I'd've Baked a Cake 12/14
Title: I'd've Baked a Cake
Author: SCWLC
Disclaimer: If I owned Stephen I'd keep him dressed in nothing but a loincloth for my personal amusement. Sadly, I don't. Nor do I own anything else you might recognise.
Rating: PG, this may change in time.
Summary: Stephen and Connor meet for the first time under unusual circumstances and it forges a very important friendship. AU
Notes: What I chose to do with Jack here is based on the concept that he might not be quite as much of a little jerk as he seems to be when we see him in the series proper. That is, circumstances changing can change a person, right? I'm just changing his circumstances early enough to make a difference. Also, I have adapted Claudia's age, because I don't think the age she is supposed to be in the show is the age she ought to be. So, she's a smidge older here too, like Cutter.
**************************************
Stephen didn't get to call his mother, because Connor's attempt to apologise for panicking everyone included explaining to Cutter that he had developed a way to consistently track the appearance of the anomalies. This news turned Connor's apology into an interrogation on the part of the professor, who appeared at Stephen's door still on his mobile and demanding to see Connor's programme.
In no time, Cutter had called Lester in, demanding that Connor be allowed into the anomaly research, even if only in a technical support capacity. Lester arrived and Stephen was faced with playing nice with the man in his own damn flat.
"Exactly how have you managed this?" Lester asked shrewdly.
Abby's brother, of whom Stephen had a lower opinion by the second, ignored the hushing of his sister and said, "Connor's hacked the Geological Society or something."
"Hacked?" echoed Lester sharply. He leaned in, then said, "You're using their monitors, illegally I might add, to do something you were expressly forbidden to do."
Connor glared. "I notice that none of your adult experts was able to make a detector," he said, sounding a little more snide that Stephen felt comfortable with.
"Connor," he muttered reprovingly.
Connor just shot everyone a dark look, flopping onto an armchair. "Sorry," he muttered.
The professor was thoroughly uninterested in the illegalities of Connor's programme. Mostly, Stephen suspected, because Cutter felt that it ought not to have been illegal and didn't care since it wasn't immoral. "What's this?" Cutter asked, pointing at something that read, "Potential time delay".
Hopping back to his feet while Lester muttered about scientists and lack of respect, Connor joined Cutter in looking at the screen. "Oh, because of how I have to route things so that no one notices that I'm in the system there's a time delay as it bounces through a few different servers and the like," he explained. "So, depending on a few factors the anomaly opening may get missed for up to an hour." Connor shrugged. "It's the price I pay for having to work through the hack."
Cutter turned to Lester. "You need to get him access to their system, Lester," he demanded. "This could change everything."
Lester sighed. "Mr. Temple," he said, sounding pained. "If you wouldn't mind, I will collect someone and you can turn over your research to that individual. You will cease to interfere in this. Are we clear?"
Connor looked ready to stage a mutiny and Cutter wasn't far behind. In a desperate bid to distract his ward, Stephen said, "Besides, we still need to find somewhere for Abby and Jack to go, remember?"
"Why is that?" Cutter asked looking at them. Then he really saw Abby's face. He seemed to blanch a little. "Did your parents do that?" he asked, now also taking in the twelve-year-old with bruising on his face.
Abby took in a tremulous breath, and leaned into Connor, who was next to her a moment later, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Mum and Dad are dead," she said. "Jack and I live with our aunt." She didn't have to clarify that the aunt had done it. She turned to Stephen. "Are you sure we can't stay here?" she asked, sounding a little hopeless. "Connor got me Dr. Sampson's email, and she said I could shadow her at the London Zoo. It'd be easier from here than somewhere else."
"Dr. Sampson?" Cutter asked, curiously. "As in Beatrice Sampson? Feline behaviourism expert?"
Abby nodded.
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to get to Dr. Banks," Connor told her regretfully. "But Dr. Cutter pretty much alienated him."
"That's because he's an idiot," Cutter grumbled.
Smiling, Abby said, "It's alright. An in is an in, and anyhow, if I'm going to do dinosaur behaviourism around the anomalies, I'll need more than reptilian things anyhow."
"You will not!" Lester blustered, looking appalled.
"Well, not right away," Abby conceded. "But I can get a bachelor's in macrobiology, ecosystems and the like, maybe veterinary sciences or something, and you'll need someone there used to working with living animals, not just experts on fossils and things." She shot a sharp smile at Lester. "It'll make it easier for all your soldiers if someone can tell them what to do to avoid getting attacked as much as possible. And I know you don't have a behavioural expert."
"Professor Cutter-" started Lester, apparently trying to either throw the man under the bus or somehow intimidate the girl.
