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fredbassettTitle : Twelfth Night
Author : fredbassett
Fandom : Primeval
Rating : 15
Characters : Claudia/Ryan, Lester, Connor, Abby, Nicky Brown
Disclaimer : Not mine (except Nicky Brown), no money made, don’t sue.
Spoilers : None
Word Count : 7,800
Summary : It’s Twelfth Night and the ARC receives an unexpected visitor.
A/N : Written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lsellersfic for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
fandom_stocking. This is in the same universe as the Secret Santa fic I wrote last year The Devil’s Knell.
Ryan yawned for the second time in five minutes and contemplated putting the kettle on just to stop himself falling asleep from sheer boredom.
It was 6.30pm on January 5 and he was currently sprawled out on one of the sofas in the recreation room idly flipping through a magazine and marvelling at why anyone was actually even remotely interested in the activities of what appeared to be a bunch of Z list celebrities.
The room was draped with paper decorations courtesy of Connor, Christmas baubles hanging from the pictures (Abby) and numerous sprigs of holly and ivy (Claudia). Ryan’s contribution to that aspect of the pre-Christmas festivities had been to hold chairs for people to clamber on and make sure no one broke their necks in the process. By midnight someone was going to have the unenviable job of ridding the Anomaly Research Centre of all traces of the Christmas decorations that currently festooned nearly every room. Even the Spartan helmet in Lester’s office was still wearing a Santa hat, although how Connor had got away with that remained a matter of some conjecture.
Christmas for most of the anomaly response teams had passed by in a dinosaur-related blur of activity. A series of distinctly unseasonal anomalies opening into a very hot, dry period of the earth’s distant past had disgorged numerous creatures, but fortunately hadn’t resulted in any deaths. The past two days had been quieter and Lester had finally sanctioned some much-needed leave. Nick and Stephen had gone off for a short break to a holiday cottage, most of Ryan’s men had returned to their families for a few days and the majority of the scientific and technical staff had done the same.
Lester had elected to stay behind, as had Claudia. In addition, Abby had seemed content to remain on call, probably because she had a pregnant Alphadon to keep an eye on in their small, but ever-growing menagerie, soon to be joined by a litter of creatures that would look like a cross between a possum and a shrew. Connor had stayed to keep her company. Their technical genius was also taking advantage of his opportunity to tinker with various bits of equipment as the building was relatively uninhabited, which mean that he could allow various items of kit to emit loud noises at regular intervals without anyone – apart from Lester – complaining about the disruption.
Ryan wondered at what point he could legitimately start to relieve his boredom by taking down the decorations. Claudia would probably know the answer to that. He stood up, worked the kinks out of his neck and back and decided to be nice to everyone and do a coffee run.
Lester accepted the proffered mug with a grateful smile. The mug bore the words, ‘I’m the boss around here’. He’d received it in the office Secret Santa that Claudia had organised. The theme had been mugs, wholly appropriate in Ryan’s view, which had made everyone’s life slightly easier when it had come to a choice of present. Lester sipped his coffee, undoubtedly checking to see if Ryan had remembered that he took sugar. He looked tired and Ryan had a suspicion that the man’s marriage was suffering as a result of the demands of the anomaly project.
Lester nodded in the direction of the red hat adorning his sculpture. “Do you think Claudia would object if I put that in a… safe place, now?”
The slight hesitation betrayed the fact that ‘safe place’ was almost certainly a euphemism for the nearest bin.
Ryan grinned. “I’ll let you know what she says. I was just about to make enquiries on the subject of decorations. I thought the cleaners might appreciate a hand with getting them down.”
Lester stared in disgust at the pile of paperwork on his desk. “I might be inclined to lend a hand myself. The domestic staff could do with a break as well and it would no doubt be a more entertaining activity that explaining to the Home Secretary why we appear to spend so much on electrical equipment.”
A loud bang from the direction of the atrium made Lester wince.
“I’ll take him a coffee,” Ryan said. “And check he’s still alive.”
“Oh I do hope so,” Lester said with a theatrical sigh. “I really can’t face the Health and Safety investigation if Mr Temple has finally managed to blow himself to pieces. Take him a biscuit as well. It might occupy him for fractionally longer and save the wear and tear on my nerves.”
Ryan made his way down the ramp, carrying mugs of coffee in both hands. Connor’s mug contained the words, ‘Trust me, I’m a genius’, which were a clear indication that Lester hadn’t been the one to buy his Christmas present. Claudia’s proclaimed, ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’. Anyone could have been responsible for that particular gift.
Connor was underneath a table next to the enormous bank of screens that dominated the main control room, his backside stuck up in the air, waving around like a duck’s rear end. Ryan wondered whose idea it had been to buy him a pair of red jeans for Christmas. The monitors, normally alive with information, were now ominously dark.
A slight smell of burning wires didn’t bode well for whatever Connor had been working on and had obviously drawn Claudia out of her office to evaluate the damage. Ryan put both mugs of coffee safely out of harm’s way and enquired, “Problems?”
“It just went bang,” Connor announced, his voice muffled by the desk but clearly sounding surprised, although he was probably the only person who was
“Did it really?” Claudia commented solicitously. “Would you like me to fetch a fire extinguisher?”
“I think it smells worse than it is,” Connor said, wriggling out from under the desk looking like the second cousin once removed of one of the burrowing things they’d encountered a few days ago causing havoc in a department store.
“That’s fortunate,” Lester remarked from the first floor. “Because from up here it smells like the barbeque Captain Ryan’s men insisted on having for our summer party. The one they insisted on starting using a can of petrol.” He stared down with carefully cultivated disdain. “Connor, why are you wearing red trousers?”
“I’m not,” Connor said. “They’re brown.”
Lester raised one eyebrow quizzically and started to stroll down the ramp, carrying his coffee mug carefully in one hand and balancing a large box of biscuits in the other. “They don’t look very brown from where I’m standing, although I do accept that this job does come with that sort of additional hazard.”
Connor looked down at his own legs. “Oh. But I don’t own a pair of red trousers any more.”
“Then you would appear to be wearing someone else’s clothing, Mr Temple. Remind me to send a memo tomorrow on the subject of appropriate officewear, Miss Brown.”
“Does that include ties?” Connor enquired, sporting a wide grin to go with his brightly-coloured trousers.
Ryan looked up to discover that Lester was now wearing a blue tie decorated with an assortment of cartoon reindeer, all either dancing or playing a musical instrument. And from where Ryan was standing it looked suspiciously like some of the figures were actually moving.
Before Lester had time to respond, the enormous doors to the internal parking area started to slide back and a figure wearing a pillarbox red quilted ski jacket over a pair of black jeans and old, worn leather boots wandered in, his dark hair and closely-cropped dark beard lightly frosted with snow.
“Nicky!”
Ryan wasn’t totally sure whether Claudia sounded pleased or annoyed, but either way, she ran across the atrium and threw her arms around the visitor.
Ryan set down his mug and quickly tugged his combat trousers out of his boots so he could check his socks. Several sets of cartoon penguins stared up at him and he could have sworn that one of them had just winked. He knew perfectly well that his socks had been plain black when he’d put them on that morning.
The man returned Claudia’s hug with enthusiasm and then swung her around like a small child, causing her to shriek loudly and make a vain attempt to box his ears. Depositing her safely down again, he held his hand out to Ryan and smiled, the ever-present mischief sparkling in his dark eyes like snowflakes frosting a windowpane.
“Hello, Ryan.” The man’s grip was firm and his skin was cool.
“Hello, Nicky.” Ryan returned the handshake and couldn’t stop himself smiling, in spite of the ridiculous socks he was now wearing. “To what do we owe the honour?”
“Just thought I’d drop by,” Nicky said airily. “See where my sister works, maybe scrounge a cup of coffee and a biscuit.”
Claudia smiled. “It’s lovely to see you. I’m sorry Tom and I couldn’t make it home for Christmas, but we were a bit busy on the work front. James, may I introduce my… brother, Nicky Brown.”
“Charmed, I’m sure,” Lester sniffed, still staring suspiciously at his new tie, clearly too preoccupied to ask how their visitor had managed to gain access to a top-secret government building. He held out the tin in his hand. “Here, have a biscuit. Captain Ryan appears to be coffee monitor at the moment, so I’m sure he will oblige on the subject of beverages. Now, if you’ll excuse me…”
He stalked off, probably in search of a spare tie.
Nicky pulled the lid off the tin and promptly helped himself to a jammy dodger. “Nice place you’ve got here.”
Ryan resisted the urge to go through to the internal parking area and work out what mode of transport Nicky had used. He hoped it was something suitably discreet, although knowing Nicky, that couldn’t entirely be relied on.
“Hey, it’s working again!” Connor announced, surprise warring for precedence with pleasure as he stared up at the screens that had just burst into life, displaying a variety of feeds from the security cameras, including one that showed a wide and wholly unbroken covering of snow on the ramp that led up to the car park. “It’s snowing as well! Great!”
“It would be,” Ryan said quietly.
Nicky grinned. “Don’t blame me. This lot’s been forecast for days.” He stared around at the atrium, taking in the amount of greenery everywhere. “You’ve been busy,” he commented to Claudia. “Are you taking them down tonight or waiting for Candlemas?”
Claudia rolled her eyes and put her finger to her lips. “Don’t let Connor hear you suggest that. If Lester has to put up with this lot any longer than tonight, I won’t be answerable for his actions.”
Nicky’s grinned broadened. “Do you think he likes his tie?”
“I very much doubt it,” Claudia replied. “What have you done to the rest of them? I presume the spares he keeps in his desk drawer have met similar fates.”
“It depends on how much he likes polar bears, I suppose,” Nicky conceded.
