Fic: A New Dawn - 4/11 - The Place I Call Home
Title: A New Dawn - Chapter 4: The Place I Call Home
Fandom: Primeval
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~3100 (total so far: ~10100)
Spoilers: Everything up to the end of series four is fair game. Anything after that is purely coincidental.
Summary: My own take on where Primeval will/should go in series five. Danny and Patrick have a long-overdue brotherly chat. An anomaly leads to a reunion, and Helen is left wondering exactly what's going on in Philip's head.
Notes: I've tried to stay as true to the tone of the show as possible, but there may be a little more angst than the series usually contains. Also, some of the language used is slightly more coarse than in canon, but that's a rare occurrence and not hugely offensive.
Disclaimer: I don't own Primeval, or any of the characters.
As Danny trudged up the last few feet of the hill, he couldn’t help but think it had been far too easy to track Patrick over the last few days. After all, Patrick had had so many chances to give Danny the slip - but he had taken none of them. No running off while Danny slept. Hanging back, walking slowly. It was as if he was taking car not to make the distance between them too great.
At the peak of the hill, Patrick was sitting down, his back to Danny. He was looking at something below.
“I told you,” Patrick said without turning around, “we’re just animals. We’re just apes.”
Danny walked slowly towards Patrick and sat down next to him. At the foot of the hill was a tribe of hominids. They were the same as the ones he had first encountered over a year ago, and the whole scene gave Danny an eerie sense of déjà vu.
“What the hell happened to you, Patrick?” asked Danny after a moment of watching the hominids in a strangely peaceful silence. He kept his voice quiet and soft, as though raising it would rouse some sort of…monster…within his brother.
“You were never there.”
“For the last time Patrick, I tried! Even after ten years, when all logic told me you were dead, I kept looking.”
Patrick shook his head. “I don’t mean that.” His voice was low and steady. “Just always. You were never there for me.”
“What?”
“You never cared about anyone but yourself. And you have the nerve to call me selfish.”
“That’s not true. I always cared about you.”
Patrick’s expression grew even more bitter - something Danny had already written off as impossible. “When I was seven, my dog died. I knew he was sick and I begged you to take him to the vet but you were more concerned about getting it on with Mary-Ann Cooper.”
“That’s what this is all about? Your dog?” Danny ignored the pang of guilt he felt at the memory of his arrogant sixteen year old self.
“When I was nine,” Patrick continued, “and those boys at school were giving me a hard time, I asked you for advice. I didn’t ask Mum or Dad or any of my teachers, I asked you. Do you remember what you said to me?”
For the first time, Patrick turned to look at Danny. Danny looked away. He had pushed it to the back of his mind, to the bottom of a dusty pile of memories that he’d give anything to forget. But hearing Patrick talk about it brought every minute action and every single word flooding back.
“You told me to grow a spine and stop bugging you,” Patrick spat. “When I was thirteen - ”
“Okay, okay, you’ve made your point. I was a horrible brother.”
“I think the saddest part is that even after all that, I still looked up to you.” Danny could have sworn he saw tears in Patrick’s eyes, but Patrick turned away, his gaze returning to the hominids. “I always hoped that one day you’d actually be the big brother you were supposed to be.”
Danny could practically feel his heart being ripped to pieces. He was ashamed to admit it even to himself, but everything Patrick was saying was true. He hadn’t just been a horrible brother to Patrick - he hadn’t been any kind of brother at all.
“I…was jealous,” said Danny. He knew it was a pathetic reason, if it was even worthy of being called a reason.
“Jealous? Of what?”
“You were just better than me. At everything. You got better grades than me. You were better at sports than me. Mum and Dad were always comparing us, and you were always the one that came up smelling of roses.”
“Jealous of what?” repeated Patrick, still not looking at Danny. “All I ever got from Mum and Dad was pressure. Mum was always pushing me towards medical school. Dad was adamant that I’d be an Olympic swimmer. Neither of them ever gave a damn about what I wanted.”
