What Once Was Lost -- 2/3
Title: What Once Was Lost {2/3}
Author: not_from_stars // Artist: weaselett
Fandom: Primeval
Pairing(s): Taylor Craig/Becker, Abby Maitland/Stephen Hart, Jenny Lewis/Nick Cutter, Sarah Page/Connor Temple
Rating: PG-13
Challenge: For au_bigbang 2010
Warning: Spoilers for S2 and S3 and character deaths.
Word Count: 23,230
Summary: When Taylor Craig was 11 years old, two very amazing men saved her life from a place that she didn't understand. Sixteen years later, she presented herself to the head of the ARC, James Lester, only be told that both men had died shortly after their rescue of her. After doing some investigations through anomalies on her own, Taylor comes to realize that the world changed in too many ways since then and all of what was wrong would need to be rectified -- but she was also positive that only her two heroes could help them with that. So with her own determination and drive -- and the wordless support of Lester -- Taylor sets on a course to change time and bring the men back to where they belong.
Author's Notes: I want to say thank you to my awesome beta readers, havocthecat and enochiansigils and my very awesome artist, weaselett. Thank you so much, guys!
Chapter 1
When Taylor opened her eyes, she was laying down on something and Becker and Cutter were sitting next to her. Confused, she lifted her head and saw that the entire team was there, as well. Lester wasn't, but she didn't doubt for one moment that he would know exactly what was going on and the moment she woke up. She dropped her head back down on the pillow, closing her eyes for a moment.
"What happened?" She automatically looked at Becker when she asked the question. He was holding her hand in his and it hurt her heart because she knew he was just keeping up the pretense that seemed crucial to her safety.
"You didn't eat before we went and got Cutter, did you?" There was a hint of anger in his voice.
"I was too focused on making sure nothing went wrong and I didn't want to get nauseous."
"I know that you didn't get much sleep that last night before the trip, either," he frowned. "Simply put, you collapsed in the conference room when things got a little too stressed and heated."
"I do not faint when I am under stress!"
"That's not what I said, Taylor," Becker said, something underlying his words. "Very little sleep that last few days, almost nothing to eat for the last two. It's no wonder your body collapsed when we started bickering. You had done your part for the day and your body needed rest."
"Where am I?"
"At my house," Jenny said, coming into her line of vision. "It was the closest one with a guest room and I thought you'd be more comfortable here than in a hospital or the security barracks at the ARC."
That's when she realized that she was in a bedroom and that people were in chairs around the bed. Except for Danny. He was standing against the wall. She hated that she may have lost his trust because she had kept secrets from him. He had been liked her big brother. He was the big brother she knew she could go to about anything, and now...
Her eyes met his, and her question was directed at him. "How long have I been out?"
"Three days," he said, coming away from the wall and shouldering Becker aside for a moment so that he could look down at her. "You scared the hell out of us. Don't do it again."
"I don't plan on collapsing again," she assured him, a tentative smile on her face.
"See that you don't. It will piss me off."
"Taylor." She turned her head to look at Cutter. "Captain Becker and I have tried to explain to them why you know for a fact that you're not causing any damage to any of the time lines or realities by the actions you still plan to take."
"You mean my visions."
"You have visions?" Connor asked. "That is so cool."
"Not when those same visions hurt her, they're not, Connor," Cutter chastised him.
"Oh. No, that would suck. Sorry."
Taylor started explaining about her visions and what she had been seeing in them since they first started appearing. She winced to see tears in Abby's eyes when she confirmed that the night of her first vision had been the day Stephen died. Jenny's hand clenched when Taylor told them about how the visions became increasingly frequent after Cutter died.
"Have you seen anything since you brought back Professor Cutter," Sarah asked.
Taylor let out a breath and nodded. "The time lines and realities are coming back together like they're supposed to have been. This time line is becoming less opaque now. The two realities are still superimposed over each other, but ours is finally starting to become more solid. It hasn't been like this in a long time."
"So when you get Stephen back here..." Connor's voice trailed off.
"When I get Stephen back here, the realities will finally come back together as the one they are supposed to be."
Taylor's heart ached as she watched Abby nod and then head out of the room. Connor got to his feet at the same time Sarah did.
"No, Sarah. I'll go. She and I need to talk, anyway."
"Connor, you don't --"
"Yeah, I really kind of do."
Sarah searched his eyes and then nodded, sitting back down. Connor looked at the rest of them.
"Hopefully we'll be back before too long."
Everyone in the room was silent for a few minutes after Connor left the room. Finally, Cutter cleared his throat.
"Do you know the coordinates for going back and saving Stephen yet, Taylor?"
"Not yet. I was able to find the path to get you back, first, Professor. I'm still working on how to get to Stephen and get him out of that room before the animals attack him."
"Well, now we'll be working on it."
Taylor's eyes widened and there was hurt in her expression. She had done all of this work, all of this research and now he was going to take over and brush her aside? She swallowed hard. "What do you mean?"
"It will go much faster if the two of us are working together, don't you think?"
Connor caught up with Abby outside of the house.
"Abby, wait!"
She stopped when she heard him and from the set of her shoulders, he knew that she was crying. He'd been around her for sixteen years, so he could tell her moods almost as well as he could his.
He approached her quietly and then gathered her up in his arms. "You'd think you'd be happier about this."
"I don't want to hurt you, Connor," she whispered, her face against his chest as she cried. "I would never want to hurt you."
"Hey, none of that now," he said, a lump in his throat as he ran a hand through her hair. "I've always known you loved the bloke. I was never angry about that."
"I love you, too."
"I know you, do, and I love you. But Abby, it's possible to love more than one person. You loved Stephen so much and he was killed before you and he could do any exploring of those feelings." He tightened his arms around her. "Taylor is going to bring him back and you'll get that second chance."
"How can you be so understanding about all of this?"
"Would you rather I got angry and yelled at you about your heart and how it's been split in two all of these years?" He shook his head and kissed her hair. "I know how much you've hurt ever since he was killed and I can't be angry about that. I can't even be hurt about it. You've never given me anything but happiness." He pulled back to look down into her tear-streaked face. "But I'm thinking, maybe you and I are better as best friends than lovers, you know? We've done everything together and rarely been apart for the last sixteen years. Maybe it's time we give some other people room to be in our lives."
She sniffled and nodded. "You're always going to be my best friend, Connor, and I do love you. The last several years with you have been wonderful. I don't have any regrets for any of them, you know?"
"I know, Abby. I promise, I know. You'll always be my best friend, too. No one can compete with that. But now you get to see how things might turn out with your first love. No one should get in the way of that... and no one should run away from such a second chance."
She looked up at him and managed a smile. "Does this mean you're going to go have a serious talk with Sarah?"
"Sarah?" He looked dumbfounded for a moment. "Abby, I swear, we didn't -- we never would have --"
Abby socked him lightly in the arm. "I know that. It's not in either one of you to cheat. I also know that you guys have feelings for each other and you should see how it goes without worrying about me."
"You're one hell of a woman, Abby Maitland," he said fondly, kissing the top of her head.
"And you're one hell of a man, Connor Temple." She hugged him. "Now, go. You need to go get some things straightened out with Sarah."
He hugged her back and then nodded, stepping back. "I think you should go talk to Cutter and Taylor."
Abby let out a breath and gave him a watery smile. "I guess I should."
Taylor was alone in the bedroom when Abby knocked and came in.
"How are you feeling?" She asked her as she came to sit next to the bed.
"Pretty embarrassed, mostly," Taylor admitted. "I've never collapsed like that before."
"It sounds like you've been working yourself harder than any of us ever noticed you were."
Taylor shrugged and sighed. "It needs to be done and I'm the one with knowledge to make sure that it gets done."
"I've never seen Becker move as fast as he did when he saw you starting to fall," Abby said calmly, watching Taylor's face. "I don't think I've ever seen him look that worried, either."
Taylor bit the inside of her cheek. She knew that what Abby had seen was part of the pretense, and oh how it was starting to hurt. "I didn't mean to worry him." She really hadn't. That was the last thing she ever wanted to do.
