Returning Home Chapter 5
Title: Returning Home Chapter 5
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.
"I swear Quinn will be the cause of my early death one day. The idiot has already smashed a chopper, the Hilux and the garden pavilion of a very powerful man with a place in the House of Lords. He's worse than you ever were."
Lester eyed Cutter's face intensely. Hadn't there been a ghost of a smile for a tiny moment? But Cutter lay still and silent. So, now he was starting hallucinating as well. Fantastic.
"You know, Cutter," Lester continued his one-way conversation. "If he would at least show the same attitude towards the animals as you did, I might forgive him some of his exploits. But just last week he ordered the men to shoot at a mammoth to force it back through the anomaly. A Columbian mammoth. Can you imagine? I just hope it wasn't Monty, who we sent back months ago. That would have been a nasty way to repay him for saving my life."
There. This time Lester had clearly seen it. Cutter's finger had moved. And now the finger twitched again. His mind wasn't just playing tricks on him. He covered Cutter's hand gently with his own, feeling the nail of Cutter's middle finger scraping slightly against his wrist.
"Come on, wake up. Connor needs you and Abby and Jenny are missing you terribly."
The movement stopped and Lester wanted to curse himself. Why had he been so stupid to mention their names after all the things Connor had told him about the time in the parallel world?
"Cutter," he whispered almost pleading, hoping for an answering reaction. But there wasn't any. Only the mechanical ventilators were moving in their steady rhythm.
"No!" Connor screamed as Ditzy walked into the examination room, not knowing Kinsley was taking blood samples to control Connor's renal data.
In the last few days Ditzy had avoided facing Connor and only had supervised the interviews over the CCTV.
The next moment, Connor had bolted out of the room and run along the corridor. When the open hospital gown he was wearing hindered him, he shrugged out of it and raced once again completely naked through the ARC.
Connor shot around the corner and speeded towards the swinging doors. With all his strength he propelled himself forwards and collided with Sarah Page who had just entered the building.
Angrily, she fought against the naked, gasping man, who had brought her down and lay now partially on top of her.
She managed to kick him in the ribs and push him away from her.
"Shit," someone panted and knelt down beside the whimpering man, now curling up on the concrete floor.
Sarah looked up and watched, shocked, how the man she'd dated for the last few weeks cradled her attacker gently in his arms and rocked him like a baby.
She had just been gone for four days to survey some Welsh folklore about flying monsters that came through a door from hell and upon return the ARC had turned into a madhouse.
A moment later, Kinsley arrived and helped both men off the floor. Sarah got up on her own and cleared her throat forcefully.
Only then did Becker notice her. He blushed furiously and quickly tried to put some distance between himself and Connor.
"Why didn't you return any of my calls?" Sarah asked accusingly, that question the only sentence she could come up with right now.
"Sarah, I can explain..."
Becker had never been more glad to hear the shrill sound of the ADD.
"Sorry, have to go. Quinn needs me. We'll talk later."
Becker hurried away and left an annoyed medic, a frightened young man and an angry girlfriend in his wake.
Becker crept along the corridor. He knew he’d behaved like a coward. But he was afraid what he was likely to get from Sarah. He never had seen her so angry before. Usually she was the meekness personified, except when she came across a homicidal beetle.
"Don't bother hiding. I already know about what happened. Jenny told me."
Sarah's familiar voice startled Becker and he realised how idiotic he must look right now, almost walking on all fours. Quickly he got up and put a pleading expression on his face.
Sarah tried to look stern but after a moment she sighed with defeat. "Why didn't you get in touch with me? I was waiting for your call the whole four days. I was so anxious I even called Quinn. Didn't get a decent answer out of him, of course, other than that you were safe and sound and your usual pompous self."
"Typical Quinn. One day I'm going to kick his arse."
Becker took Sarah's right hand into his and stepped closer to her. "Sorry for not calling you. I’ve been with Connor almost non-stop. Besides your mobile isn't exactly the safest line. Lester ordered us to keep quiet about their return."
Sarah nodded in understanding. It wasn't the first time they hadn’t been allowed to contact each other when the line didn't seem safe. In the last few months Lester had almost turned paranoid, fearing someone might trace their calls. Sure, the work was exciting but sometimes she hated all that secretiveness and wished she had her old 10 to 6 job at the museum back.
"All right, I get the point. Perhaps I can do some modification to our mobiles to make them more safe. And when you invite me to a fancy restaurant I even might consider forgiving you."
Becker saw the mischievous glint in Sarah's eyes and exhaled in relief.
"I'll make a reservation for the best restaurant in town immediately."
