Fic: A Whole Lot Of Yesterday (1/4)
Mar. 6th, 2018 07:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thelibraniniquity posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tli_productionsTitle: A Whole Lot Of Yesterday
Fandom: Primeval
Summary: Ethan tries to crash a wedding, the whole team is finally reunited and Lester is just this close to done.
Characters: Becker/Stephen, Lester, Jess, Matt, Connor/Abby, Emily, appearances by and references to others, including OCs
Rating: PG-13
Length: ~9200
Beta:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fredbassett
Warnings: References to violence, character deaths and multiple timelines.
Author's Notes: This is part 6 in a (very) ongoing series that only seems to be updated everytime there's a fic finishing push on Denial. (My bad.) I've tried to include a few recaps that hopefully aren't too info-dumpy. There is still a plan through to a conclusion/epilogue that I do intend to reach one day :)
Previously: React to Contact, Dipt Into the Future, The Past Won't Last, If The Present Is Killed and Things Present.
Series link on AO3: HERE
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
“It's amazing how a little tomorrow can make up for a whole lot of yesterday.”
– John Guare
1
Lester arrives at the ARC in what he thinks is an unobtrusive manner but the effect is ruined when he realises several cars are missing from the car park. It follows through to the ARC itself; even for this early in the afternoon there are noticeably fewer people, and Becker's ex-military lot are virtually non-existent.
“Er, Jess,” he says as he reaches the main atrium, “what's going on?”
She jumps when she hears him, twisting around to look over her shoulder. She squints at him. “Everyone's been looking for you.” She doesn't sound at all accusatory despite the words.
“Scenic route.” Lester realises every one of her monitors is on and running different information and video feeds. “What did I miss?”
“Oh, nothing much,” Jess turns back and starts attacking one of her keyboards. “Double anomaly alert, possible human incursion at one. Did you know Danny Quinn and Jenny Lewis are supposed to be getting married today?”
Lester blinks. He wants to protest about that final piece of information but his professional side wins out – barely. “Two anomalies?”
“Yes.” Jess subtly leans to one side to let him step closer. “Becker, Matt, Abby and Connor are at one, Stephen and Emily at the other.”
There's a quip about appropriate hiring policies on the tip of Lester's tongue but he dismisses it.
Jess' fingers keep typing while she glances between monitors. “Matt's possibly been taken hostage. We're still trying to confirm that,” she adds quickly when Lester stares at her. “But in the meantime the black boxes and comms are offline. Per Matt's last request.”
Lester's hand slips into his trouser pocket, feels for the mobile he'd instructed Professor Erskine to contact him via once she had any information about the human remains from Cutter's old university. It was unlikely to go off for a while yet.
“What can I do to help?” he murmurs to Jess.
o o o o o
The anomaly flickers in front of Matt. Even in its locked down state the light casts odd shadows over the windowless walls and exposed pipes.
For all the months he's been attached to the anomaly project it's still... odd, seeing anomalies surrounded by intact things; things in general. His earliest memories of them had been in wastelands, surrounded by nothing but death and predators; dangerous to reach, even more dangerous be near, let alone travel through.
Something clunks behind him. Against his better judgement Matt turns around.
Ethan pulls the unconscious Sergeant Brooks' legs into an awkward position across Lance Corporal Kelly's torso. Matt's EMD hangs loosely from his right shoulder; the only thing preventing Matt from taking any direct action against his captor is the very lethal revolver attached to Ethan's left hip. It's at odds with the ill-fitted tuxedo.
Apparently satisfied with his handiwork Ethan turns to face Matt. “How do you undo that?” he asks, pointing at the sealed anomaly behind Matt.
“I don't know.” It isn't quite a lie. The technology was rudimentary and Matt had been walked through the lockdown process on his second day at the ARC but he had never acquainted himself with the precise processes involved in Connor Temple's handiwork.
Ethan isn't convinced. “Liar,” he says, surprisingly amiable. “They'd never let you loose with something you couldn't operate now, would they?”
“I can't let you go through,” Matt replies.
