James Lester peered in through the glass at the young woman with intrigue. Administrator of the anomaly operation, it was not exactly the job he had envisioned when he had joined the ranks of government workers. It wasn't exactly a job he was thriving at either, so far under his watch five civilians had wormed their way into the workplace and he couldn't seem to get them out of it, not even for their own good. Now here was another only he knew she was going to cause a much bigger problem for him.

Behind the horizontal window in a medical room a young woman sat alone in a chair linked up to a drip of fluids.

"Has she said anything yet?" James asked the doctor who had retreated from the room.

The doctor glanced to the young woman through the pane and shook his head. "No but maybe it's the environment," he suggested. His voice came with a Northern Irish twang.

"What environment?" James snapped as he frowned at the man. He was the fifth civilian who had badgered his way into this work.

A victim of the parasite dodos from an anomaly had carried, the doctor had been cured via surgical removal of the parasite and, given his profession, had known all too well of the abnormalities of it. James had to consider the irony that a bloody doctor of all people would get an infection from the past. They had stonewalled him for a while and then he had made threats to go public. Given he had the evidence of the parasite and as a doctor he would be considered a respectful citizen probably not prone to exaggeration, had led James to conclude that they may as well have a doctor on the team.

The doctor, Jason O'Hare, had found himself thrust into a world he had not been expecting. He had figured the government was cooking up viruses or maybe the military. Time portals bringing primordial diseases from the past to the present had not been on his radar.

"It's like a prison," Nick Cutter's blunt voice came to add to James' misery.

James turned with a frown, which deepened as he saw that Nick wasn't alone but had the full army of curious tourists with him.

Connor Temple was already darting forward to press his face up to the glass and ogle at the woman within. He had gotten barely a glimpse of her at the park before she had been ushered into a van and taken to the bowels of the Home Office.

"He's right," Dr O'Hare murmured dryly, "or a zoo," he added pointedly as he gave Connor a scolding look.

Jason was tied to Connor in a strange and terrible manner. The one who had passed on the dodo's parasite to him had been Connor's friend Tom. Passing it on had not been enough for Tom as another had remained inside him trying to dominate him before giving up and dying, taking Tom with him. Every time Jason and Connor saw one another they thought back to that terrible time. Jason still bore the physical scars whilst Connor carried the mental ones and a heavy sense of guilt for teasing Tom about the mysterious job he worked in but never disclosing enough of it to Tom. It was nosiness and jealousy that had driven Tom and his and Connor's other friend Duncan to tracking and chasing Connor, leading to the fatal encounter with a parasite carrying dodo.

"Connor she's not an exhibition," Abby Maitland scolded the eager dark haired male as she came to stand behind him.

Abby was peering through the glass too but a little more discreetly than Connor.

Connor glanced over at Abby with a bashful smile. "Sorry but come on, she is fascinating. I mean what was she doing there? How did she even get there?"

"The same way we did," Nick said, confident it had to be the only explanation.

James glanced to him and Stephen Hart, the last of the group, whose claim to being necessary was being a lab technician under Nick. As a junior shooting and fencing Olympic prospect Stephen did bring other skills James supposed but he was no military man and he was no professor either.

Stephen was just as interested in the woman as everyone else but he hung back, unwilling to view her like an animal in a cage.

"So what, she entered through an anomaly and then..." James looked at Nick for an explanation.

"Lost someone," it was Ryan who gave it as he arrived with Claudia beside him.

Ryan had been checking on his men. He had been right, Jackson had died before he had even been taken through the anomaly. Jackson and Jenkins, two more deaths to cover up, two more funerals to be arranged. Jackson had two sisters he had been close with and a girlfriend. Jenkins had a young son with an ex-girlfriend.

"She called out a name, Kaden," Captain Ryan explained calmly.

"Kaden?" Connor quipped as he glanced at Ryan with interest.

To Connor Temple the soldier was an enigma. Connor had an idea of what soldiers were from the movies and video games, battle hardy men who swore and usually had painful back stories or hidden criminal histories that had forced them into the army. He knew it was an exaggeration but Captain Ryan had still dented the image more than a little although he had created a new admiration in the army man for Connor. Ryan was mysterious after all, a man of few words, with a back story Connor still had to learn about.

"That's an odd name," Connor murmured, "what if it's a code?" he marvelled.

"It's Greek," Ryan retorted bluntly.

"How do you know that?" Stephen quipped before he could help it.

Ryan gave him a wilting look. "I've travelled," he said, still blunt.

"Greek?" Connor was back to pressing his face against the glass. "Does she look Greek? She does have a nice tan."

