Wine, Chocolate and Other Guilty Pleasures - Primeval Fanfic
Title: Wine, Chocolate and Other Guilty Pleasures
Author: Clea2011
Word Count: 1356
Characters: Claudia/Ryan
Rating: 12
Spoilers: No
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer: Primeval belongs to Impossible Pictures, I'm just writing for fun and non-profit.
A/N: Thanks to lukadreaming for a very quick beta-reading. Happy birthday (just!) to lsellersfic . Hope you like this!
Thanks to lsellersfic for the lovely cover!
Wine, Chocolate and Other Guilty Pleasures
Claudia wasn't a great one for birthdays.
They meant you were getting a year older, which was never a good thing for the single girl. Apparently.
It had never bothered Claudia. She had her life and it was always a pretty full one. The whole Bridget Jones thing where the single girl sat in front of the telly eating chocolate, drinking chardonnay from the bottle and watching rom-coms whilst bawling their eyes out wasn't for her. She had a busy job and that small amount of time some days where she was home at a reasonable hour and had the place to herself was a relief, not a cause to throw a pity party.
She took so little notice of birthdays by the time she started working for James Lester, that it was actually a surprise to get home one evening and find a small pile of envelopes on her doormat in various shades of blue, yellow and pink, something that could only mean it was either her birthday or Christmas. Being September, unless she'd slipped through an anomaly without realising she'd done so, it was unlikely to be the latter.
One was from her parents, with a reminder that they wanted to come and visit soon and a promise to bring gifts. As if she wouldn't be happy to see them just for themselves. Another was from her sister, with a voucher for a spa day for the two of them just as soon as Claudia had a free day. One was from her brother, in his wife's handwriting, though at least Emma had managed to get him to sign his name. At least she got cards from him since that organised woman had entered his life. There were a couple from university friends, and one from an ex-colleague she still met for drinks occasionally. Nothing from any of her current workmates. She was surprised to find that actually bothered her a little.
It had been a busy day.
She'd spent most of it on Box Hill trying to keep the public and press away from the relatively harmless but difficult to hide pair of apatosaurus that had blundered through an anomaly and then found the box trees a delicious treat. The team had done their best, but it was quite possible that the country park no longer held 40 per cent of the United Kingdom's wild box trees. It would grow back before the next time someone decided to do a survey. Hopefully.
There had been a lot of shouting. She'd managed to miss quite a lot of it, but gathered that Cutter and Abby hadn't quite seen eye to eye about the best way to get the creatures back, and then Connor had tripped over and nearly been trampled by a giant foot and only Ryan's quick thinking had saved him. It had taken a long time to herd them back through the anomaly. She'd been worrying after an hour or so what on earth they were going to do if the apatosaurs were trapped in the twenty-first century. There was nowhere to hide them.
She poured herself a small glass of Sauvignon Blanc, took a sip and then shrugged and filled the glass up. So what if it was supposed to breathe? What was all that about anyway? Wine didn't breathe, wine fell into a glass, slipped down your throat and gave you that delicious warmth that made everything just that little bit less awful.
It was her birthday after all and it looked as if her current workmates, who were supposed to be friends of hers now, had totally forgotten. Okay, so Claudia herself had forgotten, and she had been around at the original event that the day was supposed to celebrate, but that wasn't the point. She'd never worked anywhere that didn't have some level of birthday Nazi who made some effort to hound you for cakes at least. It was surprising that one of Captain Ryan's men hadn't taken up that role; they all ate enough food if it was on offer, particularly if it was free.
The thing was, they didn't know so she couldn't really feel too hurt. Abby's birthday a few months back had been hard to miss, but then Connor had gone a little over the top and had almost certainly hacked her files to learn the date. She liked Connor, but would rather he stayed out of her personal files. After that experience Abby probably didn't ever want to see another birthday. Cutter probably didn't even remember what year it was, far too involved with his research into the anomaly project, and he tended to drag Stephen into that with him. And Sir James would never lower himself to do something as friendly as wish a colleague a happy birthday. He might just issue a caring warning about not coming in hungover the next day. That left the soldiers, who definitely had no idea.
