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fredbassettTitle : A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Author : fredbassett
Fandom : Primeval
Rating : 18
Characters : Stephen/Clone!Nick, Lester, Jenny, Cutter.
Disclaimer : Not mine, no money made, don’t sue.
Spoilers : None
Summary : Stephen isn’t the only one to feel protective of the clone.
A/N : Written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kristen_mara ’s birthday. I hope you enjoy the latest in the clone series, sweetie! With thanks to lukadreaming for the beta.
“I’ll be back in two hours,” Stephen promised. Actually, unless the parking at the hospital proved to be even more nightmarish than usual, he’d be back a lot sooner, but Stephen had learned very quickly that his new companion had a liking for certainty in his life.
A pair of trusting blue eyes looked up from the complex web of thin tubing he’d been working with all morning and nodded, before the clone returned to his construction, wholly absorbed in a way that Stephen was all too familiar with from the last nine years, even though he had to keep reminding himself that these were not the same eyes.
Stephen made his way out through the wreckage of the rest of the ARC. He was mildly surprised that the structural engineers hadn’t condemned the whole building, but as it was, at least half was out of bounds, hidden behind plywood and scaffolding, shrouded with huge swathes of plastic sheeting. The sound of hammering and electric drills was everywhere and he could hear Lester haranguing one of the foremen, no doubt on his favourite subject of why they were called workmen when they never did any work.
The worst damage had been done to the atrium, ground zero for Helen’s bomb, but it had now been cleared of debris and at least provided a direct route to the garage area, even if it was still unusable for any other purpose. Connor had a new Anomaly Detection Device under construction in one of the labs and Lester had set up an office in a portakabin just outside the huge double doors.
As Stephen opened his car door, he heard footsteps coming towards him across the concrete floor. Lester brushed dust off his suit with a pained expression and managed to interrogate Stephen with nothing more than a twitch of an eyebrow.
“Visiting time,” he offered by way of explanation.
“Do send him my…” Lester searched for the right word and finally settled on, “…regards.”
Stephen grinned. For all Lester’s attempts to maintain distance, Stephen had seen the shocked disbelief on the man’s face as Nick Cutter had lain unmoving on the ground outside the ARC, blood seeping from the bullet wound in his chest.
“Nicky’s in one of the labs,” Stephen said before Lester had the chance to ask the question. “He’s determined to recreate Cutter’s anomaly prediction model.”
Lester’s eyebrows betrayed his surprise. “He can do that?”
Stephen shrugged. “Up to a point, yes, I think he can. He’s determined to try, at any rate.” Stephen was surprised – and rather pleased – that for the first time, Lester had referred to the clone as he rather than it. One small word represented quite significant progress. “I’ve told him I’ll be back in two hours. He won’t be any trouble.”
Lester allowed himself a smile. “More than could ever be said about his counterpart.”
For once, Stephen couldn’t disagree.
* * * * *
Jenny Lewis stood up as Stephen entered the private room Nick had been occupying since they’d moved him out of the High Dependency Unit. It was light and airy, overlooking the hospital garden, and a small chest of drawers was covered in get well cards and flowers. Her fingers were still twined with Nick’s but Stephen realised, with something approaching shock, that the small intimacy had completely failed to ignite the normal pang of jealousy tinged with regret that he’d carried around with him like an albatross for more years than he could remember.
“How is he today?” Stephen asked, grinning at Nick as he and Jenny played their usual game of ‘ignore the patient’, just to see how quickly they could get a rise out of him.
“He’s Mr Grouchy at the moment,” said Jenny. “They still won’t tell him how long he’ll be here”
“Well, be fair, they certainly won’t keep him a minute longer than they have to. He’s the worst patient imaginable.”
“Where’re my grapes?” Nick demanded, entering into the spirit of the game with somewhat more enthusiasm than he’d previously managed to muster. “You can’t visit a sick man without bringing grapes.”
Stephen pulled a small paper bag containing half a bottle of Scotch out of his pocket. “I thought you might prefer this.”
Nick’s eyes widened in delight and Jenny looked scandalised. What neither of them knew was that Stephen had taken the precaution of having a quiet word with Nick’s doctor – a fellow Scot – who’d assured him that although they all ran the risk of incurring the wrath of the nurses, there’d be no harm done by Nick having the occasional wee dram.
