Primeval Fic: Through Spaghetti Junction

[nietie]

Title: Through Spaghetti Junction
Word Count: 2,458
Rating: G
Genre: gen
Challenge: the 2014 Art challenge fic at Primeval Denial
Characters: Ryan, Stephen, Helen (with a cameo of Dave)
Disclaimer: Not mine, no money made. Primeval and its characters belong to Impossible Pictures
Author Notes: inspired by the beautiful art made by goldarrow : http://primeval-denial.livejournal.com/4359882.html

A million thanks to fredbassett for the beta. All remaining mistakes are mine.

Ryan spun around, pointing his gun towards the person that had come through the anomaly and was now rolling down a small hill.

It was Stephen, getting to his feet and putting his hands up.

Ryan lowered the gun.

Sweet! Now there were two people chasing Helen Cutter after she had escaped through the anomaly at the football stadium's kitchen. As if it wasn't difficult enough to take care of a bonkers woman without having to look after a rookie scientist too.

They seemed to be at some sort of spaghetti junction of anomalies. Several of the now-familiar sparkling lights were close to each other in a grassed area. But Helen was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh my god," Stephen said, smiling and looking around, obviously trying to take in the magnificent wonder around him.

Thunder rolled in the distance.

"I think she went through this one," Stephen then said, pointing towards some tracks.

Before Ryan could respond, the other man disappeared through the sparkling lights.

Ryan sighed in despair, quickly marked the ground at the anomaly they'd come through and then jumped right after the young scientist.

He landed in a world with lush green hills, a huge volcano and with another anomaly in a beautiful blue sky. Ryan scanned the area, the way he was trained to do, looking for possible enemies. Predators could have come through either anomaly or might already be inhabiting this world. In a war zone he would know what possible dangers to expect, but this was a totally different world and a different situation.

He firmly grabbed his gun and kept looking around. He was at the foot of a small hill. Stephen and Helen were already out of sight. Probably on the other side of the hill. He'd have to track them down soon, or the chance of loosing them would increase.

But first of all he looked at the volcano that dominated the scenery. It was huge and far away, but erupting and spewing large, dense clouds of ash.

It immediately reminded him of a BBC documentary about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and how it had killed the people of Pompeii. They weren't killed by the lava, but by a wave of gas, ash and rock that had cooked the victims' flesh instantly with their bodies remaining intact.

So the fact that the erupting volcano seemed so far away didn't reassure him at all. The eruption was life threatening and he and Stephen should return to their own world as soon as possible, with or without Helen Cutter. She seemed to be able to take care of herself anyway, although the team back home would very much like her to come back too, so she could answer a few more questions they had about the anomalies.

Ryan started running around the hill.

Despite Stephen's green jacket, Ryan was able to spot him about 100 metres from him. He was standing next to Helen at what seemed like a makeshift camp.

Ryan couldn't hear them, but they were obviously arguing.

He ran towards them. Hopefully Helen wasn't going to act foolishly, trying to prevent them from going back. He'd knocked out a Cutter before to get him to the anomaly. He'd do it again, without hesitation.

"This is not a safe place," he shouted, trying to exceed the rumbling noise of the volcano.

Then he noticed Helen was holding a backpack. She hadn't carried it when she was in captivity. This makeshift camp must be hers, so she must have been in this timeline before.That was the only explanation Ryan could think of at the moment.

But before he could ask her about it, he saw she'd put her hand in the front pocket of the backpack and pulled it out again quickly. Then she opened the hand and blew.

Yellow powder was whirled into Stephen's face. The man just stood there, probably too astounded to move.

Ryan finally closed the distance between them and grabbed Stephen's arm. He wanted to take the man away from that crazy woman.

The volcano started making even more noise. It was really too dangerous for them here. They HAD to leave. Now.

Helen was looking at Stephen, a smirk on her face.

"I don't think Stephen is going anywhere. He's staying with me. Aren't you, Stephen?"

Stephen didn't answer, but gave a slight nod.

