Dawn stood at the door of the hospital room, watching Danny sympathetically as he sat next to Sarah with his head bent. She'd wrangled him into having a shower and a hair cut alongside his new clothes before they'd left the ARC and he looked much as he had before he'd ever gone through the anomalies, apart from the look of devastation on his face as he stared at Sarah.
"She was gonna wait for me." he said in a cracked voice.
"I know. She told me." Dawn replied softly, not knowing what else to say. She'd told Danny about Sarah the last time he'd popped up, but had thought then that perhaps he hadn't really grasped it and that suspicion was now solidified as she looked at the state of him.
"What am I supposed to do now?" he asked hopelessly.
"Carry on." She whispered. "There's nothing else you can do."
She crossed to him, wrapping her arms around him and he buried his face in her shoulder. "I should have told her I love her."
Dawn closed her eyes briefly. "She knew." She assured him softly. He looked at her wretchedly.
"Did she?"
Dawn gave him a small smile. "Yeah."."
Two and a half years ago
"Hey Sarah." Dawn greeted quietly from the doorway of the office she'd sequestered herself in. The brunette looked up with a weary smile.
"Hey. Why are you here so late?"
Dawn placed a cup of coffee on her desk. "I'm not." She told her gently. "It's morning, you've been here all night."
"Oops." Sarah glanced at the clock in surprise.
"Did you find anything?" Dawn asked as she sat down, casting a look over the scribbled notes that littered the desk alongside numerous diagrams, photocopies and translations.
"I think so. Look at this." She handed the teenager the page, and Dawn frowned.
"Site 333? Why does that sound familiar?"
Sarah grabbed a map and pointed to the Rift Valley. "It's an archaeological site where they found thirteen of the earliest humans-"
"All dead without explanation." Dawn finished with wide eyes. "The reference to the hominids, you were right. That's where mum was really heading."
"I think so, yeah." Sarah sighed, placing her head on her hand as she stared at the papers in front of her. "Not that it helps us find the others."
Dawn watched her for a moment, saw the sadness in her eyes. "You really miss Danny, don't you?"
"Yeah. I mean, I miss Abby and Connor too- so, so much but I especially miss him for some reason." Sarah exhaled loudly, running her hands through her tangled hair. "Which is ridiculous as I haven't even known him that long."
"It's not ridiculous." Dawn told her. "Do you love him?"
Sarah paused. "I think so." She admitted. Dawn smiled at her.
"They're gonna come back." She placed her hand over Sarah's. "We'll find them, or they'll find us. You know, just to be difficult. And when they do just snog the daylights out of him. It'd solve a lot if people just did that when they fancied someone." Dawn thought of Abby and Connor, and Jenny and her father.
Sarah grinned. "I just might, actually. I'm tired of waiting around for something to happen." Then she paused. "Although honestly, I'm not convinced of your theory. Can you imagine if someone just kissed Becker? He'd probably shoot them!"
They both burst into laughter.
Present day
Danny smiled weakly at the story. "I would have kissed her back." He murmured. Dawn entwined her fingers with his, and sat with him in a silent vigil over the comatose woman.
That had been a month ago. Danny had settled into the team, technically working under Matt although that didn't stop him from doing his own thing if he disagreed with the given orders, much to his and Becker's annoyance.
Danny was sat in his office, pretending to do paperwork while he really played tetris. He jumped however when there was a sharp knock on the door and he scrambled to hide the phone before it opened but relaxed when Dawn slipped in. "Hey." She greeted, skipping over to lean on his desk.
"Hey. What's up?" he narrowed his eyes at her. She shrugged. He raised his eyebrows.
"Why does something have to be up?" she questioned.
"Okay. Then are you going to tell me what's wrong with you and Becker?" Danny asked. "I saw how he treated you this morning."
Dawn sighed. "He's angry with me because I didn't tell him that Peter and I were dating."
"Were?"
Daw just looked at him. "Becker isn't only mad with me." she explained bitterly. "Peter decided it wasn't worth it."
"Want me to beat him up?" Danny offered. Dawn smiled sadly.
"No, thank you. But d'you wanna break the rules?" she smirked.
"God yes." He sighed dramatically. "What're we doing?"
"Really breaking the rules. As in, you could get fired for it. But it's for a good reason." She told him, biting her lip. He beamed.
"Brilliant. Haven't properly broken the rules in a while." He grinned cheerfully. She smiled.
