New Tracks, Part 11
"New Tracks" by Aelfgyfu
PARTS: 20 plus epilogue
RATING: FRT (fan-rated teen: violence, occasional bad language)
CATEGORIES: Drama, angst, hurt/discomfort, some humour; AU, fix-it
SUMMARY: Noel Miller tries to find his place on Nick Cutter's team; Stephen Hart tries to find his way back onto the team; and Nick has to deal with them, creatures from the past, and his own stubbornness.
SPOILERS: Everything through 2.07 and my own story "Fresh Scars"
WARNINGS: Some tasteless humour, some medical detail
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Many thanks to Brilliant Husband (dudethemath), kristen_mara, and lukadreaming, all of whom acted as betas and made many helpful suggestions and corrections. All remaining errors, infelicities, and poor judgement are my own.
DISCLAIMER: Primeval and its characters are owned by Impossible Pictures, ITV Productions, M6 Films, Pro 7, and possibly other entities I couldn't easily find on IMDb. No copyright infringement is intended, and indeed the story probably won't make sense unless you've watched. So watch the show, buy the DVDs, etc. I do not profit from fic except insofar as comments make me happy.
Additional notes and links to all posted parts at this story's launch page
Previous Part: 10
Chapter 4: Herbivores
Stephen's week could only get better after the first two days. He had plenty more grist for Dr Jacobs's mill. He had learned, to his surprise, that talking things out with someone who wouldn't get upset helped. Maybe Jacobs even helped. Stephen had hated the idea of changing flats because of Helen when Connor first suggested it, but Jacobs said that thinking of it as giving in to Helen was the wrong way to approach it. Stephen had no doubt that she'd find him again if-no, when-she wanted, but he didn't have to make it easy on her. He'd never even been all that attached to the flat. It was a place to sleep and sometimes to eat. He'd gone on so many trips over the last several years that some of his things remained in storage; he'd never even moved them to this flat.
Connor and Abby seemed thrilled to help him hunt for a new place, and he caught their excitement in spite of himself. If nothing else, it would get him out more.
Physio continued at a glacial pace, but Maria told him that if his cast came off as planned at the end of this week, next week he could start a little swimming. When he was discouraged, she pulled out his chart and reminded him of how he'd done in his first few sessions. He would have preferred not to remember, but he couldn't deny her point.
Cutter seemed more at ease after his blow-up over the job offer, as if he'd been waiting for something to happen. Or maybe it was that something had happened and they'd both lived to tell about it-or not to talk about it.
Miller remained reserved, and Stephen wasn't sure if that was just Miller, or if it was his reaction to Stephen. He still missed Ryan, with whom he'd got on well from the start. However, Miller proved a strong student, at least for the limited amount Stephen could teach him without real field work. They visited CMU's collection again. Not only was Miller's memory good, but he also could take what he'd learned and apply it to photos he hadn't seen before. He had enthusiasm for the work, but he squirmed a little when Stephen complimented him. Miller seemed much more comfortable with Abby and Connor.
Meanwhile, Stephen made a point of meeting the new vet. Henrietta Farnam looked to be in her mid-50s, with long grey hair pulled back in a bun. She seemed happy to meet him, and she gladly introduced him to the mammoth, and to Thelma and Louise, as Connor had named the two young hadrosaurs they'd picked up while Stephen was in hospital. She laughed when Stephen said Connor should have his naming privileges revoked.
The hadrosaurs didn't seem to match any known genus, let alone species, so Stephen began a subtle campaign to start Nick writing again, suggesting he take another look at known hadrosaur finds and see if he couldn't use his inside knowledge to reclassify a few fossils. Cutter always grumbled about writing. He had trouble with first drafts, he hated revising, and so on, and so forth. For all his complaints, though, he seemed happier when he wrote.
Then Friday arrived, and the cast came off, and Stephen went from elation at finally having both hands free again to the hard realisation of how much strength he'd lost. He'd known intellectually that his right hand would be much weaker from lack of use, despite the exercises he'd begun while still in the cast, but feeling it was different. He'd also been able to type with that hand for a couple of weeks now, so he'd fooled himself into thinking it worked properly.
Stephen felt as though he had to keep his spirits up for the others, though. They were very pleased to see him return to work with no cast. Staying at Cutter's place meant he had little private time to feel sorry for himself. That was a good thing: he'd done more than enough of that already.
***
The night that Nick found Stephen up and pacing at 2 am, he almost felt relieved. He'd been able tell from Stephen's face that he hadn't been sleeping as well as he should, but his friend brushed off inquiries. He didn't want to violate Stephen's privacy by checking on him in the night, but he could hardly be faulted for this inquiry.
"I didn't mean to wake you" was, of course, the first thing Stephen said.
"I was already awake," Nick told him. "Bad dream-you've had the same, I imagine?"
Stephen might have nodded or shrugged; it was too dark to tell. Nick turned on the landing light.
Stephen blinked several times, taking his left arm from where it was curled around his right to rub his eyes. He didn't have his walking stick.
"How about a drink?" Nick asked.
Stephen laughed nervously. "I forgot to ask Dr Gupta if I can have alcohol again. I haven't had any since...."
"I won't give you much, don't worry." Nick started down the stairs. He wanted to ask if Stephen needed his stick, but the less he said, the better. Stephen might talk more if Nick didn't fuss.
"I didn't think I'd wake you. I couldn't go down the stairs because, well, you know how they creak," Stephen said, still apologising.
Nick had heard him only because he'd been having trouble sleeping himself. He poured them each a couple of fingers of whisky. It wasn't enough, really.
