What Once Was Lost 3/3
Title: What Once Was Lost 3/3
Author: not_from_stars // Artist: weaselett
Fandom: Primeval
Pairing(s): Taylor Craig/Becker, Abby Maitland/Stephen Hart, Jenny Lewis/Nick Cutter, Sarah Page/Connor Temple
Rating: PG-13
Challenge: For au_bigbang 2010
Warning: Spoilers for S2 and S3 and character deaths.
Word Count: 23,230
Summary: When Taylor Craig was 11 years old, two very amazing men saved her life from a place that she didn't understand. Sixteen years later, she presented herself to the head of the ARC, James Lester, only be told that both men had died shortly after their rescue of her. After doing some investigations through anomalies on her own, Taylor comes to realize that the world changed in too many ways since then and all of what was wrong would need to be rectified -- but she was also positive that only her two heroes could help them with that. So with her own determination and drive -- and the wordless support of Lester -- Taylor sets on a course to change time and bring the men back to where they belong.
Author's Notes: I want to say thank you to my awesome beta readers, havocthecat and enochiansigils and my very awesome artist, weaselett. Thank you so much, guys!
Chapter 1 || Chapter 2
Danny and Abby were correct in that Taylor had stashed her laptop at Becker's house. They walked into the house and after searching the house, Becker found the laptop beneath the mattress of his bed. Connor raised an eyebrow when he saw Becker retrieve it.
"I thought you were just pretending to be together." Because Connor still hadn't really learned tact in all of these years.
Becker ran a hand over the laptop. "It wasn't pretend for me. I never pretended. What I feel for her was real." He frowned. "Is real," he corrected himself. He was refusing to even consider that they might not get to Taylor in time to stop anything from happening to her.
Becker took the laptop downstairs to the living room and handed it to Cutter. "They were right. It was upstairs."
"Uh, guys," Sarah called as she came into the living room. "It looks like Taylor left us something else." She held up the artifact.
"What the hell is that?" Stephen asked.
"It’s an artifact from the future," Connor said quietly. "It's one of the things that Helen killed Cutter over."
"Did you ever figure out exactly what it does?" Cutter asked.
"A little bit," Sarah said. "It mimicked that model you were building. But Taylor was able to find patterns to either trace to unopened anomalies or to open her own." Silence filled the room and the ramifications of that information settled onto all of them.
"She must have left it here for Cutter to use after she --" Abby swallowed, shaking her head. "She wouldn't have wanted to let Helen get her hands on it."
Sarah came over to them and handed the artifact to Cutter. When she walked away, Stephen looked at him for a long moment before speaking.
"Do you think you can figure out the coordinates that Taylor used and get her back?" His voice was low.
"I think I'd better because if Helen kills her, not only will something happen to this time line, but I think Becker really will kill Lester." Stephen snorted, not sure that this was a bad thing. "It would also allow Helen to then try to take us out again."
Stephen growled a little as he watched Abby, Sarah and Jenny talking. "I wouldn't allow someone to do that her all over again. I can face death, but I can't face losing that face again." He looked back at Cutter. “I won’t accept someone putting that look back in her eyes that I saw when I first came here.”
Cutter nodded. "We need to find Taylor..."
"...and stop Helen," Stephen said quietly. "We have to stop her once and for all. We can't allow her to keep threatening this world like she is. We can't risk their lives because of her." He met Cutter's eyes. "I'm not losing Abby because of that bitch, Cutter. I’m not letting her kill or hurt anyone else. It has to stop. We have to stop it."
"Then we're agreed on what has to happen next," Cutter said with determination, relieved that Stephen was agreeing with him on this.
He had lost Claudia and then lost Jenny because of Helen. He wasn't going to lose Jenny again. He wasn't going to allow anyone here to lose any one they loved again.
"Helen!"
Helen Cutter turned in surprise, and then smirked at the woman who had appeared to confront her. "Oh, well, looks like Cutter's little student has more guts than brains." She shook her head. “Somehow, I’m not really surprised.”
"It ends now, Helen. You're not going to hurt anyone else with your schemes and your insanity. You're not going to kill anyone else just because you think that your way is the right way to make life happen or not happen. It's not your right to try to change evolution."
"But it's perfectly fine for you to mess with realities and bring dead people back to life to a future time?"
"They weren't supposed to die like they did and not when they did. Your murders of them caused fractures in the time line! You messed with things beyond your control and changed things that were not meant to be fooled with." Taylor shook her head. "All I did was clean up your messes."
"I was trying to create a better future. I’m trying to create a future where we weren't destroying everything on this entire beautiful planet. Humanity is a disease. A disease that I intend to put an end to."
"NO!" Taylor yelled at her, losing her hold on the temper she had fought so hard to control through all of this. "You are not hurting anyone else. Don't you get it? You're insane! You started out as this brilliant scientist that discovered that there was something so wonderful out there. Instead of respecting it and studying it and learning all about it like a true scientist, you became power hungry. You wanted to control the anomalies so that you could control what would happen with each world you went to. You didn't become a better scientist, Helen. You became nothing but a murderer!"
"And what do you think you're going to do about it little girl?" Helen asked, turning to walk towards her.
Taylor lifted the handgun she had brought through the anomaly with her and aimed it at Helen. "Kill you before you can kill anyone else."
"Do you really think that your heroes will take kindly to you killing me? I mean, I'm sure that even they would draw the line at cold-blooded murder." Helen's voice was full of disdain. "Kill me, and you lose them and their respect."
Taylor's hand shook slightly at that. Helen was scraping at her confidence and her belief in where she had been fitting in with the teams.
"And do you think Captain Becker will want a murderer for a girlfriend?” Helen continued. “It could destroy his career if he were to stay with you after finding out you killed someone."”
"Someone who had already killed! Someone who will continue to keep killing people if she isn't stop--!"
Whatever Taylor was going to say ended up being finished in a scream as the knife flew from Helen's hand and impaled itself deep into her chest. She knew it had missed her heart or else she would have been dead already. However, she did have enough training to know that the knife had quite possibly punctured her lung. When she went down, she could feel that it was starting to get harder to draw air and she could taste blood in her mouth. She watched as Helen came closer to her, and her fear was starting to build. She hadn't been afraid for herself when she got here, but now she found that she was very afraid.
"You're such a brave and stupid girl, little Taylor Craig." Helen said leaning over her with another knife. "Now the only thing to do is decide if I'm going to put you out of your misery, or if I'm going to leave you for the predators out here to find." She smiled. "If you tell me how you did it, I'll make your death quick and easy. Tell me how you managed to bring them back, Taylor."
Taylor tried to breathe and she ended up coughing a spray of blood right into Helen's face.
"HELEN!"
Both women were surprised to hear that voice out here.
