Conversation In The Snow
Title: Conversation In The Snow
Author: TalliW
Characters: Nick Cutter, James Lester, (Stephen Hart).
Rating: K
Disclaimer: Primeval is the property of Impossible Pictures. I write just for fun.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to the wonderful Fredbassett for beta duty.
Summary: Cutter has survived Helen's murder attempt. He finds out that Stephen is still alive too and that Lester has a
heart
It had snowed all night. Now everything was coated in a thick layer of snow, giving the landscape a surreal sort of peacefulness.
No one had bothered to clear the driveway to the ARC and any trace of car tracks had again been covered ages ago.
But Cutter knew the way by heart. In his dreams and nightmares he had driven the way hundreds of times.
Cutter stopped the car abruptly when the ARC came into sight. In the early morning mid-winter sun the building appeared in perfect harmony with the surrounding landscape. There was no outside evidence of the tragedy that had taken place there months ago.
But Cutter still had vivid memories of the day he'd almost died. The smoke and debris, the screams of the injured, Helen pointing a gun at him and his acceptance that his life was over.
Cutter shivered as he remembered the moment he had been willing to let go in the irrational hope of being reunited with Stephen and Claudia in some sort of heaven.
Fortunately for him, the paramedics had been just as stubborn as Connor Temple when he’d carried him out of the building all alone.
Cutter had been told that he had to be revived twice on the way to the hospital. He was in surgery for over twelve hours to repair the damage Helen's bullet had caused. There on the operating table his heart had stopped a third time.
The doctors still marvelled that he hadn't suffered serious brain damage from the repeated lack of oxygen. Still it had taken tremulous work just to regain control of his muscles and relearn basic skills like dressing himself and fastening his shoe laces.
The thought of his team and the anomaly project had kept him going. He promised himself that things would chance when he returned. He wanted to be a worthy team leader again. But so much had happened since then...
Cutter rose from his musings and was about to start the engine again when two figures came round the corner of the ARC.
A smile passed his lips as he recognized the strange pairing. Not that a mammoth in the 21th century wasn't strange enough but James Lester with a bobble hat, walking side by side with the huge prehistoric creature while now and then picking up snow and tossing snowballs for two small, terrier size creatures in blue and red winter coats was even more unusual.
Cutter decided to forgo the car and join Lester and his pets on their silent walk through the snow. He just hoped Lester hadn't noticed him yet.
Cutter's plan to surprise Lester was foiled by the vigilant mammoth, which announced his arrival with a loud trumpet.
"Really, Cutter. Have you never listened to Abby? Mammoths have good hearing and smell. They can detect predators from a long distance away."
Cutter ignored Lester's lecture and bent down to the little creature in the red winter coat.
"Are these the trapped burrowers from the hospital?"
Lester nodded. "Connor and Abby named them Sid and Nancy although I think four-legged nuisance would be more fitting."
"I'm surprised they left them at the ARC."
"They didn't. This is just a temporary solution." Lester replied, somewhat uncomfortably.
"Is there a particular reason that you take them for a walk? What about secrecy?"
"They needed exercise," Lester answered tiredly. "This early in the morning is the best time to take them outside. No one who hasn't signed the Official Secrets Act is around. Besides do you really think people would believe that they have seen a real mammoth in the snow?"
Cutter had to concede that Lester was right. It was unlikely that someone would discover them in this weather. And by the looks of it the animals were enjoying the little trip. He bent a little deeper to pet the little creature to his feet which looked at him longingly.
"Ahem, Cutter, I would be more careful with my scarf if I were you. Oh, too late."
Cutter looked dumbfounded at the red-clad diictodon, now running off with his favourite scarf and engaging in a game of tug with its male counterpart.
His first impulse was to follow the thieving creature but Lester's amused expression told him how little chance he stood of outrunning the speedy animals in snow.
"Nancy loves woven fabric. So, what brings you here at this early hour, Cutter? If you are here for your old job you can start right away. The anomaly project is currently in need of a new team leader."
Anger flared up in Cutter and he hissed, "Is the project all you care about? Damn it, Lester. I saw Stephen!"
"So he contacted you?"
"You knew he was alive? Oh, of course you knew. He was in the same secret government institution as me. The whole time. No, he didn't contact me. I found him by pure accident when I walked into the wrong rehabilitation room. Why didn't you tell me?"
"Stephen didn't want anyone to know. I respected his wish. Just as I respected your wish to withhold the information from your team colleagues that you had been revived in the ambulance."
Cutter lowered his head in shame, his anger deflating under Lester's stern gaze. "At the time it didn't look as if I would recover completely. I didn't want them to see me so helpless."
"And Stephen preferred that his colleagues kept him in their memories the way he was before the warehouse accident."
"But I'm not just a colleague. I'm his friend. Maybe more."
