Primeval Fic: In Name Only 2/9
Title: In Name Only
Author: SCWLC
Disclaimer: I don't own anything herein and no one's paying me to do it.
Rating: PG? I think? Just in case?
Summary: Children change almost everything.
AN: I don't know if Island Princess had come out by '07, frankly, I do not care. Yes, I watched it on YouTube. No, there were still no children involved. I am deeply ashamed. Also, anything that happened effectively the same in the show, I'm not going to bother rewriting unless I can really expect there'd be a different internal reaction. We've all seen the series, so there's just no reason to rewrite something like that. Lastly, as much as it pains me to say, Lynn's paragon-like behaviour may reassert itself out of a need on my part not to detract from the plotline.
**************************
In time everything settled. Lynn got used to having friends and a dad who cared and the squalid conditions. In consultation with Lettie and some of the more experienced parents at her school, he was reassured she'd hit a pretty normal balance for a child her age between acting out and being good. Actually, she was pretty brilliant, especially for her age, and over the summer when she turned seven, Connor was practically bullied by several teachers at her school into shifting her into a different school, further away, with a more competitive curriculum and catering to a supposedly better class of people. All Connor cared at that point, was that it was still free for him, because he simply wasn't making enough to pay any sort of tuition costs.
Meanwhile, his classes at uni were brilliant. He'd made new friends, and between Lynn's friends' parents, Danny and Miss Kirkpatrick, he managed to hang out and have a social life from time to time. It was actually due to a teacher education development day, whatever they were being called, that landed on a Friday, and Connor had been happy enough to let Lynn spend the day and sleep over at Jackie's, that allowed him to propose heading out to the Forest of Dean with professor Cutter and his assistant.
It wasn't until they were tracking the gorgonopsid that Connor had a flash of realisation. And when Stephen asked him if he was coming, he froze a moment, then lied. Because he didn't want to let Stephen go without someone to watch his back, but Connor was no action hero, and what would Lynn do if he got himself hurt? "You, mighty hunter. Me, I’m more logistics and, you know, backup," he said.
He felt terrible watching Stephen go, but he had to think of Lynn. When the bloody thing showed up at the anomaly site, scattering everyone in a desperate attempt to get away, he was sure he'd been right. It didn't stop him from wanting to be part of it all, though.
When Lynn came home, Connor wrapped his arms around her and hung on for dear life. "How was Jackie's?"
"Good. Are you going to let go?" she inquired.
"In a minute."
She was clever, his girl. "What happened?"
"What do you mean?"
Lynn wriggled away. "You're acting weird, Dad."
He laughed a little. "I am. Sorry. It's just been a bit of a scary day or two. I'm just happy to see you."
"Scary!" she exclaimed, "Scary how? What happened?"
"Weird stuff," he told her. "And I signed this contract thing that says I can't tell anyone."
"Not even me?" she asked. "I wouldn't tell. You know I'm good at secrets."
"I know you are," he said regretfully. "But this is really big. Big like when we both started hiding from your dad, big."
"He's not my dad," she declared. "You are. I remember, when I first started at school, there was a whole day we spent talking about adopted kids. Your parents are the people who take care of you and stuff. You do that. He never did."
"And he wasn't cool enough to have Gertrude, over there," he said, jerking his head at the full-sized model of a Jurassic Park velociraptor that his old friend whose life he was living, had bid for and won online just days before he died. They'd set it up at the front door after much discussion, agreeing that anyone breaking in would get a scare in the dead of night, walking into the lifelike model. Intermittently she was used as a hat rack.
The topic of his frightening day was dropped, and they had dinner.
But Connor wanted to bring Tom and Duncan in on it, tried to convince his two friends, the only ones he'd wound up telling about Lynn (though not the real truth, just his story of teenaged indiscretion), but they didn't buy it. He was sitting with Abby, having phoned Stephen about the potential incursion, when his phone started ringing. He broke off what he was saying, which was actually probably a good thing, considering all the luck he'd had flirting with her, to answer. "Hey, what's up?"
"Dad, Tom and Duncan are trying to trick you!"
"What?" Connor frowned, turning away from Abby a smidge. "What do you mean?"
"When they were last staying over, you know, when you had that exam? They were talking about the weird animal sighting web site and a whole bunch of things. When I told Danny, he said it sounded like they're trying to prank you."
The growling noise made Abby startle and for a moment Connor froze. Then suddenly he realised what was going on. "Thanks Lynn." Glaring, he started storming to the bushes, just as Cutter and Stephen showed up. "Tom! Duncan! I can't believe you'd do this to me!"
There they were, crouched in the bushes, making an idiot of him. Abby was next to him a moment later. "You idiots!" she snapped. "This isn't some stupid joke!"
