A/N one word of swearing later in the chapter, but it needed to fit the scene. I hope you liked the interlude during the last chapter about Becker. I hope I'm doing him right, review for any suggestions about his character and whether you want me to include him a bit more.

Abby arrived just as Avery's phone began to ring. Avery quickly transferred the snake into Abby's stretched out arms and fetched her phone from her back jean pocket. She answered it on the fifth ring noticing it was Michael.

"Hey Avery. You busy later today?" Michael said through the phone.

"Yeah. Maybe." She replied placing the phone against her ear. She washed her hands in the sink of the bathroom.

"Okay just let me know. There's this new restaurant I found in town. I thought we could go together later?"

"Yeah. I'll text you when I know I'm not busy." Avery replied.

"Good. I also have a surprise for you after dinner."

"Oohh. What is it?" Avery asked, interest peaked. She always loved new surprises, well the ones that were good, not the kind Stephen sprang on her.

"Uh uh. Can't tell you. It'll spoil the surprise." He teased and she could imagine him shaking his head at her. Like a child who wanted to know what was hidden beneath the wrapper of a Christmas tree. "I gotta go, my project needs completing. I don't know how you balance your work with all the new work we've been getting."

"I work hard."

"Yeah, you've often put work before some of our dates, but that's what I love about you. Your determination to get the job done. Bye, love ya'"

"Love you too. Bye" Avery said as he hung up the phone. She placed it back into her pocket and walked inside. She hadn't been doing most of her college work at all. Maybe tomorrow if nothing else came up she would sit down and try to complete it all.

"Sorry about that" Avery said walking back into the bathroom. She saw Stephen holding the front half snake with a small sack, Abby holding its other half. He held it out as far away from him as possible, fear lacing his frame.

So dinosaur's he could handle, but when it comes to a snake about as harmful to them as the spiders from the carboniferous he freaks out. Just like the soldier.

"Don't worry, this one's just a baby. Fully grown they can be up to 20 feet long." Connor read out from his laptop. He sat on the lid of toilet just to the left of the bathroom door.

"That makes me feel so much better." Said Stephen sarcastically. He hissed through his teeth as the snake moved in his grasp.

"Are you okay?" Abby asked smiling at him. Avery could tell that she was smiling because of the snake and to offer comfort for Stephen, not because she was making fun of him. Abby was the girl next door sort of person, which might have been why Connor was always trying to get her to notice him.

"Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I love snakes." Stephen told her, his movements contradicting his words. The snake hissed making Stephen pass it back to Abby. "We're going to need a bigger sack." He said timorously, leaving the room as quick as he could.

"Stephen!" Abby called out as he left.

"Abby, can I ask you a quick favour?" Connor asked tentatively when he heard the front door close.

"I'm a bit busy now." Abby said trying to stop the snake from curling to tightly around her hand.

"It's just, I'm having a bit of hassle with my flat at the moment. I was just wondering whether I could stay on your couch for a few days."

"Connor, does this look like Tai Chi I'm doing?" Abby said shifting the snake around in her grip. Avery moved forward and grabbed half the snake, letting its head move up her arm. When she was younger she used to be terrified of snakes, for the same reason she was terrified of spiders. For some reason anything with fangs was always more scary to her than a dangerous dog. Poison was such an uncertain thing, and it affected people beneath the skin making it very hard to stop.

She got over them with the help of a small diamond python Helen had been given by a friend. Every day she would slowly reach into the tank and move her finger down its scales. After a while it used to move along her arm and she would pick it up. Nick had been shocked to see her holding it one day when he had come home from work.

"It'd just be until I sorted something out."

"Yeah, whatever. We'll talk about it later."

"How's this?" Stephen said. He came in with a much larger sack, almost triple the size of the last one.

"That's good." Abby said as they placed the snake into the bag, unwrapping its tail from around her arm.

"Okay, there we go."

"Right, I'll see you in a minute." She said dusting her hands off.

"Where are you going?" Stephen looked up suddenly in alarm.

Abby walked past him saying "Tea break."

Stephen shot Connor a look asking silently for him to take.

Connor merely placed his hands up in the air "I'm not touching it."

"I'll take it." Avery said reaching for the bag. "Hey we haven't got anything on later today do we." She said turning to Stephen.

"No nothing that I know of. Why?"

"Michael's taking me out for dinner." Avery said with a smile, she shifted the bag in her hands gently and walked past Stephen. "I'll drop this off with Abby for now. Apparently Helen wants to talk to me."

Avery sat across from Helen at the long round table in the middle of the room. She knew her dad, Claudia and Lester where standing on the other side of the one way mirror set high into the wall behind her, seeing if Helen would divulge any information to her.

"How have you been?" Helen asked leaning forwards in her chair, setting her arms against the table.

"Good. I've been good." Avery replied. She didn't know what to say to the stranger in front of her.

"Been up to much?"

"I'm in college now, nearly finished my degree. I might join dad in his work, might travel on my own for a while. Don't know yet." Avery said, leaning back in her chair. "I'm also seeing someone at the moment, Michael. We've been together for about a year now, he's going to take me out for dinner later tonight."

"That's good. Your looking after yourself I see. Your father hasn't you should get him to eat more."

"That should've been your job." Avery said, her voice slipping into her Scottish accent as her voice raised in anger. "You should have stayed with us, or brought us with you. Instead you left us alone you betrayed me and you betrayed dad. Did you ever even love us?" She said in desperation, leaning against the table as she stood up. "Did you even care about me? Or was I just someone in your life and not your real daughter."

"I did care about you. I've always loved your father and you." Helen said raising her voice as well.

"Bullshit." Avery said. Shocking those who watched her, they had never heard her yell before. "If you cared about us you would have stayed. You would never have never betrayed us, even before you left." Avery said glaring at her to tell Helen that she knew about her relationship with Stephen. "You don't care about us. You might have once, but you lost the right to be family when you walked out of our lives and made us think you were dead," She kicked her chair away and stomped outside, running to the nearest bathroom.

She rushed into one of the nearest stalls, and locking the door behind her, she slid down the wall, sobbing into her hands.

A few minutes later she heard the bathroom door open as Claudia walked in. She felt a slight pressure against the door and though she must have been leaning on the other side. "Are you okay?" Claudia asked softly.

"Yeah." Avery whispered bringing her legs to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. "It's just, frustrating. She left us 8 years ago. Just disappeared without a trace. We didn't think she was dead until a year later, dad worked himself rugged. He didn't sleep right for ages. Helen could have dropped a hint or found us, instead she decides to contact us now. And for what, because she was lonely. That's no excuse."

"I know, but now we have a job to do. Helen's warned us that a pride of saber-toothed killers will rampage central London." Claudia said, hoping that would distract her,

"Yeah, I'll come just let me freshen up."