Chapter 1. Keep Me In Your Memory
It was my job to protect the team and I failed, because of me, they're all gone. I should have never let Connor, Abby and Danny go into the future alone, should have never let Sarah go with us when we attempted the rescue. Sarah's dead, Connor, Abby and Danny are still missing and presumed dead, and it's my fault.
Becker's mind was a jumble of unwanted thoughts as he ran the familiar path through Hyde Park, the same path he'd ran since before he'd even started working at the ARC.
I guess some things never change, he mused.
It was the day before he was to return to the ARC, he'd pretended to be a hard sell when the offer had been put on the table, but the truth was, he wanted to go back, wanted to do everything in his power to, if there was any hope of it, bring his missing teammates home.
The next morning he was actually nervous when the elevator doors dinged and opened onto the floor of the ARC he needed. Everything was so different, the weapons in the armory were all tranquilizers, which Becker thought was a bad idea, sometimes you needed real firepower.
"Captain Becker?" a chipper, female voice came from his right.
He turned to see a girl, incredibly young, walking towards him, "Yes?" he replied.
"I'm Jess Parker," she said extending a hand, "I'm here to answer any questions you may have, show you around, that sort of thing."
"How old are you?" he hadn't meant to be quite so direct, or sound rude it just sort of slipped out.
"Nineteen," she replied.
They're just letting anyone in now, aren't they? he thought to himself.
He let the girl lead him around though, she was well informed, he'd give her that.
"I'm sure you have some questions for me as well," he said sitting down on a small set of stairs after they'd finished the tour.
"I don't want to pry…"
"No it's fine, I won't bite your head off, ask away."
"Well we know your teammates went into the future after Helen Cutter, but there's been talk of the past, about the first humans…it's confusing."
"After Danny, Connor and Abby went after Helen, Sarah deciphered something in a journal of Helen's, site 333, the Rift Valley, we organized a rescue attempt…but things went wrong, and after that we couldn't go back."
"Tell me about them, your friends, I mean if you don't mind, files aren't really helpful when it comes to a person's personality."
He fidgeted uncomfortably, "Sarah was incredibly smart, she started seeing the connections in the anomalies from the beginning, but what we do here it frightened her, and I guess she had a right to be afraid. She never really showed it, but we knew. She was a fiercely loyal friend, she would have done anything to bring the others back. Then there was Connor, he and Abby were best friends, but completely different, he's a genius with computers, a bit of a nerd, incredibly optimistic, but this job had started hardening him, I guess some things are unavoidable. He was a sweet kid."
"IS a sweet kid," Jess interrupted, "We have to have hope they're still alive."
"You're right… Danny was…is a rebel, he has no regards for the rules and considering it was my job to protect the team, he drove me crazy with that. He's loyal to the team though, and a great leader. Then there's Abby, strong, brave, loyal, fiercely protective of the people she cares about, she knows what she thinks is right and she won't be swayed from it, we butted heads a lot because of that, but…" his voice trailed off, it was hard talking about them.
"But, you loved her," Jess finished.
"What?" he said looking over at her incredulous, "No, I didn't…she was in love with Connor and just a colleague!"
"Becker, you aren't fooling anyone but yourself, I noticed the way your face changed, your voice, you love her."
"There are some things we don't talk about, rather do without, just hold the smile." The Fray
