A/N: I know a couple of people are waiting for a new chapter on 'help' but I'm really stuck right now so sorry, and bear with. I wrote a couple of little fics whilst I get over this bout of writers block x.

Disclaimer: I don't own primeval, or Hilary Becker, unfortunately. Also, I am in no way a self defence expert so don't rely on my advice in place of proper training. :)

"... And I only just got out of the way in time. Five seconds slower, and I would've been a goner. It was crazy." Becker's friend Josh shook his head. A bunch of Becker's friends from his army days were on leave and they'd all met up for a drink.

"So what have you been up to?" They all turned to him, expecting to hear crazy stories and tales as exciting as theirs.

"I've been working high up in the government. Even if I did have some great stories, I couldn't tell you any of them." He winked.

"Don't you miss it? Running around, shooting things. That was always your strong point Becker," one of his other friends joked.

"I do miss it sometimes. But I like my new work too." He said, quietly. He hated that he couldn't tell his friends about all of the fun he was having at the ARC, but he knew it wasn't worth the risk.

As the night drew on, Becker's head began to pound and he left his friends to their drinks whilst he went for some air. It was later than he thought, and almost pitch black outside. The only lights were coming from the windows of restaurants and shop windows, and the flickery orange glow of the street lights. Becker pulled his jacket against him in the cold night air as he leaned against the wall. He was dressed all in black and was well hidden against the wall as a group of girls staggered out of a nearby club and walked straight past him, towards the main street. He was about to go back to his friends when he saw a young woman leave a club across the street, pulling her coat around her. He shook his head, irritated that someone was letting her walk alone at night. Going over and offering to walk her somewhere seemed like the right thing to do, but decided against it, thinking that he was worrying over nothing, and would probably come across as strange. Just as she was about to turn the corner and go out of his sight, he saw a man leave the alleyway she'd just passed. Becker, sensing the danger, stood up from his leaning position instinctively, but stayed against the wall as the man glanced behind him down the street. All of a sudden, Becker's protective instincts kicked in as he saw the man lurch forward a grab the girls waist with one arm and put his hand over her mouth, taking her by surprise and dragging her backwards toward the alley. Becker was sprinting down the long street, trying to prise the emergency EMD that he always kept on him in case he was called to an alert from his waistband, where it had been hidden by his bulky jacket. It was taking him too long to get to the weapon and the woman had already been dragged down into the dark alleyway. He didn't have a second to spare and hurried his speed towards the alley at the other end of the street.

When he reached the alley, he saw that the man had the woman pinned against the wall, one hand still over her mouth and the other running over her body, ignoring her frantic protests. Her coat lay in a puddle. Becker felt sick as he grabbed the back of the mans jacket and threw him away from the woman, shifting to stand in front of her protectively. The man stumbled and scraped his face on the wall, clearly blind drunk.

"Oi!"

The man lurched forward and Becker punched him in the jaw, and again in the nose. He flopped onto the ground, blood streaming from his nose. Becker turned back around to the woman behind him, and shook off his jacket, draping it over her bare shoulders, taking her elbow lightly and guiding her back towards the light of the street lamp. Once in the light and away from the alley, he stopped to ask her if he could find a friend or take her anywhere, when he looked properly at her face for the first time, and couldn't believe what he saw.

"Jess?"

"Becker?" Jess whispered.

"What were you... Are you alright?" He asked.

"Yeah... No... I don't know." She shivered, glancing behind her.

"Let's get away from here" he said, guiding her gently to where his car was parked. He opened the passenger side for her and then walked around and got into his driver's seat.

"Thank you Becker. You saved me." She whispered that last part.

"There's no need to thank me Jess." He said, pulling out of the car park and driving towards Jess' flat.

Once they were in Jess' flat, Becker sat her on the sofa and went to raid the medicine cabinet in her bathroom, coming back with plasters, cotton wool, antiseptic spray and mouthwash. He pulled the coffee table up to where Jess was and sat on it, leaning towards her. Spraying the antiseptic onto some cotton wool, he dabbed the cut on her cheekbone with it. He lightly brushed his fingers against her jaw, which was already beginning to bruise.

