Returning Home Chapter 1
Title: Returning Home Chapter 1
Author: TalliW
Characters: Lester/Cutter, Becker/Connor, Abby, Sarah, Jenny, Danny Quinn
Rating: M
Disclaimer: Primeval is the property of Impossible Pictures. I write just for fun.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to the lovely Fredbassett for beta-reading.
Summary: Cutter and Connor have vanished in another universe through the artefact in episode 3x03. Now they are back in their own world but they are changed men after being held as sex slaves for years. Can they ever recover from that ordeal?
Warning: This story contains mentions of rape and violence.
His hands were covered in blood that trickled slowly out of Cutter's bullet wound. He could barely see anything through the veil of tears before his eyes. This couldn't happen. He was not ready to lose another friend.
Connor fought back the fear trying to overwhelm him. His mentor was counting on him. He had to be strong for Cutter.
With shaking fingers, he took the strange object Cutter told him was important. His thumb grazed over the engraved signs in the metal and got caught in a small dent. Then the artefact started to vibrate and everything went black.
Lester looked at Quinn and Becker in annoyance. Why couldn't Quinn leave the Special Forces team alone? He was only provoking them with his continual safety checks.
Today, Becker had actually lost his composure and had been seconds away from chucking his fist into Quinn's grinning face.
Fortunately Jenny and Sarah had realised the danger and had thrown themselves between the men. The fight had stopped before it had started. Becker and Quinn were too polite to wrestle with women. That was probably the only thing they had in common.
Not for the first time Lester wished for his old team back. Although it gave some difficulties there as well there had never been this open animosity. Connor's easy-going personality had more than once smoothed problematic situations within the team.
Now Quinn was usually backed up by Jenny, and Sarah stood with Becker. That had quickly driven a rift between the tentative friendship that had started developing between the two women.
Abby just kept out of everything. Ever since Connor and Cutter had vanished after the explosion in the ARC, Abby had shown less and less interest in the project and the team. Lester was constantly expecting to receive her notice.
Sometimes Lester asked himself why the ARC hadn’t been closed down entirely and the project taken over by the military. With Cutter and Temple gone, the remaining team was barely be able to keep up with their daily tasks. Despite their many talents, Danny Quinn and Sarah Page couldn't replace the brilliant minds of Temple and Cutter and the government hadn't allowed him to hire new scientists.
In reality, there was very little research going on these days. More often than not, they just fired at the prehistoric animals coming through the anomalies and then guarded the portals until they closed again. Abby had only protested the first few times they'd killed a dinosaur.
James Lester stared melancholically in the direction of the office a stubborn professor had occupied at a time. None of this would ever have happened under Cutter's command.
Wearily, Lester turned his eyes back to Becker and Quinn and waved the idiots out of his office. Perhaps it would have been for the best if Quinn had got a beating from the captain. With Quinn's cocky behaviour towards him, Lester was sorely tempted to look the other way the next time Becker was fed up.
With a deep sigh, Lester shut his computer down and was ready to call it a night as the anomaly alarm blared. The handful people still in the ARC at that late hour hurried down to the ADD in the atrium.
"Bloody hell, it's here in the ARC," Quinn yelled and raced with Becker through the corridors, each of them trying to beat the other to the room where the detector had announced the anomaly.
In the middle of Lab 4, two naked people were laying unconscious on the floor, their hands still clinging to a longish metallic object...
"How are they?" Lester asked the medic.
Ditzy looked at the ceiling for a second to collect his thoughts. What he had to tell wasn't easy.
"Both men have minor cuts on legs and arms, probably from running naked and without footwear through a forest. Cutter is a little undernourished and Temple's renal data could be better. But all that can be easily fixed with infusions and antiseptic ointment. Cutter's condition is worse through. Beside the small cuts he has abrasions on his wrists and several deep wounds on his back. I would say he was tied down and brutally whipped. Cutter has also a scar on his chest and back indicating a penetrating gunshot wound. He must have been very lucky it didn't hit vital organs. Astonishingly it's already healed."
Lester furrowed his forehead. He remembered the report from the clean-up crew that they had found an unregistered Beretta 92 in the corridor with only a single bullet missing, a few metres away from a big blood stain on the concrete floor that was identified as Cutter's blood by the lab analysis.
"But there is more. I took routine X-ray scans and compared them to older records. I discovered evidence that both their legs and arms had been broken in several places. Temple’s also had some broken ribs and Cutter’s showed a broken jaw. But all those injuries have healed properly. Without the X-rays I wouldn't even have spotted them." Ditzy locked eyes with Lester. "Sir, it takes months for bones to heal together."