"What are you thinking?" Ryan shouted on top of his lungs. Not just to overcome the sounds the volcano was making, but also out of frustration. "This isn't a safe world."

"We can take the Spaghetti Junction to another world. A world we can study. A world that will give us all the answers," Helen said.

"What answers? If Adam and Eve truly existed? If dinosaurs could fly?" Ryan wanted to hold the woman and shake her. She'd turned into a nutty professor. A very nutty professor. The only world she belonged to was in isolation, preferably in a straight-jacket.

"To find out what kind of creature is behind you." Helen smirked.

Ryan thought she was trying to distract him and suppressed the urge to turn around.

"I wouldn't turn around if I were you. He looks rather dangerous," she continued, as if she was reading Ryan's mind.

Suddenly Ryan heard a clicking noise and he felt some kind of fluid dripping onto his shoulder.

Hopefully it wasn't saliva. He almost shuddered at the idea.

He made an attempt to look from the corner of his eyes.

Oh. My. God. That was some hideous creature. It was big, hairless, with an elongated head and vicious teeth and standing in an ape-like stance. It seemed to be blind, because he couldn't detect any eyes.

He hardly dared to breathe.

The creature kept making the clicking noise as if it used echolocation.

Maybe that was its weak spot.

They needed a distraction, so the creature wasn't focusing on Ryan any more.

As if his wishes were heard the volcano seemed to explode with a deafening sound. The earth started shaking.

Ryan quickly grabbed Stephen by the hand and he ran around the hill, pulling the other man with him.Thank goodness the anomaly was still open.

He hoped the creature wasn't coming after them.

Stephen stumbled and fell on numerous occasions. The poor man seemed to be drunk. But trying to find out what Helen had done to him was a concern for later. They had to get back to their own timeline first.

They went through the anomaly.

Ryan looked around. Which anomaly should they use first?

He saw the anomalies closing one by one. Spaghetti Junction was disappearing.

Quick! Which one was it?

He looked again and thankfully noticed the mark he'd made.

"Stephen, come on!"

He pulled and they stumbled back into the pantry of the football stadium's kitchen.

Immediately the anomaly closed behind them. They'd just made it.

"Helen! Where is Helen?" Ryan heard a voice shout. Nick Cutter was trying to approach them. Stephen had slumped against Ryan and wasn't moving or speaking.

"Stop! Don't come near us!" Ryan said. "We could be contaminated or drugged. Jones, take everybody out and keep the stadium secured. Professor Cutter, can you make a makeshift isolation unit and laboratory here?"

"No problem." Cutter said, staying at a hopefully safe distance. "Give us some time to put on protective clothing."

Within half an hour Ryan took Stephen into a room next to the kitchen, the changing room for kitchen personnel. It even had a shower.

Cutter, Abby and a military paramedic were dressed in protective clothing, their faces covered by a transparent shield.

Cutter took some swab samples of the dust on Stephen's face and the paramedic took blood samples from both Ryan and Stephen.

"Now shower and put your clothes in those bags. We'll examine them for any residue or fibers. You can wear the coveralls lying on the stretchers. I'm afraid you're going to have to stay here at least overnight until we know what may have contaminated you," Cutter explained.

"No problem, I've had worse accommodation," Ryan said.

Stephen was still unresponsive and seemed like a zombie.

Ryan had to escort him into the shower room. First he undressed himself and then he took off Stephen's clothes.

The stream coming from the shower head was hot and strong. He pointed the stream at Stephen and rinsed him from head to toe.

Ryan had to suppress the dirty images going through his mind whilst he was touching the lean and athletic body of the young scientist.

"What… what are you doing?" Stephen muttered, when Ryan was pointing the shower head at Stephen's crotch.

"Sorry." Ryan felt a blush coming up. "You can finish yourself of course."

"Finish? What are we doing here?" Stephen still didn't move, but now there was a puzzled look on his face.

"What do you remember?"

"Sparkling lights… a volcano… Helen…."

"Well, the good news is we're back. We're at the football stadium.The bad news is Helen blew some kind of dust into your face and it more or less paralyzed you. We're in isolation until they find out what that dust was."

