From Where We're Standing [7/8]

[shadowcat]

Title: From Where We're Standing
Author: enochiansigils and not_from_stars
Fandom: Primeval
Pairing/Characters: Abby Maitland/Hilary Becker, Implied Stephen Hart/Hilary Becker
Rating/Category: PG-13
Summary: Two years ago, Stephen walked away from the Anomaly Research Project and vowed never to set foot near an anomaly again. However, when Nick Cutter calls him for help, he can't say no. Abby Maitland is lost on the other side of an anomaly and her time is running out. Stephen agrees immediately, because he's still in love with Abby. He wants to get her back and let her know how he feels. However, there's a complication that he hadn't expected. Captain Becker -- Abby's boyfriend and Stephen's ex...
Words: 36,000
Notes: Written for casestory Big Bang 2011. We want to thank our wonderful artists for this: weaselett, sexycazzy, and pink_flame_87. Thank you guys so very much for the gorgeous art you made for us!











Becker wasn't aware of either Stephen or Cutter joining him in the hall. All he was aware of was that he'd been forced out.

"Jenny really is angry at the both of you." Cutter finally said quietly.

"I figured as much," Becker said. "She's usually much less... overtly fierce."

"Yeah, well, her friend has been missing for over a week and she finds you two at her hospital bed acting like cavemen."

"This arse pretty much said he was going to take her away from me," Becker said. "I'm pretty sure that means I'm allowed to react."

Cutter gave Becker a startled look and then looked at Stephen. "Stephen?"

Stephen just shrugged. "I loved her first."

Cutter was sorely tempted to grab both men and knock their heads together. "And you think that telling her something like that as soon as she is waking up after surgery is the right time?"

"I should wait a few hours and let her reunite with him first?" Stephen snorted. "He's part of the reason she's hurt so badly."

Cutter looked confused at that statement. "Becker wasn't even a part of that team. How can you hold him responsible for what happened to Abby?"

"She stays with the ARC because of him."

"She stayed with the ARC after you left and before she even met Becker." Cutter shook his head. "She loves the work she does here. Hell, if you're going to blame him, you might as well blame the rest of her family here, too. That makes about as much sense as blaming Becker for her getting hurt."

"If I don't say something, she'll stay with the ARC and with him because she's too afraid to admit she wants to leave." Because he didn't see how she could want to stay after this.

"You bastard. Abby knows that she can tell me anything and I'll always support her." It was only because they were in a hospital that Becker didn't hit him.

"Oh, really?" Stephen arched an eyebrow. "Even if she tells you she wants to be with me? Will you really support her in that, too?"

Becker took a deep breath and another. Could he just stand quietly by and let Abby walk out of his life with the person who had hurt them both? Could he just let her go, no matter who it was.

"I'll always do what's best for Abby and what makes Abby happy." His voice was surprisingly even for all that his chest hurt when he said the words.

That made Stephen look at Becker in surprise.

"Some of us care about other people," he snapped in annoyance.

"You've been fighting me for her and now you say you're willing to give her up." Stephen shook his head. "I don't get you, Becker."

"I want Abby to be happy. She's the most important thing in my life."

"Good." Stephen was quiet a moment. "I don't want to hurt you," he said suddenly.

"Yet you're so damn good at it."

"I'm sorry, you know. For when I left. I meant it when I said I had a reason. But I'm not sorry for now. Because this is a second chance for me that I'm damn determined to take."

"I don't want to hear your apologies, Stephen," Becker said tiredly, his eyes fixed on Abby's door. "I'm glad you were around to help me find her, but now I wish you'd just leave again."

Stephen looked down for a second before looking at Cutter, who'd been standing there and just listening to the two of them.

Cutter shook his head. "Jenny told me to keep an eye on the two of you and I'm not about to risk her wrath. I'd like to not sleep alone the next time I go home."

Stephen laughed softly, because it was either laugh or cry. "At least one of us has company at night."

"And whose fault is that," Becker muttered, looking back towards the door and trying to figure out just how serious Jenny was about calling security to keep them out of the room.

"I know it's mine," Stephen said quietly. "I keep trying to tell him that there's a reason I left him. I'd tell him what the reason was, but he won't give me a chance to."

"Don't get me in the middle of this," Cutter said firmly.

"I'm not trying to."

"Might I suggest that you guys work things out between you some place other than outside Abby's room? Because if she wakes up and you're still arguing, there is no telling what kind of damage my occur from her or Jenny throwing something at your heads."

"We're not going to be able to work things out," Stephen said quietly. "Not in a short amount of time. And since he won't listen to me... there's really not much point in trying."

"I was wondering when you were going to get tired of hearing yourself talk." Becker's voice was cold as he kept his eyes on the door.

"Shut up and keep waiting." Stephen sighed and looked at Nick. "To think I used to love that man once."

Becker got up from his chair and started pacing. If he sat any longer he was going to be too tempted to hit Stephen, and that would guarantee he got to talk to Abby alone.

Stephen watched Becker pace. If the other man thought he was going to get to talk to Abby alone, he had another thing coming.

Realistically, Becker just wanted Abby to wake up and be all right. Wishfully, he wanted Stephen to either disappear before then or have Abby tell him to leave. He'd take either one.

Stephen wasn't going anywhere, though. At the very least, he was staying until Abby was awake. Ideally, he'd get to tell her how he felt and they'd be starting something together. Realistically, he knew it'd be a little more complicated than that. Because he knew Abby would want to let Becker down easily.

Two of the doctors that had worked on Abby when she was brought in came down the hall and then went into Abby's room. Twenty minutes passed and they still hadn't left the room.

Becker was starting to get worried and he paused in his pacing to stare at the door with concern written all over his face.