"He really loves you," Abby continued. "We've all seen it."
"We've never said anything like that," Taylor murmured. "We haven't been together all that long."
"Long enough for him to tell Danny he was going to throw him out a window if he didn't get out of his way so he could take you somewhere to rest." She looked at Taylor. "Do you love Becker, Taylor? I mean, really love him, and not just fancy him a little. Becker is like a brother to Sarah and I, and he's saved our lives plenty of times. We both want to see him happy with someone that loves him and all that he is."
"I do love him, Abby," she said softly. At least with that she could be completely honest. "I love him with all of my heart."
"Then you should make sure he knows. A man like Becker isn't going to reveal his feelings first. There's too much a danger of getting hurt, and no man likes that idea. He's tough, but at heart he's a softie."
Taylor didn't know what to say. She couldn't tell Abby that their relationship was a farce geared towards keeping her safe so she could complete what she had set out to do. She knew that Becker didn't want anyone knowing the truth until this was all over.
"Abby..."
"I can see that you don't believe me, but you didn't see what I saw. He was really worried about you when you collapsed like that. You're going to have to take that first step of faith in your relationship." Abby squeezed her hand. "I know it's scary, but it will be worth it."
Taylor managed a small smile, and then after seeing the two of them leave the bedroom, she had to ask. "Are you and Connor okay?"
"Connor and I decided that we make better best friends than anything else."
"But you've been together for so long."
"Yes, we have. However, Connor always knew that I was in love with Stephen. When we lost Stephen and then Cutter, I think Connor and I gravitated to each other because we were what were left of the original team. I do love him, but..."
"But not like you loved Stephen."
"Not like I loved Stephen." Abby took a deep breath. "Do you really think that you can go back and save him? Do you think that you can repair the time lines that have fractured?"
Taylor nodded. "I know I can. I'm much surer now that we were able to bring back Professor Cutter and I'm starting to see one of the time lines starting to become more solid and stable." Taylor picked at the blanket for a moment. "Are you going to tell Stephen how you feel?"
Abby was silent and then nodded. "If you manage to bring him back to us, I'll tell him as soon as I get him alone."
"I'll hold you to that," Taylor said with a smile. "I'll make sure you get that chance."
The problem that Taylor had been running into with going back to save Stephen was in knowing where to manage to open an anomaly and get Stephen out before the predators they attacked him. She had to figure out a way to open the anomaly, save Stephen, and make sure that they closed the anomaly before anything came through after them.
"Easier said than done," she muttered.
"I'm going with you," Cutter said, coming into her office.
Taylor blinked and Becker looked up from the gun he was loading.
"Excuse me?"
"I'm going with you. Stephen doesn't know the two of you, but he knows me. He won't just trust your word that you're doing what's best for the time line."
Taylor stared at him as Becker shook his head.
"Professor Cutter, I don't think that's a very good idea," Taylor said, trying to figure out how to stop him from doing something so dangerous.
"Taylor already risked herself once to bring you back, Professor Cutter. We are not risking your life again."
"He's not going to listen to the two of you," Cutter insisted. "He doesn't know who the hell you are."
"But he knows me," a new voice said.
They all turned to the door as Abby walked in.
"Abby," Becker started, but she shook her head.
"When Stephen died, he and Cutter had been fighting because of Helen. He may not trust Cutter right now, but he'll trust me. He and I never fought, and he saved my life a few times."
"It's too dangerous, Abby," Cutter said. "Stephen would never forgive me if something happened to you."
"Well, we'll just have to make sure nothing happens to me, and we can ask Stephen when we bring him back if he would forgive you guys for anything happening to me." Abby looked at Taylor, knowing that she would back her up. "Taylor?"
Taylor nodded. "Professor Cutter is too valuable to risk going back with us. If we need someone to make Stephen believe that we're telling the truth, Abby can do that."
"No, I'm not letting you do this."
"Professor... Nick," Abby said gently. "Things have changed in the last sixteen years. One of those is that I have decided to go with my heart. My heart tells me that I need to go through the anomaly with Taylor and rescue Stephen."
"It's not like they're going to be going alone, Professor Cutter," Becker finally said. "I'll be going with them."
Taylor rounded on him. "No, you're not."
"The hell I'm not. The last time we went through the anomaly, we were facing you being shot be Helen. This time the danger is even larger. How did you expect to get Stephen out of a locked room of carnivores all by yourself, Taylor?"
Taylor glared at him. "I am not risking your life like that. It's bad enough that I'm risking Abby's!"
"Abby is risking Abby's life," Abby argued. "It just happens that I'm going along with Taylor. She is not risking my life in any way. This is my choice."
"The more we argue, the less time we have to rescue Stephen," Becker pointed out. He looked at Cutter. "Jenny will not handle it well if she loses you again, so you are not going. I'll go with the girls and keep them safe, no matter what. I promise you that, Professor."
"Damn it, Becker," Taylor glared. "You are not --"
"Yes I am," he said with a glare of his own. "The two of you are not going into a room of hungry, angry carnivores by yourself. This discussion is over."
Taylor was so angry that she was shaking, but she wasn't going to blow up at Becker in front of the other two people. However, she thought he was carrying this over protective boyfriend thing just a little too far.
"Fine," she growled. "Now get ready. I should have the exact coordinates in less than an hour."
Stephen didn't know where his courage this time had come from, but he had known that he couldn't bear to let Nick sacrifice himself after everything that Helen had done to him. It was his fault that they were in this position to begin with. He had trusted Helen and he had let Nick down. So when Nick had decided he would go into the room with all of those monsters, Stephen had gone with his conscience and hit him in the jaw. It kept Nick down long enough for Stephen to go past him and lock himself into the room. With them locked in like this, it would give Nick and the others time to escape.
Yes, even that double crossing, insane bitch Helen would get away to safety.
When the beasts converged on him, blocking the door and Nick's face as he fought to get in to save him, Stephen was glad. Not because he was angry at Nick any longer, because really, what Helen had done had erased all of that anger towards him. No, he was glad because that meant he wouldn't see Nick watching what was happening. He knew that Nick wouldn't leave him until the absolute end.
Stephen had kept his eyes open when the beasts turned on him, but now he found himself closing his eyes. No matter how brave he had acted for Nick, no one wants to watch as they're eaten alive.
This would explain why he didn't see the anomaly open behind him. However, he did feel a hand close around his wrist and pull him up and heard a female voice that he didn't recognize.
"I think not, Stephen Hart. It's not your time to go and don't fight me on this or I'll bite you."
Stephen shook his head, not believing what he was hearing.
"Bite him? You're not going to get close enough to him to bite him." That was a male voice that he had never heard before and the voice sounded annoyed.
He was yanked backwards and he saw the sparkling shards of an anomaly flying past his face. Then he heard a series of angry roars followed by screams.
"TAYLOR!" That was the male voice again.
There was another scream and the sound of fighting. What the hell was going on? He felt arms go around him as he stumbled backwards. He could tell it was a female holding onto him, so he rolled to make sure that he didn't crush her. When he came to a stop, he found himself looking into a pair of blue eyes that he thought he would never see again.
"Abby?"
"Hello, Stephen."
Before he could ask her what was going on, he felt her lifted up and then someone was helping him to his feet.
"Where the hell are Taylor and Becker?" He found himself looking into the face of a man he didn't know. "If they got killed trying to save you, I'm going to beat the hell out of you."
"Quinn, back off."
Stephen turned around to see Nick standing there. There was something different about Nick, though. Something about his eyes seemed older to him.
"Nick?"
Nick dipped his head for a second and when he looked back at him, he smiled a little sadly. "Hello, Stephen."
"Would you like to tell me what's going on?"
Nick gave him a nod. "As soon as we get Taylor and Becker back, I'm sure that Taylor will fill you in on everything."
"Who is Taylor?" He remembered hearing someone calling Taylor's name while he was being dragged away from the roars and growls of the carnivores.
