Another story from a year and a half ago, before FF allowed page breaks lol. Editing to make a few changes and reposting. So like Wooing Abby Maitland, some of you have already read this one. Hope you enjoy it again.
Connor groaned in frustration as he saw the dinner table set with Chinese food… again.
He, Jess, and Abby were supposed to take turns preparing dinner, but Connor was the only one that ever actually cooked. Connor enjoyed cooking. The fact came as a surprise to most people, but it was something that Abby had discovered early on and used to her advantage. He began every morning with a wonderfully cooked breakfast a la Temple and when Abby had learned this, she'd demanded that he cook for her every weekend as well. During their year in the cretaceous, Connor had made all the meals and joked about writing his own cookbook one day, except he was half-serious about it. The only thing that stopped him was the fact that he never could be bothered to actually write down his recipes. Well, that and the teasing that was sure to ensure. Still, he liked the thought. Cooking Like Connor. That's what he'd call it. At first he thought he'd name it Cooking for the Cretaceous, but who would ever use that? Besides, he had too many recipes in his mind that required modern day ingredients… stuff you just didn't find back in Dino Land. Inventing recipes, he'd discovered, wasn't much different than inventing anything else after all, and the results were decidedly more tasty.
So, naturally he was frustrated when Jess and Abby ordered take-out every time their turns came around. He wished that he could just have the dinner preparation chore, but they both refused to trade him because that'd mean they had to clean up and Connor had to admit, he might be good at inventing new dishes, but he was probably the messiest cook in town. Still, he wished he could share his love of the art with his friend and girlfriend, but neither of the girls seemed the slightest bit interested in learning. To make matters worse, they ordered the same thing every. single. time. Today was Chinese which meant that Jess had gotten dinner. Every third day, on Abby's turn, they had Sushi. Seriously, they were making him insane.
Connor sighed, at least tomorrow it was his turn, and he was already making plans for the gourmet meal now. He'd been grocery shopping that afternoon. The recipe of course was another original, but he was sure the girls would love it.
He sat down and joined them both for the Chinese before they all headed to bed.
Jess hesitated, face flushed, as she entered the ARC staff room the next day. She had just been planning on grabbing a quick cup of extra frothy coffee to take back to the ADD with her, but now she noticed that Becker was sitting alone at the small table and it didn't take a genius to figure out that something was wrong. His shoulders were slouched and he was beating up on a piece of pizza.
Jess wondered if she should intrude into his personal dilemma by asking him what was wrong. She wanted to intrude, she really did, but usually any encounter with Becker left her rambling and embarrassed. The problem was that whenever she became flustered (which was any time Becker was in close proximity) she rambled and said something really embarrassing and instead of teasing her about it like every other normal human would do, Becker just stared at her quietly with an amused expression on his face and eyebrows raised and she'd ramble on further and further as she got more and more humiliated and he never stopped her.
In fact, he'd stopped beating up his slice of pizza and was making that expression right now. Crap, so he'd noticed her just standing there staring. Now she had to talk.
"Did you want something, Jess?" Becker asked when he saw that she'd finally noticed him watching her, "Or were you just planning on daydreaming all afternoon."
"I, uh, just wanted some coffee you know, to keep me awake. I'm just really tired today so I need it. I couldn't seem to sleep last night, bad dreams, you know, about the team and the anomalies, it gets a bit much at times. I mean, not that I was dreaming about you or anything, well I mean, I was, because the whole team was there, but…"
"Hey guys!" Connor's voice sang out and Jess could have kissed him for interrupting her. In fact, she did. Both Connor and Becker looked on in surprise as she flung her arms around Connor's neck and pecked his cheek.
"Thanks Connor!"
Connor stared, puzzled, "Uh, you're welcome. What'd I do?"
"You stopped her smack dab in the middle of a speech about how she's been dreaming about me," Becker said with an amused grin, finally speaking.
Connor gave Jess a look of sympathy, knowing how she could be when it came to Becker, and then he grabbed a cup of coffee himself and left them. The more alone time the two of them had, the better, he thought. He was sure it was what Abby would tell him to do.
