Disclaimer: Not mine, no copyright intended
A/N: With thanks to Deinonoychus_1 on LJ for the plot bunny. All comments and reviews greatly appreciated and inspire me to write more :)
"Lock it Sarah!" Becker yelled as they practically fell through the anomaly onto the hard floor. "If those creatures get through, we don't stand a chance!"
Sarah's fingers were poised on the keyboard of the laptop that was connected to Connor's locking device.
"Wait!" Abby yelled. "Where's Connor?"
"He was just behind me." Danny said. He glanced back at the anomaly. There was no sign of Connor. Abby turned and ran towards the anomaly, but Danny grabbed her and pulled her back. "It's too dangerous, Abby.! Those creatures…"
"He might be hurt!" she pleaded.
"What do we do?" Becker said. "If we don't lock the anomaly now…"
Danny had to make a decision fast. If he allowed one or more of the team to go back to look for Connor, he would be placing their lives at risk. They had already had a pretty narrow escape and those creatures were pretty aggressive. Deep down in his stomach he suspected it was probably too late for Connor anyway, he had been only a metre or so behind him and should have been through by now. "We give him one minute." Danny said. Abby glared at Danny in horror. "I'm sorry Abby. We can't allow those dinosaurs through, this is a residential area. Connor said they were carnivorous didn't he?"
Abby couldn't believe what she was hearing. "We can't just leave him, Danny!" she sobbed.
Danny nodded at the two soldiers that had accompanied them. "One minute. Keep your guns raised, if something comes through that isn't Connor, shoot it."
Abby snapped. The others might be prepared to abandon Connor, but she wasn't. She pulled away from Danny and made a dash for the anomaly, but Becker's reflexes were too quick for her and he had grabbed her around the waist, pinning her arms to her body. She struggled, trying every kick-boxing and judo manoeuvre she knew, but he had too strong a hold on her. "Becker, please!" she begged. "This is Connor we're talking about, not just some random stranger."
Becker and Danny stared anxiously at the anomaly and each other. Time was running out and there was still no sign of Connor. There was a loud roar, and Danny could just make out the outline of one of the Ceratosaurus that had been chasing them. He glanced at his watch and then over at Sarah. He swallowed hard and closed his eyes. This was the hardest decision he had ever had to make. "The minute is up." He said quietly. "Lock it, Sarah."
"Noooooooooo!" Abby yelled. "Danny don't do this! Please!" she struggled again. "Becker, let me go, we can't just leave Connor with those creatures!"
"I'm sorry, Abby." Danny said, unable to look her in the face. "Sarah, I said lock it."
Sarah's fingers hesitated. She looked at Abby's tear stained face, and then over to Danny. He had put up barriers, his face cold and emotionless. "I said lock it, that's an order, Dr Page."
Sarah pressed the button, her hands shaking. The anomaly shrunk and they all stared in stunned silence. Becker's grip on Abby changed from one of restraint to an attempt to comfort her, but she pushed him away. She ran to the locking device and began pushing every button on the laptop in a desperate attempt to unlock the anomaly, until Danny grabbed her wrists and pulled her away. He ordered the soldiers to guard the device and under no circumstances was anyone else to touch it until the anomaly had closed itself.
"Let's get back to the ARC." Danny said softly, trying to calm the now hysterical Abby.
She pulled away from and began to walk away, her eyes stinging with tears. Sarah went after her, trying to put her arm around her shoulders, but Abby was having none of it. "Leave me alone!" she spat. "You're all traitors! I can't believe you just did that to Connor! I thought we were a team!"
"We had no choice, Abby." Danny said. "Come on, we'll go back to the ARC and report to Lester, then I'll take you home."
"Stuff Lester!" Abby said, increasing her pace. She had no idea where she was going, frankly she didn't care as long as it was away from Danny and the others.
"Get in the car, Abby!" Danny said.
Abby turned to face him, the anger and pain obvious in her face and body language. "I don't take orders from you any more, Quinn! I quit!" she spat.
