A/N: I have a paper due in a couple of days, so of course I went on a mad writing spree.
And, since I keep forgetting: I don't own Primeval. Although I'd like to. Just think of the possibilities!
Captain Becker turned into the corridor that led to the break room, looking forward to his regular afternoon coffee. He had almost reached the door when he could hear Jess' tinkling laugh, and had to smile involuntarily. Since their talk two weeks ago, they had got along better and better, and he really felt comfortable in her presence now. Of course, he kept reminding himself not to become too close – despite her offer to be friends, he would make sure their contact, no matter how pleasant it was, would remain limited to the ARC.
Nonetheless, while he was here, Becker figured, there really could be no harm in the occasional chat, could there? Besides, she was funny, if mostly involuntarily so. Just last week she had gone from informing him of a new and dangerous computer virus – he hadn't told her that he didn't even have a computer at home – to telling him about her first bike and how she had managed to crash straight into a wall two seconds into her first ride. He still wasn't entirely sure how she had managed to get from one topic to the other, but he had been amused nonetheless. Her carefree attitude, bright smile and scattered mind simply made her fun to be around.
She was getting along splendidly with everyone else, too, including his men. After she had given them a good talking-to about trusting her abilities, they had been duly impressed, and had since listened to her every word. He was almost a little envious of the way she'd managed that – it generally took him days of brutal training to whip his men into shape like that. Now they all followed her like love-struck puppies, and he was afraid that some of them might actually develop a bit of a crush on her. He'd have to address that issue, make it a new rule: No falling in love with the field coordinator.
Just as he was thinking this, having almost reached the break room, he heard Jess laugh again, and this time, her laugh was echoed by a second, male laugh. He briefly wondered if one of his men might already be in danger of breaking his as yet unwritten rule, but then the person spoke, and the Irish accent told him it was Matt Jess was talking to. Laughing with, actually.
The realization made him stop dead, the smile dropping off his face.
No matter how hard he tried to suppress it, Becker still found himself thinking of the ARC in terms of "old" and "new", and, occasionally, "right" and "wrong". And the person who represented the two negative categories the most, to him, was Matt. He knew, rationally, that it wasn't the Irishman's fault, but Becker could not forgive Matt for replacing Danny. Sure, they had had their issues, initially, but frankly, Becker had been impressed by Danny's tenaciousness in worming his way into the ARC. Danny knew he wanted to join as soon as he knew about the ARC, and he knew why. With the disappearance of his brother, the ex-cop had something at stake, something that motivated him, and it was this above all that made Becker trust him.
Matt, on the other hand, he found impossible to read. Sure, as Jess had pointed out on their first meeting, he was perfect for the job, but in Becker's eyes, he was too perfect. His CV read as if he had spent his entire life preparing for exactly this position, but the way he acted gave absolutely no indication that Matt Anderson saw this as anything else than a job.
He shook his head as he remembered that conversation, the way Jess had teased him about being intimidated by their new leader's abilities. Although, come to think of it, Jess herself had seemed a bit too impressed by them – especially considering how young their perfect candidate was, "and fit, too", as Jess had put it. That comment made him wonder if there was something more going on between her and the team leader, but he quickly dismissed the thought. After all, it didn't do to see romantic entanglements everywhere around him, just because that had been the case at the old ARC.
He sighed at this thought, remembering how often he had cursed his colleagues for exactly this problematic aspect of their relationships. Professor Cutter and Jenny Lewis had been so close that Cutter's death had made Jenny leave the ARC. Abby and Connor had been simply hopeless, and twice as likely to get into trouble as everyone else, because they always tried to save the other no matter how stupid and dangerous it was. And even Sarah, he sometimes thought, had carried a bit of a torch for Danny, not that anything had ever happened between them.
He pushed the thought of Sarah out of his mind, but by now, the happy prospect of coffee was spoiled by the thought of having to meet Matt to get it. He turned and strode back down the corridor. He hadn't put in any shooting practice for a couple of days, he might as well do that.
To conclude what had to be his umpteenth comparison of the old and new ARC, Becker realised that he should actually be happier here than he had been at the old ARC. After all, people were much more professional, there were no civilians in the field, much less reckless, love-struck civilians, and everyone acted completely according to protocol. It should appeal to his soldierly mentality, his need for order and structure and calm behaviour. Instead, he had come to like the chaotic, impromptu, and much too... human way they had dealt with things before.
They had been heroes back then. Now they were just ordinary grunt workers, cleaning up after Time's messes.
A/N: This went into a completely different direction than I had intended. It was supposed to have some interaction between Jess and Becker about Matt, and it was supposed to be longer. But Becker couldn't even enter the room with Matt in it, so I guess I needed one chapter of Becker comparing the old and new ARC first. I wasn't sure Becker would actually put the heroics as one of the things he misses about the old ARC, but then I remembered how he distracted the predators in Season 3, Episode 8, and figured he might.
Also, I couldn't stop myself from putting in a bit of ironic foreshadowing – no falling in love with the field coordinator, indeed!