Only A Picture In A Frame
Title: Only A Picture In A Frame
Author: TalliW
Pairings: Sarah Page/Stephen Hart, Helen Cutter
Rating: K
Disclaimer: Primeval is the property of Impossible Pictures. I write just for fun.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to Fredbassett for beta-reading. I couldn't have done it without you.
AN: Written for Rodlox who wanted a Sarah/Stephen fic. I hope it's remotely what you had in mind.
Sarah eyed the photo on Abby's desk with interest and drew a finger gently over the glass surface.
It was a wonderful picture, with Abby smiling into the camera and two men standing behind her looking rather amused.
She had known both men. The older one, Cutter, just for a short time whilst she had been well acquainted with the younger one at one point.
Stephen Hart had been a cheeky student when she had met him for the first time.
He had known the effect his baby-blue eyes had on the female population, and on some men, and didn't consider it beneath him to use that for his own advantage.
Their relationship had started on a hot summer day in the public swimming pool in Eastend.
After he had shown off to the ladies with some elegant dives, he had lifted himself out of the water on the pool edge directly where she sat talking with a friend, probably intrigued by why she hadn't cheered like the rest of the woman.
He'd sprinkled her with water droplets and she had hissed angrily at him and gone back to the chat with her female friend, who had been staring wide-eyed at the attractive young man Sarah was trying to ignore.
A moment later, she was pulled down into the pool by the arrogant buffoon as he hopped back into the water.
It had earned him a kick on his shin and her some angry glares from his legion of female fans.
Oddly enough, she had agreed to go out with him when he had asked her for a date in the locker room some minutes later, realising his lopsided smile was even more dangerous than his baby-blue eyes.
Afterwards, they had been nearly inseparable for more than six months, spending every free minute with each other, stealing kisses between writing essays and revising for exams in her flat.
She had even considered changing university for him so they could spend more time together.
But then everything had suddenly changed. Sarah hadn't understood what had driven that wedge between them and had tried to talk with Stephen.
It had ended in a hefty row with an annoyed Stephen Hart storming out of her small flat. The next day he'd packed his clothes and was gone within an hour.
Weeks later, she'd seen him in the distance, talking and laughing with an woman she could only see from the side and who was gone before Sarah could move closer.
Stephen had greeted her with a faint smile. He'd been relaxed and was looking content. Sarah had sensed an air of maturity and sobriety about him he had lacked before.
"That was Helen," he had told her, with a tender expression on his face and had excused himself, thinking everything had been explained by those three words. And perhaps it had been.
Sarah Page clutched the photo frame against her breast, remembering the time these baby-blue eyes had looked at her with affection and had held so much promise for a bright future.
Then she put the photo back on the desk, casting a last glance on the man beside Stephen, who had been killed by the hand of the same woman Stephen had died for and left the office in a hurry.
Dwelling on the past wouldn't do her any good. All that remained of Stephen was a picture in a frame.
But even more than ten years later, she still asked herself what Helen could have given him that she could not. And she hoped one day she would get the opportunity to ask that question.
She now trained for that moment at the shooting range with Becker, every second day...