Ryan was wholly unsurprised by the fact that Claudia’s navy blue trousers now contained rather fetching red pin-stripes that hadn’t been there a moment ago. She was also now wearing a pair of warm-looking furry boots instead of her neat court shoes. He wondered what Nicky knew that the rest of them didn’t.
Precisely 30 seconds later, the siren song of an anomaly alert sounded throughout the ARC. Ryan felt the familiar spike of adrenalin shoot through his system, banishing boredom. With Claudia at his side and Nicky no more than a pace behind them, Ryan strode over to the computer terminals and demanded, “Where is it this time?”
Connor’s fingers danced nimbly over a keyboard and the view on one of the screens changed to display a map. A small ball of bright light winked in and out, showing the position of the anomaly.
“Neat, eh?” Connor said.
The sound of someone running across the atrium heralded Abby’s arrival. She took the appearance of a total stranger in their midst in her stride and simply smiled and nodded at Nicky as Claudia effected a hurried introduction.
The anomaly appeared to be on the edge of a small town about 15 minutes drive from the ARC. It was a distinct improvement on the last one, which had appeared in a remote spot on Romney Marsh, at least when it came to accessibility, but Claudia would no doubt be less happy with this one from a public relations point of view.
Connor brought up some pictures from what Ryan presumed was the feed from a CCTV camera somewhere. A row of smashed shop windows appeared on the monitor.
“Why are there no streetlights on?” Abby demanded as they stared at the sight of numerous shoppers milling around on the wide pavement.
“It’s taken out an electricity sub-station, by the look of it,” Connor said, superimposing an image of the electricity grid onto the map.
“Well, what are you all waiting for?” Lester demanded, walking briskly down the ramp wearing a tie on which a couple of polar bear cubs appeared to be engaging in a wrestling match. He clapped his hands loudly. “Chop chop, people! Dinosaurs won’t hunt themselves, you know!”
“Call the back-up teams in,” Ryan said urgently. It would take the nearest of the lads at least an hour to get there but in the meantime they’d just have to make the best of a bad job.
“The main roads are at a standstill,” Nicky commented. “A lorry has jack-knifed across the M4. You’ve just going to have to make do with me, I’m afraid.”
Ryan didn’t question how Nicky knew that fact, but he had no doubt that the other man was telling the truth. The main thing that was puzzling him at the moment was why Lester had just blithely referred to dinosaurs in front of Nicky, not how Claudia’s ‘brother’ had obtained his information.
“I’m in the transport business, remember. It’s my job to know things like that.”
Ryan had forgotten Nicky’s habit of answering unspoken questions. It was one of the many disconcerting things about him.
Lester clapped his hands again. “Ladies and gentlemen, need I remind you that we all have a job to do?”
To Ryan’s complete amazement, Lester marched off in the direction of the garage, casting a look back over his shoulder that plainly demanded to know what they were all waiting for.
Ryan was about to make a dash for the armoury when Nicky put a hand on his arm. “It’s all been taken care of, Captain,” he said quietly.
Ryan shrugged and followed Lester while Connor grabbed his jacket, his hat, his laptop and a couple of hand-held anomaly detection devices. He also gulped down the coffee Ryan had brought him and grabbed the box of biscuits that Nicky had set down next to him. Ryan certainly couldn’t fault the lad’s priorities. By the time they’d reached the doors, one of the few technicians left in the building had already taken Connor’s place in front of the main ADD.
By the time Ryan reached the garage, Lester was already standing next to a bright red Range Rover that Ryan hadn’t seen before.
“Yours, I presume, Mr Brown?” Lester queried.
Nicky spread his hands. “What can I say? I like red.”
“Obviously.” Lester looked down at his tie. The white bear cubs looked up at him and hid their faces behind their paws. “And that’s meant to be endearing, I suppose?”
“Would you rather have penguins?”
Lester stared at Ryan’s ankles and Ryan wondered how the hell he knew.
“No. But I feel an Arctic fox might be appropriate.”
Nicky grinned and a split second later, the haughtiest Arctic fox imaginable was staring out of Lester’s tie, its dark eyes alive with intelligence.
“You’re coming with us?” Claudia asked their boss, not doing a very good job of keeping the incredulity out of her voice.
Lester started around him, raised one immaculate eyebrow and commented, “I don’t see much in the way of other appropriate personnel, Miss Brown, so naturally I shall be accompanying you.”
Nicky opened the front passenger door with a flourish. Lester gave a small bow and took his place in the front seat while Ryan piled in the back with Claudia, Connor and Abby.
The red Range Rover swept across the deepening snow inside the ARC compound. Lester gave a regal wave to the stunned-looking gate guards. Ryan wondered whether their passage would be recorded on the surveillance cameras, but somehow he thought that was unlikely. The side roads were rapidly being rendered undriveable by the heavy snow that was falling from the leaden sky in fat flakes that danced and swirled in their headlights. The main roads weren’t much better and there wasn’t a gritting lorry in sight.
Nicky drove fast and skilfully, choosing routes that Ryan wasn’t familiar with to bring them to the site of the anomaly in less than ten minutes. It was obvious when they entered the area affected by the blown electricity sub-station as the twinkling lights in numerous gardens and windows abruptly came to an end, the shop windows were in darkness and so were the streets.
A fire engine was parked by the side of the road. The crew appeared to have dealt with the explosion in the sub-station, but the number of men in uniform standing around staring in amazement at the large ball of light hanging in the air no more than a metre away from the mangled wreckage didn’t bode well for any attempt on Claudia’s part to keep the cause of the problem quiet.
“I’ll deal with this,” Lester said imperiously.
Ryan noticed as Lester got out of the car that he was now wearing a very elegant and obviously expensive black padded jacket and warm-looking grey trousers tucked into short, fur-topped back boots. His new attire was clearly more appropriate for the conditions than his normal work suits. It was also clearly a point of principle on Lester’s part not to comment on the changes. The fox on his tie looked out at the world with an amused grin on its aristocratic face.
“Sir James Lester, Home Office,” Lester announced loudly. “You are viewing a very rare example of ball lightning, gentleman. I head a scientific team set up to study such phenomena.”
“Bollocks,” one of the men said, not taking his eyes off the anomaly.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Bollocks,” the man repeated. “Or would you rather I said balls?”
Lester sighed loudly. “All right. It’s actually a rip in the fabric of time, likely to disgorge a dinosaur at any minute.”
“Is that why something that looks like a small tank with a great big club at the end of its tail has just wandered down the High Street smashing all the windows?”
“Quite probably,” Lester conceded.
Connor, laptop clutched under one arm, said, “Sounds like an ankylosaur.”
“My kid’s got a plastic model of one of them,” the firefighter said. “He loves dinosaurs.” He stuck his hand out to Lester. “Kevin Smith, sir. Nice tie, by the way.”
Lester shook the proffered hand. “Thank you. Now, having established the facts, would you gentlemen kindly remain here and ensure that nothing else comes through there to trouble us? Perhaps you could make creative use of your hoses or something.”
“Kev’s very creative with his hose,” one of the other men remarked. “He plays with it all the time.” The man suddenly realised Claudia was present and added, “Sorry about that, miss.”
Claudia smiled benevolently. “I hear far worse than that on a daily basis, I can assure you.” She held out her hand. “Claudia Brown, Home Office. Captain Ryan heads our security teams and these are my colleagues Connor Temple and Abby Maitland. I’d really be awfully grateful if you could do what Sir James has just asked.”
“Pete Taylor,” the man responded, taking her hand and shaking it. “I reckon we can manage that, ma’am. Makes a change from getting cats out of trees.”
“Do you really get called out for stuff like that?” Connor asked, his eyes wide with surprise, serving to convince Ryan that their evening probably couldn’t get any more surreal.
Pete Taylor laughed. “We certainly do. Let us know if you need a hand with your dinosaurs.”
“Will do,” Connor said equally cheerfully.
At first Ryan presumed that the ankylosaur had simply done a very good job of breaking an entire row of shop windows as it passed by, but then he realised that it hadn’t been alone in causing mayhem. The power cut had plunged the area into darkness and it appeared that a few people had taken advantage of the blackout to appropriate some late Christmas presents.
The window of an electrical goods shop had been well and truly smashed, and three men wearing balaclavas were busily helping themselves to some of the contents. Ryan caught sight of a wide-screen television being loaded into the back of a van.
Nicky stared at them and made a quick gesture with one hand. “Ignore them. They’ll need the assistance of a mechanic to get that van moving now and I very much doubt they’ll have AA or the RAC cover.”
Nicky was right. They didn’t have time to start dealing with looters, even though it went against the grain simply to walk away and leave them to it.
Following the ankylosaur’s trail didn’t need the services of an experienced tracker. It had left deep tracks in the snow that even the wide sweeps of its clubbed tail had failed to wholly obliterate. They found the creature in the front garden of a house a short way down the main road munching on what had previously been a very neatly-clipped bush. It gave them a baleful look and went back to its meal. Under the watchful eye of the householder, an elderly woman who was staring down in amazement from an upper window, Abby grabbed a holly wreath from the front door and waved it in front of the ankylosaur.
Lester turned to Nicky and demanded, “Isn’t there an easier way of doing this?”
Nicky stared thoughtfully at the dinosaur and Ryan knew him well enough to spot the concern in his dark eyes. “Apparently not,” he said.
Lester sighed. “Well, we’ll just have to apply lateral thinking, won’t we? Abby, what do you need to get this animal back to its own time?”
“Something nice for it to eat,” their animal expert replied. “It obviously doesn’t like holly.” She hung the wreath back on the front door and spread her hands apologetically at the owner, who had now appeared at a downstairs window and was busy gesticulating at them all.
“I think she wants us to go,” Connor commented.
