Hello. Back with a new chapter. A lot of conversations and a lot of Becker, but also some heavier material. I couldn't think of a better way which suited Becker for him to get claustrophobia. I hope it's Ok; I've tried to balance it out with Abby and Connor somewhat.
I think this story is drawing to a close; I'm hoping to get it done by the end of this month, though please don't hold me to that. In the meantime, though, enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Primeval. According to the voices in my head. And they are generally right ;-)
"Claustrophobic..." The implications ran through Matt's mind like lightning; every little hint, every gesture, every facial expression that he could remember Becker ever having displayed sprinted through his brain, being reanalysed. Certain things made sense. Others didn't.
"Don't laugh," snapped Becker suddenly. Matt shot him a sidelong look as if to say 'Really?' "The only other person who has found out since I was in the army thought it was hilarious and proceeded to spread the hilarity all around that work place. I had to leave."
Matt grasped Becker's knee in what he hoped was a reassuring and friendly act. Instead, Becker flinched slightly and Matt remembered that Becker wasn't big on the PDA thing; only Jess could break that side of him. He removed his hand.
"I won't tell a sole," promised Matt, looking deep into the Captain's eyes. The statement was acknowledged by a curt nod and a trace of a thankful smile, until the man just returned to staring ahead.
The cave lapsed into silence for a couple of minutes until Matt started to notice Becker's breathing quicken again. Gingerly (he was beginning to suffer from pins and needles), Matt pulled himself around to calm Becker once more. Luckily, he wasn't really needed, as Becker, true to his usual manner, controlled his emotions yet again. However, it made him realised that he had to keep the other man preoccupied until help arrived.
Unfortunately, there was only one subject he could think to talk about.
"So… you've had this whole claustrophobic thing for a while?" He felt Becker tense up beside him slightly, but then relax again; this was nothing irregular, but simply Becker's way of dealing with personal questions. However, even he would have to recognize the lack of anything else to do. That didn't mean he had to be very forthcoming though.
"Four years."
"That's pretty precise. Something happen?" No response. "Four years… that was your army days, wasn't it?"
A sharp nod.
"You said it stopped you continuing?"
A sharp nod.
"Must've been something fairly big. Not like you to give up if you just got locked in a cupboard with a spider." Becker let out a sigh.
"I was worse. A room slightly smaller than Lester's office would set me off. Now, at least, it's practically manageable. It's only in situations like this where the walls… the walls are so close and the ceiling is…"
"Stop it. Come on. How come you got?" pressed Matt, desperate not have to display any more bromance towards the other man; it felt wrong for the pair of them to have be having such heart-to-hearts.
Becker took a deep breath in as he steadied himself enough to continue. He had to admit, this was helping. However, awkward it felt.
"An idiot happened."
"Don't they always," smiled Matt.
"We were out on patrol, when we stopped in a cave to have a break. I was trying to set up the equipment to provide a status report. Someone decided to have a play around with the ammo we'd taken with us; we were meant to drop it off at another sub-base. Anyway, he flicked it too close to one of the cookers that someone had lit to boil the water to make it safer." Becker took a ragged breath. Matt withheld the urge to interrupt. "So, you can guess what happened. Half the ceiling, half the patrol. Gone. And then the rest of us, there was 10 by then, were trapped.
"No-one knew where we were. So, we had to wait. Not knowing. And then bright spark tried to clear a pathway, no matter how much I tried to stop him. So, that left 7 of us, once the dust had cleared. And the walls kept creaking as if it was about to give in. Any minute. It was two and a half days of tension." Becker paused as he remembered.
"But you got out? If you got out of there, you surely know you can get out of anywhere? Right?" joked Matt weakly.
"Out was almost as bad. It was joke. They made me a Captain because 'of the way I took charge'. Three people died with me in charge." And I couldn't deal with rooms…" Becker sighed. He realized Matt was watching him intently. The team leader smiled as caringly as he could. Becker didn't return the emotion. Instead, he buried his head in his knees.
Matt automatically went to put his hand on the Captain's back, but restrained himself.
"Something wrong?"
There was a pause as Becker considered whether Matt should receive an honest answer. He eventually concluded his self-esteem couldn't get much lower.
"Feeling nauseous," he replied. Matt couldn't hold back a thin smile at this.
"Anyone else would say 'sick', but not you, oh no," he said lightheartedly, before returning to comfort. "Don't worry. They know where we are. Connor and Abby will rescue us."
"Oh," said Becker solemnly. "Now, I feel reassured."
"We should be right overhead now," said Abby. Connor kept crawling until he reached the next grill and peered down. Sure enough, the ADD lay beneath, a couple of the emergency screens, which ran off a separate power supply, cast a greeny blue glow across the room, another change brought in by Burton after the Rex fiasco.
Using a screwdriver he'd brought specially, Connor set about opening the mesh, while Abby oversaw his work. She was actually fairly impressed – Connor had shown remarkable foresight in his decisions and was acting, dare she say it, very maturely.
Even now, there was little time to contemplate these thoughts as he efficiently removed the grill and placed it to one side, before lowering himself down onto the floor below. Abby slipped down after him.
"Right. We need to lift the lockdown and do it the quickest way possible. You remember the codes?"
