~Chapter Six: the others.~

The bit of fast driving turned out to be a whole lot of speeding and Becker had to prize Abby's hands from around his waist when they arrived at the ARC.

'You okay?' he asked her when he pulled the black helmet off her head.

'Mmmm,' Abby said, her eyes wide.

'You might wanna...' Becker pointed to his own hair. 'You know, redo your pony tail.'

'Oh God...' Abby quickly smoothed out her hair and took a few careful steps to follow the Captain into the building. Her legs felt a little wobbly from gripping the seat non stop for the last half hour. Once inside, the first thing she noticed was the large lettering worked into the floor reading 'Anomaly Research Centre'.

'Well, at least we know now what that stands for...'

'This way,' the Captain said. 'I guess they are all waiting for you.' He guided her into a large circular room and up a wide ramp.

'Great... can't wait.'

Becker smiled at Abby's expression. 'Don't worry, it'll be fine. Stephen will be there.'

'And that's supposed to make me feel better?'

Becker shrugged.

'Do you know ... about the other Abby?' she asked him after a moment of hesitation.

'Everyone knows about the other Abby,' he said with a snort. 'Stephen spent months doing nothing but trying to convince us he was in the wrong world, can you imagine? He quietened down after that because he was in danger of being thrown off the project and into the loony bin, but I don't think he ever gave up. It was hard for him, don't get me wrong. I mean, now we kind of have to believe him since you are here but, it was tough for Sarah too.'

'Sarah?'

'Yeah, his girlfriend at the time. It was so insane, you know. He steps through the portal, we're all relieved to see him safe, Sarah runs up to him and he tells her he's never seen her before, all the while demanding to know where Abby is. Sarah was crushed.'

'How awful,' Abby said, horrified.

They stepped into a sterile looking corridor. Becker led her down, past numerous identical doors before putting his hand against the last one.

'Here we are,' he said, smiling down at her. 'Good luck.' He pushed open the door.

'Wait!' Abby said in an urgent whisper. 'You're not coming?'

'No I am going to the hospital wing, to check up on Bill.'

'Is he going to be okay?'

'He'll live,' Becker said, still smiling. 'And he can thank you for that.'

'All right, well... thank you for dropping me off. Here is your coat.' She shrugged out of it but Becker stopped her.

'Keep it,' he said, leaning forward to whisper in her ear. 'Gives me a reason to come and see you again.' He gently pushed her through the door and Abby stumbled into the room, where five people sat behind a large table watching her. Abby turned around but the door had closed and the Captain was gone.

Stephen rose to his feet and came to stand beside her.

'Hi,' he said.

'Hi.' Abby stuffed her hands awkwardly in the pockets of her jeans while looking around the room. Apart from the table, twelve chairs and some sterile lighting, there was nothing in it.

'You all right?'

'Fine, yeah. Thanks.'

'Abby,' Stephen began, turning to the others. 'This is Sir James Lester, our ruthless leader,' A dark haired man stared impassively at Abby, who nodded at him. 'Next to him is Jenny Lewis our PR and general hide the shit from the public person.' A young woman with brown hair in a tight twist smiled briefly before looking down again at some papers on the table. Before Stephen could continue a young man with black hair in desperate need of a cut jumped to his feet with so much eagerness his chair fell over. He rushed around the table, stumbling over Lester's laptop bag before coming to a halt in front of Abby. He grabbed her hand in both of his and shook it eagerly. 'I'm Connor, Connor Temple. Wow. Nice to meet you Abby, we've all ehm... heard a lot about you.'

'Connor is our resident geek,' Stephen told Abby with a crooked grin and a twinkle in his blue eyes.

'More like resident genius, thank you very much!' Connor said. 'I can hack into anything, know all there is to know about dinosaurs and am basically vital to the team.'

Abby raised an eyebrow at the guy who stood beaming before her.

'Right,' she said. 'Nice to meet you too.'

'We all know who you are of course, we've heard Stephen talk about you for over a year now. I mean you're supposedly his girlf...umpf!' Stephen elbowed Connor in the stomach before casting an uncomfortable glance toward Sarah who gave Abby a less then welcome glare.

'And this is Sarah Page, Egyptologist and connoisseur of myths and legends.'

'Hi,' Abby said quietly but Sarah looked away.

'Professor Nick Cutter is another member of the team, he is at the anomaly as we speak.' Stephen finished.

'Yes, all very interesting,' Lester interrupted, sounding utterly bored. 'Miss Maitland I presume?'

'Yes,' Abby said. 'Sir,' she added in an afterthought.

'Curious. You do exist. You were right after all Stephen. There I was thinking you'd finally reached the edge of all reason. Well, I won't give up hope just yet. Miss Maitland if you don't mind, Jenny will first ask you a few questions to help you remember in detail all that happened tonight after which you will have to sign a piece of paper in which you promise to basically forget it all and you'll never talk to anyone about it, etcetera. Then you may go home.' He pushed back his chair. 'If that is all, I'll...'

