Several characters as well as the setting for this story are borrowed from the TV series
Prey and do not belong to me. No copyright infringement is intended. No profits
have been made from this story, it is posted here purely for fun.
This story was conceived somewhat out of sequence. It takes place some time not long after
Tom has mostly recovered from his experience in the cage. I may go back and write that story
eventually, but I want to finish this one first. :-) If you have visited this site before you may notice that
the layout has changed. This is due to technical glitches with my HTML editor.
The story is now broken up into smaller chunks for ease of editing.
I have also done some significant re-writing this week. The story is still not complete,
so be advised that re-writes are
a regular thing and you may see the story change even more over the next few weeks until it is finished.
Lineage
It was a beautiful sunset.
Dr. Sloan Parker looked out the lab window and very deliberately stopped updating her journal. She'd been making notes on the preliminary results of her comparative gene mapping between Homo sapiens and Homo dominants, but looking at the sunset she wondered if genes could really tell the whole story.
We have to take the time to notice, she thought. That may be all the difference in the end.
After a several minutes, with only a few rays of color left on the horizon, Sloan realized she needed to get her things together to go. She shoved her journal in her backpack and started organizing the files one her desk.
"Hey, Sloan, you want to order take out? I've got some test results that should be ready by the time the food gets here and we could go over them together..." Ed walked into her office without even looking up from his sheaf of papers until he almost ran into Sloan's hand, which she stuck out to fend him off.
"No."
"Huh? What's up?" Ed brushed his hair out of his eyes and gave her a puzzled look.
Sloan picked up her bag and her jacket from her desk and, grinning, she held them before her like a shield as she started to edge towards the door.
"I said no." She explained patiently, "As in No, I am not staying late. And No, sorry, I have plans tonight."
"Plans?" Ed repeated and grinned. "I thought the only people allowed to have plans were the ones not trying to save the world."
Sloan laughed. "Oh, come on Ed. It's been pretty quiet this week..." She hesitated, "but if you really need me to stay..." Her face fell into lines of concern and she stopped heading for the door.
It made Ed's heart sore to realize how little he saw Sloan enjoy herself anymore. He made a quick decision. The test results could wait.
"Oh, no, no. I hate being given consultations out of pity..." He grinned. "You go ahead - you've earned the night off."
"Thanks."
And once again Ed was stunned by how her smile could light up the grey and steel lab.
They walked out of her office and Ed followed her to the lab entrance.
"So what are the big plans?" He asked.
"It's sort of a commemoration..." She smiled shyly and look down.
"Of what?"
"It was six months ago tonight that Tom came into my life, and I've invited him to dinner to celebrate." Sloan watched as Ed's smile became a little stiff and knew, no matter how much he had learned to trust Tom as an ally, he didn't approve their relationship.
What Ed wanted to say was: He came into your life to KILL you, for Christ's sake! But instead he tried to joke. "Shouldn't you wait a year before you start having anniversaries?"
She looked Ed straight in the eyes and said softly, "Sometimes, looking at what we are up against, I wonder if we have a year...." She smiled to soften her pessimism.
'Yeah," Ed relented, nodding in understanding, "I guess I can't blame you for that."
"I gotta run, Tom is meeting me at the apartment." Sloan patted his arm and turned to leave. "See you tomorrow."
"Be good!" Ed called out after her.
She grinned back over her shoulder but her teasing reply was forgotten when she saw the genuine concern in his eyes. She just waved and kept going.
***
Tom watched as Sloan entered the parking lot with her keys out and headed quickly for her car.
He could see her scanning the lot making a quick check for any unusual cars, noting the guard at the gate and charting the quickest, clearest path to the exit.
Good. She was being careful.
His eyes never left her as she headed towards him and her car.
Tom's meeting with Mark had ended early so he had come to meet Sloan at the lab. He had made his routine survey of the lot when he'd arrived ten minutes ago. He'd also checked her car for tampering and confirmed the identity of the guard on the gate. With all that done he gave himself over to experiencing Dr. Sloan Parker's presence.
She was beautiful to look at, even in her everyday blue jeans and white T-shirt. Her hair was a wild, auburn frame of curls around her face and that might have been all you would notice about her except that she had the largest, deepest eyes Tom had ever seen. From the first time he had met her, those green eyes had haunted him every minute he was away from her.
But it wasn't her beauty that most affected Tom. He closed his eyes for a moment and reached out his mind to her. Her excitement and anticipation ruffled through his awareness, and he smiled without understanding why. He felt her as she swept through his thoughts, and somewhere deep in his soul an empty space was filled. She knew him.
It was a connection he craved and had never expected to find in a human, but it had grown with Sloan. Especially since his rescue from the lab. He had not discussed it with her, however. She never brought it up and so neither did he. It was not something he could easily put into words in any case.
As Sloan approached her car, Tom moved away from the van that he had been standing next to and started towards her. She looked up at him and he felt the shock of fear that went through her. The breath went out of him as if he had been hit in the stomach. His mouth was dry.
She stopped.
"Sloan?" He called to her and holding his empty hands away from his body he moved slowly into the pool of light from the street lamp next to her car. As if approaching one of his own kind, he mentally projected his lack of threat.
As quickly as it had come Tom felt her fear dissolved.
"Tom!" She called back with relief in her voice and half ran to meet him.
"I didn't mean to startle you." He said as he slipped his arms around her. He searched her face trying to make sense of her human reaction. She had known him, acknowledged him when he brushed up against her mind. What had scared her?
"I just couldn't make out your face in the dark and for a second I wasn't sure who was coming towards me." She smiled, settling into his embrace and putting her arms around his waist.
"You didn't know it was me." He said, not questioning but confirming the fact.
"Right, like I said, I couldn't see you face..."
"I forgot." He said. "I forgot you wouldn't sense me the way I sense you." It was a ridiculous explanation. Her presence had acknowledged his. It was as natural as breathing to assume that she had known it was him.
Even as he thought this he sought out her mind again, probing gently with curiosity and affection. He invited response.
There.
Sloan's eyes widened and her smile faltered, "I'm sorry, Tom, I wish I could..."
Tom stared at her. He knew there had been a response, he couldn't mistake that, but she seemed totally unaware of it.
"It's all right." He said quickly. "It's just that I am so ..... comfortable... with you, Sloan. I've never felt that with a human. It guess it just seems natural that you should be able to sense me." He kissed her gently. "Let's go." He wanted out of the exposed parking lot. Better to get to a safe place and approach the topic with Sloan again.
"It was nice of you to come and meet me." She said as they walked to her car. She unlocked it and then went over to the driver's side. "Get in so we can go shopping, get home and have dinner. I have a very special menu planned." She grinned.
"What?" Tom asked, and cocked his head.
"Would you believe oysters?"
She laughed, but Tom was not sure he understood why she thought oysters were so funny.