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fredbassettTitle : The Ghost and Mr Temple, Part 2 of 3
Author : fredbassett
Fandom : Primeval
Characters : Becker, Connor, Lester, Cutter, Stephen, Abby, Lyle, Blade, Ditzy, Finn, (Ryan)
Rating : 15
Word Count : 12,700 (posting in three parts)
Disclaimer : Not mine, no money made, don’t sue
Spoilers : None.
Summary : Connor begins to suspect that something strange is going on.
Warning : None.
A/N : Written for my darling Evil Twin,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
munchkinofdoom for her birthday. Thanks to lukadreaming for the fastest beta on record. This is a sequel to The Ghost and Miss Maitland and The Ghost and Captain Becker. I will be posting in three parts. Link to Part 1.
Connor hovered uncertainly in the doorway of Lester’s office, conscious of the fact that he was already shifting his weight from foot to foot, the way he always did when he was nervous. Even Becker’s usually comforting presence behind him wasn’t helping and Connor was beginning to wonder if he stood any chance of slinking quietly away without being noticed…
“Stop fidgeting and cross the threshold, Mr Temple,” Lester drawled. “When I last checked the personnel records there was no reference in your file to any aversion to sunlight and garlic, so I’m sure you’ll have no problem in taking that final step, but if it makes things any easier, do come in.”
“You watch Buffy?” Connor asked in surprise, as he edged into Lester’s office, feeling uncomfortably like he was somehow making the place look untidy.
Lester rolled his eyes. “No, I do not. Now, is there a point to this visitation? If not, I’m sure you have some electrical equipment that requires disassembling and I’m even more certain that Captain Becker has a piece of heavy artillery pining for his attention.”
“It’s about…” Connor hesitated and glanced up at the strip light above Lester’s desk. If that went pop Lester wouldn’t be a happy bunny. He cleared his throat nervously but before he could continue, another thought struck him. “Er, if you’ve got a document open on your computer, it might be a good idea to save it.”
With an irritated frown, Lester clicked his mouse a couple of times before he reached under the desk to turn the computer off and did the same with the screen. “There, does that satisfy you?”
Connor grinned. “Yeah, thanks.” His eyes slid past Lester to one corner of the room where the air seemed to have got slightly darker. If a shadow could be said to be giving him an encouraging look that one was.
“Yes…?” Lester’s tone was icily polite, but Connor was certain he could see a slight hint of amusement lurking in the man’s eyes.
“It’s about Ryan.” The words came out in a rush and to Connor’s amazement, the lights didn’t so much as flicker, but the compass on his wrist did start wavering slightly. “He’s…” Connor trailed off and hopped miserably from one foot to the other again. He should never have let Becker talk him into coming to see Lester, the man already thought he was a half-wit and this was only going to make things worse. He took a deep breath and started again. “He’s…” To Connor’s consternation, the shadow in the corner of the room was starting to solidify. If he didn’t get this one over with, Lester was going to discover what he was trying to tell him the hard way. “He’s…”
“Standing behind me, exercising remarkable restraint for once,” Lester finished helpfully, just as the shadow coalesced into the insubstantial – but wholly recognisable – form of Connor’s dead boyfriend.
Lester swivelled around in his chair to face the corner of the room, leaving Connor with an expression on his face that his Gran would no doubt have described as gormless. As far as Connor could tell, his boss had just taken the appearance of a ghost in the corner of the room entirely in his stride, thereby confirming Connor’s long-held opinion that Sir James Lester had ice in his veins rather than blood.
Connor felt a hand on his shoulder and gave a startled yelp. “Breathe, Conn, I think you’ll find it helps,” Becker advised quietly.
He sucked in a deep breath. OK, this could be going worse, much worse. Nothing had exploded yet, not even Lester, and it looked like he wouldn’t have quite as much explaining to do as he’d been expecting. “How did you know?” he asked, automatically checking the gyrations of the compass on his wrist.
“Contrary to popular opinion, I am actually a human being,” Lester replied, his eyes still fixed on Ryan’s now almost-solid form. “As a result even I need to visit the lavatory on occasion. And Captain Becker’s predecessor chose one such occasion to make his presence felt. A lesser man that myself might well have needed to take his suit to the cleaners as a result. Fortunately, I am made of sterner stuff. After that, Captain Ryan and I reached an understanding. I have to say, he is remarkably undemanding company when I’m working late.”
