[Primeval/Spooks] Fic: O Brave New World, PG-13, Team, Gen, (2 of 14)
Fandom: Primeval/Spooks
Title: O Brave New World (2 of 14)
Characters: From Primeval: Cutter, Stephen, Jenny, Abby, Connor, Helen, Lester, Lorraine, Becker, Danny, Sarah, From Spooks: Lucas, Ruth, Harry, Tariq (Gen)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,623 (Total: 20,210)
Warning: Character death. (See summary).
Setting: Roughly series 3 of Primeval (a continuation of my Man-Made series, though it's not necessary to read that first) and series 8 of Spooks. Familiarity with Primeval would be a bonus, no real knowledge of Spooks is necessary.
Summary: When Helen Cutter's mutilated body turns up in London, there's enough mystery surrounding her death that MI5 become involved. But with a very public anomaly open in Hyde Park and a government on the brink of collapse the ARC team have no choice but to split up, making new allies, and new enemies, along the way.
Masterlist
Chapter One
Danny Quinn wasn't your average policeman. He knew that, his friends on the force knew that, his superiors especially knew that. And he was perfectly okay with that as his reputation. Wore it like a badge or the proverbial chip on his shoulder. It came in handy when connections needed to be made, connections out of the ordinary, when believing in the weird and wonderful was all part of the job.
Which was why, he supposed, he was staring down at the freshly killed body of a woman declared dead over eight years ago, and who looked like she'd lost a round with Freddy Krueger.
He turned towards the coroner, and raised an eyebrow.
The coroner, in turn, shrugged.
Danny shook his head and carried on reading the report in his hand. The man they'd brought in for questioning had named her - in fact it had been pretty much the only thing he'd said, according to the arresting officer. But identifying the victim and having a clear suspect in custody were, surprisingly, not the the end of the matter. Which is why Danny had been assigned the case. He had something of a reputation for fitting impossible pieces together.
He looked down at the body again and frowned. Helen Cutter sure did have a lot of unexplained injuries, scratches from claws and teeth marks featuring regularly. It almost looked like she'd been fighting in a zoo, or maybe she'd run away and joined the circus. That would explain why all the wounds showed signs that they were old, that they'd healed years ago. This though, this was clearly a fresh kill. And a brutal one at that.
“Do you think a knife did this?” he asked, finally.
“Did you find a knife?” the coroner asked.
“No,” Danny said. “Not yet.”
“Well then,” the coroner replied. A large built man who waddled rather than walked, he approached the body and stared down at it. Her missing persons photo showed that she'd been striking in life, if not someone you could label beautiful. Here her face was scratched and disfigured, eyes bulging as if in shock. He imagined it would take quite a lot to shock this woman.
Danny watched the man, waiting. Patience wasn't really one of his virtues, but he could apply it when absolutely necessary.
“No, I'd say a knife couldn't have made these wounds. But I'll be damned if I know what did.”
* * * * *
“Well?” Connor asked. He was twitching, moving his hand across the surface of the desk, tapping and hitting at it, legs beating to an internal rhythm that was starting to drive Abby mad.
“I don't know!” Abby finally snapped. “But you're not helping!”
Connor flushed guiltily and then stopped. It lasted only a few seconds before he was tapping anxiously at the desk again, clearly unaware of what he was doing. Abby sighed, giving up.
“I'm going to make some tea. Stay here.” She headed off to the kitchen, nodding tightly to some soldiers that she passed. They nodded back, just as grim; even now Stephen spent more time with them than her and Connor and they were just as worried as the rest of them. Even Lester could be seen in his office, pacing like a caged animal.
In the kitchen, Abby absently fixed herself and Connor a drink and put it on a tray. Then she paused, grabbed Lorraine's secret stash of chocolate biscuits from the back of the cupboard and decided she really should make Lester a drink too. That done she was finally heading out of the room when the alarm to the Anomaly Detector went off.
“Oh, for -” Abby grumbled. She slammed the tray of drinks down on the table, not caring for the moment that hot tea was sloshing everywhere. They were really in no state to go out, none of them, but she knew they didn't have a choice. There wasn't any one else who could do their job - not until Lester managed to get more funding for the Project, at least.