"I think that made it worse. You saw how the creatures have mauled him."
"I almost didn't recognize him," Cutter mumbled rueful. "But does Stephen really think I'm so shallow? It was never about his looks. He has inner beauty too."
"You should tell him that, not me."
Embarrassed that he'd revealed his feeling for Stephen to Lester, Cutter turned around to the diictodons to check on his scarf which currently the male had in his possession.
"I'm planning to take Stephen out of the rehab centre. He has been holed up there long enough."
Lester didn't show any surprise about his decision and slowly it dawned on Cutter that maybe it hadn't been so accidental that he'd found Stephen.
"Be sure you don't do it mainly out of responsibility. He will sense it."
Cutter winced. Lester apparently knew him quite well. Yes, he felt responsible for Stephen's condition. However that wasn't the main reason he wanted to take care of him.
"I know what I'm doing," he said sharply.
"Good. If you need support to alter your house there is a fund."
"Thanks for the offer. But I thought about moving to Scotland into the old house of my grandmother. It's small but it has no stairs. And best of all it is miles from anywhere. Stephen wouldn't have to worry about people staring at him."
"That sound like a good idea. In the moment there is nothing more the doctors can do for him but when everything has properly healed I know a good plastic surgeon who could start to restore his face. The fund will pay for everything. Besides medicine does advance constantly. They might discover a way to do something about his legs."
"Okay. I will stay in contact. Tell Abby and Connor I'm sorry."
"I will, the next time I see them," Lester said in a voice thick with misery.
.
"If it is too much I can tell them myself."
"Nonsense. I will take care of it. You have Stephen to worry about."
"And Jenny..."
"Jenny left the ARC. She has since built up a new life for himself, started dating again. We shouldn't bother her with shadows of the past."
"If you think so. Well, I should go. I still have to convince Stephen of my honourable intentions."
"Best of luck, Cutter."
"Thanks, I will need it."
"What about your scarf?"
Cutter looked at the chewed up fabric the diictodons were still playing tug war with and shook his head.
"Let them have it."
Cutter muttered a faint goodbye and returned to his car. Before he started the engine he cast a last glance at the man who was making his way through the snow accompanied by a Columbian mammoth and two diictodons.
Today he had learnt that James Lester had a heart, that he cared and that filled him with confidence.
If a government hatched man could get attached to a group of mavericks and geeks and make friends with prehistoric creatures then everything was possible.
Maybe there was still hope for him and Stephen too.
Author: TalliW
Characters: Nick Cutter, James Lester, (Stephen Hart).
Rating: K
Disclaimer: Primeval is the property of Impossible Pictures. I write just for fun.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to the wonderful Fredbassett for beta duty.
Summary: Cutter has survived Helen's murder attempt. He finds out that Stephen is still alive too and that Lester has a
heart
It had snowed all night. Now everything was coated in a thick layer of snow, giving the landscape a surreal sort of peacefulness.
No one had bothered to clear the driveway to the ARC and any trace of car tracks had again been covered ages ago.
But Cutter knew the way by heart. In his dreams and nightmares he had driven the way hundreds of times.
Cutter stopped the car abruptly when the ARC came into sight. In the early morning mid-winter sun the building appeared in perfect harmony with the surrounding landscape. There was no outside evidence of the tragedy that had taken place there months ago.
But Cutter still had vivid memories of the day he'd almost died. The smoke and debris, the screams of the injured, Helen pointing a gun at him and his acceptance that his life was over.
Cutter shivered as he remembered the moment he had been willing to let go in the irrational hope of being reunited with Stephen and Claudia in some sort of heaven.
Fortunately for him, the paramedics had been just as stubborn as Connor Temple when he’d carried him out of the building all alone.
Cutter had been told that he had to be revived twice on the way to the hospital. He was in surgery for over twelve hours to repair the damage Helen's bullet had caused. There on the operating table his heart had stopped a third time.
The doctors still marvelled that he hadn't suffered serious brain damage from the repeated lack of oxygen. Still it had taken tremulous work just to regain control of his muscles and relearn basic skills like dressing himself and fastening his shoe laces.
The thought of his team and the anomaly project had kept him going. He promised himself that things would chance when he returned. He wanted to be a worthy team leader again. But so much had happened since then...
Cutter rose from his musings and was about to start the engine again when two figures came round the corner of the ARC.
A smile passed his lips as he recognized the strange pairing. Not that a mammoth in the 21th century wasn't strange enough but James Lester with a bobble hat, walking side by side with the huge prehistoric creature while now and then picking up snow and tossing snowballs for two small, terrier size creatures in blue and red winter coats was even more unusual.
Cutter decided to forgo the car and join Lester and his pets on their silent walk through the snow. He just hoped Lester hadn't noticed him yet.