"Cutter," Taylor whispered, coughing up blood again.
Helen straightened from her crouch, but she still kept her knife ready to go down into Taylor and kill her.
"Back away from her Helen," Cutter advised. "You can't get away with murder this time."
"What are you going to do, Nick, shoot me?"
"Why not? You shot me. Tit for tat, as they say."
"But you're not like that Nick, you never have been." She looked around. "I know Stephen wouldn't hurt me. He can't say no to me about anything."
"I'm saying no, now, Helen. You're not going to hurt Taylor any further. You’re not going to hurt anyone else ever again."
"She's already dying," Helen said with her trademark smirk of satisfaction. "Punctured a lung, might have nicked her heart. She's slowly suffocating on her own blood you know."
"Cutter, I know that she's your wife --"
"Ex." Both Cutter and Stephen were quick to say.
"But I will shoot her if she doesn't back away from Taylor." Becker's voice was cold and firm and there was no hesitation in his words. "I won't miss, and I have Danny to back me up here. We will kill her if she doesn't get away from Taylor."
Cutter looked at Stephen who nodded, and then looked back at the woman that had caused them and so many other people such pain. "Helen, back away from Taylor and drop your knife. We won't be able to stop Becker if you try to hurt the woman he loves anymore."
"The woman he loves? That was all a ruse to keep guards around her all of the time. They were never lovers."
"You're wrong about that," Becker said, his voice tight with emotion. "I love Taylor. I've always loved her and if you hurt her any further, I will not hesitate to kill you. Not shoot, kill. No one here will stop me."
Helen laughed at him and her free knife came down over Taylor. A gunshot rang out, and then several more shots as other guns were fired. The final shot came from Becker and Helen Cutter finally went down.
"Cover me," Becker shouted as he ran down the sandy slope to get to Taylor. God, there was so much blood and she was so pale.
He heard others around him, checking to make sure that Helen really was dead as he focused on Taylor.
"Taylor love," he whispered. "Come on; open your eyes for me. Come on."
“Becker,” She heard his voice and coughed up another spout of blood as she said his name. "You came for me. Why?"
He didn't bother to hide the hint of tears in his eyes. "You little idiot. Of course I came after you. I love you."
"Don't have to pretend now, Becker. The wicked witch of the anomalies is dead."
Becker tore off some of her shirt to see how bad the knife wound was and then used what was left of the shirt to put pressure on the wound to slow the flow of blood. "I'm not pretending, Taylor Craig. I love you. I have loved you. It has always been real for me, no matter how it started out."
"That's good," she murmured. "I told Abby that I love you, too." Taylor’s voice faded as she closed her eyes.
"Taylor?” She didn’t respond to Becker’s voice. “Taylor, answer me love. Taylor!" He didn't dare shake her in her condition like instincts warred with him to. Instead, he turned his head to where the other men were. "Cutter! Danny! We have got to get her back through the anomaly and to emergency care. Looks like Helen was right and a lung has been punctured. Taylor is unconscious."
"Go! Stephen will go with you. Hurry. Get her to safety and you make sure that they save her. Danny and I need to clean up here." Cutter’s voice was firm, but worried as he gave the orders.
The two men watched Becker and Stephen race up the rocky mountain where the anomaly was waiting with Taylor in Becker’s arms and then turned back to Helen's body.
"Are we taking it back?" Danny questioned with some distaste in his tone.
"Yeah. We have to. It shows that she can't hurt us anymore. Her time is done. It’s time to bury her and the past with her." He looked at Danny. “They’re safe now.”
Danny nodded. "Let's get back then and make sure of that. I don't want Taylor to survive only to see visions that tell her that we should have handled Helen another way."
"Or that Taylor had to kill her herself."
"God. That girl doesn't need any more pressure like that on her." Danny sounded a little like a protective big brother as he said that.
"I couldn't agree more," Cutter said as they got to work on what they needed to do before the anomaly closed.
Danny and Cutter cleaned up the battle sight and then wrapped Helen in a blanket. Once it was secured with ropes and blankets, they headed home to give the news to the rest of the team. They wanted this chapter in the ARC over with as quickly as possible.
After Helen’s body was deposited in the ARC morgue for safe keeping, Danny and Cutter headed to the military hospital where they knew Becker would have insisted on taking Taylor. When they arrived at the emergency room, everyone was standing or seated and their faces all had the same worried expressions. Stephen was standing against the wall holding Abby against him. He was murmuring something to her in a voice so quiet that no one else could hear what he was saying. Connor was sitting on a bench with his arm around Sarah and they both were completely quiet. Both of the men noticed that Becker was nowhere to be found and that couldn’t be good. Danny went to talk to one of the nurses or doctors that were at the emergency desk while Cutter walked over to sit next to Jenny.
He put his arm around her and leaned in to kiss her temple. “Is there any news?”
Jenny sighed and shook her head, leaning against him. “Taylor is in surgery and the doctors haven’t been able to tell us anything yet. There was so much blood all over the place and Becker looked like he was ready to tear everyone in here apart if someone didn’t help her.”
“Where is Becker?”
“I don’t have any idea. I think he may be standing outside the surgery for all that we know. He disappeared through those doors carrying her and we haven’t seen him since.”
Cutter frowned. “After seeing how he reacted to her being missing and then what happened when we got through that anomaly, I can’t really be surprised at his behavior. He really is afraid that he’s going to lose her after everything that they’ve managed to get through.”
“Was it really bad?” Jenny’s voice was quiet.
“She stabbed Taylor before we got there,” Cutter said sadly. “When we arrived, Taylor was on the ground bleeding and Helen was leaning over her with another knife.”
“No matter what she may have said, Cutter, Helen would have killed Taylor if you guys hadn’t gotten there in time.”
“But we didn’t get there in time to protect her, Jenny. If we had just figured out the coordinates sooner, none of us would be sitting in this place right now.”
“Maybe or maybe not. However, you guys got there in time to prevent her from killing her. That’s the most important thing in all of this. You got there in time to keep Helen from killing her, Cutter.”
He let out a breath, pulling her a little closer to him. “We’re not sure of that, yet, Jenny. We won’t know until the doctors tell us that she’s going to pull through this.”
“Even if she doesn’t - and I don’t believe that’s a possibility - you still managed to save the lives of everyone else here. There is no way that Helen wouldn’t have come after everyone connected to you and Stephen after she killed Taylor.”
Cutter tightened his arms around her, not liking the possibility of what she was saying.
“Stephen told us that Helen wasn’t a threat any longer. Is she…”
“She’s dead, yes.”
He couldn’t miss the breath that Jenny let out, nor the way that some of the tension in her shoulders eased. “Did you?”
