Primeval WIP: Pictures and Anteaters (45/...)
Title: Pictures and Anteaters (45/...)
Author: TalliW
Pairings: Lester/Cutter, Abby/Connor, Stephen/Lyle, Jenny
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Primeval is the property of Impossible Pictures. I write just for fun.
Lyle and Finn belong to Fredbassett.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to Fredbassett for beta-reading. I couldn't have done it without you.
Cutter turned around when his friend stepped into the locker room, barely be able to walk properly, and with dark rings under his eyes.
"You look dreadful, Stephen. What happened to you?"
"Too much sex and too little sleep. I could ask you the same. You don't look any better."
"Too little sex and too little sleep," Cutter replied with a yawn and slipped out of his jacket.
Stephen peered at him. "I thought it was going well between you and Lester."
"It is. At least it is under the present circumstances. We have to take it slowly." Nick opened his locker and put his jacket away. "No, it's the security breaches I'm worried about. I couldn't sleep. Nightmares."
Stephen nodded in understanding."I'm sure we'll sort that out quickly. Don't worry so much. That will only give you wrinkles."
Stephen smiled encouragingly at Cutter and walked out of the looker room, wincing slightly when he took too large a step.
Cutter sighed. Lyle seemed to have kept Stephen busy throughout the whole night.
He didn't begrudge his friend. Nick just wished he would get some action too. He wouldn't mind walking funny for days after being fucked over and over again by James.
But it seemed they were still a long way from that stage. Nick looked down in annoyance at the bulge tenting his trousers and took another of his tablets. He really shouldn't think of Lester and sex in the same context when he was at work.
"That damn bastard. He's done it again. He's changed my wallpaper and the icons." This time an animated Baryonyx danced over the monitor. "I can't work like this," Connor sulked.
Quickly, Abby walked over to him and put her hand soothingly on Connor's arm. "Just change your layout back and start working."
Nick and Stephen's eyebrows rose up when Abby suggestively licked her upper lip. "I'll make it up to you tonight, I promise."
Connor blushed faintly before a big grin plastered itself on his face and he began hammering on his keyboard.
"Abby!" Cutter said in a warning tone.
Abby just turned around and said, "It's all right, Cutter. I hope you know there are other things two people can do together besides having intercourse." She threw an amused look at Stephen and Nick. "You both look dreadful. I hope it wasn't work that kept you awake."
Stephen chuckled as Abby walked away. "She's always direct, isn't she?"
"Yeah, Connor is a lucky boy," Cutter replied absent-minded. "Now back to business. Connor, have you found anything out yet about that guy who's playing havoc with our computer system?
Connor shook his head. "It's a pro. I've installed another security system but that didn't stop him. But I have a feeling the guy wants to be found out. He's giving hints that he knows about the ARC and some of our cases."
Connor pointed to the wallpaper with the Baryonyx. "Our latest case. And the icons show pictures of other animals we've encountered. Raptor, sabre-tooth tiger, dodo and so on." Connor bit his lips in frustration. "I just don't know what he's aiming for with all this. But I will get to the bottom of it."
"And his name is Thomas Barrow? You're absolutely sure?"
"That was the name he was introduced to me under by the Dean of the Junior King's School in Sturry. Of course I don't know if that is his right name and if he is the one who has hacked into the computer or not. He didn't seem to be dangerous," Jenny declared cautiously, under Jetrow's watchful eye. "But he knows private details about me."
"It shouldn't be difficult to find out if the name is real." Lester looked curiously at her. "How private what that information?"
"Just something about my favourite music and books. But it's information only my family, close friends and my ex-fiance are privy to."
"I understand."
Seventeen minutes later, Jenny looked at the photograph of Thomas Barrow the MI6 had mailed to the ARC and identified him as the person she had met and talked to.
She clenched her teeth as she read the attached short biography with his job history.
"How could I have been so stupid. A freelancer reporter." Jenny turned, disappointed, to Jetrow. "You were right. He isn't Prince Charming."
"Perhaps it isn't what it seems," Jetrow tried to comfort her.
"Thanks Jetrow, but I don't believe in coincidences."
