Hey everyone :) I know that I shouldn't be writing any more new stories seeing as I have 3 (now 4) unfinished ones already. But I couldn't resist :P the plot bunnies got to me and I just had to write

I hope you like it :D

Enjoy

It had started off small, Jess noticed. But then again it always did. The holocaust had begun by asking politely for all Jews to wear a star on their sleeves after all, this was no different; but on a much smaller scale.

She had needed a distraction. Things were getting nowhere with Becker and pining after him like an infatuated teenager was not on her to do list. So she had started going out occasionally, usually with Abby seeing as she had no idea how to handle nightclubs by herself. She liked drinking, she found. It numbed her feelings for Becker, allowing her to laugh about it and scorn herself for being stupid. She had met Darren on one of these nights, he worked at the ARC too, but he was lower level and although Jess had glanced at his personnel file, she couldn't remember much about him. She had only seen him around the ARC once or twice, and his face didn't register. He was ordinary looking, stocky build, medium height, a strong face and sharp grey eyes that worked well with his dark brown hair. He was on Becker's backup team, and had fast reflexes which he proved when they had met and he had caught Jess as she stumbled drunkenly over to Abby from the bar, and tripped on air. He had laughed at her, and guided her outside, Abby had followed at a distance, she wasn't quite as drunk as Jess, and she didn't need to be. She had a comfortable place to stay and a comfortable boyfriend, who thought the world of her. She was only there to keep Jess company, to listen to her friends despair over Becker, growing increasingly melodramatic with each drink, until Abby declared she had had enough, and dragged her home. Abby knew that Connor didn't mind her going out. He didn't particularly like it when they spent virtually no time together as it was, but he understood that Jess needed some girl time, and he trusted that Abby would look out for her and not get drunk and hook up with random men, so he didn't begrudge them the time.

Darren had kept hold of Jess' arm to steady her as she swayed on the pavement, and she smiled dozily up at him, her blue eyes wide with inebriation.

'I know you Jess Parker' he had said, grinning down at her 'You're the one that tells us where to go and what to do to keep us out of trouble.' Jess laughed.

'That's me' she slurred 'I'm the mother hen of the ARC'

'Oh I don't know about that' Darren had replied jokingly, gently handing her over to Abby 'You're much too pretty to be a mother hen. And no feathers' he winked at both of them and turned to rejoin his friends inside the club.

Abby grinned, hauling a giggling Jess down the street. She would be hung over tomorrow, she thought grimacing it was always funny when Jess was in a mood, barking instructions at them down the comms and grumbling like a spoilt poodle when she didn't get coffee. But she hoped that Jess would remember some of the night. At least, she hoped she would remember Darren, more specifically, his compliment. As they reached Jess's apartment, Abby deposited Jess in bed, pulling off her clothes and redressing her in her fluffy pastel pyjamas as only one who had done this many times before could. Then she shook her head at her sleeping colleague and left the room to find Connor.

The next day Jess was reasonably chirpy. She had only gotten drunk on three vodka and cokes and her abject misery that Becker had touched her shoulder yesterday in thanks after all. Connor was pleased. He hoped that Jess wouldn't want to go out in a while and steal Abby away, not that she was doing it on purpose of course, and Connor knew more than anyone else what Jess was feeling, but he couldn't help being a little jealous of the time they spent together while Connor was left alone in the flat, eating days old Chinese food.

At the ARC that day there were no anomalies, no emergencies. For once it was reasonably boring. The team enjoyed days like this, where there were no conspiracies to figure out or machines to build. Everyone worked at their own pace, doing their own thing.

Jess was reading personnel files. She did keep to her rule of no private hacking … sometimes … but on days like this she felt it was her duty to know all of her colleagues as well as the computer knew them . . . they were fun to read anyway and it's not like she would use the information in any way, except in cases like Thomas Browning, who had a fit last month and was able to be treated immediately because of Jess knowing instantly that he was an epileptic, having read it in his file a mere week before.

Now as she searched alphabetically through the names of all the people on the payroll, she came across one that stuck in her mind. Darren Marsh. The guy from the nightclub, she clicked onto his details and read them, an excitement bubbling inside her as she spied into his life. She always got this feeling when reading about other people that she barely knew or had never met, but it was mingled with an intense curiosity. She wanted to know specifics about this man who had stopped her from smashing her head against the table.

As she read, she realised there was nothing particularly intriguing. Which in itself was intriguing, his middle name was Andrew, which had been his grandfathers name, he had served two years in the Military and specialised in explosives, it turned out he was part time here, a sort of temp. He was paid all year round as they were, mainly for his discretion, but he was rarely required in the field; only when they had staff shortages or just little odd jobs when no one else was available did Darren need to clock in. It was he who had helped Connor replace the wiring in the ADD when Sid had escaped once, and he had also been on the mission when Sarah had died.

Jess sighed and closed the window. Nothing remarkable, nothing unusual, and nothing she hadn't read before, she returned to playing minesweeper, she was good at it. She had to be in this job. She had keen initiative and an uncanny knack for guessing where the bombs were placed, and a routine for figuring it out. Jess fell into the game, it amused her, and was challenging but not very high on a scale of tying your shoes to taking out a T Rex.

