Primeval Fic: In Name Only 5/9
Title: In Name Only
Author: SCWLC
Disclaimer: I don't own anything herein and no one's paying me to do it.
Rating: PG? I think? Just in case?
Summary: Children change almost everything.
AN: I wrote this chapter for two reasons. One, for the thing that happens at the end of the first half, which I will not disclose up here for spoilers, and two, because the magic bone story is from my own childhood, and I love telling that story. Really, really love telling that story.
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Abby and Lynn had just left Connor to pick the film with the admonition, "No sci-fi, no horror, no action and no princesses."
Lynn had been complaining about that last stricture, but having exhausted every Barbie and Disney princess film in the canon and then some, Abby had taken the chance to put her foot down in fine feminist style, attempting to counter that influence with something less princessy. So, she'd started playing romances, which only she liked, and Lynn assumed were the result of adult crazy from hormone onset at puberty.
Abby was far less amused by this than Connor.
Regretfully, he began looking through the selection, perusing with the smallest of pouts the ones he wouldn't get to take home. "Hostel, classic. Good choice. But this . . . this is really good," came a voice from behind him.
The voice, when he spun around to see, belonged to a stunning black woman, and Connor was rather forcibly reminded again how long it had been since he'd been on a date. "Sorry, just . . . have you seen this one?" he asked her.
"It’s not bad. I preferred the original," she said.
He grinned, glad to meet someone who actually liked the same things he did. Besides dinosaurs. Man couldn't survive on dinosaurs alone, after all. Didn't the Flintstones prove that? "Me too."
"You know," she said contemplatively, leaning in closer and giving Connor a good whiff of flowery perfume that made his head swim in a good way, "I don’t really feel like horror tonight. I feel like something a bit more . . ." she trailed off suggestively.
His mind ran ahead of his mouth. "Erotic . . . romantic!" He could have slapped himself. He'd wondered what Xander Harris had felt when he'd asked Buffy if he could have her in the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Now he knew.
She seemed not to notice either his stupidity, or self-flagellation for stupidity. "Fantasy, sci-fi, something like that. You couldn’t recommend anything, could you?"
"I don't know," he said slowly. "I mean, are you a hard core sci-fi fan, or more general? Because, take Star Wars, that's really more fantasy than sci-fi, but it's set in space and all."
She shrugged. "Really, I go either way," she said. Then she winked. "Take that how you like."
His long-suppressed libido had made images of this woman and Abby dance in his head. He shook it off. "As much as I'd like to take it, I've got to hurry up and pick out a film that's going to be acceptable to both my daughter, and my flatmate." He looked at her hopefully. "Maybe you could help me pick something that won't be too horrible?"
There it was. He'd seen that look before. "You have a daughter?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said, seeing any chance of getting at least one date out of it all go up in smoke. "Caitlyn."
"Well," she said, looking determined, "Let's see what we can find, then? What does she like to watch, and what do you need to watch for with your flatmate?"
They settled on a film eventually, and somehow Connor wound up inviting her along. After the initial upset she hadn't seemed in the least worried about him having a daughter, so maybe she was still interested. Would still be interested. When they walked in the door, Gertrude was so draped in jackets, scarves and hats, she wouldn't have scared a timid preschooler.
"Hey," he started. "This is Caroline."
Lynn had a calculating look on her faces even as she said with a studied air of innocence, "Grandma said you needed a girlfriend again last night. Is that why you've brought her home?"
His heart dropped into his feet like a rock when she smiled fatuously at Lynn, and spoke as if his gifted, seven-going-on-eight-going-on-seventy daughter were three. "Hello there! And who might you be?"
She looked Caroline up and down, flipped a hand, and said, "Talk to the hand, 'cause the ears ain't listening."
"Caitlyn!" he snapped, appalled and amused at the same time. "Go to your room! You don't talk like that to anyone, least of all guests!" And after a moment's consideration added, "And Tom and Duncan's 1980s VHS are not a good resource for how to act with people."
"Sharp little thing, isn't she?" Caroline said, after a few moments of stunned, uncomfortable silence. Suddenly, first Abby's mobile went off, then Connor's. It was the ARC calling them in for an incursion of some kind.
Connor hastily checked his mental rolodex of available babysitters, was glad to note that Violet Kirkpatrick, whom Abby had found a flat for just down way from them mere days after the demolition of the old flat, was free that day to look after Lynn. "Sorry Caroline, but it's work. Lynn! Abby and I've been called in. Can you grab your jacket? We've got to drop you off with Miss Kirkpatrick."
Lynn came thumping over, muttering about cancelled film nights and patronising people, "Patting people and prattling to piss-"
"Lynn!"
"Hmmph."
As they hustled Lynn out the door, Caroline made one last bid. "Here's my number, Connor," she said with a saccharine smile, and scribbled the numbers onto his palm. "Call me."
The moment her back was turned, Lynn stuck her tongue out at the woman's back. "Lynn."
"What? She didn't see, and you know Grandma wouldn't like her," Lynn grumbled. "I don't like her. You're not going to make her your girlfriend if I don't like her, are you? She'd turn into a Wicked Stepmother right fast," Lynn said with all the authority of someone who'd seen every age-appropriate and close to age-appropriate version of both Snow White and Cinderella.
"First," Connor told her while Abby just watched the interchange, amused, "She only would become your stepmother if I actually married her, and it would have just been dating. Second, there's no reason for you to be nasty to someone who's just being nice-"
"Even if they do treat you like a half-wit," Abby put in.