"You know, part of the whole point of staying here is so that you don't have to go through this alone," Nick said as they sat down.
"I thought it was so the soldiers would only have to watch one house," Stephen mumbled into his tumbler. "Just kidding," he said, glancing up at Nick. Except that he probably wasn't, or not entirely.
Nick tried to hold his gaze. "I don't give a damn how many houses they have to watch. It scared the hell out of me when Helen called me on your mobile. All I could think was that if you were all right, you wouldn't be letting her call me on your phone."
Stephen frowned uncertainly.
"At least if you're here, I know you're safe," Nick continued. How hard could this be to comprehend?
"But Abby and Connor-"
"Abby and Connor didn't nearly get torn apart by a horde of animals!" Nick tried to keep the exasperation out of his voice. Stephen wasn't usually this dense-or this insecure.
"Abby was taken by giant seal-like creatures-"
"And came home without a scratch. And nobody has broken into her flat since she's had it. They may not be safe on the job, but I think they, at least, are safe in their flat." Unlike Nick and Stephen, whom Helen might accost anywhere.
Stephen took rather too large a mouthful of whisky and then smothered a cough with his arm-the arm that didn't have a cast now.
"Do you dream about it?" Nick asked gently. He didn't want to hear the answer, but he thought Stephen might need to say it.
"About Helen breaking into my flat?" Stephen tried to smirk at him. The result looked a little desperate.
"Stephen!"
Stephen took a smaller sip and set down his glass. "You don't need to hear about my dreams. You have your own." His arms went around his midsection again.
"I'm not the one who was up pacing," Nick reminded him.
"Do you want to talk about your dreams?"
"No!" Nick replied at once.
"Then why would I?" Stephen looked down at his arms and let go of himself deliberately. He reached out for the tumbler and took a last swallow before setting it down again, looking at Nick calmly.
Nick had no answer for that. He finished his own drink. He'd like to have another, but he could hardly pour himself more and deny it to Stephen. One drink should be all right. Hell, he'd had more when on painkillers himself. Still, he didn't want to take risks with Stephen's health.
"It's okay, Cutter," Stephen said gently, as if Nick had been the one up pacing. "Honestly... I'm glad to know you're all right, too. Sometimes... in my dreams... you aren't."
God. In all the horrors that piled atop each other after they found Leek's bunker, Nick had forgotten that Helen had told Stephen they were all dead. Now he remembered the stunned look on Stephen's face when he had seen Nick alive, and the horror as he turned to Helen and asked her what she'd done.
"It's enough...." Stephen continued, or tried to continue. "I can talk about my dreams with Jacobs. Whether I want to or not." He offered another weak smile. "But right now, it's good... to know that you're here. And Connor and Abby are fine, because if one weren't, the other would tell us."
"Does that help?" Nick asked. "Talking with Jacobs?" He'd never asked before.
Stephen arched his eyebrows. "Sometimes. Sometimes, it's annoying. He can't ever let anything be."
Nick had suspected as much. That was why he had no intention of seeing the man-or any other head-shrinker.
"But... he helps put things in perspective." Stephen smiled challengingly. "You might try it sometime."
"If you're still having the dreams, what's the point?" Nick said, a little more gruffly than he'd meant.
"Maybe I have them less than I would. Maybe not. But that's not all we talk about." Stephen shifted, looking away.
Nick didn't want to know what else they talked about. He stared into his empty glass. Maybe if he could get Stephen back upstairs, he could have a little more on his own. No, furtive drinking was a bad sign. When he looked back at Stephen, Stephen was still looking at him, apparently waiting for a response. Well, tough. If he was going to try to convince Nick to see a psychiatrist, he'd have to do all the talking himself.
"Ready to try to get back to sleep?" Nick asked, standing.
Stephen went back upstairs, Nick following. Nick didn't hear anything else from him that night.
***
Noel found himself getting a little restless as another Monday came, making two weeks without an anomaly. He knew he should appreciate the calm, and especially the fact that no one was getting hurt, but he was itching to do something. He'd studied until he dreamed of animal tracks and droppings, but he had no way to know yet whether he could put this knowledge to any use. Ms Lewis dropped by to talk to him-Jenny, she wanted him to call her. She said she wanted to get to know him, now that he was on the team, and that she'd waited too long already. He didn't understand her point, but he chatted with her as best he could. She didn't seem a bad sort, as far as professional liars went. Well, someone had to do it. Military intelligence had people for that sort of thing, and Noel tried to remember to think of Jenny's work that way. Still, he didn't like it, and he didn't feel quite comfortable with her.
His team-mates definitely had better hand-to-hand and shooting skills than when he'd started. He could only train them on quiet days, so that was all to the good. The more opportunity they had to practise their skills, the better prepared they'd be for the next anomaly.
Noel learned that he wasn't the only one restless at the lack of action. The next morning, a drizzly Tuesday, found him helping Connor run some diagnostics on the ADD, because Connor worried that no alarms meant they were missing something. Abby and Hart had brought work into the main atrium as well. They seemed to like to be around people, even when they weren't talking to them. Neither of them seemed to be terribly interested at first when the conversation turned to Star Trek: the relative merits of the different ships and then their captains.
"Captain Kirk is still the best," Connor insisted. "Youngest captain in the history of Starfleet, assembled the greatest crew the galaxy had ever known-"
"No, no. Kirk was all ego. Now Captain Sisko, or Picard-that was leadership," Noel answered firmly.
"Hey, you're forgetting Janeway!" Hart objected suddenly, to Noel's amazement. He didn't even know the man watched Star Trek, or that he'd been listening.
