Title: A Fool Takes No Other Council But His Own
Authorlj user="Whuffle"
Spoilers: Assume spoilers for everything through end of series 5.
Words: 3125
Rating: PG
Pairing: Becker/Jess
Summary: Wrapped around series 5 episode 1, Becker gets an insight into how much he has changed as the team deal with giant tunneling bugs.
Author's Note: This is the next bit of my i"Breakable"/i series, the rest of which can be found at a href=".net/u/1155861/IShouldBeWriting"my ff.net account/a. This should fall in order after i"a href=".net/s/7082788/1/bChange_b_of_bState_b"Change of State/a"/i. Yes, I know, it's been an amazingly long time. I make no excuses. Life happens and no one is paying me to write so most of the time it has to go down to the bottom of my priority list. Thanks to Prawncrackers, BlackBulletButterfly , drodgers89, lj user="Seren_ccd", lj user="Morrigans_eve", and lj user="Deinonychus_1" who have all encouraged me to see this through to the end. Given how tough going writing has been lately, reviews would really help me in the motivation department, okay?
lj-cut text="Fic behind the cut..."i"No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master."/i - Hunter S. Thompson
~~oOOo~~
Becker had just stowed Jess' weapon back in the armoury when the alert claxon sounded. Feet pounding down the hallway, he wondered at the increasing frequency with which the anomalies had been appearing of late. Connor claimed to have an explanation but between Burton's special projects and Becker's preoccupation with his relationship with Jess they'd not yet had time a sit down to discuss it further.
Skidding into the main control room, Becker couldn't help but appreciate the look of concentration on Jess' face. Despite his earliest misgivings she had turned out to be truly gifted at the juggling act required of the position. As he got closer, he could hear Lester's harried and irritable voice coming from the speakers mounted on the ADD. Jess had public works and traffic maps up on screen as well as a handful of other documents.
"- talk of him being snatched by some sort of creature. Do we have an incursion?"
"That idoes/i sounds like an incursion. I've just intercepted emergency calls. I'm sending the team out."
"Good. And you'd better send a helicopter for me. I really can't afford to be late for this meeting"
Jess rolled her eyes at their boss' hubris as she reached back blindly to hand a tracking device and comm set to Becker. He looked around to make certain no one else would notice before dropping a kiss on her head. With a look down the corridor, Becker stepped back again as Abby and Matt came rushing in. Jess' expression bespoke understanding but the tiny smile hovering at the corners of her mouth made the risked affectionate gesture entirely worthwhile.
~~oOOo~~
After speaking with Philip about the latest developments with New Dawn, Connor returned to his lab. While he didn't have much time for it, he'd been working like a demon on a little project of his own. Something about the combination of Professor Cutter and Sarah Page's research had been niggling at him for months. The breakthrough moment had been watching as formulae scrolled across the wall, producing a diagram that bore a remarkable resemblance to the three dimensional anomaly model produced by Helen Cutter's mysterious artifact.
Now he stood before the bench in his lab marveling at the completed prototype. It was finished; his miniature sun cage. He could almost feel Sarah Page looking on with approval.
He'd tried to speak to Philip about it. Really. But the man had brushed him off, claiming that Connor's insights were nothing more than wishful thinking. Disheartened, Connor had put aside his own research for a while, focusing exclusively on Philip's projects.
But as Philip's attempts to create a man-made anomaly grew closer and closer to reality, something Abby had said nagged at Connor's conscience. They needed a fail-safe, a way to contain what they were creating. If Philip wouldn't listen, then Connor would do his best to bring the device to life on his own. Despite time already grown far too limited, Connor began to work. Afraid of Philip's censure and uncertain of how to handle Abby's growing coldness, he'd kept the project to himself.
But now he had his prototype. All he needed was a tiny anomaly on which to test it.
