Primeval Fanfiction: Nightly Visitors
Title: Nightly Visitors
Author: TalliW
Characters: Nick/Jenny, Stephen/Ryan, Helen
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.
Summary: Jenny has a second chance with Cutter and this time they don't waste the opportunity.
The sun was setting and Jenny prepared herself for the arrival of her nightly visitor. He always came as soon as the last rays of the sun were gone.
Here in the little house in the highlands left to her by her godmother, far away from any town, no one disturbed their idyll. The nearest neighbour lived over thirty miles away.
Ever since she had been frozen dead for a few seconds she had felt the connection.
She had seen the light and revelled in the calmness which had overcome her as the strange energy surged through her body. And then she had been pulled back just at the moment he had arrived and reached out to her.
She had woken up in the ARC, in a world which no longer held much appeal for her.
But then she had realised she was still linked to the other side and maybe he might even come if she called out to him.
The next day she had left her job.
"Did you miss me?" he had asked with a smirk as he joined her on the patio the first evening after she had moved in.
Jenny had just smiled and invited him with a wave of her hand to sit down beside her on a porch chair. Soon she had fallen asleep from exhaustion. Hours later when she woke up again, he was already gone. But a white rose lay on the place he had occupied, a sign that he would return.
The next night he brought a whole bunch of roses, white, pink and red. Jenny wondered where he had got the flowers from but still she remained silent.
Cutter kept her company until a screech owl hooted three times in a row. It was far after midnight by that time.
The morning sun was tickling her nose and the whole house smelled of roses. Jenny hadn't felt so alive in years.
She finished unboxing her crockery and made himself a strong cup of coffee. Absorbed in a book, she had received as a birthday present from a friend, and which she had always intended to read but never had found the time before, she was waiting for the night.
"No flowers today?" she asked, a little disappointed.
"Oh, she speaks finally." He grinned mischievously as he grasped her hand and pulled her up from the porch chair.
Jenny followed him without hesitation, curious to see where he was leading her.
The flower meadow, not far from her house, was bathed in silvery moon light. Purple and white blooms of heather shrubs, still blossoming after the sun had set, were mixed with the soft lilac of hundreds of Spear Thistles and flecks of yellow from the Common Ragwort.
"Are the flowers to your liking?" he asked and pulled her gently into his arms. Under the soft whisper of thistles he kissed her for the very first time.
His lips were still warm, much to Jenny's surprise. She had always thought ghosts would feel cold to the touch.
"Why now, Cutter?"
"My first name is Nick."
"All right, Nick. But that doesn't answer my question."
"Do you really need to know? There are so many reasons."
Jenny scrutinized him thoroughly. "Just tell me the main reason why you are here."
"I finally understand that I was a fool to let all my chances slide because I was clinging to the past and to people long lost."
"Claudia Brown?" Jenny stated carefully.
"Among other things." For a short moment he looked rather melancholy and very vulnerable then his lips curved into a soft smile as he gazed at her, his eyes filled with open affection.
"Will you give me some of your time, Jenny, and stay here as long I'm able to visit you?"
Instead of an answer Jenny led him into her bedroom.
First he had been angry as he'd learnt his case was still pending, Nick had confessed to her in the bliss of afterglow. Who had been thought that deceiving himself and abandon a friend might seen as a worse crime than adultery and lying. Unfortunately he hadn't had the benefit of atoning for his mistakes with a heroic death in order to save others like Stephen. Still Nick had hoped all his attempts of protecting people would speak for him.
But then he had heard Jenny calling.
Nick had stated under kisses how glad he was now that he hadn't been allowed to move on yet. He was actually hoping his case would stay open for a long, long time.
Stephen and Ryan had shown up together, their hands intertwined and wearing such brilliant smiles on their faces that Jenny forgot for a moment that they didn't need nourishment anymore and offered them a drink and some leftovers from dinner.
When Nick arrived, the two men just chatted animatedly over their decision to go for rebirth as soon Stephen got permission to move on.
The first moments were awkward but finally Nick made an effort and extended his hand. Under Ryan's and Jenny's pleased look, Nick and Stephen shook hands and finally reconciled.
The night ended with much laughter over a game of Ludo.
Within days it had got about that there was a lady who could actually see the people on trial in the waiting area and who also liked to play board games.
The stream of people who suddenly wanted to visit Jenny was astonishing.
But Nick Cutter had quickly shooed most of the other visitors away again.
Jenny had been so happy when Nick had declared very possessively that the only man Jenny would play with in the near future was him.
Winston Churchill had just laughed and flounced off into the night with his chess bord under the arm. But some of the younger visitors needed some more convincing. In the end it really had come in handy that Nick knew how to swing a punch.
Jenny had barely registered what Lester said to her on the phone, talking over things she had left behind and about a world which had no meaning anymore for her. There was nothing she could do to help anyway. Besides she already knew what had happened with Abby, Connor and Quinn. Helen had told her on the first night after she had arrived.
How could she ever forget that night?
Nick's fingerprint on Helen's left cheek had been visible for hours. Helen had just shrugged and declared it hadn't been remotely as bad as the right hook she had got from Ryan on behalf of Stephen. Still, the next time Helen had waited until her former husband had gone before she showed up.
Astonishingly Helen had become a good friend to Jenny in a short time. Now that she had come to her senses again, apparently death cured any mental illness, and had been officially parted from Nick, it was weird that 'Till death do us part.' was taken so literally in the afterworld, Helen turned out to be a decent person.
Some of the intimate details Helen revealed really highlighted Jenny's private time with Nick and the stories Helen told about her unpaid work with children as a student and about her experiences with arrogant old-fogeyish scientists often had Jenny in stitches.
Still Jenny was sure Helen would need to make herself at home in the waiting area of the world between in for a very long time.
Jenny scented the faint fragrance of the wonderful lily Nick had presented her with the night before. It was a last greeting from Ryan and Stephen who had been allowed to step through the light portal this morning.
Jenny was delighted for them, completely at peace with herself and the world in the knowledge that she would see her dear friends again in one way or another.
She already had made up her mind. The day Nick's case was closed and he had to leave the world in between she would go with him.
Hopefully rescuing a little girl from drowning, funding the money for a new animal shelter and giving almost all of her property to charity would outweigh the lies she’d had to tell in her job in the past. Of course she had already checked that there wouldn't be any consequences for following Nick Cutter. But luckily giving up life for true love wasn't considered a crime in the afterworld as she had feared.
Jenny touched gently the wonderful purple foxgloves growing in her front garden. Just two leaves would be enough...
With a smile Jenny walked back into the house. It was time to prepare for the night. Nick would arrive soon.