But Noel couldn't let that answer pass without challenge. "Janeway? Janeway was a nutter! She demoted Tom Paris citing the Prime Directive, but the Prime Directive didn't even come into play, because that planet already had warp drive!"
"I haven't seen all the episodes," Hart admitted. No real surprise there.
"He has a thing for older women," Abby joked, but Connor gasped, and then Abby's eyes opened very wide. She put her hand to her mouth. Stephen looked away. Noel glanced around, but he could see no sign of Cutter. Good, because the professor being present was the one thing that could make this conversation even worse.
"Hey!" Connor broke the awkward silence. "I know how we can settle this! Video night! We'll watch-"
The poor lad seemed surprised when everyone groaned. It had been a game try, anyway.
"Sorry, mate." Noel at least had a good excuse. "I'm married, remember? The nights I'm not assigned here, I spend with her."
"Oh, right. Erm-" Connor looked downcast for a moment, then looked hopeful again. "She can come too!"
Noel moaned louder.
"It's okay," Abby assured Noel. "We understand. Not everyone is as into Star Trek as Connor is."
"That's not the problem," Noel admitted, his brain running a little behind his mouth. "The problem is, she'd be so excited, she'd want to bring the popcorn!" Now that he'd admitted it, he was in trouble.
"Probably without setting the microwave on fire, even!"
The group again fell into a horrified silence at Hart's words.
"What?" Hart looked truly surprised. Had he not had a flashback triggered by the smell, as they'd concluded, or did he think that no one else suspected? "Connor, I think the man who invented the ADD out of spare parts and built a moon rover from a hair dryer can take a little teasing when he can't operate kitchen equipment!"
"And that was my hair dryer, too, and you promised you'd replace it!" Abby pointed an accusing finger at Connor, obviously glad to change the subject.
"Why do you even need a hair dryer?" Noel asked her. "Your hair is shorter than anybody's but mine!" Satisfied with his part in turning the conversation away from sensitive topics, he picked up his mug again.
Hart gave him a condescending look, then turned to address Abby. "Obviously, he doesn't realise that perfection like this doesn't come simply from towelling off." He fluffed his own messy hair with his fingers.
Noel nearly choked on his coffee. "No, I thought it came from not even bothering to use a towel!"
At Hart's look of surprise, Noel wondered if he'd gone too far. After all, he didn't really know this man. Then Hart started laughing. "Abby said you had a sense of humour," he said, "but I've been taking her word for it until now."
Noel shrugged. He generally tried not to let it show at work. His father always said it would get him in trouble.
"So... does this mean we're on for Star Trek Captains' Night, or not?" Connor didn't know when to quit.
Noel was saved by the bell, or rather the anomaly detector going off. As they went to get ready, leaving a visibly anxious Hart at the ADD control panel, Noel felt guilty for wishing for something to happen. It had, however, spared him not only boredom but also a conversation from which he couldn't seem to extract himself safely. He didn't want to hurt Connor's feelings, but he had no desire either to miss time with his wife or bring Jessica to watch Star Trek with this lot. Connor talked too much, and he would surely let something slip about their work.
Jessica had not been happy about the alarm system the ARC had installed after Lester learned that Helen Cutter had shown interest in Noel's name. Noel thought it for the best, especially with his wife often there alone, but he'd been hard put to explain it. He told her lamely that he might have attracted the interest of spies, that they posed no threat to her safety or his, but that there was a small chance they'd break in looking for information. It was the truth, because Helen was a spy of sorts, though working only for herself. Noel was relieved not to have to lie. He didn't want to lie to his wife, but he also didn't want to tell her anything that might put her in danger.
When the team met at the Hilux, Noel learned that the anomaly's location had been narrowed to a school. His blood ran cold as he heard that. Jenny Lewis had already left with a team of soldiers, and she was supposed to ensure that the school was evacuated and the children, faculty, and staff moved to a safe distance. God, he was glad she seemed to be very good at her job.
It felt as though it took forever to reach the school. Ms Lewis had assured them by phone while they were still en route that everyone had been taken to a place of safety. In the meantime, she'd learned that a chemistry teacher had seen an unusual light and heard odd sounds in a stairwell. The teacher had sounded an alarm, thinking the bright light some kind of fire at first, but then a large lizard had appeared. The witness had been quite certain that it was a lizard and could even offer a rough description of its size and colour. They put her on the phone to Cutter, who had quickly handed her off to Abby with some excuses about driving. Abby seemed to be having difficulty getting information without giving any in return.
Connor nearly convulsed with silent laughter when Abby insisted, "If you give us a description, we might be able to tell if it matches one of the costumes that has been reported stolen from a nearby shop."
They couldn't hear the words on the other side of the conversation, but the tone made it quite clear this woman wasn't going to be easy to fool.
"Yes, evacuating the school was probably an overreaction, but better safe than sorry, right?" Abby said cheerily before ending the call.
"I'm told," she informed them, "that we have a lizard with a duck-like bill-"
"A hadrosaur? Maybe we can bring the others back!" Connor cut Abby off without regard for courtesy or his own safety. It was probably lucky she was in the front with Cutter and Connor was behind Cutter, where she couldn't easily reach him, given the glare he got.
Abby frostily confirmed that that might be the case.
"Since you have my phone," Cutter told her between curses at other drivers, "perhaps you could call Stephen, tell him to have the hadrosaurs readied for transport in case, and check the location against one where we found the first two? Perhaps it's a fault line like-"
"Oh, I've got the headset!" Connor said, triumphantly pulling a slightly mangled headset out of one of his many pockets. "I'll give him a ring."