"Meet me at my car after work. Dress sturdily but comfortably." She instructed before she bounced out with a bright smile. He looked after her curiously but did as she said, leaning against her mini until she finally appeared, dressed in cargo trousers and a cotton shirt over a vest top with a leather jacket and what looked to Danny like walking boots.
"Hey? So am I allowed to know what's going on yet?" he asked. She gestured for him to get in and pulled out of the car park.
"It's about Sarah." She told him. He raised his eyebrows at her.
"Okay…"
"We saved the future, right? So I calculated that if science and medicine continue at the same rate they have been over the last couple of years within a few decades they might have found a cure for Sarah's condition." She bit her lip as realisation swept over him.
"You're talking about getting it from the future?" he checked incredulously. She nodded.
"Saving one life can't do that much damage to the timelines, surely. And… it's Sarah."
Danny rubbed a hand over his head. He thought of all the things that could go wrong with this, how much trouble they were going to be in if they made it back. And then he thought of Sarah. "Okay." He nodded after a few minutes. "Let's do it." She beamed at him. "Just one question- how are we getting to the future?"
"Well, there are three anomalies that we know of that lead there." She explained. "One's been sealed- that's at Christine Johnson's old headquarters. The other's the one at the race track but it's kept locked and guarded more heavily than any other because of how dangerous it is."
"And the third?"
"Um… we sort of have to go through the Permian era to reach it." Dawn told him sheepishly. He sighed.
"Of course we do. How exactly do we get to the Permian?"
"There's an anomaly in the forest of Dean. It was the first one the government was ever aware of, so it's fenced in and guarded."
Danny shot her a confused look. "And that's easier than the other one how?"
"Because it's closed. So there's only one guard and…" she dug in her pocket, not looking up from the room and pulled out a key on a chain. "I have the key to the gate."
He reached out and took it, turning it over in his hands. "Do I want to know how?"
"It was my dad's." she smiled lightly. "Research purposes."
"Ah. Okay, three more questions. If it's closed, how are we gonna go through it?" he asked in confusion.
"It's due to open at about ten o'clock tonight." She explained. "Second question?"
"How are we gonna survive in the Permian, we don't even have water?"
She smiled. "I have rucksacks in the boot. Everything we might need in them."
"Huh." He looked impressed. "Oh, and how do you know where the future anomaly is on the other side?"
For the first time, she looked uncertain. "I don't. My mum did." She admitted quietly. Danny paused.
"Okay, really not liking this." He narrowed his eyes.
"In her diary, there are lists and lists of anomalies." Dawn explained. "Where and when they appear, where and when they lead to. Exact locations. My mother may have been crazy but she was a scientist at heart. Everything was precise and carefully documented."
Danny groaned. "Great, we're following the word of a mad woman." Then he glanced at Dawn. "No offence intended."
"None taken." She assured him. "Look, the forest of Dean anomaly is due to stay open for a few days. And there's a more compact locking device in one of the bags so we can open it again once it's been locked."
"Alright, alright." He held his hands up. "Just out of curiosity, how long have you been planning this?"
"A while." She admitted with a smile. "I don't know if it's going to work, but it just might. And if there's even a chance…"
"Yeah." Danny nodded in understanding. The rest of the journey was spent in a strange silence or playing word games until finally, over four hours later they pulled up by in the car park Dawn had first stepped foot in almost seven years ago.
"Where's this anomaly then?" Danny asked her as she got the bags from the boot, chucking one at him. He caught it with a grunt.
"This way." They set off and Dawn found her way easily despite the fact that Danny was lost just ten minutes in. The covering of trees meant that they quickly had to use torches and Danny struggled to keep his footing, often tripping over tree roots and hitting branches while Dawn easily made her way through it. She smirked at him. "You okay back there?"
He scowled. "How are you doing that so easily?"
"Practice." She smiled, reaching out to catch a branch before it could hit him in the face. He shot her a grimace.
"This couldn't have opened in the day?" he complained. She chuckled.
"It's not much further." She assured him. Half an hour later they hit the fence, turning off their torches so as not to alert the single soldier on guard by the gate. Thankfully, the area was still illuminated by lights.
"How we gonna get past him?" Danny asked quietly. Dawn grabbed a handful of stones and twigs and chucked them as far as she could behind them, dragging him down behind a log. The soldier stiffened, shining a torch into the woodland.
