Shades of Grey Chapter 3
Title: Shades of Grey Chapter 3
Author: TalliW
Characters: Stephen Hart, Tom Ryan, Nick Cutter, James Lester, Abby Maitland, Connor Temple, Jenny Lewis, Oliver Leek, Lyle, Finn, Helen Cutter, Ditzy
Rating: K+, T in later chapters
Disclaimer: Primeval is the property of Impossible Pictures. I write just for fun.
Lyle and Finn belong to Fredbassett.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to the wonderful Fredbassett for beta duty.
Summary: Ryan has survived but he isn't the man he was. Can Stephen and Cutter manage to work together to help him? Perhaps Ryan has changed in more ways than it appears on first sight.
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
"How’s he doing? I've heard he’s woken up."
Cutter looked rumpled and like he was nursing a hangover.
"Well, beside a nice purple bruise on his face, a few stitched wounds and the fact that he thinks he's six years old he's doing great."
Cutter blinked in irritation. "What?"
"It looks like Ryan’s suffering from memory loss. He currently believes he's a little boy and he’s behaving that age as well. Now I need you to go into town and buy a white stuffed rabbit with green trousers."
Cutter's look could have rivaled the ward sister's one. It was just not as effective. "Why me? Can't you get the toy yourself? I’ve just arrived."
"No, I can’t leave him now. He trusts me. Yesterday you said you felt responsible for Ryan's condition. So the least you can do is go into town and get a fucking stuffed rabbit for him."
Cutter stared, shocked, at Stephen. He really had to be at the end of his tether. Stephen never had spoken to him like that before.
"Anything else?" he asked coldly.
"Yes, some chocolate would be good. Or sweets. Children like sweets."
Cutter stepped into the hospital with a small bag in his hand, filled with several sweets and fruits, and a stuffed toy under his other arm.
He briefly glared at the young nurse who pointed out to him in a friendly manner that the children's ward was on the next floor, and marched on to Ryan's sick-room.
"Here's your rabbit." Cutter dumped the toy unceremoniously on Ryan's bed and placed the bag on the bedside cabinet.
"This isn't Robby. Those are red trousers and he’s wearing a scarf."
"It's the only white rabbit with trousers I could find. Now take it. Don't make such a fuss!"
"No. You’re mean. I don’t like you," Ryan crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Cutter.
Stephen sent Cutter an annoyed look, then picked the stuffed rabbit up and sat down on the bed beside Ryan.
"Robby's trousers were dirty. He didn't want to visit you in a mess so he changed his clothes. Look how sad he is because you don't want to see him."
"But the spotty scarf is ugly and I don't like red trousers. That looks like blood." Ryan furrowed his brow and it seemed he was trying to remember something.
The next moment he reached for the stuffed rabbit and hugged it tightly to his chest.
"Granny will wash your dirty clothes and then you can wear your old ones again," he whispered against the soft toy’s fur.
Confidingly he looked at Stephen. "Stephen, when is Granny coming?"
Stephen inhaled sharply. He was glad the nurse chose that moment to come in to take Ryan's pulse and temperature. She sent the two visitors out of the room and so saved Stephen from answering the tricky question.
Sighing, Stephen put his mobile away and turned to Cutter.
"Lester wants me to go over to the Forest of Dean. Seems they need someone to track down an animal that came through the reopened anomaly last night."
Stephen was clearly torn between his responsibility to his job and the need to stay with Ryan.
"Why wasn't I informed about the anomaly?" Cutter's tone was slightly aggressive and raised Stephen's hackles.
"Lester said he couldn't reach you." Stephen replied more calmly than he felt right now. He didn't understand himself why Cutter's behaviour was making him so angry suddenly. Cutter's bossiness had never bothered him before.
"Oh right, I switched the mobile off. Let's go then."
"No. Someone should stay with Ryan. And Lester said quite explicitly that he needs a tracker."
Before Cutter could feel threatened in his authority, Stephen backed down. "Please Cutter. I would feel better knowing Ryan hasn’t been left alone with the nurses. He doesn't like them."
"He doesn't like me either."
"You just started out on the wrong foot. I bet you can change his mind. You’ve done so before."
Cutter gave him an odd look but finally agreed to stay behind.
"Thanks. I'll try to make it quick."
When Cutter slipped back into the sick-room Ryan welcomed him in a rather unfriendly way.
"Where’s Stephen?"
"He has a job to do."
"I want Stephen. I don't like you."
"You aren't my favourite person either," Cutter answered indignantly.