"You do that," Abby said, lowering the hand with the phone. She still sounded annoyed, but Noel also knew her well enough by now to know that it would soon pass.
They arrived at the school more than half an hour after the ADD had sounded because of the rush hour traffic. Noel wondered how he might gently suggest that he drive next time. Connor looked a little green and was the first out of the Hilux, stumbling a little as he climbed out.
Armed with the handheld ADD, Connor led them to the anomaly easily enough. Brown and green streaks on the steps confirmed that something had come through, and the trail went down the stairs to the ground floor. Unfortunately, at that point, the short trail of vegetation ended, and the mud and water tracked in by students merged with the mud and water from the creature.
"I don't suppose it turned around and went back?" Connor said hopefully.
Noel began to examine the floor very carefully while trying to block out Connor describing the scene over his headset to Hart.
After ten minutes, Noel was ready to tear his hair out (or would have been, if it hadn't been too short to pull). He hadn't a clue which way the creature had gone, and everyone was standing around waiting for him to do something so that they wouldn't further muck up the tracks. More soldiers were checking the outside of the school; the only good news was that they'd seen nothing yet. Professor Cutter insisted that no one else enter except a few soldiers to guard the anomaly itself, because extra people might obliterate tracks.
Noel would start down what he thought might be a track and then decide it wasn't, and then he'd do it again. The Professor had hauled Connor back up the stairs to send the rover through the anomaly, which proved a task in itself. They had to hold it and guide it gently into the anomaly, praying that nothing came through while they were right there. Then they retreated to a safe distance to look at the video feed.
Noel was grateful for the quiet at first, but Abby and two soldiers staring at him didn't make him feel any better.
"I don't know that Stephen would even be able to track it in here," said Abby at last. "I can't make anything of it myself."
"Well, why don't you ask him?" Connor clambered back down the stairs with the rover he'd retrieved. He tried to hand it over to Cutter, who simply looked at him sideways, so Noel took it off his hands. His hands now free, Connor pulled off his headset and announced to everyone, Hart included, what he was doing.
Noel abandoned his brief attempt to clear mud and plant substances from the rover to put the headset on, pulling his radio earbud reluctantly from his ear. He still had the radio itself. He should look into getting an earbud for the mobile so that he could keep the radio earbud in the other ear.
"Oh, thank God!" a tinny version of Hart's voice said in his ear. "I thought Connor was going to keep narrating everything to me!"
Noel tried to explain how he'd lost the trail, but Hart cut him off. "Have Connor put the rover on the floor, tilt the camera down a little, and start transmitting again."
Making that simple request turned Noel into the conduit between Cutter and Hart. From the rover's recce through the anomaly, they had determined that they probably did have the right era, or near enough, so the Professor wanted the hadrosaurs back at the ARC prepared for transport.
Connor eagerly set the rover on the floor, hitting the transmit button and repositioning the camera repeatedly until Hart complained of vertigo, but Noel managed to get the camera pointed at what Hart agreed was probably the best angle.
"So?" asked Cutter.
"Well?" said Abby.
Connor grinned at him.
"Hang on, I'm taking control of the rover," Hart said, and Noel had to relay the words to the little crowd. Maybe he should get some kind of speakerphone.
The rover went forward, looped slightly, and hit a wall.
"Wait a minute, this is harder than it looks," came the voice in Noel's ear.
Abby gave Noel a look as if he'd crashed the rover.
The rover reversed straightened out a bit, and then went right back into the wall.
"Now that's not fair! Maybe Connor should operate it...." Stephen muttered.
The rover reversed again. Connor must have had the same thought as Hart, because he'd started patting himself down, having apparently misplaced his own controls already. Noel wondered if it wouldn't be easiest for him to pick the thing up and carry it.
"I let this man drive?" Professor Cutter asked incredulously.
"He drives better than you do," Abby said, but she was watching the little machine with disgust herself.
"Stephen hasn't had any practice on it! I should have given him some...." Connor fumbled his own controls back out of a pocket. "Maybe I should...."
"This is a lot harder than it looks," Hart said, his voice tight with concentration, "but I think I'm getting the hang of it."
The rover had begun to move up and down the hall in a more or less rational way.
"Well?" Abby asked.
Cutter and Connor both looked expectantly at Noel too.
"Anything, sir?" Noel asked politely. He could hardly criticise when he couldn't see anything himself.
"There's too much reflection," Hart said, his voice even tenser. "It looks like there's water all over the floor."
"Yes, there is," Noel answered.
"I don't think the video quality is good enough. I'm getting blinding glare, and I can't see the level of detail I need. Do you see any scratches on the floor? Or did they wax recently?"
Noel knelt down, then touched the floor. "There's scratches. It's hard to see with so much water."
"Damn." Hart sighed. "Sorry to do this to you, but I don't think I'm going to be much help. Look, if you can find the scratches, look for deep ones."
"Oh!" Noel should have thought of it himself. "It's going to be heavier than your average schoolkid, isn't it?"
"Heavier even than most headmasters, and not wearing galoshes." Hart sounded a little less tense. "Look, tell the others I'm giving up on the rover, right?"
Noel relayed the message and then cast about for scratches, anything unusually deep.
"If they have waxed at all recently," Hart said, "you might be able to see any trail from the light reflecting off the surface. I only get blurs on the camera, but where you've got dry bits, they should be less reflective than the rest of the floor if they've been scratched."
Bloody hell-Hart was right. Noel found some gouges in the floor. They weren't anything he'd have recognised as tracks, but they were deep enough to get under whatever coated the floor, so there were patches that were less shiny. Noel kept losing them in the changing light and puddles of water, but slowly he found what might be a trail. The others followed him.