“That’s why you’ve had more computer problems than most people!” Connor exclaimed, a light bulb turning itself on in his brain without showering him with the fragments for once. “I thought you were just…” Connor closed his mouth in a hurry, instead of planting both feet somewhere irrevocable on the subject of his boss’s computer skills.
“Technologically inept?” Lester sniffed, fixing Connor with the sort of stare that made him think Lester had been a stoat in a past life. “Hardly. Oh do sit down, the pair of you. Staring up at Captain Becker is giving me a crick in the neck.” Lester waved one hand imperiously in the direction of the black leather sofa against one wall of his office. “You too, Ryan. Looming in corners and blowing up kettles needs to become a thing of the past. Our budget for replacement equipment isn’t the bottomless pit you seem to think it is.”
Wishing he could manage even a fraction of Lester’s composure, Connor shuffled over to the sofa and sat down, feeling like he always did when faced with his boss’s sarcasm – awkward and tongue tied. He watched, fascinated, as Ryan made an attempt to perch on the arm of the sofa. The proximity brought with it the prickle on Connor’s skin that he’d come to associate with Ryan’s presence. There had been some rare occasions when Ryan had managed to achieve a more substantial form, notably that night in his flat when Ryan had held him while he’d cried, but normally having him around felt like he was sitting in a very light breeze…
The more substantial Special Forces captain sitting on his right gave him a sharp nudge in the ribs, and Connor realised Lester was speaking again but before he cottoned on to what his boss was actually saying, the strident tones of the ADD issued out of the public address system, drowning out Lester’s words.
He jumped up, as did Becker, whilst at his side, Ryan looked affronted and said in a voice that seemed to echo inside Connor’s head, “Not guilty.”
Lester gave a long-suffering sigh. “I believe you, Captain, thousands wouldn’t. Well, go on, all three of you.” He made a shooing movement with his hands. “No doubt Captain Ryan can make himself useful rattling some chains or walking through walls, should the occasion demand it. I shall use the peace and quiet to draft some much-needed guidelines on the assimilation of incorporeal employees into the workplace. Now don’t let me keep any of you.”
With a helpless glance at the two Special Forces captains, Connor made a hasty exit from Lester’s office. It was fair to say that the meeting hadn’t quite turned out the way he’d been expecting and Connor was left wondering exactly what it would take to rattle the wretched man’s composure. The appearance of the Headless Horseman in the atrium, maybe?
From the look on his companions’ faces, they were both wondering the same thing.
* * * * *
The ADD had given them a location in the middle of London’s docklands and they arrived in convoy to find a sprawl of derelict buildings in an area intended for redevelopment as luxury flats, according to the artists’ impressions on the advertising hoardings.
The main gates were closed, but a pair of large bolt croppers wielded by Finn cut through the rusting chain without difficulty and gave them access to the site. The area was enclosed on one site by tall fences and open to the water on the other. Looking on the bright side, they wouldn’t have to contend with members of the public, but the down side was that they had a large area to search, filled with what looked like ancient, brick-built warehouses in an advanced state of decay.
Connor hauled his portable detector out of the van. He was still working on reducing their size and increasing the range, but for the moment, he had to carry something as big and heavy as a car battery, slung over his shoulder on a strap. He could see the slight shimmer in the air that denoted Ryan’s presence, but he was keeping his distance.
The rest of the team were all taking the inclusion of a ghost on the outing with a calmness that spoke volumes. They’d all had longer than Connor to get used to Ryan’s presence and he’d been on the receiving end of a surprising number of apologies on the journey from the ARC. He’d smiled ruefully and brushed them off, muttering that with his track record, he’d never be able to take the piss out of Cutter for obliviousness again.
“Can you narrow down where the anomaly is?” Becker asked, staring around at the crumbling buildings.
Connor stared down at the small screen in his hands and nodded. “It’s over there,” he said, pointing to the largest of the buildings.
The roof had long since fallen in and every single window was broken. An enormous pair of doors hung off their hinges, creaking in the cold wind that was whipping up small waves on the grey expanse of water.
