Title: Feel the Fear (And Do It Anyway) (1/1)
Author: bigtitch
Word Count: 580
Rating: GEN
Characters/Pairing: Stephen, Ryan, Claudia
Author notes:A fixit for the Fixit Challenge. Also inspired by the Monthly Challenge. Being nagged encouraged by fredbassett helped things along as well.

Stephen is afraid, but that doesn't mean the work stops.




Smells and sound were the worst, Stephen found. He had dreams. Boy, did he have dreams! Full Technicolor, sensurround 3D with all the trimmings. But dreams happened at irregular, but predictable times. He’d be asleep for a start, and usually in bed. And they were starting to only happen now when he was very stressed or had got over-tired. Admittedly this was rather more frequent than he would like, but that was just for a while. Just until they had completed their task.

But the sound of screeching metal and the smell of raw meat would do it when he was awake. And it could come out of nowhere. Like now, outside the door of the halal butchers at the end of the road. He'd forgotten they were there. And of course their door was open on a hot day like today. And one sniff of sweet, iron-rich flesh and he was there. Back in the room. Back there waiting for the first touch of teeth or claws. Knowing that he was doing the right thing, but so wanting to live. So afraid. So very afraid.

'Stephen. Stephen mate! Are you OK?'

It's Ryan. Of course. As it was Ryan that time as well. The first touch had not been from a raptor, but Ryan's hand on his arm. And he had opened his eyes to see the impossible - Tom Ryan alive and with a device for controlling anomalies in his hand.

It always seemed that it was Ryan who would rescue him. He was doing it now. Calling him out of the wave of fear that swamped him and left him shivering on the side of the road.

Stephen forced his mind to work and his mouth to speak.

'Sorry. I’m sorry. It's just the smell of meat. It always does it to me.'

Ryan cast a glance at the open door of the butchers' shop and pulled Stephen forward.

'It's OK. You're not there. You're here. It didn't happen. It's not happening now.'

Stephen's feet started moving and he could follow where Ryan was leading. As they moved away from the shop the smell of meat faded and Stephen found it easier to move on from the paralysis that had gripped him.

'What's up?' This was Claudia, back from where she had been walking ahead.

'The smell. Sorry.' Stephen gestured back to the shop.

'Oh,' Claudia looked concerned at him. 'You still OK to go on?'

'Yes, it's OK.'

'Good. Because we need you today.'

Claudia walked on with a decisive step and Ryan and Stephen fell in behind her.

Stephen knew he was needed. Claudia had found them all at points in time. She had collected Ryan. Ryan had collected Stephen and today they were going to collect Cutter. Slowly, in and out of timelines, Claudia was pulling together a team to defeat the anomalies. They all had scars one way or another. Ryan’s were physical, his were mental and he'd never met anyone quite so shut down emotionally as Matt. But they were getting the job done. They may be limping, but they were moving forward.

They turned a corner into an ordinary street that Stephen knew well. And there in the distance, he could see a familiar figure walking towards them.

'There he is!' Stephen and Claudia spoke at the same time and then smiled at each other.

'Let’s go get him,' said Ryan.

Stephen started to jog forward. 'Nick!'

The End