“I’d better be getting back,” Jenny said, giving Nick’s hand a slight squeeze. “If I leave James alone with the workmen for too long the job might never get finished.”
When she’d gone, Stephen hid the whisky inside a copy of National Geographic on Nick’s over-bed tray and stared down at his friend. “So how do you really feel?”
Nick grimaced. “Like shit, if you must know.”
“Lester sends his… regards.”
Nick huffed a pained laugh at the hesitation. “How is he coping with two of me?”
“Like a man with a wasp up his arse.”
Nick’s look of satisfaction made Stephen smile. He knew perfectly well that Nick and Lester had long ago reached a state of mutual trust and respect, although the pair of them would rather have teeth extracted without anaesthetic than admit to the fact. “Are they treating him properly?”
Stephen nodded. “We’re none the wiser about what she did to create him, but the tests have proved that his DNA is an absolute match for yours.” At Nick’s look of concern, Stephen held up his hand to forestall him. “That’s the only test I’ve allowed them to do, Cutter. Don’t worry, Nicky’s fine.” The look of concern slid into one of surprise and Stephen added, somewhat defensively, “He needed a name.”
“My mother once told me she’d very nearly called me Hamish.”
“You don’t look like a Hamish and neither does he. He’s rebuilding your model,” Stephen added, to distract Nick from pursuing the subject of names.
Surprise shifted to incredulity. “How far has he got?”
“Hard to tell. It always did look like a game of cats’ cradle to the rest of us.”
“So he has my memories…”
“That’s what it looks like,” Stephen admitted. “But presumably only up to the point where Helen obtained whatever sample she used to create him. The problem seems to be finding ways for him to access what he knows. But he saw the remains of your prediction model when we were trying to salvage what we could from your room and something clicked for him.”
“Don’t let them treat him like a lab rat, Stephen.”
“I won’t,” Stephen said, surprising himself with the vehemence of his reaction.
Nick smiled. “Well done, lad. Now be an angel of mercy and dispense some medicine. I could do with a small analgesic.”
* * * * *
A traffic jam on the way back to the ARC meant that Stephen walked back into the office he was sharing with the clone with exactly two minutes to spare.
Nicky, literal-minded as ever, greeted him with a wide smile, almost child-like in its pleasure. “It’s finished,” he announced, waving his hand at the graceful lines and flowing curves of a model that until now only Nick Cutter had understood.
Before Stephen had the chance to comment, Connor stuck his head around the doorway and asked, “How did you get on with that extra data, mate?”
The clone shared a conspiratorial smile with Connor. “There’s going to be an anomaly in Hyde Park in two days time.” The smile turned into the puzzled expression that Stephen was rapidly becoming well-acquainted with. “Stephen, where’s Hyde Park?”
“I’ll show you a map of London,” Stephen said, his mind already starting to race.
“Lester’ll have a duck fit!” Connor said at the same time, looking impressed. “Can I tell him?”
Before anyone had the chance to reply, he dashed off, leaving Stephen to grapple with the implications of what Nicky appeared to have achieved. Not only did he have Cutter’s memories, he also appeared to be capable of taking additional information, integrating it into the model and reaching a conclusion.
“Is it time for coffee now?” Nicky asked, evidently pleased with Connor’s reaction and at the same time contriving to remind Stephen, if he’d needed it, that whilst the clone might share Cutter’s DNA, he certainly didn’t share Cutter’s taste in hot beverages.
* * * * *
To Stephen’s amazement, Lester hardly bitched at all about the paperwork involved in closing a Royal Park to the public – probably because he intended to leave most of the donkey-work to Jenny.
Lester simply confined his reaction to a pained look and a muttered, “Time to play the terrorist card again, I suppose.”
Persuading Nicky to remain behind in the ARC was less easy, but Lester remained adamant that the clone wasn’t to be allowed out on anomaly shouts and there was no moving him on that score.
The anomaly opened at 11.30am and closed three and a half hours later, almost wholly without incident. Their only visitors were a herd of small, shy eohippus, easily returned to the Eocene before they’d even had chance to savour the delights of the 21st century. Just after the anomaly winked out of existence, Stephen finally gave in to temptation and let the bored soldiers blow something up to justify their presence, then they packed up and headed back to the ARC, leaving Jenny to brief the police on the controlled explosion of an unattended rucksack. As cover stories went, it had worked a treat.
