Disclaimer: Primeval and it's characters are not our property, no copyright intended.
A/N: So Sallad and I have nothing to say about this but that it's based off the idea of Cutter losing Claudia and gaining Jenny. Hope you enjoy it! Takes place sometime after Series5 finale.
The Triassic: dry, hot, humid – a place Abby would hate to be stuck in. Similar to the Cretaceous she noted, but she actually would have preferred being stuck here.
The Triassic had reptiles – everywhere. They were plain adorable and she wanted to survey each one, even the ones with large, sharp, widely threatening teeth – Never mind, it was probably best for her to live in the Cretaceous instead. She didn't find Raptors attractive like Cutter had.
She dived into the wide ocean of sea creatures, knowing it was beyond dangerous but she didn't have much choice. God did she hate water. Her eyes managed to open through the dirty but cleared water she swam her way through. Beyond her eyes she saw the very light she was thanking God at that moment to still see. It was her ticket home.
She speedily swam through the anomaly, holding her breath at the last striving moments she could. As she made her way through the ball of broken shards of time she quickly emerged from the water, seeing her very team glaring at her.
"Oh thank god!" Emily hollered. Emily looked to be the only one on the happy side of things. Abby paddled her way to the doc and gave Matt a sheepish smile as Becker helped her out of the enlarged lake.
"Abigail…" Matt started in.
"I made it back, didn't I? C'mon, Matt! It was going to close any minute, I couldn't just let the poor thing live away from where he belonged… I know how it feels to be a long way from home."
Matt sighed, easing up a little. "You could have at least brought some kind of equipment to keep yourself alive. You could have drowned and we'd never know."
"I can hold my breath for quite a long time – I was fine, and I am fine, as you can all clearly tell." Becker didn't look happy either, clearly not okay with her spontaneous decision but he still managed a smile when he handed her a towel.
"Thanks. Now please tell me no one told Connor what I did, because last thing I need is a lecture from him." Abby didn't like the looks everyone was giving her then. They all looked at her worried, or worse, completely lost at what she meant. "You'd all be very surprised what kind of lectures Connor can give. He's rather good, actually."
They all still looked at her like she had lost it.
"He probably got it from Lester." No one laughed, no one smiled… they were all blank faced.
Finally Becker spoke. "Abby … who's Connor?"
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"We're just confused who Connor is, that's all." Emily added in. Abby looked at all of them deeply concerned. This wasn't funny – one bit of funny.
"Where is he? He was at the ARC earlier – please tell me he's still at the ARC?"
"Abby, who are you going on about?" This time it was Matt. Matt? He never joined in in these types of games. Why did they think it was so amusing?
"Connor! Connor Temple! My-! ... he's, he's your tech guy! He's my-!" they all stared at her, looking as baffled and worried as she.
"You mean Jess?" Becker asked, Abby rapidly shaking her head.
"No! Connor! He has dark hair, about this tall," she raised her hand above her head. "brown eyes, I'm with him all the bloody time!" Matt shook his head, as well as everyone else. "He wears quirky clothes and ..." she took a deep breath, seeing their expressions – they weren't messing with her. "No, no, no, no, no. This cannot be happening. Not now! Not after-!"
"Abby …" Matt came near her, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. Abby was too dazed to even see him. "why don't we head back to the ARC?"
She nodded, understanding some words of that. ARC. That's where she last saw Connor, she last gave him a kiss, and the last time she saw his grin.
They all walked to the vehicles, all staring at Abigail Maitland, wondering who she was going on about and how they could possibly help.
Abby dragged her feet through the ARC entry, blank faced. She wasn't sure to be stunned, mortified, or angry. As she had no idea what to do tears were silently streaming down her face, hearing whispers from the team about her finally losing it. Whatever that meant.
"No, I said lizard, not alligator. What can I do with a bloody alligator?" someone said loudly from across the hub out from the crowd. Abby heard the voice from the dozens of other and her head jolted up to see, it was him. She ran from the team and when Connor looked at her she leaped in his arms - clinging to him with all her strength.
"Uhh... Abby?" he said confused.
"God Connor, I thought I had erased you from time!"
