In Professor Nick Cutter's defence, he had a pretty good reason not to notice it right away.

Not only did he have to deal with the guilt of losing Captain Ryan to the Predator, with the shock and confusion of Claudia Brown apparently vanishing into thin air, but he also had to try fight the urge to punch his ex-best friend in the face for sleeping with his wife.

And 'ex-best friend' made him sound like a petulant teenager who didn't get their way, but it was really the only thing he could think about when even the name 'Stephen' made him want to pull the other Home Security car over just so he could hit the man.

But now here he was, standing in the new (to him at least) Anomaly Research Centre, watching Lester talking to some slimy-looking suit while Abby and Stephen whispered to each other in the corner quietly – as if he couldn't see the concerned looks they were sending him. As he tried to ignore both pairs, Nick found himself looking around the room suspiciously, taking in the hustle of scientists running back and forth among the armed security guards patrolling the building.

It was off… something was wrong. Stephen (the cheating bastard) often said that silence in a forest meant there was a predator afoot, but he knew this wasn't the case… silence here meant…

"OH BLOODY HELL!"

"What now Professor?" Lester demanded, turning a scowl on Nick as he and the slimy man exchanged a frustrated look.

"Did we forget Connor at the anomaly again?" Nick shouted over to the startled Abby, "I thought I told you to keep him on a leash!"

"What?"

"Oh dear God," Lester exhaled as Nick look between his confused 'team', "There's another one".

"Another what? Anomaly?"

Lester rolled his eyes, "First this 'Claudia' woman and now a 'Connor'? Who next Professor? Perhaps the Queen fell through an anomaly as well and joined the A.R.C? Or did your lovely wife have a child she's raised on the run through time-travelling anomalies?" the man drawled sarcastically. "No, never mind," he interrupted, "I don't want to know, go see a psychologist," he ordered, waving his hand dismissively as he turned and stomped off.

"So who's Connor then?" Abby's voice asked as Nick gaped after the Suit. "Another scientist?"

"Not yet," Nick corrected absently, turning to eye the two of them cautiously only to find both Abby and Stephen sending him the same look. "You live with him, Abby, how can you not know who Connor is?"

"Abby lives with her boyfriend," Stephen interrupted slowly.

"Shut up traitor," Nick snapped automatically, making the man flinch back with a wounded look on his face.

"Wait!" Abby exclaimed happily, her eyes widening as she perked up, "There's a 'Connor' down in the Tech department!"

Unable to stop himself from perking up as well, Nick ignored Stephen's hurt look (because he deserved it) and stepped closer to Abby. "Is he around his height?" he asked, jabbing his thumb towards the hunter, "Medium-length black hair? Strangely addicted to fingerless gloves and is utterly obsessed with sci-fi and comic books?"

"Well he has black hair?" Abby offered as she kind of collapsed in on herself, Nick following suit seconds later. "But he's tiny and buff, and kind of a dick actually".

"This is wrong," Nick exhaled slowly, moving away and beginning to pace automatically, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as he ran through theory after theory. "He's supposed to be here, he's been one of us since the very beginning," he explained as he pretended not to see the look Abby shot Stephen. "He- he's the one who brought the first anomaly to our attention," he added to his currently-unliked lab technician.

"Wait you mean that geek that was waving that newspaper in our faces before Home Sec approached us about the anomaly?" Stephen blurted, Nick's head snapping around fast enough that he winced at the whiplash. "Uh… what was his name again?" the man asked himself, snapping his fingers and frowning, "Something about a temple right?"

"Connor Temple".

"Yeah! That's him," Stephen agreed, pointing at Nick in agreement, an unnaturally hopeful look in his eyes. "We tried to hunt him down after Lester told us about the anomaly remember?"

"Tried?" Nick repeated.

"He went missing," the tracker confirmed, crossing his arms and nodding. "Nothing was gone from his flat except for him. No signs of a struggle, no clothes packed for a long trip, he was just gone".

Images flashed through Nick's mind immediately, pictures of a curious yet naïve Connor eagerly going through the anomaly and getting mauled by the gorgonopsid because he wasn't prepared. The boy wouldn't have been prepared for anything he found beyond the anomaly, Nick himself hadn't been and he'd studied the past for most of his life.

And not only was Connor gone, but the boy he'd been expecting to believe him was gone too. If Connor was here, then Nick could already hear him coming up with some theory regarding aliens or the past being altered by what Nick and Helen had done in the anomaly with the baby… the baby predators…

"The timeline".

"Professor?"