"Jenny."
"Don't worry about me. For a short time I lost focus and behaved like a lovesick teenager. Now I'm back to normal and will do my work properly again."
Jenny straightened her back and walked out of the office with her head held high.
Lester pursed his lips as he looked at the picture. Somehow the guy seemed familiar but he couldn't put his finger on it yet.
He frowned as Cutter walked into the office.
"Yes, I know. I look dreadful. Everyone is telling me that today."
Lester raised his eyebrow. "I wasn't going to say anything like that. But I hope you didn't come here to fish for compliments. You really do look dreadful. What's the matter?"
"It's nothing. I just slept a bit restlessly."
Lester eyed him scrutinisingly.
"I had some bad dreams, all right? I don't sleep well without you," Cutter mumbled.
Lester took a deep breath. "Nick."
"No, forget it. I know you need more time. Just think about my offer of you moving in. I'll give you as much space as you need. I would just feel better with you nearby." He bent over the desk, abashed, and looked at the photograph. "Uh, that guy looks familiar."
Lester accepted that Nick wanted to drop the subject and answered. ""I had the same thought. His name is Barrow."
"Barrow? Thomas Barrow?" Nick asked, surprised.
"Do you know him?"
Nick grimaced. "I hope it's not the same guy I know from my academic years. Little Tommy was an annoying, snotty brat and a troublemaker; some younger cousin of an fellow student. People always thought he was my little brother when he trailed after us."
He shook his head at the memory. "Last I heard about him years ago was he's still the black sheep of the family. What's with him now?"
"He could be the one who has hacked into the ARC computer system."
"That would fit. Tommy wasn't mean, just a little prankster."
"He has also contacted Jenny on her private number several times, and sent her gifts."
Now Cutter was getting worried. "Is he stalking her? Tommy had a tendency to follow the people he liked around."
"You could say that. But Jenny insists he's harmless. She said he was working at the Kings' School as teacher, and representative of the headmaster, and they met at the school office there."
"I didn't see him there but I think I was otherwise occupied at the time."
"If it is the same guy you knew from university then I'm sure he has recognized you and therefore stayed on the sidelines. He has left his teacher job now and we don't know where he's currently living. His impressively long list of part-time jobs also included the information about his occasional work for scientific journals and the yellow press. Nick, could he be a safety risk?"
"I don't know. He's a clever guy, an explorer. In the past he was fascinated by secrets and mysteries, always taking risks to find answers for unusual theories, or explanations for strange happenings."
"Then the Anomalies must be drawing him in like a moth to the flame. It would be a catastrophe if he goes public with his knowledge about the Anomaly project."
Nick bit his lips. "The Thomas Barrow I knew wouldn't have done that. You see, he was the type of guy who would jump on the back of a Stegosaur just to measure the size of its osteoderms, and then guard his collected information like a secret treasure. I hope he hasn't changed into a story hungry reporter in the meantime."
"Well, then I'm glad he didn't jump on the back of the Baryonyx." Lester ran his hand through his hair and sighed deeply."That's all I need. Either I have a hide and seek playing reporter on my hands or another crazy scientist. Seems like he would blend in well with the rest of the team."
"Hey, we aren't so bad," Cutter objected with a frown, but started smiling as he saw Lester's pained facial expression.
"I could try to contact my old flatmate from university. I'm sure he knows where we can find his cousin. They were always very close."
"Thanks for that offer, but that won't be necessary. Our security agent is already on his heels."
"We have a security agent?" Nick asked, astonished.
"Jenny is responsible for everything concerning our public persona. Thus security incidents where information could leak out to the press fall in her area as well."
"But you just said he was stalking her. Sounds like a conflict of interest. Don't you think she could be too biased?"
James Lester smirked self-contented. "Jenny is at her best when she is angry. But don't worry, some of Stephen's men will make sure she doesn't hurt him, or at least not too much."
"There are moments I'm really glad you and Jenny are on our side," Nick said and lost himself in James' eyes. He loved how they sparkled if James smiled. He had done it far too seldom in the last weeks.