"So that really is Connor. Our Connor who went missing a few months ago? I only could give him a brief once-over but he didn't look much like the young men I remember."
Becker lowered his eyes to the floor. Lester hadn't given detailed instructions about which information was under wraps so he was uncertain if he was permitted to give away the length of time Connor had been away by his own account.
Sarah's brows furrowed in anger. "God, these safety regulations stink. You leave me no other choice but to go to Quinn and flirt with him until he tells me everything. You know, I’ll do it."
"Don't bother with Quinn. He doesn't know any more than Jenny."
"Then who do I have to seduce here to get some answers?"
"Well, you might start with me, Miss Page."
Sarah blushed furiously as she spied Lester standing behind Becker. She hadn't intended to make such a scene, in front of her boss, at that. She had only tried to rattle Becker's chains a little.
"Welcome back. I will leave your detailed report until tomorrow," Lester said curtly. "Now back to more pressing matters. How did Temple react to your presence?"
"What do you mean?"
"Did he panic when he noticed you?"
"He was frightened," Sarah answered, a little confused, "But I don't think it had anything to do with me. It seems he was running away from something."
"That something would have been Lieutenant Owen then," Lester said with a sigh.
"Good gracious! What has Ditzy done to him?"
"Nothing. Unfortunately his alter ego has a more sinister side that Connor had the misfortune to get to know. There are also several other people Temple hasn't the best of memories of. So currently we are a little short on people for his supervision. Becker needs to get out in the field occasionally and Kinsley can't hold hands with the boy all the time. So I hope he hasn't encountered you in a negative way in that parallel world and therefore will accept you as another minder. If you would please follow me now."
Becker and Sarah trailed after Lester, Sarah with a smug smile on her face that Lester had trusted her with such secret information whilst Becker didn't look overly happy that Sarah was going to get involved with Connor's care.
Slowly, Cutter came to awareness. He was shackled to a bed. No, not shackled but kept in place by several wires and tubes, he realised as he tried to move his head.
An endotracheal tube had been placed through his nose and a ventilator steadily pushed oxygenated air into his lungs. There was also a drip bag attached to his arm and a catheter inserted into his bladder.
His last visitor must have hurt him more than usual.
Then the details of their attempted escape emerged and fear gripped his heart. They had been caught. He could swear he had heard Mistress Jenny's cruel voice, telling him that she was pleased to have him back.
The temptation to close his eyes and slip back into darkness was strong but his sense of responsibility for Connor won out. He had to protect the boy.
If he took the blame for their flight perhaps they would spare Connor. The mistresses always had been fond of the boy. He even had been allowed to keep his name and sleep in their beds. Besides Connor had been a very obedient slave until their escape. Good slaves were hard to come by these days and worth a fortune.
However, Cutter didn't have any illusions about his own fate. His life was forfeit. He was way too old to bring money on the pleasure market and he was damaged goods after the Duke had passed him around between his soldiers for £5 a pop.
Whores were the dregs of society and considered of even less worth than slaves. A slave who had been whored wasn't worth anything. He would probably end in the biogenetic section of the ARC. Dr Ryan had been trying to get his hands on his brain for ages.
When Cutter heard steps coming close he closed his eyes and pretended to be still unconscious.
But Ditzy wasn't so easily fooled. After checking Cutter's vital signs he quickly moved out of the room and sent Kinsley in. It was better not to be around when Cutter opened his eyes. He didn't want a repeat of the scene with Connor.
"He looked so..."
"Old or aged, I guess is the word you are looking for, Miss Page. Considering for them it has been over four years and they haven't exactly been treated in the best of ways that stands to reason. He doesn't remember you, which is a good thing. So you can begin to become acquainted with him."
Sarah looked searchingly at Becker. She really wasn't suited to playing nurse for a traumatised young man.
But Becker turned away from her with an unreadable expression and walked back into Connor's room.
Cutter hissed as he pulled the catheter out. His nose had started bleeding as soon as he'd removed the endotracheal tube. Blood was now staining his white hospital gown and the bedcover.
He knew that this was his last chance to escape. He had recognized Professor Owen’s cold hands. The bastard was probably already counting the hours until he could cut him open.
Cutter wobbled as he tried to stand up. For a moment everything around him blurred and he almost lost footing whilst taking his first step towards the door.
He made it only to the end of the bed. With his upper body propped against the footboard Cutter took deep breaths to pull himself together. He couldn't collapse now.
Tentatively, Cutter set one foot for the other and was relieved when he didn't falter. He cracked the door open and checked the floor before he decided it was safe enough to give it a try.
Suddenly the life support system behind him gave a beeping noise, loud enough to be heard in the corridor and alarm the guards.