“And what did you want?”
“I wanted to get out of there. So I did.”
“What?”
“The gateway didn’t close straight after I went through. It stayed open for hours. I sat there, staring at it...waiting. I thought about going back through, but I just didn't.”
“Wait, you…you left on purpose? Why?”
Patrick shrugged. “I saw the opportunity to leave, so I took it. I wanted to get away. From you, from Mum and Dad. From school. I’d had enough. I wanted to be on my own. I wanted to see if you’d try to find me.” He paused. “As usual, you didn’t come through for me.”
Danny tried, with great effort, to keep his voice steady. “You’re right. I was selfish. But so were you. Just leaving like that, without thinking about how it would affect Mum and Dad. How it would affect me. That was - ”
“I was happier on my own.”
“Well, I suppose that’s all that matters,” said Danny bitterly. He felt a powerful urge to grab Patrick by the shoulders and shake some sense into him, to try and make him realise that they were both at fault here. “Okay, so you had a crap brother and parents with high expectations. That hardly justifies…murder.” The word was hard to say, and even harder to believe. Patrick - his little brother - was a killer.
Patrick didn’t say anything, his expression still the stony resentment that he had been wearing almost exclusively since they had been reunited. Danny wondered what Patrick was hiding behind that mask - regret? Shame? Was he even capable of feeling any kind of remorse, or was it just all hatred and rage? Without a sound, Patrick stood up and started to walk away.
“Where are you going?” Danny called after him.
Patrick stopped and turned to face Danny. “Anywhere. I don’t know. I just want to be on my own.” His voice was clear and unmistakeable, but unnervingly quiet.
“Sorry, Patrick. But that’s not happening. I’m staying with you.”
“Go home.”
“I can’t, can I? Not until another anomaly opens up.”
Patrick replied only by turning his back and walking away. It was far from an invitation, but it wasn’t an outright rejection of Danny’s company either. Taking that as a good sign - a slight improvement, at least - Danny followed his brother, preparing himself for hours or even days of torturous silence.
+++
The volume of the crowd’s chatter had been her first warning that something was wrong. There had been a lull in the noise, a hushed awe, and then everything had erupted. Now, people were shouting and panicking; some were running away from it and others dared to venture towards it, as far as the policemen would let them.
Only Emily stood still, in the middle of the commotion, a strange concoction of emotions brewing up inside her. That golden light, so bright, so familiar, just shining and…flickering? It had been months since Emily had last seen a gateway, but the unforgettable image was still etched in her mind - and it definitely wasn’t supposed to be flickering.
The ground started shaking, and the panic escalated. Policemen dragged each other protectively away from the light, trying and failing to subdue the crowd. There was a strange rumbling sound, low at first, getting louder and louder. The light kept flickering on and off and on again. The noise was almost deafening.
Something’s coming.
+++
“This might be a difficult one to deal with,” said Connor as Matt skidded the SUV to a halt next to the train track. Matt took in the sight - an anomaly smack bang in the centre of the rails, half a passenger train on each side. 'Difficult to deal with' was definitely an understatement.
"Why is it flickering?" asked Sergeant Willis.
"The electricity from the tracks must be interfering with it," replied Connor.
“Find out where it leads to,” said Matt. “Don't lock it yet; we need to get the rest of that train back."
He surveyed his surroundings for signs of a creature incursion. There didn't seem to be any, but open spaces weren’t the best places to deal with anomalies.
“Matt.”
A creature may have already come through and run off into the wilderness. If that was the case, they’d have to find it and return it. Then again, if a creature /had/ come through, the chassis of the train would surely have been ripped to shreds, and considering it was mostly still in tact -
“Matt.”
How the hell they were going to explain this to the passengers of the train - if they were even still alive - Matt didn’t have a clue. Cover stories in cases like this were unlikely to be accepted, so the most logical course of action would be to break out the Official Secrets Act and hope for the -
“Matt!”