"Who's there?" he called out. He walked past them, EMD raised and they took their chance, bolting towards the gate. Dawn fumbled with the lock, just managing to open it and slip inside. Danny quickly followed her and by pure luck, the anomaly flickered into existence just as he closed the gate behind them. "HEY!" The soldier yelled out as he spotted them, racing in their direction but it was too late- they'd bolted towards the anomaly and jumped through, landing on the other side and blinking in the bright sunshine.
"Wow…" Danny stared around them as Dawn gasped.
"It's beautiful." She murmured. He glanced at her.
"You haven't been here before?" he asked.
"You're joking. Dad wouldn't let me in a million years!" She shook her head with a laugh. "No, this is the first time I've been here."
She looked around them as she slipped her jacket off and stashed it in her bag, withdrawing her mother's diary at the same time. "You know where we're going?" Danny checked.
"That way." She pointed, peering at the page in front of her. They began to walk, chatting casually until Danny stopped dead all of a sudden.
"What the heck is that?"
Dawn followed his gaze and giggled. "Don't worry, he's a herbivore." She told him in amusement.
"Herbivore?" Danny muttered. "The thing's huge."
"It's a dinosaur, Danny. Sort of comes with the territory." Dawn rolled her eyes, looking around them and comparing it to the diary. Danny noticed.
"Tell me we're not lost." He pleaded.
"Would you like to navigate?" she offered snappily. He took the offered notebook with a smirk, then frowned.
"It's in a different language."
"It's in code." She crossed her arms and looked at him expectantly. "So? Which way?"
He studied it, turning it around and tilting his head. "I… that way." He pointed to their left. She raised an eyebrow, reaching out to pull his arm in the opposite direction. He looked at her and she attempted to keep her face blank, almost managing in hiding her smirk. He sighed, handing the diary back to her and stalking off in the direction she's indicated.
She burst into giggles, catching up with him and looping her arm through his as he stuck his nose in the air, which only made her laugh harder. "You're not helping my whole haughty thing I'm aiming for." He complained.
"Oh, I thought you were impersonating one of the creatures." She said with a straight face. He looked at her, lips twitching. She made the mistake of meeting his gaze and they both dissolved into laughter.
"Look!" Danny indicated the anomaly, which sat on a ridge in front of them, locked. They both sobered instantly.
"Bugger. I forgot there'd be an ARC in the future now." Dawn cursed. Danny shrugged.
"You said you have the locking mechanism?" he pointed out. She nodded.
"It's in your bag."
"Oh, is that why it's so heavy?" he grumbled.
"You're supposed to be the big burly man." She shrugged innocently. "Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that there's likely to be a guard on the other side."
Danny shrugged. "We'll deal with it if there is."
Dawn wasn't convinced but she nodded and they clambered over to it, exchanging a slightly nervous look before Danny pointed the device and unlocked the anomaly. They stepped through, blinking slightly and Dawn shivered as the cool air hit her.
Then her jaw dropped.
"I was wondering when you were gonna show up. I thought I got the got wrong for a moment there."
Danny looked incredulous. "There's two of you!"
Dawn blinked rapidly, looking at her older self. "Well it was bound to happen eventually." She said in resignation. Her older self grinned.
"Yep. You have three hours before I'm due to switch shifts with the next guard- be back by then." She instructed. Dawn and Danny looked at each other. "Oh, and the hospital's that way."
They left the warehouse they were in and followed the direction she pointed, looking around them interestedly. "The fashion is certainly… different." Danny observed, blushing slightly as two scantily dressed women strolled passed them, not gaining a second look from the people around them.
"Not that much." Dawn nodded to an older woman dressed in jeans and a blouse a little way away from them. They grinned slightly at each other.
"Oh, I'm guessing that's the hospital." Danny paused at the sight of the huge building, with the 'hospital' written in huge red letters across the top. "Right. Where to now?"
"We need to find a doctor who specialises in the brain and subtly question him on traumatic brain injuries." Dawn emphasised subtly, glancing pointedly to the man beside her. He raised his hands.
"Subtle. My middle name." he grinned. "You stay here, yell if men in black show up. Just in case."
Dawn frowned unhappily but nodded and Danny jogged off, glad that white coats had apparently remained in fashion for medical personal. A couple of casual comments to a few of them landed a brain surgeon (seriously? This was his lucky day!) and a conversation got him the information he needed.
Dawn was chatting to a teenager, listening intently as he modelled what Danny thought was a mobile. "Dawn?" he questioned. She bade goodbye to the boy, smiling brightly at him as she skipped over to Danny. "Making friends?" he raised an eyebrow. She shrugged.
