isamazed

Title: Pride, Pups and Prejudice, Part 1/9
Author: isamazed
Word count: 16,500 in 9 parts (approx. 1,600 in this part)
Characters: Becker/Ryan, Connor, Abby, Kermit, Blade, Finn
Rating: MA
Warnings: pup!verse (Alpha/Omega verse with puppies and mpreg), lots of hurt, and only little comfort… If you read pup!verse for some TLC, you’ll probably regret opening this one!
Disclaimer: Primeval belongs to Impossible Pictures. I only write for fun…
Summary: Ryan and Becker struggle with their relationship.
A/N: The pups belong to fififolle. Blade, Kermit, Stringer and Finn belong to fredbassett. Thanks for trusting me with your OCs!
Thank you, fifi, for the beta, suggestions, language support, cheerleading and generous help provided to a newbie whirling up your pup!verse

The SUVs came to a screeching halt on the tattered tarmac. The ADD had picked up a signal in the countryside in Cambridgeshire. Becker jumped out of the car and stopped dead as soon as he turned towards the direction of the signal. He heard his squad and the two civilians get out of the cars. As soon as they had turned towards the anomaly, they stood still just like Becker.

“What the…?” Becker was the first to find words again. “What are they? And why on earth are there so many?” The anomaly had opened in the middle of a huge field with cows in it. Not that anyone would see much of that anymore, but at least there was a solid fence around the field. Thank God, Becker thought. The field was crowded with literally dozens of dinosaurs. They had a flat beak and thick noses and in front of their eyes they had a small, spiky crest. There were smaller ones, juveniles obviously, that were bipedal. The older, bigger ones walked on four legs. And big they were – the largest seemed to reach a length of approx. 30 feet. They were herbivores, happily chewing on the grass where they had enough space to get their heads down to the earth. A few cows were spread in the mix but didn’t look too uncomfortable. The field was cramped.

“Oh my God, Maiasaura!” Connor almost started bouncing in delight and started to rattle off what he knew about the beasts. “They are from the Cretaceous. Their name means something like ‘good mother’ because they’re suspected to have taken good care of their juveniles. We’d better not startle them – the big ones might easily weigh 1 or 2 tons.” He now adapted a rather concerned look but couldn’t help adding an “Aren’t they pretty?”

“But why are there so many?” Finn still stared at the animals with his mouth hanging open.

“Uhm, well, actually it could have been much worse… Research suggests that their herds might have counted up to 10,000 animals.” Connor cast them an apologetic smile. “Maybe they stopped coming through because of the fences around the field. Good job the anomaly opened in such a big and solid one.”

“How are we going to get them back?” Becker tried to focus on the task at hand. He didn’t even want to think about what would happen if such a huge herd decided to go on the rampage in one of the nearby villages. His question was met with silence. “Any ideas? Connor? Abby?” He gave it another try.

Connor looked rather clueless. Abby shrugged her shoulders but Becker could practically see an idea forming in her head. “Maybe, if we could get a crane and a big net filled with some yummy fresh grass? With a little luck we could convince them to go back, if the crane would lift the food right in front of the anomaly?” she suggested cautiously.

Becker looked at the narrow lane and the state it was in. It would be a precision job but any vehicle driving along this way would need to go slowly anyway. They couldn’t take a chance on startling even one of the huge dinosaurs. A mass panic of those huge beasts would almost certainly result in massive property damage and casualties. They needed to get them back to their own time. There was no way they could simply herd the animals back. There were just too many and they were too huge to take that risk. Lester would kill him if the anomaly closed with a herd of those huge beasts stuck in modern times. Abby’s suggestion probably was their only chance.

“Okay, let’s do it. Blade, close the road on the south end. Kermit, you’ll do the same in the north. Make sure you stop everybody at a good distance so that no one can see those things or startle them with loud engine noise. I’ll have the police close off the area so that you, Blade and Kermit, can return and help us contain the animals when they arrive. Abby, Connor, call Jenny and tell her that we need a mobile crane and whatever feed you think will do the job. But tell her the driver needs to go slow and keep the noise of the engine down! Everyone else, spread around the field and watch those beasts but for God’s sake go slow and be careful, and keep your bloody noise down.” He quietly barked out his orders and saw everybody immediately follow suit. They had been damn lucky that no one had used the quiet lane since the herd had come through the anomaly.

