Chapter 7: Sit!

A/N: I... I really don't know! I liked the idea when it came to me and I began writing, but I'm not really sure of the end effect. But then again, one is always one's worst critic, right? Anyways, have some silliness pre-the diictodons episode, because a little more fluff before the angstiness is good, right? And don't worry, there will probably be duckbills and titanosaurs and raptors and all that stuff, but I wanted to put this chapter in here. Erm.. enjoy! And I like feedback , especially on the chapter itself od guests whose crits are just about the dinos... right. I'm rambling now...

Just... be imaginative about the dog-lizard, okay? He likes to lick people and eat sheep! :3


"Connor."

"Hmm?"

"Connor!" Abby repeated, standing with her hands on her hips. He was on his back under the ADD, doing something or other with the wiring, and was apparently so engrossed in whatever he was doing that he was oblivious to the outside world.

"Mhh?"

"Con, if you don't stop for a second, I'm going to chuck your collection of comic books into a dumpster and you'll never see them again." She threatened him. Immediately Connor attempted to sit up.

"Wha - ow!" He'd hit his head. With a sigh, Abby crouched next to him and helped her best friend out from under the anomaly detection device. "Did you just say that you're going to throw my comic books out? Abby you can't! I have some one-of-a-kind copies-" She put her hand over his mouth.

"I just wanted your attention, Conn. don't worry, your comics are safe." She told him, chuckling at the stricken look on his face. He made a face, pressing a hand to his forehead. "You alright?"

"Ah, yeah, I'm fine. 'ad worse than this plenty of times, Abbs." Connor pointed out, rubbing the spot once more before turning to her. "So, what did you want to tell me?"

"Besides that you ought to take a break, and Cutter wants me to remind you not to touch the model in his office, and you've got ink on your cheek, you mean?" She said with a grin. Not why she'd come, and not the only thing she meant to say, but the answering chuckle from Connor reassured her.

"Yeah, besides all tha'... wait, I 'ave ink on my face?" He frowned, bringing a fingerless-glove-clad hand to his cheek to rub at the spot.

"It's gone now." She told him, watching him scrub at it fiercely, leaving his cheek a little pink. "Right... well, erm... I've been meaning to say something for a while, Conn, to be honest. Not gotten up the nerve until now so..."

He looked at her incredulously. "You, nervous about somethin'?"

"Shush, Conn. This is important..."

"Well don't say the words 'it's important' too loudly, or the ADD might hear." Temporarily distracted, Abby raised an eyebrow at him. Connor chuckled. "Y' know, any time someone has ta say something life-changing or... something like that -" The pink in his cheeks wasn't from him rubbing the ink off now, she was ninety percent sure, "-there's an anomaly call..."

The machine suddenly flared on with loud alarms, the screen above them lighting up with the words 'Anomaly Detected' at that exact moment.

"For crying out loud! Connor!" She couldn't help but wail, swatting at him, though she wasn't angry at him, just at whatever had decided that there would be an anomaly at this exact moment. He laughed, apologizing as he scrambled to his feet, offering her a hand up, and ran from her as she gave chase.

Cutter peeked out of his office and shook his head in amusement, entering the corridor and looking around for Captain Becker and Sarah Page. Sarah'd been in the break room, and they were probably all headed to the armoury now anyway.

"Where's the anomaly?" He shouted down the hall to Connor, who was holding Abby at bay with a grin on his face. The young man looked up and at Cutter, and let go of Abby's shoulders, straightening.

"Several miles out of town, by some farms, I'll get the exact location on the handhelds." He called back.

"Right, Becker, Abby, Connor, you three take some soldiers with you and head out. Sarah, you're with me, we've got to add this one to the model!" Sarah sighed, though the work she and cutter were doing was interesting, and more to her liking generally than being terrorized by dinosaurs in the field.


As usual, they'd hoped for something cute and non-dangerous to come through the anomaly, if anything had to enter this time, that is. And also as usual, it didn't happen (it did sometimes happen, but the regular occurences were big and dangerous, even if they were herbivores, or meat eaters). Lots of shouting, definitely, and ducking and running and shooting with the tranquilizer guns. Connor didn't recognize what the creature was, which either meant its species hadn't left any traces in the fossil record,or it was an unknown juvenile of a known species, or it was from the future. It was about 18 feet long, as far off the ground as a human, with a head full of sharp teeth and a pair of glaring red eyes with slit pupils. It switched between a bipedal and quadrupedal stance, running on all fours and towering over them on two legs. The head was vageuly canine-like, but the creature was scaled, like a lizard, but for strange tufts of fur along its spine and on its long tail.

"What is it Connor?!" Becker yelled, shooting yet again at it. The tranquilizer dart stuck for a moment but then fell, and the creature didn't seem to notice beyond a shake of its head and a hiss at the loud noise of the guns. It snapped at one of Becker's soldiers, and Abby darted towards it, kicking at it. The thing leapt back, startled at the low to its muzzle, and shook its head again.