"Taylor is the reason the two of you are now alive," a voice he did recognize said. He turned to see an older James Lester standing nearby. "Welcome back, Stephen. Try not to kill anyone until you get briefed on the situation, will you?"
He would have said something but he heard screams and a warning shout.
"Incoming!"
"Stephen!" He turned in time to catch the gun that Nick had tossed him. He spun, aiming at the anomaly in time to see a man run through carrying a woman.
"It's behind us," the man yelled as he dove to the side, making sure the woman hit his body as they went down and not the floor.
Stephen didn't hesitate as he saw the future predator coming through the anomaly and he started firing the gun at it. He heard the gunfire from around the room and it didn't stop until the creature fell dead and the anomaly closed. When everything was silent, Stephen turned to Nick.
"Would someone tell me what the hell is going on?"
The man he didn't know was getting to his feet and helping the woman up. "I need some bandages. Taylor is bleeding!"
The woman batted at him. "It's just a scratch, damn it. The stupid thing got me with his claw."
"It's more than a scratch. I heard you when it happened."
"That's not important, right now," the woman argued. "Did we do it? Did we save Stephen?"
Nick came to stand beside Stephen. "That's Taylor Craig and Captain Becker. Taylor just saved your life." He looked at Stephen. "She saved mine, too."
The woman came over to stand in front of them, and the man in black came with her. Her shirt sleeve was shredded and her arm was bleeding.
"It was only the right thing to do, Cutter," Taylor said with a smile. "After all, you saved mine first."
Stephen was sitting in the conference room with the rest of the team as Becker bandaged Taylor's arm and she filled him on everything that had been going on.
"Let me get this straight. You're the eleven year old girl that we saved?"
Taylor nodded. "Yes, I am. The two of you have been dead for seventeen years now, and you shouldn't have died. Helen doing that caused a fracture of the time line and it messed with reality. I didn't know until Lester told me that the two of you were dead and that was why I had been seeing the things I've been seeing since I was eleven."
Stephen nodded. "So, you've spent all of this time in your field of study, and you decide that you were going to risk your life to save ours. Why?"
"You saved mine, first," Taylor said calmly. "I owed you."
"You were a kid. You didn't owe us anything."
"That's your opinion," she said as Becker finished bandaging her arm up. "However, Helen causing your death and flat out killing Cutter messed up the time line. It fractured it into two and it has caused a lot of problems for everyone -- even people not concerned with the ARC or have any knowledge about anomalies."
Stephen looked at Cutter. "Helen shot you?"
"Hurt like hell. Luckily, these two showed up and put me into a bulletproof vest before she pulled the trigger."
"It was Taylor's doing," Becker said. "She came up with all of the coordinates and deciphered a lot of things from the artifact that Cutter gave Connor before he died."
She shrugged. "It's what I've studied since I met you guys. I became a scientist because of you."
She looked up to see Lester at the door and she excused herself for a moment. Becker followed her to the door, but Taylor slipped out of the office and the door closed behind her. Becker stayed guarding the door. Apparently, he was supposed to be making sure the rest of the group stayed here until she came back.
"I feel like we should apologize to her," Stephen muttered as he and Cutter walked over to the furthest window from everyone.
"She might hit you if you do," Cutter murmured. "She seems to like her field of study very much. Her boyfriend likes her, too. So if you upset her he might try to shoot you."
"Has he tried to shoot you?"
"No, seems only women do that to me. He did threaten to throw Danny out of a window, though."
"Danny?"
"Danny Quinn. He was made the new leader of the team after I died and Jenny left."
"Why did he threaten to throw Danny out the window?"
"Taylor collapsed after they brought me back and Danny was between Becker and getting Taylor taken care of. Danny apparently didn't move fast enough."
"Ahh."
"Luckily, Sarah and Abby were there and managed to diffuse the situation enough to allow Becker to get out of the room with the unconscious Taylor in his arms and to the guest room that Jenny offered up since it was so close."
"Abby." The tone of Stephen's voice changed as he looked across the room to where she was talking with Jenny. "She hasn't changed a bit in seventeen years, has she?"
"Jenny says her eyes are sadder," Cutter said quietly.
"Why is that?" Cutter gave him a look. "Oh. All of this time?"
"According to Connor, yes. All of this time."
"I guess Connor would know. He always made Abby his focus." Stephen sounded a bit disgruntled and unhappy about that.
"From what I understand, she's his best friend. He apparently has a yen for the Egyptologist, Sarah Page, and apparently has for a long time." He looked at Stephen. "Seems Abby has been carrying a torch for this dead tracker/hunter best friend of mine."
Before Stephen could say anything, the door opened and Taylor came back into the conference room. Lester followed her and Becker took one look at her before moving to her side.
"Did it work," Becker asked her.
Taylor looked at Becker for a long moment and then turned her head to look at Cutter and Stephen.
"It worked. The fractured time lines have now stabilized into one time line."
Stephen couldn't help but notice that there was something sad in Taylor's eyes and he wondered what had caused it. Before he could think of what to say, she turned and left the room, but Lester shook his head at Becker, not allowing the other man to follow her out.
A few days later, Stephen was reading through some of the transcripts of things he had missed over the last seventeen years when there was a knock on the office door. He looked up to see Danny Quinn standing there. He tilted his head at Danny and the other man smiled, holding up a couple of bottles of beer.
"I figured that you could use one or a dozen of these," he said, coming in and shutting the door behind him. "How are you settling in?"
"She gave me an office." The look on his face said he wasn't thrilled about that. "I don't do paperwork."
"I'm pretty sure it was just something she did to send a clear message through the ARC that you're back and you're a ranking member of the team. Lester backed her on it." He took a drink from his beer after handing one to Stephen. "All of us have our own offices, but they rarely get used. We prefer the range or the labs. The offices ate more for cat napping, an extra set of clothes or having private chats."
Stephen paused. "Like this one."
"Like this one." Danny nodded. "About Abby."
Stephen felt himself stiffen. "What about her?"
"She's mourned you for seventeen years, mate. I don't want to see her have to mourn you again."
He narrowed his eyes and lowered the beer. "What are you trying to say, Quinn?"
"Just that if you break that heart that's been held in reserve for you for so long, I'll kill you." There was no anger in Danny's eyes, only a promise. "She and Sarah and Taylor, they're like my sisters. With Abby and Sarah, I've watched them and worked with them for the last seventeen years. I've seen them go through so many kinds of hell, and I won't let Abby go through the kind of hell I know a broken heart will put her through."
"So, I either tell her I love her or you're going to kill me... and waste everything Taylor risked herself to do?"
Danny looked at Stephen. "I'm only saying that if you do love her, you let her know that you do. If you don't love her, you let her know that, too. If you pretend to have feelings and lead her on, I'll put you into a coma. That won't shatter the time lines again."
Stephen stared at him. "I don't take it lightly when someone threatens me, Quinn."
"And I don't take lightly to my baby sister being hurt." He shook his head. "Connor told me that when you died, a piece of Abby died, too. She's never loved anyone like that since. I know that you made some stupid choices with Helen Cutter, but Taylor has done more than fix the time line by bringing you back. She gave you a second chance and I hope that you use it wisely, Hart."
"You're a right bastard, Quinn," Stephen said as he took a drink from the beer, his eyes on Danny.
"So I've been told. So I've been told."
It was about a month later that the team had gathered in one of the conference rooms to make some decisions about what should come next on their agenda. Taylor said that all of her visions showed that the time lines had come back together and were now corrected, but that meant that there was still twice as many anomalies opening all over the place.
Finally, Nick's idea was that they should be split into two field units in order to make sure that every situation was covered as best as it could be. Jenny would be coming back to the ARC as the public liaison, which made Lester extremely happy.
"The second team will be led by Quinn and he'll have Sarah, Becker and Taylor with him. That way, Taylor and I can both be on hand for --" Cutter stopped, looking around the conference room. "Where's Taylor?"
Becker's head jerked up as his eyes flew to her empty chair. "She was here a few moments ago."
"She went out to her car," Connor said. "She said she needed to get something out of it."