Not that either his or Abby's pleas did any good. Cutter still threw him off the team before things had barely begun. He stormed home in a bad mood, flopping onto the bed once he'd thanked Danny for once again being there to babysit. "Did you have a bad day?" Lynn asked. "'Cause mine was good. Danny took me out for ice cream and I got to have the swings all to myself the whole afternoon. I think I nearly made it over the top today."
"Did you?" Connor asked. "You get all your homework done too?"
"Everything but the maths," she said, making a face.
He sat up, pushing away his pique, because while dinosaurs were his and Conn's dream, this was all for Lynn. She deserved better than to listen to him moaning about Tom and Duncan being utter berks. "Then let's get the maths done, and we can watch a film and have pizza after." They argued about which film and she won, and that was how they wound up watching Barbie: Island Princess while Connor muttered about the flying peacock, the unnaturally speedy elephant, why, if all the other animals could talk the dolphins couldn't and agreeing with Lynn that if real rats were like the ones in the film, they'd want one for a pet.
The phone call from Claudia Brown came as a shock. "Hello?"
"Mr. Temple," she said crisply. "In spite of whatever may have happened, I've been told we need your database to figure out what's poisoned Stephen and find something to apply a proper antivenin. We need you down here, right now."
"Poisoned?" he gaped.
Lynn's head came up from where she'd been watching the mother and daughter reunite onscreen. "Poison?" she echoed.
Internally cursing, Connor said, "I'll be down as soon as I can." He hung up and hurried down the hall, knocking on the door. "Vivian?" he knocked on Miss Kirkpatrick's door.
The older woman opened a minute later. "Connor? Is something wrong?"
"One of my . . . friends is in a bit of trouble," he said hastily. "I really hope you're free to watch Lynn for a bit, because I've got to go."
"Oh, of course," she said. "That bad?"
"He's in hospital," Connor said, hoping he wouldn't have to go into more detail than that.
"Bring her right over, then," she told him. She'd long since declared that Gertrude the Raptor gave her the willies and she wasn't going to spend any evening sitting next to her.. "It's no trouble. We'll watch the telly and everything'll be fine. You'll see."
He raced back to his flat and told Lynn. "I'm really sorry, but I've got to go. Stephen's in a lot of trouble and they need me to help."
"Who's Stephen?" she asked, watching him in some bemusement as he collected some things for her and stuffed them in her favourite dinosaur rucksack.
"Someone I work with, sort of," Connor explained. "I'm so sorry, Lynn."
At Miss Kirkpatrick's door, she suddenly turned and hugged him. "Love you Dad."
"Love you too, sweetheart," Connor said, then hurried off. It turned out that the guesses from the fossil record weren't sufficiently accurate to the behaviour of the arthropleura, and Connor had to make a mental note to adjust that. Staring at the anomaly, standing next to Cutter, he pleaded his case again.
"I just want to help." He thought of the real Connor, the one he was pretending to be, and knew his friend would have wanted this just as much as he did. They'd both loved dinosaurs, built the database together, wanted to be the dynamic dinosaur duo and his friend would have scolded him for not even trying. Would have been bold enough to not think twice at any of the risks that had been taken that day, just for the chance to see these things.
"You did a good job," Cutter said.
The exultation made him say stupid things, but he didn't care. This is for you, Conn.
**********************************
Connor limped out of the hospital, very headachy, not quite sure how he was going to get home, hell, not even sure how he was going to get up the stairs to his flat, but determined to get back to Lynn. He'd promised he'd be home that evening for her, and he intended to keep that promise. Still, he wasn't looking forward to the bus ride there.
As he say waiting for the bus, a car pulled up at the stop, and he was surprised to see Claudia behind the wheel. "Connor? Did you sign yourself out of the hospital?"
"Yeah," he replied. "There's just . . . not really any point in hanging around, you know?"
Her eyes narrowed. "Didn't they say you might have a concussion from when the anklesaur-"
"Ankylosaur," Connor corrected absently.
She rolled her eyes. "The point is, you landed headfirst on a tree. Shouldn't you make sure you're alright before heading home?"
Claudia had a point, but, "There's things . . . I have to get home," he said, giving up on coming up with a good explanation around the pounding in his head.
Pausing a moment, she seemed to come to a decision. "Get in."
"What?" he asked.
"I'm starting to think I should drag you back to the hospital," she muttered. "I'll give you a lift home."
Nothing loathe, He limped over to her car and hopped in, giving her directions. When they arrived at his street, Claudia began to look rather dubious. "You live here?" she asked. "Can't you get a better place?"
He was being paid a sort of minimum wage from the Home Office for working on the anomaly project, but that had all gone on paying fees for school trips and Lynn's determination to take every Saturday Morning Club children's lecture series on offer at the British Museum. "Not really," he replied to the question. "There's things I've got to pay for." The look she shot him was piercing, but he was getting better at not folding under those. "Thanks for the ride," he said instead.
