I didn't notice how much my whole body seemed to be aching. But the more I started to come to, the more pain I realised I was in.

Slowly I became aware of the rhythm of my natural rate of respiration, and I could hear the sigh of an oxygen cannister colouring through the whiteness of background sound.

Then I felt the mask.

Fuck.

Without even thinking I snatched it off, bolting upright and grabbing the edge of what felt like a gurney with my hands but I must have gone too far because my legs slipped off and I only just caught myself.

'Hey, hey!' Nick's hands enclosed around my bicep to steady me. He gently shifted me back against the gurney for support, one arm circled my waist to pull me firmly against his body. I brought a hand up to rest against his chest. 'It's okay,' he said softly. 'You're okay.'

But my breathing was falling short. Panic flared up inside me and I was fully disorientated. 'What– what happened?'

'The Pteranodon twitched,' he said, 'its wing knocked you down and you hit your head on the concrete... then the thing rolled on top of you. Are you hurt?'

I shook my head and blinked to try and clear the haziness but it didn't work. 'Where are we?'

'Back at the hotel.'

'Easy!' I recognised the voice of the miliary medic from earlier. 'Don't be racing ahead of yourself. Let's see how you're doing first.' Nicks arm dropped from my waist and I had to lean further into the gurney behind me. 'What's your name and how old are you?' Basic questions. Assess the damage to the amygdala and prefrontal cortex.

I took a breath. 'Anna Havisham. And that depends. What year is it?'

There was a brief silence.

'I'm joking,' I continued. 'It's 2008 and I had a lovely valentines day with my boyfriend last week.'

'Okay,' the medic responded. 'We'll do some tests at the hospital but I don't think it's anything more than a mild concussion. You're running low on oxygen. I've got another bottle in the ambulance, I better get it just in case.'

His footsteps echoed across the wooden floorboard, getting quieter and quieter until I almost couldn't hear them at all. I exhaled again. Nick came back towards me. 'Sit down,' he said softly.

As I took that step back and sat on the edge of the gurney he stepped between my legs, taking a gentle hold of my chin and lifting my head up to him. Then he gently swept my fringe back out of my eyes and tucked it behind my ears, before taking a gently hold of my chin. I waited for something to happen. 'What are you doing?'

'I have absolutely no idea,' he replied 'but I've seen them do it on A.R's so there must be something in it. How are you feeling?'

'I'm okay.'

'Any nausea?' he asked.

'No.'

'Headache's?'

'A little one, but that could be caffeine withdrawal...'

'Does anything feel odd at all?'

'Well not odd, considering, but off, from– from normal...'

'What?'

'I can't see,' I replied. Then sighing again, I reached out blindly for him and my hand fell to his forearm. 'Don't worry, temporary blindness is a symptom of mild concussion.'

'And if it's only a concussion you're going to be fine,' he returned, 'trust me, I'm a doctor.' I felt my face transforming of its own accord to shoot a passively doubtful look in what I hoped was his direction. 'Actually, I'm a professor... b-but it's nearly the same thing. You know, that would have worked with literally anyone else.'

'Yeah,' I agreed. I could hear the smile in his tone, something I didn't know I could distinguish until now when stripped of arguably my most useful sense I was suddenly reliant upon everything else to paint this picture of him.

'Can you see anything at all?' he then asked.

'Um. It's black,' I explained. 'There are... streaks of colour though every now and again. It's called Post-traumatic visual loss. It's probably just my optic nerve if my spine was compressed by an intense pressure it must have had blood and oxygen cut off from the processors. It should come back pretty quickly.'

'Okay,' he replied.

'Nick,' I continued, 'listen, it wasn't the Pteranodon...'I trailed off as the sound of his phone ringing translated through to me, but he must have declined the call because a moment later it stopped and he cleared his throat.

'Go on,' he said.

'I was so concerned about proving its innocence that I didn't think about what it was that was actually guilty.'

The sound of his phone vibrating cut through to me again and Nick sighed. 'Why is Connor ringing me again?'

'Do you want to answer it?' I asked.

There was a momentary silence where I imagined he shook his head before remembering that I couldn't see it. 'No,' he said, 'I don't think it'll be-' The noise stopped as he hung up again. Then I heard him sigh again. 'I thought you were dead.'

I frowned. 'What?'

'Back there, when you were crushed there was this noise like bone breaking, like a pencil snapping and no louder, but I thought it was your neck. It wasn't until we got you out I knew you were okay. You were sort of talking while you were unconscious.'

'Talking?'

'Well, you were calling out.'

'For what?'

He never got the chance to respond. His phone rang again, and I heard him tut quickly and sigh again. 'Well Connor has always been determined, I'll give him that,' he said.

'Do you think he's found Rex?' I questioned in suggestion.

'I think he's found something. Hello, Connor–' And I heard Connor voice cut him off, but I couldn't distinguish the words amongst the chaos of his tone. 'What do you mean "bats"?' Cutter replied. I waited for him to continue after the silence of Connor's response. 'They were like bats,' he said, presumably repeating Connor's words, 'in the trees... heading towards the hotel?'

