A/N: This story was written for the Merry Jecker Christmas 2013 fanfic exchange, over at The JeckerLibrary on Tumblr for a prompt by the amazing clea2003. The prompt will be revealed at the end!
Merry reading! :-)
The Field Mission
"Are you ready?"
Jess slowly closed the door of her locker and turned around to give Emily a nervous smile.
"Yes, I'm as ready as I'm ever going to be for this."
Emily looked at her friend, a big grin on her face.
"Did you sneak these boots by Becker?"
"The ARC doesn't have army boots in size 3.5, Emily!" Jess said. So I went and bought these"
Jess lifted her foot off the ground and set it down on the bench to allow her friend a better look at her new hiking boots. They were splendid! Well as splendid as hiking boots could be. Made from Gore-Tex material, fully laced up, with a big chunky sole. Mostly grey, except for a large red part around the heel and running along the side of the sole.
Emily was still grinning, but said nothing.
"Oh come on, I complied with all other requirements on Becker's long list of serious in the field must-haves!" Jess pouted.
"OK then, soldier girl, let's go!" Emily put her arm around Jess' shoulder and they left the changing room together. Both women were clad in black combat trousers, black long sleeved t-shirts and black jackets with the ARC logo sewed on the material.
Half an hour earlier, the team's normal Friday morning routine had been interrupted by an anomaly alert. And then another one. Becker, Matt and Emily came running instantly towards the ADD where a busy Jess had already traced the co-ordinates of both anomalies. As usual, Becker was towering over her chair, trying to assess the situation as quickly as possible. Matt stared at the screen, an unreadable expression on his face. Next to him, Emily frowned.
"Wales?"
"That's right. The first anomaly is in the Breacon Beacons. At the end of a valley near…Bwlch… Jess stopped.
"Bwlch y Ddwyallt" Becker said behind her, the unusual words rolling easily off his tongue.
His team members turned to look at him.
"I had no idea you spoke Welsh. That was not in your file" said Jess.
"I don't but I'm familiar with the area. That's where the SAS hold their selection training exercises. It's about as inaccessible as its name. And not the place you want to go in December." he said calmly.
"The other one is located further North, in the Elan Valley. At least linguistically more accessible. No incursions in either location."
They all turned around when they heard Lester's door open and the bureaucrat walk down the few steps towards their group.
"Right then" James Lester gave them all a somewhat critical glance before continuing "Today is your lucky day."
Jess turned around in her chair and watched her boss pacing across OPS in his elegant dark blue hand tailored suit. Such a level of sarcasm before nine o'clock in the morning was never a good sign. And she dreaded what he might announce.
"As you all know, after the New Dawn fiasco, new procedures regarding training have been set up. The ARC Member's Special Skills and Survival Training has been implemented at the behest of the Minister himself. Miss Parker, you are going into the field today!"
"Sir, I don't think…
"Captain Becker!" Lester stopped his pacing in front of his Head of Security who looked down at the older man with narrowed eyes.
Lester frowned back and continued "You've trained Miss Parker for Field missions during the last 6 months, if I am not mistaken. You 've made sure she acquired all the necessary skills as required by the AMSSST."
"Yes Sir, I did, but…"
"Becker, I know you don't like civilians in the field, but firstly rogue dinosaurs and insane humans do not ask first for rank and serial number before they assault and secondly the Field isn't always where it's supposed to be. The ARC can turn into a bloody, messy field in an instant. Need I remind you what that evil creature tried to do to my Jaguar?"
Lester clearly was very touchy about the fact that anyone, human or creature might try to harm his precious car.
"Miss Parker is ready for the mission. She will team up with you Captain Becker and go to Brecon Beacons. Anderson and Merchand, you go to Elan Valley. A plane will take you all to Sennybridge air field, from where you'll be flown to your respective locations by helicopter. Go now, before all of Jurassic Park comes running through these anomalies."
Lester turned and walked back to his office.
The remaining team members stood there for a brief moment, looking at each other.
"I'm going to get changed then." When Jess got out of her chair, Becker seemed to come out of his stupor. Glancing briefly at the Field Co-ordinator, he ordered "We're leaving in 15 minutes. Be ready" and walked off towards the lift.
And it was exactly 15 minutes later that the team met at the SUV that Becker had already filled with equipment, weapons and backpacks.
"Right, let's go then!" Matt climbed into the front passenger seat. He knew from experience that when Becker was in such a bad mood, letting him drive at least gave him some kind of outlet for his frustration.