"He was nice."
"You have a boyfriend!"
"So did he." Smirked Dawn. Danny spluttered. "And I don't anymore. Anyway- what did you find?"
Danny beamed. "They can treat Sarah's injury now!" he told her excitedly. "And with some sort of drug… I didn't really understand it but I got the name of it." He showed Dawn the piece of paper.
"Dia… Diea… De…" she struggled, giving up and looking at him. He shrugged.
"No use asking me."
"Alright, where do we get it?" she questioned. He hesitated.
"That would be the problem. It has to be prescribed by a doctor."
"Great." She groaned.
"The good news is it's stored here at the hospital." He told her cheerfully.
"You're saying we steal it?" she hissed.
"Well, what do you suggest?" he asked fiercely. "We have a little over two hours before we have to go! We don't have another choice if we want to heal Sarah!"
Dawn bit her lip, torn. "Okay." She agreed reluctantly.
"Okay." He nodded. "We need to find the pharmacy, scout it out. We can figure out an exact plan after that."
Dawn nodded, shaking her hair out from its braid so that if fell around her face while Danny pulled a cap down over his and they went into the hospital. "Why do they always make hospitals so complicated?" muttered Dawn.
"Sadists satisfaction?" suggested Danny as he read a sign that hung on the wall. "There, fourth floor. Why the heck would they put a pharmacy there?"
They made their way up there, keeping their faces turned away from the cameras. "Any ideas?" murmured Dawn, pretending to read a sign on the wall.
"Yeah. We steal a coat; walk in like we're supposed to be there." Danny nodded. Dawn turned to look at him.
"That's quite possibly the stupidest idea you've ever had." She told him. "But it's so stupid it might just work."
"Alright, you go outside and I'll do it." He ordered, catching hold of her arm and leading her down the corridor.
"What? No!" she protested in a hiss.
"Look, Dawn if you get caught here it's going to cause problems, mainly because I don't know how to get home. So just do as I say okay?" he asked. She raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah, do I look stupid?" she questioned. He looked at her innocently. "You don't have to protect me Danny. I'm not sixteen anymore."
He smiled sheepishly. "No, but it makes me feel better so just do as I ask, please?"
"Danny, I am not leaving you to do this by yourself." She said firmly. "Now I'll distract the lady at the desk- you sneak in, alright?"
Danny sighed but nodded reluctantly. Down the corridor, there was a small staffroom with lockers, and Danny only had to break three open before he found a white coat. Dawn fought to keep her lips from twitching as he put it on- it was at least two sizes too small and the name across it read 'Dr M Pink.'
"Nice." She complimented with a smirk. He scowled.
"Funny. Let's go."
She left before him, walking up to the woman at the desk with a sweet smile. "Excuse me? I was wondering if you could help me…"
Danny waited until the woman was distracted and he took the chance to slip past her, searching through the aisles. They were organised in alphabetical order so he quickly scanned the shelves until he found the d's. Then he paused. "Dammit!"
None of the packets were marked with instructions, only names. He had no idea how much he needed of the clear liquid that sat in little vials in front of him. He glanced over to Dawn, who was struggling to keep the woman's attention on her.
So he grabbed a handful and stuffed them in the side pocket of his bag, meeting Dawn's eyes and nodding as he rushed down the corridor. She thanked the woman and hurried after him. "We have a problem." He murmured as he stripped off the coat and dumped it in a nearby bin.
They entered a lift, smiling politely at the man in scrubs who entered with them. As soon as they'd got off the lift, she turned to him. "What?" she asked urgently.
"There's no instructions for the dose!" he hissed as they left. Dawn nibbled her lip, glancing at her watch.
"We have thirty minutes before we have to be back. What the hell can we do in that time?" she questioned.
"Ask someone?" Danny suggested. She shook her head.
"Too suspicious." She pointed out. "We need to look it up."
"How?"
"Internet." She raised her eyebrows. She scanned the people around them, catching sight of a geeky older man with a camera and socks with shorts. "Some things really don't change." She muttered, handing Danny her bag. "Excuse me?" she smiled, folding her hands together behind her. He looked at her.
"Hello?"
"I was wondering if you could help me." Dawn stepped closer to him, looking at him straight in the eyes and keeping the smile on her face. "I'm a bit new around here. I was hoping you might have something with internet on I could use?"
She smiled sweetly, looking up at him through her lashes. He stuttered. "I… er…"
"Are you a photographer?" she asked, looking at his camera. He nodded enthusiastically.
