Home Invasion 1/9
Title: Home Invasion (1/9)
Author: tay_21
Fandom: Primeval
Pairings: Connor/Abby
Rating: Pg-13
Genre: Angst, violence, romance... eventually
Warning/Advertisements: violence
Word Count: 16,256 (total)
Disclaimer: Primeval and its characters belong to Impossible Pictures. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Note: Initially written for deinonychus_1's birthday, I hit a wall and couldn't finish until recently. FINALLY, I finished and I'm only about two to three years late at this time. Thanks to evenstar_estel, fredbassett, prehistoriccat, and sunspecops all of which helped to beta this monstrosity in part or in whole over the course of it's inception. I hope you enjoy it.
Summary: Webster's Online Dictionary: Home Invasion - Noun 1. home invasion - burglary of a dwelling while the residents are at home...There's been a series of armed robberies in and around the estate where Connor and Abby now live with their two children. Everyone in the area is on edge, Connor and Abby included. Many of the robberies have ended badly for the families involved.
(I know it's late, but...) HAPPY BIRTHDAY deinonychus_1!!!!!!!
Artwork by evenstar_estel
Home Invasion
PART I
Abby lay facedown hiding under the bed. Her heart was pounding rabbit fast. The three young thugs had barged into the house about fifteen minutes prior and had proceeded to ransack the house. She didn’t know where Connor was, but she knew they had caught him.
!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!
She had gone into the bedroom to change out of her dirty clothes from a day spent attempting to coax a herd of Deinonychus back through an anomaly. It had been a long and harrowing day with lots of injuries, but thankfully no deaths due to the specialized weaponry they used. She just wanted to relax with Connor in the few minutes she had before the kids got home. They had been home about fifteen minutes, and while she was changing Connor burst through the door and shut it behind him.
“Connor…”
He grabbed her around the middle and pinned her to him clamping his hand over her mouth. That was when she heard it: the footsteps tramping up the stairs and the loud raucous voices.
“We know you’re in here. Come out, come out wherever you are. Come out and face us and you won’t get hurt. We don’t want any trouble, no cops, and no one gets hurt.”
“Quick, Abby, hide. They don’t know you’re here. They only saw me as I ran up the stairs.”
Abby started to shake her head. The footsteps were getting closer.
“Please, Abby, for once in your life will you do as I ask? I have to know that you’re safe.” His eyes were wide and desperate, pleading, willing her to obey him. She nodded. “Under the bed and stay there. I mean it. Don’t come out, no matter what happens, no matter what you hear.” She nodded again and he released her. She dived under the bed and scrambled all the way back up near the headboard.
The door broke open with a force that knocked Connor to the floor. For one second their eyes met and then he got a boot in the face and screamed in pain. Abby watched helplessly as they beat and kicked him. They rolled him onto his front and used the telephone cord they had ripped out of the wall to bind his wrists to his ankles. He wasn’t screaming any more, and that worried her. She could hear his attackers calling instructions to one another. They told each other to search the rest of the house and take the valuables into the main room. One of them grabbed a pillow off the bed and stripped it of its case. He pulled the case over Connor’s head and tied it around his neck, blood already soaking through it.
Abby was shaking with fear and anger. She had promised Connor she’d stay hidden, but he was hurt, he couldn’t fight back any more. He grunted as they pulled him from the room and back down the stairs, his head banging on every step as they went down. She felt hot tears leaking down her cheeks. She wiped at them angrily.
“Hey, John, I think there may be someone else here. Come and have a look at this.”
Abby’s blood ran cold. If they caught her now, Connor’s sacrifice would mean nothing. She glanced around the floor of the room from her hiding spot. She could just reach her bag. She searched for her mobile and almost giggled with joy when she found it. She dialed the police. Nothing. She hung up and tried again. Still nothing. Not even a dial tone. She started to shake again.
“Wake up!” There was the loud crack of a resounding slap and a low moan from Connor.
“Who else is here?” one of the other assailants demanded.
“Nobody,” Connor answered weakly.
“Don’t lie to me. Everything in this flat is set up for a family of at least four. This is no bachelor pad. You’ve got a lot of electronic kit, but you’ve also got house plants, matching dishes and toys.”
There was a commotion, the sickening thud of boots landing against tender flesh, then Connor cried out again.
“Who else is here?”
“No one, I swear.”
“Who else lives here then?”
“My wife.”
“Wife? Who is she?”
