Hi everyone! This is my first primeval story, beginning at the first episode of series 2. Enjoy, and please tell me what you think! X

Claudia was gone.

The ARC now existed when it didn't before.

And he and Helen were the only two people in the world who knew about it.

Cutter walked through the unfamiliar hallways of the ARC, feeling as if he was in a terrible dream. Claudia was gone- permanently, it seemed- and this strange place existed. Behind him, he could hear Conner apologising to an angry Abby, who was still yelling "You shot me Conner!" Cutter smirked slightly as he heard Conner's pleading reply but kept walking, deciding to let the young man handle this himself. Random lab techs murmured greetings as he walked past and he nodded awkwardly in acknowledgment, pushing through the main doors and stopping dead.

Conner had discretely pointed out his desk to him earlier but it was now taken by a young woman, who sat with her head bent over various books and papers. He glanced around but nobody was acting like this was an unusual occurrence. He slowly stepped closer, catching her attention and she looked up, smiling at him. He now realised he'd been mistaken- the person in front of him was a teenager, no more than sixteen. He scanned her quickly, taking in her black skirt and tights with a white blouse, with a striped tie loosely looped around her neck although she didn't seem to be wearing shoes. School uniform, he quickly concurred.

"Hey." She greeted. "How were the raptors?"

Cutter paused. "They were… raptor-like." He answered carefully. She rolled her eyes.

"Descriptive. Do you need your desk?" she asked.

"Er… no. No, that's ok." Maybe she was the daughter of one of the lab techs? She was too young to be working here, that much he was certain of.

"Are you ok? You're acting a little off." The girl asked. Cutter nodded.

"I'm fine."

The girl watched him for a few moments, her smile quickly fading. "She did it again, didn't she?"

"Who did what?" he questioned, now more confused than before.

"Your darling wife. She got under your skin again." The girl pushed the chair back angrily, gathering up the books on the desk.

"I…" Cutter began.

"Don't try to deny it dad! She's done this every time she's reappeared in the last few months and you keep falling for it!" the girl strode out, not bothering to slip her shoes on but Cutter barely noticed.

She'd called him dad.

Cutter turned on his heel, bolting towards the lockers. "Conner?!" he questioned loudly. Instead, Stephen poked his head around the corner.

"He's with Abby, what're you making so much noise about?" he asked. Cutter gripped his shoulders, pushing him back slightly.

"Hey! Cutter!" Stephen protested.

"There was a girl, just now. She called me dad." Cutter said urgently. Stephen looked at him.

"Yeah…?" he said slowly. "She's done it for the last fourteen years or so, you'd think you'd be used to it by now."

Cutter gaped at him. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Cutter… tell me you know who Dawn is."

"Who the hell is Dawn?!" Cutter hissed. Stephen stared at him.

"Your daughter! Yours and Helen's!"

Cutter stumbled back, gaping at him with horror sinking through him for about the tenth time that day. "Oh my god." He bent over, leaning on his knees for a moment before he turned back to Stephen. "I didn't have a daughter. Before, I didn't have a daughter."

Stephen pressed him back against the wall. "Stop this. Right now, you stop this. Dawn is your daughter. There is no Claudia Brown and you need to stop it."

Cutter looked up at him, resisting the urge to be sick. Stephen stared at him. "Oh, god. You're telling the truth. You have no idea who she is."

Cutter shook his head. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I don't know what I did, I don't know how to make it right."

He ran his hands through his hair. Suddenly, Conner appeared. "Professor, Stephen, Lester wants us. Like now. Says there's someone he wants us to meet."

"We'll be there in a minute." Answered Stephen without looking around. Connor disappeared again, leaving Stephen to step closer to the older scientist. "Listen to me right now. Dawn Cutter is your daughter. She's fifteen and Helen vanished when she was seven. She adores you and prior to about twelve hours ago, you adored her too. I don't care how much you have to lie and act, you are not going to hurt that girl, do you understand me?"

"I don't even know her, how am I going to avoid hurting her?" Cutter hissed. Stephen shrugged.

"You're probably not, knowing you. But you are going to do your damn best." Stephen clenched and unclenched his fists. "Now go see what Lester wants."

"Aren't you coming?" Cutter questioned. Stephen shook his head.