Halfway to the door, he stumbled, nearly falling, and an indignant and exasperated huff was his only warning as Claudia wrapped an arm around his waist, supporting some of his weight. "Let me help you in," she said, sounding put-upon. When she saw the stairs she just sighed voluminously. When they passed the drunk who pretty much lived on the landing there, because his wife wouldn't let him drink at home, she shook her head.
"Thanks," Connor told Claudia when they finally reached his door. "I appreciate the help-"
He was about to get her to leave when the door slammed open and Lynn flung herself on him. "Dad! You're home!"
Connor staggered, lost his balance as his injured leg crumpled and hit the floor hard. "Christ, Connor, what happened?" Danny said, aghast from where he'd come up behind Lynn. "You get into a boxing match with rhino?"
"No," Claudia said smoothly, "Just a misunderstanding with one of the individuals our project works with."
Danny's eyes narrowed. "And what sort of individuals would you be involving Connor here with?"
"And who might you be?" Claudia asked, all superior government sneer.
Connor tried to get Lynn into the flat, but she was watching the pair spar like it was a Wimbledon tennis match, and Connor was in no shape to pick her up and carry her off.
"Daniel Quinn, DC," Danny said, pulling out his own sneering credentials. Then smiled briefly at Lynn. "And sometime babysitter."
This, Claudia was not prepared for. It was one thing to face down and intimidate some random idiot on the street, but a police detective wasn't a nobody to be intimidated unduly. "I'm sorry to tell you that's classified."
"Right," Danny said slowly. "Just so we're clear on this, Miss, but classified won't wash very long with me if Connor comes home battered up like that very often."
"Danny," Connor hastily interrupted, "It's alright. It was just me being stupid and not letting Stephen do what he does-"
"Bloody hotdogging idiot," Claudia muttered.
Danny shot them both a look, then said, "I'd stick around, but my shift starts soon. I'll see you later, Connor, Katydid," he finished with his nickname for Lynn.
Claudia took in the way Connor was leaning on the wall and Lynn's anxious looks and said, "Right, come on," and looped her arm around his waist again, helping him in the door, then stifling a shriek as they ran into Gertrude. "What the?"
"That's just Gertrude," Lynn said amiably. "She's there to scare off burglars. Works too," she commented idly. "When Greg from upstairs tried to break in and steal some stuff for drug money she scared him good."
Connor frowned. "When was this?"
"Last week. I was with Miss Kirkpatrick when he ran down the hall screaming about monsters." Then she continued with, "What did happen, Dad? You're hurt. And who's this?"
"Still can't tell you," he told her. "And this is sort of my boss, Claudia Brown. Claudia, my daughter, Caitlyn."
To her credit, Claudia didn't explode. "Nice to meet you," she said briskly. "How old are you?"
"Seven," said Caitlyn. "Why are you asking?"
"Lynn," Connor scolded, "That's rude, and she's twitting me, not you."
"That's not better," Lynn said, quite dryly.
"She's seven going on seventy," Connor told Claudia. "I know I promised you XBox tonight, but can you wait a bit?"
"Okay," Lynn said. "I just got the next book that unicorn series anyhow."
When Lynn had vanished into her room, Claudia shook her head. "I can't believe it. You're a father?"
"Have been for a few years now," Connor told her honestly. "I don't like to bring her up with everyone else. People don't say nice things when you do one stupid thing as a teenager."
"Where's her mother?" Claudia asked. "Unfit?"
The slight snideness made Connor reply baldly, "Dead."
"I'm sorry," she told him contritely. "But Connor, you can't seriously be planning to keep raising her here."
"What am I supposed to do?" he demanded. "How much money do you think I have access to? I'm a student, Claudia. The Home Office isn't paying any of us that much because we all have other jobs, so to speak."
She sighed. "You have a point, of course, but . . ."
Connor shook his head. "I think the one thing that I really hate most about having to be here is the time it takes Lynn to get to school in the morning. She's going to William Gladstone Primary, and it's on the other side of London."
"That's not a public school, though," Claudia said. "You're certainly making enough to be in a better grade of council flat than this as long as she stays in a state-funded school."
"Not as long as I'm paying for her to go to the Satruday morning children's lectures at the British Museum," Connor countered. "I wish I'd had them. It's really cool and fun and she loves it. How can I say no?"
"And ballet class?" Claudia asked, picking up the bag with its pink and black dance clothes.
"The girls in her class all go, so she wanted to," he said. "I don't really know anything about girl . . . stuff."
Lynn poked her head into the room. "He's bad at girl things. I keep having to go to Jackie's before recitals so her mum can do my hair and makeup and things."
