8/7/15
I don't own any of primeval, it's plot or characters unfortunately. However, Katherina and her family are mine. All credit and rights go to impossible pictures.
KATHERINA'S OUTFIT TO THE SIDE
~~~~~~~~~~
I walked into The ARC with Lester, having stayed at his house with my father and brother the night before. They were supposed to be leaving back to our home town of Leyland, North-West England soon and I wanted to see them properly before they left.
Lester and I nodded to a member of security who walked past, before Lester suddenly stopped and began to back track. He stopped next to the kitchen, me following, and slowly entered. I followed his gaze to see Connor, sleeping on the couch, his underwear hanging around the room to dry out.
Lester coughed loudly, instantly waking Connor and causing him to fall off the couch.
"Do you always bring this much stuff to work?" Lester questioned as he scanned the room.
Connor began panicking and quickly packing his stuff away.
"Uhhhh..." Connor looked anywhere but at us. "Yes," he stood straight. "Like to be prepared."
"I know some of the creatures can be frightening," Lester sent a glance to Connor. "But surely this many pairs of underpants is over doing it."
Connor smiled unsurely as Lester exited the room.
"Smooth." I grinned as soon as Lester was out of hearing range.
Connor groaned as he attempted to get his shoes on.
Suddenly, red lights began blaring and alarms sounded. However, it wasn't the usual alarm for the anomalies, this sound was different.
It was the intruder alarm.
Connor and I shared a quick glance. He skipped over to a kennel in the far corner and lifted a blanket covering it - it was empty.
"Oh crap," Connor cursed. "Where's Sid?"
I narrowed my eyes and groaned his name.
"Really?" I turned and began walking to help him find his missing Diictodon.
We ran into the corridor in time to see Jenny walking with Becker who was aiming his gun at the door in front of him.
"Intruder in sector 7," he said calmly. "No identification as yet."
Connor ran to them.
"Is it small and ugly in a kind of cute way?" He rushed urgently.
Jenny frowned, confused.
"Just a guess." Connor muttered.
Suddenly, Becker stepped forward with two of his men, ready to kick the door in.
Jenny stopped, worry etching into her features.
"Helen," she whispered to Connor and I. She then turned to Becker. "Be prepared to shoot on sight."
Becker stepped forward, handgun drawn, and kicked the door open.
He tensed forward and stopped at the sight of the one and only Danny Quinn, standing in the stairwell.
"Wow wow wow." His eyes widened at the sight of Becker, his hands raised.
"I really don't believe it." Jenny exclaimed.
"You don't give up do you?" I smiled, happy.
I like this guy, I think he could be good for us after everything that's happened.
"Not me." He winked. "You've got to do something about your security." He spoke to Jenny.
Becker tensed, angry at the insult. I inwardly smiled, I've had a lot against him ever since our conversation in the armoury the other day. He hadn't approached me yet and I sure as hell won't make the first move. I will make this bitch crack first... *Queue evil laugh*
Connor snorted from behind me at Quinn's remark.
~~~~~~~~~~
I now stood in Lester's office along with Jenny, Becker and our intruder. Becker leant against the wall while Jenny stood next to Lester's desk and I stood behind Quinn, who sat in a chair.
"How did you get in?" Lester asked our criminal.
"Jumped the fence and kicked in the fire door." He answered. "It was easy."
"What the hell are you doing here?" Lester then decided to cut to the chase.
"Well," Quinn started. "It's been my life's ambition to fight dinosaurs, save the world."
Lester looked at Becker who shrugged.
"Okay," Danny sighed. "I just want to help is all."
"I warned you," Jenny spoke quietly. "You should stay away from this Danny."
"See I thought you were flirting," he joked. "You can never tell with women these days."
"Can you pistol whip him?" Lester looked at Becker.
"Sir?" Becker questioned unsurely.
"Just a thought." Lester looked out the window in his office. "Mr Quinn." Lester rose.
"It's Danny." He smiled.
"Mr Quinn," Lester spoke purposely. "The fate of the nation, possibly the world hangs on what we do here. It's not a place for chances and wild boys."
"I lost my brother to one of those creatures," Danny stared seriously at Lester. "Don't ask me to pretend it didn't happen."
