Fic - The Ginger Cat (part 4 of 5)
Title: The Ginger Cat
Author:prehistoriccat
Rating: PG
Pairings/Characters: Abby/Connor, Nicola Temple (OC), John Anderson (OC)
Genre: gen, angst
Disclaimer: Characters not mine, no copyright intended
“What's this? Don't tell me that after all of this time you're suddenly acting like the perfect, concerned mother?”
Abby sat in silence as she listened to everything Connor was telling her. She tried to detach herself emotionally and just take in the facts, but it was impossible. How could she not get upset over the fact that she had abandoned her daughter, just as she had always feared she would do?
She hadn't wanted to listen at first, knowing it would be too painful, but she also trusted Connor with her life and soul and if he thought she needed to know then she'd listen. When he'd finished, she broke down in tears and he held her tight against his chest, stroking her hair and rocking her gently. He didn't speak, he knew there were no words that would comfort her at the moment and he had to let her deal with this in her own time.
Finally, some long minutes later, she pulled away from him and wiped her eyes. “OK,” she whispered. “So now you tell me why it was so important that I know what happened to me here.”
“All of these years, everyone believed you had severe post-natal depression and that you'd walked away from your baby and husband. But that wasn't the truth. You were taken against your will through an anomaly by someone who had opened it with the same kind of device that got us home from the Cretaceous.”
“Someone? Perhaps it was me? Maybe that was how I managed to walk away? It would make sense to just disappear through an anomaly.”
“I don't believe that, and neither do you.” Connor leaned forward and took both her hands. “I believe that that anomaly was opened by Helen Cutter, and she kidnapped you and has been holding you hostage for all of these years.”
Abby closed her eyes for a moment, then looked at Connor. “For what reason?”
“Because she's an evil twisted bitch! When has she ever needed a reason to do something, Abby?”
“You're forgetting something,” Abby said softly, stroking Connor's shoulder. “She was killed in the Pliocene era. Danny was pretty certain she was dead.”
“She travelled through so many anomalies, she could've kidnapped you before she came up with her crazy plan to destroy mankind and we've just stumbled on her in a different time!”
“You're just clutching at straws, Connor. I know what you're trying to do, but there's no need. I know I've been avoiding the truth, but now that I know I can do something about it. I promise when we get back, I'll see about getting some professional help.” Abby kissed Connor on the cheek and smiled. “Come on, let's go back to Nicola's. I want to make some dinner, maybe invite John around and see if we can get those two talking again. He's a nice guy, she shouldn't be pushing him away. I may not have been the perfect mother, but I can at least give her some advice. I pushed you away for too long, Connor. She may not be so lucky and John might not be as persistent as you.”
“Nicola... what about that message? How do we know that we can trust her? You saw what it said.”
“A cruel practical joke, that's all.”
“For a joke, someone went to a lot of trouble. That chip didn't just appear inside the cat's neck, it would've had to have been put in there by someone who knew what they were doing. Someone with medical or veterinary know how. Someone like you.”
Abby frowned. “Why would I put a chip inside a cat to warn people not to trust my own daughter? I think I'd remember doing something like that.”
“Haven't you been listening?” Connor slammed his hand on the desk, making Abby jump. “You have to stop thinking of time as being linear. You were kidnapped by Helen Cutter in this timeline...”
“So you say.”
Ignoring Abby, Connor continued. “She has some plan, some reason she needed you, and now she's putting that plan into action. That cluster of anomalies they had a few weeks ago... perfect opportunity for her to come here undetected amongst all of those other anomalies. And the kidnapped version of you knows what she's up to and put the chip into Quinn so that we could be warned!”
“But the warning was about Nicola, not Helen. Connor, you're not making any sense!”
He slumped down in his seat and sighed. Maybe he was clutching at straws and putting two and two together to make five? Abby was right; he wasn't making sense. He'd been so certain that Helen was involved though. Who else would have one of those anomaly opening devices? The fact that the same device was used to open an anomaly on the day that the Abby here disappeared as the one that brought them here was just too much of a coincidence for him to ignore. He felt Abby's arms around him and heard her soothing voice suggesting that they'd both feel better after having something to eat. Food did sound good; he always thought more clearly on a full stomach, so he waited for Abby to get Quinn and then followed her out.