"Don't help, Abby," Connor told her. "This is about manners, not about-"
"Lynn's far better taste in girlfriends for you than you clearly have?" Abby said.
By the time they'd dropped Lynn off, with an admonishment that she was being punished for rudeness and shouldn't get any biscuits, Connor wasn't entirely certain he'd made any headway with his lecture. After all, the point wasn't that Lynn had probably been right about Caroline, it was that you didn't do that with people.
When Abby made faces behind Jenny's back and stuck her tongue out, Connor just sighed and realised he wasn't going to win on that front at all.
It was while they were in the washroom, Connor cleaning off worm slime from his head, that he noticed that Caroline's number was gone. He made a small face in pique at it, but as he hadn't intended to buck Lynn's dislike, and her interactions with Lynn hadn't exactly won his favour either, he wasn't going to call her. Still, losing the chance to actively make the choice not to stung a little in an irrational way.
"What is it?" Abby asked.
"Hmm? Oh," he said, scrubbing at the slime as best he could. "I just realised I washed Caroline's number off." He frowned, then decided that since he and Abby had both stumbled across each other coming out of the shower by accident, it was fine if he took his shirt off for a bit and washed out the slime from the shoulders. He heard Abby hiss a little, a sharp intake of breath, and asked, "You okay?"
"Just stubbed my toe," she told him. "You were going to call her?"
There was less slime than he thought, and it was gone so fast he was already carrying the shirt to the hand air dryer. "Not really," he said over the noise. "But I haven't been on a date for longer than I can remember, and it's not like I've got women lined up around the block, yeah?"
When he turned back, putting on his shirt as he did, Abby had an odd look on her face, and made a vague sound that could have been anything from agreement to an indicator of indigestion.
The worms were bloody effing scary, and Abby was bloody effing hot when she kung fu'd one into submission. He reminded himself that Stephen had been after Abby, and he didn't want to tangle with that, because in a choice between the super-handsome superman tracker and the super-geek, he knew who'd come out on the losing end.
After the usual lengthy debriefing and report writing, they swung by Violet Kirkpatrick's, picked Lynn up, and came home. Violet met them at the door, saying, "Ask her about her Saturday Morning lectures for the past two weeks."
Duly doing so, they were treated to the story of how, at the recess, they'd tied a counsellor to a tree two weeks before, and that weekend just past, had been treated to a demonstration on why Tying People To Trees Is A Bad Thing.
"So, then they wheeled Kevin onto the stage, and they had him covered in loo roll, like a dress-up mummy," Lynn explained, eagerly gesturing, "And then Ross told us we'd hurt him so badly, they had to bring out the 'Magic Bone'."
"Magic Bone?" Connor asked, staring at her.
"Yup!" Lynn explained happily. "They claimed it was a magic dinosaur bone with healing powers, which was silly, because it was clearly paper mache, and then they tapped him with it, and he pretended to get all better. Then they said they didn't ever want to have to bring out the bone again."
Connor exchanged glances with Abby, both of them silently agreeing that the dirty jokes possible with this story were too numerous to mention, and they weren't going to with Lynn, anyhow. "So, you won't be tying counsellors to trees at break anymore?" he asked.
"No, even if it's Kevin," she said, pouting. "I don't want to have to watch the stupid magic bone presentation ever again."
"That's one reason not to, I suppose," Connor said. There wasn't really a moral she was going to pick up from the experience, and it had been seven-year-olds and skipping ropes, after all.
Connor had just closed the door behind him, when someone knocked on it. It was Caroline. "So sorry," she said, breezing in and ignoring Lynn's faces at her. "I forgot my mobile . . ." she looked around. "Ah!" she said, hastening to the chair it was on. "I wouldn't want to miss a call," she told him, broadly hinting.
Taking a deep breath, Connor told her regretfully, "I'm sorry, Caroline, but I . . . I won't be calling. I just . . . Lynn's too much of a priority for me right now."
An odd look flashed across her face for a moment, before she said, "You're sure? Because it'd be great to have someone to talk films with and-"
"I'm sure," Connor told her firmly. "I'm sorry, but thanks for your help with the film today."
"Okay," she said. "If you change your mind, though." Another round of scribbling, this time on a pad from her purse, which she left on the counter. "See you around."
After the door closed, Lynn said defiantly, "Good riddance to rad bubbish."
"What?" Abby asked, looking at Lynn oddly.
"She read it in a book once," Connor said, shrugging.
"About spoonerisms?" she said, looking perplexed.
He was laughing now. "No, some picture book or other."
They watched the film, Abby and Lynn both sniffling over the ending as the unicorn left her handsome prince to turn back into a unicorn and save all the other unicorns, then Lynn was brushed and washed and sent to bed, and Connor sat on the couch, his head on its back, staring up at the ceiling.
The whole Jenny and Claudia thing struck uncomfortably close to home for him. It had been so long since anyone had called him Jake, had called him by his real name, he was starting to forget. Clarke was still doing things, out backwoods of nowhere, and Danny and Lester, both keeping track in their own ways, had been forced to tell him that they still didn't know what or why with that man. Meanwhile, a niggle of guilt sometimes filled him, because as much as he told himself he was living out Connor's dream for his best mate, he was doing it in his place.
Shaking himself out of it, with the thought of Lynn, Connor headed up to bed himself. He'd just settled in when the bed dipped. "Connor?"
"Abby?" he groped for the light, turning it on. "What are you doing in here?"
"What you said today, about there being no one lined up around the block for you?" she looked at him, seemingly nervous.
He frowned, wondered where she was going with this. "Yeah . . .?"
