Primeval Fic: In Name Only 3/9

Mar 02, 2013 21:24


Title: In Name Only
Author: SCWLC
Disclaimer: I don't own anything herein and no one's paying me to do it.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Children change almost everything.
AN: This took a turn I hadn't planned for the first half, and the second . . . well, Connor's explanation is exactly what I'd probably do if asked to explain those sorts of things. Which is one of many reasons I shouldn't have children.

*************************

Living with Claudia was a bit of an adjustment for everyone, not least of which Claudia, who was rather dismayed at the appearance of Gertrude in the front hall. She developed rather an affection for the raptor after missionaries responded to her answering the door by running away, however.

Connor discovered rather a lot about women and girly things he'd never even suspected. Because Claudia began to fill in the gaps with Lynn, teaching her about dresses and makeup, fashion and all sorts of girly pink things he'd never imagined existed. Lynn's wardrobe, previously essentially the same as Connor's but in varying shades of pinks, purples and pastels, suddenly spouted pretty red dresses, and the little pink fedora was sometimes replaced with brightly coloured barettes and ribbons.

Danny approved of the new home, flirting outrageously with Claudia, who was rather flattered at the attention, and in her pique at Cutter's implication she'd sleep with someone Connor's age like some sort of woman who was living the delusion she was still in her twenties, she'd taken to cheerfully discussing Danny's charms with Abby, (who was amused enough to play along) and Connor (who usually degenerated to pleading with Stephen to do something to get him out of it). Claudia also helped Connor in his ongoing campaign to get Danny to stop taking Lynn down to the police station, where she was the sometime mascot and learned to make very bad coffee.

In spite of his earlier troubles with them, though, Connor had remained friends with Tom and Duncan, who would do in a pinch if there was no one else about to babysit Lynn.

That was why Connor had a heart attack when Duncan asked him to meet in the university library and told him all about taking the dodo and Tom going completely mental. "What did you do with Caitlyn?" he demanded, even as he hastily dialled the line to the Home Office.

"I dropped her back with Miss Kirkpatrick at your old place," Duncan assured him. "You're not calling the police?"

Knowing his daughter was safely away somewhere let Connor focus on the problem at hand. "This is way beyond them, now," he informed his friend.

They all ran about like chickens with their heads lopped off, and after seeing Tom die like that, seeing how close Tom came to being a bullet-ridden corpse, the last thing Connor wanted to do was head into the Home Office to file any sort of report. He just wanted to go collect Lynn and bring her home and cuddle her on the couch in front of the telly watching some irredeemable girly picture with her. But if he didn't do it now, he'd just have to do it later and it would be worse when the numbness had worn off.

"Temple, my office at once," said Lester sharply.

"I'll talk to him," Stephen offered, all sympathy for once.

Connor shook his head. "It's like the reports. If it doesn't happen now, it'll just be waiting for me later."

"Alright," Stephen said dubiously.

He smiled weakly at the other man, then went to his doom.

The door closed behind him, and suddenly Lynn was clinging to him. "Dad! I was so scared! Tom started acting all weird and I'm really sorry we followed you, but I wanted to know what you do and the dodo was cute and all the books say they weren't dangerous so I didn't think it was so bad that they took it and then it made Tom go all mad and Duncan took me to Miss Kirkpatrick's, but Tom knows where that is, and I didn't want to be somewhere he knew to find me so I came here."

He'd already dropped to his knees, hugging her back and manoeuvring them to the chair in front of Lester's desk, where she snuggled into his lap. "How'd you get here?" he asked.

"You gave me the bus money for emergencies, remember?" she pointed out. He had, at that. He'd made sure she always had two bus fares worth of money on her, just in case some horrible emergency happened and she wound up having to go somewhere by herself.

"How'd you know to come here?" he asked.

"Claudia said she works here, and you said she was sort of your boss," Lynn said, all calm logic now that she was curled up with her dad. "So, obviously you have to work in the same place she does, so I came here and asked for you. Then they sent me up here, to Mr. Lester."

Lester shot him a dark look. "Imagine my surprise when your daughter appears, Mr. Temple. Especially since there's no mention of her I can find in your file. Looking a little further, I found some very interesting-"

"James," Claudia said, as she burst through the door, "I-" she took in the scene. "Well, too late for that, I suppose," she said, then shut the door and leaned against the wall.

"I'm wondering," Lester said, "How much Ms Brown knows about this situation, Mr. Cosgrove."

It had been so long since he'd heard his real name, he'd almost forgotten. Lynn, however, flew into a panic. "Don't send me back!"