They got to the security door and found it locked. “I'll open it, the security system recognises me,” Connor said. “Don't want you setting off all the alarms again!” He waited, feeling the electronic scan move through his body and then the bolts unlocked, allowing the door to be opened. He followed Abby along the path back down towards the residential complex, glancing back at the ARC occasionally. Something wasn't adding up and he didn't like it.
-o-
Abby had insisted they acted as normally as possible. She set about preparing dinner and found a phone number for John in Nicola's address book and made Connor call him to invite him around. If something was amiss with Nicola, then surely John would be the one to notice it. She already knew he was concerned about her behaviour since she'd gone off on her own during the anomaly cluster. Abby did wonder if perhaps he was the one that had put the chip inside Quinn, his way of getting someone else to start noticing what he had because Nicola wasn't prepared to listen to him.
Quinn suddenly sat up, alert and ears twitching. Footsteps were heard approaching and then the door opened. Connor held his breath and glanced nervously at Abby until Nicola's voice was heard. “Hi! I'm back! Something smells good, are you cooking, dad?”
Letting out a sigh of relief, Connor smiled. “No, Abby is though.” He wasn't quite sure who he was expecting to come through the door, but his stomach was churning. The thought that Helen Cutter could be close by really un-nerved him.
“Oh right,” Nicola looked uneasy. “You didn't need to do that. I could have ordered in a take out or something.”
“I don't mind. Needed to do something to occupy myself.”
Nicola walked into the dining room with Quinn following her, rubbing himself around her ankles and almost tripping her over. “Four places?” she frowned, spotting the table all set out.
“Yeah, I invited John over. He came round earlier, he seems a really nice guy. You can tell he's Matt's son, he has that same calm manner about him.” Abby said.
“What? You had no right to do that!”
The doorbell rang and Connor went to answer it. From the look of him, Connor knew straight away it must be John and it felt weird. “I guess you must be my daughter's boyfriend!” he laughed. This conversation was one Connor didn't think he'd be having for a long time yet, and certainly not with a man who was pretty much the same age as himself.
“John Anderson.” He held out his hand and shook Connor's, then spoke quietly. “Did Abby tell you about my concerns?”
“Yes, and I'm worried too.” John looked at him questioningly. Connor put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the chip. “Abby found this inside Quinn's neck earlier.”
“An ID chip? You've found his real owner?”
“No. It has a warning on it. It says Nicola is not to be trusted and that she's not who we think she is. Any ideas who might have put it there?”
John shook his head. “There may be people who don't like her, but she is respected. We both trained under Captain Becker, and he'd earmarked her for great things right from the start.”
Connor wished he could chat to John more, but Abby called them through for dinner and it had to be all smiles. Despite the awkwardness, chat flowed fairly easily between all four. Abby and Connor mostly listened as John talked about some recent anomaly missions, and then he asked them questions about the Cretaceous era. All relatively safe topics.
When dinner was almost over, Abby decided that she needed to know if the warning had any weight to it. “What I don't understand,” she began, turning to Nicola, “is why you broke up with John? He seems a pleasant enough young man and he's worried about you.”
“What's this? Don't tell me that after all of this time you're suddenly acting like the perfect, concerned mother?” Nicola's words stung, and Abby had to fight the tears she felt prickling in her eyes.
“I am worried about you, Nic. I think you're ill and need help before you...” John glanced at Abby, knowing he'd said he wouldn't tell her anything about her own future.
“Before I end up like mummy dearest here and take the coward's way out?” Nicola spat, glaring at Abby. Connor stood up, fists clenched. Abby grasped his arm and urged him to sit down, whispering that it was OK. “The truth hurts doesn't it,” she smiled, and her hand moved to grasp the silver bracelet on her left wrist. As she fiddled with it, something strange happened. A brief moment of what could only be described as static electricity.