He shook his head. “No. I didn’t get the chance. She made a move against Taylor and Becker fired first. Becker and Danny took her out before I had to.”
“Could you have made that choice?”
“I made that choice before we even went through.” He reached out to run a hand along her hair. “Stephen and I decided at Becker’s place that we weren’t going to let her hurt anyone else ever again. We weren’t going to let her cause you and Abby even more pain.”
“Stephen didn’t seem affected by her death.”
“We both said goodbye to Helen a very long time ago, Jenny. The woman that we had both loved died many years before today. The person that we had to deal with to save Taylor, that wasn’t the same woman I had married. She was someone that needed to be taken down before she killed anyone else. If Becker or Danny hadn’t been quick enough, Stephen would have fired on her without batting an eye.”
“The two of you look good alive and free.”
“We’re both somewhat attached to being alive,” Cutter laughed softly. He turned her face gently towards his so he could look into her eyes. “Each of us have someone that we’re very attached to and would like to stay alive to be with.”
There was the sheen of tears in Jenny’s eyes. “It doesn’t seem right that I should be this relieved and happy while Taylor is fighting for her life.”
“She’s going to be okay, Jenny. That girl has faced so much and faced so many dangers with dangerous carnivores and explosions while bringing Stephen and I back. Any girl that has done that isn’t going to be taken out by a stab wound from a crazy bitch like Helen.” He smiled at her. “And she would be the first person to tell you that she doesn’t blame you for being happy. She told me and Stephen that you and Abby were two of the bigger reasons that she wanted to go through with her plans.”
“I would still like to hit James for helping her open an anomaly and not telling any of us when he knew that she could get killed there.”
“Oh, I’m sure that in the future you’ll have plenty of reasons and opportunities to hit Lester.”
“They’ve been gone for so long,” Abby fretted. “Why won’t they tell us anything?”
Stephen tightened his arms around her. “She’s in surgery, love. They can’t tell us anything until they know that they’ve been able to repair anything that needs to be repaired. Surgery on a punctured lung can be a tricky process and they have to move carefully and slowly while they’re trying to fix the damage.”
“I should have gone with her. I could have kept Helen from hurting her.”
Stephen didn’t even have words to describe the terror that went through him at her words. “If you had gone with her, Abby, Helen would have killed you and not just wounded you like she did to Taylor. You would have been dead before we would have been able to find you.”
Abby turned her face up to look into his. “You think she really would have killed me?”
Stephen nodded and he wasn’t able to hide the fear on his face at that knowledge as he pulled Abby closer to him. “She would have because of who you are. You’re family to Cutter and I love you. Killing you would have caused a part of me to be killed all over again, Abby. She wouldn’t have hesitated because she would have enjoyed causing us more pain since Taylor had brought us back to where we belong.”
Abby saw the fear in his eyes and she was surprised, because she didn’t think she had ever seen Stephen scared of anything before. “She’s dead, Stephen,” she said soothingly. “She’s dead and she can’t hurt you or me anymore.”
“I honestly don’t think that I could go through having anything like that happening to you, Abby. When Taylor was hurt, all I could think was that I was glad that it wasn’t you and that you were far away from her reach.” He shook his head, looking down into her face. “All I wanted to do was stop her so that I could get back to you and see for myself that you were safe and still alive.”
“And I’m here,” she said gently. “Nothing bad happened to me and when you got back with Becker and Taylor, I was just fine and perfectly safe.” She reached up and put her hands on either side of his face. “We’re safe and she can’t hurt us any longer, Stephen. Either of us.”
Stephen nodded and leaned down to rest his forehead against hers. “I have never been as scared as I was when I started thinking about her getting past us and coming back to the ARC to hurt you, Abby.”
“You don’t have to be scared any longer, Stephen,” she said as she held onto him. “You guys took care of that.”
“No. Becker took care of that. Cutter and I aren’t the ones who stopped her.”
“But you would have done so if you needed to. You guys backed him up and let him do what needed to be done to save the woman he loved.”
It wasn’t hard for Danny to find out where Becker was. The doctor at the nurses’ station in the emergency room had been happy to take him to where his friend was waiting. As Danny walked down the hall after going through the double doors the doctor had escorted him through, he could see Becker standing in front of a door and staring at it. He was almost positive that he had never seen the military man look so tense or so worried. Becker didn’t even turn when Danny came up to him and looked through the small window in the door. He frowned when he realized that that window allowed them to look in on where Taylor was having surgery done on her and he didn’t like the way that scene appeared.
“She’s going to pull through this, Becker,” Danny finally said, turning from the surgery to look at his teammate. “She’s tough and she’s already been through a lot. She’s not going to let this kind of thing stop her.”
“She shouldn’t have to go through this, Danny.” Becker didn’t turn from where he was watching the doctors working on Taylor. “I was supposed to protect her and keep her safe from Helen and I didn’t.”
“You didn’t know that she was going to through an anomaly and go hunting for the bitch, Becker. The last year and change you’ve taken such good care of her. You’ve done everything that you had promised her you would do.”
“I knew she was worried that Helen would show up and hurt someone again. I knew she was worried that she would target Professor Cutter and Stephen again. Her entire focus was on bringing those men back and repairing the time line that she kept seeing fracture in front of her eyes. I knew all of that. I should have known that she would try to do something to protect all of that.”
“You can’t know everything.”
“I should have known this, Danny. I have been working so close to her all of this time and I know how dedicated she is to her science and how determined she is to fix things. I know Taylor better than anyone else on this team. Hell, sometimes I know her better than she knows herself.”
“You had no way of knowing that she would do something so foolhardy.”
This time Becker turned to look at him for a second. “It’s Taylor.”
Danny sighed and nodded his head. “Okay, you have a point. Any person that would come up with a plan to go into a building that was exploding to save someone from a gunshot wound and death wouldn’t hesitate to risk her own life to protect other people she cared about.”
Becker turned back to look into the room where the doctors were working to save her life. “I spent nearly every day with her, Danny. I love her and I know she loves me, so tell me why in the hell she didn’t trust me enough to tell me that she was planning on confronting Helen.”
“Do you honestly believe that she didn’t tell you because she didn’t trust you? Becker, she left her laptop with everything on it and that artifact at your house because she knew they would be safe with you. She trusted you to keep them safe if anything happened to her.”
“Then why? Why couldn’t she have told me? I would have gone with her and helped her!”
“Maybe that’s the reason right there.” When Becker gave him a blank look, Danny shook his head. “She loves you, mate, and she knew that you would follow her right into danger if you knew what she was going to do. You’ve told me how all you have wanted to do was protect her and keep her safe because she means so much to you. Don’t you think maybe that desire goes both ways? It seems to me that the reason she didn’t tell you what she was doing was because she wanted to protect you.”
