I'm really excited to post this, because it's been half-written for almost a year now! The next chapter is partly written too, but don't get too excited – I've got a super busy weekend ahead of me, and I'm not going to have any time to write :-( I'm also going away for a week on Wednesday, so I will try my hardest to get the next chapter up before then, but no promises! I hope you don't hate me too much after reading this…

As always, thanks so much for the reviews! I'm glad you enjoyed Jake's return in the last chapter.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Abby and Connor went to the pictures that night. On the one hand Jess was glad – Connor had cottoned onto the 'Auntie Jess' joke as quickly as Abby had, and every time she'd seen them all afternoon that's what they'd called her. She'd rolled her eyes and called them things like 'dearie' and 'sweetie' in return as a joke, but it had taken quite a lot to keep up her carefree attitude. At least she didn't have to worry about that with them gone for a few hours.

Of course, the flip side of their absence meant that Jess had time to mope. She'd tried her best to avoid moping all week, and for the most part she'd been successful. Being at work had helped, and she'd set herself lots of boring tasks and errands for the weekend to fill her time… but somehow she'd forgotten to plan for Friday evening, so with Abby and Connor gone she had nothing to do but think.

She was still upset by what had happened that day. She hated the idea of any member of the public being in danger, especially children… and the fear she'd felt when she'd realised little Jake was in such immediate danger had been like an icy knife in the gut. But worse was after the anomaly when everything was fine, because she had had to cover up all her fears and worry, and burying her feelings wasn't becoming an easier.

The 'Auntie Jess' jokes had it made so much worse as well. Abby and Connor obviously didn't realise how much it hurt her whenever they called her that, so she couldn't really blame them. But it did hurt – she'd been so focussed on losing Becker that she hadn't really thought about the rest of his family. Yes she'd only known them for a few days but it really upset Jess to think that she wasn't going to see any of them again.

She just had to get them to stop calling her. She'd told Becker earlier that Ronnie hadn't told his sisters the truth about them, but it had been just before the anomaly alert went off, so he'd probably forgotten about it… which meant the need for another awkward conversation. But she'd have to do it, because she didn't want to stretch out her break with his family any longer than necessary – it was hurtful enough as it is.

Jess was once again staring at the practically empty fridge, thinking that she should probably add 'shopping' to her list of weekend errands and deciding that a takeaway was in order, when her mobile started ringing from the front room. It was another unsaved mobile number.

Jess sighed heavily. Who was it this time? She could think of three likely candidates, and she didn't want to speak to any of them.

Jess clapped her hands over her eyes for a moment, seriously considering just ignoring the call. She really wasn't in the mood to lie to Becker's family because, for some reason, his sister hadn't told them the truth. She shouldn't have to, especially after the day she'd just had.

She'd had enough – she really had. But unfortunately she was too polite to ignore it, so she shook her head and answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi Jess, it's Ronnie."

Jess was suddenly quite glad she'd picked up the phone – if she had Ronnie on the line, maybe she could find out why she was still pretending she and Becker were together. Maybe she could actually sort everything out without having to talk to Becker about it.

"Hi Ronnie," Jess said, slightly more cheerfully. "How are you?"

"Fine, thanks. You?"

"I'm okay – it's been a busy day at work."

"Well I'll be quick I promise – I just wanted to give you the details for my birthday party," said Ronnie.

Jess frowned, feeling very confused. "I... didn't Hil tell you that... I thought you knew that it wasn't real," she said stupidly.

"Well yeah but... what about at the wedding?" Ronnie said, sounding confused herself. "And the next morning? No way was that pretend."

Jess' eyes widened at Ronnie's words, and the truth hit her so suddenly her breath caught in her throat. She didn't know. She hadn't told the rest of her family the truth because she didn't know. When Ronnie had left the hotel on Sunday morning, she and Becker had been, well, together for real. Jess had just assumed that Becker had told Ronnie that they hadn't actually stayed together… but clearly he hadn't.

Her mind was racing – why hadn't he told her?

Jess sank down onto the sofa, her mind racing. He hadn't told her? Why hadn't he told her? She didn't know… Well, if Becker hadn't told Ronnie the truth – for whatever reason – then she had to. She shook herself and sat up a bit straighter. "No it wasn't then – but... well... we're not together," she said.

Admitting it out loud for the first time actually physically hurt.

There was a pause on the other end of the line, and when Ronnie spoke again she sounded irate. "What? Why not?" She demanded. She let out an exasperated breath. "What did my idiot brother do?"