"You let her go alone?" Becker demanded, getting to his feet and heading for the door.
As his hand touched the door knob, all of them heard the sudden explosion that came from outside.
"Taylor!" Abby screamed as she and Sarah followed behind in Becker's mad dash down the hall. The rest of them followed them, with Connor apologizing as they ran.
When Becker slammed out the door, he started running to the now burning car that was in its usual place. Stephen kicked up his pace and tackled Becker to the ground before he could get closer to the car -- and the fireball it had become.
"Let me go, damn you! Taylor needs our help," Becker struggled and he managed to slam his elbow into Stephen's face.
Cutter and Danny went to help Stephen and the three of them managed to pull Becker to a safe distance away from the car.
"Easy mate," Danny said. "She's gone. No one could have survived that explosion." He tightened his grip on Becker. "She would have gone quickly. There would have been no pain."
"Danny?"
They all managed to hear the quiet voice and when they saw a soot-stained and bloody Taylor getting up from against the wall of the building, they all stared at her.
It was Cutter that managed to break his shock first. "Taylor, what happened?"
"I was coming out to get something from the car, something that I wanted to talk over with Sarah. One of the guards stopped me at the elevator. He said..." Taylor swallowed, wiping a hand over her eyes. "He said that his orders were that I wasn't to go anywhere alone. I told him that I was just going to my car and he could see everything from his post, but he wouldn't allow it. He walked with me, but told me to give him my keys, and to stay a few feet behind him, j-just in case." She shook her head, trying to erase the scene from her mind. "I was behind him and when he turned the key in the door lock, everything exploded. I guess I was thrown back into the wall because I was..."
Danny looked from Taylor to the car, and then back to Taylor. "Are you all right?"
"I don't -- I don't know." She took a breath. "Everything hurts a bit, but it's nothing compared to..." Her voice trailed off and she paled as she looked back at her car.
Stephen let go of Becker and approached Taylor. "Let's get you inside and cleaned up so we can check you out." He looked at Becker and Danny. "She could be going into shock."
Becker shrugged them off and went to Taylor's side and walked inside with her and Stephen. Danny watched them go and then he looked at the rest of the group before his eyes fell on Cutter.
"Well, I'd say it's a good bet that Helen knows the two of you are alive and that Taylor had something to do with it."
It was night time at the ARC and Taylor sat behind her desk, putting the finishing touches on the letter in front of her. The visions had started coming apart again and this time she was going to stop them before anything could cause the time line to splinter. She was not about to let any of her team -- her friends -- go through all of that again. She looked down at the last file she was working on and couldn't help a sad smile.
Even if she could survive what she had to do, she knew that there wasn't a chance for her to have that happy ever after she had been determined to get for her friends. It just wasn't meant to be. She loved Becker, but from his point of view, she was nothing more than a good friend. When her safety could be determined without a shadow of a doubt, they'd tell the truth about the deception that they had been living for the last year.
She didn't know if it was a good or a bad thing that she was pretty sure she wouldn't survive this last mission? She had never loved any one like she loved him and now he would never know because she couldn't tell him and face his rejection. Not right now.
She frowned, tapping her pen to her chin. In theory, she guessed she could tell Becker the truth. She could always write him a letter that said more than what she had revealed in the letter for all of the others. It was perhaps a cowardly way to do it, but she felt he deserved to know the truth. Better to do it like this where he wouldn't feel pressure to do something about it or feel guilty because he had to break her heart.
She spent the next hour trying to write the perfect letter to Becker. In it, she told him her feelings, as well as thanked him for everything he had done for her in the past year. If it hadn't been for him and his help, she never would have been able to succeed in her job or return the time line to its proper state of being. She sealed the letter, and then placed it with the things that would be delivered to Becker when the guard came to see if she needed anything.
She stood up, clutching something tightly in her hand. Of course she wouldn't need anything. By the time the guard came to check on her, she would be long gone from here.
Hopefully, soon after, so would the last remaining threat to this time line at its people.
"You bloody bastard!"
Everyone in the office of James Lester looked up in surprise as Becker burst into the room. In his hand was a three ring binder that went sailing onto Lester's desk. Jenny, Cutter and Stephen moved out of the way of the ensuing argument until they could figure out what was going on and why Becker looked so angry.
"Is there a problem, Captain Becker?" Lester's voice was cool as he spoke, trying to maintain authority while the others looked on in interest.
"You know damn well there's a problem, Lester," Becker roared. The raised voices brought the rest of team running to Lester's office. "She's gone after Helen Cutter! By herself!"
"I thought you had a regiment of guards on her at all times to make sure nothing happened to her." Lester was still sitting behind his desk, appearing unruffled.
"I do! However, last night, the guard that was going to meet with her to walk her to her car was detained. He was detained by you!" Becker's eyes were hard and angry. "By the time he got to her office, she was gone."
"I don't see how that makes it my fault. She must have simply gotten tired of waiting."
"Don't give me that bullshit. You knew what she was going to do! You knew and you did nothing to stop her."
"As you have no doubt noticed, I don't exactly seem to have complete control over the scientists on the investigative teams."
Danny put a hand on Becker's arm, probably thinking he had to stop the other man from doing something regrettable. Well, someone would regret it, he was sure. He just didn't know if it would be their team that did.
"Lester, how long have you known that Taylor was going to go looking for Helen," Danny demanded.
"I don't see how that's any of your business, Mr. Quinn."
"How long have you known?" Danny demanded again.
Jenny looked at Lester. "James, what have you done?"
"Miss Craig seems to have decided that she needed to go after Helen Cutter to make sure that the time line doesn't splinter again," Lester's voice was a lot calmer than anyone else in the room was feeling. "She didn't see the need to tell her boyfriend. Well, pretend boyfriend. Now that Helen knew she was the one that brought Cutter and Hart back, it wasn't like you had to keep pretending, now was it." He paused. "Oh. I see you didn't tell them."
Cutter and Stephen stood up, thinking that maybe Danny might need their help holding Becker back when they saw the look of rage cross his face at Lester's words.
"Quinn has a very good question," Cutter said. "How long have you known that Taylor was going after Helen? You had to have known because she would have needed your help to elude the guards and make sure that she didn't set off Connor's alarms when she opened up an anomaly."
Stephen frowned. "She's been planning this since she brought me back, hasn't she?"
"Actually, she decided that it would need to be done when she first started her research into bringing the both of you back," Lester said, still sitting behind his desk. "It was her idea."
"She saw something," Becker said, no longer yelling. "She saw one of her visions, and she told you about it."
Lester didn't say anything.
"So help me, James Lester, if you don't tell him what he wants to know I will hit you myself!" Jenny sounded a bit crankier than she had sounded earlier.
"What did she see?" Becker's voice had gotten even quieter.
"The day her car was bombed, she saw the time line start to become opaque again. It wasn't splitting, exactly, but she saw something that really upset her in those visions." Lester looked around the room. "She wouldn't tell me exactly what she saw, only that she wasn't going to let Helen Cutter hurt anyone here ever again."
"Lester," Cutter said. "Did she give you the coordinates to where she was going?"
"Now why would she have done something like that? It's not like I could make sense out of her codes and notes."
"Notes! Where are her notes?"
"Probably in her office where she keeps everything work related."
"No," Becker said quietly. "There's nothing like that in her office. I looked when I saw this." He pointed to the binder he had thrown at Lester.
"Becker," Abby finally said. "Where's her laptop? She never goes anywhere without it."
"She wouldn't be traveling through the anomalies with her laptop," Danny said, shaking his head.
"No, she wouldn't be," Abby agreed. "But she would have made sure that it was some place safe. Some place that she trusted nothing would happen to it, and that it would get to someone knowledgeable if anything happened to her."
"Becker's place," Danny said with surety. "If there was any place that she felt like she was completely safe, it would be with Becker. It makes sense that she would leave something as important to herself and her work as her laptop some place at Becker's."
Becker turned to leave, but he stopped at the door. "Lester, if she dies, I promise you, I will make you wish you had gone with her."
