Primeval fic: Survivors
Jan. 5th, 2010 01:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
knitekatTitle: Survivors
Author: knitekat
Word Count: 1572 (approx)
Characters: Nick Cutter, James Lester, Jenny Lewis
Rating: 15
Disclaimer: Primeval belongs to Impossible Pictures. Certainly not me. Writing for fun and will replace.
A/N: Angst. For Talli, not sure this quite meets your prompt, but I hope you like it all the same. Have a great day. Thanks go to the wonderful Fred for the beta.
p>Nick's mind turned over recent events as he sat staring morosely at the nearly full glass of whisky clenched in his hand.
He was in his forties, but what did he have to show for it?
A broken marriage after his wife had run off for eight years to roam through time and space, rather than stay by his side.
A so-called best friend who had betrayed him. Not so much by sleeping with Helen - hell, Nick had long ago lost count of her many affairs – but by not telling him, even when Helen was feared dead.
Nick sighed. He knew Stephen had turned down some career-enhancing positions over the years, now Nick had to wondered if Stephen had been trying to make amends when he had stayed with Nick. Had Nick's refusal to accept Stephen's apology cost the younger man his life? Nick snorted and drank the whisky in one, he already knew the answer to that question.
Nick poured another glassful before closing his eyes for a moment. It wasn't just Helen and Stephen. It was this place ... this world. It had taken Claudia from him, someone he thought he could have fallen in love with. Fuck it Nick, you know you loved her. Even worse, he still saw her almost every day, whenever he looked at Jenny.
A bitter snort escaped Nick as he thought about another part of his screwed up life. He had missed his chance when it came to Jenny. His chance to explain why he had acted as he had, all because he had learned Jenny had a fiancé and he could not intrude in their lives.
It had taken some time, but Nick had finally separated Claudia and Jenny in his mind. Knowing Jenny was happy with another no longer hurt, though he always regretted that it was not with him.
When Nick had, by chance, learned that Jenny was no longer engaged his heart had soared at the thought of having another chance. He found an excuse to visit Jenny's office only to find her chatting on the telephone to someone. Nick's forehead creased with pain as he remembered overhearing her conversation. It was just so obvious that Jenny had found someone else. That Nick had been too late, once again, to tell her how he felt about her.
Nick just sat in the gathering darkness as his thoughts turned to the future. He gave a bitter smile as he remembered what he had thought the future would have been like. Nick had always believed – hoped - that he and Helen would have had children, and in his mind's eye he had seen them sitting in their house surrounded by those children and their children's children.
But it was not to be, Helen had vanished again, and even if she came back, he knew he would never take her back as his wife. Too much hurt and pain lay in that direction.
His chance with someone new – Claudia or Jenny or whatever the universe decided to call her – had passed Nick by as well. Nick raised his glass in salute to Jenny and her new ... whoever. Considering Nick's luck, Jenny had probably had a narrow escape in falling for someone else.
Nick sighed. Forty-odd years old, a bachelor with no real chance of meeting anyone to spend the rest of his days with. A top secret job he couldn't tell anyone about, coupled with strange phone calls and unexplained absences that would destroy any chance of a relationship with anyone. He was doomed to a life alone.
No, he would just have to learn to survive by himself. He would have to continue to work with people who could still say something jarring to Nick's memory, just enough to remind him of what he had lost. Nick still missed the university. The ARC was a strange alien place just superimposed onto the world Nick knew. Even Connor, geeky eager-to-please Connor, had a harder edge in this world.
The phone trilled shrilly in the hall but Nick couldn't be bothered to answer it. No doubt it was just some poor slob trying to earn a bob or two cold calling for some company or another. If it was anything important, Nick was sure Stephen ... he took a gulp of whisky, almost choking on it as he remembered Stephen and Nick just let his tears track down his face.
It was just such a fucked up life he was leading. God, the thrill Nick had felt surge through his body when he realised he would really be seeing dinosaurs and other extinct creatures. He had been such fool. Nick knew if he could have reversed time he would never have gone to the Forest of Dean, never have met Claudia Brown, never have learnt of Stephen's betrayal. But he couldn't change what had happened and it hurt.
Nick cocked his head at the sound of knocking on his door, blinking as he realised it was now light outside. He just sat there waiting for his visitor to grow tired and leave.
Nick frowned as he heard the faint scrape of metal against metal, and then the creak of the door opening. A soft snort escaped him, great, now he had burglars to make his life even better. But even that thought did not impel Nick to move and investigate.
“Nick?” The soft, concerned voice of Jenny did make Nick look up. She looked worried. “Nick, we were worried about you.”
Nick finds his own voice to be harsh and croaky, “We?”
“Jenny was worried, I merely came along to make sure of your continued use to the project.”
Nick felt his mouth twitch slightly at Lester's comment, especially at Jenny's response.
“Of course you did, James. Now, be useful and make us all a cup of tea.”
