fanfic: His Team
Title: His Team
Author: Athene
Fandom: Primeval
Pairing/characters: Danny/Sarah, Connor/Abby, Danny/Connor
Rating: 15
Warnings: mild language, everything else is implied
Spoilers: 3.6
Disclaimer: Not mine. ITV and Impossible Pictures own them.
Word count: approx 800
Summary: Danny has to look after the team now. Set in the same AU as ‘Lester’s Man’ where 3.6 ended differently.
This wasn’t exactly what he’d signed up for.
Danny let his gaze wander away from the tiny, dirt-encrusted window, and over his team. Sarah still looked beautiful despite the fact that none of them had felt properly clean for over a fortnight. She was twitching as she slept, and Danny wondered what she was dreaming about. Or more likely, having nightmares about. A few feet away from Sarah, Connor and Abby were cuddled up together, her arm wrapped protectively around his waist. Connor’s hand, by contrast, was curled around the artefact. It never left his sight now, and Danny felt a touch of satisfaction that it was something he didn’t have to worry about himself. God knows he had enough else to worry about.
Of all of them, Abby seemed to be coping best with being on the run. She had a streak of practicality that the others lacked, and an ability to get things done. Sarah wasn’t cut out for this, that much was obvious, but she was doing her best, Connor likewise. There had only been one frustrated temper tantrum, and Abby had calmed Connor down again with nothing more than a look and a touch and a quiet conversation in a corner.
The truth was, though, it was beginning to wear on all of them. They had been out of touch with the ARC for over two weeks now, and there was no sign that was likely to change any time soon. A constant source of arguments was the fact that they kept moving around, never stopping in one place for more than a couple of days. Sarah kept pointing out that would make it impossible for Lester and Becker to find them when things had calmed down, but Danny was pretty sure that if Lester wanted to find them, he’d have his ways, regardless of where they were. No, they had to keep moving. They had to keep the artefact away from Christine and her goons.
That bloody artefact. Sarah and Connor were doing their best with it, but without access to the ARC and all its equipment there wasn’t a whole lot they could actually do. Sometimes Connor would sit up until late at night holding the artefact in his lap, just staring at it, as if it might reveal its secrets through his force of will alone.
It didn’t really surprise Danny that he would end up with Sarah. After all, Connor and Abby had each other, so it seemed natural that Sarah would turn to him for comfort and reassurance. Except, that wasn’t how it had worked at all. He had gone to her one night when he knew she couldn’t sleep. He was the one who had sat talking in whispered voices so as not to wake the others. And when they ended up in each other’s arms, well, he was just looking after his team, right? Connor and Abby knew about it, he was certain of that, but to their credit they never said a word against it.
Sarah may not have been a surprise, but Connor was a surprise. Maybe the kid had a chivalrous streak, because he only came to Danny on the nights when Sarah didn’t need him. It started on one of those nights when he was staring at the artefact, unable to sleep. It was only supposed to be a quiet, man-to-man talk, a reassurance that they would work out what it was and why it was so important eventually. It didn’t quite work out that way, though. The more Connor talked, the more Danny realised that the artefact was beating him. That every time Connor got like this, it was because he was comparing himself to Cutter and finding himself wanting. And nothing Danny said could stop him from thinking that. The nights when the artefact and the weight of responsibility defeated him, those were nights when Connor crawled into Danny’s arms.
The third time it happened Connor was already asleep, his head resting on Danny’s chest, when Danny became aware that they were being watched. He locked eyes with Abby, and for once words deserted him as he tried to find a sensible explanation. It turned out he didn’t need one. Abby simply conveyed everything in a look that said, “If you hurt him, I will rip your balls off.” Danny had silently nodded his understanding, and Abby had turned over and gone back to sleep.
They were a good team. A bloody good team. And now they were his. And Danny was going to do everything in his power to look after them.