Primeval Fanfic: Happy Birthday, Helen!
Title: Happy Birthday, Helen!
Author: TalliW
Characters: Helen, Lester, Nick, Stephen, Leek, Rex, Abby, Jenny
Rating: K
Disclaimer: Primeval are the property of Impossible Pictures. I write just for fun. So don't bother me.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to fredbassett for beta-reading. I couldn't have done it without you.
Helen sat in the Permian and played 'roll a stone' with a dinosaur who stood no higher than her knee.
The funny creature hopped eagerly after the pebble and nudged it back to her with its snout.
But Helen didn't pay much attention to the antics of the small dinosaur.
Today was her birthday and she felt rather alone and depressed.
Perhaps if she had handled some things differently she wouldn't have to sit alone in the past.
There could be balloons and a big birthday cake with cream and chocolate.
There would be people who looked at her proudly and not with disgust.
And there would be Stephen, alive and kicking.
Nick would smile at her warmly and Stephen would joke about his latest adventure in the urban jungle with that sparkle in his blue eyes she'd loved so much.
She even could picture Connor and Abby bickering about some nonsense and Lester standing rigid in a corner still sipping on his first glass of wine while he watched Jenny in her revealing cocktail dress.
Oliver Leek would creep around between them to take some embarrassing snap-shots. Rex would snatch another piece of the cake and finally take a nap behind the cream tart. And in the evening they would all be in high spirits.
But she had made the wrong decisions. Stephen was dead, as well as Oliver Leek. Nick's eyes were cold and red from tears. Abby was devastated, Jenny shaken and Connor had lost his cheerful disposition. Only James Lester was the same stoic man as ever, though she was sure he now had a bit more steel in his eyes.
The little dinosaur looked sadly after her when she walked in the direction of the Anomaly.
If she couldn't have an birthday party today she wanted to be in her own world at least, Helen thought.
Perhaps there was still a bakery open which sold birthday cakes.
Stepping out of the Anomaly in the Forest of Dean was familiar. Here her adventure had started and here her relationship with Nick had crashed.
And her had she met Oliver Leek, the power hungry little weasel who had shot her plans to the wind.
Helen was surprised to see a box, wrapped in red gift wrap and a bilious green ribbon, standing on the small erratic boulder nearby the Anomaly.
She could barely believe it. Someone had remembered her birthday. There was someone left in this world who didn't despise her entirely or see her as the villain. Trusting that the gift was from Nick, she sunk down on the erratic boulder. Perhaps not everything was lost. Perhaps she still had the possibility of a future with a happy birthday party.
With shaking hands she grasped the gift and put it on her knees.
She pushed the gift wrap aside and opened the lid of the box, excitedly. But it didn't contain a lovely present from her cheated husband, only an ugly harlequin on a spiral spring which shot out with a nasty cackle.
At the same time, Helen heard a clicking sound around her as several weapons were loaded and aimed at her head.
"Happy Birthday, Mrs. Cutter. It's my pleasure to arrest you for the crime of attempted murder and conspiracy with criminal intent to destroy national security," James Lester declared with a sneer. This time, Helen could see the steel in his eyes.
When she was conducted under heavy escort, Helen thought that this was the worst birthday of her life. She really should have stayed in the Permian.
With a disconsolate sniff she remembered the funny little dinosaur who now had no one left to play 'roll a stone.'