A FEW VISITORS
CHAPTER 11
CONNOR
"I can't believe this!" Connor said loudly as he and Sid stepped into Natasha's flat.
The woman named Natasha; once a name on a ripped beer mat, now the missing link in an intricate puzzle.
The puzzle of Connor's wonderfully fucked-up life.
She closed the door behind he and Sid, and took off her jacket, chucking her car keys into a bowl on a coffee table by the door.
"You are James Lester's sister!" Connor laughed. "I can't believe I didn't know about this before!"
"Well, I haven't spoken to James in three years. Family fall out... You know how it goes." she said.
Her home, a flat located in a lovely area not too far from Duncan's house, was tiny and poorly furnished.
Her furniture was tatty, her television old, and Connor spotted a couple of pots and pans collecting rainwater in various places around the house, droplets of it leaking through the roof.
He was surprised that someone as well-off as James Lester would let his little sister live in such poorly circumstances.
"Right..." Connor said. "But I can't believe you know about anomalies and everything! And I definitely can not believe that Lester broke the official secrecy act and told you about his job."
She snorted and shook her head.
"James didn't tell me about his job, he's far too... Straight-laced and untrusting to confide something like that in his screw-up of a sister."
Connor frowned, for two reasons.
Firstly, it sounded like the Lesters' relationship was completely fucked up. It was saddening.
Secondly— if James hadn't told her about the A.R.C, and the anomalies, then who had?
"Well, who told you all the stuff you know, then?" he asked.
She turned to face him, and sighed. She seemed to contemplating something in her mind.
"Natasha?" a woman's voice called from nearby.
Connor looked to his right, and saw a lady's head pop up over the edge of a couch in the small lounge area.
"Hi, Kaitlyn." Natasha sighed.
"I fell asleep on the couch, sorry." the woman laughed sleepily, getting up from the sofa. "I didn't hear you come in. The little guy's asleep in his bedroom."
'Kaitlyn' was a young, redheaded girl, whose hair was a mess from where she'd fallen asleep on the couch cushions. She was tall and slim, and Connor spotted Sid ogling her as she stood up.
He slapped Sid on the arm, and the boy winced.
"Thanks, Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn, this is my friend Connor and... His friend Sid." Natasha explained, moving over to the small kitchen and filling the kettle with water.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Natasha's babysitter." she said, grabbing her handbag and coat and shaking their hands. "Well, I better go. I've got a date with some guy named Jack. Later," she cheered, promptly leaving the flat.
"Cute babysitter." Sid said once she'd gone.
"You have kids?" Connor asked, ignoring the teen.
"Yes, I have a two year old son. He's in there." she said, pointing to his bedroom door. The front of the door was covered in pinned-up paintings, obviously done by the small child. "Would you like a brew?"
"Yes, please. Two sugars." Sid said.
"Same." added Connor.
They watched Natasha scurry around the flat, tidying away various objects that were out of place.
"You still haven't answered my question." Connor said. "Who told you the stuff about the A.R.C, if not Lester?"
She stopped what she was doing and paused, folding her arms and staring at Connor.
"The reason I gave you my number on Tuesday was because I heard you and Abby talking about your teammates when you were drunk. You mentioned Jess, Matt and Emily... None of whom I've ever heard of before." she explained. "But you also mentioned Becker, whose name I have heard before. And you mentioned Sarah and Jenny, and Nick Cutter."
Connor blinked.
"I have heard of them. And I'd also heard of you, and Abby, and I realised who you were. I realised that you worked for my brother... And that you also worked with an old flame of mine. The same person who told me about the A.R.C, and anomalies, and all of those people."
"...Who?" Connor asked.
She was about to tell him, when the door with the painted pictures on the front opened a crack. It creaked and caught the attention of all three people int the room.
"Mummy?" a little boy in the doorway asked, wrapping his chubby little fingers around the edge of the door.
Connor couldn't see too much of the toddler, as he was half hidden behind the door; but he could make out a pair of big, blue eyes and a distinct tuft of red hair.
