Fic: Frequently Asked Questions (1/6)
Title: Frequently Asked Questions
Fandom: Primeval
Summary: Emily learns an uncomfortable truth, Abby asks an important question and Lester has a history of trying to keep things together.
Characters: Becker/Stephen, Emily, Jess, Lester, Burton, Matt, Abby/Connor, appearances by and references to other characters, including OCs
Rating: PG-13
Length: ~15900
Beta: fredbassett
Warnings: References to violence, character deaths and multiple timelines. Also deliberately untagged characters, swearing, some sexual references and non-linear storytelling.
Author's Notes: Part 7 of a (very) ongoing series. Thanks to Fred for the beta and Lady Drace for the support when I told her I'd finally managed to finish a fic :)
Previously: React To Contact, Dipt Into The Future, The Past Won't Last, If The Present Is Killed, Things Present and A Whole Lot Of Yesterday.
Series link on AO3: HERE
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
1
“The past is never truly dead, Matthew. You and I both know that.”
Sitting in a quiet garden, surrounded by clean air, blue skies and diverse flora and fauna, none of which he has a birthright to, Matt can only agree.
“Still,” he says, “Stephen Hart could change everything if he’s still alive.”
His father inclines his head. “No more so than Connor Temple or Abby Maitland could, and they have as much experience with the ARC as Stephen Hart, perhaps more.”
“Connor and Abby were born in this timeline,” Matt counters. “Stephen’s a wildcard.”
He hasn’t given Stephen much thought over the last few months but the missing scientist is now a constant distraction.
Matt wonders briefly if this is how Becker feels, when he’s not on duty and doesn’t have an alert or emergency to focus on. He doesn’t know the exact story - the reports are devoid of personal detail, as have been the few attempts at getting to know Becker - but ever since Connor and Abby had returned to the present, just a couple of days earlier, the ARC’s head of security has been an open book, at least to Matt.
“We always knew this was a possibility,” his father says, gently interrupting his thoughts, “that the final playing field might be nothing like the one we first encountered.”
“I know.” Matt knows he’s right. He had just always hoped that the mission would be simpler than it is turning out to be.
o o o o o
There is a canvas print on the wall in Jess’ living room. It’s bright and colourful and reads ‘Everything That Has Ever Happened Has Led You Up To This Moment (Isn’t That Amazing)’.
Becker wants to protest the last part, mostly out of principle, but he can’t help liking the sentiment. At the very least, what’s unfolding now would have been unthinkable to him a few days ago.
Abby and Connor are sandwiching Jenny on the sofa, a bottle of wine open but otherwise untouched on the floor beside them. Matt has pulled up a chair opposite them, quietly observing. The dining table is strewn with takeaway menus as Jess and Lester make simultaneous phone calls. Stephen, Emily and Claudia are going through an ARC-issued first aid kit, making sure no one has missed anything. Becker’s leg gives a sympathy twinge, and he realises he hasn’t thought about his own injury for a couple of days.
It must be getting better, and something must be showing on his face, because Matt’s on his feet and dangerously close to Becker’s personal space now. There’s a quizzical look on his face and a spoken question that Becker didn’t hear a word of, but he shrugs it off anyway.
“All right.” Lester’s voice cuts through the quiet. “Dinner is due to arrive in around forty minutes. I suggest we use that time wisely.”
“How so?” Matt asks.
Lester looks around at everyone, then motions to the table. “How about we start with the basics? Everyone pull up a seat.”
There’s an awkward pause before everyone comes to the table. Jess grabs the folding chairs that she and Lester had brought with them. She has to double back for her desk chair but everyone gets a seat.
Becker finds himself sitting between Stephen and Emily. Claudia is on her other side. Connor, Jenny and Abby are opposite them, and Jess, Lester and Matt squeeze around the narrow end.
It’s surreal but at the same time it feels right.
“So where do we start?” Connor wonders.
o o o o o
Claudia’s reviewing CCTV footage when she sees it.
She rewinds a few seconds, then advances frame by frame. On the screen, black and white images of Helen Cutter and Stephen Hart stare at each other in Stephen’s lab and then Helen produces something. It’s long and cylindrical and Claudia doesn’t recognise it but it gets Stephen’s attention. He stares at it, then back at Helen. Whatever he says is obscured by the angle of his face.
Claudia goes back a couple of frames again and zooms in on the cylinder. “Becker?” she calls out.
The young soldier looks up from where he’s been cataloguing tech debris. “Ma’am?”