Lester looked at me and I walked closer to him. I raised my eyebrows and he tilted his head. The silent communication told Lester I approved of the man sat in the chair and his head motion told me he disagreed.
However his initial look to me at this topic of conversation caught me...
He knows. He knows about KD.
And he never told me either.
Maybe my father knows then? If two people did, who are close to my father, then it's highly likely he does too. I don't understand why he stopped looking for my dear brother then, he should be finding a way to open anomalies manually, not giving up.
"You've seen what I can do," Danny interrupted our stare off. "And I want in."
~~~~~~~~~~
After our little meeting ended, Connor and I ended up walking The ARC, looking for Sid. We scoped the whole building and couldn't seem to find him. We were about to give up when a small squeak sounded from behind us. We looked at each other, before spinning and seeing Sid in the middle of the corridor.
"Sid!" Connor whisper-shouted as we took off after the small creature.
We turned the corner and lost him.
"You go straight, I'll check the open rooms."
Connor took off at my direction.
I turned into the first room, which happened to be Cutter's office. I saw Sarah working on the artefact and I slowed.
"Katie," she spoke as soon as she saw me. "I think I've found something."
"Show me." I walked over to her.
I looked into the magnifying glass she was using to look closer at the artefact and saw she was uncovering some kind of lettering.
"It's like some sort of lettering." I spoke my thoughts.
She moved forward to scrape more dirt off the metal.
"No," she finished scraping. "It's a sequence of numbers."
"Okay," my mind began to whirl. "A code?"
"Yeah but to what?"
I was about to reply when a high pitched bark came from behind us. I looked to the doorway to see Sid facing me. I jumped for him and slid along the floor, just missing him.
*sigh*
~~~~~~~~~~
I crept into the hub with Connor, still looking for Sid.
"You're going nowhere mate." Becker placed Danny on a chair near the ADD. "Until we figure out what to do with you."
"Don't get too comfortable." He stood next to Danny, hands behind his back.
"Karma is a funny thing, huh Danny?" Connor spoke as we searched. "Not too long ago, you had me banged up. Look at you now."
"The fact that I saved your life doesn't win me any credit?" Danny looked around the hub.
"Nope." Connor didn't once look at Danny in his search for Sid.
"What's that machine do then?" Danny nodded to the ADD, causing Connor to jump up and look at him.
"You're not even supposed to be looking at that machine," he looked at Becker. "It's top secret, ain't it?"
Becker nodded once.
"But it is brilliant," Connor grinned. "And it's completely unique. Well... Bet you're wondering who invented it."
Danny rolled his eyes at the same time Becker did. He motioned for Connor to continue.
"Le Connor Temple." He grinned and spoke in an unbelievably bad French accent.
"What?" Danny asked, confused.
Connor's smile faded as he saw even Becker didn't understand.
"Connor Temple," he continued. "I invented it."
One if the screens suddenly went offline.
"Whys that screen jumping around then?" Danny pointed it out.
Connor turned to look and ran to the monitor, trying to type and get it back online. I sighed deeply and walked to the back of the machine, to hold up a chewed wire.
"Sid." I growled at Connor.
"Oh my god." Connor breathed.
Lester suddenly came walking down the platform from his office. Connor's face blanched.
"Lester before you shout at me I'm really sorry!"
Lester simply looked at him.
"I'll get the hard drive and memory running back up in a second."
"At the risk of sounding like someone from the Old Testament," James stopped beside a rushing Conor who tried to get the ADD back online. "Is there any sane reason why you're keeping ANIMALS in The ARC?"
Connor turned to look at him but was interrupted by blaring alarms. He spun back to the ADD and started typing to find the anomaly.
"It must have missed an anomaly while it was offline." Connor sighed. "It closed an hour ago, I'll get the location."
"Yes you do that." Lester hissed. "That would be extremely helpful."
Suddenly the voice of Lester's secretary sounded from behind us.
"Sir, Christine Johnson is here to see you." She walked in followed by Johnson herself, Wilder and another suited man.
Ugh, I should have shot her when I had the chance.
"Yes if course." James whispered with a roll of my eyes.
