Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.
Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.
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Abby had stalled Connor as long as she could.
After two weeks, the swelling on his ankle had gone down to the point where it was almost a normal sized ankle again. The bruises were slowly fading, but he still wrapped the ankle before putting on his boot and leaned on his staff when walking. Connor never said a word about it, but Abby could tell the ankle was still bothering him.
She returned from her early morning foray with Mr. Whiskers to find Connor packing his backpack for the journey. As the days had passed, Abby and Mr. Whiskers had reached an understanding. The little creature had been a very good teacher. Abby had watched the tiny mammal and learned. She now knew how to regularly find the maybe onions, maybe turnips and maybe carrots that formed the mainstay of their diet. The fish that Connor sometimes caught were more elusive and it was always a welcome treat to have fish stew.
"Connor," Abby asked in surprise, "you're taking that too?"
He was untying the metallic combination of cans and keys that he called the anomaly detector from a branch. Turning his head to look at her, he replied "Yeah Abby."
As he stuffed the contraption into his backpack he added, "This is all the supplies we've got and we have to keep…"
"I know," Abby interrupted rolling her eyes, remembering his dismay when she told him she had thrown the empty tube of cherry lip gloss away, "we've got to keep everything… reuse and recycle… but Connor… we're coming back here… surely we don't have to carry every little thing…"
"Abby," he replied "we don't want to come back and find something missing… like me glove."
Abby sighed. There he was going on about that missing glove of his again. A chirp came from the log behind Connor. Mr. Whiskers was sitting up on his hind legs looking as if he was scolding them for the disturbance they were making. Abby reached into her pocket for some pine nuts and held them out on her open palm. The small animal was quickly at her side, nibbling the treat from her hand.
Connor watched the scene as he folded their blankets ready to stuff them into the backpack. "You know," he said jokingly "I'd be jealous of the little gent, knowing how much you like whiskers, except I know that I've got the better beard."
Abby looked up at Connor, and smirked a little. He stepped closer and as he bent his face down to her upturned lips, she ran a hand up the side of his face and through his dark facial hair. She murmured "When we get back, you're getting another trim…"
Connor dropped the blankets.
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It was quite some time later when they finally finished packing the backpacks and set out to retrace their path to the other anomaly site.
By late morning they reached the swath of broken and flattened trees left by the path of the titanosaur. Abby and Connor looked at each other. In the time they had been in the cretaceous, they had learned that open space was dangerous. In the grand scheme of things, they were two small creatures that were safest when hidden from carnivores.
"We can hug the forest edge for a while longer," Connor began. Then he pointed to a low rocky hill in the distance, "About there is where we'll need to turn. Right?"
Abby nodded in confirmation, and then looked at Connor with a puzzled expression. "Don't you remember the way?"
"Not exactly," he said sheepishly "me head was bothering me a lot those first few days."
Abby blinked at his words. "And you were going to tell me this… when?" she asked slowly.
"Just now told you," he replied.
"Connor," she hissed "do you even know how to get back to our camp?"
"Well yeah," he answered, sounding a little affronted. "Been living here almost a month now, of course I can find me way home." He pointed across the open area and to the left where an exposed cliff face was flanked by one large conifer and two broken conifers. "There's our first camp. Behind us, is the camp we just left."
Abby looked at him, narrowed her eyes and asked "Connor, where's the knife?"
He pulled it out of the outer pocket of his backpack and handed it to her, watching her quietly. She quickly notched the tree beside her and then stepped back into the woods to notch another.
"You go on ahead, Connor," she called back over her shoulder. "I'll just mark our path a bit and catch up with you later."
"I thought we were supposed to stay together," he called after her.
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Abby caught back up with Connor fairly soon. She watched him trudging along the tree line. He was headed in the direction of the low hill, bracing himself with the staff and carefully stepping around roots, rocks and fallen branches. He was starting to limp again she noted. Abby notched the tree she was standing beside and moved further back into the woods.
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"Connor," Abby called as she stepped out from the tree line to stand in front of him.
"Augh!" He jumped. "Abby, you're gonna give me a heart attack."
"You're getting sloppy," she told him "What if I had been a raptor coming out from behind that tree…"
"But you weren't," he commented, "and a good thing too." He held up an object in his hand for her inspection. Abby smiled in recognition of the last stun grenade. She fell into step beside him as they continued on their journey.
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It was time to step out into the open.
Connor and Abby looked at each other. There were no creatures visible either to the left or to the right in the open fifteen meter wide path that the titanosaur had stomped out. Broad afternoon sunlight shone down on the uneven terrain. New growth, plants sprouting valiantly up through the soil, trying to reforest the space, was already evident. Connor looked up into the bright blue sky.
"What," hissed Abby.
"Just checking," answered Connor, "don't want to step out in the open if there's a pterosaur flying around."
She shivered, she hadn't even thought of those creatures. They hadn't seen any the entire time they'd been in the cretaceous, yet, remembering their first night's resting place she had to admit they were very probably around… somewhere.
"I don't see anything," she replied. "Let's go, quickly now." Abby started running. She heard Connor's heavy steps behind her as she moved into the bright sunshine. She sprinted quickly to the other side of the cleared space, hugging a tree trunk as she turned to speak to Connor.
He wasn't there.
She looked back into the open space. Connor was about halfway across the trampled path, hobbling along as quickly as he could. That's when Abby realized, she hadn't seen Connor run since their first day in the cretaceous with Danny. He couldn't run yet.
"Connor," she called encouragingly "hurry up."
He looked up at her words, "I'm coming," he responded. Abby held her breath as she watched his uneven gait. As he finally staggered into the shade of the tree, she wrapped her arms around his waist. Whether she was hugging him or helping support him, she wasn't' sure, but she knew she needed to hold him.
"Connor," she asked, "why didn't you tell me you couldn't run yet? We could have stayed at the camp until you were better…"
"Can't wait Abby," he interrupted, "we need to find the broken anomaly opening device and my cell phone before a rain comes. We've been lucky so far, but this dry spell can't last forever."
Yeah thought Abby, they had been lucky so far.
"Let's get moving," Connor said, "The aerie should be right around the side of this hill, and from there, we should be able to see where we first came in."
"Right Connor," replied Abby as she notched the tree.
Together, they continued on their journey.
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