From Where We're Standing [2/8]

[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 had forgone any actual comfort and was stretched out on a bench in the locker room, one arm up over his eyes to shut out the faint light. How could this have happened? Why did his ex have to be the one person possibly capable of getting Abby back? Cutter didn't realize what he was asking by expecting Becker to put any kind of trust in Stephen. Because the last time Becker had trusted Stephen, it had been to not break his heart.

It'd taken him months before he'd been able to open his heart again, much less to take an interest in someone. And for Abby to have wanted him in return had been more than he'd dared to hope for. But she had, and they'd been happy together, and life had been something resembling perfect. Not completely perfect, but damn near it. He'd fallen for her harder and faster than he'd thought possible, and it'd been terrifying to realize that his heart had healed from the wounds Stephen had inflicted on it.

Wounds that weren't nearly as healed as he'd thought, judging by the way he'd reacted when he saw Stephen earlier. All the old memories had come rushing back, all the old feelings. All the old hurts.

The way he'd felt when he realized Stephen was never coming back had hit him all over again, along with the guilt over how stupid he'd been not to realize it until a day later.

"Sodding idiot," he grumbled aloud. "Just push it aside and deal with it later. You've got an Abby to worry about finding."

Except that was easier said than done -- the pushing it aside part. Because when you were in love with Stephen Hart, it was impossible to push him aside in your head. He had a way of crawling inside it and never leaving.

Stifling a groan, he let his arm fall and sat up. Sleep clearly wasn't going to happen right now. And, he noted as he glanced at his watch, he'd be running on adrenaline in twenty minutes anyway.

He just hoped it was enough.



Stephen was trying to just stay out of the way as Becker and his men assembled. Well, trying to stay out of the way and trying to stop watching Becker. The last thing he needed was anybody figuring out there was something more there. That was the last thing Becker needed, too, and he wasn't about to make the other man's life difficult. Not when he'd already done a bang-up job of it.

Becker was pretending to ignore Stephen as he double-checked weapons and went over plans with his men. In reality, he was aware of every move that the other man made. He made sure that the backpacks were packed with adequate supplies and that there was a full medical kit with each pack.

He moved with confident efficiency as he passed out radios to everyone involved in what they were about to do.

"When we go through the anomaly, we'll split up in four directions. We don't know what condition we might find Abby or the others in, so we will each carry a medical kit. If anything goes wrong, you radio and then you get your asses back to the anomaly. It will open once every half hour, so if it's not open when you get there, you wait in a safe place and then you go through. If you find Abby or one of the other men, you radio me immediately." He paused and looked around the room. "Any questions?"

Stephen shook his head. Despite what he'd said, he wasn't going to argue with Becker. Not when the other man obviously knew what he was doing. Not unless he had a real problem with it, at least.

One of the soldiers looked at him. "What if we don't find her? Or we don't find her alive?"

Stephen spun on the man, eyes blazing. "Let's get one thing clear," he said, his voice deadly calm. "You are not to presume her dead unless you are looking down at her lifeless body, and hell, not even then. Do you understand me?"

Becker frowned and started to say something, but Danny cut in.

"Hart's right," he said, his hand tightening around his sidearm. "We all know Abby and we know that anything that got a hold of her would have one hell of a fight. I know that you're Captain Becker's men, but if I hear any of you saying she's dead again, I'll shoot you myself. She's alive and she's god damn well going to stay that way."

Becker's eyes had hardened as Danny spoke. "If there are any of you who don't believe she's alive, then lay your weapons down right now and go home. I don't want anyone on this mission who doesn't know she's alive. Abby Maitland is not a quitter in anything and I won't have any of you just writing her off because you don't want to risk your lives to find her -- or the men that disappeared with her." That last was added just to say it because everyone knew that Becker was risking his life to find Abby first and foremost.

"I'll find them, Captain," Stephen promised. "All of them." Because Abby was the most important, yes, but Becker's men were still important to him, too. And he wanted to do something for Becker, anything at all, to even remotely begin making up for the pain he'd caused.

Maybe finding everybody would be a start.