After he saw Ryan's underlip wobble he added, "However we have to get along until Stephen returns. Or would you prefer me to leave you alone?"
"No. Don't go. The nurses are mean. I hate them."
"So, I'm the lesser of two evils?"
Cutter snorted as Ryan nodded heftily in answer.
After Cutter had sat down on the only chair in the room he and Ryan eyed each other warily.
Cutter searched for something to say to break the uncomfortable silence.
"How is your rabbit doing?" he finally asked.
"Robby is doing okay. But he doesn't like that scarf."
"You could take it off."
"You wouldn't mind?"
"No, I wouldn't mind. But why do you even care what I think? Didn't you just say you don’t like me?"
"I don't."
Within seconds Ryan had removed the neckscarf from his toy and thrown it at Cutter.
Smirking, Cutter stuffed the scarf into his pocket and let his eyes roam around the hospital room. There was nothing to brighten up the white walls.
He always thought hospitals had a very depressing air and at one point had voiced that thought to Stephen. The next time he'd landed in hospital after a drunken night, Stephen had brought him a yellow balloon with a smiley face on it, together with the threat that he would kick Cutter's arse himself if he ever did anything so stupid again.
Cutter had to stay two whole days in hospital and had hated almost every moment of it. At least he hadn't been the only one spending his time staring at the white walls supervised by stern nurses. His combative opponent had lain just three doors further on.
Ryan's voice yanked Cutter back from his memories.
"Are you friends with Stephen?" he asked.
"Something like this. We work together."
Ryan regarded him curiously. "That's not the same."
"All right. Yes, he's a friend. We’ve known each other for years."
"Then you can't be so bad. If he likes you."
"Oh thanks. So you like Stephen?"
"Stephen is okay." A moment later Ryan elaborated. "He's great. Not as nice as Mister Warden and Granny but better than most grown-ups. He tells funny stories."
"So, does he? What sort of stories?"
"How you both had to run from that angry dog because you tried to steal its dinosaur bone, and about the library you were thrown out of."
"He told you that?" Cutter tried to hold back the grin but finally gave up. The scene of Stephen and the librarian fighting over Stephen's ringing mobile in time to the music had been too hilarious. He still couldn't hear that song without starting to laugh. It was a pity Stephen had given up the ring tones and changed to vibrating alert immediately afterwards.
"You, when’s Stephen coming back?"
"When he's finished with his work."
"When is that?"
"I haven't got a clue. It will take as long it takes."
"What is he doing for work?"
"Just finding an animal who’s got lost."
"And when is he coming back?"
Cutter groaned quietly. "When he’s found the animal. And now stop bugging me."
"But it's boring. With Stephen and Granny it never is. You, when’s Granny coming?"
"Umm..."
"Granny knows many stories just like Stephen. Why isn't she here yet? Is she sick again?"
"Well,..."
Ryan began to tremble as he spied Cutter's expression. His voice hitched as he asked tearfully, "Granny won’t come?"
"No," Cutter choked out, cursing himself that he hadn't got as good a pokerface as Lester.
Cutter wished someone would help him out of this parlous situation. Where were the nurses when you needed them? Feverishly, he searched for a suitable explanation why Ryan's grandmother couldn't visit him. But Ryan took the choice out of his hands.
"Is she in heaven? With daddy, ma and the angels?"
Cutter swallowed hard and suppressed the impulse to stroke Ryan’s hair gently. Ryan appeared so innocent right now it was easy to forget that he wasn't really a child. Looking into Ryan's trusting face he just couldn't tell him a lie.
"Yes, Tom. She is now with the angels, your ma and your daddy."
After that Ryan had fallen silent. His stuffed rabbit pressed firmly against his cheek, he'd turned away from Cutter. When the nurses came in Cutter quietly slipped out of the room. Ryan was sleeping by then.
"You had no right to tell him his grandmother is dead," Stephen yelled.
"I didn't know what else to say. He already knew about his parents. I only confirmed that his grandma is now together with them. I hardly could make him hope that she would show up when Ryan told me himself last year that his whole family died a long time ago. And he took the news surprisingly well."
"So, did he? And why did he then have nightmares so bad they had to give him a sedative? It's a damned good thing you and Helen never had children. They would have been traumatised behind repair."
Before Stephen knew what happened he was lying on the floor. His jaw hurt like hell and he only caught a glimpse of Cutter storming away.
'That went well,' Stephen thought, holding his aching jaw whilst he picked himself slowly up.