Abby gasped. Suddenly it all fell into place; the warning about Nicola, Connor's earlier ramblings about the anomalies. She'd seen something like this before, and now she knew why Nicola was behaving strangely.
“The truth?” Abby said. “Oh, I think I have a perfect grasp on what's happening here.”
“Oh really? I'd be interested in your theory.”
Standing up, Abby reached for Connor's hand. She hoped she was wrong and that what was she was about to say was completely ridiculous, but she had to know. “You're not Nicola Temple.”
Connor's mouth dropped open, and Abby's grip on him tightened. He expected an explosion, either of anger or hysterical laughter, but Nicola's smile became a tight line across her face and then she twisted the bracelet around on her wrist. Slowly, Nicola's body began to shimmer and fade like an image on a TV screen being retuned. After a few moments, it was no longer Nicola standing there looking smug, but another familiar figure who looked no older than the last time they'd laid eyes on her.
“Helen!” The word stuck in Connor's throat. He'd been right; she was responsible for those anomalies; the one at the cluster, the one that had brought him and Abby here, and the one that had appeared the day the Abby from this time had disappeared.
“I'm impressed. I thought it would take a little longer than this for you to work it out.” Helen's eyes glinted.
“Where's Nicola?” John yelled. He was confused and was looking from Abby to Connor for an explanation.
“She's safe enough. Reunited with the mother she thought had abandoned her. If I was the sentimental kind, I'd have been quite touched at the scene,” Helen said.
Connor rushed forward, arms flying in an attempt to punch her, but Abby pulled him back. “You bitch! You kidnapped Abby and now you've got Nicola too! Why?”
“To make you suffer, dear Connor, “ Helen replied calmly. “I knew killing you would only make the others stronger and more determined. Taking away the one person you really cared about was extremely effective, although I didn't anticipate just how long you would hold onto the hope she'd come back. I did plan to try cloning her, use her against you and hurt you even more, but the clones are just not convincing enough for someone who knows the person intimately. It was rather fortunate that your daughter grew up to be so similar to Abby. Once I'd studied her for a while, I realised I could use the DNA already gathered and cloned from Abby to create my disguise and come here. I just had to get the real Nicola out of the way so that the next phase of the plan could begin.”
Connor was shaking, fists clenched and adrenaline racing through every nerve and muscle in his body. If it wasn't for Abby holding him so tightly, he'd have been launching an attack on Helen right now. He'd sworn after Cutter's death that he would kill her if he ever got the chance, and right now that was exactly what he wanted to do.
“And the next phase was?” Abby said calmly.
“To open anomalies in various significant places in your timeline. To bring different versions of Connor here using the cat as bait and inflict even more pain on him. Over and over, one by one, breaking each Connor Temple down until he couldn't handle it any longer and all anomaly research would end.”
“You're sick!” Connor yelled, struggling against Abby. He broke free, and reached into his jacket for his EMD. Trembling, he pointed it at her, his finger twitching on the trigger that would fire the electronic pulse. He hesitated a moment, and Helen's mouth curled into a smug smile. Connor knew it was pointless; the EMD wouldn't do anything more than render her helpless for a few minutes, and that wasn't what he wanted. With a sigh, he threw it to the ground in frustration.
“Poor little Connor.” Helen taunted. “They never did let you have a proper gun. Such a shame, you just missed out on the perfect moment to get your revenge for Nick's death.”
Three gunshots were fired in rapid succession and for a split second time seemed to stand still. Helen slumped to the ground, and when Connor regained his senses all he could see was her body laid in a pool of her own blood which was growing larger by the second. Abby choked back a shocked sob and turned to look at John, trembling in the corner of the room with the pistol still pointing in the direction he'd fired it.
“Sorry,” he managed to mutter. “She was your kill, not mine, but I had the gun.”
Abby knelt down and cautiously placed her fingers on Helen's neck to check for a pulse. “Is she dead?” Connor asked. Abby simply nodded then stood up. “Then it doesn't matter who pulled the trigger, does it.” He allowed Abby's arms to surround him, hold him, and protect him from the terrible pain he felt in his heart. Helen was dead, but it didn't feel as satisfying as he thought it would.
