Just an idea I've been playing around with for an idea. Hope you like it.
Helen was alive. That alone was a lot to wrap his head around after eight years. While she had been figuratively and, apparently, literally haunting him, he had never quite believed that she was still with them, not after eight years in the Permian Era and then, even though he had seen her on the other side of the anomaly, he had trouble processing it, nothing about being there had felt real, least of all her. No, she had become real again when Lester's men had dragged her out of the basement of that house, dripping wet and furious, launching her back into his barely rebuilt life like a molotov cocktail. And what came next? Well that had thrown his whole world upside down.
The child had screamed as they dragged her from the basement, a raw, furious scream, lips pulled back over her gums like the snarl of a wild animal as she writhed in her captor's arms. She didn't look like a wild animal now, he noted, watching her carefully, she looked small, dirty, and lost in a mane of tangled dark hair. She looked, dare he say it, about eight years old. It was hard to say for sure, she was terribly skinny, which made her look somehow both smaller and older than she likely was, but personally Nick was pretty sure she was eight. He had been sure since the moment he'd seen her eyes, his eyes, staring back at him with more rage than he was sure he'd ever felt.
They had shut her in a room not unlike the one Helen had been in, with a couple chairs and a table, but she had opted to occupy the darkest corner of the room. The one furthest from the door, he noted, arguably the most defensible position she could take, though to his knowledge there was no interrogation in store for her, just medic who they probably should have called in hours before when she'd arrived the day before but hadn't had the time to. They had been a little preoccupied with Helen and the Dodo Birds and Tom… poor, stupid Tom. In all the excitement they had almost forgotten that Helen had escaped through the anomaly without the child, leaving her at the mercy of Lester's government scientists and stuffy policies.
"Its good to see she's calmed down." He glanced away from the viewing room window long enough to see Captain Ryan enter the room. The military man gave him a quick apologetic look before turning his attention to the girl on the other side of the glass. "She was screaming something awful when we brought her in."
"She's scared." Cutter replied flatly, "We have no idea if she's ever even been in an era where humans existed before."
"You think she was born out there?" Ryan raised an eyebrow, "On the other side of the anomaly?"
"Given her behavior I'd say it's highly likely." He nodded grimly.
Ryan mirrored his nodding, "It's a good thing the medics are here to check her out then… if she'll let them."
As if on cue, the door inside the room cracked open just wide enough for a young man dressed as a paramedic to slip inside. The child sprang up into a crouching position and growled, literally growled, at the intruder. The medic faltered, unsure eyes darting towards the dark glass that hid them from view, but to his credit, he regained his composure quickly. Setting his kit aside, he crouched down so as to appear less threatening and held his hands out towards her like he was showing her they were empty.
"Hello there Sweetheart." He said softly, "I'm Mike. I'm just going to check you over and make sure you're okay, alright?"
The girl eyed him warily, lips curled back over her teeth in a threatening manner as he tried to approach. Cutter frowned as the medic continued towards the child, "She doesn't look too keen on that."
"I'm sure he knows what he's doing, Professor." Ryan insisted.
As soon as he said it, the girl proved him wrong. As the medic reached towards her, she suddenly lunged forward, snapping her teeth like a dog, causing the medic to jerk back, landing on his rear end with a look of fear etched on his face as the girl continued towards him. Cutter was out the door before he even really gave thought to what he was going to do, ignoring Ryan's protests and flinging the door open, "Hey! Don't do that!"
Both the child and the medic froze and stared at him wide eyed, which he supposed was a reasonable reaction to the sudden, loud appearance of a strange Scottish man. Recovering first, the medic scrambled away from the girl, ducking his head, "Sorry…"
"Not you. You're fine." Cutter resisted the urge to rolled his eyes, not wanting to take his gaze away from the animal-like child who had shrunk back into the corner as she recovered from the shock of his entrance. "Mike, you can go. I don't think she's ready to see you."