“Yes, thank you for the translation, Mr Temple,” Lester snapped. “I think we could have worked that out for ourselves.”
“Bananas,” Nicky announced.
“My sentiments exactly.”
The Arctic fox smirked its agreement.
“I mean would it eat them?”
“Does it look like a bloody chimpanzee?” Lester demanded.
“It’s worth a try,” Abby countered. “Is there a grocery shop nearby?”
A large bunch of ripe bananas appeared on the ground at her feet. She gave Nicky a considering glance and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like ‘show off’, before grabbing a handful of bananas, yelling, “Mind its tail!” to Connor, and thrusting the fruit into the animal’s face at the same time.
The club at the end of the ankylosaur’s tail impacted hard on a garden gnome, shattering it into pieces but fortunately missing Connor. A moment later, an almost identical gnome took the place of the first one, the only difference being a slightly surprised look on its face.
The ankylosaur sniffed suspiciously at the bananas and then took a bite out of the bunch. A moment later, the large jaws chomped down on the rest, snatching them out of Abby’s hand like a dog taking a treat.
“We’ll take that as a yes, shall we?” Nicky said with satisfaction.
With Abby walked backwards and waving bananas under its nose, the anklosaur allowed itself to be led out of the garden. Surprisingly few people seemed to have gathered in the street to watch what was going on and Ryan wondered if they had Nicky’s influence to thank for that. Ryan watched as Nicky plucked a small sprig of holly complete with red berries from a bush in the garden and tucked it into the pocket of his jacket. For a fleeting moment, Ryan caught a glimpse of strain on the other man’s face. It appeared that Nicky’s tricks weren’t quite as effortless as he liked to make out.
Ryan had a combat shotgun slung over his shoulder and his usual Glock 19 holstered on his thigh courtesy of Nicky, and they were all now dressed in suitable clothing for the blizzard that appeared to be fast developing.
“How long can he keep this sort of thing up for?” Ryan murmured to Claudia as they followed the strange procession back out into the high street.
Claudia shrugged, a fake fur hat nestled warmly around her ears that hadn’t been there a moment ago. “I don’t know. His powers will last from now until Candlemas – that’s February 2,” she added absently. “But he’s nowhere near as strong as he is at Christmas and he’ll weaken even more the closer we get to midnight tonight.”
Ryan couldn’t help asking, “What does he do for the rest of the year?”
She laughed in spite of the circumstances. “Exactly what he claims. He runs a haulage business based in Slough.”
Ryan stared at her incredulously. “Slough?”
“Slough,” she repeated.
Ryan stared around at the shops in the high street, checking for any problems as the huge armoured dinosaur lumbered slowly back in the direction of the anomaly. The looters were still loading stuff into their van. A small crowd had gathered on the other side of the road and was watching in disapproval, but no one seemed very inclined to get involved, possibly something to do with the fact that one of the gang appeared to be toting a baseball bat and was making threatening gestures at anyone who came too close. In the distance Ryan could hear the sound of a police siren. It looked like someone else was about to join the party.
The idiot with the baseball bat notwithstanding, they were going to have to get the ankylosaur back past them, so it was clearly time for Ryan to take a hand in matters. He made his way past the slow-moving group, narrowly avoiding another swing of the dinosaur’s tail and came to a halt a few metres away from the looters.
“Time to bugger off, lads,” he said quietly but firmly.
“What’s it to do with you?” the taller of the three men demanded, his voice muffled behind the balaclava.
“I’ve got a job to do and you’re about to get in my way. So do us all a favour and get lost.” Although quite how they were going to do that with a van that almost certainly didn’t work any more was anyone’s guess, but Ryan would work on the finer points of his plan once he’d got them out of the way of the lumbering creature steadily advancing on them. The lumbering creature the size of a small tank that very few – if any – people actually seemed to be able to see.
“Fuck off,” the bloke with the baseball bat said, tapping the bat against his gloved hand in a way that Ryan presumed was meant to be intimidating.
If he wanted intimidating, Ryan would be only too happy to oblige. He swung the Mossberg 590 pump action shotgun off his shoulder and racked the slide to chamber a round. In Ryan’s experience there were very few noises more menacing than that particular sound.
The look in the man’s eyes confirmed that view. All three of the looters took an involuntary step backwards.
“The taxpayer has spent an awful lot of money training me to be a complete bastard, lads, so how about saving your kneecaps some bother and buggering off, like I first suggested?”
“He’s right, you know,” Lester remarked conversationally. “I was rather taken aback when I discovered how much it cost to train a member of Her Majesty’s Special Forces, but I have to admit that Captain Ryan is worth every single penny.”
“That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” Ryan commented, not taking his eye off the three men and wondering how much time he had before a banana-eating dinosaur barged into him.
“Don’t get used to it,” Lester told him airily, and Ryan didn’t need to see it to know that the Arctic fox on his tie would be looking amused. “The dinosaur is about ten metres behind you,” he added, which confirmed Ryan’s suspicion that Lester could read minds when he wanted to almost as easily as Nicky.
The looters looked uncertain and Ryan took full advantage of that, stepping forward and bringing the muzzle of the shotgun to bear on the first man’s knees. All resistance evaporated and the men started to back off. One of them took a step off the pavement, misjudged the height of the kerb in the ever-deepening snow and fell to the ground in an ungainly sprawl, the baseball bat flying out of his hands. Lester jumped forward with a surprising turn of speed and grabbed it.
A sudden yell broke through the silence. Ryan risked a glance in the direction of the onlookers on the other side of the street and saw smoke curling from an upper window in one of the flats above another line of shops.
One of the looters followed the line of his gaze and swore loudly. “That’s our Janey’s flat!”
“Get the firefighters!” Ryan said quickly.
“They’re otherwise engaged,” Nicky replied, appearing at his side. “Something large with exceedingly sharp teeth is trying to pay us a visit and at the moment only several men and a big hose are standing between us and it.”
Ryan heard the sound of breaking glass over the panicked cries of the onlookers. He could see a woman at one of the windows holding a baby in her arms. He started to run across the snow-covered road with Nicky, Claudia and one of the looters at his heels. A long ladder appeared from nowhere up against the front of the flat and without hesitation Ryan thrust the shotgun into Claudia’s hand and started to climb the ladder. He grabbed the baby from the terrified woman’s hands and made his way back down to the ground, the noise coming from the small, squalling bundle in his arms announcing that at least it was still alive. One of the women in the crowd took it from him and Ryan started back up the ladder again.
“Jason!” the woman inside the flat screamed, scrabbling away from, not towards the broken window.
With a sinking feeling, Ryan realised that the woman and the baby weren’t the only people in the flat. He fumbled for the catch of the window, found it locked and used the butt of his pistol to knock as much of the glass out of the pane as possible, allowing him entry to a room that was rapidly filling with smoke. He hoped that someone in the street had had the commonsense to order the evacuation of the neighbouring flats in case the fire spread to the ones on either side, but from the way he could hear both Lester and Claudia yelling orders, it sounded like that was being taken care of. That left Connor and Abby to lead the ankylosaur back to the anomaly and the firefighters to keep whatever was trying to come through at bay.
“Where is he?” Ryan demanded, grabbing the woman by the arm and turning her to face him. She was in her early 30s, her face darkened by smoke and her blonde hair in disarray. Her eyes were wide with fear and Ryan knew that she was terrified but she was still trying to get back into the rest of the smoke-filled flat.
“In the living room… I’d lit some candles because of the power cut… one of them fell over… it all just went up…!”
A noise behind him signalled the arrival of someone else climbing in through the window. He turned, expecting it to be Nicky, only to see one of the balaclava-wearing looters instead.
“She’s my sister!” the man said in response to Ryan’s look of surprise. “Her kid’s here as well.”
“Get her out of here!” Ryan ordered. “I’ll find the child. Which way is the living room?”
The man pointed to the left. Ryan thrust the woman into his arms and headed for the door.
“Mate! Take this!”
The looter pulled his balaclava off and threw it to Ryan. The man was younger than his sister by a good ten years. Spiky brown hair stood out from his head and he looked as afraid as the woman in his arms but he’d had the courage to come up into a burning building so Ryan presumed that he’d also have the sense to get his sister out of there while Ryan looked for her son.
Ryan pulled the balaclava on and made for the door. He had no idea how bad the fire had got, but he knew that there was no time to wait for someone to fetch breathing apparatus.
As he was about to pull open the door to the rest of the flat, Ryan heard a calm voice state inside his head, “I can’t deal with your dinosaurs, Ryan, but I can do something about the fire. Find the child. Leave the rest to me.”
“Nicky?”
“Who else would it be?” Nicky asked. His voice sounded amused, but Ryan knew that whatever he was about to do next would put a huge strain on even Nicky Brown’s powers. “I can handle it,” the other man said sharply in response to Ryan’s unspoken though. “Just be quick!”
Ryan drew in a deep breath of surprisingly pure air that smelled and tasted of nothing more than cool, clean snow. It looked like Nicky was already weaving his own brand of magic. Ryan grabbed hold of the door handle, noticing that his hands were now encased in a pair of supple black leather gloves. He jerked the door open and moved as quickly as he could through the smoke-filled flat looking for – and finding – a door on his left. If the fire had started in there, Ryan knew that as soon as he opened the door the fire would promptly be sucked out towards him.
“Do it!” Nicky ordered, still inside his head. “Trust me, Tom!”
Ryan drew in another deep breath, this one faintly scented with pine, and yanked open the door. As expected, flames leaped at him and he automatically recoiled before realising that the orange tongues of fire appeared to hold no heat. Ryan had no idea what Nicky was doing or how he was doing it, but he did know there was no time to waste. He dived into the room, into the midst of the smoke and flames, and looked around. A whimper drew his attention. Ryan stepped around a burning sofa in the middle of the room, following the noise. In the far corner, he could see a thick rug drawn up over what appeared to be a small crouching figure. Ryan could feel some heat from the fire now, enough to cause sweat to break out, but not enough to be painful, not yet, but he knew it was only a matter of time before the masking effect that Nicky was throwing up around him started to waver.
