Title: Remnants [Part Two] Pairing: Jenni/Nick

Series: Primeval Rating: 15 Type: UST

Summary: Reeling from the news that Nick Cutters clone survived the destruction of ARC HQ, Jenni must decide if she wants him to be a part of her life? Surely it couldn't be that easy to let Nick go… could it?

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Primeval characters or anything from the universe of Primeval. I am just taking the characters and playing with them a while – promising to restore them whole and unblemished! Thanks to Impossible Pictures for creating these toys for me to enjoy. Please don't take any of my playing as having any bearing on the actual series. Enjoy.

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"ARC headquarters," was the bright welcome from the young and cheerful Jess Parker.

Jenni steadied herself, "Hi there Jess. Just wanted to call and thank you for the welcome back card."

"How was the honeymoon?!" Jess squeaked, "Oh, it must have been romantic!" The administrators eyes flickered over her shoulder toward Captain Becker as he spoke with two other security officers.

Jenni couldn't help but smile as she watched the younger woman sigh and return her gaze to the monitor.

Here we go… "I was wondering if you could help me out."

"Sure," Jess replied, brightly, "anything I can do."

"I was hoping you'd say that," Jenni smiled. "Can I trust you, Jess?"

The young woman startled slightly, "Well… yes."

"This is… private."

Jess looked about the room, then pressed something on her console that zoomed the viewer onto her face as she whispered, "Go ahead."

"You know what happened to Nick," Jenni faltered, "Professor Nick Cutter?"

"Oh," Jess' eyes scanned the room again, "Yes. I know what happened…"

"And you know about who's here…"

Jess looked about the room again…

"Jess… I've seen him." Jenni shifted closer to the screen, "I know about the clone."

The response she got from the other woman hadn't been expected.

Jess' eyes swam with emotion, "I am so sorry," she gasped, looking distraught, "I mean, I'm the only one who knows… not Abbey or Connor… not even Becker. None of them have a clue and Lester said I wasn't to utter a word until he'd seen you in person and I -"

"Jess, it's alright," Jenni insisted, "But I thought you might do me a favour."

The administrator looked uneasy, "What do you need?"

"All the files on the clone," Jenni said in a breath, "including the psychological breakdown and… well… any transcripts that mention him."

Jess nodded slowly before moving to press something on her console, "I didn't have long after Lester left… but these are all the files I could retrieve."

Jenni watched the email pop up on her monitor and felt a rush of warmth for the young woman on the screen, "Oh Jess… thank you."

"No problem," Jess smiled, "I can only imagine your situation." Again, her eyes flicked toward Becker. "And if you need to talk… well, you know."

Jenni smiled and ended the transmission.

For a long time she stared at the mail in her inbox and waited.

There were many reasons for not opening this particular can of worms…

What she had said to James about moving on…

And the ring on her finger.

For all she had become and all she had achieved, Jenni knew the best thing to do would be to hit the delete and hand in a resignation.

But this was about Nick. No matter how much a clone isn't the original.

She opened the file and began to read.

A week later, Jenni had resolved to avoid the clone of Nick Cutter.

Psychologically, the clone had potential to be as any other normal adult… but, it seemed, he was engineered to operate simply as an automaton. He displayed no desire to learn and only responded to basic instruction.

Physically, the clone was matured to forty-three years and scientists could only speculate as to his expected life-span.

He wasn't Nick Cutter.

He was a completely different person.

Some even wondered if he was truly human at all…

Jenni looked at the wedding ring on her finger.

She was a completely different person too.

But she couldn't help leaving the room about the time the post was due for delivery. There were always reasons… and it helped if she wasn't there when he walked into the room…

Better safe than sorry… she told herself.

It was a Wednesday, far too early on a Wednesday if Jenni was truthful, and she made her way through the rush-hour to get to work.

London was where she had spent the majority of her career. And, given the recent monetary restrictions of marriage to a struggling artist, Jenni had been reduced to the dreadful bustle of public transport.

She was accustomed to the morning noise of transit, the bustle of business people, the chatter of school children and the goading they would give to their friends.

It wasn't until she heard the soft, Scottish lilt that her head turned.

Nick was stood, helpless, surrounded by adolescents intent on terrorising him. The mixture of boys and girls laughed and snickered as their fatheaded ringleader waved a black satchel in Nicks face.

"Come on then, thicko," the boy sneered, "there somethin' you wanna say?"

The clone looked blank, but turned to the child and calmly asked, "Would you give that back?"

The rough looking youth tisked at him, "But you didn't say please, man…"

Jenni felt a surge of rage as the others laughed and before she knew it, she was heading their way.

"Alright," Nick sighed, seeming rather board, "please."