"Lynn-" he tried to soothe her, but she was already clinging to Lester in a move that looked positively bizarre to Connor.

"Don't send me back! Please!" she cried, bursting into tears. "I don't want to be locked away in my room again, I don't . . . he hurt me and Da -- Jake rescued me! He doesn't hit me ever, not like Clarke! And I have friends and Danny and Claudia and I don't want to be Imogen!"

Claudia stared at all this, turning to the young man she was letting stay at her house. "Connor?"

"Perhaps," Lester said, looking quite strange as he handily picked Lynn up, cuddling her as though he were well-practiced at it, "You might explain yourself."

As his story unfolded, Lester's sharp look only intensified, while Claudia looked more and more confused every step of the way. When he got to the part where Danny had found out about the corruption of the local councillor, the look on Lester's face turned grim.

"Jacob Cosgrove," Claudia said when he'd finished. "It . . . I don't know whether to be angry or congratulatory."

Jake sighed. "Whatever you do, Lester, I'm just begging you not to let Caitlyn get sent back there. Please. I'll go to prison if I have to-"

"No!" Lynn shrieked. She wriggled away from Lester and flung herself at Jake. "We'll run away again!" she pleaded. "We can go away to Australia or something, right? Or America?"

"No one will be going to prison," Lester said, that odd look still on his face. Suddenly, he realised the only reason he found it odd was that it was on Lester's face. It was sympathy. Something maybe even a little paternal. "I will speak with the Minister about this and we will determine how best to handle this all." He came over to the chair where Jake was sitting and put a hand on Lynn's shoulder. "I certainly will not send you anywhere you have been abused," he told her. Then he looked at Jake. "I will also admit to being impressed. You've fairly effectively wiped out any mention of your real identity all over the UK."

"So, we're just going to . . . let this go?" Claudia sounded confused, though not angry. Clearly the look on his face said something to her, because she smiled at Jake and said, "I'm not saying I want you prosecuted or anything else," she told him, "But . . . we're just going to . . ."

"I will have a word," Lester said, "With the authorities. It should be a relatively simple matter to ensure the official files will no longer be an issue."

"Thank you," he said, sagging in relief at this assurance.

Claudia had another question, though. "Is this why you tried to keep it all separate? Caitlyn from most people?"

He nodded. "I don't know who or where Clarke has ears and eyes, and if I could keep things separate, it might throw him off. I mean, if he ever started suspecting."

"Right," Lester said then. "So, now that this is resolved, I hope you realise you could have been arrested for violation of the confidentiality agreement you signed with the Home Office regarding the anomaly project?"

The change in subject was startling, but ultimately, this was Lester. "I know," he said. "I just . . . there are enough secrets going around for me. I hate having to keep more."

"And you wanted to show off?" Claudia asked dryly.

Lynn spoke up from where she was fiddling with a sheet of lined paper on his lap. "He wanted Duncan to help with building a detector because Duncan's an idiot savant."

"When did you hear that?" Connor asked her.

She looked at him and shrugged. "Tom always says that, you know that. I looked it up online. I think Tom's right."

Tom was dead, and he was going to have to explain that to her. Lester's face got that weird look that meant he was about to pretend he was human and not a government cyborg intent on turning everything around him into a conspiracy-ridden government white paper. "I trust you've learnt your lesson, Temple, and I'll let you head home."

Cutter, Stephen and Abby had taken the chance to flee the scene and the hallways were deserted as the three of them slipped quietly down to where Claudia had her car parked and Connor tried desperately to think of how to break it to Lynn that Tom was dead.

When they walked in past Gertrude, Claudia absently draping her jacket over the raptor's head, Connor finally had to ask, "Lynn, what's that paper you've got?"

"Mr. Lester was talking on the phone and saying nasty things to people," she explained. "So I started a list of words that I was sure were nasty but I didn't know what they meant. Mr. Lester got me a dictionary and helped me spell them."

The list read like a conversation with Lester when the man hadn't yet had his morning tea and Cutter had proposed one of his theories that were awful, but right.

He shook it off. "Sweetheart, I've got some bad news to tell you. About Tom."

She frowned. "I don't want him around anymore. He's not-"

"He won't be around," Connor interrupted. "Tom's . . . you know how after the dodo bit him he got weird?"

"Yeah," Lynn said with a shiver. "That was . . . scary."

"What?" demanded Claudia. "Why was she there?"

"Tom and Duncan were babysitting," Connor told her. "Danny's on a new shift and needs to adjust to the time and Violet wasn't going to be available for the whole stretch. Basically, it was them or no one."

Claudia made an aggravated sound of disgust. "So, they brought her along with them?"