-o-
(two hours previously)
As the alarm sounded throughout the ARC, the team leapt up and began their now well practised routine. Abby was checking their supply of tranquiliser, whilst Becker was loading a selection of firearms into the back of the vehicle. Sarah ensured all the component parts of the locking device were put into the boot, whilst Connor printed off all the data for the location of this latest anomaly. Within just a few minutes, they were all getting into the cars and speeding away.
There was always a sense of anxiety whenever they went off to an anomaly, what would they find when they got there? Would it be dangerous? Would someone get hurt? There was also a buzz of excitement, especially from Connor. He never tired of seeing the glowing light of the anomaly, and the creatures he had seen were beyond his wildest dreams. He glanced at his handheld detector. "Just around this corner I think, Danny." He said. As the vehicle turned the corner, they spotted the anomaly across the other side of a field behind some houses. It seemed larger than most they had encountered before, which was bad news. Anything could come through one that size.
They parked up and unloaded the equipment they thought they would need. Becker barked some instructions to the soldiers that had accompanied them, and began handing out guns. Abby was issuing vials and pellets of tranquiliser to everyone.
"OK, stick together until we know what we're dealing with here." Danny said. He led the group, climbing over the wooden fence and pausing briefly to assist Sarah. He was alert, looking for anything that might have come through the anomaly. Fortunately, it was early spring and the crops in the field had barely started to grow, so there were was no place for a small creature to hide.
They began to make their way slowly across the field, each lost in their own thoughts of what might be waiting for them. Abby stopped to fasten her shoelace, and Connor waited for her. "I don't need you to babysit me, Connor." She snapped.
"Fine. Whatever." He bit back and began to try and catch up with the others. Things had been a little strained between him and Abby the last few days. At the last anomaly call, Abby had taken a nasty fall and banged her head. Connor had been very concerned about her, and fussed over her at home. Abby felt smothered by all the attention, it had been her own stupid fault that she'd fallen and she just wanted to get back to work and forget it had happened. He felt she should have been taking it easy and they had ended up snapping at each other. Now even the slightest niggle seemed to spark off an angry word.
Abby watched Connor stomp away. She knew she had hurt his feelings and she almost shouted him back to apologise, but she could see Danny waving for them to hurry up and Connor was running. As she stood up, she saw the reason for his haste, there was a creature stood by the anomaly. From this distance it was hard to tell, but at a guess it was pretty harmless because Connor was approaching it.
When she caught up with them, she couldn't help but smile. The creature seemed to be a youngster and it reminded her of the iguanas at the zoo. "Iguanodon?" she asked. Connor nodded and grinned.
"Is it vegetarian?" Danny questioned, being slightly cautious despite the fact Connor was quite happy to be close to the creature.
"Yeah, pretty harmless really. This one's only a baby though, the adults can be as big as 10 metres long." Connor said.
Danny smiled. "Let's get him back home before his mother comes looking for him." He said. They all began trying to push the creature back towards the anomaly, but it wouldn't move, even when they starting clapping and shouting it barely battered an eyelid.
"Maybe we could entice it through with some food?" Connor suggested. He beckoned for Abby to follow him as he stepped through the anomaly. He scanned around looking for some vegetation that might tempt the young iguanodon back through. He began pulling at some fern-like plants as Abby appeared.
"Where are we?" she asked.
"I'm guessing late Jurassic, maybe very early Cretaceous." Connor said. He had gathered a huge armful of the ferns now and passed them to Abby. She resisted the urge to start whistling the theme music from Jurassic Park, knowing how much that wound Connor up and just smiled. "If you take these and try and get our friend to come through, I'll stay here and make sure he moves well away from the anomaly."
"I see, so you're not only my babysitter, you're also my boss!" She said. It had been meant as a joke, but it came out wrong. Connor's face fell, but before she had chance to apologise, he was snatching the ferns back from her.
"Jeez Abby, when you're hormonal it's like living in world war 3! I'll do it myself!" He made his way back to the anomaly.