“You can't let me stay,” Ethan counters. “Who knows what kind of trouble I'd get into with one of these?” He cocks his hip to accentuate the revolver, as if it has been invisible up to this moment. “Hardly a stand-off, though, really. You'd need to be armed for that.”
Matt thinks about chasing Ethan through the graveyard, knowing Emily had been sequestered in one of the crypts. Just as quickly he dismisses the distraction. “Still doesn't change the fact I'm not letting you leave through the anomaly.”
Ethan chuckles. “Oh, Matthew – do you mind if I call you Matthew?” he wonders. “You're very fixated, you know. Who said anything about my leaving through the anomaly? Just tell me how to undo whatever was done to it.” He waves a hand around.
“No.”
Ethan sighs. “So much for this being the easy part.”
He aims the EMD at Matt and fires at him.
o o o o o
In the front passenger seat of the ARC issued 4x4 Stephen's foot tickles. It won't tap, as much as it wants to. The traffic outside is slow to the point of a standstill. The constant hum of noise isn't unbearable, but it's not far off.
In the periphery of his vision Claudia is carefully taping up a shallow gash on her forearm. Emily watches but doesn't offer assistance.
Two people out of time. Three if you count Stephen. Claudia’s appearance at one of the anomalies Cutter had successfully predicted is a puzzle, but not one Stephen has the focus for right now.
He stares at his phone. The text Jess had sent him is still on the screen. SOS @ other anomaly site
Next to him Obaid fiddles with his earpiece. “Broken down lorry on an 'A' road,” he announces. “We won't be going anywhere in a hurry.”
“Alternative routes?” Stephen asks.
“Not from here.”
Stephen frowns at the phone. He can't remember the last time he had texted anyone, even before his year out of time. The phone had been one of a handful of things in a box under Hilary's bed, complete with a thin layer of grime to show its disuse. He carefully flips through menus until he finds a reply button and with one thumb painstakingly spells out stuck in traffic what updates to Jess.
Before he can talk himself out of it he sends the same message to Hilary.
o o o o o
It takes less than ten minutes for the team to reconvene in Duchemin's office. Becker's relieved at least some of the civilians are on side this time. The twinge of guilt he feels when Danny and Jenny come back into the office, postures noticeably tenser, is the one that lingers.
“We need to find Ethan,” Becker announces.
Abby frowns. “We sure it's him?”
“Until proven otherwise it's what we go with.”
Abby nods; before she can say anything else the door opens again and Emerson barrels in. “We've heard in from everyone except Brooks and Kelly,” she says without preamble.
It's easy to fill in the gaps. “He's taken Matt to the anomaly,” Becker says. He's already moving for the door. “Abby, Connor, with me -”
“What about us?” Danny asks, he and Jenny easily keeping pace with the others. “And don't brush us off now.”
As if he could. Becker glances back at them. “Emerson, arm them. Keep trying to contact Lester. Check in with Jess. Phone Abby or Connor with pertinent updates.”
One thing at a time, even if the list was growing longer by the second.
o o o o o
Stephen stares out of the car window, past the crawling traffic to a patch of dandelions on a grassy verge. His mind is racing, unable to focus on one thing for more than a few seconds.
He flashes to the reconstruction of the anomaly model. Three intertwined lines wove around four separate fixed points. One of them was the anomaly Christine Johnson had controlled, a rare connection between the present and the destroyed future.
Another was the one they had just left, that Claudia had come through. Stephen's convinced she's the Claudia he'd left behind in his original timeline, and it's not difficult to work out that her scars and injuries mean she's had a long journey to get here.
Johnson had watched him like a hawk every time their paths had crossed; like she knew something he didn't.
“The anomaly's running on a fault line,” an echo of Nick tells him.
Claudia had watched in amusement as Becker chased a diictodon around a hospital ward.
The Peugeot in the lane next to them roars and speeds off. Obaid slams his foot on the gas and steers heavily.
What is Stephen missing this time?
o o o o o
Danny looks at the toy gun – sorry, Electronic Muscular Disruptor that an ARC soldier had palmed to him – and it takes him all of ten seconds to awkwardly holster it inside his jacket. Jenny goes one better, requesting a spare thigh holster that she wraps slowly and securely around her trouser leg. She meets Danny's gaze with a wry expression.