He pulled back the rug, trusting that Nicky would extend his protection to the small boy huddled in the corner, and took the child in his arms. “It’s all right, I’ve got you. Trust me, Jason.”
The boy looked up, his eyes round and very, very frightened. He clutched at Ryan, small hands fisting in Ryan’s jacket. He couldn’t have been more than eight. Ryan scooped him up in one arm and prepared to make a dash for it. Before he could make a move, another whimper drew his attention and he looked down to see a small brown and white puppy on the floor in a basket. The boy had taken refuge in the corner and pulled the heavy rug over both of them. Ryan hesitated then grabbed the little dog and tucked it in the front of his jacket.
“Get the ladder to this window, Nicky!” he said aloud.
Only silence and the crackling of the flames greeted his words. The heat was starting to become uncomfortable and instead of the clean smell of snow, Ryan could now feel the acrid smoke burning in his nostrils. The window in that room was locked as well. Ryan stood back and jammed his elbow into the glass, thankful that it was no more than single-glazed. The flames were sucked past him, fanned by the sudden draught and the heat enveloped him in spite of the protection he was receiving from Nicky.
Jason screamed.
Ryan ignored the noise and the heat, and drove his gloved fist against the remainder of the glass. Hands suddenly appeared at the window and Ryan realised he was staring into the face of the young looter again. He thrust the boy at him and then swung his own leg over the window sill.
As Ryan clambered out of the burning flat he saw the figure of Nicky Brown kneeling on the snow-covered pavement, surrounded by broken glass and what looked like a pile of holly and assorted other greenery. The crowd of bystanders were now huddled in the middle of the road, shepherded there by a couple of policemen and Ryan could see their patrol car, blue light still flashing, by the side of the road. He made his way down the ladder, lungs heaving from the smoke.
Two firefighters carrying breathing equipment were hurrying towards them. Ryan presumed he could now leave Jason and his mother in their capable hands and for a moment he allowed himself to give into the feeling of exhaustion that swept over him. He sank to his knees next to Nicky, gulping in a lungful of cold air.
Ryan felt a hand on his shoulder and Claudia’s ever-calm voice said, “Let me take the puppy.”
He’d almost forgotten the little dog but Claudia must have seen its head poking out of his jacket. He pulled the zip down and let her take the little creature. It looked horribly limp in her hands.
At his side, Nicky stirred slightly and reached up with one hand.
“Nicky, no, you’ve no strength left to spare,” Claudia said, regret in her voice.
“I have enough,” he said, his face as white as the snow that clung to his hair and beard. Before Claudia could stop him, Nicky put his hand on the puppy’s fur and closed his eyes.
The little dog coughed once, opened its eyes and stared around with the bemused expression of the very young or the very drunk.
Nicky toppled sideways onto the pile of holly someone had surrounded him with and snowflakes started to settle on his pale face. Ryan realised with a jolt that Nicky was starting to age before his eyes.
“Get some more holly!” Lester demanded. “I don’t care where it comes from, just get it!”
Ryan saw Lester throw the baseball bat he’d grabbed earlier to a man he recognised as one of the other looters. “There’s a florist at the end of this row of shops, I know it’s not your normal style, but do something useful for once and get me some holly!”
The man’s eyes widened in surprise, but he didn’t argue. Claudia handed the puppy to one of the onlookers and dashed off after him, Ryan’s Mossberg 590 still hanging from her shoulder. Lester was now kneeling on the ground as well, grabbing holly wreaths that looked like they’d been scavenged from various doors and dumping them on top of Nicky. Ryan had no idea why Lester was doing this, but he followed his example anyway. Memories of another night, just over a year ago, came to mind, but Ryan knew instinctively that on this occasion a simple offer to take Nicky’s place would not work, and there were no yew trees to hear his appeal.
An elderly woman appeared at his side and Ryan recognised her as the woman who’d been staring at their antics out of the safety of her house. She handed the holly wreath that had failed to tempt the ankylosaur to Lester. He took it with a grateful smile and gently lifted Nicky’s head – now covered with grey hair rather than black – to use the holly as a pillow. Moments later, the sharp sound of breaking glass told Ryan that the looter had put his somewhat dubious skills to use again.
A smudge of blood on Nicky’s cheek was as bright as the red berries on which he was now lying. Ryan put his fingers to the man’s neck and felt a slight pulse. He wasn’t sure, but it was possible that Nicky’s hair was now fractionally darker than it had been a moment ago.
Another holly wreath appeared from somewhere and was added to the pile. Then more followed, blood red berries nestling among dark green leaves being piled over and around the man lying on the trampled snow. The colour was starting to come back to Nicky’s cheeks.
“Will ivy help?” someone asked.
“I have absolutely no idea,” Lester declared. “Claudia?”
“It’s worth a try,” she said. “Get some rosemary, if you can find any as well.”
“There’s a bush in my garden,” another woman said, and promptly hurried off.
The pile of greenery continued to grow and Ryan knew that all he could do was wait and hope. He had no idea what was being done, but it appeared to be working, which was all that mattered.
He could hear more orders being shouted around him and suddenly a spray of water fell down around him and he realised that another fire engine had arrived on the scene and water was being directed over their heads into the burning building.
The men worked around them, seemingly oblivious to what was taking place on the ground and eventually Nicky Brown rolled over onto his back and opened his eyes. His hair was now almost as dark as it had been an hour ago and a tinge of colour appeared to have returned to his cheeks. Ryan grabbed him under the arms and hauled him backwards, dragging the holly and assorted greenery along for the ride. The firefighters needed room to work and Ryan didn’t want to risk another explosion undoing everyone’s hard work.
Leaning against the rioters’ van, Nicky looked up at Ryan and grinned. “This is becoming a bit of a habit, isn’t it?”
Ryan smiled at him. “Cheating death, you mean? You’ve got Lester to thank for this one. The holly was his idea.”
Nicky struggled to his feet with Ryan’s help and propped himself up against the van. He held his hand out to Lester. “Thank you for your help. I hadn’t expected anyone with that much lore to be on hand tonight. Claudia knows much of the old ways, but it appears she isn’t the only one. How did you know?”
Lester’s smile was almost as vulpine as the one being displayed by the creature staring out from his tie. “It’s my job to know things, Mr Brown.”
Nicky’s trademark grin returned. “I’m not sure I’m cut out for the role of Holly King, and anyway, the winter solstice was three weeks ago.”
“I never did care too much for tradition. I prefer to think outside the box.”
Nicky laughed. “You certainly did that.”
The sound of someone running alerted Ryan’s attention to the imminent arrival of Connor and Abby.
“It’s closed and we got the ankylosaur back through in time!” Connor announced, coming to a halt next to them in a flurry of snow. “And T. rexes really don’t like a face full of water!”
“Who does?” murmured Lester, brushing the snow off his jacket.
The Arctic fox nodded in agreement. Lester had finally found a companion who appreciated his sense of humour.
Kevin Smith, the firefighter who had first spoken to them appeared, looking pleased with himself. “All under control, sir,” he told Lester.
“Very helpful of you, gentlemen. I can assure you that your hoses were much appreciated.
“Can I quote you on that to my wife?”
Lester grimaced. “I’d rather we kept tonight’s activities to ourselves, if you don’t mind. Ball lightning, remember?”
Kevin Smith grinned widely. “Balls. How could I possibly forget?” He shook hands with them all and went back to join his colleagues.
The next person to approach was the brother of the woman Ryan had rescued from the burning flat. Ryan pulled the balaclava from his pocket and held it out to him.
The man took it, unable to meet Ryan’s eyes. “I’m sorry for what we did,” he said quietly. “It just seemed like a bit of a laugh at first.”
Ryan looked across the road to where the policemen were still doing their best to disperse the small crowd. “If you’re quick, you can put it all back.”
As the man and his companions started to do exactly that, Ryan took the time to check that the white in Nicky’s hair and beard really was now only down to the snow.
Nicky grinned at him and fished around in one of his jacket pockets. He pulled out a set of car keys and handed them to Ryan. “You can drive back, I’m knackered.”
Claudia slipped her arm around Nicky’s waist and gave him a hug. “We won’t make you take down the decorations when we get back.”
“You’d better leave them up until Candlemas now,” Nicky commented, looking at Lester and smiling broadly.
Lester closed his eyes in carefully-simulated pain. “Anything but that,” he breathed fervently.
“Do you want to keep the tie?” Nicky asked.
The Arctic fox stared up at Lester.
Lester stared down at the fox and smiled.
Ryan resigned himself to the fact that they’d all be putting up with the decorations for the rest of the month.
Author : fredbassett
Fandom : Primeval
Rating : 15
Characters : Claudia/Ryan, Lester, Connor, Abby, Nicky Brown
Disclaimer : Not mine (except Nicky Brown), no money made, don’t sue.
Spoilers : None
Word Count : 7,800
Summary : It’s Twelfth Night and the ARC receives an unexpected visitor.
A/N : Written for
lsellersfic for fandom_stocking. This is in the same universe as the Secret Santa fic I wrote last year The Devil’s Knell.Ryan yawned for the second time in five minutes and contemplated putting the kettle on just to stop himself falling asleep from sheer boredom.
It was 6.30pm on January 5 and he was currently sprawled out on one of the sofas in the recreation room idly flipping through a magazine and marvelling at why anyone was actually even remotely interested in the activities of what appeared to be a bunch of Z list celebrities.
