Primeval Fic: In Name Only 4/9
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: It is plasters, right? I know it's not Band-Aids, but . . . it's plasters, right? In other things, the chapter divisions may seem weird in some places, but it's mostly because I'm compressing this from a previous posting over on the Primeval Denial community, because the fewer the number of chapters the less work it is for me to link it all together.
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Connor was startled awake by the sound of someone doing things in the kitchen. Making his way cautiously downstairs, he saw Claudia sitting at the table looking exhausted as she slowly stirred a cup of tea.
"I'm not sure more caffeine will help you sleep," he said.
She started, sending the cup to the floor with a crash. "Oh! Connor, I didn't see you."
"So I see," he said, edging away from the shattered porcelain on the floor. "I'll get the broom."
"Thank you," she said tiredly, starting to collect the larger pieces.
He slipped on a pair of shoes quickly and fetched the broom. He got back just in time to hear her hiss and curse. She was holding a hand, a cut on the palm where she'd been picking up bits of mug. "Hold on," he said, gently pushing her into a chair. He passed her a tissue and quickly swept up the shards and dried the floor. Then he collected the plasters from the bathroom, cleaning up the thankfully small cut and bandaging it. "There. Any particular reason you're up, or just can't sleep?"
She sighed. "Just bad dreams."
"So bad you can't sleep?" Connor asked, concerned.
Tired head on her hand, Claudia sort of shook her head against that hand. "I close my eyes and then all of a sudden, there's that gorgonopsid, trying to eat me. In the office, at home. It's like it's following me."
"Well, I think we can pretty much guarantee one's not following you. Be pretty hard to miss in London," he joked weakly. "Seriously, though. Is something bothering you?"
"I don't know," she told him. "That's part of the problem. I'm worried about Helen Cutter, I'm worried about Nick, about the whole project, but nothing I can put a finger on. If I believed in that sort of thing, I'd think I was having premonitions of some sort."
Eyebrows raised in surprise, Connor said, "You must be tired."
"I know it's foolish," Claudia said defensively. "I can't help it, though. I just . . . I keep seeing it," she told him.
"I'm sorry," he told her. "I didn't mean anything by it, just that you must be tired for it to be getting to you like that."
Grinning a little, she told him, "I half expected you to tell me it was a premonition and to try to determine how."
Connor rolled his eyes. "Right. I may love speculative fiction, but I'm not that far gone." He gave her a speculative look. "Would you like me to distract you a while? See if you can't forget about it enough to fall asleep?"
"I'd appreciate it," Claudia replied. Ten minutes later they were watching Funny Face and Claudia was decrying the value of thinking pink while Connor played devil's advocate and stood up for Lynn's side of things, and more importantly, Lynn's pink fedora, which she wore when she didn't feel like wearing the lavendar one.
Halfway through the film Claudia drifted off to sleep, and Connor carefully carried her up to her bed, then fell into bed himself. The next morning, while he was making some adjustments on his database, Claudia came over, and with a strategic smile at Cutter, kissed Connor on the cheek, saying, "Thank you for last night."
The look Cutter levelled at Connor could have shattered glass and he stormed off. "You know, as much as I admire you for taking on the role of dad for Claudia's daughter, it might be easier for all concerned if you both simply admitted it," Stephen said from behind him.
Connor choked. "What?"
"I'm just saying-"
"First of all, Lynn isn't Claudia's daughter, she's mine," Connor snapped, "So if anyone's taking on a role, it's Claudia, and second, I'm just a pawn her her games with Cutter, so don't start on that with me."
Stephen stared. "Your daughter?"
"Yes," Connor grumbled at him. "What did you do, anyhow? Tell Cutter he's got definite proof now of the affair?"
"No," said the tracker, now hesitant. "I didn't want to get in the middle of it all, what with . . ." he paused, then seemed to rethink what he was saying. "So, you and Claudia aren't?"
"No," Connor snapped. "We're not. She saw where Lynn and I were living before and insisted on us moving in with her for Lynn's sake."
The whole conversation seemed to throw the other man off, and he avoided the topic rather strenuously for the next few days. In fact, he didn't broach it at all until they were back in the Forest of Dean. Just as Cutter was about to head through the anomaly, Claudia kissed him, and said, "Come back. I promise, I'll even explain about Connor to you. I promise, I'm really not sleeping with him."
Cutter left, some weird ironic interchange with his ex-wife going on that Connor didn't understand and didn't really want to. There was a long silence after the departure.
"So, you're both going to tell Nick the truth?" Stephen asked, breaking that silence.