-o-
It took the ARC's soldiers only a matter of minutes to remove the body and begin cleaning up, they were all to familiar with having to deal with the aftermath of a shooting or creature attack. Helen Cutter was a name they all knew, and the significance of this event was not lost on any of them. They worked silently without even a second glance at Abby, Connor or John. No questions would be asked of them and there would be no consequences.
“I guess this explains why I was dumped,” John said, breaking the awkward silence after the soldiers had left.
Connor nodded. “The disguise is very good and would fool most people, but someone who knew her would realise fairly quickly. She had to get you out of the way as the only one who would blow her cover.”
Quinn slowly crept out from behind the cupboard where he'd hidden after the gun was fired and meowed. Abby picked him and Connor made a fuss of him. “I don't get why Helen would use a cat to get us through the anomaly,” he said, mostly to himself.
“Availability,” Abby responded. “That, and the fact that she could wander around with him in tow to use whenever she needed to without drawing any attention to herself. She could hardly keep a Raptor with her could she! He's normal looking enough to appear ordinary, but with enough features to strike curiosity and make us come through the anomaly to return him. It worked too.”
“And either Abby or Nicola knew that was what she going to do and put the chip into his neck, hoping someone would take notice. Clever women my girls!” Connor smiled, squeezing Abby's hand.
“The question is, where has that bitch taken them?” John said.
“We'll find them. We have to.” Connor felt the sting of regret. He should have fired the EMD at Helen when he had the chance, they could have restrained her and then made her tell them where she was holding Abby and Nicola. If only he hadn't allowed the red mist to descend and let his desire to avenge Cutter's death get the better of him.
He closed his eyes, trying to imagine the hell that Abby must have been through for the last twenty seven years or so; alone, scared, clinging on to the hope that her Connor would come and find her. It broke his heart thinking about it but he knew he could do something about it. It was too late for her own Connor to find her, but at least he could. The question was, where do you start looking for someone that has been kept hidden for almost 30 years?
Author:prehistoriccat
Rating: PG
Pairings/Characters: Abby/Connor, Nicola Temple (OC), John Anderson (OC)
Genre: gen, angst
Disclaimer: Characters not mine, no copyright intended
“What's this? Don't tell me that after all of this time you're suddenly acting like the perfect, concerned mother?”
Abby sat in silence as she listened to everything Connor was telling her. She tried to detach herself emotionally and just take in the facts, but it was impossible. How could she not get upset over the fact that she had abandoned her daughter, just as she had always feared she would do?
She hadn't wanted to listen at first, knowing it would be too painful, but she also trusted Connor with her life and soul and if he thought she needed to know then she'd listen. When he'd finished, she broke down in tears and he held her tight against his chest, stroking her hair and rocking her gently. He didn't speak, he knew there were no words that would comfort her at the moment and he had to let her deal with this in her own time.
Finally, some long minutes later, she pulled away from him and wiped her eyes. “OK,” she whispered. “So now you tell me why it was so important that I know what happened to me here.”
“All of these years, everyone believed you had severe post-natal depression and that you'd walked away from your baby and husband. But that wasn't the truth. You were taken against your will through an anomaly by someone who had opened it with the same kind of device that got us home from the Cretaceous.”
“Someone? Perhaps it was me? Maybe that was how I managed to walk away? It would make sense to just disappear through an anomaly.”
“I don't believe that, and neither do you.” Connor leaned forward and took both her hands. “I believe that that anomaly was opened by Helen Cutter, and she kidnapped you and has been holding you hostage for all of these years.”
Abby closed her eyes for a moment, then looked at Connor. “For what reason?”
“Because she's an evil twisted bitch! When has she ever needed a reason to do something, Abby?”
“You're forgetting something,” Abby said softly, stroking Connor's shoulder. “She was killed in the Pliocene era. Danny was pretty certain she was dead.”
“She travelled through so many anomalies, she could've kidnapped you before she came up with her crazy plan to destroy mankind and we've just stumbled on her in a different time!”