“Mr Hart!” The positioning of Lester’s temporary office had clearly not been accidental. Sneaking back in unannounced wasn’t an option any more.
Stephen mustered his best angelic expression. “That went really well,” he said brightly.
“I’m told the explosion was clearly audible in Buckingham Palace. What part of unobtrusive didn’t you understand?”
“It makes the public feel safe.”
“It was a particularly threatening rucksack?”
“It didn’t have a tourist attached to it,” he countered.
Lester sniffed. “You have a point.”
A moment later, a welcome distraction arrived in the form of an excited Nicky. “Was I right?” His eyes held their usual hopefulness and he reminded Stephen of a puppy, desperate for both approval and affection.
“You were right,” Stephen said, smiling widely at the other man’s eagerness
Nicky’s face lit up with delight.
“You did well, Nicky,” Lester said, a rare smile softening his normally distant expression. Stephen’s surprise was tempered by the knowledge that Lester had children and there was no denying the fact that at times, Nicky was undeniably child-like.
“I’ll make some coffee!” Nicky announced and left as quickly as he’d arrived.
Stephen watched him go, unable to repress a smile but then the thoughtful expression he caught on Lester’s face made his stomach give an uncomfortable lurch.
Lester raised a hand to forestall whatever comment he thought Stephen had been about to make. “Just be careful, Stephen, I don’t want to see him hurt. He’s got the right to make his own decisions. Remember that.”
Stephen’s eyes widened and he was at a loss to know what to say. “Lester, …I…”
Lester turned the hand gesture into an airy wave. “There’s no need to over-share, Mr Hart.” With that, he mounted the steps to his temporary office and left Stephen standing in the parking area, all too conscious of the fact that he was no doubt doing a very passable impersonation of a stranded fish.
* * * * *
Nicky dumped his clothes in their usual heap on the bedroom floor and claimed first use of the bathroom. They’d spent a pleasant evening eating a takeaway Chinese meal and watching a wildlife programme. Stephen had done his best to put Lester’s warning out of his mind, but the words kept coming back to haunt him. Of all people to have delivered a statement like that, he hadn’t expected it from Lester. The man normally prided himself on remaining aloof, but it looked very much like Nicky was capable of evoking protective feelings in the most unlikely of people.
Stephen and Nicky had fallen into the habit of sleeping together every night. They hadn’t progressed beyond the stage of kissing and trading mutual hand-jobs and Stephen knew that it was only a matter of time before some more dots joined themselves together in Nicky’s mind. He was waiting with trepidation for the day that Cutter’s Presbyterian upbringing surfaced in Nicky’s mind, leaving him with the same legacy of guilt that Cutter had never quite succeeded in shaking off. Nick Cutter didn’t have a homophobic bone in his body, but he’d never been able to move on from the conditioning of his childhood, which is why their occasional drunken fumbling in tents had never gone anywhere.
Almost as soon as he’d settled down in bed, Stephen found himself in possession of an armful of warm clone. Nicky smelt of soap, toothpaste and lemon shampoo. He slipped his arm around Stephen’s waist and cuddled up close, pressing a half-hard cock against Stephen’s thigh.
Stephen’s own cock reacted to the proximity with a hopeful twitch, but he knew perfectly well that letting his dick do the thinking wasn’t a good idea. He tightened his arms around Nicky and murmured, “Long day and I’m a bit knackered. You did brilliantly, today,” he added, wanting to soften any implied rejection. “Lester was well impressed.”
“What did he say to you after I’d gone to make coffee?”
Stephen closed his eyes in the darkness. He might have guessed that Nicky would have picked something up. Cutter might be clueless at times, but his clone had already proved himself to be a remarkably accurate observer of other people’s behaviour. “Nothing to worry about.”
“So why won’t you touch me?”
“He just wants to make sure you don’t get hurt.”
“It doesn’t hurt.” Nicky tugged at Stephen’s hand and settled it on what was now a fully-blown erection. “It only hurts when we don’t do this.”