Cutter's plan to surprise Lester was foiled by the vigilant mammoth, which announced his arrival with a loud trumpet.
"Really, Cutter. Have you never listened to Abby? Mammoths have good hearing and smell. They can detect predators from a long distance away."
Cutter ignored Lester's lecture and bent down to the little creature in the red winter coat.
"Are these the trapped burrowers from the hospital?"
Lester nodded. "Connor and Abby named them Sid and Nancy although I think four-legged nuisance would be more fitting."
"I'm surprised they left them at the ARC."
"They didn't. This is just a temporary solution." Lester replied, somewhat uncomfortably.
"Is there a particular reason that you take them for a walk? What about secrecy?"
"They needed exercise," Lester answered tiredly. "This early in the morning is the best time to take them outside. No one who hasn't signed the Official Secrets Act is around. Besides do you really think people would believe that they have seen a real mammoth in the snow?"
Cutter had to concede that Lester was right. It was unlikely that someone would discover them in this weather. And by the looks of it the animals were enjoying the little trip. He bent a little deeper to pet the little creature to his feet which looked at him longingly.
"Ahem, Cutter, I would be more careful with my scarf if I were you. Oh, too late."
Cutter looked dumbfounded at the red-clad diictodon, now running off with his favourite scarf and engaging in a game of tug with its male counterpart.
His first impulse was to follow the thieving creature but Lester's amused expression told him how little chance he stood of outrunning the speedy animals in snow.
"Nancy loves woven fabric. So, what brings you here at this early hour, Cutter? If you are here for your old job you can start right away. The anomaly project is currently in need of a new team leader."
Anger flared up in Cutter and he hissed, "Is the project all you care about? Damn it, Lester. I saw Stephen!"
"So he contacted you?"
"You knew he was alive? Oh, of course you knew. He was in the same secret government institution as me. The whole time. No, he didn't contact me. I found him by pure accident when I walked into the wrong rehabilitation room. Why didn't you tell me?"
"Stephen didn't want anyone to know. I respected his wish. Just as I respected your wish to withhold the information from your team colleagues that you had been revived in the ambulance."
Cutter lowered his head in shame, his anger deflating under Lester's stern gaze. "At the time it didn't look as if I would recover completely. I didn't want them to see me so helpless."
"And Stephen preferred that his colleagues kept him in their memories the way he was before the warehouse accident."
"But I'm not just a colleague. I'm his friend. Maybe more."
"I think that made it worse. You saw how the creatures have mauled him."
"I almost didn't recognize him," Cutter mumbled rueful. "But does Stephen really think I'm so shallow? It was never about his looks. He has inner beauty too."
"You should tell him that, not me."
Embarrassed that he'd revealed his feeling for Stephen to Lester, Cutter turned around to the diictodons to check on his scarf which currently the male had in his possession.
"I'm planning to take Stephen out of the rehab centre. He has been holed up there long enough."
Lester didn't show any surprise about his decision and slowly it dawned on Cutter that maybe it hadn't been so accidental that he'd found Stephen.
"Be sure you don't do it mainly out of responsibility. He will sense it."
Cutter winced. Lester apparently knew him quite well. Yes, he felt responsible for Stephen's condition. However that wasn't the main reason he wanted to take care of him.
"I know what I'm doing," he said sharply.
"Good. If you need support to alter your house there is a fund."
"Thanks for the offer. But I thought about moving to Scotland into the old house of my grandmother. It's small but it has no stairs. And best of all it is miles from anywhere. Stephen wouldn't have to worry about people staring at him."
"That sound like a good idea. In the moment there is nothing more the doctors can do for him but when everything has properly healed I know a good plastic surgeon who could start to restore his face. The fund will pay for everything. Besides medicine does advance constantly. They might discover a way to do something about his legs."
"Okay. I will stay in contact. Tell Abby and Connor I'm sorry."
"I will, the next time I see them," Lester said in a voice thick with misery.
.
"If it is too much I can tell them myself."
"Nonsense. I will take care of it. You have Stephen to worry about."
"And Jenny..."
"Jenny left the ARC. She has since built up a new life for himself, started dating again. We shouldn't bother her with shadows of the past."
"If you think so. Well, I should go. I still have to convince Stephen of my honourable intentions."
"Best of luck, Cutter."
"Thanks, I will need it."
"What about your scarf?"
Cutter looked at the chewed up fabric the diictodons were still playing tug war with and shook his head.
"Let them have it."
Cutter muttered a faint goodbye and returned to his car. Before he started the engine he cast a last glance at the man who was making his way through the snow accompanied by a Columbian mammoth and two diictodons.
Today he had learnt that James Lester had a heart, that he cared and that filled him with confidence.
If a government hatched man could get attached to a group of mavericks and geeks and make friends with prehistoric creatures then everything was possible.
Maybe there was still hope for him and Stephen too.