Becker turned back to look in on Taylor. “She didn’t need to worry about me like that.”
“Need to or not, people in love don’t always act rationally. She wanted to protect you and keep you safe from Helen, too, Becker. Do you remember the way she looked the day her car exploded? You probably didn’t notice the way she kept looking at you after that, but I did. I could see it in her eyes that she kept thinking that it could have been you that was killed in that explosion instead of one of your men. Why? Because she loves you and you were usually the one on guard detail with her.” He sighed. “I don’t think she went after Helen just to protect the professor and Hart. I think she went after the bitch to protect you.” When Becker didn't respond, Danny put his hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. "She cares about those men and about the team, but she loves you. In her mind, trying to protect you is worth any risk that she has to take."
"I was supposed to be the one protecting her, Danny," Becker finally whispered. "I was supposed to keep her safe."
"That's not the way of things when it comes to people in love, Becker. If there is one thing that I have learned it's that relationships are a give and take. You both give and you both benefit from the taking. She's always going to want to protect you as much as you want to protect her. You can't stop her from feeling like that, no matter how much stronger you may be. A wise man wouldn't even try."
Becker sighed. "She has to come through this. I can't lose her now, Danny. I just can't."
The first thing that Taylor became aware of was that her chest hurt something awful. The second thing that she became aware of was that the light behind her closed lids seemed a little too white to be the sun in the desert where she remembered being. She swallowed, realizing that she was really thirsty and tried to open her eyes. However, she immediately shut her eyes as the lights above her were just too bright.
"Becker," she whispered. "Where's Becker?" God, please let him be okay." She felt someone's hand close around hers. "Becker," her voice got a little louder. "Is he okay?"
"Easy lass," she heard someone speaking to her. "Taylor, it's okay, you're going to be all right."
She opened her eyes again and saw Danny's blurry features. She winced at the brightness and the pain and closed her eyes again. "Danny?"
"Someone dim those lights," she heard her friend say. "They're hurting her."
The brightness behind her closed lids went away and this time when she opened her eyes, she was able to keep them open. Everything was shadowy as she let her eyes adjust and then she turned her head to the side. "Danny? Is Becker okay?"
"He's fine, Taylor," Danny assured her, squeezing her hand gently. "He wasn't even scratched. You, on the other hand, gave us all quite a scare. Don't you ever do something so stupid again. That's an order."
"Where..."
"You're in the hospital, Taylor. They had to do surgery to repair the damage from Helen's knife."
"Professor Cutter? Stephen?"
"Still here and still very much alive. They're also not too happy that you almost got yourself killed. They're going to have plenty to say to you when you're recovered."
"Helen?" Why did her throat hurt so much?
"She's gone, sweetheart."
Taylor recognized that voice and when she tried to sit up, she felt gentle hands pushing her back down on the bed. Before she could protest too much, Danny's face was replaced with Becker's.
"You look awful," she said hoarsely. He didn't really. In fact she was pretty sure that he was the best sight she had ever seen. "Haven't you slept at all lately?"
Becker's smile was tired. "Sweetheart, I was a little more concerned with making sure that these doctors were taking good care of my girl. Sleeping wasn't exactly high on my list of concerns."
She tried to reach her hand up to touch his face and was confused by all of the tubes and wires. "Becker? What happened to me?"
She heard the scrape of a chair and then he was sitting in it next to her bed, squeezing her hand between his two. "What happened is that I almost lost you, girl," Becker said quietly, his eyes fastened on hers. "What made you decide to do something so foolhardy as going after Helen by yourself? I would have gone with you."
Taylor nodded, wincing slightly as the movement hurt. "I know you would have and that's why I couldn't tell you." She looked into his eyes. "I realized a long time ago that I had fallen in love with you -- even though I thought you were just pretending." She squeezed his hand, letting him know that she knew that he wasn't pretending. "I had to do this on my own because I was afraid she would come after you."
Becker shook his head. "I was never big enough on her radar to be a target, Taylor. You and Cutter and Stephen were her targets. You were the biggest threat to her."
"But you were always with me, always protecting me," she said softly. "The day my car exploded and your man was killed, all I could think was that it could have so easily been you. I decided that I couldn't take that chance. Next time she came after me, you could be hurt and I needed to make sure that you guys were safe from her no matter what happened to me."
Becker sighed and rested his head on their joined hands. "Taylor, when I realized that you were gone and that you had probably went after Helen by yourself, I was scared. I was so scared."
"But you never get scared."
"That's not exactly true, love," he said, lifting his head so he could look into her eyes again. "I was scared when I realized that there was a chance I could lose you. All I could think about was that you could be hurt and I had never told you how I felt about you. When Cutter and Sarah finally deciphered the coordinates and figured out where you had gone, I didn't think that anyone was moving fast enough to get to you. I was ready to leave them behind."
Taylor's eyes widened. "They all came with you?"
"Cutter, Stephen and Danny came with me," he said quietly. "You had to be saved and she had to be stopped."
"Is she..."
Taylor's question was interrupted by the nurse that came in to put a syringe of something into her IV. Becker was sure that it was pain medicine as Danny had gone to talk to the doctors to tell them that Taylor was in pain. He waited until they were alone again before he looked back at Taylor.
"She's dead," he said firmly. "I warned her that I would shoot her if she tried to hurt you again. She didn't listen and she gave me no choice. It was her or you and I chose you." Becker decided that he wasn't going to tell her right now that the four of them had decided before they arrived that Helen was too dangerous to live. "She had already stabbed you once by the time we got there, and she was leaning over you with a knife. I was angry and I was worried that we were too late. I told her to back away from you and she didn't. When she tried to stab you again, I fired."
"Safe," she said softly. "All of you are finally safe."
"You're safe," Becker corrected her. "You were and always have been the one I was the most worried about."
"I love you," she murmured.
"I know you do, sweetheart, and I love you."
"I feel so weak. I'm so tired."
"You've been through a lot, love. Your body needs rest so that you can heal."
"I don't want --"
"Sssh," he said softly, leaning up to kiss her forehead. "You need rest, Taylor. Don't fight the medicine the nurse gave you. I promise, I'll be right here when you wake up."
When Taylor was sleeping soundly, Becker leaned back in his chair. He never let go of her hand as he watched her face. He hadn't lied to her when he told her how scared he had been when she was missing. In fact, he doubted he was going to relax completely until she was healed and back at home where she belonged.
Taylor Craig had spent the last two years taking care of everyone around her and causing miracles to happen. Becker was planning on several years of taking care of her, now. As far as plans went, it wasn't a bad one and he was positive that it would be a good change for her. It was a future that he was looking forward to.
~Fini
Link to fan art and fan mix created by weaselett for this story. Go and see it. She was so awesome and encouraging during this project!