“What is it, Connor?” said Matt, a little more snappily than he had intended. He followed Connor’s gaze towards the anomaly, where there stood two figures, one supporting the other's weight.
“Emily…” Finding that her name caught in his throat, Matt coughed loudly and deliberately. Slowly, he started making his way towards her. As he reached her, he saw a sad smile grace her features.
"It's been far too long," she said, the sorrow in her tone perfectly matching her expression.
Matt frowned slightly. "Barely a week."
Emily's smile faded. She glanced back at the anomaly. "I suppose...time is complicated."
The man leaning on Emily coughed, reminding Matt that they had a situation on their hands right now. Personal reunions would have to wait.
"What happened?" he asked, surprised at how easily he slipped back into professional mode. He signalled for a soldier to come and take the man away.
The split second of silence before Emily answered would probably have been unnoticeable to most, but to Matt it seemed like an eternity.
"The gateway opened, and then the train came charging through. The police won't let anybody near it, but we managed to slip through."
Matt nodded. "How many people on the other side?"
"I counted thirteen, including Carl."
"Carl?"
"The driver." She nodded towards the man she had helped through the anomaly, who was now talking to Abby. "Nobody seems to be too badly hurt."
That's something, at least, thought Matt. "Right," he said, "let's get them back through."
+++
Matt and Emily had shared the task of helping people back through, each fielding questions from the dazed civilians and bewildered Victorian policemen, but never actually speaking a word between themselves. As they helped the twelfth and final passenger back through, they locked eyes for the briefest of moments, and Matt found himself wondering what Emily had meant by 'far too long'. Weeks? Months? She had changed, he could tell, but only subtly. She couldn't have been away for years. She seemed too familiar for that.
Handing the passenger over to Abby, Connor, and the team of medics who had just arrived on the scene, he turned to Emily.
"How long?" he asked.
"Ten months," she replied, not quite meeting his gaze. She glanced at the anomaly. "I can't stay. I have to go back."
"Any tips on getting the train back before you go?"
Emily smiled - a real, genuine smile. "It's not really my area of expertise," she said.
"Matt! Emily!" Connor's shouts seemed distant, but his voice was urgent enough to snap Matt and Emily back to the gravity of reality. Their heads turned in unison to look at Connor. He was standing a few feet away from the anomaly, which was still flickering. "I think it's about to close," he called.
Matt barely had time to process Connor's words before the anomaly flickered for a final time. In a split second, the anomaly was sucked into itself, disappearing, tearing the chassis of the train in half. Matt turned his gaze to Emily, who was still staring at that same spot, the smile gone from her face.
+++
It had been a long day for Abby, more tiring than usual, so she was grateful to get back to Jess' flat and flop down onto the sofa. She sighed, eyes closed, and felt Connor sit down next to her. An uneasy silence settled over them, the same kind of silence that had settled over yesterday's dinner, and then again when she and Connor were lying in bed that night.
Jess muttered something about having errands to run, and Abby opened her eyes as she heard the front door open and then click shut. She turned to look at Connor, who gave her a nervous smile.
"As long as we've got the place to ourselves, we should probably...you know. Talk." He paused. "About the - "
"Yeah," said Abby. She sat up straight. "So...what do you think?"
Connor's smile relaxed. "You know what I think, Abby. The question is, what do you think?" He scooted closer to her and took her hand.
Abby looked down, staring at their interlaced fingers. "I...I've never really thought about having kids," she said honestly. "But...I've been thinking about it. In fact, I've thought about practically nothing else lately. And I want to have a family. With you. Eventually. It's just all happening a bit fast."
"Yeah...it is all quite fast, isn't it? And honestly, the timing could not have been worse. But just imagine how you'll feel nine months down the line, when you hold little Connor Junior for the first time."