"Were you listening?" Connor asked her, trying to look severe. "Because that's rude."
"You're not talking quietly and you know everyone can hear everything upstairs and downstairs from us," she shot back.
Now that she was getting an attitude about it all, he shot her a dark look. "Keep this up and it's no pizza for a month." Lynn sighed, the most put-upon seven-year-old ever to walk the earth, but retreated to her room and her book again. "She learned that from Violet down the hall," Connor told Claudia.
The O'Neills the floor above started their nightly screaming fight, ending early this time with the shattering crash of one of them throwing a bottle at the other and the slam of a door. It was like it was a signal for every frightening thing going on about the neighbourhood to be hinted at in the sounds erupting all about. Claudia's lips tightened. "That's it," she said firmly. "I live four blocks away from that school and I have a house full of empty rooms. You're packing up tonight and coming home with me, the pair of you."
"Wha'?" Connor was aware he was gaping like some sort of idiot yokel, but . . . "Are you . . . what . . . just like that?"
"Now, Connor," declared Claudia sharply. It was like all that government authority she had came down on his head like a tonne of bricks, and suddenly, he and Lynn were packed up and in her car. "You can come back and collect the rest of your things tomorrow," she told them both.
"Including Gertrude?" asked Lynn. "We can put her by your door to discourage burglars like at ours."
"She makes a charming hat rack," Connor put in.
Claudia looked speculatively at them both while at the stoplight. "I'll consider it."
Her house was a tall, narrow, semi-detached piece of ornamental brickwork. Inside it was warm and homey and made Connor feel quite suddenly homesick for Lettie's or even the Cosgrove home where he'd grown up. The walls had that old wallpaper from the 80s with flowers on it, wooden cupboards and finishes and comfortable-looking furniture. Lynn, despite the excitement of the move and her intrigue with Claudia was fading fast, and Connor said, "It's really past her bedtime, Claudia. Can we get her to bed?"
"M'not tired," grumbled Lynn with her eyes mostly closed. Soon enough her teeth were brushed and face washed and Connor tucked her into the twin bed with its white sheets and blanket, kissed her forehead and left her to sleep curled around her favourite stuffed sauropod.
He staggered as the whole evening suddenly came crashing down on him and the headache he'd been ignoring took a turn towards the territory of a migraine. "Connor," Claudia said gently from behind him, "Don't make me have to wrestle you into bed the way you just did Lynn."
"Right," Connor agreed as he staggered towards the room designated as his. He put on a t-shirt and boxer shorts and just crawled under the covers. Over the course of the night, he was vaguely aware of Claudia coming in and waking him to check on his possible concussion, but the pain and excitement had left him too tired to think much on it. When he finally woke properly he'd not only missed getting Lynn up and ready to leave for school, he was late to the Home Office, too.
"Where the hell have you been?" demanded Cutter when he showed up finally.
Before he could formulate a response to that, Claudia swept in. "He was resting, considering the beating he took yesterday I would say it was well-earned."
Cutter stared. "How do you know?"
"Because he was still sleeping when I left this morning. Did you find my note?" she asked Connor.
"Er . . . yeah," Connor replied slowly. "Thanks for telling me where things were. And . . ." he took in a deep breath, because Claudia's help meant that Lynn wasn't in that terrible flat anymore. "Thanks for letting u -- me stay."
She smiled, patting his arm companionably. "It's no trouble, Connor. Anyhow, it's just me rattling around in that house I inherited from my Aunt Frannie. I could do with the company."
Connor leaned over to whisper in her ear, "Was it much trouble getting Lynn off to school this morning?"
"Not at all," she told him. "I know how to braid hair with ribbons, after all."
Lynn had craved the girly trimmings of pink ribbons and unicorns, stickers and fairies and princesses and all. Between them, she now dressed like a miniature pink and purple Connor Temple, her own lavender fedora jauntily perched on her head most days and powder pink fingerless gloves and a variety of pastel waistcoats to go over things, but he couldn't do her hair up in ribbons or bake pony-shaped biscuits. Having someone help do her up with all the girly bits and bobs she wanted of a morning would have been enough to ensure cooperation.
"Thanks for that, too."
Cutter's jaw was hanging open. He closed his mouth finally, then asked, after watching them whisper to each other, "Claudia, are you . . . you're not . . ."
"Yes?" she asked, a tad archly.
"Are you sleeping with Connor?" he abruptly demanded. Stephen, passing by, stopped dead staring at the three of them, eyes wide, then hastily beat a retreat down the hall.
Appalled, Claudia declared, "Just for the sheer gall of asking me that here and now, Nick, I'm not going to tell you." She turned to Connor. "I'll see you at home this evening and we'll see about moving the rest of your things in." Then she strode off, leaving Connor alone with a positively steaming Nick Cutter.