'Hang on!' Stephen interrupted. 'Surely she can...'

'What?' Sarah cut in. 'Join us?'

'Cool, yeah!' Connor said, looking even happier and Abby was surprised that was even possible.

'Yes,' Stephen said, with a steady look at the dark haired girl behind the table, whose black eyes burned with anger.

Lester rolled his eyes to the ceiling. 'Oh for crying out loud...' he mumbled.

'She did save two men's lives tonight James,' Jenny said. 'Without her both Stephen and a soldier would have died.'

'Without her, they wouldn't have been at the site in the first place!' Sarah said angrily, rising to her feet.

'Without her, there would be a man dead, a creature loose and we wouldn't know about it until it was too late.' Stephen said coldly.

'Now...' Lester said, but Abby coughed quietly and they all fell silent, staring at her.

'Don't I have a say in this?' she asked, smiling sweetly.

'Yes of course,' Stephen said. 'But think about what you could do here...' Abby held up a hand and he stopped talking.

'I would like to talk to Jenny now please,' she said. 'Alone.' She added when Stephen opened his mouth again. 'Then I want to go home and either take two sleeping pills or drink myself silly, I haven't decided yet. Then I am going to work tomorrow, probably with the biggest headache that ever existed while I pretend nothing happened. Then and only then, if I feel up to it, I might start to consider if I want to see any of you ever again.'

'All right Abby!' Connor said, and he held up a fist. Abby looked at it curiously. 'You're ... supposed to ... bump it. Never mind.' He dropped his hand.

'Sounds good to me,' Jenny said, rising from her seat with a smile. 'Shall we?' Abby followed her out of the door, catching Stephen's eye before she closed it. He smiled at her a little sadly. As soon as the door fell into the lock, she could hear four voices rise in argument. Abby turned to Jenny.

'Sounds like I made a friend in there...' she said to the young woman.

'Don't you worry about that now. Can I get you something to drink? Coffee? Or something cold?'

'Coffee would be great, thanks.' Abby finally began to feel the sting of the late hour.

'Right, please come in.' Jenny said, opening another door. 'I'll be right back.' Jenny was only gone a few minutes and returned with two cups of coffee in one hand and a stack of papers in the other. The room was smaller but equally sterile. 'I know this is all very confusing for you Abby, to be honest I don't go through a single day without feeling I am losing my marbles at least twice and I have been doing this for years. Where would you like to start?'

'What do you need to know?' Abby asked her in return, taking the seat Jenny offered and gratefully folding her hands around the hot mug of steaming liquid.

'Well, I'll listen to anything you have to say. I need to know your view of what happened tonight of course.' She hesitated before placing a hand on Abby's wrist. 'And I will need to know about your encounter with Stephen too. I don't like going behind his back but he refused to talk about.'

'Maybe I shouldn't talk about it either then...' Abby said, doubtfully.

'I understand how you feel, truly I do. But I need to know he is ... stable. Too many lives depend on his capability to act rationally Abby. I hope you can see that.'

'I can, really. I just ... well let me come back to that then. I'll start with the whole going back in time thing.' Abby explained to Jenny everything that had happened from the moment they had left her car outside the forest until Bill was airlifted. At first, she hesitated a lot, having to go back to recall certain events she had forgotten to mention. But soon the words tumbled out of her mouth and she realized this was exactly what she needed. Jenny took note of everything she said, her pen still scratching the paper after Abby had stopped talking.

'Thanks Abby, that was very helpful. You were very brave you know. Not many people would have grabbed that gun and killed the creature. I know you won't like to hear this but I can see why Stephen was so set on finding you.'

'Yeah, out of all the going back in time and dinosaur business I find that the hardest to understand.'

'So how did he find you?'

'I have no idea.' Abby looked at Jenny, who smiled in an understanding way. She liked Jenny. She had one of those faces you just instantly trusted. But then again, that was probably why she was good at what she did. 'Will he get into trouble?'

'Stephen? Oh I'm sure he will, but then he does on a regular basis so I wouldn't worry about it.'

The honest answer pulled Abby through her hesitation. 'I was on my way home from work, I just finished a late shift at the hospital you see. Suddenly someone grabs me saying my name over and over.' Abby explained everything to Jenny and was grateful to see she didn't write anything down.

'What I don't understand,' Jenny said when Abby finished. 'Is why it took him a year to find you. I know he found birth records, which no one else knows about by the way. Lester would have fired him there and then for using government resources to track you down. But he could never find a recent address for you. In this day and age...'

'I've been abroad,' Abby said. 'I was in New Guinea with Doctors Without Borders for a year to help set up a clinic.'

'Ah. Well, that explains it.' Jenny suddenly looked thoughtful. 'I wonder what it is...' she said, staring at the wall without really seeing it.

'What do you mean?' Abby asked her, stifling a yawn.

'I wonder what made the timeline change. What took you out of Stephen's life and away from the ARC. And why.'