'Bats?' I questioned in clarification.

I heard Nick groan, 'Connor, I can't pass you over to her– my phones out of juice. Where's your phone Anna?'

'Um...' I couldn't remember. I couldn't feel it on me. 'Car?' I conjected. 'What does he mean bats?'

'Connor... Connor?' There was another sound of frustration from Nick before he continued. 'He's gone. My phones dead.'

I bit my lip. 'Nick...Pteranodons, they were late Cretaceous right?'

'Yeah,' Nick confirmed, 'what are you thinking?'

'Something that doesn't make sense...' I responded, 'but I mean something else could have come through that anomaly from somewhere else, right, another era?'

'If that's true then it means the anomalies aren't just linked from those eras to ours, but to each other as well.'

'There's no reason why that isn't possible.'

'You think you know what attacked the golfer?'

'Honestly, I think it's a Wendigo but I've never heard of one this far south before.' At that moment a noise sounded outside– an indistinguishable cry half like a shout and half like the screeching of car tyres. I turned my head. 'What was that?'

'I don't know,' he replied. 'Um... I– I have to get to a phone...'

I could feel the breeze in my hair, a light wind against my cheek and assumed there was a window open nearby so I lifted my hand to point in that vague direction. 'Is there a window?' I asked.

'Doors,' Nick said.

'Shut them?'

'Yeah, okay,' he agreed.

He stepped away from me and I instantly felt colder. I heard his footsteps echo from the floorboards across the room before he rattled the doors to a close.

And I expected him to come straight back, but he crossed the room, steps getting ever quieter. I'd been trying to draw a mental map of the room based on where I had heard him walking before, but now I was disorientated. The room must have been bigger than I thought and the doors were in a completely different place than I had imagined.

It made me panic. 'Nick?'

'It's alright. It's okay, Anna,' he called back from another room. 'I'm still here.'

'What am I supposed to do? I can't– I can't see a thing.'

'There's something else I want to tell you...' Nicks voice echoed back. He sounded even further now.

'Huh?'

'Something else I've been meaning to say.' I heard the sound again of another pair of doors slamming shut.

'Are we really going to do this now?' I returned.

'Why not?' he replied. I realised he was trying to distract me. 'It's a good a time as any.'

'Go on then. What do you want to say?'

'This whole having separate beds thing is just ridiculous. I don't care if you wake me up when you come home from the lab, in fact– please wake me up. Wake me up so that I can kiss you at least once every day.'

I laughed softly to myself beneath my breath. 'Yeah,' I agreed, 'alright. I always sleep a lot better next to you anyway.'

'What a coincidence.' His footsteps crossed the room towards me again then he took my hand in his and turned me to face him . 'So do I.'

'So who's moving where?'

'I think my room's slightly bigger,' he said. 'It's a good job you didn't unpack those boxes.'

'Yeah,' I agreed, 'when we get home do you think you could give me a hand with them?'

He was quiet for a second. '... you called it home.'

'Yeah;' I replied, 'you're there.'

I could feel my hands shaking in his. Nick's grip tightened. 'Stay calm,' he said.

'That's easy for you to say, you aren't blind,' I replied.

'Yes, but all we need to do is keep all the windows and the doors shut, and we'll be fine. They'll be nothing to worry about.'

There was a sound– a banging– a slamming behind me and I snapped my head around out of reflex despite the fact I wouldn't be able to see what had caused it. A narrow channel of light broke momentarily through my vision, enough to suggest a doorway in a distance but as quickly as it came it went again, and I was returned to a visage of black.

'Go,' I said under my breath, just loud enough for him to hear it.

His hands slipped out of mine and I heard him running. I clenched my fists then stretched them right out in a vain attempt to get my hands to stop shaking.

'The binoculars,' I said– to this time distract myself.

'What?'

He must have been further away than I thought. I cleared my throat. 'You had binoculars, in your pocket,' I called, louder, 'are you a birder?'

'I don't want to answer that.'

'Why not?'

'Because you won't like me anymore once I have.'

I bit the inside of my cheek. 'When I was 9 I learnt the whole British Birds Guide by memory. Even now it's still in there. I can tell the difference between a Downy and Hairy Woodpecker.'

'Are you just making that up to make me feel better?'

'Why would I make that up?' I returned. 'I know you're a little bit of a nerd Nick Cutter, but I think I might be too.'

As he started coming back, I heard him responding 'you think?'

'Smart's the new sexy, Professor. Which is good news for us I guess.'

'Oh, for sure.' He was back in the room, closing the distance with a few long steps before he was back in front of me again, hands grabbing a hold of my wrists. 'Listen, there has to be a phone around here somewhere. Now you're going to be okay because nothing can get in here. It's going to be okay.'

'Nick...'

'You trust me, right?'

'Of course I do,' I responded, 'I just–' I didn't want him to be alone. I wasn't worried about myself. Never. If anything happened to me I wouldn't care about it but if something happened to him...

I felt his lips press a kiss to my forehead before once again he let go, retraced his steps back out the room and shut the doors behind him.