They drove in silence for quite some time, when Jess decided to break the silence.
"I'm rather excited about trying out Connor's latest updated version of the Anomaly locking device! And it's fabulous that he came up with a solution for an incursion detector!" she said from the back of the car.
"Since the Temples are on their honeymoon and as far as the ARC is concerned, dead to the world, his gadgets'd better work properly!" Becker growled from behind the wheel. "And of course the anomalies have to be in bloody Wales in bloody winter!"
"Stop sulking mate!" Matt gave Becker a quick glance, his face not showing any particular expression.
"I'm not sulking! I'm just saying!" Becker shot Matt an infuriated look.
"You are, Becker!"
"No! Not you too, Emily!"
"What, Becker? You seem awfully frustrated about the fact we are going on a mission today. It almost seems like you had other plans for this day" she teased.
Jess noticed Becker's shoulders tensing at her words. Her heart sunk quite a bit. She had been dreading the day she would go on an official field mission. No matter how much she had trained and prepared herself for this duty, and no matter how much faith everybody else had in her abilities to perfectly do her Job, even if it was in the field, she knew that Becker remained very critical and sceptic. He didn't seem to share the faith in her the others had. Whenever he trained with her, he urged her to do better, improve her skills and generally being a grumpy pain in the arse.
Emily had noticed Jess' afflicted expression and reached over to gently put a hand on her friends' arm. "You'll be fine, Jess!"
Jess wasn't totally convinced, but she gratefully gave Emily a tiny smile.
O~O
She didn't mind travelling on an airplane. The windows were small and there was a reassuring hum reverberating around the layers of plastic and metal that surrounded her. She normally just cocooned in her seat, trying to forget about the fact she was 10000 feet up in the air.
As soon as the small plane was in the air, Becker seized the opportunity to brief her again in detail about their upcoming mission. His jaw was tight and his shoulders tense. But he had stopped complaining, so Jess took that as a sign that his mood had somewhat improved. At least she hoped so. Because going on her first field mission was rather stressful in itself. And throwing in a grouchy Captain Becker, constantly emitting signals of how annoyed he was, into the mix didn't do much to calm her nerves.
It was only once the plane descended towards Sennybridge airfield, that Jess had time to look out of the window. Not that there was a lot to see. They were flying through low hanging clouds. Once the ground became visible, Jess noticed that the sleet they had encountered further east had turned into solid snow that started to cover the landscape under the airplane.
"Great" Jess sighed.
Two helicopters were already waiting for them on the tarmac of the runway at Sennybridge airfield. The teams split up and Jess followed Becker, who was carrying a huge backpack as well as a somewhat smaller hold-all over to the helicopter on the left.
Jess shrugged of her backpack that, although smaller than Becker's, still held a considerable amount of weight. Slightly balancing on her tiptoes, she lifted it up to pass it onto the Captain who was stowing everything away in the back of the helicopter.
Its pilot stood next to the engine, his arms folded over his chest, greeting them with a short nod. He was a rather short and stout man in his fifties, with grey, wiry hair and green eyes under bushy brows.
For a tiny, surreal moment Jess wondered if this man, dressed up in a red coat and hood, wouldn't make a great Father Christmas. This fleeting thought put a smile on her face. The pilot seemed to have noticed as he took one step towards her to shake her hand.
"My name is Rhys Llewelyn" he said. „Welcome to Wales. I'm afraid the flight will be rather bumpy. "He frowned at the sky. „The wind has picked up and up in the mountains there will be more snow. We better get going! "
Helicopters were definitely different from planes. Roaring loudly, and equipped with only small, uncomfortable and hard seats, they were fragile constructions of metal and far too much glass for her taste.
She'd only been aboard a helicopter once before. When she was sixteen, her parents took her on a holiday in Switzerland and one of the attractions was a helicopter sightseeing flight across the alpine peaks of the Berner Oberland. She hadn't been particularly fond of the view through the low widows that gave her the impression of sitting out in the empty. Jess still vividly remembered the feeling of her churning stomach, trying to avert her gaze from the minuscule houses and roads in the valley underneath. The elegant silhouette of the Silberhorn with its bluish flanks had been ahead of them, but all Jess could do was focus on the back of the seat of the pilot to anchor herself in space.
"Are you all right, Miss?" the hoarse voice of Rhys Llewelyn brought her back to the present and made her open her eyes.
The pilot was looking over his shoulder back at her. Narrowing his eyes under his bushy brows, he had a slightly worried expression on his face.
Jess' hands gripped the buckle of the seat belt tightly and she took long, deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself.
