Trying To Fight Gravity
Title: Trying To Fight Gravity
Author: not_from_stars
Fandom: Primeval
Rating: R.
Word Count: 2,007 without the song lyrics.
Character(s): Ryan/Abby/Stephen
Challenge: The song!fic challenge at primeval_vsx
Author's Note: AU. This is a sequel/follow-up of sorts to the story Aftermath that was written by morrigans_eve. She gave me permission to continue on from her story. Yes, this does end on a bit of a cliffhanger, but that's because the next part I was writing attached itself to another bloody song.
Song: Falling Is Like This - Ani DiFranco
You give me that look that's like laughing
with liquid in your mouth
like you're choosing between choking
and spitting it all out
They didn't quite remember when what they all thought was a onetime occurrence changed into something more.
It was a gradual change, that much Ryan knew, and he started inviting Abby over to spend nights with them just as often as Stephen did. It was both exciting and comforting having her there with them. And sometimes, the mental image of the pretty little blonde held between the two of them would become so overpowering that Ryan would have to find a place to get himself put back to rights again.
He and Stephen talked about it sometimes when they were in bed alone. Talked about how much they loved it when she was staying at their place and how it seemed right that they were all three together at times. They talked about how much she meant to them and how excited they each got when they watched her with one of them. Then the images of her held in place between them while they were both inside her body would lead to them turning to each other with an almost primal frenzy that only came about on rare occasions.
Of course, the fact that he and Stephen kept all of these thoughts and desires between themselves caused confusion and sometimes irritation when one of his men looked at Abby in a way that Ryan didn't like; or touched her more than Stephen was happy with them doing. It was bad enough that they had to keep their hands off of her and their interest banked while they were at work; they weren't going to let anyone else touch her.
It made working at sites both interesting and tense for them and those around them. He made sure that none of his men stepped even the slightest bit out of line when they were working with Abby. Stephen's silent, but glaring threats added to Ryan's words had guaranteed that Abby was treated both professionally and courteously buy all of the men in his command.
The problem was that like most men, the person that they really should have been talking to about all of this, they weren't. However, as random get-togethers between the three of them settled into habit, but tighter constraints continued to happen at work, they didn't notice the confusion and unintentional hurt that they were causing the one person that they were trying to look out for.
Like you're trying to fight gravity
on a planet that insists
that love is like falling
and falling is like this
The night that brought everything to a head was something that neither man had been prepared for or had expected. It had been a wonderful, unrestrained night for the three of them. Abby was making such delicious, hungry sounds while he was moving in and out of her at a pace that she kept urging him to keep up by her squirms and her crying his name as she lifted herself to meet every thrust of his cock. Stephen held her up against his chest and between his legs as he nipped along her neck and ran his hands along her breasts, pausing every moment or so to tweak at a nipple, smiling wolfishly as she moaned, pressing into his hands and chest. All three of them were sweat-slicked and the glazed looks in the eyes of his lovers matched the way that Ryan was feeling.
When he felt Abby falling over that precipice into her orgasm, he lifted her body against his, his hands against her ass, holding her in place as she cried out and her entire body shuddered. He loved it when she was that unrestrained and he held her securely against him, moaning himself at the way that she felt around his cock as she came.
"That's it," he said as Stephen moved against her back, trapping her between them as her body shook and twitched against them both. "That's our girl. That's our beautiful girl."
Later, when the three of them were drifting off into a sated sleep, Abby's soft murmur broke the silence.
"Am I?" She asked.
"Are you what?" Stephen asked for them both, his voice thick with asleep as he snuggled against Abby and therefore Ryan.
"Your girl?"
"We're shagging you, so I guess you are.” Ryan’s hand reached down to find Abby’s hand so that he could drape her arm around him.
Even as he drifted into sleep, Ryan was hit by the feeling that he had missed something important and that his answer to Abby's question had not been quite the right way to express the things he and Stephen had talked about feeling for her.
Just like he knew that something was wrong when he turned over in the middle of the night to find that his pillow was wet in patches and that Abby was nowhere in the flat.
She had never left them in the middle of the night before.
Feels like reckless driving when we're talking
It's fun while it lasts, and it's faster than walking
But no one's going to sympathize when we crash
They'll say "you hit what you head for, you get what you ask"
and we'll say we didn't know, we didn't even try
one minute there was road beneath us, the next just sky
She wouldn't speak to them a few days later and after one searching glance, she wouldn't even look at them. There was something different about her, something about the way that she held herself perfectly straight in her posture when they were getting briefed by Cutter on the newest creature that had been sighted coming through an anomaly. When one of the men said that they needed a volunteer to act as bait to lead the creature away from where it was, Ryan felt his blood freeze when Abby volunteered to do it.
"No," Stephen burst out, for once not being stoic and quiet as everyone was used to him being. "You can't."
