Once again apologies for the stupid amount of time I take uploading things. No excuses this time, just the usual thanks going to: Prawn Crackers and Mijo54 for reviewing. Enjoy this chapter :)

"The top three levels are clear," Teresa declared, striding into the Hub and down the stairs in one determined march. "There's no sign of them; nothing there now but the irritating hum of research equipment."

"And that is why you aren't a scientist," Jack quipped. Teresa completely ignored him, as she had been doing for the last two hours, and awaited Becker's response as if he hadn't spoken at all. Becker was impressed; she hadn't shifted the focus of her gaze off him for even the most fleeting of seconds.

"There's no sign of any activity anywhere else in the building either," he informed her. "And clean-up is underway."

"They've already done a pretty good job with this place," Teresa remarked, and she was right. Where only a few hours ago there had been blood stains all over the walls and floor and a pile of corpses up to Becker's shoulder, there was now nothing but the ever-present spotless metal tiles, and no sign whatsoever that the events of the night had ever even occurred. Becker was beginning to wonder if it had actually happened at all, or if the entire thing had just been a figment of his imagination. He was still concussed, after all.

"So what's the plan?" she went on. "Obviously no one in the ARC team can know about this."

"I don't think we can keep it a secret from them for long," he said, tiredly. "Even if no one tells them deliberately, it's nearly impossible to keep a secret around here. And..." he winced as the thought came into his own head. "We will have to tell Lester."

Teresa dropped into a chair with a groan. "Mierda," she muttered. "I'd forgotten about him." Becker mumbled his agreement and leant back over a work desk, a pounding headache emerging now that the effects of the adrenaline in his system had worn off. He wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep; something he had been promising himself for the last twelve hours or so.

"So what's the plan, boss?" Teresa repeated. How ironic, Becker thought, that she was perfectly willing to give over command now that the heat had died down and the only thing left to do was sort out the minor-yet-so-important details. He probably would have laughed in any other situation.

"We need to get back outside, debrief my men, and make sure no trace of this remains by the time the rest of the team arrive."

"Why do I get the feeling that something is going to happen between now and then?"

"Um, because you're extremely paranoid?"

Once again, Jack was completely and utterly ignored by his sister, whose eyebrow had been raised at the question. Becker just shrugged; he had, actually, come to the same answer. With a sigh, Teresa got up.

"We'd better get a move on then," she decided, and before Becker could even complain she was already at the elevators. Jack cast a weary glance in his general direction and followed, pulling Becker up off his chair in the process.

"So why do you reckon they showed up?" Becker asked Teresa, just to fill the awkward silence that was ensuing as a result of her refusal to speak to the other West sibling.

"My first guess was that they were after me; Mother has stopped at very little in order to get me back since I left. But now I'm not so sure."

"Oh?"

"Hmm. The death toll was just too high. They've never done that before. I think they were distracting us while they went in search of something else."

"Like what?"

"Oh, I don't know. This facility houses research and equipment relating to portals that open randomly to other eras of the Earth's history. What do you think they could have been after?"

"You would never have guessed, what with that sarcasm and all, that she was foreign, would you?" Jack said lazily. Becker shot him a warning glance, but he just winked in return. He was testing her he realised, to see just how far she would take this. By this time they were out of the elevators and halfway down the corridor that would lead them back to the loading bay and, eventually, outside. Back to Jess, ran across Becker's mind for a split second, followed by an insane confusion. Why on Earth had he thought that?

"So what do I tell the men?" Becker wondered. "We don't know what happened to them, but they might come back at any time. We'd be on Red Alert for the rest of our lives."

"No more so than usual," Teresa countered. "They're just another intruder. Although, I would up the numbers of the night guard from now on."

"Great. They'll love that."

"You know, Tres, you could..."

Jack didn't get any further in his suggestion because the back of Teresa's hand, faster than Becker had ever seen anyone move, flew round, and caught Jack square across the jaw. The sound it made was more akin to that of a gun going off, and unsurprisingly, Jack needed a moment to recover. When he had, his right cheek was bright red where the impact had landed.

"The last time you called me that," she hissed, her voice dangerously low and a lightning storm brewing in her dark eyes, "You were telling me that you would be home again in three days. What happened to those three days, Jackson?"

"Are we really going to do this now?" Jack asked, sounding bored as he nursed his obviously aching cheek.

"Why not? If you want my opinion, now's the best time to do it, because the longer you take in explaining to me just what the... the... barenjena... was going through your head, the angrier I am going to get."

"What do eggplants have to do with anything?" Jack wondered, confused.

"Answer the damn question!" Teresa yelled, advancing towards him with a murderous expression in her eyes. Jack had little time to react. Teresa, with a ferocity Becker had never before seen her display, threw punches and kicks at him with lightning speed, shouting a barrage of Spanish curses that would probably not have been understood by even those most fluent in the language. To Becker's great surprise, Jack blocked them all and stood his ground, not even attempting to land a blow of his own but still remaining, unmovable, in the same place. It was impressive; he knew what Teresa was capable of, and it was no mean feat to be able to predict and defend those attacks, especially with a bullet wound in one arm. He remembered Teresa saying that Jack had taught her everything she knew. That much seemed obvious now.

Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the fight was brought to an end by Jack. In one swift motion, he caught his sister's wrists and spun her around, pinning her arms across her chest with his own. It was a neat trick; Jack, being the obviously stronger of the two, had Teresa completely immobilised.

"Finished?" he asked. Teresa, anger still flaring in her eyes, struggled to escape him, with no results. "Can we talk about this like civilised people?" Jack pressed. This seemed to strike home in her, for her eyes closed for a brief moment and she exhaled sharply, composing herself with obvious effort. Ten seconds passed before Jack's arms began to loosen. A smile, unseen by the older sibling, played across Teresa's lips, and so fast Becker had no idea how she did it, she flipped Jack over one shoulder and left him sprawled across the floor, dazed.

"Yeah, now I'm finished," she said cheerfully, stepping over him and proceeding towards the loading bay, that smile broad across her lips.

Jess fidgeted. She hadn't stopped fidgeting since West had gone back into the building to look for more members of that secret organisation. What if there were still more inside? The men she and West had run into in the loading bay were, after all, still unaccounted for. What if they were just hiding, and jumped out from behind something, and killed one of them? She didn't even know where Becker was; she'd been sitting outside ever since the backup team arrived. She hated it; just sitting outside, not doing anything, not knowing what was going on. But even she had to admit, she would just get in the way otherwise.

There was a dull thud as the loading bay doors slid open, revealing most of the security team and the laughing and wholly irresponsible form of Captain Becker. Jess was out of the car in seconds and racing towards him as fast as she could in her shoes. Becker saw her instantly. The laughter fell from his face, and filling it instead was something else, something Jess couldn't read. Not that she had been trying; in no more than six seconds she had reached him, and without even slowing down she jumped and threw her arms around his neck. She thought she would knock him over, but he didn't even budge. His arms wrapped around her and he lifted her up, flooding her with relief. He was okay. Nothing was broken; he would have made it clear by now if the opposite applied; and he had, as far as she could tell, no other injuries. He'd gotten off lightly, she realised, and been extremely lucky.

Suddenly their location and surroundings came back to her, and she felt her cheeks grow hot. She was, after all, hugging Captain Becker in front of pretty much every soldier the ARC employed. It was probably going to be quite embarrassing for him later. Clearing her throat slightly she disentangled herself from him and tried to avoid his gaze. She didn't succeed; the intensity behind the deep brown irises was impossible to avoid, and she found herself being pulled into his chest. She didn't fight him; she didn't want to. She felt his lips press against the top of her head and his arms encircle her, one around her waist and the other around her shoulders. She listened to his heartbeat through his shirt slow down gradually from the racing pulse it had been, and she realised that it wasn't like that from any fighting he had been doing. She smiled to herself and sighed; there was, really, nowhere else she would rather have been.

What seemed like whole minutes later, his arms fell and she took it as a hint to step back, the moment over. His eyes bored into hers for a moment more, before he leaned towards her again and kissed her on the forehead in exactly the same way he had earlier. She smiled up at him despite herself, and was rewarded with one of his rare but beautiful smiles in return. Then he turned to address his men. Jess looked around the car park; soldiers were milling around, chatting idly to one another. Teresa West had found a med-kit somewhere and was in the process of tying a bandage around her brother's arm. Blood had already soaked onto it.

"Ow!" he whined as she pulled the knot tight.

"Stop complaining," she commanded.

"No sympathy, you. None at all."

"You say that as if I might be insulted."

Jess couldn't help but laugh. The two of them were, she realised, a perfect pair. Then her attention was shifted back to Becker, who had begun shouting now to make himself heard.

"Right men, first priority is a complete and detailed sweep of the whole facility. Everything needs to be exactly the way it was, and all before..."

"Let me guess. Before Lester arrives." The ominous and somewhat patronising voice cut Becker off, and filled nearly everyone present with a sense of doom. The very man stood a few paces behind Becker, his attention focused on a mobile phone in his hand in an attempt to make them feel insignificant. It seemed to be working on everyone except Jack.

"Sorry, don't mean to be rude, but who are you?" he asked, with a tone and expression that suggested the exact opposite. It got Lester's attention though.

"James Lester, Home Office. The government official in charge around here. Or did you think that an operation like this just sprung up out of thin air?" Lester fixed Jack with one of his famous 'I'm-superior-to-you-and-I-know-it' expressions before turning to Becker. At the word 'government' Jack stiffened and his eyes hardened, exchanging a meaningful look with his sister.