Part 12
PARTS: 20 plus epilogue
RATING: FRT (fan-rated teen: violence, occasional bad language)
CATEGORIES: Drama, angst, hurt/discomfort, some humour; AU, fix-it
SUMMARY: Noel Miller tries to find his place on Nick Cutter's team; Stephen Hart tries to find his way back onto the team; and Nick has to deal with them, creatures from the past, and his own stubbornness.
SPOILERS: Everything through 2.07 and my own story "Fresh Scars"
WARNINGS: Some tasteless humour, some medical detail
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Many thanks to Brilliant Husband (dudethemath), kristen_mara, and lukadreaming, all of whom acted as betas and made many helpful suggestions and corrections. All remaining errors, infelicities, and poor judgement are my own.
DISCLAIMER: Primeval and its characters are owned by Impossible Pictures, ITV Productions, M6 Films, Pro 7, and possibly other entities I couldn't easily find on IMDb. No copyright infringement is intended, and indeed the story probably won't make sense unless you've watched. So watch the show, buy the DVDs, etc. I do not profit from fic except insofar as comments make me happy.
Additional notes and links to all posted parts at this story's launch page
Previous Part: 10
Chapter 4: Herbivores
Stephen's week could only get better after the first two days. He had plenty more grist for Dr Jacobs's mill. He had learned, to his surprise, that talking things out with someone who wouldn't get upset helped. Maybe Jacobs even helped. Stephen had hated the idea of changing flats because of Helen when Connor first suggested it, but Jacobs said that thinking of it as giving in to Helen was the wrong way to approach it. Stephen had no doubt that she'd find him again if-no, when-she wanted, but he didn't have to make it easy on her. He'd never even been all that attached to the flat. It was a place to sleep and sometimes to eat. He'd gone on so many trips over the last several years that some of his things remained in storage; he'd never even moved them to this flat.
Connor and Abby seemed thrilled to help him hunt for a new place, and he caught their excitement in spite of himself. If nothing else, it would get him out more.
Physio continued at a glacial pace, but Maria told him that if his cast came off as planned at the end of this week, next week he could start a little swimming. When he was discouraged, she pulled out his chart and reminded him of how he'd done in his first few sessions. He would have preferred not to remember, but he couldn't deny her point.
Cutter seemed more at ease after his blow-up over the job offer, as if he'd been waiting for something to happen. Or maybe it was that something had happened and they'd both lived to tell about it-or not to talk about it.
Miller remained reserved, and Stephen wasn't sure if that was just Miller, or if it was his reaction to Stephen. He still missed Ryan, with whom he'd got on well from the start. However, Miller proved a strong student, at least for the limited amount Stephen could teach him without real field work. They visited CMU's collection again. Not only was Miller's memory good, but he also could take what he'd learned and apply it to photos he hadn't seen before. He had enthusiasm for the work, but he squirmed a little when Stephen complimented him. Miller seemed much more comfortable with Abby and Connor.
Meanwhile, Stephen made a point of meeting the new vet. Henrietta Farnam looked to be in her mid-50s, with long grey hair pulled back in a bun. She seemed happy to meet him, and she gladly introduced him to the mammoth, and to Thelma and Louise, as Connor had named the two young hadrosaurs they'd picked up while Stephen was in hospital. She laughed when Stephen said Connor should have his naming privileges revoked.
The hadrosaurs didn't seem to match any known genus, let alone species, so Stephen began a subtle campaign to start Nick writing again, suggesting he take another look at known hadrosaur finds and see if he couldn't use his inside knowledge to reclassify a few fossils. Cutter always grumbled about writing. He had trouble with first drafts, he hated revising, and so on, and so forth. For all his complaints, though, he seemed happier when he wrote.
Then Friday arrived, and the cast came off, and Stephen went from elation at finally having both hands free again to the hard realisation of how much strength he'd lost. He'd known intellectually that his right hand would be much weaker from lack of use, despite the exercises he'd begun while still in the cast, but feeling it was different. He'd also been able to type with that hand for a couple of weeks now, so he'd fooled himself into thinking it worked properly.
Stephen felt as though he had to keep his spirits up for the others, though. They were very pleased to see him return to work with no cast. Staying at Cutter's place meant he had little private time to feel sorry for himself. That was a good thing: he'd done more than enough of that already.
***
The night that Nick found Stephen up and pacing at 2 am, he almost felt relieved. He'd been able tell from Stephen's face that he hadn't been sleeping as well as he should, but his friend brushed off inquiries. He didn't want to violate Stephen's privacy by checking on him in the night, but he could hardly be faulted for this inquiry.
"I didn't mean to wake you" was, of course, the first thing Stephen said.
"I was already awake," Nick told him. "Bad dream-you've had the same, I imagine?"
Stephen might have nodded or shrugged; it was too dark to tell. Nick turned on the landing light.
Stephen blinked several times, taking his left arm from where it was curled around his right to rub his eyes. He didn't have his walking stick.
"How about a drink?" Nick asked.
Stephen laughed nervously. "I forgot to ask Dr Gupta if I can have alcohol again. I haven't had any since...."
"I won't give you much, don't worry." Nick started down the stairs. He wanted to ask if Stephen needed his stick, but the less he said, the better. Stephen might talk more if Nick didn't fuss.
"I didn't think I'd wake you. I couldn't go down the stairs because, well, you know how they creak," Stephen said, still apologising.
Nick had heard him only because he'd been having trouble sleeping himself. He poured them each a couple of fingers of whisky. It wasn't enough, really.
"You know, part of the whole point of staying here is so that you don't have to go through this alone," Nick said as they sat down.