A noise inside the building sent Finn down on one knee, his rifle pointed steadily at the doorway. It was a measure of Cutter’s faith in the soldiers that he no longer felt the need to issue a warning not to shoot unless lives were in danger. The other armed men fanned out in a formation that Connor had seen them adopt countless times. They were gaining maximum field of fire without being in danger of catching anyone in the crossfire. Ryan had drilled the squad well and Becker had carried on what his predecessor had started.
A large shape, almost three metres tall, bounded out of the doorway and stood there, blinking owlishly in the weak spring sunlight. Another three hopped out behind it and promptly scattered, bouncing across the weed-infested concrete like gigantic, spring-loaded toys.
Connor stared at them open-mouthed with surprise and delight. They looked like enormous kangaroos that had run full-tilt into a wall and squashed their faces.
“Procoptodons,” laughed Cutter. “Put your weapons down, lads. They’re grazing animals. Just don’t get in the way of their hind-feet, they’ll have a kick like a mule.”
“Where are they from?” Becker demanded. “And what else might be with them?”
“Pleistocene Australia,” Connor supplied. “That’s about two million years ago, give or take a million or so.” He watched one of the giant kangaroos hop over to a patch of scrubby grass that had broken through the hard surface of the yard and start to chew. “It was the age of megafauna – that’s big buggers, to you, Finn,” he added, earning himself a grin from the young soldier. “Think Skippy the Bush Kangaroo on steroids. These guys lived on grasslands. As well a them, we might find things that look like huge wombats, the size of bears, great big shaggy things. They might look fierce, but they’re only browsers.”
“So we herd them back through the anomaly,” Becker stated. “OK, let’s do our best sheepdog impressions. Kermit, Dane, get the nets and catchpoles out of the van. Stephen, Abby, tranq anything that we can’t catch, Lyle, cover them. Ditz, Blade, make sure nothing else comes through. And watch how you go, people, these buildings look like they’ll fall down if you so much as sneeze on them.”
The anomaly itself hung in the air in the middle of the derelict warehouse, with one of the procoptodons, a juvenile only about as tall as Connor, standing in front of it, looking puzzled. Its snub nose twitched in the dank air, which smelled of rotting wood and old sacks and, with a look of disgust on its squashed face, the creature turned around and promptly hopped back through the gently spinning ball of broken light, leaving Connor to wonder – not for the first time – what sort of attraction the anomalies exerted over living creatures.
“One down…” For once, Ryan’s words sounded like they’d issued out of a flesh and blood throat.
Connor turned around sharply. Ryan was standing next to him, a shaft of hazy sunlight from one of the windows falling across him, blurring his outline and making the soldier look like a photograph taken in soft focus. Connor stepped forward, hand outstretched, hoping against hope that he would encounter a solid form.
His hand passed through Ryan, meeting some slight resistance, but no more than he would have had from trailing his hand through the water cascading from a shower head. His skin prickled slightly and Connor fought hard to keep the disappointment from showing on his face.
“I’m sorry,” Ryan said. “This is just making things worse for you, isn’t it?” He glanced over at the anomaly. “I know I should leave, Conn, but I don’t know where to go…”
“Don’t you bloody dare go anywhere!” Connor snapped. The words tumbled out of his mouth of their own volition before he could bite them back. “I lost you once and I don’t want to go through that again. Stay with me, Ryan, we’ll…” he hesitated, not really sure what to say, so he settled for turning the full force of his best puppy-dog impression on Ryan. “We’ll work something out.”
Ryan smiled but Connor could see the sadness on his face. The scientists at the ARC would be falling over themselves for the chance to examine Ryan and Connor knew it. What he didn’t know was whether he was just being selfish wanting Ryan to stick around. Did he really want his lover to be condemned to some sort of half-life just so Connor could cling to the past?
Connor shook himself. They were in the middle of an anomaly shout. It was hardly the time for that sort of introspection. Right now they had a herd of prehistoric giant kangaroos to round up and repatriate.
Fortunately, the creatures proved to be phlegmatic rather than skittish, staring at the soldiers and scientists out of dark, almond-shaped eyes, their large ears pricked and alert. A couple of the animals were female, carrying babies in their pouches, which even managed to produce an ‘Aw, cute’ reaction from the normally hard-eyed soldiers, who generally viewed just about every visitor from the past with deep suspicion.
