Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me. This is fan fiction, not for profit.
Any references to people, places, businesses, etc. are entirely fictitious.
Taking Care of Tomorrow
"I was planning on it."
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Emily soon found work at the nearby library, but she had to take a leave of absence the following year. Emily's initial draft of The Faeries Guide to Begonias had already been accepted by the publishers before the triplets arrived. The terrible trio, as little Helen would fondly call her siblings because they were terribly terrific, demanded more attention than books. The book, part planting guide, part fondly remembered stories, was dedicated to "my dear friend Jessica Parker."
"There's a botanist somewhere who's not going to write the Illustrated Guide to Begonias now," worried Matt. "I just can't remember the author's name."
"Quit worrying," soothed Emily. "He or she will write something else, maybe about petunias or sweet peas. This book had to be written. It's Helen's favorite bedtime story."
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Years passed. All too soon, little Sage, Fern and Alder joined their sister to school. The next year, however, there was a small change.
"What do you mean?" asked Sage as she reached for the buttered toast.
"Why aren't we going to school together?" wailed Fern. "I want Helen to walk me to my classroom."
"Eat your breakfast and stop whining," said Matt as he spread jam across his toast.
"Why does Helen have to go to a different school?" demanded Alder. The only boy in the family crossed his arms over his chest. "We're supposed to stay together."
"Helen's older, she's going to secondary school love," answered Emily. "Don't worry, you'll soon follow."
"But by then I'll be gone to uni," teased Helen.
Matt and Emily exchanged a glance while the terrible trio pouted at that news. Emily reached across the table and patted Matt's hand encouragingly. The couple had often talked of the day their oldest child would leave home.
"Central Metropolitan University will be glad to have you," replied Matt.
"Oh Daddy, no," said little Helen. The silver shining braces on her teeth glinted in the dining room light. "I'm thinking of Glyndwr University or the University of Aberdeen."
"Wales? Scotland?" exclaimed Emily in surprise. "They're so far away."
"CMU has a better paleontology program," reminded Matt. And thought the time traveler, I can keep an eye out for that Nick Cutter person.
"Daddy, dinosaurs are for fun," said his bubbly oldest child, "but I want to study botany."
"Really?" asked Matt in surprise. "You'll probably change your mind a half a dozen times before uni."
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But Helen Anderson didn't change her mind as she grew from a precocious child into a brilliant, beautiful young woman. A few years later, Matt toured several institutions of higher learning with his daughter. In Cambridge, while Helen toured the Plant Sciences Department, the time traveler met a sarcastic young political science grad student in the university cafeteria.
"Excuse me?" asked the young James Lester. "What did you just say?"
Matt repeated the code word that the man's older counterpart had told him would ensure Lester listened to anything Matt might say.
"Put watch out for dinosaurs on your to do list," said Matt. "Before preparing for alien invasion."
"Really?" sniffed Lester. The bureaucrat to be adjusted his necktie. "And you know this how?"
Matt's lips curled up in a grin at the familiar gesture. The slender man standing before Matt might be twenty years younger, but he was still Lester.
"I could tell you I was from the future," chuckled Matt, "but then you'd think I was clinically mad."
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A full scholarship to Glyndwr University sent Helen far from home. Matt continued to teach at CMU, and continued to look for Nick Cutter.
"I've seen pictures of the professor," complained Matt, "but I've never seen him as a young man. The registrar says we don't have any student's by that name."
"Good," declared Emily. "As long as Cutter doesn't show up at Glyndwr University, I don't care where he is."
"I'd rather have him where I can keep an eye on him," muttered Matt.
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Two years later, Matt filled in for a junior professor out sick with the flu. Matt seldom taught the introductory Botany 101 class. When class ended, Professor Anderson called a pretty freshman to stay after.
"Sorry, but you look like a friend of mine." replied Matt. "Are you any relation to Jenny Lewis?"
"Never heard of anyone by that name," replied the tawny haired co-ed. "My name is Claudia Brown, I'm majoring in public administration."
"Really?" said the botany professor in surprise. Matt gathered his text books together and rose from his desk. "So what are you doing in a botany class?"
"I'm minoring in botany," answered Miss Brown. She followed Matt out of the class room. "Professor Anderson, sir?"
Matt turned to look at the young woman. The facial features were the same as the Jenny Lewis-Miller that Matt had once known, but the hair color was different. And this woman exuded an air of innocence that the sophisticated Jenny had carefully kept hidden.
"Yes Miss Brown?" responded Matt.
"Is it true?" asked Claudia. "Are you really the Emily Anderson's husband?"
Matt's eyebrows went up at that question. He knew Emily had a loyal following of readers to her continuing Faerie Guide series. Claudia was about the same age as his oldest daughter. Had Claudia grown up with The Faeries Guide to Begonias as a bedtime story too?