"Mouthwash?" She said, puzzled.

"Bruises fade quicker if you dab mouthwash on them. I thought you might want them to go faster." He said gently.

"Clever one, you," she smiled, "You don't have to stay and look after me you know"

"Yes, I do." He replied firmly.

"Weren't you in one of the clubs? Won't someone be wondering where you are?"

"It was only a few of my old friends. They probably haven't even noticed I've gone yet." He brushed off the subject. Setting the lid on the table, he soaked a cotton wool ball in the mouthwash and leant forward to press it onto Jess' jaw, and without thinking rested his left hand on her thigh to steady himself. She flinched her leg away at his touch.

"God, sorry Jess. I wasn't-"

"No, it's not you. I think... Well, there might be another bruise there." She said, almost a whisper.

"Do you want to go and look?" He said, motioning to the doors to the other rooms of her flat.

"I don't want to see..."

"May I?" He asked softly, meeting her gaze. She nodded and looked away, as Becker lifted back her knee length floaty dress, which now had a rip at the hem, half way up her thigh, exposing a large purple bruise that was still forming. Becker bit his lip to stifle the anger that was bubbling up inside him and pulled the skirt back over her leg.

"There's no cut, just the bruise." He said, quietly. "Sorry Jess. You didn't deserve this. I mean, no one does, but you..." He lifted his hand to brush her bruised jaw again.

"It could've been worse... It would've been worse if you hadn't shown up. Did you know it was me?"

"No. I had no idea, I just saw a woman getting dragged away by that scum and gave chase. I only realised it was you once we were back on the street." He explained, glancing at the clock. "You should get some sleep." It was almost two in the morning. "Do you mind if I stay on your sofa? I don't want to leave you on your own after that. I know nothing's going to happen to you here, but still..."

"Sure, I didn't want to be alone." She paused "Thank you, and not just for saving me. For everything." She said as she touched his arm, before walking off towards her bedroom.

It had been three days since the attack, and Jess was busying herself at the ADD. Her excuse for the bruises had been that she had fallen over whilst out drinking with friends at the weekend. Becker had rarely left the hub over the past few days, always finding excuses to be hovering around Jess' desk, and never leaving the room for more than five minutes. He'd even sent some extra soldiers instead of himself to an incursion the day before, opting instead to stay behind and 'catch up on some paperwork'- the first time he'd ever sat out of a alert for non-medical reasons.

"Becker, can you come and take a look at this please?" Jess called across the hub, loud enough for everyone to hear but casual enough for no one to take notice. He set down the tablet he'd been using and strode towards her.

"You're acting strange," Jess said, quietly. Becker rested his hand on the back of his chair and leant forwards towards her desk, pretending to look over some forms so as not to draw attention to their hushed voices.

"I don't want you out of my sight, Jessica." He said, in a low voice.

"I'm fine. Nothing's going to happen to me at work. Stop fussing, okay?" He leant further towards her, and Jess found herself exhaling a breath that she didn't even realise she'd been holding in.

"Are you sure you're alright?

"I said I'm fine. If you keep spending all of your time here people are going to know something's up,"

"Okay, I'll go now, the armoury could use a stock check anyway," he said, still unconvinced.

"It's not that I don't want you here, you know," she added, feeling like she'd been too harsh.

"I know. I was thinking, I'd like you to stay behind after work a few nights and come to the gym after everyone's gone. I'll teach you some self defence. I'd like to think you'll never need it, but it will make me rest easier. If that's okay with you, of course,"

"I'd really appreciate that. I was actually thinking about asking you to do that myself, but I didn't want to seem paranoid." She smiled uneasily.

"You shouldn't feel paranoid. Better safe than sorry, yeah? Start tonight?"

"Sure," she smiled, feeling better now she was going to learn to be able to defend herself better.

After most of the main team had gone home, and the night staff had arrived, Jess was sat on a bench at the side of the gym. After a while, Becker joined her, having traded his work uniform for jeans and a black t-shirt.

"Sorry I'm late, I got held up. Ready?" He said, enthusiastically, clapping his hands together.

"As I'll ever be!" She replied, dubiously.