Connor fled.
Part 3
Back to archive
Author: SCWLC
Disclaimer: I don't own anything herein and no one's paying me to do it.
Rating: PG? I think? Just in case?
Summary: Children change almost everything.
AN: I don't know if Island Princess had come out by '07, frankly, I do not care. Yes, I watched it on YouTube. No, there were still no children involved. I am deeply ashamed. Also, anything that happened effectively the same in the show, I'm not going to bother rewriting unless I can really expect there'd be a different internal reaction. We've all seen the series, so there's just no reason to rewrite something like that. Lastly, as much as it pains me to say, Lynn's paragon-like behaviour may reassert itself out of a need on my part not to detract from the plotline.
**************************
In time everything settled. Lynn got used to having friends and a dad who cared and the squalid conditions. In consultation with Lettie and some of the more experienced parents at her school, he was reassured she'd hit a pretty normal balance for a child her age between acting out and being good. Actually, she was pretty brilliant, especially for her age, and over the summer when she turned seven, Connor was practically bullied by several teachers at her school into shifting her into a different school, further away, with a more competitive curriculum and catering to a supposedly better class of people. All Connor cared at that point, was that it was still free for him, because he simply wasn't making enough to pay any sort of tuition costs.
Meanwhile, his classes at uni were brilliant. He'd made new friends, and between Lynn's friends' parents, Danny and Miss Kirkpatrick, he managed to hang out and have a social life from time to time. It was actually due to a teacher education development day, whatever they were being called, that landed on a Friday, and Connor had been happy enough to let Lynn spend the day and sleep over at Jackie's, that allowed him to propose heading out to the Forest of Dean with professor Cutter and his assistant.
It wasn't until they were tracking the gorgonopsid that Connor had a flash of realisation. And when Stephen asked him if he was coming, he froze a moment, then lied. Because he didn't want to let Stephen go without someone to watch his back, but Connor was no action hero, and what would Lynn do if he got himself hurt? "You, mighty hunter. Me, I’m more logistics and, you know, backup," he said.
He felt terrible watching Stephen go, but he had to think of Lynn. When the bloody thing showed up at the anomaly site, scattering everyone in a desperate attempt to get away, he was sure he'd been right. It didn't stop him from wanting to be part of it all, though.
When Lynn came home, Connor wrapped his arms around her and hung on for dear life. "How was Jackie's?"
"Good. Are you going to let go?" she inquired.
"In a minute."
She was clever, his girl. "What happened?"
"What do you mean?"
Lynn wriggled away. "You're acting weird, Dad."
He laughed a little. "I am. Sorry. It's just been a bit of a scary day or two. I'm just happy to see you."
"Scary!" she exclaimed, "Scary how? What happened?"
"Weird stuff," he told her. "And I signed this contract thing that says I can't tell anyone."
"Not even me?" she asked. "I wouldn't tell. You know I'm good at secrets."
"I know you are," he said regretfully. "But this is really big. Big like when we both started hiding from your dad, big."
"He's not my dad," she declared. "You are. I remember, when I first started at school, there was a whole day we spent talking about adopted kids. Your parents are the people who take care of you and stuff. You do that. He never did."
"And he wasn't cool enough to have Gertrude, over there," he said, jerking his head at the full-sized model of a Jurassic Park velociraptor that his old friend whose life he was living, had bid for and won online just days before he died. They'd set it up at the front door after much discussion, agreeing that anyone breaking in would get a scare in the dead of night, walking into the lifelike model. Intermittently she was used as a hat rack.
The topic of his frightening day was dropped, and they had dinner.
But Connor wanted to bring Tom and Duncan in on it, tried to convince his two friends, the only ones he'd wound up telling about Lynn (though not the real truth, just his story of teenaged indiscretion), but they didn't buy it. He was sitting with Abby, having phoned Stephen about the potential incursion, when his phone started ringing. He broke off what he was saying, which was actually probably a good thing, considering all the luck he'd had flirting with her, to answer. "Hey, what's up?"
"Dad, Tom and Duncan are trying to trick you!"
"What?" Connor frowned, turning away from Abby a smidge. "What do you mean?"
"When they were last staying over, you know, when you had that exam? They were talking about the weird animal sighting web site and a whole bunch of things. When I told Danny, he said it sounded like they're trying to prank you."
The growling noise made Abby startle and for a moment Connor froze. Then suddenly he realised what was going on. "Thanks Lynn." Glaring, he started storming to the bushes, just as Cutter and Stephen showed up. "Tom! Duncan! I can't believe you'd do this to me!"
There they were, crouched in the bushes, making an idiot of him. Abby was next to him a moment later. "You idiots!" she snapped. "This isn't some stupid joke!"