"I want you two, your Sargent and him in my office immediately," he jerked a thumb over his shoulder to indicate Jack, and Becker sensed that his boss had taken an instant dislike to the man. "I want an explanation for this, and you'd better hope there are no blood stains on my carpet." With that Lester pocketed his phone and strode towards the doors, and Becker, Teresa, Jack and Jess had no choice but to follow him in.

"I need to get out of here," Jack muttered to Teresa, his eyes darting around for an escape he could use to disappear. Teresa gave a sarcastic laugh.

"You're in this now, brother. Sometimes you have to take the fall yourself and not drop it on other people's shoulders."

"That's really not funny," Jack muttered. Teresa laughed again, properly this time, and his glower darkened.

Typically, Lester sat ostentatiously at his desk and waited for everyone else to do the same while giving the impression that they were all wasting his time and needed to get a move on. Teresa and Jack occupied the two seats immediately in front of the desk, Jess sat on the spare chair by the door, and Becker leaned against the window, arms folded. Lester's gaze trailed around them all, lingering on each for a painful amount of time.

"Well someone had better have an explanation," he said after a far too long silence. "West? What's your input?" He raised an eyebrow at Teresa, who merely shrugged and addressed her brother.

"Go on then," she said, earning rare confusion from Lester and plain irritation from Jack. He said something in Spanish that Teresa found extremely amusing before ignoring her altogether and relating to Lester the same story Teresa had told Jess a few hours earlier, but skipping out the details and telling only what needed to be told. Teresa threw in the occasional word every now and then but generally kept quiet. Jess sat in silence, already knowing the answers, and Becker, with the expression of someone utterly confused, asked the questions. Lester sat in thoughtful silence until and long after Jack finished. It became painful before he finally spoke.

"So you're telling me a secret government organisation…"

"Not government, but secret yes," Jack interrupted. Lester glared at him.

"…has been operating in Spain for the last hundred years without anyone noticing and suddenly they invade the ARC looking for your sister? I am intrigued as to why on earth you thought I was going to believe that."

"What you choose to believe is completely irrelevant," Jack said smartly, warming up to Lester's tone. "That's the truth. Whether or not you accept it isn't my problem."

"And what about you?" Lester turned on Teresa, the calm demeanour giving way ever so slightly. "What have you to add to this tale of flight and fantasy?"

"Nothing, really," she said, matching Jack's apparent inability to care about Lester's opinion. It was, Becker thought from his place by the door, making the man feel somewhat uncomfortable. "Only my confirmation that the entire thing is true."

"And why should I believe your word? You've only worked here a few days."

"Well, you employed me, didn't you? That should suggest something of a level of trust."

"And I will personally vouch for the validity of their story," Becker interrupted. "I've seen enough to believe them myself." Beside him, Jess nodded eagerly. Lester sighed.

"Great. Mutiny. Again."

"Look, Guv, it makes the square root of no difference to me at all if you choose to believe us or not. To be honest, you can probably confirm everything I've just said by making a phone call to someone high up in government." Jack stood up as he spoke, earning himself a look from Lester. It was a withering look, and everyone else in the office felt that he had just overstepped the line.

"Sit." Lester ordered, and to everyone's surprise, Jack sat.

"The validity of your tale notwithstanding, the fact remains that a group of people successfully invaded the ARC and probably made off with something; even if you are convinced it was only Sargent West they were after, this is a unique facility..."

"You think," Jack muttered. He was now sitting in the chair like a grumpy schoolboy flagged up before the headmaster; slouched down, arms folded. Lester glared at him further, and he received a kick from Teresa that brought him into a more civilised position.

"...And because of that, it is feasible that they took something. Matt, Abby and Connor should be arriving any minute. I will tell them what has happened. In the meantime," now he addressed Becker specifically. "I want a full assessment of the contents of the ARC; everything that should be and is here. You will probably need Connor's help, and you will get it as soon as I am done with him."

Becker nodded.

"Jess, you will do a full review of the security cameras; find out how they got in and the first places they went. As for you two..." he turned to the West siblings, but was cut off yet again. This time it was by Jack's mobile phone omitting a shrill and somewhat uncomfortable trilling.

"Hang on, must take this." He got up and went to the corner of the room, talking in rapid Spanish into the phone. Teresa paled in her seat.

"Jack..." she stood up. He held up a finger while he listened into the phone, and only lowered it again when the conversation was over. "Who was that?"

"No one you know. Sorry, Guv, what were you saying?"

"Jackson!" the word came out as a hiss, and seconds later, Teresa was leading her brother by the arm out of the office. Jack had only the time to shoot a pleading glance at Becker before he was flung against a wall and Teresa launched into a lecture. She was cut off by the soundproofed door clicking home.

"Anyone else care to begin a complicated family drama?" Lester wondered out loud. "Well you all know what you have to do."

Becker and Jess took that as their cue to leave, and went off in opposite directions as soon as they were out the door.

So thanks for reading, please do the usual thing and fill in a review sheet on the way out. :)