Author: not_from_stars // Artist: weaselett
Fandom: Primeval
Pairing(s): Taylor Craig/Becker, Abby Maitland/Stephen Hart, Jenny Lewis/Nick Cutter, Sarah Page/Connor Temple
Rating: PG-13
Challenge: For au_bigbang 2010
Warning: Spoilers for S2 and S3 and character deaths.
Word Count: 23,230
Summary: When Taylor Craig was 11 years old, two very amazing men saved her life from a place that she didn't understand. Sixteen years later, she presented herself to the head of the ARC, James Lester, only be told that both men had died shortly after their rescue of her. After doing some investigations through anomalies on her own, Taylor comes to realize that the world changed in too many ways since then and all of what was wrong would need to be rectified -- but she was also positive that only her two heroes could help them with that. So with her own determination and drive -- and the wordless support of Lester -- Taylor sets on a course to change time and bring the men back to where they belong.
Author's Notes: I want to say thank you to my awesome beta readers, havocthecat and enochiansigils and my very awesome artist, weaselett. Thank you so much, guys!
Chapter 1 || Chapter 2
Danny and Abby were correct in that Taylor had stashed her laptop at Becker's house. They walked into the house and after searching the house, Becker found the laptop beneath the mattress of his bed. Connor raised an eyebrow when he saw Becker retrieve it.
"I thought you were just pretending to be together." Because Connor still hadn't really learned tact in all of these years.
Becker ran a hand over the laptop. "It wasn't pretend for me. I never pretended. What I feel for her was real." He frowned. "Is real," he corrected himself. He was refusing to even consider that they might not get to Taylor in time to stop anything from happening to her.
Becker took the laptop downstairs to the living room and handed it to Cutter. "They were right. It was upstairs."
"Uh, guys," Sarah called as she came into the living room. "It looks like Taylor left us something else." She held up the artifact.
"What the hell is that?" Stephen asked.
"It’s an artifact from the future," Connor said quietly. "It's one of the things that Helen killed Cutter over."
"Did you ever figure out exactly what it does?" Cutter asked.
"A little bit," Sarah said. "It mimicked that model you were building. But Taylor was able to find patterns to either trace to unopened anomalies or to open her own." Silence filled the room and the ramifications of that information settled onto all of them.
"She must have left it here for Cutter to use after she --" Abby swallowed, shaking her head. "She wouldn't have wanted to let Helen get her hands on it."
Sarah came over to them and handed the artifact to Cutter. When she walked away, Stephen looked at him for a long moment before speaking.
"Do you think you can figure out the coordinates that Taylor used and get her back?" His voice was low.
"I think I'd better because if Helen kills her, not only will something happen to this time line, but I think Becker really will kill Lester." Stephen snorted, not sure that this was a bad thing. "It would also allow Helen to then try to take us out again."
Stephen growled a little as he watched Abby, Sarah and Jenny talking. "I wouldn't allow someone to do that her all over again. I can face death, but I can't face losing that face again." He looked back at Cutter. “I won’t accept someone putting that look back in her eyes that I saw when I first came here.”
Cutter nodded. "We need to find Taylor..."
"...and stop Helen," Stephen said quietly. "We have to stop her once and for all. We can't allow her to keep threatening this world like she is. We can't risk their lives because of her." He met Cutter's eyes. "I'm not losing Abby because of that bitch, Cutter. I’m not letting her kill or hurt anyone else. It has to stop. We have to stop it."
"Then we're agreed on what has to happen next," Cutter said with determination, relieved that Stephen was agreeing with him on this.
He had lost Claudia and then lost Jenny because of Helen. He wasn't going to lose Jenny again. He wasn't going to allow anyone here to lose any one they loved again.
"Helen!"
Helen Cutter turned in surprise, and then smirked at the woman who had appeared to confront her. "Oh, well, looks like Cutter's little student has more guts than brains." She shook her head. “Somehow, I’m not really surprised.”
"It ends now, Helen. You're not going to hurt anyone else with your schemes and your insanity. You're not going to kill anyone else just because you think that your way is the right way to make life happen or not happen. It's not your right to try to change evolution."
"But it's perfectly fine for you to mess with realities and bring dead people back to life to a future time?"
"They weren't supposed to die like they did and not when they did. Your murders of them caused fractures in the time line! You messed with things beyond your control and changed things that were not meant to be fooled with." Taylor shook her head. "All I did was clean up your messes."
"I was trying to create a better future. I’m trying to create a future where we weren't destroying everything on this entire beautiful planet. Humanity is a disease. A disease that I intend to put an end to."
"NO!" Taylor yelled at her, losing her hold on the temper she had fought so hard to control through all of this. "You are not hurting anyone else. Don't you get it? You're insane! You started out as this brilliant scientist that discovered that there was something so wonderful out there. Instead of respecting it and studying it and learning all about it like a true scientist, you became power hungry. You wanted to control the anomalies so that you could control what would happen with each world you went to. You didn't become a better scientist, Helen. You became nothing but a murderer!"
"And what do you think you're going to do about it little girl?" Helen asked, turning to walk towards her.
Taylor lifted the handgun she had brought through the anomaly with her and aimed it at Helen. "Kill you before you can kill anyone else."
"Do you really think that your heroes will take kindly to you killing me? I mean, I'm sure that even they would draw the line at cold-blooded murder." Helen's voice was full of disdain. "Kill me, and you lose them and their respect."
Taylor's hand shook slightly at that. Helen was scraping at her confidence and her belief in where she had been fitting in with the teams.
"And do you think Captain Becker will want a murderer for a girlfriend?” Helen continued. “It could destroy his career if he were to stay with you after finding out you killed someone."”
"Someone who had already killed! Someone who will continue to keep killing people if she isn't stop--!"
Whatever Taylor was going to say ended up being finished in a scream as the knife flew from Helen's hand and impaled itself deep into her chest. She knew it had missed her heart or else she would have been dead already. However, she did have enough training to know that the knife had quite possibly punctured her lung. When she went down, she could feel that it was starting to get harder to draw air and she could taste blood in her mouth. She watched as Helen came closer to her, and her fear was starting to build. She hadn't been afraid for herself when she got here, but now she found that she was very afraid.
"You're such a brave and stupid girl, little Taylor Craig." Helen said leaning over her with another knife. "Now the only thing to do is decide if I'm going to put you out of your misery, or if I'm going to leave you for the predators out here to find." She smiled. "If you tell me how you did it, I'll make your death quick and easy. Tell me how you managed to bring them back, Taylor."
Taylor tried to breathe and she ended up coughing a spray of blood right into Helen's face.
"HELEN!"
Both women were surprised to hear that voice out here.