"He's not an idiot," Jess said quickly, defensively. She sighed a little and shrugged, even though Ronnie couldn't see it. "He just... look, it's complicated," Jess said forlornly. "What we do for a living... I can't explain properly, but it wouldn't work. For a moment over the weekend we managed to forget about our real lives but unfortunately come Monday we were back living them."

There was another, longer pause. "Do you love him?" Ronnie said eventually.

Jess dropped her head back against the back of the couch. She thought about lying, but she just didn't have the energy anymore. "I think you know the answer to that," she said quietly.

Ronnie sighed as well. "I'm sure he'll come to his senses..."

"No, he was right," Jess said. "He – I'm sorry Ronnie, but I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay, we won't," Ronnie said promptly. "But listen Jess, you're still invited to the party, if you want to come. Jake will be heartbroken if you're not there... and my Dad will be too." She paused again. "You don't have to be there as Hil's girlfriend... just as you."

Jess could feel her eyes filling with tears, and knew she had to end the conversation quickly.

"That's really sweet of you, but I don't think it's a good idea," she said.

"Let me know if you change your mind," Ronnie said. She sounded so earnest, and Jess had to smile.

"Thanks Ronnie," she said. "Have a great birthday."

"Thanks," said Ronnie. "Bye Jess."

"Bye."

XXXXX

Usually Becker was very proud of the men he commanded at the ARC. That evening, though, he found himself cursing their efficiency. You'd think that after an anomaly he'd have loose ends to tie up, but no. He'd had no reason to stay at work late, and so there he was at home with nothing to do but think.

To be honest, it had been like this all week. He'd got home and sat around with his thoughts chasing themselves in circles. He'd cleaned his gun collection three times, something he usually did once a fortnight at the most. He'd sorted and alphabetised his CD collection. The other night he'd started making the compilation disc he'd promised Ross, but had soon realised he was adding nothing but really angsty love songs. It was when he was contemplating I'm All Out Of Love that he thought it would be best to wait until he was in a better frame of mind.

So that evening Becker was just lying on his sofa, flicking between TV channels and desperately hoping there would be something showing to distract him. He didn't have high hopes.

After an hour or so, when he was starting to think he should probably eat something if he could be bothered to move, a distraction came in the form of his phone ringing. A glance at the caller ID told him it was his sister.

He paused before answering – he'd been expecting this call.

"Hi Tabby."

She paused before saying anything, and he just waited silently. "Hil… I'm guessing you can't tell me what happened?" She said eventually.

"There was a suspected carbon monoxide leak, but it was a false alarm," Becker said monotonously, parroting the statement that Matt had fed to the press.

"And they called in the army for that?" Tabby said. Her tone was almost the same as her usual dry one, but Becker could hear an edge of nervousness under it.

"It can be very dangerous," he said evasively.

She snorted at that, but didn't push any further. She paused again. "Were you hurt?" She asked.

He could clearly picture the gouge in the wall that could easily have been his face instead. "No."

"Good." Tabby paused again, and Becker heard her sigh. "Well, I'm not going to ask what really happened, but thanks… for whatever it was you did."

Becker knew he should say something to refute her assuming he was lying, but he couldn't be bothered – she wasn't stupid. "Is Jake okay?" He asked okay.

"He's fine," Tabby declared airily. "Favourite trip to the museum ever."

Becker smiled. "Good."

"He drew a picture of you – you holding a silver gun as big as him."

Becker smirked. "He has quite the imagination," he said.

"Uh-huh," Tabby said, sounding like she was smirking as well. "Alright, well, I just wanted to make sure you're okay."

"I am."

"I'll see you soon – love you."

Becker smiled again. "Love you too."

"Bye."

It was not ten minutes later that his phone buzzed again. It was a text from Mindy.

-So Tabs says you saved Jake from a poisonous cloud by shooting it with a bazooka.-

Becker rolled his eyes as he wrote back. -Yes. That's exactly what happened.-

-Good boy. Xxx-

He smiled at Mindy's simple reply.

His sisters were a lot to handle, but he had to admit he felt a little better having spoken to them. It had been an emotionally draining day, preceded by an emotionally draining week, and even though it had terrified him beyond belief to have Jake in danger like that, it was kind of nice that they knew that something had happened for once.