Connor shrugged. "I suppose. I mean, he's been going mad." He turned to Claudia, and added with ironic stress, "Claudia."
"All right," she said with a sigh. "I was just so irritated when he leapt to the conclusion I was sleeping with you I just couldn't help letting him think it. Then he persisted."
"Nick's persistent," Stephen told her. "You'll have to get used to that, you know."
She sighed. "I know." She also got progressively more and more uneasy, pacing anxiously. Then Connor got the call from the lab that the bat predator was male. Something flashed past, too fast for anyone to see.
"What happened?" Claudia asked, as they all glanced around, uneasily.
Connor felt a moment of forboding himself. "I’m not sure," he said, starting to scan the treetops for another bat thing.
"Did you see something?" Claudia asked Stephen.
"Nothing," he replied, beginning to look as nervous as Connor felt. Connor, as much for something to do as anything else, pulled out his compass to check the anomaly.
Claudia turned to him at once. "Is the anomaly getting weaker?"
"No. No change," he replied. They exchanged looks. All her nightmares and premonitions of doom leapt to mind at once. The anomaly pulsed, and in a moment that seemed to move so slowly he could see everything as it went wrong, and too fast to correct, a ripple expanded from the tear in the space-time continuum, too fast for Connor to do more than think he should get her through, into the past, move her outside time before she was erased, and then she was.
Claudia was gone.
But the ripple didn't stop there, because Stephen had been faster than Connor, was closer, so were the SFs. The ripple went through them too, changing them from postures and expressions of alarm, to vague concern and boredom. He had no time to react to any of it, just brace for the ripple to hit him, too.
There was a brief pang of sorrow, wondering how things would be different, and pity for Cutter, who might come back to a world he'd never recognise, then disorientation, then . . .
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Connor grimaced at Leek, ever grateful Lester had kept the skeevy little man from finding out about Lynn. God only knew what he'd make of it. The man took the mick enough already, as though somehow Connor were the complete loser of the pair of them.
Cutter came out of the anomaly, shell-shocked, accompanied by Helen Cutter, who proceeded to cheerfully destroy Cutter and Stephen's friendship for no reason other than that she could. "Harpy," he heard Abby mutter.
"No kidding," he muttered back while the drama unfolded.
Then Helen walked back through the anomaly, and Cutter looked around, his face suddenly concerned. "Where's Claudia?" he asked.
Connor frowned, wracking his brain for anyone involved in the project named Claudia, then expanded to his fellow students, other professors . . . nothing.
Lester's querying, "Claudia?" bore out Connor's confusion.
"Where's Claudia Brown?" Cutter demanded, suddenly anxious.
Lester raised a sceptical eyebrow at him. "I don’t know anyone of that name."
Looking a little desperate, like he thought this was a joke, Cutter said, "No, come on. Where is she?"
"We really, we . . . we don’t know what you’re talking about," Stephen told him.
He knew it was the wrong tack, even as the words left his mouth, "Never heard of her."
Cutter lunged at Connor, grabbed his waistcoat, reeling him in and looking a lot like he was going to hit the geek. "What the hell are you talking about? You live with her!"
"Cutter, I don’t know her!" Connor desperately struggled to pull away from the man. Abby came to his rescue.
"No one knows her!" she said, lunging forward to pull Cutter off him. Nick let go of him, turning to the anomaly, a look rather a lot like fear on his face.
"Wait, something’s wrong," he said. He turned back to them, struggling to put into words something that might be beyond explanation. "This isn’t right. Something’s gone wrong. Something’s happened. Something’s changed. We’ve done something, we’ve . . . something that we’ve done has changed the past and she’s not here anymore." Something about what Cutter was saying pinged something in the back of Connor's mind, it was a little like when you recognised an actor in an advert and just knew you'd seen them before, but couldn't recall where. The anomaly rippled a few more times, going unstable, and Connor wondered what other upending would happen in his life, now that Cutter seemed to have become disconnected from reality.
He spared a mental apology to Lynn, because it looked like he was going to be late home again.
******
Connor got back to the flat late that evening, feeling no little bit disturbed. Danny greeted Abby and him at the door. "What happened?"
Shaking his head, Connor told the policeman, "Hell if I know. Cutter's . . . something happened to him today and I don't have the faintest clue what exactly it was or how to deal with it."
"Exactly?" Abby asked as she brushed right past Connor to check on Lynn. "How about at all?"
"I get the at all," Connor replied, "It's the details I'm not too sure of." He shook his head again. "Anyhow, thanks for sticking around, Danny."