Abby felt a small smile creep onto her face at the thought. She had made peace with most of her doubts - sure, working at the ARC was dangerous, but every member of the team knew what they were doing. They were professionals, and that meant safe hands. Besides, if she needed to, she could always take a step back from the front line. Having a career and having a family didn't have to be mutually exclusive.
"Do you think we can do this?" she asked.
Connor smiled again. "Yeah. I really think we can."
Instinctively, Abby placed a hand on her stomach. She smiled.
"Hey, Connor? We're gonna have a baby." She looked him in the eye, almost wanting to laugh at the excited expression he was wearing. There was a twinkle in his eye and a huge grin on his face. "Oh," she added, still smiling as the afterthought occurred to her. "We are not naming it Connor Junior."
+++
Helen clutched the piece of paper in her hand and pushed the front door of the house open. It creaked on its hinges, revealing a dark hallway. She stepped inside and checked the piece of paper again, making sure she had the right address. Burton had seemed like a high-class man. Why would he want to meet in a place like this, with its boarded-up windows and corners filled with dust and cobwebs? More importantly, why did Burton want to meet up with her at all?
At their first meeting, as Burton had ushered Helen out of a back door, he had told her only three things. One, the year was 2011 - twelve years after she had visited the Forest of Dean. Two, she could not, under any circumstances, be seen by anyone else. And three, she was important.
She closed the front door behind her and let go of the scrap of paper. It fluttered to the floor. She made her way through another door - the only one in the hallway that wasn’t completely closed - into what presumably would have been the house’s living room. A man was standing there, his back to the door, staring into the empty fireplace.
“How long have you been travelling through the anomalies, Helen?” said Burton, turning to face her.
Helen didn’t answer straight away. Anomalies. That was what they called them. “Two years,” she said eventually. “How do you know who I am?”
“You’re rather infamous around the ARC,” said Burton simply.
Deciding to ignore the fact that that wasn’t really an answer, Helen continued. “And why did you want to meet me? Here, of all places?”
“We can’t be seen,” replied Burton. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small brown envelope. “Five thousand pounds. Cash. All I ask in return is your full cooperation.”
Helen eyed the envelope. Until she found another anomaly, she was stuck here. She would need money. But Burton wasn’t exactly emanating trustworthiness.
“Cooperation with what?” she asked.
“I just have a few questions that need answering. As, I’m sure, do you.” He paused. “I can tell you about the anomalies. How to find them.”
Helen hesitated. Five thousand pounds alone wouldn’t have been nearly enough to sway her, but five thousand pounds plus the answers she had been searching for for two years? It was tempting, to say the least.
“What questions?” asked Helen eventually.
“Let’s start with how you found out about the ARC.”
“Your team turned up at the site of the anomaly I came through. The one in the abandoned warehouse. I wanted to know how they knew so much, so I followed them back to the...ARC.”
“And that’s why you broke into the ARC, I suppose? To find answers.”
Helen nodded. “Your security leaves a lot to be desired.” She paused. “What did you mean when you said I was important?”
“One man’s future is another man’s past,” said Burton. Before Helen could ask him what he meant by that, he continued. “What did you see in the lab?”
“Drawings. Diagrams. Nothing that made much sense.”
Burton gave a barely perceivable nod. “I can help with that. If you like.”
“But you want something in return,” said Helen, wondering what she could possibly have that would be useful to Burton.
“Yes,” replied Burton. “There are things I will need your help with. Not now; in the future.” He held the envelope up. “You need this, Helen. You need the answers.”
She eyed the envelope. He was right. She needed the money, but that was only her most basic concern. What she really needed was knowledge - something Burton clearly possessed. She nodded.
Burton smiled, and held out the envelope. Hesitantly, she took it from him.
“There's a motel a few streets away. Book a room there under the name Julia Dixon.”
“Why?”
“So I can find you. We'll talk soon.” Without another word, Burton walked out of the room, leaving Helen stood alone amidst all the dust. As she heard the front door close, she couldn't help but replay Burton's words in her mind: one man's past is another man's future.