Not that either his or Abby's pleas did any good. Cutter still threw him off the team before things had barely begun. He stormed home in a bad mood, flopping onto the bed once he'd thanked Danny for once again being there to babysit. "Did you have a bad day?" Lynn asked. "'Cause mine was good. Danny took me out for ice cream and I got to have the swings all to myself the whole afternoon. I think I nearly made it over the top today."
"Did you?" Connor asked. "You get all your homework done too?"
"Everything but the maths," she said, making a face.
He sat up, pushing away his pique, because while dinosaurs were his and Conn's dream, this was all for Lynn. She deserved better than to listen to him moaning about Tom and Duncan being utter berks. "Then let's get the maths done, and we can watch a film and have pizza after." They argued about which film and she won, and that was how they wound up watching Barbie: Island Princess while Connor muttered about the flying peacock, the unnaturally speedy elephant, why, if all the other animals could talk the dolphins couldn't and agreeing with Lynn that if real rats were like the ones in the film, they'd want one for a pet.
The phone call from Claudia Brown came as a shock. "Hello?"
"Mr. Temple," she said crisply. "In spite of whatever may have happened, I've been told we need your database to figure out what's poisoned Stephen and find something to apply a proper antivenin. We need you down here, right now."
"Poisoned?" he gaped.
Lynn's head came up from where she'd been watching the mother and daughter reunite onscreen. "Poison?" she echoed.
Internally cursing, Connor said, "I'll be down as soon as I can." He hung up and hurried down the hall, knocking on the door. "Vivian?" he knocked on Miss Kirkpatrick's door.
The older woman opened a minute later. "Connor? Is something wrong?"
"One of my . . . friends is in a bit of trouble," he said hastily. "I really hope you're free to watch Lynn for a bit, because I've got to go."
"Oh, of course," she said. "That bad?"
"He's in hospital," Connor said, hoping he wouldn't have to go into more detail than that.
"Bring her right over, then," she told him. She'd long since declared that Gertrude the Raptor gave her the willies and she wasn't going to spend any evening sitting next to her.. "It's no trouble. We'll watch the telly and everything'll be fine. You'll see."
He raced back to his flat and told Lynn. "I'm really sorry, but I've got to go. Stephen's in a lot of trouble and they need me to help."
"Who's Stephen?" she asked, watching him in some bemusement as he collected some things for her and stuffed them in her favourite dinosaur rucksack.
"Someone I work with, sort of," Connor explained. "I'm so sorry, Lynn."
At Miss Kirkpatrick's door, she suddenly turned and hugged him. "Love you Dad."
"Love you too, sweetheart," Connor said, then hurried off. It turned out that the guesses from the fossil record weren't sufficiently accurate to the behaviour of the arthropleura, and Connor had to make a mental note to adjust that. Staring at the anomaly, standing next to Cutter, he pleaded his case again.
"I just want to help." He thought of the real Connor, the one he was pretending to be, and knew his friend would have wanted this just as much as he did. They'd both loved dinosaurs, built the database together, wanted to be the dynamic dinosaur duo and his friend would have scolded him for not even trying. Would have been bold enough to not think twice at any of the risks that had been taken that day, just for the chance to see these things.
"You did a good job," Cutter said.
The exultation made him say stupid things, but he didn't care. This is for you, Conn.
**********************************
Connor limped out of the hospital, very headachy, not quite sure how he was going to get home, hell, not even sure how he was going to get up the stairs to his flat, but determined to get back to Lynn. He'd promised he'd be home that evening for her, and he intended to keep that promise. Still, he wasn't looking forward to the bus ride there.
As he say waiting for the bus, a car pulled up at the stop, and he was surprised to see Claudia behind the wheel. "Connor? Did you sign yourself out of the hospital?"
"Yeah," he replied. "There's just . . . not really any point in hanging around, you know?"
Her eyes narrowed. "Didn't they say you might have a concussion from when the anklesaur-"
"Ankylosaur," Connor corrected absently.
She rolled her eyes. "The point is, you landed headfirst on a tree. Shouldn't you make sure you're alright before heading home?"
Claudia had a point, but, "There's things . . . I have to get home," he said, giving up on coming up with a good explanation around the pounding in his head.
Pausing a moment, she seemed to come to a decision. "Get in."
"What?" he asked.
"I'm starting to think I should drag you back to the hospital," she muttered. "I'll give you a lift home."
Nothing loathe, He limped over to her car and hopped in, giving her directions. When they arrived at his street, Claudia began to look rather dubious. "You live here?" she asked. "Can't you get a better place?"
He was being paid a sort of minimum wage from the Home Office for working on the anomaly project, but that had all gone on paying fees for school trips and Lynn's determination to take every Saturday Morning Club children's lecture series on offer at the British Museum. "Not really," he replied to the question. "There's things I've got to pay for." The look she shot him was piercing, but he was getting better at not folding under those. "Thanks for the ride," he said instead.
