Hello. Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry I'm late updating. Things have been crazy busy and stuff. Anyway, Enjoy!

Disclaimer: No, I wasn't working on getting ownership of Primeval.

PPP

Thursday was more peaceful, to everyone's relief. The creatures were quietly dissected, their bodies analysed and tested. Connor was able to become quite certain; they were definitely from the future. The more creatures he encountered from the future, the more he was increasingly worried about what exactly the future lay in store for humanity.

The young scientist knew his mentor would have been as apprehensive. Not just from his wife's warnings, but from the evidence in front of him. One thing was for sure, however; Helen may have killed her husband to prevent the future from reaching this point, but it hadn't worked. Professor Cutter was not responsible for whatever was going to happen.

The artefact must hold a clue. And yet they still could not get it working. Connor was wracking his brains every waking moment, to the point of frustration. It was interfering with his work on the new ADD, which still remained uncompleted. The ARC was still blind.

This renewed his desire to finish this work. He knew Abby was concerned, but couldn't she see that without the ADD they couldn't do their jobs? She'd prevented him coming in early that morning. In fact, she'd stopped him coming in on time. They'd been back late, she said, and both needed the extra rest, particularly with mild head injuries and a fractured arm as Connor had.

He remembered when he'd have loved the extra lie-in. Now, he'd been hopping round the apartment until she finally agreed to leave to get there by lunchtime.

When they'd got in, they found Becker surveying the security records at the entrance. He had several stitches across his eyebrows and his face was black and blue in several locations, the colours developing more overnight. His left eye was not opening quite as wide as normal.

Delaney was standing, better than he would have done by the end of yesterday, outside a room used for interviews. He was holding his wrist gingerly, a thick bandage wrapped around it. He looked sullen as he casually chatted with one of the cleaners. Abby had nodded an acknowledgement as she passed, but offered no smile. In return, the Captain rolled his eyes and ignored Connor as he passed.

It could have been worse, Connor supposed. No-one had died and all the injuries were healing well. Apparently even Atherton was around, though on crutches. The only person not so happy with the result was Lester, who made it no secret that if they were going to destroy a car every time they went out, he was going to take out shares with Ford.

Well, thought Connor. There was no pleasing him.

PPP

"Becker." The Captain straightened, as quickly as his bruised ribs would allow him.

He turned to see Atherton approach him, with Delaney hanging a little way back. The younger applicant had been quiet and displeased nearly all morning and was beginning to remind Becker of a sulkily teenager. However, Jenny could deal with him.

"Captain," said Atherton breathlessly as he made his way up to him, leaning heavily on his crutches. "I've come to say goodbye." Becker raised his eyebrow and put down his clipboard. Was he getting fired already? Certainly yesterday hadn't gone well, but... Becker dislodged the thought from his brain; if he was getting fired, he was sure he'd done enough to have Lester tell him personally. "It seems I misunderstood my duties at this place. And frankly, if I had wanted this much danger either I'd have become a stunt double to Tom Cruise. Or I would have stayed in the Army. No, I would quite like to know I was able to get home to my wife each night without being disturbed by a triceratops and without having a bite of me missing. So, I leave you, or I suppose your team, in the hands of Delaney here."

The third Captain raised his head and smiled slightly. Becker caught a glimpse in his eye of something a little more cloaked; suddenly, Becker felt there was something he'd missed. However, Atherton was the main subject now.

"Very sad to hear," replied Becker. "But this job does take... time I suppose."

"Indeed. I can see why you are leaving." Becker was silent. Atherton was wrong; this wasn't why he was leaving at all. Becker was always willing to give the extra time to a job, if required. But his reasons were personal and couldn't be aired to a relative stranger. "Anyway, I wish you all the best. Goodbye."

As Becker wished him goodbye in return, Delaney came up beside him to watch the other man leave. There was a pause.

"Lester said the job is mine. After you leave, of course. I'm curious as to why he said you were staying for a couple more weeks."

So am I, thought Becker, but he made sure the thought never reached his face.

"Anyway, I was wondering if you could give me a few pointers."

"On dinosaurs? Best ask Abby or Connor for that."