The skin around Becker's eyes tightened, but he nodded at Stephen anyway. "Hart, you're with me." His eyes slid away from Stephen as he broke the rest of the men into groups. "Quinn and Connor will have three men with them, and so will Dr. Page and Professor Cutter. You will do everything in your power to protect these people, understood?"

"Yes, sir!"

"I don't need protecting."

"Shut up, Quinn."

Becker grabbed a backpack and tossed one to Stephen.

Stephen caught the backpack and put it on. If he was with Becker, this... was not going to go well. It was not going to go well at all.

Becker didn't trust him in the least and if he was going to be forced to work with him then he wanted him where he could keep an eye on him.

"We'll bring her back," Becker quietly promised the team that had gathered. He looked up to where Lester was standing with Jenny and nodded at the other man. Lester nodded back and lifted an eyebrow at Stephen.

Stephen just gave a slight nod of his own.


It didn't take their caravan of trucks long to get to the stadium where the original anomaly was located. Becker always hated coming here because he knew what had almost happened to Abby here. Of course, with Stephen being along, he kept his face neutral, not wanting the other man to see any emotion in his face.

When they got to the freezer, two of his men pulled open the door and Connor pointed a small black box into the emptiness. In a few moments, an anomaly flared to life.

Stephen closed his eyes for a second, taking a deep breath before opening them again. He'd sworn never to deal with another anomaly ever again, and here he was.

Nick was next to him and murmured quietly. "You don't have to do this, Stephen."

"Yes, I do," Stephen said, just as quietly. "Because I want her back."

It was probably because he had known Stephen for so long that Cutter heard the double meaning within Stephen's words. He squeezed his shoulder before nodding, then walking through the anomaly to wait for the rest of the team.

Stephen just looked to Becker.

"After you."

Stephen wanted to say something, couldn't find the words, so settled for simply getting moving.

After Stephen went throught, Becker nodded at his men that were standing guard and then followed him through.

When they stepped through the anomaly, they found themselves in a field that had different anomalies for as far as the eye could see.

"Welcome to Spaghetti Junction," Connor said, falling into step with Stephen. "We've been mapping these for the last six months and have only managed to cover about an eighth as many as there are."

Stephen just nodded, distantly, his mind already focused on finding Abby.

Connor nodded towards an anomaly that had a pole with a red flag on it set up in front. "That's the one she went into. We think it led to the Cretaceous or the Pleistocene era. We're not sure which because after she disappeared we weren't able to stay in there long enough for any of us to get an exact date in place."

"So that's as narrow as we've got it, then," Stephen murmured thoughtfully. "Each brings different complications, but... I can make it work. I can do this."

"I know that after what Helen did you said you'd never come back around these things again," Connor said carefully. "But thank you. For coming, I mean. With both you and Becker here, I know that she has a better chance. Because, I know she's alive, but I think she's hurt and that's why she hasn't come back."

"That's pretty likely," Stephen said. "And it's not a good alternative, but it's better than her being dead. Hurt means alive and means we can do something. And it means Becker won't have to bury the woman he loves."

He couldn't keep the bitter out of his voice, no matter how hard he tried.

"You're going to do something stupid, aren't you?" Because Connor knew the emotions that were between Stephen and Abby before he left.

"Not stupid. Just fixing what's wrong."

"Uh huh." He looked at him sideways for a moment. "Don't get hurt. It'd kill her."

Stephen just made a skeptical noise.

"I could say don't be an idiot, but I think that I've decided all of you action men don't have enough brains to balance out your muscles." He shrugged. "I don't care what else you think you have to do. Just bring my best friend back home." He swallowed, looking at Stephen. "Please."

"I will, Connor," Stephen promised solemnly. "You have my word."

Connor nodded. "You should probably go. Becker looks impatient."

"He always looks like that."

"Yeah, but he seems pretty bent on making you his target for all of his fear and anger right now. I don't think you should push him. I think even our good Captain has a breaking point."

"I think I've pushed him enough already," Stephen agreed, not entirely speaking about the past few hours.

"Good luck, Stephen," Connor said quietly. "I mean that." He gave the other man a wobbly smile and then went to set up his equipment.

