The ARC - London

[itsananomaly]

It had been a very long and busy several days once Cutter and Connor had returned to London. Even though they were no longer involved with the field work, there was still a lot of research to be done both with the ARC and Prospero.

Cutter and Connor had been given an office to work out of while they were back for the summer, since Cutter’s old office now belonged to Danny ,and there were papers and books all over the office. Cutter was still trying to figure out what some of the numbers from the anomaly prediction model before they had left Fandom and the numbers and data was starting to blur together and he rubbed his eyes tiredly.

“I’m starting to think we might need a break,” he remarked with a sheepish smile from where he had taken a spot on the floor, surrounded by a pile of papers and notebooks.

[for Connor and SP! NFB due to distance]

Comments

[itsananomaly]

Cutter bit his lip at but nodded, "that would help us," he said softly, "but I think it can't be me to make that link," he said, rubbing the back of his neck, "I think James would think that I'm too blindsided by Helen, desperate to make a connection," he said softly.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"True... and it wouldn't be too far a stretch for Lester to think that at first" Connor gave a small apologetic shrug and smile. "It has to be me going in and digging around again. I know Prospero better than anyone... even better than Danny or Lester or even Connor right now. This... this is something I have to do."

[itsananomaly]

Cutter nodded worriedly, "I just hate that you have to put yourself in such a dangerous position," he said softly, "you'll be careful won't you?" he knew Connor could take care of himself but he was still going to worry.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Aye, I will be careful, I promise. It's risky but I AM the best qualified of any of us to try and get in and see what Philip is up to in this timeline," Connor reached out and took Cutter's hand and gave it a squeeze. "I will be fine. We both will be. I am going to make sure of it" he added as he gave a quick kiss to the back of Cutter's hand.

[itsananomaly]

Cutter returned the hand squeeze, comforted by the quick kiss, "aye and Phillip doesn't have any reason to distrust us, I just can't help but worry," he admitted softly, "Phillip has a lot of resources and connections to make our lives difficult if this doesn't work, I don't want to put you in that danger,"

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"We'll be as careful as we can be. And Lester and the ARC have some good resources and our team is the best there is. We will get through this." Connor gave one last squeeze then let go of Cutter's hand and turned to look at the stack of papers. "I think I have much data as I could get from the prediction model and our last few readings the team gathered for the anomalies."

[itsananomaly]

Cutter nodded, taking a deep breath, "and I've gone through Helen's notebook as well, I couldn't see any connection with her and Phillip but maybe she just hid it really well in her notes and I haven't been able to find it yet," he admitted.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"She was really good at covering her tracks and leaving things in code and in secret" Connor said as he added a few more papers to the file and sighed. "I always wondered if I was looking at answers the entire time and never realized it... maybe if I hadn't been so blinded...it wouldn't have taken so long for me to see that connection."

[itsananomaly]

"She was always good at fooling people, if I had handled things differently all those years ago, we never would have been in this situation now," Cutter sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, "maybe if I got out some of her old research, I might be able to work out what codes she used then and compare them to her notebook, I might be able to find some answers that way," he considered.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"We can work on that for sure... together," Connor said, emphasising the last word, knowing how much Cutter still blamed himself for Helen and what had happened with Stephen and everything. "It can't hurt to go back at things we haven't seen in a while and double-check to make sure we haven't missed anything."

[itsananomaly]

Cutter nodded, grateful that he had Connor with him for this, "thank you," he said softly, "having both of us go over it, will be more helpful, I know I've gone over it before but there's probably something I missed in the notes," he admitted softly.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Two pair of eyes and between us both, almost a full working brain" he said with a small nudge, trying to lighten the mood a little. "We could always head over to the archives and the library... see if there is anything in other records we might have missed?"

[itsananomaly]

Cutter gave a small smile at that, "that sounds like a great idea," he said, feeling a bit better, "the library does have a lot more records than we have, we're bound to find find something there that will help us,"

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Alright! To the library archives we go!" Connor said as he slipped the file folder and papers into his bag and slung it over his shoulder. "Let's go see what we can dig up!"

[itsananomaly]

Cutter grinned at that as he got Helen's notebook and some other books as well to take with him, "yes, we have a bit of time before we have to meet up with Becker and Danny, let's see if we can find something that will help us,"

[anomaly_research_nerd]

Connor nodded and as they headed down the hall and soon stepped out of the main office building, he reached out for Cutter's hand. It felt good to be out, in the sun and fresh air...they really had been spending too much time in the office lately.

"It's a good think the library is just a couple blocks away... I was starting to get a bit of cabin fever being in there for so long" he joked as they walked.

[itsananomaly]

Cutter smiled as he held Connor's hand, "I know what you mean, aside from when we met up with Duncan I can't think the last time we actually left the office was," he admitted.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

" Think we need to make this sort of thing a normal thing... research out of the office. We aren't chasing anomalies with the res tof the field team so... this could be our little thing. Research dates in a way" Connor said with a small chuckle as he gave Cutter's hand a squeeze.

[itsananomaly]

Cutter smiled as he returned the hand squeeze, "aye, that does sound nice research dates, I definitely could get used to that, it would be like us doing our own field work," he considered.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Aye, we are going to find our own routine and make the research our own."

Connor walked on in silence for a bit then stopped as they got to the stairs leading up into the library.

"Well, here we are! Let the adventure begin huh?" he said with a chuckle, not realizing just how real those word would tun out to be just then.

[itsananomaly]

Cutter smiled as they got to the library, "aye, let's see what we can find here for our research," he said, also not realising just how much of an adventure they were about to have, "we should be able to get some good work done here for a couple of hours at least," he considered.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Find some books and a table in the corner.... no Danny or Becker pranks to interrupt us" Connor said shaking his head a little, remembering the last little game of theirs that ended with Becker chasing Danny down the halls of the ARC building and back and forth out of Lester's office. "Will be nice and quiet here for a change."

[itsananomaly]

Cutter grinned, "that will definitely make a nice change," he agreed as he started to look down at the list of books that he had made for them to check out while they were in, "as nice as it is hanging out with everyone, it can get a bit loud at the ARC, it'll definitely be nice to be here in the quiet," he said, not knowing how that was going to change.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

Connor nodded and looked around as they walked in. "I'll drop my bag at a table and help you find those books. I have a few topics I'm curious to see if they have anything on."

[itsananomaly]

"Thank you," Cutter smiled, as he began to look in the direction that they needed for their books, "it will definitely help if both of us were looking, there's quite a few books in here," he said, "and that's not a bad idea, checking out what else they have that we may have missed, it will help when we present our information to James later on,"