Shades of Grey Chapter 8
Title: Shades of Grey Chapter 8
Author: TalliW
Characters: Stephen Hart, Tom Ryan, Nick Cutter, James Lester, Abby Maitland, Connor Temple, Jenny Lewis, Oliver Leek, Lyle, Finn, Helen Cutter, Ditzy
Rating: K+, T in later chapters
Disclaimer: Primeval is the property of Impossible Pictures. I write just for fun.
Lyle and Finn belong to Fredbassett.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to the wonderful Fredbassett for beta duty.
Summary: Ryan has survived but he isn't the man he was. Can Stephen and Cutter manage to work together to help him? Perhaps Ryan has changed in more ways than it appears on first sight.
Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3
Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7
Chapter 8
"Fuck," Stephen groaned as he came awake again. He certainly hadn't meant to fall asleep on the floor. Next time he had to tell a bedtime story he would have to choose a more comfortable seat.
"That's a bad word," Ryan admonished him from the bed. "You have to wash out your mouth with soap now."
Considering what Ryan had said to some of the people in the ARC, Stephen found Ryan's rebuke more than a little hilarious.
"Grown ups are allowed to use a bad word now and then," Stephen mumbled.
"Really? Not according to my Granny."
Propped up on an arm, Stephen looked up to Ryan. "So she really made you wash out your mouth with soap?" He was horrified someone still might have used such archaic methods in Ryan's childhood.
"Of course not. My Granny would never have made me do such a dreadful thing. I didn't get pudding as a punishment. But Anthony Blevins had to do it at home. A lot."
Ryan jumped out of the bed in his underwear and grabbed his clothes from the end of the bed where he had laid them earlier. Whilst he slipped into his trousers he mumbled quietly, "I miss my Granny and I miss my friends. Can I go visiting Anthony and David some time?"
"I'm afraid not. We live too far away from them now. But I'm sure you’ll find new friends here soon."
The white lie came quite easily to Stephen's lips as he saw no other way. Telling Ryan the truth that all his friends were now adults was out of the question. He had heard shock therapies were seldom successful.
The next moment Stephen cursed himself silently as Ryan asked, "Can we go to the park then? I met David on the playground in our park."
Ryan wasn't a child anymore. To the outer world he was a grown man. That might make it very difficult to find friends in the age group Ryan thought he was currently himself. Anxiously, Stephen looked around the room as if he could find a suitable excuse there. His eyes ended up resting on the back of Ryan’s head.
"Not before you have taken a thorough bath. We have to wash your hair. It looks rather dirty."
"Okay. Tomorrow then."
Stephen was relieved Ryan accepted his declaration so easily. After all Ryan really needed a hair wash. With the blood stains still in his hair he looked quite scary. And that wouldn't only frighten children.
For the next day Stephen was planning another attempt to jog Ryan's memories in taking Ryan to the places the soldier had visited regularly in his free time. At least the places Stephen and Ryan's men knew about. And for that Ryan had to look presentable.
With a little luck Ryan might be himself again by tomorrow night. Then they would all just laugh about Ryan's former demand to go to a playground.
Cutter had made himself comfortable on Stephen's couch in the living room with a book. But a brief glance told Stephen he had drifted off into sleep long since. The book lay forgotten on Cutter's chest and he had an angelic smile on his face that couldn't have been brought about by a book with the title 120 Ways To Impress Your Boss.
Stephen cracked a smirk. He had been given the book by his aunt weeks before Cutter had offered him the job as lab assistant, not knowing how unconventional his future boss would be.
Deciding to let Cutter sleep, Stephen quietly moved towards the bathroom. Cutter was certainly the last person he wanted near a naked Ryan.
Whilst the tub was slowly filling with water, Stephen fetched a large fluffy bath towel from his wardrobe and went in search of some fresh underwear for his guest. In the end he had to call Lyle and ask him to bring some of Ryan's stuff over. There was no way Ryan would ever fit in some of Stephen's tight briefs.
For a while Ryan had been watching Stephen and listened to his call. Then, bored out of his mind, he wandered over to the living room and spied Cutter on the couch.
Snickering, he tiptoed closer to the snoring professor and poked him in the belly. The steady snoring stopped abruptly and went over to grunting. Before Ryan could repeat his action Cutter turned on his side with his face to the back of the seat. The book placed on Cutter's chest slid down on the couch with a dulled plop.
The next moment Cutter started snoring again, this time with an added wheezing at the end.
"Off with you to the bath," Stephen ordered, amused, saving Cutter from a planned tickling attack.
There was a pout on Ryan's face when when he saw the plan surface of the water in the tub.
"No bubbles?" he mumbled, disappointed, his fingers already undoing the straps of his dungarees.
As Ryan began to strip, Stephen realised he might be faced with a dilemma soon. Perhaps bubbles wouldn't be such a bad idea after all.