Author: not_from_stars // Artist: weaselett
Fandom: Primeval
Pairing(s): Taylor Craig/Becker, Abby Maitland/Stephen Hart, Jenny Lewis/Nick Cutter, Sarah Page/Connor Temple
Rating: PG-13
Challenge: For au_bigbang 2010
Warning: Spoilers for S2 and S3 and character deaths.
Word Count: 23,230
Summary: When Taylor Craig was 11 years old, two very amazing men saved her life from a place that she didn't understand. Sixteen years later, she presented herself to the head of the ARC, James Lester, only be told that both men had died shortly after their rescue of her. After doing some investigations through anomalies on her own, Taylor comes to realize that the world changed in too many ways since then and all of what was wrong would need to be rectified -- but she was also positive that only her two heroes could help them with that. So with her own determination and drive -- and the wordless support of Lester -- Taylor sets on a course to change time and bring the men back to where they belong.
Author's Notes: I want to say thank you to my awesome beta readers, havocthecat and enochiansigils and my very awesome artist, weaselett. Thank you so much, guys!
Chapter 1
When Taylor opened her eyes, she was laying down on something and Becker and Cutter were sitting next to her. Confused, she lifted her head and saw that the entire team was there, as well. Lester wasn't, but she didn't doubt for one moment that he would know exactly what was going on and the moment she woke up. She dropped her head back down on the pillow, closing her eyes for a moment.
"What happened?" She automatically looked at Becker when she asked the question. He was holding her hand in his and it hurt her heart because she knew he was just keeping up the pretense that seemed crucial to her safety.
"You didn't eat before we went and got Cutter, did you?" There was a hint of anger in his voice.
"I was too focused on making sure nothing went wrong and I didn't want to get nauseous."
"I know that you didn't get much sleep that last night before the trip, either," he frowned. "Simply put, you collapsed in the conference room when things got a little too stressed and heated."
"I do not faint when I am under stress!"
"That's not what I said, Taylor," Becker said, something underlying his words. "Very little sleep that last few days, almost nothing to eat for the last two. It's no wonder your body collapsed when we started bickering. You had done your part for the day and your body needed rest."
"Where am I?"
"At my house," Jenny said, coming into her line of vision. "It was the closest one with a guest room and I thought you'd be more comfortable here than in a hospital or the security barracks at the ARC."
That's when she realized that she was in a bedroom and that people were in chairs around the bed. Except for Danny. He was standing against the wall. She hated that she may have lost his trust because she had kept secrets from him. He had been liked her big brother. He was the big brother she knew she could go to about anything, and now...
Her eyes met his, and her question was directed at him. "How long have I been out?"
"Three days," he said, coming away from the wall and shouldering Becker aside for a moment so that he could look down at her. "You scared the hell out of us. Don't do it again."
"I don't plan on collapsing again," she assured him, a tentative smile on her face.
"See that you don't. It will piss me off."
"Taylor." She turned her head to look at Cutter. "Captain Becker and I have tried to explain to them why you know for a fact that you're not causing any damage to any of the time lines or realities by the actions you still plan to take."
"You mean my visions."
"You have visions?" Connor asked. "That is so cool."
"Not when those same visions hurt her, they're not, Connor," Cutter chastised him.
"Oh. No, that would suck. Sorry."
Taylor started explaining about her visions and what she had been seeing in them since they first started appearing. She winced to see tears in Abby's eyes when she confirmed that the night of her first vision had been the day Stephen died. Jenny's hand clenched when Taylor told them about how the visions became increasingly frequent after Cutter died.
"Have you seen anything since you brought back Professor Cutter," Sarah asked.
Taylor let out a breath and nodded. "The time lines and realities are coming back together like they're supposed to have been. This time line is becoming less opaque now. The two realities are still superimposed over each other, but ours is finally starting to become more solid. It hasn't been like this in a long time."
"So when you get Stephen back here..." Connor's voice trailed off.
"When I get Stephen back here, the realities will finally come back together as the one they are supposed to be."
Taylor's heart ached as she watched Abby nod and then head out of the room. Connor got to his feet at the same time Sarah did.
"No, Sarah. I'll go. She and I need to talk, anyway."
"Connor, you don't --"
"Yeah, I really kind of do."
Sarah searched his eyes and then nodded, sitting back down. Connor looked at the rest of them.
"Hopefully we'll be back before too long."
Everyone in the room was silent for a few minutes after Connor left the room. Finally, Cutter cleared his throat.
"Do you know the coordinates for going back and saving Stephen yet, Taylor?"
"Not yet. I was able to find the path to get you back, first, Professor. I'm still working on how to get to Stephen and get him out of that room before the animals attack him."
"Well, now we'll be working on it."
Taylor's eyes widened and there was hurt in her expression. She had done all of this work, all of this research and now he was going to take over and brush her aside? She swallowed hard. "What do you mean?"
"It will go much faster if the two of us are working together, don't you think?"
Connor caught up with Abby outside of the house.
"Abby, wait!"
She stopped when she heard him and from the set of her shoulders, he knew that she was crying. He'd been around her for sixteen years, so he could tell her moods almost as well as he could his.
He approached her quietly and then gathered her up in his arms. "You'd think you'd be happier about this."
"I don't want to hurt you, Connor," she whispered, her face against his chest as she cried. "I would never want to hurt you."
"Hey, none of that now," he said, a lump in his throat as he ran a hand through her hair. "I've always known you loved the bloke. I was never angry about that."
"I love you, too."
"I know you, do, and I love you. But Abby, it's possible to love more than one person. You loved Stephen so much and he was killed before you and he could do any exploring of those feelings." He tightened his arms around her. "Taylor is going to bring him back and you'll get that second chance."
"How can you be so understanding about all of this?"
"Would you rather I got angry and yelled at you about your heart and how it's been split in two all of these years?" He shook his head and kissed her hair. "I know how much you've hurt ever since he was killed and I can't be angry about that. I can't even be hurt about it. You've never given me anything but happiness." He pulled back to look down into her tear-streaked face. "But I'm thinking, maybe you and I are better as best friends than lovers, you know? We've done everything together and rarely been apart for the last sixteen years. Maybe it's time we give some other people room to be in our lives."
She sniffled and nodded. "You're always going to be my best friend, Connor, and I do love you. The last several years with you have been wonderful. I don't have any regrets for any of them, you know?"
"I know, Abby. I promise, I know. You'll always be my best friend, too. No one can compete with that. But now you get to see how things might turn out with your first love. No one should get in the way of that... and no one should run away from such a second chance."
She looked up at him and managed a smile. "Does this mean you're going to go have a serious talk with Sarah?"
"Sarah?" He looked dumbfounded for a moment. "Abby, I swear, we didn't -- we never would have --"
Abby socked him lightly in the arm. "I know that. It's not in either one of you to cheat. I also know that you guys have feelings for each other and you should see how it goes without worrying about me."
"You're one hell of a woman, Abby Maitland," he said fondly, kissing the top of her head.
"And you're one hell of a man, Connor Temple." She hugged him. "Now, go. You need to go get some things straightened out with Sarah."
He hugged her back and then nodded, stepping back. "I think you should go talk to Cutter and Taylor."
Abby let out a breath and gave him a watery smile. "I guess I should."
Taylor was alone in the bedroom when Abby knocked and came in.
"How are you feeling?" She asked her as she came to sit next to the bed.
"Pretty embarrassed, mostly," Taylor admitted. "I've never collapsed like that before."
"It sounds like you've been working yourself harder than any of us ever noticed you were."
Taylor shrugged and sighed. "It needs to be done and I'm the one with knowledge to make sure that it gets done."
"I've never seen Becker move as fast as he did when he saw you starting to fall," Abby said calmly, watching Taylor's face. "I don't think I've ever seen him look that worried, either."
Taylor bit the inside of her cheek. She knew that what Abby had seen was part of the pretense, and oh how it was starting to hurt. "I didn't mean to worry him." She really hadn't. That was the last thing she ever wanted to do.