"Helen?"

"She didn't come with us. She's either in the other timeline or went through another anomaly. We don't know."

They finished showering, with Stephen finally coming out of his stupor, washing his hair and his body once again.

In the meantime Ryan put their clothes in the bags and then showered again, to be sure no residue was left on him.

After they'd dressed in the white coveralls, they sat on the stretchers.

Abby came inside the room to get the bags with their clothes and brought them tea and sandwiches.

They wolfed down the food, as if they hadn't eaten in ages.

"Please, can you tell be what happened exactly?" Stephen asked, when they’d settled more comfortably on the stretcher.

Ryan told him what he’d seen. "I couldn't hear what you argued about. Maybe you asked her to come back?"

Stephen blushed, giving away that he now remembered.

"Or?" Ryan asked hesitantly, not wanting to push too hard.

The other man didn't answer.

"Do you have any idea why she would blow that stuff into your face?" Ryan tried to get more information in another way.

"Yes, I have an idea," Stephen answered softly.

Then Ryan heard a story he really didn't expect.

"Helen tried to seduce me to stay with her as…. as… she’d done before. This time I didn't fall for it."

"This time? There has been other times?"

"Yes, when I was her student. Eight years ago. Nick doesn't know. But we had a… a fling."

Stephen looked at Ryan, his eyes having a look as if saying, Okay, you can judge me now.

Ryan didn't respond though.

"I take the blame for what happened then. It was consensual. But Helen is a strong character, she can be very persuasive, almost…."

"Manipulative," Ryan added.

"Yes," Stephen whispered, ducking his head.

"And Professor Cutter doesn't know?"

"No, I've never told him. I wanted to on various occasions, but I was too scared to lose his mentorship…. his friendship."

"If he’s your friend, you should tell him. And if he truly is your friend, he'll forgive you."

"A stubborn Scotsman?"

Ryan laughed softly. "I know how stubborn he can be. I had to knock him out to get him back from the Permian. He was mad at me for a while, but he did forgive me."

They were silent for a while.

Ryan could see from the frown on Stephen's head that he was mulling over what had been said.

"Tell him. Especially now Helen was here and could come back any time. Don't let her be the one to tell him. She’d manipulate and destroy you both."

Stephen sighed. "You're right. Helen would be able to do that….. Thank you."

"For what?"

"For listening to me…. For being a friend."

"I'm a soldier. I have to stand up for my friends against the enemy," Ryan said, trying to lighten the situation.

Luckily Stephen smiled.

"And as a friend I’m telling you to get some sleep," Ryan added, turning on his side and closing his eyes.

"Yes, boss."

…

"Guys, the results are in. It's nothing to worry about."

Cutter came crashing into the room, not wearing any protective clothing.

Ryan and Stephen sat up, bleary eyed and confused.

Cutter sat down next to Stephen on the stretcher, starting to ramble.

He explained that Helen had used burundanga on Stephen, better known as scopolamine, a tropane alkaloid drug obtained from nightshade plants. In medicine it was being used in the treatment of motion sickness and post-operative nausea and vomiting. In Columbia, the drug was used by criminals with the intention of incapacitating their victims so that they could manipulate them into doing what they want.

"So it's not contagious and it's not a rare, unknown substance from the past," Cutter said. "The only question is, why did Helen use it on Stephen?"

Stephen ducked his head, not saying anything.

"Maybe she wanted a companion, a partner in crime," Ryan said, trying to break the awkward silence.

Stephen opened his mouth. Ryan could see that the young man was struggling to say something to Cutter, maybe even confess about what he'd told Ryan last night.

Cutter didn't seem to see the internal struggle his lab assistant was going through. "Well, I knew Helen was bonkers, but not this bonkers."

And he stomped out of the room, leaving the door open.

There was a painful look on Stephen's face.

"Tell him," Ryan encouraged him once again. "If you want, I'll ask him to come back. You can talk to him here."

"Yes, maybe I should," Stephen said and he bit his lips. "Please, can you ask him to come back here?"