"Connor," Abby scorned him. She was looking too.

The woman was swarthy skinned but natural or sun induced or even a product of the bottle, it was difficult to tell.

"You know that glass is two way," Jason chided them, "she can see you watching her."

"Oh." Abby pulled back instinctively.

"She's been through a very traumatic experience," Nick reminded them in a scolding tone. He folded his arms and turned a stern blue look of disapproval on James. "And we don't know how bad it was before we found her."

James continued to frown. "Well professor," he snapped as he gestured his arms outwards, "what would you have me do? Release her to the wild?" he queried sarcastically.

"Get her out of that room at least and maybe someone should talk to her," Nick suggested, "someone nice."

"I could," Claudia offered. She stepped forward, presenting herself to Lester with a smile. "I'm a woman, she might be more willing to talk to me."

"Yeah, the stuffy bureaucrat, that will put her at ease," Stephen slammed the suggestion with a roll of his eyes.

"Stephen let's be nice," Nick murmured.

Stephen gave his boss a muted look of protest. He knew why Nick was scolding him, one had to be blind to miss the sparks darting between Nick and Claudia. Whilst Stephen was happy for Nick finding someone both after Helen's loss and after her unexpected return, he did consider because it was Claudia it presented a conflict of interests.

"He has a point," Jason spoke up. He looked weary, fed up with the bickering while the woman sat in there, perfectly unresponsive in a state of shock he wasn't sure how to cure.

Feeling Claudia's dark eyes boring into him as she awaited an explanation, Jason gave her a calm but icy gaze. It was a clinical stare he had mastered for bureaucrats who didn't want expensive but necessary surgery carried out on patients and badgered him for cheaper alternatives that simply didn't exist.

"It will be like an interrogation for her," Jason reasoned. He gestured to Ryan. "It might be even worse with him in the soldier gear but then again he did help pull it from the danger." He glanced at Nick. "What about you, you were there with her?"

"Yes," Nick admitted with a slightly awkward grin, "but I didn't really do any saving as such."

"Hmm." The doctor nodded. "Well, right now you two are as familiar as faces get for her until she can be identified." He turned his stare back on the captain. "Maybe, Captain Ryan you could lose the artillery and ask her something. You saw what she saw out there, at least you won't think her mad, that's a start."

"Oh I get it," Connor said enthusiastically. "Claudia wasn't there so she might not talk about a giant snake because she doesn't know if Claudia will believe or not but Nick and Ryan have to because they saw it too."

"Them," Ryan corrected, "there were two." Ryan gave Lester a stony stare. "And there's that social worker feeling again," he complained.

James Lester glanced at Connor pointedly as he replied, "I get that feeling every day."

James sighed and turned his stare back to Ryan. "If it gets her talking two minutes in with her won't kill you, will it captain?"

Nick and Ryan both frowned at James' word choice.

Claudia folded her arms as her eyes sparked with annoyance. "Really?" she exclaimed. "You think the captain is going to be more pleasant for her than me? I mean I'm not that bad."

Connor gave her a grin. "Actually you can be a little scary when you shout," he pointed out.

Abby stifled a giggle as she saw Claudia's look of rage. Nick was smiling too.

"I wouldn't shout at her!" Claudia snapped. "Honestly!" she exclaimed as she saw Nick's smile. She pushed a hand through her copper-brown hair and frowned at the group. "You're all being ridiculous and unreasonable. I am human you know, I can show compassion."

"Look, let's try it with the captain first," the doctor suggested. He glanced pointedly at Ryan's rifle. "Why do you even have that in here?" he queried.

"Precaution," Ryan retorted calmly.

Connor finally came away from the glass to approach the soldier with the smile of an excitable child. "Oh, can I hold it for you?" he offered. "I've always wanted to see what it's like to hold a rifle."

Ryan gazed down at him with scorn before he glanced to Nick and Stephen.

"And you're still going to have to wait," Stephen said as he stepped forward and offered out a hand.

Ryan unslung the strap but hesitated before handing it over. Every inch of him screamed that it was wrong to surrender a weapon, especially to a civilian.

Stephen gave the captain a cool, mocking stare. "I can be trusted, I know how to handle a weapon," he assured, "and I know how to keep one stationary."

Ryan nodded reluctantly as he handed it over.

"Hey why him and not me?" Connor demanded.

"Because you obviously want to test it," Abby pointed out.

"Well wouldn't you?" Connor quipped as he glanced her way. "How often do you get to hold a rifle?"

"Connor I think it's a bit big for you," Stephen teased with a grin as he swung the strap over his shoulder.