With the last of his strength, Cutter started to run.
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.
"I swear Quinn will be the cause of my early death one day. The idiot has already smashed a chopper, the Hilux and the garden pavilion of a very powerful man with a place in the House of Lords. He's worse than you ever were."
Lester eyed Cutter's face intensely. Hadn't there been a ghost of a smile for a tiny moment? But Cutter lay still and silent. So, now he was starting hallucinating as well. Fantastic.
"You know, Cutter," Lester continued his one-way conversation. "If he would at least show the same attitude towards the animals as you did, I might forgive him some of his exploits. But just last week he ordered the men to shoot at a mammoth to force it back through the anomaly. A Columbian mammoth. Can you imagine? I just hope it wasn't Monty, who we sent back months ago. That would have been a nasty way to repay him for saving my life."
There. This time Lester had clearly seen it. Cutter's finger had moved. And now the finger twitched again. His mind wasn't just playing tricks on him. He covered Cutter's hand gently with his own, feeling the nail of Cutter's middle finger scraping slightly against his wrist.
"Come on, wake up. Connor needs you and Abby and Jenny are missing you terribly."
The movement stopped and Lester wanted to curse himself. Why had he been so stupid to mention their names after all the things Connor had told him about the time in the parallel world?
"Cutter," he whispered almost pleading, hoping for an answering reaction. But there wasn't any. Only the mechanical ventilators were moving in their steady rhythm.
"No!" Connor screamed as Ditzy walked into the examination room, not knowing Kinsley was taking blood samples to control Connor's renal data.
In the last few days Ditzy had avoided facing Connor and only had supervised the interviews over the CCTV.
The next moment, Connor had bolted out of the room and run along the corridor. When the open hospital gown he was wearing hindered him, he shrugged out of it and raced once again completely naked through the ARC.
Connor shot around the corner and speeded towards the swinging doors. With all his strength he propelled himself forwards and collided with Sarah Page who had just entered the building.
Angrily, she fought against the naked, gasping man, who had brought her down and lay now partially on top of her.
She managed to kick him in the ribs and push him away from her.
"Shit," someone panted and knelt down beside the whimpering man, now curling up on the concrete floor.
Sarah looked up and watched, shocked, how the man she'd dated for the last few weeks cradled her attacker gently in his arms and rocked him like a baby.
She had just been gone for four days to survey some Welsh folklore about flying monsters that came through a door from hell and upon return the ARC had turned into a madhouse.
A moment later, Kinsley arrived and helped both men off the floor. Sarah got up on her own and cleared her throat forcefully.
Only then did Becker notice her. He blushed furiously and quickly tried to put some distance between himself and Connor.
"Why didn't you return any of my calls?" Sarah asked accusingly, that question the only sentence she could come up with right now.
"Sarah, I can explain..."
Becker had never been more glad to hear the shrill sound of the ADD.
"Sorry, have to go. Quinn needs me. We'll talk later."
Becker hurried away and left an annoyed medic, a frightened young man and an angry girlfriend in his wake.
Becker crept along the corridor. He knew he’d behaved like a coward. But he was afraid what he was likely to get from Sarah. He never had seen her so angry before. Usually she was the meekness personified, except when she came across a homicidal beetle.
"Don't bother hiding. I already know about what happened. Jenny told me."
Sarah's familiar voice startled Becker and he realised how idiotic he must look right now, almost walking on all fours. Quickly he got up and put a pleading expression on his face.
Sarah tried to look stern but after a moment she sighed with defeat. "Why didn't you get in touch with me? I was waiting for your call the whole four days. I was so anxious I even called Quinn. Didn't get a decent answer out of him, of course, other than that you were safe and sound and your usual pompous self."
"Typical Quinn. One day I'm going to kick his arse."
Becker took Sarah's right hand into his and stepped closer to her. "Sorry for not calling you. I’ve been with Connor almost non-stop. Besides your mobile isn't exactly the safest line. Lester ordered us to keep quiet about their return."
Sarah nodded in understanding. It wasn't the first time they hadn’t been allowed to contact each other when the line didn't seem safe. In the last few months Lester had almost turned paranoid, fearing someone might trace their calls. Sure, the work was exciting but sometimes she hated all that secretiveness and wished she had her old 10 to 6 job at the museum back.
"All right, I get the point. Perhaps I can do some modification to our mobiles to make them more safe. And when you invite me to a fancy restaurant I even might consider forgiving you."
Becker saw the mischievous glint in Sarah's eyes and exhaled in relief.
"I'll make a reservation for the best restaurant in town immediately."
"So that really is Connor. Our Connor who went missing a few months ago? I only could give him a brief once-over but he didn't look much like the young men I remember."