"I thought it was so the soldiers would only have to watch one house," Stephen mumbled into his tumbler. "Just kidding," he said, glancing up at Nick. Except that he probably wasn't, or not entirely.
Nick tried to hold his gaze. "I don't give a damn how many houses they have to watch. It scared the hell out of me when Helen called me on your mobile. All I could think was that if you were all right, you wouldn't be letting her call me on your phone."
Stephen frowned uncertainly.
"At least if you're here, I know you're safe," Nick continued. How hard could this be to comprehend?
"But Abby and Connor-"
"Abby and Connor didn't nearly get torn apart by a horde of animals!" Nick tried to keep the exasperation out of his voice. Stephen wasn't usually this dense-or this insecure.
"Abby was taken by giant seal-like creatures-"
"And came home without a scratch. And nobody has broken into her flat since she's had it. They may not be safe on the job, but I think they, at least, are safe in their flat." Unlike Nick and Stephen, whom Helen might accost anywhere.
Stephen took rather too large a mouthful of whisky and then smothered a cough with his arm-the arm that didn't have a cast now.
"Do you dream about it?" Nick asked gently. He didn't want to hear the answer, but he thought Stephen might need to say it.
"About Helen breaking into my flat?" Stephen tried to smirk at him. The result looked a little desperate.
"Stephen!"
Stephen took a smaller sip and set down his glass. "You don't need to hear about my dreams. You have your own." His arms went around his midsection again.
"I'm not the one who was up pacing," Nick reminded him.
"Do you want to talk about your dreams?"
"No!" Nick replied at once.
"Then why would I?" Stephen looked down at his arms and let go of himself deliberately. He reached out for the tumbler and took a last swallow before setting it down again, looking at Nick calmly.
Nick had no answer for that. He finished his own drink. He'd like to have another, but he could hardly pour himself more and deny it to Stephen. One drink should be all right. Hell, he'd had more when on painkillers himself. Still, he didn't want to take risks with Stephen's health.
"It's okay, Cutter," Stephen said gently, as if Nick had been the one up pacing. "Honestly... I'm glad to know you're all right, too. Sometimes... in my dreams... you aren't."
God. In all the horrors that piled atop each other after they found Leek's bunker, Nick had forgotten that Helen had told Stephen they were all dead. Now he remembered the stunned look on Stephen's face when he had seen Nick alive, and the horror as he turned to Helen and asked her what she'd done.
"It's enough...." Stephen continued, or tried to continue. "I can talk about my dreams with Jacobs. Whether I want to or not." He offered another weak smile. "But right now, it's good... to know that you're here. And Connor and Abby are fine, because if one weren't, the other would tell us."
"Does that help?" Nick asked. "Talking with Jacobs?" He'd never asked before.
Stephen arched his eyebrows. "Sometimes. Sometimes, it's annoying. He can't ever let anything be."
Nick had suspected as much. That was why he had no intention of seeing the man-or any other head-shrinker.
"But... he helps put things in perspective." Stephen smiled challengingly. "You might try it sometime."
"If you're still having the dreams, what's the point?" Nick said, a little more gruffly than he'd meant.
"Maybe I have them less than I would. Maybe not. But that's not all we talk about." Stephen shifted, looking away.
Nick didn't want to know what else they talked about. He stared into his empty glass. Maybe if he could get Stephen back upstairs, he could have a little more on his own. No, furtive drinking was a bad sign. When he looked back at Stephen, Stephen was still looking at him, apparently waiting for a response. Well, tough. If he was going to try to convince Nick to see a psychiatrist, he'd have to do all the talking himself.
"Ready to try to get back to sleep?" Nick asked, standing.
Stephen went back upstairs, Nick following. Nick didn't hear anything else from him that night.
***
Noel found himself getting a little restless as another Monday came, making two weeks without an anomaly. He knew he should appreciate the calm, and especially the fact that no one was getting hurt, but he was itching to do something. He'd studied until he dreamed of animal tracks and droppings, but he had no way to know yet whether he could put this knowledge to any use. Ms Lewis dropped by to talk to him-Jenny, she wanted him to call her. She said she wanted to get to know him, now that he was on the team, and that she'd waited too long already. He didn't understand her point, but he chatted with her as best he could. She didn't seem a bad sort, as far as professional liars went. Well, someone had to do it. Military intelligence had people for that sort of thing, and Noel tried to remember to think of Jenny's work that way. Still, he didn't like it, and he didn't feel quite comfortable with her.
His team-mates definitely had better hand-to-hand and shooting skills than when he'd started. He could only train them on quiet days, so that was all to the good. The more opportunity they had to practise their skills, the better prepared they'd be for the next anomaly.
Noel learned that he wasn't the only one restless at the lack of action. The next morning, a drizzly Tuesday, found him helping Connor run some diagnostics on the ADD, because Connor worried that no alarms meant they were missing something. Abby and Hart had brought work into the main atrium as well. They seemed to like to be around people, even when they weren't talking to them. Neither of them seemed to be terribly interested at first when the conversation turned to Star Trek: the relative merits of the different ships and then their captains.
"Captain Kirk is still the best," Connor insisted. "Youngest captain in the history of Starfleet, assembled the greatest crew the galaxy had ever known-"
"No, no. Kirk was all ego. Now Captain Sisko, or Picard-that was leadership," Noel answered firmly.
"Hey, you're forgetting Janeway!" Hart objected suddenly, to Noel's amazement. He didn't even know the man watched Star Trek, or that he'd been listening.