"Yes, I'm fine!" She tried to sound as convincing as possible. Which, really, wasn't very convincing at all.
"There are paper bags under your seat, Miss, just in case…" Jess noticed Becker's shoulders tensing at those words.
"Thank you, but that won't be necessary!" she said, her voice barely audible through the loud engine noise and relentless flap-flap of the rotors above her.
The snow kept falling steadily during their air fare and when the helicopter eventually landed at the foot of Bwlch y Ddwyallt, a thick white sheet covered the valley. Jess was relieved that they'd finally landed and had a quick look around while Llewellyn helped Becker with their equipment.
From her position, she could overlook the entire valley. Its soft slopes were treeless, with windswept, wild heights and old, rugged rocks that looked spectacular. The frosty, quiet air caused her breath to form small clouds in front of her lips. Jess gazed at the winter landscape and despite the cold and snowfall was amazed by its beauty.
"Good luck! I'll pick you up again once you are ready. Let's hope the weather will hold" Llewellyn said to Jess and Becker before climbing back into his helicopter and flying off.
O~O
They walked up into a small side valley, following the course of a small river for about ten minutes in silence. The terrain was getting harder to traverse with all the snow building up. Then Becker suddenly stopped. They'd reached a spot where a protruding rock caused the path to turn.
"There!" he pointed as Jess came up to him. It was the first time Jess stood in front of a real anomaly. She had seen images of them many times before, but this here was real.
"It's amazing!" She gazed at the delicate looking golden shards floating in the air with sparkling snowflakes dancing around it about 50 meters in front of them, about halfway up a slope.
"They are amazing, Jess! And they can be lethal." Becker spoke calmly and Jess detected a slight note of concern. She looked up at him and caught an odd expression in his eyes that she couldn't quite place. She knew about his guilt and his bitter regrets about having failed to save people in the past. There was definitely a display of those emotions in his eyes, but on top of that, there was yet something else. Something akin to affection.
"Be careful, Jess. Please?" She was surprised by the pleading tone of his voice and the light touch of his hand on her sleeve.
"I won't disappoint you!" She kept her voice firm and confident, despite the nervousness she felt.
Together, they moved around the rocky side of the mountain and cautiously approached the glowing circle of light in front of them.
Becker pointed his EMD straight at the golden shards, standing tall and assessing the situation. Jess let her backpack slide to the ground and rolled her shoulders. She grabbed the portable incursion detector, Connor's latest invention and pointed it at the anomaly directly in front of her.
"No incursions recorded" she read the display in front of her.
"All right, let's work quickly here. The sooner we close this, the sooner we can…oh crap!"
Jess grabbed her small EMD, sliding the incursion detector back into her pocket. Standing next to Becker, pointing her weapon at the anomaly, she saw the shards' movement alter and the anomaly burst. She held her breath, her eyes glued to the bright light.
"And what the hell are those?" Becker huffed.
Half a dozen little creatures came through the anomaly. Small and furry.
Becker and Jess both stared at the creatures. The Captain with an incredulous frown, the Field Coordinator with a big grin.
"They look like…"
"Prehistoric bunnies!"
"A fluffy incursion!"
Becker just rolled his eyes when the first of the tiny brown rodents hopped towards Jess' backpack. They were smaller than contemporary bunnies with shorter, stubbier ears and a pointier tail, but it was impossible to ignore the resemblance.
"Right! Let's get them back home before they escape in all directions" Becker said, trying to shoo the prehistoric bunnies back towards the anomaly. "We need some kind of containment for them. Otherwise this will take hours!" As if to prove his point, one of the startled bunnies jumped in the air and hopped off, meanwhile the other sniffed at Jess' backpack.
"How about your hold-all, Becker?"
"It contains the Anomaly closing device. If you can keep the fluffies together until I've set up the device, this plan might work."
Becker strode over to his pack, zipped open the biggest compartment and pulled out canvass and metal rods in order to set up a military issue tent. The one thing Connor Temple hadn't been able to fix so far, was the closing device's sensitivity to wetness. Last time they had to close an anomaly in the rain, Matt had to get an parasol from a nearby café and hold it over the device while Becker closed it, in order to prevent the mechanism from stuttering and choking.
Jess had in the meantime carefully approached the bunny that was sniffing her pack. Snowflakes landed on its dense fur while it looked up at her listening to her soothing voice. "Poor little guys!" The other creatures were still nearby, sitting in the snow, not quite sure what to think of the sudden change in climate.
