For PrimevalYank, who requested Becker stranded at Christmas time with no way of getting home and a certain someone coming to his rescue. Hmm, wonder who that could be...! ;)

Merry Christmas! x


It was bloody typical, that's what it was.

The first year in a long time that he'd decided to go home for the holidays, much to his mother's delight, and bloody snow caused all of the planes to be grounded and trains to be cancelled.

As if that wasn't bad enough, he was stranded at the airport on top of it. There were no taxis, no shuttle buses, no one willing to take the chance and brave the weather outside.

Having looked outside through the terminal window, Becker couldn't blame them. Still, he wasn't looking forward to spending the night at the airport, even if the chairs he'd claimed as his own weren't the most uncomfortable things he'd ever had to sleep on.

He'd made the call he'd been putting off and told his parent's that, despite having had the best of intentions, he wouldn't be making it home again this year. His mother had been disappointed but had been more concerned by the thought of him being stranded at their airport. His father had told him to wait out the weather and then had home – to his flat – and that they'd arrange to have a belated Christmas in the New Year.

His mother had ended the conversation by telling him to stay warm and that had reminded him there was someone else who needed to know about his change in plans.

Well, not needed to but he thought he'd tell her anyway, just so she knew he'd be available between Christmas and New Year to respond to any anomaly alerts that occurred. While Jess was officially on holiday, too, he knew she wouldn't be far away from her laptop complete with its portable ADD programme throughout the festivities.

He started to text her, and then decided to try and call her instead. If nothing else, her voice would be a welcome distraction from his fate at least for a little while.

"Becker? Shouldn't you be on a plane now?"

Smiling in spite of himself, he sat down on one of the chairs next to the window. "Isn't it customary to answer the phone with 'hello', Jessica?"

"Well, yes. Okay. Hello." She sounded flustered and his grin widened at the thought of being able to do that to her even over the telephone. "Now why are you calling when you should be on your way home?"

"Have you looked outside recently?" He continued before she could answer. "All flights are cancelled. I'm not going anywhere."

"Oh, no. That's terrible!" Her tone was sincere and it warmed him to hear it. "Where are you now? Are you on your way back to your flat?"

"Ah, no." He looked out of the window at the still falling snow. "Doesn't look like I'll be going anywhere for the foreseeable future."

"You're stuck at the airport?" She sounded horrified and in the background, he could hear the familiar sound of keys being rapidly pressed on a keyboard. "Hmm. Looks like there's no bus service running for the rest of the night. There's an advisory from the Met Office to stay off the roads until the snow stops so the gritters can get out."

"That's what I've been told." Becker sighed and shook his head. "Anyway, I wasn't calling to complain. I was calling to let you know I'll be available to deal with any alerts we have. Put me on the on-call list, won't you?"

"Hmm." Jess sounded distracted and he wasn't sure she'd heard him. "I can't find a taxi company willing to come to the airport to get you. Not that they'd get through, anyway. Most of the roads are closed..."

"I'll be fine, Jess." He appreciated her concern but didn't want her getting stressed out on his account. "Go and enjoy your Christmas Eve. You're at your parents, yeah?"

There was a pause, so long he thought for a moment that the call had become disconnected. "Not exactly," Jess answered eventually. "My brother got my parents a last minute cruise for Christmas, so they left yesterday."

"So you're spending Christmas with your brother and his family?" He frowned when she hesitated again. "Jessica?"

"Not exactly," she repeated. "They're going to my sister-in-law's parents this year and, well, as much as I love her, I don't really know her family that well so I turned down the invite to join them. It's okay, though. I was just going to catch up on some reading and have a quiet Christmas."

"Alone?" For some reason, the thought of Jess being alone for Christmas was unthinkable. "You should've said something. Abby and Connor..."

"... are going to Connor's parents. Matt and Emily are having a quiet Christmas, just the two of them, and yes, I know they would have invited me but that would've been a bit awkward, don't you think?" She hurried on before he could protest. "It's fine, Becker. It's not the first time. Now, sit tight and let me figure out how to get you out of there. I'll call you back in a few minutes, okay?"

She hung up before he could argue, leaving him staring at the phone with a confused expression on his face.


When she didn't call back in over an hour, Becker told himself it was nothing to be worried about. Knowing Jess as well as he did – and he did know her well, even if it wasn't as well as he sometimes wished he did – she'd probably gotten engrossed in some sort of technical glitch or, more realistically, was still trying to do the impossible and find someone willing to take on the snow and rescue him from the airport.