Claudia bites back an admonishment. “Have you found anything unusual in the atrium yet?”
Becker shakes his head. “Nothing that didn’t start there. Why?”
She gestures him over to look at the image on her screen. “Helen brought something with her.” Other than the clone, she doesn’t say, still nauseous from the blank-eyed Stepford Nick who had tried to kill them all.
Becker frowns. “Nothing like that has appeared yet. Whatever it is, it might not have survived the blast. I’ll pass on a description, though.”
“Thanks.” Claudia is already focused back on the screen. She presses play and lets the last few minutes of Stephen Hart’s life play out again. She knows most of the silent script. Helen plays Stephen like a fiddle, Stepford Nick reappears with a bomb and instead of running away from the threat Stephen does what he had always done.
He runs back to Helen.
o o o o o
The first order of business is obvious. “We need to find Danny,” Jenny says.
“Yes, we do,” Lester replies. “And that strikes me as a twofold problem.”
“Spaghetti Junction,” Connor says quickly.
“And Ethan,” Emily says. She hesitates. “Or Patrick.”
Matt looks at her. “Let me guess, you didn’t know?”
“No.” Emily shakes her head. “I don’t think he gave any clue that he was anyone other than who he claimed to be. What do you know of Patrick?” She looks around the table.
“Danny’s younger brother,” Jenny says. She sounds reluctant, but she carries on. “He disappeared when they were children, playing in an abandoned house. Danny always thought there was more to it, that’s how he ended up involved with the ARC. Or we ended up involved with him.”
“I suppose the question is why Ethan - Patrick,” Abby winces slightly as she speaks, “pushed Danny through the anomaly. It’s been what, thirty years? If he’s been holding some kind of a grudge all that time, why not just kill him at the house? Sorry,” she tells Jenny quickly.
“To punish him,” Emily says. “All the time I knew him, he was angry. I just... I never thought it could be reserved for a single person.”
“So Danny’s probably alive,” Connor says. He nods a couple of times for emphasis. “Right, enough morbid chat.”
“We need to find Danny,” Jenny says again.
“Spaghetti Junction,” Stephen says, echoing Connor’s earlier statement. He tenses up slightly as everyone turns to look at him.
“How?” Becker asks quietly.
Stephen’s face twists. “The hard way. We would need to map all the anomalies in the cluster. Where and when they lead to.”
“Needle in a haystack,” Connor says. “Oh, god.”
“That would take time we might not have,” Abby points out.
No one disagrees. It’s a hell of a prospect and if it had been anyone other than Danny trapped with Ethan, Becker probably would have stopped this conversation long before it could have started. Sarah isn’t the only reason his protocols are in place, but she’s the one he has the most nightmares about.
“There might be a way, though,” Connor says slowly, interrupting Becker’s train of thought, “for it to not take so long. I’ve been working on this - thing. To date anomalies.”
Matt frowns. “What do you mean?”
Connor shrugs. “In theory it would tell us the date on the other side of an anomaly. But it’s a prototype - not even that, I’ve not been able to run any kind of test outside of lab settings but -”
“But if it’s anything like anything else you’ve built,” Jess interrupts him, “then it might work?”
Connor nods at her. “We could try?” he asks no one in particular. Then he looks at Stephen and Becker.
Becker tries not to squirm. He settles for stretching his shoulders. “If it works, if you can make it work...” Semantics, Connor’s never met a gadget he couldn’t improve on somehow and Becker’s already halfway down the proverbial rabbit hole, what’s a few more broken rules? “... then yes, it makes a search easier.”
A wry grin flashes across Connor’s face.
“I’ll help,” Emily says. “Once you know where the gateways in that valley lead, it may become obvious where Ethan took Danny. I clearly didn’t know everything about him, but I still know more than anyone here. And besides, this is my fault.”
“No, it isn’t,” Jess tells her.
Emily shakes her head. “I brought Ethan here. His actions are his alone, but this would not have happened if we had not tried to help my friend.”
Lester nods. “You do so at your own risk, you realise?”
“I’m quite aware of your limitations, Mr Lester,” Emily replies dryly, “but as you’ve pointed out already, I am not alone.”
“None of you are,” Lester says.
Just how many times he’s going to have to drive that point home, Becker can only imagine.
o o o o o
Christine Johnson makes Claudia’s blood boil.