Cutter interrupted, grinning, "I never did say I was a practical expert in behaviour. After all, I tend mostly to work with already dead animals and statistics." He suddenly turned to Abby. "I have a house," he told her. "If you and your brother are willing to keep yourselves mostly out of trouble I have the space to put you up."
"Really?" Abby's face lit up, and Stephen could see the very attractive woman she'd someday turn into. He turned a little more, seeing Connor watching her with an interestingly silly look on his face. Abby flung herself at Cutter, hugging him. "Thank you!"
Jack slouched forward. "Yeah, thanks," he said.
"Jack!" Abby said reproachfully.
The boy suddenly came out with. "So, that's it," he said. "You've got all these people who like your animals and lizards and things. What about me? I don't like it, I'm not good in school except in art, and that's not worth anything."
Connor had Jack corralled and out of the room in a moment, Abby following. There was an uncomfortable silence. Stephen broke it telling Cutter, "I sincerely hope they both give you at least as much trouble as Connor's given me, just so that I can laugh at you."
Lester gave an exasperated sigh. "I will attempt to find someone to handle Mr. Temple's computer programme and get the access required to the Geological Society's montoring systems." As he left, he said, "I would appreciate it, Hart, if you would at least attempt to keep your ward under control and out of things which are not his business."
"You mean the discovery he and his friends made?" Cutter asked, just as dry.
Lester made a disgusted sound and left. Not long after, Abby, Connor and Jack emerged, Abby tearful but happy, Jack contemplative and Connor looking relieved and a tad shattered.
Cutter left with the two he'd spontaneously taken on, Jack asking questions about artistic reconstructions, reproductions and films, Abby quietly following and Cutter already looking overwhelmed. Stephen, despite all his intentions of grounding Connor for giving him a heart attack asked, "What was all that about?"
"What . . . Jack?" Connor asked.
"Yes," Stephen said. "He was being a complete little-"
"He'd given up," Connor said. "I know . . . back in Miller's Field," he explained, "Sometimes, when everyone had told me a million times that day that school wouldn't get me anywhere, dinosaurs weren't a career, that I was stupid for trying to do something that wasn't practical, I'd want to give up. It sort of sucks, yeah?"
"Jack's given up on . . . what?" Stephen asked. "He said . . ." he cut himself off. I'm not good in school except in art, and that's not worth anything. "He wants to be an artist?"
Connor shrugged. "I'm not sure he knows what he wants, but he's good at drawing," he explained. "And his aunt kept on telling him there was no reason to work at it. I just . . . pointed out there were things he could do if he got really good at drawing, but that a lot of them he wouldn't get without school."
Stephen sighed. He couldn't ground Connor now. Not after he may have turned around a potential delinquent, got Abby a new home away from abuse and possibly changed the whole nature of the anomaly project. "I'm going to call mother," he said instead.
"Oh, hell," Connor grumbled.
"Language!" Stephen called over his shoulder.
Connor's response was louder and pithier and Stephen laughed, not bothering to try correcting his ward again. After all, he really didn't care about Connor's cursing anyhow.
*****************************************
Connor was summoned a few days after everything with his new detector and Abby's aunt and Jack and Cutter and being yelled at by Pauline for being stupid about Abby and then being yelled at by Becker for making him worry and everything that happened. He arrived at the Home Office and was introduced to a snide woman, who clearly seemed to think he was some sort of simpleton. She kept using complicated words for no other reason than that she could, trying to make herself seem smarter.
He just glared and matched her fancy vocabulary with his own. Then found out that she was just a computer programmer, not a scientist. That is, she didn't understand the physics behind the programme he'd made. What that really meant was that she couldn't adapt his work to the new, non-hacking paradigm, because she didn't know what information they needed to glean from the raw data, she didn't understand the equations needed to crunch those numbers into something useful, and Connor lost his temper, because this wasn't adequate.
So, he called Mr. Natty Ties Lester up, explaining his problem. Within a half hour, Lester had produced a physicist, one specialising in geomagnetic theory.
This was all well and good, but the pair of them didn't share any vocabulary and Connor had to play go-between anyhow, doing the programming himself for the most part, simply because it was faster that way.
Lester arrived to find the three of them in close consultation, Connor deep in discussion with Dr. McKinley about calculations it might be worth having the computer do to the raw data just to have those numbers ready, while bouncing ideas off of Mrs. Franklin about the best ways to align the programming to do that. The only reason it wasn't as much fun as doing that with Cutter was because Connor liked dinosaurs better than computer programming.
"Dr. McKinley, Mrs. Franklin," Lester said, with deep disapproval. "Why exactly is Mr. Temple still here?"