"Will you see what's going on?" Stephen asked Cutter. "I think they'd rather you poke your head in and look than one of us. We do it, Jenny's going to hurt us and get us banned from hospital grounds."

That was when Jenny and the two doctors came out.

"Miss Maitland is awake," one of the doctors said, looking at the three men.

"Thank God," Becker said, slumping against the wall in relief.

"She is still very weak and tires easily, but you can see her for a few minutes. Her head injury doesn't seem to have caused any lasting damage."

"Do we have to see her separately or can we see her at the same time?" Stephen asked. "As long as we keep it quick, I mean."

Jenny's eyes were hard, but the doctor nodded. "You can see her at the same time, but just keep it short. She's still a little incoherent, but with the seriousness of her injuries and the medications she's on, that is to be expected."

Becker nodded and headed into the room, followed by Stephen. He went right to Abby's side. "Hey, Abby my girl," he said, sitting in the chair he'd vacated and taking her hand in his.

Her eyes lit up. "Becker!" Her voice was hoarse, but that was normal for what she had been through. When she saw Stephen, her eyes widened. "Stephen?"

"Hello, love," Stephen said, a small smile playing across his lips.

She looked from him to Becker and back again. Then she smiled slightly "You came to help Becker find me."

"I did," he said with a nod.

She reached to hold Becker's hand. "Thank you. I guess I owe you both my life."

Stephen flinched inwardly when she reached for Becker. She should be reaching for him. "You're welcome. I wouldn't have wanted them to call in anybody else."

"You came for me and that's important. I know you said you would never come back here."

"For you, I'd do anything."

She blinked at that. "You would?"

"Of course I would. I -- "

"Damn it, Stephen, don't you dare," Becker hissed.

"Back off, Hilary. I need to say this and you know it."

"What's going on? Hilary? Stephen?"

Becker just went blank-faced, even as he kept holding her hand. He wasn't going to make this easy for Stephen.

"I love you, Abby. I've been in love with you since well before I left," Stephen said simply.

Abby blinked and then stared. "You what?"

"I love you, Abby. And I want to take you away from all this. I want to give you a safe life. A life where you don't run the risk of being killed."

Becker closed his eyes so he wouldn't have to see the look on Abby's face -- and so she wouldn't see the tears threatening to well.

"But I love life here, Stephen. I have a family and a man I love who loves me." She gave Becker a worried look. "Don't you?"

"Of course I do!" he said, his eyes snapping open.

"And what happened to me could have happened to anyone. I was just the unfortunate one who met the woolly rhino."

"You shouldn't have had to be in that situation," Stephen said. "You deserve to be safe. You deserve someone who can keep you safe."

"Becker keeps me plenty safe when I'm on site with him, Stephen," Abby was confused by all of this, but she wasn't confused about her safety where Becker was concerned. "I love working for the ARC. Where else would I get the chance to deal with so many creatures?"

This wasn't going at all the way Stephen had expected it to. "So you'd rather run the risk of getting hurt? Of nearly dying?"

"Every site visit isn't the same," she said quietly. "This was something that was a rare occurrence. And I'm glad Becker wasn't with me because it would have killed me to lose him like I lost the rest of my men."

And that was when he stopped to look at them, truly look at them. Saw the fear still in Becker's eyes. The relief in Abby's. And the adoration in both.

"So you don't want someone to take you away from all of this."

God, he'd been such an idiot.

She shook her head. "I love my life, Stephen. I am glad you came to help find me, and I do love you, still. But I love Becker, too, and I'm not going anywhere without him."

Becker looked hopeful; Stephen just looked numb. "I... Well, then."

Abby looked at him for a long moment. "What did you expect, Stephen? Did you really think so little of me that because you finally tell me the words I had wanted to hear for so long that I would drop everything and follow you? I have a life, just like you do."

"No, of course not. I'd... hoped, is all." For two years.

"Stephen... I love you and I've never stopped loving you. But I also love Becker now and I want to be wherever he is."

"So... you're saying there's no place for me, then." He needed to hear it, as much as it'd hurt.

Becker just gave him a look. But he couldn't find it in himself to be smug just then, not with that look on Stephen's face. Maybe later.

Abby took a breath. "You could stay with us."

Stephen just looked at her quizzically.

She looked from him to Becker and then back at him. "I've missed you and I don't want you to leave again."

"I've missed you, too." He smiled faintly. "Thought about you a lot."

Becker winced slightly at that, pulling away from Abby and already withdrawing into himself. He didn't like where this conversation was going.

Too bad she wasn't letting go of his hand.

"There's something going on between the two of you, too," Abby said. "I heard you when we were in that cave. I only heard a few parts, but enough to know that you guys know each other from before me."

"He... you know how I told you I was with someone before you?" Becker said quietly. "Well, it was him."

"Oh." Abby was quiet for a moment. "I... when I told you that I hated the person who hurt you so much, I didn't expect it to be the guy I had been in love with before."

Stephen couldn't help laughing a little. "You're allowed to hate me, Abby. Really. It hurts, but I get it."

"I could never hate you, Stephen ."

"If you hate the person who hurt him, then yeah. You do hate me. A little, at least."

"She can hate you for what you did to me but still love you," Becker said quietly.

Abby nodded in agreement.

"But I don't want her to hate me." He also didn't want her to be making her invitation, whatever it meant, out of pity.

"I hate the hurt that was caused, but I don't hate you, Stephen. I could never hate you when I love you."

"So... what, then? What exactly did you mean when you said I could stay with you?"

She looked at Becker for a long moment, doing her best to convey how much she loved him before looking back at Stephen. "You both love me, and I love both of you. You also love each other. Why should you leave?"






Part Six | Part Eight