He was quiet for a moment, "You thought what?"
"Don't ever do that to me."
"Abby…?"
"You guys aren't funny at all, you know it?"
"Ms. Maitland, can you let go of me?"
Abby jerked back and looked at him shocked, "What did you just call me?"
"Sorry, sorry. I know you prefer Abby – just you weren't responding to it so-"
She let go of him completely and looked into his brown eyes, "Connor, what are you talking about?"
"Who's Connor?"
Abby looked at him mortified. That nightmare had yet ended. "You! You are Connor Temple!"
"My names Andrew, as you should know since we're always working in the menagerie together. I know you're bad with names but ... Connor?"
"Andrew…? That doesn't even make sense-! … Andrew what?"
"Andrew Day...? Who's Connor anyway?"
Abby shook her head back and forth, not wanting to listen to one word of this. "No, no this cannot be happening to me." she slumped down onto a chair and held in her sobs, but wet droplets still made their way out of her eyes. The entire ARC was watching as she made quite a scene and they were all completely confused, just as Andrew.
He gave them a shrug and knelt down beside her. "Ms. Mait- Abby I mean. Abby, what's going on?"
Abby looked at him as tears trickled down her face. The fact that she was crying was no longer a secret. She now saw how he dressed; nicely fitted jeans and a tight fitted army green T-shirt with some sort of lab jacket over it. He didn't even wear his ring. This wasn't her Connor.
"This sounds crazy, I know, but before I went through an anomaly about an hour ago you were a man called Connor Temple."
"I've always been Andrew, Ms. Maitland."
"If you call me Ms. Maitland again I will punch you until your nose bleeds."
He paused, obviously being struck by her words, "Right... sorry."
Abby sighed. "No," she assured him as she shook her head. "I'm sorry. It's just ..." she quickly stood up from whatever seat she was in and hastily left the hub, hearing Connor – no, it was Andrew calling after her.
Lester looked at Becker astonished. He was reporting what had happened in the field just thirty minutes ago and when he said Abby made it back safe but was having a fit over some person named Connor it struck Lester hard. The last time something like that happened was when Cutter came through an anomaly, almost seven years ago, and rambled on about a woman named Claudia Brown.
"Is something wrong, sir?" Becker asked, seeing the worry in his expression. Lester shook his head and turned his chair back to the window that sought out to the hub.
"Course not. All is fine as you said. Now go on, find something productive to do before you become like Danny Quinn was. Simply lazy."
"Yes sir." Becker gave a stiffened nod and walked out of the office. Lester didn't pay any attention to his weird looks, for Lester was too stuck on Abby as she wondered away from Andrew looking quite upset. She was almost near tears.
"Oh dear," he said to himself. "seems I'll need to do something about this then."
Lester then noticed Andrew and smiled to himself. She was fond of Andrew, wasn't she? Yes, she seemed to rather like the lad. And Abby had once before complained to him that she was the only species expert on field work. Lester decided he would send Andrew with the team. Maybe that would cheer Abby up some, to have someone help her when she needed help. He hated seeing her upset, for secretly, Abby was always his favorite.
Lester smiled to himself, something he hardly ever did, and knew Andrew would now be helping Abby on field work.
"Abs! Abs!" Connor ran up beside her with a huge grin on his face. Abby was in the menagerie doing her job – Connor didn't seem to be doing his, but that was nothing new. "I just found something amazing."
She was eyeing him as his grin was bigger than ever, like he was holding in a laugh. She almost feared if she didn't ask what it was soon he'd burst. "What's so amazing, Connor?"
"Dino jokes." He blurted out.
Abby furrowed her brows, "…What?"
"You know that website I have? 'Dinosaur Facts'?"
Abby nodded, "Yeah, what about it?"
"I was looking for something else to liven up the site and guess what I found!"
Abby let out a small laugh. "What?"
"Dinosaur jokes! It's brilliant, Abs!"
"I'm confused, dinosaur jokes are brilliant?"
"You don't get it, Abs. They're hilarious!"
Abby shook her head at him. "I'm sure they are."
"What do you get if you cross a pig with a dinosaur?"
Abby rolled her eyes, but she was still visibly grinning at him. "What?"
