Connor sat in Abbys flat. He was at the edge of the stairs, starring down to her and the rest of the ARC-Team. They were chatting and joking around like nothing had happened. He really couldn't understand how they could do it. This was supposed to be a funeral and not some bloody party.
The funeral of on of the team. Stephens funeral.
Rex flew around him and tried to cheer him up, but Connor didn't feel like laughing.
Stephen was dead. And still yet, he seemed to be the only one grieving.
Tears were streaming down his face, but right now he it didn't matter who saw him crying. Ryan, Lester, Cutter - they all could think what they want, Connor couldn't care less at the moment. All he wanted was for Stephen to came back.
Today he lost a colleague... today he lost a friend... today he lost the love of his live. Of course, like always in live, you are to damn scared to tell the one you love how you feel. You only get the guts to say it, if you already lost them. If this was one of his movies he and Stephen would live happy together till they die, but this wasn't a movie, here they didn't life happy together. If this was a movie, Stephen would still be there.
'Connor', he heard Abby yelling, 'stop hiding up there and come down here.'
But Conner didn't come down. He kept on hiding. Eventually Abby came up to him and sat down beside him.
She smiled at him, but he didn't smile back. She hugged him, but he didn't care. She told him everything would be fine, but he couldn't bring himself to listen. She kissed him, but he couldn't pretend to want anything from her anymore.
He couldn't do this anymore.
'I'm sorry Abby. I like you, I really do but just as a friend, right?'
'Of course Connor, yeah... just friends.'
The sadness in her voice was hearable up to ten miles away and Connor couldn't stand the pain once again. He grabbed his jacket and left.
Left Abby behind, left his hopes behind, left his laughed behind.
Ever since that day Connor wasn't heard laughing. They would make a joke but he wouldn't laugh. They would make fun of him but he wouldn't care. Nothing left mattered to him anymore. Connor Tempel was just a shadow of the man he used to be.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Anything yet?' asked Cutter as he walked in Lesters office.
'No', he responded angry, 'Helen still refuses to tell us anything.'
'Where is she?' Cutter wanted to know, 'maybe she will tell me something.'
'Try it Professor. She is in room 315.'
When Cutter left to see his wife, Lester went to another meeting. No one noticed the figure in the shadows, going after Cutter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Flashback: 'Right Connor... so let me get this straight, you want me to teach you how to shot. Exactly why?' wondered Stephen for the third time this day. Connor had come a while ago to him and asked out of the blue for shooting lessons. Already three times today. No a full week later they met up for his first shooting lesson. Now, nearly a half year later Connor was able to shoot nearly as good as Stephen, but still, Stephen was the only one who know. He was.
'I... errr... you know Stephen...', he babbled.
'If I knew, you think I would ask?'
'Yes... well no. Errr I... Iwanttobeabletoprotectmyself', said Connor in a rush.
'What?'
'I said I want to be able to protect myself. With all the creatures out there and the anomalies...', he started babbling again.
'I get it Connor. So... no one in particular to kill? Like Lester? Or Leek?' he asked with a smug grin.
'Nah, they don't worth the bullets', joked Connor and gave Stephen his brightest smile.
That was the day Connor fell in love with Stephen.
Cutter was about to enter Helens room when he noticed a movement out of the corner of his eyes. He turned around just to stare directly into the barrel of a gun.
Right in front of him stand Connor, a gun aiming at him. His eyes were as hard as stone and a manic grin spread across his lips.
Connor looked actually dangerous.
'Don't make anything stupid', he told Cutter and opened the door to room 315. He went in, grabbed Helen violent and dragged her out of the room.
'Right', he exclaimed, 'since you are so keen to get out of here Helen why not make a deal? I get you out of this goddamn place and you tell me where and who to find the right anomaly. So, what do you say?'
'Ha', Helen laughed, 'is this a joke or something like that? Like I would be scared of him.' She pointed at Connor and tried her best to hold a lit of laughter back.
'You better be', he told her cold.
