Primeval - A Grave New World

18. Team Players

Toby woke up within the polished confines of a hospital treatment room. Her leg up in a sling. Miraculously, the pain had all-but gone. Whatever the doctors and nurses had given her was obviously working wonders on it.

She suddenly began to recount everything that had happened as if she had just unlocked a memory she'd forgotten she had. Every little detail of the past few days was playing out in her head, the rediscovery of Danny Quinn and the survivors of the Cryolophosaurus attack, the numerous anomalies opening up, and the many Jurassic dinosaurs that came back and forth, and her near fatal attack which was the reason she was here.

It was then that she snapped out of this daydream and noticed Mac lying on another bed beside her, battered and bloody. He didn't look good.

"Mac!" she whispered in desperation, "Mac!"

She attempted to reach out to him with her arm, but the beds were too far apart to make contact. Mac meanwhile remained motionless, his face covered in stitches and his right arm bundled up with a bandage though still the blood showed through. There was also an oxygen mask covering his mouth and nose.

"Mac!" she spoke again, her voice weak and frail.

All of a sudden, the doors flung open and in walked the Pliocene survivor himself Danny Quinn to the little polished room. Although happy and relieved to see him, she was too worried about Mac to show any of it on her face.

"What took you so long?" she uttered, almost breathless.

"You have no idea how happy I am to see you awake Toby! I'm glad Becker got you out of there when he did! These bloody dinosaurs keep trying to eat our friends," Danny replied, jokingly.

"What happened to Mac?" asked Toby, cutting to the chase and ignoring his attempt at humour.

Danny's warm smile faded as he took a deep breath.

"It's... not good." he started, trying to form the words he wanted to say. Toby felt like she was on the verge of tears as she clutched the edges of the bedsheets.

"He's alive, don't worry!" it finally occurred to Danny to say, "but he needs rest, we found him earlier under a pile of rubble."

Danny paused for a moment, seemingly waiting for Toby to catch up and process what he said. Toby was about to speak when Danny chimed in again.

"Listen, you need rest too, just try and relax. Both you and Mac are safe here, and will be fine! I need to go back and help with the clean up, I'll see you later."

And as quickly as he had arrived, Danny was gone. Back through the doors before Toby could even ask about anything that had happened. Toby was left in silence, pondering everything under the sun. The only sounds to break this silence were the occasional beeping and clicking of hospital equipment. She was calmer now though. The news that Mac was alright, despite appearances, was good.

As she glanced around her little shared room, there really wasn't much to look at. The window was too far away to look out of it properly and all she could see was the pale blue sky with a dusting of clouds. Luckily within the room though, there was a clock hanging on the wall which read 3pm. She'd been sleeping for at least an hour then.

Not much time passed before she began to get restless, but her leg was in no condition to be moved. Every time she adjusted it, the pain came flooding back so she kept it as still as she could. The beeping continued without fault. Everything was still but for the occasional figure hurrying past the doors - most likely some doctor rushing to get to their next appointment. The atmosphere was sterile and dull. It felt far removed from her home in Canada and the working environment at Cross Photonics.

She wondered how Evan, Dylan and Ange were getting on over there. Maybe they were dealing with their own anomaly incursion, and presumably they'd be informed about her and Mac's conditions. Or maybe not? Toby wasn't sure. She longed to go back home more than ever now, and hoped to god that Leeds had got his act together and managed to lock the anomaly properly this time.

She glanced out towards the window again. A couple of birds flew by in formation which made her long to be as free as that just for once, away from worries and responsibilities. She hoped they were birds anyway - and not pterosaurs. The notion made her scoff.

A low groan brought her attention back to the room. It was Mac. He was stirring and starting to wake up. Toby was in delight. Even though Danny had told her he was ok and she believed him, it was still good to know it was completely true.

He slowly sat up and coughed a few times, his back creaking as he did so. He was no doubt in considerable pain, but his wounds appeared to have stopped bleeding at least from what Toby could see through the bandages. As he fumbled with removing the mask stuck to his face, his eyes darted across the room and met with Toby's

"Tobes?"

"Hey Mac."

"Did Danny bring you here as well?"

"No but, let me get this straight. Danny rescued you?"

"Uh huh," Mac replied, "I owe him my life, but don't tell him I said that!" he cracked a smile. Something about that made Toby chuckle slightly.

"So how are you feeling about him now?" Toby said in a patronising way after some silence.

"What Danny? Uh I dunno," said Mac, "I guess he's alright."

That was good to hear. The sooner Mac dropped his attitude towards Danny, the better.

"Hmm, well like you said, you owe him your life for saving you, even if you can't admit it to anyone else but me, and even if you never tell him," Toby started again, "I'm glad you feel better about him now."

"Starting to."

"Besides that, what happened to your leg Tobes? Looks like it's been chewed by an oversized dog!"

"Minus the dog part, you're spot on," Toby smirked, "a dinosaur had a cheeky nibble."

They both shared a laugh. They enjoyed being together, they almost felt like siblings sometimes.

"How'd you get away?" Mac asked, adjusting himself to be more comfy on the narrow bed.

"Well technically Becker did, while Danny led the dinosaurs away."

"Becker's here?" Mac's eyes widened, "I had no idea he was out here too!"

"He arrived just as I was attacked, call it good timing."

"Yeah that was pretty lucky I guess. I dread to think what would've happened if he wasn't in the right place at the right time."

The pair laughed some more before falling silent into sleep as they let their wounds heal up. It was nice to be reunited with one another. After the last few days' ordeal, Toby finally felt happy.