Ryan left the room in a hurry, shouting the professor's name.

Cutter turned around.

"Stephen would like to talk to you. It's important," Ryan said.

"Is it about Helen?"

"Please, let Stephen tell you what it's about."

Cutter seemed to understand the urgency of the situation and went back into the room, closing the door behind him.

Ryan decided to wait in the corridor. Maybe Stephen would need him after his conversation with the professor ended.

Finally, after more than half an hour, the door opened again.

Expectantly Ryan looked to see who would leave the room. Cutter? Stephen? Or both? And would he be able to read their faces?

First, Cutter came out.

There was a stern look on his face.

Immediately behind him, Stephen left the room.

Cutter turned around.

He smiled.

Then Stephen started smiling too.

Ryan sighed in relief.

Comments

[fredbassett]

Aw, you've woven a lovely fix-it into an exciting story!

Very nice :)

[nietie.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm a sucker for fix-its. :D

[goldarrow]

Great use of 1.04, and a terrific fixit! Although Ryan does seem a little smitten... *sequel someday?*

He'd knocked out a Cutter before to get him to the anomaly. He'd do it again, without hesitation.
*giggle*

Lovely.

[nietie.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Your art was a great inspiration.

Aww, yes, poor, sweet Ryan is a little smitten. Who wouldn't be? *g*

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

That's a splendid mix of action and fix-it - and as it should have happened!

[nietie.livejournal.com]

Yes, Stephen should have told Nick and the professor shouldn't have been so stubborn.

Thank you!

[fififolle]

That was great!! Nothing beats a shower and a sandwich :) It was really exciting and I loved Ryan's POV. And great at the end, with Stephen speaking to Cutter.

[nietie.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Ryan is the bestest.:D

[reggietate.livejournal.com]

Wheee! Spaghetti-junction fixit :-D Lovely story. I'm glad Stephen listened to Ryan.

[nietie.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

In the past years I kept thinking I had to do something with Spaghetti Junction.

[knitekat.livejournal.com]

Lovely fic and yay for Stephen listening to Ryan.

[nietie.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

With this art prompt I thought immediately of a story from Ryan's POV.
I'm glad too Stephen listened to him.

[thelibraniniquity]

Great take on the episode and the prompt, and yay for a happy ending!

[nietie.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I love angst, but it has to have a happy ending.

[clea2011]

That was a great take on the prompt, I like the way you've opened with a description of what Ryan is doing in the picture, it really links the piece to it. Great little action-packed fixit.

[nietie.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

With this art prompt I thought about writing it from one POV immediately.
Glad it worked.

[cordeliadelayne]

Aw, that was lovely! Great way for Stephen to finally confess.

[nietie.livejournal.com]

Luckily it wasn't too late for Nick to be able to forgive him.

Thank you!

[kristen-mara.livejournal.com]

Wheeee! I love how you altered the events of 1.04 and got Ryan to save the day and for him to encourage Stephen to confess. Great use of the art

[nietie.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Ryan is the bestest!

[celeste9]

Yay, fix-it! It definitely would have been so much better if Stephen had been the one to tell Nick about the affair. Good for Ryan and his competence in addition to his excellent advice. *g* Very exciting story and wonderful take on the art!

[nietie.livejournal.com]

Ryan's competence is soooo sexy. I'm glad he managed to persuade Stephen to tell the truth.

Thank you!

[eriah211.livejournal.com]

Aaaaaawwwww, see, Stephen? You can always trust loyal, sensible Ryan. Everything is much better when he is around ^_^

Lovely fic!

[nietie.livejournal.com]

Ryan is the bestest! :D

Thank you!

[deinonychus-1.livejournal.com]

Ryan being heroic and sensible is always a good thing. Great fic.

[nietie.livejournal.com]

Yes, Ryan's competence is the best.

Thank you!

[lsellersfic.livejournal.com]

This is a lovely fixit! and a fun take on the prompt.

[nietie.livejournal.com]

Thank you!
The art was a real inspiration.

I love your icon! :D