As long as she wasn't attempting it herself... The thought of that made him frown and reach for the phone again, as he had done several times over the last hour.

Giving in to the impulse, he pressed the speed dial he associated with Jess and lifted the phone, listening to it ring. When he realised he could hear her ringtone as well as the ringing tone of his phone, his frown deepened and he stood up, searching for her.

Well, not really searching. It wasn't hard to find her in the almost deserted airport, her face flushed and eyes bright as she hurried towards him.

"How did you...?" He shook his head, his frown turning into a scowl. "Of all of the irresponsible, bloody minded..."

"Oh, hush." Jess rolled her eyes, her smile undaunted by the lack of a warm greeting. "Get your bag and hurry up. He's not going to wait all night."

"Who...?" But Jess wasn't listening, turning on her heel and started back in the direction from which she'd come. Having no choice but to follow her, Becker grabbed his back and hurried after her, wondering belatedly if he'd fallen asleep and was merely having a very vivid dream. "Jess, slow down."

"Can't," she called over her shoulder. "He has to get it back before someone notices it's gone."

"Who has to get what back? Jess, you're not making any..." Becker's eyes widened as he followed her outside and saw the 'what' she'd been talking about. "Sense..." he finished belatedly. "How did you get hold of a military issue truck?"

"I called in a few favours." Jess shrugged a shoulder and gave him an impish smile. "Hurry up and get in. Tommy has to drop us off, then get back to the base before he gets into trouble."

"Tommy...?" Wasn't her brother called Thomas...?

As Jess had already climbed into the back of the truck, Becker followed suit and found himself sitting beside Thomas 'Tommy' Parker, big brother of Jess Parker and apparently just as wrapped around her little finger as most of the other men in her life.

"Nice to meet you," Tommy said after a moment of silence, his grin sympathetic as if he recognised the stunned expression on Becker's face. "Doesn't take no for an answer, does she?"

"No." Becker glanced over his shoulder at Jess, who smiled at him innocently as she buckled her seat belt. "You're not going to get into trouble for this, are you?"

Her brother shrugged, his expression momentarily mimicking his sister's. "If I do, I'll blame Jess. My CO has a soft spot for her since she fixed his daughter's computer last year and saved her from having to redo a year's worth of coursework."

"I told you I called in a few favours," Jess spoke up from the back. "But still, we'd better get going, Tommy. Clive might forgive you for this but Anna won't if you get stuck in snow and don't make it back to her parents."

Clive, Becker deducted as the truck started moving, was Tommy's Commanding Officer. Anna, he knew, was Tommy's wife and Jess's sister-in-law.


The siblings kept up a steady stream of banter as Tommy navigated the heavy duty vehicle through almost empty roads and streets. Becker bit back a grin more than once, relaxing as the realisation that he wasn't going to have to spend the night at the airport sunk in. It was interesting to see Jess with her brother, to listen to her hold her own and realise it was probably the relationship they shared that made it possible for her to stand up for herself against snobby members of the Admiralty.

It was only when Tommy pulled onto Jess's street that he realised no one had asked him for his address – not that Jess would need to, he knew, but he'd expected Tommy to need to know in order to drive him home.

"You can have the spare room," Jess spoke up as if reading his thoughts. "The roads should be clearer tomorrow and they're talking about opening the airports again by midday so you might be able to get a flight home." She blushed a little but held his gaze. "Tommy needs to get the truck back and your flat's on the other side of town so I thought..."

"It's fine, Jess. Certainly beats staying at the airport." He flashed her a quick, grateful grin before glancing almost nervously at her brother. Her big brother, who was watching him intently. Obviously relived, Jess undid her seatbelt and opened the door of the truck. Becker made to follow but was stopped when Tommy cleared his throat. "Ah, thank you, for the lift."

"Anytime. And I probably mean that. I've never been very good at saying no to my sister." Tommy's gaze was speculative. "I'm guessing you might know what that's like?"

Becker shrugged, not knowing how to answer. He saw Jess glance at them through the windscreen and roll her eyes. "She can be stubborn at times."

"She gets that from our mum," Tommy said with a straight face that would've worked if not for the slight twitching of his lips. "Look, we've not got long before she comes back and orders me out of here so I'll make this quick. She's told me a hundred times you're just friends and colleagues and if that's true, then feel free to ignore me but I'm not blind and I'm not stupid. I saw the way she looks at you and I saw the way you look back. Hurt her and you'll have me and a long line of others waiting to hurt you back twice as much."

