Hostages - Chapter 1 - Jess' POV

I looked at the clock in the kitchen as I made my early dinner and seen that it was 4:27pm which gave me enough time to eat my dinner, get showered and dress myself and do my hair before Becker showed up to take us both to the ARC for the night shift. I hated working the night shift it was the most boring shift ever as nothing never happened and time just seemed to go so slowly as I worked at my ADD waiting for 6am to come around so I can go home and go to bed, how sad is that? I'm 21 years old and on a Friday night I will be asleep! You can tell I'm single and live on my own.

After rushing to eat my dinner I jumped in the shower and quickly washed my hair and body then jumped back out and went into my room to get dressed, luckily I already had my clothes picked out otherwise it could have taken a while for me to get ready. I quickly died my hair and decided to put a head band in it but kept my fringe free across my forehead, I did my make up in record time and got dressed and as I put my shoes on my buzzer rang out loudly through my apartment "Hello" I said.

"It's me" Becker's voice said.

"OK I'll be right down" I told him and grabbed my bag which had my work stuff and my keys, I took a look around to make sure that I hadn't left anything there and once I was satisfied I left my apartment and went down to the front of the building and where Becker was waiting in his truck "Hey" I said as I jumped in.

"Hi, you sure you got everything?" He asked.

"Positive" I replied.

I looked at the clock in Becker's truck and seen that it was 5:20pm which gave us 40 minutes to get to work during the London rush hour traffic but Becker knew some amazing shortcuts to stay out of the traffic "Have a nice day?" He asked making conversation.

"Yeah it was OK just went to Tesco to do some shopping, what about you?" I questioned.

"Went and seen my sister and my new niece" He replied.

"Oh gosh I totally forgot Emma had her baby... What did she name her?" I asked.

"Ellie" He simply answered.

"That's a nice name, are they both OK?" I asked.

"Yeah they're both doing great, Ellie didn't cry once whilst I was there she was more interested in looking around at her surroundings" I looked at the big smile he had on his face as he spoke about his niece "Oh Ben wants to know when he can see you again, he said he misses his girl" Becker said referring to his nephew.

I had met his sister and nephew once at Becker's birthday and became quite close with Emma and had babysat for Ben a couple times whilst she was pregnant and Becker was at work or whatever "You tell him he was supposed to call me and never did" I said and we both laughed.

Since I met his family at his birthday a couple of years ago he has seemed to open up towards me a bit more and I think that me and Becker have grown a lot closer because of that, speaks to me more and just generally getting along with me more.

We got to the ARC and we said our goodbyes in the lift as I got off at the hub and he went down towards the armoury where he was going to meet with the soldiers and give them their orders for the night, I greeted Sally and took her off her post and bid her good night as she left leaving me with a list of things that needed to be done but K recognised the writing on the list as Lester's, I rolled my eyes as I seen what was on the list.

Take any phone calls/messages and leave on my desk for the morning
Make sure my diary is cleared until 3pm, cancel anything before that
Print put incursion chart and put on my desk for the morning
Answer my E-Mails from between 5pm and 6am (unless from the Minister)
Make sure Connor hasn't left dangerous things laying around
Make sure no road works are going on for my morning drive to work tomorrow and if there is give me another route

I sighed and shook my head, I had my own things to do as well! You'd think that I was hired as his slave rather then a field co-ordinator... A field co-ordinator was not his personal slave. I grabbed my laptop and set in Lester's office, if I was going t be answering his phone and E-Mails all evening then I will be sitting in his office I wasn't running backwards and forwards all night. Everything that I was going to do on the ADD I could do from the laptop as they are all in synch with one another.

To be honest I was quite glad I was in his office because 1) it's cosier and 2) I always felt like there was someone standing behind me when I was at the ADD on the night shift because the ARC can be a really creepy place a night as there is nit many people around.

Tonight there's me, Becker, 10 of his men on security around the ARC, 12 on stand by (at home) in case there was an anomaly, 4 medics and 5 scientists and on the night shift everyone just kept to themselves really and stayed in their own labs or areas so I was usually up here alone for most the night... Although Becker does normally come and sit with me for a few hours around 9pm.

As I turned on Lester's laptop and went into his E-Mails and seen there was already 11 unread E-Mails! Well this is defiantly going to take a while.

Dear Mr Lester

After the New Dawn disaster with Philip Burton it seems that you may be in need of a private sector for your public-private partnership and I cam offer you that. My name is Shelley Gerald from Gerald Energy, my company is an energy provider and I currently have a team out in three different continents looking for energy efficient fuel.

What I am offering you is a £2billion to put into your research facility and in return we can use your high tech equipment to help us find more energy efficient fuel. We will always give your research facility our energy to run on.

I understand that you must be getting lots of similar offers but I have already spoken to the Minister any he has said that I am the best candidate so far and I was to contact you with some brief information. Of course I don't want to bore you with a long E-Mail as I know you are a very busy man but if you do wish to discuss this more with me then contact me on 621537432891 and press option 4 where you will be put through to my assistant Sophie, just tell her your name and you will be put straight through to me.

Kind Regards
Shelley Gerald

I wrote down on Lester's memo pad that she had an interesting proposal and her number so he could contact her if he wanted to but I think that Lester is pushing for it to go back to how the old ARC was with no private help.

The door knocked and opened and Becker came on holding two cups of coffee, he sat on the edge of Lester's desk next to me and handed me one "Lester got you doing all of his dirty work again?" He asked.

"Of course because I'm the only idiot that will do it" I told him and shock my head.

"Tell him no... You have your work to do to" He said.

"I should but... Well he's an old man who struggles" We both laughed.

"Anything interesting in Lester's E-Mails... No sex or tax scandals?" He questioned.

"Nope" I answered.

For the next hour me and Becker just had a snoop through the E-Mails because Becker thought there had to be something interesting but there wasn't and we spoke about Connor and Abby's upcoming nuptials. I was maid of honour and Becker was best man, we were both told by Abby and Connor that we had to dance as did Matt and Emily who were an usher and bridesmaid.

It was awkward as me and Becker had gone to dance classes with Abby, Connor, Matt and Emily but Emily was a pro as it was normal for her time. It felt nice having Becker's arms around me but at the same time it was awkward as we wasn't a couple like Abby and Connor or Matt and Emily.

Well I guess we'll just have to put on the best performance of our lives and pretend that we were a couple as we were dancing, although I would love it if we were a real couple, I have never had feelings for someone like this before.

I know it's short but I promise the others will be longer.