Lester acknowledged the medic's explanations with a nod. "Is there anything else I should know about, Lieutenant Owen?"
Ditzy exhaled deeply before he continued. "They have been branded on cheek and hip. There was also evidence of recent anal penetration. I found semen samples from four different men in Cutter and one in Connor. Cutter's sphincter had been more or less torn apart. I had to stitch him. Wherever they’ve been these past few months they’ve been treated badly. I’ve no idea what state of mind they’ll be inwhen they wake up. If they wake up at all. It wouldn't be the first time someone’s slipped into a coma after a severe trauma."
"Thanks for the report, Lieutenant Owen. May I see them?"
After Ditzy had led Lester into the first small sick-room, Lester stood there for a long time and looked down on the occupant in the hospital bed before he moved on to the next room.
Connor was looking considerably older than Lester could remember. Cutter's hair was shorter than before and there were deep lines engraved around his eyes. Whilst Cutter appeared to be thin to the point of starvation, Connor seemed to be well-fed. But what both men seemed to have in common was a small scar on their right cheek in form of a wavy line.
Although Lester took a thorough look, Cutter's face didn't show any sign of a broken jaw. For mending all the broken bones Ditzy had mentioned a considerably amount of time must have been passed. But both had only been gone for four months. What had happened to them?
For the first time since he’d been assigned to the anomaly project Lester stayed in one of the emergency sleeping quarters of the ARC, breaking his own safety rules. He just couldn't leave now.
Lester woke up cramped and stiff on the small bunk bed, his left arm hanging over the edge. After taking a quick shower and changing into a spare suit, he made his way to the infirmary again.
Cutter was lying on his side in the same position he’d been bedded down in the night before to take the pressure off his injured back. But Connor had rolled into a foetal position and was now almost completely hidden under the bedcovers. Lester hoped the fact that Connor had moved was a good sign. The boy had to recover, for all their sakes.
Determined, Lester left the infirmary and went straight into the lab.
"What can you tell me about the object they had with them?" he asked. But his question was only met with silence.
So far the strange artefact had resisted all research methods. The scientists hadn't got a single step closer to revealing its secrets.
Frustrated, Lester returned to his office. But soon he found himself on the way to the infirmary again.
Watching the unconscious men, he silently prayed for a miracle. He had already lost too many good people to the project. He didn't want to add these two men to the list of casualties after he had just got them back.
Author: TalliW
Characters: Lester/Cutter, Becker/Connor, Abby, Sarah, Jenny, Danny Quinn
Rating: M
Disclaimer: Primeval is the property of Impossible Pictures. I write just for fun.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to the lovely Fredbassett for beta-reading.
Summary: Cutter and Connor have vanished in another universe through the artefact in episode 3x03. Now they are back in their own world but they are changed men after being held as sex slaves for years. Can they ever recover from that ordeal?
Warning: This story contains mentions of rape and violence.
His hands were covered in blood that trickled slowly out of Cutter's bullet wound. He could barely see anything through the veil of tears before his eyes. This couldn't happen. He was not ready to lose another friend.
Connor fought back the fear trying to overwhelm him. His mentor was counting on him. He had to be strong for Cutter.
With shaking fingers, he took the strange object Cutter told him was important. His thumb grazed over the engraved signs in the metal and got caught in a small dent. Then the artefact started to vibrate and everything went black.
Lester looked at Quinn and Becker in annoyance. Why couldn't Quinn leave the Special Forces team alone? He was only provoking them with his continual safety checks.
Today, Becker had actually lost his composure and had been seconds away from chucking his fist into Quinn's grinning face.
Fortunately Jenny and Sarah had realised the danger and had thrown themselves between the men. The fight had stopped before it had started. Becker and Quinn were too polite to wrestle with women. That was probably the only thing they had in common.
Not for the first time Lester wished for his old team back. Although it gave some difficulties there as well there had never been this open animosity. Connor's easy-going personality had more than once smoothed problematic situations within the team.
Now Quinn was usually backed up by Jenny, and Sarah stood with Becker. That had quickly driven a rift between the tentative friendship that had started developing between the two women.
Abby just kept out of everything. Ever since Connor and Cutter had vanished after the explosion in the ARC, Abby had shown less and less interest in the project and the team. Lester was constantly expecting to receive her notice.
Sometimes Lester asked himself why the ARC hadn’t been closed down entirely and the project taken over by the military. With Cutter and Temple gone, the remaining team was barely be able to keep up with their daily tasks. Despite their many talents, Danny Quinn and Sarah Page couldn't replace the brilliant minds of Temple and Cutter and the government hadn't allowed him to hire new scientists.
