Disclaimer: I own nothing of Primeval or anything else you might recognise.
As a side note, this is a short chapter because with the next section it was longer than I wanted.
Stephen didn't get to call his mother, because Connor's attempt to apologise for panicking everyone included explaining to Cutter that he had developed a way to consistently track the appearance of the anomalies. This news turned Connor's apology into an interrogation on the part of the professor, who appeared at Stephen's door still on his mobile and demanding to see Connor's programme.
In no time, Cutter had called Lester in, demanding that Connor be allowed into the anomaly research, even if only in a technical support capacity. Lester arrived and Stephen was faced with playing nice with the man in his own damn flat.
"Exactly how have you managed this?" Lester asked shrewdly.
Abby's brother, of whom Stephen had a lower opinion by the second, ignored the hushing of his sister and said, "Connor's hacked the Geological Society or something."
"Hacked?" echoed Lester sharply. He leaned in, then said, "You're using their monitors, illegally I might add, to do something you were expressly forbidden to do."
Connor glared. "I notice that none of your adult experts was able to make a detector," he said, sounding a little more snide that Stephen felt comfortable with.
"Connor," he muttered reprovingly.
Connor just shot everyone a dark look, flopping onto an armchair. "Sorry," he muttered.
The professor was thoroughly uninterested in the illegalities of Connor's programme. Mostly, Stephen suspected, because Cutter felt that it ought not to have been illegal and didn't care since it wasn't immoral. "What's this?" Cutter asked, pointing at something that read, "Potential time delay".
Hopping back to his feet while Lester muttered about scientists and lack of respect, Connor joined Cutter in looking at the screen. "Oh, because of how I have to route things so that no one notices that I'm in the system there's a time delay as it bounces through a few different servers and the like," he explained. "So, depending on a few factors the anomaly opening may get missed for up to an hour." Connor shrugged. "It's the price I pay for having to work through the hack."
Cutter turned to Lester. "You need to get him access to their system, Lester," he demanded. "This could change everything."
Lester sighed. "Mr. Temple," he said, sounding pained. "If you wouldn't mind, I will collect someone and you can turn over your research to that individual. You will cease to interfere in this. Are we clear?"
Connor looked ready to stage a mutiny and Cutter wasn't far behind. In a desperate bid to distract his ward, Stephen said, "Besides, we still need to find somewhere for Abby and Jack to go, remember?"
"Why is that?" Cutter asked looking at them. Then he really saw Abby's face. He seemed to blanch a little. "Did your parents do that?" he asked, now also taking in the twelve-year-old with bruising on his face.
Abby took in a tremulous breath, and leaned into Connor, who was next to her a moment later, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Mum and Dad are dead," she said. "Jack and I live with our aunt." She didn't have to clarify that the aunt had done it. She turned to Stephen. "Are you sure we can't stay here?" she asked, sounding a little hopeless. "Connor got me Dr. Sampson's email, and she said I could shadow her at the London Zoo. It'd be easier from here than somewhere else."
"Dr. Sampson?" Cutter asked, curiously. "As in Beatrice Sampson? Feline behaviourism expert?"
Abby nodded.
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to get to Dr. Banks," Connor told her regretfully. "But Dr. Cutter pretty much alienated him."
"That's because he's an idiot," Cutter grumbled.
Smiling, Abby said, "It's alright. An in is an in, and anyhow, if I'm going to do dinosaur behaviourism around the anomalies, I'll need more than reptilian things anyhow."
"You will not!" Lester blustered, looking appalled.
"Well, not right away," Abby conceded. "But I can get a bachelor's in macrobiology, ecosystems and the like, maybe veterinary sciences or something, and you'll need someone there used to working with living animals, not just experts on fossils and things." She shot a sharp smile at Lester. "It'll make it easier for all your soldiers if someone can tell them what to do to avoid getting attacked as much as possible. And I know you don't have a behavioural expert."
"Professor Cutter-" started Lester, apparently trying to either throw the man under the bus or somehow intimidate the girl.
Cutter interrupted, grinning, "I never did say I was a practical expert in behaviour. After all, I tend mostly to work with already dead animals and statistics." He suddenly turned to Abby. "I have a house," he told her. "If you and your brother are willing to keep yourselves mostly out of trouble I have the space to put you up."
"Really?" Abby's face lit up, and Stephen could see the very attractive woman she'd someday turn into. He turned a little more, seeing Connor watching her with an interestingly silly look on his face. Abby flung herself at Cutter, hugging him. "Thank you!"
Jack slouched forward. "Yeah, thanks," he said.
"Jack!" Abby said reproachfully.
The boy suddenly came out with. "So, that's it," he said. "You've got all these people who like your animals and lizards and things. What about me? I don't like it, I'm not good in school except in art, and that's not worth anything."
Connor had Jack corralled and out of the room in a moment, Abby following. There was an uncomfortable silence. Stephen broke it telling Cutter, "I sincerely hope they both give you at least as much trouble as Connor's given me, just so that I can laugh at you."
Lester gave an exasperated sigh. "I will attempt to find someone to handle Mr. Temple's computer programme and get the access required to the Geological Society's monitoring systems." As he left, he said, "I would appreciate it, Hart, if you would at least attempt to keep your ward under control and out of things which are not his business."
"You mean the discovery he and his friends made?" Cutter asked, just as dry.
Lester made a disgusted sound and left. Not long after, Abby, Connor and Jack emerged, Abby tearful but happy, Jack contemplative and Connor looking relieved and a tad shattered.
Cutter left with the two he'd spontaneously taken on, Jack asking questions about artistic reconstructions, reproductions and films, Abby quietly following and Cutter already looking overwhelmed. Stephen, despite all his intentions of grounding Connor for giving him a heart attack asked, "What was all that about?"
"What . . . Jack?" Connor asked.
"Yes," Stephen said. "He was being a complete little-"
"He'd given up," Connor said. "I know . . . back in Miller's Field," he explained, "Sometimes, when everyone had told me a million times that day that school wouldn't get me anywhere, dinosaurs weren't a career, that I was stupid for trying to do something that wasn't practical, I'd want to give up. It sort of sucks, yeah?"
"Jack's given up on . . . what?" Stephen asked. "He said . . ." he cut himself off. I'm not good in school except in art, and that's not worth anything. "He wants to be an artist?"
Connor shrugged. "I'm not sure he knows what he wants, but he's good at drawing," he explained. "And his aunt kept on telling him there was no reason to work at it. I just . . . pointed out there were things he could do if he got really good at drawing, but that a lot of them he wouldn't get without school."
Stephen sighed. He couldn't ground Connor now. Not after he may have turned around a potential delinquent, got Abby a new home away from abuse and possibly changed the whole nature of the anomaly project. "I'm going to call mother," he said instead.
"Oh, hell," Connor grumbled.
"Language!" Stephen called over his shoulder.
Connor's response was louder and pithier and Stephen laughed, not bothering to try correcting his ward again. After all, he really didn't care about Connor's cursing anyhow.