Touching the silky skin of Nicky’s cock only added to the stirring Stephen was feeling in his own groin. He knew perfectly well that if he didn’t ensure Nicky got the relief he needed, the clone would spend a miserable night not understanding why Stephen didn’t want to touch him. It was all very well for Lester to deliver a more succinct version of the time-honoured ‘you hurt him and I’ll hurt you’ speech, but he wasn’t the one who had to deal with the clone when Nicky was struggling to understand something. Confusion could all too quickly slide into almost physical pain…
Nicky made a small thrusting movement with his hips. “Please, Stephen…”
Stephen turned his head to his companion, trying to work out what to say, but before he had chance to reply, Nicky started to kiss him, confidence replacing hesitancy as he slipped his tongue expertly into Stephen’s mouth. Rejection at that stage was unthinkable. Lester had told him not to hurt Nicky and without a shadow of a doubt, pushing him away would result in exactly what Stephen had been exhorted to avoid.
Nicky’s mouth worked insistently on his. The clone kissed with the same single-minded determination that he brought to most things, be it reconstructing the anomaly prediction model or making a cup of coffee. He focussed his whole energy on whatever activity he was currently engaged in, and Stephen had to admit that it was intoxicating. Nicky pushed his cock into the loose circle of Stephen’s fingers and insinuated his own hand between them so he could touch Stephen’s dick.
It didn’t take long for Nicky to reach his climax, gasping into Stephen’s mouth, but Stephen’s own orgasm proved to be elusive. Nicky’s fingers tugged gently at him, working his foreskin in a way that would normally have Stephen coming in a matter of minutes, but nothing seemed to be working for him, and in his head, Stephen cursed Lester for sowing seeds of doubt in his mind.
Eventually, Nicky pulled back, staring down at Stephen in obvious frustration. “Why can’t I make you come?” he demanded plaintively. “What am I doing wrong?”
“You’re not doing anything wrong,” Stephen said, now ruthlessly sticking pins in a mental image of a Lester-doll. “I’m just tired, that’s all. It happens like this sometimes.” He closed his eyes again, just wishing that he could come and they could both go to sleep.
He felt the duvet being thrown back and was worried that Nicky was about to make a precipitous departure from the bedroom but then his companion shuffled around on the bed and a moment later, Stephen’s cock was engulfed in the warm wetness of Nicky’s mouth. He gasped as Nicky started to suck the head of his cock while one hand slid up and down the shaft and the other gently fondled his balls. It wasn’t the most expert blowjob he’d ever received, but the sight of Nicky’s kiss-swollen lips stretched around his dick sent a warm rush of sensation through Stephen’s body and before he was even able to issue a warning, his climax coiled in his guts and he came in the clone’s mouth.
Nicky sat up, a look of concentration on his face as he swallowed and then ran his tongue around his lips. “It tastes salty,” he commented.
Stephen laughed breathlessly. “Christ, Nicky, what made you decide to do that?”
Nicky smiled smugly. “The builders let me look at one of their magazines at coffee time. It was a woman doing it in the pictures, but they said they were sure you’d like it if I did it.”
What was left of Stephen’s brain cells made a half-hearted attempt to organise themselves into something resembling a coherent train of thought. “You’ve been reading the builders’ dirty magazines?”
Nicky nodded. “They’re going to bring me some with just men in them. I think I’d prefer that.” He leaned down and kissed Stephen gently on the lips. “Can we look at them together?”
Stephen stared up into Nicky’s trusting blue eyes and knew perfectly well he wouldn’t have the heart to disappoint him. It looked very much like he’d just discovered another area in which Helen’s experiment hadn’t bred true to the original. He’d just have to hope that Nicky wouldn’t take it into his head to do some over-sharing with his new-found friends – especially not if Lester was anywhere in the vicinity.
Author : fredbassett
Fandom : Primeval
Rating : 18
Characters : Stephen/Clone!Nick, Lester, Jenny, Cutter.
Disclaimer : Not mine, no money made, don’t sue.
Spoilers : None
Summary : Stephen isn’t the only one to feel protective of the clone.
A/N : Written for
kristen_mara ’s birthday. I hope you enjoy the latest in the clone series, sweetie! With thanks to lukadreaming for the beta.“I’ll be back in two hours,” Stephen promised. Actually, unless the parking at the hospital proved to be even more nightmarish than usual, he’d be back a lot sooner, but Stephen had learned very quickly that his new companion had a liking for certainty in his life.
A pair of trusting blue eyes looked up from the complex web of thin tubing he’d been working with all morning and nodded, before the clone returned to his construction, wholly absorbed in a way that Stephen was all too familiar with from the last nine years, even though he had to keep reminding himself that these were not the same eyes.