The ringing of Lester's phone yanked Nick from his thought and he remembered why he had actually come over to Lester's office.
"Oh I almost forgot. I have something for you. Wait a minute."
Lester watched in amusement as Nick hurried out of the room while he answered the call from his secretary, reminding him of his appointment.
Nick came back a moment later with a plastic bag in his hand, and handed it over to him.
"Perhaps that will help to alleviate some of your stress," Nick said sheepishly, a faint blush colouring his face. "I'll be down there, working with Connor, in case you need me."
Lester peered curiously at the bag. He had assumed it contained the tee-shirt he had asked Nick for, but Nick's behaviour indicated it was more than that.
Nick Cutter looked nervously up at Lester's office. The previous day it had sounded like a good idea. Now he wasn't so sure anymore. He was afraid of what James would think of him when he saw the pictures.
After Lester had taken a seat behind his desk and carefully checked no one was around to watch him, he opened the bag. It was indeed a tee-shirt as far he could see.
A tee-shirt, a tube of lube and a small stack of photographs. Lester gasped as he took them out.
They weren't professional pictures. Just something taken with a digital camera and printed out on photographic paper.
But they showed Nick Cutter in all his glory. On the bed, clothed only in boxer shorts, with a hand down his pants, naked on all fours with his arse in the air, stretched out on his side with an impressive erection, and on his back, his eyes closed in rapture as he stroked himself.
Nick must have used the delayed-action shutter release to take them.
And every time, one of Lester's shirts was present in the pictures. The last shirt he had given Nick was draped on the pillow next to him, and the silk shirt was pressed against Nick's chest and neck in the pictures where he was stroking himself.
It gave Lester a warm fuzzy feeling to know Nick was thinking of him in those moments.
He stuffed the photos hastily back in the plastic bag and loosened his tie. This really wasn't the right place to enjoy pictures of a naked Nick Cutter, especially not when he had a meeting with the Home Secretary in half an hour.
As Lester passed Nick to leave the ARC for his meeting, he touched his arm briefly and whispered to him. "Thanks for your gift. But next time warn me not to open the bag at work. Those pictures aren't something I should view in public."
Nick Cutter started to smile and followed Lester with his eyes until he was gone. Ignoring the smirk on Connor's and Abby's faces he finally went back to work.
The new anomaly was a welcome change for Nick, who hadn't managed to concentrate on his work. His thoughts had always returned to James.
Within minutes, the team was inside the Hilux and on its way to Regent`s Park.
The two small Eurotamanduas, anteater-like mammals from the Early Eocene, sat peacefully in the begonia bed and slurped one ant after another whilst the gardener paced back and forth in outrage.
When the team left the van, the gardener was heading in their direction, agitatedly brandishing his arms.
"That is an affront. I know the bed is teeming with ants but I was intending to take care of it today. I swear to you, whoever has played that practical joke on me and put these monsters in my begonias will pay for it," he ranted in the faces of Jenny and Cutter.
Cutter just ignored him and went closer to the prehistoric mammals who were making short shrift of the ants without taking any notice of him.
He took another step into the begonia bed while the gardener was complaining to Jenny about the dork who now trampled his beautiful flowers as well.
The Eurotamanduas didn't react at all. They were still too busy exterminating the ants with their healthy appetites.
Whilst Jenny led the distressed gardener away, Nick Cutter watched in amusement how the mammals enjoyed their meal.
Suddenly, the Eurotamanduas attention shifted to Nick and he felt uncomfortable under their enquiring eyes.
Before he realised he had accidentally stepped in an ants nest and ants were running over his shoes, the mammals moved and started slurping the ants from his boots.
Connor and Abby, until now busy getting two cages out of the van to transport the creatures back through the anomaly, snickered as the anteaters greedily sniffed up the professor's legs in search of more ants and Stephen and the Special Forces team joined in the laughter.
"After you have stopped laughing at my expense would you mind please helping me," Cutter snarled and shoved one anteater away, who had come dangerously close to his crotch with its snout.
Finally, the others took pity on the professor. With a skilled grip, Abby snatched the first mammal from behind and steered it into the direction of the cage, whilst Jetrow and Lyle helped to prevent its escape at the sides.
