In the Anomaly Research Center, Abby Maitland was pacing the control room while Jess tapped ineffectually at the keyboard. Between keystrokes she fielded frantic calls from agents trapped in various part of the ARC when the security system Connor had been testing had glitched, causing a lock-down
"What about Lester?" Jess asked.
Abby glanced up towards his office where Lester was also pacing, the phone pressed to his ear and his bearing tense. He continually adjusted the knot on his tie.
"Looks like he's on the phone with the Minister. I'm almost glad he cant get down here to yell about it."
Lester caught Abby's eye and strode to his desk. A moment later he returned to the window and pressed a piece of paper to the glass. "Find Connor NOW" it read in angry letters. "Now" was underlined three times.
Abby pulled out her mobile to try his number once again. This time she let it ring. She had no idea how many rings needed before it ticked over to voice-mail. She'd never had to wait that long for Connor to pick up a call from her.
After the tenth ring she finally heard the line pick up.
"Finally, Connor! We've got a problem, where have you-"
"Its me, Abby," The voice that interrupted her wasn't Connor's, it belonged to Captain Becker.
"Where's Connor, Becker, we need him, the ARC's security-"
"Is on the fritz again, I know." Becker said. "I'm actually at the ARC. I'm stuck inside the locker room. Looks like Connor forgot his phone in his locker, I liberated it when I heard it ringing."
"That's Becker?" Jess piped up. "Where is he? Maybe he can find Connor for us."
"No dice, he's locked in just like we are." Returning her attention to the phone "Why are you answering Connor's mobile and not your own? I must have tried you three times."
"Because, Abigail, my gear is in the lab and my towel doesn't have pockets."
"Oh, right." In another situation, Becker indignation would have been funny.
"What's the plan?"
Abby looked at Jess who only shrugged helplessly before turning back to the ARC's computer system.
"We'll get back to you when we come up with one." Abby hung up with Becker, then tried calling the flat she shared with Connor for the fifth time. There was no answer of course, so she left another desperate message on their machine. "Connor, if you are there, pick up. We have a problem at the ARC, where are you!?"
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Connor Temple sat on the divan as his late friend Tom's mother set a tea tray down on the table between them.
"How have you been, Connor?"
"Oh, you know, the usual Mrs-.. Sylvia. Research to do, papers to write. Nothing earth shattering." he cleared his throat and took a sip of the tea she offered him.
"Burt will be down in just a moment. I asked him to fetch something for me."
"And here he is with it then." The jolly ginger man stepped into the room, clapping Connor on the back before seating himself. He passed Sylvia a small package, then held her hand a moment as they looked at each other.
"Um, perhaps I should have called before I came to tea today?"
"Nonsense, Connor dear. Its always nice to have you here. Please come to see us anytime. We quite missed you when you left so suddenly. You didn't have to stay away after Tom died, you know."
Connor hung his head, always saddened by the mention of his lost friend. It still stung that he hadn't been able to tell Tom's parents the truth about how Tom had died, or why he had had disappeared for a year. At least he hadn't had to lie to Duncan, and the cover story has made Tom look suitably heroic.
"I know; I'm sorry, I couldn't…" he trailed off. He had no words to excuse himself.
"Its okay, mate." Burt's voice always began a bit gruff when talk turned to Tom. "We understand. The years have been rough on us."
"Still, I ought to have-"
"Hush. Sylvia silenced him. "We've known you since you were a wee boy Connor. Its like you to retreat to grieve in private. When your pup Roxy was hit by that lorry, Tom and Dunc couldn't get a word from you for three months." She reached out and squeezed his hand fondly.
"We never blamed you, dear. We've only missed you. In fact," Sylvia continued "I have particularly wanted to see you. I found something recently and, well, I think you should be the one to have it."
She unwrapped the small parcel bound in tissue and from the fold came a velvet jewelry box. She opened it, laying a nostalgic finger on the contents for a moment before passing it to Connor.
Inside the box lay a gorgeous ring, a emerald engagement band, the large green stone set round with diamonds. Connor chuckled, confused.
"Seems a bit inappropriate to propose to me in front of your husband there."
Sylvia whacked his knee gently. "Don't be a git. Its not for you. Its for that girl of yours, Abby." She smiled fondly at the gem in his hands. "The ring was me mum's."
"Oh, I can't accept this, this belongs in your family." Hastily he closed the box and tried to pass it back. "Connor, you are family. Or close enough. You, Dunc and Tom grew up together. It was like having three sons."
"It was to be Tom's, should he meet the right girl," Burt spoke up. "We'd like it to go to someone he loved anyway."
Connor tried once more to decline the family heirloom but Tom's parents wouldn't hear of it.
"No more on it, please. It would mean a lot to us to see it bring joy a young couple." Sylvia brushed a small tear aside and smiled gently at him. "Not another word about it. Now... have a biscuit then before you go."
After tea he left and half a block down he ran into Duncan, who was loaded down with shopping.
"Duncan! Hey mate."
"Oi, Connor. What're you doing here?"
"Oh, I take tea with Burt and Sylvia now and again. Sylvia wanted to give me something of Tom's."