It was only because Stephen was his lover and that he knew how to read him that he could see the fear that had led to his outburst. Fear of something happening to Abby.
"I can't?" Even in a whisper, the two men could feel the coldness coming through her voice and they weren't sure what to do about it. "Why can't I?"
"Aren't you tired of being used as bait," Ryan tried and then almost faltered when she turned a cold and angry gaze on him. "I mean, it wasn't very long ago that you were bait for someone with a parasite taking them over that wanted to make you one of them."
"At least he was just acting as a normal creature would act when he tried to hurt me," Abby said evenly. “He didn’t know any better.” She seemed to be waiting for something from them and when she didn’t get it, she shrugged her shoulders slightly before turning and walking away with Cutter and one of the other men.
"Tom," Stephen whispered when he came closer. "Do something."
"I can't," Ryan responded and the pain that he felt with that caused him to shake his head and turn his own worried gaze to his lover. "This is her job, what we all do, and if I try to undermine it and play favorites, you know what could happen. Hell, it could open her up to all kinds of teasing and harassment by the others."
"Your men wouldn't dare harass her," Stephen said through clenched teeth.
"My men? No, they wouldn't. But the people you all work with? The new men that come in to be trained? They might."
"Damn it," Stephen seethed beside him. "There has to be something we can do to stop this."
"There isn't," Ryan said bleakly. "The only thing we can do right now is keep alert and make sure that she's as safe as we can make her." He looked at Stephen. "You work in the same proximity to danger that she does. You don't think I hate it when it's you out there?"
"But this is Abby and we almost lost her once."
"I know and we'll do our best to make sure that we don't come that close again. After all, what's it going to do, grab her and fly off with her?" At Stephen's look Ryan groaned. "Don't let the damn thing get close enough to grab her. Shoot it if you have to."
"Abby isn't going to like it if we shoot one of the creatures."
"When it comes to her safety, I don't really give a damn what Abby likes."
For the first time since this had all began, Abby turned them down flat when they asked her back to their place after the danger and excitement of the day was over.
Ryan watched her walk away from them with her back stiff and was once again hit with the feeling that he was missing something incredibly important -- something that Abby was trying to tell them.
Something that they had both failed her in.
The next day at work, they couldn't get a moment alone with Abby to talk to her. On top of the sudden reappearance of bloody Helen Cutter and her information about a future predator that had been created and found it’s way back to their own time, it seemed that something had decided that Abby was needed by everyone all at once. With everything that was going on and the fact that everyone was balancing on the edge of tempers as Lester tried to figure out what should be done, there wasn't even one chance they could get to talk to her and make sure she was all right.
Oh, she looked all right, Ryan had to admit. She looked as amazing as always, but there was something different in her eyes that he didn't think he had seen before. There was a dullness in there now. Something had hurt her and dimmed the spark that he had gotten used to seeing in her eyes.
And he couldn't even do anything to fix her pain because she wouldn't talk to him or apparently to Stephen.
He learned that information when he cornered his lover in the armoury, needing to do something to deal with the restlessness that had been building up in him all day.
He locked the door, pulling Stephen against him and kissing him fiercely. There was nothing gentle about his actions or Stephen's reactions. They were both acting on adrenaline and restlessness and the feeling that there was something wrong that they couldn't figure out.
After the quickest blow job he was sure either one of them had ever engaged in with each other, Ryan found himself sliding down the wall to sit with Stephen, both of them trying to get their breathing under control.
"Someone has hurt her," Stephen said, a trace of anger in his voice as he leaned his head against Ryan. "She's holding herself so stiff that I'm afraid she's going to break if she moves too quickly."
"I can see that," Ryan acknowledged. "But I haven't been able to get close enough to talk to her. So, I haven't been able to ask her what happened."
"She won't talk to me, either," Stephen sighed. "If I could get a moment alone with her, I'd ask her back to the flat so that we could talk to her and then we could take care of her."
"I just don't understand why she wouldn't come to us is someone has hurt her. She knows that we care about her and that we would do anything for her." Ryan's voice was full of tension. "Would she have talked to Cutter or Connor?"
Stephen shook his head. "If she has, Cutter would never tell me unless he thought that Abby was in serious trouble. He takes confidentiality to his friends very seriously. If Abby told him what was causing her pain, he'll keep it a secret. If it puts her in danger, then he'll confide in me. As for Connor..." Stephen sighed. "I don't think Connor likes me much, so I know he won't confide in me about anything where Abby is concerned."
"I'll talk to Claudia and see if she knows anything," Ryan promised.
The problem was that when Ryan found Claudia, she had news that he didn't like.
"What the hell do you mean she went through an anomaly with Helen Cutter of all bloody people?"
I'm sorry I can't help you, I cannot keep you safe
I'm sorry I can't help myself, so don't look at me that way
we can't fight gravity on a planet that insists
that love is like falling
and falling is like this.
