The Curse
Author: Sandylee Potts
Rating: T
Characters: Connor, Abby, Becker, Danny, and OC's
Disclaimer: Primeval belongs to Impossible Pictures, if I was in charge; Series 6 would have already been shot and would be ready for airing!
Spoilers: Season 3 onwards
A/N: This story is different from my 'Saving' series of stories. I liked the idea of Connor being a twin, so have brought his brother back, to avoid confusion in this story I have called him Ashley. The Other Characters, whilst are actors, have all been created by me and belong to me.
Thanks go to Basched for the Beta reading I have made changes since she read this so any other errors are all mine. This story will be turning AU very quickly in to the story, be prepared for the impossible to happen!
CAST:
Lord Cuttershall … Douglas Henshal
Lady Cuttershall … Lucy Brown
Peter Cuttershall … Eddie McClintock
Connor Temple … Andrew Lee Potts
Ashley Armstrong… Andrew Lee Potts
Madam Christina … Belinda Stuart-Wilson
Tom Ryan … Mark Wakeling
Sorcerer … Colin Morgan
Morgana… Katie McGrath
Stephenson… James Murray
Mohini … Aishwariya Rai
Chapter 2
Present Day...
Connor huffed as he sat back in his cold and uncomfortable jail cell. He could not believe that he'd managed to get himself arrested. Lester, Cutter, and Jenny were all going to kill him. He couldn't even keep watch on an empty house. He could see the ginger haired copper called Danny outside his cell. Walking back to the door, he began to shout.
"This is a blatant miscarriage of justice!" He turned away, and kicked himself, if only he knew what to say. He turned back to the hole in the door and shouted as he saw Danny standing opposite. "I know my rights!"
"Name them." Danny replied without batting an eyelid. If he had a penny for every time someone had said that after being arrested, he would be a very rich man.
"What?"
"I said name them!" He replied dryly.
Connor wracked his brains. It would help if Tom was here; Tom had been good at remembering that sort of stuff. He tried to think hard. In the distance he heard a phone ringing, that's it!
"A phone call! I have the right to a phone call!" He bounced excitedly; he'd remembered something.
"Good lad..." Danny replied sardonically.
"And I have the right to remain silent..." Connor smiled.
"Well you've lost that one then," Danny swung the keys to the cell door as he strolled across to open it.
In the distance, a casually dressed man stuck his thumbs into the pockets of his jeans, and he watched in the distance. He melted into the shadows when Connor glanced his way; he didn't want to be seen, not just yet.
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-o-o-o-
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Danny led Connor to a desk where he could make his call. He stood at a distance watching him, he could phone whomever he liked, and it wasn't going to make a difference because he was going to hold him for at least twenty-four hours!
He watched the young man as he finished his phone call. Danny couldn't help thinking that Connor looked very similar to a colleague of his - a policeman at this particular police station.
He wanted to find out what the young man and his friends had been doing at the Old House, it was rumoured to be haunted, and they looked too old to be playing silly games. He wondered where the women had gone; they were clearly up to something. He walked Connor back to his cell and locked him up.
It was then that one of his colleagues stopped him, the very person he had been thinking of, the uncanny and almost mirror image of his prisoner.
Danny had known Ashley for a long time; they had been partners on many different cases, ever since he had joined this particular nick seven years ago, and they would be seen together on their evening off; and he had even known he had a brother. But he was sure that his colleague had said that his brother lived in Blackburn? He wondered, was this Ash's brother? Was it possible that they were twins?
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-o-o-o-
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Unbeknown to him, Ashley Armstrong; was in fact, Connor's twin brother, his identical twin brother! When their parents had divorced, they had separated the twins. They had been very young, only a year old. Ash had stayed with his father and Connor had stayed with his mother, changing his surname when she remarried. Ash felt nothing but resentment towards the woman who had given birth to him. That's all she was, a name, a face, someone who didn't even care enough to send him a birthday card.
He watched the goings on from a distance. He didn't want to approach his brother, not just yet. He wasn't sure what their mother had told him, whether he even knew that, he had a brother. Ash's father on the other hand, had told him everything. How he'd been heartbroken when their mother had approached him for the divorce. How he'd felt even worse when she had been the one to remarry shortly afterwards. His father had also told him about other reasons why their mother had divorced him. Reasons that Ash had only begun to understand recently, reasons why he had to find and speak to Connor.
He watched as a woman in a smart black coat and trousers came to collect Connor. He smirked as she threw Danny a mobile phone, he could not hear what was said, but Detective Constable Quinn was not a happy man, and he was forced to let his brother go after only a few hours.
He hid in the shadows once more, as Connor walked past. Who was he? What did he do? Did he still live with his mother? Or did he live locally? Did he have a girlfriend?
Ash eyed him suspiciously, sighing he sauntered over to the bank of computers in the police station. He wanted to know more about the man DC Danny Quinn had arrested, the man called Connor Temple.
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-o-o-o-
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The records the police had access to, were huge. He could find out anything about Connor including his email address, and with a little authorised hacking, he could even gain access to his medical records.
DC Ashley Armstrong leaned back in his chair and sighed. Connor certainly had been a good boy whilst growing up. He followed the paper trail that led to Connor going to university. He also knew that after completing his coursework, he had joined his mentor, a professor by the name of Nick Cutter, when he had left the university to work at an organisation called the ARC.
Ash frowned wanting to more about the so-called ARC, but he could not even find out what the acronym stood for. The paper trail for Connor Temple came to a full stop.
Sighing he tried a different avenue. Typing in Connor's name and birth date, he tried to find out where the young man was living and who lived at the address with him.