Becker had lived alone since university, and was usually perfectly happy in his own company. But having spent pretty much every waking moment of the last weekend with Jess, in the midst of his family as well, Becker had really felt the solitude the past week. It was nice to be reminded that he wasn't actually alone… and yes he was well aware of how unbelievably sappy that sounded.

He went back to flicking through channels.

Five minutes after Mindy's text, his phone rang again, and this time it was Ronnie. Tabby must have phoned both of them straight after she spoke to him.

He answered the phone. "Hi Ronnie."

"You are such an idiot."

Becker lay back on the sofa. "Why this time?" He asked. It wasn't what he'd been expecting her to say, but it also wasn't the first time a conversation with her had started like this.

"What's going on with you and Jess?" Ronnie demanded.

Becker's eyes widened, and he suddenly remembered his conversation with Jess that day, after he'd caught the tail end of her phone call with his Dad. She'd said that Ronnie hadn't told the others the truth about them, and it had only been then that Becker'd realised that he hadn't told Ronnie that they weren't together.

Well, he'd realised it. Of course he had. He was just… avoiding that particular conversation. It was hard enough without Ronnie laying into him.

Becker suddenly scowled at the ceiling. He'd had the week from hell, most of it spent wallowing in his own self-inflicted misery and culminating in an attack by a dinosaur a matter of hours ago – he was not in the mood to be spoken to like he was a little kid.

"You know what Ronnie, it's none of your business," he said tersely. "And don't say that you practically raised me, or changed my nappies, or walked me to school every day... it doesn't give you a right to pry into my relationships, or judge my decisions, or know every detail of my life. It's none of your business."

"Hilary."

Becker slung his arm over his eyes and groaned. He wanted to be angry at her, but she wasn't the problem – he was. "I screwed up so badly," he admitted.

"What happened?" Ronnie asked, sounding a little less harsh.

Becker sighed. "I wasn't really thinking about me and Jess beyond the weekend... and then as we were leaving the hotel it hit me that we were going back to our real lives... and I just sort of panicked, and I told her we shouldn't take it any further."

"Oh Hil..."

"I know what you're going to say, but you don't know what it is we do. Us together, it would be so... complicated," Becker said defensively.

He could practically hear Ronnie rolling her eyes. "What did Jess say?"

"She... that's the weird thing," Becker said, frowning. "She seemed upset, but she agreed with me. I felt so bad about hurting her, and Sunday night I couldn't stop thinking about it and I realised that... well, I realised that I wanted to give it a try anyway."

"So tell her that!" Ronnie exclaimed.

"I was going to, but when I saw her the next day she was completely... normal," Becker said. "I mean, like the weekend had never even happened. She wasn't even embarrassed or anything... and the thing is, it would be so complicated, and if she's able to move on, then it's better if I just leave it be."

There was a pause, and then: "I repeat – you're an idiot."

Becker sighed. "Ronnie..."

"You need to talk to Jess," she cut him off.

"I can't."

"I mean it – go find her, right now, and talk this out." She was practically growling at him at this point.

Becker shook his head. "I need to let it go."

"You need to grow a pair and go and talk to her," Ronnie insisted.

"She's moved on!" Becker exclaimed.

"You know nothing about women, Hil," Ronnie said. "Believe me when I tell you no one moves on that quickly."

Becker just tightened his arm over his eyes and stayed quiet. There wasn't anything his sister could say to convince him he was wrong – he was the one who'd been around Jess all week, not her. He knew the truth.

"Do you love her?" Ronnie asked suddenly.

Becker froze – it was a question he'd avoided thinking about all week, but trust his annoying oldest sister to cut right through to it. He thought about lying, but found he just didn't have the energy for it.

"I think you know that answer to that," he said reluctantly.

Ronnie chuckled, and Becker sighed. "What?"

"Jess just gave me the exact same answer," Ronnie said airily.

"What?" Becker's arm dropped to his side and his eyes popped wide open.

"Like I said, you need to go talk to her," Ronnie said, sounding all kinds of smug. "Call me tomorrow."

There was a click, and the line went dead. Becker slowly removed his phone from his ear, staring up at the ceiling with wide eyes.

Was Ronnie right? You know nothing about women, Hil… well, there was plenty of evidence to support that. But Jess had been so… so fine all week. Hadn't she? Today had been a bit awkward… but the rest of the week, not at all. But then, of course, he'd been avoiding her as much as possible.

Jess just gave me the exact same answer…

Decision made in a split second, Becker jumped up, grabbed his phone and keys, and practically sprinted out of his flat.

TBC