unfortunate ➸ primeval

Chapter 19

Every time they solved an anomaly crisis, it was only a matter of time before another one sprung up, potentially more dangerous than its predecessor. The thought of this made Clara hate what her life had become, although she also secretly enjoyed the exhilaration that came with doing what she did as well.

It was strange, thinking about the world beyond the anomalies; just one step could take a person back hundreds of millions of years. That's what Helen did, and she'd lived there for eight years. She liked it there, she wanted to return there rather than stay in the twenty-first century. It was odd.

"Clara, have you heard a word I said?" A male voice sliced through her thoughts sharply. She jumped, almost hitting her head on the roof of the car.

She suddenly remembered where she was, and she glanced to the driver of the four-by-four. Stephen focused on the road, but his blue eyes flickered, every so often, to Clara.

Clara shook her head. "No, sorry. I must have been daydreaming. Was it important?"

Stephen sighed, looking a little hurt, but he composed himself quickly; regaining his cool, collected expression. "No, it's not important. I can tell you another time," he said. "Ah, here we are." He skilfully pulled into a tight parking space at the university, and killed the engine. "Come on, let's go."

"Why are we here again?" Clara frowned, getting out the car and stretching her arms. "I mean, it is a Saturday. I wanted to sleep in, not be rudely awoken by you at seven o'clock in the morning."

Stephen chuckled lightly. "I'm sorry about that," he told her. "But since the situation with Tom, I wanted to do some more research into these creatures, including parasites that may have been around at the time. And Cutter's office is the perfect place for that. He has more fossils and papers and archives than all of London's museums put together."

Clara stifled a yawn as they walked across campus. Seeing as it was a Saturday, most of the students wandering around were either the super-smart nerdy ones, or the hungover ones desperately looking for a cure.

"But why did you need to drag me with you?" She whined. "This sounds like a job you could do yourself."

"I wanted the company," Stephen shrugged easily, unlocking and opening the door to Nick Cutter's office. Clara curled up in her chair, ready to go back to sleep.

"Couldn't you have asked Abby?" She muttered bitterly. Stephen frowned, turning to face her.

"Why would I ask Abby?"

"Oh, come on," Clara scoffed. "You can't tell me that you haven't noticed she likes you. And from what I've seen, her feelings may be mutual."

"Abby and I are just friends," Stephen said, grabbing a large pile of papers.

"If you say so," Clara commented breezily.

"Okay," Stephen started slowly. "Say I did like her. Why would you be bothered?"

"I'm bothered because you could be waking up her at stupid o'clock in the morning rather than me," she mumbled irritably, pulling one of Cutter's spare jackets he kept in his office over her so she could go back to sleep.

——

"Clara. Clara, wake up," Stephen shook her shoulder gently. Her eyes fluttered open to see his handsome face hovering just a few inches above her own.

"What?" She mumbled tiredly, rubbing her eyes.

"There's been another attack," he explained. "Cutter called me, said we had to go down to the golf course nearby. It's not far, I'll drive us both."