"He really loves you," Abby continued. "We've all seen it."
"We've never said anything like that," Taylor murmured. "We haven't been together all that long."
"Long enough for him to tell Danny he was going to throw him out a window if he didn't get out of his way so he could take you somewhere to rest." She looked at Taylor. "Do you love Becker, Taylor? I mean, really love him, and not just fancy him a little. Becker is like a brother to Sarah and I, and he's saved our lives plenty of times. We both want to see him happy with someone that loves him and all that he is."
"I do love him, Abby," she said softly. At least with that she could be completely honest. "I love him with all of my heart."
"Then you should make sure he knows. A man like Becker isn't going to reveal his feelings first. There's too much a danger of getting hurt, and no man likes that idea. He's tough, but at heart he's a softie."
Taylor didn't know what to say. She couldn't tell Abby that their relationship was a farce geared towards keeping her safe so she could complete what she had set out to do. She knew that Becker didn't want anyone knowing the truth until this was all over.
"Abby..."
"I can see that you don't believe me, but you didn't see what I saw. He was really worried about you when you collapsed like that. You're going to have to take that first step of faith in your relationship." Abby squeezed her hand. "I know it's scary, but it will be worth it."
Taylor managed a small smile, and then after seeing the two of them leave the bedroom, she had to ask. "Are you and Connor okay?"
"Connor and I decided that we make better best friends than anything else."
"But you've been together for so long."
"Yes, we have. However, Connor always knew that I was in love with Stephen. When we lost Stephen and then Cutter, I think Connor and I gravitated to each other because we were what were left of the original team. I do love him, but..."
"But not like you loved Stephen."
"Not like I loved Stephen." Abby took a deep breath. "Do you really think that you can go back and save him? Do you think that you can repair the time lines that have fractured?"
Taylor nodded. "I know I can. I'm much surer now that we were able to bring back Professor Cutter and I'm starting to see one of the time lines starting to become more solid and stable." Taylor picked at the blanket for a moment. "Are you going to tell Stephen how you feel?"
Abby was silent and then nodded. "If you manage to bring him back to us, I'll tell him as soon as I get him alone."
"I'll hold you to that," Taylor said with a smile. "I'll make sure you get that chance."
The problem that Taylor had been running into with going back to save Stephen was in knowing where to manage to open an anomaly and get Stephen out before the predators they attacked him. She had to figure out a way to open the anomaly, save Stephen, and make sure that they closed the anomaly before anything came through after them.
"Easier said than done," she muttered.
"I'm going with you," Cutter said, coming into her office.
Taylor blinked and Becker looked up from the gun he was loading.
"Excuse me?"
"I'm going with you. Stephen doesn't know the two of you, but he knows me. He won't just trust your word that you're doing what's best for the time line."
Taylor stared at him as Becker shook his head.
"Professor Cutter, I don't think that's a very good idea," Taylor said, trying to figure out how to stop him from doing something so dangerous.
"Taylor already risked herself once to bring you back, Professor Cutter. We are not risking your life again."
"He's not going to listen to the two of you," Cutter insisted. "He doesn't know who the hell you are."
"But he knows me," a new voice said.
They all turned to the door as Abby walked in.
"Abby," Becker started, but she shook her head.
"When Stephen died, he and Cutter had been fighting because of Helen. He may not trust Cutter right now, but he'll trust me. He and I never fought, and he saved my life a few times."
"It's too dangerous, Abby," Cutter said. "Stephen would never forgive me if something happened to you."
"Well, we'll just have to make sure nothing happens to me, and we can ask Stephen when we bring him back if he would forgive you guys for anything happening to me." Abby looked at Taylor, knowing that she would back her up. "Taylor?"
Taylor nodded. "Professor Cutter is too valuable to risk going back with us. If we need someone to make Stephen believe that we're telling the truth, Abby can do that."
"No, I'm not letting you do this."
"Professor... Nick," Abby said gently. "Things have changed in the last sixteen years. One of those is that I have decided to go with my heart. My heart tells me that I need to go through the anomaly with Taylor and rescue Stephen."
"It's not like they're going to be going alone, Professor Cutter," Becker finally said. "I'll be going with them."
Taylor rounded on him. "No, you're not."
"The hell I'm not. The last time we went through the anomaly, we were facing you being shot be Helen. This time the danger is even larger. How did you expect to get Stephen out of a locked room of carnivores all by yourself, Taylor?"
Taylor glared at him. "I am not risking your life like that. It's bad enough that I'm risking Abby's!"
"Abby is risking Abby's life," Abby argued. "It just happens that I'm going along with Taylor. She is not risking my life in any way. This is my choice."
"The more we argue, the less time we have to rescue Stephen," Becker pointed out. He looked at Cutter. "Jenny will not handle it well if she loses you again, so you are not going. I'll go with the girls and keep them safe, no matter what. I promise you that, Professor."
"Damn it, Becker," Taylor glared. "You are not --"
"Yes I am," he said with a glare of his own. "The two of you are not going into a room of hungry, angry carnivores by yourself. This discussion is over."
Taylor was so angry that she was shaking, but she wasn't going to blow up at Becker in front of the other two people. However, she thought he was carrying this over protective boyfriend thing just a little too far.
"Fine," she growled. "Now get ready. I should have the exact coordinates in less than an hour."
Stephen didn't know where his courage this time had come from, but he had known that he couldn't bear to let Nick sacrifice himself after everything that Helen had done to him. It was his fault that they were in this position to begin with. He had trusted Helen and he had let Nick down. So when Nick had decided he would go into the room with all of those monsters, Stephen had gone with his conscience and hit him in the jaw. It kept Nick down long enough for Stephen to go past him and lock himself into the room. With them locked in like this, it would give Nick and the others time to escape.
Yes, even that double crossing, insane bitch Helen would get away to safety.
When the beasts converged on him, blocking the door and Nick's face as he fought to get in to save him, Stephen was glad. Not because he was angry at Nick any longer, because really, what Helen had done had erased all of that anger towards him. No, he was glad because that meant he wouldn't see Nick watching what was happening. He knew that Nick wouldn't leave him until the absolute end.
Stephen had kept his eyes open when the beasts turned on him, but now he found himself closing his eyes. No matter how brave he had acted for Nick, no one wants to watch as they're eaten alive.
This would explain why he didn't see the anomaly open behind him. However, he did feel a hand close around his wrist and pull him up and heard a female voice that he didn't recognize.
"I think not, Stephen Hart. It's not your time to go and don't fight me on this or I'll bite you."
Stephen shook his head, not believing what he was hearing.
"Bite him? You're not going to get close enough to him to bite him." That was a male voice that he had never heard before and the voice sounded annoyed.
He was yanked backwards and he saw the sparkling shards of an anomaly flying past his face. Then he heard a series of angry roars followed by screams.
"TAYLOR!" That was the male voice again.
There was another scream and the sound of fighting. What the hell was going on? He felt arms go around him as he stumbled backwards. He could tell it was a female holding onto him, so he rolled to make sure that he didn't crush her. When he came to a stop, he found himself looking into a pair of blue eyes that he thought he would never see again.
"Abby?"
"Hello, Stephen."
Before he could ask her what was going on, he felt her lifted up and then someone was helping him to his feet.
"Where the hell are Taylor and Becker?" He found himself looking into the face of a man he didn't know. "If they got killed trying to save you, I'm going to beat the hell out of you."
"Quinn, back off."
Stephen turned around to see Nick standing there. There was something different about Nick, though. Something about his eyes seemed older to him.
"Nick?"
Nick dipped his head for a second and when he looked back at him, he smiled a little sadly. "Hello, Stephen."
"Would you like to tell me what's going on?"
Nick gave him a nod. "As soon as we get Taylor and Becker back, I'm sure that Taylor will fill you in on everything."
"Who is Taylor?" He remembered hearing someone calling Taylor's name while he was being dragged away from the roars and growls of the carnivores.