Claudia rather enjoyed working with the soldiers. It was quite a nice feeling, marching along the road with an imposing armed guard apparently all ready to take down anyone who so much as argued with you. She also liked the respect Captain Ryan always ensured she got from those soldiers. They didn't argue with her like the scientists did, or cause huge problems for her to clear up. And she'd always liked a strong man. Being surrounded by a group of them was more enjoyable than a sensible-minded career-oriented woman like Claudia would like to admit. Particularly the captain. Strong, respectful and competent. She smiled at the thought of the annoying reporter who had been hanging around all afternoon... until Ryan had gone over carrying that huge gun he was always wielding and said something to him. The reporter had left very quickly after that. And then Ryan had jogged back to his men, winking at Claudia as he passed her. That was, she realised a little despondently, probably the high spot of her birthday.
It called for the bag of Minstrels that had been sitting in her cupboard for a month because Claudia just hadn't had time to sit back and enjoy them. And perhaps a movie... There was a DVD of the latest James Bond that had been lying beside her TV for months. Watching Daniel Craig was definitely a good way to pass the evening.
It wasn't quite sitting back and doing the whole rom-com/chardonnay/chocolate binge thing, because that just wasn't Claudia, but it was as close as she would ever get.
She'd barely got through the opening credits when her doorbell rang. Sighing, she paused the DVD and went to answer it, knowing that it was probably her grumpy neighbour wanting to tell her that her TV was on too loud. Claudia rolled her eyes, wondering how he would manage if he had a neighbour who was actually at home for more than a few hours a night.
It wasn't the neighbour. It was a bunch of flowers, being held by a strong, respectful and competent man who was smiling a little self-consciously at her.
She raised an eyebrow, not even trying to stop smiling back.
"I heard someone had a birthday."
"It happens." She wasn't going to ask how he knew. Their security files, presumably, as part of his job. Nice that he'd remembered. Nicer still that he'd turned up on her doorstep with flowers. She opened the door wider. "Why don't you come in?"
"I'm not interrupting anything?" He stepped into her hallway and looked past her at the TV. She was sure he brightened slightly on seeing she had a Bond movie on. Typical man. He probably expected her to be sitting there watching one of Sandra Bullock's finest.
"Wine, chocolate and 007?"
"Sounds good. Just one thing?" Ryan paused in the act of hanging up his jacket. "Don't tell my men I brought flowers. I'll never hear the end of it."
Claudia smiled, and closed the door. She had a feeling she wasn't going to be telling anyone anything. At least, not for a while.
***
Author: Clea2011
Word Count: 1356
Characters: Claudia/Ryan
Rating: 12
Spoilers: No
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer: Primeval belongs to Impossible Pictures, I'm just writing for fun and non-profit.
A/N: Thanks to lukadreaming for a very quick beta-reading. Happy birthday (just!) to lsellersfic . Hope you like this!
Thanks to lsellersfic for the lovely cover!
Wine, Chocolate and Other Guilty Pleasures
Claudia wasn't a great one for birthdays.
They meant you were getting a year older, which was never a good thing for the single girl. Apparently.
It had never bothered Claudia. She had her life and it was always a pretty full one. The whole Bridget Jones thing where the single girl sat in front of the telly eating chocolate, drinking chardonnay from the bottle and watching rom-coms whilst bawling their eyes out wasn't for her. She had a busy job and that small amount of time some days where she was home at a reasonable hour and had the place to herself was a relief, not a cause to throw a pity party.
She took so little notice of birthdays by the time she started working for James Lester, that it was actually a surprise to get home one evening and find a small pile of envelopes on her doormat in various shades of blue, yellow and pink, something that could only mean it was either her birthday or Christmas. Being September, unless she'd slipped through an anomaly without realising she'd done so, it was unlikely to be the latter.
One was from her parents, with a reminder that they wanted to come and visit soon and a promise to bring gifts. As if she wouldn't be happy to see them just for themselves. Another was from her sister, with a voucher for a spa day for the two of them just as soon as Claudia had a free day. One was from her brother, in his wife's handwriting, though at least Emma had managed to get him to sign his name. At least she got cards from him since that organised woman had entered his life. There were a couple from university friends, and one from an ex-colleague she still met for drinks occasionally. Nothing from any of her current workmates. She was surprised to find that actually bothered her a little.
It had been a busy day.
She'd spent most of it on Box Hill trying to keep the public and press away from the relatively harmless but difficult to hide pair of apatosaurus that had blundered through an anomaly and then found the box trees a delicious treat. The team had done their best, but it was quite possible that the country park no longer held 40 per cent of the United Kingdom's wild box trees. It would grow back before the next time someone decided to do a survey. Hopefully.