He pulled out the ring to show Duncan, explaining his hesitation in accepting it and his reluctance to hurt Burt and Sylvia by refusing.
"I see them at least once a week," Duncan piped up "this isn't an emotional decision of theirs. They've been trying to decide what to do with the last of Tom's things for a few months now. They gave me his comics to sort through last week. Half will go to you of course, mate, I'll send them round soon."
"Comic books are one thing, an expensive family heirloom is another."
"You know Tom, he cared more about his comics than any bit of expensive female glitz like that. Take it. Give it to the wee blonde lass. I dare say its a bit nicer than you could afford for her."
"Aye, that it is."
Duncan shuffled the bags he'd been holding, emptying the contents of one into another before handing over a small bag.
"Better put it in here to hide it then. Don't want to ruin the surprise, and no woman can resist a peep instead a jeweler's box if she spots one."
"Good looking out, mate." Connor slipped the ring box into the shopping bag. The boys exchanged a few pleasantries before Duncan excused himself to join Tom's parents before Sylvia put the tea things away.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Jess sighed as she stepped away from the computer, there was nothing more she could do here and she was sick of looking at it.
"I guess its lucky we haven't had any alerts while the system's been locked. We couldn't mobilize a response with half the team locked inside and the other half locked outside with no detectors or weapons."
"I can't think where Connor could be. I've tried everywhere and no one has seen him." Abby sighed, tossing her phone onto a desk in disgust. With a sigh of frustration, she blew aside the bangs that had fallen onto her forehead. Then a thought occurred to her.
"None of the menagerie has tripped the creature incursion subroutines, have they Jess? Being locked in is bad enough without worrying about losing all the oxygen."
"No worries on that. Connor had all the hardware for that ripped out ages ago after what happened the last time. The new system he devised is only meant to lock everything down. We're each to have codes to open all the doors so we can deal with the incursion. The ARC team should be able to walk in and out of doors as we please, but the programming wasn't finished and the codes were never set."
"Fat lot of good that does then. Why is the program running if it isn't finished?"
"Test run. It was only supposed to be confined to nonessential areas in case an alert came in but something glitched and locked everything down. Connor could end the test run and open the doors with a few keystrokes if he were here."
But he wasn't and Abby couldn't understand why. They weren't required to remain in the ARC between alerts, but usually it was impossible to tear Connor away from the research he was doing for Phillip. Even to eat or sleep.
"Well I suppose it is a bit more pleasant than last time, knowing we don't have to worry about suffocation or creature threats. How'd we fix it then?" She asked Jess.
"Connor." Of course. "He had to hack into the program through the back door and shut it down from the inside."
"Don't suppose you could do that?"
Jess shook her head. "I doubt it. Connor's stuff isn't easy to hack. Perhaps if we could get him on the phone to talk me through it or if we had the pass-codes. Its a security system, there are too many booby traps in place to keep people from hacking in."
"Dammit Connor," Abby muttered under her breath "Where are you? We need you."
x.x.x.x.x.x
A scant hour later the screens lit up and a klaxon wailed. An anomaly had been detected an hour outside of London.
"Fantastic." Abby cursed. "We better mobilize the teams outside. Not much they can do without tranq guns or detectors but they can keep an eye on the situation for us."
Jess pulled her headset on and scrambled to call anyone who could respond. The only agents free to move were those who had been caught outside the ARC. As she finished making the calls Abby came to stand behind her and sighed in frustration.
"How do you do it, Jess? Stay stuck in here unable to do anything or help, knowing anything could be happening?" But Jess wasn't listening, she was staring at the screen.
"I wonder…" Jess thought aloud. Could he had used the same password twice for the same system? She swiveled around to look up at Abby "Abby I have an idea. But I have no idea what might happen if I am wrong. If I can get into this program's back door, I can try Connor's password. But what if he's used a different one?"
Frowning in confusion, Abby looked down at Jess where she sat in front of the ARC's various monitors. How could Jess know Connor's password when his own girlfriend didn't have a clue. Granted, they weren't as close as she'd like to have been, but after that year in the past, she didn't think anyone could know him better than her.
Jess caught Abby's look and pivoted back to the screens to avoid it. "I saw him enter it when he was trying to unlock the system to save Rex and Phillip. I've no idea if he used the same one but its the only guess I've got. Our only other option is to sit here and wait for him to return. Who knows what kind of creatures could be pouring out of the anomaly in the meantime."
"Sure you remember it right?"
"Oh yes," Jess's hands poised over the keys before Abby had time to wonder at her tone. "Bit hard to forget."
Abby sucked in a breath, hoping for the best, but all the air left her lungs as she watched Jess enter the password: ABBY TEMPLE. Another keystroke and it was done. The system was unlocked.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Connor strolled into the ARC moments later. More people than usual milled about in the hallways but he didn't see them as they passed. The small weight of the bag in his hand made him smile. He headed for the control room when he noticed the red glow of the anomaly alert system.
"What have we got, team?" He inquired cheerfully as he entered. Abby and Becker were grabbing their comms and shrugging into their jackets as he approached Jess's workstation.
He halted mid-stride when Abby whipped around. He was well familiar with angry Abby face. Only he couldn't think how he could have managed to annoy her when he hadn't even been in the building.