Abby eyed him up with a low key stare. It was hard not to be enamoured by the image of the muscular man now donning a gun and looking every inch the heroic rebel.

Stephen Hart was the definition of tall, dark and handsome and even after learning he had spoken of dating her in a fever despite having a girlfriend, Abby was finding it hard to turn her attraction off. She had told Connor it was just a physical thing, and believed it herself but when Stephen had told her things between him and his girlfriend weren't the same anymore she had dared to feel a flutter of hope renewed in herself.

Connor laughed at the jibe. At first his snickers for Stephen's mockery had been forced, usually because Abby was there and Connor didn't want to act like the jibes hurt but now Connor didn't mind them as much. He realised Stephen wasn't bullying him as such and his intention was never to offend, rather it was the teasing that was commonplace amongst boys and on some level Connor liked it because it made him feel like he had something like friendship with Stephen.

Ryan just rolled his pale blue eyes and looked to the doctor impatiently.

Dr. O'Hare led the way back to the heavy, steel door that guarded the room. He frowned at the keypad before keying in the six digit number to release the door.

"This is my point," he lamented before stepping into the room.

"Nothing wrong with some healthy caution," James reasoned. "She could be dangerous."

"She sure looks it," Abby remarked sarcastically. She was in agreement with the doctor, the woman shouldn't be contained like this.

"Oh you green warriors," James scorned, "you'd have me make a petting zoo for the creatures before you'd let me kill them for everyone's safety."

"Well we don't have to go that far," Stephen protested.

"They're animals, what they do is based on instinct," Nick reminded James. He pointed towards the glass pane. "That is a human being, what she does is a little more complicated."

James stared back at Nick and wondered if the man realised he was making his case for him. "That's exactly my point," he said. "We can't predict what she might do."

Connor rubbed at his bare arms and glanced at the others with another jovial look. "It's cold down here," he remarked.

Connor was right. They occupied a corridor designed with dark walls and flooring, lit with spotlights and kept a cool temperature with air conditioning. Its design was deliberately clinical as several lab rooms occupied the area.

"It certainly is," Nick murmured as he held James' stare.

In the medical room, Jason approached the young woman with care. She had looked up sharply at the intrusion and the whites of her eyes were showing again. Jason had considered a sedation if only to bring her some calm but she wasn't acting out, there had been no outbursts and no real need for it save for a higher than normal pulse.

The doctor raised his hands slightly before lowering them in what he hoped was a universal gesture of calm. He didn't even know what language she spoke. Was it Greek?

"You're alright," Jason attempted to reassure her. "I've brought someone you met in..." He hesitated over his word choice and glanced over his shoulder at the captain.

Jason regretted his choice to bring Captain Ryan as he took him in. The captain was making no effort to appear unthreatening.

"The jungle," Ryan retorted, using the monotone he almost always seemed to favour.

Jason gave him a heated look. "Could you attempt a friendlier voice," he suggested through gritted teeth.

Jason turned back to the woman with a warm smile. "We'd like to help you," he explained, "but we can't do that without knowing more about you."

The woman drew her knees up against her chest and hugged them close. The gesture was obviously defensive.

Ryan swallowed down a sigh as he wished he was anywhere but here. This wasn't his role. He kept people safe with bullets, he did not deal with the emotional nonsense that followed.

"We found you at a pond," he reminded her, "calling for a Kaden."

The name was like a switch.

The woman's head shot up sharply as she fixed a wide stare on the captain. She dropped her knees and jumped up to her feet. She came forward so fast she jerked her arm free from the drip causing liquid to spray onto the floor.

Ryan stepped past the doctor instinctively as he readied for her approach.

The woman stopped just as suddenly as she moved and looked about her surroundings in confusion. "Gone..." she said hoarsely. "They're all gone."

Jason's eyes widened. She was speaking English definitely but the accent was hard to place, London maybe but there was a trace of something else.

Ryan nodded sombrely, although he had no idea what she meant. "Is that what happened?" he queried. "Did you lose Kaden?"

She shook her head. "There was something in the water." Confusion filled her green-grey stare again. "In the pond. Ponds?" She let out a frightened gasp. "Sss...sssnn..." She started to stammer and took a step back.

"Snake?" Ryan ventured a guess.

Her back slammed hard against the wall as she stepped into it. She grasped her head with both hands and shook it hard. "So big, so big, they don't get that big," she protested. "It was a monster. Then...then...no, Kaden! Kaden! Kaden!" She started to wail the name as she continued to shake her head.