She stews in her thoughts all the way back to the ARC. She’d thought things had been bad enough when Nick had come back from the Permian and treated her like a stranger - like an enemy. In the time it had taken her to regain some sense of, well, anything, she’d found herself sidelined and then reassigned to the other end of the country by the Minister’s slimy lackey Oliver Leek, who had then calmly taken over her desk at the Home Office and the plans to move into the ARC - and, oh yes, tried to kill everyone.
If she was a petty woman, Claudia would remind Lester of his spectacular lapse in judgement far more than she actually does.
Leek had done quite the job splintering the team in Claudia’s absence, metaphorically and literally. She’d put in all kinds of overtime trying to bring everyone back together after Nick had - after Nick had done what he’d did - only for Christine Johnson to swan in and get under Claudia’s skin into the space the other scars had left. Johnson reminded her of Leek, and in the worst possible ways.
And it wasn’t just Johnson, either. The soldiers who had been accompanying her had recognised Becker, Claudia was sure of it, and Becker had recognised them too. She hadn’t been able to read the whole unspoken exchange, and that bothered her.
Nick and Stephen were dead. Abby and Connor were becoming increasingly co-dependent, unwilling to listen to others. They’d stayed at the ARC that morning, choosing rubble and Helen’s artefact over the anomaly alert. Sarah was likeable enough but she was Stephen’s hire, and there are more motives Claudia isn’t able to question.
The team is broken. As much as she tries, Claudia knows it will take more than her to fix things.
She misses being able to trust people.
o o o o o
Dinner is a sombre affair. There’s too much food and not enough appetite, with the exception of Claudia. She slowly and determinedly eats a heaped bowl of lo mein while everyone tries to not watch too obtrusively.
Connor and Abby start clearing some of the unwanted dishes and bowls, which acts like an unspoken cue. Jenny goes in search of the bathroom, and Matt leans into Emily’s space to whisper something into her ear.
On Becker’s other side, he feels a nudge against his calf.
Stephen has a faintly quizzical look on his face. Nothing obvious, just a quirked eyebrow and a slight tilt of his head.
Becker grimaces a little. I’m fine. Stephen gets the message; he just hopes they both believe it.
“Penny for them,” Lester says quietly. He fixes Stephen with his own quizzical expression.
Stephen shakes his head. He shifts a little in his seat as everyone else turns to face him. “There’s something, but I don’t...”
Lester nods. “When you figure it out,” he says sincerely, “please feel free to share it. We’re all on the same side here, remember?”
The same thing he’d said earlier. It’s not hard to figure out the words are for more than just Stephen’s benefit.
“I will,” Stephen replies, after a few seconds.
Claudia leaves the table with her now empty bowl. Becker tracks her to the kitchen. Jenny’s there, too. He tenses up but just as quickly Stephen nudges his leg again. Becker takes a long breath, and watches Jenny and Claudia give each other wide berths.
He should say something, even do something - he has no idea what, but Becker can’t do nothing. He gets up before anyone - himself included - can stop him. Claudia uses his appearance to slip away, which leaves Becker with Jenny.
“I think I’m supposed to ask how you’re feeling,” he manages, feeling like a complete idiot.
Jenny snorts and leans back against the counter. “I have no idea,” she admits quietly. “I... what do I... oh, bloody hell.”
Yeah. It’s been one of those days.
“Mum cried earlier, when I told her what was happening,” Jenny continues. “The official version, at least. I always hated lying to them, the first time around. But I had the ARC then. I was... I wasn’t alone.”
“It hurts.” Becker looks down at the floorboards, because it’s easier. “Not knowing. We will find him.”
Jenny moves over to stand near, but not quite next, to him. “Can they be trusted?”
Becker looks up at her. “Yes,” he says, even though he doesn’t quite know who she means.
“Are you sure?”
Becker follows Jenny’s gaze back over his shoulder. Emily and Matt are watching them. Stephen is more subtle about it, but Becker knows the signs.
“You heard what Lester said earlier,” Becker tells Jenny. “And if you trust him, you can trust them.”
Jenny considers him, and their audience, for a moment. “I always trusted you. I’ll start there.”
o o o o o
Gunfire sends Claudia scrambling. She dives behind a wall and covers herself with her arms.
Two more gunshots ring out, and a creature shrieks. Probably the bird monster, she thinks dimly. Hopefully this time it’s dead.
She presses herself against the wall, makes herself as small as she can and tries to get her breathing down.
Footsteps move quietly through the tall grass. Claudia tries not to look, but all she can see are two military boots coming her way.
She forces herself to look up.