Babyface just grabbed the second anteater and carried the struggling animal to the cage.
Cutter sighed in relief as the Eurotamanduas were safely tucked away. They now puffed angrily against the bars, quite dissatisfied with the situation.
"Let's get them back into their own time. Hopeful the anomaly will then close," he said as he helped Stephen to lift one of the cages. The prehistoric mammals were astonishingly heavy.
'Who would have though that a diet of ants could be so nourishing,' Cutter pondered.
Whilst Connor took some measurements with Abby for company, and Willis, Finn and Private Fergusson secured the anomaly, the others returned to the ARC.
Babyface immediately went to the medical unit. The Eurotamandua he had carried had managed to scrape him with its claws so hard that the fabric of his uniform had relented and he had now some nice scratches on his skin.
Nick was glad to see Lester had already come back from his meeting. Since he had had these horrible nightmares, a bad feeling crept over him every time Lester left the ARC.
He needed to see him and make sure everything was all right with James.
"How was your meeting?" he asked as he stepped into Lester's office.
"Boring, as ever," Lester answered, without looking up. "How was the anomaly?"
"Just glittering like they usually do."
"So nothing important happened then?" Lester asked, whilst he signed a report.
"I got felt up."
Now Lester looked up in surprise.
"By two guys," Nick added.
"Really?" Lester sized Nick up and waited for an explanation. But when no more information was forthcoming, a flicker of uncertainty showed in Lester's eyes and Nick finally relented.
"At least I think it might have been two guys. With those anteaters you never know what gender they are. They all look alike," he said with a smirk, as he saw Lester breathe out with relief.
Lester shook his head. "You're impossible. You almost fooled me."
"No, James, I had you." Nick grinned with satisfaction and sauntered out of the office.
"I need your report before you leave," Lester called after him, knowing that Cutter was just pulling a face.
Smiling to himself, Lester shoved the report he was working on aside and looked at the picture he had hidden underneath.
Nick Cutter on his knees, with his naked arse in the air, was still a very lovely sight.
Author: TalliW
Pairings: Lester/Cutter, Abby/Connor, Stephen/Lyle, Jenny
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Primeval is the property of Impossible Pictures. I write just for fun.
Lyle and Finn belong to Fredbassett.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to Fredbassett for beta-reading. I couldn't have done it without you.
Cutter turned around when his friend stepped into the locker room, barely be able to walk properly, and with dark rings under his eyes.
"You look dreadful, Stephen. What happened to you?"
"Too much sex and too little sleep. I could ask you the same. You don't look any better."
"Too little sex and too little sleep," Cutter replied with a yawn and slipped out of his jacket.
Stephen peered at him. "I thought it was going well between you and Lester."
"It is. At least it is under the present circumstances. We have to take it slowly." Nick opened his locker and put his jacket away. "No, it's the security breaches I'm worried about. I couldn't sleep. Nightmares."
Stephen nodded in understanding."I'm sure we'll sort that out quickly. Don't worry so much. That will only give you wrinkles."
Stephen smiled encouragingly at Cutter and walked out of the looker room, wincing slightly when he took too large a step.
Cutter sighed. Lyle seemed to have kept Stephen busy throughout the whole night.
He didn't begrudge his friend. Nick just wished he would get some action too. He wouldn't mind walking funny for days after being fucked over and over again by James.
But it seemed they were still a long way from that stage. Nick looked down in annoyance at the bulge tenting his trousers and took another of his tablets. He really shouldn't think of Lester and sex in the same context when he was at work.
"That damn bastard. He's done it again. He's changed my wallpaper and the icons." This time an animated Baryonyx danced over the monitor. "I can't work like this," Connor sulked.
Quickly, Abby walked over to him and put her hand soothingly on Connor's arm. "Just change your layout back and start working."
Nick and Stephen's eyebrows rose up when Abby suggestively licked her upper lip. "I'll make it up to you tonight, I promise."
Connor blushed faintly before a big grin plastered itself on his face and he began hammering on his keyboard.