Fandom: Primeval
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~3100 (total so far: ~10100)
Spoilers: Everything up to the end of series four is fair game. Anything after that is purely coincidental.
Summary: My own take on where Primeval will/should go in series five. Danny and Patrick have a long-overdue brotherly chat. An anomaly leads to a reunion, and Helen is left wondering exactly what's going on in Philip's head.
Notes: I've tried to stay as true to the tone of the show as possible, but there may be a little more angst than the series usually contains. Also, some of the language used is slightly more coarse than in canon, but that's a rare occurrence and not hugely offensive.
Disclaimer: I don't own Primeval, or any of the characters.
As Danny trudged up the last few feet of the hill, he couldn’t help but think it had been far too easy to track Patrick over the last few days. After all, Patrick had had so many chances to give Danny the slip - but he had taken none of them. No running off while Danny slept. Hanging back, walking slowly. It was as if he was taking car not to make the distance between them too great.
At the peak of the hill, Patrick was sitting down, his back to Danny. He was looking at something below.
“I told you,” Patrick said without turning around, “we’re just animals. We’re just apes.”
Danny walked slowly towards Patrick and sat down next to him. At the foot of the hill was a tribe of hominids. They were the same as the ones he had first encountered over a year ago, and the whole scene gave Danny an eerie sense of déjà vu.
“What the hell happened to you, Patrick?” asked Danny after a moment of watching the hominids in a strangely peaceful silence. He kept his voice quiet and soft, as though raising it would rouse some sort of…monster…within his brother.
“You were never there.”
“For the last time Patrick, I tried! Even after ten years, when all logic told me you were dead, I kept looking.”
Patrick shook his head. “I don’t mean that.” His voice was low and steady. “Just always. You were never there for me.”
“What?”
“You never cared about anyone but yourself. And you have the nerve to call me selfish.”
“That’s not true. I always cared about you.”
Patrick’s expression grew even more bitter - something Danny had already written off as impossible. “When I was seven, my dog died. I knew he was sick and I begged you to take him to the vet but you were more concerned about getting it on with Mary-Ann Cooper.”
“That’s what this is all about? Your dog?” Danny ignored the pang of guilt he felt at the memory of his arrogant sixteen year old self.
“When I was nine,” Patrick continued, “and those boys at school were giving me a hard time, I asked you for advice. I didn’t ask Mum or Dad or any of my teachers, I asked you. Do you remember what you said to me?”
For the first time, Patrick turned to look at Danny. Danny looked away. He had pushed it to the back of his mind, to the bottom of a dusty pile of memories that he’d give anything to forget. But hearing Patrick talk about it brought every minute action and every single word flooding back.
“You told me to grow a spine and stop bugging you,” Patrick spat. “When I was thirteen - ”
“Okay, okay, you’ve made your point. I was a horrible brother.”
“I think the saddest part is that even after all that, I still looked up to you.” Danny could have sworn he saw tears in Patrick’s eyes, but Patrick turned away, his gaze returning to the hominids. “I always hoped that one day you’d actually be the big brother you were supposed to be.”
Danny could practically feel his heart being ripped to pieces. He was ashamed to admit it even to himself, but everything Patrick was saying was true. He hadn’t just been a horrible brother to Patrick - he hadn’t been any kind of brother at all.
“I…was jealous,” said Danny. He knew it was a pathetic reason, if it was even worthy of being called a reason.
“Jealous? Of what?”
“You were just better than me. At everything. You got better grades than me. You were better at sports than me. Mum and Dad were always comparing us, and you were always the one that came up smelling of roses.”
“Jealous of what?” repeated Patrick, still not looking at Danny. “All I ever got from Mum and Dad was pressure. Mum was always pushing me towards medical school. Dad was adamant that I’d be an Olympic swimmer. Neither of them ever gave a damn about what I wanted.”
