fredbassett | Fic, Death and the Maiden, Part 5, Claudia, Team, 15

Title : Death and the Maiden, Part 5
Author : fredbassett
Fandom : Primeval
Rating : 15
Characters : Claudia/Nick, Stephen/Ryan, Lester, OCs
Disclaimer : Not mine (except the OCs), no money made, don’t sue.
Spoilers : None
Word Count : 21,221, divided into in 8 parts.
Summary : Dinosaurs are not the only things to come through the anomalies.
A/N : This series is early in my main ‘verse, not long after the events of The Devil’s Crowll. It arose nearly three years ago out of a chat with

steamshovelmama. I owe an absolutely huge debt of gratitude to

aelfgyfu_mead as her assistance with Middle English made this story possible. I am also grateful to

talliw for information on clothing and shoes. And as ever, thanks are due to

lukadreaming for her beta help.

Claudia pressed the button on her mobile to end the call, slipped the phone back into her pocket and announced, “Ryan and Stephen have found another man, not much more than a boy, by the sound of it.”

“It might be cause for a bigger celebration if you’d told me Lyle and Cutter had found the anomaly,” said Lester, clearly none too impressed by her news. “So we’ll need another holding pen. I’ll speak to Jim.”

“They’re people, not animals, James!” Claudia snapped, more sharply than she’d intended.

Lester opened his mouth to reply then obviously thought better of it. He laid a hand briefly on Claudia’s arm and said in a more conciliatory tone, “Then what do you want me to do with our latest guest?”

Claudia gave a small laugh. “According to Ryan, that was how the old lady kept referring to him – as her guest. There was something else, as well, James. Ryan said she was able to speak a few words of his language.”

Lester’s eyebrows shot up. “Maybe she studies Chaucer in her spare time.” But her boss sounded as puzzled as she felt.

“I suspect not. Nothing in our lives is ever that simple. I need to get over there with Ditzy.” She glanced at her watch. Dr Fielding should have come off his shift by now. She’d been expecting him to arrive any time in the last half an hour. Claudia decided to call him and divert the doctor over to Mrs Allen’s cottage first to check out their latest visitor. If he appeared healthy – and according to Ryan that seemed to be the case – that would be one less concern.

“Simon? I’m sorry to disturb you, it’s Claudia Brown…”

“Claudia, I’m sorry.” The doctor sounded rushed. “I’ve had problems coming out of my ears. Give me another few minutes and I’ll be on my way.”

“How are the men?”

“One of them is coughing his guts up. The other’s a bit better, but I’m certain he’s infected as well. I’ve stuffed them full of streptomycin and steroids. I’ve given the lad you left with them a shot too, just to be on the safe side.”

“We’re hoping we can move them soon,” Claudia lied smoothly. “Simon, I’ve still got two people I need you to check out at the Mitchells’ and we’ve tracked down another one as well. I’ll text you the address and meet you there as soon as you’re free. I’d prefer you to see him first.”

She heard the doctor’s sharp intake of breath, but to his credit, all he did was agree.

“I’ll call you when I’m on my way.” The noise of raised voices in the background cut over the doctor’s words, and she heard someone swearing loudly, in a voice that sounded out of control. “Got to go,” said the doctor quickly. “Our local druggie is kicking up a fuss in reception.”

“He’ll meet me at the old lady’s cottage,” Claudia informed Lester, as she forwarded the address Ryan had sent to her on to the doctor. “Sounds like the poor man has had his hands full today.”

“Haven’t we all?” Lester muttered.

Claudia ignored him and made her way out to the barn, where Connor and Ditzy, with one remaining soldier, were still keeping watch on the two men. She noticed a frown on the medic’s face as she entered and wondered what had been happening in her absence.

Connor appeared to be still poring over the Middle English Compendium and attempting to talk to their captives. She heard Connor repeating what sounded like ‘Efel’, questioningly and saw that both men were nodding.

He turned round as he heard her enter the barn. “I think they’re trying to tell us that one of the other guys isn’t very nice,” he declared.

“I think I was already aware of that, Connor,” Claudia said with a grimace.

Connor consulted the notes he had been making on his laptop and said, “OK, if I’ve got this right, Edmund,” he pointed at the taller of the two men, “says that one of the blokes who attached you is a daunger which I think means ‘danger’ to women – which would be right, obviously. I think they’d been hanging around Edmund’s village and had attacked someone and maybe stolen some money, and Edmund and John had gone after them. There had also been an animal attack. He said something about being ‘in dreed off cruel beestis’.”

