Primeval S3E3 fixit ficlet ramblings below the readmore
Ok giant fixit where...nick doesn't die.
Well, he does, his heart does technically stop at least once, but he is actually still alive - barely - when Connor carries him out of the ARC. And then the ambulance arrives, and they discover he still has a pulse, weak, erratic.
It's so faint Connor definitely couldn't find it, there, sitting in the burning ARC building amongst smouldering detritus and sparking wires with Nick's head heavy on his shoulder. He'd checked, tried to, leastways.
The team are crying and huddled together when the EMT announces there's still a pulse, and Connor suddenly can't breath again.
What? Abby looks up at him, teary, smudged eyes wild with a sudden, hesitant hope. Connor just thinks he probably looks shell-shocked. Jenny says 'Oh G-D' again, this time almost punched out of her with the same bit of fragile hope.
He couldn't feel a breath or a pulse when he'd tried to check, and Nick didn't wake up, didn't move. Now all Connor can think is - what if? What if he waited too long, sat there beside cutter for too long before picking him up, because he thought he was dead, and what if because of that, nick dies after all? Just, what if because of him they get their hopes up only for him to die anyways?
They watch nick being brought into the ambulance, a flurry of activity and words thrown about as the EMTs get to work to stabilize Nick. After a period of time where they all just watch and sniffle, and the EMTs seem to be getting ready to head out, Jenny grips into Connor's shoulder for a moment. He looks numbly at it and then at her, makes eye contact,, before she then hurries away from their little group and over to the back of the ambulance. They can hear as she asks if she can ride along or if she'll be in the way. They suppose it's answered when she climbs up into the back and squeezes herself into a corner, while the flurry of activity around Nick continues, and the doors swing closed.
The ambulance pulls away, sirens wailing, and what's left of their core team stands there, lost. Someone, one of the ARC's medics, most likely, says something about shock. About everyone heading to the hospital, too, for shock and smoke inhalation and whatever else. Connor's not even sure which hospital they've taken Cutter to, whether they'll be heading to the same one. He supposes so.
The innocent fun of earlier that day seems so distant now.
Cutter ends up in a coma. Helen thinks she succeeded, since the house sits empty and the ARC team goes around acting like he's dead, because a coma is...not dead, but not a guarantee of life, either.
Connor is like a ghost, half the time, the rest he's just always on the verge of crying, not that the others are any better.
He has his promise to Cutter, the Artefact to figure out, and the locking device, and there are still anomalies to deal with. He can't fall apart, especially when Cutter isn't actually dead (yet, his brain whispers). Everything rests on him, though, at least until (if) Cutter wakes up.
And then there's the chance of brain damage, as well, which sits there, too, along with the other worries. That if it happens, if Cutter wakes but has brain damage, that it's Connor's fault for not bringing him outside soon enough.
He tried to tell Abby about it,, but she just told him it wasn't his fault and that he'd saved nick.
They take turns visiting him in hospital, sitting by his bedside. Connor can never bring himself to say anything, but he knows Abby talks to him, around him, either. Jenny is quiet, at the ARC, once repairs begin. She doesn't say much to the unconscious professor, either, not so far as Connor's heard.
The only spot of life is the flat, and watching Sid and Nancy meet and play with Rex (who tolerates them, more than anything else, but seems to enjoy the company regardless). That's the only times Connor finds himself smiling or laughing those days.
Connor avoids the ARC when they announce theyve managed the get into the main area, where the blast originated. (He misses them pull the remains of the Cutter Clone from the wreckage, which is good, because even though they know it's not him it still shakes everyone up all over again, the dead man who looks like Nick. He is very much definitely dead.)
Eventually the fires are all out, the wreckage and dead bodies removed, and repairs begin on the ARC.
Tbc, I have a definite idea where this is going ooooo