As the anomaly had been open for at least an hour while they’d fought their way through the London traffic, Becker finally allowed the team to split up to search the buildings for any more procoptodons. The anomaly was showing signs of starting to weaken gradually, so time was now of the essence if they wanted to avoid returning to the ARC with a giant kangaroo for company.
With Ryan’s semi-solid mass at his side, Connor made his way over to one of the buildings by the waterside. He’d caught a glimpse of movement in the direction while he’d been watching Kermit and Blade succeed in netting one of the smaller animals that had been paying more attention to a clump of straggly weeds than to the two large, black-clad soldiers creeping up on it.
The smell of damp and decay was even more prevalent in this warehouse than the others. Rotted roof timbers lay scattered around a wooden floor and broken glass crunched under Connor’s boots. A large pile of what looked like feed sacks was heaped up against one wall and Connor saw something small and furry sniffing around the floor. Rats. He suppressed a shudder. He’d once managed to accidentally lock himself in his grandmother’s coal-house with a rat. It hadn’t been a happy experience and a flat-mate at uni who had kept fancy rats as pets had done nothing to rid him of his aversion. He didn’t like the way their little beady eyes stared at him.
The rat scuttled away through a hole in the floorboards and Connor breathed slightly more easily.
“Worried they’ll run up your legs?” Ryan’s teasing words slid over his skin like a cool breeze.
He turned a baleful glare on his insubstantial boyfriend. “Stop taking the piss. It was twitching its whiskers threateningly. Come on, this place gives me the creeps. Let’s check it out before I start screaming for Abby to rescue me.”
Ryan grinned and moved away into one of the darker corners. Connor wondered if ghosts could see in the dark like cats. Actually, he didn’t know whether cats could really see in the dark or not but…
The procoptodon leaped out from behind the pile of feed sacks, its massive hind legs striking the floorboards with a hollow thump. Connor staggered backwards, catching his foot on a twisted metal window frame and falling heavily. The wooden floor creaked ominously and, as Connor scrabbled to his feet, suddenly gave way, pitching him into darkness, the torch he’d been carrying flying from his grip as he plunged down into icy water accompanied by large baulks of timber and shards of glass.
Connor flailed wildly, trying – and failing – to get a grip on the floor as it collapsed around him. He landed awkwardly on what felt like a pile of old rubbish in a water-filled cellar. His startled yell was muffled by water that tasted unpleasantly of petrol as debris continued to rain down around him.
He struggled wildly, but something heavy was pinning his stomach down, making breathing difficult. Connor clutched at it, more concerned about keeping his head out of water than he was about the pain it was casing him. The sound of falling masonry made him wonder if the whole bloody building was coming down around his ears. He spat water out of his mouth and tried to yell for help, but all that happened was a red-hot flare of pain blooming underneath his ribs. The cry turned into nothing more than a croak.
Something struck him hard on the cheek. Connor’s head slipped down into the water and then the darkness closed in around him.
Author : fredbassett
Fandom : Primeval
Characters : Becker, Connor, Lester, Cutter, Stephen, Abby, Lyle, Blade, Ditzy, Finn, (Ryan)
Rating : 15
Word Count : 12,700 (posting in three parts)
Disclaimer : Not mine, no money made, don’t sue
Spoilers : None.
Summary : Connor begins to suspect that something strange is going on.
Warning : None.
A/N : Written for my darling Evil Twin,
munchkinofdoom for her birthday. Thanks to lukadreaming for the fastest beta on record. This is a sequel to The Ghost and Miss Maitland and The Ghost and Captain Becker. I will be posting in three parts. Link to Part 1.Connor hovered uncertainly in the doorway of Lester’s office, conscious of the fact that he was already shifting his weight from foot to foot, the way he always did when he was nervous. Even Becker’s usually comforting presence behind him wasn’t helping and Connor was beginning to wonder if he stood any chance of slinking quietly away without being noticed…
“Stop fidgeting and cross the threshold, Mr Temple,” Lester drawled. “When I last checked the personnel records there was no reference in your file to any aversion to sunlight and garlic, so I’m sure you’ll have no problem in taking that final step, but if it makes things any easier, do come in.”
“You watch Buffy?” Connor asked in surprise, as he edged into Lester’s office, feeling uncomfortably like he was somehow making the place look untidy.
