She was utterly distraught and inconsolable.

"He's gone! He left!"

Becker reached out to hold her, but she fought him off fiercely.

He had gotten the call that morning, that Abby had taken a turn for the worse. He had rushed out, barely sparing a glance at Matt or Lester as they called after him. And he had driven like a maniac all the way out to the cottage.

He had found her out in the gated garden, in a frenzied state, tearing at her hair and screaming for Connor. The nurse was keeping an eye on her, but was also keeping her distance. A doctor had been called, but hadn't arrived yet.

"Abby!" He grabbed at her arms again, this time capturing them. She struggled against him, but finally collapsed, sobbing.

"He's gone! I can't find him! Where is he? Connor!"

Becker didn't know what to say, how to comfort her. So he just held her and rocked her like a child until the doctor came and sedated her.

By the next morning, she had slipped into a catatonic state.

Becker was unprepared for the sudden surge of emotion that flooded his body as Abby threw herself into his arms. He had been so numb for so long, he had almost begun to believe that he couldn't feel. But that all changed the moment he felt the warmth of a living Abby in his arms. He had found the right anomaly. He could change things now.

Perhaps.

He looked past her, into the shelter, scanning for the other person he hoped would be here.

"Connor?"

Abby tensed in his arms and let out a small distressed sound. Becker's heart sank in his chest. The right anomaly, but not the timing he had hoped for.

Abby pulled back, still not releasing him, still needing that human contact, but enough that she could look into his face. Tears of misery now dripped from those beautiful blue eyes. "He... Connor..." She turned her head and looked at a rise of earth at the back of her shelter.

"How long ago?" Becker fought against the stinging in his own eyes, the familiar sense of guilt and failure in his chest.

"I don't know," Abby admitted mournfully. "I... I don't keep track." A small sob shook her body. "A while ago." She pulled in close again and pressed her head against his chest, and he could feel the wetness of her tears through his shirt.

It was the smell of the strange-looking fish she was cooking starting to burn that finally ended the embrace. Abby cursed as she pulled it off the fire and onto a bed of leaves. "Barely edible," she mumbled bitterly, poking it with a stick.

Becker couldn't help the bit of a laugh that escaped, but he quickly fished through his pack until he found the packs of beef jerky he had picked up the last time he had been through a modern era anomaly.

"This might taste better," he quipped as he tossed her a package.

Becker lay there, awake, long after Abby had fallen asleep, her back curled against his side for comfort, but her hand resting on Connor's grave. For the first time, in all the years of wondering, he had finally learned what had happened to Connor.

"There were raptors – two of them. I wasn't being careful enough... they had me trapped. Connor tried to save me. He killed one of them, but the other one..." Abby had paused, struggling for breath as her chest tightened, reliving that day. "We managed to kill it, but it had ripped Connor's chest open."

Becker had cringed against the pain that tore through his own chest, remembering a very similar scene, only with a future predator and Sarah. Seeing her ribs, feeling the blood on his hands as he tried to stem the flow. Hearing her voice getting weaker.

There had been a long moment of silent and mutual agony.

But Abby's next words had chilled him to the core. "He told me that he wouldn't leave, that he'd look after me, make sure I made it home. And he has been." She had looked lovingly over at the mound, and run her fingers along the dirt. Her eyes had taken on a distant, slightly glazed look, and Becker had shuddered in spite of himself.

"You see his ghost, don't you?" He had forced the words out.

"I don't believe in ghosts." Abby's voice had sounded far away. "But Connor doesn't care. He refuses to leave me alone out here." She had turned toward Becker, with a slight hint of a smile. "He's happy to see you."

Tomorrow, Becker determined, wrapping his arms protectively around Abby's sleeping form, he would open up an anomaly and get her out of here. Help her. Fix her. Then he would try to save the others.

...