Some days she really hated her job.
“You're not going to believe this,” Connor cried, skidding around the corner and nearly careening into Abby. She marvelled for a moment at his cheerful face. She knew it was just a defense mechanism, that focusing on the anomalies and the creatures they brought through distracted him from worrying about Stephen, but it still stung.
Something of her annoyance must have shown on her face because he suddenly sobered up.
“Um...?”
Abby was stopped from apologising though by the appearance of Captain Becker behind Connor.
“What do we have, Connor?” he asked. His expression was grave and he looked more like a seasoned soldier today than he normally did. He and Stephen had got off to a rocky start, partly Abby suspected because their ages were so close and yet Stephen considered himself the more experienced of the pair. And expected to be treated as such. Plus Stephen didn't make friends easily and the respect he'd had for Captain Ryan was hard to replace. Still, they had begun to bond on the shooting range and out in the field, and she knew his concern for Stephen was genuine. Besides, Becker didn't seem to make friends easily either and she sometimes worried that the ARC team were the only ones either of them had.
“This,” Connor said, gaining Abby's attention back on the matter at hand. Connor flipped out his new iPhone with a flourish (a birthday present from the whole team) and started to play a video. “It's already up on YouTube.”
“Jenny'll love that,” Becker muttered. Then he frowned and exchanged glances with Abby, remembering what Jenny was doing right now.
“Is that -?” Abby asked, turning her attention to the video.
“Hyde Park,” Connor said, nodding.
“And those are -?” Becker asked.
“I think,” said Connor, with a gleam in his eye, “they're Titanophoneuses.” Becker looked blank. “It means “titanic murderer.”
Abby gave a short intake of breath and Becker looked like he was struggling for an expression that wasn't amused or shocked. He settled on concerned.
“I mean - “ Connor began, realising belatedly that his enthusiasm might be a little misplaced, but he didn't have a chance to finish.
“I wasn't aware we had opened up a branch of the Women's Institute,” Lester drawled from the doorway. He glared pointedly at the mugs of tea on the table. “Unless of course the kitchen is to be our new operations room?”
Abby winced at his glare and Becker straightened up so quickly she thought he was about to salute. “We're just heading out now,” she said.
Lester nodded and then caught sight of Connor's phone. “Tell me that isn't on the internet?”
“Um...” Connor replied. He attempted to hide the phone behind his back, then realised that was ridiculous, so handed it over.
Lester stared down at it for a good 5 seconds, as if it were personally responsible for all his troubles.
“Can you handle the press?” he asked Abby abruptly. Abby opened and closed her mouth a few times; dealing with people wasn't exactly her best skill. “I'd rather not drag Jenny away from the Stephen situation just yet.”
“Right,” Abby nodded, hoping she sounded confident. “Sure, I can. I'll do my best, anyway.”
Lester nodded, his eyes softening slightly before he turned away. “Get out there and make this a one problem only kind of day.”
“Yes, sir,” Becker said. Lester nodded at him and started to walk away.
“Uh - my phone?” Connor asked.
Lester threw it behind his shoulder, without looking to see where it landed. Connor flailed in an attempt to reach it but Becker easily grabbed it and slid it into Connor's back pocket.
“Let's get the gear and head out,” Becker told them, moving towards the armoury.
“Do you think he's heard from Jenny and Cutter?” Connor asked, absently patting his phone.
Becker shrugged. “We'll find out, soon enough.”
“Do you think he did it?” Abby asked at last. It was the question everyone else was avoiding, but she simply couldn't do that anymore.
“Who did what?” Connor asked.
“Stephen,” Abby hissed. “Who else?”
Connor looked downtrodden. “He wouldn't. He couldn't.”
Abby turned to Becker, wanting his more clinical judgement rather than Connor's understandably emotional one.
“Do I think Stephen's capable of murder?” he asked. He paused and looked off into the distance. “Yes. Is he capable of killing Helen?” Becker took a deep breath. “She's not exactly his favourite person.”
