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 Other Lives, Other Lies
"…something that I need to know…"
-x-x-x-x-x-x
"I'm not a clone," said Stephen. He set the brown paper bag down and stepped away from the table.
The gray haired woman entered the flat, her cane thumping on the wooden floor with every step as she walked from the doorway to stand directly in front of the brown haired man in blue jeans and long sleeved green t-shirt.
"You're not my son," said the woman sadly. Her eyes mirrored his. "You look like him… or rather what he looked like… a few years ago, but you're not him."
"No, I'm not him," agreed Stephen "and you're not my mother."
Danny moved to stand closer to Stephen. The lanky red head smiled at the woman.
"Mrs. Hart," said Danny "we haven't met properly, but perhaps I can explain…"
"How can you explain this monstrosity?" asked the woman.
Her voice was shrill and angry, echoing across the room. She raised her cane, pointing it at Stephen. Stephen flinched and stepped back a space, while Danny stepped forward moving between the two. Danny raised both hands in the air. The other people in the flat shifted their positions uneasily at the older woman's angry outburst.
Sarah stepped closer to Jamal. The slim, dark haired historian wrapped his arms protectively around her. Cutter stood up from where he was sitting next to Claudia and Stephanie on the sofa. Becker moved closer to Jess. Her laptop was sitting atop the pinball machine between the dining table and the door. The tall soldier placed himself in front of the petite communications specialist. His eyes were assessing the potential threat posed by the diminutive older woman.
"This Stephen is not a clone," answered Lester from where he was standing at the rear of the flat.
He held his hands up in a manner similar to Danny. Beside him, his wife was watching Mrs. Hart. Vivian's eyes were narrowed as if she were inspecting something. Lester spoke again using his official government voice.
"Her majesties government does not…"
"The government, and you people, are responsible for my son being dead!"
"Ma'am," said Becker quietly, "you need to put the cane down."
Mrs. Hart looked at the cane she was still holding up in the air pointed at Danny and Stephen in surprise. It was almost as if she hadn't realized she was making a threatening gesture. She wobbled for a moment unsteadily, and then lowered the cane, leaning heavily on it.
"He's not a clone," said Danny gently. "Didn't you hear Lester?"
The woman stared at Stephen, and then sniffed audibly. She pulled a tissue from her pocket and dabbed her eyes.
"This Stephen," explained Lester "is from another time line."
"Another time line?" questioned Mrs. Hart. She wobbled unsteadily again. "I think I need to sit down."
Stephen pulled out a chair from the table, while Danny offered the older woman his arm and set her safely down.
"The persons responsible for your son's death," said Cutter, as he walked towards Mrs. Hart, "are my ex-wife Helen and a nasty little man named Oliver Leek."
"I would appreciate knowing the truth," replied Mrs. Hart shakily. She settled her gaze on Stephen. "And I'd like to know who this person is."
"There are rips in time," explained the Professor as he knelt down in front of the woman "where creatures from the past… and sometimes other people from other times… come to our world."
"I know it's hard to understand," added Danny "but there are other times… places where we've all lived other lives…"
"And I'm Stephen," said the man in question "just not the same Stephen you knew and loved."
The heavy sound of a door shutting caused everyone to turn their gaze away from the woman. Lester was staring at the bathroom door. From within the room, the sound of faucets being turned on could be heard. The sound of water running began.
"If you'll excuse me… I'll just go check on my wife," said Lester. He waved his hand at the bags of food on the table. "Take-away is getting cold… carry on…"
As Lester disappeared after his wife, Danny nodded at the open front door.
"Would someone shut the front door," called Danny "before we get any more unexpected visitors?"
Jess was the closest to the door. She moved to shut the door, followed by Becker.
"Thank you," said Becker as she pushed the door firmly shut.
"Of course, it's not a problem," replied Jess. She smiled at the Captain. "Besides, I wouldn't want Rex to get out."
For a moment, Becker looked confused. Then he smiled.
"No… I meant thank you," he clarified "for saying you liked my name."
"Oh, I didn't realize you heard me. Well of course I like your name," replied Jess. "I mean, really who wouldn't like your name. It's a perfectly wonderful name… goes back to the Latin… and, oh… but I'll bet you already know about that."
The beautiful young woman stopped speaking abruptly and flushed under Becker's continued scrutiny.
"Oh, you'd be surprised at the number of people who don't like my name," said Becker.
Becker glanced back into the flat. Sarah and Jamal were fixing themselves a plate to eat. Stephen and Danny had moved away from Mrs. Hart. They were near the table, looking at the food and reaching for plates. Mrs. Hart was still sitting in the straight back chair. Her gaze followed Stephen's every step. Cutter was crouched in front of her, talking quietly, trying to explain the unexplainable. On the couch, Claudia sat with little Stephanie. The baby was squirming in her arms. The Lester's were still in conference in the loo.