"I . . ." she appeared to make a decision, then suddenly lunged at him, kissing him. Shocked, he didn't respond until after she'd pulled away.
"I thought you . . . and Stephen," he said, vaguely. "I mean, you seemed dead gone on him, and he's better looking than me and all heroic and-"
She kissed him again, cutting him off. This time, he kissed her back and it was sort of really brilliant. "Conn, you're amazing, you know that?" she told him. "You've been raising Lynn so well, and there are so many people who'd've just given her up or away, who wouldn't do so well, but you are and you do. And you're brilliant too, and just . . . you're a big prat who didn't notice the anvils of hints I've been dropping on you."
"Wha'?" he gaped. "Was that, I mean, when you got in the last time?"
"Yes," she told him.
This time, he kissed her. It was even better. Her arms slipped around his shoulders and he clasped her waist, pulling her closer, feeling her compact frame tight against him.
"Yes!" shouted Lynn from the door. "I can't wait to tell Danny! He said it'd be at least another month. He owes me five quid!"
They sprang apart. "Lynn!" Connor said, embarrassed at being caught like that. "What are you doing out of bed?"
"I wanted a glass of water, but I heard you and Abby making funny noises," she explained. "Is this grownup brain chemistry stuff?"
Abby glared at him. "I ask again, what have you been telling her?"
"That people go crazy when they hit about twelve or thirteen from weird chemicals in the brain that make them stop thinking that boys are weird and gross," Lynn declared.
"Lynn, get your water and go to bed," Connor groaned. "I'll deal with Danny and his five quid tomorrow."
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Being Abby's boyfriend was sort of really brilliant, Connor thought. She'd almost immediately taken up even more of the role of Lynn's mum than she had before, sending Lynn into raptures when she was able to have someone there in the role of 'mum' at mother-daughter events, to be girly with her and to help her heckle her dad when he did silly things like put his pants in the microwave.
Aside from the fact that he got to snog Abby, wrap his arms around her whenever he wanted, buy her gifts like jewelry and tell her she was pretty, it had other perks. Like that the mothers at the school had stopped giving him disapproving looks for raising his daughter without feminine intervention, his friends were bitterly jealous of his having a hot blonde for a girlfriend and Lettie had stopped telling him every time they talked that he needed a girlfriend.
Of course, now she was asking when the wedding would be, so it wasn't that much of an improvement, but at least it was a new question.
Which was why his heart stopped when they were in the boat and the splash came from behind him. "Abby? Abby!" He panicked. It was all a blur as Cutter made him hand back the spear gun lest he hit Abby, as they circled around and around the bloody lake looking for any trace of her. And then they were heading in to shore.
"What do you mean we're stopping?" he demanded. "Cutter, we can't stop looking! Not now! It's Abby!" He was begging. The worst part was the look of understanding on Cutter's face. The fact that the professor knew what Connor was feeling and was still stopping made him want to scream.
Cutter just put a too-gentle hand on Connor's shoulder. "I'm sorry," he said. "There's nothing else we can do. She's gone, Connor."
When Lester arrived, all sneers at Cutter, his cold statement, "And now, the girl's dead," was just past the point of tolerance. He snapped, slamming his fist into Lester's face.
"Shut up! Just shut up! We can't stop, we can't!" The look Jenny gave him, part pity and part utter snobbery at his 'irrational' behaviour made him regret hitting Lester and want to hit her instead. But Lester grabbed him, hissing in his ear, "You know everyone's done everything they can, Jacob. You have to be there for Lynn."
"Lester," he pleaded. "I can't. Abby's-"
Still whispering in his ear, keeping his secrets even when he was inches from giving them away himself, Lester said, "Jake. For your daughter."
He felt broken as he turned. Turning his back on everyone. Because he couldn't do it alone, didn't know how to look, saw Lester detailing people to make sure he didn't go anywhere but back to Abby's and . . . the flat.
He got home and stared blankly out, just trying to figure out what he was going to tell Lynn. What would he say? That the woman Lynn was already claiming as her new mum had died? He flinched from the thought. Abby was . . . it was his fault, after all. He'd been closest and she'd been taked while his back was turned. He should have been able to help her, save her. He was still staring into space when Danny arrived at the flat.
"Where's Katydid?" he asked. Then took in Connor's face. "What happened?"
Because he needed to work up to saying it, Connor answered the first question first. "She's staying over with a friend for a bit after school. I'm sorry, I meant to call you, but things . . . happened."
"Things that make you look like your best friend just died?" Danny said shrewdly. "What happ . . ." He'd seen Connor's flinch. "Abby?"
Trembling now, Connor nodded. "They . . . Cutter sent me home. I . . . Lester made the SFs keep me away. I didn't want to stop looking, but they can't . . . they've dredged the lake and there's nothing and she's . . . It was my fault. I turned my back and she . . ."
And then, dropping every bit of his ordinary machismo, Danny was there, letting Connor sob his heart out into the other man's shoulder. Danny just sat with him, lending him silent comfort of just someone there. He didn't even move until his mobile went off. Uncaring of what Danny might or might not hear, knowing there was a chance that he was needed to keep someone else from going the way Abby did, he flipped open the phone.
"Connor," Cutter said. "I know how you feel. But I need your help. I think I know where to look." Danny shot him a curious, concerned look. He knew Connor did work for the Home Office, did something that he'd implied was computer tech sort of stuff. He also knew that Connor and Abby both came back bumped and bruised from time to time. But the thing about the man being a cop, was that he knew what the line of duty really meant, and he braced Connor. "Connor, look, listen to me. This is my fault. I should've asked for backup, and I didn't. And that arrogance cost the life of a very brave, very beautiful girl. And you're right to blame me."
