A/N: Well I had to go to Nick eventually didn't I? I've got a plan for what happened to Claudia, but for all you Cick fans about there that are waiting for them to get together you'll just have to wait a bit... sorry... Anyway this chapter is (planned to include anyway) Nick wondering what happened to Claudia and trying to get Lester to check through all the people working at the Home Office to make sure she isn't working there; it's also some of Nicks reflections on Helen and Claudia, so there will be hints of NickxHelen (unfortunately... I mean the woman is the biggest bitch on the show, even if she did save Claudia). I'm also hoping to carry on where we left off with Stephen and Abby last chapter, and maybe have Conner make a bit of an appearance. Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Now on with the story...

Chapter 5 – Where's Claudia Brown

Nick Cutter sat in his flat, a bottle of scotch on the table in front of him next to a small glass; he refilled the glass and took another sip of the golden liquid. Stephen was out of hospital, so he could now concentrate on the most important question he still needed answering. Where was Claudia Brown? That's why he was sitting here, in his flat, with his scotch; he was trying to work out a way to find out where she was and why she had disappeared from everyone's memories. He had contemplated phoning Lester and asking him to check through all the Home Office employee records and see if there was a Claudia Brown at the Home Office but in a different department; he'd also thought about asking Connor to do a search on her on the internet. He had even wondered if Helen had something to do with Claudia's disappearance; he wouldn't put it past her, not now that he'd finally opened his eyes to her true character.

Looking back now, he realised that his and Helen's relationship had been over long before she'd disappeared; she'd changed from the Helen Ambrose he'd fell in love with and become a manipulative bitch, he just hadn't wanted to see it. He thought back to the time they'd first started dating, after they'd watched that late night showing of the Marx brothers, and wondered if she'd been that cold and manipulative even then. He shook his head, no she hadn't, she'd been fiercely competitive, and it had probably stemmed from that as she'd progressed through her field of study, always wanting to be the best. Every time something happened that she couldn't turn to suit her she took badly, usually with screaming and blaming someone else for the bad things that were happening in her life. Nick sighed, rubbing his temples and placing the glass back on the table. His thoughts turned from his ex-wife to the missing Claudia Brown.

Nick knew he loved her. For the past few months he'd been unsure if he was actually in love with her or if it was just an infatuation, but when she'd kissed him before he went through the anomaly to take back the future predators, and when he'd seen how Helen reacted, he knew he loved her. He loved her because she was so different from Helen; because, in her own way, she cared in a way Helen never could. She was beautiful, funny, caring, faced her fears, and stood by what she thought was right. He had to respect her for that last point; she even stood up to them and Lester when she wanted to do the right thing. Nick was surprised to feel tears starting to gather in his eyes; it had been a long time since Professor Nick Cutter had cried about anything, but right now, alone in his flat, with the woman he loved missing and no one knowing where she was, Nick Cutter felt like crying.

Nick downed another glass of scotch and poured another, the glass was halfway to his lips when he paused, then he placed the glass back on the table and pulled out his mobile. He dialled a number and then waited as the other line started to ring. After a few minutes someone answered.

'Hello?' a bored voice answered, the voice belonged to the one man that Nick Cutter least wanted to ask for help.

'Lester, its Nick Cutter. I need to ask you to do something for me; it could mean understanding how the anomalies are working.'

'Why should I do anything for you, Cutter? You're the one whose supposed to be researching the anomalies, not me,' Lester replied, his voice betraying his annoyance at the other man.

'If you do this for me I might be able to explain why I seem to remember someone you don't,' Nick snapped, 'And I might just be able to understand more about the anomalies and how they work.'

Lester seemed to contemplate this, 'I suppose you want me to see if I can find out who this Claudia Brown is, don't you?'

'Yes, I do. What I need to understand is why I can remember her and none of you can,' Nick explained, feeling like a stuck record. Lester sighed irritably.

'Alright, I'll do it. Don't expect me to find anything though. Goodbye.'

With that Lester put the phone down on Nick Cutter, who was feeling a spark of hope rising in his chest. Feeling slightly better Nick decided he should probably try and get some sleep and then go and see the rest of the team the next day.

& & & & & & &

Connor Temple sat in his mother's living room, typing away on his laptop; his mother was asleep in her bed and he'd decided he'd check up on the internet conspiracy chat rooms to see if the anomaly project was appearing in them. He received a shock when he loaded onto one of the less known websites and found and article, right near the top of postings, that had been posted by someone who seemed to know quite a bit about the project. Or rather about the anomalies; in particular about the dodos and the parasites. Conner felt his stomach sinking as he looked up at the username to see who had posted it. The sick feeling was replaced by anger when he realised he did recognise the name: it was Duncan. Why had it done it? Hadn't he learnt when Tom had died because of the parasites in the dodos that it was dangerous to get people involved in the project? Connor wasn't so naive as to think that they'd be able to keep the project secret for much longer, seeing as they were becoming more and more frequent, and the creatures more and more obvious to the public eye; he was just angry that Duncan was doing this to them. The post seemed to have attracted quite a bit of interest, which made Connor slightly uneasy. He hadn't been in contact much with Duncan since Tom had died, his friend not wanting to speak to Connor as much as before; Connor suspected that Duncan blamed him slightly for their friend's death and it hurt the young student. Though he couldn't blame Duncan for feeling like that, he'd probably feel the same if it was him, he still partly blamed himself for being involved and getting Tom and Duncan involved by being so secretive. But the betrayal Connor felt now made him want to walk up to Duncan's door, pound on it until he opened it, and then smack him around the head until he learned his lesson and left the anomaly project alone. The student sighed, he knew he couldn't really do anything about it until his brother came down to stay with his mother, so that meant all he could do was text Abby to tell her what he'd found and keep an eye on the post and, if it got too popular, start trying to squash the theory.

Connor leant back in his chair and rubbed his tired eyes as he closed down his laptop and took out his mobile to text Abby; he really needed a good sleep. His mother was sicker than he originally thought, and he wanted to stay with her until she was better, but with the anomaly project gaining interest on the conspiracy websites he knew that was going to be highly improbable. Connor walked into his bedroom and put his phone on the bedside table, putting his laptop on the desk and changing into his pyjama's before collapsing onto the bed, hoping that tomorrow would be slightly better than today had been.

A/N: Sorry it's shorter than normal but it felt like a good place to leave this chapter. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update as well, I wanted to get this chapter right. I'm still not completely happy with it but I thought I'd made you all wait long enough as it is. The next chapter will be more Stabby, because I just love that pairing, plus it means I can get the plot moving along a bit... if I can find where I left the damn thing... I know I put it down somewhere...

Thank you to everyone who reviewed: lov3is4lif3, HugMonster, and Minchen. I love you guys! I actually baked you Primeval shaped cookies of characters of your choice! Hope you like them! I almost burned the house down making them... almost... the firemen got here before I managed it and they saved the cookies. And my laptop, which is a good thing seeing as it has my stories on here.

Thank you to everyone who read as well! Please, please, please review! It makes me happy when I get an email telling me someone's reviewed and get to read the comments you leave me. If you want to see something in particular happen in this fic please let me know and I'll see if I can fit it in at some point.

Thank you to again to everyone whose staying with this fic.

Ciao for now

Starsword