Beep
Beep
Beep
Jess scrunched up her face and buried her head into the soft comfort that was her pillow. She always hated the way that her alarm jolted her awake of a morning but it did the job at least. Forcing herself out of the snuggly confides of her duvet, she padded over to her wardrobe and set to the task of getting ready for work, if you could call it work. Jess Parker loved her job working at the ARC and every single aspect made the absurdly early mornings bearable.
Her beloved ADD, the team who had rapidly accepted her into the family at the ARC and had equally as rapidly became her closest friends, hell even Lester's sarcasm was enjoyable if you didn't take it to heart. Jess was so grateful for the job she had achieved and, despite being one of the newest and the youngest at the ARC, was determined to not make any mistakes. Mistakes cost lives. A lesson that she had picked up in late night story sharing when Abby and Connor had been inhabitants in her apartment for the first few months after they had returned to the present day from the Cretaceous.
She couldn't imagine being trapped like that. Fighting for your life every day, no way home, no ADD, no ARC, No chocolate...no Becker... Jess shook her head and focused on the array of clothes staring back at her from her wardrobe and eventually decided upon wearing her favourite navy blue dress with white polka-dots, purple heels with a white bow sewn on to the top to match. As she slipped her jacket over her shoulders, she remembered that last time she wore it when a certain soldier had complimented, or rather tried to compliment, that exact garment and ended up stumbling over his words. She giggled at the memory of a slight flush filling Becker's cheeks and travelling to his ears as he tried to recover his statement before Jess had saved him and changed the subject to the reports she carried in her hand. Although Abby had tried to convince her that it had been a sure sign of Becker's 'feelings' towards her, she had been adamant that it was just a friendly compliment and Abby had rolled her eyes in exasperation.
Pouring her newly brewed coffee into her favourite mug, she leaned back against her kitchen side and held it in her hands, gently blowing onto the surface of the liquid in an attempt to help it cool. Jess slowly made her way over her settees and admired the collage board she had hung on the wall adjacent to her TV. It was a collection of pictures she had acquired and mostly taken herself through her time working at the ARC. Her gaze rested upon her favourite picture out of them all and she gently took the corner of it between her thumb and index finger. She seemed to remember that it was Connor who had insisted that Jess and Becker have a picture together since 'so many had been taken of him that morning'. Dropping her hand from the picture to clasp around her mug, Jess looked at the way Becker's arm had curled round her shoulders and had found purchase on the top of her arm, gently holding her closer to his side than was necessary.
If Jess closed her eyes she could still feel the warmth seeping into her body from his wherever their skin was touching, his hand clasping gently around her bare shoulder... She was jolted out of her daydream by a burning sensation on her left hand as she realised her mug had tilted and spilled hot coffee right onto her hand. 'Aw damn!' she exclaimed and rushed to run cold water over her hand. The sensation of cold water running across her red skin was heavenly and the burning pain quickly subsided. 15 minutes later Jess was quickly checking her make-up and hair one final time in her bedroom mirror. Her hand was still red and quite sore from the coffee but, compared to the injuries sustained in this line of work, she figured it was just a scratch. She quickly pulled on her long red coat and headed out of the front door, twisted her key in the lock, and headed down the flight of stairs towards her car parking space.