“Abby. Abby Temple. She’s away, with the kids, visiting her family. She’s really close to her mum, see?” Abby’s heart sank. Connor was a terrible liar.
“You’re lying.”
There were the horrid sounds of another beating session. Abby didn’t know how much more of this she could take.
She could hear Connor panting and whimpering, then, “No. I swear. There’s no one else here.”
There was another sickening thud and a snapping sound, followed by another scream of pain, then quiet whimpering.
“Search the house again. Look everywhere. His little bitch is here somewhere and the kids might be home too. I don’t want any witnesses.”
If Abby’s blood had run cold before, it was positively glacial now. Why couldn’t she reach anyone on the phone?
“Abby. Aaaaaabby. Aaaaaaaaaabbbbbbyyyyyy.” One of the thugs was singing her name playfully as he started to come up the stairs. “Where you hiding? We will find you. You may as well come out now and face the music.”
She had to think fast.
The answer was staring her in the face. She grabbed the anomaly-opening device that Connor had brought home to work on. She secretly prayed he hadn’t really started to tinker with it yet and it was still working. It had fallen out of his bag onto the floor in the earlier struggle.
She quickly programmed in what she hoped was a relatively safe era for opening an anomaly in her bedroom. It spun open just past the edge of the bed.
“Abby, come out and play or Connor will get hurt even more.”
Abby was frozen with terror. The kids would be home any minute and she had no way of warning them.
“Don’t think of using the phones, we’ve cut the wires and got a jammer to ensure that we’re not interrupted by the police during our time together.”
So that’s how they’d done it. There had been a rash of armed robberies in their little neighborhood. That was why she and Connor had rushed home after their hard day; they didn’t want the kids to be home alone. She knew several of the robberies had ended violently, and she knew she should probably stay hidden. She just needed to buy some time.
She could hear them throwing open closet doors and cabinets, pulling everything out and throwing it on the floor. She could hear glass shattering in the kitchen, drawers opening and being emptied onto the floor. All the while, the voice of the man singing her name got closer and closer. He was opening and closing doors, going from room to room in a very strategic manner. He’d be in her room any second. Apparently he was the only one really looking for her, the rest were enjoying trashing her home.
“Abby, come out or I shoot Connor in the head and we find you and your your children anyway.”
Damn! Abby thought. She was now out of time. The stakes were too high and the balance of power had shifted with that very pragmatic threat. She crawled out from under the bed and with one last look at the swirling anomaly, opened the door and stepped out with her hands up.
“Please. Please don’t shoot him. I’ll do whatever you want.”
She glanced down the stairs and her heart almost stopped. Connor was lying on the floor, tied as she had seen earlier, but they had taken the pillowcase off his head. He was bloody and bruised and had a gun to his head. They had gagged him with some kind of cloth and he was staring up at her, eyes sad and terrified, and wide as saucers. He had a huge gash across the side of his forehead from which blood seeped, flowing down the side of his face, and pooling in a little puddle on the floor. He looked like he was in pain.
Her stomach flipped at the sight of that much blood coming out of him and she thought she might vomit. She took a deep breath; she had to keep her wits about her. She turned and faced the man with the gun pointed at her only a few feet away. He must have been the one searching for her. She slowly descended the stairs until she was on the level with the invaders. She also noted, with another sickening twist in her gut, that Connor's left wrist seemed to be hanging limply at an odd angle; that must have been the snap she heard earlier. She also guessed that one of the thuds had been the sound of the butt of the man’s pistol impacting with the side of Connor’s head.
“Where are your two lovely children? This beautiful boy and the darling little girl. Hmm?”
He pressed the gun against Connor’s head. Connor locked eyes with her for a moment. Abby had to think fast.
“They’re at my mother’s, please just take what you want and leave us alone.”
“You know what is interesting about family photos? They are very telling, you know?” the man in charge asked. Abby was paralyzed with fear. He carried himself a bit like a cowboy out of the Wild West, definitely one of the bad ones though. She held her chin up defiantly, determined not to give anything away.
“What your family pictures are telling me… is that you are lying.” Abby’s eyes darted up to lock with his. He moved the gun from Connor’s head to his shoulder and pulled the trigger. The sound was deafening and she screamed in horror. Connor was screaming himself, but his gag kept him much quieter than he should have been. One of the other assailants came up behind her, grabbed a fist full of her hair, yanked her head back and clamped his hand over her mouth. She fought, struggled, and sobbed, trying desperately to get to Connor. He was panting again now, his eyes squeezed tightly shut against the pain.
