Fic - Changes - Nick (will become Nick/Stephen) - G
Title: Changes
Author:
verito295
Rating: G
Pairing/Characters: gen (for now, eventually Stephen/Nick)
Warnings: Angst
Author’s Note: As I was watching Season 2 I realized that they never show none of the guys at the university and if we take into account the fact that a) Abby said they left the Home Office *ages* before and b) Nick has its own office at the ARC I thought that they probably have been working with the anomalies longer than they did in Season 1. That made me think that maybe Nick doesn’t work for the university anymore in this timeline.
Spoilers: General Season 2
Summary: Nick has its own office in the ARC, but what happened to his old one at the university?
Disclaimer: Don’t own them, if I did they would be chained in my basement :D
Nick looks around the tidy room, so completely different from the office he remembers and yet still his. He was shocked when he had seen the locker with his name on it, the jacket inside looked exactly like the one he had worn the previous morning in his own timeline but the office... the office had been much worse.
Connor had shown it to him the after their encounter with the worms and Nick had been glad to have a space of his own to hide in, every thing was still too raw and difficult. Claudia’s disappearance, Stephen’s betrayal, the infinity of ‘what ifs’ that kept coming to him every time he thought about his own timeline, the world he knew.
He knows Stephen was right, no matter how long he travels through the anomalies there is no certainty he would be able to fix things without creating an even worse mess so he has to learn to live in this new world. A world where his office is made of metal and flat screens, where Claudia is not Claudia, and where Stephen still looks at him like he’s waiting for the other shoe to drop.
He doesn’t like to go home, the place is mostly the same as he remembers but he finds the difference in the small details even more unsettling. The blanket on the back of the sofa is one he distinctly remember Stephen ruined by spilling coffee all over it one night while they were discussing grant applications but here it is still pristine. His favourite mug is gone and so are some of the boxes with Helen’s stuff in the attic, but that probably has a much more common explanation than timeline differences.
He sits in the swivel chair behind his desk, the desk that didn't exist a couple of weeks ago and tries to bring up the memory of his old office in the university. The mess of papers that only he and Stephen could find anything in, the smell of the books and the dozens of fossils in their glass cabinets, the large mahogany desk Helen had insisted he should request as symbol of his status. He can see it all.
It is all gone. Connor, bless him, put together a list of all important things Nick should know about this time line; from the name of the Prime Minister, which has not changed, to his phone number, which has. It’s a pretty long list and Nick reads it every few days still to make sure he remembers things right.
Number 18 reads: ‘You left the job at the university two years ago, (2006, just in case) when we started to work full time with the anomalies.’
Just a couple of lines, but they are enough to wipe out a chapter of his life that he never thought he’d close voluntarily. A few lines and everything he thought of as his life’s work for years is gone, has been gone for months.
He feels lost, marooned in a time that is not his, surrounded by people that look familiar and feel familiar but who at the same time aren't the people he remembers. He misses the easy understanding and friendship with Stephen, he misses Claudia’s voice and the way she could stand up to Lester and cover their asses, he even misses the tiny desk he and Stephen shared at the Home Office when they had a report to write. But more than anything he misses the knowledge that no matter what happened as they stepped through another anomaly, no matter what new trick Helen was going to pull out of her sleeve, no matter what happened, he would always have the refuge of the university, his books, his students, his life’s work.
The End (only for now)
Feedback is always loved and saved up in a pretty box that I open when the muses refuse to talk to me :)
Author:
verito295
Rating: G
Pairing/Characters: gen (for now, eventually Stephen/Nick)
Warnings: Angst
Author’s Note: As I was watching Season 2 I realized that they never show none of the guys at the university and if we take into account the fact that a) Abby said they left the Home Office *ages* before and b) Nick has its own office at the ARC I thought that they probably have been working with the anomalies longer than they did in Season 1. That made me think that maybe Nick doesn’t work for the university anymore in this timeline.
Spoilers: General Season 2
Summary: Nick has its own office in the ARC, but what happened to his old one at the university?
Disclaimer: Don’t own them, if I did they would be chained in my basement :D
Nick looks around the tidy room, so completely different from the office he remembers and yet still his. He was shocked when he had seen the locker with his name on it, the jacket inside looked exactly like the one he had worn the previous morning in his own timeline but the office... the office had been much worse.
Connor had shown it to him the after their encounter with the worms and Nick had been glad to have a space of his own to hide in, every thing was still too raw and difficult. Claudia’s disappearance, Stephen’s betrayal, the infinity of ‘what ifs’ that kept coming to him every time he thought about his own timeline, the world he knew.
He knows Stephen was right, no matter how long he travels through the anomalies there is no certainty he would be able to fix things without creating an even worse mess so he has to learn to live in this new world. A world where his office is made of metal and flat screens, where Claudia is not Claudia, and where Stephen still looks at him like he’s waiting for the other shoe to drop.
He doesn’t like to go home, the place is mostly the same as he remembers but he finds the difference in the small details even more unsettling. The blanket on the back of the sofa is one he distinctly remember Stephen ruined by spilling coffee all over it one night while they were discussing grant applications but here it is still pristine. His favourite mug is gone and so are some of the boxes with Helen’s stuff in the attic, but that probably has a much more common explanation than timeline differences.
He sits in the swivel chair behind his desk, the desk that didn't exist a couple of weeks ago and tries to bring up the memory of his old office in the university. The mess of papers that only he and Stephen could find anything in, the smell of the books and the dozens of fossils in their glass cabinets, the large mahogany desk Helen had insisted he should request as symbol of his status. He can see it all.
It is all gone. Connor, bless him, put together a list of all important things Nick should know about this time line; from the name of the Prime Minister, which has not changed, to his phone number, which has. It’s a pretty long list and Nick reads it every few days still to make sure he remembers things right.
Number 18 reads: ‘You left the job at the university two years ago, (2006, just in case) when we started to work full time with the anomalies.’
Just a couple of lines, but they are enough to wipe out a chapter of his life that he never thought he’d close voluntarily. A few lines and everything he thought of as his life’s work for years is gone, has been gone for months.
He feels lost, marooned in a time that is not his, surrounded by people that look familiar and feel familiar but who at the same time aren't the people he remembers. He misses the easy understanding and friendship with Stephen, he misses Claudia’s voice and the way she could stand up to Lester and cover their asses, he even misses the tiny desk he and Stephen shared at the Home Office when they had a report to write. But more than anything he misses the knowledge that no matter what happened as they stepped through another anomaly, no matter what new trick Helen was going to pull out of her sleeve, no matter what happened, he would always have the refuge of the university, his books, his students, his life’s work.
The End (only for now)
Feedback is always loved and saved up in a pretty box that I open when the muses refuse to talk to me :)