Helen ignored Connor and turned to Nick, 'can he even shoot without hurting himself? No that I would care but it would be a waste of a good bullet.''
A loud bang sounded through the corridors and the bullet went just a few inches beside Cutters head into the wall.
'Yes I can shoot. In fact I'm rather good', said Connor calmly, 'now, do we have a deal or do I have to shoot him first?'
'You wouldn't.' Helen looked smug at Connor. He didn't even flinch when he pulled the trigger again.
Another bullet few across the floor and found its way direct in Cutters leg. Screaming he want to the ground.
'Deal? Or he dies', said Connor still calm.
'Deal', Helen said without hesitation.
'Good. Move. NOW.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Every man, every women, every child has a line he never oversteps. Some kind of rule of how far they would go.
Every human has a breaking point. The point when you screw everything you believed in, in order to be selfish for once and do what YOU think is right. No matter how wrong it is. No matter what everyone else thinks. Conner reached that point less than an hour ago.
After walking a while silent around the forest Helen stopped before an anomaly. Conner waved his gun at it to indicated her to do on. She stepped through it, Connor followed her immediately. They were back at the field filled with anomalies.
'Which do I need?'
'Depends on where you want to go?'
'5 hours before Stephen died.'
'You want to change it?' she asked surprised. She had wondered a lot what Connor was up to, but that wasn't on her list. She never had guessed he would risk the timeline to save Stephen.
She never thought he had the guts to overstep that line. But apparently, he did.
'Which one?'
'That one', she nodded to the anomaly to her left. She attempted to step through when the cold metal of the gun hit her head. Connor knocked her out and went alone. Not long after he arrived on the other side the anomaly closed.
This time it was Helen who was left behind on her own in another world.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cutter, Stephen and Helen managed to free Helens foot out of the creatures grip by shooting it dead, so they kept on trying to get out of there.
'The creatures are almost here', told Helen them and attempted to run away. Stephen was about to follow when they realized Nick wasn't following.
'Come on Nick', Helen shouted.
'We've got to close the door. Or otherwise they'll get back out', Cutter explained while trying to close the door.
'We can only do that from within there now. The control is on the other side but who ever does it will be locked in.'
'One of us has got to go get back in.'
'I'll do it', offered Nick.
'You'll never make it out', said Stephen worried.
'Get out of here', he ordered and turned to Stephen, 'just remember Lester is not the enemy.'
'Nick please', Helen begged but he didn't listen. He turned to go in when Stephen punched him in the face.
One inch before Stephen could walk back in the room a strong hand held him back and turned him around. Connor stand before him. He starred at him with cold, hard and hurt eyes. Before Stephen could react he slammed him into the next wall and kissed him passionately. I didn't last long but it was long enough to puzzle Stephen.
The next thing he saw was Connor behind the closed door, walking slowly backwards.
'Nick', he shouted, 'let her go, just this once. I promised her that much. Stephen don't punch me for kissing you and... I love you.'
Then the creatures came and the three of them had to leave.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Nick and Stephen came back to the ARC Lester wasn't happy to hear that Helen got away. How, they didn't tell.
They walked into the locker-room to get changed when Abby came in. Right behind her... came Connor in.
'What?'
'What?'
'Connor... you are alive?'
'How did you escape the room?'
'Look mates I don't know what you're talking about.'
Stephen thought he might see him never again.
'I love you', he said before he could think about what he was doing. Live was too damn short to waste it hiding from his feeling. That much he learned today when he saw the door closing behind Connor.
'I know you nearly died Stephen', said Abby, 'but...' but Stephen cut her off.
'Not you, Abby.' He turned to Connor.
'I love you Connor Temple. Always have always will. And I'm not going to punch you for kissing me.'
'I never did.'
'You did... or not... errrr. It's a bit complicated but none the less I love you.'
'I... Love you, too.'
'I know' he told him and kissed him like the world was going to end any time soon. Connor was happy to respond.
Maybe this was a movie after all, where they could life happy till they die.