"Abby!" Cutter said in a warning tone.
Abby just turned around and said, "It's all right, Cutter. I hope you know there are other things two people can do together besides having intercourse." She threw an amused look at Stephen and Nick. "You both look dreadful. I hope it wasn't work that kept you awake."
Stephen chuckled as Abby walked away. "She's always direct, isn't she?"
"Yeah, Connor is a lucky boy," Cutter replied absent-minded. "Now back to business. Connor, have you found anything out yet about that guy who's playing havoc with our computer system?
Connor shook his head. "It's a pro. I've installed another security system but that didn't stop him. But I have a feeling the guy wants to be found out. He's giving hints that he knows about the ARC and some of our cases."
Connor pointed to the wallpaper with the Baryonyx. "Our latest case. And the icons show pictures of other animals we've encountered. Raptor, sabre-tooth tiger, dodo and so on." Connor bit his lips in frustration. "I just don't know what he's aiming for with all this. But I will get to the bottom of it."
"And his name is Thomas Barrow? You're absolutely sure?"
"That was the name he was introduced to me under by the Dean of the Junior King's School in Sturry. Of course I don't know if that is his right name and if he is the one who has hacked into the computer or not. He didn't seem to be dangerous," Jenny declared cautiously, under Jetrow's watchful eye. "But he knows private details about me."
"It shouldn't be difficult to find out if the name is real." Lester looked curiously at her. "How private what that information?"
"Just something about my favourite music and books. But it's information only my family, close friends and my ex-fiance are privy to."
"I understand."
Seventeen minutes later, Jenny looked at the photograph of Thomas Barrow the MI6 had mailed to the ARC and identified him as the person she had met and talked to.
She clenched her teeth as she read the attached short biography with his job history.
"How could I have been so stupid. A freelancer reporter." Jenny turned, disappointed, to Jetrow. "You were right. He isn't Prince Charming."
"Perhaps it isn't what it seems," Jetrow tried to comfort her.
"Thanks Jetrow, but I don't believe in coincidences."
"Jenny."
"Don't worry about me. For a short time I lost focus and behaved like a lovesick teenager. Now I'm back to normal and will do my work properly again."
Jenny straightened her back and walked out of the office with her head held high.
Lester pursed his lips as he looked at the picture. Somehow the guy seemed familiar but he couldn't put his finger on it yet.
He frowned as Cutter walked into the office.
"Yes, I know. I look dreadful. Everyone is telling me that today."
Lester raised his eyebrow. "I wasn't going to say anything like that. But I hope you didn't come here to fish for compliments. You really do look dreadful. What's the matter?"
"It's nothing. I just slept a bit restlessly."
Lester eyed him scrutinisingly.
"I had some bad dreams, all right? I don't sleep well without you," Cutter mumbled.
Lester took a deep breath. "Nick."
"No, forget it. I know you need more time. Just think about my offer of you moving in. I'll give you as much space as you need. I would just feel better with you nearby." He bent over the desk, abashed, and looked at the photograph. "Uh, that guy looks familiar."
Lester accepted that Nick wanted to drop the subject and answered. ""I had the same thought. His name is Barrow."
"Barrow? Thomas Barrow?" Nick asked, surprised.
"Do you know him?"
Nick grimaced. "I hope it's not the same guy I know from my academic years. Little Tommy was an annoying, snotty brat and a troublemaker; some younger cousin of an fellow student. People always thought he was my little brother when he trailed after us."
He shook his head at the memory. "Last I heard about him years ago was he's still the black sheep of the family. What's with him now?"
"He could be the one who has hacked into the ARC computer system."
"That would fit. Tommy wasn't mean, just a little prankster."
"He has also contacted Jenny on her private number several times, and sent her gifts."
Now Cutter was getting worried. "Is he stalking her? Tommy had a tendency to follow the people he liked around."
"You could say that. But Jenny insists he's harmless. She said he was working at the Kings' School as teacher, and representative of the headmaster, and they met at the school office there."
"I didn't see him there but I think I was otherwise occupied at the time."