"Cutter," Taylor whispered, coughing up blood again.
Helen straightened from her crouch, but she still kept her knife ready to go down into Taylor and kill her.
"Back away from her Helen," Cutter advised. "You can't get away with murder this time."
"What are you going to do, Nick, shoot me?"
"Why not? You shot me. Tit for tat, as they say."
"But you're not like that Nick, you never have been." She looked around. "I know Stephen wouldn't hurt me. He can't say no to me about anything."
"I'm saying no, now, Helen. You're not going to hurt Taylor any further. You’re not going to hurt anyone else ever again."
"She's already dying," Helen said with her trademark smirk of satisfaction. "Punctured a lung, might have nicked her heart. She's slowly suffocating on her own blood you know."
"Cutter, I know that she's your wife --"
"Ex." Both Cutter and Stephen were quick to say.
"But I will shoot her if she doesn't back away from Taylor." Becker's voice was cold and firm and there was no hesitation in his words. "I won't miss, and I have Danny to back me up here. We will kill her if she doesn't get away from Taylor."
Cutter looked at Stephen who nodded, and then looked back at the woman that had caused them and so many other people such pain. "Helen, back away from Taylor and drop your knife. We won't be able to stop Becker if you try to hurt the woman he loves anymore."
"The woman he loves? That was all a ruse to keep guards around her all of the time. They were never lovers."
"You're wrong about that," Becker said, his voice tight with emotion. "I love Taylor. I've always loved her and if you hurt her any further, I will not hesitate to kill you. Not shoot, kill. No one here will stop me."
Helen laughed at him and her free knife came down over Taylor. A gunshot rang out, and then several more shots as other guns were fired. The final shot came from Becker and Helen Cutter finally went down.
"Cover me," Becker shouted as he ran down the sandy slope to get to Taylor. God, there was so much blood and she was so pale.
He heard others around him, checking to make sure that Helen really was dead as he focused on Taylor.
"Taylor love," he whispered. "Come on; open your eyes for me. Come on."
“Becker,” She heard his voice and coughed up another spout of blood as she said his name. "You came for me. Why?"
He didn't bother to hide the hint of tears in his eyes. "You little idiot. Of course I came after you. I love you."
"Don't have to pretend now, Becker. The wicked witch of the anomalies is dead."
Becker tore off some of her shirt to see how bad the knife wound was and then used what was left of the shirt to put pressure on the wound to slow the flow of blood. "I'm not pretending, Taylor Craig. I love you. I have loved you. It has always been real for me, no matter how it started out."
"That's good," she murmured. "I told Abby that I love you, too." Taylor’s voice faded as she closed her eyes.
"Taylor?” She didn’t respond to Becker’s voice. “Taylor, answer me love. Taylor!" He didn't dare shake her in her condition like instincts warred with him to. Instead, he turned his head to where the other men were. "Cutter! Danny! We have got to get her back through the anomaly and to emergency care. Looks like Helen was right and a lung has been punctured. Taylor is unconscious."
"Go! Stephen will go with you. Hurry. Get her to safety and you make sure that they save her. Danny and I need to clean up here." Cutter’s voice was firm, but worried as he gave the orders.
The two men watched Becker and Stephen race up the rocky mountain where the anomaly was waiting with Taylor in Becker’s arms and then turned back to Helen's body.
"Are we taking it back?" Danny questioned with some distaste in his tone.
"Yeah. We have to. It shows that she can't hurt us anymore. Her time is done. It’s time to bury her and the past with her." He looked at Danny. “They’re safe now.”
Danny nodded. "Let's get back then and make sure of that. I don't want Taylor to survive only to see visions that tell her that we should have handled Helen another way."
"Or that Taylor had to kill her herself."
"God. That girl doesn't need any more pressure like that on her." Danny sounded a little like a protective big brother as he said that.
"I couldn't agree more," Cutter said as they got to work on what they needed to do before the anomaly closed.
Danny and Cutter cleaned up the battle sight and then wrapped Helen in a blanket. Once it was secured with ropes and blankets, they headed home to give the news to the rest of the team. They wanted this chapter in the ARC over with as quickly as possible.
After Helen’s body was deposited in the ARC morgue for safe keeping, Danny and Cutter headed to the military hospital where they knew Becker would have insisted on taking Taylor. When they arrived at the emergency room, everyone was standing or seated and their faces all had the same worried expressions. Stephen was standing against the wall holding Abby against him. He was murmuring something to her in a voice so quiet that no one else could hear what he was saying. Connor was sitting on a bench with his arm around Sarah and they both were completely quiet. Both of the men noticed that Becker was nowhere to be found and that couldn’t be good. Danny went to talk to one of the nurses or doctors that were at the emergency desk while Cutter walked over to sit next to Jenny.
He put his arm around her and leaned in to kiss her temple. “Is there any news?”
Jenny sighed and shook her head, leaning against him. “Taylor is in surgery and the doctors haven’t been able to tell us anything yet. There was so much blood all over the place and Becker looked like he was ready to tear everyone in here apart if someone didn’t help her.”
“Where is Becker?”
“I don’t have any idea. I think he may be standing outside the surgery for all that we know. He disappeared through those doors carrying her and we haven’t seen him since.”
Cutter frowned. “After seeing how he reacted to her being missing and then what happened when we got through that anomaly, I can’t really be surprised at his behavior. He really is afraid that he’s going to lose her after everything that they’ve managed to get through.”
“Was it really bad?” Jenny’s voice was quiet.
“She stabbed Taylor before we got there,” Cutter said sadly. “When we arrived, Taylor was on the ground bleeding and Helen was leaning over her with another knife.”
“No matter what she may have said, Cutter, Helen would have killed Taylor if you guys hadn’t gotten there in time.”
“But we didn’t get there in time to protect her, Jenny. If we had just figured out the coordinates sooner, none of us would be sitting in this place right now.”
“Maybe or maybe not. However, you guys got there in time to prevent her from killing her. That’s the most important thing in all of this. You got there in time to keep Helen from killing her, Cutter.”
He let out a breath, pulling her a little closer to him. “We’re not sure of that, yet, Jenny. We won’t know until the doctors tell us that she’s going to pull through this.”
“Even if she doesn’t - and I don’t believe that’s a possibility - you still managed to save the lives of everyone else here. There is no way that Helen wouldn’t have come after everyone connected to you and Stephen after she killed Taylor.”
Cutter tightened his arms around her, not liking the possibility of what she was saying.
“Stephen told us that Helen wasn’t a threat any longer. Is she…”
“She’s dead, yes.”
He couldn’t miss the breath that Jenny let out, nor the way that some of the tension in her shoulders eased. “Did you?”
He shook his head. “No. I didn’t get the chance. She made a move against Taylor and Becker fired first. Becker and Danny took her out before I had to.”