Abby nodded. That's what she thought too.
Chapter Two
Title: O Brave New World (2 of 14)
Characters: From Primeval: Cutter, Stephen, Jenny, Abby, Connor, Helen, Lester, Lorraine, Becker, Danny, Sarah, From Spooks: Lucas, Ruth, Harry, Tariq (Gen)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,623 (Total: 20,210)
Warning: Character death. (See summary).
Setting: Roughly series 3 of Primeval (a continuation of my Man-Made series, though it's not necessary to read that first) and series 8 of Spooks. Familiarity with Primeval would be a bonus, no real knowledge of Spooks is necessary.
Summary: When Helen Cutter's mutilated body turns up in London, there's enough mystery surrounding her death that MI5 become involved. But with a very public anomaly open in Hyde Park and a government on the brink of collapse the ARC team have no choice but to split up, making new allies, and new enemies, along the way.
Masterlist
Chapter One
Danny Quinn wasn't your average policeman. He knew that, his friends on the force knew that, his superiors especially knew that. And he was perfectly okay with that as his reputation. Wore it like a badge or the proverbial chip on his shoulder. It came in handy when connections needed to be made, connections out of the ordinary, when believing in the weird and wonderful was all part of the job.
Which was why, he supposed, he was staring down at the freshly killed body of a woman declared dead over eight years ago, and who looked like she'd lost a round with Freddy Krueger.
He turned towards the coroner, and raised an eyebrow.
The coroner, in turn, shrugged.
Danny shook his head and carried on reading the report in his hand. The man they'd brought in for questioning had named her - in fact it had been pretty much the only thing he'd said, according to the arresting officer. But identifying the victim and having a clear suspect in custody were, surprisingly, not the the end of the matter. Which is why Danny had been assigned the case. He had something of a reputation for fitting impossible pieces together.
He looked down at the body again and frowned. Helen Cutter sure did have a lot of unexplained injuries, scratches from claws and teeth marks featuring regularly. It almost looked like she'd been fighting in a zoo, or maybe she'd run away and joined the circus. That would explain why all the wounds showed signs that they were old, that they'd healed years ago. This though, this was clearly a fresh kill. And a brutal one at that.
“Do you think a knife did this?” he asked, finally.
“Did you find a knife?” the coroner asked.
“No,” Danny said. “Not yet.”
“Well then,” the coroner replied. A large built man who waddled rather than walked, he approached the body and stared down at it. Her missing persons photo showed that she'd been striking in life, if not someone you could label beautiful. Here her face was scratched and disfigured, eyes bulging as if in shock. He imagined it would take quite a lot to shock this woman.
Danny watched the man, waiting. Patience wasn't really one of his virtues, but he could apply it when absolutely necessary.
“No, I'd say a knife couldn't have made these wounds. But I'll be damned if I know what did.”
* * * * *
“Well?” Connor asked. He was twitching, moving his hand across the surface of the desk, tapping and hitting at it, legs beating to an internal rhythm that was starting to drive Abby mad.
“I don't know!” Abby finally snapped. “But you're not helping!”
Connor flushed guiltily and then stopped. It lasted only a few seconds before he was tapping anxiously at the desk again, clearly unaware of what he was doing. Abby sighed, giving up.
“I'm going to make some tea. Stay here.” She headed off to the kitchen, nodding tightly to some soldiers that she passed. They nodded back, just as grim; even now Stephen spent more time with them than her and Connor and they were just as worried as the rest of them. Even Lester could be seen in his office, pacing like a caged animal.
In the kitchen, Abby absently fixed herself and Connor a drink and put it on a tray. Then she paused, grabbed Lorraine's secret stash of chocolate biscuits from the back of the cupboard and decided she really should make Lester a drink too. That done she was finally heading out of the room when the alarm to the Anomaly Detector went off.
“Oh, for -” Abby grumbled. She slammed the tray of drinks down on the table, not caring for the moment that hot tea was sloshing everywhere. They were really in no state to go out, none of them, but she knew they didn't have a choice. There wasn't any one else who could do their job - not until Lester managed to get more funding for the Project, at least.