Author: not_from_stars
Fandom: Primeval
Rating: R.
Word Count: 2,007 without the song lyrics.
Character(s): Ryan/Abby/Stephen
Challenge: The song!fic challenge at primeval_vsx
Author's Note: AU. This is a sequel/follow-up of sorts to the story Aftermath that was written by morrigans_eve. She gave me permission to continue on from her story. Yes, this does end on a bit of a cliffhanger, but that's because the next part I was writing attached itself to another bloody song.
Song: Falling Is Like This - Ani DiFranco
You give me that look that's like laughing
with liquid in your mouth
like you're choosing between choking
and spitting it all out
They didn't quite remember when what they all thought was a onetime occurrence changed into something more.
It was a gradual change, that much Ryan knew, and he started inviting Abby over to spend nights with them just as often as Stephen did. It was both exciting and comforting having her there with them. And sometimes, the mental image of the pretty little blonde held between the two of them would become so overpowering that Ryan would have to find a place to get himself put back to rights again.
He and Stephen talked about it sometimes when they were in bed alone. Talked about how much they loved it when she was staying at their place and how it seemed right that they were all three together at times. They talked about how much she meant to them and how excited they each got when they watched her with one of them. Then the images of her held in place between them while they were both inside her body would lead to them turning to each other with an almost primal frenzy that only came about on rare occasions.
Of course, the fact that he and Stephen kept all of these thoughts and desires between themselves caused confusion and sometimes irritation when one of his men looked at Abby in a way that Ryan didn't like; or touched her more than Stephen was happy with them doing. It was bad enough that they had to keep their hands off of her and their interest banked while they were at work; they weren't going to let anyone else touch her.
It made working at sites both interesting and tense for them and those around them. He made sure that none of his men stepped even the slightest bit out of line when they were working with Abby. Stephen's silent, but glaring threats added to Ryan's words had guaranteed that Abby was treated both professionally and courteously buy all of the men in his command.
The problem was that like most men, the person that they really should have been talking to about all of this, they weren't. However, as random get-togethers between the three of them settled into habit, but tighter constraints continued to happen at work, they didn't notice the confusion and unintentional hurt that they were causing the one person that they were trying to look out for.
Like you're trying to fight gravity
on a planet that insists
that love is like falling
and falling is like this
The night that brought everything to a head was something that neither man had been prepared for or had expected. It had been a wonderful, unrestrained night for the three of them. Abby was making such delicious, hungry sounds while he was moving in and out of her at a pace that she kept urging him to keep up by her squirms and her crying his name as she lifted herself to meet every thrust of his cock. Stephen held her up against his chest and between his legs as he nipped along her neck and ran his hands along her breasts, pausing every moment or so to tweak at a nipple, smiling wolfishly as she moaned, pressing into his hands and chest. All three of them were sweat-slicked and the glazed looks in the eyes of his lovers matched the way that Ryan was feeling.
When he felt Abby falling over that precipice into her orgasm, he lifted her body against his, his hands against her ass, holding her in place as she cried out and her entire body shuddered. He loved it when she was that unrestrained and he held her securely against him, moaning himself at the way that she felt around his cock as she came.
"That's it," he said as Stephen moved against her back, trapping her between them as her body shook and twitched against them both. "That's our girl. That's our beautiful girl."
Later, when the three of them were drifting off into a sated sleep, Abby's soft murmur broke the silence.
"Am I?" She asked.
"Are you what?" Stephen asked for them both, his voice thick with asleep as he snuggled against Abby and therefore Ryan.
"Your girl?"
"We're shagging you, so I guess you are.” Ryan’s hand reached down to find Abby’s hand so that he could drape her arm around him.
Even as he drifted into sleep, Ryan was hit by the feeling that he had missed something important and that his answer to Abby's question had not been quite the right way to express the things he and Stephen had talked about feeling for her.
Just like he knew that something was wrong when he turned over in the middle of the night to find that his pillow was wet in patches and that Abby was nowhere in the flat.
She had never left them in the middle of the night before.
Feels like reckless driving when we're talking
It's fun while it lasts, and it's faster than walking
But no one's going to sympathize when we crash
They'll say "you hit what you head for, you get what you ask"
and we'll say we didn't know, we didn't even try
one minute there was road beneath us, the next just sky
She wouldn't speak to them a few days later and after one searching glance, she wouldn't even look at them. There was something different about her, something about the way that she held herself perfectly straight in her posture when they were getting briefed by Cutter on the newest creature that had been sighted coming through an anomaly. When one of the men said that they needed a volunteer to act as bait to lead the creature away from where it was, Ryan felt his blood freeze when Abby volunteered to do it.
"No," Stephen burst out, for once not being stoic and quiet as everyone was used to him being. "You can't."
