Thanks for all the great feedback on the first chapter – I'm so glad you guys seem to be enjoying it thus far. Before I carry on with this chapter, I want to make it clear that I don't have any expertise regarding computers, or prehistoric wolves. So bear with me on both.

Please let me know what you think!

Chapter Two

Jess hurried through the corridors of the ARC, barely watching where she was going.

Oh my god oh my god oh my god.

One of the lab technicians had to jump out of her way as she rounded a corner, and she didn't even notice.

Oh my god oh my god oh my god.

She stumbled through the doorway to the main control room, made it to the ADD and sank down into her chair.

Oh my god oh my god oh my god.

Kiss. Her. She. Becker. Him. He – she had just kissed Becker. And he had freaked out.

"Oh my god," she groaned, covering her face with her hands.

Oh god, why had she done that? What had she been thinking? She hadn't – that was the problem. She hadn't been thinking; he'd been standing there, all looming, and staring at her, just like he had earlier, and then... they'd kissed.

Wait a minute. That's right – they'd kissed. It definitely hadn't been one-sided; far from it in fact. Jess wasn't sure who'd moved first but that kiss had been both of them, from the very beginning. It wasn't like she'd thrown herself at him or anything.

To be honest, though, it only made Jess feel marginally better. The point was that he'd pushed her away. He'd pushed her away. That answered her 'how does Becker feel about me?' question pretty succinctly – he didn't have feelings for her. He'd been caught in the moment for a few seconds and then come to his senses; realised that it was her he was kissing. God only knew what he must think of her – probably as a silly little girl with an obsessive crush.

How was she ever going to face him again?

"Jess?"

Jess jumped, gasping – she hadn't realised anyone had walked up to her. She looked up to find Abby standing beside her, looking surprised at her reaction. "Are you okay?" She asked.

"Yep, fine – I was just...er..." Jess swallowed. "Did you need something?"

"No," said Abby. She frowned. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, honest," Jess said, giving Abby what she hoped was a convincing smile. "What you doing here?"

"We're about to debrief Lester," Abby said, leaning back against the desk.

Jess' eyes widened. Debrief. As in... the team. As in... Jess heard heavy footsteps heading towards the door and without thinking about what she was doing ducked under the desk.

Abby stood up straight. "Jess?"

The footsteps rounded the doorway and Jess immediately identified Connor from his trainers. She closed her eyes, completely embarrassed by her lack of courage. The thing was that she was just so completely overwhelmed by what had just happened that instinct had taken over. She just couldn't face Becker. Not right now.

Connor stopped next to Abby. "Why is Jess under the desk?" He asked her.

"Pass," said Abby.

Jess frantically cast around for a reason, and her eyes alighted on the auxiliary server in front of her. Perfect.

"I'm going to take apart the auxiliary server," she called out to Connor and Abby, trying to sound casual. "There's some glitches I want to sort out."

Connor's face appeared as he bent down. "Need a hand?" He asked.

"No, I'll be alright," Jess said. "But could you pass me my tools from the drawer?"

A moment later, Connor handed Jess her tools and she started to unscrew the side panel of the auxiliary server. That done, she turned it off and started using pliers to prise away the motherboard. Connor and Abby were still standing by the desk, bent over to watch her, but Jess was quickly absorbed in what she was doing and paid them no attention. Jess loved the intricacies of computers, and had always been able to lose herself in them. She'd built her first computer when she was seven.

She switched the pliers to her left hand and reached her right inside, past the mother board, to try to pull out some of the wiring.

"What are we looking at?"

Jess jumped at the sound of Becker's voice, banging the top of her head against the underside of the desk. That wasn't the problem – as she jumped her hand had jerked back, and the pliers she held in her left had sliced through her right palm.

"Arrgh!" She cried out, dropping the pliers and snatching her hand to her chest.

"Jess!" Abby was kneeling down next to her in a flash. "Are you okay?"

Jess winced and looked down at her hand- there was a jagged, relatively deep cut on her palm, and it was bleeding pretty badly.

"Yeah," she told Abby. "That was stupid."

Abby helped her out from under the table, blood starting to drip onto the floor, and Jess stood up straight, wincing again.

Connor whipped a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to Jess. "Here," he said. "I promise it's clean."

She offered him a weak smile. "Thanks," she said. She wrapped it around her hand. The white of the handkerchief immediately started to turn red.

Becker stepped forward then, reaching out for her hand. "Let me look –"

Jess snatched her hand away before he could touch her. "It's fine," she mumbled, refusing to look at him. "It's just a cut. I'll just get a bandage from the first aid kit."

"Jess –"

Jess had never actually been relieved to hear the ARC alarms go off before, but she was ecstatic to hear them then. Becker had been reaching for her again, and she was this close to losing it. She'd been rejected and injured in the space of ten minutes – couldn't he just leave her alone?

Jess turned back to the ADD, but it was all quiet – the alarm was an internal one, nothing to do anomalies. Becker strode over to the emergency phone that was hanging on the opposite wall and snatched up the receiver. Jess sucked it up and actually watched him – she needed to know what was going on, after all.

"This is Becker, what's going on?" He demanded. His eyes widened as whomever he was speaking to answered him "What?" He listened a moment more. "Get some guns up here right now." He slammed down the phone and turned to Jess and the others.

"The creature woke up before they could get it into containment," he told them. "The EMDs were useless on it and it got away – it's running loose in the ARC."

