It was almost turning into a routine.

Once every month or so, Jess would put out an anomaly alert and the location would be depressingly familiar. Connor would look increasingly guilty, knowing that it was his experimentation whilst working for Philip that was making the ARC such a hotspot for all the anomaly activity now. In every case so far one of the team would lock the anomaly before something hungry came through. Eventually it would disappear. Until the next one turned up.

Connor's old lab was starting to be known as the anomaly room as it was by far the most common opening point, but the car park ran it a close second. Nothing ever actually came through them as they were locked so quickly, but there was always that fear.

Connor had started trying to find a way to widen the range of the locking device so that it covered a larger area. That way, on the day that they were all sure would eventually arrive when a raptor or something equally friendly came bounding through, they wouldn't need to waste time running through the vast building. It might mean the difference between life and death for someone.

It all started one day when the familiar siren went off. This time it was a new location, a corridor just off the hub, and it took a few minutes to locate and lock it.

Approaching it from the opposite side to the hub, Becker was sure that he'd seen something coming through, but with the anomaly filling most of the corridor it was hard to tell. Locked, it was small enough to get past and he headed off to check on the hub.

"Jess, everything okay?" Matt checked through his earpiece. There was no immediate response and Becker took this as a cue to start running. "Jess?"

"All fine," Jess's voice came through. "Sorry, there was a call coming in."

Becker slowed a little but kept going.

"I didn't see anything." That was Matt again, but Becker ignored him.

"Wouldn't the sirens be going off if a creature had come through?" Abby called as they hurried after him.

Abby was right about that. But he thought he'd seen something.

Jess was sitting at her station, smiling brightly at them, all limbs intact and no sign of any sort of injury. Becker looked around the room, still not convinced.

"Did anything just come through here?" he asked Jess.

"I'm guessing the answer's going to be no," Matt told Abby, who smirked when Becker turned and glared at them both.

"It looked like a man. If some caveman's come through..." he stopped when Abby could no longer control her urge to laugh, and Matt wasn't even trying.

Jess at least just kept smiling at him. "I definitely haven't seen a caveman," she confirmed. "Only you. And Lester, does he count?"

"You're seeing things, mate," Matt added. "Maybe you need a holiday."

Becker was still looking around, feeling slightly disappointed that there was nothing to shoot. Also, he wouldn't have minded too much if Jess had been threatened just a little by some non-lethal but scary looking creature that he would have to save her from because... well he hated to admit it but he just loved it when she felt he'd done something particularly brave and looked up at him adoringly. It just made the day that little bit brighter. Not that he was going to do anything about it, not whilst they were working together. Maybe when one of them moved on. There was no rush, Jess was besotted with him and was unlikely to be interested in anyone else any time soon, and there was a certain enjoyment in keeping her hanging on in there. Also, it was driving Abby and Emily crazy, and as they were two of the bossiest women he'd ever met in his life, that had to be another plus.

It did mean that he was missing out on certain delights Miss Parker had to offer, but as long as there were plenty of anomalies opening and monsters to shoot at, he supposed he could cope. He glanced down at her legs, then tried to pretend that he was looking at his gun instead.

Jess's smile was starting to look a little fixed at the mention of a holiday. She was probably thinking about sunning herself on some remote beach, he realised. Probably imagining him there too - although a boring beach holiday would be his idea of hell. Who would want that when there were hunting and shooting holidays all across the world to go on, and no menagerie staff to tell him that killing dangerous beasts was wrong? Perhaps Matt was right and he should think about a little trip.

"I'd love a holiday," Jess announced. "I saw an advert last night for the Caribbean, it looked wonderful. Miles and miles of beach..."

Yes, he was right, she was thinking about the beach. Abby started to enthuse about it with her, and he took that as a cue to go back and check on the anomaly before they started comparing sun tan lotions or something.

Connor was in the corridor trying to get a reading from the locked anomaly. It was flickering and looked as if it were about to close. Sure enough, as Becker and Matt approached, it blinked out of existence. Connor looked slightly disappointed.

"I think it was a recent one," he announced. "I'd really like to go through those, go a year back or a year forward, maybe check the racing results before I go... What? Don't tell me you two never thought about it!"

"I haven't," Matt told him. "My father did though, that's how we first got set up here."

Matt was just weird, there was no getting away from it. He had the ultimate older woman/toyboy thing going with Emily, who had a couple of centuries on him. He was walking around giving them orders and he hadn't even been born yet. And now he was freely talking about hopping around through time as if he were some kind of real-life Dr Who. Becker preferred not to think about it all, much as he liked Matt the man's very existence made his head hurt. Particularly now as they had saved the world and Matt should no longer exist for a whole variety of reasons, yet there he was still walking and talking and bossing Becker about... no, the Matt Anderson Futureman headache was starting again, he wasn't going to think about it.

Connor had no problem with it though, and started to engage Matt in a discussion on how Mr Anderson senior had managed that. Recognising that his headache was about to get worse, Becker headed for the armoury to clean his guns. That always made him feel better.

Aside from that brief interlude, that day and the next passed without any other anomalies.

Connor had vanished into his new lab and stayed there, still trying to work out why so many anomalies hit the ARC, and hoping that he was going to find a way to stop them before one materialised in Lester's office and he found himself out of a job.

Lester was sitting in said office looking irritated. He was probably irritated at the lack of anomalies, and would be equally irritated when one appeared.

Matt was locked in his own office. Becker had no idea what he was doing in there. Probably considering which era to jump into next or something, or recharging his robot batteries, which was the only logical explanation of why he'd survived the New Dawn blast and the time... no, headache, he wasn't going to think about it.