Danny grinned. "It's alright. Katydid and I watched that Island Princess film again. That prince may be a gormless idiot, but I can't help but like the rats."
"Who doesn't?" Connor grinned.
"Me, for one," Abby grumbled. "You're just encouraging her to have bad habits and views of the role of women in-"
"Are we talking about the fact that she ran down the villain on an elephant?" Danny asked, "Or the fact that she somehow learned how to waltz from a red panda?"
"Can we not have the argument every time?" Connor asked. "Seriously. It's just a film, and I think she was heroic enough, given that Lynn's trying to become the first kickboxing ballerina to go to the Olympics."
"I'd pay good money to see that," Danny said. "I'll see you later." He hissed at Connor when Abby's back was turned a moment, "Make a move on her already!"
Before Connor could reply, Danny was gone.
He turned back to find Abby coming down the stairs from the little alcove where Lynn's 'bedroom' was. "She seems okay?" he asked.
"Yeah," Abby said, smiling. "I think I'm going to just crash. What about you?"
Connor nodded. "I think so. Between Cutter, Claudia Brown and Jenny Lewis, I don't think I know which way's up anymore."
"Goodnight, then," Abby said, kissed him on the cheek, and then went off to go to bed.
While he got ready himself, Connor couldn't help but recall how he'd wound up living with Abby, who was brilliant and amazing, and if Connor hadn't had to worry about what would happen to Lynn if things fell apart for them, would have been chasing after Abby like a T-Rex after a technophobe paleontologist.
His council flat was suddenly up for demolition and he and Lynn had nowhere to go. He'd been searching and searching, but they'd given the people living in the building almost no warning, rather like they were in Hitchhiker's Guide, informing them all that it would be demolished and the warning had been up at City Hall for a whole month, why weren't they aware? He'd've protested, but unlike Arthur Dent, he had a seven-year-old daughter to look after. Anyhow, she'd probably have stolen the improbability drive and made off like a bandit while his back was turned, so it was just as well . . .
. . . the panic was clearly making him punch drunk.
Danny's place was right out, Connor had been there and a worse sort of bachelor pad he'd never seen. Abby's flat was closest, and Connor arrived there that evening, carting their clothes and things in a few suitcases, and Lynn determinedly pulling Gertrude along on her little wagon, because the raptor was now part of the family and Lynn was taking no chance of Gertrude being demolished too.
Abby answered the door and stared, dumbfounded, at the pair of them. "Abby, please. I know it's late and sudden and all, but I need a place for Lynn and me to stay," he pleaded. "Just a few weeks until I've got a new flat."
"Lynn?" Abby had asked, moving aside anyways and watching Lynn march past, dragging Gertrude with her.
"Hi," said Lynn. "I'm Caitlyn Temple, this is Gertrude," she gestured at the raptor, "And Dad says you work together, so you know him."
"Dad?" Abby echoed, blinking.
Connor looked around, and in a move he was sure to regret later, but desperate to ensure Lynn had somewhere safe to sleep that night, said, "Is that Rex?" and pointed to the coelurasauravus, who seemed to be taunting the stodgy-looking iguana.
"Is that a python?" Lynn breathed excitedly, scampering up to the tank with the snake in it. "Can I pet him? Or her? What's his name?"
"Burt," Abby said absently. "My iguana's called Ernie." She turned to Connor. "You have a daughter?"
"Yeah," Connor said. "I don't tell people 'cause most people get all snippy just because I was still a teenager when she was . . . erm . . . conceived."
Still looking bemused, Abby said, "Is that why you live in that trash heap passing off as a block of flats? You can't afford better with Caitlyn?"
"Something like that," Connor admitted. "Look, I know it's sudden, but they pretty much told us all today that they're demolishing starting tomorrow afternoon."
"What?" Abby demanded. "They can't do that!"
"They can if they pull a fast one and 'notify' us by posting the warnings and things in places no one goes," Connor said. "We might win in court, but I've got Lynn to think of, and --"
Abby's face softened. "I'll see what we can set up for you here."
He hadn't even had to threaten her with blackmail over Rex, although that cat had got out of the bag when Rex had stowed away in Abby's car on the way to the golf course, leaving him and Abby hunting for the flying lizard that whole day with the pteranodons and the pterasaur.
Lynn had since taken to dropping broad hints to all and sundry, including Lester on the rare occasions she saw him, that Abby would be the perfect new Mum, because she was cool and could do up Lynn's hair in braids and things, but also liked snakes, which would make up for a multitude of sins in Lynn's opinion. She also had been delighted to pu Gertrude up by the door. laughing herself sick when Stephen nearly shot it.
