Disclaimer: Primeval and all its characters belong to someone else.

Sorry if everything isn't politically correct with mobiles working; Prospero stuff and the science bit etc- but hey! - It's fiction! It's how it worked in my head!

Please review if you think it's OK!

Double Dating

Chapter Ten- Lockdown

A few weeks had passed, but Connor still hadn't managed to give Abby her ring. To be fair, he'd put it off for a bit, deciding he'd be a good friend to Danny and spend some time with him to try to help him ease back into life in 2012. He knew from first hand experience how hard it was acclimatising back, and he and Abby hadn't even travelled as much as Danny had through the anomalies. Although Danny looked more like his old self now that he'd had a shave, haircut and a few decent meals, he still looked too thin and his face was drawn.

The others has put their dating plans on hold too, as they all tried to integrate Danny as painlessly as possible back into modern day life in this new ARC. Danny had taken it hard when he'd learnt about Sarah, and blamed himself for her death. Becker understood how he felt, as he shared that feeling of blame, and had never managed shifted the guilt from his shoulders- he should have protected her better. He and Danny spent several evenings talking about her, remembering the good times they'd shared.

Jess was very sorry for Danny being a girl with a kind disposition, but it had been exactly twelve days without any sign of a 'date' with Becker- or even an opportunity to have a private talk with him as she had decided to do following Emily's advice. She decided that it was now time to get her love life sorted out before that Monica Bishop got her claws into Becker! She saw how the woman batted her eyelashes at him when she walked past him- her hips swinging seductively. She thought Becker was beginning to notice her and if she wasn't careful, she'd miss her chance of happiness. The problem was, should she try for another double date with Abby and Connor, and talk to him afterwards or should she be daring and ask him out?

No, she decided, she wasn't ready to ask him out- not just yet. For all her modern clothes and love of modern day technology, she was quite an old fashioned girl at heart. She would talk to him- it was good to talk through feelings and problems, but she wasn't able to take the lead and ask him out herself. She'd been amazed and in awe of Abby when she'd heard that she'd been the one to propose to Connor. Abby was a very confidant and strong woman, and she wished she could be the same. Still, she was only nineteen and she knew that Abby hadn't always been that forthright herself, according to all the tales she'd heard about Abby and Connor 'dancing around' each other for years. It had taken getting trapped in the Cretacious for them to finally own up to their feelings and became a couple. Becker was all man and in her opinion, he should take the lead- but a little push in the right direction wouldn't hurt!

Danny had fitted nicely back into a niche in the ARC, and was once more part of the team. He wasn't the team leader any more- he was happy with that as he thought Matt was more suited to the role, he had a more organised and less 'spur of the moment' type of leadership style. Danny had always played it by ear, and worked out what to do as he went along. Matt had let Danny continue his testing of the ARC's security, much to Becker's disdain, and Danny and Becker had gone back to their old ways of trying to outdo each other.

As the evening drew on, the team were beginning to wind down a little, preparing to sign off for the night. The relief team was due to arrive shortly, and some of the team were already at the ADD ready to hand over. Suddenly, a woman's voice was clearly heard above the general everyday bustle...

"Take me to James Lester!" she said in an authoritative tone. "He's expecting me." Everyone turned towards the voice. They saw a woman with auburn hair, smartly dressed with very high heels facing out the soldiers on security.

"Jenny!" Connor cried. The soldiers seemed to melt away as the team gathered around Jenny, pleased to see her.

"Why are you here?" Abby asked "Not that we're not happy to see you, of course!"

"Lester wanted to see me. Something about a PR job he wanted sorting out. I'm sorry guys, I'm not coming back. I'm just here in an advisory capacity."

"There's someone here who'll really be glad to see you!" Connor smirked, and as he turned Danny came striding up to Jenny, a huge grin on his face.

"Danny! Lester told me you'd made it back! That's really why I agreed to come. I wanted to see how you were doing! Oh, it's so good to see you!" Danny and Jenny hugged- they'd been very close before Jenny left and Danny went through that fateful anomaly, even though they hadn't known each other for long. Danny had privately thought there could have been something between them had they had more time together. He'd been keen to get her to stay- he wanted to know more about this feisty lady, but she'd been too traumatised by being attacked by a fungus creature and nearly freezing to death, and made her decision that she wanted to leave and live a normal life.

"You look wonderful!" he said.

"Ah! That's married life for you!" Jenny bantered back.

"Married! Wow! That's…well that's great, you must tell me all about it!"

"Yes- prehistoric dogs and all- it's a tale worth telling…"

"Come on, people! Haven't you got anything else to do?" Lester's sarcastic tones stated, although he had a smile dancing at the corners of his lips. "Well, well, it's just like old times!" he said as they turned to go towards his office.

Suddenly all the lights in the ARC started to go out, one by one with a loud click each time. The team's heads snapped around towards each light as it switched off. A metallic voice began to drone 'Lockdown…Lockdown…' and the complete ARC staff force put their procedures into effect as the non-essential staff began leaving, ducking their heads under the shutters as they began to close…..

~~oOOo~~

Jess and Connor rushed to the ADD, but the computers were dead- all the screens were completely blank and silent. 'Lockdown initiated' the computerised voice announced. Connor typed on the keyboards but nothing happened. "Secondary lighting should kick in just about…..now!" he said as a dull glow lightened up the previous darkness.

"What's going on?" Lester demanded "Temple- you haven't brought any animals back to the ARC again, have you?"

Connor looked affronted. He wasn't in the habit of bringing any creatures through the anomalies- well not on purpose, anyway. Fair enough, there had been Sid and Nancy, of course- although they had found him and Abby in a hospital when their anomaly had closed leaving them stranded. And OK- he had brought them to live with him at the ARC for a bit, and they had caused havoc! Then there was the spinosaurus that followed them home when they'd finally made it back from the Cretacious, not willing to give up its meal so easily. Rex was down to Abby, though, not him!

