fredbassett | Fic, Falls the Shadow, Part 3, Stephen/Ryan, Slash, 18

Title : Falls the Shadow, Part 3
Author : fredbassett
Fandom : Primeval
Characters : Ryan, Stephen, Cutter, Connor, Lyle
Rating : 18
Disclaimer : Not mine (except Lyle), no money made, don’t sue
Spoilers : None.
Summary : An anomaly opens, but is it the right one?
A/N : The remainder of this series can be found here

Dedicated to munchkinofdoom for her birthday!

Clouds rolled over the moon, bringing back the rain, this time in a heavy burst that contrive to soak them all to the skin in seconds.

The fellside was pitch black and every track had turned into a quagmire. Torch beams cut the darkness in a regular line across the hillside. They’d swept the main track along the valley first, then spread outwards and upwards.

Connor had checked the instruments at regular intervals, but had found nothing. The residual magnetism that Stephen had recorded nearly ten hours ago had faded without trace. He thought they had the anomaly site pinpointed from Stephen’s earlier foray into Kentmere, but that was all they had to go on now.

He gave a last desperate glance at the gauge in his hand and shook his head. “Sorry, Ryan, still nothing. But we know they do reappear,” he added, more brightly than he felt, as freezing cold rain dropped off the brim of his hat onto his nose.

At Ryan’s side, Lyle looked down at his watch. Five am. They’d been on the hillside for something approaching seven hours. Some poor bastard, probably him, would need to stay, but it was pointless keeping this many people out any longer.

From a little way further up the hillside, Kermit yelled, “Mist’s coming down, sir!”

That decided it. “Two lucky people get the pleasure of my company here,” announced the lieutenant, loudly. “I want the rest of you out of this damned valley now.” He glanced at Ryan and added, “Including you, mate.”

Ryan opened his mouth to argue.

The look Lyle gave him in return was diamond hard.

“It’s my call, sir, you’re too close to this one, so don’t make things any more fucking difficult than they already are. Get back, get warm, get some sleep. If anything happens, I’ll call you. I’ll be in after four hours if nothing else happens.” Hazel eyes sought out Cutter in the darkness, “No pressure, Prof, but I’d like something resembling a plan, by then. We’ve done the flailing around in the dark bit. It hasn’t helped. Need a different approach now.” His hand rested on Connor’s shoulder for a moment, “See what you can come up with, chum. I can manage the brawn bit, but I reckon we need brains now.”

Connor grinned damply, but failed to suppress a shiver.

The expression on Ryan’s face was as cold as the mist rolling in over the hills, but to everyone’s relief, the Special Forces captain simply turned without a word and headed back down to the vehicles.

Half an hour later he stood in a shower the size of a small bedroom, hot water spraying around him, but failing to warm the cold, hard knot of fear that had settled on his stomach like an iced stone.

Stephen threw his own soaking wet clothes in a heap and joined his lover in the shower.

The fact that they were sharing a room shouldn’t be enough to give Ryan’s bitch of an ex-wife anything to make a fuss about, Cutter and Connor were doing the same, but he doubted that very much went undetected under her sharp nose, especially where her ex-husband was concerned.

The new bloke didn’t seem too bad, which was something, but how the hell Ryan kept his temper under the barbed onslaught that headed his way every time she opened her mouth, he’d never know.

Christ, and Stephen thought he’d had bad luck with women in the past …………

He slid his arms around the other man and turned Ryan to face him. “Don’t shut me out, Ryan. I know this is shit and I don’t have kids, so I can only guess at how you’re feeling, but don’t shut me out. Promise?”

His lover simply leant forward into the embrace and let his head rest on Stephen’s shoulder for a moment.

It wasn’t much, but it was a start.

* * *

A thump on the door dragged both men out of sleep.

“Vermin sighting!”

The voice was Finn’s but it was Connor who entered the room at a run.

“Lyle’s radioed in. An anomaly’s opened above the reservoir at the head of the Kentmere valley. Says he’s got a flock of pterosaurs and an excited bird-watcher.”

The two men scrambled for dry clothes.