~~oOOo~~
Matt and Abby were both silent on the drive to the anomaly site, leaving Becker to his own thoughts. He was concerned about them both but had no way to give voice to his worries. The team leader and former zoo-keeper had been spending an increasing amount of time together as Connor was often pre-occupied by Burton's work. While admittedly not an expert in matters of social interaction, Becker's gut instinct was that they weren't romantically involved. Never the less there was something intense about their interactions of late, a sort of push and pull which reminder Becker all too closely of his parents.
Shaking his head, Becker intentionally focused on the ever crowding roads as they drew closer to the anomaly site. The murmur of Jess' voice in his ear made him shiver, caught by surprise at his longing for her. These days, just the sound of her doing her job was enough to make his chest tighten and his blood rush. When he thought about it, that was a hell of a long way to have come from the stoic man who'd been unable to unbend himself to offer more than a stiff hug after she'd saved them both by defusing Ethan's jury-rigged bomb. He saw a lot of change in himself lately and most of it, albeit difficult, had proven to be beneficial. And not a single bit would have happened without the presence of a certain bright and bubbly woman who's voice even now led him onward toward duty.
Reaching the anomaly site at long last, Becker pulled the truck up beside the plaza. At the tailgate, he, Abby, and Matt efficiently unpacked their weapons before approaching the striped sawhorses and orange barrels that denoted the civic works site.
Standing over the hole Becker tapped the button on his comm.
"Jess, where's Connor?"
"He's just left the ARC with Phillip. Can't raise him on comms."
He could hear the undertone of annoyance in her reply and wondered whether it was directed at their millionaire benefactor or her erstwhile flatmate. Looking up from the hole, Becker caught sight of Abby's face; frustration competing with worry. Becker stopped breathing for a moment as he realized that his expression must have looked similar just before the incident when Jess' car had been overturned by the coelophysis.
iAnd at bottom, that's why we're the same, Abby and I. We both love our partners even when they drive us quite mad./i
Matt shrugged with his usual acceptance of the situation as was.
"Can't wait for him. We need to get down there see what we're dealing with."
With a nod of agreement, Becker grabbed hold of the ladder descending into the hole in the ground.
~~oOOo~~
It'd taken every ounce of self-control Becker had not to rub it in Matt's face when the EMDs proved ineffective on the latest creatures to arrive from a different time. He'd confined himself to one sarcastic comment, and was grateful that all he'd received in reply was a lifted eyebrow. At least that much could be said of their new team lead; Matt's easy nature meant that he rarely felt the need to bite back when confronted. Especially when Becker was right. That had been one of the reasons it was so easy to accept the other man; he knew when to concede gracefully on his mistakes.
Back at the ARC, Becker quickly and efficiently loaded pistols, shotguns, and ammunition for both into a field case.
The wiry Irishman had been quiet and reserved when he joined the team. Making it an easy fit for them to work together. Despite serious doubts about the other man's CV, Becker had grown to trust Matt. Watching him handle the conflict of duty and desire where Emily was concerned had been insightful. Given his own situation at the time, Becker had sympathized all too well with the other man's predicament.
His respect had grown when Matt made no attempt to stop Emily from returning to her own time. Becker had observed him closely since the chestnut-haired Victorian woman's departure. There was a melancholy to the other man now that bespoke of longing in the truest sense of the word. It was all too evident the high price that Matt had paid in not stopping Emily. Though he kept it contained, once in a while, Becker could see the sadness and understanding in the other man's eyes. Especially as he watched Abby and Connor struggle through growing pains of their own.
Thoughts of other people's struggling romances brewing in his head, Becker allowed himself the rare luxury of diverting through the main hub before heading back out to the field. But when he arrived, a flustered and anxious James Lester held Jess' attention entirely. Becker looked on with wry amusement.
"Jess, fill me in."
"Matt's okay, but he's requested new weapons."
"No no, no, not that!" Lester replied. "My vetting with the cabinet office, what time is the meeting?"
"Fifteen minute." Jess said, not having to look at the clock to know how close to time it was.
Lester was about to rush away but Jess called him back.
"Hang on, your tie's not straight."
She fiddled with the knot for a moment before patting him on both shoulders.