"Yes," said Matt with a chuckle. They stepped outside into the rainy afternoon drizzle. "And if you'd like to meet Emily, stick around. She will be picking me up any minute now."
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Matt and Claudia were both soaked by the time Emily arrived with the terrible trio in the back of the family mini-van.
"Traffic was just awful," apologized Emily. The Victorian woman looked at the young student standing beside her husband. "Jenny?"
"No," replied the tawny haired woman. "My name's Claudia, Claudia Brown."
"Would you care to join us for tea?" asked Emily hopefully.
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It wasn't until Helen's senior year at Glyndwr, and Claudia's sophomore year at CMU, that Matt located Nicholas Cutter, a transfer student from Glasgow.
"Nicholas Cutter seems exceptionally promising," explained one of Matt's colleagues in the paleontology department at the faculty meet and greet. The elderly gentleman pointed toward the scruffy looking student. Cutter was stuffing his mouth with finger sandwiches. "We're lucky to get him in our grad program."
"Just so long as he stays away from my daughter," replied Matt with a small frown.
The laughter of his colleagues and murmurs about overprotective fathers didn't make Matt feel any better, but the excited phone call he got from Helen a few weeks later did.
"Daddy, I've been offered a position in the graduate program at University of Aberdeen," called Helen. "I'm sorry, I know you and Mum wanted me to come back to London, but…"
"It's a great opportunity," answered Matt. "Don't worry, I'll smooth it over with Emily. Just be sure to come home first, we miss you."
"Of course I'll be home before moving to Aberdeen," replied Helen. "I've promised Sage and Fern that I would help them find dresses for the end of year dance… and Alder asked me to help him practice some new dance steps…"
Matt smiled as he listened to the gush of warm words bubbling over the phone. Little Helen had grown up, but she was still his little girl.
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Eighteen months later, Matt made two important phone calls. The first call was to the police department. Officer Danny Quinn was very annoyed to find his young brother and some of Patrick's friends trespassing on the grounds of a vacant Tudor home.
"Are you going to arrest us?" asked Patrick.
"Worse," snarled Danny in his most ferocious copper mode, "I'm taking you home to Mum."
The tall red haired copper grabbed his little brother by the ear and shooed the other boys into his waiting police cruiser. They didn't notice two men lurking beneath the trees.
"We've been waiting since three o'clock," complained Lester.
"I told you I didn't know exactly when the anomaly would open," replied Matt. The blue device that Connor had made, or would make, some when, started beeping. Matt pointed. "Look."
Lester sniffed disdainfully. Lights flickered inside the home.
"Really?" asked the junior government official. "Is that all? A bunch of blinking lights?"
"According to the utility company," replied Matt, "the electricity has been turned off for three months."
Matt gazed at the blue device in his hands. The anomaly map indicated the longitude and latitude for a deserted part of coastal Malta. The chronometer kept flickering 1919, 1920, 1919. Connor had told Matt this anomaly led to a dangerous anomaly junction.
"Write these numbers down," ordered Matt. "And then see what the folks in the ministry office can find out for those coordinates during the years of 1919 and 1920."
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"Dad," said Matt's son, "you've got a phone call. Some guy named Lester."
Matt chuckled as he walked through the French doors from the garden into the narrow room filled with plants. It had been less than twenty-four hours since he had given Lester the anomaly coordinates. The botany professor took the phone Alder held out towards him. Matt listened to Lester's stammered words.
"The minister is… um… uh… concerned," said Lester, "but not alarmed. They don't know how you found out about the incidents in Malta, but it's all covered by the official secrets act. Old history. As long as you don't talk about it, the government won't press charges."
Matt snorted as the junior bureaucrat spewed official government policy.
"I'm trying to help you prepare," reminded Matt.
Lester's drivel stopped abruptly.
"I've checked. No one knows how you got that code word," hissed Lester. "For all I know you could be an enemy agent of some sort..."
"An enemy agent wouldn't introduce you to your wife," interrupted Matt. "Or do you think she's an enemy agent too?"
"No!" spluttered Lester. "Of course not. Don't go putting words in my mouth."
"Then listen," sighed Matt. "We need to be ready. The next anomaly opening is June, 1999, in the Forest of Dean."
"More blinking lights," snarked Lester.
"You should bring back up," said Matt.
The time traveler entered the living area to place the phone back on its charger. Emily was staring at an old book on the desk in front of her.
"Matt," said Emily, "would you come look at this please?"
"What is it?" asked Matt as he walked towards his wife.
"Old newspaper clippings from the library archives," replied Emily, "but I think it might be the other Matt... you know, the one who told you to go back."
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