"No. On gaining a little bit of respect and discipline in this place. No-one so far seems to acknowledge my rank at all."

Becker looked round at other man and studied his face for a few seconds.

"No. And they won't until you prove yourself."

"But my rank..."

"That's the thing about these scientists," answered Becker. "They don't have ranks and thus don't care for the rank of others." He paused to let it sink in and began to gather up his clipboard and pen. "Trust me, rank doesn't equal competency here.

He left Delaney in deep thought, a scowl etched on his face. And, furthermore, he left the security staff on duty pondering what their revered Captain meant by his words.

PPP

Lester was caught up in a phone call with the Minister when Becker first went to his office. Not to be put off, however, the Captain waited round for ten minutes until the receiver was put down before entering the office. By that point, he'd garnered an audience in the form of Abby, who promptly followed him in. Neither man protested.

"I heard Delaney has the job, sir."

"Well, he was the last man standing. Almost literally, if the reports from yesterday are anything to go by."

"They aren't," Abby hurriedly barged in. She was eager Becker's confidence in his field skills weren't undermined any further than could be helped. Unfortunately, the damage was done.

"Given that, I find it surprising that I am apparently here for another two weeks, sir." Becker cut to the heart of the matter.

"Really? Well, you know how these government memos work; the person concerned is always the last to hear about them." The civil servant looked up for his papers before Becker could protest. "Look, I'm not having some new Captain come in, unprepared, reorganise the pantry and then leave. And before you say you don't have a pantry, have you seen Banks' office recently? He keeps enough food in there to feed a blue whale, if one of those ever comes through. No, I think it best you give him some training first. There's far too little official time-wasting as it is; people only see to be interested in actual time-wasting."

"What?" asked Becker, thoroughly confused.

"You realise as a Government facility we're meant to have pointless 'team building' days and training sessions on how to use a sharpener every two weeks? And yet your lot seem more interested in doing actual work! No, I've made up my mind. Even if you have 'nothing' to teach Delaney, which I find unlikely, you're staying so at least I can tick that box next time those forms cross my desk. Understood?"

Becker was speechless. There seemed to be no arguing with Lester, not if there was little rational reasoning behind his decision in the first place. No, the suited man was going to stick beside his resolution no matter how many rational arguments Becker threw at him. That much was obvious.

"May I leave now, sir?" Becker asked as politely as he could. Left with little else to say, he waited only for the slightest of nods before exiting the small room.

Abby folded her arms and came forward. Lester pretended to be engrossed in his paperwork for a few seconds, before realising he wasn't getting out of this one so easily.

"What?" he asked curtly.

"Why?" replied Abby.

Lester sighed. "This... Delaney. What do you think of him?" Abby blinked at the question and Lester looked up. "Look, I know it unusual that I would pay more attention to your opinion than I would to a craft stall selling novelty cuddly toys, but I would like you to at least give me an answer to ignore."

Abby smiled at the comment, before returning to the question. "I... I don't... I'm don't like him." There was a pause. "He didn't like the creatures, and I know that's not strange, but his reaction? And how he's been today? It doesn't... sit right." There was silence as Lester turned over another piece of paper. It lasted so long, Abby almost thought she was meant to leave at this point, but then Lester spoke again.

"He was fine this morning. A little... disheartened by a few of the soldiers'...ah... lack of respect, but otherwise seemed willing to give it a go. Then, I met him later and he seemed to have regressed into a teenager."

"He was preoccupied by the time I met him," agreed Abby.

Lester sighed again. "It may just be nerves. The realisation he's signed up to fight dinosaurs and may actually have to do so. In which case, having a more experienced officer on hand isn't a bad idea."

"And if it isn't?" Another pause.

"Then we have to hope Becker will stay. Otherwise, I can see us never getting someone to fill the role. Because I'm telling you now, I'm not doing it." He returned to his papers again. "I don't look in their uniform for a start."

Abby contemplated this before nodding and leaving. As far as she was concerned, she'd just been granted two weeks.

Two weeks to make Becker stay.

PPP

I promise to update. But reviews would remind me