And once again, Jess was left with a staring Becker. Well, it was his turn to talk. She took a deep breath and then sat across from him and asked, "What's wrong?" There, that came out okay. Good job, she congratulated herself.
Becker shrugged, "Nothing, what makes you think there's something wrong?"
Jess bit her tongue and pointed to the pizza, if you could still call it that, on his plate. Becker glanced down and noticed that the pizza was now more of a ball of dough and sauce. The slice had been torn to shreds and then rolled up all together.
"Oh, that."
"Yes, that. What's wrong?"
"Nothing big, just didn't feel like pizza."
"And so you did that to it."
"Truth is, Jessica, I didn't feel like anything to eat. I'm hungry, but I can't think of any proper takeout that I haven't had a billion times over. Being a soldier doesn't leave much time for cooking you know, really I have no idea how to."
Jess stared at him in surprise; she didn't think Becker had ever revealed so much about himself to her, ever.
He caught the look and realised what she was thinking. He hadn't really meant to tell her that he couldn't cook, he preferred not to talk about his personal life, but sometimes it was too easy with Jess. It was hard not to say something when the other person was really truly interested like she was. He smiled at her, "And don't you dare tell that to anyone."
Jess' face lit up. It was a secret then; Becker had a secret and he was entrusting it to her. Well this day just got way better. "I won't, I won't!" she promised solemnly. "You can trust me you know, with anything, I can keep a secret, really I can. Not that I'm saying you should start telling me your secrets or anything, just that, you know, if you wanted to, you could." Shut up, Jess!
Becker just smiled at her though, "Thanks, Jess." He watched her for a moment. She looked so happy to have learned something new about him. He did enjoy seeing her happy. He couldn't resist continuing. "Truth is, Jessica," he started again, "Living on my own and all that, I haven't had a decent home-cooked meal in three years. Before that I used to go to my family's for Christmas and Thanksgiving and they'd make me one, but then, well, you know, I joined the ARC team and things changed. They live too far away and I didn't want to leave the area in case of an anomaly."
"We have other staff too you know," Jess pointed out.
"Yeah, but none of them want to be on call Christmas and Thanksgiving. Anyway, it's hard being with family and not being able to tell them what I do. They are ridiculously nosy at times."
"So you don't see your family at all?" Jess asked.
Becker hesitated, okay this was way more than he'd wanted to tell her, but it did feel good to talk. Anyway, it was Jess and she amused him. He was having fun watching her expression as she tried to appear sympathetic at the same time as she was nearly bursting with joy that he was talking to her about his private life. He kept going, "No, not anymore. It's okay though. My dad was in the military too, never saw him much as a child and my mum, well, I used to fight with her a lot growing up. I know it sounds terrible, but I miss the food more than the company."
"I'll cook you dinner!" Jess blurted out suddenly without quite meaning to. She blushed, "I mean, if you want me to. I don't have to stay or anything if you don't want to eat with me, I can just, you know, come cook the meal and leave or something."
Becker raised his eyebrows, amused again, "You're offering to be my personal chef? Don't you have enough on your plate already? What's in it for you?"
Jess shrugged, "Nothing, I promise, I just, you know, feel bad that you've gone so long without a proper meal. It's not healthy you know, just to have takeout all the time."
Becker grinned, her cheeks were so red and he thought it absolutely adorable. He couldn't help but to want more. He stood up and came a bit closer to her, "Thanks Jess, I'd like that. Does Saturday work for you?" Then he quickly kissed her cheek and watched as Jess' jaw dropped in surprise.
"You're welcome." She said, nodding, but even those words were hard to get out through her sudden speechlessness.
Becker turned and headed to the door, "I gotta go do some security stuff, but don't forget Jess, what I told you, it's just between us."
"I promise, really I do."
"Good."
He walked out of the room but poked his head back a second later, "Oh, and Jess?"
"Yeah?"
"I'd be more than happy if you actually stayed for the supper too." He said before leaving.