"Ye," replied Connor immediately. He then paused for a second in deep thought. "I think." Well, it wouldn't be Connor if everything was that organized. Abby snapped round at him, but he ignored her and started typing furiously. A few windows popped up, but Connor shut them down before Abby had a chance to read them.
"So, this system works?" asked Abby tentatively, peering over her boyfriend's shoulder; it was quite a feat, standing on her tip-toes and then tugging herself up a little further by grabbing his forearm. He didn't mind this contact, but concentrated upon sending reels of texts and coding off.
"I designed it, didn't I?"
"And you've tested it?"
"Yes." Abby raised her eyebrow, but Connor couldn't see the expression. Suddenly, three open windows shut down. "No, no, no! Come back!"
"What's happened?"
"The first thing it shuts down when I tell it to shut the lockdown down is the programme that's shutting it down."
Abby took a second it sort out the sentence; she knew better than to needlessly interrupt Connor while he was actually doing work.
"I thought you said you'd tested this. Surely you check this."
"I have tested this… on my laptop."
Abby let go of Connor. "Not since you uploaded it to the ARC?"
"Not as such." Abby let out a huff. "Well, I didn't think there was much point considering I'd then have to run all the tests again after I inputted people's codes, which I couldn't do, according to Phillip, until after I'd presented the system to them."
Abby strode across the area to stop herself from hitting her boyfriend. She ran her hand through her hair, though, and came to the decision that it didn't help when it painfully caught in her hairband. Finally, she returned to Connor and reached into his pocket.
"Oi! What do…?" Connor squirmed until Abby finally came away, clutching his mobile, which was still the only device which could contact anyone or anything within the lockdown.
"Going to check up on Becker. Matt was really worried about him last time I heard," she said, by way of an explanation. Connor stared after her for a moment, as if he was worried she'd break his precious mobile. Reassured, he returned to his screen, but listening in; no-one could say he wasn't concerned about the Captain.
"Hello? Matt, how are things?... That's a relief…" That sounded good, surely? "Do you know what's wrong?... What is it?... Matt, I'm not a child, you can… Then what is it?... You're making it sound like you two are having the equivalent of 'female problems'… Let's not leave it at that!... Why not? I'm the person who's probably going to have to come and rescue you… Why can't I know?... I am not whining!... Fine, well if you're not going to be honest with me, then there's no reason for me to be phoning you… Why should I tell you what's going on with us if you won't reciprocate… We're in the ADD room now. Connor's just trying to lift the lockdown…" There was a sudden rapid beeping for the computer. "Trying being the optimum word, I fear."
"Hey! I'm almost there."
"Did you hear that?... No, I'm not sure you should believe him." Connor sighed sharply. "As soon as we're done, you should be out within half an hour… Yeah… Ok, I'll see you then… Becker's problem, or whatever it is, won't affect a rescue. We may have to squeeze you guys through small gap… Matt… you still there?... That was not a stupid question!... Look, it's clear we're not getting anywhere, so I'll see you later… Bye."
Abby listened to the tone for a couple of seconds before cutting the call. Connor purposely concentrated extra hard on the screen, in case some of Abby's anger at Matt rebounded back at him.
The ploy worked and although Abby looked to Connor, contemplating talking, and possibly shouting, at her boyfriend, but ultimately she decided that wouldn't be the most helpful thing for her to do. Instead, she sat in Jess' chair and glanced around, but found there wasn't really anything to do. She hated feeling this helpless.
She glanced back at the object still in her hand.
"Connor?"
"Hmmm?" replied Connor, finally getting the coding to line up properly.
"Can this phone outside?"
"You mean to people not within the lockdown? Not yet. The problem in if I open up the signal too much anyone in the ARC could transmit information out."
"Right. So we can't find out what's happening outside? I'm beginning to find several flaws in this lockdown."
"Becker was going to perform some dry runs. I thought anything like this would be revealed then!" argued Connor, starting to be a bit frustrated at Abby's criticism of a system that took him a lot of time to design.
"You said you'd checked things."
"On my laptop! I can't run real scenarios through it." Abby slumped back in the seat, tossing the phone down on the desk. Connor shot Abby a warning look as soon as he heard the clunk. Abby sheepishly looked back, knowing how protective Connor was over his technology.
The computer beep again and so he returned to his screen to watch the loading bar inch towards opening up the ARC.
"What is it?" shouted Lester above the uproar that surrounded him.
A soldier gestured upwards with his gun, into the wreckage on the main entrance corridor. Lester peered up into the gloom, which was illuminated by flashing blue lights. He could just make out two eyes staring back at him. For a moment, a fear gripped him, until he looked more carefully. It was a dinosaur. More precisely, it was the dinosaur that had been brought in only a couple of hours before.
Lester turned to the soldier, who was waiting for some kind of orders. It was at times like these Lester really missed Jenny.
"Make sure no-one from the public gets close. Guard this…" Lester looked up at the gash that was the impromptu entrance to the ARC. "…this. I'll organise a rescue team once some more of our own men arrive, but I can't let anyone else see this."
"Sir."
Lester was just about to continue, when there was a buzzing and one of the fallen lights flickered uncertainly, before finally staying on, spreading light through the gloom. At the same time, the proper main entrance, which was still whole and seemingly unharmed, clicked and the key-pass machine burst into life.
The lockdown had been lifted, but who knew what lay within.
Please review. =-)