"Okay, Thomas, you're officially starting to freak me out. What's wrong with you?" asked Jamie, now staring at him with concern in her eyes.

"I-I'm not Thomas. My name's Connor, Connor Temple," he replied, shaking his head even as dread pooled in the pit of his stomach like oil. Oh, God, please tell me Abby hasn't disappeared. Please tell me she's not like Claudia Brown, he thought, praying to whatever deity would listen to him. He wasn't sure that he'd be able to live with himself if his Abby had somehow been erased from the timeline.

The younger girl-woman was starting to look uneasy now, eyeing him as if he was somehow the one gone unbalanced in this situation. Well…maybe he was going off his rocker. "What's going on, Tom-Tom?" she asked, once again calling him by the wrong name, her tone going gentler than before.

"I said I'm not—" he started to snap back, but then broke off as another round of harsh coughing shook his frame, rattling painfully in his chest. Connor could barely get a breath in, and when he finally could breathe again, he was lightheaded, leaning on the bench for support and wheezing like an asthmatic.

He felt a soft hand touch his face, brushing back his messy fringe to press against his forehead. "God, you're burning up," said Jamie, worry layering her voice. He wanted to say something, pull away from her, but he started coughing again, gasping for breath. She took his wrist, drew him upright, draped his arm around her shoulders, and slipped her own arm around his waist. "C'mon, you need to get home before you pass out," she said, guiding him over to the street and hailing a cab.

I need my Abby back, Connor thought miserably.


"Oi, Cutter, where…where's Connor at?" asked Abby, glancing around and noticing the lack of a certain fedora-wearing nerd.

"You don't know?" Cutter's voice was troubled.

"No, we…we thought he'd be with you," Stephen replied, a note of worry coming to his voice. Beside him, the petite blond bit her lower lip, a small frown playing across her face. Stephen felt the same concern; the youngest of the team had somehow been separated from the rest of them, and no doubt Connor was worried out of his mind trying to find the rest of them.

Lilian nodded assent. They were sitting in a diner not far from the Home Office, sitting down in order to explain and try to understand what'd happened. They all agreed that the strange purple anomaly had somehow transported them into another timeline, but none of them had a clue as to how to get back. Sitting near Lilian, Cutter couldn't help but keep looking over at this woman that looked identical to his former wife. Her dark hair was a lot longer, past her shoulders, and she lacked the air of…well, coldness that Helen had. "So… you work for the Yard?" he asked at last.

She nodded, then pushed open her jacket to let him see the badge clipped to her belt beside her handcuffs. "Detective Inspector Lilian Forsythe. This is my son, Thomas," she introduced, gesturing towards Connor's doppelgänger. The young man was sitting on the other side of the table, chattering with Stephen. He was younger than their Connor, his hair longer, and he had a strange look in his eyes, like he wasn't all there.

Cutter couldn't help but chuckle, shaking his head in disbelief.

"What?" she asked, glancing over with eyebrows raised.

"Nothing, nothing, just…you look like my ex-wife, and…she wouldn't even consider having children if you paid her to," he replied. Helen had never once entertained the idea of being a mother, not even when they were married. She wasn't good with children, and she had never wanted any of her own.

Lilian chuckled and shook her head as well. "Well, I'd be a liar if I said that having Thomas was planned, but I'd also be a liar if I said I regret it," she repliedwith a glance back towards her son. She loved her boy, more than she ever loved anyone, and even if the life of a single mother (and police officer) wasn't exactly the easiest, she wouldn't trade it for anything. "From what I've heard from Tinker Bell over there," Lilian said with a small nod towards Abby, "your ex is a real piece of work."

"Oh…you haven't the foggiest idea," he replied.


Jamie looked over at Thomas as he shivered and coughed, huddled in thick blankets on her bed. She'd barely managed to get him back to her flat before he practically passed out, running a high temperature. What in the world was going on with him? Why did he keep insisting that his name was Connor? She was hoping that it was just delirium from his fever. She dipped a flannel in cool water and draped it across his forehead; he shivered again, curling up tighter under the blankets.

After a small pause, she tugged the blankets away from his face to study him closer. He… he didn't quite look like himself. His hair was a lot shorter, and he had the scruffy beginnings of a beard too, which was entirely unlike him. And he somehow looked older, like he'd aged four or five years in the past two days. It was bizarre, to say the least. Unable to help herself, Jamie pulled the blankets further down. Curled up as he was, it was hard to tell, but she was fairly certain that he was a few inches taller as well. His shoulders and chest had broadened out some, he had put on a bit of weight, and the lines of his face had shifted, matured. He looked like he was in his twenties, not seventeen.

"What's your name?" she asked softly, shaking his shoulder.

"M'Connor Temple," he mumbled.

Jamie leant back, staring at him hard. Something was seriously wonky here.


A/N: a small bit of filler until I finish the next chapter. Coming soon: the team is finally reunited!