Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me. This is fan fiction, not for profit.

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

A/N Part of the Claudia story verse (AU) Transitions, Transitions Too, Continuum, Trimming the Tree, Missing

6.4 Spinning Slowly

your back… my back…

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

Connor was silent for most of the drive home. Abby parked the mini and the two went inside. Abby set the keys down on the little table by the door. Connor took her coat and put it on the hall tree next to his. She looked up at him.

"What's wrong?" asked the blonde.

Connor's dark brown eyes gazed at her. He gave a small shrug and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "nothing."

"Connor… Temple…" began Abby as she followed him into the living room. "It's not nothing. It's something if you're that worried. What is wrong?"

The dark haired scientist flopped down on the sofa. Connor sighed. He looked up at Abby. The worry in his expression brought Abby to his side. She sat beside him on the sofa and placed a small hand on the side of his jaw, turning his face towards her.

"What's wrong?" repeated Abby in a soft whisper.

"The trip to New Forest was a total bust," answered Connor. "Matt destroyed the bunker and its contents. There's no way to track Aurora."

Abby took a deep breath, steadying herself. She knew she had to convince Connor.

"Good, one less thing to do then," Abby replied firmly. "And since the anomaly to Carnaby Street doesn't open again for over a hundred years, we can quit worrying about her."

"What?" squawked Connor in surprise.

Abby leaned closer. The sofa cushions gave way as she pressed her body against his.

"Aurora is not important," said Abby forcefully. "She's not worth looking for."

She traced the side of Connor's face up from his jaw, past his ear, until her hand rested against his temple. He leaned into her touch.

"We can go on with our business," continued Abby, "move along… live our lives."

"Abby," protested Connor, he began babbling, "we need to find her, she tried to… I mean… Cutter said… Becker said…"

Abby narrowed her blue eyes and gazed at Connor.

"What did Cutter and Becker say?" interrupted Abby.

Connor swallowed at her sharp tone.

"They've got our backs," replied Connor.

Abby snorted. She dropped her hand from the side of Connor's face. Abby's shoulders shook as she chuckled and her lips turned up in a smirk.

"No telling why Cutter would say something like that," responded Abby, "but I think Becker has been watching one too many of those old movies he likes."

Connor sagged back against the sofa cushions. Abby climbed into his lap and reached for him again, placing her hands on both his shoulders. Pulling him so close that their noses were almost touching, she looked him directly in the eyes.

"Connor, quit worrying," ordered Abby. "I've got your back and you've got mine. As long as we have each other everything will work out fine."

Connor didn't object at all as Abby pressed her lips to his. The dark haired scientist brought his hands to the petite blonde's back and pulled her even closer.

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

Wednesday an anomaly alert sounded.

"Kensington Park," protested Lester. "Connor, I thought you said no anomaly alerts until next week!"

"No known anomalies," corrected Connor. He grabbed a set of earpieces and started after Danny, Stephen and Abby.

Lester sniffed. He tugged at the cufflinks on his sleeves.

"So what's this then?" asked Lester.

Connor turned his head to look back over his shoulder at the director as he hurried down the corridor.

"A new one," answered the scientist.

"Connor, look where you're going," cried Abby. She grabbed Connor by the collar and jerked him sideways, so he didn't run headlong into the wall.

Lester listened to Danny's debriefing later that evening.

"As incursions go, it was minor really," chuckled Danny. "The tenontosaurus was hungry. When we got there, it was munching on low lying tree branches."

"Yeah," added Stephen. "If the reporter hadn't chased the ornithopod, there wouldn't have been a problem."

Lester sighed. The creatures tail had proved quite useful as a weapon of defense.

"The taxpayer's are not going to like having to foot the repair bill on the broken playground equipment," said Lester "and you know how much I hate filling out health and safety forms."

"Don't you think the BBC should be filing the health and safety forms?" asked Jess. "He was their reporter."

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

The entomologist's report on the small blue butterflies from the Wimbledon anomaly came back on Thursday. Cutter had it open on his desk.

"Blue morpho," read Cutter "from Central America."

"Like I told you," said Danny from where he stood near the door, "the blue butterflies died because it was too cold for them. February in Wimbledon isn't a good place for butterflies."

"No," agreed Cutter, "I guess the butterflies wouldn't like our cold weather."

Claudia pursed her lips as she looked over her husband's shoulder at the report.

"They're just normal butterflies," mused Claudia. "Maybe the yellow and black butterflies Sarah saw at the race track anomaly were normal butterflies too."

"Without a sample specimen," responded the Professor, "we really don't know for sure."

"An internet search on yellow and black butterflies," said Sarah, "shows one that might be similar to the butterfly at the racetrack anomaly… a tiger swallowtail… it comes from North America."

"No use worrying about it," said Danny "with the racetrack anomaly closed we're not likely to get a sample butterfly."

"Still haven't been able to map that anomaly," complained Connor. "Hope it stays closed."

The slender scientist sat at the adjacent table. Connor's hands were moving quickly over the keyboard as he typed in data. Cutter looked at the clock on the wall.

"We've got the video conference with Professor Bertrand and the others in ten minutes Connor," reminded the Scot. "Are you ready yet?"

Connor looked up from his laptop. His face was somewhat paler than usual.

"Ready… to give a lecture on applied temporal theory to the directors of some of the best universities in the world?" quavered Connor. "No. I think I'm ready to throw up."

Abby heard the last part as she entered Cutter's office. She placed a hand on Connor's back and leaned down to whisper in his ear.

"You can do this," Abby encouraged, "piece of cake really… all you have to do is be yourself and talk about what we do every day."

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

On the last Friday in February, the final equipment from the old ARC was loaded up and transported to the new ARC facilities in the north of London. Lucy the smilodon was moved to the big cat exhibit at Wellington Zoo. And Becker gave Jess the black sword.

"It's only for safe keeping," said Jess. Her bottom lip was trembling and her shiny eyes blinked as she tried to keep back her tears. "Just… just… just…"

The tall soldier leaned down and pressed his trembling lips against hers. The stillness of their kiss steadied both of them. They parted breathless.

"Remember it's coated with magnetite. Keep the sword away from computers, cell phones, and com devices," reminded Becker, "just… just… until I get back."

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