Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me. This is fan fiction, not for profit.
Any references to people, places, businesses, etc. are entirely fictitious.
Friends?
-x-x-x-x-x-x
Monday morning at the ARC, the woman was called to Lester's office. As she strode through the hub, she was disappointed to see that Connor hadn't arrived yet. Lester waved her in to his office. The bureaucrat opened his briefcase and rummaged through it quickly.
"Here, Miss Maitland," said Lester as he held out photographs of Sid and Nancy towards her. "The boys said you wanted to know how the diictodons were doing."
"Thanks," replied the blonde.
"And this is their way of apologizing," continued Lester, "for the water battle, and…"
"Not necessary," said the woman pasting an extra bright smile on her face.
The super soaker squirt cannons that Lester's boys had brought to the backyard picnic had been a good bit of summer fun. Connor's nephew had taken the water squirting up a notch though when he had turned on the hose. And the boy had soaked his uncle and others when Connor had moved to take the hose away from him. The woman wasn't about to tell Lester that the sight of Connor with a wet shirt clinging to his body was one of the best parts of her summer.
"Getting soaked actually felt good on that hot day," she said. The woman hesitated a moment, her smile faltered, and then she added, "I understand now, what you meant... about why I had to change my name, after meeting all of Connor's family, his brother, sister-in-law, father, and especially his mother."
The green eyes that gazed at her looked surprised. Lester sat down at his desk and closed the briefcase.
"Connor's Mum, an annoying woman, wears a lot of polyester," muttered Lester with a small cringe. He sighed and placed the briefcase on the floor.
"It wasn't for them you know," continued Lester as he straightened back up. "They're all adults, at least I think they are."
"Then why?"
"You had to change your name for the sake of Connor's daughter," answered Lester. "She's old enough to remember her mother. And the staff psychologist said…"
"We have a staff psychologist?" interrupted the blonde.
Lester stopped talking and started turning pages of his desk calendar. He made a tutting noise.
"Yes, annual health and safety assessment evaluations for all staff are due next week," said Lester. "You will need to have a psychological evaluation."
"What?" her voice rose higher in a tone of disbelief.
"You've been displaced from your original timeline," said the director softly, "wandering through time for who knows how many months with Danny…"
The jacket of his pinstriped suit crinkled as Lester shuddered.
"Just having to put up with Danny could drive a person off the deep end," the bureaucrat remarked. "I don't know how Sarah manages."
"Does everyone have a psych evaluation?" asked the blue eyed woman.
"No," answered Lester, "mainly we're checking for post-traumatic stress disorder or out and out madness like Helen Cutter displayed."
"I don't have PTSD and I'm not a homicidal maniac!" huffed the blue eyed woman.
"I didn't say you were," responded Lester, "but you weren't here for the last quarterly evaluation. It's just routine. This quarter, it's just you, and Connor's follow up of course."
There was a momentary silence as the woman registered what Lester had just said.
"Connor's follow up?" she repeated softly.
Lester folded his hands before him and looked at her a bit sternly.
"You didn't hear me say that. Privacy," reminded her boss. Lester sighed. "Health and safety guidelines indicate we follow staff with significant personal trauma for a year at least, longer if needed."
The blonde glanced away from Lester so he wouldn't see her blinking away tears. She swallowed, then squared her jaw and pretended to smile again. She was determined to act happy, to act as if nothing was bothering her.
"So why doesn't Danny need a psych eval?" asked the blonde with a smirk. "He's been travelling through time just as long as me, longer actually."
"He was a copper," replied Lester, "after that, nothing in time is likely to phase him."
-x-x-x-x-x-x
Jenny found the woman in the break room at the ARC on Tuesday morning. The blonde was staring at the microwave as the cup inside spun round and round. She looked up as Jenny came into the room.
"Welcome back," said the blonde. "How was your vacation?"
"How was your weekend?" asked Jenny. The chestnut haired woman moved to pick up a mug.
"You first," replied the woman in a teasing tone.
"Oh, it was sort of weird," replied Jenny, "meeting Michael's parents for the first time."
"Yeah," smirked the blonde, "I know what you mean."