Dr. McKinley shot Lester a sidelong look. "You indicated you needed someone to do a quick job of explaining data needed to a programmer," he said. "This is not a quick job. To be honest, we needed Connor here to act as a go-between. I don't have nearly enough programming understanding to know what's possible and what isn't --"
Mrs. Franklin interrupted him. "And I simply don't have the knowledge base to know what it is that needs to be gleaned from the incoming data stream. Frankly," she said, "As interesting as this is, the moment Connor's finished his degree, there would be no need for me to be here. He just lacks the knowledge base to finesse his work. It's rough, but effective." She smiled at him. "I must admit, it's a little rare to find someone doing a combined major with the intention of two such specific specialisations."
Connor felt a sudden upsurge of panic. "But I was going into paleontology," he said helplessly.
The programmer and physicist exchanged glances. "I can't imagine why," Dr. McKinley said a little blankly. "You've got a truly first-class mind-"
"My God, all you scientists are as bad as each other," Lester muttered. "First Cutter, now this."
"Cutter?" asked Mrs. Franklin.
"Dr. Cutter," Connor hastily explained. "My guardian, Stephen, studied under him. He's an evolutionary biologist, and he's helped me with my dinosaur database."
"Did he?" the pair looked at each other, making Connor even more nervous.
Those nerves were borne out when Cutter came slamming into the flat a few days later in fine fettle. "Connor! You'll keep away from that Dr. McKinley!" he said, not even bothering with a greeting, let alone waiting to be let in like a normal person. "Poaching my students," growled the Scotsman.
Stephen looked up from where he'd been in a long, involved discussion about what made a better rifle for dealing with large predators with Lieutenant Ryan. "What's this about?" he asked, sounding baffled.
Connor winced. "When Lester tried to get me to hand over my computer programme, he had to call in a professional programmer, yeah?" he said.
"You mentioned," Stephen said, sounding wary.
"Well, she doesn't know the sort of data that we needed to pull from the geomagnetic sensors to show that an anomaly's opening, and the way you get at the data when you're going in the front door, so to speak, is different than when you're hacking. And there was a bunch of stuff that I could use to finesse it, and some data that needed to be collected to see if we could predict an opening, not just know when one happened-"
"Lester's pet geophysicist wants Connor to do a PhD under him," Cutter interrupted, snarling.
"Congratulations," Ryan told Connor. Cutter looked rather purple in response.
Connor ignored the SF's baiting of his sometime mentor. "I told them I wanted to go into paleontology," he pleaded. "I just . . . I can't be rude, yeah? Not when they're saying nice things and stuff. Anyhow, there's so much Dr. McKinley showed me about the Earth's magnetic field, and a lot of extraneous data he was able to take out of the equations . . ." he trailed off as Cutter's eyes narrowed at him.
"Cutter," Stephen said, sounding exasperated. "Don't harass Connor. If he decides he wants to take up kinesiology and tell footballers how to kick better, if he decides to run off and become an egyptologist, if he chooses to take up my father's offer of help to go into astrophysics, that is his prerogative. Leave Connor alone."
As Cutter started in on Stephen about pushing Connor away from evolution, Connor fled, heading out to the university library. Cutter had got him ID that let him use it, and he had some research to do, anyhow. Between one of his science projects for school, some things Cutter had asked him to look into, with a sort of casual nature that had fooled no one, and meant that there was something that had happened involving juvenile pachycephalusauruses and an anomaly, some legal things Abby had anxiously asked about regarding Cutter's ability to keep her and Jack with him if her aunt went through with a threatened law suit and now also with his desire to stick with his programme that he'd invented to find the anomalies he'd discovered . . . well, he had a lot of research to do.
He'd zipped through his homework and had just started in on Cutter's research, when an amused voice interrupted. "I can't tell if you're looking into custody or copyright."
Connor looked up. A woman with light brown hair, a pleasant smile and a nice suit was standing beside his table. "Both, actually," he said.
She raised an eyebrow at him. "I assume that isn't because you're hoping to use the precedents of the family cases on whatever work of art you're hoping to argue about," she said.
"No," Connor admitted. "I have a friend who's moved in with a new sort-of guardian, but it's all unofficial and she's scared her aunt'll make her move back in."
The woman slid into the seat next to him. "Claudia Brown," she said calmly. "I assume the aunt in question is . . . unpleasant?"
"She hit Abby," he said bluntly. "But Abby doesn't want to get separated from her brother, and-"
"The foster care system tends to split up families. Is she staying with her brother?" Ms Brown asked.
"Yeah," Connor said. "But Jack's twelve, so they're both staying with Professor Cutter, but he's not a relative or anything, he's just got space at his house since Creepy Cutter ran off."
"Creepy Cutter?" the woman asked with a slightly alarmed look.