"James." Christine strode towards him. "It isn't a bad time I hope." She referred to the blaring alarms.
Lester pasted a smile as fake as her own on his face, before tuning to her.
"Christine," he shook her hand. "What an unexpected pleasure." He turned to me. "Do we know where Jenny is?"
"Nope." I glared at Christine.
"Can you find her for me please."
"Now?" I groaned, not wanting to miss my chance to taunt a bitch.
"Yes that would be lovely."
I sighed and walked straight towards Christine. She was in my way and I wasn't going to move. Neither did she as I rammed straight into her, nearly knocking her off her feet. She may be a good 7" taller than me but I'm a hell of a lot stronger. I did the same with Wilder only he was both stronger than her and expecting it, meaning he didn't move as much as she.
They both moved though; mission accomplished.
~~~~~~~~~~
I found Jenny in her office with a box of Cutter's belongings. She held up a picture, identical to her, but I knew it wasn't actually her.
See I never said it to anyone but Cutter, however I remembered Claudia Brown as much as he. And I know from late night talks with Cutter that, that is Claudia, not Jenny. It was something he collected before we accidentally changed Jenny's timeline.
"It's not you is it?"
She spun at the sound of my voice.
"How do you know?"
"Most people seem to have forgotten but I was with Cutter all the way through that anomaly. It was the anomaly that protected our memories..." I trailed off.
"Therefore if Cutter remembers, you remember Claudia Brown too." She finished.
I nodded slowly.
"What was she like?" She stared at the picture.
"Not you." I stepped closer to her. "Yes Cutter liked Claudia... But he also liked you, Jenny. You and her were opposites, your only similarity is your facial structure, even colouring is different."
I placed my hand on her shoulder.
"Claudia was weak where you are strong. Cutter loved that about you."
She looked at me and smiled, tears in her eyes, before gabbing me in a hug.
"Oh, okay we're hugging now."
I wrapped my arms around her hesitantly.
She stepped away after a while and I cleared my throat.
"There's an anomaly alert, that's why I'm here."
"Okay," she smiled. "Let's go."
~~~~~~~~~~
Connor, Abby, Jenny and Becker left to investigate the anomaly site. I offered to stay at The ARC, not particularly wanting to be around Becker, and thankfully Jenny accepted.
I sat in the hub, talking to Danny as Lester walked back in with Christine Johnson and her crew.
"And the operations area you already know," he turned to her. "Anything else?"
"Yes there is just one more thing James." She turned to him. "In private."
"Tell the chuckle brothers not to touch anything." Lester referred to her 'friends'.
"I don't think you've met my colleagues." She smiled sharply. "Mark baker and this is Captain Wilder."
"Delighted." Lester said sarcastically. "Shall we?" He motioned to his office as Christine followed him.
I observed her along with Quinn
"She does not give a good vibe." Danny muttered lowly.
"I know," I smirked. "That's why I roundhouse kicked her face the first time I met her."
He turned to me, eyebrows raised.
"You being serious?"
I nodded.
"You legend." He laughed and raised his hand for a high five.
I laughed with him as Sarah called out to us.
"Oi!" She called. "Double trouble, don't think you're going anywhere. Make yourselves useful, come with me."
Danny and I shrugged and followed her to the artefact.
We walked into Cutters office and Danny and I immediately sat against the wall, facing Sarah. She didn't speak, just got on with her work.
Danny turned to me slightly.
"When we first met," he started. "You mentioned a brother."
"Which one?" I smirked, trying to act oblivious to the specific brother in question.
"Why, how many you got?" He turned his eyebrow up.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you..." I spoke dryly.
"Try me.."
Perhaps he could tell the situation with my twin was a sore spot, for he changed the subject fairly quickly.
"Okay." I smirked, already knowing his reaction. "I only have one sister, she's 6 years younger than me and terminally ill."
"Oh." Danny spoke quietly.
"I have 2 younger brothers," I continued without letting him comment. "One is Catherine's twin brother Jonathan and the other is Alan who's 6."
I looked at Danny to make sure he was following so far.
"You the oldest?" He asked.
"Well if you let me continue.."
He nodded for me to go on.
"And then I have 16 older brothers."