She kept playing until she felt a tap on her shoulder

'Hang on' she said, flustered, she clicked on a blue square, only to be rewarded with a small explosion 'Damn' she cursed, irritated. She spun around in her chair 'well we're all dea-' her voice trailed off as her blue eyes met a beautiful site … a mug of coffee, rich and frothy with cream and sugar, the heady aroma making her take a deep breath in. It was being handed to her, she realised, along with a chocolate bourbon. She took them both before they disappeared and placed them carefully on her desk, before turning back to thank this angel, she hadn't known how much she had been craving a good coffee until it was literally under her nose

'It's only a cup of coffee' his voice said lightly 'stop looking as if you're worshiping it' Jess blushed

'Sorry' she said 'Thank you … Darren' he nodded, flashed a smile at her and hurried away. She took a sip of her coffee and nearly melted … it was perfect.

She hummed happily to herself as she drained the cup, a nice warmth in her belly, she went back to minesweeper.

'You're in a good mood' came Lester's sarcastic tone from the direction of the photocopier 'you're practically inhaling that biscuit.' When Jess made no reply other than a broad smile, he shook his head, bewildered 'Oh dear … I do hope it's not contagious' he muttered as he returned to his office.

Even the surliest member of the team received a cheerful 'Hi Matt!' from the ADD, and he grinned back slightly baffled. Not even Jess knew why she was in such a good mood. Someone had given her a beautiful coffee without her having to ask for it, a cute guy nonetheless. That was something to smile about. Plus … well … she liked being happy.

'Jess?' she spun round in her chair, a little too vigorously, and ended up back facing the screens, she spun again

'Yep?' she asked in a high pitched, girlish voice,

'You haven't seen Connor have you?' Jess opened her eyes to meet Becker's hazel ones 'Nope' she popped the 'p', butterflies forming in her stomach 'what for?'

'I was just wondering if he could modify the EMDs so that they could take out a G Rex in one shot, seeing as the current ones only go up to T Rex level and it takes three or four to floor it.' Becker hesitated, and so did Jess, suddenly self conscious that she was acting like an idiot, her smile slid off her face and Becker glanced down for a moment

'But if you haven't seen him …'

'Try the menagerie. He and Abby go there sometimes. I can check on the CCTV … you know, if you like'

Becker nodded 'Ok, thanks Jess'

Jess whirled around again, and tapped a few keys to bring up the camera images of the ARC.

'He's not in the menagerie' Jess stated, keeping her back to Becker to hide her blush, she hid that image and enlarged the rest, searching for Connor.

'There' Becker pointed to the bottom right screen, reaching over her shoulder, very close, to do so, 'where is that?'

'Corridor 4' Jess confirmed, her voice shaking slightly, 'it looks like he's heading for the Prospero lab.'

'Thanks Jess' Becker said again, dropping his hand onto her shoulder briefly. Before turning to jog away

'No problem' Jess said weakly, after he had rounded the corner. Her good mood had evaporated when he had explained his reasoning for looking for Connor. She was here playing minesweeper like a kid and he was still out there, looking for a way to better their lives, make their jobs that little bit easier, to improve their chances every time the went out into the field, even on what might as well have been a day off. She was ashamed of herself. No wonder everyone treated her like a kid. She acted like one. While they all risked their lives dodging dinosaurs and fighting a war on the anomalies, she sat at her computer, playing general, drinking coffee and flouncing around in brightly coloured short skirts. She wasn't one of the team. Not really. They had managed without someone to direct them before. But she was useful, when she was needed. There was just no extra work for her to do until the next anomaly alert.

She swivelled her chair side to side, biting her lip, trying to think of something useful that she could do. She decided on little good deeds, she took Lester's papers to his office so he wouldn't be scrambling around for them tomorrow, hung up Connor's coat from where it lay on the floor by the coat rack, went to feed Rex and the other creatures in the menagerie with Abby, gave Emily her own comm. and black box signals, went down to the firing range to replace the targets, ordered some extra ones for next week (they went fast and Becker liked to practice) and made coffee or tea for everyone in the ARC who didn't already have one, making notes on how they liked it so she didn't get mixed up and resolving to add tea/coffee preferences to everyone's personnel files for future reference.

She liked this, she thought as she stirred in three sugars for Katie Maxwell up in admin, being useful had it'd perks. The groans of relief as she doled out the caffeine made her chuckle, milk no sugar for Matt, tea with cream no sugar for Lester, two sugars, no milk for Abby, cream and one sugar for Connor, milky tea for Emily and black for Becker, there was space for one more on her tray, so she thought what the hell and made a black with one sugar for Darren. She handed them out, using the CCTV to locate them all and receiving happy reactions from all, Becker took his and gave Jess a surprised smile that was brief but made her heart flutter all the same. And Darren beamed at her, giving her a shy thank you, and reaching out to touch her arm, before dropping his hand and reaching it around to scratch the back of his neck instead. He was so cute, Jess thought as she almost skipped out of the room and back to the ADD.

So there you are. Please review to let me know what you think. I'll upload the next chapter soon I promise

Please please review

Love Tibbins xx