"No, I have to go explain to a teenage girl why her father doesn't know who she is anymore."

He stormed off, leaving Cutter to lean against the row of lockers in shock, his head spinning. His mother used to say that things always came in three's- he counted this as the third. He really needed Claudia right now, to ask what on earth he was supposed to do now. But she'd been the first thing.

And so he ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath before he retraced his steps back to where Lester was waiting.

Stephen eventually found Dawn in the break room, books spread out in front of her as she gazed into space. "Hey kid." He greeted, sitting next to her. She smiled.

"Hey uncle Stephen." She replied quietly. He sighed.

"Dawn… there's something you need to know about your father."

She looked at him quizzically. "Is this about how weird he was acting earlier?"

"Yeah." Stephen launched into an explanation, watching as Dawn's face went from confused to incredulous, then angry and finally just grief-stricken.

"So… you're telling me he has no idea who I am and thinks he's from a different timeline with somebody named Claudia Brown where the ARC doesn't exist." She summed up. Stephen nodded.

"That about covers it." He agreed. "Look, he'll probably come to his senses in a few days but until then he's going to be acting strange."

"More than normal you mean." Dawn quipped, pushing down the sick feeling in her stomach. Stephen chuckled, reaching out to ruffle her hair before pulling her to her feet and wrapping an arm around her shoulders as they walked to the main operations centre, only to see Cutter gesturing wildly in front of a brunette woman, who looked completely bemused. When Dawn heard him mention Claudia Brown, she figured it was time to step in.

"Dad, that's enough!" she grabbed his arm, but he wrenched it away and continued to talk at a rapid rate. "Dad! We're going home, come on." She told him firmly, pushing him away from the woman and urging him out the door before he could protest, grabbing their bags on the way. She walked with him silently to the car park, climbing in the passenger seat and resting her head back as he began to drive. He drew out, but then paused.

"I… do we still live in the same place?" he questioned. She glanced at him.

"Yeah." She replied softly. He shifted uncomfortably but drove on until they arrived, Dawn exiting the car just as silently and letting herself in, leaving the door open behind her. Cutter followed her in warily but was pleasantly surprised to find the house almost identical to how it had been, the only exceptions were a few photos and the tell tale signs that a teenaged girl lived there.

"Is it the same?" Dawn asked suddenly, reappearing in the doorway of the kitchen.

"Yeah, mostly." He answered. She gave a nod before retreating again, leaving Cutter to wander into his office and reacquaint himself. Meanwhile, Dawn fussed around the kitchen a bit, digging out the takeaway menus and ordering their usual before realising the house was a bit too quiet. She went in search of her father, glancing in a couple of rooms before eventually finding him.

She stood in the doorway of his study, watching Cutter for a moment. She assumed he was too caught up in his own thoughts to see her but he made her jump by suddenly speaking. "Are you going to stand there and stare all night?"

Dawn bit her lip, stepping into the study with soft footsteps. "You're telling the truth, aren't you? About Claudia Brown and the ARC and… and me." she said quietly, not meeting his eyes. He looked at her, raising his eyebrows in surprise.

"You believe me just like that?" he questioned. She nodded. "Why?"

She gestured to the screen saver on the computer, which showed a photo of the two of them with their arms wrapped around each other, beaming at the camera. "You're…. you're not him. You look at me but… you don't see me. You have no idea who I am." She finally met his gaze, choking back the tears that threatened and forcing her voice to stay steady. "My dad… he knows me better than I know myself most of the time. So… yes- I believe you."

She wrapped her arms around herself, turning to walk out. "I'm sorry." Nick called after her. She smiled weakly back at him.

"It's not your fault." She whispered.

"I'm still sorry."

She walked out, closing the door gently behind her and leaning against it for a second, her hand stifling a sob. Blindly, she stumbled upstairs into her bedroom, shutting it forcefully behind her before collapsing to the floor against it, tears streaking down her cheeks as she trembled. She covered her face with her hands, rocking slightly as she desperately tried to stay quiet.

But then her gaze fell on a photo taken when she was seven, just weeks before her mother disappeared; her parents' arms both wrapped around her as they all laughed at something off camera. She let out a cry, reaching out and smashing it against the wall before she fell to the floor again, now letting her sobs flow freely.