Some days she really hated her job.
“You're not going to believe this,” Connor cried, skidding around the corner and nearly careening into Abby. She marvelled for a moment at his cheerful face. She knew it was just a defense mechanism, that focusing on the anomalies and the creatures they brought through distracted him from worrying about Stephen, but it still stung.
Something of her annoyance must have shown on her face because he suddenly sobered up.
“Um...?”
Abby was stopped from apologising though by the appearance of Captain Becker behind Connor.
“What do we have, Connor?” he asked. His expression was grave and he looked more like a seasoned soldier today than he normally did. He and Stephen had got off to a rocky start, partly Abby suspected because their ages were so close and yet Stephen considered himself the more experienced of the pair. And expected to be treated as such. Plus Stephen didn't make friends easily and the respect he'd had for Captain Ryan was hard to replace. Still, they had begun to bond on the shooting range and out in the field, and she knew his concern for Stephen was genuine. Besides, Becker didn't seem to make friends easily either and she sometimes worried that the ARC team were the only ones either of them had.
“This,” Connor said, gaining Abby's attention back on the matter at hand. Connor flipped out his new iPhone with a flourish (a birthday present from the whole team) and started to play a video. “It's already up on YouTube.”
“Jenny'll love that,” Becker muttered. Then he frowned and exchanged glances with Abby, remembering what Jenny was doing right now.
“Is that -?” Abby asked, turning her attention to the video.
“Hyde Park,” Connor said, nodding.
“And those are -?” Becker asked.
“I think,” said Connor, with a gleam in his eye, “they're Titanophoneuses.” Becker looked blank. “It means “titanic murderer.”
Abby gave a short intake of breath and Becker looked like he was struggling for an expression that wasn't amused or shocked. He settled on concerned.
“I mean - “ Connor began, realising belatedly that his enthusiasm might be a little misplaced, but he didn't have a chance to finish.
“I wasn't aware we had opened up a branch of the Women's Institute,” Lester drawled from the doorway. He glared pointedly at the mugs of tea on the table. “Unless of course the kitchen is to be our new operations room?”
Abby winced at his glare and Becker straightened up so quickly she thought he was about to salute. “We're just heading out now,” she said.
Lester nodded and then caught sight of Connor's phone. “Tell me that isn't on the internet?”
“Um...” Connor replied. He attempted to hide the phone behind his back, then realised that was ridiculous, so handed it over.
Lester stared down at it for a good 5 seconds, as if it were personally responsible for all his troubles.
“Can you handle the press?” he asked Abby abruptly. Abby opened and closed her mouth a few times; dealing with people wasn't exactly her best skill. “I'd rather not drag Jenny away from the Stephen situation just yet.”
“Right,” Abby nodded, hoping she sounded confident. “Sure, I can. I'll do my best, anyway.”
Lester nodded, his eyes softening slightly before he turned away. “Get out there and make this a one problem only kind of day.”
“Yes, sir,” Becker said. Lester nodded at him and started to walk away.
“Uh - my phone?” Connor asked.
Lester threw it behind his shoulder, without looking to see where it landed. Connor flailed in an attempt to reach it but Becker easily grabbed it and slid it into Connor's back pocket.
“Let's get the gear and head out,” Becker told them, moving towards the armoury.
“Do you think he's heard from Jenny and Cutter?” Connor asked, absently patting his phone.
Becker shrugged. “We'll find out, soon enough.”
“Do you think he did it?” Abby asked at last. It was the question everyone else was avoiding, but she simply couldn't do that anymore.
“Who did what?” Connor asked.
“Stephen,” Abby hissed. “Who else?”
Connor looked downtrodden. “He wouldn't. He couldn't.”
Abby turned to Becker, wanting his more clinical judgement rather than Connor's understandably emotional one.
“Do I think Stephen's capable of murder?” he asked. He paused and looked off into the distance. “Yes. Is he capable of killing Helen?” Becker took a deep breath. “She's not exactly his favourite person.”
Abby nodded. That's what she thought too.
Chapter Two