"Good?" Lester asked impatiently.
"Okay," she said brightly, calling after him with "good luck!" as he hurried toward his office.
"Thank you," Lester tossed over his shoulder, the heels of his well polished Italian leather shoes tapping quickly on the floor as he retreated once again.
Jess watched him for a moment with a fond smile before turning back to her position at the ADD. Across the room and echoing through his comm, Becker could hear Jess' voice, soothing and sure, as she spoke to Matt.
"I'm pulling up maps of all the underground systems in the area. Sewers, service pipes, everything. And I'm working on a ground penetrating radar map."
Becker whistled softly between his teeth. She truly was brilliant. Even he wouldn't have thought yet to tap into the satellite network for the ground penetrating map. But they were certainly going to need it. He could hear Matt's reply through the comms as well.
"Okay, thanks, Jess. Any sign of Connor by the way?"
There was a pause in the comm chatter before Matt's voice came over the channel once again.
"Nice of you to join us," he said sarcastically.
Quick on Matt's heels, Abby's voice told Becker that Connor must have finally arrived. Seeing Jess engrossed in her work once more, he opted to head back out to into the field without distracting her.
Using his SatNav to guide the way, Becker drove back to rejoin the team, still pondering how his relationship with Jess compared to that of his team-mates with their respective partners. He turned off the main road to find himself trailing only a few meters behind two of the distinctive ARC trucks. He followed along as the other trucks pulled into the driveway of a house. Matt, and Abby exited the lead vehicle while Connor got out of the back, laptop in hand.
"Get those people out of here," Matt ordered. Becker was pleased to note the efficiency with which his men responded to their orders. "Connor, have you laid a map over those radar results?"
"Yup."
Propping the laptop on the bonnet of the truck, Connor showed Matt the map. As he did, Becker handed out pistols, one for Matt, one for Abby, and his own already comfortably holstered at his side.
"Can we make a 3D model of this? We're looking for nest in the tunnels. It'd be part of an already existing structure."
"Okay," Connor said with slow scepticism, "That's pretty specific for a creature we've never seen before, but I'm on it."
"You seem to know a lot about this thing," Abby opined, the question obviously intended to draw more information out of their mysterious team leader.
Matt's only reply was to chamber a round into his pistol as he stalked off toward the back garden of the house. Becker arched an eyebrow at Connor as he followed after Matt and Abby, single-handedly cocking his Mossberg with practiced ease. With a dismissive shrug, Connor went back to compiling the necessary information into a usable map.
Like Connor, he frequently wondered about Matt's past. The credentials too good to be true, knowledge of previously never seen creatures that could only come from first-hand encounters. It all added up to a picture far different than that painted on their colleague's CV. Matt had earned their trust, but the giant chasms in what he refused to share left Becker with a nagging uncertainty which persistently refused to be dismissed.
As they rounded the side of the house to see the large hole in the ground, Becker cautioned them all to stay back from the edge.
"We need to find the next large patch of grass," Matt said with certainty.
"But the first attempt was in the road," Abby contradicted.
Matt's expression only served to highlight Becker's sense that the Irishman knew more than he was willing to say. Despite curiosity at least equal to Abby's his trust in Matt was implicit. Besides, the middle of an operation was not the time to begin probing for more details about the man's past.
"It can't burrow through concrete. The workmen made that hole themselves. It's hunting for food. It won't be far. We need to lure it out."
"How are we going to do that?" Becker asked evenly, making sure to remove any hint of judgement from his tone.
"Vibrations," Matt replied.
He looked thoughtfully around the yard for anything with which they could improvise. A moment later Matt's gaze lit upon the lawnmower. He walked over and gave the starter a sharp tug. The machine rumbled to life. Becker and Abby both moved to flank the hole as Matt pushed the mower close to the edge.
The ground rumbled and Becker drew in a breath, nodding recognition of the creature's imminent arrival to Matt. At that moment, the mower stuttered to a halt.