“Could you have made that choice?”
“I made that choice before we even went through.” He reached out to run a hand along her hair. “Stephen and I decided at Becker’s place that we weren’t going to let her hurt anyone else ever again. We weren’t going to let her cause you and Abby even more pain.”
“Stephen didn’t seem affected by her death.”
“We both said goodbye to Helen a very long time ago, Jenny. The woman that we had both loved died many years before today. The person that we had to deal with to save Taylor, that wasn’t the same woman I had married. She was someone that needed to be taken down before she killed anyone else. If Becker or Danny hadn’t been quick enough, Stephen would have fired on her without batting an eye.”
“The two of you look good alive and free.”
“We’re both somewhat attached to being alive,” Cutter laughed softly. He turned her face gently towards his so he could look into her eyes. “Each of us have someone that we’re very attached to and would like to stay alive to be with.”
There was the sheen of tears in Jenny’s eyes. “It doesn’t seem right that I should be this relieved and happy while Taylor is fighting for her life.”
“She’s going to be okay, Jenny. That girl has faced so much and faced so many dangers with dangerous carnivores and explosions while bringing Stephen and I back. Any girl that has done that isn’t going to be taken out by a stab wound from a crazy bitch like Helen.” He smiled at her. “And she would be the first person to tell you that she doesn’t blame you for being happy. She told me and Stephen that you and Abby were two of the bigger reasons that she wanted to go through with her plans.”
“I would still like to hit James for helping her open an anomaly and not telling any of us when he knew that she could get killed there.”
“Oh, I’m sure that in the future you’ll have plenty of reasons and opportunities to hit Lester.”
“They’ve been gone for so long,” Abby fretted. “Why won’t they tell us anything?”
Stephen tightened his arms around her. “She’s in surgery, love. They can’t tell us anything until they know that they’ve been able to repair anything that needs to be repaired. Surgery on a punctured lung can be a tricky process and they have to move carefully and slowly while they’re trying to fix the damage.”
“I should have gone with her. I could have kept Helen from hurting her.”
Stephen didn’t even have words to describe the terror that went through him at her words. “If you had gone with her, Abby, Helen would have killed you and not just wounded you like she did to Taylor. You would have been dead before we would have been able to find you.”
Abby turned her face up to look into his. “You think she really would have killed me?”
Stephen nodded and he wasn’t able to hide the fear on his face at that knowledge as he pulled Abby closer to him. “She would have because of who you are. You’re family to Cutter and I love you. Killing you would have caused a part of me to be killed all over again, Abby. She wouldn’t have hesitated because she would have enjoyed causing us more pain since Taylor had brought us back to where we belong.”
Abby saw the fear in his eyes and she was surprised, because she didn’t think she had ever seen Stephen scared of anything before. “She’s dead, Stephen,” she said soothingly. “She’s dead and she can’t hurt you or me anymore.”
“I honestly don’t think that I could go through having anything like that happening to you, Abby. When Taylor was hurt, all I could think was that I was glad that it wasn’t you and that you were far away from her reach.” He shook his head, looking down into her face. “All I wanted to do was stop her so that I could get back to you and see for myself that you were safe and still alive.”
“And I’m here,” she said gently. “Nothing bad happened to me and when you got back with Becker and Taylor, I was just fine and perfectly safe.” She reached up and put her hands on either side of his face. “We’re safe and she can’t hurt us any longer, Stephen. Either of us.”
Stephen nodded and leaned down to rest his forehead against hers. “I have never been as scared as I was when I started thinking about her getting past us and coming back to the ARC to hurt you, Abby.”
“You don’t have to be scared any longer, Stephen,” she said as she held onto him. “You guys took care of that.”
“No. Becker took care of that. Cutter and I aren’t the ones who stopped her.”
“But you would have done so if you needed to. You guys backed him up and let him do what needed to be done to save the woman he loved.”
It wasn’t hard for Danny to find out where Becker was. The doctor at the nurses’ station in the emergency room had been happy to take him to where his friend was waiting. As Danny walked down the hall after going through the double doors the doctor had escorted him through, he could see Becker standing in front of a door and staring at it. He was almost positive that he had never seen the military man look so tense or so worried. Becker didn’t even turn when Danny came up to him and looked through the small window in the door. He frowned when he realized that that window allowed them to look in on where Taylor was having surgery done on her and he didn’t like the way that scene appeared.
“She’s going to pull through this, Becker,” Danny finally said, turning from the surgery to look at his teammate. “She’s tough and she’s already been through a lot. She’s not going to let this kind of thing stop her.”
“She shouldn’t have to go through this, Danny.” Becker didn’t turn from where he was watching the doctors working on Taylor. “I was supposed to protect her and keep her safe from Helen and I didn’t.”
“You didn’t know that she was going to through an anomaly and go hunting for the bitch, Becker. The last year and change you’ve taken such good care of her. You’ve done everything that you had promised her you would do.”
“I knew she was worried that Helen would show up and hurt someone again. I knew she was worried that she would target Professor Cutter and Stephen again. Her entire focus was on bringing those men back and repairing the time line that she kept seeing fracture in front of her eyes. I knew all of that. I should have known that she would try to do something to protect all of that.”
“You can’t know everything.”
“I should have known this, Danny. I have been working so close to her all of this time and I know how dedicated she is to her science and how determined she is to fix things. I know Taylor better than anyone else on this team. Hell, sometimes I know her better than she knows herself.”
“You had no way of knowing that she would do something so foolhardy.”
This time Becker turned to look at him for a second. “It’s Taylor.”
Danny sighed and nodded his head. “Okay, you have a point. Any person that would come up with a plan to go into a building that was exploding to save someone from a gunshot wound and death wouldn’t hesitate to risk her own life to protect other people she cared about.”
Becker turned back to look into the room where the doctors were working to save her life. “I spent nearly every day with her, Danny. I love her and I know she loves me, so tell me why in the hell she didn’t trust me enough to tell me that she was planning on confronting Helen.”
“Do you honestly believe that she didn’t tell you because she didn’t trust you? Becker, she left her laptop with everything on it and that artifact at your house because she knew they would be safe with you. She trusted you to keep them safe if anything happened to her.”
“Then why? Why couldn’t she have told me? I would have gone with her and helped her!”
“Maybe that’s the reason right there.” When Becker gave him a blank look, Danny shook his head. “She loves you, mate, and she knew that you would follow her right into danger if you knew what she was going to do. You’ve told me how all you have wanted to do was protect her and keep her safe because she means so much to you. Don’t you think maybe that desire goes both ways? It seems to me that the reason she didn’t tell you what she was doing was because she wanted to protect you.”
