Author Notes: Eep...Sorry guys! I completely forgot about this story! I was only reminded about it when my beta mentioned that one of our friends had finally addicted her to the show after I'd given her up for a lost cause. I start back at uni in a few days, so updates will be very erratic, especially with exams coming up. I just wanted to assure you all that I really appreciate the feedback you've given me so far, and I have no intention of abandoning this story :)
Chapter 4
Abby cringed as the creature finally fell to the ground, too full of bullets to remain alive. Nick was the first to break the suddenly oppressive silence, "We should move the bodies." He didn't mean the creatures.
"I'm fine, thanks for asking." Lester snapped, stepping gingerly over a carcass of one of the creatures from the future.
Cutter ignored him pointedly, indicating at the device attached to the creature, "We need to look at those things. They seem to be a remote of some kind, planted directly into the creature's brain. Someone might have planned this."
"Helen." Abby bit out.
Stephen shook his head, "She wouldn't be here if it was; it's not her style."
A shout drew their attention, "I need some help over here! This guy's still alive!"
Abby watched detachedly as medics responded to the call, "How many do you think are dead?"
"Too many."
Lester shook his head, "Cutter, a word?"
The two men began walking away from the main body of survivors, Stephen and Leek following. Abby remained where she was, casting a dull eye over the carnage. The survivor was wheeled past on a gurney, and she stepped out of the way. Then her mind registered what she had seen, "Connor?" The word escaped her lips in a whisper of a breath, and then the rest of her mind kicked in, and she ran after them, "Wait! Stop!"
Cutter and Stephen exchanged a look at her shouts, while Lester sighed in frustration, "What is that girl up to now?"
The medical team slowed to a halt, but they didn't look too pleased about it. Abby stopped dead, a metre from the gurney. One of the nurses stared, "Yes? Are you hurt?"
"Oh my god..." She stared in disbelief at the dirt and blood stained face, the dishevelled dark hair clinging limply to the pale skin. "Connor." This time, she said the name out loud, for all to hear in the now silent room, letting it echo. Even those who hadn't known him personally knew who he was, if only because of Helen's recent appearance and the ARC's rumour mill.
Nick and Stephen couldn't move. Both were frozen to the spot. Lester just looked at her as if she had finally just proved how lacking in sanity she was.
But the truth was there. Connor was alive.
A steady beep. Beep. Beep. Damn annoying too, couldn't it tell he was trying to sleep? Whose idea was it to make that stupid noise anyway?
But it didn't stop, and he resigned himself to the inevitable return to consciousness. Not that his body particularly wanted to. His skull felt like it had been split in half, hosted a drunken rock festival, and been sewn back together with a blunt needle. On the positive side of things, it seemed to detract from the dull throbbing in his back.
Connor forced himself to open his eyes, and immediately regretted it, squeezing them shut again. And another thing. Who thought people wanted to wake up in blinding white rooms?
He lay there for another few seconds, before his mind began to speed up, providing him with the details of what had happened. Shit! His eyes opened snapped open once more, and he struggled to sit up and untangle himself from the wires and monitors they had hooked him up to, a horrible sense of déjà vu coiling around his chest, suffocating him; he couldn't be here, not again.
Unfortunately, his body had yet to reach the same functioning level as his panicked mind, and he fell in a heap on the floor. Connor winced at the sound, detachedly noticing how one-dimensional everything was as he only heard things from one ear. He began wrenching each device, drip, needle and patch from his body, and scrambled to his feet, not noticing the worried orderly come over until they were right behind him. Unable to hear the words from that direction, and believing himself to be at Leek's ARC, he lashed out, causing the nurse to fall backwards and knock themselves out on a metal tray.
Connor ran to the door, ignoring the freezing cold floor on his bare feet, not helped by the thin hospital scrubs. Again, an all too familiar situation.
"W-what's going on? What are you doing to me? Where am I?"
"Remarkable. He doesn't even know."
"Sir, it's possible that no time has passed for him."
"So, Connor Temple. Officially deceased for coming up to, what, four years now."
"What? I'm sitting right here!"
"I do love not having to do paperwork. Prep him for the surgery; I want him in the subject line up by tomorrow."
-Hands were all over him, one brandishing a needle. He fought, but was still disorientated from his trip to the past, the creature, Helen...-
"You can't do this!"
"Actually, we're the Government, so yes, we can."
Leek. Connor couldn't even begin to describe how much he wanted that man dead.
He tested the door handle, surprised to find it unlocked. There was, however, a guard with his back turned. Connor wound one of the monitor wires around his hands, and looped it around the soldier's neck, pulling hard. The man choked and struggled, face rapidly turning red, skin pulsing as blood attempted to continue to supply oxygen to his brain. And then the man fell limp.
Connor stepped over the body, taking the man's sidearm, the old, hidden part of him hoping the man had just blacked out, while the newer, more realistic part of him just ignored the act altogether.