Two handguns with silencers in symmetrical thigh holsters. A shoulder strap modified to hold an anomaly detector. Black combat gear creased sharply enough to make even Becker raise an eyebrow.
Danny could only nod grimly.
Jenny Lewis was ready for war.
Danny blinks away the sudden memory. Jenny sweeps her hair up into a messy bun then tilts her head at Danny. “Ready?”
“No. You?”
“Not a chance.”
Danny holds his arms out towards the door. “Once more unto the breach, my dear.”
o o o o o
Ethan debates the merits of leaving the anomaly response team unbound for all of ten seconds before leaving them where they are. He makes sure to pocket the control for the anomaly unlocking technology as well as the communication equipment – can't have anyone talking to anyone else here – and slips up the stairs to the ground floor.
It's time to crash a wedding.
o o o o o
Jess' mobile buzzes in her pocket. She frowns and tries to keep typing with one hand while she tugs it out and waves it vaguely in Lester's direction.
Thankfully he's quick on the uptake. “Yes... Stephen?”
Jess tunes them out for a few moments, at least until Lester nudges her shoulder slightly. “Can we still get around speeding tickets?” he asks quietly, sarcasm dripping from every syllable.
Jess snorts and nods. On the screens in front of her the multiple CCTV feeds from the stately home are still fragmented but in much better order than they were originally. It looks like Ethan had arrived from an outside location, not the anomaly the team had found and locked down, but that's probably the worse possibility. In another window Jess fires off an internal memo to anyone halfway qualified and still at the ARC to begin a proper search for anywhere Ethan Dobrowski might have been using as a base of operations in the present. At least one ex-soldier on Becker's team used to lead manhunts overseas, and there are a couple of civilians with psychology and profiling experience that she includes in the cc.
Lester ends the call with Stephen and slides the phone into Jess' eyeline. She frowns up at the screens.
“I don't think there's anything else we can do from here,” she says.
“What about re-establishing communications?”
Jess shakes her head. “Too big a risk.”
“Indeed.” Lester's voice is bland, but Jess is pretty sure there's a tinge of disappointment in there somewhere. Maybe.
She lets out a breath and leans away from the screens.
Whatever's going on out there, the team are on their own for now.
o o o o o
The makeshift team – Danny, Jenny, Connor, Abby, Becker and his lot – fans out quickly and efficiently from Duchemin's office. They make steady progress across the ground floor towards the basement stairs leading to the anomaly. Danny can't shake the heavy feeling that something is going to go spectacularly wrong but he plays his role as Becker's second to the hilt.
It's almost like old times.
It also feels easy. Too easy.
Jenny raises an eyebrow at him, and Danny belatedly realises he'd said the last part out loud. He holds up a hand for a moment. Smirks a little, just for effect. He doesn't feel it.
He is, however, lucky that he and Jen had opted for a small wedding. Venue aside, only about twelve people had made the invitation list, four of those Jenny's parents and step-parents. It would have been the local registry office had it not been for Gerald Lewis' near mournful expression – and the fact that he and Claire Duchemin had gone to university together.
The lack of expected people makes the team's job easier, just the odd member of staff shooed back towards Duchemin's office. None of Jenny's family appear, and Danny has enough time to hope they're safe with the other civilians when a door slams – behind them.
Everyone whips around, guns raised. Becker steps ahead and calls out: “Who's there?”
A door at the end of the corridor opens again, and a man strolls out. He's wearing a badly-fitted tuxedo and carrying an EMD.
Danny's grip tightens on his weapon.
The man smiles mockingly at the group in front of him. “You must be Becker. And all your little friends. Lovely.” He reaches into his jacket; something in Danny contracts at the sight of an anomaly detection device. “Tell me how to use this, only your other little fri-”
“Enough,” Becker interrupts. He takes another step forward. “What do you want?”
“To get out of here,” the man – he has to be Ethan judging by everyone else's reactions – replies, just as mockingly as before. “Obviously. And I'll be taking him with me.”