"Would you rather they'd left her alone at their flat?" he snapped back. "They'd never once done a thing to her, and this could hardly be something they'd be able to predict."

"You're right. I'm sorry," Claudia said contritely.

"What's going on?" Lynn asked. "What about Tom?"

"The dodo made him sick," Connor told her. "Sick like . . . you know how Penny on the third floor'd get strange if she hadn't had her pills?"

Lynn nodded. "You said she was sort of sick, and that the pills were to help her stay better, but it was . . . chronic?"

"Yeah. Well, the dodo made Tom sick like that, but there weren't any pills that would make him better. He . . . the disease from the dodo it . . . it made him so sick, he just . . ." the knowledge that one of his two best friends was dead hit him like a tonne of bricks. It wasn't as bad as when Connor had died in some ways, because Connor had been family as much as a friend, but Tom was his fault.

Claudia took up the thread of the explanation when the first sob escaped Connor and Lynn started to panic. "Tom passed away this afternoon, darling."

"Passed away?" Lynn asked. "What does . . . Tom's . . . he's dead? Like the real Connor and my mum?"

"Yeah," Connor said. "There wasn't anything anyone could do."

"No," Lynn said. "No! Tom's not . . . he's nice and funny and plays Barbie Wild Horse Adventures with me without taking the mick like you and Duncan and . . . No!" she started crying, then pushed away from Connor, running up the stairs to her room and slamming the door behind her.

Connor stared after her a moment. "I feel a little like that right now myself," he said to Claudia. "You think shrieking and slamming a door would help?"

"I wish it did," she told him. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thanks," he said hoarsely. "I'd best go up." He paused at the foot of the stairs a moment. "Can . . . she'll want to go to the funeral, I think. Can you . . . can you help get something appropriate picked out for her?"

"Of course," Claudia said with a devastatingly gentle smile.

"Thanks." He climbed after Lynn, peeking into her room to find her curled in a ball on her bed, wrapped around her plushie sauropod. "Lynn? Lynn, I'm sorry."

"Why?" she asked. "Why'd it bite Tom? Why'd it have to make him sick? The books all say dodos're nice."

"Because the dodo was sick too," Connor said. "It must've got bit by something else that was sick."

"Why didn't it bite someone else?" she demanded stubbornly. "Someone who wasn't fun and nice."

"Because Tom was in the way," Connor said. "And I'm just happy it wasn't you, and that it wasn't Duncan too. Because I don't know what I'd've done if it were you."

"Dad . . ." She crawled into his lap and cried until she fell asleep, and Connor held her while she did, murmuring nonsense to her, hoping it would be comforting, and knowing that there was nothing he could do to make it better.

****************************

Between one thing and another, Connor was rather enjoying being Claudia's housemate. Lynn called her Aunt Claudia and the few parents who'd been rather snippy with Connor, believing that his relatively young age meant he was also thoroughly irresponsible, had been browbeaten into submission by Claudia.

He disliked being a specific bone of contention between Cutter and her, if only because Cutter seemed to still be half-convinced that his erstwhile student and erstwhile girlfriend were having some sort of fling. Actually, strangely enough, Stephen seemed to think so too, or at least, he was dropping hints that way. Really, why it was anyone thought someone like Claudia, who was far too sophisticated to be interested in Connor that way, would be interested in Connor, was beyond him. And given his own interest in Abby, because he was sure Abby would get along so well with Lynn, on top of being brilliant and gorgeous and fun . . .

He shook his head. He had to stop thinking about that.

Right now he was out on a golf course with Stephen, trying to figure out what it was that had eaten that man if it wasn't the pteranodon. Connor shook his head in disbelief. Stephen had some sort of Tarzan, in tune with nature, superhero sort of thing going on where he wasn't even displacing the grass he was walking on. This distracted Connor enough as he marvelled, that he tripped over and skinned the palm of his hand as he fell.

"Ow," Connor grumbled. Seriously, was it so much to ask that he at least be able to walk upright?

"Quiet," snapped Stephen suddenly. Connor froze, then heard a rustling in the trees that wasn't wind and a squeak that wasn't any sort of animal native to England. They both looked up. In the trees was a flock of pterosaurs. "Connor, don't move."

"And then what?" he snapped. "You think you can hold off a whole flock of them by yourself?" He pulled himself to a crouch, watching the things. They were all on point, practically quivering. Worse, the point they were on was him.

Stephen's eyes were flickering back and forth between him and the pterosaurs. "They're focused on you . . ." the blue eyes widened in sudden realisation. "The blood from your hand, it's attracting them!"

