A/N: Dear all, sorry for not uploading yesterday. Somehow my internet security decided that it didn't like the FFNs security certificate and blocked it completely. Fortunately it's working today again. :D thank you for reading and reviewing the chapters so far, those who did will get a personal thank you from me soon, I'm a bit behind with my conference ;).

So, like the last chapter, this one is not beta-read. My apologies for the mistakes in advance (some are intentional though ;) ).

For this chapter, I hadn't really listened to a song or one in mind while writing it. I also found it really hard to depict one for it in the end, since I wanted to capture the mood throughout the chapter. The only one left I still liked listening to while re-reading it, is "Shooting stars and fairy tales" by Mrs. Greenbird. I hope you like the song too :D

Enjoy!

"Good morning my dear," Becker greeted her warmly as he entered the room, walking straight to her bed.

Jess's lips grew into a big smile as she spotted him. Taking out her ear plugs, she said: "Good morning."

He took place on the bed, pointing at the little MP3-player in her hands. "What are you listening to?"

"Music from Connor," she responded, adding: "He says I like them." Her eyes darkened and she let her head drop a little.

Becker had to lower his upper body to maintain the eye contact. "But you don't like them?" he asked in a soothing tone.

Jess shook her head. "Too much words," she confessed, slightly biting on her lower lip; a gesture she subconsciously had copied from Abby.

He moved a little closer to her, stroking across her arm. "It's OK, Jess. You don't have to like everything," he said with a warm smile that made her look up again. Her eyes shining not so sad anymore. "May I have a look?"

She nodded, handing over the little device.

Becker swapped through the titles. Out of the 20 songs, he recognised four, none of them were favourite songs of Jess. "Is it OK, when I copy some songs on it? Maybe you like them more," he suggested and stowed the player into his trouser pocket. "Is there any music you like so far?"

Jess nodded again, her eyes started to shine as she spoke: "I like Caleb playing. I feel the medoly. No text. You know?" she explained.

Becker nodded, stifling the chuckle that wanted to leave his mouth. It was remarkable, that, after just a little more than a week, she was already able to talk in whole sentences and understood most of what was said. However the little mistakes she made now and then, were that sweet he was certain he'd get caries from it. "It's easier for you when you don't have to find out what they are singing about, right?" he supposed, earning an approving nod from her.

"I like Sir James playing, too," Jess revealed grinning slightly.

Becker's head shot up, one eyebrow raised in confusion. "Did he introduce himself this way to you?" he asked suspiciously.

She nodded her 'yes', adding: "Sir James Lester. But I am allowed to call him Sir James, because he likes me," she recited his words.

Becker couldn't keep the smirk on his face from spreading. Suppressing a laugh, he said: "You know, 'Sir' is a title of nobility. And he is not really a Sir."

Jess looked at him, surprised. "I call him wrong?"

"It's OK, he just fed you a line," he replied, lightly chuckling.

"He didn't feed me," she quickly contradicted.

Becker mentally slapped himself. Of course she wouldn't understand what he meant. "No, I mean, he told you a lie. Something that is not true."

"So he is bad?" Jess asked perplexed. She really liked that old man, but Abby once told her that lying was something bad.

"No, he's not bad," Becker reassured her. "Sometimes we tell things to others that aren't true to tease them, because we like them." He took her hand into his, caressing her fingers with his thumb. "Just call him Lester. We all call him that way."

Jess nodded her understanding. "So he likes me?"

"Oh, yes. He really likes you," Becker affirmed vigorously. "He treats you better than anyone of us. But he also likes to be called 'Sir'." He winked at her.

Jess smiled, showing her full teeth. Her eyes sparkled like little diamonds and Becker wished he could stop the world to savour the moment a little longer.

Not long and she lowered her head again. Something came back into her mind and her eyes revealed the sadness she felt as she stated: "You fly today, right?"

Becker nodded confirming, his heart equally heavy. "Yes, I'm meeting a very important person today."

Jess was anything but pleased to hear that. "Abby fly, too?"

"Yes, she's coming with me. Didn't she tell you?" he questioned slightly surprised.

"Did do," Jess answered making a sad face again. She didn't like it at all that both her key carers were absent for the whole day. She pulled the blanket closer around herself for comfort.

Understanding how she felt, Becker tried to cheer her up: "It won't be that long, sweety."

"Abby says all day," she replied with a heavy heart, snuggling deeper into her blanket.

The cuteness overload his eyes took in, made him grin like a loon. "I'm sure she said to you that we're back in not even," he looked at his watch, "8 hours."

"See, all day," she countered quickly, and pulled the blanket up to her head trying to disappear.

Becker chuckled about the child-like behaviour. "But I also told you that I have a whole hour to spend with you before we leave," he reminded her, making her crawl back from her hiding place with a toothy grin and an eager nod.

"Do you want me to learn you some letters? So you can try reading some of the books while we're away," he suggested.

"Aiden already teached me," Jess replied and her eyes shone brightly. She turned to the side, grabbing the first book from the pile on the chair next to her, and handed it over to Becker.

It was a children's book, with all letters from A to Z written on the left side and an animal starting with the letter pictured on the right. He looked at it, smiling, and opened the first page.

"I know them all," Jess mentioned, adding: "most."

Becker grinned. "Do you mean you know almost all of them?"

