"That wasn't a primordial creature, was it?"

Captain Ryan glanced over to his passenger at her question. She was staring ahead, stoic faced, body stiff like a coiled spring ready to explode with energy at the first brush of danger. He knew she was still seeing the future predator and the giant snake, that she hadn't relaxed from their encounter and had no intentions of doing so.

"Why do you say that?" he quipped, purposely vague as he turned his pale blue gaze back to the road.

He was driving to the Home Office, unwilling to drive up to Claudia's apartment block in the work jeep with weapons in tow and he figured Melina was in no rush to return to Claudia's anyway. The traffic was mild, it was a weekday and most folks were at work. Outside the typical palette of a British city in autumn offered up bland shades of grey- black smudged grey coughing out of exhaust pipes, blue smudged smoke grey to stain the sky and merge with damp, heavy blue-grey clouds promising rain, and of course the burned grey of London smog shaded with hints of sickly brown and violent violet as it drifted slowly up to burn the atmosphere and poison the air.

"None of you named it," Melina mused, "you just kept calling it a predator and I've seen nothing like it in any of the books I've read."
"Well I'm not the animal expert," Ryan dismissed the topic, "you can ask Professor Cutter for details."

Melina leaned back in her seat and folded her arms. "Your avoidance of the topic just makes me more suspicious," she informed him with a forced brightness to her voice.

"Look, I just try and keep civilians from getting eaten by these things."

Melina laughed at this. "Don't sell yourself short captain you do a hell of a lot more than that but if you don't want to talk about that thing can I ask you something else?"

Ryan responded quickly, unwilling to reveal the hint of embarrassed pride he felt at her praise.

"Sure."

"Why were you all in the place with the demon snakes?" Melina turned to look at the blonde this time.

Ryan could feel her stare upon him, attempting to watch him for any tic or flinch that might give away a lie. He was almost amused, didn't she realise he was trained to keep secrets?

"We were following someone," he admitted. He figured Melina was already in this group whether he liked it or not so she was better being warned about Helen than left ignorant to her.

"Well no point asking who I suppose, I'll hardly know them. So finding me was a coincidence then?"

"I suppose. As for the who, her name is Helen, she's a dangerous woman who knows a little too much about the anomalies."

"Oh and by too much you mean?"

Ryan frowned and gave Melina a warning stare. "She can't help you," he said bluntly.

"Can't or won't?" Melina pried.

The grooves in Ryan's cheeks deepened as his frown intensified. "Can't," he said bluntly.

Ryan's irritation grew with the thought of Helen Cutter, how many times had she outwitted them now? A crafty woman, he figured she had to be strong both physically and mentally to have survived in the past for eight years, which made him have both a grudging admiration towards her and an angry sense of envy considering she was a civilian scientist with a better ability to survive than most soldiers under him. Ryan knew that her estranged husband Nick obsessed over her knowledge, determined that there had to be some secret source of information Helen had at her disposal, some discovery she had made through the anomalies that gave her an advantage over them. Ryan had no concerns about how she knew what she knew, he just wanted Helen secure, concerned that her anomaly hopping couldn't be good for them.

"Are roller discos still a thing?" Melina queried suddenly.

"What?"

"Roller discos." She gave a small smile. "There was a new one in London, I only got to go to it once before I went to the park for work experience but it was stellar."

Ryan grinned at her slang and shook his head.

"No, they went out with suspenders."

"Oh."

Melina bowed her head as sorrow filled her face. "Well, nevermind," she murmured with false cheer. "I suppose ice skating is gone too."

Ryan glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. The young woman was such an oddity than even he felt a budding intrigue towards her despite lacking Connor's fascination for all things sci-fi like and Cutter's adoration for anything historical. He felt a pity to her too knowing that her sense of displacement was not one easily fixed.

"No, that one's stuck around," he admitted.

Melina perked up at this and glanced over to the blonde again.

"Really? Anything different about it?"

Ryan shrugged. "Wouldn't know, I don't skate."

"Ever?"

"Not in a few years."

Melina chuckled. "What's a few years to me?" she remarked mockingly.

They reached the Home Office, turning up a private road to the back entrance where a guard and barrier greeted them. Although the guard recognised him, Ryan showed his pass as was protocol before driving through.

Melina looked at the parked curiously and commented teasingly, "I don't suppose the Bentley is yours, is it?"

Ryan scoffed at this and shook his head again. "No."

He parked up with the other security vans before turning to Melina. "Wait here, I won't be long," he ordered before getting out.

Melina frowned as he closed the door before she had a chance to reply. She glanced briefly to the guards on duty and wondering if they all knew about the anomalies or if that knowledge was reserved for a special chosen of them. Were they a government cover-up unknown even to some members of the government?