The room was draped with paper decorations courtesy of Connor, Christmas baubles hanging from the pictures (Abby) and numerous sprigs of holly and ivy (Claudia). Ryan’s contribution to that aspect of the pre-Christmas festivities had been to hold chairs for people to clamber on and make sure no one broke their necks in the process. By midnight someone was going to have the unenviable job of ridding the Anomaly Research Centre of all traces of the Christmas decorations that currently festooned nearly every room. Even the Spartan helmet in Lester’s office was still wearing a Santa hat, although how Connor had got away with that remained a matter of some conjecture.
Christmas for most of the anomaly response teams had passed by in a dinosaur-related blur of activity. A series of distinctly unseasonal anomalies opening into a very hot, dry period of the earth’s distant past had disgorged numerous creatures, but fortunately hadn’t resulted in any deaths. The past two days had been quieter and Lester had finally sanctioned some much-needed leave. Nick and Stephen had gone off for a short break to a holiday cottage, most of Ryan’s men had returned to their families for a few days and the majority of the scientific and technical staff had done the same.
Lester had elected to stay behind, as had Claudia. In addition, Abby had seemed content to remain on call, probably because she had a pregnant Alphadon to keep an eye on in their small, but ever-growing menagerie, soon to be joined by a litter of creatures that would look like a cross between a possum and a shrew. Connor had stayed to keep her company. Their technical genius was also taking advantage of his opportunity to tinker with various bits of equipment as the building was relatively uninhabited, which mean that he could allow various items of kit to emit loud noises at regular intervals without anyone – apart from Lester – complaining about the disruption.
Ryan wondered at what point he could legitimately start to relieve his boredom by taking down the decorations. Claudia would probably know the answer to that. He stood up, worked the kinks out of his neck and back and decided to be nice to everyone and do a coffee run.
Lester accepted the proffered mug with a grateful smile. The mug bore the words, ‘I’m the boss around here’. He’d received it in the office Secret Santa that Claudia had organised. The theme had been mugs, wholly appropriate in Ryan’s view, which had made everyone’s life slightly easier when it had come to a choice of present. Lester sipped his coffee, undoubtedly checking to see if Ryan had remembered that he took sugar. He looked tired and Ryan had a suspicion that the man’s marriage was suffering as a result of the demands of the anomaly project.
Lester nodded in the direction of the red hat adorning his sculpture. “Do you think Claudia would object if I put that in a… safe place, now?”
The slight hesitation betrayed the fact that ‘safe place’ was almost certainly a euphemism for the nearest bin.
Ryan grinned. “I’ll let you know what she says. I was just about to make enquiries on the subject of decorations. I thought the cleaners might appreciate a hand with getting them down.”
Lester stared in disgust at the pile of paperwork on his desk. “I might be inclined to lend a hand myself. The domestic staff could do with a break as well and it would no doubt be a more entertaining activity that explaining to the Home Secretary why we appear to spend so much on electrical equipment.”
A loud bang from the direction of the atrium made Lester wince.
“I’ll take him a coffee,” Ryan said. “And check he’s still alive.”
“Oh I do hope so,” Lester said with a theatrical sigh. “I really can’t face the Health and Safety investigation if Mr Temple has finally managed to blow himself to pieces. Take him a biscuit as well. It might occupy him for fractionally longer and save the wear and tear on my nerves.”
Ryan made his way down the ramp, carrying mugs of coffee in both hands. Connor’s mug contained the words, ‘Trust me, I’m a genius’, which were a clear indication that Lester hadn’t been the one to buy his Christmas present. Claudia’s proclaimed, ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’. Anyone could have been responsible for that particular gift.
Connor was underneath a table next to the enormous bank of screens that dominated the main control room, his backside stuck up in the air, waving around like a duck’s rear end. Ryan wondered whose idea it had been to buy him a pair of red jeans for Christmas. The monitors, normally alive with information, were now ominously dark.
A slight smell of burning wires didn’t bode well for whatever Connor had been working on and had obviously drawn Claudia out of her office to evaluate the damage. Ryan put both mugs of coffee safely out of harm’s way and enquired, “Problems?”
“It just went bang,” Connor announced, his voice muffled by the desk but clearly sounding surprised, although he was probably the only person who was
“Did it really?” Claudia commented solicitously. “Would you like me to fetch a fire extinguisher?”
“I think it smells worse than it is,” Connor said, wriggling out from under the desk looking like the second cousin once removed of one of the burrowing things they’d encountered a few days ago causing havoc in a department store.
“That’s fortunate,” Lester remarked from the first floor. “Because from up here it smells like the barbeque Captain Ryan’s men insisted on having for our summer party. The one they insisted on starting using a can of petrol.” He stared down with carefully cultivated disdain. “Connor, why are you wearing red trousers?”
“I’m not,” Connor said. “They’re brown.”
Lester raised one eyebrow quizzically and started to stroll down the ramp, carrying his coffee mug carefully in one hand and balancing a large box of biscuits in the other. “They don’t look very brown from where I’m standing, although I do accept that this job does come with that sort of additional hazard.”
Connor looked down at his own legs. “Oh. But I don’t own a pair of red trousers any more.”
“Then you would appear to be wearing someone else’s clothing, Mr Temple. Remind me to send a memo tomorrow on the subject of appropriate officewear, Miss Brown.”
“Does that include ties?” Connor enquired, sporting a wide grin to go with his brightly-coloured trousers.
Ryan looked up to discover that Lester was now wearing a blue tie decorated with an assortment of cartoon reindeer, all either dancing or playing a musical instrument. And from where Ryan was standing it looked suspiciously like some of the figures were actually moving.
Before Lester had time to respond, the enormous doors to the internal parking area started to slide back and a figure wearing a pillarbox red quilted ski jacket over a pair of black jeans and old, worn leather boots wandered in, his dark hair and closely-cropped dark beard lightly frosted with snow.
“Nicky!”
Ryan wasn’t totally sure whether Claudia sounded pleased or annoyed, but either way, she ran across the atrium and threw her arms around the visitor.
Ryan set down his mug and quickly tugged his combat trousers out of his boots so he could check his socks. Several sets of cartoon penguins stared up at him and he could have sworn that one of them had just winked. He knew perfectly well that his socks had been plain black when he’d put them on that morning.
The man returned Claudia’s hug with enthusiasm and then swung her around like a small child, causing her to shriek loudly and make a vain attempt to box his ears. Depositing her safely down again, he held his hand out to Ryan and smiled, the ever-present mischief sparkling in his dark eyes like snowflakes frosting a windowpane.
“Hello, Ryan.” The man’s grip was firm and his skin was cool.
“Hello, Nicky.” Ryan returned the handshake and couldn’t stop himself smiling, in spite of the ridiculous socks he was now wearing. “To what do we owe the honour?”
“Just thought I’d drop by,” Nicky said airily. “See where my sister works, maybe scrounge a cup of coffee and a biscuit.”
Claudia smiled. “It’s lovely to see you. I’m sorry Tom and I couldn’t make it home for Christmas, but we were a bit busy on the work front. James, may I introduce my… brother, Nicky Brown.”
“Charmed, I’m sure,” Lester sniffed, still staring suspiciously at his new tie, clearly too preoccupied to ask how their visitor had managed to gain access to a top-secret government building. He held out the tin in his hand. “Here, have a biscuit. Captain Ryan appears to be coffee monitor at the moment, so I’m sure he will oblige on the subject of beverages. Now, if you’ll excuse me…”
He stalked off, probably in search of a spare tie.
Nicky pulled the lid off the tin and promptly helped himself to a jammy dodger. “Nice place you’ve got here.”
Ryan resisted the urge to go through to the internal parking area and work out what mode of transport Nicky had used. He hoped it was something suitably discreet, although knowing Nicky, that couldn’t entirely be relied on.
“Hey, it’s working again!” Connor announced, surprise warring for precedence with pleasure as he stared up at the screens that had just burst into life, displaying a variety of feeds from the security cameras, including one that showed a wide and wholly unbroken covering of snow on the ramp that led up to the car park. “It’s snowing as well! Great!”
“It would be,” Ryan said quietly.
Nicky grinned. “Don’t blame me. This lot’s been forecast for days.” He stared around at the atrium, taking in the amount of greenery everywhere. “You’ve been busy,” he commented to Claudia. “Are you taking them down tonight or waiting for Candlemas?”
Claudia rolled her eyes and put her finger to her lips. “Don’t let Connor hear you suggest that. If Lester has to put up with this lot any longer than tonight, I won’t be answerable for his actions.”
Nicky’s grinned broadened. “Do you think he likes his tie?”
“I very much doubt it,” Claudia replied. “What have you done to the rest of them? I presume the spares he keeps in his desk drawer have met similar fates.”
“It depends on how much he likes polar bears, I suppose,” Nicky conceded.
Ryan was wholly unsurprised by the fact that Claudia’s navy blue trousers now contained rather fetching red pin-stripes that hadn’t been there a moment ago. She was also now wearing a pair of warm-looking furry boots instead of her neat court shoes. He wondered what Nicky knew that the rest of them didn’t.
Precisely 30 seconds later, the siren song of an anomaly alert sounded throughout the ARC. Ryan felt the familiar spike of adrenalin shoot through his system, banishing boredom. With Claudia at his side and Nicky no more than a pace behind them, Ryan strode over to the computer terminals and demanded, “Where is it this time?”
Connor’s fingers danced nimbly over a keyboard and the view on one of the screens changed to display a map. A small ball of bright light winked in and out, showing the position of the anomaly.
“Neat, eh?” Connor said.
The sound of someone running across the atrium heralded Abby’s arrival. She took the appearance of a total stranger in their midst in her stride and simply smiled and nodded at Nicky as Claudia effected a hurried introduction.