She nodded quickly, taking the book back out of his hands and showing him the picture, explaining: "This is a 'A'. Because, this is a agilegotcha."

Becker thought he'd misheard her. The picture showed an alligator, but she said something starting with agile. "A what?" he asked confused, prompting her to repeat.

"A-gile-got-cha," she said again, this time slower, emphasising the syllables. "That was really hard to learn." Jess went on and turned the page to a little bunny. "This is a 'B' and a bobblesnoot. I like that. It's fluffy. And this here is a cuddlepurr with letter 'C'," she said after turning the page to the cat.

"Cuddlepurr," Becker echoed smirking. He needed his whole soldier training to suppress the urge to explode with laughter. He didn't want to make Jess think he was making fun of her, or wanted to reveal that, again, someone had teased her. He mentally wrote himself a note to visit Jenkins before his leave to make sure this up-to-no-good-Private would mend matters as soon as possible.

Unaware of the tease, Jess flipped several pages as she looked for a specific one. "And this here is my favourite animal," she explained as she finally found it and showed him the picture of a manta ray, commenting: "Majestic sea flap flap. That a really long name, right?" Jess looked up at the weird noises coming from Becker. "Why you laugh?" she asked baffled, a trace of annoyance sounded in her voice at his behaviour. She knew she didn't pronounce any of them wrong, so the Captain had no reason to laugh at her.

Becker couldn't hold back at the rebuke and roared with laughter. "I'm sorry," he said, holding his sides.

"Captain!" she scolded him again and lightly slapped him on his arm as he didn't stop.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said out of breaths. As the laughter finally subsided, he smiled fondly at her. "I'm not laughing at you, please believe me that." He took another deep breath. "Just promise me from now on, that I'm the only one who'll teach you stuff, alright?"

Jess pulled a face, but nodded her approval, remarking determined: "You and Abby."

"Yes, only me and Abby," he confirmed, still exhilarated from the laughing fit.

She smiled lightly, the anger already faded away. She turned her head grabbing something from under the pillow and held it towards Becker, ordering: "Teach me!"

Becker stared surprised at the what looked like a man-made book of several pages, held together by a ring going through an eyelet that was placed in the upper left corner of each laminated sheet. "Where did you get that from?" he asked curious, silently reading the main page that stated: 'Your friends from the ARC'.

"Aiden!" Jess answered right away. "He said, so I can look at all of you when I feel lonely. I don't know what is written there, but he only said I have to read on my own," she ended the longest sentence she'd voiced since her awakening.

Baffled and impressed at her flawless speech, he opened the book to its first page. It depicted Lester, looking slightly annoyed into the camera. Written below was 'James Lester. Head of the ARC. Your boss.' Smiling warmly he stood up, and took place right next to Jess to better show her the pictures. He skipped to the next page, deciding she already knew enough of their boss. "Alright. Here stands: Abigail 'Abby' Maitland. Zoologist. That's someone who works with animals," he explained quickly, before continuing with reading: "She is your friend. She is Connor's fiancé. That means, they want to get married," he explained again, but, as he saw her still looking blankly at him, he added: "I'll explain that later to you."

Jess nodded and leaned lightly into him, grabbing the page and turning it. "That's Connor."

"Yes. Connor Temple. Scientist," he read out loud. "That means he works with his head. He has a lot of ideas and invents new stuff. "He is your friend, too."

"I know," Jess said, grinning at him.

Becker turned his head to her. Their faces were only inches apart and he felt the urge to lean in and kiss her lips, but he contained himself, turning his attention back to the book. "I'm just reading what's written there," he remarked, the corners of his mouth curled up into a smirk.

"I know! More!" she commanded eagerly and looked back into the book, turning the page. "What stands under Caleb?" she questioned, looking up at him.

"Private Caleb 'Newt' Newton. Soldier at the ARC. Your friend -" Becker stopped and laughed out loud, startling her slightly. He quickly grabbed around her, hugging her and supportively rubbing her arm. "Sorry. It's just, he wrote: Can be a pain in the ass sometimes. It seems that Jenkins has written down some of his personal impressions, too."

"I like Caleb!" Jess said, determined.

Becker nodded affirming. "We all like him." He turned to the next page. There it was, a picture of him, standing at ease and looking directly in the camera. He even smiled slightly, and Becker wondered when Jenkins had taken that one. As he looked down and silently read the text, tears welled in his eyes.

'Captain H.J. Becker. He is your boyfriend. He loves you.'

Becker tried to say it, but the words refused to leave his tongue. Instead, he closed the book, taking a deep breath to compose himself.

"You OK?" Jess questioned worried. The only time she'd seen him at the edge of crying was back then, when she didn't recognise who he was.

Becker used two fingers to wipe away any liquid from his eyes, putting on a smiling face, he turned towards her: "I'm fine. I just like to have some fresh air now. Do you want to join me?"

Jess instantly beamed. All the time, she'd been inside this building, only seeing this room and the physical therapy room. Even Abby had denied her wish to see the real world outside, when she'd shown her pictures about it. "I never was -," she started, but was cut off by Becker.

"I know," he confirmed. "And it's about time that you get some fresh air into your lungs, and some sunlight on your skin," he reasoned and hugged her tightly. He took a deep breath, inhaling her pleasant scent. "C'mon let's go."

A/N: That's it for today. I hope you liked it. Please leave a comment below :)

Have a nice day!

:o)