"If it is the same guy you knew from university then I'm sure he has recognized you and therefore stayed on the sidelines. He has left his teacher job now and we don't know where he's currently living. His impressively long list of part-time jobs also included the information about his occasional work for scientific journals and the yellow press. Nick, could he be a safety risk?"
"I don't know. He's a clever guy, an explorer. In the past he was fascinated by secrets and mysteries, always taking risks to find answers for unusual theories, or explanations for strange happenings."
"Then the Anomalies must be drawing him in like a moth to the flame. It would be a catastrophe if he goes public with his knowledge about the Anomaly project."
Nick bit his lips. "The Thomas Barrow I knew wouldn't have done that. You see, he was the type of guy who would jump on the back of a Stegosaur just to measure the size of its osteoderms, and then guard his collected information like a secret treasure. I hope he hasn't changed into a story hungry reporter in the meantime."
"Well, then I'm glad he didn't jump on the back of the Baryonyx." Lester ran his hand through his hair and sighed deeply."That's all I need. Either I have a hide and seek playing reporter on my hands or another crazy scientist. Seems like he would blend in well with the rest of the team."
"Hey, we aren't so bad," Cutter objected with a frown, but started smiling as he saw Lester's pained facial expression.
"I could try to contact my old flatmate from university. I'm sure he knows where we can find his cousin. They were always very close."
"Thanks for that offer, but that won't be necessary. Our security agent is already on his heels."
"We have a security agent?" Nick asked, astonished.
"Jenny is responsible for everything concerning our public persona. Thus security incidents where information could leak out to the press fall in her area as well."
"But you just said he was stalking her. Sounds like a conflict of interest. Don't you think she could be too biased?"
James Lester smirked self-contented. "Jenny is at her best when she is angry. But don't worry, some of Stephen's men will make sure she doesn't hurt him, or at least not too much."
"There are moments I'm really glad you and Jenny are on our side," Nick said and lost himself in James' eyes. He loved how they sparkled if James smiled. He had done it far too seldom in the last weeks.
The ringing of Lester's phone yanked Nick from his thought and he remembered why he had actually come over to Lester's office.
"Oh I almost forgot. I have something for you. Wait a minute."
Lester watched in amusement as Nick hurried out of the room while he answered the call from his secretary, reminding him of his appointment.
Nick came back a moment later with a plastic bag in his hand, and handed it over to him.
"Perhaps that will help to alleviate some of your stress," Nick said sheepishly, a faint blush colouring his face. "I'll be down there, working with Connor, in case you need me."
Lester peered curiously at the bag. He had assumed it contained the tee-shirt he had asked Nick for, but Nick's behaviour indicated it was more than that.
Nick Cutter looked nervously up at Lester's office. The previous day it had sounded like a good idea. Now he wasn't so sure anymore. He was afraid of what James would think of him when he saw the pictures.
After Lester had taken a seat behind his desk and carefully checked no one was around to watch him, he opened the bag. It was indeed a tee-shirt as far he could see.
A tee-shirt, a tube of lube and a small stack of photographs. Lester gasped as he took them out.
They weren't professional pictures. Just something taken with a digital camera and printed out on photographic paper.
But they showed Nick Cutter in all his glory. On the bed, clothed only in boxer shorts, with a hand down his pants, naked on all fours with his arse in the air, stretched out on his side with an impressive erection, and on his back, his eyes closed in rapture as he stroked himself.
Nick must have used the delayed-action shutter release to take them.
And every time, one of Lester's shirts was present in the pictures. The last shirt he had given Nick was draped on the pillow next to him, and the silk shirt was pressed against Nick's chest and neck in the pictures where he was stroking himself.
It gave Lester a warm fuzzy feeling to know Nick was thinking of him in those moments.
He stuffed the photos hastily back in the plastic bag and loosened his tie. This really wasn't the right place to enjoy pictures of a naked Nick Cutter, especially not when he had a meeting with the Home Secretary in half an hour.
As Lester passed Nick to leave the ARC for his meeting, he touched his arm briefly and whispered to him. "Thanks for your gift. But next time warn me not to open the bag at work. Those pictures aren't something I should view in public."
