A Tarbosaurus and the Thames
Title: A Tarbosaurus and the Thames
Fandom: Primeval
Characters: Nick, Connor
Rating: K
For Rexy, who to this day believes that he once saw Nessie in the Thames =]
He’s running, running for his life (and doesn’t it feel odd to be able to say that and actually mean it?) with the roars of the giant reptile sounding all too close behind. He’s fairly sure that he can see faces appearing in the windows of the flats he’s running by and wonders briefly how Jenny is going to explain a Tarbosaurus charging along the sea wall in the quite aptly named town of Grays, but then he hears jaws snap closed behind him and actually feels the gust of air that this creates, and decides that he has more important things to worry about. Like not becoming lunch.
Any second now those jaws will catch him, tear into flesh and crunch bones and… What’s that? There’s furious barking coming from somewhere near the flats and he risks looking over his shoulder. The Tarbosaurus is looking around too, distracted by something yellow and excited. It takes Connor a moment to realise that the thing is a Labrador, run off from its owner during the course of their morning constitutional. He winces as he realises that Jenny is probably going to have to explain to a very angry dog owner exactly why their precious pet has gone missing, but before he can finish that thought the giant scaly beastie has whipped around, going for the dog, and its tail comes swinging around to meet him.
The tip of it catches him in the stomach, knocking all of the breath from his body which really is unfortunate because a moment later he needs all the oxygen he can get as he finds himself thrown right over the sea wall by the force. As murky water closes in around him (the tide is in, of course; it’s sod’s law after all) and he tries ineffectually to claw his way to the surface, he has just enough time to register that eugh, this is the Thames, it‘ll probably soak into his skin and cause him to mutate before he gets out… But then he’s swallowing water instead of air, breath all used up, and why is everything turning black around the edges…?
The next thing he knows there’s hard ground beneath him and he’s really, really not liking the idea of being awake right now. It’s a moment he can begin to make sense of what he’s feeling (cold, mostly) but when he does he’s struck by the realisation that someone is kissing him.
And that wouldn’t be bad at all, really, apart from the fact that he can quite certainly feel stubble against his chin, and unless Abby’s decided to grow a goatee then it’s almost definitely a man. So he can probably dismiss those lingering fantasies about having a beautiful woman snog him after being forced to watch Baywatch perhaps a few too many times as a child. There is a moment in which he thinks he should be more worried than he is.
He opens his eyes, blinking confusedly in the (not so) bright of day and Nick comes into focus, practically straddling him and face just inches from his own. He doesn’t think he’ll ever wake up to a stranger sight. He opens his mouth to say something, quite possibly foolish, but water comes out instead and he rolls over onto his side, gagging and spluttering and trying not to choke. Then there’s a hand rubbing his back until he’s finished vomiting up what has got to be at least sixty percent pure pollution, which probably shouldn’t feel as soothing as it does.
“Are you alright?” Nick is asking, and he should probably put on a brave face and say ‘yes, I’m fine’ because that would be the sensible thing to do, but because he’s Connor and because he’s probably never done the sensible thing in his life he sits up, wiping his mouth with his sleeve, and splutters, “You kissed me!”
Nick looks surprised, then amused.
“It’s called artificial respiration,” he corrects, and Connor saves himself from having to answer right away by launching into an actually quite genuine coughing fit.
“Oh.”
“You’d have to do more than fall into a river to earn that.”
Nick grins at him and gets up, leaving Connor to sit and contemplate his words. And, quite possibly, future life threatening situations.