Primeval Fic: In Name Only: What Didn't Happen
Title: In Name Only: What didn't happen
Author: SCWLC
Disclaimer: I don't own anything herein and no one's paying me to do it.
Rating: PG
Summary: Children change almost everything.
AN: This is one of the things that I wanted to do, but didn't, because I couldn't take the story the way I wanted if I used it. So, here's something that could have happened but didn't in, In Name Only.
***************************
Connor had come to pretty much love Caitlyn Rose Temple, formerly Imogen Winifred Clarke, as much as if she'd been his daughter all along. It didn't ease his panic when he discovered that having turned his back on her for all of five seconds at the zoo, she'd vanished from his side inside the reptile house.
The loss of his daughter sent him, unsurprisingly, into a blind panic. After all, he had all the usual parental worries, kidnap, injury, climbing into the enclosures and getting herself killed by an angry something-or-other, but he also had to worry about Clarke's goons having found them and taken her away too. "Lynn?" he called. No answer, just the sound of other zoo patrons and squawking birds. "Lynn!" he called louder. Still nothing, and he knew he was panicking, but who the hell lost their kids? "Lynn! If this is joke, it's not funny!" he called.
"Are you alright?" asked an older woman with a boy of about Lynn's age in tow.
"No," Connor said, running a hand through his hair. "I turned around for a second, and now my daughter's missing."
Her face immediately became sympathetic. "What does she look like?"
"About six years old," Connor told her, "Dark brunette, like me, and she was wearing a pale purple fedora, light blue t-shirt, purple waistcoat and jeans."
A teenager with two inches of plaid boxer shorts showing above the waist of his deliberately too-short skinny jeans, said, "I think I saw her, going that way. Towards the snakes." He pointed at the sign.
"Snakes," Connor muttered. "Right." Snakes were Lynn's thing. She loved snakes even more than dinosaurs. "Thanks," he said, hastening towards the snake part of the reptile house. Much to his relief, he saw Lynn immediately on entering the separate area. "Lynn! Don't you ever do that to me again!"
"Dad!" she exclaimed, flinging herself at him, then ignoring the fact that she'd nearly given him heart failure by disappearing. "This is Abby. She works with the lizards at the zoo."
"Lynn," he snapped, a little more harshly than he'd intended, "You ran off. Do you have any idea how scared I was? What if you'd been hurt? Kidnapped?"
"I wasn't," she declared. "So, why're you yelling?"
"Because something really awful could have happened," Connor told her severely. "You have to be careful. Just because nothing happened this time doesn't mean it couldn't next time."
It seemed the fact that he was inches from a nervous breakdown made an impression on her, because she sighed and said, "Okay. I'm sorry. I won't do it again."
"Good," Connor told her.
Then Lynn perked right up again. "Abby was telling me all about the snakes."
Finally done with trying to impress on Lynn that she shouldn't run off he looked up. 'Abby' was gorgeous. Bleach blonde with her hair in a punky pixie cut, blue eyes, just the right size to fit right next to him if he tried holding her . . . he shook himself out of it. "Thanks for watching Lynn for me."
"It's not a problem," she told him cheerfully. "We've been arguing about which is better, snakes or lizards."
Giddy with relief, he turned a pout at Lynn. "Not dinosaurs?"
Lynn shot him a sceptical glare. "That doesn't count. That's like saying birds're better than reptiles or something. They're a totally different order. Or phylum. Or whatever."
"You just like snakes better even though you know dinosaurs are cooler," Connor told her.
Abby spoke then, "I think she's right. You're trying to compare a larger overarching taxonomic group to a much smaller family or phylum and you know it."
"I see how it is. Ganging up on me," Connor grumbled with a smile.
Abby was just coming off her shift, and stuck around to show them around the reptiles more. She really did specialise in lizards, and Connor was happy enough to talk comparative anatomy and behaviour with her, while Lynn, bored with the grownup talk, would stare fixedly at the snake of the moment, willing them to move.
When it was time to go, he didn't want to. He blurted out, "Could I have your number?"
She paused, looked at him thoughtfully, then at Lynn, who said, "Grandmum says he needs to find a girlfriend."
Through the humiliation, he noticed Abby looked even more gorgeous when she was laughing, and felt his heart flop about in his chest when she scribbled down a number on a little pad in her pocket. "Here," she said. "Give me a call and we can hang around some time arguing about whether or not lizards are better than dinosaurs again."
And they did, and Abby started coming to help Lynn get ready for ballet recitals, babysitting from time to time and by the time Lynn was seven and Connor was studying for his doctorate under Professor Cutter, they were properly dating.
The day he'd found the newspaper article about the monster in the Forest of Dean, he was so excited, he forgot their date that evening until after he'd managed to talk Professor Cutter into going. Luckily for him, Abby was also busy that day, it turned out, some sort of animal pick-up she had to do.
Connor had been gawping at the giant anapsid when he heard Cutter ask the person there who they were. "Abby Maitland."
"Abby?"
"Conn? Well, if this is why you skipped out on our date, I can't blame you," she said, easing over to him.
He snorted. "Like you weren't more interested in the draco volans than going out to dinner anyhow."
"It's not a draco volans," she said. "Whatever Rex is, he vocalises." She shot a scolding look at Cutter. "What did I say about staying in his field of vision?"
"Abby's the best animal behaviourist at the Wellington Zoo," Connor said proudly. Stephen's muttering that she was out of Connor's league just made her being his girlfriend even better.