He unshoulders the EMD and points it at Danny.
o o o o o
Onto: Part 2
o o o o o
Fandom: Primeval
Summary: Ethan tries to crash a wedding, the whole team is finally reunited and Lester is just this close to done.
Characters: Becker/Stephen, Lester, Jess, Matt, Connor/Abby, Emily, appearances by and references to others, including OCs
Rating: PG-13
Length: ~9200
Beta:
fredbassettWarnings: References to violence, character deaths and multiple timelines.
Author's Notes: This is part 6 in a (very) ongoing series that only seems to be updated everytime there's a fic finishing push on Denial. (My bad.) I've tried to include a few recaps that hopefully aren't too info-dumpy. There is still a plan through to a conclusion/epilogue that I do intend to reach one day :)
Previously: React to Contact, Dipt Into the Future, The Past Won't Last, If The Present Is Killed and Things Present.
Series link on AO3: HERE
“It's amazing how a little tomorrow can make up for a whole lot of yesterday.”
– John Guare
1
Lester arrives at the ARC in what he thinks is an unobtrusive manner but the effect is ruined when he realises several cars are missing from the car park. It follows through to the ARC itself; even for this early in the afternoon there are noticeably fewer people, and Becker's ex-military lot are virtually non-existent.
“Er, Jess,” he says as he reaches the main atrium, “what's going on?”
She jumps when she hears him, twisting around to look over her shoulder. She squints at him. “Everyone's been looking for you.” She doesn't sound at all accusatory despite the words.
“Scenic route.” Lester realises every one of her monitors is on and running different information and video feeds. “What did I miss?”
“Oh, nothing much,” Jess turns back and starts attacking one of her keyboards. “Double anomaly alert, possible human incursion at one. Did you know Danny Quinn and Jenny Lewis are supposed to be getting married today?”
Lester blinks. He wants to protest about that final piece of information but his professional side wins out – barely. “Two anomalies?”
“Yes.” Jess subtly leans to one side to let him step closer. “Becker, Matt, Abby and Connor are at one, Stephen and Emily at the other.”
There's a quip about appropriate hiring policies on the tip of Lester's tongue but he dismisses it.
Jess' fingers keep typing while she glances between monitors. “Matt's possibly been taken hostage. We're still trying to confirm that,” she adds quickly when Lester stares at her. “But in the meantime the black boxes and comms are offline. Per Matt's last request.”
Lester's hand slips into his trouser pocket, feels for the mobile he'd instructed Professor Erskine to contact him via once she had any information about the human remains from Cutter's old university. It was unlikely to go off for a while yet.
“What can I do to help?” he murmurs to Jess.
The anomaly flickers in front of Matt. Even in its locked down state the light casts odd shadows over the windowless walls and exposed pipes.
For all the months he's been attached to the anomaly project it's still... odd, seeing anomalies surrounded by intact things; things in general. His earliest memories of them had been in wastelands, surrounded by nothing but death and predators; dangerous to reach, even more dangerous be near, let alone travel through.
Something clunks behind him. Against his better judgement Matt turns around.
Ethan pulls the unconscious Sergeant Brooks' legs into an awkward position across Lance Corporal Kelly's torso. Matt's EMD hangs loosely from his right shoulder; the only thing preventing Matt from taking any direct action against his captor is the very lethal revolver attached to Ethan's left hip. It's at odds with the ill-fitted tuxedo.
Apparently satisfied with his handiwork Ethan turns to face Matt. “How do you undo that?” he asks, pointing at the sealed anomaly behind Matt.
“I don't know.” It isn't quite a lie. The technology was rudimentary and Matt had been walked through the lockdown process on his second day at the ARC but he had never acquainted himself with the precise processes involved in Connor Temple's handiwork.
Ethan isn't convinced. “Liar,” he says, surprisingly amiable. “They'd never let you loose with something you couldn't operate now, would they?”
“I can't let you go through,” Matt replies.
“You can't let me stay,” Ethan counters. “Who knows what kind of trouble I'd get into with one of these?” He cocks his hip to accentuate the revolver, as if it has been invisible up to this moment. “Hardly a stand-off, though, really. You'd need to be armed for that.”