"Hormonal?" Abby couldn't believe Connor would say that. "Perhaps if my flatmate wasn't in my face all the time, I wouldn't need to be so…" she stopped. Danny and Becker had come through the anomaly looking for them. Danny's face was like thunder.
"If you two are going to have a domestic, please save it for home. We cannot afford to have anyone whose mind is not totally on the job in hand." He said firmly. Abby and Connor both stared at their feet, pink cheeked, and muttered an apology. Connor went back through the anomaly with the ferns, and reappeared a few moments later with Sarah, closely followed by the young Iguanodon.
The team smiled, watching the creature disappear off into the forest. It was happy to be home.
"Is it safe to do a bit of a fact gathering mission here?" Danny said to Connor. "Are we in much danger here?" Danny felt it was important that they collected as much information as possible whenever they could. If they ever came back to this period, they would be better informed and would know what they would encounter.
"Depends. There are some pretty nasty carnivores in this era, but we should hear them coming in plenty of time to make our escape as long we don't stray too far from the anomaly." Connor said. He felt his heart beat quicken, he loved the opportunity to explore the prehistoric eras he had studied at University.
"OK. Abby, Sarah, I want you two up front with Becker and the soldiers. Connor and I will be at the back." Danny said. He had decided to change the usual team dynamics, realising something was wrong between Abby and Connor. It would do them both good to be split up for a little while. He watched the others move on ahead, holding back a little with Connor. "OK, out with it. What's with you and Abby at the moment?"
Connor shook his head. "I wish I knew, Danny. All I did was try to look after her after she banged her head the other day. I can't do anything right at the moment." He hung his head, trying to hide his confusion from Danny.
"Women are complicated creatures." Danny said. "Give me a Raptor or a T-Rex any day!" he laughed. Connor smiled. Raptors he understood; women, especially Abby, he didn't. They both glanced up as they heard giggling. Sarah and Abby were laughing at something Becker had said. "What's soldier boy got that we haven't?" Danny said, shaking his head.
"A really big gun?" Connor said. Danny almost choked and then the pair of them were laughing loudly. Connor had really needed this moment, he'd been feeling pretty fed up the last few days. He patted Danny's back as a gesture of thanks, then carried on following the others.
A few minutes later, Becker had stopped still with his rifle raised, and Abby was indicating for Danny and Connor to stop as well. They stood in silence, listening to the sounds of the surrounding forest. There was a rustling just ahead of them, and through the trees they could see a snout with a horn on the end. Connor strained to get a better view. He followed the shadowy outline and spotted a long crocodile like tail, and his mouth went dry in fear.
"Connor? What do we do?" Becker said.
"We run like hell!" he yelled, frozen to the spot. "If I'm not mistaken, that's a Ceratosaurus, and it's one of those pretty nasty carnivores I was talking about earlier."
The others all began running towards the anomaly, but Connor was mesmerised. As the creature got closer he marvelled at the size of the creature, up on its hind legs and using its arms to push aside branches. Danny grabbed his arm, pulling him. "Connor! Run!"
He followed behind Danny, but soon stopped. Just ahead of them were two more of the creatures, looking very menacing. "This way!" Becker yelled, indicating a clearing just to the left of them. The team ran, trying to find a way back to the anomaly, desperately aware that the creatures were following them and closing in fast. Connor could see the anomaly just ahead and breathed a sigh of relief, and then he found himself falling downwards as the ground beneath his feet just seemed to disappear.
He hit the ground with a thud, and for a moment he was dazed. He glanced around and could see the opening just above him. He had fallen into what looked like a cave. "Danny! Abby!" he yelled, and waited for one of them to appear. He could hear the creatures above him, and at one point, a foot was partially covering the hole he had fallen through. There was no way Danny or Abby would be able to come back for him, so he pulled himself up as best as he could. He could just about manage to get his head back to ground level and look around for the others. What he saw terrified him and his chest tightened. The anomaly was locked. They had gone through it and locked it! He dropped back down into the cave and sat with his head in his hands, his entire body shaking in fear and disbelief. They had left him behind!