Fic: Schrödinger’s Bat: Chapter 4
Chapter 4 - “I don’t delegate responsibility. I delegate blame”
Connor had to admit, he had a sneaking admiration for Lester’s ability to look that disgusted and sneering all the time. You had to give it to the man - he was consistent and he gave good bitch face.
He had managed to keep his best ‘I am just tolerating you’ one on throughout the explanation.
Connor was quietly impressed. After all, the man had driven up to the old army base they were staying at merely to check on how things were going only to be confronted with a witch, a Slayer and her Watcher, two nerds and a vampire, all from a parallel universe AND to be told that the dinosaur sighted earlier was in fact a demon from another dimension in the same parallel universe.
And that, by the way, the anomaly they'd come through had closed up behind them and ALL of them; demon, humans, vampire and nerds, were now stuck here for the duration.
And the demon was still loose.
And no-one had any idea where it was or what it could do.
Oh, and they needed to get a pint or two of blood to feed one of their new 'guests'.
But Lester had barely raised an eyebrow - and only did that in the cause of sarcasm when he commented dryly to Spike
“May I ask how it is you're not a little pile of dust? Because, whilst I freely admit Bram Stoker may not be the most reliable source, from my understanding of these things you people don't deal well with sunlight”
Spike had just looked out of one of the windows at the grey, Scottish winter morning light and answered
“If we stay out of the direct path we're ok, and it was shady under the trees; besides - do you honestly call this sunlight? It's barely making me itchy”
Lester had drawled
“True. I believe the Scots believe that sunshine and fair weather would be unpatriotic. I expect the SNP to ban it any day now”
Then he clapped his hands together, flashed a smile so insincere it could have had its own used car dealership and said
“Well, ladies and gentlemen - if we all work together I’m sure that we can have you on your way-” the unspoken ‘and out of mine’ hung there loud and clear “- in practically no time at all. After all, we’ve been doing so well with understanding the anomalies so far, haven’t we Cutter?”
Connor wasn’t positive, but he was pretty sure that was sarcasm.
Lester added, in a sickly sweet tone
“Oh, and if you could see your way to doing something about the rampaging demon you’ve set loose on the countryside that would be just grand”
There may have been a subtle hint of sarcasm there as well.
***
Even though it was barely one o’clock it had been a very, very long day so far and though he usually loved the internet like his own mother (or more than his mother, but don’t tell her that) even Connor was getting tired of research.
They had ended up slitting into two groups, dealing with the problem in a way that best played to their strengths. Or into ‘Geek’ and ‘Grunt’ squads, as Lester put it.
Connor was in the geek squad, of course.
He didn’t really mind not getting to go off with the soldiers on the first sweep, because it was cold outside and he wasn’t quite sure he wanted to be running around after a huge demon, but it would have been nice if he’d at least been considered. And if Lyle hadn’t had an attack of not particularly well muffled giggles when Connor suggested he join them.
Instead he had been put to researching and theorising about the physics of the anomalies while Willow and Andrew were dealing with possible magical elements at another table and Cutter and Giles were discussing demon tracking and capture in the corner.
Buffy, Stephen and, surprisingly, Abby had gone off with Lyle and two squads of the soldiers while Ryan stayed to do some sort of team leaderly conference type thing with Lester until it was time to join them for the second sweep.
Xander had gone off to make disturbingly sexual noises over the Unit's weaponry. Ryan had given him a gun to clean eventually, just to shut him up and he was probably away lubing things up right now.
Spike couldn’t go out with the patrol because of the whole ‘burst-into-flames’ thing, but he had wandered off somewhere ‘to have a kip’ after declaring everything else looked
“Too much like that nasty 'work' thing I keep hearing about. I've decided I'm allergic. Come get me when it’s dark and there's something to kill”
Connor rubbed his dry, itchy eyes and was wondering if allergies like that were catching, or at least if he could claim they were. He looked over at Cutter and Giles who were chatting cosily away in the corner about anomalies and probably commiserating with each other on the difficulties of dealing with their respective teams, then back at Andrew and Willow who were bickering about spells and demons, being openly eavesdropped upon by a fascinated Rob, who was the driver for the second sweep team.