It was only because Stephen was his lover and that he knew how to read him that he could see the fear that had led to his outburst. Fear of something happening to Abby.
"I can't?" Even in a whisper, the two men could feel the coldness coming through her voice and they weren't sure what to do about it. "Why can't I?"
"Aren't you tired of being used as bait," Ryan tried and then almost faltered when she turned a cold and angry gaze on him. "I mean, it wasn't very long ago that you were bait for someone with a parasite taking them over that wanted to make you one of them."
"At least he was just acting as a normal creature would act when he tried to hurt me," Abby said evenly. “He didn’t know any better.” She seemed to be waiting for something from them and when she didn’t get it, she shrugged her shoulders slightly before turning and walking away with Cutter and one of the other men.
"Tom," Stephen whispered when he came closer. "Do something."
"I can't," Ryan responded and the pain that he felt with that caused him to shake his head and turn his own worried gaze to his lover. "This is her job, what we all do, and if I try to undermine it and play favorites, you know what could happen. Hell, it could open her up to all kinds of teasing and harassment by the others."
"Your men wouldn't dare harass her," Stephen said through clenched teeth.
"My men? No, they wouldn't. But the people you all work with? The new men that come in to be trained? They might."
"Damn it," Stephen seethed beside him. "There has to be something we can do to stop this."
"There isn't," Ryan said bleakly. "The only thing we can do right now is keep alert and make sure that she's as safe as we can make her." He looked at Stephen. "You work in the same proximity to danger that she does. You don't think I hate it when it's you out there?"
"But this is Abby and we almost lost her once."
"I know and we'll do our best to make sure that we don't come that close again. After all, what's it going to do, grab her and fly off with her?" At Stephen's look Ryan groaned. "Don't let the damn thing get close enough to grab her. Shoot it if you have to."
"Abby isn't going to like it if we shoot one of the creatures."
"When it comes to her safety, I don't really give a damn what Abby likes."
For the first time since this had all began, Abby turned them down flat when they asked her back to their place after the danger and excitement of the day was over.
Ryan watched her walk away from them with her back stiff and was once again hit with the feeling that he was missing something incredibly important -- something that Abby was trying to tell them.
Something that they had both failed her in.
The next day at work, they couldn't get a moment alone with Abby to talk to her. On top of the sudden reappearance of bloody Helen Cutter and her information about a future predator that had been created and found it’s way back to their own time, it seemed that something had decided that Abby was needed by everyone all at once. With everything that was going on and the fact that everyone was balancing on the edge of tempers as Lester tried to figure out what should be done, there wasn't even one chance they could get to talk to her and make sure she was all right.
Oh, she looked all right, Ryan had to admit. She looked as amazing as always, but there was something different in her eyes that he didn't think he had seen before. There was a dullness in there now. Something had hurt her and dimmed the spark that he had gotten used to seeing in her eyes.
And he couldn't even do anything to fix her pain because she wouldn't talk to him or apparently to Stephen.
He learned that information when he cornered his lover in the armoury, needing to do something to deal with the restlessness that had been building up in him all day.
He locked the door, pulling Stephen against him and kissing him fiercely. There was nothing gentle about his actions or Stephen's reactions. They were both acting on adrenaline and restlessness and the feeling that there was something wrong that they couldn't figure out.
After the quickest blow job he was sure either one of them had ever engaged in with each other, Ryan found himself sliding down the wall to sit with Stephen, both of them trying to get their breathing under control.
"Someone has hurt her," Stephen said, a trace of anger in his voice as he leaned his head against Ryan. "She's holding herself so stiff that I'm afraid she's going to break if she moves too quickly."
"I can see that," Ryan acknowledged. "But I haven't been able to get close enough to talk to her. So, I haven't been able to ask her what happened."
"She won't talk to me, either," Stephen sighed. "If I could get a moment alone with her, I'd ask her back to the flat so that we could talk to her and then we could take care of her."
"I just don't understand why she wouldn't come to us is someone has hurt her. She knows that we care about her and that we would do anything for her." Ryan's voice was full of tension. "Would she have talked to Cutter or Connor?"
Stephen shook his head. "If she has, Cutter would never tell me unless he thought that Abby was in serious trouble. He takes confidentiality to his friends very seriously. If Abby told him what was causing her pain, he'll keep it a secret. If it puts her in danger, then he'll confide in me. As for Connor..." Stephen sighed. "I don't think Connor likes me much, so I know he won't confide in me about anything where Abby is concerned."
"I'll talk to Claudia and see if she knows anything," Ryan promised.
The problem was that when Ryan found Claudia, she had news that he didn't like.
"What the hell do you mean she went through an anomaly with Helen Cutter of all bloody people?"
I'm sorry I can't help you, I cannot keep you safe
I'm sorry I can't help myself, so don't look at me that way
we can't fight gravity on a planet that insists
that love is like falling
and falling is like this.