"I'm not going to hurt her." It was the only thing he could think of to say, knowing that he'd do whatever he could to make sure it was the truth. Hurting Jess, friend or otherwise, was never something he would allow himself to do. "She means too much to do that."

Tommy looked at him for another moment before nodding, apparently satisfied with what he could see on Becker's face. "Good. Now get out of here before she demands to know what we're talking about."

Like a good soldier, Becker followed the order even though he suspected he was of an equal rank if not above Jess's brother. He walked around the truck to find Tommy had rolled down the window and was bidding his sister a Merry Christmas, promising he'd let her know when he got to his in-laws safely.


They stood on the street outside of Jess's building until her brother was out of sight, before Jess let the way inside, apologising unnecessarily for the mess of her flat. As the place was spotless, Becker thought she was making nervous small talk, a suspicion confirmed when she both asked if he wanted a hot drink and answered for him with the same breath.

Letting his bag drop to the floor, he followed her through to the kitchen and watched as she pottered about, getting two cups down from one of the shelves, filling the kettle with water and fidgeting with the pots labelled 'tea' and 'coffee' as she waited for the water to boil.

"Thank you," he said after a moment of just watching her, breaking the silence that had fallen over them. "I wasn't expecting you to come to my rescue but I appreciate it."

"It wasn't really me." Jess deflected his gratitude with a shrug. "Tommy's really the one who..."

"Jess." Approaching her slowly, giving her time to move away as well as watching for any response that would signal she was uncomfortable with what he was doing, Becker stopped well inside her personal space. "Thank you."

Gazing up at her, her cheeks tinged with pink, she bit her lip endearingly. "You're welcome. I just didn't think it was fair you had to spend Christmas Eve alone at the airport. And I meant it about the flights. I heard it on the news before we left. They're looking to open at least one runway tomorrow so..."

Knowing he wasn't going to be able to leave her to spend Christmas on her own, Becker shook his head. "My parents aren't expecting me anymore. Maybe next year."

"Whether they're expecting you or not, I'm sure they'd be pleased to see you." Jess turned away as the kettle finished boiling, ending the moment. "Speaking of your family, maybe you should call them and let them know you're out of the airport? They're probably worried about you."

With a stifled sigh at the lost opportunity, Becker accepted that she was right and went to call his parents. His mother was relieved, though still disappointed. His father was curious as to how he'd managed the impossible and a remarkably loud silence followed when Becker hesitantly explained Jess's involvement in making the miracle happen.

"Sounds like quite a woman you've got there, son," Mr Becker said eventually. His tone was non-committal but Becker could still hear the speculation. "I'd like to meet her one day."

Glancing over his shoulder as Jess fussed in the kitchen over their already made drinks to give him some privacy, Becker found himself nodding in answer. "Maybe you will."

His father chuckled softly. "Don't think there's any maybe about it, Hilary. I'll let you go. Call your mother tomorrow. She'll want to hear from you even if she can't see you."

They hung up and Jess took it as her cue to enter the room, cups of tea in her hands. Becker took one with a smile of thanks and waited until she sat down before sitting next to her.

"Were you really going to spend Christmas alone?" He asked after several moments of sitting in comfortable silence.

Jess shrugged, staring into her cup. "It's not a big deal, Becker. I've spent Christmas alone before. My parents seem to like travelling this time of year and my brother used to go away a lot. It's fine."

"No, it isn't." Taking in the small but perfectly decorated Christmas Tree and the neatly wrapped presents underneath it, he remembered her enthusiasm for the season as she'd talked to Emily about the traditions that had both existed and been created since Emily's Christmas's back in her own time. "You shouldn't be alone at Christmas."

"A lot of people are," she pointed out quietly.

He let the subject drop, only because he didn't want to push it too far. Jess turned on the TV and they argued light-heartedly about what to watch, settling on an old Christmas film that aired every year but she still insisted was a classic.

At some point during it, Jess fell asleep, her head somehow coming to rest on his shoulder. Becker wasn't about to complain and instead wrapped his arm around her shoulder – to make her more comfortable, of course – and drew the throw that was neatly folded over the sofa on top of them.

It wasn't where he'd planned on spending Christmas Eve but Becker's last thought before following her into slumber was that it still felt remarkably like he'd made it home for Christmas.


End

Thank you for the reviews as always - hoping to get round to replying eventually but currently using my phone to update so it's rather time consuming! Only two more stories to go, then we're done :) x