Becker turned back to look in on Taylor. “She didn’t need to worry about me like that.”
“Need to or not, people in love don’t always act rationally. She wanted to protect you and keep you safe from Helen, too, Becker. Do you remember the way she looked the day her car exploded? You probably didn’t notice the way she kept looking at you after that, but I did. I could see it in her eyes that she kept thinking that it could have been you that was killed in that explosion instead of one of your men. Why? Because she loves you and you were usually the one on guard detail with her.” He sighed. “I don’t think she went after Helen just to protect the professor and Hart. I think she went after the bitch to protect you.” When Becker didn't respond, Danny put his hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. "She cares about those men and about the team, but she loves you. In her mind, trying to protect you is worth any risk that she has to take."
"I was supposed to be the one protecting her, Danny," Becker finally whispered. "I was supposed to keep her safe."
"That's not the way of things when it comes to people in love, Becker. If there is one thing that I have learned it's that relationships are a give and take. You both give and you both benefit from the taking. She's always going to want to protect you as much as you want to protect her. You can't stop her from feeling like that, no matter how much stronger you may be. A wise man wouldn't even try."
Becker sighed. "She has to come through this. I can't lose her now, Danny. I just can't."
The first thing that Taylor became aware of was that her chest hurt something awful. The second thing that she became aware of was that the light behind her closed lids seemed a little too white to be the sun in the desert where she remembered being. She swallowed, realizing that she was really thirsty and tried to open her eyes. However, she immediately shut her eyes as the lights above her were just too bright.
"Becker," she whispered. "Where's Becker?" God, please let him be okay." She felt someone's hand close around hers. "Becker," her voice got a little louder. "Is he okay?"
"Easy lass," she heard someone speaking to her. "Taylor, it's okay, you're going to be all right."
She opened her eyes again and saw Danny's blurry features. She winced at the brightness and the pain and closed her eyes again. "Danny?"
"Someone dim those lights," she heard her friend say. "They're hurting her."
The brightness behind her closed lids went away and this time when she opened her eyes, she was able to keep them open. Everything was shadowy as she let her eyes adjust and then she turned her head to the side. "Danny? Is Becker okay?"
"He's fine, Taylor," Danny assured her, squeezing her hand gently. "He wasn't even scratched. You, on the other hand, gave us all quite a scare. Don't you ever do something so stupid again. That's an order."
"Where..."
"You're in the hospital, Taylor. They had to do surgery to repair the damage from Helen's knife."
"Professor Cutter? Stephen?"
"Still here and still very much alive. They're also not too happy that you almost got yourself killed. They're going to have plenty to say to you when you're recovered."
"Helen?" Why did her throat hurt so much?
"She's gone, sweetheart."
Taylor recognized that voice and when she tried to sit up, she felt gentle hands pushing her back down on the bed. Before she could protest too much, Danny's face was replaced with Becker's.
"You look awful," she said hoarsely. He didn't really. In fact she was pretty sure that he was the best sight she had ever seen. "Haven't you slept at all lately?"
Becker's smile was tired. "Sweetheart, I was a little more concerned with making sure that these doctors were taking good care of my girl. Sleeping wasn't exactly high on my list of concerns."
She tried to reach her hand up to touch his face and was confused by all of the tubes and wires. "Becker? What happened to me?"
She heard the scrape of a chair and then he was sitting in it next to her bed, squeezing her hand between his two. "What happened is that I almost lost you, girl," Becker said quietly, his eyes fastened on hers. "What made you decide to do something so foolhardy as going after Helen by yourself? I would have gone with you."
Taylor nodded, wincing slightly as the movement hurt. "I know you would have and that's why I couldn't tell you." She looked into his eyes. "I realized a long time ago that I had fallen in love with you -- even though I thought you were just pretending." She squeezed his hand, letting him know that she knew that he wasn't pretending. "I had to do this on my own because I was afraid she would come after you."
Becker shook his head. "I was never big enough on her radar to be a target, Taylor. You and Cutter and Stephen were her targets. You were the biggest threat to her."
"But you were always with me, always protecting me," she said softly. "The day my car exploded and your man was killed, all I could think was that it could have so easily been you. I decided that I couldn't take that chance. Next time she came after me, you could be hurt and I needed to make sure that you guys were safe from her no matter what happened to me."
Becker sighed and rested his head on their joined hands. "Taylor, when I realized that you were gone and that you had probably went after Helen by yourself, I was scared. I was so scared."
"But you never get scared."
"That's not exactly true, love," he said, lifting his head so he could look into her eyes again. "I was scared when I realized that there was a chance I could lose you. All I could think about was that you could be hurt and I had never told you how I felt about you. When Cutter and Sarah finally deciphered the coordinates and figured out where you had gone, I didn't think that anyone was moving fast enough to get to you. I was ready to leave them behind."
Taylor's eyes widened. "They all came with you?"
"Cutter, Stephen and Danny came with me," he said quietly. "You had to be saved and she had to be stopped."
"Is she..."
Taylor's question was interrupted by the nurse that came in to put a syringe of something into her IV. Becker was sure that it was pain medicine as Danny had gone to talk to the doctors to tell them that Taylor was in pain. He waited until they were alone again before he looked back at Taylor.
"She's dead," he said firmly. "I warned her that I would shoot her if she tried to hurt you again. She didn't listen and she gave me no choice. It was her or you and I chose you." Becker decided that he wasn't going to tell her right now that the four of them had decided before they arrived that Helen was too dangerous to live. "She had already stabbed you once by the time we got there, and she was leaning over you with a knife. I was angry and I was worried that we were too late. I told her to back away from you and she didn't. When she tried to stab you again, I fired."
"Safe," she said softly. "All of you are finally safe."
"You're safe," Becker corrected her. "You were and always have been the one I was the most worried about."
"I love you," she murmured.
"I know you do, sweetheart, and I love you."
"I feel so weak. I'm so tired."
"You've been through a lot, love. Your body needs rest so that you can heal."
"I don't want --"
"Sssh," he said softly, leaning up to kiss her forehead. "You need rest, Taylor. Don't fight the medicine the nurse gave you. I promise, I'll be right here when you wake up."
When Taylor was sleeping soundly, Becker leaned back in his chair. He never let go of her hand as he watched her face. He hadn't lied to her when he told her how scared he had been when she was missing. In fact, he doubted he was going to relax completely until she was healed and back at home where she belonged.
Taylor Craig had spent the last two years taking care of everyone around her and causing miracles to happen. Becker was planning on several years of taking care of her, now. As far as plans went, it wasn't a bad one and he was positive that it would be a good change for her. It was a future that he was looking forward to.
~Fini
Link to fan art and fan mix created by weaselett for this story. Go and see it. She was so awesome and encouraging during this project!