The look on Danny's face was an odd combination of sympathy and exasperation. It seemed to say, "I understand, I've been there." It also seemed to say, "Seriously? You're not blaming someone actually at fault?"
"But surely," Cutter continued, unaware of the byplay at Connor's end of the line, "If there's even half a chance that we can stop the same thing happen to somebody else, then we owe it to Abby to do it." There was a pause, and then he added, "And this time I'm asking for backup, so will you come and help me? Please." Connor stared blankly at the mobile in his hand, Danny's hand on his shoulder grounding him. "Connor." There was a long pause.
Danny poked him. Tilting his head significantly at the mobile, he raised his eyebrows. "Well?" he mouthed.
With a shaking intake of breath, Connor put the phone to his ear, and said. "Right. Where?"
"An old warehouse," Cutter said, sounding relieved. He gave Connor the address. "Connor, thanks."
"I'm not doing it for you," Connor snapped into the phone, hanging up.
Danny caught him as he left. "I'll wait here for when Caitlyn gets back," he said. "Don't be too hard on the man. He doesn't sound much better than you right now."
"Thanks Danny," Connor replied, avoiding saying anything about Cutter.
When he got down to the warehouse, they didn't talk. They didn't have to, because there wasn't anything to say. Not until Connor's eyes widened at the sight of the anomaly detector in his hand indicating, "Cutter, the anomaly's reopened."
"I know," Cutter said, looking at his own detector. "Come on."
They heard the muffled shouts for help as they broke through the wall, and then the most amazing words he'd ever heard in his life. "You've got to help Abby!"
He didn't care about anything else, all he cared was that Lucien had just given him the news she wasn't dead, had told him where to go to find her. And then suddenly there she was. Soaking wet, shivering, hair plastered to her head, and the most gorgeous thing he'd ever seen in his life. Leia in the slave costume bikini didn't hold a candle to Abby, makeup smeared and running, wearing her sweatshirt and jeans. "Abby! You're okay!" There was no time to react as something slammed him hard, sending him flying into the water. Dimly he heard Abby's scream as he desperately tried to orient himself.
It wasn't hard to figure out that she'd been taken through the anomaly. He followed, frantic, following her shouts for help. He found her as she tried to escape the mutant walruses on the rocky beach. And he had her. Nearly there. And then, "Connor! I'm slipping!"
"You need to climb up now, come on," he urged.
There was resignation behind her panic. "I'm pulling you over. Just leave me."
"No. I'm not letting you go. I've lost you once Abby, I'm not losing you again, okay? We can do this." He strained, clinging to her hand, not letting her fall, not losing her. He was not going to lose her.
"Think of Lynn, Connor," she said. "You can't leave her alone. Just let. Me go."
"I can't," he told her.
"Please," she begged.
"I love you," the words leapt from his mouth unbidden. But they were true. When he looked into his future, there were two people he saw there. Caitlyn, his daughter in all but blood, who he'd do anything for. And Abby. He wanted Abby there. He wanted to hold her, kiss her, know her even better than he did after living with her all this time. He wanted her to be there for Lynn. He wanted Lynn to get the chance to call her 'Mum', and for her to spoil her grandchildren, Lynn's children, with him.
And she was still slipping away.
Then suddenly Cutter was there, was bracing him, giving him the help he needed to get Abby the rest of the way up.
Everything after that was a blur, because the only thing that mattered was that he had Abby with him, in his arms. That they were going home and she was safe and alive and he didn't give a damn about anything else.
He wasn't even really paying attention to much until Lucien said to Abby, "I reckon your boyfriend did a good job."
"He did," she said. "He was pretty incredible." Then she flung herself at him, snogging the living daylights out of him.
Dimly, he heard Stephen saying, "You're dating Connor? What?"
"Let's go home," Connor said when she pulled away to say something they'd all probably regret to Stephen.
They arrived at the same time as Lynn got back, and Connor suddenly realised he'd forgotten to call Danny, again, with important news. "Dad? What happened?" Lynn asked, shocked at the state the pair were in.
"It's a long story," he said. "And you don't have a government clearance high enough to hear it."
Lynn made a face, scampering up the stairs ahead of them. "Danny! Dad and Abby are back and I think you'd better break out the paracetamol!"
"What!?" Danny said, hurtling out the door a moment later, taking in the pair of them, still soaking wet, Abby's makeup still running everywhere, Abby holding her shoulder gingerly while Connor limped along behind her. "Boody hell," he said. "Well, you certainly look the part of left for dead," he told them.
Danny volunteered to take Lynn, saying that they both probably needed a bit of a break after the day they'd clearly had, and left with her. One shower and change of clothes later he was sitting on the couch. Abby stood, hovering uncertainly a moment, then said, "When we were on the cliff, Connor, you said something. And, I mean . . ."
The threat of Geoffery Clarke had taught him one thing. Life was short, and you have to make all you can of the chances you have. "I said that I love you, and I meant it," he told Abby. "If you want me not to go there, not pressure you, I won't. But I did mean it."
Abby was frozen staring at him, eyes searching his face for something. She seemed to find it, because a moment later she was clinging to him, mouth on his, saying in between kisses, "Me too. I love you too, Connor."
He never did figure out how they made it to her bed from there.
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AN2: Yes, we tied a camp counsellor named Kevin to a tree, and yes, the next day they made us sit through a presentation involving Kevin, a wheelchair, toilet paper (loo roll) and The Magic Bone. Really, who needs to make these things up?
