Disclaimer: Primeval and the song Words Unspoken do not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.

Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.

2.4-2 Words Unspoken

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Abby watched as Connor turned his back and walked away. He was quickly moving down the stairs, almost running. Caroline turned to speak briefly to Abby before she followed Connor. The sound of the door closing echoed up the stairwell.

Rex chirped and Abby turned to look at him. His color was better now, bright green again, not the frozen metallic color he'd had last night. Rex tilted his head and looked at her chirping forlornly.

"Yeah," said Abby as she held out her hand "I know the feeling."

Rex chirped again. He didn't come towards her hand, instead leaping into flight and soaring up to the wooden railing above.

"You too," said Abby in disbelief as Rex left her behind. "Well be that way then. I've got things on my mind that I need to sort out…"

A hot shower…not a soak bath… and a change of clothes was the first thing she was going to sort out… she wasn't going to think about what Connor said… not right now… and she surely wasn't going to think about what she had said either.

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Connor was drinking… he didn't want to think.

He had thought Abby was dead today, and then by some miracle, she wasn't. And he had done the action hero thing, followed after her, tried to save her. Granted it wasn't exactly the slaying the dragon type rescue you found in fantasies and fairly tales, but he had pulled her up and away from that… that… creature. He remembered every word he'd said in that strange future world. And when he'd pulled Abby up… alright Cutter had helped, but Connor had held her close. There had been a moment… when he had hoped… but then they came back to reality and the first words out of her mouth…

Caroline was watching Connor warily. He had just finished his second drink and ordered another. The play wasn't even due to start for another ten minutes.

"Connor…," she said as she reached her hand out to grasp his.

"Argh!"

"Connor," asked Caroline "what's wrong with your thumb?"

They didn't see the play after all. Caroline was examining Connor's hand, when the bartender set another drink down. Connor downed it quickly.

"I think we ought to take you to the emergency" said Caroline "your thumb looks really bad."

When Caroline brought him back to the flat later that night, Connor was still pissed. She was staggering under his weight as they made their way up the stairs. Abby was sitting on the couch staring vacantly at the telly. She looked up at the pair when they reached the top step. She crinkled up her nose, looking askance at the pair.

"He's drunk," said Caroline unnecessarily "Do you want to give me a hand here?"

Abby stood up and helped her guide Connor to the couch. She looked at the wrappings on his hand as the two women settled him on the couch. His eyes closed the moment his head hit the pillow.

"What happened to his hand?" asked Abby as she began untying Connor's boot laces.

"Don't know," replied Caroline shortly as she turned to head for the stairs.

"You don't know how your boyfriend hurt his hand," said Abby in a high pitched voice "and now you're leaving?"

Caroline looked steadily at Abby. "It's not his hand that's hurting."

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Oliver Leek shivered at Helen's words. He had infiltrated her men into the ARC's security team, but still she wanted more.

"It will be a while," he said carefully "before the contractor can seal off the basement… perhaps you'd like to get a future walrus… or two?"

Helen's lips twisted and curled upwards in a motion that was perhaps meant to be a smile.

"That'll do for starters."

-x-x-x-x-x-x

James Lester stopped by the Captain's desk on his way out of the ARC at the end of a very long day.

"You're not supposed to still be here," Lester reminded Captain Ryan. "You're still on light duty."

The man moved slowly and awkwardly into a standing position, grabbing his walking braces as he rose.

"Had to make sure the schedule was reset," replied Tom "you wouldn't believe what a mess it was in."

"It's good to have you back," said Lester as he and Ryan walked slowly to the door. "Today was the first time in ages that we actually had security with the core team on an anomaly call."

"And we almost lost one of the team," Ryan reminded him.

Lester stopped walking and turned to face the man. "Without you and your team," he said "we would have lost so much more."

Ryan didn't acknowledge the praise. He just looked at Lester seriously.

"I'll be on light duty for months," Ryan said "rehabilitative therapy is slow going… when I do get back, if I'm lucky… I'll probably be fit for a desk job… but not a field leader. You should start looking for another head of security operations."

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Nick Cutter was grinning.

He and Claudia were going to meet with the marriage registrar on Tuesday.

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Stephen had dropped Abby and Connor off at the flat and then left to go meet Percy. They were to take the train spotter on his tour. The skinny man was waiting for them when they arrived at the UFM160 track. His angular face looked at Stephen in surprise.

"I thought you were taking me to see the track inspection vehicle," he said to Percy.

"Well yes," stammered Percy, turning to look at Stephen "we… that is both of us…"

Stephen casually draped an arm across his friend's shoulder and looked at the train spotter. "You don't mind," asked Stephen "if I tag along."

"No," replied the man flushing a bit "I'm only here to see the UFM160 track inspection vehicle."

And really, it was an enjoyable tour. The man liked trains… better than anything or anybody.

When they waved him off, Percy turned to Stephen.

"I didn't expect you to do that," the small, slender man said looking a bit uncomfortable.

"The arm thing?" asked Stephen raising an eyebrow as he looked at the younger man. Percy nodded so hard his narrow shoulders bobbed up and down in unison with his head.

"Did Cutter ever tell you how he and Claudia met?" questioned Stephen "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable… I was just trying to make sure that train spotter thought you already had a boyfriend."

"But I don't have a boyfriend," blurted out Percy "I like girls… and… I wasn't trying to give you the impression..."

"Relax Percy, you're not my type either," said Stephen in a soothing tone of voice "you weren't putting out any sort of impression… I just wanted to help out a friend… and it worked, right?"

"Yeah," said Percy looking at Stephen "but…"

"Don't worry. Helping each other out…" said Stephen, "that's what friends do."

There was only one man Stephen was interested in, not that he would ever say anything.

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