The anomaly appeared to be on the edge of a small town about 15 minutes drive from the ARC. It was a distinct improvement on the last one, which had appeared in a remote spot on Romney Marsh, at least when it came to accessibility, but Claudia would no doubt be less happy with this one from a public relations point of view.
Connor brought up some pictures from what Ryan presumed was the feed from a CCTV camera somewhere. A row of smashed shop windows appeared on the monitor.
“Why are there no streetlights on?” Abby demanded as they stared at the sight of numerous shoppers milling around on the wide pavement.
“It’s taken out an electricity sub-station, by the look of it,” Connor said, superimposing an image of the electricity grid onto the map.
“Well, what are you all waiting for?” Lester demanded, walking briskly down the ramp wearing a tie on which a couple of polar bear cubs appeared to be engaging in a wrestling match. He clapped his hands loudly. “Chop chop, people! Dinosaurs won’t hunt themselves, you know!”
“Call the back-up teams in,” Ryan said urgently. It would take the nearest of the lads at least an hour to get there but in the meantime they’d just have to make the best of a bad job.
“The main roads are at a standstill,” Nicky commented. “A lorry has jack-knifed across the M4. You’ve just going to have to make do with me, I’m afraid.”
Ryan didn’t question how Nicky knew that fact, but he had no doubt that the other man was telling the truth. The main thing that was puzzling him at the moment was why Lester had just blithely referred to dinosaurs in front of Nicky, not how Claudia’s ‘brother’ had obtained his information.
“I’m in the transport business, remember. It’s my job to know things like that.”
Ryan had forgotten Nicky’s habit of answering unspoken questions. It was one of the many disconcerting things about him.
Lester clapped his hands again. “Ladies and gentlemen, need I remind you that we all have a job to do?”
To Ryan’s complete amazement, Lester marched off in the direction of the garage, casting a look back over his shoulder that plainly demanded to know what they were all waiting for.
Ryan was about to make a dash for the armoury when Nicky put a hand on his arm. “It’s all been taken care of, Captain,” he said quietly.
Ryan shrugged and followed Lester while Connor grabbed his jacket, his hat, his laptop and a couple of hand-held anomaly detection devices. He also gulped down the coffee Ryan had brought him and grabbed the box of biscuits that Nicky had set down next to him. Ryan certainly couldn’t fault the lad’s priorities. By the time they’d reached the doors, one of the few technicians left in the building had already taken Connor’s place in front of the main ADD.
By the time Ryan reached the garage, Lester was already standing next to a bright red Range Rover that Ryan hadn’t seen before.
“Yours, I presume, Mr Brown?” Lester queried.
Nicky spread his hands. “What can I say? I like red.”
“Obviously.” Lester looked down at his tie. The white bear cubs looked up at him and hid their faces behind their paws. “And that’s meant to be endearing, I suppose?”
“Would you rather have penguins?”
Lester stared at Ryan’s ankles and Ryan wondered how the hell he knew.
“No. But I feel an Arctic fox might be appropriate.”
Nicky grinned and a split second later, the haughtiest Arctic fox imaginable was staring out of Lester’s tie, its dark eyes alive with intelligence.
“You’re coming with us?” Claudia asked their boss, not doing a very good job of keeping the incredulity out of her voice.
Lester started around him, raised one immaculate eyebrow and commented, “I don’t see much in the way of other appropriate personnel, Miss Brown, so naturally I shall be accompanying you.”
Nicky opened the front passenger door with a flourish. Lester gave a small bow and took his place in the front seat while Ryan piled in the back with Claudia, Connor and Abby.
The red Range Rover swept across the deepening snow inside the ARC compound. Lester gave a regal wave to the stunned-looking gate guards. Ryan wondered whether their passage would be recorded on the surveillance cameras, but somehow he thought that was unlikely. The side roads were rapidly being rendered undriveable by the heavy snow that was falling from the leaden sky in fat flakes that danced and swirled in their headlights. The main roads weren’t much better and there wasn’t a gritting lorry in sight.
Nicky drove fast and skilfully, choosing routes that Ryan wasn’t familiar with to bring them to the site of the anomaly in less than ten minutes. It was obvious when they entered the area affected by the blown electricity sub-station as the twinkling lights in numerous gardens and windows abruptly came to an end, the shop windows were in darkness and so were the streets.
A fire engine was parked by the side of the road. The crew appeared to have dealt with the explosion in the sub-station, but the number of men in uniform standing around staring in amazement at the large ball of light hanging in the air no more than a metre away from the mangled wreckage didn’t bode well for any attempt on Claudia’s part to keep the cause of the problem quiet.
“I’ll deal with this,” Lester said imperiously.
Ryan noticed as Lester got out of the car that he was now wearing a very elegant and obviously expensive black padded jacket and warm-looking grey trousers tucked into short, fur-topped back boots. His new attire was clearly more appropriate for the conditions than his normal work suits. It was also clearly a point of principle on Lester’s part not to comment on the changes. The fox on his tie looked out at the world with an amused grin on its aristocratic face.
“Sir James Lester, Home Office,” Lester announced loudly. “You are viewing a very rare example of ball lightning, gentleman. I head a scientific team set up to study such phenomena.”
“Bollocks,” one of the men said, not taking his eyes off the anomaly.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Bollocks,” the man repeated. “Or would you rather I said balls?”
Lester sighed loudly. “All right. It’s actually a rip in the fabric of time, likely to disgorge a dinosaur at any minute.”
“Is that why something that looks like a small tank with a great big club at the end of its tail has just wandered down the High Street smashing all the windows?”
“Quite probably,” Lester conceded.
Connor, laptop clutched under one arm, said, “Sounds like an ankylosaur.”
“My kid’s got a plastic model of one of them,” the firefighter said. “He loves dinosaurs.” He stuck his hand out to Lester. “Kevin Smith, sir. Nice tie, by the way.”
Lester shook the proffered hand. “Thank you. Now, having established the facts, would you gentlemen kindly remain here and ensure that nothing else comes through there to trouble us? Perhaps you could make creative use of your hoses or something.”
“Kev’s very creative with his hose,” one of the other men remarked. “He plays with it all the time.” The man suddenly realised Claudia was present and added, “Sorry about that, miss.”
Claudia smiled benevolently. “I hear far worse than that on a daily basis, I can assure you.” She held out her hand. “Claudia Brown, Home Office. Captain Ryan heads our security teams and these are my colleagues Connor Temple and Abby Maitland. I’d really be awfully grateful if you could do what Sir James has just asked.”
“Pete Taylor,” the man responded, taking her hand and shaking it. “I reckon we can manage that, ma’am. Makes a change from getting cats out of trees.”
“Do you really get called out for stuff like that?” Connor asked, his eyes wide with surprise, serving to convince Ryan that their evening probably couldn’t get any more surreal.
Pete Taylor laughed. “We certainly do. Let us know if you need a hand with your dinosaurs.”
“Will do,” Connor said equally cheerfully.
At first Ryan presumed that the ankylosaur had simply done a very good job of breaking an entire row of shop windows as it passed by, but then he realised that it hadn’t been alone in causing mayhem. The power cut had plunged the area into darkness and it appeared that a few people had taken advantage of the blackout to appropriate some late Christmas presents.
The window of an electrical goods shop had been well and truly smashed, and three men wearing balaclavas were busily helping themselves to some of the contents. Ryan caught sight of a wide-screen television being loaded into the back of a van.
Nicky stared at them and made a quick gesture with one hand. “Ignore them. They’ll need the assistance of a mechanic to get that van moving now and I very much doubt they’ll have AA or the RAC cover.”
Nicky was right. They didn’t have time to start dealing with looters, even though it went against the grain simply to walk away and leave them to it.
Following the ankylosaur’s trail didn’t need the services of an experienced tracker. It had left deep tracks in the snow that even the wide sweeps of its clubbed tail had failed to wholly obliterate. They found the creature in the front garden of a house a short way down the main road munching on what had previously been a very neatly-clipped bush. It gave them a baleful look and went back to its meal. Under the watchful eye of the householder, an elderly woman who was staring down in amazement from an upper window, Abby grabbed a holly wreath from the front door and waved it in front of the ankylosaur.
Lester turned to Nicky and demanded, “Isn’t there an easier way of doing this?”
Nicky stared thoughtfully at the dinosaur and Ryan knew him well enough to spot the concern in his dark eyes. “Apparently not,” he said.
Lester sighed. “Well, we’ll just have to apply lateral thinking, won’t we? Abby, what do you need to get this animal back to its own time?”
“Something nice for it to eat,” their animal expert replied. “It obviously doesn’t like holly.” She hung the wreath back on the front door and spread her hands apologetically at the owner, who had now appeared at a downstairs window and was busy gesticulating at them all.
“I think she wants us to go,” Connor commented.
“Yes, thank you for the translation, Mr Temple,” Lester snapped. “I think we could have worked that out for ourselves.”
“Bananas,” Nicky announced.
“My sentiments exactly.”
The Arctic fox smirked its agreement.
“I mean would it eat them?”
“Does it look like a bloody chimpanzee?” Lester demanded.
“It’s worth a try,” Abby countered. “Is there a grocery shop nearby?”
A large bunch of ripe bananas appeared on the ground at her feet. She gave Nicky a considering glance and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like ‘show off’, before grabbing a handful of bananas, yelling, “Mind its tail!” to Connor, and thrusting the fruit into the animal’s face at the same time.
The club at the end of the ankylosaur’s tail impacted hard on a garden gnome, shattering it into pieces but fortunately missing Connor. A moment later, an almost identical gnome took the place of the first one, the only difference being a slightly surprised look on its face.
The ankylosaur sniffed suspiciously at the bananas and then took a bite out of the bunch. A moment later, the large jaws chomped down on the rest, snatching them out of Abby’s hand like a dog taking a treat.
