Meanwhile, back at the ARC...

For all she'd been looking forward to finally being home, it felt odd to be back.

Not quite wrong, just… odd.

Everyone was warm and welcoming, of course, but they were also very distracted. It seemed the absence of their Captain and Field Co-ordinator had left a gaping hole in the fabric of the ARC and the atmosphere had only grown worse when the anomaly they'd disappeared through had closed.

She'd spent the first day in non-stop meetings with Lester and Matt, the new team leader. Sometimes Danny had been allowed to sit with her, other times she'd been forced to endure them on her own. She'd had to explain, over and over, what she remembered of that fateful final rescue attempt, the one that had almost cost her her life.

As if the nightmares weren't enough without having to relive it, but Sarah kept that thought to herself.

She could remember it all vividly, though. The smell of blood as the soldier who'd been charged with protecting her was killed, torn apart in front of her. The pain as the predator had clawed her chest, the scars still there even though the wounds had long since closed. The sound of her own screams, and the screams of the others, as they'd all been ambushed.

She'd crawled away from the massacre, hidden herself in the ruins of a car. Curled up into herself and done her best not to cry out loud as the screams and gunfire stopped and silence fell once again.

It must only have been an hour, maybe two, before she'd heard hurried footsteps. It had felt like an eternity.

When she heard a man swear, she'd thought it was Becker. She'd called out for him as loudly as she dared and had thought she was hallucinating when the face that appeared before her was not the soldier she'd been expecting but the team leader she'd gone on the mission in hopes of finding. She even vaguely remembered asking if she was dead, just before she'd lost consciousness.

She'd woken up on the other side of the anomaly – at some point in the past, though not the fifteenth century and thankfully not an era with dinosaurs. That had come later. Danny had taken care of her, tending to her injuries as best as he could. He'd saved her life but had been unable to stop the scarring, something she knew he blamed himself for every time he saw the ragged marks marring the formerly smooth skin of her chest. She'd tried to reassure him – several times – that she was just happy to be alive but the reminder of how close she'd come to dying was an unwelcome one for them both.

As far as Sarah was aware, only hours had passed since she'd walked through the anomaly into the hellish future that awaited them. She'd been stunned when Danny had gently explained that almost two years had passed – and that the others believed her to be dead. He'd gone on to tell her about his own return to the present, how he'd found his long-lost brother and willingly followed him through an anomaly back to the past.

He'd been chasing Patrick for months – three as far as he could work out – but his little brother continued to evade him, leading him on a wild goose chase from past to future to past again.

It was only once he'd found her that Danny had begun to think he couldn't put his life on hold forever, couldn't chase after Patrick indefinitely from place to place. They'd spent two months through that anomaly, and then had followed Patrick to fifteenth century England, which had been an experience but not one she'd want to repeat in a hurry.

When the anomaly had opened again and they'd followed Patrick's trail home to the present time, Sarah had wanted to weep. As it was, she'd stood with Danny, his arm clasped protectively around her shoulders, as he'd tried to reason with his brother and urged him to release the woman he was holding captive.

But Patrick had refused to do so, and the happy reunion Sarah had secretly dreamt about went up in smoke.

Not that she could blame Becker for leaving; it was clear the soldier was crazy about the girl. Danny had even already told her as much, updating her on the few facts he'd been able to glean during his brief time in the present before he'd left it in search of his brother: Connor and Abby were home and a couple, Lester was still in charge at the ARC and Becker, while alive, was a darker version of himself and only seemed to become the man they both remembered when the Field Co-ordinator was around.

Given that she'd seen the change begin to happen after each failed rescue attempt, Sarah hadn't been surprised. Disheartened and sad, but not surprised. And as she'd watched the anguished expression on Becker's face fade to a look of determination as Patrick stumbled through the anomaly with his hostage in his arms, she'd known it would take a small miracle to get the soldier to stay behind.

Briefings over with – though she suspected the respite was only temporary – Sarah had been allowed access to both a guest room at the ARC and a small lab she'd been told she could use. She smiled slightly, remembering the momentarily stunned expression on Lester's face when Danny had told him quietly but firmly that the second room they'd prepared for him was unnecessary, but the smile faded as she remembered that the tiny room they'd been given was the only home either of them now had.

Both of their flats were gone, Danny's things were in storage and her belongings were wherever her parents had put them. Her parents, who still believed she was dead.

Lester was working on it, she told herself firmly. And the Minister's office. They were looking to come up with some sort of solution, a way she could be reunited with her family. It would just take time to sort it all out and so she had to be patient.

And wait.

Waiting was never something Sarah had been good at, though, which was how she'd come to be in the lab she'd been assigned, sitting in front of a computer screen staring at a search engine homepage.

Where was she supposed to begin in finding out what she'd missed?

Abby and Connor had both promised to spend time with her later on but had been called away to deal with an anomaly alert. They'd both hurried after the new team leader and the dark haired woman, Emily, who'd been with them but not before Sarah had seen the flash of optimism in their eyes and knew they were hoping the anomaly they were going to would lead them to Becker and Jess.

Sarah hoped it would, but had heard nothing else since they'd left.

Eyeing the computer screen, she bit her lip as she drew the keyboard towards her. An idea began to form in her mind, a way she might possibly be able to help.

Back with Jess & Becker soon..