It's the Little Things

Summary: Tag to 2x02, I have read several Nick doesn't remember his relationship with Stephen fics, and I figured, let's turn it around, what if Nick remembers being with Stephen, but the Stephen in this new timeline knows nothing about it.

Disclaimer: I don't own primeval, but not for a lack of trying though.

Authors note: I am Dutch, which means English is not my native language. That is why I apologise for any mistakes I might have made and ask anyone who finds a mistake to let me know because I like to learn from my mistakes, thanks!

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Giant prehistoric worms got in the way of Nick's plans.

Nick pushed open the door to the thirteenth floor, leaf blower pointed at the floor to keep the fog away. Jenny Lewis followed behind him probably wondering why she was here. 'Now the most sensible thing would be to let Stephen fend for himself.' He still couldn't believe she'd said that and even worse he had to admit to himself that for a second, he had thought she was right, after all, this wasn't his Stephen right?

The hallway looked like every other hallway in the building. "Stephen where are you?" He shouted hoping Stephen was close by, the last thing he wanted to do was make his way through the entire worm infested corridor. He could hear the worms slither around inside the fog, and every once in a while an ugly head rose from the thick fog.

There came no answer to his call. He called again as they made their way further down, checking offices left and right as they went by. An uneasy feeling was coming over him, then again, that was nothing new, he couldn't count how many times that had happened in the last few days. The worms in the office seemed to follow their progress wearily.

"Cutter!" Jenny pointed at something inside an office. A worm was pinned to a water cooler, another was squashed beneath the lid of a Xerox machine.

Carefully Nick stepped into the office clearing a path for himself with the leaf blower. "Stephen, you in here?" The office was empty, completely empty, not even a slithering shadow of a worm moved in the fog.

"The fog's lifting." Jenny pointed out. Slowly but steadily the thick layer of fog started to clear. The blurred outline of a figure laying on the floor became visible in the receding fog.

"Stephen?" The figure didn't move, Nick dropped the leaf blower and kneeled next to Stephen's unmoving form which lay face down on the office floor. Frantically he started searching for a pulse.

"Is he…" Jenny seemed afraid to finish her sentence and Nick was glad that she didn't.

His fingers couldn't find the reassuring beating he wanted so badly to feel, his eyes traveled over Stephen's body and for the first time he saw the blood coming out from underneath Stephen's stomach. A sensible part inside him was asking whether the blood had been there before, but Nick ignored it. With trembling hands he turned Stephen over.

He heard Jenny scream behind him, he could only stare in horror. There was a big gaping, bloody hole in Stephen's stomach and several small worms were burrowing into the exposed flesh.

"No, no, no!" Nick reached into the wound pulling out the vile creatures one by one, but more seemed to appear for each one that he pulled out.

"Cutter!" Jenny shouted his name, she was shaking him too.

"Cutter!" vaguely Nick registered that that wasn't Jenny's voice.

"Cutter wake-up!" Nick shot up from his position face down on his desk.

"Wow, calm down, you were dreaming." Stephen said.

It took a moment for Nick to register. "Stephen?"

Looking slightly confused at having to confirm his own name Stephen nodded. "Yeah."

The vision of Stephen lying on the floor with a gaping worm invested wound flashed before Nick's eyes and he pulled Stephen into his arms.

Stephen let it happen with a confused look on his face, "A simple thank you would've sufficed really."

"Oh, right, sorry." Nick quickly sat back down.

"Must've been some dream, care to share?" Stephen asked as he settled himself on Nick's desk.

Suddenly Nick was more interested in a conveniently nearby pen, how did you tell someone you just dreamed he was dead?

"I understand, I'll let you get on with things." Stephen sounded slightly disappointed and it occurred to Nick that he might still think that Nick was mad at him over the whole Helen thing. He wasn't mad, possibly he never really had been mad at all, he loved Stephen and nothing could change that. Maybe this was the opening he needed to tell Stephen about the change in the timeline.

" I dreamed I was back at the office building." He said to Stephen's retreating back. Stephen turned around and looked at him, silently urging him to go on.

"Jenny Lewis and I were looking for you, you know after we were separated." Stephen nodded. "But when we came into the room you weren't there, when the fog lifted…." Nick fell silent and stared hard at the floor willing the image of Stephen's dead body away.

"When the fog lifted, what?" Stephen took a few steps closer .

Nick lifted his eyes to look at him. "You were dead."

With a heavy sigh Stephen sat back down on the desk. "You dreamed about me dying, is that wishful thinking?"

"What? God no!"

Stephen nodded. "Well that's good, but why did you dream I was dead then?"

A voice in his head told Nick that this was his chance. "Because…"

Jenny Lewis came walking in. "Come on guys, Connor will be presenting his anomaly detecting thing soon." She stared at him, waiting for him to follow her.

Nick sighed he couldn't do this with Jenny standing there, so he shrugged. "I don't know Stephen, I don't know."

Stephen laid a hand on Nick's shoulder. "Well, I'm not dead Nick, so you can stop dreaming about me." Then he walked away with Jenny.

Nick could hear Jenny asking Stephen what that was all about, he dropped his head into his hands. One thing was for sure, he wouldn't stop dreaming about Stephen anytime soon, he just hoped the next dream would be a happier one.

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Well what do you know, inspiration hit! Yay! Please review!