Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.
Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.
3.11 Where and When
"I watched you die."
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Cutter stared at the younger man in disbelief, Stephen was standing in front of him, dressed in ragged jeans and a t-shirt, dripping wet. Cutter's mouth opened and closed, but no words came out.
"Well no, you didn't," replied Danny. Jerking his thumb in Stephen's direction, the lanky man added "this Stephen is from a different timeline, and he's younger… or at least he was when I first met him. What year is this?"
A petite brunette answered Danny's question.
"It's 2009," replied Jess with a bright smile, "June ninth, almost ten o'clock at night… I mean… well of course you could tell that it's night… but in case you wanted to know the exact time…"
The young woman's voice trailed off under the scrutiny of the tall red haired man.
"Thank you love," replied Danny. "I don't remember seeing you at the ARC before. What's your name?"
"Oh I'm Jess," the young woman replied eager to please "and you wouldn't have seen me before… today's my first day… and I don't work at the ARC, I work for Mrs. Lester… it's a different set of buildings entirely…"
The young woman must have realized she was babbling, because Jess flushed and quit talking abruptly. Danny smiled. He looked around at the group in front of him.
Cutter was standing there staring at Stephen. Claudia was by his side. She was holding a floppy straw hat over her expanded abdomen.
Becker was holding what appeared to be a short sawed off shotgun in his right hand, not the usual rifle he preferred. Belatedly Danny wondered if the soldier was going to be upset about the loss of his favorite gun. Becker's his left arm was wrapped in a sling of some sort, but he was definitely alert and on guard.
Sarah was just past Becker, a young man that Danny didn't recognize was beside her. He stood with his arm around her shoulder protectively.
Another person Danny didn't recognize, a tall slender woman was to their right.
"So I've only been gone three days in this time," Danny mused "now the only question is whether I'm in the right time line or not."
"What?" a chorus of surprised voices asked.
"Well," replied Danny. "Jess just explained why I don't know her, it's her first day."
Danny nodded at the others in turn as he addressed them by name. "Cutter, Claudia, Becker and Sarah, I know," he continued "but the two of you… I don't remember."
Sarah spoke first. "Jamal and I broke up, just before you joined the team. That's why you don't remember seeing him."
"We're back together now," stated Jamal a trifle too loudly.
Danny chuckled as he watched Sarah turn to look at Jamal. The young man looked concerned for a moment, but then Sarah nodded and smiled at him. The relieved expression on Jamal's face was visible for everyone to see.
The tall slender woman stepped forward, looking at Danny curiously.
"I met you once before," she began "or I will meet you someday… I'm not really sure the best way to explain it…"
"Official secrets act Vivian," said Lester "you don't need to explain anything."
Everyone turned at the sound of Lester's voice. Their boss was walking down the slope from the road towards the water. Behind him a military SUV was parked. Armed soldiers followed Lester.
Danny raised one eyebrow as Lester stopped in front of him.
"I don't believe you've met my wife before," Lester said.
"No, don't believe I have," agreed Danny. He peered over Lester's shoulder at the approaching soldiers.
"Glad to see you Lester, but something else is a little different," said Danny "I don't remember such a resounding military presence before I left."
"We've got a new partnership with the military," remarked Lester smoothly. The unmistakable expression of distaste on his face as he emphasized the word partnership left no doubt as to what Lester thought of the new arrangement.
"It's partly in response to losing the three of you," added Lester, as he adjusted his cufflinks. "I don't suppose you know where Abby and Connor have gone to?"
In the sudden silence, Danny looked bleak.
"Stephen and I have been travelling for years now," Danny answered. "We got back to the Cretaceous once, found the tree where I left them, but nothing was there except the broken anomaly opening device, a stun grenade casing and Connor's cell phone."
He held up a small blue cell phone.
"That's not Connor's phone," objected Sarah.
"Of course it's Connor's," replied Danny "it still had power when I found it… checked the address book… Abby's the first name on the list."
"After the safe house, Connor and I went to get replacement cell phones together," insisted Sarah "we got the same type, mine is blue."
Danny shook his head. "So?"
"Connor complained that he liked blue too, but he wouldn't get the same color as me," continued Sarah "he said the way we leave phones out on the desks at work, we would be forever mixing them up. Connor's cell phone is black."
Danny looked at the cell phone in his hand. "Then whose phone is this?"
"I might be able to help with that," said Jess. She held out her hand expectantly. "If I may?"
Danny handed the young woman the cell phone. Jess turned to look at Sarah. "And may I have yours as well?"
The team watched as the young communications specialist removed the covers on both phones and swapped the sim cards. She then turned on Sarah's phone and began perusing the address book.
"Well whoever's phone this is," said Jess with a chuckle, "the person worked at the ARC… the number is on speed dial identified as WORK."
She continued going through the address book. "Is Beth Temple his mum's name?"
"No," replied Cutter, just as Jess shook her head.
"No," agreed Jess "there's another number labelled Mum."
"Beth is Connor's younger sister," said Vivian.
"Connor doesn't have a sister," replied Cutter sharply.
"He did in my timeline," answered Vivian. She turned to face Danny. "You've got Connor's cell phone, but it doesn't belong to the Connor Temple from this time line."
Cutter looked from Vivian to Danny.
"Years," said Professor.
"What?" asked Danny in confusion. For a moment there he wondered if the Professor had finally lost it.