"Yes. Er, buildings." He answered. Dawn beamed.
"My father used to be a keen photographer. It's a fascinating hobby, isn't it?" she smiled. He nodded. "So... sought after." She bit her lip. "So could I use the internet on your phone? It'll only take a minute? I promise." She leant towards him with a slow smile. He made a choking sound, but nodded and withdrew a device from his pocket, handing it to her. She smiled widely.
Apparently, the basics were still the same. Search engine plus a keyboard… though holographic. Judging by the looks some teenagers across the road were giving her though, this technology was relatively old for this time. She searched quickly, finding what she needed on some sort of educational site. "Thank you." She smiled at them man, handing his phone back and walking back to Danny, who was staring at her.
"Where on earth did you learn to do that?"
"Jenny." Dawn shrugged. Then she caught sight of her watch. "Danny! We have fifteen minutes and it took us longer than that to get here!"
He swore, handing her bag back to her and grabbing her hand as they took off running at full the way they'd come earlier, shouting apologies to people they knocked into. "Come on!" Danny urged as she slowed slightly.
"Look!" she pointed at the 4x4 sitting in a traffic queue, with the ARC logo stamped on the side.
"What'd you wanna bet that's going where we are?" he asked. They began to sprint down the street, bursting into the warehouse where the future Dawn was pacing anxiously.
"Cutting it a bit fine, aren't you?!" she cried when she saw them. "Quick, go through!" she unlocked the anomaly.
"Wait! Just tell us, does it work?" Danny asked, still trying to catch his breath. She looked at him expressionlessly.
"Go find out. Hurry!" she glanced over her shoulder as an engine drew closer. Dawn grabbed Danny's arm and pulled him through with her. They'd barely hit the other side when the anomaly snapped closed.
"She was eager. You were eager." He paused, looking confused. "One of you was eager."
Dawn chuckled, resting over on her knees as her breathing returned to normal. "We did it."
"Now it just has to work." Danny pointed out. He grinned at her, slinging an arm around her shoulders and kissing her temple. "Have I remembered to tell you you're brilliant lately?"
She grinned. "Don't thank me yet. We still aren't home."
They began their trek, Dawn unable to resist snapping a few pictures of the landscape and the creatures. "This place is amazing." She murmured. "I can see why my mum liked it so much."
Danny glanced at her. "Thinking of following in her footsteps?" he asked mildly. She snorted.
"No. It wouldn't be worth it when Jenny got her hands on me!" she joked. He laughed. "No, I'm not sure I'd be brave enough, not after seeing what it did to mum. But… I can understand it now."
"Now?"
"I spent several years missing her, several more hating her." she sighed. "But now… now I just pity her." she stared across the landscape, sadness hitting her. Danny wrapped an arm around her.
"It's hard, grieving for someone nobody else is." He said roughly. She nodded, smiling sadly at him, knowing that because of his brother he was probably the only person who understood.
"Yeah."
Danny wrapped an arm around her. "You miss her?"
"I miss who she used to be." Dawn admitted. "You know… I hear what the others say about her. That she was a monster, emotionless, a cold, heartless murderer. But… she wasn't. She cried when she shot my dad, she grieved for him before she knew he was alive. The look on her face when she realised who I was… she wasn't emotionless. She genuinely thought what she was doing was right."
"They only see what she became." Danny said. Dawn nodded.
"You know, before all of this- before the anomalies and the creatures she was… just my mum. The woman who tucked me in at night and took me to dance class and sat with me for days straight without a break when I was ill."
"She was your mum. There's nothing wrong about that Dawn." Danny said gently. She smiled bitterly.
"There is to the others." She pointed out quietly. She wrapped her arms around herself, falling silent and Danny squeezed her hand in understanding. The walked for a while longer.
"Dawn… wasn't the anomaly up there?" Danny questioned suddenly, looking ahead of them. She frowned.
"Yeah…?" they both broke into a run, skidding to a stop at the spot it was supposed to be. "Where is it?"
"I thought you said it was going to be open for a few more days?!" Danny exclaimed.
"It was supposed to be!" she cried. She ran her hands through her hair, before she dug into her bag and withdrew her anomaly detector, switching it on.
"Well?" asked Danny. She looked at him.
"The only anomaly close to here is the one to the future." She told him unsteadily. "Oh my God. The prediction model must have been wrong."
Danny stared at her as horror filled her eyes. "Danny, we're trapped here."