Which was when they attacked. Connor fled, Stephen right next to him. As they hurtled through the woods, they stumbled over a small sort of caretaker's shed. In one of those heroic moves Connor would never try because he'd just sprain something, Stephen kicked the door open and they both dove in. It took a moment to figure out how to wedge the door shut, then they were stuck inside the shed, the squawking horrible little creatures banging into the windows.

Stephen's mobile rang. "Ryan?" His eyes widened and he stared out the window. "I would, but I'm rather stuck for the moment." There was a pause. "A flock of pterosaurs are trying to eat Connor and me alive, actually."

Connor shook his head. Stephen was being incredibly blase about this.

"No, that's a pteranodon. These are small buggers. Like flying piranhas." Another pause. "Yes, probably." A moment later he hung up, turning to Connor grimly. "Apparently Cutter's trapped up at the lodge and he and Claudia are under attack by the pterosaurs."

"What?" Connor asked, eyes wide. He glanced out the window at the things shrieking their dismay at being denied prey.

"It gets worse. Claudia was hurt by the pteranodon. I don't know and Ryan didn't mention, but she was unconscious."

At that moment, the constant bashing on the windows paid off for the little menaces. They came bursting through the windows, and dove at the pair of them. They barely made it to the door, preferring to be in the open where there was a chance to run, and Connor noticed with some resentment that somehow Stephen was managing to stay far more free of nicks and scratches than Connor, who was being assaulted.

From the direction of the lodge on the golf course came the sound of an explosion. In a split second, Connor made a decision. The pterosaurs had killed someone, just like piranhas did. Swarming and tearing them to pieces tiny bit by tiny bit. They were being attracted by how much he was bleeding and they would probably swarm them both unless they separated. So, they were both probably going to die, and with that explosion, odds were good the pterosaurs had got into something, a boiler or some such, and had caused the explosion. Claudia might well be dead.

He was almost certainly going to die, he was pretty much shark bait . . . pterosaur bait, rather.

"Stephen! If I don't get out of this, you need to head down to William Gladstone Primary. Get Caitlyn. Temple." Then he took a deep breath and sprinted away from Stephen, diverting what seemed to be the whole flock as he ran back towards the anomaly.

"Connor!" he heard the shout behind him. Stephen was chasing after, but Connor had been running his whole childhood. Footraces, from bullies, from barking dogs and he'd kept on running on track teams. He pelted along, feeling the damned things getting in bites off his face and arms. A lucky swipe along his neck as he hit the home stretch, saw the SFs clustered around the pteranodon, and suddenly he was bleeding out. It all came together and he passed out, barely aware of Stephen pounding up behind him, cursing, and the sound of gunfire and tiny bodies dropping out of the air.

He woke up in a hospital bed. Something warm and heavy was lying on top of him. "Dad? Dad!" Lynn promptly wrapped herself around him, hugging him for all she was worth.

"Alright Lynn, be careful. He's been pretty badly hurt," Claudia said from the side.

Connor breathed a sigh of relief. "You're okay," he said to Claudia. "I thought . . . when we heard that explosion I thought you might've . . . not been okay."

"Was that why you did it?" Stephen's voice said from the door. "Because that was possibly the . . . I don't have the words to say how incredibly stupid that was."

"Dad's not stupid!" Lynn exclaimed, affronted. "He's smarter than you!" She began to mumble about stupid people who were scared of Gertrude.

Stephen came into view, and shot Lynn a look. "Most of us don't expect to be greeted at the door by a deinonychus."

"Not even one wearing a hat and coat?" Claudia asked, lips twitching a little. "I do think Lynn's right, it is an excellent burglar deterrent."

"I'm entirely certain I have no desire to know about your burglar deterrent, Temple," said Lester. He glanced around the room and said, "Lynn, since you know your father's going to be fine now, would you like to take a break, maybe get some ice cream from the canteen downstairs?"

Lynn's eyes narrowed in thought, then she said, "Okay. I can come right back, though?"

"Absolutely," Lester said. "And in the meantime, you can tell me if you're having any trouble figuring out new words for insulting people."

"Bye Dad!" Lynn said as she hopped off the bed and joined Lester, who shot all three adults a meaningful look before they left.

"I'm sorry," he said to Claudia once he was reasonably sure Lynn was out of earshot. "I was bleeding and the pterosaurs were clearly after me in particular because of it. I really though they were going to kill both me and Stephen if we stuck together."

"And sending me to collect Lynn?" Stephen asked. "Because I have to say, I wasn't expecting a child. I was expecting you'd sent me off to tell your sister or mother about you being in hospital or dead."