“You're just clutching at straws, Connor. I know what you're trying to do, but there's no need. I know I've been avoiding the truth, but now that I know I can do something about it. I promise when we get back, I'll see about getting some professional help.” Abby kissed Connor on the cheek and smiled. “Come on, let's go back to Nicola's. I want to make some dinner, maybe invite John around and see if we can get those two talking again. He's a nice guy, she shouldn't be pushing him away. I may not have been the perfect mother, but I can at least give her some advice. I pushed you away for too long, Connor. She may not be so lucky and John might not be as persistent as you.”
“Nicola... what about that message? How do we know that we can trust her? You saw what it said.”
“A cruel practical joke, that's all.”
“For a joke, someone went to a lot of trouble. That chip didn't just appear inside the cat's neck, it would've had to have been put in there by someone who knew what they were doing. Someone with medical or veterinary know how. Someone like you.”
Abby frowned. “Why would I put a chip inside a cat to warn people not to trust my own daughter? I think I'd remember doing something like that.”
“Haven't you been listening?” Connor slammed his hand on the desk, making Abby jump. “You have to stop thinking of time as being linear. You were kidnapped by Helen Cutter in this timeline...”
“So you say.”
Ignoring Abby, Connor continued. “She has some plan, some reason she needed you, and now she's putting that plan into action. That cluster of anomalies they had a few weeks ago... perfect opportunity for her to come here undetected amongst all of those other anomalies. And the kidnapped version of you knows what she's up to and put the chip into Quinn so that we could be warned!”
“But the warning was about Nicola, not Helen. Connor, you're not making any sense!”
He slumped down in his seat and sighed. Maybe he was clutching at straws and putting two and two together to make five? Abby was right; he wasn't making sense. He'd been so certain that Helen was involved though. Who else would have one of those anomaly opening devices? The fact that the same device was used to open an anomaly on the day that the Abby here disappeared as the one that brought them here was just too much of a coincidence for him to ignore. He felt Abby's arms around him and heard her soothing voice suggesting that they'd both feel better after having something to eat. Food did sound good; he always thought more clearly on a full stomach, so he waited for Abby to get Quinn and then followed her out.
They got to the security door and found it locked. “I'll open it, the security system recognises me,” Connor said. “Don't want you setting off all the alarms again!” He waited, feeling the electronic scan move through his body and then the bolts unlocked, allowing the door to be opened. He followed Abby along the path back down towards the residential complex, glancing back at the ARC occasionally. Something wasn't adding up and he didn't like it.
-o-
Abby had insisted they acted as normally as possible. She set about preparing dinner and found a phone number for John in Nicola's address book and made Connor call him to invite him around. If something was amiss with Nicola, then surely John would be the one to notice it. She already knew he was concerned about her behaviour since she'd gone off on her own during the anomaly cluster. Abby did wonder if perhaps he was the one that had put the chip inside Quinn, his way of getting someone else to start noticing what he had because Nicola wasn't prepared to listen to him.
Quinn suddenly sat up, alert and ears twitching. Footsteps were heard approaching and then the door opened. Connor held his breath and glanced nervously at Abby until Nicola's voice was heard. “Hi! I'm back! Something smells good, are you cooking, dad?”
Letting out a sigh of relief, Connor smiled. “No, Abby is though.” He wasn't quite sure who he was expecting to come through the door, but his stomach was churning. The thought that Helen Cutter could be close by really un-nerved him.
“Oh right,” Nicola looked uneasy. “You didn't need to do that. I could have ordered in a take out or something.”
“I don't mind. Needed to do something to occupy myself.”
Nicola walked into the dining room with Quinn following her, rubbing himself around her ankles and almost tripping her over. “Four places?” she frowned, spotting the table all set out.
“Yeah, I invited John over. He came round earlier, he seems a really nice guy. You can tell he's Matt's son, he has that same calm manner about him.” Abby said.
“What? You had no right to do that!”