Part 6
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Author: SCWLC
Disclaimer: I don't own anything herein and no one's paying me to do it.
Rating: PG? I think? Just in case?
Summary: Children change almost everything.
AN: I wrote this chapter for two reasons. One, for the thing that happens at the end of the first half, which I will not disclose up here for spoilers, and two, because the magic bone story is from my own childhood, and I love telling that story. Really, really love telling that story.
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Abby and Lynn had just left Connor to pick the film with the admonition, "No sci-fi, no horror, no action and no princesses."
Lynn had been complaining about that last stricture, but having exhausted every Barbie and Disney princess film in the canon and then some, Abby had taken the chance to put her foot down in fine feminist style, attempting to counter that influence with something less princessy. So, she'd started playing romances, which only she liked, and Lynn assumed were the result of adult crazy from hormone onset at puberty.
Abby was far less amused by this than Connor.
Regretfully, he began looking through the selection, perusing with the smallest of pouts the ones he wouldn't get to take home. "Hostel, classic. Good choice. But this . . . this is really good," came a voice from behind him.
The voice, when he spun around to see, belonged to a stunning black woman, and Connor was rather forcibly reminded again how long it had been since he'd been on a date. "Sorry, just . . . have you seen this one?" he asked her.
"It’s not bad. I preferred the original," she said.
He grinned, glad to meet someone who actually liked the same things he did. Besides dinosaurs. Man couldn't survive on dinosaurs alone, after all. Didn't the Flintstones prove that? "Me too."
"You know," she said contemplatively, leaning in closer and giving Connor a good whiff of flowery perfume that made his head swim in a good way, "I don’t really feel like horror tonight. I feel like something a bit more . . ." she trailed off suggestively.
His mind ran ahead of his mouth. "Erotic . . . romantic!" He could have slapped himself. He'd wondered what Xander Harris had felt when he'd asked Buffy if he could have her in the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Now he knew.
She seemed not to notice either his stupidity, or self-flagellation for stupidity. "Fantasy, sci-fi, something like that. You couldn’t recommend anything, could you?"
"I don't know," he said slowly. "I mean, are you a hard core sci-fi fan, or more general? Because, take Star Wars, that's really more fantasy than sci-fi, but it's set in space and all."
She shrugged. "Really, I go either way," she said. Then she winked. "Take that how you like."
His long-suppressed libido had made images of this woman and Abby dance in his head. He shook it off. "As much as I'd like to take it, I've got to hurry up and pick out a film that's going to be acceptable to both my daughter, and my flatmate." He looked at her hopefully. "Maybe you could help me pick something that won't be too horrible?"
There it was. He'd seen that look before. "You have a daughter?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said, seeing any chance of getting at least one date out of it all go up in smoke. "Caitlyn."
"Well," she said, looking determined, "Let's see what we can find, then? What does she like to watch, and what do you need to watch for with your flatmate?"
They settled on a film eventually, and somehow Connor wound up inviting her along. After the initial upset she hadn't seemed in the least worried about him having a daughter, so maybe she was still interested. Would still be interested. When they walked in the door, Gertrude was so draped in jackets, scarves and hats, she wouldn't have scared a timid preschooler.
"Hey," he started. "This is Caroline."
Lynn had a calculating look on her faces even as she said with a studied air of innocence, "Grandma said you needed a girlfriend again last night. Is that why you've brought her home?"
His heart dropped into his feet like a rock when she smiled fatuously at Lynn, and spoke as if his gifted, seven-going-on-eight-going-on-seventy daughter were three. "Hello there! And who might you be?"
She looked Caroline up and down, flipped a hand, and said, "Talk to the hand, 'cause the ears ain't listening."
"Caitlyn!" he snapped, appalled and amused at the same time. "Go to your room! You don't talk like that to anyone, least of all guests!" And after a moment's consideration added, "And Tom and Duncan's 1980s VHS are not a good resource for how to act with people."
"Sharp little thing, isn't she?" Caroline said, after a few moments of stunned, uncomfortable silence. Suddenly, first Abby's mobile went off, then Connor's. It was the ARC calling them in for an incursion of some kind.
Connor hastily checked his mental rolodex of available babysitters, was glad to note that Violet Kirkpatrick, whom Abby had found a flat for just down way from them mere days after the demolition of the old flat, was free that day to look after Lynn. "Sorry Caroline, but it's work. Lynn! Abby and I've been called in. Can you grab your jacket? We've got to drop you off with Miss Kirkpatrick."
Lynn came thumping over, muttering about cancelled film nights and patronising people, "Patting people and prattling to piss-"
"Lynn!"
"Hmmph."
As they hustled Lynn out the door, Caroline made one last bid. "Here's my number, Connor," she said with a saccharine smile, and scribbled the numbers onto his palm. "Call me."
The moment her back was turned, Lynn stuck her tongue out at the woman's back. "Lynn."
"What? She didn't see, and you know Grandma wouldn't like her," Lynn grumbled. "I don't like her. You're not going to make her your girlfriend if I don't like her, are you? She'd turn into a Wicked Stepmother right fast," Lynn said with all the authority of someone who'd seen every age-appropriate and close to age-appropriate version of both Snow White and Cinderella.
"First," Connor told her while Abby just watched the interchange, amused, "She only would become your stepmother if I actually married her, and it would have just been dating. Second, there's no reason for you to be nasty to someone who's just being nice-"
"Even if they do treat you like a half-wit," Abby put in.
"Don't help, Abby," Connor told her. "This is about manners, not about-"
"Lynn's far better taste in girlfriends for you than you clearly have?" Abby said.