They got as far as the wrought-iron gates at the end of the drive before Lyle radioed again, telling everyone except Connor and Stephen to stay where they were. The anomaly had closed. He still wanted Connor’s knowledge of critters and Stephen’s dart-gun, but whether the latter was for the pterosaurs or the twitcher, wasn’t entirely clear, but Lyle was adamant that he didn’t want to deal with more people than strictly necessary. By which he meant Ryan. Cutter was surprisingly good at keeping the Special Forces leader on a short rein, and the lieutenant figured Claudia would be glad of the professor for back-up in that department.

Two hours later, Lyle arrived back, in company with Stephen.

The soldier was bone white and obviously freezing cold. His hands shook around the mug of hot coffee that a silent Greg Thornton handed him.

Lyle met Ryan’s eyes and shook his head. “It’s not the one. Trust me on that. This one was ten metres in the air in the middle of the lake. But it proves the area’s still active, and that’s something.”

“How long was it open for?” demanded Cutter.

“No more than half an hour, max. The bird-watcher saw it open. The pterosaurs came through within five minutes. Fortunately for us it looks like the damp fucked his phone up, otherwise the whole bloody scene would’ve been plastered all over the internet before he’d even left the site. The first we knew of it was when DCI Richards saw him coming down the track in his car going like a bat out of hell and pulled him on spec. Suspicious sod.” Lyle’s voice held unmistakeable approval. “We’re all starring in a British version of Jurassic Park, by the way.”

The lieutenant managed a brief grin. The DCI had impressed him, and Lyle didn’t impress easily.

Calum Richards also had an eleven year old nephew on the wrong side of the anomaly, which made the guy’s calm acceptance of the whole freaking situation even more impressive, in Lyle’s view. They hadn’t always been lucky with the local police on other jobs, the Forest of Dean excepted, so the surprisingly young DCI made a very pleasant change.

The hardest job right now would be keeping the media out of the picture, but between the police and the Home Office, Lyle just had to trust that the rest of them would be left alone to do their jobs while other people dealt with the political and personal fall out.

“So what have we got, Lyle?” demanded Cutter. “Give me some detail to work with, man.”

The lieutenant shrugged. “Connor thinks Jurassic, late Jurassic probably. Big buggers, wingspan between one and two metres. He says harmless. Filter feeders, small fish, that sort of thing. Look bloody impressive though. The bird-watcher was practically creaming himself until Richards dropped the special effects line, then did him for a faulty brake-light.”

And the guy had been too excited to notice Lyle kicking the tail-light in and stamping the bits into the mud. As a distraction, the lecture he’d got treated to for dangerous driving and inadequate lights had been pretty effective.

“Centochasma or Gnathosaurus, maybe,” muttered Cutter. “Late Jurassic would be right. Any sign of other activity?”

Lyle shook his head. “We’ve left two men at the reservoir, and Kermit’s still watching the original site with one of the coppers. I’ve sent Fiver and Fizz to take over before he gets hypothermic. It’s still fucking foul out there, and just getting bloody worse by the look of it. Richards reckons it’s set in for the day. Only good thing is it’ll keep walkers and the like out of our hair. We can’t secure the area, that’s for bloody sure, it’d take a regiment.”

“So what next?” said Cutter, quietly, talking more to himself than the others.

“We find your wife, Professor.” said Ryan, grey eyes expressionless, all emotion locked tightly away. “That’s what we do next. She knew this was going to happen, so she’ll be around here somewhere, won’t she?”

“I’ve given her description to Calum and his lads,” said Lyle quickly, before Cutter could reply. “If she shows her face, she’ll get picked up. It’s a small community round here, strangers will stand out like a sore thumb.” As Ryan had found out, to his cost.

Greg Thornton’s head jerked up at the soldier’s words. “What does she look like?”

Everyone in the room turned to stare at him.

Amanda Thornton stood in the doorway, the look on her face closely resembling her ex-husband’s glacial expression.

Either look would have done a good job of freezing Hell.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

telperion-15.livejournal.com

Oh Lyle, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways... *thinks she's probably mangled the quote, but you get the point*

I'm getting a bit twitchy (in a good way!) about where this all heading. I hope Ryan realises he's got people he can lean on for help. Although I won't hold my breath... *g*

And don't think I didn't notice the little shower scene you snuck in there!

From:

Fic, Falls the Shadow, Part 3, Stephen/Ryan, Slash, 18

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