Lester rolled his eyes. “No, I do not. Now, is there a point to this visitation? If not, I’m sure you have some electrical equipment that requires disassembling and I’m even more certain that Captain Becker has a piece of heavy artillery pining for his attention.”
“It’s about…” Connor hesitated and glanced up at the strip light above Lester’s desk. If that went pop Lester wouldn’t be a happy bunny. He cleared his throat nervously but before he could continue, another thought struck him. “Er, if you’ve got a document open on your computer, it might be a good idea to save it.”
With an irritated frown, Lester clicked his mouse a couple of times before he reached under the desk to turn the computer off and did the same with the screen. “There, does that satisfy you?”
Connor grinned. “Yeah, thanks.” His eyes slid past Lester to one corner of the room where the air seemed to have got slightly darker. If a shadow could be said to be giving him an encouraging look that one was.
“Yes…?” Lester’s tone was icily polite, but Connor was certain he could see a slight hint of amusement lurking in the man’s eyes.
“It’s about Ryan.” The words came out in a rush and to Connor’s amazement, the lights didn’t so much as flicker, but the compass on his wrist did start wavering slightly. “He’s…” Connor trailed off and hopped miserably from one foot to the other again. He should never have let Becker talk him into coming to see Lester, the man already thought he was a half-wit and this was only going to make things worse. He took a deep breath and started again. “He’s…” To Connor’s consternation, the shadow in the corner of the room was starting to solidify. If he didn’t get this one over with, Lester was going to discover what he was trying to tell him the hard way. “He’s…”
“Standing behind me, exercising remarkable restraint for once,” Lester finished helpfully, just as the shadow coalesced into the insubstantial – but wholly recognisable – form of Connor’s dead boyfriend.
Lester swivelled around in his chair to face the corner of the room, leaving Connor with an expression on his face that his Gran would no doubt have described as gormless. As far as Connor could tell, his boss had just taken the appearance of a ghost in the corner of the room entirely in his stride, thereby confirming Connor’s long-held opinion that Sir James Lester had ice in his veins rather than blood.
Connor felt a hand on his shoulder and gave a startled yelp. “Breathe, Conn, I think you’ll find it helps,” Becker advised quietly.
He sucked in a deep breath. OK, this could be going worse, much worse. Nothing had exploded yet, not even Lester, and it looked like he wouldn’t have quite as much explaining to do as he’d been expecting. “How did you know?” he asked, automatically checking the gyrations of the compass on his wrist.
“Contrary to popular opinion, I am actually a human being,” Lester replied, his eyes still fixed on Ryan’s now almost-solid form. “As a result even I need to visit the lavatory on occasion. And Captain Becker’s predecessor chose one such occasion to make his presence felt. A lesser man that myself might well have needed to take his suit to the cleaners as a result. Fortunately, I am made of sterner stuff. After that, Captain Ryan and I reached an understanding. I have to say, he is remarkably undemanding company when I’m working late.”
“That’s why you’ve had more computer problems than most people!” Connor exclaimed, a light bulb turning itself on in his brain without showering him with the fragments for once. “I thought you were just…” Connor closed his mouth in a hurry, instead of planting both feet somewhere irrevocable on the subject of his boss’s computer skills.
“Technologically inept?” Lester sniffed, fixing Connor with the sort of stare that made him think Lester had been a stoat in a past life. “Hardly. Oh do sit down, the pair of you. Staring up at Captain Becker is giving me a crick in the neck.” Lester waved one hand imperiously in the direction of the black leather sofa against one wall of his office. “You too, Ryan. Looming in corners and blowing up kettles needs to become a thing of the past. Our budget for replacement equipment isn’t the bottomless pit you seem to think it is.”
Wishing he could manage even a fraction of Lester’s composure, Connor shuffled over to the sofa and sat down, feeling like he always did when faced with his boss’s sarcasm – awkward and tongue tied. He watched, fascinated, as Ryan made an attempt to perch on the arm of the sofa. The proximity brought with it the prickle on Connor’s skin that he’d come to associate with Ryan’s presence. There had been some rare occasions when Ryan had managed to achieve a more substantial form, notably that night in his flat when Ryan had held him while he’d cried, but normally having him around felt like he was sitting in a very light breeze…
The more substantial Special Forces captain sitting on his right gave him a sharp nudge in the ribs, and Connor realised Lester was speaking again but before he cottoned on to what his boss was actually saying, the strident tones of the ADD issued out of the public address system, drowning out Lester’s words.