"Damnit," Matt cursed as he went to get it re-started.
"Matt be careful," Abby admonished. But the ground trembled once again, proving the mower was no longer needed as a lure.
"Where the hell is this thing," Becker asked impatiently.
"Guys-"
Connor chose that precise moment to come jogging round the corner of the house.
A carapaced creature two meters in length came scuttling out of the hole and knocked Connor to the ground. All three armed members of the team fired into the creature as it dragged Connor down screaming into its tunnel.
"Connor!" Abby cried, bolting forward heedless of the danger.
"Abby!" Matt shouted, rushing forward to wrap his arms around her waist. "No, no! We'll get him back, I promise."
Abby was heaving with fury and panic in his arms as Matt inched them both away from the tunnel entrance.
"We'll get him back," Matt said in an attempt to reassure her. "Come on."
Becker could only stand by and watch in sympathetic pain as Matt held back their struggling teammate. She was irrational, caring nothing of the risk to herself as she thrash about in her efforts to break free. The look of horror and blind panic in her eyes was almost Becker's undoing. He recognized that look, had felt it on his own features as he'd helped the medic remove Jess from her overturned car.
IDamn Matt and his rules, I'm going in after that thing and to hell with -/I
The force of emotion behind the thought momentarily froze him where he stood. Coming back to rationality, he wondered at himself; Iwhen did I become so fond of Connor that I would chase after him into a lethal situation with no prior planning?/I
The answer came just as quickly as the question had. Images tumbled through his head of cowering in the burnt and rusted wreckage of a car with Dr. Sarah Page as the future predators closed in. Of stifling his sob of relief as he grasped Connor and Abby both tightly enough to squeeze the breath from them upon their return from the Cretaceous
Suddenly he understood; he'd always cared that much for Connor, for all of his teammates. But in the past, he'd never allowed himself to feel impact of the associated emotional burden, preferring to simply act without thought and call it nothing more than actions born of ingrained duty.
As he raced around the corner of the house, collecting his men along the way, Becker realized he would willingly die for his team. Though the thought didn't come as a surprise, he now understood that it wasn't solely a matter of honour and professional pride. He cared for them, would be torn apart if and when one of them died. The thought was terrifying. He hadn't felt that way about anybody since the death of his brother.
Burning rubber against pavement, he sped off to create an exclusion zone around the site where the creatures had first been found. As he drove, Becker contacted Jess, asking her to track Connor's black box.
"He's headed back toward the original site," she affirmed. "No, wait, he's stopped. Looks like he's inside one of the buildings on the plaza."
"Thanks," Becker replied as he yanked the parking brake into place and wrenched open the vehicle door.
Abby and Matt were hard on his heels and he could hear them arguing heatedly. As he listened in, Becker's respect for the team's leader rose a Matt had engaged the analytical part of her thinking, calling on her professional training from the zoo as well as the ARC's menagerie of creatures from the past. While the furious determination and worry were still present in her expression, the panic had abated.
Walking quickly across the plaza, Becker tried the building's doors to find them all locked. Signs over frosted windows advertised a new shop due to open soon.
"We could put a camera in," he offered.
"What about infra-red?" Abby asked.
"Abby- "
Connor's voice issuing through the comm channel had never sounded so good.
"Connor? Connor?" Abby's voice was steady but with an undercurrent of urgency; they had to keep him talking.
Flooded with relief, Becker clasped Abby's shoulder in reassurance. When had these people become so important to him? When had he learned to empathize with their pain? He knew the answer. Her voice was a steady reassuring presence in his ear, guiding them as they moved in to extricate Connor from the creature's nest. Frightening as it was to feel so deeply on behalf of someone else, Becker knew that he wouldn't trade the experience for anything else in the world.
~~oOOo~~
i"A soul mate is someone to whom we feel profoundly connected, as though the communication and communing that take place between us were not the product of intentional efforts, but rather a divine grace. This kind of relationship is so important to the soul that many have said there is nothing more precious in life."/i - Thomas Moore/lj-cut