One of the men nodded vigorously at Connor’s words and made a gesture with hands like a fisherman describing the size of his catch, presumably indicating the size of the beast they had been following. Something about two metres high, from what Claudia could gather.

“Brihte lihtes,” he added.

Claudia didn’t need the Middle English Compendium for a translation of those two words. She smiled at Connor. “You’re doing well. Keep talking to them and see what else you can find out. It will help if you can get them to trust us.”

From what Connor had just said, it looked very much like those two men were innocent villagers who had been trying to rid the area of a couple of unsavoury characters and recover what had been stolen. But unless they had followed the other two men for quite some distance, it looked like they might well be dealing with an intermittent anomaly and with their limited resources they might be better keeping watch on the area immediately surrounding the spot where she and Nick been attacked, rather than simply roaming around the forest in the hope of finding something.

Ryan agreed with her assessment of the situation and while Claudia was driving over to Mrs Allen’s cottage, she knew the captain would be ordering Lyle and his men back to where they’d started from. Connor would telephone her if he obtained any more useful information.

As Claudia flicked on her indicator light to make a sharp turn into the unmade track leading to Mrs Allen’s house, she noticed another car doing the same from the opposite direction. It looked like Dr Fielding had arrived as well. They both parked and she shook hands with the young doctor.

“Thanks for coming, Simon.”

Simon Fielding sighed, quite obviously not happy with what he was being asked to do. “OK, Claudia, let me take a look at this latest illegal immigrant of yours then I’ll get over to the Mitchells’ place and start treating the other two. I’m still not convinced we can keep this lot under wraps and the longer it goes on, the more trouble we’ll have.”

“I’m well aware of that, Simon. We’re doing our best, I can promise you that.”

The kitchen of the small cottage was already crowded. An elderly woman with thin grey hair pulled back into an untidy bun was sitting in a large rocking chair petting a small white dog, while a frightened-looking boy of no more than 15 sat on a footstool next to her, his arms wrapped around his knees. The boy had dark, roughly-cut hair and a thin beard that made him look older than he was. He was dressed in a woollen tunic, tied at the waist with a strip of leather, cloth leggings and worn leather shoes laced at the ankle. They looked like they’d been patched several times, as had the rest of the lad’s clothes.

Claudia smiled at the boy. “Welcome.” She thought the word was close enough to something he would understand and the startled look he gave her said she hadn’t been far off the mark. She held her hand out to the old lady. “Claudia Brown, Home Office. Mrs Allen, this is Dr Fielding from the hospital. I’m sorry to have invaded your house like this, but we’re here to help.”

“By brandishing guns at my guest, young lady? That doesn’t seem entirely helpful.” The old woman reminded Claudia rather uncomfortably of one of her primary school teachers and it was clear that she wasn’t in the least bit over-awed by a combination of armed soldiers and government officials.

“That was a misunderstanding, Mrs Allen, but an understandable one. Your young friend isn’t the only person to have arrived in the forest, and the others are not all as harmless. I was attacked earlier today by two men, and the soldier who saved me from their… attentions was injured in the same incident.”

Claudia’s gamble looked to have paid off as Mrs Allen’s eyes clearly betrayed her shock. “I… had no idea,” the old woman said quietly. “How many people have…” she hesitated again, then sighed and started again. “How many people have come through, Miss Brown?”

“Please, call me Claudia. We’re dealing with five people, we think.” Claudia was not surprised by the way Mrs Allen phrased her question. The anomalies were an open secret with so many of the people who lived in the forest. “Can you explain to your friend that Dr Fielding needs to examine him to see if he is sick? And maybe while he’s doing that we can have a little chat?”

Eileen Allen tapped the boy on the shoulder and pointed at Simon Fielding. “Thomas, leche… wille examinen yow. Helpen yow.”

The boy’s eyes were wide and frightened and Claudia could see he was starting to shake, which was hardly surprising considering he was surrounded by so many people, all staring at him.

Simon Fielding held his hand down to the boy. “Come with me, Thomas.” He spoke slowly and clearly, his tone reassuring. The boy uncurled himself from the floor and took the doctor’s hand.