He jumped up, as did Becker, whilst at his side, Ryan looked affronted and said in a voice that seemed to echo inside Connor’s head, “Not guilty.”
Lester gave a long-suffering sigh. “I believe you, Captain, thousands wouldn’t. Well, go on, all three of you.” He made a shooing movement with his hands. “No doubt Captain Ryan can make himself useful rattling some chains or walking through walls, should the occasion demand it. I shall use the peace and quiet to draft some much-needed guidelines on the assimilation of incorporeal employees into the workplace. Now don’t let me keep any of you.”
With a helpless glance at the two Special Forces captains, Connor made a hasty exit from Lester’s office. It was fair to say that the meeting hadn’t quite turned out the way he’d been expecting and Connor was left wondering exactly what it would take to rattle the wretched man’s composure. The appearance of the Headless Horseman in the atrium, maybe?
From the look on his companions’ faces, they were both wondering the same thing.
* * * * *
The ADD had given them a location in the middle of London’s docklands and they arrived in convoy to find a sprawl of derelict buildings in an area intended for redevelopment as luxury flats, according to the artists’ impressions on the advertising hoardings.
The main gates were closed, but a pair of large bolt croppers wielded by Finn cut through the rusting chain without difficulty and gave them access to the site. The area was enclosed on one site by tall fences and open to the water on the other. Looking on the bright side, they wouldn’t have to contend with members of the public, but the down side was that they had a large area to search, filled with what looked like ancient, brick-built warehouses in an advanced state of decay.
Connor hauled his portable detector out of the van. He was still working on reducing their size and increasing the range, but for the moment, he had to carry something as big and heavy as a car battery, slung over his shoulder on a strap. He could see the slight shimmer in the air that denoted Ryan’s presence, but he was keeping his distance.
The rest of the team were all taking the inclusion of a ghost on the outing with a calmness that spoke volumes. They’d all had longer than Connor to get used to Ryan’s presence and he’d been on the receiving end of a surprising number of apologies on the journey from the ARC. He’d smiled ruefully and brushed them off, muttering that with his track record, he’d never be able to take the piss out of Cutter for obliviousness again.
“Can you narrow down where the anomaly is?” Becker asked, staring around at the crumbling buildings.
Connor stared down at the small screen in his hands and nodded. “It’s over there,” he said, pointing to the largest of the buildings.
The roof had long since fallen in and every single window was broken. An enormous pair of doors hung off their hinges, creaking in the cold wind that was whipping up small waves on the grey expanse of water.
A noise inside the building sent Finn down on one knee, his rifle pointed steadily at the doorway. It was a measure of Cutter’s faith in the soldiers that he no longer felt the need to issue a warning not to shoot unless lives were in danger. The other armed men fanned out in a formation that Connor had seen them adopt countless times. They were gaining maximum field of fire without being in danger of catching anyone in the crossfire. Ryan had drilled the squad well and Becker had carried on what his predecessor had started.
A large shape, almost three metres tall, bounded out of the doorway and stood there, blinking owlishly in the weak spring sunlight. Another three hopped out behind it and promptly scattered, bouncing across the weed-infested concrete like gigantic, spring-loaded toys.
Connor stared at them open-mouthed with surprise and delight. They looked like enormous kangaroos that had run full-tilt into a wall and squashed their faces.
“Procoptodons,” laughed Cutter. “Put your weapons down, lads. They’re grazing animals. Just don’t get in the way of their hind-feet, they’ll have a kick like a mule.”
“Where are they from?” Becker demanded. “And what else might be with them?”
“Pleistocene Australia,” Connor supplied. “That’s about two million years ago, give or take a million or so.” He watched one of the giant kangaroos hop over to a patch of scrubby grass that had broken through the hard surface of the yard and start to chew. “It was the age of megafauna – that’s big buggers, to you, Finn,” he added, earning himself a grin from the young soldier. “Think Skippy the Bush Kangaroo on steroids. These guys lived on grasslands. As well a them, we might find things that look like huge wombats, the size of bears, great big shaggy things. They might look fierce, but they’re only browsers.”