"Just now, you said you'd been travelling for years," replied Cutter. "How long do you think you've been gone?"
Danny grinned and held up his long arm. The watch on his wrist gleamed in the moonlight.
"Bought this just before I joined the ARC," explained Danny "it's waterproof, shockproof, and has a solar battery guaranteed to last for ten years! According to this, it's been over four years since I left London… the date is August 10, 2013."
Cutter turned to Stephen. The younger man had been silently watching and listening to everything.
"And you," asked Cutter "you look younger… how old are you?"
"Well, that's really hard to say," began the young Stephen "I was twenty-two when the Cutter's and I began travelling through the anomalies… figure I must be close to twenty-seven by now… maybe a bit older."
"The Cutter's?" repeated the Professor questioningly, but before Stephen could say more Christine Johnson's voice rang out. The passenger side window of the military SUV was now rolled down.
"Debriefing needs to be done at the ARC," the woman demanded shrilly.
"Yes," agreed Lester pointing at his tie clip "where we can record everything."
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Abby sat in between Jean and Louis on the bumpy ride to the village. Louis had arrived shortly after Percy driving another oxcart. Somehow, Percy, Jean and Louis had managed to assist Henri into the back of the ox cart. After getting the big man situated, getting Connor into the cart beside Henri was easy.
The road was rutted, missing stones in spots, and more uneven the closer they got to the village. When Abby asked Percy about it, he pointed at the river flowing nearby.
"It floods in the springtime," replied Percy with a shrug, "and the Romans aren't here anymore to maintain it."
Percy's comment reminded Abby of something he had said previously.
"You said Rome had been sacked," reminded Abby "I never was very good at history… do you have any idea when we are?"
"Rome's been sacked many times," replied Percy "so I don't really know, just recognize some of the names I see on old coins. We get most of our world news from wandering monks like Herman when they coming round preaching."
"Sounds like it might be the late fourth century," said Connor "or maybe early fifth."
"Well," replied Percy "maybe… maybe not."
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Connor looked at the man who had once been the ARCs public relations consultant.
"What do you mean Percy?"
"It's just… when I left the ARC," explained Percy "I just wanted to get as far away from this whole time travel craziness as possible. Start my life over… that was my plan."
Connor chuckled. "And what happened to that plan?"
"There was a creature, and a woman who yelled run," sighed Percy "I was following her so close, I was through the anomaly before I even knew it."
"What was her name Percy?" asked Abby softly.
"Emily," said Percy with a wistful tone. "Her name was Emily. I travelled with Emily and a group of other people for a few years. All of us were lost in time. I just don't know if all of those people I met shared the same history."
Connor looked thoughtful, but Abby spoke up again.
"Where is she now?"
"Don't know," replied Percy "Emily took her friend Charlotte to a modern era for medical attention. I was supposed to go with Emily, but…"
"But what Percy?"
"A bloke named Ethan is what happened," growled Percy angrily. "He hit me over the head, when I came to, I found he had gone with Emily and Charlotte instead of me… they never came back."
"And you're here now?" asked Connor in surprise. "I would have thought you'd be trying to find her."
"I was trying to find her!" exclaimed Percy. "As soon as I woke up and the others told me where Emily had gone, I went straight to the anomaly… the anomaly that took Emily to the future… it brought me here."
"What?" exclaimed Connor "The same anomaly? Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure," replied Percy bitterly "it was just a few hours later, and the thing had spun around a time or too, but it was the same anomaly. And there hasn't been another one since until you two showed up."
Connor looked like he was going to ask more questions, but beside Abby, Jean suddenly spoke. He pointed forward. The high stone walls of the village were within sight.
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Percy looked at his friends.
"Oh," he said "I almost forgot!" He spoke rapidly to Jean and Henri. Louis nodded his head, as if agreeing with Percy's words. Jean and Henri exchanged a glance, then they too nodded in agreement.
"What was all that about Percy," asked Abby suspiciously. "Are you plotting something?"
Percy nodded, his green eyes sparkled as he squinted in the bright morning sunlight.
"Making sure everyone knows our cover plan," Percy replied.
"What cover plan?" asked Connor.
"When Louis, the boy, Herman and I first went to the village," explained Percy "we told everyone about the dragon… that Herman killed."
"What?" asked Abby "Why did you tell them that? Wouldn't it be better for people to think Connor killed the dragon?"
"No! Abby, we don't want anyone to think Connor is a wizard," said Percy. Looking at the young scientist, Percy saw his wrist was still bare. "Where's your glove? We don't want anyone seeing your tattoo!"
"Dunno where my glove is," replied Connor looking around.
"I think we left it at the first camp," said Abby "I know I took it off when I checked your pulse, but I don't remember seeing it again."
"Never mind," hissed Percy "just cover up that tattoo!"
Abby pulled at the bottom of her torn T-shirt. She turned to Connor holding the strip of cloth in her hand and started to wrap it around his wrist. Percy sat straighter in his saddle, trying to appear brave and confidant as he rode through the high arched gate into the village.
"Percy," asked Abby "you didn't really mean that bit about the dungeon, did you?"
"Don't really know Abby," replied Percy "I've never had to tell the man I've lost his daughter before."
Abby's eyes widened in surprise as they entered the village gates. The heavy wooden gates sank back into the frame with a resounding thud. Abby thought they might or might not be going to a dungeon, but it sure sounded like the gates of a prison shutting.
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