Alternate Nick/Connor father/son fic idea's. No related to the previous part. Consider this an interlude until I rewatch the series and get back into it again.

Connor was found abandoned on Nick Cutters doorstep, a year old.

Nick watched Connor from the corner of his eye; not because Connor was a disruptive child; he was no more mischevious than any otherseven year old Nick had had the displeasure of meeting, in fact, Connor was far less annoying than other children his age. Nick could only put that down to the fact that he and his young son shared a love for dinosaurs, and palaeontology in all it's forms; he had been taking him with him to digs, lectures, anything and everything of interest since he had been found.

Nick didn't know why Helen had left him so suddenly eight years ago, or why she would return a year and a half later to dump their son on his doorstep. Thankfully Connor didn't really question his mothers whereabouts. He seemed content for it to just be Connor and Dad.

At the moment his son was typing away on the laptop he had salvaged from somewhere in the office; Nick thought it might have been the first one the university ever gave him that he had never used. Nick wasn't entirely sure what his child was looking up, but Stephen had assured him that the parental controls were all in place, and he was reasonably convinced it was probably dinosaurs, or aliens, or whatever had taken Connor's fancy this week. Last month it had been the Loch Ness Monster, and he hadn't stopped talking about until Nick relented and took him to Scotland for a trip round Loch Ness so he could search for himself. When no monster was sighted his son had claimed it a conspiriacy and the government was covering it up.

Where Connor got these idea's he didn't know, though he was beginning to suspect it might actually be a few of the students in his lectures. Connor always sat in on the late one's after school. He had just the other day received an abysmal dissertation on how Dinosaurs had been wiped out by Aliens.

"Dad." Connor said suddenly.

Nick looked over to see his son frowning at the computer screen. "Yeah?" he asked, wondering when exactly Connor had stopped calling him 'Daddy' all the time.

"Come look." The seven year old demanded.

Nick sighed and got up, making his way across the room to peer at the computer screen. "What am I looking at?" he asked after a moment.

"Monster sighting." Connor said with glee. "In the forest of Dean. Can we go?"

"No." was the immeadiate answer.

"Awww! Dad please!" Connor was pulling his puppy dog eyes. "It'll be fun, and I promise I'll stay beside you or Stephen this time."

"You said that last time and nearly got eaten by a crocodile." His father reminded, his blood still goes cold when he remembered their holiday in america. They had gone to Disneyland, and Nick had dragged Stephen along simply because the man hadn't stopped laughing since he'd heard. It had been a random freak thing, but Connor had wandered off and the next thing he heard was screaming. He hated people who bought exotic pets only to get rid of them in ways that would endanger kids later.

"Please Daddy?"

Nick raised his eyebrow at his sons obvious attempt at manipulation. "No."

Connor's face twisted up and he sighed, turning back to his computer. Nick turned back to his work, and would have missed his sons next words had he not become so in tune with him over the years. "Maybe we could find out why Mum left."

Nick looked over sharply, frowning deeply. He had never told Connor that the Forest of Dean was where Helen had been going the day she'd left, searching for the root of some strange occurrences. Connor had never asked about his mother, and Nick had never known what to tell him, so he had said nothing. Had he asked someone else? Stephen?... No, his friend would have told him if Connor had come to him with questions.

He closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose, and knew he, Connor and Stephen would be making a trip to the Forest of Dean tomorrow.

Father/Son Take 2: Helen raised Connor while travelling through the anomaly's

"I can help."

Nick glanced round at the small boy who had come to stand at his elbow. He sighed and turned back to his work. He had not, as of yet, come to terms with Helen's reappearance in his life, and the son she had dumped on him before leaving again. He had taken to mostly ignoring him, and the child seemed self sufficient enough.

The boy sighed lightly when he received no answer.

Nick looked round some twenty minutes later when he realised he had not heard the child moving round the office for that amount of time. He found Connor seated on the floor holding one of his palaeontology books, fingers tracing over the pictures.

"You like dinosaurs?" he asked before he had time to think.

Connor looked up startled, and shut the book with a start, looking very guilty.

Nick stood and walked over to him, taking the book, and huffing a small laugh as he realised it was the first book on palaeontology he had ever received, when he'd first started expressing an interest in old bones and dinosaurs. "You know much about them?"

Connor shrugged. "Just what Mum would tell me if we saw them… but usually we were too busy running a…way… is something wrong?"

Nick stood stock still, trying to decide if the boy just had a really vivid imagination, or was being serious. "Saw them?" he asked.

Connor nodded enthuasistically. "Yeah, me and Mum have seen lots of dinosaurs, but we never really got to stay long. I was too little for her to study them propourly. I… she always told me that when we found a way back to you she would be able to go back and study them the way she wanted to." He looked away, sadly.

Nick ended up on the floor, sagging and staring at the dark haired boy before him. "How?" was all he could think to ask.

"'Nomalies." Connor said easily. "They're shiny things that you walk through and end up sometime else. We've been lots of places. Maybe when I'm big enough Mum will take me with her again."

Nick stopped listening as his brain went into overdrive, because Connor was telling the truth, he had seen real, live dinosaurs, and the thought of that was just so… And it explained so much… Helen's disappearance, the recent monster sightings in the Forest of Dean. He would need to look into this, he would need to find out what was going on.

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Connor watched sadly as the man his mum had called his father got to his feet and walked off, back to his desk, pulling out his laptop and beginning to furiously type with one hand, they other scribbling at a page. It seemed that once again he had become and unwanted burden. Knowing it was best to just stay quiet and let his parent get on with what they were doing Connor opened the book his father had dropped and went back to leaning about the fascinating, and terrifying creatures he had seen for his entire life.

I didn't mean for Nick to come off as so uncaring, but he just hasn't come to terms with Connor yet, and has now just learned about the anomalies.