There had been a lot of shouting. She'd managed to miss quite a lot of it, but gathered that Cutter and Abby hadn't quite seen eye to eye about the best way to get the creatures back, and then Connor had tripped over and nearly been trampled by a giant foot and only Ryan's quick thinking had saved him. It had taken a long time to herd them back through the anomaly. She'd been worrying after an hour or so what on earth they were going to do if the apatosaurs were trapped in the twenty-first century. There was nowhere to hide them.
She poured herself a small glass of Sauvignon Blanc, took a sip and then shrugged and filled the glass up. So what if it was supposed to breathe? What was all that about anyway? Wine didn't breathe, wine fell into a glass, slipped down your throat and gave you that delicious warmth that made everything just that little bit less awful.
It was her birthday after all and it looked as if her current workmates, who were supposed to be friends of hers now, had totally forgotten. Okay, so Claudia herself had forgotten, and she had been around at the original event that the day was supposed to celebrate, but that wasn't the point. She'd never worked anywhere that didn't have some level of birthday Nazi who made some effort to hound you for cakes at least. It was surprising that one of Captain Ryan's men hadn't taken up that role; they all ate enough food if it was on offer, particularly if it was free.
The thing was, they didn't know so she couldn't really feel too hurt. Abby's birthday a few months back had been hard to miss, but then Connor had gone a little over the top and had almost certainly hacked her files to learn the date. She liked Connor, but would rather he stayed out of her personal files. After that experience Abby probably didn't ever want to see another birthday. Cutter probably didn't even remember what year it was, far too involved with his research into the anomaly project, and he tended to drag Stephen into that with him. And Sir James would never lower himself to do something as friendly as wish a colleague a happy birthday. He might just issue a caring warning about not coming in hungover the next day. That left the soldiers, who definitely had no idea.
Claudia rather enjoyed working with the soldiers. It was quite a nice feeling, marching along the road with an imposing armed guard apparently all ready to take down anyone who so much as argued with you. She also liked the respect Captain Ryan always ensured she got from those soldiers. They didn't argue with her like the scientists did, or cause huge problems for her to clear up. And she'd always liked a strong man. Being surrounded by a group of them was more enjoyable than a sensible-minded career-oriented woman like Claudia would like to admit. Particularly the captain. Strong, respectful and competent. She smiled at the thought of the annoying reporter who had been hanging around all afternoon... until Ryan had gone over carrying that huge gun he was always wielding and said something to him. The reporter had left very quickly after that. And then Ryan had jogged back to his men, winking at Claudia as he passed her. That was, she realised a little despondently, probably the high spot of her birthday.
It called for the bag of Minstrels that had been sitting in her cupboard for a month because Claudia just hadn't had time to sit back and enjoy them. And perhaps a movie... There was a DVD of the latest James Bond that had been lying beside her TV for months. Watching Daniel Craig was definitely a good way to pass the evening.
It wasn't quite sitting back and doing the whole rom-com/chardonnay/chocolate binge thing, because that just wasn't Claudia, but it was as close as she would ever get.
She'd barely got through the opening credits when her doorbell rang. Sighing, she paused the DVD and went to answer it, knowing that it was probably her grumpy neighbour wanting to tell her that her TV was on too loud. Claudia rolled her eyes, wondering how he would manage if he had a neighbour who was actually at home for more than a few hours a night.
It wasn't the neighbour. It was a bunch of flowers, being held by a strong, respectful and competent man who was smiling a little self-consciously at her.
She raised an eyebrow, not even trying to stop smiling back.
"I heard someone had a birthday."
"It happens." She wasn't going to ask how he knew. Their security files, presumably, as part of his job. Nice that he'd remembered. Nicer still that he'd turned up on her doorstep with flowers. She opened the door wider. "Why don't you come in?"
"I'm not interrupting anything?" He stepped into her hallway and looked past her at the TV. She was sure he brightened slightly on seeing she had a Bond movie on. Typical man. He probably expected her to be sitting there watching one of Sandra Bullock's finest.
"Wine, chocolate and 007?"
"Sounds good. Just one thing?" Ryan paused in the act of hanging up his jacket. "Don't tell my men I brought flowers. I'll never hear the end of it."
Claudia smiled, and closed the door. She had a feeling she wasn't going to be telling anyone anything. At least, not for a while.
***