Melina had ten minutes of staring at purposely blanked faced soldiers and suits pacing from the building to the cars before Captain Ryan returned.

Ryan had swapped his rifle for a concealed handgun and his soldier's uniform for jeans, boots and a plain t-shirt beneath a loose fitting, dark jacket.

Ryan opened the passenger door for Melina, prompting her to disembark before he handed the van keys over to a soldier on duty.

"This way," Ryan said bluntly.

The captain led the way to a plain, black Ford.

Melina gave her disappointed, "oh" again.

"Not like the colour?" Ryan quipped sardonically as he tugged out his car keys.

"Black's fine it's just I was hoping to see your car," Melina retorted as she headed round to the passenger door. "This is clearly a work car," she said as she glanced over the roof to him.

"It's not actually, I just keep a clean car."

Ryan flashed a brief, smug smile at the startled expression Melina gave before he got into the car.

Melina slid into the leather passenger seat and immediately started inspecting the interior of the car. The car was spotless and had an odour of fresh leather courtesy of an air freshener hanging from the indicator. There was no hint of personality to it and no clue to its age.

"So, you don't like civilians at work, you're actually called Tom although I think Ryan suits you better, you don't like ice skating and you keep a clean car," Melina mused. "What else?"

"That's an open question," Ryan retorted as he reversed out of the space.

"Well alright, why are you interested in the time portals? Doesn't the danger put you off? I mean it can't just be for the pay and the excitement of unknown creatures doesn't seem to appeal to you."

"No but keeping people safe from the unknown suits me."

"That's your sole motive for this job then?"

"No, it got handed to me and I haven't anyone else to hand it on to," Ryan admitted. "I've lost a few good people to these creatures, even trained soldiers aren't always able to match up to what the anomalies send."

Ryan's mind drifted back to Helen and he felt a rise of anger for the woman who evaded danger his people couldn't. Did she have some foresight they didn't?

"Ah," Melina gave a solemn nod, "you're that kind of guy."

Ryan gave her a look of annoyance. "What guy?" he demanded.

"The noble, burden bearing kind," she answered with a smile, keeping her stare forward. She was studying the car set up with interest. "No tape player?"

"No tapes. What is with you and the subject jumping?"

"You're an evasive kind of guy too, I mean you didn't want to talk about the creature or Helen or yourself, so the subject jumping is your fault. We could just listen to the radio until we get to Claudia's if that's better, I did promise Connor to look into the Gun and Posies music he keeps talking about."

Ryan, who had been clenching his hands tightly on the steering wheel, suddenly let out a snort and his shoulders rose and fell slightly as he tried to contain his laughter.

"It's Guns and Roses," he corrected her, "and they're not modern, you only missed them by a few years, trust Connor."

Melina folded her arms and sighed. "Well I wouldn't know, would I? Abby got annoyed when I called her a punk but she kind of has the vibe only not so grodie I suppose, no piercings but she says it's alternative and I honestly don't know what the hell that is, it sounds bogus."

"I think I understood maybe half of that and now I'm getting flashbacks of school," Ryan murmured.

"Well now I feel old, which is weird because you keep insisting you're the old one."
"Older," Ryan corrected as he frowned, "not old, older and I am older than you. Look, why don't we try and modernise you a little?"

Ryan braked for a light and looked over to the young woman curiously.

"What about lunch? We can go somewhere that has a nice, current theme to it."

"Do I have to change?"

"No."

"Alright then, lunch sounds good. Should I call you Tom at lunch?"

"Why do you have a problem with my name?" he queried as he continued to stare at her, his pale blue stare turning intense as he tried to suss her out.

"You look like a Ryan," she insisted, "and since you're a soldier who never seems down with having a soldier vibe free mode, exempting those five minutes when you slipped up and accidentally showed me some humanity at the park, which was bitchin', I'm not buying that Tom isn't a code name, you dig it?"

Ryan's blonde eyebrows rose slightly as he stared at her in a rare moment of blankness that Connor dubbed 'the bluescreen gaze' when he saw it on people. Seeing Melina's eyes twinkle and the corners of her mouth quiver as a smile threatened to break through, he frowned.

"You're using the slang on purpose aren't you?" Ryan accused.

A honk of a horn startled the soldier and his gaze shot forward as he realised the light had changed. He muttered a curse as he moved the car on, annoyed to have been so easily distracted by a passenger.

Melina was now giggling quietly at the soldier's unease. "Your eyes get wide every time I use slang," she confessed, "it's cute so I couldn't resist."

Ryan flinched at the word 'cute' and purposely avoided commenting on it.

"Part of modernisation is losing the slang," Ryan insisted.

"I'm keeping gnarly," Melina insisted as she folded her arms, "I like it." She grinned. "Probably because my dad always hated it."