He sighed, and opened another search engine window.
He felt a bit left out.
***
Connor had a nervous tick when he was concentrating hard on something; chewing his lips. Tiny little nibbles at one side of his bottom lip; pulling it through his teeth, and then the other side. Then sucking the top lip in, drawing it out nice and sloow. Bite the bottom one in the middle. Repeat from the start - add in intermittent pen chewage and suckage as necessary, plus (he’d been told) involuntary little ‘mmm’, ‘ah’ and ‘oh’ noises.
He thought he might possibly be orally fixated and had made the mistake of saying as much to Abby once, to her great and ribald amusement.
(Come to think of it, that had been while he was drunk with her in the pub as well - like the comment about spanking and the ‘TMI’ information about how antiseptic spray helped you deep throat. Maybe he should stop going out drinking with Abby.)
But, oral fixation or not, although he knew he did it he was never aware of it at the time, if that made sense. Just realised he'd been doing it afterwards when he noticed his lips were swollen and tender.
So all he knew was that he hadn’t had any insight’s or flashes of genius into the anomaly problem, and that he was getting very tired and sort of hungry when something that wasn’t so much a noise as a change in the texture of the silence made him look up.
He could see Nick and Giles still ensconced in the corner but the others - well, Willow was frowning at something on her laptop but Andrew was looking at him open mouthed with slightly glazed eyes and Rob was obviously watching Connor’s mouth and smiling in a funny way, and standing behind them…
Ryan stood like he’d been frozen and the look on his face… The look on Ryan’s face could only be described as ‘dangerous’.
Then the look wiped away and Ryan’s voice was cool and dry when he spoke
“Rob, Lester’s back off to London now and we should be getting ready to roll in twenty - go ask the professor if there’s anything new we need to know, eh? Take the psychic twins here with you. Temple… a word please.”
Connor scrambled to follow, feeling like a puppy that’s going to get whacked with a rolled up paper. He didn’t know what he’d done to annoy Ryan but there was obviously something; the other man’s back was radiating tension as he strode along the corridors in front of Connor - strode so fast in fact that he rounded the corner at the end well ahead of him and Connor had to scurry to catch up.
Round the corner, and there was no sign of Ryan until an arm snaked out and slammed Connor round and into a wall. Strong, warm hands were there, gripping his head and forcing it to the right angle for Ryan’s mouth to devour his own.
Connor didn’t have a chance.
Normally he was able, and more than willing, to meet Ryan half way but this time he really didn’t have a chance - didn’t have a choice except to let Ryan crash over him and around him like a tidal wave, mouth and teeth hard and desperate and fierce on face and jaw and neck, hands strangely soft and tentative but touching, touching, touching everywhere and Ryan’s voice horse and shaky in his ear
“Connor, Connor… your mouth, your fucking mouth, Con… Oh god damn, Con; want your mouth, need your mouth on me”
Ryan was panting now, and pressing, not-quite-pushing on Connor’s shoulders. Connor still had his back to the wall and Ryan didn’t seem willing to back away and swap their positions, but Jesus, he wanted to put his mouth on Ryan now as well so he just pressed Ryan back with a hard kiss to his mouth and then sank down until he was sitting back on his heels between Ryan’s thighs, gripping the other man’s hips.
Ryan’s combats were strained at the front, and Connor spanned his hands on either hip; pulled the fabric even tighter with his thumbs. He looked up and back at Ryan, who was curved over above him, leaning on his forearms against the wall.
Connor’s mouth seemed to dry up under the heat of Ryan’s eyes and he licked his lips - and then had to catch his breath at Ryan’s desperate sounding moan. He dropped his eyes in self defense before the sight of Ryan’s flushed face ended this before he’d even started and leaned forward to rest his mouth against the softly outlined bulge.
He just breathed for a moment; in and out, damp musk both calming and exciting, before Ryan actually whined and tilted his hips forward and Connor took one second to grin at his impatience before he quickly wrestled open Ryan’s belt and fly, freed the hard, already leaking cock from its confines and wrapped his lips round it.