A few hours later, the crane had arrived, and they had managed to slowly but steadily lift a huge net filled with hay right in front of the anomaly. The dinosaurs, however, showed no interest and kept munching on the fresh grass on the ground. Becker glanced at his watch. 3pm. They would obviously need to wait this one out. Those bloody “good mother” dinosaurs would keep him from his pups. So much for that. He sighed and took a few steps away from the field to call Ryan. They’ve had some serious budget cuts and now worked on a tight three-shift rota, with three teams and no additional back-up. And today, of all days, Mrs Newall from nursery had made it quite clear that the pups would need to be picked up by 5pm at the latest for her having some guests from overseas. He briefly thought about calling his dad for help, but Allen was still recovering from a bad flu that he’d come down with the week before. Fuck, maybe Stringer could swap shifts with Ryan.

+++

Ryan was properly pissed off. Becker had called in the afternoon because he’d got stuck with some bloody beasts in the countryside. Stringer had met his request to swap shifts (again) with some of the barrack curses he was famous for but had finally agreed. It was 11.30pm now and the pups were sleeping. The kids had been upset, missing Becker, and there had been a lot of whining. Ryan was on his feet since Becker’s alarm had gone off at 6.30am and he still had a full shift ahead of him. He needed to show up at the ARC in 30 minutes. How the fuck could it be so difficult to herd some creatures back to their own time?! They did it all the time.

Since they’d started to work on the new rota he’d already been late twice because he needed to wait for Becker to return home from some tedious anomaly call. They couldn’t leave the kids alone after all. Somehow Becker never managed to call with enough time to arrange for Allen or one of the uncles to help out. Ryan had recently reached out to the Colonel to talk about his chances for promotion and had received the short reply they didn’t consider him quite ready for it and that they would need every candidate to be a role model for their team. Some other things had been left unspoken but had hung heavily in the air.

+++

Becker parked the car in front of their house at 11.36pm. He took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair. The day had been a bloody nightmare. He was knackered. The Maiasaura had finally picked up on their lure and started going back through to their own time, but only after they had transformed the field into a brown mess of earth and dung. They had taken the cows with them. Unfortunately, they had turned out to be some award-winning animals. Their owner had started making a fuss and Lester had almost ripped Becker’s head off after being confronted with the claim for compensation.

Becker got out of the car and looked down at his combats. They were full of mud and other things he didn’t even want to think about. God, all he wanted now was a good night’s sleep, a shower, and a tight hug from Ryan. Not necessarily in that order. He walked to their front door and wrestled with his keys when the door flung open. His lips immediately formed a smile at the sight of his alpha but morphed into a frown as he took in the expression on Ryan’s face.

“What the fuck kept you so long?! My shift starts in 20 minutes. I’ll be late again!” The words were practically thundering out of Ryan, accompanied by a low growl. Becker was taken aback, temporarily paralyzed by shock and the need to fall on his knees at the verbal attack of the furious alpha in front of him. A small whine escaped him involuntarily.

“Tom, sorry I’m late. The anomaly was a real bastard. We had to…,” he started but was immediately cut off by Ryan.

“Know what? I don’t care actually. Your career is not the only thing that matters, Becker. You have a family to take care of as well.”

Becker just stared at him. Had Ryan really just said that? He knew he wasn’t a typical omega, but Ryan had always supported him, and Becker had thought he was fine with the way they were doing things.

“I know. Tom, listen, we didn’t know it would take that long. You know how unpredictable our job can be. It was just an exception...”

Again, Ryan did not wait for him to finish his sentence. He bared his teeth and barked, “It’s not, Beck. And you know it. Maybe it’s about time for you to reconsider your priorities. You should be at home for your pups!” With these words Ryan was pushing past Becker and heading towards the car that Becker had just parked. Without so much as looking back, he got into the vehicle and drove away.

Becker was still standing outside their front door, struggling for air.

Part 2