"Connor, where the hell have you been?!"
"Um," It was hard to squash to usual urge to tell Abby anything she wanted to know. "Just had to pop out for an errand." He still held the shopping bag in front of him, but quickly tucked it away after she glanced at it. "Bit of shopping, you see."
Unbelievable. She'd caught a look at the logo on it before he'd crammed it into his pocket. A man in a hat having a tea party with an insect. Caterpillar Comics was one of his usual haunts.
"You left us locked in here thanks to your software that never works so you could go buy comics?! Everyone has been locked in since you left, Connor! We needed you and you weren't here! Because you were off being a useless manchild-" A touch on her arm distracted her from the head of steam she was building up. Becker stood besides her, inserting his earpiece
"Now's not the time Abby, we've got an anomaly to deal with." She nodded at him, swallowing her words and zipping her jacket up.
"Um," Connor was hurt and beyond bewildered but could tell it was time to do the job "Right. Where are we off to then?"
Jess began to rattle off the coordinates but Abby cut her off.
"WE are off to nowhere. YOU are going to stay here and fix your mistakes while Becker and I handle this. If we can't rely on you here in the ARC, I don't see how we can rely on you out in the field when our lives are in danger."
"But Abby.."
She stalked off without looking at him. Wordlessly, Becker followed her, checking the mag on his weapon.
Connor sank into a chair, staring after them. "Jess, what happened? What have I done to upset Abby?"
x.x.x.x.x.x
"Abby!" Emily called, catching Abby in the hallway as she returned to the ARC. "Did Connor ever find you?"
"I haven't seen him since we left for the field. Why?"
"He was looking for you earlier, seemed in a bit of a rush. He asked if I would let you know he was stepping out for a bit when I saw you, only I didn't get the chance before everything went to hell. You know I got stuck in the garage? I let Matt talk me into a driving lesson."
Abby felt a prickle of guilt inside her. She really shouldn't have blown up at Connor like that, her accusations hadn't been fair. She knew she wasn't upset with him for leaving the ARC, or even for the glitch in the software and the inconvenience it cause. She was angry with herself for being frightened by the intensity of his feelings for her. And had a sad history of lashing out at the wrong people when she got scared.
"Thanks Emily, I'd better go find him."
She entered the locker room and saw Connor inside. They both froze for a moment, looking at each other, before he dropped his eyes and turned from her. His locker door was barely hanging on its hinges, bent and deformed. Becker must have had to do quite a number on it to break in when he'd heard Connor's mobile.
"Connor…" she took a few steps forward but he kept his back to her. "Connor, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have shouted at you. I know it wasn't your fault the system glitched, and no harm was done. You've ever right to leave the ARC for whatever reason. I was completely out of line-"
"No Abby, you were right. What we do here is more important than superheroes and video games. I'll focus on the job."
"Connor, you don't need to-"
He pretended not to hear her, talking over her. "Lester's got me here till I 'clean up the mess'. He wont be happy till the new system has been fixed, finished and test." He shook his head ruefully, placing his jacket on a bent hook. "Becker really went at this thing. I cant see Lester issuing me a new one, mood he's in."
He turned to face her finally; he wouldn't meet her eyes but he smiled weakly at her. "I'll be working late, so don't wait dinner for me, yeah?" He dropped a quick kiss on her cheek, turned to close his locker. "Goodnight, Abs." he said, leaving the room without a backwards glance.
The damaged locker door bounced off its twisted frame and swung back open, falling off with a crash. Abby, jumped, heart in her throat, then sat down heavily on a bench, staring after Connor. When her heart rate had returned to normal, she noticed his things had fallen out onto the floor. She got up to replace them, brushing imaginary dust from his jacket and carefully replacing it on its hook. Well, she thought, I doubt anyone will want to steal that jacket.
As she turned to leave she nearly kicked the small bag that have tumbled out of his pocket. Snagging it from the floor, she turned to replace it in his jacket but something stopped her. It certainly didn't feel like a bag full of comics, and it was much too small to be anything like an action figure. She wrestled with her conscience for only a moment before the urge to snoop won out. She trusted Connor, truly she did. But experience had taught her that on the rare occasions he wasn't entirely honest with her, it meant that something was very wrong.
She tipped the bag, dumping the contents into her palm and nearly dropping the velvet ring box when she saw it. A prickle of apprehension and, if she was honest with herself, a bit of panic welled up inside her. But she had to know.
Lowering herself back on the bench, she took a few deep breaths before she opened the package, only to have the air stolen from her lungs. The ring glittered brilliantly in the light but the sparkles began to blur and swim as tears came to her eyes.
He had gone to get this… for her. That's where he'd been off to all day. He'll be in debt for years to pay for this, her thoughts cried. The central stone could almost be called enormous.
She would never forgive herself for the way she had spoken to him today, and she had no idea how to make amends. Hurt as he must be, he had already forgiven her, unable to stay mad at her even when she deserved it. But now she was furious with herself. She knew after her harsh words, Connor would never find the courage to truly show her how he felt. He would never bring himself to propose to her now, and that knowledge made her ache.