I stopped and stared at him, feeling a smile rise as his mouth dropped and his eyes widened.
"You're pulling my leg." He whispered.
"Nope." I laughed.
"How old is your dad!?" He sat up straighter.
"Not that old," Sarah had turned around to listen, shocked. "40?"
"52." I answered. "Good genes."
"But still is that old enough to have.." I watched Danny work out the mental maths. "20 children!? How old is your mum?"
"Would be 49." I laughed again. "But that's irrelevant."
"How?" Sarah asked carefully.
"Because we near enough all have different mothers. My father loves both women and children, he's always had certain mistresses that he refuses to use protection with. Hence why we have so many siblings. My mother was actually the only one who wasn't a mistress. She was a mistress' sister who my father actually loved. But my mother was already married and she refused to leave her husband."
"How did you come about then?" Danny asked, clearly just curious not hurtful.
"Her husband was infertile but they both wanted children. My father obviously stepped up at the chance to be with my mother as she didn't believe in scientific methods." I smiled. "I never met her. She died during birth. I never met her husband for that reason either."
"Wow." Sarah whispered. "Christmas in your house must be manic."
"Actually we haven't really had a Christmas with us all together. We're so big we argue all the time." I smiled fondly at the memories of my family.
"How do you remember all their names?" Danny asked incredulously.
"Because they're my brothers." I laughed. "It's not that hard."
"And you're the only girl." Sarah said sympathetically.
"Until 15 years ago when Catherine was born yes. But when she turned two she was diagnosed with a rare disease called Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency, A1AD for short. It's a disease that she got from her mother, something to do with a low level of cells in her blood which can, and has lead to liver and lung disease."
"Oh god." Sarah whispered. "That poor child."
"They said it will eventually kill her. And because of that our Cathy refuses treatment. She wants to live a normal life until her time comes." I smile softly. "I just think it's unfair that, that particular mistress has 3 children by my father yet Catherine is the only one with that gene."
"Awww." Sarah cooed again as Danny held a sad look on his face.
"You lost your brother too didn't you?" He whispered.
"And Stephen and Cutter, I even killed my own mother." I glared into space.
I stayed quiet for a while before turning to face Danny.
"But yes, I lost my twin brother: KD."
"An anomaly?" He questioned.
"I have reason to believe so yes."
"I take it KD is abbreviated?" Sarah giggled. "I know a few people who hate their parents for making them do that."
I laughed out right, remembering how worked up my twin used to get when our other brothers teased him with his full name.
"Kyrayacos-Denzel." I laughed again. "Our father decided he wanted one son without a traditional name. He hated being called it but that's how father always referred to him. Everyone bar me called him KD. He insisted I have a different name for him and he me. I called him Kiyo and he called me Rina."
We all smiled to each other, Sarah at the thought of such a loving family and Danny at thoughts of his own brother. Soon Sarah turned and began with her work while Danny and I stared into space.
A man, Mark Baker from before, walked past the room, looking around the corridor. I looked at Danny and saw he had noticed too. He rose to watch the man.
"If I was still a copper," he looked at us. "I would say that blokes acting suspiciously."
Sarah hummed before realising that Danny was leaving to follow the man.
"Where're you going?" She said rapidly.
"Okay you have two choices, you can either trust me or you can call in the heavy mob."
"And why would I trust you?" She questioned.
"Because I trust him." I spoke from my place on the floor.
She looked at me intently, before turning and nodding to him. He left after the suit.
We waited not 3 minutes before alarms started blaring again.
~~~~~~~~~~
It turns out the anomaly had spat some kind of fungus into the room is had occupied. Connor brought that back to The ARC and Mr. Mark Baker touched the fungus. He's currently spazzing out on the floor in Abby's lab while Connor and I suit up for biohazard.
"What exactly did you do in there?" Connor grilled Danny.
"I didn't DO anything." He gritted as he watched our actions.
"Look," I interrupted them. "He's still alive, we've got to get him out of there."
"Forget it!" Connor span on me. "I'm handling this, I've had biohazard training."
"Yeah well so have I." I smirked. "Didn't I tell you I used to study microbiology as a hobby?"