Abby seemed to be engrossed in something up in the menagerie. At first it appeared to be studying Rex, who apparently needed more study than every other animal in there put together. Soon enough Emily seemed to need to help her, and Jess also appeared to be needed whenever she was on a break. When Becker saw a copy of Perfect Wedding magazine tucked under Jess's arm as she headed upstairs for her girls coffee break, he realised what was going on and gave the menagerie a wide berth.

Jess was, coffee breaks aside, mostly still down at her station in the hub. She'd been quite subdued that morning, and he wondered if it might be time to buy her another bar of chocolate seeing as he'd failed to save her from the non-existent monster the previous day. Most likely she was feeling sorry for herself because Abby was getting married, and bars of chocolate from him always seemed to cheer her up.

It was something of a surprise then, when he handed over a bag of Maltesers and was rewarded with only a small smile and a polite "Oh, thank you!"

"I thought those were one of your favourites?" he couldn't help saying, kicking himself mentally for reacting at all. But she hadn't blushed, not even slightly.

"They are, very yummy, thank you." She smiled at him again, but there was something off. It wasn't the same smile that he was used to from her. There seemed a little less warmth, it was more the sort of look that she would give to Matt. Not that she disliked Matt or anything, but he definitely preferred the adoring looks that were normally given to him.

"Is everything okay?" He knew he shouldn't ask, he could be there for quite a while listening to a sad tale of how Abby was getting married, and Jess was going to be a bridesmaid, possibly it would even be her third time which apparently was a very bad thing. He tried to think of an excuse to escape quickly if the conversation turned down that route.

But all Jess said was: "Sorry, I'm tired. I was up late last night." She did break open the bag of Maltesers, and offer him one, which was something.

There was definitely something off. Last time he'd bought her Maltesers she'd got a bit over-excited when she opened the bag and half of them had ended up rolling all over the floor. Which wouldn't have been a problem except that an alert had gone off just then and Lester had come down to see what was happening...

Fortunately only Lester's pride had been hurt when he slipped over on one of the marble-like sweets. He'd attempted to ban any consumption of food at desks, but Jess had soon talked him out of that when she pointed out that he would have to give up the digestive biscuits he loved to dunk in his tea if he enforced that rule. Or worse, he would have to eat them in the staff room. The incident didn't seem to have dented Jess's enthusiasm for Maltesers though, he'd seen her devouring a bag of the things just a few days before.

"You should go to bed earlier," he found himself saying, waiting for the little blush to start sweeping over her face.

There was nothing, just a little smile at the corner of her mouth. "Oh, I'm hoping to," she replied, and turned back to her screens, effectively dismissing him. "Thank you for the chocolates."

Becker stared at the back of her head in surprise. Jess normally tried to engage him in conversation for as long as possible, no matter how much wittering and embarrassment ensued, especially if he gave her an opening like that. It was almost as if she were no longer quite as interested in him. He frowned, not keen on the change in her.

He headed off to the shooting range. That always improved his mood. And the targets never needed feeding with chocolate.

On the third day there was an anomaly.

It was rather a boring one, as anomalies went. A few short, dumpy creatures with inappropriately long names that Becker had forgotten even before they got back to the ARC got through. They didn't even require shooting as they were rather slow and just needed to be herded back through the anomaly. It was all very disappointing.

What was even more disappointing was the ridiculously large and ornate box of chocolates already sitting on Jess's desk when he went to hand in his black box. The gift looked overly fancy and expensive with its big red velvet bow and the little spray of artificial flowers stuck in one corner.

Abby, trotting up to Jess's station behind him, didn't seem to share that opinion: "Wow, nice chocolates Jess! Who gave you those?"

Becker didn't miss the glance she gave him, and rolled his eyes in disgust at the very idea that he would be the one to give something so crass. He'd got a very sensible bar of Dairy Milk in his pocket, which he thought anyone would prefer and which had been half price in Smiths. The expensive chocolates looked rather sickly. Although perhaps he would wait a little before handing it over. It might look a little... cheap... next to the fancy box.

"Oh... um..." Jess was blushing. He stared at her, but she wouldn't look at him, swivelling a little self-consciously in her chair. "I... it's a friend of mine."

Abby grinned, glanced at Becker again, and asked: "A male friend?"

"Yes."

Becker hated that stupid box of chocolates.

"Someone we know?"

Oh, and he hated Abby too.

Jess had the grace to look even more bashful, lowering her eyes in a way that he just found irresistible, and swinging her legs... he tried not to look at that.

"Um... no."

Abby looked at him again, but at least she'd stopped grinning. She obviously was bursting with questions though. So was Becker, but he wasn't going to ask them. Somehow, with Abby there, he doubted he would need to.

"So, is this a new boyfriend?"

"Um...well...I'm not sure..."

"Those chocolates say otherwise!"

"Mmm. Well, he's taking me to dinner tonight."

The bottom suddenly fell away from Becker's world. He really, really wanted to shoot those chocolates. And whoever the slime was who'd sent them.

"You shouldn't go out with some strange man you hardly know," he blurted out. "He might be some kind of psycho or something. Abby should go with you, just in case. And mace, have you got mace?"

Both women stared at him. Abby barely managed not to laugh, then told Jess: "I'm not going with you, but I want to hear all about it tomorrow. I'm betting Emily will as well. Lunch?"

Jess nodded happily. "Okay. And he's not a stranger, don't worry. I've known him ages, I just didn't realise until last night that he was interested."

"Oh?" Abby was interested as well, though not quite in the same way. "Do tell!"

"Don't you two have anything to do other than stand around gossiping?" Becker grumbled. He put down his black box and turned to go, just missing in his attempt to knock the stupid chocolates onto the floor. He could see a gift card on there saying something about See you tonight, and a foolishly large X. Hardly the most imaginative thing ever.

He stomped off to the armoury again. Doing an inventory of his guns always made him feel better.

TBC