The doorbell rang and Connor went to answer it. From the look of him, Connor knew straight away it must be John and it felt weird. “I guess you must be my daughter's boyfriend!” he laughed. This conversation was one Connor didn't think he'd be having for a long time yet, and certainly not with a man who was pretty much the same age as himself.
“John Anderson.” He held out his hand and shook Connor's, then spoke quietly. “Did Abby tell you about my concerns?”
“Yes, and I'm worried too.” John looked at him questioningly. Connor put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the chip. “Abby found this inside Quinn's neck earlier.”
“An ID chip? You've found his real owner?”
“No. It has a warning on it. It says Nicola is not to be trusted and that she's not who we think she is. Any ideas who might have put it there?”
John shook his head. “There may be people who don't like her, but she is respected. We both trained under Captain Becker, and he'd earmarked her for great things right from the start.”
Connor wished he could chat to John more, but Abby called them through for dinner and it had to be all smiles. Despite the awkwardness, chat flowed fairly easily between all four. Abby and Connor mostly listened as John talked about some recent anomaly missions, and then he asked them questions about the Cretaceous era. All relatively safe topics.
When dinner was almost over, Abby decided that she needed to know if the warning had any weight to it. “What I don't understand,” she began, turning to Nicola, “is why you broke up with John? He seems a pleasant enough young man and he's worried about you.”
“What's this? Don't tell me that after all of this time you're suddenly acting like the perfect, concerned mother?” Nicola's words stung, and Abby had to fight the tears she felt prickling in her eyes.
“I am worried about you, Nic. I think you're ill and need help before you...” John glanced at Abby, knowing he'd said he wouldn't tell her anything about her own future.
“Before I end up like mummy dearest here and take the coward's way out?” Nicola spat, glaring at Abby. Connor stood up, fists clenched. Abby grasped his arm and urged him to sit down, whispering that it was OK. “The truth hurts doesn't it,” she smiled, and her hand moved to grasp the silver bracelet on her left wrist. As she fiddled with it, something strange happened. A brief moment of what could only be described as static electricity.
Abby gasped. Suddenly it all fell into place; the warning about Nicola, Connor's earlier ramblings about the anomalies. She'd seen something like this before, and now she knew why Nicola was behaving strangely.
“The truth?” Abby said. “Oh, I think I have a perfect grasp on what's happening here.”
“Oh really? I'd be interested in your theory.”
Standing up, Abby reached for Connor's hand. She hoped she was wrong and that what was she was about to say was completely ridiculous, but she had to know. “You're not Nicola Temple.”
Connor's mouth dropped open, and Abby's grip on him tightened. He expected an explosion, either of anger or hysterical laughter, but Nicola's smile became a tight line across her face and then she twisted the bracelet around on her wrist. Slowly, Nicola's body began to shimmer and fade like an image on a TV screen being retuned. After a few moments, it was no longer Nicola standing there looking smug, but another familiar figure who looked no older than the last time they'd laid eyes on her.
“Helen!” The word stuck in Connor's throat. He'd been right; she was responsible for those anomalies; the one at the cluster, the one that had brought him and Abby here, and the one that had appeared the day the Abby from this time had disappeared.
“I'm impressed. I thought it would take a little longer than this for you to work it out.” Helen's eyes glinted.
“Where's Nicola?” John yelled. He was confused and was looking from Abby to Connor for an explanation.
“She's safe enough. Reunited with the mother she thought had abandoned her. If I was the sentimental kind, I'd have been quite touched at the scene,” Helen said.
Connor rushed forward, arms flying in an attempt to punch her, but Abby pulled him back. “You bitch! You kidnapped Abby and now you've got Nicola too! Why?”
“To make you suffer, dear Connor, “ Helen replied calmly. “I knew killing you would only make the others stronger and more determined. Taking away the one person you really cared about was extremely effective, although I didn't anticipate just how long you would hold onto the hope she'd come back. I did plan to try cloning her, use her against you and hurt you even more, but the clones are just not convincing enough for someone who knows the person intimately. It was rather fortunate that your daughter grew up to be so similar to Abby. Once I'd studied her for a while, I realised I could use the DNA already gathered and cloned from Abby to create my disguise and come here. I just had to get the real Nicola out of the way so that the next phase of the plan could begin.”