Glancing over at Lester as the bossy… well boss… returned and crossed his arms as well, Nick sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "When we were back through the anomaly we must have changed the timeline," he explained slowly when Lester raised his eyebrow expectantly, "It's the only theory I can come up with to explain this".

"'This' being?" Lester pressed when Nick stopped to think.

"This," the Professor stressed, waving his hand around him wildly. "Before I went through the anomaly there was no A.R.C, we had a Public Relations officer named Claudia Brown, and a student of mine named 'Connor Temple' brought the anomalies to our attention in the first place".

"And now you've come back through there is an A.R.C, Claudia Brown doesn't exist, and Connor Temple has vanished," Stephen finished for him, reminding Nick that even though he slept with Helen he was still an otherwise smart man (who slept with Helen).

"Well this is bloody marvellous," Lester murmured, his words muffled by the hand he was dragging down his face. "Undeniable proof that the timeline can be altered, what a perfect way to end the day".

Ignoring the man's whining, Nick just started pacing again, frowning to himself as he went over their previous 'adventures' again. "Abby, what happened at the reservoir?" he questioned, turning to stare at the confused blonde, "When you were taking water samples and the mosasaur attacked you?"

"Oh uh, I um," she stuttered before clearing her throat, clearly unhappy about being put on the spot like that. "You ordered two men to watch me when I went in, they spotted the mosasaur early and called me back to shore," Abby explained quickly before frowning, "Why? What happened with Connor?"

"He fought it off with an oar," Nick answered dismissively, "What about the anthropleura? He was the one to identify that it was a burrower, without him you would be dead," he explained as he turned to Stephen.

"I spent two weeks in hospital because it took you hours to find the hole and my right leg was paralyzed for that long," the man replied immediately.

"Are we done with the show and tell now gentlemen?" Lester interrupted impatiently, "Because we have a vicious animal reported to be running around a shopping mall near central London if so, but I'm sure it'll be happy to wait until you're ready".

"At least some things haven't changed," Nick announced, "I still think you're a sarcastic twat".

"Flattery will get you everywhere," Lester drawled, "Now get out before I dock your pay".

Raptors. There were raptors in the Castle Cross Shopping Centre.

Dammit his Connor would have loved to have been here to see this.

At least with Connor around Nick wouldn't have been stuck with Stephen following him around like a puppy hoping for forgiveness. He would have preferred Connor's endless yet comforting babbling to dealing with Stephen right now, he didn't want to think about his best friend's betrayal at a time like this when the slightest mistake could result in a raptor gnawing on his innards.

Hell, that image was preferable to being in Stephen's company right now.

Turning away from the anomaly behind the bowling rink (and stubbornly reminding himself that he couldn't just run through it and fix the timeline like he so wished he could), Nick ignored Stephen and stalked away from him, ears primed for any noise from the raptor as his hand brushed against the gun shoved in the waistband of his jeans.

Hopefully Abby was alright on her own, surely the security room was a safe place for her, that door had been covered in locks after all. Not that raptors used doors, but still... he didn't think he could lose another person right now.

As if waiting for him to think that a loud hissing noise echoed down the hallway, Nick unable to stop himself from exchanging a look with Stephen as he heard Abby's scream, both of them breaking into a sprint immediately.

Footsteps echoing across the tiled floor as he ran, Nick burst around the corner and raised the gun automatically, eyes flicking across Abby where she was cowering near the lowered shutter and Connor where he was lying on the floor, clearly having slid under to avoid the raptor that was slamming on the – CONNOR!

"No! I dropped my slushy".

"CONNOR!"

Staring as the familiar man flailed on the ground, Nick watched as his apparently 'missing' student froze and held his head with a groan. "Ow… brain freeze," he whined, startling a laugh from a shocked Nick's throat at the purely 'Connor' comment. "What're you laughing at?" Connor demanded with a half-scowl half-grin.

"Oh God, Connor, I missed you," Nick blurted, faltering as only confusion flashed across the now rising man's face.

"Do I know you?"

Blinking in shock at the unexpected question, Nick paused and slowly took in the man again.

This wasn't Connor, not his Connor at least. His Connor didn't wear what looked like dino-leather pants after all, nor did he have several knives strapped to his body overtop of what looked to be an old t-shirt under a matching dino-leather vest. His Connor didn't have an alarming scar tracing from the curl of his jaw down his throat and under the neck of his shirt. And his Connor never looked at him with so much sheer indifference.

"You look kinda familiar, I do know you don't I?" Connor continued as Nick just stared, "You weren't my landlord were you? Because I totally didn't pay my rent this month, or the month before that, or the month before that… I haven't paid my rent in a while actually".