Jenny gave a throaty chuckle as she poured coffee into her cup. She had been sorry to miss Connor's barbecue, but her plans with Michael came first.
"Brave woman! You survived meeting the Temples for the first time," said Jenny, "and lived to tell about it."
The woman shook her head and gave a rueful smile.
"Danny said almost the same thing," chuckled the displaced time traveler. She paused for a moment before continuing. "It was just weird. They all kept talking about Abby as if she's someone else, but I'm Abby too."
Blue eyes looked up at Jenny.
"Am I so different from her?"
Jenny stopped stirring her steaming beverage and set the sugar canister down on the counter before looking up at the woman.
"The way I see it," replied the public relations expert, "you're the same Abby I met when I first started working at the ARC."
Jenny leaned back against the counter.
"But Abby changed," continued Jenny, "after the cretaceous, when she came back, she was the same person, but stronger, tougher. She had to be, to survive in that awful place."
"And Connor?" asked the woman.
"Do you remember when I first met Cutter, how he kept telling me I was someone else?" reminded Jenny with a chuckle. "He told me I was really a woman named Claudia Brown."
"Yeah," replied the woman. "I remember."
"I heard Connor talking with Cutter about changes to the timeline, as if they thought there was only one timeline," continued Jenny. "Cutter told Connor that some people never change. The professor was sort of right, but sort of wrong too. People do change over time."
The woman was silent for a moment. Then the head of white blonde hair nodded. The Connor Temple of this timeline wasn't the adorable, nerdy young geek she had married, but rather the adorable, brilliant, responsible man he had grown to be. Sarah walked in to the break room just then and Jenny turned to the archeologist for support.
"Do you think our young friend is like Abby?" asked the public relations expert.
"You're asking the wrong person," replied Sarah. "You should ask Connor."
"Maybe I will," said the woman with a bright smile.
-x-x-x-x-x-x
Danny came in the break room as Cerys left with her cup. He looked at Sarah and Jenny standing together.
"What are you two up to?" asked the lanky red head. He strode over to the counter and reached for the coffee pot. Sarah shook her head, but Jenny spoke first.
"Just girl talk," said Jenny sounding wistful. She shook herself, straightened up and picked up her mug. "Back to work now."
The public relations expert left the break room leaving Danny and Sarah alone together.
"So what were you two talking about?" asked Danny.
"Trouble," replied Sarah. "She was asking about Abby."
Danny's eyebrows went up.
"And what did you tell her?" asked the former copper.
"To talk to Connor," replied Sarah. She tossed her dark hair over her shoulder and stared at him. "Don't look so surprised, he's the expert on Abby."
"Brilliant," replied Danny with a smile.
"Danny, do you think," began Sarah hesitantly, "I mean, it took so long last time... and this time, it's not even..."
"Just give it time," said Danny softly. His big knuckled hand reached for Sarah's smaller hand and drew it closer, upward. A feather light kiss pressed against the archeologist's fingertips. "I believe in love. And you should too."
-x-x-x-x-x-x
Summer bank holiday found the woman and Jack sparring in the gym again. The petite blonde crooked her elbow and brought her arm sweeping across her forehead, brushing the sweat out of her blue eyes. Jack was bent over huffing, his hands on his knees.
"You know this place does have a swimming pool," suggested Jack as he straightened up. A trickle of sweat dripped down the side of his face.
"Yeah, I know," replied blonde. She hadn't had a chance to talk to Connor in private all week and the scientist had taken his children to the shore for the holiday weekend. The displaced time traveller really couldn't think why Jack had stayed in London during a heat wave. She narrowed her eyes. "If you like swimming, why didn't you go with Connor and the children?"
"Got to watch out for my sister now," replied Jack. He leaned back against the wall and grinned at her.
"I'm not your sister," hissed the blonde.
The grin disappeared from the sandy haired man's face.
"And from what I heard at the barbeque last weekend," continued the woman "you weren't all that close to your sister."
She had stayed glued to her chair on the opposite side of the yard from Connor. During the afternoon, each member of Connor's extended family had managed to make it over to speak with her.