They'd just sent Lynn off to school, Danny having to pass right by both places, so he'd come by and dropped Lynn off for Connor. Stephen had knocked on the door and Abby had answered, still dressed in nothing but panties and vest, because Abby kept her flat warm for Rex, Ernie and Burt. Stephen had walked in, seen Gertrude in her normal place by the door, shouted, dived to the side, taking Abby down with him, coming up with a gun.
"Wow," Connor said, glancing from Gertrude to Stephen and back again, "It really is a brilliant burglar deterrent."
Stephen stared at Connor in his boxers and vest, and Abby, who had figured out why Stephen had just gone briefly mad, and she burst into laughter. Stephen raised an eyebrow at them both. "What is that?" he demanded, pointing an only slightly shaking finger at Gertrude.
"That's Gertrude," Connor explained. "I'm having some trouble with my flat, so I'm staying with Abby until I've worked something out."
"Gertrude."
Connor picked up his hat, which had been knocked to the floor in the process of getting Lynn out the door that morning and plonked it on Gertrude's head. "Yep," he popped the 'p'. "Gertrude the deinonychus."
"And you have this at your door because . . .?" Stephen asked, looking deeply disturbed.
"She's an excellent burglar deterrent," Connor said. "I have it on good authority she's scared off a good many people trying to break into my old flat."
Abby's grin was bright, if a tad malicious, as she said to Stephen, "You're not scared of a film prop, are you?"
He looked from one to the other, and just shook his head, saying, "You'd both better get dressed. Helen's talking."
Connor had heard Stephen asking Abby some rather searching questions about why she had the gormless idiot living with her (so he liked to have some childish fun with reflective devices and things, the funhouse mirror effect of the ladle was cool), but he shrugged it off. Dating wasn't on his personal radar, Lynn was. If Stephen wanted Abby, he could certainly go ahead and go after her.
Stephen had also taken no delay in telling everyone that Connor was living with Abby, and that had made Cutter's insistence that Connor was living with the somewhat apocryphal Claudia Brown all the more baffling. He'd had no explanations to offer Cutter, save reassuring him that he'd been living with Abby all this time and would have no designs on anyone Cutter wanted to date.
This all led him to where they were now in understanding the situation. He'd never really thought through just how mad temporal dynamics were. He understood it all, that was the easy part. He'd watched Star Trek, all the various runs of it, he'd watched all of Doctor Who. He'd seen Back to the Future and Terminator and read comic books and all sorts of things dealing with time travel and alternate realities. But none of that prepared you for exactly how completely insane it all sounded when someone walked up to you and insisted that everything you knew was a lie. He'd always wondered about why people on television and what-all could be so thick, faced with time travel as a regular part of their lives not believing someone just because it sounded a little weird.
When it happened to you, it sounded bloody bizarre. He had a whole new sympathy for all those fictional characters. But what Cutter had said made a sort of horrible sense, and Connor felt sympathy for the man. What would it be like to go through an anomaly and come back only to find someone you cared about had never even existed? That it wasn't just that they were gone, but that you were the only one who'd even even remember them?
Connor was just sitting on the bed, staring into space, when suddenly a pair of arms slipped around him from behind and Abby rested her chin on his shoulder a moment. "Thinking about Cutter?"
"A bit," he admitted. "What are you doing up here? I thought you were going to bed?"
She shot him a slightly embarassed and simultaneously wry look. "Between Cutter and the raptors today, I think I just don't want to be alone right now," she said.
"I am sorry about that," he told her. "You know I didn't mean to shoot you."
"Shut up, lie down and hold me, Connor," Abby told him, rather obliquely offering forgiveness for messing up with the tranqs. Somewhat hesitantly he did so, and she sighed, resting her head on his shoulder. "So, are we getting rid of Gertrude?" she asked.
"Lynn would never forgive us," Connor pointed out. "But if she bothers you-"
"No," Abby told him. "Between the blue and the crest on the real ones, I don't think I'd ever mistake her for a live raptor." She chuckled, and Connor was faced with the sudden desire to tilt her head up and kiss her. "But Stephen was commenting that we should get rid of Gertrude after this."
"We should put Gertrude in his flat for an afternoon," Connor said. "And set up cameras."
They fell asleep together, still hazily exchanging ideas on how to use Gertrude to prank Stephen.
*****
AN2: I tried to figure out how to save Claudia, really I did, but I couldn't feasibly do it. My apologies to all. Also, keep in mind that with the timeline reset, Connor wasn't in the same place as the previous timeline, so Stephen didn't find out about Lynn.
Part 5
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