“There you are,” Becker says softly. He keeps his gun raised, aimed at her as he steps closer still. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you, Miss Brown.”
o o o o o
Onto: Part 2
o o o o o
Fandom: Primeval
Summary: Emily learns an uncomfortable truth, Abby asks an important question and Lester has a history of trying to keep things together.
Characters: Becker/Stephen, Emily, Jess, Lester, Burton, Matt, Abby/Connor, appearances by and references to other characters, including OCs
Rating: PG-13
Length: ~15900
Beta: fredbassett
Warnings: References to violence, character deaths and multiple timelines. Also deliberately untagged characters, swearing, some sexual references and non-linear storytelling.
Author's Notes: Part 7 of a (very) ongoing series. Thanks to Fred for the beta and Lady Drace for the support when I told her I'd finally managed to finish a fic :)
Previously: React To Contact, Dipt Into The Future, The Past Won't Last, If The Present Is Killed, Things Present and A Whole Lot Of Yesterday.
Series link on AO3: HERE
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
1
“The past is never truly dead, Matthew. You and I both know that.”
Sitting in a quiet garden, surrounded by clean air, blue skies and diverse flora and fauna, none of which he has a birthright to, Matt can only agree.
“Still,” he says, “Stephen Hart could change everything if he’s still alive.”
His father inclines his head. “No more so than Connor Temple or Abby Maitland could, and they have as much experience with the ARC as Stephen Hart, perhaps more.”
“Connor and Abby were born in this timeline,” Matt counters. “Stephen’s a wildcard.”
He hasn’t given Stephen much thought over the last few months but the missing scientist is now a constant distraction.
Matt wonders briefly if this is how Becker feels, when he’s not on duty and doesn’t have an alert or emergency to focus on. He doesn’t know the exact story - the reports are devoid of personal detail, as have been the few attempts at getting to know Becker - but ever since Connor and Abby had returned to the present, just a couple of days earlier, the ARC’s head of security has been an open book, at least to Matt.
“We always knew this was a possibility,” his father says, gently interrupting his thoughts, “that the final playing field might be nothing like the one we first encountered.”
“I know.” Matt knows he’s right. He had just always hoped that the mission would be simpler than it is turning out to be.
o o o o o
There is a canvas print on the wall in Jess’ living room. It’s bright and colourful and reads ‘Everything That Has Ever Happened Has Led You Up To This Moment (Isn’t That Amazing)’.
Becker wants to protest the last part, mostly out of principle, but he can’t help liking the sentiment. At the very least, what’s unfolding now would have been unthinkable to him a few days ago.
Abby and Connor are sandwiching Jenny on the sofa, a bottle of wine open but otherwise untouched on the floor beside them. Matt has pulled up a chair opposite them, quietly observing. The dining table is strewn with takeaway menus as Jess and Lester make simultaneous phone calls. Stephen, Emily and Claudia are going through an ARC-issued first aid kit, making sure no one has missed anything. Becker’s leg gives a sympathy twinge, and he realises he hasn’t thought about his own injury for a couple of days.
It must be getting better, and something must be showing on his face, because Matt’s on his feet and dangerously close to Becker’s personal space now. There’s a quizzical look on his face and a spoken question that Becker didn’t hear a word of, but he shrugs it off anyway.
“All right.” Lester’s voice cuts through the quiet. “Dinner is due to arrive in around forty minutes. I suggest we use that time wisely.”
“How so?” Matt asks.
Lester looks around at everyone, then motions to the table. “How about we start with the basics? Everyone pull up a seat.”
There’s an awkward pause before everyone comes to the table. Jess grabs the folding chairs that she and Lester had brought with them. She has to double back for her desk chair but everyone gets a seat.
Becker finds himself sitting between Stephen and Emily. Claudia is on her other side. Connor, Jenny and Abby are opposite them, and Jess, Lester and Matt squeeze around the narrow end.
It’s surreal but at the same time it feels right.
“So where do we start?” Connor wonders.
o o o o o
Claudia’s reviewing CCTV footage when she sees it.
She rewinds a few seconds, then advances frame by frame. On the screen, black and white images of Helen Cutter and Stephen Hart stare at each other in Stephen’s lab and then Helen produces something. It’s long and cylindrical and Claudia doesn’t recognise it but it gets Stephen’s attention. He stares at it, then back at Helen. Whatever he says is obscured by the angle of his face.
Claudia goes back a couple of frames again and zooms in on the cylinder. “Becker?” she calls out.
The young soldier looks up from where he’s been cataloguing tech debris. “Ma’am?”
Claudia bites back an admonishment. “Have you found anything unusual in the atrium yet?”