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Author: SCWLC
Disclaimer: I don't own anything herein and no one's paying me to do it.
Rating: PG
Summary: Children change almost everything.
AN: This is one of the things that I wanted to do, but didn't, because I couldn't take the story the way I wanted if I used it. So, here's something that could have happened but didn't in, In Name Only.
***************************
Connor had come to pretty much love Caitlyn Rose Temple, formerly Imogen Winifred Clarke, as much as if she'd been his daughter all along. It didn't ease his panic when he discovered that having turned his back on her for all of five seconds at the zoo, she'd vanished from his side inside the reptile house.
The loss of his daughter sent him, unsurprisingly, into a blind panic. After all, he had all the usual parental worries, kidnap, injury, climbing into the enclosures and getting herself killed by an angry something-or-other, but he also had to worry about Clarke's goons having found them and taken her away too. "Lynn?" he called. No answer, just the sound of other zoo patrons and squawking birds. "Lynn!" he called louder. Still nothing, and he knew he was panicking, but who the hell lost their kids? "Lynn! If this is joke, it's not funny!" he called.
"Are you alright?" asked an older woman with a boy of about Lynn's age in tow.
"No," Connor said, running a hand through his hair. "I turned around for a second, and now my daughter's missing."
Her face immediately became sympathetic. "What does she look like?"
"About six years old," Connor told her, "Dark brunette, like me, and she was wearing a pale purple fedora, light blue t-shirt, purple waistcoat and jeans."
A teenager with two inches of plaid boxer shorts showing above the waist of his deliberately too-short skinny jeans, said, "I think I saw her, going that way. Towards the snakes." He pointed at the sign.
"Snakes," Connor muttered. "Right." Snakes were Lynn's thing. She loved snakes even more than dinosaurs. "Thanks," he said, hastening towards the snake part of the reptile house. Much to his relief, he saw Lynn immediately on entering the separate area. "Lynn! Don't you ever do that to me again!"
"Dad!" she exclaimed, flinging herself at him, then ignoring the fact that she'd nearly given him heart failure by disappearing. "This is Abby. She works with the lizards at the zoo."
"Lynn," he snapped, a little more harshly than he'd intended, "You ran off. Do you have any idea how scared I was? What if you'd been hurt? Kidnapped?"
"I wasn't," she declared. "So, why're you yelling?"
"Because something really awful could have happened," Connor told her severely. "You have to be careful. Just because nothing happened this time doesn't mean it couldn't next time."
It seemed the fact that he was inches from a nervous breakdown made an impression on her, because she sighed and said, "Okay. I'm sorry. I won't do it again."
"Good," Connor told her.
Then Lynn perked right up again. "Abby was telling me all about the snakes."
Finally done with trying to impress on Lynn that she shouldn't run off he looked up. 'Abby' was gorgeous. Bleach blonde with her hair in a punky pixie cut, blue eyes, just the right size to fit right next to him if he tried holding her . . . he shook himself out of it. "Thanks for watching Lynn for me."
"It's not a problem," she told him cheerfully. "We've been arguing about which is better, snakes or lizards."
Giddy with relief, he turned a pout at Lynn. "Not dinosaurs?"
Lynn shot him a sceptical glare. "That doesn't count. That's like saying birds're better than reptiles or something. They're a totally different order. Or phylum. Or whatever."
"You just like snakes better even though you know dinosaurs are cooler," Connor told her.
Abby spoke then, "I think she's right. You're trying to compare a larger overarching taxonomic group to a much smaller family or phylum and you know it."
"I see how it is. Ganging up on me," Connor grumbled with a smile.
Abby was just coming off her shift, and stuck around to show them around the reptiles more. She really did specialise in lizards, and Connor was happy enough to talk comparative anatomy and behaviour with her, while Lynn, bored with the grownup talk, would stare fixedly at the snake of the moment, willing them to move.
When it was time to go, he didn't want to. He blurted out, "Could I have your number?"
She paused, looked at him thoughtfully, then at Lynn, who said, "Grandmum says he needs to find a girlfriend."
Through the humiliation, he noticed Abby looked even more gorgeous when she was laughing, and felt his heart flop about in his chest when she scribbled down a number on a little pad in her pocket. "Here," she said. "Give me a call and we can hang around some time arguing about whether or not lizards are better than dinosaurs again."
And they did, and Abby started coming to help Lynn get ready for ballet recitals, babysitting from time to time and by the time Lynn was seven and Connor was studying for his doctorate under Professor Cutter, they were properly dating.
The day he'd found the newspaper article about the monster in the Forest of Dean, he was so excited, he forgot their date that evening until after he'd managed to talk Professor Cutter into going. Luckily for him, Abby was also busy that day, it turned out, some sort of animal pick-up she had to do.
Connor had been gawping at the giant anapsid when he heard Cutter ask the person there who they were. "Abby Maitland."
"Abby?"
"Conn? Well, if this is why you skipped out on our date, I can't blame you," she said, easing over to him.
He snorted. "Like you weren't more interested in the draco volans than going out to dinner anyhow."
"It's not a draco volans," she said. "Whatever Rex is, he vocalises." She shot a scolding look at Cutter. "What did I say about staying in his field of vision?"
"Abby's the best animal behaviourist at the Wellington Zoo," Connor said proudly. Stephen's muttering that she was out of Connor's league just made her being his girlfriend even better.
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