“And what did you want?”
“I wanted to get out of there. So I did.”
“What?”
“The gateway didn’t close straight after I went through. It stayed open for hours. I sat there, staring at it...waiting. I thought about going back through, but I just didn't.”
“Wait, you…you left on purpose? Why?”
Patrick shrugged. “I saw the opportunity to leave, so I took it. I wanted to get away. From you, from Mum and Dad. From school. I’d had enough. I wanted to be on my own. I wanted to see if you’d try to find me.” He paused. “As usual, you didn’t come through for me.”
Danny tried, with great effort, to keep his voice steady. “You’re right. I was selfish. But so were you. Just leaving like that, without thinking about how it would affect Mum and Dad. How it would affect me. That was - ”
“I was happier on my own.”
“Well, I suppose that’s all that matters,” said Danny bitterly. He felt a powerful urge to grab Patrick by the shoulders and shake some sense into him, to try and make him realise that they were both at fault here. “Okay, so you had a crap brother and parents with high expectations. That hardly justifies…murder.” The word was hard to say, and even harder to believe. Patrick - his little brother - was a killer.
Patrick didn’t say anything, his expression still the stony resentment that he had been wearing almost exclusively since they had been reunited. Danny wondered what Patrick was hiding behind that mask - regret? Shame? Was he even capable of feeling any kind of remorse, or was it just all hatred and rage? Without a sound, Patrick stood up and started to walk away.
“Where are you going?” Danny called after him.
Patrick stopped and turned to face Danny. “Anywhere. I don’t know. I just want to be on my own.” His voice was clear and unmistakeable, but unnervingly quiet.
“Sorry, Patrick. But that’s not happening. I’m staying with you.”
“Go home.”
“I can’t, can I? Not until another anomaly opens up.”
Patrick replied only by turning his back and walking away. It was far from an invitation, but it wasn’t an outright rejection of Danny’s company either. Taking that as a good sign - a slight improvement, at least - Danny followed his brother, preparing himself for hours or even days of torturous silence.
+++
The volume of the crowd’s chatter had been her first warning that something was wrong. There had been a lull in the noise, a hushed awe, and then everything had erupted. Now, people were shouting and panicking; some were running away from it and others dared to venture towards it, as far as the policemen would let them.
Only Emily stood still, in the middle of the commotion, a strange concoction of emotions brewing up inside her. That golden light, so bright, so familiar, just shining and…flickering? It had been months since Emily had last seen a gateway, but the unforgettable image was still etched in her mind - and it definitely wasn’t supposed to be flickering.
The ground started shaking, and the panic escalated. Policemen dragged each other protectively away from the light, trying and failing to subdue the crowd. There was a strange rumbling sound, low at first, getting louder and louder. The light kept flickering on and off and on again. The noise was almost deafening.
Something’s coming.
+++
“This might be a difficult one to deal with,” said Connor as Matt skidded the SUV to a halt next to the train track. Matt took in the sight - an anomaly smack bang in the centre of the rails, half a passenger train on each side. 'Difficult to deal with' was definitely an understatement.
"Why is it flickering?" asked Sergeant Willis.
"The electricity from the tracks must be interfering with it," replied Connor.
“Find out where it leads to,” said Matt. “Don't lock it yet; we need to get the rest of that train back."
He surveyed his surroundings for signs of a creature incursion. There didn't seem to be any, but open spaces weren’t the best places to deal with anomalies.
“Matt.”
A creature may have already come through and run off into the wilderness. If that was the case, they’d have to find it and return it. Then again, if a creature /had/ come through, the chassis of the train would surely have been ripped to shreds, and considering it was mostly still in tact -
“Matt.”
How the hell they were going to explain this to the passengers of the train - if they were even still alive - Matt didn’t have a clue. Cover stories in cases like this were unlikely to be accepted, so the most logical course of action would be to break out the Official Secrets Act and hope for the -
“Matt!”
