Happy birthday was last night
Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, all belong to Impossible Pictures™.
The morning was most disgusting: the sun was feebly shining through the gaps in the heavy cloud cover, the chronologically displaced pterosaur was watching the neighbouring cats from the rooftop with a gaze far too intense to be that of a mere scavenger or fish-eater, and the vegetation on the garden was clearly of some unhealthy tint of green and of unnatural vibrancy, undoubtedly the result of yesterday's flood from the early Palaeozoic.
In short, Abby Maitland felt real poorly this morning, but she was sure of one thing: yesterday she had felt really great, yet now...
Abby wasn't alone in bed: someone was hugging her hard, and, lying on her back, was breathing warmly down it: clearly, that was Connor. Equally clearly, this meant that brave Abby, who by now had experienced everything, from giant carnivorous reptiles from the past to giant killer bat-things from the future, felt a panic attack coming on. So, naturally, she just fell from the bed, taking her pillow with it – startling Rex, who was also napping on it, but now flew downstairs, chattering angrily – and ran from her bedroom into the guestroom, where Caroline Steele was busy staring at the wall mirror, looking as mystified as Abby felt.
For a long while neither of the young women moved, but finally Caroline decided to give-in first and sighed:
"Hopefully, you're wondering what am I doing here, aren't you?"
"Yes, that's exactly what I am doing" Abby said, but without her usual bite: she was only marginally sure that 'here' was her home after all. "What had happened yester- last night that left such a blur?"
Caroline stared at Abby as if the other woman was a bigger blonde than usual. "Don't you remember? It was the birthday of Mrs. Cutter and we were...invited."
Abby felt as she suspected Nick Cutter had felt when he realized that there was no Claudia Brown in this universe. "Mrs. Cutter?" she whispered feebly. "But he's single!"
"But he has a mum, the original Mrs. Cutter," Caroline shrugged, "and upon seeing her, it was unanimously agreed as to why Helen Cutter decided to leave the professor in favour of the cavemen – after his mother they were probably a breeze."
"Right," Abby muttered, as she began to dimly remember a tall woman with a definite Scottish accent and a face resembling that of a horse cast in iron. "The original Mrs. Cutter. Then what happened?"
"You were kind of celebrating her birthday, when the anomaly alarm turned on," Caroline shrugged. "Apparently, it opened the passageway from some prehistoric sea shore into the 'tube, and it – the 'tube, not the sea shore – began to flood. So, it had to be shut down."
"And you-?"
"James Lester recruited me because my car is sturdier than yours, and besides, I live close to that anomaly site anyways," Caroline shrugged. "It was no big."
"Did we close the anomaly?"
"Since we're not knee-deep in prehistoric squids and crabs I believe that we did do so successfully," Caroline shrugged, "though there was a close call when that giant squid – I think Connor called it an orthocone – tried to eat Mrs. Cutter and Ms. Lewis. But Helen Cutter decided to help her ex-husband for some reason and everyone survived, even if a bit worse for the wear. Still, Ms. Lewis was a bit quiet for the rest of the day for some reason – I guess it isn't everyday that your boyfriend gets the finalized version of the divorce papers from his ex."
"Right. Then what happened?"
"James Lester took Mrs. Cutter for a briefing with some superiors of his, though I suspect that his main goal was to use her to scare away an ex-girlfriend of his own, professor Cutter and Ms. Lewis had some things to work out between themselves – I think – and the three of us had to chase a flying dino or something that had escaped from the center's containment chambers. Since it was late and the animal was already sleeping on the roof I guess I was invited to sleep-over as well – and here we are today. Do you remember now?"
"Yeah, I remember," Abby muttered, as she did remember everything – from the very uncomfortable and stilted birthday party, to the giant sea scorpions invading the tunnels, to the giant orthocone lashing out with its tentacles, ready to grab and break anything that moves, to the pterosaur, which was currently lurking on their roof, like some sort of a buff, oversized float.
"Hey Abby, good morning," Connor beamed happily as he came downstairs as well, with Rex sitting on his shoulder. "Caroline, how was-"
Connor's inquiry was interrupted by the loud screech from the rooftop, which caused Rex to jump off the young man's shoulder and scuttle under the sofa. The screech was followed by several desperately loud feline yowls.
"Connor Temple," Abby said with a huff. "You go and warm up Kraft™ macaroni with cheese. Caroline and I will get dressed, and then we'll go and get that the pterosaur calmed down, got it?"
"Yes dear."
And the day went on – just like every other day working at the ARC.
End.