As soon as she was out of sight, Jess quickly sent Becker a text: Someone is here to see you.

The reply came immediately: Who?

It's supposed to be a surprise. If you're sure you want to know, you have to swear you'll act surprised and not tell on me for telling you.

Alright, fine. Now tell me.

Say it.

I swear.

It's Jenny!

Seriously? Wow, haven't seen her since she left the ARC.

The rest of the team are invited too, but they don't know she's here yet.

I'll keep quiet. I promise.

Thanks. Gotta go get ready now. Bye.

Jess put down her mobile and quickly showered and dried her hair. Then she browsed her wardrobe to find something special to wear. She always dressed up at work, so she'd really have to go the extra mile now with Becker coming to her own home. Finally she settled on a pale pink flowing sundress and a delicate pearl necklace. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail, letting a couple pieces loose to frame her face. These she curled into ringlets. She smiled at her reflection and then skipped into the living room and planted herself in front of the window, watching for Becker to arrive.

"Jess?" She heard Connor's voice behind her, "Whatcha doing?"

"I'm waiting for Becker to get here!" she announced, peering even harder at the glass pane.

"Uh… I'm here."

Jess whirled around to find Becker standing beside Connor with that amused expression on his face. Jess blushed deeply, "I, er, just figured you'd be the first one here, of course I'm waiting for the others too. I mean, I don't have to sit here and wait anymore though if you guys need anything, not that I'm leaving this spot just because you're here but…"

Connor quickly intervened for her, "Good idea, Jess. Why don't you and Becker wait here and let everyone in. I'm gonna go help Abby and Jenny. Would you believe they think we need to play a game after dinner? What's with that? They are online trying to figure out what to play right now since we don't own any board games. I dunno why we can't just play Truth or Dare."

"Because last time we did that we had a hell of a time explaining how the mammoth got into our flat," Jess pointed out, but she shot Connor a grateful look for his interruption.

"Wasn't my fault," Connor mumbled.

"Didn't say it was, but it still happened."

Connor shrugged and headed back to the kitchen leaving Jess and Becker alone. Becker came and sat beside Jess on the couch and Jess couldn't help but to notice that he looked really great. For once, he wasn't wearing all black. His dress pants were still black, but he was wearing a light grey, almost silver, button down dress shirt which he'd left untucked. Jess smiled at him, "Wow, nice to see you in something other than black for a change."

Becker grinned at her, "And you look fantastic, Jess. That colour suits you well, and so do curls." He reached out and twisted one of her ringlets between his fingers and then dropped it as though his hands had been burned when he saw the surprised look on her face. He knew he was getting too close so he turned his attention to the window behind them.

The silence between them was awkward for a moment, but then Becker remembered something, "Jess?"

She looked at him eagerly, wanting to hear anything Becker had to say.

Becker continued, "I just wanted to apologize. You know, for accusing you of blabbing my secrets earlier. I shouldn't have assumed that."

Jess smiled at him, "It's fine, really. I can understand why you thought that."

Becker opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment Jenny entered the room, "Hey guys, come give us your opinion on this game…" she stopped and looked at the pair curiously. "Wow, you two are certainly dressed up. Is there something going on I don't know about?"

Abby appeared behind Jenny and grinned at her, "They're just trying to impress each other, that's all."

Becker and Jess both blushed deeply and Jenny laughed, "Ah, got it. That's cute guys."

Becker let out a noise that sounded curiously close to a growl at being called cute, but they pair was saved by the doorbell ringing. Jenny grinned and ran to answer it. Matt stood on the other side and Jenny's grin quickly faded.

"Oh, it's you."

"Jenny," Matt replied, sounding genuinely happy and surprised to see her, despite her misgivings, which he could really understand.

Jenny smiled then and let him in, "Our party, our rules. You do have to have a good time here."

Matt laughed and agreed, stepping inside.

"Where's Emily?" Jenny asked.

"She had to work late and I took the car. Lester has agreed to drive her over later."

"That seems surprisingly out of character for him."

"Nah, not really. He grumbled about it for about an hour."

"Ah, gotcha."

Matt followed Jenny and Abby back into the kitchen and Becker glanced at Jess, "Should we join them?"

"Nope. We're on lookout duty, remember?" Jess replied, buying herself some more time alone with Becker.

"But they said they wanted us to look at the game."

"To approve it, but I don't really care what they choose."

Becker let her win then. To be honest, he wasn't really in a rush to leave Jess' side either. She looked really, really pretty at the moment. He should probably say something and stop staring at her, but she was blushing and getting flustered under his gaze again and it was definitely more fun this way. After a long moment of watching her stare intently at the wall across from them as if it were the most interesting thing on the planet, he decided to give her a break.

"So," he asked, "Do I get a preview of your cooking? Did you make the meal?"

Jess shrugged, "Well, Connor and I worked together on it. Connor cooks more than I do." It was the understatement of a lifetime, but still true.

"Connor cooked for us? And to think, for years I've always thought that it would be a dinosaur that kills me one day. Turns out it's gonna be dinner."

Jess laughed, "I hope it's not the dinner. Connor's a great cook. Not that I'd want a dinosaur to kill you either. I mean, I wouldn't really want you dead at all, you know."

Becker chuckled as the doorbell rang.

"That's gotta be Lester and Emily, then," Jess said, quickly standing to answer it.

Sure enough, it was them. Jess grinned and gave Emily a quick hug as she let them both in. Lester pulled her to the side, "Okay, Jess," he whispered, "I couldn't get anything out of Abby and you know I bloody well hate surprises, so you'd better tell me what's going on here."

"Surprise visitor," Jess whispered back, "Abby'd kill me if I told you who though."

"As your boss, I demand an answer."

"I don't believe I'm at work right now, but your answers right there," Jess replied, with a nod of her head in the direction of Jenny who had just walked into the room.

Lester hid a smile as he turned and stepped toward Jenny, "Well, as surprises go I suppose it's not too bad. Much better than expected actually. Nice to see you, Jenny."

"You too, James," Jenny said with a grin, shaking his hand and knowing that, despite his unattached tone, he really was rather thrilled to see her.

Emily threw her arms around Jenny next, even though she barely knew her, and gave her a huge hug. "Oh, it's so great to see you again," she said earnestly. "How's married life treating you?"

"Terrific! Michael and I are going to Italy on vacation soon."

"Oh, you'll have to tell me all about it when you get back."

"I'll do that," Jenny promised.

The group all walked together into the kitchen. As they did, Lester glanced at Jess. "You look really nice, Jessica." He whispered to her, knowing full well the reason she was dressed up.

"Thanks," she whispered back.

Jenny overheard and turned to stare incredulously at Lester, "Did I really just hear you compliment someone on their appearance?"

"Yeah, Lester's actually nice to her," Emily commented with a shrug.

"And I'll have the rest of you fired if you continue to gossip about my personal affairs," Lester replied.

"Somehow, I'm not overly worried," Jenny chuckled.

They found that Connor had set the table already and was dishing out the food when they entered the kitchen. "Be seated," Abby said with a smile.

Becker quickly grabbed a chair and pulled it out, holding it for Jess who sat down with a grateful smile. He sat beside her. Lester placed himself at the head of the table and Matt sat opposite him. Emily sat between Matt and Becker and Connor sat across from Jess with Abby between himself and Jenny.

"Alright," Connor grinned, "Dig in!"