Ryan sighed and shook his head. They had moved into the city proper and he was navigating to a mall car park- big, busy and pricey but it was one of the easier places to get a space in this time of the afternoon and he knew the layout of the mall well. Although Ryan wasn't exactly a fan of shopping he had ventured to many bars in the nearby area and he had had a few dates to the restaurants.

They parked on the fourth storey and Ryan led the way around the mall, purposely avoiding the trap of clothes shops with large sale signs and bright font promising quality items. They headed to an outdoor courtyard of restaurants and cafes, all bright and busy with a quaint cobblestone centre complete with potted plants, a fountain and outdoor tables and chairs. Ryan had always figured it offered a nice view, certainly better to the usual assortment of plant beddings turned into combination of flower graveyards and ashtrays coupled with graffiti stained walls and cracked pavements sullied with gum and litter.

The blonde soldier led the way to a small place called La Lune Dining, entering and nodding briefly to a barman on duty before allowing a wide smiling waitress to escort them to a booth for two at the back of the restaurant.

"Do you always bring dates here?" Melina pried as she grinned over to him once the waitress left.

Ryan stared back at her with a purposely neutral expression as he wondered if she was teasing. "Why do you ask?"

Melina gestured her hand outwards to the tables and chairs they had passed to get to the booth. "Well let's see, there was a choice of restaurants here but you didn't ask my preference so you probably know this one is good, then even though this place is occupied it's not that busy so the only reason the waitress would have sat us back here is if she already knew it was a preference of yours," she summarised as her grin widened. "Do I have to keep going and get all Sherlock on you?"

Melina cocked her head slightly as her expression turned curious. "You all still know who Sherlock Holmes is, right?"

Ryan sighed, irate that Melina had guessed at his dating habit correctly.

"Yes," he said bluntly.

Melina nodded as she glanced about the restaurant. It had a homely glow with toned down lamps, light wooden furniture and a vague suggestion of Italian décor with false grapes and vines on the walls and copies of paintings depicting villas and vineyards.

"So what do you recommend then since you come here often?" she pried as she gave him a mischievous look, which created small dimples on her cheeks as the corners of her mouth pushed up there.

Ryan lifted up the menu and made a pretence of studying it. "I don't know what you'd like," he grumbled, "how would I?"

"Anything nice go extinct since my time?" she queried as she twisted a strand of hair about her finger and looked down to the menu.

"Probably, we're pretty good at wiping out innocent species," Ryan retorted dryly.

"Has anyone tried eating anything that's come through the anomaly?"

Ryan lowered his menu to stare over at her incredulously. "What?"

Melina flashed him another smile. "Well I mean you do keep killing the things, seems a wasted opportunity. We could be the first to find out what dinosaurs taste like. I bet it's chicken, everything is chicken."

"And there I didn't think we could have anyone weirder than Connor amongst us," Ryan grumbled. "That's a question probably better never asked again but if you must, ask Nick."

"Nick, he was with you in the jungle."

"Yes."

"You don't seem to mind him tagging along," Melina observed.

"He can usually handle himself," Ryan admitted grudgingly.

Melina nodded. "Yes, he was calm there," she said, her voice growing quieter with each word. She bowed her head back to the menu as her gaze dimmed. "Even with those snakes."

"It takes time," Ryan sympathised, "Nick has dealt with a lot."

"I thought I had too," she argued. "Tracking guests who sneaked out at night and nearly ended up as wild dog food, having some hyenas come too close to the car, and let's not discuss the hippo. Yet, in the water, I just froze and everyone died and then in the jungle, I couldn't get out of the water, I kept slipping, if I'd just been quicker Kaden might have made it."

The waitress returned, saving Ryan from having to think up a response. He looked up to her and realised he had brought too many dates here, he knew the waitress' name without even looking to the tag, she was Becky, always batting her eyes when he went to the till to pay, smiling flirtatiously and asking what kept him coming back.

Melina offered Becky a sincere smile. "I'm going to have a glass of wine please, white, you can bring me whatever, I never was good with the names, which is a pity because old wines are good so I might have actually had an advantage there."

Melina ignored Becky's perplexed stare as she turned her gaze back to the menu.

"And a hamburger," she decided, "hoping that still means the same thing, with chips please."

Becky nodded obligingly and glanced to the blonde. "Your usual?" she queried cheerfully.

Melina snorted to the menu. "I bet you do break ups at the same place too," she jested.

Ryan bristled slightly as he chose to ignore the jibe and nodded to Becky before holding his menu up to her.

Once Becky was gone, Melina was quick to query, "so where's that special place? What restaurant do you use for the dumping? Is is it that fancy one opposite here with the glass? It looks way too posh for anyone to make a scene there."