Becker shakes his head. “Nothing that didn’t start there. Why?”
She gestures him over to look at the image on her screen. “Helen brought something with her.” Other than the clone, she doesn’t say, still nauseous from the blank-eyed Stepford Nick who had tried to kill them all.
Becker frowns. “Nothing like that has appeared yet. Whatever it is, it might not have survived the blast. I’ll pass on a description, though.”
“Thanks.” Claudia is already focused back on the screen. She presses play and lets the last few minutes of Stephen Hart’s life play out again. She knows most of the silent script. Helen plays Stephen like a fiddle, Stepford Nick reappears with a bomb and instead of running away from the threat Stephen does what he had always done.
He runs back to Helen.
o o o o o
The first order of business is obvious. “We need to find Danny,” Jenny says.
“Yes, we do,” Lester replies. “And that strikes me as a twofold problem.”
“Spaghetti Junction,” Connor says quickly.
“And Ethan,” Emily says. She hesitates. “Or Patrick.”
Matt looks at her. “Let me guess, you didn’t know?”
“No.” Emily shakes her head. “I don’t think he gave any clue that he was anyone other than who he claimed to be. What do you know of Patrick?” She looks around the table.
“Danny’s younger brother,” Jenny says. She sounds reluctant, but she carries on. “He disappeared when they were children, playing in an abandoned house. Danny always thought there was more to it, that’s how he ended up involved with the ARC. Or we ended up involved with him.”
“I suppose the question is why Ethan - Patrick,” Abby winces slightly as she speaks, “pushed Danny through the anomaly. It’s been what, thirty years? If he’s been holding some kind of a grudge all that time, why not just kill him at the house? Sorry,” she tells Jenny quickly.
“To punish him,” Emily says. “All the time I knew him, he was angry. I just... I never thought it could be reserved for a single person.”
“So Danny’s probably alive,” Connor says. He nods a couple of times for emphasis. “Right, enough morbid chat.”
“We need to find Danny,” Jenny says again.
“Spaghetti Junction,” Stephen says, echoing Connor’s earlier statement. He tenses up slightly as everyone turns to look at him.
“How?” Becker asks quietly.
Stephen’s face twists. “The hard way. We would need to map all the anomalies in the cluster. Where and when they lead to.”
“Needle in a haystack,” Connor says. “Oh, god.”
“That would take time we might not have,” Abby points out.
No one disagrees. It’s a hell of a prospect and if it had been anyone other than Danny trapped with Ethan, Becker probably would have stopped this conversation long before it could have started. Sarah isn’t the only reason his protocols are in place, but she’s the one he has the most nightmares about.
“There might be a way, though,” Connor says slowly, interrupting Becker’s train of thought, “for it to not take so long. I’ve been working on this - thing. To date anomalies.”
Matt frowns. “What do you mean?”
Connor shrugs. “In theory it would tell us the date on the other side of an anomaly. But it’s a prototype - not even that, I’ve not been able to run any kind of test outside of lab settings but -”
“But if it’s anything like anything else you’ve built,” Jess interrupts him, “then it might work?”
Connor nods at her. “We could try?” he asks no one in particular. Then he looks at Stephen and Becker.
Becker tries not to squirm. He settles for stretching his shoulders. “If it works, if you can make it work...” Semantics, Connor’s never met a gadget he couldn’t improve on somehow and Becker’s already halfway down the proverbial rabbit hole, what’s a few more broken rules? “... then yes, it makes a search easier.”
A wry grin flashes across Connor’s face.
“I’ll help,” Emily says. “Once you know where the gateways in that valley lead, it may become obvious where Ethan took Danny. I clearly didn’t know everything about him, but I still know more than anyone here. And besides, this is my fault.”
“No, it isn’t,” Jess tells her.
Emily shakes her head. “I brought Ethan here. His actions are his alone, but this would not have happened if we had not tried to help my friend.”
Lester nods. “You do so at your own risk, you realise?”
“I’m quite aware of your limitations, Mr Lester,” Emily replies dryly, “but as you’ve pointed out already, I am not alone.”
“None of you are,” Lester says.
Just how many times he’s going to have to drive that point home, Becker can only imagine.
o o o o o
Christine Johnson makes Claudia’s blood boil.
She stews in her thoughts all the way back to the ARC. She’d thought things had been bad enough when Nick had come back from the Permian and treated her like a stranger - like an enemy. In the time it had taken her to regain some sense of, well, anything, she’d found herself sidelined and then reassigned to the other end of the country by the Minister’s slimy lackey Oliver Leek, who had then calmly taken over her desk at the Home Office and the plans to move into the ARC - and, oh yes, tried to kill everyone.