“What is it, Connor?” said Matt, a little more snappily than he had intended. He followed Connor’s gaze towards the anomaly, where there stood two figures, one supporting the other's weight.
“Emily…” Finding that her name caught in his throat, Matt coughed loudly and deliberately. Slowly, he started making his way towards her. As he reached her, he saw a sad smile grace her features.
"It's been far too long," she said, the sorrow in her tone perfectly matching her expression.
Matt frowned slightly. "Barely a week."
Emily's smile faded. She glanced back at the anomaly. "I suppose...time is complicated."
The man leaning on Emily coughed, reminding Matt that they had a situation on their hands right now. Personal reunions would have to wait.
"What happened?" he asked, surprised at how easily he slipped back into professional mode. He signalled for a soldier to come and take the man away.
The split second of silence before Emily answered would probably have been unnoticeable to most, but to Matt it seemed like an eternity.
"The gateway opened, and then the train came charging through. The police won't let anybody near it, but we managed to slip through."
Matt nodded. "How many people on the other side?"
"I counted thirteen, including Carl."
"Carl?"
"The driver." She nodded towards the man she had helped through the anomaly, who was now talking to Abby. "Nobody seems to be too badly hurt."
That's something, at least, thought Matt. "Right," he said, "let's get them back through."
+++
Matt and Emily had shared the task of helping people back through, each fielding questions from the dazed civilians and bewildered Victorian policemen, but never actually speaking a word between themselves. As they helped the twelfth and final passenger back through, they locked eyes for the briefest of moments, and Matt found himself wondering what Emily had meant by 'far too long'. Weeks? Months? She had changed, he could tell, but only subtly. She couldn't have been away for years. She seemed too familiar for that.
Handing the passenger over to Abby, Connor, and the team of medics who had just arrived on the scene, he turned to Emily.
"How long?" he asked.
"Ten months," she replied, not quite meeting his gaze. She glanced at the anomaly. "I can't stay. I have to go back."
"Any tips on getting the train back before you go?"
Emily smiled - a real, genuine smile. "It's not really my area of expertise," she said.
"Matt! Emily!" Connor's shouts seemed distant, but his voice was urgent enough to snap Matt and Emily back to the gravity of reality. Their heads turned in unison to look at Connor. He was standing a few feet away from the anomaly, which was still flickering. "I think it's about to close," he called.
Matt barely had time to process Connor's words before the anomaly flickered for a final time. In a split second, the anomaly was sucked into itself, disappearing, tearing the chassis of the train in half. Matt turned his gaze to Emily, who was still staring at that same spot, the smile gone from her face.
+++
It had been a long day for Abby, more tiring than usual, so she was grateful to get back to Jess' flat and flop down onto the sofa. She sighed, eyes closed, and felt Connor sit down next to her. An uneasy silence settled over them, the same kind of silence that had settled over yesterday's dinner, and then again when she and Connor were lying in bed that night.
Jess muttered something about having errands to run, and Abby opened her eyes as she heard the front door open and then click shut. She turned to look at Connor, who gave her a nervous smile.
"As long as we've got the place to ourselves, we should probably...you know. Talk." He paused. "About the - "
"Yeah," said Abby. She sat up straight. "So...what do you think?"
Connor's smile relaxed. "You know what I think, Abby. The question is, what do you think?" He scooted closer to her and took her hand.
Abby looked down, staring at their interlaced fingers. "I...I've never really thought about having kids," she said honestly. "But...I've been thinking about it. In fact, I've thought about practically nothing else lately. And I want to have a family. With you. Eventually. It's just all happening a bit fast."
"Yeah...it is all quite fast, isn't it? And honestly, the timing could not have been worse. But just imagine how you'll feel nine months down the line, when you hold little Connor Junior for the first time."