"Jurassic Pork!" he laughed at the joke himself and Abby laughed, but at how he found it so amusing.
"Very funny-"
"Why do dinosaurs eat raw meat?"
She turned to him, seeing he wasn't finished. "I'm on the edge of my seat."
"Because they can't cook!" he chuckled at that one and she just raised a brow. "That one wasn't the funniest. What do you call a dinosaur that left his armor out in the rain?"
"Surprise me."
"Stegosaurust!" he laughed even harder this time and Abby just laughed with him, loving to see him so happy. "I love that one."
"Oh yeah, that one's going in my joke book."
Connor once again ignored her sarcasm. "This one I made up meself. What's a dinosaur's favorite website?"
She smirked at him. "What?"
"The-saurus!" For Connor, and because she actually thought that one more amusing than the others, she laughed.
"Those are all brilliant, Connor. 'Specially yours." She said somewhat teasing.
"Oh yeah, and I'm going to teach all our kids those jokes." He said, inching closer to her.
"Are you now? I didn't even know we had kids." She replied as she wrapped her arms around his neck, just to be close to him.
"We will. And they're all going to love the hell out of dinosaurs."
She giggled, "They better. Otherwise they're not going to get your dino jokes at all."
Connor let out a laugh and pecked her on the lips. "I love you, Mrs. Temple."
She beamed at him, loving to hear him – or anyone for that matter – call her that. "And I love you, Mr. Temple."
"Abby?" Jess walked in the lab, seeing Abby sitting in the darkened, empty room with a tear rolling down her cheek. "There's- … there's an anomaly."
Abby gave a nod. "Thanks, Jess. I'll be right there."
"Course. Oh, and Abby... I'm sorry about this Connor guy."
Abby looked up at Jess, eyes red and puffy. "You don't remember him at all, do you?"
"No, I'm sorry, I don't ..." she felt horrible. This wasn't just Abby losing her sanity like everyone had been saying, she really had lost someone; someone who meant a lot to her. Jess walked further in the lab and sat beside her, a stool identical to the one Abby perched herself upon. "You loved him, didn't you?"
She nodded. "That wasn't much of a secret, though."
"Oh… why is that?"
"Because..." a sob came out of her, managing to control it soon after. Jess rubbed circles on her back, not sure how to really comfort Abby – seeing that she never really cries. She lived in the flat with her for months and she never once shed a tear, yet here she was, bawling. This definitely wasn't Abby just going nuts.
"I heard you hated being called Ms. Maitland earlier … Abby, were you ... were you married to Connor?" Abby looked up at Jess with watery eyes and slowly nodded, not sure how to respond. At that Jess hugged her tight, having no idea how to feel, but knowing she should at least grieve with her friend.
Abby and Jess walked in the hub, passing Andrew who was giving Matt information on the anomaly, Emily silently listening by his side.
"About time you showed up," he said as Andrew finished his sentence. "We've been looking everywhere for you."
"Deal with it, Matt." Jess said with a glare and Abby wanted to smile at that. Jess always made her smile.
Jess walked over to the ADD after giving a smile and nod to Abby. Andrew followed her at her request. He helped Jess with things now and then, and Jess soon found security cameras that caught footage of the creature and needed Andrew to identify the creature – being more of a history fanatic then animal specialist. Abby caught a look from Andrew from across the hub, but she wasn't sure if it was a glare or look of sympathy.
"Abby, are you okay?" Becker asked very worried like.
"I'll be fine, thank you Becker." She forced a smile.
"Ms. Maitland, I've heard you had some kind of loss like Cutter had..." Lester spoke up. She turned to him and he continued. "Cutter wasn't on his best when that happened and neither will you. Matt, bring another animal expert -"
"Like who?"
Lester looked around the hub. "Mr. Day! You're with the team, go."
"He doesn't even have field training!"
"He was in the military, Matt." Emily reminded him.
"Me...?" Andrew said confused, then glanced at Abby who was in complete shock. Just what she needed.
"Yes, I don't see why you're all just standing there. Go!" and they all scurried away.
Yes, of course, to be continued. Soon, hopefully!
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