Content warnings: references to previous events within this story,

Media: References to Primeval S3E1, S3E3

Word count: 2,303

Two months later

December 17, 2024

09:04 / 9:04 a.m.

Sarah checked her teeth in her bathroom mirror again, knowing damn well that she was stressing needlessly.

It had been two months since she had fled through an anomaly away from a future predator and been rescued by a stranger in grey. She had woken up in West London Hospital, covered head to toe in bandages, having been found outside the ER doors. It was at the hospital that she discovered that she had not only traveled into a different time, but a different universe altogether, as events that seemed common knowledge in decades past had definitely not happened in her world. Even though she'd been hurled about fifteen years forward from her home time, there were historical events- historical figures- that simply did not exist in her history.

The woman in the next bed was a middle-aged woman named Lagaro whose leg had been broken in a car accident. The drugs that Sarah was on for the pain had loosened her tongue, and she had broken down and told the woman a fair bit of her predicament. Shockingly, Lagaro had offered her a lifeline. The older woman had produced false but incredibly realistic documents for Sarah- everything from a birth certificate and NINO to a driver's license and passport. There was a hefty fee, of course, but Sarah had promised to pay her.

She hadn't paid Lagaro's or the hospital's fees yet, but she had paid some, and right now it was all she could do to afford rent, utilities, and groceries. She had a bicycle, which saved her the trouble of car maintenance and petrol.

So today she was going to a job interview… at the British Museum.

Objectively, she knew it was only going to cause more pain to herself. It would reopen all the old wounds and be a constant reminder of her old life- both her old lives, when she lived in blissful ignorance and when she lived her happiest life. And she knew that a fanciful, stupidly hopeful part of her believed that if she went back to working there, she would find a way back to the ARC.

The saner part of Sarah argued that she needed a vague sense of familiarity. She'd worked at the British Museum for three years before being recruited by the ARC following an encounter with a Pristichampsus she'd mistaken for the Ancient Egyptian demon goddess Ammit, and if she could get the job it would almost be just like old times.

With one final glance in the mirror, Sarah grabbed her keys and left the flat.

The British Museum was buzzing with activity when Sarah arrived. Tourists milled about, in self-made or tour groups or alone. It was a disorganized jumble of eagerness and curiosity that filled Sarah with a sense of nostalgia. It had been less than a year since she'd resigned from the British Museum to join the ARC, and despite how well and how happily she'd settled into her job there, she now found herself missing the energetic bustle of museum work.

"You alright, love?" A timid voice asked softly at her shoulder. Sarah turned to see a man who looked to be of Hispanic descent peering at her with wide but kind eyes from under a curly mess of hair. He was dressed in a cardigan and button-down, and his nametag read 'Steven'.

"Just a little overwhelmed." Sarah fudged. "It's been years since I've been here. Um, I'm looking for Donna. I have an interview at half-nine."

A flash of distaste went across Steven's features as quick as it came. "Oh, I see."

She decided not to question it. "I'm hoping to work in the Ancient Egypt section if I can. I've got a PhD in Egyptology, so maybe that'll earn me some points."

His eyes lit up. "Egypt? That's my department, actually. Well, it's not, I work at the gift shop, but I love Ancient Egypt."

Sarah smiled. "Well, at least somebody here shares my interests. I'll take that as a good sign."

"I hope it is." Steven replied. "Er, if you just go down that hallway, her office is the fourth door on the left. She should be in there this time of day."

"Thank you. This place is a maze and I don't want to get lost and be late."

"No, that wouldn't be good, would it? Good luck."

She smiled. "Thanks."

10:14 a.m.

Sarah left the office with a sour look on her face. Donna was not the first blonde, middle-aged, irritable, condescending British Museum employee she'd met, but it would only make Sarah more miserable to think about Marion Taylor right now- her gruesome demise or what it led to.

Especially not what it led to.

"I can't believe I saw Ammut- well, what the Egyptians thought was Ammut. Genuine living legend." Sarah said, still in shock over the events of the day.

"'Legend'…." Professor Cutter repeated thoughtfully from where he stood. "Yes!" He slammed his hands emphatically on the work surface he was leaning over, attracting the attention of everyone else in the room, before turning to face Lester. "If anomalies have appeared in the past, and they have; if Pristichampsus is sunning itself on the banks of the Nile 3,000 years ago— that's the stuff of legend. Anything that seems out of place, out of time, like…" he trailed off, snapping his fingers as he tried to think.

"Like, uh, like Chimera, um, Pegasus." Sarah supplied.

"The Yeti." Connor joined in.

"The Hydra."

"Kraken."

The professor clapped his hands together and stepped up to the transparent board covered in dry-erase scribbles of mathematical and scientific equations. "I've been looking at this all wrong, I've been thinking two-dimensionally." His eyes lighted on Sarah and he came around the board to stand directly in front of her. "How much do you know about mythological beasts?"

"Well, erm, erm- my thesis on it is in the British Library." She admitted.

Cutter redirected his gaze to Lester. "She stays."

"Do I get a say in any of this?" Sarah demanded.

"Yes, yes, of course." Amended the Scotsman. "I would like you to join us here, at the Anomaly Research Centre. I want you working on the source of all the great myths- where they were first spotted, when, by whom. Can you find a pattern? Or you can go back to lecturing schoolkids. Your choice."

The professor's offer was beyond tempting, beyond enticing. Her PhD had secured her a spot in the Egyptology department at the museum, but had otherwise been largely ignored by everyone else unless she was on a dig or surrounded by historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists. But here it would be a valuable resource, a tool that could be used to better understand the threat combated by the Anomaly Research Centre and save lives. Maybe there would be less Marion Taylors.

Behind the professor, Connor made exaggerated noises of uncertainty, then silenced himself and gave her a pointed look. It was funny, but wholly unneeded; she had already made her choice.

She glanced at Lester, observing stoically on the other side of the board, before returning her gaze to the Scot and nodding. "Okay. I'm in."

Sarah shook her head violently, then ran a hand through her onyx hair to brush it out of her face again. "Stop it, Sarah." She chastised herself. "You know better."

She entered the main space of the museum again and headed for the gift shop. Steven was there, as she had hoped. He looked up when he heard her approaching. "Hey… you. How'd it go?"

Sarah drew in a breath and smiled widely, pushing her memories as far to the back of her mind as she could. "I got the job."

Steven grinned. "Hey, that's great! When do you start?"

"Thursday." She replied. She stuck out her hand. "I'm Sarah, by the way. Doctor Sarah Page."

"Finally, an intellectual." He joked, and a genuine laugh bubbled out of her throat. He shook her hand. "I look forward to working with you, Doctor Page."

NINO is National Insurance Number, the British equivalent of a social security number.