Stephen just sighed and went over to Becker.

Becker gave his men last minute instructions before looking at Stephen and the others going through with him. "Let's go get Abby."

Stephen couldn't argue with that. "The sooner we find her, the sooner we can get her home. And back to you." And God, that hurt to say.

Becker gave Stephen a sharp nod. When the rest of his men had gone through the anomaly, he gestured at Stephen so they could both go in at the same time. It didn't matter what Cutter believed, Becker didn't trust Stephen enough even to watch his back right now.



When she opened her eyes, she was greeted by darkness. Trying to move sent pain screaming through her body. After she was done gasping for breath, she tried to remember what had happened.

They had only been on this side of the new anomaly they were mapping for about twenty minutes, if that. It was routine. They were collecting soil samples and she had deduced that they were somewhere in the Pleistocene era. Everything was coming along as it had normally on every other expedition she had been on or led.

The attack had come out of nowhere.

She had barely got sight of the creature before it charged her.

The quick glance of the woolly rhinoceros was all she had needed to know that she was in trouble. As the animal bared down on her, she had heard one of the radios crackle to life. She assumed one of her men were calling for back up or to let the others know where they were.

Then all hell had broken loose.

The creature's horn had hooked her in the side and sent her flying. As she went into the air she heard herself scream and then heard rapid gunfire. She came down hard onto a a cluster of rocks and then had tumbled into a crevice or cave. All she knew was that her body had been on fire and she blacked out.

The first time she had regained consciousness, she hadn't been sure where she was, only that she was alone. She hadn't been able to see anything, but at the time she had figured it was because the cave she had fallen into was too deep for light to find her. She tried several times to call for help, but even to her, her voice sounded weak.

It was when she tried to get to her feet that she realized she was badly hurt. Her left leg wouldn't support her, moving her head made her want to throw up, and she could only draw shallow breaths. She was pretty sure that she had some cracked ribs. However, it was when she had moved her hand in front of her face the second time she had regained consciousness that she realized she had an even bigger problem.

She couldn't see.

She couldn't see anything, not even the barest outlines that the human eye would usually be able to see even in total darkness.

The shock from that realization had caused her to black out again.

Now, she was once more conscious and trying to take a better inventory of her injuries. Even as she did that, she wasn't sure how she was going to find her way out of the cave and back to the anomaly when she couldn't see. She didn't know what happened to her men. For the longest time she had only heard silence and that didn't bode well for her.

In her current condition even if she managed to move enough to get out of her rock prison, she would be picked off by a predator before she could get far. This time period had bears, wolves, and large cats -- among other things.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but she knew it had been more than a day. She was beginning to be able to tell the differences in temperature when the sun was up and when it had set.

Abby Maitland didn't get scared easily, but right now she was terrified.

She closed her eyes even as the tears started trickling down her cheeks.

"Becker." Her whispered voice echoed back at her and it only made her feel worse. "I'm so sorry."

The last conversation they had had been a fight and she was regretting the fact that they parted in anger. She wasn't convinced that she would get the chance to apologize to him for the words said in hurt and anger.

She swallowed hard. She had to hold on and she couldn't give up, no matter how much pain she was in. Becker would find her. He wouldn't stop until she was back home where she belonged. She needed to focus on that and believe in him and the rest of her family at the ARC. They would find her.

He would find her.



Stephen hated the tension that hung in the air between himself and Becker, but now was hardly the time to address it. They had something far more important to do, which was why he was focused on their surroundings and looking for any sign of Abby or any of the men that'd been with her.

"Always did say guns were a good look for you."

He was clearly insane to have said it.

Hoping Becker would just let it pass, Stephen focused on a clump of trees.

Becker was examining a gathering of bushes a few feet away.

"Guns don't screw with your head," Becker said harshly. "You always know where you stand with weapons."

He squatted for a second, examining a dark patch on the spindly leaves of the bushes. He bit the inside of his cheek and took a deep breath before he stood back up.

"There's blood over here. A scrap of material, too. The scrap looks like something from one of the standard issue jackets."

Which meant it wasn't from Abby and he was hoping the blood wasn't from her, either.