Nodding numbly, the young man scrambled to his feet, ducking around Cutter to get out the door. The girl watched him go with a dark look in her eyes, though Cutter could have sworn she looked a little relieved, and when her eyes settled back on him, there was something different about her gaze. If he had to guess, he would have said that the child recognized him, which was unsurprising if she'd been raised by Helen, she'd probably seen pictures of some sort of him. She still looked wary, he noted, but there was a little spark of curiosity there as well. Somebody knocked on the window and the girl tensed up, growling. It was likely Ryan, he guessed, warning him to get out of the room, but he held up his hand to silence them.
Closing the door behind him, he crouched down similar to the way the medic had done, but made no move towards her. Instead he focused on keeping his voice soft and quiet as he spoke to her, "You know, you weren't very nice to Mike. He just wants to help you and I think you scared him pretty good."
The girl said nothing in return, which didn't surprise him, as far as they knew she had yet to say a single intelegable word, though he couldn't imagine Helen of all people wouldn't teach her language. She also gave no indication that she understood what he was saying to her, but there was something about the scowl on her face that felt schooled to him. The knocking came again, eliciting the same reaction from the child and earning whoever was on the other side an eye roll from Cutter, but this time he got back to his feet, giving the girl a "one minute" gesture and slipping out of the room.
The viewing room was far more crowded when the returned to it as it seemed Claudia, Lester, and Stephen had joined Ryan in gawking at their odd guest. Much like the child, Lester scowled at him as he entered, "Trying to contract rabies, are we?"
"She doesn't have rabies." He huffed, annoyed at being dragged back to this side of the glass, "She's just a little spirited."
"Well frankly if the paramedics can't take a look at it, we can't rule anything out." Lester retorted lazily, "I hear it bites."
"She." Cutter corrected, not bothering to try and keep the annoyance from his voice, "She's a girl."
"You sure about that?" He raised an eyebrow, "She looks more like George of the Jungle to me."
"What are we going to do with her?" Claudia wondered aloud, watching her through the window with her arms hugged around herself, like the girl's tattered clothing was making her cold just by looking at it. "We can't keep her in there."
"Why not?" Lester questioned, "I'm sure Helen had her sleeping in much worse places."
"It's cruel." Claudia countered, giving her boss a disapproving look which he all but shrugged off.
Cutter turned towards the window, thinking for a moment before he announced, "I'm taking her home with me."
"Excuse me?" Stephen piped up, giving him an incredulous look.
"I'm taking her home." He repeated, his expression daring Stephen to argue with him.
"Why?" Stephen demanded in return.
"Because she's mine!" He declared.
"You don't know that!" Stephen protested, "You don't even know that she's Helen's."
He gave Stephen an incredulous look, motioning at the girl through the glass, "Look at her! She… she looks like me!"
"She looks pissed off!" Stephen snapped, then hesitated and added, "And she looks like Helen."
"I'm not leaving her here." Cutter warned.
Stephen scowled, "And how exactly do you plan on getting her there?"
"It doesn't matter." Lester announced before he could even try to answer that, "She's not leaving the premises until she's had a full health evaluation."
"How the hell do you think you're going to get that done?" Cutter demanded.
"Simple. We're going to drug her. Unless you have a better idea?" Lester challenged, taking Cutter's angry silence as submission, "I didn't think so."
"Well then I'm staying here with her." He spat, at a loss for other options.
"Fine." Lester agreed, stalking towards the door, "Have a camp out in the nurse's office. I don't care."
"You're insane." Stephen accused, following Lester out, the door banging shut behind him.
Claudia was still watching the girl, he noted, joining her again. They let the silence hang between them for a long moment before Claudia ventured, "Do you really think she's yours?"
"I do."
Claudia was quiet for another long moment, seemingly mulling something over in her head, then turned on her heel, heading for the door and paused with her hand on the handle. She seemed to deliberate for another few seconds before offering, "She has your eyes."
He watched her leave in silence, not turning his attention back to the child until he heard the door click shut. Trust Helen to show up after eight years and throw his whole life out of whack...
Reviews are appreciated :)