But Noel couldn't let that answer pass without challenge. "Janeway? Janeway was a nutter! She demoted Tom Paris citing the Prime Directive, but the Prime Directive didn't even come into play, because that planet already had warp drive!"
"I haven't seen all the episodes," Hart admitted. No real surprise there.
"He has a thing for older women," Abby joked, but Connor gasped, and then Abby's eyes opened very wide. She put her hand to her mouth. Stephen looked away. Noel glanced around, but he could see no sign of Cutter. Good, because the professor being present was the one thing that could make this conversation even worse.
"Hey!" Connor broke the awkward silence. "I know how we can settle this! Video night! We'll watch-"
The poor lad seemed surprised when everyone groaned. It had been a game try, anyway.
"Sorry, mate." Noel at least had a good excuse. "I'm married, remember? The nights I'm not assigned here, I spend with her."
"Oh, right. Erm-" Connor looked downcast for a moment, then looked hopeful again. "She can come too!"
Noel moaned louder.
"It's okay," Abby assured Noel. "We understand. Not everyone is as into Star Trek as Connor is."
"That's not the problem," Noel admitted, his brain running a little behind his mouth. "The problem is, she'd be so excited, she'd want to bring the popcorn!" Now that he'd admitted it, he was in trouble.
"Probably without setting the microwave on fire, even!"
The group again fell into a horrified silence at Hart's words.
"What?" Hart looked truly surprised. Had he not had a flashback triggered by the smell, as they'd concluded, or did he think that no one else suspected? "Connor, I think the man who invented the ADD out of spare parts and built a moon rover from a hair dryer can take a little teasing when he can't operate kitchen equipment!"
"And that was my hair dryer, too, and you promised you'd replace it!" Abby pointed an accusing finger at Connor, obviously glad to change the subject.
"Why do you even need a hair dryer?" Noel asked her. "Your hair is shorter than anybody's but mine!" Satisfied with his part in turning the conversation away from sensitive topics, he picked up his mug again.
Hart gave him a condescending look, then turned to address Abby. "Obviously, he doesn't realise that perfection like this doesn't come simply from towelling off." He fluffed his own messy hair with his fingers.
Noel nearly choked on his coffee. "No, I thought it came from not even bothering to use a towel!"
At Hart's look of surprise, Noel wondered if he'd gone too far. After all, he didn't really know this man. Then Hart started laughing. "Abby said you had a sense of humour," he said, "but I've been taking her word for it until now."
Noel shrugged. He generally tried not to let it show at work. His father always said it would get him in trouble.
"So... does this mean we're on for Star Trek Captains' Night, or not?" Connor didn't know when to quit.
Noel was saved by the bell, or rather the anomaly detector going off. As they went to get ready, leaving a visibly anxious Hart at the ADD control panel, Noel felt guilty for wishing for something to happen. It had, however, spared him not only boredom but also a conversation from which he couldn't seem to extract himself safely. He didn't want to hurt Connor's feelings, but he had no desire either to miss time with his wife or bring Jessica to watch Star Trek with this lot. Connor talked too much, and he would surely let something slip about their work.
Jessica had not been happy about the alarm system the ARC had installed after Lester learned that Helen Cutter had shown interest in Noel's name. Noel thought it for the best, especially with his wife often there alone, but he'd been hard put to explain it. He told her lamely that he might have attracted the interest of spies, that they posed no threat to her safety or his, but that there was a small chance they'd break in looking for information. It was the truth, because Helen was a spy of sorts, though working only for herself. Noel was relieved not to have to lie. He didn't want to lie to his wife, but he also didn't want to tell her anything that might put her in danger.
When the team met at the Hilux, Noel learned that the anomaly's location had been narrowed to a school. His blood ran cold as he heard that. Jenny Lewis had already left with a team of soldiers, and she was supposed to ensure that the school was evacuated and the children, faculty, and staff moved to a safe distance. God, he was glad she seemed to be very good at her job.
It felt as though it took forever to reach the school. Ms Lewis had assured them by phone while they were still en route that everyone had been taken to a place of safety. In the meantime, she'd learned that a chemistry teacher had seen an unusual light and heard odd sounds in a stairwell. The teacher had sounded an alarm, thinking the bright light some kind of fire at first, but then a large lizard had appeared. The witness had been quite certain that it was a lizard and could even offer a rough description of its size and colour. They put her on the phone to Cutter, who had quickly handed her off to Abby with some excuses about driving. Abby seemed to be having difficulty getting information without giving any in return.
Connor nearly convulsed with silent laughter when Abby insisted, "If you give us a description, we might be able to tell if it matches one of the costumes that has been reported stolen from a nearby shop."
They couldn't hear the words on the other side of the conversation, but the tone made it quite clear this woman wasn't going to be easy to fool.
"Yes, evacuating the school was probably an overreaction, but better safe than sorry, right?" Abby said cheerily before ending the call.
"I'm told," she informed them, "that we have a lizard with a duck-like bill-"
"A hadrosaur? Maybe we can bring the others back!" Connor cut Abby off without regard for courtesy or his own safety. It was probably lucky she was in the front with Cutter and Connor was behind Cutter, where she couldn't easily reach him, given the glare he got.
Abby frostily confirmed that that might be the case.
"Since you have my phone," Cutter told her between curses at other drivers, "perhaps you could call Stephen, tell him to have the hadrosaurs readied for transport in case, and check the location against one where we found the first two? Perhaps it's a fault line like-"
"Oh, I've got the headset!" Connor said, triumphantly pulling a slightly mangled headset out of one of his many pockets. "I'll give him a ring."
"You do that," Abby said, lowering the hand with the phone. She still sounded annoyed, but Noel also knew her well enough by now to know that it would soon pass.
