Primeval WIP: Troubling spin (11/...)
Title: Troubling spin (11/...)
Author: TalliW
Pairings: Lester/Cutter
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Primeval are the property of Impossible Pictures. I write just for fun. So don't bother me.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to fredbassett for beta-reading. I couldn't have done it without you.
After a wakeful night, Helen Cutter roamed the kitchen of her house. She found the remains of roast pork in the fridge, Crunchies in the cupboard and the kitchen well-stocked with vegetables and fruit. When had Nick learned to cook? And since when had he started to eat that horrible Crunchie concoction again? She'd thought she'd had him cured of that distasteful habit a long time ago.
Helen walked into the master bedroom eating a banana. It was time to revive her past relationship and play with her husband.
Then she stood rigid in the bedroom she had once shared with Nick and stared in shock at the bed. It was occupied, by two men. She could not believe it, her husband was sleeping with a man, James Lester to boot.
They were spooning, with Nick curled around Lester. The image looked so cosy Helen felt like throwing up.
She left the house in a hurry, shutting the frontdoor with a bang.
Slowly, Nick Cutter woke up, with a feeling of happiness and a warm glow. He cuddled contently against the body lying next to him.
Being close to someone, just holding another human, was the thing he had missed the most.
After years of marriage to Helen he had believed he was too screwed up to get close to other people. Stephen was the first person who had got through the armor he had built around himself. Then came Claudia, all sweet and nice. She had given him hope. The feelings she'd brought back to life had shown him he had a chance of a better future. When she had vanished it had seemed like she had taken all of his rising hope with her.
And then there was James Lester, a civil servant he'd had a rocky start with. At first he'd believed they had nothing in common. It had taken time to see the intelligent and humorous man behind the mask of the cold blooded bureaucrat.
Now that man was sleeping peacefully in his arms.
With James beside him, he felt loved and cared for, something he had yearned for all his life.
Nick ghosted a kiss on his lover's smooth shoulder blade.
"James, time to wake up."
Lester muttered some nonsense and slept on. Nick chuckled. With a tentative lick, he wet the lobe of the man's left ear then took it gently between his lips.
Nick felt a faint tremor going through the body he was cuddling.
After a thorough sweep over his outer ear, James finally reacted.
"That's a nice way to wake up but I would have preferred you to let me sleep a little longer. I didn't know you could be such a nuisance in the mornings," he grumped.
"Morning to you too. And I didn't know you could be so grumpy in the mornings. Usually I see you in the kitchen all chipper," Nick replied.
"After my first cup of coffee I will be."
Lester turned around to Nick who was resting now on his elbow, and inspected him, his tousled hair, his bright eyes and the soft glow on his cheeks.
"Did you sleep well?"
Cutter nodded in the affirmative.
"Any regrets?" A shake of the head.
"What for?" Nick asked, grinning. "For the most powerful orgasm I've in years?"
"I'm glad you see it that was. I got a bit carried away yesterday. Pouncing on you in the living room was not the way I'd imagined spending our evening together.
I'd wanted to take it slow."
Nick chuckled: "Any slower and I would have died of anticipation. Don't forget I'm the one who's pursued you the last few weeks. I wanted something to happen between us. But I wasn't sure that you wanted the same thing. You have to admit my marriage to Helen was a ridiculous excuse for your reluctance."
"I have my principles. Marriage for me is a sacred bond I will not cross. When I'm together with someone I have to be sure there is no one else."
Nick smiled amused: "A little possessive, are we?"
"That's what I'am. I don't like to share. You'll have to accept that."
"Don't worry, I don't care for threesomes either." Saying that Nick sprung up of the bed and walked into the bathroom.
When he came back again, Lester was already in the kitchen, drinking his first cup of coffee.
The way they did every day, they took separate cars to the ARC as Lester preferred.
So their usual working day at the ARC began.
At ten o'clock the Detector revealed a new Anomaly.
Cutter and his team were out of the building before Lester could even give the order.
The two proceratosaurs they were confronted with at the anomaly in Epping Forest were frightening. But the team reacted without hesitation.
With a well-aimed shot Abby hit the larger reptile in the shoulder. Connor's first shot was off the mark but with the second he caught the animal in the left thight.
With a grunt the mighty creature slumped to the ground.
Stephen and Nick dealt with the smaller animal. When the military arrived twelve minutes later, with Lester and Jenny Lewis in tow, they already had the situation under control.
Cutter's training program had been tried and tested.
They grinned happily at each other, even Lester flashed a smile as he saw their success.
In the afternoon, an emergency call in a kindergarten in Merton came up. A strange creature in the toilet bowl had scared a child.
The prehistoric octopus, luckily just a infant itself, were rescued out of the bowl where it had got stuck.