Becker worked fast and set up the tent with exact, precise movements. As soon as he was done, he grabbed the hold-all, took out the tripod and set the device up, pointing it at the anomaly. Then he carefully crawled out of the tent and handed Jess the hold-all.
Jess picked up the little creature nearest to her and carefully lowered it into the hold-all. The little guy didn't seem to mind, but when Becker approached the second one, it squeaked and jumped sideways, escaping his hand by inches.
Jess had been more successful catching another one, and putting in the hold-all, but she noticed that the remaining bunnies were starting to get stressed and were hopping in all directions. Becker finally managed to catch the third one and handed it over to Jess.
They both had turned their backs to the anomaly so they could keep track of the bunnies. The little creatures inside the bag started to get restless and tried to jump out of their confinement, so Jess slowly pulled the zipper, only leaving a little spot open allowing air to get inside.
"We need to get them all. If those two escape, Wales might be full of prehistoric baby bunnies by Easter" Becker moaned.
"Right! Let's get them!" Jess was already focussing on the little creature nearer to her. Becker kept an eye on the other one that seemed to get further and further away from their position.
Suddenly, they heard the snow scrunching behind them, followed by a mighty roar. They both turned instantly and Becker instinctively pulled Jess behind him, trying to shield her from the stomping feet of an adult Deinonychus.
Its raptorial claws shimmered almost metallic in the snow and the sickle-shaped talon on the second toe of each hind foot looked razor sharp. The creature tilted his head and displayed two rows of pointy teeth. Its dark eyes blinked twice, lowered its head and sniffed. Becker and Jess stood very still and the Captain's hand reached imperceptively for the EMD that he had slung over his shoulder while chasing the bunnies.
The pair of bunnies had finally noticed the approaching predator and broke out in a wild run, which immediately caught the attention of the Deinonychus, who turned to chase after them. Its long, flexible tail whipping around and hitting Becker sideways in the chest with its pointy end and knocking him off his feet. His EMD was knocked out of his hand and he fell and rolled down the slope.
Jess gasped, her attention for a moment divided between fearing the moving raptor and worrying about Becker. She pointed her small EMD at the Deinonychus while picking up Becker's EMD that had landed only feet away from where she was standing.
Becker had managed to scramble to his feet while Jess tossed him his weapon. He caught it in the air and ran back up the slope towards his companion.
The little bunnies had abruptly changed directions a few times and were now running towards Jess, just as Becker reached her. Shoulder to shoulder, the ARC members held their weapons at gunpoint and fired several shots with their EMD at the approaching raptor.
The Deinonychus was hit several times in the chest, neck and head. It screeched loudly before collapsing and sliding down the hillside and coming to a stop with a big splash in the river.
Becker took a deep breath and lowered his EMD. He looked down at the petite women next to him. To his utter surprise, she still held her weapon at the ready, aiming and taking a shot at the fluffy bunnies. They squealed and collapsed next to each other.
"Jess?" Becker gave her an incredulous look. "Did you just shoot the fluffies?"
The brunette finally lowered her EMD and glanced at the tall soldier. "I stunned them. It was the only way to stop them from escaping into the valley. We'd never have found them again. "
Becker's lips curled slightly and his eyes twinkled with merriment. "You are brilliant!"
Then he became serious again. "The snowfall is getting worse and we need to get the Deinonychus and the rabbits back through the anomaly! I'm not sure how long they will all stay unconscious. We'd better hurry! Go to the tent and activate the locking device as soon as I tell you to."
As Jess turned to walk over to the tent, Becker picked up the little furry creatures and carried them over to his hold-all that had been dropped into the snow when the Deinonychus had come through. He lifted the bag and approached the anomaly. He reached into the black bag and, one by one, pulled the struggling prehistoric bunnies out and unceremoniously pushed them through the anomaly.
"Close it now, Jess!"
As soon as he had spoken, the anomaly contracted into a shiny compact ball floating above ground.
As Becker strode over to the tent, he started to worry that they'd run out of time with the unconscious raptor. He wanted to get the creature back up the hillside as quickly as possible. But considering the amount of snow that had fallen since they arrived, they might encounter serious problems.
"Jess, can you get the ropes out of my pack and the extra tarpaulin?"
Moments later, Jess appeared carrying a neatly folded piece of tarpaulin and a rolled up bit of red nylon rope.
The concerned look in her eyes made him uneasy. "Are you all right?"
She slowly nodded. "I'll feel much better once we get this one out of the river and through the anomaly" she said, indicating the Deinonychus.
