Abby was sure the stupid branch was giving her splinters in her backside. She'd never been so uncomfortable in her life, half lying down, and half leaning against her backpack on a forty-foot-high tree branch. She hadn't slept at all during the night, but she kept her eyes closed all the same, not wanting to open them and accept where she was and what had happened in the last twenty four hours. There were no sounds in the forest at the moment, except for the light rustling of leaves in the canopy above, and Connor's loud snoring at the other end of the branch.

Connor's snoring suddenly turned to an audible groan and Abby felt his foot press against her as he stretched himself awake. She fought back a smile and did her best impression of being annoyed by slapping him on his shin. This plan backfired however, when Connor groaned again and cursed very loudly.

"Abbyyy! That's my gammy ankle!"

She sat up instantly with a look of horror on her face. "Sorry Connor, I forgot!"

"Ow ow ow owwww, Abby it hurts"

"Pull your trouser leg up and let me take a look"

He immediately did as he was told and Abby saw his ankle and swollen quite considerably in the night. She blew very gently on her fingers to cool them down and placed them ever so gently on his leg.

"Oh god Abby that's good"

She failed to hide a smirk at his reaction, "Err, thanks, I guess." She quickly turned away to rid herself of the giggles.

"What're you laughing at Abby?"

"Oh nothing, nothing." She coughed loudly to calm down quickly. "Well Con, I don't think it's broken. Maybe you've just torn a ligament or something. It'll be alright if you walk on it."

"And since when did you turn into an ankle specialist?"

"Since when I started working at a zoo, idiot. Anyway, seen as were both up we should go and find Danny and a way back home."

"Yeah, 'course. Can we have some breakfast first though? I'm quite hungry"

Being extremely hungry herself, Abby only hesitated a moment. "Fine. What've you got in your pack?"

He took a few minutes to rifle through his over packed bag. He had to hand Abby quite a few weapons and spare torches before he found two packets of crisps and a bottle of water.

"Not exactly energy food, is it Connor?"

"Well, I don't really like the way energy food tastes. Like, all cardboardy and stuff, so I swapped them before we left."

"Excellent Connor, well done"

"Well I didn't know we'd be stuck here, did I?"

"Guess not. Well pass one here, I'll have the cheese and onion thanks."

They spent the next five minutes eating Connor's measly rations before starting the slow climb down the tree. It took them a full half hour to do this as Connor kept having to stop and cry, although he claimed it was 'just to massage his ankle'. Abby said nothing, knowing he was probably in a lot of pain, and just helped him through the difficult bits.

Once they reached the safety of the ground, Connor took a few tentative steps and smiled.

"S'abit sore but I'll mange"

Abby looked around the floor beneath them before finding a sizeable stick he could use as a crutch.

"That should help"

"Wicked, it's like a wizard's staff"

"Connor, you watch too much geeky TV"

"Well you watch too many girly films"

They began walking in the direction Danny had left in last night and kept up the small talk for a while. It was light and easy and first but an uncomfortable silence grew between them, having nothing light and happy to talk about. They walked slowly onwards all the time, occasionally asking each other the time or for some water until a question popped up in Abby's mind.

"Connor?"

"Abs?"

"I've been meaning to ask you something for while, and you know, there isn't much to talk about right now unless you consider whether or not we'll get home good conversation, and-"

"Abby, your starting to babble on like me"

"Yeah, sorry, it's just, you know, the worry and all-"

"Abby! What's the question?"

"Ok erm, you know when you rescued me from the mer from the future, and you said… you said you loved me?"

Connor swallowed nervously before nodding. "Yeah, I remember"

"Well when I asked you about it later you were going to say something but Caroline interrupted, yeah?"

"Yeah, and you want to know what I was going to say, right?"

"…yes please Connor"

He stopped walking and stared at the ground while he considered his answer. He gave himself a little nod before walking again.

"Well, at the time I didn't really know what I was going to say, I just knew what I wanted to say. Get it?" Abby didn't get it at all, but Connor continued anyway. "Well what I wanted to tell you was that-"

Suddenly there was a loud squawking noise overhead and both Connor and Abby ducked. They hadn't realised that they'd walked into clearing with large bird like things circling overhead. Abby quickly looked around the clearing. There were a few clusters of eggs, no doubt belonging to the birds circling above, and the leaves littering the floor looked recently disturbed, looking like they'd been kicked everywhere.