Connor was busy trying to control his Detector. There was no evidence an anomaly had opened in that area but he knew there should have been some signal.
Two hours later, they had to catch a group of oligokyphus, small weasel like creatures, in the kitchen of the "Avista", a nice italian restaurant. Again, there was no message from the Anomaly Detector.
Cutter was frustrated. The day had started excellently and then the problems with Connor's Detector had materialised.
He watched Connor who was messing around with his creation. He wanted to scream at the boy to do something about the failures.
A hand on his shoulder stopped him from loosing control. Nick looked around, expecting to see Lester there. But is was Stephen who led him away to calm down.
After a break and a talk with Stephen, Nick had regained his composure. He felt the old fellowship with his former friend returning slowly. Now he was sure there wouldn't be anything the team couldn't master.
Nick went back to Connor and said to him encouraging: "I know you'll find out what's wrong with the system. But take a break now. I think Abby would be happy with some company. She's feeding the mammoth right now."
Connor smiled gratefully up to him then hurried off to find Abby.
The evening brought them lystrosaurs in a laundry in Newham, again with no anomaly nearby.
Jenny Lewis and Lester had their hands full with covering up the incidents whilst the team chased the unwelcome visitors from the past.
At the end of the day they all were worn out.
They were tired by the time they reached home. After showering, Nick walked into his bedroom with just a towel around his hips and threw himself down on the bed.
Lester automatically followed him into the master bedroom. Clean and clad in pyjama bottoms and vest he slipped under the sheets. James didn't mind in the slightest as the naked body of Nick Cutter snuggled up to him.
The next days more animals showed up. The ARC was in a state of constant alarm now.
In one of the rare rest periods, Stephen took Cutter aside.
"I think someone is behind what's going on. There are no anomalies anymore but we're still finding animals, all rather harmless, never predators. It seems like someone wants to send us a message."
"You think it's Helen who's pulling our strings?"
"I don't know anyone else who it could be."
"What's about Leek?"
Lester's slimy assistant, had dissappeared some time ago when he'd got caught trying to sell some of their prehistoric animals on the black market.
Stephen shook his head. "It's not his style. He'd be more likely to send dangerous creatures along to get his point across. Besides he hasn't got the knowledge to do it. He was fired weeks before Connor finished the Detector."
Nick had to agree.
He sighed deeply. It seemed that Helen was trying to make his life miserable once again.
After they had collected three Archaeothyris in the morning, from a butcher's shop in Southwark where they were appreciative chewing on some discarded giblets, the rest of Friday passed uneventfully. They all hoped it would last. They needed a break.
Nick was already on his way home. Lester was ready to follow him and had left the building.
"Hallo, Lester! Was it good, sleeping with my husband?"
James Lester turned around to face the self-assured woman leaning against the wall.
"Ah, the former Mrs. Cutter. I take it you are the one responsible for the pleasant surprises of the last days."
"I'm asking you again: Did you enjoy, fucking my husband?"
"That's none of your business. So hurry up and say what you intend before I call the military to arrest you."
"I don't think so, Lester. I'm sure you don't want people to get hurt, do you?" Helen asked provocatively.
As Lester showed no sign to of using his mobile she continued arrogantly,
"There are some men waiting to let loose a couple of very mean animals if I don't come back soon.
The dinky little creatures of the last days were just a warning. Do you think you can continue to cover up such events en masse, specially when there are casualties?" she sneered.
"What do you want?" Lester asked, stonily.
"I think it's quite evident. Firstly, stop your manhunt. Secondly, I want validation that I'm still alive and thirdly, I want my husband back."
"I can do something about the first two but I can't grant your last wish. Cutter isn't your property."
"That was not a wish, Lester. Nick is mine. We're still married."
"No, you are not. The divorce becames final some days ago."
Helen lost some of her composure. "You're lying."
Lester smiled smugly. "No, I'm not. I'm sure you'll get your copy of the divorce papers immediately after you've attained a proper residence again."
Soberly, he added:" Just leave him alone. You have messed him up enough."
"You bloody hypocrite. He's my toy."
"Not anymore. He belongs to me now. I will stop the tracing and you'll get back your legality. But I warn you, keep away from Nick. If something happens to him because of your scheming, I'll hunt you down myself and kill you."
Looking into the hard unflinching eyes of James Lester, Helen slowly backed away.
For the first time in years she had the feeling she'd lost a match.
To make sure she got the last word she said spitefully: "Do you really think Nick will stay with you? You're not man enough to give him what he needs."
Lester watched her vanish in the shadows. He was too agitated to drive right now.
Going over the conversation with Helen in his head, he started to walk.
And he walked the whole way home.