"Because after the explosion . . . you'd said that Claudia and Cutter were up at the lodge, and the explosion came from there."

"You thought I was dead?" Claudia asked, a little hesitantly.

"I thought you might be," Connor admitted. "And if you were, and I was going to be dead, someone had to know to get Lynn right off, not just leave her hanging for however long it took to get her."

"Have you always been this fatalistic," Stephen asked, "Or is it some other facet of parenthood I can add to my list of reasons to avoid being one?"

"Have you always been this acerbic," Connor retorted, "Or have you been spending your spare time with Lester to learn at the feet of the master?"

Claudia glared impartially at them both. "Connor, just don't try to get yourself killed again, Lynn can't afford to lose her father and you know it, Stephen, don't twit him for trying to save your life."

"Sorry," they both mumbled at her.

"Good," she said, nodding sharply. "I'm going to make sure James doesn't teach Lynn anything else that will get Connor called in for a parent-teacher conference."

There was a long silence after she left. "I'm sorry I was so cryptic," Connor said finally. "I really did think I didn't have long before the little buggers killed me."

"It's alright," Stephen told him, shaking his head. "What I won't forgive you for is sending me to those harpies in the school office."

The penny dropped. "You mean Fanny Wellesley was on duty," Connor said, nodding. "The scary lady with the radioactive carrot-coloured hair, bright red lipstick and on the prowl for a man."

Stephen shuddered. "I still feel filthy. I walked into that office, telling her I was looking for Caitlyn Temple, and the look she gave me . . ."

Wincing sympathetically, Connor patted his arm. "I know. Trust me, I know. Did she offer you a chocolate, then make that joke about aphrodesiacs?"

"She really did do that to you," Stephen said wonderingly.

"I think she'd do it to that tech, Kent," Connor said. "She's that desperate." Then he looked at Stephen. "I think you probably made her day, though."

"Who made who's day?" Lynn asked as she came back through the door, scrambling onto the bed, careful not to lose her ice cream in the process.

"Stephen and Ms Wellesley in the school office," Connor told her.

Lynn shot Stephen a considering look. "She was touching Stephen when Miss Jensen brought me to the office." She took a considering spoon of ice cream, adding, "It was like in that video they showed us that time the policeman came to our class."

"Which video's that?" Connor asked, having a sneaking suspicion about it.

Taking another spoonful placidly, Lynn said, "The one about when you're supposed to scream that someone's not your mum or dad and not to touch you like that."

Knowing that vengeance from his coworker would be swift and thorough if he took the mick about that, Connor found himself shaking as he tried not to laugh. Claudia had no such compunction and was in stitches. Lester, with a small and twisted smile on his face commented to Stephen, "Really, Hart? Was it like that, then?"

"The temptation was there," Stephen admitted, wryly.

Connor couldn't hold back anymore and laughed until his stitches started to hurt.

"What's so funny?" demanded Lynn.

"I'll tell you in a few years if you still remember," Connor promised. "But right now you'd tell all your schoolmates and then people would think I was a bad parent for explaining it to you."

"Is this more becoming a grownup makes you have lots of chemicals in your brain that make you go mad stuff?" Lynn asked.

Stephen, Lester and Claudia all stared. "Becoming a grownup makes you have lots of chemicals in your brain that make you go mad stuff?" Claudia echoed. "What are you telling her?"

"Puberty makes people go mad," Connor said with a shrug. "It's the only rational explanation, really. I figure, best she knows when she's about thirteen everything's going to change, and she's all ready when she starts thinking mad things, like that boys aren't some sort of other species but are interesting to look at."

Claudia sighed. "There is so much damage control I'm going to have to do, it's not even funny."

Stephen thought about it a moment, then said, "Oddly, it makes sense."

"Never have children, Hart," Lester said.

Lynn nodded to herself. "So, it is more chemicals in your brain stuff."

"Did you tell your classmates?" Connor asked.

"No," Lynn said, shaking her head. "They wouldn't believe me if I told them. Patricia said her mum said it was a beautiful process of flowering or something, but I didn't really understand. Then she starting talking about monthly gifts or something and Patricia said she didn't really understand that part at all either."

"Of all the stupid . . ." Claudia trailed off a moment, then said, "You're not going to spend any time with Patricia's mum."

Lester and Stephen exchanged glances, and in a rare moment of perfect accord, fled the room together, leaving Connor alone with Claudia, who spent much of the afternoon querying Lynn and Connor on the precise details of what Lynn had been told about What Happens When You Grow Up.

Part 4

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in name only, abby/connor, has a plot, primeval, fanfic

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