Becker lowered his eyes to the floor. Lester hadn't given detailed instructions about which information was under wraps so he was uncertain if he was permitted to give away the length of time Connor had been away by his own account.
Sarah's brows furrowed in anger. "God, these safety regulations stink. You leave me no other choice but to go to Quinn and flirt with him until he tells me everything. You know, I’ll do it."
"Don't bother with Quinn. He doesn't know any more than Jenny."
"Then who do I have to seduce here to get some answers?"
"Well, you might start with me, Miss Page."
Sarah blushed furiously as she spied Lester standing behind Becker. She hadn't intended to make such a scene, in front of her boss, at that. She had only tried to rattle Becker's chains a little.
"Welcome back. I will leave your detailed report until tomorrow," Lester said curtly. "Now back to more pressing matters. How did Temple react to your presence?"
"What do you mean?"
"Did he panic when he noticed you?"
"He was frightened," Sarah answered, a little confused, "But I don't think it had anything to do with me. It seems he was running away from something."
"That something would have been Lieutenant Owen then," Lester said with a sigh.
"Good gracious! What has Ditzy done to him?"
"Nothing. Unfortunately his alter ego has a more sinister side that Connor had the misfortune to get to know. There are also several other people Temple hasn't the best of memories of. So currently we are a little short on people for his supervision. Becker needs to get out in the field occasionally and Kinsley can't hold hands with the boy all the time. So I hope he hasn't encountered you in a negative way in that parallel world and therefore will accept you as another minder. If you would please follow me now."
Becker and Sarah trailed after Lester, Sarah with a smug smile on her face that Lester had trusted her with such secret information whilst Becker didn't look overly happy that Sarah was going to get involved with Connor's care.
Slowly, Cutter came to awareness. He was shackled to a bed. No, not shackled but kept in place by several wires and tubes, he realised as he tried to move his head.
An endotracheal tube had been placed through his nose and a ventilator steadily pushed oxygenated air into his lungs. There was also a drip bag attached to his arm and a catheter inserted into his bladder.
His last visitor must have hurt him more than usual.
Then the details of their attempted escape emerged and fear gripped his heart. They had been caught. He could swear he had heard Mistress Jenny's cruel voice, telling him that she was pleased to have him back.
The temptation to close his eyes and slip back into darkness was strong but his sense of responsibility for Connor won out. He had to protect the boy.
If he took the blame for their flight perhaps they would spare Connor. The mistresses always had been fond of the boy. He even had been allowed to keep his name and sleep in their beds. Besides Connor had been a very obedient slave until their escape. Good slaves were hard to come by these days and worth a fortune.
However, Cutter didn't have any illusions about his own fate. His life was forfeit. He was way too old to bring money on the pleasure market and he was damaged goods after the Duke had passed him around between his soldiers for £5 a pop.
Whores were the dregs of society and considered of even less worth than slaves. A slave who had been whored wasn't worth anything. He would probably end in the biogenetic section of the ARC. Dr Ryan had been trying to get his hands on his brain for ages.
When Cutter heard steps coming close he closed his eyes and pretended to be still unconscious.
But Ditzy wasn't so easily fooled. After checking Cutter's vital signs he quickly moved out of the room and sent Kinsley in. It was better not to be around when Cutter opened his eyes. He didn't want a repeat of the scene with Connor.
"He looked so..."
"Old or aged, I guess is the word you are looking for, Miss Page. Considering for them it has been over four years and they haven't exactly been treated in the best of ways that stands to reason. He doesn't remember you, which is a good thing. So you can begin to become acquainted with him."
Sarah looked searchingly at Becker. She really wasn't suited to playing nurse for a traumatised young man.
But Becker turned away from her with an unreadable expression and walked back into Connor's room.
Cutter hissed as he pulled the catheter out. His nose had started bleeding as soon as he'd removed the endotracheal tube. Blood was now staining his white hospital gown and the bedcover.
He knew that this was his last chance to escape. He had recognized Professor Owen’s cold hands. The bastard was probably already counting the hours until he could cut him open.
Cutter wobbled as he tried to stand up. For a moment everything around him blurred and he almost lost footing whilst taking his first step towards the door.
He made it only to the end of the bed. With his upper body propped against the footboard Cutter took deep breaths to pull himself together. He couldn't collapse now.
Tentatively, Cutter set one foot for the other and was relieved when he didn't falter. He cracked the door open and checked the floor before he decided it was safe enough to give it a try.
Suddenly the life support system behind him gave a beeping noise, loud enough to be heard in the corridor and alarm the guards.
With the last of his strength, Cutter started to run.