Author's note: A little short, but hopefully will tide you over until the next chapter is finished…
"What're you doing here, Sarah?" Abby exclaimed, smile lighting the elfin features of her face.
"I was in desperate need of an outing," she replied, shading her eyes to examine the lush landscape on the other side of time, the early cretaceous to be somewhat accurate. It was as if she had traveled from London to equatorial Africa or the Amazon in but a couple of steps.
"Wouldn't something like, I dunno, the market, have been more sensible?" Connor snapped, obviously frustrated by the prehistoric rat-like creature, something called an eomaia, shying into the back of the cage and eluding his every ploy to catch him and return him to his native home.
The petite blonde glared at her friend before returning her attention to Sarah once more with a softer look.
"He may be an insensitive pig..." Abby accused. The pair of flatmates exchanged a glare. "But Connor does have a point. Should you really be out here? Anomalies can be dangerous."
Et tu, Abby?
Sarah decided to simply ignore the lecture. And thankfully, her teammates appeared to take the hint, returning to the completion of their task rather than continued harassment of her person.
"Are these the first you've been able to return?" she asked, as Connor yielded the cage to Abby who expertly lured the little eomaia out. It even willingly hopped into her cupped hands, nuzzling her on the nose when she brought it to her face. The young woman whispered soothingly to the creature before placing it gently upon the ground.
"Go on. Join your mates," she urged.
Sarah placed a hand upon her belly, briefly wondering if she'd ever be as good with her own child as Abby was with the simplest of creatures.
"They're the first, out of ones whose original anomalies closed, leaving 'em stranded," Connor supplied, smiling, too, now that he was no longer on his hands and knees crawling after ungrateful, overrated rodents.
"Wow," Sarah commented. "How did you figure out this anomaly was the correct time period? I mean, it would have to be extremely precise, a matter of years...in all those millions?"
Abby burst out laughing, immensely confusing the archaeologist as to exactly what in her serious question was so hilarious. Sarah looked from the young woman near doubled over with the fit of amusement, her eyes watering, to the object of her laughter whose cheeks had flushed a bit in embarrassment.
"He-he left his boxers be-behind," she managed to sputter out between hysterics.
"What?" Sarah exclaimed, giggling threatening at the back of her throat. "How-"
"Don't ask," Connor moaned. "Point is we knew this was where the little guys came from, thanks to me."
"Ye-yeah," Abby teased, still breathless from her merriment at the young man's expense. "Because we found them li-lining the nest of some sort of large fowl. I'm surprised they wanted the things!"
"Abby!" Connor snapped, no longer able to tolerate her teasing. He was red up to the brim of his hat, poor boy. But it was so entertaining an exchange to witness, Sarah couldn't feel all that sorry for him.
"Sorry," she apologized, sobering up a bit. Graciously, she changed the subject. "I think we're through here. Sarah, you set?"
"Yes. Thanks for not sending me back straight off," she replied. "It's quite beautiful and I'm glad to have seen it."
Connor was already securing the crate to the back of the ATV once more, apparently eager to leave the epoch and the embarrassing memories behind with it.
"A story to tell her, one day," Abby pointed out, indicating the child growing inside of the archaeologist. "Visiting the Cretaceous before she had even properly seen her native era."
"Guess you could say she's a natural-born time traveler," Connor mused, smiling and returning to his easy-going nature once more.
"Yeah," Sarah replied half-heartedly. Suddenly, she felt melancholy for some reason. Probably just hormones.
"Let's go home," he urged the girls.
"Let's," agreed Sarah, rubbing her large belly contemplatively.
...
The party was a little shocked to find a smug Danny Quinn leaning against the side of their SUV, arms crossed, smirk on his face when they emerged from the anomaly.
"Looks like I win," he said.
"Win what?" Sarah asked.
"Oh, they bet on who would complete their mission first. Boys!" Abby rolled her eyes.
"You know, we haven't factored whether time fluctuates differently between various anomalies emergence points," Connor commented.
"Well, you should've stated... whatever that means... when the bet was placed," Danny countered. "Cough it up, Connor."
The younger man sighed and began digging through pockets.
"Wasn't Becker with you?" Sarah asked, simultaneously wanting to avoid her husband's lecturing and desiring more than anything to have him hold her close.
Danny Quinn gave them a blank stare. "Who?"
"Not funny," Sarah scolded, hitting him in the side of the arm rather roughly. There was a cold spot of dread in the pit of her stomach. "Where's my husband?"
"Er...he's back at the ARC," Danny supplied. Sarah sighed a little. Anyone in her circle of friends should know better than to joke about the existence of a person. That whole Claudia Brown/Jenny Lewis thing...it was all too creepy. And attempting to wrap a person's brain around shifting timelines could drive one utterly mad. Point in case: Helen Cutter.
"I thought... never mind," he continued. "C'mon, I'm heading back there now."
He turned to Abby and Connor. "You two coming?"
"We've got to pack up first," Abby said, throwing a crate at Connor, catching him by surprise and almost knocking the young man over. "We'll see you in a few."
A/N: Where I am going with this is quite blatant, isn't it? That doesn't mean you shouldn't stick around, for isn't it the journey and not the destination that counts?