Breaking the fourth wall: conclusion
Disclaimer: see previous chapters.
Despite the rather inauspicious (to put it lightly) beginning, Sarah Page was quickly reintegrated into the group, even though she was nervous, a lot, and somewhat reluctant, surprisingly. Still, Claudia hadn't lost any of her PR skills while being away, and the Temple twins could win over anyone.
"You know, this is still weird," Sarah commented once to Helen, as they attended the extended Temple-Cutter family picnic. "This, I mean this, I mean," she paused, got her thoughts together and added. "I had not adapted so well to my regular life as the others have."
"Nonsense! I was a doctor of anthropology, and then a housewife, and now I'm a children's author," Helen shrugged. "You, on the other hand, have remained a doctor of archaeology-"
"Egyptology, actually-"
"-Egyptology, despite a long period of partial absence, I suppose. Just like Christine Johnson, you're probably a better survivor than I am, Dr. Page."
"Please, call me Sarah. And being compared to Christine Johnson is not exactly a compliment, as you should know," the Egyptologist shook her head. "Still, I wonder if it is possible that our friends might someday get out of that mess, ran by Mr. Frost and his partner?"
"You might want to talk to Connor and Duncan about that, then," Helen said nonchalantly, glancing at the older Temples as they listened bemusedly to Duncan explaining to them and Abby as to how he had moved out of his mother's once again. "They're the ones with the innovations nowadays, not I."
"Perhaps," Sarah said quietly, "but they're also content with what they got, and I can't blame them." She looked askance at Helen. "How did you get over the demise of Stephen Hart?"
"Eventually? I died – then it got better for good. Before – discussions with Caroline and even Claudia helped. Just don't mention Stephen to Nick – Stephen had loved him, you know?" Helen said helpfully.
"I thought so about the two of them," Sarah agreed, "even with what I knew. I'll probably hold out on the dying part, though."
"Yes, I thought you might."
/
TosaythatBeckerwasamanonamissionwasto...misleadactually.Beckerwasaman(asJesscouldattest)andhewasonamission...justnotontheofficialmission,orrathernotinacanonicalway.
Oh, undoubtedly the disappearance of Abby just when she was finally beginning to get over Connor (supposedly) was the goal of Becker, but... there were some facts that just didn't fit into the mould that Lester and Anderson and others were adhering to.
First of all, there was Abby's behaviour. Certainly, Connor's replacement (privately Becker didn't acknowledge the smarmy git as anything else) seemed to have a beneficial effect on her, as everyone else assumed, but Becker (who was more observant than everyone else – even Abby and Connor – had given him credit for) had seen her eyes few times when she thought that nobody was looking, and they were not the eyes of a happy person – on the contrary, they were quite miserable... which put her disappearance into a whole different direction than the one that supposedly pointed to Ethan Dombrowski.
Abby's last financial accounts indicated the same thing, actually. Jess claimed (and probably said the truth) that on that day Abby said that she was going shopping, only...
Becker was no computer whizz as Connor or Jess were (supposedly), but the ARC kept track of its employees' financial accounts, and once Becker learned the basics (i.e. accessing his own), it was easy to access Abby's too – all he had to do was to change the number of the accessed account (the ARC was still quite lax and basic with its computer programming despite the presence of Jess and formerly Connor on the staff). And what Becker found in the account confirmed his suspicion: unlike previously, Abby had not spent anything on her outing; she just left the ARC and vanished.
And so had Rex, though to Becker's surprise, no one – except for him – had noticed the coelurosauravus' disappearance, except for, perhaps, the two diictodon, and they weren't talking.
Rex's disappearance, alongside Abby's, actually meant that Abby must've planned this disappearance, and left, taking Rex with her. Considering, that the last time Abby decided to vamoose she wanted to take the entire menagerie of the ARC, this was actually a lot of downsizing for her. It also meant that her disappearance was voluntary, which left Becker and the rest of the ARC... where?
Becker wasn't sure, but then again, he wasn't sure about many things, lately.
/
"This is getting ridiculous, Mr. Frost!"
Mr. Frost and his partner, Mr. Fire were currently sitting in their own space, looking with displeasure at the proceedings of the ARC.
"When James Lester promised results, I assumed that he meant positive results, not negative," Mr. Fire continued, his eyes flashing like volcanic embers.
"What are you talking about, Mr. Fire?" Mr. Frost replied, placidly. "Helen Cutter was able to escape the first time without signing on to anything of his, unfortunately."
"Ah, that's the rub. The final time they had encountered each other peacefully was after I had James Lester promise me some results in solving her problem – the problem of chaos."
"Please go on, Mr. Fire. I wasn't aware that you have extracted any sort of a promise from James Lester."
"Well, Mr. Frost, I have. Helen Cutter had largely stopped becoming a problem after the Oliver Leek/Stephen Hart debacle, and her removal of Nick Cutter was actually a good thing, for it led the way for the more appropriate Danny Quinn, or so I thought."
"Hmm, yes. If it wasn't for the Jenny job finally giving way on Claudia Brown we would've had even more results from Danny Quinn. Instead, well, he became somewhat redundant-"
"Because Helen Cutter learned the truth – she was finally becoming at home in our production, was actually becoming useful, and all that remained for her to do was to reap the benefits. Instead, she died, and without her all of our future plans had to be scraped and recycled, and they just weren't the same."