“So we herd them back through the anomaly,” Becker stated. “OK, let’s do our best sheepdog impressions. Kermit, Dane, get the nets and catchpoles out of the van. Stephen, Abby, tranq anything that we can’t catch, Lyle, cover them. Ditz, Blade, make sure nothing else comes through. And watch how you go, people, these buildings look like they’ll fall down if you so much as sneeze on them.”
The anomaly itself hung in the air in the middle of the derelict warehouse, with one of the procoptodons, a juvenile only about as tall as Connor, standing in front of it, looking puzzled. Its snub nose twitched in the dank air, which smelled of rotting wood and old sacks and, with a look of disgust on its squashed face, the creature turned around and promptly hopped back through the gently spinning ball of broken light, leaving Connor to wonder – not for the first time – what sort of attraction the anomalies exerted over living creatures.
“One down…” For once, Ryan’s words sounded like they’d issued out of a flesh and blood throat.
Connor turned around sharply. Ryan was standing next to him, a shaft of hazy sunlight from one of the windows falling across him, blurring his outline and making the soldier look like a photograph taken in soft focus. Connor stepped forward, hand outstretched, hoping against hope that he would encounter a solid form.
His hand passed through Ryan, meeting some slight resistance, but no more than he would have had from trailing his hand through the water cascading from a shower head. His skin prickled slightly and Connor fought hard to keep the disappointment from showing on his face.
“I’m sorry,” Ryan said. “This is just making things worse for you, isn’t it?” He glanced over at the anomaly. “I know I should leave, Conn, but I don’t know where to go…”
“Don’t you bloody dare go anywhere!” Connor snapped. The words tumbled out of his mouth of their own volition before he could bite them back. “I lost you once and I don’t want to go through that again. Stay with me, Ryan, we’ll…” he hesitated, not really sure what to say, so he settled for turning the full force of his best puppy-dog impression on Ryan. “We’ll work something out.”
Ryan smiled but Connor could see the sadness on his face. The scientists at the ARC would be falling over themselves for the chance to examine Ryan and Connor knew it. What he didn’t know was whether he was just being selfish wanting Ryan to stick around. Did he really want his lover to be condemned to some sort of half-life just so Connor could cling to the past?
Connor shook himself. They were in the middle of an anomaly shout. It was hardly the time for that sort of introspection. Right now they had a herd of prehistoric giant kangaroos to round up and repatriate.
Fortunately, the creatures proved to be phlegmatic rather than skittish, staring at the soldiers and scientists out of dark, almond-shaped eyes, their large ears pricked and alert. A couple of the animals were female, carrying babies in their pouches, which even managed to produce an ‘Aw, cute’ reaction from the normally hard-eyed soldiers, who generally viewed just about every visitor from the past with deep suspicion.
As the anomaly had been open for at least an hour while they’d fought their way through the London traffic, Becker finally allowed the team to split up to search the buildings for any more procoptodons. The anomaly was showing signs of starting to weaken gradually, so time was now of the essence if they wanted to avoid returning to the ARC with a giant kangaroo for company.
With Ryan’s semi-solid mass at his side, Connor made his way over to one of the buildings by the waterside. He’d caught a glimpse of movement in the direction while he’d been watching Kermit and Blade succeed in netting one of the smaller animals that had been paying more attention to a clump of straggly weeds than to the two large, black-clad soldiers creeping up on it.
The smell of damp and decay was even more prevalent in this warehouse than the others. Rotted roof timbers lay scattered around a wooden floor and broken glass crunched under Connor’s boots. A large pile of what looked like feed sacks was heaped up against one wall and Connor saw something small and furry sniffing around the floor. Rats. He suppressed a shudder. He’d once managed to accidentally lock himself in his grandmother’s coal-house with a rat. It hadn’t been a happy experience and a flat-mate at uni who had kept fancy rats as pets had done nothing to rid him of his aversion. He didn’t like the way their little beady eyes stared at him.
The rat scuttled away through a hole in the floorboards and Connor breathed slightly more easily.
“Worried they’ll run up your legs?” Ryan’s teasing words slid over his skin like a cool breeze.