"What?" The youth asked, "You beggin' me?

Jenni pushed into the crowd surging toward the underground, acutely aware of what was about to happen.

"If you like," Nick answered.

Jenni's heart thudded.

"Then get on your knees."

"No," Jenni shouted, but before she got to them Nick followed the command.

The teenagers laughter halted, replaced by something more sinister and menacing.

"What? You a fuckin' pervert?" The boy screamed, raising his hand.

Jenni saw the blow land and finally shoved through the last few people to see Nick picking himself up from the ground as the gang closed in…

"You!" She shouted at the top of her voice, earning a number of looks but succeeding in scattering the teenagers.

Jenni was at Nicks side in a moment, "Are you hurt?"

He seemed a little dazed, but when his ocean eyes met hers a smile crossed his lips, "Mrs Lewis-Miller…"

Jenni felt herself wince. How happy he seemed. Somehow it was worse than the real Nick calling her Claudia…

"Just call me Jenni," she rushed, looking straight to the bleeding gash on his head. "Does this hurt?"

"Yes," he answered, but didn't move from her touch.

"Can you move?" She asked, noticing the glances they were attracting in the morning rush.

"Yes," he said again, clumsily struggling to his feet.

"Come with me," she insisted, taking his arm and dragging him through the crowd.

A few moments later, Jenni Lewis-Miller sat in her living room, offering a cup of strong, black coffee to the clone of Professor Nick Cutter.

"How are you feeling?" She asked as she entered the room and forced herself to look at the replica of her dead friend.

"Better," he admitted, oblivious to the inner-turmoil his presence was causing.

"It's the way you like it," she said absently as she reached out a coffee cup for Nick. "Or… the way that Professor Cutter liked it, anyway."

The clone accepted the drink and sipped it quietly.

They sat in awkward silence for a moment before Jenni asked, "Does that happen to you often?"

Nick cocked his head and Jenni confirmed, "People making fun of you."

"Yes," Nick replied, looking away from her in shame, "I am different."

Jenni found her head nodding, "You know about that?"

"The maker told me," he nodded.

Jenni's mind blanked a moment before she realised, "You mean Helen."

"I can't call her that," Nick admitted, "But, yes."

"You…" Jenni struggled with the question a moment… "You don't think she's your master any more though."

"No," he replied, "They said it was something about reiterating her control. The longer I was left without instruction, the more independent I became."

"So when she wasn't there to instruct you…" Jenni surmised, "you broke your programming…"

"I don't agree with what she did. I know it wasn't right," Nick continued, "But while she was giving me orders, I was forced to obey."

Jenni dipped her head, trying to hide the fact she found the whole situation appalling. "It wasn't your fault." She finally said.

"But I am different," Nick continued, his eyes searching out hers, "Not just from him… I'm different from the others as well."

Jenni leaned toward him, "What do you mean?"

"The other clones," Nick stated, looking eager to explain himself, "they were just there to do what she told them. But I needed more. I needed to have more…"

Jenni looked at him, trying hard to swallow down the hope she felt bubbling within her that he might be suggesting he could be like Nick, the real Nick, some day… but then she thought, "She needed to fool everyone long enough for you to get her into the ARC."

There was a brief silence then, while Jenni absorbed the information that had come so quickly and easily.

Nick reached for his coffee, "I had forgotten how much I liked this…"

Jenni couldn't help but smile, "The coffee?"

Nick shook his head, looking up at her through his lashes, "Talking with you."

Jenni blinked. "You and I have never had a true conversation, Nick."

He sipped at his coffee again, "Well… it isn't really me," he explained, "and it isn't really you… but I remember it."

Jenni felt her heart flip-flop in her chest. "You mean it was Nick and Claudia?"

There was a surreal moment where Jenni realised that Nick Cutter always considered her a copy of someone else… and here she was sat with a copy of him… Two copies of originals who were both different in their own rite.

She chose to table that internal debate for another time.

Nick nodded to her question, finishing his coffee and looking to her, "It was. He spoke with Claudia Brown often. You have never really talked to me."

Jenni suddenly felt guilty for avoiding him…

"But no one really does."

"What do you mean?"

"No one really talks to me," Nick said plainly, "they all think I'm a little odd."

Jenni hardly had the time to respond before Nick shrugged and said, "It's ok. I got that a lot. I just spend my time reading."

"What do you mean, Nick?" Jenni asked, "When you say you got that a lot? Do you mean the other clones didn't talk to you?"

"No," he frowned as if it were obvious, "I mean before… him… he used to spend a lot of time alone as well."

Jenni breathed, "Nick?"

"So, in a way, I am used to it." He finished, "I have a lot of books."