"Hiya, sweetheart!" Natasha said softly, moving over to the door and opening it further to give her son a hug.
The little boy wrapped his arms around his mother's neck, but didn't take his eyes off of Sid and Connor, who he was eyeing suspiciously.
Connor smiled at the boy.
"Hiya, mate." he said.
The toddler whispered something into Natasha's ear, and she stood and picked him up.
"That is Connor, and that is Sid. They're mummy's friends." she said.
He looked at them, and then buried his face in her neck from shyness.
"Oh, he's shy. And tired." Natasha said. "How about we get you back to bed, sweetheart?"
She took him back into his room, and after a few minutes, came back out to Connor and Sid.
Sid was grinning like a maniac.
"What? Why are you smiling like that?" Connor whispered to him.
He beamed at Natasha.
"Natasha," he nearly giggled. "What's your son's name?"
Connor frowned, and looked at her expectantly.
She seemed a little freaked out by Sid's excitement, but told them anyway.
"His name is Derek."
DEREK
"Haley, why are you taking me to Jess' flat?" Derek hissed.
Haley was recklessly driving Becker's car down rain-soaked streets, probably breaking the speed limit and several other laws.
"And why have you committed grand theft auto?" he snapped.
She scoffed.
"Becker won't mind me taking his car."
"We'll see about that." he mumbled, gripping onto the edge of his seat as she swerved around a corner. "Now, you said you'd explain on the way why we're going, and I'm still clueless, so would you care to fill me in?"
She sighed, and then went on a rant at one-hundred miles an hour.
"Okay, well. Nancy said that Abby didn't come home from work with Connor— he and Sid disappeared from the A.R.C today. Nancy agrees with me about the date, and says that on this date— seventeen years ago, in our time— Connor and a 'friend' of his went looking for the Anomaly Locking Mechanism, which had gotten lost a couple of nights beforehand. On his search, he bumped into a Miss Natasha Lester."
Derek looked over at her.
"What? Mum?"
"Yes! You said so yourself, you had a feeling we'd run into her!" Haley said, smiling widely. "And if Connor and Sid have indeed found Natasha today, and the dates in the stories were correct, then that means that you have already been born!"
He ran a hand through his hair.
"Wow." he sighed.
"I know!"
"If you're right, then that means—"
"—That means that—"
"—Of course."
When they reached Jess' flat, they found Nancy waiting for them, pacing up and down in the kitchen anxiously.
Molly was sat on the couch watching 'Legend of Korra' and drinking a banana smoothie, and Abby was nowhere in sight.
Derek, Haley and Nancy went to talk in the kitchen, out of Molly's earshot. She had a big mouth, and therefore really didn't need to hear what they were talking about.
"So, you think that Connor and Sid have found... Me, today?" Derek asked her quietly.
Nancy nodded.
She was wearing one of Abby's off-the-shoulder tops and a pair of ripped jeans; her blonde and purple locks were clipped back behind her head, her hair tousled and messy-looking as usual.
Due to the fact that she didn't have any sort of makeup with her, she wasn't wearing several layers of black eyeliner, eyeshadow and mascara— this was irregular for the girl, and she hated the fact that it made her seem less intimidating.
"Yep. Dad told me the story of when everyone first found out about you. And it fits perfectly into today. And the year, and timing? Jess' birthday? It's no coincidence." she said.
"So does that mean that Connor and Abby went to the Agnostic Front concert just recently?" Haley asked. Nancy nodded.
They grinned at each other.
"Wait, what? What's 'Agnostic Front'?" Derek asked, suddenly feeling left out.
Nancy and Haley rolled their eyes simultaneously.
Everyone knew that Nancy and Sid were the twins, and twins were twins. And everyone knew that Derek and Haley were close, having been through a lot together.
But Nancy and Haley had grown up together, and had been best friends their entire lives.
What started with games of dress-up and hide-and-seek in the A.R.C had progressed into the two being the closest of friends; it only took one shared look or word between the girls, and they knew what the other was thinking.