They arrived at the school more than half an hour after the ADD had sounded because of the rush hour traffic. Noel wondered how he might gently suggest that he drive next time. Connor looked a little green and was the first out of the Hilux, stumbling a little as he climbed out.
Armed with the handheld ADD, Connor led them to the anomaly easily enough. Brown and green streaks on the steps confirmed that something had come through, and the trail went down the stairs to the ground floor. Unfortunately, at that point, the short trail of vegetation ended, and the mud and water tracked in by students merged with the mud and water from the creature.
"I don't suppose it turned around and went back?" Connor said hopefully.
Noel began to examine the floor very carefully while trying to block out Connor describing the scene over his headset to Hart.
After ten minutes, Noel was ready to tear his hair out (or would have been, if it hadn't been too short to pull). He hadn't a clue which way the creature had gone, and everyone was standing around waiting for him to do something so that they wouldn't further muck up the tracks. More soldiers were checking the outside of the school; the only good news was that they'd seen nothing yet. Professor Cutter insisted that no one else enter except a few soldiers to guard the anomaly itself, because extra people might obliterate tracks.
Noel would start down what he thought might be a track and then decide it wasn't, and then he'd do it again. The Professor had hauled Connor back up the stairs to send the rover through the anomaly, which proved a task in itself. They had to hold it and guide it gently into the anomaly, praying that nothing came through while they were right there. Then they retreated to a safe distance to look at the video feed.
Noel was grateful for the quiet at first, but Abby and two soldiers staring at him didn't make him feel any better.
"I don't know that Stephen would even be able to track it in here," said Abby at last. "I can't make anything of it myself."
"Well, why don't you ask him?" Connor clambered back down the stairs with the rover he'd retrieved. He tried to hand it over to Cutter, who simply looked at him sideways, so Noel took it off his hands. His hands now free, Connor pulled off his headset and announced to everyone, Hart included, what he was doing.
Noel abandoned his brief attempt to clear mud and plant substances from the rover to put the headset on, pulling his radio earbud reluctantly from his ear. He still had the radio itself. He should look into getting an earbud for the mobile so that he could keep the radio earbud in the other ear.
"Oh, thank God!" a tinny version of Hart's voice said in his ear. "I thought Connor was going to keep narrating everything to me!"
Noel tried to explain how he'd lost the trail, but Hart cut him off. "Have Connor put the rover on the floor, tilt the camera down a little, and start transmitting again."
Making that simple request turned Noel into the conduit between Cutter and Hart. From the rover's recce through the anomaly, they had determined that they probably did have the right era, or near enough, so the Professor wanted the hadrosaurs back at the ARC prepared for transport.
Connor eagerly set the rover on the floor, hitting the transmit button and repositioning the camera repeatedly until Hart complained of vertigo, but Noel managed to get the camera pointed at what Hart agreed was probably the best angle.
"So?" asked Cutter.
"Well?" said Abby.
Connor grinned at him.
"Hang on, I'm taking control of the rover," Hart said, and Noel had to relay the words to the little crowd. Maybe he should get some kind of speakerphone.
The rover went forward, looped slightly, and hit a wall.
"Wait a minute, this is harder than it looks," came the voice in Noel's ear.
Abby gave Noel a look as if he'd crashed the rover.
The rover reversed straightened out a bit, and then went right back into the wall.
"Now that's not fair! Maybe Connor should operate it...." Stephen muttered.
The rover reversed again. Connor must have had the same thought as Hart, because he'd started patting himself down, having apparently misplaced his own controls already. Noel wondered if it wouldn't be easiest for him to pick the thing up and carry it.
"I let this man drive?" Professor Cutter asked incredulously.
"He drives better than you do," Abby said, but she was watching the little machine with disgust herself.
"Stephen hasn't had any practice on it! I should have given him some...." Connor fumbled his own controls back out of a pocket. "Maybe I should...."
"This is a lot harder than it looks," Hart said, his voice tight with concentration, "but I think I'm getting the hang of it."
The rover had begun to move up and down the hall in a more or less rational way.
"Well?" Abby asked.
Cutter and Connor both looked expectantly at Noel too.
"Anything, sir?" Noel asked politely. He could hardly criticise when he couldn't see anything himself.
"There's too much reflection," Hart said, his voice even tenser. "It looks like there's water all over the floor."
"Yes, there is," Noel answered.
"I don't think the video quality is good enough. I'm getting blinding glare, and I can't see the level of detail I need. Do you see any scratches on the floor? Or did they wax recently?"
Noel knelt down, then touched the floor. "There's scratches. It's hard to see with so much water."
"Damn." Hart sighed. "Sorry to do this to you, but I don't think I'm going to be much help. Look, if you can find the scratches, look for deep ones."
"Oh!" Noel should have thought of it himself. "It's going to be heavier than your average schoolkid, isn't it?"
"Heavier even than most headmasters, and not wearing galoshes." Hart sounded a little less tense. "Look, tell the others I'm giving up on the rover, right?"
Noel relayed the message and then cast about for scratches, anything unusually deep.
"If they have waxed at all recently," Hart said, "you might be able to see any trail from the light reflecting off the surface. I only get blurs on the camera, but where you've got dry bits, they should be less reflective than the rest of the floor if they've been scratched."
Bloody hell-Hart was right. Noel found some gouges in the floor. They weren't anything he'd have recognised as tracks, but they were deep enough to get under whatever coated the floor, so there were patches that were less shiny. Noel kept losing them in the changing light and puddles of water, but slowly he found what might be a trail. The others followed him.
Part 12