"Wait… this is Connor?" Abby interrupted, "I thought you said he was a geek?"

"He was," Stephen replied absently, Nick looking over and groaning aloud at the appraising look on the man's face.

"Don't you think that your dick has gotten you into enough trouble already?" Nick snapped, making his former friend flinch back again. "Just keep it in your pants and away from Connor," he muttered darkly as he pushed past Stephen and approached his student – who was gone.

"Uh, Professor?"

Following the Abby's shocked look, Nick blinked in confusion at the sight of Connor wiggling his way into a vent, mouth falling open slightly as the man vanished into the darkness in seconds. "There's a flock of raptors around a twenty-minute walk from the anomaly," the man's voice echoed out of the vent, "And more than one chased me through it, so I would hide if I were you".

Not giving himself time to talk himself out of it, Nick rushed forward and scaled the wall, latching onto the lip of Connor's vent and grunting as he pulled himself up. "I thought it was a raptor pack, not a flock," he rasped out as he climbed into the vent after Connor, following the sounds of the shuffling man as someone else scrambled up after him.

"Well I thought raptors were the ancestor of most modern-day birds," Connor's voice shot back, the man stopping somewhere ahead, "So unless you have a pack of geese then I'm going to go with a flock of raptors. Besides, you've never seen them bathe mate, they're totally birds".

Muffling a snort as he almost crawled into the man, Nick stopped and watched as Connor twisted and bent until he could slam his feet into something on the vent wall.

"Don't follow me," the black-haired man ordered bluntly as a vent cover fell to the floor, Connor sliding out of the vent even as light illuminated the vent from behind him.

"Stephen's climbing in behind me," Abby reported as she reached him, a small wind-up torch in her hands. "So that's Connor huh?" she added curiously as Nick moved forward and turned around, both of them peering through the vent opening to see Connor unashamedly holding a shirt up against his chest before shoving it down his pants, "Does he do this sort of thing often?"

Just staring blankly at the innocently-smiling woman, Nick shook his head as she stuck her own out the vent entrance and said "I hope you're going to pay for that".

Heart skipping a beat as Connor shot Abby his usual grin (thank God somethings hadn't changed about him), Nick watched as Connor checked the price tag on the shirt and shrug. "I will if you lend me a fiver," the man-boy responded, "Or a couple of fivers, for some reason it's hard to find an ATM when you're living in the Cretaceous period and I'm almost out of shirts".

"Don't look at me," Nick deadpanned as Abby shot him a hopeful look.

"We'll just put it on Lester's tab," the blonde decided as they both turned to see Connor crafting a makeshift bag out of an extra-large shirt and shoving more clothes into it. "You know, if you came back to the A.R.C with us you could have a shower," she offered casually.

"Or I could go have one in the river next to my tree," Connor countered over his shoulder, "I'm only here because the raptors chased me through, that and I'm out of undies".

"Oh, those are in that corner," Abby replied automatically before stopping with a grimace, "Does this make me an accessory to crime?"

"Depends on whether or not Connor's been declared dead yet," Stephen's voice called up the vent, making Nick grimace.

"You should really forgive him you know," Abby whispered, "Or at least pretend you do," she corrected when Nick glared. "It was eight years ago now, and he's obviously feeling guilty about it".

"I really am".

"I'm not talking about this right now," Nick dismissed sternly, glaring at Abby when she opened her mouth to argue. "Right now I just want to hey!"

Pulling himself out of the vent and yelping as he hit the ground, Nick gasped for the air forced from his lungs as he struggled to his feet and staggered towards the shop door Connor had just vanished through.

"Dammit Connor! Just wait a damn minute!" the Professor rasped out as he chased after his student.

Skidding to a halt obediently, Connor raised an eyebrow at Nick before peering around the corner cautiously, breaking into an easy lope as he crossed the food court. "So how do you know me? Ooh! Please tell me you meet me in the future, or my future," he chirped excitedly, looking for a moment as if he was back to the Connor Nick remembered, "Like I go through another anomaly in a year or so and meet you guys and like help you do whatever it is you do. What do you guys do anyway?" he added, pausing and looking back at Nick who was barely keeping pace, "Like, what are you even doing here?"

"We work for the Anomaly Research Centre, locating and securing anomalies before people get hurt," Nick paused and grin, "We're like 'Torchwood'".

Connor froze and looked back at him with wide eyes, "Cool".

"Ain't it?" Nick agreed, grinning back at the boy, silently relieved to see that Connor was still himself somewhere inside.

