Finally back in 21st century London, Clipper's modern education is just beginning. Step one – new clothes.

And so it begins...

'This one! No, no, no, this one!' Jess' voice had risen to the point when even the deaf man at the very tip of Scotland could hear her. People were turning to stare and Clipper, unused to and frankly terrified of the attention was shrinking further and further into Abby's side. Quite a feat considering the younger girl was several inches taller.

Clipper was dressed in one of Becker's old T-shirts and some of Abby's jeans. The jeans were too small and the shirt too large but they were the only clothes she had since Jess had burned her Raptor-skins the day before.

Hence the shopping trip.

Clipper hadn't understood Abby's warning glance when Becker asked Jess to replenish his sisters' wardrobe. She did now; Jess was a machine.

Just looking at her shoes made Clipper's feet ache. She kept tripping over her toes having not worn shoes at all for over four years. She wanted nothing more than to kick these blasted boots off entirely but remembered (with some prompting from Abby) that going barefoot in public was generally frowned upon.

She huffed and returned her gaze to the clothes Jess was now trying to force into her arms. One eyebrow went up.

They were dresses. Really short ones. Or maybe they were long t-shirts; Clipper wasn't sure which. Abby shot her a glance and shrugged, indicating that she didn't either.

'Er, Jess? Are there any normal clothes here? I mean like, um, jeans or something?'

Jess' raised eyebrows had Clipper back-tracking faster than she would have believed possible. She looked desperately to Abby for back-up.

Thankfully, the blonde seemed to take pity on her; managing to bring Jess' attention to the fact that Clipper was fast approaching breaking point.

The girl was carefully balanced on the balls of her feet. Her knees were slightly bent and she looked ready to bolt at the smallest provocation. Why Jess had decided to bring them on a Saturday, the busiest shopping day of the week, completely escaped Abby.

'Ready to go?' Abby asked, indicating the piles of clothes already bought, and Clipper nodded, already turning towards the door.

Abby smiled sadly, remembering her and Connor's return from the past. She hadn't been able to sleep for a week, unused to more than two hours at a time and the comfort of a bed. Becker had told her that Clipper had forsaken the bed in favour of the wooden floor, where he'd found her curled up beneath her quilt that morning. Abby was already aware, having spent half the night sharing a tree with the girl, but they'd both agreed to keep the impromptu meeting a secret. It would take her much longer to readjust to 21st century life than Abby and Connor had.

And now she was struggling with crowds. To be honest, Abby was kicking herself for not seeing it coming; Clipper had been completely devoid of human contact for over six years; some of the most impressionable years of her life, where she starts to learn about herself. In those years, anything behind her was most likely trying to kill her. She hadn't survived them by kicking back and relaxing. It was a miracle she had survived at all.

And Abby was glad she had; despite having never heard of the youngest Becker before, she could see the effect her return was having on the stoic soldier. Becker was already smiling more; he was more relaxed and had even been cracking jokes with Connor that morning.

Yes, life at the ARC was certainly improving.

The only problem was Clipper herself. It had taken weeks for Abby and Connor to stop keeping guard at night and jumping at small noises, and they had only been in the Cretaceous for a year, they had had each other, knew what had happened and were old enough that small things like growing didn't affect them.

Clipper had been alone, ten years old with dinosaurs trying to kill her wherever she went. To make it worse, she grew out of her clothes after a couple of years and had to make more out of a dead Raptor.

It wasn't a great situation at the best of times and Abby wondered if Clipper would ever recover.

Maybe she would; she'd only been back two days. Abby smiled as she remembered.

Two days previously

Becker tore across the square as Abby looked on in disbelief. He had dropped his gun, which had never happened before, and taken off at a dead sprint towards the rag-tag girl who had just stepped through the anomaly. What was he doing?

Abby's eyebrows rose as the girl hurled herself into his arms. She heard Jess' loud whoop and Matt, Connor's and her own questions, all mixing into an incomprehensible blur.

'Jess, who is she? Do you know her?'

'Never met her, but I do know who she is. I'll let Becker explain later.' Jess sounded so excited she was about to burst.

By now Becker had put the girl back on her feet, allowing the others a slightly better look. Tall and lean, scruffy and apparently wearing a Raptor, it didn't take Abby long to recognise the signs.

'Jess, how long has she been...wherever she's been?'

'Um, it was June 2005 so...six years, three months-ish.'

Abby didn't bother to ask any more as Becker was now leading the apprehensive teen back towards the group. She stayed close to him, half hidden behind his heavy black jacket. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side.

He looked different. All traces of fatigue were now gone, his eyes were twinkling and the deep frown that usually marred his forehead had smoothed; he looked younger without it.

Matt raised his eyebrows, waiting silently for an explanation. It didn't arrive; Becker didn't seem to know what to say other than '...Jess?'

Jess' voice came through the car's comm. system, causing the girl to flinch violently and try to peer through the car's dark glass windows.

'Um, sorry. Right, I'll start with introductions. Guys, this is Becker's younger sister: Clipper. She went through an anomaly when she was ten, just over six years ago, and now she's back – obviously. Okay Clipper, the blonde woman is Abby, dark-haired is Emily, the guy with the longish hair is Connor, the other one with the Irish accent is Matt. I'm Jess and I'm not...actually...in the car.'

At this last statement Clipper's confused look intensified and she glanced up at Becker, utterly lost. He shrugged.

'You'll meet her soon enough; we'll head back as soon as the anomaly closes.'

Right on cue it disappeared. The security team quickly picked up the equipment and left, leaving a slightly awkward silence among the core team.

Until Connor broke it.

'Okay, so does anyone else have any missing relatives we should know about? Just so we know what to look out for.'