Matt thinks about chasing Ethan through the graveyard, knowing Emily had been sequestered in one of the crypts. Just as quickly he dismisses the distraction. “Still doesn't change the fact I'm not letting you leave through the anomaly.”
Ethan chuckles. “Oh, Matthew – do you mind if I call you Matthew?” he wonders. “You're very fixated, you know. Who said anything about my leaving through the anomaly? Just tell me how to undo whatever was done to it.” He waves a hand around.
“No.”
Ethan sighs. “So much for this being the easy part.”
He aims the EMD at Matt and fires at him.
In the front passenger seat of the ARC issued 4x4 Stephen's foot tickles. It won't tap, as much as it wants to. The traffic outside is slow to the point of a standstill. The constant hum of noise isn't unbearable, but it's not far off.
In the periphery of his vision Claudia is carefully taping up a shallow gash on her forearm. Emily watches but doesn't offer assistance.
Two people out of time. Three if you count Stephen. Claudia’s appearance at one of the anomalies Cutter had successfully predicted is a puzzle, but not one Stephen has the focus for right now.
He stares at his phone. The text Jess had sent him is still on the screen. SOS @ other anomaly site
Next to him Obaid fiddles with his earpiece. “Broken down lorry on an 'A' road,” he announces. “We won't be going anywhere in a hurry.”
“Alternative routes?” Stephen asks.
“Not from here.”
Stephen frowns at the phone. He can't remember the last time he had texted anyone, even before his year out of time. The phone had been one of a handful of things in a box under Hilary's bed, complete with a thin layer of grime to show its disuse. He carefully flips through menus until he finds a reply button and with one thumb painstakingly spells out stuck in traffic what updates to Jess.
Before he can talk himself out of it he sends the same message to Hilary.
It takes less than ten minutes for the team to reconvene in Duchemin's office. Becker's relieved at least some of the civilians are on side this time. The twinge of guilt he feels when Danny and Jenny come back into the office, postures noticeably tenser, is the one that lingers.
“We need to find Ethan,” Becker announces.
Abby frowns. “We sure it's him?”
“Until proven otherwise it's what we go with.”
Abby nods; before she can say anything else the door opens again and Emerson barrels in. “We've heard in from everyone except Brooks and Kelly,” she says without preamble.
It's easy to fill in the gaps. “He's taken Matt to the anomaly,” Becker says. He's already moving for the door. “Abby, Connor, with me -”
“What about us?” Danny asks, he and Jenny easily keeping pace with the others. “And don't brush us off now.”
As if he could. Becker glances back at them. “Emerson, arm them. Keep trying to contact Lester. Check in with Jess. Phone Abby or Connor with pertinent updates.”
One thing at a time, even if the list was growing longer by the second.
Stephen stares out of the car window, past the crawling traffic to a patch of dandelions on a grassy verge. His mind is racing, unable to focus on one thing for more than a few seconds.
He flashes to the reconstruction of the anomaly model. Three intertwined lines wove around four separate fixed points. One of them was the anomaly Christine Johnson had controlled, a rare connection between the present and the destroyed future.
Another was the one they had just left, that Claudia had come through. Stephen's convinced she's the Claudia he'd left behind in his original timeline, and it's not difficult to work out that her scars and injuries mean she's had a long journey to get here.
Johnson had watched him like a hawk every time their paths had crossed; like she knew something he didn't.
“The anomaly's running on a fault line,” an echo of Nick tells him.
Claudia had watched in amusement as Becker chased a diictodon around a hospital ward.
The Peugeot in the lane next to them roars and speeds off. Obaid slams his foot on the gas and steers heavily.
What is Stephen missing this time?
Danny looks at the toy gun – sorry, Electronic Muscular Disruptor that an ARC soldier had palmed to him – and it takes him all of ten seconds to awkwardly holster it inside his jacket. Jenny goes one better, requesting a spare thigh holster that she wraps slowly and securely around her trouser leg. She meets Danny's gaze with a wry expression.
Two handguns with silencers in symmetrical thigh holsters. A shoulder strap modified to hold an anomaly detector. Black combat gear creased sharply enough to make even Becker raise an eyebrow.
Danny could only nod grimly.