“We’ll take that as a yes, shall we?” Nicky said with satisfaction.
With Abby walked backwards and waving bananas under its nose, the anklosaur allowed itself to be led out of the garden. Surprisingly few people seemed to have gathered in the street to watch what was going on and Ryan wondered if they had Nicky’s influence to thank for that. Ryan watched as Nicky plucked a small sprig of holly complete with red berries from a bush in the garden and tucked it into the pocket of his jacket. For a fleeting moment, Ryan caught a glimpse of strain on the other man’s face. It appeared that Nicky’s tricks weren’t quite as effortless as he liked to make out.
Ryan had a combat shotgun slung over his shoulder and his usual Glock 19 holstered on his thigh courtesy of Nicky, and they were all now dressed in suitable clothing for the blizzard that appeared to be fast developing.
“How long can he keep this sort of thing up for?” Ryan murmured to Claudia as they followed the strange procession back out into the high street.
Claudia shrugged, a fake fur hat nestled warmly around her ears that hadn’t been there a moment ago. “I don’t know. His powers will last from now until Candlemas – that’s February 2,” she added absently. “But he’s nowhere near as strong as he is at Christmas and he’ll weaken even more the closer we get to midnight tonight.”
Ryan couldn’t help asking, “What does he do for the rest of the year?”
She laughed in spite of the circumstances. “Exactly what he claims. He runs a haulage business based in Slough.”
Ryan stared at her incredulously. “Slough?”
“Slough,” she repeated.
Ryan stared around at the shops in the high street, checking for any problems as the huge armoured dinosaur lumbered slowly back in the direction of the anomaly. The looters were still loading stuff into their van. A small crowd had gathered on the other side of the road and was watching in disapproval, but no one seemed very inclined to get involved, possibly something to do with the fact that one of the gang appeared to be toting a baseball bat and was making threatening gestures at anyone who came too close. In the distance Ryan could hear the sound of a police siren. It looked like someone else was about to join the party.
The idiot with the baseball bat notwithstanding, they were going to have to get the ankylosaur back past them, so it was clearly time for Ryan to take a hand in matters. He made his way past the slow-moving group, narrowly avoiding another swing of the dinosaur’s tail and came to a halt a few metres away from the looters.
“Time to bugger off, lads,” he said quietly but firmly.
“What’s it to do with you?” the taller of the three men demanded, his voice muffled behind the balaclava.
“I’ve got a job to do and you’re about to get in my way. So do us all a favour and get lost.” Although quite how they were going to do that with a van that almost certainly didn’t work any more was anyone’s guess, but Ryan would work on the finer points of his plan once he’d got them out of the way of the lumbering creature steadily advancing on them. The lumbering creature the size of a small tank that very few – if any – people actually seemed to be able to see.
“Fuck off,” the bloke with the baseball bat said, tapping the bat against his gloved hand in a way that Ryan presumed was meant to be intimidating.
If he wanted intimidating, Ryan would be only too happy to oblige. He swung the Mossberg 590 pump action shotgun off his shoulder and racked the slide to chamber a round. In Ryan’s experience there were very few noises more menacing than that particular sound.
The look in the man’s eyes confirmed that view. All three of the looters took an involuntary step backwards.
“The taxpayer has spent an awful lot of money training me to be a complete bastard, lads, so how about saving your kneecaps some bother and buggering off, like I first suggested?”
“He’s right, you know,” Lester remarked conversationally. “I was rather taken aback when I discovered how much it cost to train a member of Her Majesty’s Special Forces, but I have to admit that Captain Ryan is worth every single penny.”
“That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” Ryan commented, not taking his eye off the three men and wondering how much time he had before a banana-eating dinosaur barged into him.
“Don’t get used to it,” Lester told him airily, and Ryan didn’t need to see it to know that the Arctic fox on his tie would be looking amused. “The dinosaur is about ten metres behind you,” he added, which confirmed Ryan’s suspicion that Lester could read minds when he wanted to almost as easily as Nicky.
The looters looked uncertain and Ryan took full advantage of that, stepping forward and bringing the muzzle of the shotgun to bear on the first man’s knees. All resistance evaporated and the men started to back off. One of them took a step off the pavement, misjudged the height of the kerb in the ever-deepening snow and fell to the ground in an ungainly sprawl, the baseball bat flying out of his hands. Lester jumped forward with a surprising turn of speed and grabbed it.
A sudden yell broke through the silence. Ryan risked a glance in the direction of the onlookers on the other side of the street and saw smoke curling from an upper window in one of the flats above another line of shops.
One of the looters followed the line of his gaze and swore loudly. “That’s our Janey’s flat!”
“Get the firefighters!” Ryan said quickly.
“They’re otherwise engaged,” Nicky replied, appearing at his side. “Something large with exceedingly sharp teeth is trying to pay us a visit and at the moment only several men and a big hose are standing between us and it.”
Ryan heard the sound of breaking glass over the panicked cries of the onlookers. He could see a woman at one of the windows holding a baby in her arms. He started to run across the snow-covered road with Nicky, Claudia and one of the looters at his heels. A long ladder appeared from nowhere up against the front of the flat and without hesitation Ryan thrust the shotgun into Claudia’s hand and started to climb the ladder. He grabbed the baby from the terrified woman’s hands and made his way back down to the ground, the noise coming from the small, squalling bundle in his arms announcing that at least it was still alive. One of the women in the crowd took it from him and Ryan started back up the ladder again.
“Jason!” the woman inside the flat screamed, scrabbling away from, not towards the broken window.
With a sinking feeling, Ryan realised that the woman and the baby weren’t the only people in the flat. He fumbled for the catch of the window, found it locked and used the butt of his pistol to knock as much of the glass out of the pane as possible, allowing him entry to a room that was rapidly filling with smoke. He hoped that someone in the street had had the commonsense to order the evacuation of the neighbouring flats in case the fire spread to the ones on either side, but from the way he could hear both Lester and Claudia yelling orders, it sounded like that was being taken care of. That left Connor and Abby to lead the ankylosaur back to the anomaly and the firefighters to keep whatever was trying to come through at bay.
“Where is he?” Ryan demanded, grabbing the woman by the arm and turning her to face him. She was in her early 30s, her face darkened by smoke and her blonde hair in disarray. Her eyes were wide with fear and Ryan knew that she was terrified but she was still trying to get back into the rest of the smoke-filled flat.
“In the living room… I’d lit some candles because of the power cut… one of them fell over… it all just went up…!”
A noise behind him signalled the arrival of someone else climbing in through the window. He turned, expecting it to be Nicky, only to see one of the balaclava-wearing looters instead.
“She’s my sister!” the man said in response to Ryan’s look of surprise. “Her kid’s here as well.”
“Get her out of here!” Ryan ordered. “I’ll find the child. Which way is the living room?”
The man pointed to the left. Ryan thrust the woman into his arms and headed for the door.
“Mate! Take this!”
The looter pulled his balaclava off and threw it to Ryan. The man was younger than his sister by a good ten years. Spiky brown hair stood out from his head and he looked as afraid as the woman in his arms but he’d had the courage to come up into a burning building so Ryan presumed that he’d also have the sense to get his sister out of there while Ryan looked for her son.
Ryan pulled the balaclava on and made for the door. He had no idea how bad the fire had got, but he knew that there was no time to wait for someone to fetch breathing apparatus.
As he was about to pull open the door to the rest of the flat, Ryan heard a calm voice state inside his head, “I can’t deal with your dinosaurs, Ryan, but I can do something about the fire. Find the child. Leave the rest to me.”
“Nicky?”
“Who else would it be?” Nicky asked. His voice sounded amused, but Ryan knew that whatever he was about to do next would put a huge strain on even Nicky Brown’s powers. “I can handle it,” the other man said sharply in response to Ryan’s unspoken though. “Just be quick!”
Ryan drew in a deep breath of surprisingly pure air that smelled and tasted of nothing more than cool, clean snow. It looked like Nicky was already weaving his own brand of magic. Ryan grabbed hold of the door handle, noticing that his hands were now encased in a pair of supple black leather gloves. He jerked the door open and moved as quickly as he could through the smoke-filled flat looking for – and finding – a door on his left. If the fire had started in there, Ryan knew that as soon as he opened the door the fire would promptly be sucked out towards him.
“Do it!” Nicky ordered, still inside his head. “Trust me, Tom!”
Ryan drew in another deep breath, this one faintly scented with pine, and yanked open the door. As expected, flames leaped at him and he automatically recoiled before realising that the orange tongues of fire appeared to hold no heat. Ryan had no idea what Nicky was doing or how he was doing it, but he did know there was no time to waste. He dived into the room, into the midst of the smoke and flames, and looked around. A whimper drew his attention. Ryan stepped around a burning sofa in the middle of the room, following the noise. In the far corner, he could see a thick rug drawn up over what appeared to be a small crouching figure. Ryan could feel some heat from the fire now, enough to cause sweat to break out, but not enough to be painful, not yet, but he knew it was only a matter of time before the masking effect that Nicky was throwing up around him started to waver.
He pulled back the rug, trusting that Nicky would extend his protection to the small boy huddled in the corner, and took the child in his arms. “It’s all right, I’ve got you. Trust me, Jason.”
The boy looked up, his eyes round and very, very frightened. He clutched at Ryan, small hands fisting in Ryan’s jacket. He couldn’t have been more than eight. Ryan scooped him up in one arm and prepared to make a dash for it. Before he could make a move, another whimper drew his attention and he looked down to see a small brown and white puppy on the floor in a basket. The boy had taken refuge in the corner and pulled the heavy rug over both of them. Ryan hesitated then grabbed the little dog and tucked it in the front of his jacket.