His lips moved as if he was about to say something, but the sound of a creature, or creatures, scurrying interrupted the moment. Everyone swivelled towards the sound, but no sooner had they looked in the direction it came from, when another noise was heard from another angle. The team formed a human circle in the middle of the room, back to back facing out towards the room, eyes darting this way and that to discover what was coming their way. They felt vulnerable as they had no weapons to hand, and suddenly spun towards a new sound, and a voice saying…

"What's going on? Here, take these" Becker added, tossing an EMD to Matt, Abby, Connor and Emily.

"What about us?" Danny asked.

"Couldn't carry any more. Sorry!" Becker replied "I'll just go and get the rest…" He was cut off as the sound of a very large creature was heard to their left along with an ear shattering noise.

"Wha…what is it?" whispered Jess in a terrified voice.

"There!" pointed Matt. They all just managed to glimpse a dark grey streak of something running from corner to corner, a huge pink tail in its wake.

"Oh no!" groaned Connor, "It's like a huge rat! I hate rats! No… really!" he stuttered sensing the raised eyebrows on Matt's face. "I really, really hate them. This one's the size of a dog!" he shivered at the thought. The girls didn't look any too thrilled either at the thought of giant rats scampering around.

"We need more gun power." Becker announced "Danny, come with me and we'll bring some back with extra power sources." Danny nodded and the two of them ran out of the room to the armoury.

The others looked around them, but couldn't hear any more sounds. Suddenly without warning, a wall seemed to cave in leaving a vast gaping hole, and through it six very large, squeaking rats came crashing into the room, gnawing at the bits of plaster scattered over the floor. As if synchronised, the people with EMDs fired at the creatures, Connor with a disgusted look on his face. Jess squealed and clutched Lester's arm tightly, to his horror, and hid slightly behind him. He uncomfortably patted her hand murmuring "There, there!" all the while.

The creatures went down easily amid sounds of loud squealing, but the EMDs hadn't been on the highest charge so they were only stunned. Abby went towards them and felt each one at the neck, checking they still had a pulse. Connor watched her in amazement.

"Abby! You're touching a rat! That's disgusting!" he said. The others laughed at his discomfort- they found it very funny that this brave man who had faced up to the likes of the future predators and had lived a whole year in the Cretacious fighting off all kinds of dinosaurs was afraid of a rat- no matter how large it was! Becker and Danny came running into the room with the rest of the weapons.

"Are there more of them?" Becker asked, kneeling by one of the creatures.

"Not sure" Matt replied. "Can't hear anything. We've got to find the anomaly."

The others burst into action, realising that more of these creatures or worse could come through at any moment. Connor looked at his hand held detector and said after a moment…

"It's in the outer office where the security guard watches the CCTV to the loading bay. We can't get out there because of the lockdown! Oh- it's just gone! That sorts that problem out, at least. I hope Joe got out OK!" he added, thinking of the guard left alone on duty.

"OK." Matt said – business as usual, "Let's get these six down to an empty holding pen in the menagerie. Have to make sure it's not something they can gnaw through."

"I'll er…I'll stay here and try to get Prospero to lift the lockdown." Connor said. The others smirked, knowing why he didn't want to help take the creatures down to the menagerie. Danny clapped him on the shoulder as he went past. "What!" Connor exclaimed at their departing backs, "I'm not bothered, you know….!"

As he felt Lester's eyes on him, Connor said "I'll see if I can get through on my mobile to Prospero. The staff there will be able to lift the lockdown. It'll take about thirty minutes if everything goes OK."

After New Dawn, Prospero had been retained by the government and was still used as a scientific facility, working in conjunction with the ARC in some respects, and maintaining some of the security functions such as lifting lockdown. It was deemed useful to have another facility to be able to activate programmes from elsewhere as well as in the ARC itself. This was one such occasion, and Connor hoped he could get all power restored as soon as possible.

He was really relieved to find that his mobile actually worked. He was lucky to have a little bit of reception on it, and decided he'd phone immediately before it fluctuated or he lost it altogether. When he came off the phone, Lester and Jenny looked at him.

"Well?" said Lester

"Erm…" Connor replied "We've got a problem. Prospero could have lifted lockdown, but…"

"But?" queried Lester, one eyebrow raised.

"They've had problems of their own. Major power cut, affecting the whole area, apparently. According to the electric company, power won't be restored for at least 24 hours."

"What about their generators, aren't they working? Surely they've got enough power to lift lockdown?"

"Well, yes-ordinarily…"

"Ordinarily?"

"Their generators are out of action- they can't get them to work. Needs a new part- they were going to come here to get one!"

"Brilliant! That's just bloody brilliant! Billion pound operation and nothing works! Get them to call in for new generators, then!" Lester demanded.

"They're trying. They don't know if they'll be able to get any and if they can, they don't know how long it'll take to get them up and running. The director said he'd have to raise a DA23. It could take up to 12 hours."

"But that's tomorrow!"

"They're doing their best…"

"Bureaucracy at it's best." Matt joined in as he and the others returned from the menagerie.

"Aarrgghh!" Lester cried in frustration. "Well, that means I'm stuck with you lot for the night! Wonderful! I'll be in my office…"

"I suggest we all stay together." Matt intervened "We don't know if there's any more of those rat creatures about."

As Lester sighed and conceded that Matt was right, none of them realised that elsewhere in the outer office of the loading bay, a few sparks of electricity flared up, and died down again unseen from the wires where the rats had gnawed at the electricity boxes….

To Be Continued….

Ohh! Our lovely couples in the dark in lockdown! Oh- shame Lester's there to put a damper on it!