Checking the chamber of the gun, Connor padded as silently as he could down the corridor, desperate to find a way out.
Abby sat silently, listening to the men throw around theories. For now, Helen was being left to rot and perhaps contemplate how she could convince them further, because, right now, they were far more interested in the new arrival.
The doctors had whisked him away to perform a DNA test – which returned positive – along with patching his battered body up. Lester was fuming, because no one could explain to him what was going on, and he hated being out of the loop. She stared, in deep thought, at one of the corpses of the creatures, the one that had been metres away from Connor in the corner. She didn't know why, but she had the nagging feeling she was missing something, and while they were unable to see Connor, she felt she might as well mull it over, every now and again letting the knowledge that Connor was actually, really, incredibly back seep into a smile.
She blinked, sitting up in shock. Had it just...
She watched the creature closely. There it was again. She stood up, and strode over to the table, "Guys, this one's still breathing."
"What?" Cutter and Stephen ran over. "It can't be."
Abby shook her head, "It's only taking a breath about every two minutes. Could it be hibernating?"
Glad to have something to think about other than their worry and confusion over Connor, the team set to work. They must have been at it two hours, until Nick finally shook his head at the impossible conclusion, "The body's alive, but the mind isn't. It's completely brain dead."
"Then why is it still breathing?" Jenny had joined them a while ago, unable to give them any further news on Connor.
"It's like coma patients." Abby supplied quietly, "Even after you switch the ventilator off, and they register as brain dead, it can take hours before the body stops working."
"And on that cheery thought-" Lester had walked in, his face grim, "Our little friend has woken up, knocked out a nurse, strangled his guard, stolen a gun, and is currently loose in the ARC."
"What?" Stephen exclaimed, "Connor? Are you serious?"
"Oh, and he's found his way into the holding cells, and is pointing a gun at Helen's head."
Connor had meant to get out, but as he had ran full pelt down one of the corridors, a patch of light spilling out from the wall caused him to slow. And freeze in shock.
Helen was sitting sullenly at a table, and a guard was standing in the corner. It didn't seem as if they could see him, and he realised that the glass must look like a mirror to them. He knew he should keep going, but he hadn't seen that woman since the day she had thrown them into the past, and him into the future. His throat tightened, a new wave a nausea washing over him, and he clenched his jaw. Mind made up, and hand tightening on the gun, he moved round to where the door was, about to try the handle, but settling for knocking instead; he had to know why.
The guard answered the door, and Connor knocked him out with the butt of the gun, unable to face shooting him point blank. Helen whirled around, out of her chair in an instant at the noise. Connor levelled the gun at her head, kicking the door shut behind him, the anger now prickling sharply under his skin, causing him not to see the security camera; or maybe he was just past caring.
Helen raised an eyebrow, eyes fixed on the gun, "Well, this is a surprise. By the way they were acting earlier, I had presumed you were gone for good."
"Why did you do it?"
Helen snorted, thinking that Connor must have taken the anomaly back to his time after all, and this had all been an elaborate interrogation technique on the part of Nick, "You don't think I find the idea of you with a gun actually threatening, do you?"
Connor's eyes turned to stone, and he redirected the gun to her leg, shooting off a round. She was unable to prevent the cry of pain and surprise escaping her as she stumbled against the wall. Connor smirked at her, and suddenly Helen realised that she was not facing the same Connor as she had the last time they had met, "Now we're even. Answer the question."
Helen swallowed, knowing that she would have to tread carefully, "Does Nick know you're here?"
"Cutter's dead." Connor replied bluntly.
Helen stared in shock; whatever had come through the anomaly must have been pretty bad. She tried to form some sort of decent reply, but instead found herself answering the question he had first asked, "I needed you all to understand what you were doing; I needed...I needed Nick to notice me." There didn't seem much harm in admitting it now.
Connor blinked, "That's it? That's all? You stupid bitch!" Helen tried not to flinch as he took a step forwards, waving the gun, "This is all your fault dammit! Didn't you even stop to think? Fuck!" He slammed his hands down on the table, and then paced, running a hand through his hair.
"I didn't mean-"
"You didn't mean it? Is that what you want to say? The whole fucking universe is screwed because of you!" His voice was catching as the reality of what he was doing began to conflict with his emotions.
The door burst open, soldiers coming through first, "Put the gun down!"
Connor rolled his eyes, turning to face them, "And if I don't? What then? You'll shoot me? Please, Leek'd have your heads, or I wouldn't be alive now."
The statement seemed to confuse the men, but they were suddenly pushed aside by a small, blonde figure, "Connor! Please, put the gun down."
Connor faltered in confusion. It was Abby, but she didn't look like Abby should. Besides, he thought he saw...
And then two men, two very dead men in Connor's opinion came and stood behind her, and suddenly Abby's appearance made sense. The gun thudded to the floor. "Oh my god." He swallowed, "I'm actually back, aren't I?"
To Be Continued...
Author Notes: This chapter was fun to write! Would love to hear any comments you have to make!