“Do I need to shoot him again for you to cooperate and tell me the truth? There is no one in any photo in this house that even remotely resembles a grandparent. Your choice, but keep struggling and he gets another bullet, maybe his knee this time?” He moved the gun until it was pointed at the side of Connor’s right knee. Abby stopped struggling, slumping against the arms of the man that had her pinned against him. He took his hand away from her mouth slowly. Abby pulled in deep shaking breaths.
“Where are your children?”
“On their way home from school,” she said dejectedly, her voice waivering. “They should be home any minute now. They have after school classes that they attend so Connor and I can finish our shifts at work.”
“You work together, how quaint. What do you do?”
“We’re scientists. We work for the government in a research capacity.”
“Hear that, guys, we’re robbing a couple of government scientists, reckon they know any state secrets?” Abby was very glad that no one would believe her anyway, even if she told them the truth.
“We don’t know any secrets, we’re just a couple of lab rats. Please. Please don’t hurt him any more. Take all you want, just leave my husband, my children and me alone.” The man behind her punched her in her right kidney. She cried out and involuntarily tried to twist away from him.
The man holding Abby pulled her hair tighter towards him, “You should speak only when spoken too. I thought you government types were supposed to be all proper and well behaved.” His other hand slid up under her shirt and bra, fondling her roughly.
Abby tried very hard not to cry.
“That’s enough,” the leader with the gun on Connor called. “And what if I want you? You said to take what I want. Was that an invitation?”
Abby looked down at the floor, she knew this is what Connor had been afraid of from the moment they had kicked their way into the house.
The cowboy leader laughed. “For now, tie her up and put her with her husband.” He sneered the last word.
Abby didn’t fight as the man holding her bound her wrists behind her with a length of electrical cord. He forced her to her knees next to Connor. Connor looked back at her, pain and terror etched all over his pale drawn face. Sweat stood out on his forehead and trickled down his neck to mingle with the blood still seeping from his head wound. She tried to reassure him with her eyes. She couldn’t give anything away verbally. She prayed that someone would come and help very soon. She was desperate that any possible help would arrive before their kids got home.
The man behind her shoved her to the ground and she fell heavily to the floor with a grunt. He bound her legs and then secured them to her wrists, tying her in the same manner as Connor. She looked up at the main robber; he seemed quite pleased with himself.
“Please, just take what you want and go. Please go before my kids get home. Leave them out of it. Please.”
“I would very much like to meet your children. I especially want to know if the little girl is as lovely in person as her mother.” Abby saw the anger that flashed in Connor’s eyes. Despite all his pain, he was still trying to defend his little family. “And I want to know if your son is as stupidly brave as his silly father.” He tapped Connor’s wounded shoulder again with the gun, eliciting another agonized groan from Connor.
“Please! Please stop! What do you want? I don’t understand.”
“I like to have fun, and what I find fun is… not very traditional.” He ran his hand down Abby’s spine and over her backside, bringing his palm back to rest on her arse. He rubbed lightly there. She didn’t dare give him the satisfaction of reacting. Connor had his eyes shut with pain again.
There was the sound of children’s laughter on the landing outside. Connor’s eyes snapped open. She could see the living nightmare he was in plain on his face. She was terrified that he might bleed out right here or have a heart attack from the shock and terror of what was happening to them. They couldn’t see the front door from their position on the floor. Abby’s eyes were wide and terrified.
The main gunman put the gun to Connor’s head.
“Not a peep,” he ordered Abby.
What was Abby supposed to do, choose between her husband and her children? She was frozen in terror. She could scream for the kids to run and have Connor executed right in front of her, and in all likelihood her kids would be caught anyway, or she could lay here and be forced to watch her entire family be taken captive and possibly be brutalized by this pack of thugs. She was paralyzed with fear and in the end, did nothing. She couldn’t bear the thought, or the nightmarish images her mind conjured up, of this man blowing Connor’s head off.
The kids came in all joyous and bouncy, laughing and chatting animatedly with each other, not having yet registered what was going on in the room. They couldn’t see their parents bound on the floor. They didn’t even realize there were bad people in their house; the robbers had concealed themselves behind the door. It wasn’t until the door closed shut behind them and they saw the blood on the floor that they stopped talking.
They backed toward the door when the leader stood up and they saw the gun in his hand. “Ahh ahh ahh. Don’t move, kiddies, don’t scream or mummy and daddy might get hurt.”
TO BE CONTINUED...