Elizabeth Cutter | Primeval

S1 E2 - Just Keep Breathing

"There's ten years of Helen's work here." Stephen told Nick as they sat in his office going through piles of papers together.

"Keep looking." Nick said simply.

For once, Beth wasn't with them as he'd decided to give her the day off to gather her thoughts as well as keep her away from all of this. She didn't take Helen's disappearance very well and clearly wasn't taking the news that she may possibly still be alive well either. Nick always found it hard to decipher Beth's thoughts on the matter as she'd either not be there or shut herself off. Now, the only emotion Nick had managed to read is hurt and he can understand why. If she was alive and knew about the anomalies, why didn't she come back?

"You've read every word she ever wrote." Stephen said pulling Nick from his thoughts.

"Yes, but we didn't know about the anomalies then. There might be references to it in Helen's work that we overlooked."

"If she knew about it, she would have told you." Nick doesn't look so sure. "Are you alright?"

"Just haven't been sleeping very well."

*********************************

Beth woke up once again. She'd been in and out of sleep all night and by now she'd given up and just decided to lay there. Her Dad had given her the day off and she was thankful for that - she wasn't ready to embrace what the world had to offer for the day just yet.

After finding out about the possibility of Helen - she could barely call her mum now - being alive, something inside her had changed. The topic used to bring her sadness and although some still remained, her emotions had been taken over purely by anger and so many questions spiralled in her mind. Why did she leave? What could possibly be more important than her family? But most importantly, if she was still alive, why didn't she come back? It was that question that caused Beth the most pain. The feeling of abandonment.

Her phone vibrating beside her pulled her from her thoughts and she looked over to her bedside table to see it was her Dad calling.

"Yes?" She asked quietly, putting the phone on speaker before carelessly throwing it on her bed.

"Just wanted to check you were awake." He said.

"Could have texted." Beth really wasn't in the mood to talk...to anyone.

"I know but I wanted to make sure you were okay." She could hear the concern in his voice. When she didn't respond Nick spoke up once more. "How's the head?" He asked changing the subject.

"Nothing I can't handle."

Beth heard a knock from Nick's end.

"I've got to go, we'll talk later."

"K, bye."

*********************************

"Was that Beth?" Claudia asked as she entered Nick's office, a little shocked by the amount of mess; the desk and chairs and pretty much the entire room littered in papers.

"Uh, yeah." Nick answered, moving some of Helen's work aside so Claudia could sit down. Sensing his unease, Claudia quickly continued.

"You didn't reply to any of my messages, so I came in person."

"You know, I've been going through some of Helen's papers." He sat down opposite Claudia. "It was my fault she disappeared."

"Why?"

"I was supposed to go with her on that last field trip, but we had a row. Another row. She'd become obsessed with theories that I found, well, ridiculous."