If she was a petty woman, Claudia would remind Lester of his spectacular lapse in judgement far more than she actually does.
Leek had done quite the job splintering the team in Claudia’s absence, metaphorically and literally. She’d put in all kinds of overtime trying to bring everyone back together after Nick had - after Nick had done what he’d did - only for Christine Johnson to swan in and get under Claudia’s skin into the space the other scars had left. Johnson reminded her of Leek, and in the worst possible ways.
And it wasn’t just Johnson, either. The soldiers who had been accompanying her had recognised Becker, Claudia was sure of it, and Becker had recognised them too. She hadn’t been able to read the whole unspoken exchange, and that bothered her.
Nick and Stephen were dead. Abby and Connor were becoming increasingly co-dependent, unwilling to listen to others. They’d stayed at the ARC that morning, choosing rubble and Helen’s artefact over the anomaly alert. Sarah was likeable enough but she was Stephen’s hire, and there are more motives Claudia isn’t able to question.
The team is broken. As much as she tries, Claudia knows it will take more than her to fix things.
She misses being able to trust people.
o o o o o
Dinner is a sombre affair. There’s too much food and not enough appetite, with the exception of Claudia. She slowly and determinedly eats a heaped bowl of lo mein while everyone tries to not watch too obtrusively.
Connor and Abby start clearing some of the unwanted dishes and bowls, which acts like an unspoken cue. Jenny goes in search of the bathroom, and Matt leans into Emily’s space to whisper something into her ear.
On Becker’s other side, he feels a nudge against his calf.
Stephen has a faintly quizzical look on his face. Nothing obvious, just a quirked eyebrow and a slight tilt of his head.
Becker grimaces a little. I’m fine. Stephen gets the message; he just hopes they both believe it.
“Penny for them,” Lester says quietly. He fixes Stephen with his own quizzical expression.
Stephen shakes his head. He shifts a little in his seat as everyone else turns to face him. “There’s something, but I don’t...”
Lester nods. “When you figure it out,” he says sincerely, “please feel free to share it. We’re all on the same side here, remember?”
The same thing he’d said earlier. It’s not hard to figure out the words are for more than just Stephen’s benefit.
“I will,” Stephen replies, after a few seconds.
Claudia leaves the table with her now empty bowl. Becker tracks her to the kitchen. Jenny’s there, too. He tenses up but just as quickly Stephen nudges his leg again. Becker takes a long breath, and watches Jenny and Claudia give each other wide berths.
He should say something, even do something - he has no idea what, but Becker can’t do nothing. He gets up before anyone - himself included - can stop him. Claudia uses his appearance to slip away, which leaves Becker with Jenny.
“I think I’m supposed to ask how you’re feeling,” he manages, feeling like a complete idiot.
Jenny snorts and leans back against the counter. “I have no idea,” she admits quietly. “I... what do I... oh, bloody hell.”
Yeah. It’s been one of those days.
“Mum cried earlier, when I told her what was happening,” Jenny continues. “The official version, at least. I always hated lying to them, the first time around. But I had the ARC then. I was... I wasn’t alone.”
“It hurts.” Becker looks down at the floorboards, because it’s easier. “Not knowing. We will find him.”
Jenny moves over to stand near, but not quite next, to him. “Can they be trusted?”
Becker looks up at her. “Yes,” he says, even though he doesn’t quite know who she means.
“Are you sure?”
Becker follows Jenny’s gaze back over his shoulder. Emily and Matt are watching them. Stephen is more subtle about it, but Becker knows the signs.
“You heard what Lester said earlier,” Becker tells Jenny. “And if you trust him, you can trust them.”
Jenny considers him, and their audience, for a moment. “I always trusted you. I’ll start there.”
o o o o o
Gunfire sends Claudia scrambling. She dives behind a wall and covers herself with her arms.
Two more gunshots ring out, and a creature shrieks. Probably the bird monster, she thinks dimly. Hopefully this time it’s dead.
She presses herself against the wall, makes herself as small as she can and tries to get her breathing down.
Footsteps move quietly through the tall grass. Claudia tries not to look, but all she can see are two military boots coming her way.
She forces herself to look up.
“There you are,” Becker says softly. He keeps his gun raised, aimed at her as he steps closer still. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you, Miss Brown.”
o o o o o
Onto: Part 2
o o o o o