Stephen made his way out through the wreckage of the rest of the ARC. He was mildly surprised that the structural engineers hadn’t condemned the whole building, but as it was, at least half was out of bounds, hidden behind plywood and scaffolding, shrouded with huge swathes of plastic sheeting. The sound of hammering and electric drills was everywhere and he could hear Lester haranguing one of the foremen, no doubt on his favourite subject of why they were called workmen when they never did any work.
The worst damage had been done to the atrium, ground zero for Helen’s bomb, but it had now been cleared of debris and at least provided a direct route to the garage area, even if it was still unusable for any other purpose. Connor had a new Anomaly Detection Device under construction in one of the labs and Lester had set up an office in a portakabin just outside the huge double doors.
As Stephen opened his car door, he heard footsteps coming towards him across the concrete floor. Lester brushed dust off his suit with a pained expression and managed to interrogate Stephen with nothing more than a twitch of an eyebrow.
“Visiting time,” he offered by way of explanation.
“Do send him my…” Lester searched for the right word and finally settled on, “…regards.”
Stephen grinned. For all Lester’s attempts to maintain distance, Stephen had seen the shocked disbelief on the man’s face as Nick Cutter had lain unmoving on the ground outside the ARC, blood seeping from the bullet wound in his chest.
“Nicky’s in one of the labs,” Stephen said before Lester had the chance to ask the question. “He’s determined to recreate Cutter’s anomaly prediction model.”
Lester’s eyebrows betrayed his surprise. “He can do that?”
Stephen shrugged. “Up to a point, yes, I think he can. He’s determined to try, at any rate.” Stephen was surprised – and rather pleased – that for the first time, Lester had referred to the clone as he rather than it. One small word represented quite significant progress. “I’ve told him I’ll be back in two hours. He won’t be any trouble.”
Lester allowed himself a smile. “More than could ever be said about his counterpart.”
For once, Stephen couldn’t disagree.
* * * * *
Jenny Lewis stood up as Stephen entered the private room Nick had been occupying since they’d moved him out of the High Dependency Unit. It was light and airy, overlooking the hospital garden, and a small chest of drawers was covered in get well cards and flowers. Her fingers were still twined with Nick’s but Stephen realised, with something approaching shock, that the small intimacy had completely failed to ignite the normal pang of jealousy tinged with regret that he’d carried around with him like an albatross for more years than he could remember.
“How is he today?” Stephen asked, grinning at Nick as he and Jenny played their usual game of ‘ignore the patient’, just to see how quickly they could get a rise out of him.
“He’s Mr Grouchy at the moment,” said Jenny. “They still won’t tell him how long he’ll be here”
“Well, be fair, they certainly won’t keep him a minute longer than they have to. He’s the worst patient imaginable.”
“Where’re my grapes?” Nick demanded, entering into the spirit of the game with somewhat more enthusiasm than he’d previously managed to muster. “You can’t visit a sick man without bringing grapes.”
Stephen pulled a small paper bag containing half a bottle of Scotch out of his pocket. “I thought you might prefer this.”
Nick’s eyes widened in delight and Jenny looked scandalised. What neither of them knew was that Stephen had taken the precaution of having a quiet word with Nick’s doctor – a fellow Scot – who’d assured him that although they all ran the risk of incurring the wrath of the nurses, there’d be no harm done by Nick having the occasional wee dram.
“I’d better be getting back,” Jenny said, giving Nick’s hand a slight squeeze. “If I leave James alone with the workmen for too long the job might never get finished.”
When she’d gone, Stephen hid the whisky inside a copy of National Geographic on Nick’s over-bed tray and stared down at his friend. “So how do you really feel?”
Nick grimaced. “Like shit, if you must know.”
“Lester sends his… regards.”
Nick huffed a pained laugh at the hesitation. “How is he coping with two of me?”
“Like a man with a wasp up his arse.”
Nick’s look of satisfaction made Stephen smile. He knew perfectly well that Nick and Lester had long ago reached a state of mutual trust and respect, although the pair of them would rather have teeth extracted without anaesthetic than admit to the fact. “Are they treating him properly?”
Stephen nodded. “We’re none the wiser about what she did to create him, but the tests have proved that his DNA is an absolute match for yours.” At Nick’s look of concern, Stephen held up his hand to forestall him. “That’s the only test I’ve allowed them to do, Cutter. Don’t worry, Nicky’s fine.” The look of concern slid into one of surprise and Stephen added, somewhat defensively, “He needed a name.”