God, but he loved doing this! Loved the taste and feel of a cock in his mouth more than he’d have thought possible a few months ago. Loved the way he almost felt choked when he went down deep, and the noises that Ryan made when he did.
Ryan was always so in charge and professional, so larger than life it often made Connor feel weak next to him but here, doing this, looking up at Ryan and seeing the other man gasp at the sight of Connor’s lips round him, to see the look in his eyes as he put out an unsteady hand to feel his cock moving in Connor’s mouth…
Even though he was the one on his knees, this made Connor feel powerful.
* * *
He still had the taste of Ryan in his mouth as he leaned shakily against the wall and watched the other man wipe his hand clean after jerking Connor off (which had taken an embarrassingly short time to do). He licked his lips unconsciously and saw a last flare of heat in Ryan’s eyes as he watched him do it, but all his lover said was
“Come on. I’d better get going”
Connor pushed himself upright and followed Ryan back down the hall - and then blushed bright red as they turned the corner and he saw Rob leaning in the doorway of the conference room with an odd look on his face.
Oh god! He and Ryan hadn’t exactly been keeping the noise down just then - he hoped Rob hadn’t heard them. Connor didn’t think that any of the squad was homophobic but he didn’t want to risk it. (Actually, he thought that a statistically anomalous number of them were gay or bi. It must be all that having to share body heat during cold-weather maneuvers - or they were putting something in the water in Hereford)
But Rob only gave him a half smile before saying to Ryan
“Ready to rock ‘n roll, sir. Prof ‘n t’others ’r wantin’ to come with”
Hey! If everyone else was getting to go along…
Connor summoned everything he’d ever learned from watching his mum’s Labrador and turned the saddest puppy eyes he could manage on Ryan. The man may have been Special Forces but the only person Connor had ever met able to resist them was Abby.
…Aaand, right on queue Ryan sighed and said
“Fine. We’ll all go along”
Rob grinned.
“Road trip fer everyone then. I’ll let ‘em know”
Connor beamed and followed Rob with a bounce in his step. He thought he heard Ryan add in a mutter ‘…trip to the circus more like…’ but he ignored it.
A proper Scooby Gang hunt!
This was going to be so cool!
Connor had to admit, he had a sneaking admiration for Lester’s ability to look that disgusted and sneering all the time. You had to give it to the man - he was consistent and he gave good bitch face.
He had managed to keep his best ‘I am just tolerating you’ one on throughout the explanation.
Connor was quietly impressed. After all, the man had driven up to the old army base they were staying at merely to check on how things were going only to be confronted with a witch, a Slayer and her Watcher, two nerds and a vampire, all from a parallel universe AND to be told that the dinosaur sighted earlier was in fact a demon from another dimension in the same parallel universe.
And that, by the way, the anomaly they'd come through had closed up behind them and ALL of them; demon, humans, vampire and nerds, were now stuck here for the duration.
And the demon was still loose.
And no-one had any idea where it was or what it could do.
Oh, and they needed to get a pint or two of blood to feed one of their new 'guests'.
But Lester had barely raised an eyebrow - and only did that in the cause of sarcasm when he commented dryly to Spike
“May I ask how it is you're not a little pile of dust? Because, whilst I freely admit Bram Stoker may not be the most reliable source, from my understanding of these things you people don't deal well with sunlight”
Spike had just looked out of one of the windows at the grey, Scottish winter morning light and answered
“If we stay out of the direct path we're ok, and it was shady under the trees; besides - do you honestly call this sunlight? It's barely making me itchy”
Lester had drawled
“True. I believe the Scots believe that sunshine and fair weather would be unpatriotic. I expect the SNP to ban it any day now”
Then he clapped his hands together, flashed a smile so insincere it could have had its own used car dealership and said
“Well, ladies and gentlemen - if we all work together I’m sure that we can have you on your way-” the unspoken ‘and out of mine’ hung there loud and clear “- in practically no time at all. After all, we’ve been doing so well with understanding the anomalies so far, haven’t we Cutter?”
Connor wasn’t positive, but he was pretty sure that was sarcasm.