The woman dropped her hands from her head and looked at Ryan and the doctor dejectedly. "What the hell is going on?" she demanded. "Is this real?"

Ryan nodded again. "It's real," he admitted. "I'm sorry," he tacked on forcefully, thinking of the doctor's plea for him to be friendlier.

She dragged her back down slowly against the wall as she sat. Her knees were up again and she squeezed them tight. "It doesn't make sense."

Ryan took a tentative step towards her. "I know but we can explain some of it," he offered, "but you have to explain things too."

"What can I explain?" she quipped wearily.

"What happened."

"I don't know, we were in the pond, we should have been safe. Snakes like that don't live in Africa," she let out a bitter laugh, "snakes like that don't live anywhere!"

"Africa?" Ryan queried in surprise.

She nodded. "Isn't that..." She trailed off and glanced from him to the doctor. "No, of course not, it doesn't make sense but none of it does. Where are we?"

The young woman glanced about her surroundings warily. "Am I allowed to know that?"

"The Home Office in London," Ryan retorted.

Jason gave a small smile, surprised that the soldier was agreeable enough to let her know that information.

"What?" The disbelief was back in her eyes.

"Where did you come from?" Ryan quipped.

"Goue Vlaktes National Park in South Africa," she explained. "I work there."

The doctor's smile widened. Now they had something, it was information the others could key into their fancy computers and with their government access they could probably bring up staff members if she didn't give them a name.

She rubbed at her throat instinctively with her right hand. "I can still taste the water," she murmured. "It was strange, it changed, everything changed."

"Did the snake kill Kaden?" Ryan pried.

The woman's eyes started to burn with tears and she shook her head. "No, it killed everyone else, I think. I don't know," she admitted. "Todd, there was so much blood and Phoebe," she whimpered, "my little sister, it had her, it was squeezing her. Oh God is she dead? Have I lost them?"

The tears started to trickle down her cheeks and she hugged her knees so tightly her hands turned red with the effort.

"And Kaden?" Ryan stuck to the matter at hand, determined to keep her focused on it.

"There were lights in the water, they sucked us through. I thought we were dying too or hallucinating, lack of oxygen maybe. Then it was all different, we were still in the water, still in danger but it had all changed, it was a jungle."

The woman looked up at Ryan in puzzlement. "Was I hallucinating? Am I still hallucinating?"

Ryan shook his head. "No."

She gave a sad smile and dipped her head. "Shame," she murmured. "Kaden pushed me out of the pond, he was meant to follow but then it came out of the darkness. It was another impossible thing, all teeth, it moved so fast. It just came up through the water without warning and Kaden was just gone."

Ryan grimaced and thought of the gigantic crocodile they had encountered. He figured it was maybe the same type of creature but he couldn't know for sure.

"You've done very well," Jason praised her. He came to stand beside Ryan and offered her a sympathetic stare.

"I haven't," she murmured, "I haven't done well at all, my brother and sister are both dead."

"That isn't your fault," the doctor insisted.

"You weren't there," she retorted heatedly.

"No, we weren't," Ryan agreed, "but I was in that jungle, I saw the giant crocodile and the snakes. It wasn't your fault."

"I just...I can't understand what happened," she murmured.

She stared ahead at nothing with wide eyes and the captain and the doctor knew she wasn't even in the room anymore.

"I'm all alone," she said sorrowfully.

Ryan glanced at the doctor. "I don't think I can do anymore," he said awkwardly. His discomfort was clear in his blue stare.

The doctor nodded. "Maybe not at the moment. Miss, do you want to stay in this room for now?"

The woman pushed herself to her feet and fixed a serious stare on Ryan. "You had a gun," she said flatly.

He nodded. "I still do, it's just being minded temporarily."

"I want to stay with the man with the gun," she remarked firmly.

"You're safe here you know," the doctor said. "Not that you have to stay in this room," he added hastily. "What I mean is, you're safe."

"I was safe in the pond," she retorted angrily. "It came out of nowhere. Do you understand? Out of nowhere!"

Ryan nodded agreeably. "I understand," he replied in his blunt manner.

"Then you'll let me stay with someone who has a gun," she insisted.

"I need a name first," Ryan responded.

"Melina."

Ryan raised his pale blonde eyebrows as he waited for the surname.

"I don't know you," she reminded him. "And you have me in some basement prison."

"It's not a prison," Ryan answered defensively. "Anyway, you just said you wanted to go with me but you don't trust me?"

"I don't trust any of you and I don't want to go with you," she said with a hint of irritation. "I want to go with whoever has a gun."

Ryan turned and headed for the door. Melina followed pointedly along with the doctor.