Jenny Lewis was ready for war.
Danny blinks away the sudden memory. Jenny sweeps her hair up into a messy bun then tilts her head at Danny. “Ready?”
“No. You?”
“Not a chance.”
Danny holds his arms out towards the door. “Once more unto the breach, my dear.”
Ethan debates the merits of leaving the anomaly response team unbound for all of ten seconds before leaving them where they are. He makes sure to pocket the control for the anomaly unlocking technology as well as the communication equipment – can't have anyone talking to anyone else here – and slips up the stairs to the ground floor.
It's time to crash a wedding.
Jess' mobile buzzes in her pocket. She frowns and tries to keep typing with one hand while she tugs it out and waves it vaguely in Lester's direction.
Thankfully he's quick on the uptake. “Yes... Stephen?”
Jess tunes them out for a few moments, at least until Lester nudges her shoulder slightly. “Can we still get around speeding tickets?” he asks quietly, sarcasm dripping from every syllable.
Jess snorts and nods. On the screens in front of her the multiple CCTV feeds from the stately home are still fragmented but in much better order than they were originally. It looks like Ethan had arrived from an outside location, not the anomaly the team had found and locked down, but that's probably the worse possibility. In another window Jess fires off an internal memo to anyone halfway qualified and still at the ARC to begin a proper search for anywhere Ethan Dobrowski might have been using as a base of operations in the present. At least one ex-soldier on Becker's team used to lead manhunts overseas, and there are a couple of civilians with psychology and profiling experience that she includes in the cc.
Lester ends the call with Stephen and slides the phone into Jess' eyeline. She frowns up at the screens.
“I don't think there's anything else we can do from here,” she says.
“What about re-establishing communications?”
Jess shakes her head. “Too big a risk.”
“Indeed.” Lester's voice is bland, but Jess is pretty sure there's a tinge of disappointment in there somewhere. Maybe.
She lets out a breath and leans away from the screens.
Whatever's going on out there, the team are on their own for now.
The makeshift team – Danny, Jenny, Connor, Abby, Becker and his lot – fans out quickly and efficiently from Duchemin's office. They make steady progress across the ground floor towards the basement stairs leading to the anomaly. Danny can't shake the heavy feeling that something is going to go spectacularly wrong but he plays his role as Becker's second to the hilt.
It's almost like old times.
It also feels easy. Too easy.
Jenny raises an eyebrow at him, and Danny belatedly realises he'd said the last part out loud. He holds up a hand for a moment. Smirks a little, just for effect. He doesn't feel it.
He is, however, lucky that he and Jen had opted for a small wedding. Venue aside, only about twelve people had made the invitation list, four of those Jenny's parents and step-parents. It would have been the local registry office had it not been for Gerald Lewis' near mournful expression – and the fact that he and Claire Duchemin had gone to university together.
The lack of expected people makes the team's job easier, just the odd member of staff shooed back towards Duchemin's office. None of Jenny's family appear, and Danny has enough time to hope they're safe with the other civilians when a door slams – behind them.
Everyone whips around, guns raised. Becker steps ahead and calls out: “Who's there?”
A door at the end of the corridor opens again, and a man strolls out. He's wearing a badly-fitted tuxedo and carrying an EMD.
Danny's grip tightens on his weapon.
The man smiles mockingly at the group in front of him. “You must be Becker. And all your little friends. Lovely.” He reaches into his jacket; something in Danny contracts at the sight of an anomaly detection device. “Tell me how to use this, only your other little fri-”
“Enough,” Becker interrupts. He takes another step forward. “What do you want?”
“To get out of here,” the man – he has to be Ethan judging by everyone else's reactions – replies, just as mockingly as before. “Obviously. And I'll be taking him with me.”
He unshoulders the EMD and points it at Danny.
Onto: Part 2
o o o o o
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2018-03-06 09:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-07 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-07 08:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-07 07:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-10 08:40 am (UTC)*hurries on*
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Date: 2018-03-10 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-17 02:21 pm (UTC)Oh, I do so love Ethan in this! Great line, very perceptive.
Really enjoying seeing this series continue.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-18 03:02 pm (UTC)