Lester added, in a sickly sweet tone
“Oh, and if you could see your way to doing something about the rampaging demon you’ve set loose on the countryside that would be just grand”
There may have been a subtle hint of sarcasm there as well.
***
Even though it was barely one o’clock it had been a very, very long day so far and though he usually loved the internet like his own mother (or more than his mother, but don’t tell her that) even Connor was getting tired of research.
They had ended up slitting into two groups, dealing with the problem in a way that best played to their strengths. Or into ‘Geek’ and ‘Grunt’ squads, as Lester put it.
Connor was in the geek squad, of course.
He didn’t really mind not getting to go off with the soldiers on the first sweep, because it was cold outside and he wasn’t quite sure he wanted to be running around after a huge demon, but it would have been nice if he’d at least been considered. And if Lyle hadn’t had an attack of not particularly well muffled giggles when Connor suggested he join them.
Instead he had been put to researching and theorising about the physics of the anomalies while Willow and Andrew were dealing with possible magical elements at another table and Cutter and Giles were discussing demon tracking and capture in the corner.
Buffy, Stephen and, surprisingly, Abby had gone off with Lyle and two squads of the soldiers while Ryan stayed to do some sort of team leaderly conference type thing with Lester until it was time to join them for the second sweep.
Xander had gone off to make disturbingly sexual noises over the Unit's weaponry. Ryan had given him a gun to clean eventually, just to shut him up and he was probably away lubing things up right now.
Spike couldn’t go out with the patrol because of the whole ‘burst-into-flames’ thing, but he had wandered off somewhere ‘to have a kip’ after declaring everything else looked
“Too much like that nasty 'work' thing I keep hearing about. I've decided I'm allergic. Come get me when it’s dark and there's something to kill”
Connor rubbed his dry, itchy eyes and was wondering if allergies like that were catching, or at least if he could claim they were. He looked over at Cutter and Giles who were chatting cosily away in the corner about anomalies and probably commiserating with each other on the difficulties of dealing with their respective teams, then back at Andrew and Willow who were bickering about spells and demons, being openly eavesdropped upon by a fascinated Rob, who was the driver for the second sweep team.
He sighed, and opened another search engine window.
He felt a bit left out.
***
Connor had a nervous tick when he was concentrating hard on something; chewing his lips. Tiny little nibbles at one side of his bottom lip; pulling it through his teeth, and then the other side. Then sucking the top lip in, drawing it out nice and sloow. Bite the bottom one in the middle. Repeat from the start - add in intermittent pen chewage and suckage as necessary, plus (he’d been told) involuntary little ‘mmm’, ‘ah’ and ‘oh’ noises.
He thought he might possibly be orally fixated and had made the mistake of saying as much to Abby once, to her great and ribald amusement.
(Come to think of it, that had been while he was drunk with her in the pub as well - like the comment about spanking and the ‘TMI’ information about how antiseptic spray helped you deep throat. Maybe he should stop going out drinking with Abby.)
But, oral fixation or not, although he knew he did it he was never aware of it at the time, if that made sense. Just realised he'd been doing it afterwards when he noticed his lips were swollen and tender.
So all he knew was that he hadn’t had any insight’s or flashes of genius into the anomaly problem, and that he was getting very tired and sort of hungry when something that wasn’t so much a noise as a change in the texture of the silence made him look up.
He could see Nick and Giles still ensconced in the corner but the others - well, Willow was frowning at something on her laptop but Andrew was looking at him open mouthed with slightly glazed eyes and Rob was obviously watching Connor’s mouth and smiling in a funny way, and standing behind them…
Ryan stood like he’d been frozen and the look on his face… The look on Ryan’s face could only be described as ‘dangerous’.
Then the look wiped away and Ryan’s voice was cool and dry when he spoke
“Rob, Lester’s back off to London now and we should be getting ready to roll in twenty - go ask the professor if there’s anything new we need to know, eh? Take the psychic twins here with you. Temple… a word please.”
Connor scrambled to follow, feeling like a puppy that’s going to get whacked with a rolled up paper. He didn’t know what he’d done to annoy Ryan but there was obviously something; the other man’s back was radiating tension as he strode along the corridors in front of Connor - strode so fast in fact that he rounded the corner at the end well ahead of him and Connor had to scurry to catch up.