"Fine." He gritted.
"Everything under control?" Lester asked as he walked up to us with Wilder and Christine.
"Everything's peachy." I grinned a crazy grin.
"Right." James sighed.
Connor and I placed our helmets on before walking through the air locked door. We shut it behind us, before sharing a look and turning to the man.
Lester and Christine glared through the glass wall.
I looked at the man, to see three quarters of him covered in fungus with absolutely no movement coming from him. I turned to the glass wall slowly and shook my head.
He's definitely dead.
Christine turned on Lester.
"You've killed one of my men."
"Care to explain why he was trespassing in a security zone, Christine?"
She looked at him for a moment, her face blank.
"We'll send you a full report when the postmortem is in," he glared at her. "Now for your own safety, will you kindly leave the building."
She turned to look in the lab one more time before motioning for Wilder to follow her, and leaving.
~~~~~~~~~~
I zipped the body bag over the now completely fungus covered man and listened to what Conor was saying.
"The only explanation is that it came through the anomaly." He stood speculating.
"Past or future?" I wondered.
"Does it matter?" He replied as I rose to stand at the glass wall with him.
We looked at the fungus in the glass container.
"Can we kill it?" I looked at him.
"We'll have to do some more tests." He shook his head.
"Unless we find out how to stop it there's going to be a lot more of infected people." I spoke as I watched the fungus grow bigger in the container.
Connor looked at me in alarm.
"Yes, I did realise that!"
"I need to get out of this thing." I motioned to take off the helmet.
"What are you doing?" Connor's hand stopped me. "You can't do that!"
I sighed.
"When did you actually have biohazard training then?" He looked at me.
"It's contained." I pointed out, ignoring his question.
We were interrupted by a banging on the window infront of us. Sarah stood there, a terrified expression on her face as she continued to say things we couldn't hear.
"What's she saying?" Connor asked.
Sara finally remembered the intercom and pressed the button on the wall.
"Turn around!" She screeched.
We both spun on our heels to see a creature crawling out of the body bag.
"Oh shit..." I whispered.
This creature was made entirely out of fungus.
We looked at each other before pushing the table infront of us into the creature. We pushed to try and hold it back while Sarah opened the door.
"Come on!" She shouted.
Connor looked to her as we continued to wrestle with the creature.
He made a run for the door and I gave the table one last shove before following. Sarah pulled the door shut behind us in time for the creature to bang into it. It roared as it unsuccessfully tried to break through the doors.
I came around the other side and stood with Lester as the creature smashed the glass box that contained the fungus before banging on the glass wall.
"What is that?" James asked.
"We don't know." I gasped.
"This could be tricky to explain to the next of kin." James didn't take his eyes off the creature. "Good news, he's not technically dead. Bad news, he's turned into a giant mushroom."
Connor and I looked at him.
"What are we going to do with it?"
"I don't know." Connor mumbled. "This all happened when it reacted with that solution." Connor observed.
"All fungi like damp environments right?" Sarah turned to us. "So why not try drying it out?"
"Bake the hell out of it!" Connor smiled and pointed to Sarah. "See what happens."
Connor ran over to the panel that controlled the temperature inside the room and set it to increase.
We sat back and watched.
It got to 85 degrees before anyone spoke.
"It's not responding." Danny muttered.
Danny, Sarah, Connor and I stood in a line in front of the glass. Lester came to my side.
"So come on then," he began. "What's our plan B?"
We all looked at him silently. He looked back towards the glass.
"You know just once," he muttered. "Just once would be nice."
The room got to 100 degrees and the creature started becoming agitated.
"Something's happening..." Danny drew our attention back to the creature.
It's skin began bubbling, expanding and contracting as it squeaked at the glass. We all leant forward to get a closer look, when the creature suddenly exploded all over the glass.
"Ahh!" We all shouted and ducked automatically.
Slowly rising to our feet, we watched the fungus closely.
"Result!" Connor and Danny high-fived while Sarah and I shared a little giggle.
Lester just stood there, no emotion as per usual.
"We need something like fire to destroy the creature Jenny, Abby and Becker are following." Connor explained.
"Follow me," I began walking down the corridor. "I think I have just the thing..."