fredbassett | Fic, Death and the Maiden, Part 6, Claudia, Team, 15

Title : Death and the Maiden, Part 6
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.

“No, she bloody well can’t keep him!” Lester sounded totally outraged. “He comes from the Middle Ages not Battersea Dogs Home. He’s going back and that’s final.”

“He wants to stay, James, and Mrs Allen is happy to have him.”

“Claudia, that’s not the point.” Nick was demonstrating solidarity with Lester for once and Claudia was starting to feel somewhat beleaguered. “We can’t take risks like that with history.”

“His mother stayed and history doesn’t appear to have suffered.”

“You don’t know that,” Nick said flatly.

“Nick, he’s a human being. He has the right to decide for himself.”

“Claudia, you’re being ridiculous…”

“Don’t patronise me, Nick!” Claudia glared at both men. “Look, I don’t pretend to understand all this, but let’s examine a few facts. Thomas’s mother came through an anomaly 127 years ago. He was only eight at the time. He saw her swallowed up by a bright light and she didn’t come back. Seven years later, another anomaly opens in the same place and leads here, now. In the meantime, Thomas’s mother spent her whole life here, had children, grew old and died. Nothing about what we do is simple. Creatures have died. People have died. And if Thomas goes back, the chances are he’ll die as well.”

“He has to go back!”

“He’s only a boy. He lost his mother when he was a child. Every other member of his family has died of the plague. He’s frightened. It isn’t as simple as you might want to think.”

“And the others?” interjected Lester. “We have four more men to consider, Claudia, or had you forgotten them?”

She set her mouth in a hard line and ignored the implied jibe. “Edmund and John have families, James. They want to return home. They’re prepared to take their chance. Connor and I have talked to them. Dr Fielding thinks the antibiotics will give them a reasonable chance of survival. But it’s their choice. Just as it’s Thomas’s choice to stay here.”

“And the other two?” Nick demanded.

“We deport them back to their own time as soon as possible,” said Lester testily. “I am not keeping dangerous criminals here any longer than strictly necessary.”

“And what if the anomaly doesn’t reopen, James?”

“We could always see if the Australians will take them.”

For a moment Claudia seriously considered screaming. Arguing with either of the men was never easy at the best of times and when they were tag-teaming against her they were immeasurably worse.

Unless the anomaly was very well hidden, they had to assume that either they had another intermittent one on their hands – the same as the Permian anomaly – or, alternatively, that it had opened for a second time, closed again and was not going to reopen, maybe not for several years, maybe not at all. If that proved to be the case, they would have five refugees from the past on their hands and no idea whatsoever how to deal with them.

In her own mind, Thomas, the youngest of their ‘guests’, posed the least problem. He was only a few years younger than his mother had been when she’d ended up stranded out of her own time. Like her, he would adapt to life in the 21st century and Eileen Allen would help him. He was young enough to be her grandson, and that was no doubt how he would be passed off to everyone else. In addition, the Forest of Dean being what it was, few if any questions would be asked. He would need an identity, but that could be provided and, for all his objections, she knew that if it became necessary, Lester would co-operate.

Edmund and John would find things harder if they had to stay but, again, she suspected that the forest would find a way of looking after its own. The other two men – as yet nameless – presented the most difficulty. From the information Connor had obtained, both were criminals with a history of theft and violence, particularly towards women, as she’d found out to her cost.

A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. Mary Mitchell popped her head into the room they were using for meetings. “Edmund and John are in the guest cottage now, Claudia. Ditzy is with them and Dr Fielding says he’ll be in to see you in a few minutes.”

“Thanks, Mary.” Claudia presented a defiant face to both Nick and Lester and waited to see which of them would comment first. She’d over-ruled their objections and had insisted on the two men being moved to more comfortable surroundings once they’d established that they posed no threat.

To her surprise, neither man made any comment. They maintained an uneasy silence until Dr Fielding arrived.

“With the right treatment, I think both men will make a full recovery,” the doctor announced, in response to the expectant looks that greeted him as soon as he walked through the door.

“Remind me to send flowers,” Lester muttered. “Thank you for your co-operation, Doctor. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how sensitive matters are?”

“You have five men who don’t belong here and four of them have plague. Yes, I’d say that’s pretty sensitive.”

Lester winced delicately. “It’s making life… interesting,” he admitted. “What are the chances of the infection spreading?”

