Stephen, Ryan and Kathy/Katie continued to stare at Nick for an explanation, growing more and more uneasy as the seconds passed. No one seemed to know what to say, until Abby broke away from Conner and launched herself at Stephen with a sob. She slammed into him, arms and legs wrapping around him like a vice as she buried her teary face against his neck.

The impact caused Stephen to stagger and before her even righted himself, Connor had joined the fray, wrapping the surprised man and sobbing woman in a bear hug. The younger man was obviously trying not to cry himself, blinking rapidly and sniffling.

Ryan and Kathy/Katie both wore surprised and highly amused expressions and stepped back from the unsteady mass of hugging people. Abby was still hanging off of Stephen, arms around his neck and legs around his middle which normally wouldn't have been a problem, but Connor's hug pinned his arms to his sides, limiting his balance.

"Uh, nice to see you two as well," Stephen murmured, managing to wiggle one arm out of Connor's grip to pat him awkwardly on the back.

Still pale and swallowing hard, Nick managed to say, "Stephen…how… Stephen…."

Hearing Nick, Connor pulled himself together and released the taller man, gently easing Abby off him as well. Stephen, obviously confused, watched them, then looked at Nick. "What's going on, Cutter?" he questioned, exchanging a glance with Ryan and Kathy/Katie.

Hearing Stephen speak directly to him broke Nick out of his stupor and he took several rapid steps towards his assistant. Then he froze. When Nick rushed at him, Stephen actually flinched back as if he expected Nick to hit him. The woman he had come back from the anomaly with stepped forward and slightly in front of him, a protective gesture that made Nick wince as did her glare.

Ryan was eyeing him with a rather wary expression himself, so Nick moved slowly as he began a second approach.

"It's all right, Katie," Stephen murmured, patting her shoulder as he moved around her. His eyes remained locked on Nick's until the older man was within arms length.

Then Nick couldn't hold back. In one smooth motion, he seized Stephen by the shoulders and pulled him into an almost crushing embrace. Reverently, Nick ran a hand over his friends back, then clutched at his shirt. "My God, you're really here," he breathed, then pulled back to look at Stephen's shocked face. "Look at you!"

"Right," Ryan said from the sidelines. "Have you all been drinking?"

"Or been drugged?" Katie added, picking at the drying mud on her cheek as she eyed the surrounding ARC team members. "Because you lot are acting very sketchy."

"What?" Connor asked, finally tearing his eyes off of Stephen to focus on the other two.

Abby simply managed, between sniffs, "No."

"Okay!" Stephen finally said, wriggling out of Nick's grip. Looking the other man directly in the eye, he said, "Tell me what's going on here, Cutter."

"You died." Oh very nice, Nick thought to himself. Just blurt it out. This is why Jenny doesn't like for you to talk to the public. All the tact of a Gorgonopsid, you have. "In Leek's menagerie. You locked yourself in to keep them from escaping. I saw…."

Stephen was shaking his head. "No," he said firmly. "Lester, Tom and his boys showed up with enough firepower to overthrow a small, South American nation. We killed the creatures."

"An alternate reality!" Connor gasped, bouncing on his toes with even more glee. "One where Captain Ryan lived and showed up in time so Stephen didn't have to lock himself in Leek's whacked out zoo, so he lived too. And… sorry I didn't get your name…."

"Kate Garrity," she said evenly.

"And Kate Garrity works at the ARC," Connor concluded with a grin. "Very cool stuff."

"A bit Stargate, really," Katie muttered. "But we travel through anomalies and deal with time lost, extinct species, so not that much of a stretch, I suppose."

Connor's surprised expression at least served to make the last of Abby's tears dry up. Before she could tease him, Ryan piped up in a rather disgruntled tone, "So, I'm dead here as well. Just brilliant."

"I hate to break up this little reunion, but we should all head back to the ARC. We can figure out what to do there," Jenny said suddenly, waving her phone in the air. "Lester is having a fit."

Everyone nodded in agreement, and as they moved off to the cars, Stephen fell in step with Ryan and Katie, a few feet away from the others. Before they got into the vehicles, Katie asked, "What's up with your hair, Claudia? A bit dark, don't you think?"

The look on Jenny's face made Nick laugh a real, loud laugh that had him nearly doubled over.

TBC

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