Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.
Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.
1.5-2 Ch... Ch... Changes
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Claudia's vision had cleared up, but her head was spinning. Not because of the concussion, but because the events of earlier this Saturday.
Helen had saved her life. Although Claudia's eyesight was still blurry then, she thought the woman was dressed in the same clothes she had been wearing when she jumped through the freezer anomaly at the stadium. Claudia wondered if the time traveler had really meant to save her. The woman had disappeared fast enough. Had she left her husband again?
And Nick… he had kissed Claudia today… a real kiss, not a pretend kiss or mouth to mouth resuscitation.
Claudia couldn't pretend anymore. She more than liked Nick Cutter… but he wasn't single.
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Tom Ryan, his wife and daughter were at the park on Sunday afternoon. His wife was pushing the pram as they strolled beside the lake. The month old baby was sleeping.
"I'm sorry about yesterday," he said quietly "but work… we needed to protect…"
"Can we not talk about work?" she asked sharply. "This is our time… remember?"
Tom stopped walking and clutched the handle of the pram, stopping it as well. She looked up at him, her chin quivering a little.
"Our time," whispered Tom as he leaned closer to his wife "it's the reason I do the type of work I do… to protect our time." Their lips met, and for a moment, that was all the time in the world.
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James Lester looked at the snide little man walking beside him this Monday morning.
Really, Lester thought, this facility the minister was proposing for the newly created Anomaly Research Center had better be good. And there had better be a correspondingly large budget to go with the new building. Otherwise, Lester wasn't quite sure if being saddled with an assistant like Oliver Leek was going to be worth the trouble.
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Nick Cutter spent the better part of Tuesday cleaning out his office at Central Metropolitan University. Lester had told the team they would soon be getting a dedicated space for their work with the anomalies. So Nick had put in a request for a leave of absence with the university.
He had been away so much the past few months, that Nick thought the university might appreciate the gesture. Day trips to London and the Forest of Dean cut into his time teaching. Longer trips, like when he and Abby had gone to Blackburn a month ago to support Connor at his friend's funeral or the three days in Brighton, couldn't even be accounted for in the school calendar.
Cutter grinned as he pulled the photos out of his wallet. The trip to Brighton had been supposed to find an elusive aquatic creature, but instead the team had spent three days traipsing up and down the beaches. The only things they had found were souvenir shops and photo booths. All of the team had crowded in one booth and gotten their pictures taken. The group picture was pinned on the bulletin board at Claudia's cubicle in the Home Office, but Cutter carried the other pictures with him. Individual members of the team caught in silly poses made him smile, but the group poses were even better. One of his favorites was the one with Connor and Abby on either side of Stephen, the taller man pretending to bang Connor and Abby's heads together. But Cutter's absolute favorite was the one where he and Claudia had stayed for the final round of photos… just the two of them.
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Stephen had been knocking about with the younger two team members in their off hours for the past several weeks. Scavenger hunts in the park were a fun way to teach tracking methods. Stephen's lessons on dung analysis provided both Abby and Connor new insights into creature habits and habitat. Connor was updating his creature database almost daily. But it wasn't until Wednesday, that Stephen realized exactly how to describe his relationship with the young pair.
The professor had little time for hands on teaching and training. That responsibility was falling more and more to his lab assistant, Stephen. In the school for anomaly creatures, Stephen was Abby and Connor's teacher.
They had gone to a pub after work. It was meant to be just a quick pint and some laughs together. Stephen had been leaning over Connor's shoulder absorbed in the younger man's latest revision to the eohippus record, when Abby asked him to dance. Out of the corner of his eye, Stephen caught the expression on Connor's face. Stephen still might not have realized anything, but the song that had started to play then was one that he had liked years ago… when Stephen had been a grad student.
All of a sudden, Stephen felt so much older than Abby and Connor.
Both Abby and Connor were young and impressed by their older colleague. Abby might or might not still have a bit of a crush on Stephen, while Connor followed Stephen around like a groupie sometimes, only leaving him when Nick Cutter demanded the young genius's attention. For the first time, Stephen realized exactly how Helen had taken advantage of him.
Stephen pushed back his chair and stood up.
"Not tonight Abby," the tall man said with a smile "but I'm sure Connor would be glad to oblige."
He laid some money down on the counter.
"I've got to get going," he added as he left them chattering about whether or not to dance.
A short while later Stephen knocked on Cutter's door.
"I've got something I need to tell you," Stephen began "it was a long time ago… in the past… but I think you should know…"
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Abby got a text on Thursday from Jack: I'll be in town tomorrow night… let's have dinner together.
She snorted and looked at Rex.
"He means, let's have me buy him dinner," Abby told the coelurosauravus. "It's been over a year..."
There was something else Abby was supposed to do on Friday, but Jack's unexpected text blew it right out of her mind. So she texted her brother back with the name of a good little fish and chip place near the train station. With any luck, she wouldn't have to buy him a train ticket too.
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Connor was thinking as he did the washing up.
He had cooked dinner for Abby and himself. The baked tuna casserole recipe his Mum had given him was one of the few meals he knew how to cook well, but he'd used nearly every pot in the flat. Abby appeared to have forgotten their dinner plans. When she hadn't shown up at the usual time, he had called her. The phone went straight to voice mail. A text message came back later: she was eating out tonight, home later. Sorry.
Since his deal with Abby last Saturday, Connor had been meticulous about the washing up and keeping his boxer's, all his laundry really, picked up. Tomorrow he was making her breakfast. He didn't quite know what to cook for breakfast... couldn't serve leftover tuna casserole for breakfast now.
Connor looked at Rex. Last Saturday, Abby had reminded him that his original one week stay had already been over extended to a month. And he knew, he had messed up. But, when he had told Abby he would move out, she had told him he could stay. For a moment last week, Connor had got his hopes up.
"I quite like having you around," Abby said.
"Really," began Connor with the start of a smile.
But then she had added the words that cut to the quick "As a friend."
"Who am I kidding," Connor asked Rex. Abby was out on a Friday night, while Connor was at the flat talking to a lizard and doing the washing up.
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