"Hmmmph," muttered Jack, "you talked to everybody at that picnic except Connor. You didn't even say goodbye."
"He was soaked," reminded the woman, "and so was I." She continued to speak, pounding Jack with questions.
"Why are you always watching out for me?"
"Why are you being so nice to me?"
"What do you want from me?"
"I'm not doing anything for you!" exploded Jack.
In the moment of quiet following his outburst, the beautiful blue-eyed woman stared at the sandy haired man before her.
"Do you even listen to yourself?" continued Jack. "You stupid selfish girl! Me, me, me… Nothing I'm doing has anything to do with Abby Elizabeth Westin Temple!"
The blonde swallowed. She hadn't realized Jack had even paid attention months ago when she told Lester her real name.
"I lost everything when I came here," hissed the blonde, "including my name."
"Not everything," retorted Jack. "You're still alive."
He raised his hand tiredly and rubbed his forehead. In a cold quietly bitter tone, he continued.
"Do you know how I found out what happened to Abby?"
The woman shook her head. Jack slid down the wall, slowly coming to sit on the floor. His head rested on his knees, arms wrapped around his legs almost as if in a fetal position.
"Connor called my cell phone," mumbled Jack. "He left three messages, but I was too busy to listen to them. I was in the pub with some mates, drinking and playing cards… and one of them nudges me, points at the telly and says… isn't that your sister?"
"Oh Jack," whispered the woman. She knelt down beside him and started to reach out a hand to touch him, but he brought his head up to gaze at her.
"My big sister, Abigail… Sarah… Maitland… Temple," said Jack, pronouncing each name distinctly, "loved me. I don't know why. I wasn't the best brother… not by a long shot."
His voice was silent for a moment as he remembered some of the things he'd done, some of the trouble, some of the hurt, he'd caused.
"You know the first time I met Connor," Jack's voice echoed through the empty gym. "Abby chucked him out of the flat just to give me a place to stay."
"That never happened in my time," began the woman, but he cut her off.
"Yeah I know," interrupted Jack. "You and your Connor had your perfectly happy life together when I wasn't around."
"And without you around that first time at the racetrack," whispered the woman, "we went through the anomaly to that future world. We saw Helen and wound up chasing after her, to the cretaceous … and Connor…"
Her voice trailed off. Jack gaped at her as he processed her words.
"So you mean that Connor is alive, because of me?" asked the sandy haired man.
The woman couldn't bring herself to speak, but she gave a small nod.
"But don't blame yourself for what happened to your sister," she added hastily.
"Of course not, that was the train," said Jack. He leaned back against the wall. "So instead of messing up their relationship, I saved Connor's life?"
"Yeah," agreed the woman with another small nod.
"So does that mean I'm a hero?" asked Jack with a smirk.
"Don't push it Jack."
-x-x-x-x-x-x
On a morning in early September, the blonde was kicking her heels back and forth while seated on the hard plastic waiting room chair in the health and safety office. Connor came out of the examining room. The psychiatrist followed Connor out and murmured something about being right back before hurriedly exiting the waiting room. The blonde exchanged a glance with Connor. They both wound up chuckling at the man's odd behavior.
"Maybe it was something I said," joked Connor. His face turned up in a rueful grin.
"How are you doing?" asked the woman softly. Connor rolled his shoulders
"According to that bloke I'm doing fantastic," replied Connor, "and actually, I have you to thank."
"Me?"
"Yeah," replied Connor. "When you arrived in 2019 London, I started having bad dreams about the cretaceous again. But those old dreams don't wake me up, so they don't count as nightmares. According to the doctor, that's an improvement."
The psychiatrist arrived then and Connor left. The blonde followed the doctor into the examining room determined not to discuss her nightmares.
"Glad to hear that Temple's doing better," said the petite woman as she sat down in the chair opposite the psychiatrist.
"Yes, yes, he's moving on with his life," replied the doctor. He flipped some pages on a file and jotted something down.
"Moving on?"
"Dating again is a good sign," replied the man, he looked up at the woman and frowned, "but really now we're here to talk about you."
-x-x-x-x-x-x
