Chapter 15

Jenny hadn't been in touch all night; and neither would she answer any of his calls. This left Cutter feeling a mixture of worry at why she hadn't contacted him, and anger that all this had happened in the first place. Then again, he supposed that he should have seen this coming. After all, every time he had been happy in his life, he had either managed to royally screw it up himself, or the cosmos had done it for him. A prime example would be with Claudia; he had erased her from time by leaving the baby future predators in the Permian era. It had taken him an age to get over this and accept Jenny for who she really was; not an inferior Claudia copy, but a different woman who had her own beautifully warm personality, which he had found when he finally let her in to his heart. Of course, she still had streaks of Claudia in her, which he could see sometimes by the expressions she pulled or some of her mannerisms, like the way she cocked her head to one side when she was trying to look cute. She was always cute of course, but it was usually when she was trying to get him to do something he didn't want to do, like go to some fancy restaurant. She almost always won him over as well; just one look from those brown eyes and he was hooked. Over time, he had learned to accept that he had loved Claudia, and that their relationship quite possibly could have become something amazing, but now he loved Jenny; he loved her for who she was, and not just because she looked like Claudia. Well, maybe that was the reason why he was infatuated with her at the beginning, but it certainly wasn't any more. After spending months beating himself up about his feelings for both women, he had finally convinced himself that just because he now loved Jenny didn't mean that he had loved Claudia any less, and vice versa. It was just one of those things that he had had to accept.

Now, of course, some psychopath had mucked everything up between them. He could feel Jenny pulling away from him, both physically and emotionally, and nothing he said or did seemed to make a blind bit of difference. If fact, the previous night, he had been trying to comfort her after she had woke up screaming; trying to make her feel safe again. It was her who had pulled him towards the bed to his recollection, and she was the one who turned up the heat on the kissing . . . and after all, with the way she looked, he was in no position to say 'no' . . . and then, out of nowhere, she screamed and pushed him off as though he was . . . well as though he was forcing her into something. He understood that she was upset and confused, and of course she would have a distrust of men after what had happened, but he thought she saw him differently.

He pulled up outside the ARC and sat back in his seat with a sigh.

I don't know, maybe I am being a jerk about this, he though to himself, running his hands over his tired face.

As he made his way into the ARC main room, he half expected to see Jenny there, but he knew she wasn't due to start back up at work again for another few days so he was hardly surprised that she wasn't around. But where on earth was she then? He doubted very much that she had gone back to her house, as she couldn't seem to stand the place anymore. He assumed that she would probably sell up some time soon, and it had crossed his mind to ask her to move in with him full time, but the way things were between them at the moment . . . well, he wouldn't want to come on too strong incase he freaked her out and made her back off even more.

The only other logical place she could be is Sarah's or Abby's - she didn't really get along with her parents, and at any rate, she'd probably want to stay with some one who was aware of what had happened. Why couldn't she just call to let him know she was okay . . .

"Cutter!" Conner's voice traveled over to him from the Anomaly Detector. Cutter walked over to him, and he continued, "Lester wants to see you, he said as soon as you come in - "

"Yeah, yeah," Cutter waved his words away, distracted. "Listen Conner, Jenny didn't happen to stay with you last night did she?"

"No," Conner answered quickly, looking shocked. "Why would you ask that?"

"Conner, relax," Cutter interjected, suppressing a smile with difficulty. "I'm not accusing you of having an affair with her, I just wondered if she stayed with Abby last night?"

"Not to my knowledge," Conner said thoughtfully. "Why, are you two fighting again?"

"No, not really - wait a minute," Cutter interrupted himself, twigging on to what he had said. "What do you mean fighting again ?"

At this, Conner looked down at the floor, and massaged the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Has she been talking to you about it?" Cutter demanded, feeling stung that they had been talking about this behind his back.

"No, not to me . . ." Conner mumbled, a pink tinge appearing on his cheeks. "I kind of . . . overheard a few conversations between her and Abby over the phone - "

"Overheard?" Cutter repeated with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, I was eavesdropping actually," Conner admitted.

