something incredible, okay? Or something ordinary, or something amazing, just something that makes you happy. But keep in touch."
She nods, still crying, but smiling through the tears. "Matt, will you promise me something?"
"Yeah? What is it?"
"Don't get eaten by dinosaurs?"
"I'll try my best," he says, laughing a little and realizes there's a bit of wetness in his own eyes. He hugs her tighter and sighs.
His father would certainly not approve.