Ryan leaned back against his seat as he wondered why he'd bothered to bring Melina here, it was clearly a colossally stupid idea. He turned sideways and crossed his legs so that he was facing outwards, his sharp soldier's gaze trained to spy any would be threat coming up the aisle.

"Why did you come here?" Ryan demanded. "You weren't in the mood for movies with Connor and Abby."

"No, not dinosaur ones anyway," Melina murmured as she grew quiet again. "I'm still trying to process all that. I'm hungry and I really didn't want to go back to Claudia's, I could find my way round there blindfolded I've been there so long."

"So I'm a distraction."

"And I'm a pity date," Melina countered. She looked about their surroundings again. "Although I don't mind, I do appreciate you bringing me out for lunch instead of taking me to Claudia's."

Melina turned her gaze back onto the captain, her expression serious as her eyes fixed upon his. "Thank you," she said sincerely.

Ryan nodded, suddenly feeling awkward again despite being in a familiar place.

"Tom," he muttered, "would you please call me Tom."

Melina gave a gentle giggle before nodding. "Alright, if you really insist that's your name."

"Look my mother picked it, you can take it up with her," he grumbled.

"Oh am I getting to meet her?" Melina queried teasingly. "What do I wear for that?" she mocked as she gestured to herself with one hand. "Is it still proper to wear your best dress and pretend you go to Sunday school and don't swear?"

"Wait what?" Ryan gaped at her as he felt his flustering begin to slip through his soldier's stoic stance. He frowned yet again as Melina laughed at his expression.

"I'm kidding Tom, oh see that doesn't sound right," she shook her head, "is it Thomas?"

"No," he snapped with a scowl.

Melina raised her eyebrows slightly at this. "You answered too quickly, I bet it is. Do you ever get called Tommy?"

"No."

"Oh you do don't you?" she marvelled. "Who by? Your mum?"

"Stop that," he chided as he continued to frown at her. "You don't hear me calling you Mel."

Melina wrinkled her nose slightly at this in a show of disgust. "Nor will you, that's short for Melanie. I got Lina sometimes," she admitted, "dad called me that but I take your point, I'll stop."

The captain filled with frustration as he saw the sorrow creep back into her eyes, it kept coming and going without warning, an unstable shift of emotions triggered too easily. He didn't know how to console her, that wasn't his way although he doubted the others could do much better. What could you say to someone who had lost their life and family to time?

Ryan turned his gaze outwards again, ever wary that the left side of the booth, unguarded by a wall, was their one point of vulnerability.

"So, how often do you get called about the time portals?"

Ryan shrugged. "It varies."

Becky returned with a bottle of beer and a deep glass of wine. Ryan nodded a thanks whilst Melina offered her gratitude verbally.

"No pattern then?" Melina pried when Becky left.

"None I'm aware of but that's Cutter's interest and Connor's maybe, although I'm not sure if he's helping or hindering."

Melina smiled at this. "He is helping, just in his own way that's all."

Ryan glanced over at her. "That's one way of putting it."

"And what do you do when you're not chasing monsters?"

"Creatures," Ryan corrected automatically. "I'm usually connected with that work one way or another. If I'm not on the field, I'm in the office or I'm training recruits, or exercising, or in the gun range."

Ryan glanced over to the young woman and wasn't surprised to see that her small, amused grin was back pushing dimples into her cheeks again.

"You really don't have an off switch do you?" she commented teasingly.

"See that's a contradiction isn't it?" he chided her. "You remark that I date a lot but then you imply I don't have a social life."

"Well how many get a second date that's not this place?" Melina demanded. "I bet being a captain impresses them and hey," she spread her hands out across the table, "it is impressive but do you ever let anyone past that?"

"Does anyone get past Melina the zoo keeper?" he countered heatedly. "Because so far we haven't, you're so determined that this is just a stop for you that you don't want anyone to get to know you. Professor Cutter and Connor have done a lot of digging on you but they don't get far. Hell Connor spent half an hour boring me about popular eighties games because he wants to try and give you something of home but he's guessing because when he tried to ask you, you shut him down. He says you shrugged and said you didn't play games."

"And why do you think I did?" Melina grumbled back as anger filled her voice.

She withdrew her arms from the table and folded them as she glowered over to the blonde.

"You had a sister and a brother, you did," he said flatly.

"Have," she snapped as pain flooded her green-grey gaze, "I have a sister and a brother, they're just through one of those stupid portals that's all!"

"Melina, you can't go back," Ryan stated flatly.

The captain regretted the words the moment they were out, he knew it was cold, true sure but he could have definitely said it better.

The woman turned pale and rose from the booth quickly. Ryan expected her to shout again but she didn't, she just bolted, moving with a little more speed than he had anticipated.

The blonde cursed as he got up and hurried after her, bypassing a bewildered Becky as Melina hastened for the door.