Round the corner, and there was no sign of Ryan until an arm snaked out and slammed Connor round and into a wall. Strong, warm hands were there, gripping his head and forcing it to the right angle for Ryan’s mouth to devour his own.
Connor didn’t have a chance.
Normally he was able, and more than willing, to meet Ryan half way but this time he really didn’t have a chance - didn’t have a choice except to let Ryan crash over him and around him like a tidal wave, mouth and teeth hard and desperate and fierce on face and jaw and neck, hands strangely soft and tentative but touching, touching, touching everywhere and Ryan’s voice horse and shaky in his ear
“Connor, Connor… your mouth, your fucking mouth, Con… Oh god damn, Con; want your mouth, need your mouth on me”
Ryan was panting now, and pressing, not-quite-pushing on Connor’s shoulders. Connor still had his back to the wall and Ryan didn’t seem willing to back away and swap their positions, but Jesus, he wanted to put his mouth on Ryan now as well so he just pressed Ryan back with a hard kiss to his mouth and then sank down until he was sitting back on his heels between Ryan’s thighs, gripping the other man’s hips.
Ryan’s combats were strained at the front, and Connor spanned his hands on either hip; pulled the fabric even tighter with his thumbs. He looked up and back at Ryan, who was curved over above him, leaning on his forearms against the wall.
Connor’s mouth seemed to dry up under the heat of Ryan’s eyes and he licked his lips - and then had to catch his breath at Ryan’s desperate sounding moan. He dropped his eyes in self defense before the sight of Ryan’s flushed face ended this before he’d even started and leaned forward to rest his mouth against the softly outlined bulge.
He just breathed for a moment; in and out, damp musk both calming and exciting, before Ryan actually whined and tilted his hips forward and Connor took one second to grin at his impatience before he quickly wrestled open Ryan’s belt and fly, freed the hard, already leaking cock from its confines and wrapped his lips round it.
God, but he loved doing this! Loved the taste and feel of a cock in his mouth more than he’d have thought possible a few months ago. Loved the way he almost felt choked when he went down deep, and the noises that Ryan made when he did.
Ryan was always so in charge and professional, so larger than life it often made Connor feel weak next to him but here, doing this, looking up at Ryan and seeing the other man gasp at the sight of Connor’s lips round him, to see the look in his eyes as he put out an unsteady hand to feel his cock moving in Connor’s mouth…
Even though he was the one on his knees, this made Connor feel powerful.
* * *
He still had the taste of Ryan in his mouth as he leaned shakily against the wall and watched the other man wipe his hand clean after jerking Connor off (which had taken an embarrassingly short time to do). He licked his lips unconsciously and saw a last flare of heat in Ryan’s eyes as he watched him do it, but all his lover said was
“Come on. I’d better get going”
Connor pushed himself upright and followed Ryan back down the hall - and then blushed bright red as they turned the corner and he saw Rob leaning in the doorway of the conference room with an odd look on his face.
Oh god! He and Ryan hadn’t exactly been keeping the noise down just then - he hoped Rob hadn’t heard them. Connor didn’t think that any of the squad was homophobic but he didn’t want to risk it. (Actually, he thought that a statistically anomalous number of them were gay or bi. It must be all that having to share body heat during cold-weather maneuvers - or they were putting something in the water in Hereford)
But Rob only gave him a half smile before saying to Ryan
“Ready to rock ‘n roll, sir. Prof ‘n t’others ’r wantin’ to come with”
Hey! If everyone else was getting to go along…
Connor summoned everything he’d ever learned from watching his mum’s Labrador and turned the saddest puppy eyes he could manage on Ryan. The man may have been Special Forces but the only person Connor had ever met able to resist them was Abby.
…Aaand, right on queue Ryan sighed and said
“Fine. We’ll all go along”
Rob grinned.
“Road trip fer everyone then. I’ll let ‘em know”
Connor beamed and followed Rob with a bounce in his step. He thought he heard Ryan add in a mutter ‘…trip to the circus more like…’ but he ignored it.
A proper Scooby Gang hunt!
This was going to be so cool!