"Abby!" Connor had crawled a few feet away and was whispering at her as loudly as possible. "Abby, Helens been through here, look!" He held up her anomaly controller and waved it around happily. "They must have gone through an anomaly in this clearing."

"Yeah maybe. Can you turn it on?"

He fiddled around with the buttons and Abby saw a familiar gold glow coming from the screen. Connor pressed some more buttons causing the anomaly map to move madly, and Connor to look up in triumph.

"There is an anomaly opening here, and I'd bet my life savings it goes to site 333!"

"Well, open the anomaly then!"

"Oh yeah, right" he pushed a couple more buttons and the glistening familiar presence of an anomaly appeared within the centre of the clearing. The large birds overhead had noticed the twinkling lights below and started circling lower and lower, making sure their eggs were safe.

"Abby were gonna have to make a run for it"

"What about your ankle?"

"I'll be able to run ten feet, don't worry"

"Okay, on the count of three. One… two… three, go!"

They both sprinted and dived through the anomaly, the squawks of angry prehistoric birds close behind them. Abby landed well on the other side and rolled to a stop. Connor however, landed with a loud crack on his already dodgy ankle and cried out in agony.

"Connor! The anomaly!"

He pressed the button on the controller angrily, closing the anomaly instantly, before screaming out in pain again. Abby crawled over to look at the damage caused. She flinched at the site of what was a very broken ankle.

"Hold still Connor, I'm going to go and find Danny so we can get you home and to a doctor, okay!"

He clenched his teeth and nodded painfully, before slowly pushing himself up against a nearby rock. He leant against it and closed his eyes, his face turning a sickly green colour. Abby turned around and looked for any sign of where Danny might have gone. There was a trail of shoe prints on the floor leading toward a few large rocks in a copse of trees not far away. She ran the entire distance and found Danny asleep in the shade of the trees. It took a while to shake him awake but he eventually groaned and opened his eyes groggily.

"Come on Danny, wake up mate."

"What? Abby is that you? Where's Connor"

"He broke his ankle coming through the anomaly; I'm surprised you didn't hear him screaming"

"I'm a deep sleeper. We should get going if he needs medical attention." He stood up a swung his bag upon his back. "Wait a minute. How did you get here, the anomaly closed yesterday afternoon?"

"We found Helen's anomaly controller. We can use it to get back to the prehistoric, then the future and then home."

"Cant we find a more direct route?"

"If there was one Helen would have used it to get here in the first place."

"Good point. Let's go get Connor and get out of here."

Connor was still leaning against the rock by where the anomaly opened up, his face more green than before and his eyes still closed. Abby leant down and placed her hands on either side of his face, forcing him to look at her.

"Connor, you have to find us a way home, and you're going to have to walk with us, okay? We need to get you back to a doctor."

He nodded and swallowed apprehensively and placed his hands on the floor ready to stand up.

"Wait, give me a moment!"

Danny ran back towards the trees and came back with two long, almost perfectly straight, branches. He placed them either side of Connors ankle and pulled a roll of bandaging out his back pack. He tied the bandaging around Connors leg and the sticks to create a makeshift cast. He then pulled Connor to his feet.

Connor didn't cry out in pain but winced as he took a few short steps. He still looked very green and like he was about to collapse at any moment.

"You're going to have to use Abby for support okay Connor?" he nodded slowly at Danny's instructions. "Good. Now can you open this anomaly for us Connor?" Connor nodded again and fiddled with the controller. The anomaly flickered to life once again and they heard the screechy squawk of he birds beyond.

"We're going to have to quick through here okay guys. I'll go first with a gun; you follow and head straight for cover, yeah?"

"Danny, try not to shoot anything please!"

"I'll try and fire warning shots to keep them at bay alright? After I've gone through count to five and follow after me. See you on the other side."

Danny quickly jumped through the anomaly and the screeching reached a new height. They heard a few gunshots and Abby tried her hardest to keep calm, count to five and hold Connor all the same time.

"One… two… three… four… five… Connor lets move."

And they stumbled through the anomaly as quickly as they could manage.