“With modern hygiene and antibiotics we should be able to contain the problem, but I can’t keep those other men in my hospital indefinitely, Sir James.”

“Then what do you suggest we do with them?” Lester met the young doctor’s eyes unflinchingly. “If we follow your advice and send them to the isolation facilities in Cheltenham we may lose the chance to… repatriate them, should the opportunity arise.”

“And what chance is there of that?” Simon Fielding demanded.

“We have no bloody idea,” Nick admitted. “It could be hours, it could be weeks, it could be never.”

“Then you need to make some plans and you need to make them fast.” Dr Fielding’s words and his tone were uncompromising. “I have two sick men in the hospital and an armed guard on the door. That’s not inconspicuous by anyone’s standards, not even around here.” He stopped, took a deep breath and then added, “You have until 10am tomorrow morning to get them home and if you haven’t, I’m sending them to St Luke’s. What you do with them after that is up to you. In the meantime, I’ve left a supply of antibiotics with Dave Owen. He knows what to do.”

The door closed behind him, leaving three people staring at each other in silence.

* * * * *

“Coffee?” Nick’s question pulled Claudia out of her reverie. She’d spent the last hour in the residents’ sitting room in the hotel, turning the problem over and over in her mind and she was still no nearer to knowing what to do.

“Thanks.” She accepted the mug and made room for Nick on the large leather sofa.

“Where’s Lester?”

“On the phone pulling in a few favours from a friend in the Prison Service.”

“The Prison Service?” Nick sounded shocked.

“We need somewhere to put those two men, Nick. And it will have to be somewhere secure.”

“The anomaly might still reopen.”

Claudia sighed. “Yes, it might, but we have to plan for a worst case scenario. Simon Fielding is right, we can’t just bury our heads in the sand and hope the problem goes away. That’s why James is on the phone now to his contacts.” She sipped at her coffee and stared into the log fire. Outside, the rain was teeming down and no doubt making life totally miserable for the soldiers still patrolling the relevant area of the forest.

A warm hand settled on hers. She twined her fingers in Nick’s, glad of the human contact. The shock of the assault earlier in the day had taken its toll on her, but she was trying hard not to let it cloud her judgment.

The creak of the heavy oak door opening announced Lester’s arrival. “Gloucester Prison will take them on remand once the paperwork has been processed. Until then, if they have to go to Cheltenham Hospital I’ll need some of Ryan’s unit to continue to stand guard. We can’t risk those men getting loose in the community.”

They were going to need more men at this rate. It was just their luck that Captain Stringer and his men were unavailable. The Special Forces Director had been apologetic, but he’d made it abundantly clear that he had no more available resources. Claudia was seriously considering asking Ryan whether he thought it would be worth calling in men from the Territorial SAS.

Lester, who’d been privy to her telephone conversations a few hours ago, had the look of a man still hoping for his fairy godmother to turn up and wave a magic wand. His expression softened for a moment and he commented, “Claudia, you look exhausted. I’ll call you immediately if there are any developments, but in the meantime why not try to get some sleep?”

She shook her head stubbornly. “I’m fine, James.” She finished her coffee and set the mug down on the hearth. “Nick, how’s your head?”

Nick grinned. “I think Ditzy’s waiting for me to keel over, just so he can say he told me so. But I’m fine as well.” He ran his hand lightly though his hair causing it to look even more startled than usual. “Bit of a bump, but that’s all.”

Lester opened his mouth, presumably to make the obligatory remark about knocking some sense into Nick’s head, when they heard heavy footsteps approaching at a run. Ryan burst into the room without ceremony looking more agitated than Claudia had ever seen him.

“We’ve got multiple anomalies in the forest, all in the vicinity of the Permian anomaly and that one’s going berserk. It’s opened and closed three times in quick succession. Something tried to come through and got sliced in half when it closed. Kermit says that area of the forest is lit up like a fucking Christmas tree.” It was a measure of Ryan’s agitation that he was actually swearing, something that Claudia had almost never heard him do when giving a report, no matter how extreme the circumstances were.

Claudia and Nick jumped to their feet, both demanding, “How many?”

Ryan’s phone rang again. “Kermit? Lyle’s on his way. Cover as many as you can. I don’t want anything getting loose. We don’t have the resources for hunting strays.” He glanced at Nick and Claudia, awaiting instructions. “Professor, ma’am, are we authorised to kill any creatures that try to come through?”