Connor typed furiously on his laptop, entering in the observations he'd made and trying to find anything on it. There was nothing useful - and in fact, nothing at all on the beast. He turned to Becker, shaking his head, and shut the laptop with a snap.

"There's nothin'! Abby, what do you think?"

"Besides that this thing is either really stupid or really, really stubborn? The shots aren't scaring it back through, and it's definitely not veggie, if we let our guard down, it'd happily eat any of us for a snack!" She said, darting away from the creature as it sniffed at her curiously. Connor was of the opinion that it was really dim, which didn't really help too much, as it meant the creature wouldn't be scared away by normal means.

"I'm hoping you two have a plan B? Otherwise we're going to use mine!" Becker snapped, avoiding the creature's attempts to take a nibble out of him. At least it wasn't exactly attacking, per se.

"No!" Abby practically snarled at Becker. Connor grabbed her wrist so she wouldn't try to beat up the captain.

"It's like.. a giant puppy dog or somethin', it's a baby, I think. We 'ave to get it back through, even if it is from the future and not the past." Connor said, trying to keep things peaceful. He held still on purpose, trying to see if it would work, when the thing decided to sniff him, too. And he froze in panic when it opened it's mouth...

It licked him.

The giant dog-lizard literally licked him.

"I hope that doesn't mean he's seein' if I taste good." He moaned to Abby, who was caught between worry for him, and amusement.

"Just back away, Conn. He likes you... See if he'll follow you, yeah?" Abby said. Becker raised an eyebrow, clearly trying not to laugh and keep up his stern image.

"This is your plan?"

"You 'ave any ideas, action man?" Connor asked, wiping the dog-thing's saliva off of his clothes. Not nearly as gross as being eaten by a worm that time, but almost as icky. The creature was watching Connor with obvious interest, and he started walking backwards towards the anomaly, one step after another. It tilted its head appraisingly for a moment, then decided to follow him. Despite it being a lizard-dog puppy from the future, the moment reminded him of nothing so much as Clifford the big red dog. He held back a chuckle, but the grin on his face made Abby laugh.

"Just be careful, Conn, okay? If he looks like he wants to take a bit of you, get out of the way, alright?" Abby told him. Becker was still skeptical, and signaled to two of the soldiers to keep their tranq guns at the ready.

"I'll be fine." Connor commented, keeping his eyes on the animal. It followed him, tongue lolling out of its mouth.

As Connor stepped backwards through the anomaly, he was instantly worried that it would close behind him, leaving him trapped in whatever time he was in. The creature followed him through, and Connor looked around, nervously moving closer to the dog-lizard, because it was at least a known quantity, compared to the strange noises in what looked to be a sort of rainforest. Odd.

"Okay, boy, I gotta go back, alright? I'll 'ave to tell Abby that I so thought about keepin' ya. I wish I could, but for one, you wouldn't fit in the flat. And secondly, your mum and dad are probably out there in the forest somewhere, yeah? I can't keep you from 'em. So, g'bye." Connor told the creature, reaching up to pat it on the head. He braced himself as it licked him again, and shook his hair away from his face. THe dog-lizard made a rumbling noise in its throat and looked at him pleadingly. Connor turned to go, paused, and patted the creature before shaking his head and walking back towards the anomaly.

It started to follow him.

"You, stay here, okay?" He told it.

It whined, but stood still. Connor confidently turned 'round and started back to the anomaly again, only to pause as heavy pawsteps followed him again.

"No! Sit, boy!" Somehow, the hand gesture and command worked, which was definitely odd, way beyond just weird, and it made Connor want to stay and investigate, but he had to go back, and sooner than later. The creature sat, looking at him forlornly, and Connor took the moment to dart through the anomaly back into his time.

After Connor emerged from the anomaly, one of the soldiers poked at the whirling rip in time-space with a device that Connor had thrown together. It temporarily sealed anomalies, like the thing he'd used at the Museum, though it was only a few seconds longer than that. He was still working on the design for a device that would lock anomalies until they closed of their own accord, or so the team could decide to unlock them and relock them at will.

"You won't believe me, probably, but he sat on command! Seriously! Imagine if that's our future, a point in time at which humans have creatures like tha' as pets?" Connor babbled excitedly to Abby, who chuckled.

"You were tempted to keep him, weren't you Conn?" She asked, grinning. He smirked.

"Eh, maybe.. a little. He really liked me, y'know."

"He ate three sheep from a farm, Conn. Even i he'd fit and we'd be able to let ourselves keep him from his home, how would we ever feed him?" She pointed out. Connor laughed.

"I thought it was four sheep, actually... Abbs, you know what he reminded me of?"

"What?" She asked, with a sigh that wasn't really as long-suffering as it sounded.


"Hey, Abby?"

"Yeah Conn?"

"Can we get a dog?"

"Go to bed, Connor."

"But Abbs - "

"Connor, we'll discuss it in the morning, yeah?"

A pause, then, "Okay." Another pause. "Goodnight Abby."

"G'night Conn."