Halfway to the door, he stumbled, nearly falling, and an indignant and exasperated huff was his only warning as Claudia wrapped an arm around his waist, supporting some of his weight. "Let me help you in," she said, sounding put-upon. When she saw the stairs she just sighed voluminously. When they passed the drunk who pretty much lived on the landing there, because his wife wouldn't let him drink at home, she shook her head.
"Thanks," Connor told Claudia when they finally reached his door. "I appreciate the help-"
He was about to get her to leave when the door slammed open and Lynn flung herself on him. "Dad! You're home!"
Connor staggered, lost his balance as his injured leg crumpled and hit the floor hard. "Christ, Connor, what happened?" Danny said, aghast from where he'd come up behind Lynn. "You get into a boxing match with rhino?"
"No," Claudia said smoothly, "Just a misunderstanding with one of the individuals our project works with."
Danny's eyes narrowed. "And what sort of individuals would you be involving Connor here with?"
"And who might you be?" Claudia asked, all superior government sneer.
Connor tried to get Lynn into the flat, but she was watching the pair spar like it was a Wimbledon tennis match, and Connor was in no shape to pick her up and carry her off.
"Daniel Quinn, DC," Danny said, pulling out his own sneering credentials. Then smiled briefly at Lynn. "And sometime babysitter."
This, Claudia was not prepared for. It was one thing to face down and intimidate some random idiot on the street, but a police detective wasn't a nobody to be intimidated unduly. "I'm sorry to tell you that's classified."
"Right," Danny said slowly. "Just so we're clear on this, Miss, but classified won't wash very long with me if Connor comes home battered up like that very often."
"Danny," Connor hastily interrupted, "It's alright. It was just me being stupid and not letting Stephen do what he does-"
"Bloody hotdogging idiot," Claudia muttered.
Danny shot them both a look, then said, "I'd stick around, but my shift starts soon. I'll see you later, Connor, Katydid," he finished with his nickname for Lynn.
Claudia took in the way Connor was leaning on the wall and Lynn's anxious looks and said, "Right, come on," and looped her arm around his waist again, helping him in the door, then stifling a shriek as they ran into Gertrude. "What the?"
"That's just Gertrude," Lynn said amiably. "She's there to scare off burglars. Works too," she commented idly. "When Greg from upstairs tried to break in and steal some stuff for drug money she scared him good."
Connor frowned. "When was this?"
"Last week. I was with Miss Kirkpatrick when he ran down the hall screaming about monsters." Then she continued with, "What did happen, Dad? You're hurt. And who's this?"
"Still can't tell you," he told her. "And this is sort of my boss, Claudia Brown. Claudia, my daughter, Caitlyn."
To her credit, Claudia didn't explode. "Nice to meet you," she said briskly. "How old are you?"
"Seven," said Caitlyn. "Why are you asking?"
"Lynn," Connor scolded, "That's rude, and she's twitting me, not you."
"That's not better," Lynn said, quite dryly.
"She's seven going on seventy," Connor told Claudia. "I know I promised you XBox tonight, but can you wait a bit?"
"Okay," Lynn said. "I just got the next book that unicorn series anyhow."
When Lynn had vanished into her room, Claudia shook her head. "I can't believe it. You're a father?"
"Have been for a few years now," Connor told her honestly. "I don't like to bring her up with everyone else. People don't say nice things when you do one stupid thing as a teenager."
"Where's her mother?" Claudia asked. "Unfit?"
The slight snideness made Connor reply baldly, "Dead."
"I'm sorry," she told him contritely. "But Connor, you can't seriously be planning to keep raising her here."
"What am I supposed to do?" he demanded. "How much money do you think I have access to? I'm a student, Claudia. The Home Office isn't paying any of us that much because we all have other jobs, so to speak."
She sighed. "You have a point, of course, but . . ."
Connor shook his head. "I think the one thing that I really hate most about having to be here is the time it takes Lynn to get to school in the morning. She's going to William Gladstone Primary, and it's on the other side of London."
"That's not a public school, though," Claudia said. "You're certainly making enough to be in a better grade of council flat than this as long as she stays in a state-funded school."
"Not as long as I'm paying for her to go to the Satruday morning children's lectures at the British Museum," Connor countered. "I wish I'd had them. It's really cool and fun and she loves it. How can I say no?"
"And ballet class?" Claudia asked, picking up the bag with its pink and black dance clothes.
"The girls in her class all go, so she wanted to," he said. "I don't really know anything about girl . . . stuff."
Lynn poked her head into the room. "He's bad at girl things. I keep having to go to Jackie's before recitals so her mum can do my hair and makeup and things."
"Were you listening?" Connor asked her, trying to look severe. "Because that's rude."