“Get the ladder to this window, Nicky!” he said aloud.
Only silence and the crackling of the flames greeted his words. The heat was starting to become uncomfortable and instead of the clean smell of snow, Ryan could now feel the acrid smoke burning in his nostrils. The window in that room was locked as well. Ryan stood back and jammed his elbow into the glass, thankful that it was no more than single-glazed. The flames were sucked past him, fanned by the sudden draught and the heat enveloped him in spite of the protection he was receiving from Nicky.
Jason screamed.
Ryan ignored the noise and the heat, and drove his gloved fist against the remainder of the glass. Hands suddenly appeared at the window and Ryan realised he was staring into the face of the young looter again. He thrust the boy at him and then swung his own leg over the window sill.
As Ryan clambered out of the burning flat he saw the figure of Nicky Brown kneeling on the snow-covered pavement, surrounded by broken glass and what looked like a pile of holly and assorted other greenery. The crowd of bystanders were now huddled in the middle of the road, shepherded there by a couple of policemen and Ryan could see their patrol car, blue light still flashing, by the side of the road. He made his way down the ladder, lungs heaving from the smoke.
Two firefighters carrying breathing equipment were hurrying towards them. Ryan presumed he could now leave Jason and his mother in their capable hands and for a moment he allowed himself to give into the feeling of exhaustion that swept over him. He sank to his knees next to Nicky, gulping in a lungful of cold air.
Ryan felt a hand on his shoulder and Claudia’s ever-calm voice said, “Let me take the puppy.”
He’d almost forgotten the little dog but Claudia must have seen its head poking out of his jacket. He pulled the zip down and let her take the little creature. It looked horribly limp in her hands.
At his side, Nicky stirred slightly and reached up with one hand.
“Nicky, no, you’ve no strength left to spare,” Claudia said, regret in her voice.
“I have enough,” he said, his face as white as the snow that clung to his hair and beard. Before Claudia could stop him, Nicky put his hand on the puppy’s fur and closed his eyes.
The little dog coughed once, opened its eyes and stared around with the bemused expression of the very young or the very drunk.
Nicky toppled sideways onto the pile of holly someone had surrounded him with and snowflakes started to settle on his pale face. Ryan realised with a jolt that Nicky was starting to age before his eyes.
“Get some more holly!” Lester demanded. “I don’t care where it comes from, just get it!”
Ryan saw Lester throw the baseball bat he’d grabbed earlier to a man he recognised as one of the other looters. “There’s a florist at the end of this row of shops, I know it’s not your normal style, but do something useful for once and get me some holly!”
The man’s eyes widened in surprise, but he didn’t argue. Claudia handed the puppy to one of the onlookers and dashed off after him, Ryan’s Mossberg 590 still hanging from her shoulder. Lester was now kneeling on the ground as well, grabbing holly wreaths that looked like they’d been scavenged from various doors and dumping them on top of Nicky. Ryan had no idea why Lester was doing this, but he followed his example anyway. Memories of another night, just over a year ago, came to mind, but Ryan knew instinctively that on this occasion a simple offer to take Nicky’s place would not work, and there were no yew trees to hear his appeal.
An elderly woman appeared at his side and Ryan recognised her as the woman who’d been staring at their antics out of the safety of her house. She handed the holly wreath that had failed to tempt the ankylosaur to Lester. He took it with a grateful smile and gently lifted Nicky’s head – now covered with grey hair rather than black – to use the holly as a pillow. Moments later, the sharp sound of breaking glass told Ryan that the looter had put his somewhat dubious skills to use again.
A smudge of blood on Nicky’s cheek was as bright as the red berries on which he was now lying. Ryan put his fingers to the man’s neck and felt a slight pulse. He wasn’t sure, but it was possible that Nicky’s hair was now fractionally darker than it had been a moment ago.
Another holly wreath appeared from somewhere and was added to the pile. Then more followed, blood red berries nestling among dark green leaves being piled over and around the man lying on the trampled snow. The colour was starting to come back to Nicky’s cheeks.
“Will ivy help?” someone asked.
“I have absolutely no idea,” Lester declared. “Claudia?”
“It’s worth a try,” she said. “Get some rosemary, if you can find any as well.”
“There’s a bush in my garden,” another woman said, and promptly hurried off.
The pile of greenery continued to grow and Ryan knew that all he could do was wait and hope. He had no idea what was being done, but it appeared to be working, which was all that mattered.
He could hear more orders being shouted around him and suddenly a spray of water fell down around him and he realised that another fire engine had arrived on the scene and water was being directed over their heads into the burning building.
The men worked around them, seemingly oblivious to what was taking place on the ground and eventually Nicky Brown rolled over onto his back and opened his eyes. His hair was now almost as dark as it had been an hour ago and a tinge of colour appeared to have returned to his cheeks. Ryan grabbed him under the arms and hauled him backwards, dragging the holly and assorted greenery along for the ride. The firefighters needed room to work and Ryan didn’t want to risk another explosion undoing everyone’s hard work.
Leaning against the rioters’ van, Nicky looked up at Ryan and grinned. “This is becoming a bit of a habit, isn’t it?”
Ryan smiled at him. “Cheating death, you mean? You’ve got Lester to thank for this one. The holly was his idea.”
Nicky struggled to his feet with Ryan’s help and propped himself up against the van. He held his hand out to Lester. “Thank you for your help. I hadn’t expected anyone with that much lore to be on hand tonight. Claudia knows much of the old ways, but it appears she isn’t the only one. How did you know?”
Lester’s smile was almost as vulpine as the one being displayed by the creature staring out from his tie. “It’s my job to know things, Mr Brown.”
Nicky’s trademark grin returned. “I’m not sure I’m cut out for the role of Holly King, and anyway, the winter solstice was three weeks ago.”
“I never did care too much for tradition. I prefer to think outside the box.”
Nicky laughed. “You certainly did that.”
The sound of someone running alerted Ryan’s attention to the imminent arrival of Connor and Abby.
“It’s closed and we got the ankylosaur back through in time!” Connor announced, coming to a halt next to them in a flurry of snow. “And T. rexes really don’t like a face full of water!”
“Who does?” murmured Lester, brushing the snow off his jacket.
The Arctic fox nodded in agreement. Lester had finally found a companion who appreciated his sense of humour.
Kevin Smith, the firefighter who had first spoken to them appeared, looking pleased with himself. “All under control, sir,” he told Lester.
“Very helpful of you, gentlemen. I can assure you that your hoses were much appreciated.
“Can I quote you on that to my wife?”
Lester grimaced. “I’d rather we kept tonight’s activities to ourselves, if you don’t mind. Ball lightning, remember?”
Kevin Smith grinned widely. “Balls. How could I possibly forget?” He shook hands with them all and went back to join his colleagues.
The next person to approach was the brother of the woman Ryan had rescued from the burning flat. Ryan pulled the balaclava from his pocket and held it out to him.
The man took it, unable to meet Ryan’s eyes. “I’m sorry for what we did,” he said quietly. “It just seemed like a bit of a laugh at first.”
Ryan looked across the road to where the policemen were still doing their best to disperse the small crowd. “If you’re quick, you can put it all back.”
As the man and his companions started to do exactly that, Ryan took the time to check that the white in Nicky’s hair and beard really was now only down to the snow.
Nicky grinned at him and fished around in one of his jacket pockets. He pulled out a set of car keys and handed them to Ryan. “You can drive back, I’m knackered.”
Claudia slipped her arm around Nicky’s waist and gave him a hug. “We won’t make you take down the decorations when we get back.”
“You’d better leave them up until Candlemas now,” Nicky commented, looking at Lester and smiling broadly.
Lester closed his eyes in carefully-simulated pain. “Anything but that,” he breathed fervently.
“Do you want to keep the tie?” Nicky asked.
The Arctic fox stared up at Lester.
Lester stared down at the fox and smiled.
Ryan resigned himself to the fact that they’d all be putting up with the decorations for the rest of the month.
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Date: 2012-01-09 02:27 pm (UTC)"Lester’s smile was almost as vulpine as the one being displayed by the creature staring out from his tie. “It’s my job to know things, Mr Brown.” -and that is one sexy, heart-stopping image!
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Date: 2012-01-09 03:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-09 02:59 pm (UTC)Thanks so much!
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Date: 2012-01-09 03:07 pm (UTC)*g* Dunno why Slough, but it was the first name that jumped into mind that seemed to work! And of course he had to run a real haulage business for the rest of the year.
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Date: 2012-01-09 04:00 pm (UTC)Wonderful fic, with a holiday, fairytale feeling.
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Date: 2012-01-09 04:21 pm (UTC)Thanks :)
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Date: 2012-01-09 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-09 05:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-09 07:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-09 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-09 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-09 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-09 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-09 08:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-09 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-09 08:51 pm (UTC)Lester and his fox! \o/
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Date: 2012-01-09 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-09 10:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-10 09:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-09 11:10 pm (UTC)Love the mugs - what were Stephen's (I'm too pretty for this mug) and Nick's (Always Right)?
Yay for the return of Nicky and the bizarreness that comes with him! Sporfles for the Santa hat on the mask and gratuitous hose jokes ;)
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Date: 2012-01-10 09:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-10 08:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-10 09:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-10 09:56 pm (UTC)“The taxpayer has spent an awful lot of money training me to be a complete bastard, lads, so how about saving your kneecaps some bother and buggering off, like I first suggested?”
brilliant line! :)
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Date: 2012-01-10 10:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-10 10:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-10 10:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-11 10:02 am (UTC)Sorry it took me so long to read/comment!
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Date: 2012-01-11 05:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-11 11:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-12 09:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-31 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-01 09:24 am (UTC)I had a lot of fun with Lester's ties.