********PNW finale spoilers- PUK post-S5 spoilers. *********
Summary: Connor and Kieren go back through the anomaly, to find that something's changed. And that change upturns the boat of Connor's life. But maybe all isn't lost.
AN: After watching the Primeval New World finale, my mind went into paranoid overdrive and came out with this fic to help work out my fears for Conby. And no, this doesn't actually happen in PNW's finale. :P If you're reading this, I'll assume you've seen it already. If you haven't... don't read?
Chapter 2 : Promises
Connor's brain stuttered, stalling to a halt as the bottom fell out of his universe. Kieren was quick to respond, feeling his friend shaking : claudia shifted Kieren so his arm was over her shoulders, and then another teammate Connor didn't recognize personally caught him, just as his knees gave out.
Breath left his lungs like he'd been kicked in the stomach with a steel-toed boot. The man he didn't recognize helped him stand, but Connor didn't want to. He couldn't.
He had to go back. He couldn't live if Abby didn't exist here. He knew he wouldn't. He had no will to live without her in the world in some way.
"No." Claudia turned around to face Connor. Whatever she and Kieren and the stranger supporting him were saying, Connor did't know - their voices were muffled, unclear, unimportant.
"Connor -"
"I need to go back. This- it isn't my universe, my timeline, whatever. Maybe… maybe there were two anomalies in the same spot again, and I walked through the one that led here. Like Cutter-" Connor's voice cracked. "-He said your name. Jenny looks just like you, only you're not her, at all. Different timelines… I can get back, and try again, go back through until I find Abby."
"Connor, calm down, please. Let's just get back to the ARC, okay? I know all about the timelines - but connor, the anomaly's closed."
"What?!" He pulled away from the strangers, whipping around to see that, in fact, there was no longer an anomaly there. "No! Abby!" He stumbled, and collapsed to his knees on the ground, sobbing.
It was all a blur. The ARC looked the same, inside and out. There were people he'd never met. There were people he knew, as well.
In a dim, objective part of his brain, Connor noted that this timeline seemed to run the same way - Stephen and cutter had died the same way, as had Helen, April, and Phillip. Only there wasn't any Abby Temple (or Maitland, for that matter), and he'd survived the Cretaceous with someone named Jack.
Bt that was all barely noticed, as Connor was numb. He didn't respond when spoken to, just sipped at the tea now gone cold that Claudia had gotten for him. Kieren seemed to be dealing better, but Connor just stared into the middle distance, tears running down his cheeks.
He would never get back to his wife, and that realization stopped him cold.
When Connor heard the name Jack, could he be faulted for thinking of Abby's brother, as impossible as that was?
A week had passed in this timeline, and Connor was still like a ghost, thin to be almost wraithlike, because no one could convince him to eat much at all. He spoke monosylables, and in such a quiet tone that it nearly broke everyone's hearts to hear him speak at all.
He moved infinitely slowly, too numb and weak and uncaring to even bother to try to move quickly.
Lester had done all he could. He'd threatened in as many ways as he could to convince Connor to eat, to actually live. He gained baleful glares and absent gazes and more tears than he was happy about. To no avail.
Lester had given up.
Matt, Becker, Emily, Jess and Kieren didn't know what to do. The stranger, whose name was Mac, kept Jack away from Connor.
Footsteps sounded outside the little room Connor was staying in in the ARC. He slowly looked up at the sound of a woman clearing their throat.
"Hello. Mac's told me what happened, he told me not to visit you, but I couldn't help myself. Kieren said…" She hesitated, and in the pause, Connor's eyes focused.
"Abby?" He whispered, voice crackign from disuse.
"Erm, no, I'm sorry. That's probably why they kept me away. I look just like her?" The young woman with white-blonde hair and bright blue eyes and Abby's voice said. He blinked uncomprehendingly, and then his heart shattered all over again.
"Like with Jenny, and Claudia? I read up, when you came back different…" Not-Abby said quietly. Connor didn't respond. "Can I come in?"
He managed a sharp nod, and felt the mattress sink as she settled next to him.
"I'm Jackalyn Maitland. We met seven years ago, at CMU. We were part of the original anomaly team together." She explained softly. Connor slowly turned, with wide eyes, to look at 'Jack'.
"When we first met, you were studying herpetology, and I was studying paleontology. You blackmailed you way into my flat." Jack took a deep breath, and then she put her hand on Connor's. "We've lived together for the better part of the past 7 years." She paused. "I know I'm not your Abby, and I know you're not my Connor, but we're still basically the same, yeah? I lost my best friend the day you lost your wife. Maybe we could try?"
Connor suddenly stood, leaving the little room without comment. Footsteps tapped along the floor's grating as he walked away, presumably to the break room. Jackalyn stifled a sob of her own.
She had hoped, maybe it would be possible. She loved her Connor, but this Connor was not all that different, she'd thought.