title: Stop All The Clocks
author: olivia_j
fandom: Primeval
characters: Claudia, OMC
rating: G
word count: 340
challenge: #1 lost hour
summary: A year was a long time, then.



A year was a long time, then. It seemed like forever, one autumn to the next when the air would chill and she could smell the edge of the cold, sharp inside her nose. "Come on, Claudie," her father would say (and he was the only one who ever called her that), "come on."

She was reading a book about ponies, sounding out the words like she was learning at school, and she frowned. "Time to change," her father said. "Daylight savings, Claudie. Time put the clocks back."

There were twelve clocks in their house, Claudia had counted, and, one by one, they wound them back. "Careful," her father said. He opened the glass front of the big clock in the hall, then lifted her up. "Gently," he said. "This is a grandfather clock and it's very old and special." Claudia reached out, pushing the long hand back in the wrong direction as slowly as she could.

"Whose grandfather?" she asked, because such a precious clock must belong to someone.

"No one's," her father said, smiling, and Claudia nodded, serious. There were so many things to think about, so many things that she didn't quite understand and she was sure that when she was older, it would all become clear.

"Where does the hour go?" she said, because it must go somewhere.

She thinks now that someone else's father might have given her some frivolous, silly answer, some throwaway lie about an hour going to fairyland or something equally ridiculous, but Claudia's father said, quite solemn, "The hour is given to someone who needs it."

"Who needs an hour?"

"Lots of people, Claudie." He looked sad, like he knew a terrible secret. "Lots of people need an hour."

And now Claudia can feel it, something ominous hanging over her, her reflection in the mirror broken into bright prisms. Something is coming, she knows, she can feel it deep in her bones, but she closes her eyes, shakes her head.

One more hour, she says to herself. One more hour.