Connor was shaking, fists clenched and adrenaline racing through every nerve and muscle in his body. If it wasn't for Abby holding him so tightly, he'd have been launching an attack on Helen right now. He'd sworn after Cutter's death that he would kill her if he ever got the chance, and right now that was exactly what he wanted to do.
“And the next phase was?” Abby said calmly.
“To open anomalies in various significant places in your timeline. To bring different versions of Connor here using the cat as bait and inflict even more pain on him. Over and over, one by one, breaking each Connor Temple down until he couldn't handle it any longer and all anomaly research would end.”
“You're sick!” Connor yelled, struggling against Abby. He broke free, and reached into his jacket for his EMD. Trembling, he pointed it at her, his finger twitching on the trigger that would fire the electronic pulse. He hesitated a moment, and Helen's mouth curled into a smug smile. Connor knew it was pointless; the EMD wouldn't do anything more than render her helpless for a few minutes, and that wasn't what he wanted. With a sigh, he threw it to the ground in frustration.
“Poor little Connor.” Helen taunted. “They never did let you have a proper gun. Such a shame, you just missed out on the perfect moment to get your revenge for Nick's death.”
Three gunshots were fired in rapid succession and for a split second time seemed to stand still. Helen slumped to the ground, and when Connor regained his senses all he could see was her body laid in a pool of her own blood which was growing larger by the second. Abby choked back a shocked sob and turned to look at John, trembling in the corner of the room with the pistol still pointing in the direction he'd fired it.
“Sorry,” he managed to mutter. “She was your kill, not mine, but I had the gun.”
Abby knelt down and cautiously placed her fingers on Helen's neck to check for a pulse. “Is she dead?” Connor asked. Abby simply nodded then stood up. “Then it doesn't matter who pulled the trigger, does it.” He allowed Abby's arms to surround him, hold him, and protect him from the terrible pain he felt in his heart. Helen was dead, but it didn't feel as satisfying as he thought it would.
-o-
It took the ARC's soldiers only a matter of minutes to remove the body and begin cleaning up, they were all to familiar with having to deal with the aftermath of a shooting or creature attack. Helen Cutter was a name they all knew, and the significance of this event was not lost on any of them. They worked silently without even a second glance at Abby, Connor or John. No questions would be asked of them and there would be no consequences.
“I guess this explains why I was dumped,” John said, breaking the awkward silence after the soldiers had left.
Connor nodded. “The disguise is very good and would fool most people, but someone who knew her would realise fairly quickly. She had to get you out of the way as the only one who would blow her cover.”
Quinn slowly crept out from behind the cupboard where he'd hidden after the gun was fired and meowed. Abby picked him and Connor made a fuss of him. “I don't get why Helen would use a cat to get us through the anomaly,” he said, mostly to himself.
“Availability,” Abby responded. “That, and the fact that she could wander around with him in tow to use whenever she needed to without drawing any attention to herself. She could hardly keep a Raptor with her could she! He's normal looking enough to appear ordinary, but with enough features to strike curiosity and make us come through the anomaly to return him. It worked too.”
“And either Abby or Nicola knew that was what she going to do and put the chip into his neck, hoping someone would take notice. Clever women my girls!” Connor smiled, squeezing Abby's hand.
“The question is, where has that bitch taken them?” John said.
“We'll find them. We have to.” Connor felt the sting of regret. He should have fired the EMD at Helen when he had the chance, they could have restrained her and then made her tell them where she was holding Abby and Nicola. If only he hadn't allowed the red mist to descend and let his desire to avenge Cutter's death get the better of him.
He closed his eyes, trying to imagine the hell that Abby must have been through for the last twenty seven years or so; alone, scared, clinging on to the hope that her Connor would come and find her. It broke his heart thinking about it but he knew he could do something about it. It was too late for her own Connor to find her, but at least he could. The question was, where do you start looking for someone that has been kept hidden for almost 30 years?