“My mother once told me she’d very nearly called me Hamish.”
“You don’t look like a Hamish and neither does he. He’s rebuilding your model,” Stephen added, to distract Nick from pursuing the subject of names.
Surprise shifted to incredulity. “How far has he got?”
“Hard to tell. It always did look like a game of cats’ cradle to the rest of us.”
“So he has my memories…”
“That’s what it looks like,” Stephen admitted. “But presumably only up to the point where Helen obtained whatever sample she used to create him. The problem seems to be finding ways for him to access what he knows. But he saw the remains of your prediction model when we were trying to salvage what we could from your room and something clicked for him.”
“Don’t let them treat him like a lab rat, Stephen.”
“I won’t,” Stephen said, surprising himself with the vehemence of his reaction.
Nick smiled. “Well done, lad. Now be an angel of mercy and dispense some medicine. I could do with a small analgesic.”
* * * * *
A traffic jam on the way back to the ARC meant that Stephen walked back into the office he was sharing with the clone with exactly two minutes to spare.
Nicky, literal-minded as ever, greeted him with a wide smile, almost child-like in its pleasure. “It’s finished,” he announced, waving his hand at the graceful lines and flowing curves of a model that until now only Nick Cutter had understood.
Before Stephen had the chance to comment, Connor stuck his head around the doorway and asked, “How did you get on with that extra data, mate?”
The clone shared a conspiratorial smile with Connor. “There’s going to be an anomaly in Hyde Park in two days time.” The smile turned into the puzzled expression that Stephen was rapidly becoming well-acquainted with. “Stephen, where’s Hyde Park?”
“I’ll show you a map of London,” Stephen said, his mind already starting to race.
“Lester’ll have a duck fit!” Connor said at the same time, looking impressed. “Can I tell him?”
Before anyone had the chance to reply, he dashed off, leaving Stephen to grapple with the implications of what Nicky appeared to have achieved. Not only did he have Cutter’s memories, he also appeared to be capable of taking additional information, integrating it into the model and reaching a conclusion.
“Is it time for coffee now?” Nicky asked, evidently pleased with Connor’s reaction and at the same time contriving to remind Stephen, if he’d needed it, that whilst the clone might share Cutter’s DNA, he certainly didn’t share Cutter’s taste in hot beverages.
* * * * *
To Stephen’s amazement, Lester hardly bitched at all about the paperwork involved in closing a Royal Park to the public – probably because he intended to leave most of the donkey-work to Jenny.
Lester simply confined his reaction to a pained look and a muttered, “Time to play the terrorist card again, I suppose.”
Persuading Nicky to remain behind in the ARC was less easy, but Lester remained adamant that the clone wasn’t to be allowed out on anomaly shouts and there was no moving him on that score.
The anomaly opened at 11.30am and closed three and a half hours later, almost wholly without incident. Their only visitors were a herd of small, shy eohippus, easily returned to the Eocene before they’d even had chance to savour the delights of the 21st century. Just after the anomaly winked out of existence, Stephen finally gave in to temptation and let the bored soldiers blow something up to justify their presence, then they packed up and headed back to the ARC, leaving Jenny to brief the police on the controlled explosion of an unattended rucksack. As cover stories went, it had worked a treat.
“Mr Hart!” The positioning of Lester’s temporary office had clearly not been accidental. Sneaking back in unannounced wasn’t an option any more.
Stephen mustered his best angelic expression. “That went really well,” he said brightly.
“I’m told the explosion was clearly audible in Buckingham Palace. What part of unobtrusive didn’t you understand?”
“It makes the public feel safe.”
“It was a particularly threatening rucksack?”
“It didn’t have a tourist attached to it,” he countered.
Lester sniffed. “You have a point.”
A moment later, a welcome distraction arrived in the form of an excited Nicky. “Was I right?” His eyes held their usual hopefulness and he reminded Stephen of a puppy, desperate for both approval and affection.
“You were right,” Stephen said, smiling widely at the other man’s eagerness
Nicky’s face lit up with delight.
“You did well, Nicky,” Lester said, a rare smile softening his normally distant expression. Stephen’s surprise was tempered by the knowledge that Lester had children and there was no denying the fact that at times, Nicky was undeniably child-like.
“I’ll make some coffee!” Nicky announced and left as quickly as he’d arrived.
