Author's note: I discovered Chocolate and Peanut Butter last week and it's my new obsession - if you haven't tried it I recommend it however if you're allergic to Chocolate and/or Peanut Butter you'll just have to take my word for it instead! Characters aren't mine and of course thanks to fredbassett for the beta!

"Becker, have you seen Sarah anywhere?" Abby asked.

He looked over at the table with the punch bowl. "She was right there five minutes ago," he said scanning a room which was filled with birthday decorations and ARC employees, but no sign of her.

A month has passed since Cutter's death, and things were moving unusually slowly at the ARC. They were no nearer to finding out what was inside the artefact and three days had passed by with no anomaly being detected.

So it was boredom that had made Connor hack into the personnel files and discover Sarah's birthday was near. He had told Abby and she had decided to throw her an impromptu birthday party. Convincing Lester that having a party at the ARC would be a good idea actually turned out to be the easy part – he had shrugged and said it would be good for staff morale. The hard part had been setting up one of the spare labs without making Sarah suspicious but they had managed it and the look on her face when Jenny had ushered her in had definitely been priceless, but now she seemed to have vanished.

"What's going on?" Connor asked, walking up to them.

"Dr Page has disappeared," Becker said.

"Well, we'd better find her quick, before other people realise," Abby instructed. "It's almost time to cut the cake."

Becker's military instinct kicked in. "Right, Abby you take the sixth and fifth floors, Connor you've got the third and fourth and I'll take the first and second. Check all the rooms; we'll meet back outside here in twenty minutes."

Connor and Abby nodded and they left the party.

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How many labs does one building need? Becker wondered as he walked down the hallway. He was just about to open another door when he heard giggling. He paused and waited: the giggling came again from the next room. Slowly he walked to the next lab and opened the door.

Sarah was leaning against a desk staring at the white board.

"Dr Page?" he asked.

She looked over her shoulder and smiled at him. "Hi."

"Hi," Becker greeted, stepping inside the lab. "What are you doing?"

Sarah pointed at the whiteboard where she had written, in block capitals the word THINK. "I'm thinking."

He frowned slightly when he saw a couple of empty beer bottles on the table next to her and a third one in her hand. "Where did you get those from?"

She grinned at him and shook her head. "Secret," she replied, then offered him the one she had in her hand. "Want some?"

"Yeah, all right." He took the bottle from her more to stop her from having any more to drink than to take a sip himself. He stood next to her looking at the whiteboard. "So what were you thinking about?"

"Do you ever wonder if some other power decides how our lives turn out?"

Becker cringed inwardly; he really didn't have the energy for a philosophical debate. "Not really, why do you ask?"

"I watched this DVD a couple of weeks before I started working here called Stranger Than Fiction and it was about this guy whose life was simultaneously being written by an author, and I thought to myself wouldn't it be weird if our existences were just the product of some writer. Then a couple of days later all this," she waved her hand in the air to indicate the area around her, "craziness happened."

Becker looked at her sceptically.

"Come on," she continued, "if someone had told me that I would end up working in a top secret government project protecting the country from dinosaurs I would have laughed in their face."

"Which is why you were giggling?"

"You have to admit it sounds like something you'd see on TV."

"Fair enough," he agreed, "but personally I think we're in charge of our own lives."

Sarah rolled her eyes, "I thought you'd say that."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She shook her head. "Nothing, forget I said anything."

"No, tell me."

She took his free hand in her own. "I didn't mean to offend you, what I meant was you're the military guy, who follows orders and does things by the book, so of course you need to control things." She held up a hand to stop him interrupting her. "And it amazes me that we get on so well, after all I hate being bossed around, and sometimes I do things I'm not supposed to, so technically we're opposites and in theory we're not meant to get along."

"But we do."

"Exactly, we're like," there was a pause as she tried to come up with a good analogy, "chocolate and peanut butter." She patted the hand she was holding, "Trust me, it makes sense."

Becker shook his head slightly. "Chocolate and peanut butter don't even sound right together."

"That's what most people think when they hear it but if they just took the time to try it they'd find out it's a really good combination."

He looked at her, amusement showing in his face.

"You think I'm crazy don't you?"

"Actually I think you're drunk." She shrugged.

"A little," she conceded making Becker laugh, "but I'm still right." She let go of his hand and they sat in silence for a minute.

"For the record I don't follow orders and do things by the book all the time." Becker said.

"You always call me Dr Page," she challenged him.

"That's your name isn't it?" he replied defensively.

"Yeah, but you can call me Sarah, and you haven't even taken a sip of that beer yet."

He looked at the bottle in his hand. "I'm still on the clock," he replied.

She scoffed. "Oh come on, just one sip, I won't tell anyone," she cajoled him. "Make it your birthday present to me."

"Fine." He took a longer sip then he meant to. "Happy?" he asked.

"Very," she said, with a teasing glint in her eye. "There's hope for you yet, Captain – wait what's your first name?"

Becker grinned, knowing that he had the upper hand. "I'm not telling you that."

She clutched the front of his shirt. "Make that my birthday present instead."

Becker chuckled and shook his head. "No, you've already had your birthday present, try again next year."

Sarah pouted and let go of him.

"Come on, people are waiting for you to cut your cake."

"Have you ever tried chocolate and peanut butter?" she asked him as they walked out of the door.

"No can't say I have."

"You should, it's delicious."

He looked at her and smiled. "Well Sarah, maybe I will one day."

She smiled back.