Matt grinned, Becker looked sheepish and even Clipper managed a small smile.

Abby laughed and turned to climb into the car. 'Just Jack and he isn't missing. Besides, he knows that if he ever goes through another anomaly then Becker will cheerfully rip him apart.'

Joking over, Matt regained control of the situation, telling Becker to take his sister back to the ARC in his car, then he could take her home if Lester agreed.

Abby kept a close eye on the two of them as they walked away. Clipper looked wary, approaching the car slowly, the way you would a nervous horse. Becker reached out and took her hand; said something quiet to her. She nodded, smiled, and got in the car.

Becker and Clipper had been called straight to Lester's office after narrowly avoiding Jess' badly-thought-through-flying-tackle-hug that made Clipper leap behind Becker in shock.

Lester had that look on his face; the I'm-waiting-for-a-very-good-explanation-but-am-pretending-to-be-calm-as-I-realise-this-is-a-delicate-situation face that had been known to make some of the more nervous employees break out in hives, or so Connor claimed.

Abby, on the other hand, had a different kind of respect for the boss, considering him more of a father-figure since he had been put in charge of the organisation. She was one of the few people who could see how much he cared for his team, and it was for this very reason she knew he would do everything he could for the newly reunited siblings.

It wouldn't be easy; Clipper had a long, hard slog ahead of her. She was now a creature of instinct and only her unflinching trust in her brother, so deeply ingrained it hadn't even seemed to waver during their long separation, kept her in one place.

That wasn't all. Clipper had been presumed dead a year after her disappearance, much like both Helen Cutter and Patrick Quinn. Not only was there now the small task of explaining to the authorities where she had been for last six years and how she came to be in the middle of London without giving away any clue to the actual events, they also had to make sure she didn't turn out like either of the psychopaths before her.

It was giving Abby a headache just thinking about it.

An hour later, the two left Lester's office. Becker looked solemn but slightly relieved, whereas Clipper had relaxed somewhat.

Lester - not so much. Abby could see him banging his forehead against the desk; she was glad it wasn't her filling out the paperwork.

Becker had been given the day off to settle Clipper in at home, then she would be accompanying him to work each day until she was ready to go back to school.

But in the meantime...

Abby caught Jess eyeing Clipper's clothes and lack of footwear as she approached.

It had been five years since Clipper had worn shoes; she had forgotten how very heavy they were. Especially these.

Coming from a family as heavily militarised as hers, she had grown up in combat boots. She had loved the support around the ankles, the steel-capped toes and the air of – something – they gave you.

She had also loved the weight.

Now it felt like she was wading through a bog; she felt noisy and heavy and obvious; a terrifying prospect when you live a lifestyle where drawing attention to yourself is one way of saying I'm over here – please hunt me down and eat me. She longed to merge back into the safety of the silent shadows, but Jess was being...well apparently Jess was being Jess. Bright clothes, short skirt; this was Jess.

Clipper suddenly smirked.

Jess had an admirer.

Admittedly, a very secret one. Clipper only knew because she knew him so well.

The glances that were only fractionally longer than those he gave the rest of the team, the way he angled his body very slightly towards her, the light in his eye whenever her name was mentioned; oh yes, Hil had it bad. Clipper had never seen him like this before.

Leaving the safety of the wall, she fell into step beside Abby, several feet behind Jess.

Speaking of whom, Clipper hadn't missed the considerably more obvious glances and soft smiles heading her brother's way. Hence why she had to speak to Abby.

'Abby? How long has Jess – liked – Hil?'

The sideways glance was amused and verging on devious.

'That didn't take long.' Came the whispered reply. 'We first noticed as soon as we got back from the Cretaceous. I mean...the day after. So that was just over a year and a half ago, and they'd been working together eight months before that so...about two years. Roughly.'

Clipper gave a low whistle. 'And...how long has he liked her?'

Abby stopped dead, looking impressed. 'You don't miss a trick do you? He's liked her for a year and a half at least, not sure how long he's known he liked her; that could be as recent as about a month, maybe two. That was when we realised he was in much deeper that we first thought.'

At the sight of Clipper's raised eyebrows, Abby shrugged. 'I'd say one of them would explain but neither of them like talking about it so I'll give you the short version: there was an incident in the ARC and Jess got hurt. There was nothing we could use to save her in here but she had something in her car. Unfortunately, we were locked in and the only one who could let us out had this thing about valuing his own projects above human life. I've never seen your brother so frantic; she was dying in his arms and we were at the mercy of a man who would rather incinerate us than risk the creatures getting out. Becker hated it, swore he'd never be in that situation again.' She looked at Clipper. 'I didn't realise he'd been in it before.'

Clipper smiled humourlessly.

'Yeah, I was stupid and it cost me six and half years of my life, caused us both pain. Hil had just got back from Sandhurst and dropped the bombshell that he was being deployed to Iraq. I was scared and ran off. He chased me but I went through the gateway. By the time I realised – sort of – what had happened it was too late; it had already closed.'

Her eyes were shadowed and her face shut down into the familiar mask often adopted by her older brother; the one that meant he was locking his emotions away in the back of his mind to avoid thinking about the subject. Abby backed off and waited for Clipper to come back.

Eventually the girl's face cleared. 'So are the chances of one of them making a move good or will we have to intervene?'

Abby laughed and shared a conspirational grin with her new Partner-in-Crime.

'Oh intervention. Definitely intervention.'

...

Okay, the next one will be a while as I have no idea what to do with it, to be honest, so sorry about that. I have tried, just ask my friends, but each attempt was more ridiculous than the last. Meanwhile, I'm trying to write a companion story to 'Prison Break', which will probably be the next up.