It was all getting a little too much for Jenni to process and she asked, "Do you have all of the other Nick's memories?"

"Yes. Up to a point where I was created and then we differ. I remember being with the other clones. He would not recall that."

"You do know that he's dead?"

Nick nodded, "A lot of people have told me," he said. "She killed him."

"Helen did, yes," Jenni said, trying to keep the bitterness from her voice, "how do you feel about that?"

"I don't really feel anything."

"Do you know she's dead?"

"Yes."

"And you feel nothing?"

Nick shrugged and said, "I'm not sad."

Jenni tried hard not to smile. She took a breath, "When you got better…"

"After the explosion?"

"Yes," Jenni continued, "Didn't you tell any of the others about this?"

"No," Nick said, "they didn't ask."

"What did they ask?"

"They asked why I was created. If I knew what I was. Then lots of questions that were designed to be answered in the hypothetical."

"But no one has ever asked you how you are feeling?"

"No. No one has ever taken the time." Nick answered honestly, before frowning, "I tried to tell them. But they wouldn't listen. At the time, I was not fully developed. I didn't truly understand…"

"What?" Jenni breathed, searching Nicks eyes, feeling herself lean into him. "You mean…"

"Physically, I was matured to the age she needed-"

"Helen," Jenni corrected automatically.

"Yes," he agreed, "however, my mental faculties were still in a state of development."

Jenni felt herself pause. "So, you're saying, nobody knows that you… I mean you…"

"My mental pathways were not yet ready to process the data of the original," he said plainly, "I was not complete. However; this has now changed. I reached the maturity of my mental faculties a number of months ago."

Jenni found herself speechless. She blinked against the sensation she was spinning away from the world… vaguely recalling how the other Nick Cutter managed to do this to her quite often.

"Your mental faculties…" she found herself echoing feebly.

"I understand a lot more than they think," Nick smiled. "But I also understand that, on a social level, I am still not acceptable."

Jenni shook her head, "You have no experience. That's different." She breathed, feeling a sudden need to escape the situation. Jenni stood, smoothing her clothes and rushing, "Can you just give me a minute here, Nick."

The clone sat back as she left the room.

The quiet of the kitchen did little to help her muddle through her feelings… she leaned on the counter and squeezed her eyes hard against the tears which threatened to spill out.

There was a wild, tangled surge of emotion attacking her as she tried to separate all her feelings into comprehensible thought.

Was the clone just telling her he could remember Nick's life? That he held Nick's memories?

Was the clone telling her that he had become more like Nick than anyone had imagined?

This was insane, Jenni breathed.

Nick was dead.

And dead means dead.

Though not for her, it would seem. The professor had always maintained that she had lived before as Claudia Brown. He even had a photograph of Claudia… the resemblance was uncanny.

Jenni huffed a bitter laugh – there was no resemblance. It was her. It was a picture of Jenni as she was before the world had changed. She was Claudia Brown reincarnate.

So could the clone in her living room be Nick? Could he be Cutter re-born?

Her head shook. This was a futile line of thought. She had to pull herself together. There were too many things for her to think about at the moment. But one of them was that she had to separate her feelings for the man who died months ago and for the man currently sipping tea in her house.

She glanced at the ring on her finger.

And she knew a good way to start.

Walking with imagined confidence, Jenni placed herself at a comfortable distance away from Nick and smiled.

He smiled back and she fought very hard not to melt at the expression.

"Nick," she snapped, though more to herself. "I've been thinking that we should set some ground rules."

His smile dropped. "Ok," he agreed, looking very confused.

Jenni saw his crestfallen expression and felt her insides curl up. "We are going to be working together… and I don't want to treat you any differently than anyone else."

"Because I look like him," the clone finished the thought, shifting away from her slightly.

"Yes." Jenni sighed, "You aren't Nick. So, I think, it might be easier if I call you by a different name."

He nodded, avoiding her eyes.

"What do the others call you?"

"Nothing," Nick answered, shrugging, "That man in the suit with the matching ties and handkerchiefs… he manages to talk to me without using my name. For the most part, the others do as well."

"Do you –" Jenni bit her lip, "Did Nick have a middle name?"

"Robert."

Jenni felt a spark of hope, "Perhaps this will work," she smiled, "why don't I call you Robert?"

"I never really liked that name," the clone admitted, "but it's not so bad when you say it."

Robert stole a quick look at her and Jenni felt the familiar flutter in her stomach as she swallowed the feeling. Even if he did have a different name he was still Nick Cutter.

A part of her silently admitted that there would be only one way to forget Nick Cutter… and that would be to walk away from the whole situation at the MoD right now.

But as she shared a smile and content silence with Robert, Jenni thought of thousands of different reasons why she should stay exactly where she was…