In reality, there was very little research going on these days. More often than not, they just fired at the prehistoric animals coming through the anomalies and then guarded the portals until they closed again. Abby had only protested the first few times they'd killed a dinosaur.
James Lester stared melancholically in the direction of the office a stubborn professor had occupied at a time. None of this would ever have happened under Cutter's command.
Wearily, Lester turned his eyes back to Becker and Quinn and waved the idiots out of his office. Perhaps it would have been for the best if Quinn had got a beating from the captain. With Quinn's cocky behaviour towards him, Lester was sorely tempted to look the other way the next time Becker was fed up.
With a deep sigh, Lester shut his computer down and was ready to call it a night as the anomaly alarm blared. The handful people still in the ARC at that late hour hurried down to the ADD in the atrium.
"Bloody hell, it's here in the ARC," Quinn yelled and raced with Becker through the corridors, each of them trying to beat the other to the room where the detector had announced the anomaly.
In the middle of Lab 4, two naked people were laying unconscious on the floor, their hands still clinging to a longish metallic object...
"How are they?" Lester asked the medic.
Ditzy looked at the ceiling for a second to collect his thoughts. What he had to tell wasn't easy.
"Both men have minor cuts on legs and arms, probably from running naked and without footwear through a forest. Cutter is a little undernourished and Temple's renal data could be better. But all that can be easily fixed with infusions and antiseptic ointment. Cutter's condition is worse through. Beside the small cuts he has abrasions on his wrists and several deep wounds on his back. I would say he was tied down and brutally whipped. Cutter has also a scar on his chest and back indicating a penetrating gunshot wound. He must have been very lucky it didn't hit vital organs. Astonishingly it's already healed."
Lester furrowed his forehead. He remembered the report from the clean-up crew that they had found an unregistered Beretta 92 in the corridor with only a single bullet missing, a few metres away from a big blood stain on the concrete floor that was identified as Cutter's blood by the lab analysis.
"But there is more. I took routine X-ray scans and compared them to older records. I discovered evidence that both their legs and arms had been broken in several places. Temple’s also had some broken ribs and Cutter’s showed a broken jaw. But all those injuries have healed properly. Without the X-rays I wouldn't even have spotted them." Ditzy locked eyes with Lester. "Sir, it takes months for bones to heal together."
Lester acknowledged the medic's explanations with a nod. "Is there anything else I should know about, Lieutenant Owen?"
Ditzy exhaled deeply before he continued. "They have been branded on cheek and hip. There was also evidence of recent anal penetration. I found semen samples from four different men in Cutter and one in Connor. Cutter's sphincter had been more or less torn apart. I had to stitch him. Wherever they’ve been these past few months they’ve been treated badly. I’ve no idea what state of mind they’ll be inwhen they wake up. If they wake up at all. It wouldn't be the first time someone’s slipped into a coma after a severe trauma."
"Thanks for the report, Lieutenant Owen. May I see them?"
After Ditzy had led Lester into the first small sick-room, Lester stood there for a long time and looked down on the occupant in the hospital bed before he moved on to the next room.
Connor was looking considerably older than Lester could remember. Cutter's hair was shorter than before and there were deep lines engraved around his eyes. Whilst Cutter appeared to be thin to the point of starvation, Connor seemed to be well-fed. But what both men seemed to have in common was a small scar on their right cheek in form of a wavy line.
Although Lester took a thorough look, Cutter's face didn't show any sign of a broken jaw. For mending all the broken bones Ditzy had mentioned a considerably amount of time must have been passed. But both had only been gone for four months. What had happened to them?
For the first time since he’d been assigned to the anomaly project Lester stayed in one of the emergency sleeping quarters of the ARC, breaking his own safety rules. He just couldn't leave now.
Lester woke up cramped and stiff on the small bunk bed, his left arm hanging over the edge. After taking a quick shower and changing into a spare suit, he made his way to the infirmary again.
Cutter was lying on his side in the same position he’d been bedded down in the night before to take the pressure off his injured back. But Connor had rolled into a foetal position and was now almost completely hidden under the bedcovers. Lester hoped the fact that Connor had moved was a good sign. The boy had to recover, for all their sakes.
Determined, Lester left the infirmary and went straight into the lab.
"What can you tell me about the object they had with them?" he asked. But his question was only met with silence.
So far the strange artefact had resisted all research methods. The scientists hadn't got a single step closer to revealing its secrets.
Frustrated, Lester returned to his office. But soon he found himself on the way to the infirmary again.
Watching the unconscious men, he silently prayed for a miracle. He had already lost too many good people to the project. He didn't want to add these two men to the list of casualties after he had just got them back.