By the time they'd dropped Lynn off, with an admonishment that she was being punished for rudeness and shouldn't get any biscuits, Connor wasn't entirely certain he'd made any headway with his lecture. After all, the point wasn't that Lynn had probably been right about Caroline, it was that you didn't do that with people.
When Abby made faces behind Jenny's back and stuck her tongue out, Connor just sighed and realised he wasn't going to win on that front at all.
It was while they were in the washroom, Connor cleaning off worm slime from his head, that he noticed that Caroline's number was gone. He made a small face in pique at it, but as he hadn't intended to buck Lynn's dislike, and her interactions with Lynn hadn't exactly won his favour either, he wasn't going to call her. Still, losing the chance to actively make the choice not to stung a little in an irrational way.
"What is it?" Abby asked.
"Hmm? Oh," he said, scrubbing at the slime as best he could. "I just realised I washed Caroline's number off." He frowned, then decided that since he and Abby had both stumbled across each other coming out of the shower by accident, it was fine if he took his shirt off for a bit and washed out the slime from the shoulders. He heard Abby hiss a little, a sharp intake of breath, and asked, "You okay?"
"Just stubbed my toe," she told him. "You were going to call her?"
There was less slime than he thought, and it was gone so fast he was already carrying the shirt to the hand air dryer. "Not really," he said over the noise. "But I haven't been on a date for longer than I can remember, and it's not like I've got women lined up around the block, yeah?"
When he turned back, putting on his shirt as he did, Abby had an odd look on her face, and made a vague sound that could have been anything from agreement to an indicator of indigestion.
The worms were bloody effing scary, and Abby was bloody effing hot when she kung fu'd one into submission. He reminded himself that Stephen had been after Abby, and he didn't want to tangle with that, because in a choice between the super-handsome superman tracker and the super-geek, he knew who'd come out on the losing end.
After the usual lengthy debriefing and report writing, they swung by Violet Kirkpatrick's, picked Lynn up, and came home. Violet met them at the door, saying, "Ask her about her Saturday Morning lectures for the past two weeks."
Duly doing so, they were treated to the story of how, at the recess, they'd tied a counsellor to a tree two weeks before, and that weekend just past, had been treated to a demonstration on why Tying People To Trees Is A Bad Thing.
"So, then they wheeled Kevin onto the stage, and they had him covered in loo roll, like a dress-up mummy," Lynn explained, eagerly gesturing, "And then Ross told us we'd hurt him so badly, they had to bring out the 'Magic Bone'."
"Magic Bone?" Connor asked, staring at her.
"Yup!" Lynn explained happily. "They claimed it was a magic dinosaur bone with healing powers, which was silly, because it was clearly paper mache, and then they tapped him with it, and he pretended to get all better. Then they said they didn't ever want to have to bring out the bone again."
Connor exchanged glances with Abby, both of them silently agreeing that the dirty jokes possible with this story were too numerous to mention, and they weren't going to with Lynn, anyhow. "So, you won't be tying counsellors to trees at break anymore?" he asked.
"No, even if it's Kevin," she said, pouting. "I don't want to have to watch the stupid magic bone presentation ever again."
"That's one reason not to, I suppose," Connor said. There wasn't really a moral she was going to pick up from the experience, and it had been seven-year-olds and skipping ropes, after all.
Connor had just closed the door behind him, when someone knocked on it. It was Caroline. "So sorry," she said, breezing in and ignoring Lynn's faces at her. "I forgot my mobile . . ." she looked around. "Ah!" she said, hastening to the chair it was on. "I wouldn't want to miss a call," she told him, broadly hinting.
Taking a deep breath, Connor told her regretfully, "I'm sorry, Caroline, but I . . . I won't be calling. I just . . . Lynn's too much of a priority for me right now."
An odd look flashed across her face for a moment, before she said, "You're sure? Because it'd be great to have someone to talk films with and-"
"I'm sure," Connor told her firmly. "I'm sorry, but thanks for your help with the film today."
"Okay," she said. "If you change your mind, though." Another round of scribbling, this time on a pad from her purse, which she left on the counter. "See you around."
After the door closed, Lynn said defiantly, "Good riddance to rad bubbish."
"What?" Abby asked, looking at Lynn oddly.
"She read it in a book once," Connor said, shrugging.
"About spoonerisms?" she said, looking perplexed.
He was laughing now. "No, some picture book or other."
They watched the film, Abby and Lynn both sniffling over the ending as the unicorn left her handsome prince to turn back into a unicorn and save all the other unicorns, then Lynn was brushed and washed and sent to bed, and Connor sat on the couch, his head on its back, staring up at the ceiling.
The whole Jenny and Claudia thing struck uncomfortably close to home for him. It had been so long since anyone had called him Jake, had called him by his real name, he was starting to forget. Clarke was still doing things, out backwoods of nowhere, and Danny and Lester, both keeping track in their own ways, had been forced to tell him that they still didn't know what or why with that man. Meanwhile, a niggle of guilt sometimes filled him, because as much as he told himself he was living out Connor's dream for his best mate, he was doing it in his place.
Shaking himself out of it, with the thought of Lynn, Connor headed up to bed himself. He'd just settled in when the bed dipped. "Connor?"
"Abby?" he groped for the light, turning it on. "What are you doing in here?"
"What you said today, about there being no one lined up around the block for you?" she looked at him, seemingly nervous.
He frowned, wondered where she was going with this. "Yeah . . .?"
"I . . ." she appeared to make a decision, then suddenly lunged at him, kissing him. Shocked, he didn't respond until after she'd pulled away.