"Ah, I see the problem. It is the same problem that I have encountered when I have talked to Helen Cutter for the first time: back then, I misjudged her – I thought that her reluctance was a mere problem of nerves, while in reality it was just her obstinate nature and the intent of doing our undertaking harm that drove her into her position in the first place. I fear, when you had James Lester point it out after the whole Christine Johnson debacle you fell into the same trap as I have done."
"Perhaps, but dying? That is the pinnacle of pointlessness, is it not?"
"Perhaps, but she is no longer the problem here, is she?"
"In a matter of speaking, she is. By introducing Ethan Dombrowski I hoped to replace her as a sort of chaos in our program, but the man had failed, broke down and had to be removed. Even now, when I have re-introduced him to plug the hole that resulted in Connor Temple's unplanned disappearance, he is falling short. I do not dare to re-introduce Danny Quinn for the third time, for that just might destroy the remainder of use that we had from Ethan Dombrowski."
"Is there a point, Mr. Fire? You're digressing."
"Ah yes, I do. I propose that we pull the plug on the current Primeval™ project completely, and focus fully on the North American one. It will be far shorter that we have planned it to be at the moment, but much more vibrant, which might make all the difference."
"I'm not sure, Mr. Fire. It was tried with Being Human™ project and it appeared to have failed. There is something about the British that makes them being exotic to the overseas audiences... but I see your merit. Maybe we shall pull the plug on the current, British version of Primeval™ and concentrate solely on the upcoming North American one."
"Yes, Mr. Frost, let's!"
/
"Becker, hello."
"Hello, Emily," Becker said, with surprise. Lately he's been dealing primarily with Jess. "What's up?"
"Matt summons us to a conference with Lester," Emily replied, "and he's sounding really worried."
"Probably because Abby's replacement hasn't arrived yet," Becker said coldly. "Once she or he does, then Abby will be forgotten as quickly as Connor or Danny was."
"Becker! You're being crude!"
"Perhaps, but since Abby, Connor and Danny have went to stop Helen the employment turnover rate at the ARC has sped up immensely, and I don't like it," Becker shook his head as he stood up. "That is irrelevant, however, because I – I mean we - need to go and attend a meeting with Lester, where Lester, and Anderson, and that arrogant sod will be doing most of the talking and Jess will be doing her best to entice me to join in."
"If you feel thusly, then maybe I shouldn't let you in on a little secret," Emily said, and something in her manner made Becker check his advance. "See this?"
"It's a time anomaly manifestation device," Emily said with a smile, "preset to a time and place where someone might help us with our conundrum. Initially, I wanted to come along, but if you're game-"
"Why not Anderson?"
"Too protective," Emily firmly said. "Are you game?"
"Yes!"
And the two of them vanished in a flash of a time anomaly...
/
"Mr. Fire, the plug on the time anomaly is pulled."
"I had my reservations about it, but very well."
/
"You know, it's the funniest feeling," Abby Maitland told Rex when the flying reptile landed on her shoulder for some snack, "but I just had a feeling like someone had walked over my grave or something. Weird."
"I don't know what you're talking about, the weather has actually cleared up," Saran Page shook her head as she joined the odd pair at the table. "No, I know that this being London it's all foggy and stuff, but for the last few weeks this was ridiculously rainy, but now the weather is becoming quite sunny and gorgeous, just as it is in Egypt..."
"You miss Egypt, don't you?" Abby said gently.
"Yes!" Sarah replied excitedly, "and speaking of Egypt, Christine Johnson agreed readily enough to help sponsor my latest archaeological – or Egyptological, if you want to be technical about it – to Egypt. You want to come along as the team's zoologist or herpetologist? It will be interesting."
Abby stared. "It will be interesting, no doubt. But why me?"
"As far as I am concerned, the obvious is enough for me. But also, think of your own career. Even Mr. Duncan, for all of his own personality flaws is pushing his career further along. Why not you too?"
"Why not me too indeed?" Abby said thoughtfully. "Dr. Page, I mean Sarah, I'll think about your offer!"
/
"Well, there you have it," Connor told Nick as Sarah and Abby shook hands with Christine hovering nearby, "Sarah is making peace with and making a contribution – a mutual contribution, I may add. Something's off?"
"Just thinking about my own paleontological trips, especially to Kem-Kem beds," Nick admitted, guiltily. "I confess that back then I didn't quite see their point of attraction, but now-"
"Now you've got a child or two of your own in the making," Connor said with a grin, "and that is going to be an adventure in its own style. Pity that I missed on some of it," he added, "but maybe in the future I'll get another chance..."
"Mmm," Nick nodded, thinking his own thoughts, when their wives came to them.
"What's with the gloomy look?" Claudia asked, gently.
"Just thinking. About past and present and future," Nick replied absent-mindedly, "and similar things."
"Told you," Caroline turned to the older woman. "Want to do something about it?"
"Yes!" Claudia nodded resolutely. "Nick, Connor, it's shaping up to be a lovely day outside – want to go somewhere private and make-out?"
Nick and Connor exchanged startled looks and very firmly agreed.
/
"And that is that," Helen calmly told Rex even as the flying reptile flew over to her (Abby was sharing news about her potential trip with Duncan). "All things have worked out. Nick has his family, his little friend has grown up at last, miss Maitland is going to have a proper career and relationship too, I finally have people who care about me, and so do you, Ms. Johnson, so stop sneaking."
"I don't know how you do it, but you still do it," Christine nodded as she sat next to the other woman. "Guess I practice makes perfect."
"I'll drink to that!"
And the two women shared a long, friendly drink under the grinning sky.
End