A FEW VISITORS

CHAPTER 2

CONNOR

Connor Temple woke up feeling hot.

And not "Megan Fox" hot.

More like, "old-man's-shoe-dipped-in-mayonnaise-and-left-in-a-bioling-greenhouse-for-a-week" hot.

Basically, he felt like hot garbage.

Now, having been stuck in the cretaceous era for a year, and then getting sucked into work and adjusting to normal life upon his return home, Connor hadn't really had much time to be a party animal and really go wild.

But it seemed as though he and Abby were making up for it.

Luckily, he knew how to deal with a hangover.

Sort of.

Firstly, he acknowledged the fact that the last thing he remembered happening last night was Jack Maitland daring him to eat three pieces of used gum off of the street floor outside of the London Underworld on Camden High Street, a dare which he gladly accepted, washing down the hairy, trampled, germ-ridden pieces of gum with vodka (straight from the bottle).

Everything was a blank after that; although, the night before that point had been great.

Jack had called he and Abby over after winning a game of poker and ending up with three tickets to an Agnostic Front concert— anyone who knew Abby knew how much she loved that band.

And so, they'd gone on a bit of a pub crawl, gotten slightly pissed, he'd had ended up having sex with Abby in a very public place, they'd gone to the concert, gotten even more pissed, and he'd eaten the gum.

Somewhere along the way, Jack's mates they'd been drinking with got into a fight, and a few of them had been arrested. He and the Maitlands had managed to sneak away from the scene before the coppers could even notice them though, so the night didn't turn out as awful as it could have.

He still had a terrible fucking hangover though.

Connor slowly opened his eyes, praying to God he wasn't naked in the room where they kept the gimp in "Pulp Fiction". Nope, he was in a bed, and oddly comfortable for someone who felt as shit as he did right now.

The dizziness hadn't kicked in yet, but he knew as soon as he sat up it would hit him like a ton of bricks. So he just lay there for a moment, in some bed that wasn't his, wondering whose flat this was and if he'd done something stupid last night.

He knew one thing: he couldn't see Abby, and that was never a good sign.

Very, very slowly, Connor sat up, trying to let his equilibrium adjust as painlessly as possible to the first movement in a few hours. Success— he'd made it past the hardest part, as the throbbing in his skull was only mildly uncomfortable, and not as agonising as it could have been.

The room he was in was a total mess. Rubbish everywhere, empty beer bottles— it looked like something from an episode of "Hoarders". But it was vaguely familiar, as well.

And that was when he realised he was in Jack's room.

Connor sighed. He had a headache. His throat was dry. His eyes felt as though someone had tried to vacuum them out of their sockets. He had a sudden urge to eat greasy food, despite feeling sick as a dog. And he was in Jack Maitland's bed.

Yay.

Just when he was beginning to wonder what time it was, and whether or not he was late for work, he heard a small voice croak his name.

"Connor?"

It was a woman's voice— familiar, the voice of his best friend, the voice of his fiancee— Abby sat up on the floor next to the bed.

"What are you doing on the floor?" was the first thing Connor asked her.

"I don't know, but I feel like I've just been punched in the face by Mike Tyson." she moaned, closing her eyes tightly and rubbing her forehead.

Connor snorted in amusement.

Abby shakily stood and rolled onto Jack's bed with Connor, before saying the cliché thing to say when you have a hangover.

"Urgh... I'm never drinking again."

"What happened last night? I can't remember a bloody thing after eating gum off the floor after the concert."

Abby screwed up her face in disgust.

"Yeah, I can't wait to kiss you now." she said sarcastically.

"Seriously though, what happened? We didn't get arrested or anything, did we? I've watched 'The Hangover', I know what happens when you get too drunk." he said.

"Nothing significant happened, I don't think... I don't remember, anyway... I'll ask Jack. Is he around?"

Abby stood, still in her combat trousers, layered tops and converse all stars, and left the room upon regaining her balance to look for her younger brother.

Connor, too, stood up, noticing as he did that although he was still wearing his T-shirt, waistcoat and shoes, his jeans we missing. He looked ridiculous; black socks pulled up the length of his shins, in his 'Ghostbusters' boxer shorts. And his jeans were nowhere in sight.

"Jack's gone," Abby called from the kitchen, as Connor searched his future brother-in-law's room for his trousers. "He left a note saying that he had to go explain to some people why he borrowed their... digger?"

And then Connor remembered something.

"Abs..." he started, calling Abby over to Jack's room. Abby apparently remembered too, and rushed into the room. They shared a look of "oh-shit", before both darting over to the window to look outside.

There, parked horrifically outside of the block of flats, was a giant, yellow JCB digger.

He knew they hadn't walked home.

While Abby stood staring at the machine outside for half an hour, trying to remember what had possessed them to steal a fucking digger, Connor found his jeans— on top of Jack's medicine cabinet, for some reason.

He put them on and found multiple items in the pockets: namely, half a Mars Bar, his mobile phone, another mobile phone that didn't belong to him, the phone number of a woman named Natasha scribbled onto a ripped beer mat, a post-it note saying "Matt- FLOWERS", and an unopened tube of toothpaste.

"Abby, I have some toothpaste here, I don't know why... And I got the number of a 'Natasha' last night, for some reason." he announced, finding her looking for her own phone amidst Jack's belongings.

"Hmmm..." she mumbled, clearly too immersed in looking for her mobile to take notice of him.

