"We need to get to the hospital." Said Matt with a quiet authority. As Becker looked at him in the front mirror he could see more clearly than before how tired and old Matt looked when he sagged minutely against the seat. Becker turned his stare to Jess who also sat in the back but she didn't look up, instead focussing on her folded hands in her lap.

Wordlessly, he started the car and began the short drive to the hospital.

The drive back to the hospital, though short in reality, felt like an age. No one dared break the uneasy silence that had entered the car with Jess and Matt and there was much too think over for any measure of decent conversation to be kept.

Becker, for one, was sure that at least Jess and Matt were thinking on the timelines and whatever the problem was that they seemed to be worried about and he supposed that he should be worried about it too but his mind was racing at a mile a minute in the opposite direction. He barely noticed parking the car as he mulled over what he had just learnt.

In the future he was in love with Jess.

Jess was in love with him.

It was a lot to take in at one time especially as the woman in question was currently sat in the back of the car carefully holding the device that would supposedly catapult her through time to where she belonged. Complicated seemed to sum up his situation accurately he thought ironically.

"Becker, you still with us?" It evidently wasn't the first time that Matt had called his name by the way he was looking at him in thinly veiled curiosity, "You alright?"

"I'm fine." Replied Becker trying to believe his own words. It was harder to do than he would have thought considering the wide eyed and significant look that Emily was shooting at him over Matt's shoulder.

"Right then let's go." Said Matt heading towards the hospital. He threw Becker one last confused look over his shoulder before squaring his shoulders to face what was sure to come.

~o~o~o~

When they eventually made it up to Cutter's room Matt put out an arm and stopped them all in their tracks.

"Maybe it's best if me and Emily wait outside until you tell them what's happened, it sounds like they've all had their fair share of shocks today."

Jess couldn't agree more. Without speaking she all but dumped her work on the floor beside where Matt and Emily stood not even being able to muster a wince when she heard what was bound to be some of the more delicate equipment within creak and scrape in protest.

She and Becker went to walk in when she noticed a calming hand on her back. She didn't need to look to know who it was as he guided her into the room, though she did anyway. Becker wasn't looking at her but she could still feel his attention centred on her. It was nice to know that he at least, wasn't angry, disappointed or shocked by what her actions could have possibly caused. Not like Matt.

She pushed those unpleasant thoughts to the back of her mind and entered the room. Surprising, not much had changed since she was last there only a few hours before. The only main difference was that Connor and Abby were both asleep, her head resting on his shoulder, Sarah was standing against the wall looking almost dead on her feet while Jenny had moved from Cutter's bed to a chair next to him where she was holding what seemed like a heated though almost completely silent argument with Lester. They stopped when they saw who had walked into the door.

"Well?" Asked Jenny as quietly as she could while still demanding. "We were just debating" She shot a filthy look at Lester whose face didn't change in the slightest, "whether to send a team out after you. It was reported that you left your men behind to follow a new lead."

Becker hadn't thought about it like that with all that had transpired in the last few hours but he couldn't contradict it .

He nodded.

This only seemed to make Jenny angrier, "You have a team for a reason-"

She was cut off but Lester speaking smoothly over the top of her, "What did you find Captain?"

"Two new staff from the future-"

"My friends." Interjected Jess.

"- who came through the anomaly." Finished Becker.

Lester fixed them both with a stare, "Do you have them with you?"

"They're outside." Answered Jess in an admirably even voice.

"Fetch them." Said Lester as one hand reached up to straighten his tie out of habit. Usually Jess would have raised an eyebrow at the wording of such a request but by now she really couldn't care less. The outcome would be the same in any case.

It was Becker who actually went to get them. Jess was left in the room while Lester and Jenny both arranged what Jess had come to think of their 'public appearance faces' into a poor approximation of what they had been before the ARC had burnt. The strain was evident no matter how they tried to hide it.

Sarah roused herself from her trancelike state against the wall and set herself upon gently shaking Abby and Connor awake. Jess couldn't help the bubble of laughter that she only just managed to quash at the look of embarrassment that passed between them at finding themselves in such a situation.

No sooner had her mood brightened it plummeted again as Matt strode through the door and stood quite comfortably with everyone's attention focussed on him. "I'm Matt Anderson and this is Emily Merchant," he said as he gestured to Emily who walked in through the door normally behind him followed by Becker, "and I'm sorry to dump this on you but if we don't do something soon, we're all going to be in terrible danger."

His eyes flickered to Jess and she suddenly remembered what he had told her in the car parking lot. Yes, she thought miserably, terrible danger in deed.

….

A/N- Sorry for the wait! Thanks for reading and I hoped you enjoyed it! If you did (or didn't) please leave a review to let me know what you think J

VE