"Taylor is the reason the two of you are now alive," a voice he did recognize said. He turned to see an older James Lester standing nearby. "Welcome back, Stephen. Try not to kill anyone until you get briefed on the situation, will you?"
He would have said something but he heard screams and a warning shout.
"Incoming!"
"Stephen!" He turned in time to catch the gun that Nick had tossed him. He spun, aiming at the anomaly in time to see a man run through carrying a woman.
"It's behind us," the man yelled as he dove to the side, making sure the woman hit his body as they went down and not the floor.
Stephen didn't hesitate as he saw the future predator coming through the anomaly and he started firing the gun at it. He heard the gunfire from around the room and it didn't stop until the creature fell dead and the anomaly closed. When everything was silent, Stephen turned to Nick.
"Would someone tell me what the hell is going on?"
The man he didn't know was getting to his feet and helping the woman up. "I need some bandages. Taylor is bleeding!"
The woman batted at him. "It's just a scratch, damn it. The stupid thing got me with his claw."
"It's more than a scratch. I heard you when it happened."
"That's not important, right now," the woman argued. "Did we do it? Did we save Stephen?"
Nick came to stand beside Stephen. "That's Taylor Craig and Captain Becker. Taylor just saved your life." He looked at Stephen. "She saved mine, too."
The woman came over to stand in front of them, and the man in black came with her. Her shirt sleeve was shredded and her arm was bleeding.
"It was only the right thing to do, Cutter," Taylor said with a smile. "After all, you saved mine first."
Stephen was sitting in the conference room with the rest of the team as Becker bandaged Taylor's arm and she filled him on everything that had been going on.
"Let me get this straight. You're the eleven year old girl that we saved?"
Taylor nodded. "Yes, I am. The two of you have been dead for seventeen years now, and you shouldn't have died. Helen doing that caused a fracture of the time line and it messed with reality. I didn't know until Lester told me that the two of you were dead and that was why I had been seeing the things I've been seeing since I was eleven."
Stephen nodded. "So, you've spent all of this time in your field of study, and you decide that you were going to risk your life to save ours. Why?"
"You saved mine, first," Taylor said calmly. "I owed you."
"You were a kid. You didn't owe us anything."
"That's your opinion," she said as Becker finished bandaging her arm up. "However, Helen causing your death and flat out killing Cutter messed up the time line. It fractured it into two and it has caused a lot of problems for everyone -- even people not concerned with the ARC or have any knowledge about anomalies."
Stephen looked at Cutter. "Helen shot you?"
"Hurt like hell. Luckily, these two showed up and put me into a bulletproof vest before she pulled the trigger."
"It was Taylor's doing," Becker said. "She came up with all of the coordinates and deciphered a lot of things from the artifact that Cutter gave Connor before he died."
She shrugged. "It's what I've studied since I met you guys. I became a scientist because of you."
She looked up to see Lester at the door and she excused herself for a moment. Becker followed her to the door, but Taylor slipped out of the office and the door closed behind her. Becker stayed guarding the door. Apparently, he was supposed to be making sure the rest of the group stayed here until she came back.
"I feel like we should apologize to her," Stephen muttered as he and Cutter walked over to the furthest window from everyone.
"She might hit you if you do," Cutter murmured. "She seems to like her field of study very much. Her boyfriend likes her, too. So if you upset her he might try to shoot you."
"Has he tried to shoot you?"
"No, seems only women do that to me. He did threaten to throw Danny out of a window, though."
"Danny?"
"Danny Quinn. He was made the new leader of the team after I died and Jenny left."
"Why did he threaten to throw Danny out the window?"
"Taylor collapsed after they brought me back and Danny was between Becker and getting Taylor taken care of. Danny apparently didn't move fast enough."
"Ahh."
"Luckily, Sarah and Abby were there and managed to diffuse the situation enough to allow Becker to get out of the room with the unconscious Taylor in his arms and to the guest room that Jenny offered up since it was so close."
"Abby." The tone of Stephen's voice changed as he looked across the room to where she was talking with Jenny. "She hasn't changed a bit in seventeen years, has she?"
"Jenny says her eyes are sadder," Cutter said quietly.
"Why is that?" Cutter gave him a look. "Oh. All of this time?"
"According to Connor, yes. All of this time."
"I guess Connor would know. He always made Abby his focus." Stephen sounded a bit disgruntled and unhappy about that.
"From what I understand, she's his best friend. He apparently has a yen for the Egyptologist, Sarah Page, and apparently has for a long time." He looked at Stephen. "Seems Abby has been carrying a torch for this dead tracker/hunter best friend of mine."
Before Stephen could say anything, the door opened and Taylor came back into the conference room. Lester followed her and Becker took one look at her before moving to her side.
"Did it work," Becker asked her.
Taylor looked at Becker for a long moment and then turned her head to look at Cutter and Stephen.
"It worked. The fractured time lines have now stabilized into one time line."
Stephen couldn't help but notice that there was something sad in Taylor's eyes and he wondered what had caused it. Before he could think of what to say, she turned and left the room, but Lester shook his head at Becker, not allowing the other man to follow her out.
A few days later, Stephen was reading through some of the transcripts of things he had missed over the last seventeen years when there was a knock on the office door. He looked up to see Danny Quinn standing there. He tilted his head at Danny and the other man smiled, holding up a couple of bottles of beer.
"I figured that you could use one or a dozen of these," he said, coming in and shutting the door behind him. "How are you settling in?"
"She gave me an office." The look on his face said he wasn't thrilled about that. "I don't do paperwork."
"I'm pretty sure it was just something she did to send a clear message through the ARC that you're back and you're a ranking member of the team. Lester backed her on it." He took a drink from his beer after handing one to Stephen. "All of us have our own offices, but they rarely get used. We prefer the range or the labs. The offices ate more for cat napping, an extra set of clothes or having private chats."
Stephen paused. "Like this one."
"Like this one." Danny nodded. "About Abby."
Stephen felt himself stiffen. "What about her?"
"She's mourned you for seventeen years, mate. I don't want to see her have to mourn you again."
He narrowed his eyes and lowered the beer. "What are you trying to say, Quinn?"
"Just that if you break that heart that's been held in reserve for you for so long, I'll kill you." There was no anger in Danny's eyes, only a promise. "She and Sarah and Taylor, they're like my sisters. With Abby and Sarah, I've watched them and worked with them for the last seventeen years. I've seen them go through so many kinds of hell, and I won't let Abby go through the kind of hell I know a broken heart will put her through."
"So, I either tell her I love her or you're going to kill me... and waste everything Taylor risked herself to do?"
Danny looked at Stephen. "I'm only saying that if you do love her, you let her know that you do. If you don't love her, you let her know that, too. If you pretend to have feelings and lead her on, I'll put you into a coma. That won't shatter the time lines again."
Stephen stared at him. "I don't take it lightly when someone threatens me, Quinn."
"And I don't take lightly to my baby sister being hurt." He shook his head. "Connor told me that when you died, a piece of Abby died, too. She's never loved anyone like that since. I know that you made some stupid choices with Helen Cutter, but Taylor has done more than fix the time line by bringing you back. She gave you a second chance and I hope that you use it wisely, Hart."
"You're a right bastard, Quinn," Stephen said as he took a drink from the beer, his eyes on Danny.
"So I've been told. So I've been told."
It was about a month later that the team had gathered in one of the conference rooms to make some decisions about what should come next on their agenda. Taylor said that all of her visions showed that the time lines had come back together and were now corrected, but that meant that there was still twice as many anomalies opening all over the place.
Finally, Nick's idea was that they should be split into two field units in order to make sure that every situation was covered as best as it could be. Jenny would be coming back to the ARC as the public liaison, which made Lester extremely happy.
"The second team will be led by Quinn and he'll have Sarah, Becker and Taylor with him. That way, Taylor and I can both be on hand for --" Cutter stopped, looking around the conference room. "Where's Taylor?"
Becker's head jerked up as his eyes flew to her empty chair. "She was here a few moments ago."
"She went out to her car," Connor said. "She said she needed to get something out of it."