"You're not talking quietly and you know everyone can hear everything upstairs and downstairs from us," she shot back.
Now that she was getting an attitude about it all, he shot her a dark look. "Keep this up and it's no pizza for a month." Lynn sighed, the most put-upon seven-year-old ever to walk the earth, but retreated to her room and her book again. "She learned that from Violet down the hall," Connor told Claudia.
The O'Neills the floor above started their nightly screaming fight, ending early this time with the shattering crash of one of them throwing a bottle at the other and the slam of a door. It was like it was a signal for every frightening thing going on about the neighbourhood to be hinted at in the sounds erupting all about. Claudia's lips tightened. "That's it," she said firmly. "I live four blocks away from that school and I have a house full of empty rooms. You're packing up tonight and coming home with me, the pair of you."
"Wha'?" Connor was aware he was gaping like some sort of idiot yokel, but . . . "Are you . . . what . . . just like that?"
"Now, Connor," declared Claudia sharply. It was like all that government authority she had came down on his head like a tonne of bricks, and suddenly, he and Lynn were packed up and in her car. "You can come back and collect the rest of your things tomorrow," she told them both.
"Including Gertrude?" asked Lynn. "We can put her by your door to discourage burglars like at ours."
"She makes a charming hat rack," Connor put in.
Claudia looked speculatively at them both while at the stoplight. "I'll consider it."
Her house was a tall, narrow, semi-detached piece of ornamental brickwork. Inside it was warm and homey and made Connor feel quite suddenly homesick for Lettie's or even the Cosgrove home where he'd grown up. The walls had that old wallpaper from the 80s with flowers on it, wooden cupboards and finishes and comfortable-looking furniture. Lynn, despite the excitement of the move and her intrigue with Claudia was fading fast, and Connor said, "It's really past her bedtime, Claudia. Can we get her to bed?"
"M'not tired," grumbled Lynn with her eyes mostly closed. Soon enough her teeth were brushed and face washed and Connor tucked her into the twin bed with its white sheets and blanket, kissed her forehead and left her to sleep curled around her favourite stuffed sauropod.
He staggered as the whole evening suddenly came crashing down on him and the headache he'd been ignoring took a turn towards the territory of a migraine. "Connor," Claudia said gently from behind him, "Don't make me have to wrestle you into bed the way you just did Lynn."
"Right," Connor agreed as he staggered towards the room designated as his. He put on a t-shirt and boxer shorts and just crawled under the covers. Over the course of the night, he was vaguely aware of Claudia coming in and waking him to check on his possible concussion, but the pain and excitement had left him too tired to think much on it. When he finally woke properly he'd not only missed getting Lynn up and ready to leave for school, he was late to the Home Office, too.
"Where the hell have you been?" demanded Cutter when he showed up finally.
Before he could formulate a response to that, Claudia swept in. "He was resting, considering the beating he took yesterday I would say it was well-earned."
Cutter stared. "How do you know?"
"Because he was still sleeping when I left this morning. Did you find my note?" she asked Connor.
"Er . . . yeah," Connor replied slowly. "Thanks for telling me where things were. And . . ." he took in a deep breath, because Claudia's help meant that Lynn wasn't in that terrible flat anymore. "Thanks for letting u -- me stay."
She smiled, patting his arm companionably. "It's no trouble, Connor. Anyhow, it's just me rattling around in that house I inherited from my Aunt Frannie. I could do with the company."
Connor leaned over to whisper in her ear, "Was it much trouble getting Lynn off to school this morning?"
"Not at all," she told him. "I know how to braid hair with ribbons, after all."
Lynn had craved the girly trimmings of pink ribbons and unicorns, stickers and fairies and princesses and all. Between them, she now dressed like a miniature pink and purple Connor Temple, her own lavender fedora jauntily perched on her head most days and powder pink fingerless gloves and a variety of pastel waistcoats to go over things, but he couldn't do her hair up in ribbons or bake pony-shaped biscuits. Having someone help do her up with all the girly bits and bobs she wanted of a morning would have been enough to ensure cooperation.
"Thanks for that, too."
Cutter's jaw was hanging open. He closed his mouth finally, then asked, after watching them whisper to each other, "Claudia, are you . . . you're not . . ."
"Yes?" she asked, a tad archly.
"Are you sleeping with Connor?" he abruptly demanded. Stephen, passing by, stopped dead staring at the three of them, eyes wide, then hastily beat a retreat down the hall.
Appalled, Claudia declared, "Just for the sheer gall of asking me that here and now, Nick, I'm not going to tell you." She turned to Connor. "I'll see you at home this evening and we'll see about moving the rest of your things in." Then she strode off, leaving Connor alone with a positively steaming Nick Cutter.
Connor fled.
Part 3
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