Stephen watched him go, unable to repress a smile but then the thoughtful expression he caught on Lester’s face made his stomach give an uncomfortable lurch.
Lester raised a hand to forestall whatever comment he thought Stephen had been about to make. “Just be careful, Stephen, I don’t want to see him hurt. He’s got the right to make his own decisions. Remember that.”
Stephen’s eyes widened and he was at a loss to know what to say. “Lester, …I…”
Lester turned the hand gesture into an airy wave. “There’s no need to over-share, Mr Hart.” With that, he mounted the steps to his temporary office and left Stephen standing in the parking area, all too conscious of the fact that he was no doubt doing a very passable impersonation of a stranded fish.
* * * * *
Nicky dumped his clothes in their usual heap on the bedroom floor and claimed first use of the bathroom. They’d spent a pleasant evening eating a takeaway Chinese meal and watching a wildlife programme. Stephen had done his best to put Lester’s warning out of his mind, but the words kept coming back to haunt him. Of all people to have delivered a statement like that, he hadn’t expected it from Lester. The man normally prided himself on remaining aloof, but it looked very much like Nicky was capable of evoking protective feelings in the most unlikely of people.
Stephen and Nicky had fallen into the habit of sleeping together every night. They hadn’t progressed beyond the stage of kissing and trading mutual hand-jobs and Stephen knew that it was only a matter of time before some more dots joined themselves together in Nicky’s mind. He was waiting with trepidation for the day that Cutter’s Presbyterian upbringing surfaced in Nicky’s mind, leaving him with the same legacy of guilt that Cutter had never quite succeeded in shaking off. Nick Cutter didn’t have a homophobic bone in his body, but he’d never been able to move on from the conditioning of his childhood, which is why their occasional drunken fumbling in tents had never gone anywhere.
Almost as soon as he’d settled down in bed, Stephen found himself in possession of an armful of warm clone. Nicky smelt of soap, toothpaste and lemon shampoo. He slipped his arm around Stephen’s waist and cuddled up close, pressing a half-hard cock against Stephen’s thigh.
Stephen’s own cock reacted to the proximity with a hopeful twitch, but he knew perfectly well that letting his dick do the thinking wasn’t a good idea. He tightened his arms around Nicky and murmured, “Long day and I’m a bit knackered. You did brilliantly, today,” he added, wanting to soften any implied rejection. “Lester was well impressed.”
“What did he say to you after I’d gone to make coffee?”
Stephen closed his eyes in the darkness. He might have guessed that Nicky would have picked something up. Cutter might be clueless at times, but his clone had already proved himself to be a remarkably accurate observer of other people’s behaviour. “Nothing to worry about.”
“So why won’t you touch me?”
“He just wants to make sure you don’t get hurt.”
“It doesn’t hurt.” Nicky tugged at Stephen’s hand and settled it on what was now a fully-blown erection. “It only hurts when we don’t do this.”
Touching the silky skin of Nicky’s cock only added to the stirring Stephen was feeling in his own groin. He knew perfectly well that if he didn’t ensure Nicky got the relief he needed, the clone would spend a miserable night not understanding why Stephen didn’t want to touch him. It was all very well for Lester to deliver a more succinct version of the time-honoured ‘you hurt him and I’ll hurt you’ speech, but he wasn’t the one who had to deal with the clone when Nicky was struggling to understand something. Confusion could all too quickly slide into almost physical pain…
Nicky made a small thrusting movement with his hips. “Please, Stephen…”
Stephen turned his head to his companion, trying to work out what to say, but before he had chance to reply, Nicky started to kiss him, confidence replacing hesitancy as he slipped his tongue expertly into Stephen’s mouth. Rejection at that stage was unthinkable. Lester had told him not to hurt Nicky and without a shadow of a doubt, pushing him away would result in exactly what Stephen had been exhorted to avoid.
Nicky’s mouth worked insistently on his. The clone kissed with the same single-minded determination that he brought to most things, be it reconstructing the anomaly prediction model or making a cup of coffee. He focussed his whole energy on whatever activity he was currently engaged in, and Stephen had to admit that it was intoxicating. Nicky pushed his cock into the loose circle of Stephen’s fingers and insinuated his own hand between them so he could touch Stephen’s dick.