"You let her go alone?" Becker demanded, getting to his feet and heading for the door.
As his hand touched the door knob, all of them heard the sudden explosion that came from outside.
"Taylor!" Abby screamed as she and Sarah followed behind in Becker's mad dash down the hall. The rest of them followed them, with Connor apologizing as they ran.
When Becker slammed out the door, he started running to the now burning car that was in its usual place. Stephen kicked up his pace and tackled Becker to the ground before he could get closer to the car -- and the fireball it had become.
"Let me go, damn you! Taylor needs our help," Becker struggled and he managed to slam his elbow into Stephen's face.
Cutter and Danny went to help Stephen and the three of them managed to pull Becker to a safe distance away from the car.
"Easy mate," Danny said. "She's gone. No one could have survived that explosion." He tightened his grip on Becker. "She would have gone quickly. There would have been no pain."
"Danny?"
They all managed to hear the quiet voice and when they saw a soot-stained and bloody Taylor getting up from against the wall of the building, they all stared at her.
It was Cutter that managed to break his shock first. "Taylor, what happened?"
"I was coming out to get something from the car, something that I wanted to talk over with Sarah. One of the guards stopped me at the elevator. He said..." Taylor swallowed, wiping a hand over her eyes. "He said that his orders were that I wasn't to go anywhere alone. I told him that I was just going to my car and he could see everything from his post, but he wouldn't allow it. He walked with me, but told me to give him my keys, and to stay a few feet behind him, j-just in case." She shook her head, trying to erase the scene from her mind. "I was behind him and when he turned the key in the door lock, everything exploded. I guess I was thrown back into the wall because I was..."
Danny looked from Taylor to the car, and then back to Taylor. "Are you all right?"
"I don't -- I don't know." She took a breath. "Everything hurts a bit, but it's nothing compared to..." Her voice trailed off and she paled as she looked back at her car.
Stephen let go of Becker and approached Taylor. "Let's get you inside and cleaned up so we can check you out." He looked at Becker and Danny. "She could be going into shock."
Becker shrugged them off and went to Taylor's side and walked inside with her and Stephen. Danny watched them go and then he looked at the rest of the group before his eyes fell on Cutter.
"Well, I'd say it's a good bet that Helen knows the two of you are alive and that Taylor had something to do with it."
It was night time at the ARC and Taylor sat behind her desk, putting the finishing touches on the letter in front of her. The visions had started coming apart again and this time she was going to stop them before anything could cause the time line to splinter. She was not about to let any of her team -- her friends -- go through all of that again. She looked down at the last file she was working on and couldn't help a sad smile.
Even if she could survive what she had to do, she knew that there wasn't a chance for her to have that happy ever after she had been determined to get for her friends. It just wasn't meant to be. She loved Becker, but from his point of view, she was nothing more than a good friend. When her safety could be determined without a shadow of a doubt, they'd tell the truth about the deception that they had been living for the last year.
She didn't know if it was a good or a bad thing that she was pretty sure she wouldn't survive this last mission? She had never loved any one like she loved him and now he would never know because she couldn't tell him and face his rejection. Not right now.
She frowned, tapping her pen to her chin. In theory, she guessed she could tell Becker the truth. She could always write him a letter that said more than what she had revealed in the letter for all of the others. It was perhaps a cowardly way to do it, but she felt he deserved to know the truth. Better to do it like this where he wouldn't feel pressure to do something about it or feel guilty because he had to break her heart.
She spent the next hour trying to write the perfect letter to Becker. In it, she told him her feelings, as well as thanked him for everything he had done for her in the past year. If it hadn't been for him and his help, she never would have been able to succeed in her job or return the time line to its proper state of being. She sealed the letter, and then placed it with the things that would be delivered to Becker when the guard came to see if she needed anything.
She stood up, clutching something tightly in her hand. Of course she wouldn't need anything. By the time the guard came to check on her, she would be long gone from here.
Hopefully, soon after, so would the last remaining threat to this time line at its people.
"You bloody bastard!"
Everyone in the office of James Lester looked up in surprise as Becker burst into the room. In his hand was a three ring binder that went sailing onto Lester's desk. Jenny, Cutter and Stephen moved out of the way of the ensuing argument until they could figure out what was going on and why Becker looked so angry.
"Is there a problem, Captain Becker?" Lester's voice was cool as he spoke, trying to maintain authority while the others looked on in interest.
"You know damn well there's a problem, Lester," Becker roared. The raised voices brought the rest of team running to Lester's office. "She's gone after Helen Cutter! By herself!"
"I thought you had a regiment of guards on her at all times to make sure nothing happened to her." Lester was still sitting behind his desk, appearing unruffled.
"I do! However, last night, the guard that was going to meet with her to walk her to her car was detained. He was detained by you!" Becker's eyes were hard and angry. "By the time he got to her office, she was gone."
"I don't see how that makes it my fault. She must have simply gotten tired of waiting."
"Don't give me that bullshit. You knew what she was going to do! You knew and you did nothing to stop her."
"As you have no doubt noticed, I don't exactly seem to have complete control over the scientists on the investigative teams."
Danny put a hand on Becker's arm, probably thinking he had to stop the other man from doing something regrettable. Well, someone would regret it, he was sure. He just didn't know if it would be their team that did.
"Lester, how long have you known that Taylor was going to go looking for Helen," Danny demanded.
"I don't see how that's any of your business, Mr. Quinn."
"How long have you known?" Danny demanded again.
Jenny looked at Lester. "James, what have you done?"
"Miss Craig seems to have decided that she needed to go after Helen Cutter to make sure that the time line doesn't splinter again," Lester's voice was a lot calmer than anyone else in the room was feeling. "She didn't see the need to tell her boyfriend. Well, pretend boyfriend. Now that Helen knew she was the one that brought Cutter and Hart back, it wasn't like you had to keep pretending, now was it." He paused. "Oh. I see you didn't tell them."
Cutter and Stephen stood up, thinking that maybe Danny might need their help holding Becker back when they saw the look of rage cross his face at Lester's words.
"Quinn has a very good question," Cutter said. "How long have you known that Taylor was going after Helen? You had to have known because she would have needed your help to elude the guards and make sure that she didn't set off Connor's alarms when she opened up an anomaly."
Stephen frowned. "She's been planning this since she brought me back, hasn't she?"
"Actually, she decided that it would need to be done when she first started her research into bringing the both of you back," Lester said, still sitting behind his desk. "It was her idea."
"She saw something," Becker said, no longer yelling. "She saw one of her visions, and she told you about it."
Lester didn't say anything.
"So help me, James Lester, if you don't tell him what he wants to know I will hit you myself!" Jenny sounded a bit crankier than she had sounded earlier.
"What did she see?" Becker's voice had gotten even quieter.
"The day her car was bombed, she saw the time line start to become opaque again. It wasn't splitting, exactly, but she saw something that really upset her in those visions." Lester looked around the room. "She wouldn't tell me exactly what she saw, only that she wasn't going to let Helen Cutter hurt anyone here ever again."
"Lester," Cutter said. "Did she give you the coordinates to where she was going?"
"Now why would she have done something like that? It's not like I could make sense out of her codes and notes."
"Notes! Where are her notes?"
"Probably in her office where she keeps everything work related."
"No," Becker said quietly. "There's nothing like that in her office. I looked when I saw this." He pointed to the binder he had thrown at Lester.
"Becker," Abby finally said. "Where's her laptop? She never goes anywhere without it."
"She wouldn't be traveling through the anomalies with her laptop," Danny said, shaking his head.
"No, she wouldn't be," Abby agreed. "But she would have made sure that it was some place safe. Some place that she trusted nothing would happen to it, and that it would get to someone knowledgeable if anything happened to her."
"Becker's place," Danny said with surety. "If there was any place that she felt like she was completely safe, it would be with Becker. It makes sense that she would leave something as important to herself and her work as her laptop some place at Becker's."
Becker turned to leave, but he stopped at the door. "Lester, if she dies, I promise you, I will make you wish you had gone with her."