Abby felt a small smile creep onto her face at the thought. She had made peace with most of her doubts - sure, working at the ARC was dangerous, but every member of the team knew what they were doing. They were professionals, and that meant safe hands. Besides, if she needed to, she could always take a step back from the front line. Having a career and having a family didn't have to be mutually exclusive.
"Do you think we can do this?" she asked.
Connor smiled again. "Yeah. I really think we can."
Instinctively, Abby placed a hand on her stomach. She smiled.
"Hey, Connor? We're gonna have a baby." She looked him in the eye, almost wanting to laugh at the excited expression he was wearing. There was a twinkle in his eye and a huge grin on his face. "Oh," she added, still smiling as the afterthought occurred to her. "We are not naming it Connor Junior."
+++
Helen clutched the piece of paper in her hand and pushed the front door of the house open. It creaked on its hinges, revealing a dark hallway. She stepped inside and checked the piece of paper again, making sure she had the right address. Burton had seemed like a high-class man. Why would he want to meet in a place like this, with its boarded-up windows and corners filled with dust and cobwebs? More importantly, why did Burton want to meet up with her at all?
At their first meeting, as Burton had ushered Helen out of a back door, he had told her only three things. One, the year was 2011 - twelve years after she had visited the Forest of Dean. Two, she could not, under any circumstances, be seen by anyone else. And three, she was important.
She closed the front door behind her and let go of the scrap of paper. It fluttered to the floor. She made her way through another door - the only one in the hallway that wasn’t completely closed - into what presumably would have been the house’s living room. A man was standing there, his back to the door, staring into the empty fireplace.
“How long have you been travelling through the anomalies, Helen?” said Burton, turning to face her.
Helen didn’t answer straight away. Anomalies. That was what they called them. “Two years,” she said eventually. “How do you know who I am?”
“You’re rather infamous around the ARC,” said Burton simply.
Deciding to ignore the fact that that wasn’t really an answer, Helen continued. “And why did you want to meet me? Here, of all places?”
“We can’t be seen,” replied Burton. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small brown envelope. “Five thousand pounds. Cash. All I ask in return is your full cooperation.”
Helen eyed the envelope. Until she found another anomaly, she was stuck here. She would need money. But Burton wasn’t exactly emanating trustworthiness.
“Cooperation with what?” she asked.
“I just have a few questions that need answering. As, I’m sure, do you.” He paused. “I can tell you about the anomalies. How to find them.”
Helen hesitated. Five thousand pounds alone wouldn’t have been nearly enough to sway her, but five thousand pounds plus the answers she had been searching for for two years? It was tempting, to say the least.
“What questions?” asked Helen eventually.
“Let’s start with how you found out about the ARC.”
“Your team turned up at the site of the anomaly I came through. The one in the abandoned warehouse. I wanted to know how they knew so much, so I followed them back to the...ARC.”
“And that’s why you broke into the ARC, I suppose? To find answers.”
Helen nodded. “Your security leaves a lot to be desired.” She paused. “What did you mean when you said I was important?”
“One man’s future is another man’s past,” said Burton. Before Helen could ask him what he meant by that, he continued. “What did you see in the lab?”
“Drawings. Diagrams. Nothing that made much sense.”
Burton gave a barely perceivable nod. “I can help with that. If you like.”
“But you want something in return,” said Helen, wondering what she could possibly have that would be useful to Burton.
“Yes,” replied Burton. “There are things I will need your help with. Not now; in the future.” He held the envelope up. “You need this, Helen. You need the answers.”
She eyed the envelope. He was right. She needed the money, but that was only her most basic concern. What she really needed was knowledge - something Burton clearly possessed. She nodded.
Burton smiled, and held out the envelope. Hesitantly, she took it from him.
“There's a motel a few streets away. Book a room there under the name Julia Dixon.”
“Why?”
“So I can find you. We'll talk soon.” Without another word, Burton walked out of the room, leaving Helen stood alone amidst all the dust. As she heard the front door close, she couldn't help but replay Burton's words in her mind: one man's past is another man's future.