Whatever Connor had been about to say was cut off by a familiar rattling hiss, Nick watching as the grin was replaced by a hardened expression as Connor dropped into a low crouch and tilted his head to listen.

Trying to copy the boy's movements, Nick edged forward as Connor looked around the corner, a hand raising to smush into Nick's face as Connor held him back. Squatting there awkwardly with one eye closed against a dirty finger, he stayed there stiffly until Connor was gone suddenly crab-walking across the floor with a grace the old Connor had never possessed.

"So how do you know me anyway?"

"Depends, short answer or long one?" Nick countered as he followed Connor down the corridor parallel to the one the raptor was in. Looking over his shoulder to try spot either Stephen or Abby, he froze as he turned back to see Connor raising an unimpressed eyebrow at him.

"Long story short. I went through an anomaly and something happened, when I came back the A.R.C existed, my girlfriend didn't, and you had vanished shortly after we first met," Nick confessed in one breath, Connor blinking at him in shock.

"Well damn, I don't want to know how many things I've changed then," the other man muttered.

"You believe me?"

Connor fixed him with that same unimpressed look again. "Of course I do, why wouldn't I? I saw it on a TV show once".

And with that Connor was gone again, bounding off down the walkway with a spring to his step. "From what I found out," Nick continued after he caught up, the two of them making sure it was clear before moving past an arcade towards an area he was sure he'd been in before. "In this timeline Stephen and I ignored you when you approached us about the anomaly, and then once Home Office came to us with the same findings we tried to find you but you'd gone missing. Through the anomaly I presume".

"And in your old timeline?"

"We believed you, met Home Office at the anomaly site, and we all formed a team to study anomalies and control them," Nick confessed, sticking close to Connor as they moved.

It may not be his Connor, but it was still Connor. And this Connor believed his theory about changing the timeline where Abby and Stephen didn't. No matter how it sounded, right now he just wanted the comfort of being around something familiar, and his 'old friends' were treating him like he was made of glass while Connor didn't seem to care about him at all.

Why did he want to be around Connor again?

"Ooh!"

Sighing as he followed Connor into the electronics department of the shopping centre, Nick just cleared his throat loudly. "I may not have stopped you from taking clothes," he began, gesturing to the 'bag' of clothing strapped to Connor's back with a scarf, "But I can't let you help yourself to a laptop or phone or whatever".

Gaping as Connor turned his back on him with a roll of his eyes and started off again, Nick gave chase once more, any complaints he could have made vanishing as they turned into a row of radios.

"Can I have a radio?"

"What's wrong with them?" Nick questioned as he looked up and down the aisle of radios, all of them letting out soft static-like sound.

"The anomalies give off electromagnetic interference," Connor answered absently, too busy inspecting the smaller hand-held radios to look up at him. "Give me the supplies and an hour and I can track them with a radio by using the static as an indicator, even without having radio-waves around".

"Of course," the Professor exhaled loudly, staring at Connor with a grin as he reached out to clap him on the shoulder. "You're only back for half an hour and you're already proving yourself".

Grin failing as Connor just brushed his hand away, Nick watched as the man shook his head and shoved two smaller radios into his pockets. "I'm not proving myself to you, Professor," he dismissed, "I gave up on that when I realised I can't distract a t-rex by being popular".

"You were never popular, Connor," Nick corrected before he could stop himself.

"Exactly".

"Come back to the A.R.C with us," he blurted as Connor started walking away, "Where you belong".

A snort echoing through the air, Nick flinched as Connor turned a dark look on him. "I belong?" the young man growled out, stepping forward and baring his teeth dangerously, "I belong? 'Leave kid, you don't belong here, try I.T instead', do those words mean anything to you?" he demanded angrily, "Well they should! Because that's what you told me when I came to you all those months ago!"

"I didn't say that!" Nick argued weakly, hiding the urge to flinch because he had been going to say that to Connor when they first met. "This timeline's Nick Cutter did, but I didn't! I believed in you, and I still do! You belong with us, Connor, with the team".

ON THE OTHER SIDE

So this story was written in thirty-minute segments in direct opposition to the Primeval story written by my sister in thirty-minute segments; I found something about doing that on tumblr and my sister and I liked it enough to give it a go, and thus 'On the Other Side of the Anomaly' was born. There are only THREE chapters (two chapters and a five-hundred word epilogue) to this right now, and they'll be up by the end of the week!

Hope you enjoy and please keep in mind that I do NOT own Primeval; because if I did there would be more than six episodes per season.

ON THE OTHER SIDE