"I thought you . . . and Stephen," he said, vaguely. "I mean, you seemed dead gone on him, and he's better looking than me and all heroic and-"
She kissed him again, cutting him off. This time, he kissed her back and it was sort of really brilliant. "Conn, you're amazing, you know that?" she told him. "You've been raising Lynn so well, and there are so many people who'd've just given her up or away, who wouldn't do so well, but you are and you do. And you're brilliant too, and just . . . you're a big prat who didn't notice the anvils of hints I've been dropping on you."
"Wha'?" he gaped. "Was that, I mean, when you got in the last time?"
"Yes," she told him.
This time, he kissed her. It was even better. Her arms slipped around his shoulders and he clasped her waist, pulling her closer, feeling her compact frame tight against him.
"Yes!" shouted Lynn from the door. "I can't wait to tell Danny! He said it'd be at least another month. He owes me five quid!"
They sprang apart. "Lynn!" Connor said, embarrassed at being caught like that. "What are you doing out of bed?"
"I wanted a glass of water, but I heard you and Abby making funny noises," she explained. "Is this grownup brain chemistry stuff?"
Abby glared at him. "I ask again, what have you been telling her?"
"That people go crazy when they hit about twelve or thirteen from weird chemicals in the brain that make them stop thinking that boys are weird and gross," Lynn declared.
"Lynn, get your water and go to bed," Connor groaned. "I'll deal with Danny and his five quid tomorrow."
****************************
Being Abby's boyfriend was sort of really brilliant, Connor thought. She'd almost immediately taken up even more of the role of Lynn's mum than she had before, sending Lynn into raptures when she was able to have someone there in the role of 'mum' at mother-daughter events, to be girly with her and to help her heckle her dad when he did silly things like put his pants in the microwave.
Aside from the fact that he got to snog Abby, wrap his arms around her whenever he wanted, buy her gifts like jewelry and tell her she was pretty, it had other perks. Like that the mothers at the school had stopped giving him disapproving looks for raising his daughter without feminine intervention, his friends were bitterly jealous of his having a hot blonde for a girlfriend and Lettie had stopped telling him every time they talked that he needed a girlfriend.
Of course, now she was asking when the wedding would be, so it wasn't that much of an improvement, but at least it was a new question.
Which was why his heart stopped when they were in the boat and the splash came from behind him. "Abby? Abby!" He panicked. It was all a blur as Cutter made him hand back the spear gun lest he hit Abby, as they circled around and around the bloody lake looking for any trace of her. And then they were heading in to shore.
"What do you mean we're stopping?" he demanded. "Cutter, we can't stop looking! Not now! It's Abby!" He was begging. The worst part was the look of understanding on Cutter's face. The fact that the professor knew what Connor was feeling and was still stopping made him want to scream.
Cutter just put a too-gentle hand on Connor's shoulder. "I'm sorry," he said. "There's nothing else we can do. She's gone, Connor."
When Lester arrived, all sneers at Cutter, his cold statement, "And now, the girl's dead," was just past the point of tolerance. He snapped, slamming his fist into Lester's face.
"Shut up! Just shut up! We can't stop, we can't!" The look Jenny gave him, part pity and part utter snobbery at his 'irrational' behaviour made him regret hitting Lester and want to hit her instead. But Lester grabbed him, hissing in his ear, "You know everyone's done everything they can, Jacob. You have to be there for Lynn."
"Lester," he pleaded. "I can't. Abby's-"
Still whispering in his ear, keeping his secrets even when he was inches from giving them away himself, Lester said, "Jake. For your daughter."
He felt broken as he turned. Turning his back on everyone. Because he couldn't do it alone, didn't know how to look, saw Lester detailing people to make sure he didn't go anywhere but back to Abby's and . . . the flat.
He got home and stared blankly out, just trying to figure out what he was going to tell Lynn. What would he say? That the woman Lynn was already claiming as her new mum had died? He flinched from the thought. Abby was . . . it was his fault, after all. He'd been closest and she'd been taked while his back was turned. He should have been able to help her, save her. He was still staring into space when Danny arrived at the flat.
"Where's Katydid?" he asked. Then took in Connor's face. "What happened?"
Because he needed to work up to saying it, Connor answered the first question first. "She's staying over with a friend for a bit after school. I'm sorry, I meant to call you, but things . . . happened."
"Things that make you look like your best friend just died?" Danny said shrewdly. "What happ . . ." He'd seen Connor's flinch. "Abby?"
Trembling now, Connor nodded. "They . . . Cutter sent me home. I . . . Lester made the SFs keep me away. I didn't want to stop looking, but they can't . . . they've dredged the lake and there's nothing and she's . . . It was my fault. I turned my back and she . . ."
And then, dropping every bit of his ordinary machismo, Danny was there, letting Connor sob his heart out into the other man's shoulder. Danny just sat with him, lending him silent comfort of just someone there. He didn't even move until his mobile went off. Uncaring of what Danny might or might not hear, knowing there was a chance that he was needed to keep someone else from going the way Abby did, he flipped open the phone.
"Connor," Cutter said. "I know how you feel. But I need your help. I think I know where to look." Danny shot him a curious, concerned look. He knew Connor did work for the Home Office, did something that he'd implied was computer tech sort of stuff. He also knew that Connor and Abby both came back bumped and bruised from time to time. But the thing about the man being a cop, was that he knew what the line of duty really meant, and he braced Connor. "Connor, look, listen to me. This is my fault. I should've asked for backup, and I didn't. And that arrogance cost the life of a very brave, very beautiful girl. And you're right to blame me."