"You're still wearing your heels," he said, flatly.

"What's wrong with my heels?"

"They're not exactly gym-ready are they?"

"Well this is what I'll probably be wearing if I were ever to need to use self defence so I might as well get used to doing it in my normal shoes," Becker saw she had a point, and let the argument go.

"This is so wrong, we should be teaching people not to attack, not how to defend themselves against attacks. Anyhow, I won't be able to relax again until you know some basic defence." He moved to the centre of some mats he'd set up earlier, much to the confusion of some of his men.

"Okay, so first I'll run through the basics, they should be pretty easy to get the hang of," Jess nods, still uneasy. "You always wear heels, which definitely gives you an advantage if anyone tries to grab you from behind. No matter how heavily built a person is, the shin bone always tends to be close to the surface, if not sticking out, so if someone were to grab you from behind, like this," he demonstrates by moving behind her and wrapping his arms around her torso, restricting her arm movement. "You can't use your arms but your legs are relatively free, so you can pick up a leg and scrape your heel down my shin. There, good." He adds as she lifts a leg and imitates a scraping movement down his leg. "The attacker, let's call him Bob, would be in a lot of pain, and will probably let go of you in the shock," he lets go of Jess and walks around to face her before continuing, "giving you a chance to turn around and deter him, for example if you put your hand like this" he takes hold of her right hand and bends it back slightly, curling her fingers into themselves, "and push it under someone's nose, thrusting upwards, it's going to do some damage. Bob's not likely to give chase after that. If by some miracle you weren't wearing heels, and Bob grabbed you from behind, another option would be to throw your head back as hard as you can, and try to head-butt his nose. You okay? "

"Yeah, that seems fairly straightforward, in theory anyway. What about if Bob comes from the front?"

"Ah, in that case, Bob is being fairly stupid, because you can see him coming, and be more prepared. If Bob is coming from ahead of you, it's most likely that he'd walk as if he was going to walk straight past you, and then grab one of your arms before the other once you were side by side. So for a brief moment, you'd have one arm free. You have several options then. First, a sharp jab to the throat would probably make Bob let go in order to clutch his throat. If you aim in-between the Adam's apple and the breastbone," he pointed the area out on his own throat, "and you jab hard enough, it will affect his breathing so he'll let go. Okay?"

"Sure" she said.

"You don't sound so sure," Becker reached out to touch her upper arm. "If it's too much, we can carry on another time, it's no problem."

"It's not that it's too much, it's quite comforting actually, it's just making me wonder, if I'd known this stuff... If I'd prepared myself before, it might not have-"

"Jess- this is in no way your fault! You shouldn't even have to know how to protect yourself, there should be no reason for you to need to. If anyone is to blame for you not knowing what to do, that would be me, because I've considered offering self defence to the staff that aren't already military trained loads of times, but then never got round to it."

"That doesn't make it your fault Becker!"

"It's my job to protect all of the staff!"

"Not outside of work- you can't control what happens outside of work,"

"I can- you wouldn't have been hurt if I'd gotten round to teaching you this stuff before,"

"You couldn't have known it was going to happen, stop blaming yourself,"

"Okay- I'll stop blaming myself, if you stop blaming yourself,"

"Deal." She replied firmly, with a hint of a smile. "Now what else do I need to know?" Her spirits were higher now.

"Okay, so if Bob grabs your wrist, the weakest point of his grip is where his fingers and thumb meet," he reaches forward and grabs her tiny wrist, and then points where his fingers meet, "and if you can think fast enough, you should pull your arm towards that point. If you do it hard enough it should break the link. Go ahead." Following his command, Jess waited a second and then jerked her arm towards the point.

"Nicely done," Becker smiled, and she grinned back. "Oh, I forgot- I brought you something." He delved into the back pocket of his jeans, retrieving a small black canister and holding it out to Jess, who was looking at it questionably.

"Is that mace?" She raised an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure that's not legal in the UK."

"The thought crossed my mind, but we have a huge supply for our purposes so it wasn't hard to get you one, plus, I'm pretty sure Lester would get you out of any bother as long as you use it in self defence, right?"

