"He's a geek!" Rose sighed as she passed Mickey his tea.
"And... You go for geeks."
"No I don't, besides, why would I go for him, I mean Connor, seriously?"
"Well he likes you."
"No he doesn't, and even if he does, it doesn't mean I have to like him back now does it?"
"Rose, open up! I think I've found another anomaly." A voice yelled from her door. It was Connor.
"What is he doing?" Rose whispered to Mickey, who simply shrugged.
"Told you he likes you."
"Oh shut up." Rose sighed and quickly went to open the door.
"Hi." Connor waved and walked as Rose let him, "Nice place."
"Thanks. Here you should read this." He said and passed Rose a piece of paper, then he noticed Mickey, "Hi."
"Hi." Mickey smiled, waving at him and walked over to Rose, snatching the piece of paper from behind her, "So, what is it?"
"It looks to me like another anomaly. We should check it out."
"What does Cutter say?"
"I haven't actually told him yet. You know, I could be wrong, and I don't want him to think I'm an idiot."
"I think that ships sailed Connor." Rose smiled sympathetically, "So no-one knows?"
"No, but, think how impressed he'll be if I'm right."
"Okay, let's go then." Rose smiled and grabbed her coat, Mickey doing the same.
"We're going?" Connor asked.
"Yep!"
X
"The tent's only big enough for one." Rose muttered as she joined Mickey and Connor as they sat down by a tree, and sat between them. "Having fun?" she asked Mickey who nodded.
"Yep."
"I like sleeping out." Connor said and Rose and Mickey simply looked at him in disbelief.
"You?" Mickey asked and he nodded.
"No offence, but you don't exactly look the outdoorsy type to be honest."
"I did the Duke of Edinburgh award, you know. For a morning. Until I sprained my ankle."
"So did I." Mickey smiled.
"No you didn't."
"Yes I did...well, I filled the form in and thought about it." he admitted.
"Bloody hell its freezing!"
"We should huddle together for warmth." Connor whispered and Rose simply looked at him with an incredulous look.
"I don't think so mate." Rose shook her head and wtahced Connor shrug and rested his head against the tree. "Do you reckon that Stephen is seeing anyone?" Rose wondered, forgetting she had just said that out loud.
"what?"
"Nothing." Rose answered quickly.
"You like him," Mickey smiled at her, "Rose likes Stephen."
"Shut up." Rose shoved him on the floor, "you like that bloody Claudia."
"No I don't!"
"Then shut up, or I will tell everyone, that you do." And with that, Mickey shrank in to his coat and stayed silent.
X
"Look, I know what you're going to say." Connor said as Cutter, Claudia and Stephen walked over to them. Connor's friends has decided to trick them with a fake dinosaur.
"We're sorry." Mickey apologised.
"The police aren't going to prosecute you for trespassing. Supposing it had been a predator. What were you going to do? Tame it? You knew exactly what was at stake but you just couldn't keep your mouth shut."
"I had to tell somebody. I'm sorry. I am. I blew it."
"Go back to college. Get on with your work. I'll find you another supervisor." Cutter said.
"Listen, we're as much to blame as he is." Mickey explained, receiving a glare from Rose.
"Shut up." She hisses.
"Just as stupid, maybe. But you two didn't shout your mouth off and you've both still got skills I can use. You two are staying, we'll need you." He explained and walked off, leaving them standing there.
"I feel a bloody school kid getting told off." Rose sighed.
X
"I can't close the underground on a wild hunch." Lester muttered as Nick told him to close it after something was seen down there and a worker was fatally bitten.
"Listen, something is down there, and something injected him with venom," Rose explained, "We need to close it down till we find what it is. We won't have to shut the whole area down, just that small area where the attack was, there's a whole network of disused tunnels, it wont make a big impact."
"Yes, very well." Lester agreed.
"Thank you."
X
"We should be down there with them." Rose commented as Ryan and his team went down in to the tunnels.
"Special Forces go in first. You didn't think Lester was going to let you have it all your own way?"
"Well I don't work for Lester, so no I wasn't. But if I do, he can't exactly stop me can he? They don't even know what they're looking for."
"Rose is right," Nick and Stephen interrupted. "We need to know what we're looking for."
"there can't be that many different types of venomous predator under the Aldwych." Stephen commented.
"I don't think that's helping." Rose muttered.
X
"They were like spiders, but with pincers, not fangs. Some of them over a meter long. Horrible littleā¦" Ryan explained as they back up from the tunnels.
"How you feeling?" Rose asked, "You alright?"
"Sick. My ears are ringingā¦"
"Any blurred vision?" Nick asked.
"No. But there's something else. The gunshots were too bright, like fireworks."
"That's classic signs of excess oxygen in the atmosphere." Stephen commented.
"A richer, more heavily oxygenated air must be seeping through from another anomaly. We're not talking about the Permian era any longer. This is much, much earlier."
"By how much?"
"Maybe the Carboniferous about 300 million years ago. We really need to see exactly what these creatures look like. I need to see this for myself." He stated, hoping she wouldn't refuse.
"Okay, go."
"Let's get some gear."
X
Rose tied her boots up as she finally got ready to go down and Ryan passed Nick some guns.
"No, we need torches. The most powerful you can find."
"Well, the pest controller died a few minutes ago. They're running tests on our casualty now." Claudia came in and noticed Rose was gearing up. "What are you doing?"
"Im going down."
"Um, no."
"Um, yes." Rose changed and Nick interrupted.
"Rose has got more practical experience with this kind of thing than the rest of us put together. And you know it."
"I don't care. Sorry, it's just too risky."
"Im used to risks."
"I don't care."
"Yeah well, neither do I, and I am going down. I can help, we were trained how to deal with these types of creatures, for every situation." She explained and watched as Claudia walked away, along with Nick and Ryan, leaving her and Stephen alone.
"Is that true?" he asked.
"Well, sort of. I didn't get trained, I've just kind of, got used to these situations, but to tell you the truth, if these are spiders, I'm not gonna be much good." She admitted. "They're not really my thing."
"Don't worry, these are probably scorpions." Stephen explained, trying to make her feel better.
"Right, don't do scorpions either." She cringed.
"Don't worry," he smiled, "I'll look after ya." He reassured her and led the way as they went to the tunnels.
A/N: Thanks Logan the Awesome for the review, glad you're liking the Claudia/Rose hatred, there will be more of that, I promise, hope you're liking the story, anyway, a bit of romance in the next chapter, can you guess who for? Anyway, review and let me know your views on it, the faster you review, the faster you get an update.
Amy