"Great," Cutter muttered sarcastically, as he walked towards Lester's office.


"What do you want?" he asked Lester grumpily as he entered.

"I've missed you too Cutter," Lester answered, his nose still buried in a file, and his voice seeped in sarcasm as usual. "Take a seat."

Cutter stormed over and flopped on the uncomfortable chair. Lester put the file down and surveyed him for a moment before speaking.

"How is she?" he asked, his tone unusually soft.

Cutter knew he was talking about Jenny.

"Not good," Cutter replied coldly. "Thanks to you."

"Me?"

"Well you're the one who hired this Brookes man!" Cutter burst out, his anger getting the better of him.

"Well funnily enough Cutter, people tend not to list stalking under extracurricular activities on their CV - "

"This is your fault and you know it!" Cutter interrupted, straightening up.

"I offered her a military escort!" Lester bellowed suddenly, slamming his fist on the table, making Cutter start. "But she refused - "

"Yeah, and knowing you, you would have sent the psycho that was stalking her to do it!" Cutter retorted.

"Now, just wait a minute - !" Lester began, but he was interrupted by a knock on the glass door.

Sarah poked her head round.

"Cutter, could I have a word please?" she said, seeming not to care that she'd just walked in on a shouting match.

Cutter got off the chair and made to follow her out.

"We're not done here Cutter!" Lester yelled after him.

"Yes, we are," Cutter mumbled, as he let the glass door fall closed behind him, drowning out Lester's voice.

He turned to face Sarah.

"She's staying at yours, I assume?" he asked her in a forced-calm voice.

She nodded, looking quite shifty. "Cutter . . ." she began quietly. "I think I did something really stupid."

"What?"

"Well, Jenny came to mine last night, and she told me about what had happened between the two of you - "

"My God, is there anyone in here that doesn't know every detail of my love life!" Cutter exclaimed, feeling a flush of embarrassment wash over him.

"Oh girls talk, Cutter, get over it!" Sarah said impatiently. "Anyway, I suggested . . . well, I suggested that we go and visit Brookes so she could have some sort of closure - "

"You didn't . . ." Cutter shook his head, looking at her in disbelief.

"Yes, we did. We went to do it this morning - "

"Sarah!" Cutter sighed in frustration.

"I know!" she said, looking embarrassed. "It was an awful idea . . . the things he said to her . . ."

"What?" Cutter demanded.

"That she was a tease who had led him on, and that he'd get two years at most because he's a soldier, and after that, he would come and get her again," she mumbled, looking at the floor.

"Did he now?" Cutter snarled, feeling blood pounding in his ears.

"I'm only telling you because I know Jenny won't, and I don't want you two to split up,' Sarah informed him, clearly trying to justify to herself betraying Jenny's trust.

"No, you did the right thing," Cutter said more gently, patting her clumsily on the shoulder as he turned back to go into Lester's office.

"What are you going to do?" Sarah shouted after him.

"I'm going to sort this," he replied, before the glass door closed.

"Back to have another go are we?" Lester drawled.

"No," Cutter answered honestly. "But you're going to help me with something."

He rounded Lester's desk and pushed on his chair.

"Come on! UP!"

"Cutter, were you bitten by some sort of raved animal when you left this office!" Lester exclaimed as he batted Cutter's hand away from the back of his chair.

"Look!" Cutter argued. "Whether you admit it or not, we both know that you owe Jenny big time. And now you're going to help her out."

Cutter was cleverly playing on Lester's emotions; he knew he was more fond of Jenny than he was the rest of the team, whether it was because they were of the same class, or simply because he viewed her as his second in command. He saw Lester pause for a moment, considering his words.

"Fine," he mumbled eventually, standing up and buttoning his blazer. "But I'm not doing anything dirty!"


Right, I'm not going to bother trying to estimate when it's going to be the last chapter because I just keep adding more! Lol, lets just say it'll be done when it's done!

Review if you can :D