The look on Danny's face was an odd combination of sympathy and exasperation. It seemed to say, "I understand, I've been there." It also seemed to say, "Seriously? You're not blaming someone actually at fault?"
"But surely," Cutter continued, unaware of the byplay at Connor's end of the line, "If there's even half a chance that we can stop the same thing happen to somebody else, then we owe it to Abby to do it." There was a pause, and then he added, "And this time I'm asking for backup, so will you come and help me? Please." Connor stared blankly at the mobile in his hand, Danny's hand on his shoulder grounding him. "Connor." There was a long pause.
Danny poked him. Tilting his head significantly at the mobile, he raised his eyebrows. "Well?" he mouthed.
With a shaking intake of breath, Connor put the phone to his ear, and said. "Right. Where?"
"An old warehouse," Cutter said, sounding relieved. He gave Connor the address. "Connor, thanks."
"I'm not doing it for you," Connor snapped into the phone, hanging up.
Danny caught him as he left. "I'll wait here for when Caitlyn gets back," he said. "Don't be too hard on the man. He doesn't sound much better than you right now."
"Thanks Danny," Connor replied, avoiding saying anything about Cutter.
When he got down to the warehouse, they didn't talk. They didn't have to, because there wasn't anything to say. Not until Connor's eyes widened at the sight of the anomaly detector in his hand indicating, "Cutter, the anomaly's reopened."
"I know," Cutter said, looking at his own detector. "Come on."
They heard the muffled shouts for help as they broke through the wall, and then the most amazing words he'd ever heard in his life. "You've got to help Abby!"
He didn't care about anything else, all he cared was that Lucien had just given him the news she wasn't dead, had told him where to go to find her. And then suddenly there she was. Soaking wet, shivering, hair plastered to her head, and the most gorgeous thing he'd ever seen in his life. Leia in the slave costume bikini didn't hold a candle to Abby, makeup smeared and running, wearing her sweatshirt and jeans. "Abby! You're okay!" There was no time to react as something slammed him hard, sending him flying into the water. Dimly he heard Abby's scream as he desperately tried to orient himself.
It wasn't hard to figure out that she'd been taken through the anomaly. He followed, frantic, following her shouts for help. He found her as she tried to escape the mutant walruses on the rocky beach. And he had her. Nearly there. And then, "Connor! I'm slipping!"
"You need to climb up now, come on," he urged.
There was resignation behind her panic. "I'm pulling you over. Just leave me."
"No. I'm not letting you go. I've lost you once Abby, I'm not losing you again, okay? We can do this." He strained, clinging to her hand, not letting her fall, not losing her. He was not going to lose her.
"Think of Lynn, Connor," she said. "You can't leave her alone. Just let. Me go."
"I can't," he told her.
"Please," she begged.
"I love you," the words leapt from his mouth unbidden. But they were true. When he looked into his future, there were two people he saw there. Caitlyn, his daughter in all but blood, who he'd do anything for. And Abby. He wanted Abby there. He wanted to hold her, kiss her, know her even better than he did after living with her all this time. He wanted her to be there for Lynn. He wanted Lynn to get the chance to call her 'Mum', and for her to spoil her grandchildren, Lynn's children, with him.
And she was still slipping away.
Then suddenly Cutter was there, was bracing him, giving him the help he needed to get Abby the rest of the way up.
Everything after that was a blur, because the only thing that mattered was that he had Abby with him, in his arms. That they were going home and she was safe and alive and he didn't give a damn about anything else.
He wasn't even really paying attention to much until Lucien said to Abby, "I reckon your boyfriend did a good job."
"He did," she said. "He was pretty incredible." Then she flung herself at him, snogging the living daylights out of him.
Dimly, he heard Stephen saying, "You're dating Connor? What?"
"Let's go home," Connor said when she pulled away to say something they'd all probably regret to Stephen.
They arrived at the same time as Lynn got back, and Connor suddenly realised he'd forgotten to call Danny, again, with important news. "Dad? What happened?" Lynn asked, shocked at the state the pair were in.
"It's a long story," he said. "And you don't have a government clearance high enough to hear it."
Lynn made a face, scampering up the stairs ahead of them. "Danny! Dad and Abby are back and I think you'd better break out the paracetamol!"
"What!?" Danny said, hurtling out the door a moment later, taking in the pair of them, still soaking wet, Abby's makeup still running everywhere, Abby holding her shoulder gingerly while Connor limped along behind her. "Boody hell," he said. "Well, you certainly look the part of left for dead," he told them.
Danny volunteered to take Lynn, saying that they both probably needed a bit of a break after the day they'd clearly had, and left with her. One shower and change of clothes later he was sitting on the couch. Abby stood, hovering uncertainly a moment, then said, "When we were on the cliff, Connor, you said something. And, I mean . . ."
The threat of Geoffery Clarke had taught him one thing. Life was short, and you have to make all you can of the chances you have. "I said that I love you, and I meant it," he told Abby. "If you want me not to go there, not pressure you, I won't. But I did mean it."
Abby was frozen staring at him, eyes searching his face for something. She seemed to find it, because a moment later she was clinging to him, mouth on his, saying in between kisses, "Me too. I love you too, Connor."
He never did figure out how they made it to her bed from there.
*********************
AN2: Yes, we tied a camp counsellor named Kevin to a tree, and yes, the next day they made us sit through a presentation involving Kevin, a wheelchair, toilet paper (loo roll) and The Magic Bone. Really, who needs to make these things up?
Part 6
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