He turned a baleful glare on his insubstantial boyfriend. “Stop taking the piss. It was twitching its whiskers threateningly. Come on, this place gives me the creeps. Let’s check it out before I start screaming for Abby to rescue me.”
Ryan grinned and moved away into one of the darker corners. Connor wondered if ghosts could see in the dark like cats. Actually, he didn’t know whether cats could really see in the dark or not but…
The procoptodon leaped out from behind the pile of feed sacks, its massive hind legs striking the floorboards with a hollow thump. Connor staggered backwards, catching his foot on a twisted metal window frame and falling heavily. The wooden floor creaked ominously and, as Connor scrabbled to his feet, suddenly gave way, pitching him into darkness, the torch he’d been carrying flying from his grip as he plunged down into icy water accompanied by large baulks of timber and shards of glass.
Connor flailed wildly, trying – and failing – to get a grip on the floor as it collapsed around him. He landed awkwardly on what felt like a pile of old rubbish in a water-filled cellar. His startled yell was muffled by water that tasted unpleasantly of petrol as debris continued to rain down around him.
He struggled wildly, but something heavy was pinning his stomach down, making breathing difficult. Connor clutched at it, more concerned about keeping his head out of water than he was about the pain it was casing him. The sound of falling masonry made him wonder if the whole bloody building was coming down around his ears. He spat water out of his mouth and tried to yell for help, but all that happened was a red-hot flare of pain blooming underneath his ribs. The cry turned into nothing more than a croak.
Something struck him hard on the cheek. Connor’s head slipped down into the water and then the darkness closed in around him.
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Date: 2011-01-29 11:38 am (UTC)Ah! Poor Ryan! Poor Conner! I don't see how this can end well.
And the cliffhanger of doom! What will happen to Conner now?
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Date: 2011-01-29 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 11:55 am (UTC)So many great lines in this installment. Brilliant!
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Date: 2011-01-29 04:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 12:06 pm (UTC)And Eeeeep! Connor!
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Date: 2011-01-29 05:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 12:32 pm (UTC)But eeep! for Connor!
Great fic!
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Date: 2011-01-29 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 01:16 pm (UTC)*happy sigh* Connor's internal monologue is still lovely. *g*
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Date: 2011-01-29 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 01:28 pm (UTC)If I was evil I would say I hope Connor dies then him and Ryan can be together as ghosties but I suspect you have something that will make me cry (in a good way *g*)
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Date: 2011-01-29 05:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 01:28 pm (UTC)Eeep... poor Connor!
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Date: 2011-01-29 05:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 01:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 05:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 01:47 pm (UTC)Lester was made of awesome. Yay for semi-solid Ryan!
Oh Connor... *wibble*
Thank you for more!
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Date: 2011-01-29 05:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 02:39 pm (UTC)As for the scene in Lester's office... priceless!
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Date: 2011-01-29 05:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 02:49 pm (UTC)But eek! Connor! Not good!
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Date: 2011-01-29 05:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 06:32 pm (UTC)now i'm all pondery on why he's sticking around. unfinished business? inability to let go? inability of connor to let him go? i'm glad you included that aspect btw, it's entirely relevant.
and eep at drowning!connor. leaving us at a cliffie like that is just not nice. ;)
good work! still enjoying, looking forward to more.
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Date: 2011-01-29 06:56 pm (UTC)There will be explanations of sorts. But not necessarily all in this mini-series. *g* There will be more to come in the future.
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Date: 2011-01-29 09:33 pm (UTC)Yay for ghost!Ryan and that he's joining the team. Hee for Lester writing the guidelines.
Meep for the cliffhanger!
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Date: 2011-01-29 09:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 09:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 10:11 pm (UTC)Poor baby, of course he doesn't want to lose Ryan again, but this isn't going to help him move on at all, and it's not like they can actually have a relationship together.
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Date: 2011-01-29 10:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 06:59 pm (UTC)Great fic can't wait for next part:)
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Date: 2011-01-30 08:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-31 09:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-01 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-01 05:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-01 08:00 pm (UTC)BTW, Lester was so great in this part.
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Date: 2012-02-01 11:28 pm (UTC)Part 2
Date: 2012-02-22 03:14 am (UTC)Re: Part 2
Date: 2012-02-22 09:19 am (UTC)