"He would?"

"Come on Jess, he has a huge soft spot for you. He'd totally get you out of trouble!"

"I think you might just be right," she laughed. "Hey, I have a question- hypothetically, what should I do if Bob were to jump in my car and point a gun at my head and tell me to drive somewhere?" Becker thought for a moment before answering.

"I would say... Start driving and then, quite suddenly, deliberately crash into a lamp post or a tree or something. Your airbags will save you, and you'll see it coming whereas he'll be stunned. You can grab your phone and get out of the car and run to someone nearby whilst he's still too shocked from the impact. Okay? Now let me show you how to use this pepper spray."

After a short demonstration on how to use the spray, Becker said "Okay, I've taught you the basics, now we need to put them to the test. I'll come at you and you defend yourself, of course, don't actually spray the mace, mimic it, okay?" He said whilst walking across the room and turning to face Jess.

"Cool, don't go easy on me," she said with a grin.

"I wasn't planning on it!" He exclaimed back, before striding towards her and reaching for her wrist, which he grabbed. She jerked her arm just like he showed her, and broke his grip, but he'd already grabbed her other arm with his other hand by the time she'd acted. She reached for where she'd pocketed the pepper spray and held it up as if to spray it in Becker's face. He was just about to let go and praise her when he lingered to look at her for too long, and she clenched the small canister a little too hard, accidentally pressing down the cap and spraying him full in the face with the blinding chemical. He immediately let go of her arm and threw his hands to his eyes, bending and the waist and groaning in pain. Jess dropped the canister like it was on fire.

"God, Becker! I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, so sorry. Oh my god. What can I do? Shall I get a medic?" He shook his head.

"They'll only wonder why you were attacking me, it's fine, I've had worse," he grinned, without opening his eyes. Jess grabbed his arm and guided him back to the bench.

"At least we definitely know it works!" She said cheerfully.

"Every cloud," he said, sardonically. He opened his streaming eyes enough to squint at her. "I think we can say you're much safer on the streets now, although the same can't be said for the attackers themselves!" He looked at her. "You're the first woman to reduce me to tears in quite a while, Jessica," he laughed.

"A while?" She scoffed.

"My female drill sergeant was pretty mean," he explained, as she giggled. Jess delved into her bag for a pack of tissues, and then dabbed away some of Becker's tears.

After an hour of stories about Becker's scary previous commanders, and a few more self defence tips that he'd forgotten to mention earlier, the effects of the pepper spray had largely worn off.

"We should probably go- how do my eyes look?" He asked as he stood up from the bench.

"A little bloodshot, but otherwise they're lovely, as normal," she replied.

"I'll take that as a compliment," he smiled.

"I really do want to thank you though- without you it would have been a million times worse, and I don't know how I would've got through all this without you. You've been brilliant,"

"I think you handled the whole thing amazingly! And now you're good enough at defending yourself to make even me cry," he added with a wink. Jess stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek, and then lingered there for slightly longer than she would have normally. She pulled away slowly, and noted the curious look Becker was giving her, before acting on impulse and leaning in again, this time to press her lips against Becker's. He stayed still for a moment, as if to make sure that Jess wasn't going to change her mind, before returning her kiss. He lifted up his arms to rest his hands on her hips, and she lifted her hands to his strong shoulders. He gently pulled her against him and took his lips away from hers, to kiss her cheek, and then, very lightly, her bruised jaw.

"There should not be a bruise there," he mumbled against her cheek, before resting his hand under her other jaw and tilting her face up so he could kiss her lips again, taking her hand with his free hand.

"There shouldn't be tears coming from your eyes either but you don't hear me complaining about that," she laughed into another kiss. Eventually they pulled apart, slightly breathless.

"You know," Becker starts, "come to think of it, you could use just a tiny bit more self defence training... Same time tomorrow?" He laughs.

"Absolutely," she grinned, before leaning to grab her bag and taking Becker's hand to walk to the car park. "You know, I'm not even finding Bob that scary anymore. In a fair fight, I could so take him down."

"And my tears are living proof of that," Becker adds, squeezing her hand and leading her towards the door.