Eileen Allen smiled encouragingly and nodded. “Use my parlour, Doctor. You’ll not be over-looked in there.”

Claudia saw Ryan move to follow them and shook her head slightly. “I’m sure waiting outside the door will be sufficient, Captain.”

“Ma’am,” Ryan acknowledged, doing his best to appear non-threatening and not entirely succeeding.

“More tea?” Stephen suggested, earning himself a grateful look from their hostess.

Claudia smiled. Tea was the British answer to everything, including possible plague-carrying refugees from the Middle Ages. “That would be lovely.”

“You might as well make yourself at home, dear,” Eileen Allen said. “You’re going to tell me we need to talk, aren’t you?”

“Something like that,” Claudia admitted. “Mrs Allen, how come you can speak the same language as Thomas?”

“I learnt it from my grandmother.”

Of all possible answers, Claudia had to admit she hadn’t been expecting that one. “Do you think you could start at the beginning? We really do want to help, but I’m getting the very strong feeling that there’s an awful lot here we don’t understand.”

“And I’m not the only one keeping secrets, am I?” Mrs Allen’s eyes twinkled. “I’ve lived around here all my life, Claudia Brown. I know what goes on in the forest. You don’t think we’re all deaf and blind around here, do you? Soldiers with guns running around the place. That business with the poor young girl who used to work at the Mitchells’ hotel and her boyfriend. You can’t keep things like that quiet. People talk, you know. Even if we don’t talk to reporters,” she added. “We’ll wait until we see what Dr Fielding has to say, shall we? Then I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

They sat in companionable silence until Dr Fielding came back into the room, followed by Thomas. The young man had a wide smile on his face as he announced to his protector, “I nyl sik!”

Eileen Allen wasn’t the only one who smiled in relief at that statement. Claudia raised her eyebrows enquiringly at Simon Fielding.

“I can’t guarantee he isn’t carrying it,” the doctor replied. “But the good news is that he isn’t showing any symptoms and I’ve given him some streptomycin as a precaution.”

Claudia wasn’t sure how either Nick or Lester would react to the news that Simon Fielding had already started to treat the men, but on balance she agreed with Ditzy. They’d been sending animals back dosed with modern tranquilisers for long enough. “That’s good news, Simon, thank you. Would mind going over to the Mitchells’ hotel now? I’ll be with you later. And regardless of anything that Nick or James might say, the men are to be treated as you think appropriate. That isn’t negotiable.”

“No, it isn’t,” Fielding agreed. “They’re my patients now, Claudia, regardless of where they’ve come from.” He nodded pleasantly to Mrs Allen, smiled at Thomas and left.

“He’s a good man,” Mrs Allen commented as the doctor left the cottage. “You’re lucky that he’s forest born and bred. I’m not going to let you take Thomas away, Miss Brown, you do realise that, don’t you?”

“He can’t stay here, Mrs Allen, you must understand that.”

“He might be healthy now, but if he goes back he’s not likely to stay that way for long.”

“We can’t interfere with history,” Claudia said.

Mrs Allen’s eyes widened. “Why ever not? It isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened and it won’t be the last, either, whatever you might hope. The world didn’t end when my grandmother stayed, so I don’t think for a moment that it’ll end if Thomas stays, either.” She folded her arms over her chest and stared calmly at Claudia. “Besides, if you think I’m going to stand by and let you send my own uncle back to a time when almost half the country died, you have another think coming, young lady. He lost his mother – my grandmother – when she was swallowed by one of the forest lights seven years ago in his own time and it vanished before she could return. When he saw that another light had appeared in the same place, he went looking for her. This happens to be the nearest house to that particular spot, which is why they both ended up here.” Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “He doesn’t know yet that she’s long dead and I’d like to break that news to him in private, if you don’t mind.”

While she was speaking, Thomas sat on the footstool and beamed around at everyone unaware of what was being said. The news that he wasn’t sick had clearly worked wonders for him, but Mrs Allen’s speech had managed to render everyone else speechless.

Claudia wondered if the same would be true of Lester when he heard the news. And how Nick would react to these revelations was anyone’s guess.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

nietie.livejournal.com

OMFG! This is awesome!
The world didn’t end when my grandmother stayed.
The Forest of Dean really has its secrets. I love this!

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Fic, Death and the Maiden, Part 5, Claudia, Team, 15

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