He smiled when he came across Miss Abigail S Maitland. So, Connor did have a girlfriend! Raising an eyebrow, he looked into Abby's sordid past and was surprised with what he found.
Abigail had been adopted at a very young age; she had only been 18 months old when she had been taken into care by Social Services. Her mother had been admitted into a mental hospital, unable to take care of herself or her child. She had grown attached to a young boy called Jack, and the two had been inseparable. Then as Abby had grown older, she had been involved in some rather unusual goings on. Fires that started of their own accord, electrical items that turned on as if by magic, and blood appeared on her hands for no reason. Her adoptive family could not cope with her and she was sent back into care. She and Jack were sent from foster home to foster home, not spending any length of time at a particular place until she was eight years old.
Her longest stint with a foster parent had been a Mrs T Ryan, and she had managed to look after her until she was thirteen. Mrs Ryan had then fallen very ill and had died shortly after Abby's thirteenth birthday. Abby had been taken to another foster home where she had been abused, the mysterious occurrences had started up again and she was sent to another care home until she was old enough to leave. She eventually landed herself a job at Wellington Zoo. She too currently worked at the ARC, and Ash was struggling to find out what it was that the organisation did. All he found out was that it was a secretive part of the Government.
Ash glanced up from the screen as Danny entered the room. Not wanting Danny to see what he was looking at, he logged out of the screen erasing everything. Danny would be none the wiser.
"They are up to something, I know it," grunted Danny.
Ashley raised his eyebrows.
"They were at the Old House," Danny paused. "They know something, and I think they know what happened to my brother."
"What makes you say that? I know they never found a body, but what makes you think they're involved?" Ash questioned.
"Something's not right. Did you know she phoned the Home Secretary to get him off the hook?"
"The Home Secretary...?"
"Yeah...! He chewed my ear off didn't he?" Ash smirked at Danny's red face.
"Hey Ash, that little toerag Connor Temple; looks just you. He's not your brother, is he?"
Ash shook his head negatively; he didn't want Connor finding out from anybody else, and he was not ready to divulge the truth to anybody else. He would approach him when the time was right.
"You don't fancy...?"
"Going undercover and switching places with him? No thanks!" Ash shook his head vehemently smiling at Danny's intended pun.
"Thought not..." Danny sighed grinning. "I'm going after them; I know that they're going back to the house." Danny muttered as he stood up.
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-o-o-o-
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The following day Ashley was inside a well-known coffee shop buying his lunch, when a smartly dressed gentleman approached him.
"Our Boss wants a word with you!" said the man.
"Who are you?" Ash queried.
"My name's Captain Wilder; and my Boss would really like to meet you." The man grunted it was not a request.
"Why?" Ash regarded the man coldly. He was too smart to be a local thug, but then just because he was dressed in a suit; it didn't mean he was working as a thug for someone high up! He tongued the inside of his cheek whilst he decided whether to follow the man or not. The man had not answered his question and Ash was intrigued.
He finished paying for his purchases and curiosity made him follow the man to a sleek black Mercedes with tinted windows. The man opened the door for him and gestured for him to get inside. Begrudgingly Ash did as he was told, to find the man's Boss was a rather smartly dressed middle-aged woman. She smiled at him; bright red lipstick stained her lips, dark hair was twisted into a knot at the back of her head.
"Hello ... Christine Johnson," she spoke clearly with a clipped, posh voice. She smiled as she extended a neatly manicured hand for Ash to shake.
"Hello..." Ash gazed out of the window trying to follow where they were going.
"Don't worry you'll be brought back to your car." She smiled again handing him a manila envelope. "I need you to do a job for me; you'll be paid well."
Ash listened intently as she told him of her plan.
"Why have you chosen me?" Ash enquired thoroughly bemused as to why he in particular had been chosen. This woman would have hundreds, if not thousands of men at her disposal and yet she had come to him. There had to be a reason why.
"You'll see," She handed him another file, which he began to look through.
Ash lost track of where they were and of all time as they continued driving, he was too busy reading through the information presented to him.
He read more of the file and realised that Christine had wanted him in particular because he was Connor's brother. He frowned. How had Christine made the connection? He read more of the file, especially where Connor worked.
Anomaly Research Centre.
So that's what the acronym stood for!
"Will you accept my offer?" Christine smiled.
He paused for a moment unsure of what he wanted to do.
"Maybe this will convince you." Christine smiled once more. "Captain Wilder." She extended her hand to the front of the car where Captain Wilder sat. In turned the man gave her another file, which she passed over to Ash.
He gazed at her for a moment. He sniffed, the scent of expensive, sickly, sweet perfume assailed his nostrils, and he opened the file. The first picture was quite innocent; one of him leaving his flat, the next was a picture of him with his father, again quite innocent.
The following picture, however, made his blood run cold. He inhaled sharply, gritted his teeth, and looked at Christine, anger beginning to bubble through his veins. He continued to view more pictures, each more damning than the rest.
He couldn't believe that Christine knew. She knew his secret!
"If you don't comply, this file will be leaked to the media. I'm sure you don't want that to happen do you?" She smiled widely.
"I'll try again, will you accept my offer?" She continued smiling menacingly.
Ash's heart sank and he nodded slowly. He really didn't want to do as she wanted, but under the circumstances, he didn't have a choice. He enjoyed working in the police force, but he really couldn't let this particular information be made public.
Once he was back in front of his desk at the police station, he typed up his resignation, only to find that Danny was quitting too. Had he been head hunted by Christine too?
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-o-o-o-
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OK - So not vastly AU, but I'm getting there, just warming up, setting the scene...
Let me know your thoughts - Press that button...