They worked very hard for the next hour. Spreading out the tarpaulin at the edge of the slope next to the water was the easy part. But they both had to step into the river in order to attach the ropes around the predator's legs. Jess shuddered when ice cold water ran into her hiking boots and soaked her combat trousers. Becker's position was even worse as he stood in deeper water and had to bend down to string the rope around the muscular hind legs of the creature. By the time he'd managed to tightly knot the rope around the scaly skin, his jacket was completely drenched.
Together they pulled the out of the water and onto the canvass. Becker and Jess each grabbed a corner of the tarpaulin and fought their way uphill, pulling the heavy body of the creature behind them. When they finally arrived in front of the closed anomaly, Jess could barely feel her gloved fingers. Becker was panting next to her.
"We're almost there! I just need you to open the anomaly and as soon as I got him through, you close it again."
Jess ran through the snow and pulled off her gloves. She vigorously rubbed her hands together in order to get the circulation going. Her fingers still felt numb, but she managed to operate the device and the anomaly opened.
Becker stood right in front of it and Jess just hoped that there was no further incursion while he tried to get the Deinonychus through. She knew that they wouldn't be able to cope with that.
The Captain took a deep breath and grabbed the two ends of the tarpaulin and pulled it up. The dinosaur pivoted and slowly disappeared through the sparkling shards of light.
As soon as it was gone, Jess closed the anomaly, collapsing next to the device and putting her arms around herself. Becker stood bent over, with his hands on his knees, feeling an enormous wave of relief washing over him. They were safe. Jess was safe.
O~O
"Jess, just a moment…"
"Honestly Becker, you need to get out of those wet clothes! I can close my eyes if you want to but remember, I have seen you shirtless before! You have to get warm and dry!" She was tugging at the hem of his wet, black shirt under his equally dripping tac vest.
"Jess, listen to me! "
"We have no idea how long it will take for Llewelyn to get back here in this storm. Maybe he won't until tomorrow and I've read all about hypothermia and body heat to keep each other warm and..."
"Stop!"
Jess was holding the silver survival blanket that Becker had taken out of his enormous backpack. They stared at each other for endless seconds. Facing each other kneeling on the floor of the tiny tent, they remained completely motionless. She saw him look at her intently, his chest rising with a deep breath. Suddenly the tips of his ears turned pink and his cheeks were blushing.
At this moment, something snapped inside Jess. She no longer cared about Becker's strange moods and the fact he was adamant to interrupt her to get him out of his wet clothes. Or his grumpiness throughout her field training. Or that they had been dancing around each other since the moment they first met.
She was done with it! With forever waiting for him to pick up speed that would make him move faster than a glacier. She was done with her own insecurities.
And with them both being wet and cold and miserable in this thin tent getting snowed in.
Jess dropped the blanket she held and with surprising strength, she grabbed the front of Becker's shirt in her fists, pulled him forward and started to kiss the hell out of the Captain.
For an instant, he remained completely still at first, as if in shock. Then, with one swift move, he puts his arms around her, pulling her flush against him and begins kissing her back with all the pent up emotions he had been holding back for so long. Slowly, his hands roam across her back, one moves up to the back of her head while the other rests on her lower back, pushing her closer to him. She could feel his heartbeat fast and hard against her skin. He briefly let go of her back to grab the blanket she'd dropped and skilfully wrapped it around the both of them without breaking their kiss once. Jess felt Becker smile against her lips and slowly opened her eyes.
He pulled his hand forward caressing her cheek with his thumb and then gently placing his index on his lips.
"Jess, I'll take of my shirt, I promise, but first let me ask you something."
She looked at him with a curious expression, not quite sure where this was going.
"I meant to ask you this morning, before the alert. The plans I had for today…Would you like to come with me to see "A Midsummer Night's Dream"? I overheard you talk about the play with Emily the other day and thought you might like to see it. It was meant to be a surprise. I doubt we make it back to London in time tonight. But we could go tomorrow?"
He looked at her, slightly embarrassed because his plan had failed, and at the same time he couldn't hide an expectant, hopeful look.
Jess gave Becker a radiant smile, one that instantly was mirrored on his own.
"Of course I want to. Now take off that shirt!"
FINIS
A/N: Clea's prompt was Snowed in - don't mind where or how. Snuggling for warmth is always a favourite trope!
This is the longest "onesie" I've ever written! I've jumped several sharks and made up prehistoric fluffies. And I thoroughly enjoyed writing it!
Feedback is always very welcome!
Happy New Year!