It didn’t take long for Nicky to reach his climax, gasping into Stephen’s mouth, but Stephen’s own orgasm proved to be elusive. Nicky’s fingers tugged gently at him, working his foreskin in a way that would normally have Stephen coming in a matter of minutes, but nothing seemed to be working for him, and in his head, Stephen cursed Lester for sowing seeds of doubt in his mind.
Eventually, Nicky pulled back, staring down at Stephen in obvious frustration. “Why can’t I make you come?” he demanded plaintively. “What am I doing wrong?”
“You’re not doing anything wrong,” Stephen said, now ruthlessly sticking pins in a mental image of a Lester-doll. “I’m just tired, that’s all. It happens like this sometimes.” He closed his eyes again, just wishing that he could come and they could both go to sleep.
He felt the duvet being thrown back and was worried that Nicky was about to make a precipitous departure from the bedroom but then his companion shuffled around on the bed and a moment later, Stephen’s cock was engulfed in the warm wetness of Nicky’s mouth. He gasped as Nicky started to suck the head of his cock while one hand slid up and down the shaft and the other gently fondled his balls. It wasn’t the most expert blowjob he’d ever received, but the sight of Nicky’s kiss-swollen lips stretched around his dick sent a warm rush of sensation through Stephen’s body and before he was even able to issue a warning, his climax coiled in his guts and he came in the clone’s mouth.
Nicky sat up, a look of concentration on his face as he swallowed and then ran his tongue around his lips. “It tastes salty,” he commented.
Stephen laughed breathlessly. “Christ, Nicky, what made you decide to do that?”
Nicky smiled smugly. “The builders let me look at one of their magazines at coffee time. It was a woman doing it in the pictures, but they said they were sure you’d like it if I did it.”
What was left of Stephen’s brain cells made a half-hearted attempt to organise themselves into something resembling a coherent train of thought. “You’ve been reading the builders’ dirty magazines?”
Nicky nodded. “They’re going to bring me some with just men in them. I think I’d prefer that.” He leaned down and kissed Stephen gently on the lips. “Can we look at them together?”
Stephen stared up into Nicky’s trusting blue eyes and knew perfectly well he wouldn’t have the heart to disappoint him. It looked very much like he’d just discovered another area in which Helen’s experiment hadn’t bred true to the original. He’d just have to hope that Nicky wouldn’t take it into his head to do some over-sharing with his new-found friends – especially not if Lester was anywhere in the vicinity.
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Date: 2011-06-04 08:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-04 09:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-04 08:11 am (UTC)Nicky is lovely, and the idea of the builders showing him dirty magazines is classic *g*
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Date: 2011-06-04 09:02 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2011-06-04 09:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-04 09:10 am (UTC)They all seem to be pairing off nicely *G*
////“More than could ever be said about his counterpart.”////
*sporfling* Lester, behave!
Thanks very much for the further adventures of Nicky, and all the fun parts where he puts his new knowledge to use ;)
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Date: 2011-06-04 09:13 am (UTC)*hugs*
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Date: 2011-06-04 11:50 am (UTC)OMG!! LMAO!!!! Oh, *that* conversation is one I would have loved to see. The builders must have had a field day.
This was gorgeous. Poor Stephen, he clearly adores Nicky :) but Lester is a wise old bird.
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Date: 2011-06-04 11:56 am (UTC)And the idea of Lester's version of the 'don't hurt him' talk was just too tempting.
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Date: 2011-06-04 12:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-04 12:17 pm (UTC)I have a very soft spot for the dear clone.
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Date: 2011-06-04 12:53 pm (UTC)Aww, Lester's is succumbing to his protective urges when it comes to Nicky. Bless :)
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Date: 2011-06-04 12:56 pm (UTC)Builders can expand anyone's education!
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Date: 2011-06-04 03:16 pm (UTC)"Stephen finally gave in to temptation and let the bored soldiers blow something up to justify their presence," < LOL
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Date: 2011-06-04 04:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-04 04:03 pm (UTC)Lovely fic - Nicky is adorable :)
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Date: 2011-06-08 03:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-18 09:15 am (UTC)Lester stole the show in this fic. Followed closely by those builders. *snickers*
I also liked the easy camaraderie between Stephen and the real Cutter. It felt very real that Cutter would care so much for his clone, that he wouldn't want it to be treated like a lab rat.
I'm really looking forward to the next installment because obviously there has to be a next installment. *g*
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Date: 2011-08-18 09:17 am (UTC)Nicky is quite hard to write, but I do love him and I'm sure there will be more.