A/N. I'm sorry i haven't updated in a while. life unfortunately got in the way. I'm not entirely happy with this chapter but here goes...

The Waking World.

He was there when she started to wake. His gaze fixed on blurry eyes that opened slowly, wincing against the bright light. She wasn't looking at him, her eyes staring in surprise at the ceiling. She slowly turned her head away from him, looking at the night sky beyond window. His eyes traced her face, her neck as she gulped and took a deep breath. Claudia then froze as she became aware of the man behind her. She reached for the weapon that was no longer there, rolling over and ready to attack…

"Hey." Just one whispered word in a strangely familiar Scottish accent caused her to lie in shock on her side, starring at him. He looked the same as she remembered, tired, scruffier, but undeniably Nick Cutter.

He sat waiting for a sign that he'd heard her, waiting for her to talk, say anything. He watched as her wide eyes stared at him, feeling slightly uncomfortable at her intense gaze. She then turned and took in the room, looking for something, or someone. When Nick saw her panicking slightly he quickly realized what had distressed her.

"Abby's just having an X-ray." Claudia's eyes snapped back on him. "She'll be back soon." He promised her.

"Is this…are we…" He voice was small scared. As if she was afraid to believe. She looked away and down at her hands on the thin hospital blanket.

"You're in hospital. You and Abby came though the anomaly in the Forest of Dean." Her slow, quiet reactions were scaring him. All he wanted to do was reach out and touch her.

"We were in the Permian." She told him, nodding her head as she gathered her thoughts. "We recognized the Gorgonopsid and the other…tortoise creature."

"Scutosaurus."

"Sure." She took a deep breath and looked up at him, tears in her eyes.

"This is real, isn't it?" She asked him, almost pleading with him.

It was that tone that broke him, snapping his restraint like a twig. He covered the distance between them in two long strides and pulled her into his arms. Claudia clung to him, her fingers digging into his clothes as she attempted to bury herself in him, shaking silently.

"It's real." He told both her and himself, rocking her slowly. "It's real." They held on for what seemed like hours before they pulled apart reluctantly. Nick sat on the edge of her bed, refusing to let go of her hands. Not that Claudia was going to release them.

"How long?" He asked roughly, his voice raw. "How long has it been for you?"

"I'm not sure." Claudia said shakily, then frowned in concentration, thinking. "Do you have my bag? It has a diary in it. We used it to mark the days…" She looked around for the worn-out make-shift bag she had carried everywhere.

"Er… It's over here" Nick said, reluctantly leaving her side to go back to his chair where he'd left the interesting piece of history.

"This bag is fascinating." He told her handing it over. "And it's contents are incredible".

"Some Neanderthals made it for us."

"Neanderthals?" Nicks eyes flew up in surprise and his mouth gapped. "Oh that's just brilliant."

"We wrote it all down," she told him, thumbing though the diary pages, nervously. Still in shock. She stopped on a particular page and read it over, her eyes fixed on something.

"Four years." She said in a quiet voice. "I already knew but I had to see it again."

Nick sat back on the bed. He gently took the book from her hands, keeping one hand wrapped around her cold one.

"Three years, eight months and two days." She looked up at him her eyes guarded. "It hasn't been that long for you has it?"

Nick swallowed. He had already known she had been missing years, but to hear it from her own lips had stunned him.

"No."

"How long?" She asked bracing himself for his answer. She squeezed his hand hard. "Nick…How long?"

"Almost two months."