"So... blood and material here... where would the next spot likeliest be..." Stephen muttered under his breath before catching sight of something a few feet over. He moved towards it quickly. "More blood. Not much, just a few more drops, so whoever it belongs to stopped most of the bleeding between there and here, at least temporarily."

"Which means that they were at least conscious when whatever happened was over. Or at least mostly over." He frowned as he continued walking in the direction that Stephen had moved in. "There's a great deal of vegetation flattened here. It looks like something was dragged or... or there was something very big here."

"And either of those isn't good."

Becker didn't answer, but his face whitened a little before he continued in the direction that the trail of damaged greenery and turf seemed to be taking. He wasn't going to tell Stephen what he was thinking happened or what he was worried about.

"I think I know what era we're in," he finally said without looking at the other man.

"Oh?" Stephen was moving slightly ahead of Becker now as they followed the trail. "Which is what?"

"Pleistocene. The vegetation is right for that era." He swallowed, looking away. "Abby taught me about them."

"She'll be able to teach you a lot more, Hil..." Stephen trailed off, looking away for a second. "Sorry. Captain Becker."

He nodded sharply. "She's the only one..." That gets to call me that, now. "We need to go down that hill. It would have been where they would have considered setting up a base camp to take samples and readings."

Stephen nodded slightly. "Who leads the way?" Because he was tracking, but they didn't know what they might be walking into despite knowing that there might be a base camp.

"Better if we go down at the same time with weapons ready," Becker finally admitted. "We don't know what we might find or what might be around. This era had a lot of predators."

"Same time it is, then," Stephen said with a nod, readying his weapon.

Becker readied his own weapon and then he started picking his way carefully down the hill. Once they reached the bottom, his face grayed as he almost literally stumbled over a body.

Stephen reached out impulsively, grabbing Becker's arm to keep him steady when he found the body and reeled backwards.

Becker quickly regained his control and knelt down. "It's not her," he said quietly. There wasn't much of the body left, but there was a part of the uniform and the name tag. "It was her communications man. Jamison."

"Sorry," Stephen said, not quite sure what else to say. Besides, he didn't think 'Glad it's not Abby' would go over well, even if the sentiment was appropriate.

"He was a good man," he said sorrowfully, getting to his feet. "What the hell happened here?"

And where was Abby?

"I don't know yet," Stephen said, scanning the area. "But we'll figure this out. We'll find the survivors."

Becker nodded, looking around. "It's going to start getting dark soon." His voice was grim.

"Then we'd better get moving," was all Stephen said.

"We need to find a safe place to camp for the night. It will be harder to find anyone in the darkness."

Stephen wanted to protest, wanted to keep looking, but he knew Becker had a valid point. "All right."

"If this era is the same that Abby showed me in a research lab, there should be caves not too far from the river. The river is about two miles south."

"Then we'd better get walking if we want to get there before complete darkness hits."

Becker nodded and after doing another swift check of the camp, he gathered weapons and an undamaged back pack that Becker slid over his shoulder." Another dead and half eaten body. We have to get out of this area."

"Lead the way." Because in this area, he would defer to the other man.

Becker started walking towards the river. "Watch out for woolly rhinoceroses. They go on the immediate attack if the see you."

"Pleasant," Stephen said dryly.

"Bears, dire wolves, things that are like hyenadons, not to mention giant cats."

"If I get eaten alive, I'm coming back to haunt you."

"It was your choice to come here." Becker reminded him. "I didn't call you and force you to be here."

"Abby's missing, Becker. There was no other choice I could make."

"They said that you vowed never to go near another anomaly."

"I did. But for her, I would do anything."

Becker stiffened. "Why?"

"I love her, Becker. I didn't know how to show it before, but I do now."

Becker stopped and turned to look at him. "And how do you intend to show her this wonderful love of yours?"

"I'm going to tell her," Stephen said with a shrug.

Becker's mouth tightened and before he could stop himself, his fist was flying towards Stephen's face.







Part One | Part Three

Comments

[reggietate.livejournal.com]

Yikes! I see things aren't going too swimmingly already ;-) The guys really need to focus on the job, rather than butting heads.