It was at moments like these when Derek felt completely clueless, and slightly pissed off.
"The night of the infamous 'Agnostic Front' concert?" Nancy said.
Derek remained silent.
"Think about it: January 2012?" Nancy continued.
"... Connor lost the Anomaly Locking Mechanism. So?" Derek said, shrugging.
"No, something else happened that night." Nancy hinted. "Think about the timeline. What happened later that— this— year? Perhaps around October-time?"
Derek looked completely puzzled, not understanding what she was trying to explain.
"I don't get it." he said.
Nancy and Haley groaned in frustration.
"Jesus Christ, Derek!" Haley hissed.
"What?" Why can't you just tell me?" he asked.
Nancy opened her mouth to tell him what they were thinking, but then the jangling sound of keys on the front door was heard, and Abby stepped into the apartment.
"Hello," she said. She spotted Derek and Haley. "What are you doing here?"
"Just popping by. To say 'hello'." Nancy said, answering for them.
Abby eyed the three of them suspiciously, before trudging into the kitchen and popping her plastic shopping bags on the side.
"The weather tonight is just awful. I'm soaked," she moaned, demonstrating by showing how plastered to her skin her clothes were. "I'm going to go and take a nice, warm bath. Tell me if Connor and Sid get home."
And with that, she left the room. Haley and Nancy smiled sweetly at her, trying to act as casually as possible while in her presence. When they were sure she wasn't going to come back into the kitchen, they darted over to the shopping bags.
"What are you doing?" Derek asked them.
They were rooting through Abby's stuff, the plastic bags crinkling loudly as they searched each one like sniffer dogs at an airport.
"Looking for something." Nancy replied quietly.
"Isn't that a bit—" he was going to say 'rude", or something along those lines, but then Haley pulled something out of one of the bags and held it up for the world to see.
Nancy spotted it, and greedily snatched it off her.
They stared at it in amazement, as if the item they were holding was something Indiana Jones would go on a crusade for.
"Is that what I think it is?" Derek asked.
"Uh-huh." the girls said simultaneously.
It was a small, blue and white cardboard box, with the words "CLEAR BLUE" printed largely onto the front, and the caption "OVER 99% ACCURATE" written beneath it.
It was a pregnancy test.
And then Derek realised that October 2012 was the month Sid and Nancy had been born.
"Holy fucking shit." Nancy whispered.
Haley took the pregnancy test off her, and examined the writing on the front of the box.
A surge of anxiety pains suddenly rose up in Derek's chest.
"Oh my god, I think I'm having my worst fear realised." he said. "My seventeen year old girlfriend is holding a pregnancy test."
She snickered, and then passed it back to Nancy, who shook her head as she held it.
"This is so weird." she whispered.
Haley and her began to giggle, and Derek laughed with them, habitually running a hand through his hair again.
But then a knock sounded at the door, and they all looked like deer caught in the headlights.
"What do we do?" Nancy asked.
"I not know, what if that's Connor? And Sid?" Derek said. "And me?"
"If he sees the pregnancy test, he might freak out." Nancy whispered.
"What if Abby comes out of the bathroom?" Haley hissed.
"Are any of you going to answer the door?" Molly asked from the couch.
Nancy chucked the "Clear Blue" box at Derek, who nearly dropped it in panic, and then chucked it back to Haley, who tossed it onto the counter as if it was on fire.
"Shit!" she cursed, and put it back into the bag where they'd found it while Derek went to the front door.
He opened it and found Matt standing in the hallway, holding a giant bouquet of flowers. He looked less than amused.
"Hello, Derek. Is Connor here? I have to ask him a few questions."
a/n: Sorry for the rather long wait, but here's Chapter 11!
I would like to thank everybody who sent me kind messages and reviews telling me to get better and wishing me well, and wishing me good luck on my exams. You have all been incredibly supportive, and I thank every one of you! I appreciate you guys so much, so thank you! :D