“Only as a last resort!” Nick declared.

“Yes, if there’s no other choice,” said Claudia quickly.

“The casting vote would appear to be mine, Captain,” Lester commented wryly. “Secure the anomalies by all means necessary, including the use of deadly force.”

Ryan nodded. “Kill if you have to, Kermit. Keep me informed.” Ryan’s phone rang again, almost immediately. “Dane, what’s the problem?” Claudia watched as Ryan’s eyes widened. Whatever it was, the news was clearly unwelcome. Dane was the man Ryan had left on guard at the hospital. A moment later, Ryan swore violently then ordered, “No, he could be anywhere now. I’ll send Hart. If anyone can follow his trail he can. Get back to Sector 6, we have multiple anomalies.”

The Special Forces captain ended the call, his face wiped studiously clean of emotion. “One of the men appeared to collapse and the other one started coughing his guts up. Dane went to get Fielding. There was some sort of problem with a knife-wielding drug addict and by the time they’d got back upstairs the other man had chucked a chair through a locked window and jumped after it. The forest comes right up to the back of the hospital so he would have been straight into it.”

“I’ll go over there with Stephen,” Claudia said quickly. “James, make sure we have Edmund and John ready to be taken to the anomalies if we can identify one that leads back to their time.”

“And the boy?” The question came from Nick.

“If he wants to stay, he stays. He’s a human being, Nick, he has rights.”

“They haven’t invented human rights where – when – he comes from,” Lester said testily.

“He’s here now and we have!” Claudia snapped. “If you try to force that boy back against his will, James, you’ll have my resignation on your desk in the morning.”

“Claudia…”

Nick put his hand on her arm, but Claudia shook him off. “Ryan, Mrs Allen is at no risk from Thomas and you need every man we have available.”

Ryan nodded and started to call Fiver.

Claudia stared at both Nick and Lester, daring the two men to contradict her. She saw the exchanges of glances between them and noted Lester’s almost imperceptible shrug. Without waiting for Nick’s reaction, she left the room in search of Stephen and within a few minutes they were in Claudia’s car, driving through the dark and the rain towards Dilke Memorial Hospital.

Stephen was carrying what looked like a small arsenal of weapons, but Claudia didn’t feel like complaining. They were in the middle of mounting chaos, rapidly running out of resources and now had a plague-carrier loose in the forest again. It didn’t seem like the time or the place to quibble about a team member’s choice of weaponry and she knew Stephen well enough to know that he would never shoot to kill unless he had no other option available.

She pulled the car off the main road and drove straight up to the main entrance. As the car doors slammed, Dane came down the steps to meet them, closely followed by Dr Fielding.

“Simon?”

“The man died, Claudia,” he said quickly. “The coughing fit was genuine and I think in his case the disease had turned septicemic. He brought up a lot of blood and died before I could do anything. The other man’s collapse was faked.” He shot a glance at the stony-faced soldier at his side. “It wasn’t Dane’s fault. We had a ruckus in reception, he came to tell me about the man’s collapse and walked right into it. One of our nurses ended up with a knife to her throat, so it was a bloody good job that Dane was there. A fully-armed soldier was a bit more than Jason was expecting. He’s harmless most of the time, but today wasn’t one of his better days.”

“It’s not one of our better days either, Simon. We need to find that man.” She turned to Dane. “Go with Stephen.”

“Claudia?” Stephen looked at her questioningly.

She shook her head. “I don’t want to risk slowing you down. But Stephen, he’s a human being, you will remember that, won’t you?”

Stephen nodded and without another word he and Dane were gone, heading off across the car park and towards the dark tangle of trees.

Claudia watched them go then fished her car keys out of her pocket. “Thank you for your help, Simon. I’ll call you as soon as we have some news.”

He nodded, making no attempt to conceal the concern on his face. “Be careful, Claudia.”

She dredged up a smile. “Easier said than done in my job, I’m afraid.”

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

x-bellaitalia-x.livejournal.com

Oh, blimey, it's all kicking off!

Multiple anomalies?! Eeesck, what the heck?

I adore Claudia in this.

Brilliant chapter.

From:

Fic, Death and the Maiden, Part 6, Claudia, Team, 15

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