"Why don't we go get some of the take-away?" asked Becker. "After you?"
He held his hand out to the young woman. She looked up through her long eyelashes at him, and smiled.
"Hope they haven't eaten all the prawn crackers," she replied.
-x-x-x-x-x-x
In the weeks since the first snow flurries had been seen and then melted, there hadn't been any more snow, but the weather was steadily growing colder. Connor had taken apart and reassembled the broken anomaly opening device more times than Abby could count. He'd even tried hooking up cell phone batteries to the powerless one. In the deep recesses of the rucksack, Abby's cell phone had bumped something and been left turned on until there was no power. Connor's cell phone still had a smidgen of power, but not enough. When asked, Percy couldn't even remember whether or not he had a cell phone with him in this era. One battery with minimal power hadn't worked to restart the powerless anomaly opening device.
Henri had been working hard in the forge for the past several weeks. He was using a new smelting technique that the monk had told him about. After pouring the molten ore, the big man had shaped it. For days upon days, he had been heard pounding away at strips of heated metal. Last night, he had presented a long sword to Percy. It was to replace the one lost with the woman in the green dress. The new sword wasn't quite as long as the lost sword, but it was harder. Henri was very pleased with the results. The sword was embossed with Henri's personal maker's mark at the base of the blade.
Connor could walk better now. This morning, they were leaving the village.
Percy was packing foodstuffs into a rucksack. The man in the blue tunic had tried to convince Abby, Connor and Percy to stay through the coming winter. When the man realized they were determined to leave he had insisted they take some dried fruits, vegetables and sausages for their journey.
"He says the food will just go bad," explained Percy "if we don't take it."
Connor smiled and shook his head at the obvious lie. Connor spoke the word for thanks. The man kept his face impassive. He shrugged in dismissal, and then turned and left.
Abby smiled at Agneta. The woman's labor had started quickly one night two weeks ago. Abby had delivered the little girl before Jean could be summoned. Abby chucked the little baby under the chin once more and handed the child back to Agneta.
"I'm going to miss the people here," said Abby as the threesome started down the stairs.
"Yeah, but we need to go home," agreed Connor, "and with us out of here, Henri and his family can have some extra space."
Percy led the way out of the village. He'd left his chain mail with Louis. For this journey, Percy wore simple brown leather clothing. A scabbard strapped to his back held Henri's gift. When they walked through the high archway of the village gates, Connor turned back to look at the perimeter wall. He leaned on his heavy staff, reading the writing etched into the stone above the entrance.
"I don't remember seeing that when we arrived," said Connor.
The wind lifted the heavy woolen cloak slightly, billlowing it past his legs. Connor's calf was healed. All that remained of the bite mark was a bright pink scar that would probably fade over time. However, Jean had insisted that Connor keep his legs wrapped. The furry leggings Jean had given Connor covered the spot left bare from when his black denim pants had been cut back.
"What?" asked Abby.
"The lettering," replied Connor. "It looks like Latin."
"You weren't exactly feeling your best that day," reminded Abby.
She tightened the laces of his red hooded sweatshirt around her neck and then buttoned her denim jacket closed. Abby had left the woolen dress and the linen shifts behind. Abby said she didn't care for dresses much and they weren't practical... can't run in a dress very well, but really... she just preferred Connor's sweatshirt.
"Percy… my Latin is limited to paleontology terms," said Connor. "Do you know what that phrase means?"
"Dunno exactly," replied Percy "it's just something meant to scare away invaders. Warn them off."
"Hmmph. Do you really think invaders are going to take the time," asked Connor as he backed up, craning his neck to see all the words, "to read your sign?"
"Connor," called Perch sharply "look where you're going!"
The scientist stumbled, but caught himself with the staff he carried.
"Yeah," said Connor. "Right… looking… now…"
Abby shook her head, and the three started walking downhill along the old Roman road, away from the village.
It was midmorning when they reached the bottom of the long hill. The roadway twisted and turned in two different directions before them.
Percy pointed northwards.
"That direction is where the invaders come from," he explained "and snow."
He then pointed in the opposite direction, where the road turned and continued on in a south easterly path.
"That's the way back towards the dolmen," Percy said "and back towards the place Jean and Henri first found you… and eventually to Rome. We know there are anomalies that direction."
"We've already talked about this," reminded Connor. "There were two anomalies at the dolmen, one went to the mid-twentieth century, and the other went to the cretaceous. And where we came in to this world… that anomaly also went to the cretaceous."
"Those anomalies aren't the right ones," said Abby, she stepped closer to Connor. "We want to go home... and home is north."
"The two most active anomaly areas that we know of," continued Connor as he put his arm around Abby's shoulders, "are London and the Forest of Dean."
Percy looked at the two in disbelief.
"Are you sure you don't want to go south?" he asked.
-x-x-x-x-x-x