Nick found it hard to believe when Lester rolled his eyes at him, before turning to do as he had been told. Since when had Lester done what others told him to do? Especially a subordinate?
Nick blinked and rubbed his eyes as blinding light streamed through the windows. His train of thought derailed as Jenny continued opening curtains before removing Nick's whisky to the kitchen.
Nick couldn't help his smile as he listened to Jenny order Lester about, apparently not liking his tea-making skills. He quickly sobered when he overheard one comment – he couldn't have heard that correctly?
Jenny bustled into the room, followed by an eye-rolling Lester who dusted down a chair before sitting down.
Nick looked from one to the other, deciding Jenny would be the one talking to him... which left the question. “What are you doing here, Lester?”
“I told you, I'm checking up on your ability to be useful to the ARC.”
Jenny rolled her eyes, “Truthfully, Nick. James is here because I asked him to come with me.” She smiled conspiratorially at Nick, “That and I can't pick locks.”
Nick raised an eyebrow at Lester. “Since when has picking locks been a Civil Servant skill?”
Lester shrugged, “It's amazing what skills you need in the Civil Service.”
Jenny coughed before sending a pointed glare at Lester, “Nick. We are worried about you.”
“I'm fine. Really, I am.”
Nick was surprised when Lester snorted in disbelief. “No, you are not. Take it from me, Cutter, drinking and wallowing in memories will not make it better. All it does is keep reminding you that you are hurting.”
Jenny nodded. “I can't imagine how much it hurts to have lost Stephen, Nick, but I do remember how it felt to break up with Mark. I felt miserable for weeks.”
Nick noticed her quick glance at Lester. “But you are over it now? You have someone new?” When Jenny glanced again at Lester, Nick knew who it is. “Lester?”
“Yes?”
Jenny nodded before grasping Lester's hand. “Yes, Nick. James and I are together. He realised I was upset over something and it just...” She waved her hand.
“I thought you were married?”
“Mr Temple been hacking into top secret databases again? I really need to have a chat with the boy.”
“James!”
“You're divorced?”
Lester dropped his gaze to the floor, and Nick noticed that Jenny squeezed his hand. When he spoke, Lester's voice was slightly hollow. “No. I know what it feels like to lose someone you care about, Nick.”
“Oh.” Nick can't think what to say, even though it seemed inadequate, he said, “I'm sorry.”
Lester swallowed and gave a sharp nod. “It's been three years, but it still hurts as if it was yesterday.”
Jenny sighs softly, “Sorry, Nick. We're not doing a very good job of cheering you up.”
Nick gave her a soft smile, “You know what they say, misery loves company.”
They both jump at the chuckle from Lester, “One way to look at it, Nick.”
“So, what now?”
“Well, James will see if you have anything edible and cook, I will tidy up and you, Nicholas Cutter, can have a shower and change your clothes.”
“And that will make everything better?”
“No, but it will help. Together we will survive. All of us.”
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Date: 2010-01-05 11:00 am (UTC)That was so beautifully Jenny :)
I love the way the two of them have decided to take a hand in Nick's problems. I also loved the twist in this that Lester's wife is dead rather than them being divorced.
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Date: 2010-01-05 10:55 pm (UTC)Jenny wrote herself as did Lester, I didn't know about his wife until he said it.
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Date: 2010-01-05 11:39 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-01-05 11:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 07:12 pm (UTC)Lester's lock picking skills and Jenny bossing him around made me smile. It came as a unexpected surprise that Jenny and Lester are a couple but it fit well in the story.
And the end line is just wonderful.
Thanks for writing this for me.*hugs*
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Date: 2010-01-05 11:13 pm (UTC)*hugs you back* and hope you had a wonderful day.
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Date: 2010-01-05 07:24 pm (UTC)I loved Jenny bossing Lester around, and Lester's previously unkown lockpicking skills.
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Date: 2010-01-05 11:16 pm (UTC)Jenny just went bossy and Lester just went and picked the lock.
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Date: 2010-01-05 07:25 pm (UTC)You made James pick locks. I love lock-picking. On anybody. But especially unlikely people, like Lester.
Loved it. Loved the angst, loved Jenny, and Nick needs a hug. Seriously.
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Date: 2010-01-05 11:18 pm (UTC)It wrote itself, the first I knew James could pick locks was when he did.
*Nods* Nick does need a hug and might get one.
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Date: 2010-01-10 12:28 am (UTC)Oh good. ^_^
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Date: 2010-01-05 09:50 pm (UTC)But it's so lovely that Jenny and Lester care.
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Date: 2010-01-06 12:59 am (UTC)It's great to see Jenny and Lester confronting Nick about his depression and extending some understanding and compassion. It would be nice to think that a friendship might develop among all three of them.
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Date: 2010-01-08 11:36 pm (UTC)Glad you liked it and I could see them bonding over their mutual loses.
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Date: 2010-01-08 09:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-08 11:38 pm (UTC)