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Chapter 4: From Awry to Awkward

Connor had taken it upon himself to pinpoint every building, business and private, within a five mile radius of where Jess claimed Becker's black box had dropped off downtown. At least, that's how far he had managed to get before Abby slammed his laptop closed and took it from him.

Perhaps doing spy work at two in the morning, hours after a nearly failed spy mission, was not the best idea.

Abby was still sort of mad at him for keeping her awake in their room with his typing.

"Abby, how many times do I have to say 'sorry' before ya forgive me?" Connor pleaded, following Abby into the menagerie.

Abby turned around. "Tell me why you came home with twigs in your hair and tiny holes and thorns in your clothes. Then, I'll forgive you."

"I told you, I fell in a thorn bush when Jess and I stopped off to get pizza last night on the way home." Connor explained.

Abby nodded. "Must've been one hell of a thorn bush."

"You have no idea." Connor's eyes widened. "Almost made me miss the Cretaceous. Almost."

Connor's smile was infectious and soon, Abby found herself smiling back.

"Why are you so hard to stay mad at?" She asked, trying to clear the smile.

"Comes with my charming personality." Connor beamed.

Connor's watch beeped.

"I've gotta go and—check up on some stuff." He said looking up from his watch.

"I'll catch ya later, Abby." Connor kissed her on the cheek.

"Okay." Abby replied slightly confused as she watched Connor rush off.

Connor rushed into the Main Operations Room. He remembered to take his ear piece out this time, as he approached the terminal where Jess sat.

"So, did you get a chance to check up on those locations I sent you, Jess?" Connor called as he closed in on the chair.

"What locations?" a strangely familiar voice asked turning the chair around.

It was Becker.

Connor stumbled backwards, but quickly regained his composure.

"What—" Connor cleared his throat. "What are you doing in Jess's chair?"

"I asked you first." Becker challenged.

Connor wracked his brain for some sort of story that he could tell Becker that would sound remotely convincing. Something that couldn't be traced back to him and Jess.

Something that couldn't be interpreted as 'hey Becker, no worries, Jess and I are only spying on you, stalking when necessary to discover your secret, private life.'

"Duncan, he text me some locations that he found on the conspiracy forums that could be possible creature sightings."

Becker's POV

"Really?" Becker was having trouble believing Connor was telling the truth.

Connor nodded. "Yeah, he, uh, he text me last night."

After the odd night he experienced and consuming an entire bottle of wine, Becker woke up and investigated outside his residence to make sure that there was proof something had happened.

Half of the large thorn bush he'd been meaning to get rid of was destroyed, like someone had crash-landed into it. Upon further inspection of the half-destroyed thorn bush, Becker discovered a glove.

Connor's glove.

"I don't suppose you'd have an explanation for why foliage outside my window at home was destroyed? Hm?" Becker raised an eyebrow.

'This should be good.' Becker thought to himself.

Connor shrugged. "Dunno, raccoons? Maybe?"

"Raccoons?"

Connor nodded.

"Large enough to destroy half of a thorn bush without leaving a trail of blood."

Connor's POV

Dammit, Becker was onto him. He had to think fast and the raccoon thing was all he could come up with on such short notice.

Connor could only hope to God that Becker hadn't found his glove that the bush stole from him during his escape.

He'd have a much harder time explaining that.

"Raccoons that wears fingerless gloves?" Becker asked skeptically, holding up a mostly shredded glove that belonged to Connor.

"Yep." Connor nodded.

"What were you doing outside my house, Temple?"

Connor forced himself not to gulp.

"Your house? I stayed late last night and then Jess and I went and picked up pizza to take home and have dinner with Abby." Connor explained.

"Was that before or after Jess snogged me on my front door step so you could make your escape?" Becker crossed his arms.

Connor tried to stifle a laugh at the memory; but was slowly starting to fail.

"Jess snogged you?" Connor whistled. "Blimey, you're finally living up to your name, Action Man."

Becker stood up, ready to deck Connor, but Jess had walked into the Main Operations Room, causing Becker to drop his fist, and Connor breathe a sigh of relief.

Jess's POV

"Good morning, guys." Jess greeted before walking around Connor and Becker and sitting in her chair, which was oddly enough, facing the opposite direction that it was supposed to.

Jess began typing going through her daily routine, in the hopes that at least Becker would leave the room without so much as a question about last night.

She was determined not to show any awkwardness she felt after having snogged Becker in order to save Connor from certain death.

Jess heard Becker muttered something to Connor that sounded something like, "You're safe, for now."

Had he found out? She and Connor were getting so close to finding out.

Jess froze when she heard Becker to her left.

"Jessica, do you have a minute?" He asked.

Act frantic? Or play it cool?

Is he going to ask about last night?

Or is it a simple question?

"Sure, but, I've only got a minute. I've got lots of diagnostics to do." She nodded.

"About those—files you left with me last night,"

"Have you gone through them?"

Please, please no. Say no.

"See, that's the thing, I opened the file folder to find blanks sheets of printer paper."

"Really?" Jess shifted in her chair, catching a glimpse of Connor smiling in the background, near the entryway.

"Yeah,—"

"I could've sworn I grabbed a file of old field reports on my way out last night." Jess cut Becker off nervously.

"An honest mistake, I'm sure." Becker spoke.

"Right, happens to the best of us. Not that—that you're not the—the best—I mean." Jess stuttered.

She could see that Connor was about to burst a vein from trying to contain his laughter from the corner of her eye.

"Listen, Jess, about last night," Becker began.

Jess could feel the heat in her cheeks. She was starting to blush. She couldn't give into her feelings now.

"About that…" Jess trailed.

"Would you—would you like to join me for a drink? Later today, after work?" Becker offered.

Connor's POV

Connor started waving his arms and shaking his head, while mouthing the word, 'no'.

He saw what Becker was trying to do.

If Becker was able to get Jess to open up, they could kiss their mission good-bye and Becker could claim check-mate.

Jess's POV

Jess could see Connor dancing about, practically miming for her to say no. She didn't want to disappoint her fellow spy; but if she didn't accept, she'd be forced to tell Becker why she'd snogged him last night.

"Well?" Becker asked.

Oh, what the hell. Sure.

"Okay," Jess smiled.

Becker's POV

"I'll um, meet here at five, then."

"Five it is." Jess smiled, trying to convince herself to stop smiling like an idiot.

Becker nodded before turning to leave; restraining laughter at Lester reprimanding Connor for something he must've been doing while Becker's back was turned.

Connor's POV

While doing practically everything short of shouting for Jess to refuse, Connor had forgotten that he was standing in James Lester's field of vision.

"The last time I checked, Connor, you were hired here to catch dinosaurs and stop anomalies." Lester's voice interrupted, causing Connor to freeze, with his arms out, like he was making a call for baseball.

"Not air traffic control." Lester finished, causing Connor's to drop his arms down to his side.

Connor spun around to face Lester.

"Lester, I can explain."

Lester crossed his arms, like he always did to cause, what Connor assumed was intimidation.

"Well, I can't wait to hear all about it in my office."

"Actually, I can't explain it. I'm just gonna—dash back to my office and we can—pretend this whole thing never happened, eh?" Connor said, gripping his earpiece in his hand.

Lester sighed, before returning to his office.

Connor needed to have a serious chat with Jess about spy-hood; but maybe later, when Lester wasn't psychoanalyzing him and Becker wasn't trying to kill him.

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