Nick Cutter started to smile and followed Lester with his eyes until he was gone. Ignoring the smirk on Connor's and Abby's faces he finally went back to work.
The new anomaly was a welcome change for Nick, who hadn't managed to concentrate on his work. His thoughts had always returned to James.
Within minutes, the team was inside the Hilux and on its way to Regent`s Park.
The two small Eurotamanduas, anteater-like mammals from the Early Eocene, sat peacefully in the begonia bed and slurped one ant after another whilst the gardener paced back and forth in outrage.
When the team left the van, the gardener was heading in their direction, agitatedly brandishing his arms.
"That is an affront. I know the bed is teeming with ants but I was intending to take care of it today. I swear to you, whoever has played that practical joke on me and put these monsters in my begonias will pay for it," he ranted in the faces of Jenny and Cutter.
Cutter just ignored him and went closer to the prehistoric mammals who were making short shrift of the ants without taking any notice of him.
He took another step into the begonia bed while the gardener was complaining to Jenny about the dork who now trampled his beautiful flowers as well.
The Eurotamanduas didn't react at all. They were still too busy exterminating the ants with their healthy appetites.
Whilst Jenny led the distressed gardener away, Nick Cutter watched in amusement how the mammals enjoyed their meal.
Suddenly, the Eurotamanduas attention shifted to Nick and he felt uncomfortable under their enquiring eyes.
Before he realised he had accidentally stepped in an ants nest and ants were running over his shoes, the mammals moved and started slurping the ants from his boots.
Connor and Abby, until now busy getting two cages out of the van to transport the creatures back through the anomaly, snickered as the anteaters greedily sniffed up the professor's legs in search of more ants and Stephen and the Special Forces team joined in the laughter.
"After you have stopped laughing at my expense would you mind please helping me," Cutter snarled and shoved one anteater away, who had come dangerously close to his crotch with its snout.
Finally, the others took pity on the professor. With a skilled grip, Abby snatched the first mammal from behind and steered it into the direction of the cage, whilst Jetrow and Lyle helped to prevent its escape at the sides.
Babyface just grabbed the second anteater and carried the struggling animal to the cage.
Cutter sighed in relief as the Eurotamanduas were safely tucked away. They now puffed angrily against the bars, quite dissatisfied with the situation.
"Let's get them back into their own time. Hopeful the anomaly will then close," he said as he helped Stephen to lift one of the cages. The prehistoric mammals were astonishingly heavy.
'Who would have though that a diet of ants could be so nourishing,' Cutter pondered.
Whilst Connor took some measurements with Abby for company, and Willis, Finn and Private Fergusson secured the anomaly, the others returned to the ARC.
Babyface immediately went to the medical unit. The Eurotamandua he had carried had managed to scrape him with its claws so hard that the fabric of his uniform had relented and he had now some nice scratches on his skin.
Nick was glad to see Lester had already come back from his meeting. Since he had had these horrible nightmares, a bad feeling crept over him every time Lester left the ARC.
He needed to see him and make sure everything was all right with James.
"How was your meeting?" he asked as he stepped into Lester's office.
"Boring, as ever," Lester answered, without looking up. "How was the anomaly?"
"Just glittering like they usually do."
"So nothing important happened then?" Lester asked, whilst he signed a report.
"I got felt up."
Now Lester looked up in surprise.
"By two guys," Nick added.
"Really?" Lester sized Nick up and waited for an explanation. But when no more information was forthcoming, a flicker of uncertainty showed in Lester's eyes and Nick finally relented.
"At least I think it might have been two guys. With those anteaters you never know what gender they are. They all look alike," he said with a smirk, as he saw Lester breathe out with relief.
Lester shook his head. "You're impossible. You almost fooled me."
"No, James, I had you." Nick grinned with satisfaction and sauntered out of the office.
"I need your report before you leave," Lester called after him, knowing that Cutter was just pulling a face.
Smiling to himself, Lester shoved the report he was working on aside and looked at the picture he had hidden underneath.
Nick Cutter on his knees, with his naked arse in the air, was still a very lovely sight.