Jess' jaw dropped. That wolf thing, loose in the ARC? And the EMDs... so it hadn't been the power station interfering with the weapons – the weapons didn't work on the creature.

"What do we do?" Jess asked, forgetting everything else in the face of the danger they were all in.

Becker stared at her for a moment before answering. "Get in Lester's office," he said. "We're sitting ducks out here – we're unarmed and –" He broke off abruptly as a terrible sound filled the air – the unmistakable growl of an angry creature on the prowl.

The creature appeared at the top of the steps next to Lester's office – the ADD was between Jess, Connor and Abby and the door at the other side of the room. Connor grabbed Jess' elbow and pulled her with him as he and Abby started to edge their way in front of the desk. The creature's growls increased, and it padded down the steps, snarling at them. Jess saw Becker start to make his way over to them, and could see what he was doing straight away – he was putting himself between the creature and them. She swallowed hard.

The creature shifted its focus onto Becker, and started to pace alongside the wall, snarling at him. Jess, Connor and Abby stopped moving – with the creature where it was, there was no way they'd be able to get to the door before it did. They were near the corner of the room, between the ADD and the long table that ran down the side of it. Becker paced round in front of the table, drawing the creature after him, trying to give the three of them a clear run to the door – Jess knew it was only a matter of time before it attacked him.

The creature was nearer to the ADD now, and its snarling increased. It sniffed the air and pawed the ground furiously, shaking its head, and then its back legs coiled as if about to spring.

Jess let out a whimper, and before she knew it she was being pushed back against the wall by Connor. She screamed as she saw why – the creature did leap, but it didn't go for Becker – it went for her. Connor had fallen to the ground pushing Jess back, and she landed hard against the concrete wall, crying out in pain. The creature had leapt up onto the table, and Jess looked up, unable to move, as it snarled at her before leaping again.

"JESS!" It sounded like Becker yelling her name, and Jess realised as she shut her eyes tight that it would be the very last thing she'd ever hear.

The next moment she heard the creature let out a yelp and opened her eyes to see that Becker had used one of the metal stools in front of the table to hit the creature as it'd leapt towards her – it skidded under the ADD desk but was back on its feet in a split second, snarling and baring its massive teeth. It turned its head to Jess again.

At that moment Matt came sprinting in through the door, carrying one of the heavy-duty EMDs. He wasted no time in shooting the creature – it took two blasts, but the creature collapsed.

There was a moment's silence as they all just stared at the unconscious creature. Then Jess let out a gasp, followed by several more deep breaths, and dropped her head back against the wall. "Oh my god," she whispered.

Jess felt a hand on her shoulder. "Jess? Jess are you alright?"

It was Becker. Jess' eyes flew open and she found him crouching down next to her, leaning over her, so close again – she scrambled away, bashing her bad hand against the wall in her hurry to stand up. She was a little bit ashamed of herself that she was actually thinking about such childish things after what had just happened, but she couldn't deal with it right now – she couldn't have him all worried and guilty and close.

"I'm fine – I'm fine," Jess said as she got to her feet. She stumbled a bit and Connor grabbed hold of her arm to steady her – Jess leant on him, more as an excuse to turn away from Becker than from any need to. She rolled her shoulders – she'd hit them against the wall.

"Sorry – you hit the wall pretty hard," Connor said.

Jess shook her head. "It's okay," she said. She gave him a weak smile. "Thanks."

Connor grinned.

Several soldiers ran into the room and Becker stepped forward. "Get that thing out of here and into containment right now!"

Lester walked in at that moment. "You heard him," he snapped at the soldiers. He strode over to the group and took in what had happened at a glance.

"Jess, are you okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine," she said, nodding.

"You'd better get to the medical wing," Lester said.

Jess shook her head. "No need, honestly," she said. "It didn't hurt me – I cut my hand but I just need to wrap it up."

Lester nodded. "Well, you go home and do that," he said.

Jess sighed. "I'm fine," she insisted.

Lester gave her an unimpressed look. "It's home or the medical wing," he said flatly.

Jess glared at him for a moment, but she couldn't keep it up; she knew that this was Lester's brusque way of dealing with the fact that one of his people had almost been hurt.

She sighed again. "Okay, I'll go home," she said. "But I'm coming in early tomorrow."

Lester raised an eyebrow. "I'd expect nothing less," he said. He turned on his heel and headed towards his office. Matt gave Jess a small smile before following him.

Jess looked at Connor and Abby, still consciously not looking at Becker. She gave them a rueful smile. "I guess I'll see you guys at home, then," she said.

"We'll bring in dinner," Abby said. "Just take it easy, yeah?"

Jess rolled her eyes. "I really am okay," she said.

Connor nodded. "We know," he said. "And yet you still get the rest of the day off – Lester's pet."

Jess grinned, but it faded as she felt Becker's hand on her shoulder again. "Can I –"

Jess jumped, and Becker quickly snatched his hand away. Their eyes met and Jess saw a flash of hurt in his eyes – she was surprised at how annoyed it made her. He was hurt? How did he expect her act after what happened earlier?

Jess' eyes narrowed and she looked at him properly for the first time since their interlude. Becker's eyes widened as she glared at him, and she saw him swallow. "Let me take you home," he said after a moment.

"I've got my car," she said. She turned back to Connor and Abby. "I'll see you guys at home." And with that she stepped around them and walked out of the control room without a backwards glance.

She could feel Becker's eyes on her the entire time.

To be continued...