Stephen opened the bathroom cabinet in hope of finding the bottle of exquisite bubble bath he had bought for his former girl-friend, Alison, after her return from the rainforest. But apparently she had taken it with her when she'd left him, claiming Stephen had changed so much that they didn’t have anything in common any more.
All he found was a bar of handmade castile soap which was stated to have extra glycerin in it.
It wasn't what he had been looking for but eventually it might provide at least a few more bubbles than the liquid soap and shower gel he preferred to use.
Stephen let the soap bar plunk into the tub and experimentally dabbled his hands in the water. Instantly a small amount of bubbles formed on the surface.
Happily, Ryan climbed into the tub and instantly started to twirl his hands and legs to get more bubbles. In no time at all his delicate body parts were covered under soap bubbles.
With a sigh of relief, Stephen sat down on the toilet lid to watch Ryan's childish antics. It was hard to recognise the responsible-minded Special Forces captain in the man now playing with bubbles. In all the time he had known the soldier, Ryan never had really laughed with all his heart.
Whilst Ryan still tried to fill the tub with more bubbles the ringing of the door bell informed Stephen that Lyle had arrived with Ryan's clothes.
Stephen sprinted to the front door, pulled the door open and snatched the bag Lyle held up to him. After mumbling a curt, "Thanks," he was about to close the door in Lyle's face as Cutter stumbled into the corridor, still half asleep.
Lyle used the opportunity to put his leg in the door crack to keep it open. He certainly hadn't driven the whole way to get fobbed off with a simple ‚thank you’.
All of a sudden, a strange noise came from the bathroom, sounding something between a cheer of triumph and a shriek of fear.
Stephen dropped the bag like a hot potato and left Lyle and the door in favour of racing back into the bathroom, worried what might have happened to Ryan.
It was an almost peaceful picture that presented itself to Stephen as he re-entered the bathroom.
Ryan was still sitting in the tub with his bubbles and a half-filled bottle of shampoo floating on the water surface.
Then Ryan dived under water and abruptly surfaced again, creating a tidal wave that washed the plastic bottle to the edge of the tub.
Almost half of the bathroom floor was already covered with water as well.
"Stop it, Tom. You are flooding the entire room. And you might pull your stitches."
"I'm a big, bad sea monster. I have to sink the pirate ship," Ryan answered in a disguised voice.
Quickly Stephen fetched the shampoo bottle out of the water and opened the lid.
"No, the big, bad sea monster has to wash his hair now. Close your eyes and keep them closed."
"But the pirates..."
"I’ll help you sink them later."
Stephen's clothes were a dripping mess when he appeared from the bathroom again. At least the disgusting bloodstains in Ryan's hair, which reminded Stephen every time he’d seen them that Ryan had barely missed death, were now gone.
Lyle and Cutter stopped their talk about Leeds United the moment they caught sight of their rather bedraggled looking friend.
Too worn out to react to Cutter's and Lyle's obvious merriment, Stephen trudged on along the corridor.
"Can you keep an eye on Tom while I get changed?" he asked before he vanished into his bedroom.
Upon Stephen's return in fresh clothes, a dry and dressed Ryan waited for him in the living room. Lyle and Cutter even had managed to shave Ryan's growing beard away. Although Stephen had his doubts, he wanted to know how they had convinced Ryan about the necessity of a shave. Especially as he noticed that Cutter looked well-shaven as well.
Ryan turned deliberately away as Stephen sat down next to him on the couch, a little peeved about Stephen's dirty trick of letting half the water out of the tub before letting him play sea monsters again.
Then to Stephen's shock, Ryan jumped up and grasped Lyle's hand.
"Are we going now, Uncle Jon?"
Ryan's behaviour was like a punch in Stephen's gut. After all the effort he had put in into helping Ryan he was now ignored because of a little drained water and replaced by a man Ryan strictly speaking had only known for less than half an hour. That hurt deeply.
"Where do you plan to take him?" Stephen asked tiredly.
Oblivious to Stephen's pain Lyle answered cheerfully, "I thought we could visit Edwin's pub this evening. We used to hang out there a lot."
"I was planning to go there with him tomorrow."
"Why wait? Now is as a good time as ever."
"Then I hope you have fun."
Perplexed, Ryan's eyes darted to Stephen. He had wanted to punish Stephen for taking all the fun out of his play but he hadn't expected Stephen would refuse to accompany them in return.
Instantly he let go of Lyle's hand and padded over to Stephen. Catching hold of Stephen's left hand he began to pull him torwards the door.
"I'm not going without you," he announced determinedly.
Step by step, Stephen had to move despite the fact that he was trying his best to put up resistance. Ryan had lost his memories but certainly not his strength. Grudgingly, Stephen finally gave in and followed Ryan willingly.
"But only for an hour at most. When I say we have to leave then I want you to obey me without back talk. I don't want a repeat of the discussion we had before the after-lunch nap."
Without realising it, Stephen was emulating his strict stepfather. But his stern expression softened as Ryan beamed with joy at him and declared emphatically, "I promise I'll be good."