Connor shrugged and began to open the toothpaste bottle, when there was a knock on the door. He and Abby looked at each other.

"Should I answer it?" he asked.

"I guess so." Abby said, shrugging.

Connor went over to the flat door and opened it, only to find two soldiers looking back at him. They looked slightly familiar, and that was when he realised they were Becker's men.

"Hi." he said, smiling widely at them. "We were just on our way to work..." he began, but one of the soldiers interrupted him.

"Mr. Temple, we are here to retrieve you and Ms. Maitland on the orders of Captain Becker and Mr. James Lester. There is an urgent anomaly alert, and we need your assistance."

Connor nodded, and before he could shout her, Abby darted past him.

"Got my phone, let's go!" she called, running down the hall. Connor closed Jack's door, smiled once more at the intimidating men stood before him, and followed his partner in crime out of the building.

"Where, may I ask, have you been?" Lester shouted as he and Abby entered the A.R.C.

Connor cringed at the noise, covering his ears.

"Ouch, mate, hangover..." he mumbled.

"Lester, stop shouting, you're scaring her." Matt said.

(Connor pondered for a moment as to what the note in his pocket saying "Matt- FLOWERS" meant. He didn't like the sound of it.)

"Scaring who?" Abby asked.

It took a moment for Connor's hungover brain to register the fact that there was a massive anomaly in the middle of the room, and another moment for him to spot the little girl stood in front of it.

He pointed at the anomaly, and then at the girl.

"Funny, how your soldiers didn't mention that the anomaly was here." he said to Becker, who just ignored him.

"Did... Did she come through?" Abby asked. Everyone nodded.

"Why didn't you lock the anomaly?" Connor whispered to Becker.

"Because somebody stole the device that just so happens to lock it. Somebody with access to the building." Becker hissed back.

Connor gulped, as another memory resurfaced in his brain. Apparently, Jack liked the Anomaly Locking Mechanism. And so did his friends.

"Wonder who that was..." Connor muttered, stepping away from Becker and acting as innocent as possible.

The little girl stood, surrounded by them all, quietly taking in her new surroundings.

She must have been no more than twelve years old, wearing an oversized pink jumper and a pair of brown Ugg boots. She wasn't from the past, that was certain.

Something about her seemed familiar, Connor thought. Brown ringlets fell gently around her little face, and the wide, hopeful eyes staring out at them all seemed to be full of intelligence. This was a smart kid.

"What's your name?" he asked her.

A mischievous grin spread across her face, and Connor realised that this girl knew something they didn't.

"I can't tell you." she replied quietly. "But I know yours."

Everyone exchanged confused glances.

"...You what?" Connor asked.

"You're Connor Temple." she giggled.

"Okay, how did you know that?" Connor said, sounding frightened. The little girl giggled.

"What's my name?" Abby asked. Everyone looked from her to the girl.

"I'll get in trouble with mum and dad if I tell you." she spoke. She had a soft English accent, with a hint of something else in there, maybe Irish, or Scottish.

"Err, I think the damage is done." Connor said.

"Wait, maybe we shouldn't ask her these questions. What if we're causing a butterfly effect here? Shouldn't we just send her back through?" Becker pointed out.

"We don't know what the other side's like, though." Matt added.

"Yes, Captain Becker, you don't know what the other side's like." she giggled. Connor began to laugh with her at Becker's muddled facial expression.

"She doesn't even seem bothered about the anomaly..." Lester mumbled.

"That's because I'm not bothered about the anomaly... Lester." she replied, cheekily. Lester glared at her.

"Do you know us?" Connor asked.

The little girl glanced at each person individually, the grin never leaving her face.

"Connor Temple... James Lester... Abby Maitland... Jessica Parker... Matt Anderson... Emily Merchant... and Becker."

Every adult in the room stared at the girl, dumbfounded.

"What year are you from?" Matt asked.

She looked at him, and was suddenly serious.

"I can't tell you. I'll get in tr—"

Her sentence was interrupted when the anomaly quivered, and somebody else stepped through.

"MOLLY! What are you doing?"

It was another girl, this time slightly older. She looked about seventeen, with familiar blue eyes, and lengthy brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. It was how she was dressed that intrigued everyone.

She wore a pair of black combat pants, black combat boots, and a black T-shirt with the A.R.C logo on the front.

"Sorry Haley..." Molly wasn't so cocky all of a sudden.

"That's the A.R.C logo." Connor pointed out. The girl named Haley snapped her head up to look at him.

She hadn't taken any notice of the other people in the room until this point, and when she saw the faces around her, realisation dawned.

"Oh my god..." she mumbled.

"See." Molly said, confidence returning.

"What year is this?" Haley demanded, clutching Molly's arm.

"2012..." Jess said quietly from her seat. Haley did a double-take when she spotted the Jess, who looked utterly freaked out.

"Jessica Parker?" she asked. Jess nodded meekly.

"And look, there's Connor, and Abby, and Lester, and Becker, and—" Molly began to point out, until Haley stopped her.

"Molly! You're not allowed to do that! Have you learned nothing?" Haley snapped.

"Err, I think the damage has been done." Connor said once again.

"We have to go home." she whispered to Molly, who looked over at Emily as if seeking her help.

Emily felt sympathetic for the girl, who was clearly in a lot of trouble, but couldn't really do anything.

"I think that might be best." Lester stated.

And the girls might have ended up going home: if only the anomaly hadn't quivered once again and a few more people had stumbled through.

a/n: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! It's appreciated! :D