"His wife," Connor clarified. "We don't know where she went, but everyone but Cutter knows she was sleeping with that bloke she picked for a student." He shrugged. "She was creepy."
"And people wonder why I want to get out of practice and into the civil service," muttered Ms Brown.
"You're a lawyer?" Connor asked.
She sighed. "I was foolish enough to think it would be all drama and good works," she said. "Instead it's been a lot of very stupid people asking me to say stupid things. If I'd had any sense I'd have stayed out of barrister work entirely." Then she looked at the stacks of books beside him and said, "Paleontology, physics, law and," she picked up his English class syllabus. "Sixth form essay on Merchant of Venice due on Monday. Interesting combination."
"Professor Cutter asked me to look into something for him," Connor said. "I just figured I'd do the other stuff while I was here."
Ms Brown shot him a considering look, then said, "Tell me about your friend's situation. Call me curious, but I'd be interested to see what there is. All advice free of charge," she said. "I'm off the clock."
"No charge?" Connor asked her. "Really?"
She smiled, and it was kind and friendly, and Connor felt it drawing him in. She just seemed trustworthy. Just as trustworthy as Helen Cutter had seemed creepy and disturbing. "Okay," he said, and told her everything.
They sat together, her sometimes asking him clarifying questions as she paged through cases and Connor taking his notes for Cutter about the anatomy of the herbivores. They were interrupted by an odd whooshing sound, and a familiar flickering light appeared between the shelves. Connor leapt to his feet, pulling Ms Brown up with him. "What?" she asked, befuddled.
"Come on," Connor urged, tugging on her arm, trying to get her moving to an exit. "You've got to go. Now."
"Why?" she demanded, following his gaze to the shelves. "What on Earth?"
Connor's mobile rang. "Stephen?"
"There's an anomaly at the library," Stephen started. "You --"
"Yeah, I know," Connor interrupted. "I'm looking at it. Third floor, in with the commentaries on Shakespeare's plays." A growl interrupted him, and Connor stared at the biggest effing wolf ever. "Stephen . . . looks like it opens to the Pleistocene."
"Why do you know that Connor?" Stephen said, sounding calm in the way that meant he was loading a gun.
"Because there's a dire wolf in the stacks," Connor replied, grabbing Ms Brown's arm and running, hanging up on Stephen and shoving the mobile into his pocket. "Come on!"
They got lucky. The wolves, because it seemed the whole pack had come through, were sufficiently disoriented that they were able to get to an office and shut the door between them and the predators. "What the hell was that?" demanded the woman as they blockaded it with a desk to pin the inward-opening door shut. "How the hell did wolves get into the library? And what did you mean by saying, 'it opens to the Pliestocene'?"
Connor winced. "It's a sort of portal through time," he explained. "They kind of open at random and spit out prehistoric animals and such."
"That's a wolf," she said. "Not very prehistoric."
"They're dire wolves," Connor corrected. "They died out something like ten thousand years ago."
"Oh, lovely," she said. They waited in silence, watching through the window on the door as Ryan and his men came through, followed by Stephen, then Cutter.
Resentfully, Connor grumbled, "And if it weren't for my computer programme you wouldn't know about it, would you?" he rhetorically asked the air.
"Is that why you're looking into copyright?" asked Ms Brown. She was very sharp. "Are you hoping to become involved in this . . ." she trailed off, waving a hand at the activity outside the door.
"I was the one who found out about the anomalies," Connor told her. "Me and my friends. I made the programme that they're using now to detect anomalies and I used to get to help Cutter and Stephen do their research. It's not-" he barely kept himself from whining that it wasn't fair, even though it wasn't, just because that was a sure way to get people to tell you life wasn't fair, as though it excused people acting unfair.
Ryan banged on the door, shouting, "It's clear, we've got them back through!"
As soon as they were out, Ms Brown's chin went up and she sent a chilling glare at the SFs crowded about. "This is an appalling cover-up," she snapped. "I am entirely certain that this sort of concealment of a danger to the public cannot be legal."
"Now Miss," Lieutenant Ryan said, trying to soothe her, "I know it's upsetting, but you'll have to sign this agreement with the Home Office-"
"It's Ms Brown to you, sir," she said sharply. "And I will sign absolutely nothing until I have spoken with the individual in charge of this . . . this blatant conspiracy."
Cutter sniggered.
"Is something funny?" she demanded of him.
"Not at all," he said easily. "I've just been wanting to see someone talking to Ryan like that for weeks."
Connor would have stuck around, wanting to see Claudia Brown get into it with Natty Lester, but Stephen dragged him off.
He never got to do anything fun anymore.
Part 11
Part 13
Back to archive page