Connor flopped down beside Abby at the table as she munched on her chips, Jess across from her.
"And then we went to dinner and..." Jess paused, eyeing Connor as he was snatching some chips from Abby's plate.
"Don't stop on my behalf," Connor insisted. "I could use this all as blackmail on Hilary."
"Conn," Abby smirked at him. "Don't make me use blackmail on you."
He glanced at Jess who was smiling herself and Connor sighed. "Bit unfair, init?"
"Shoo," she teased, gesturing him to flee.
"But Abs," he looked at Jess and turned to Abby, serious. "I sorta need to talk to you."
"If it's about your dinosaur facts website, it can wait."
"Abs." He raised his brow, giving her a face to signal he was completely serious.
Abby sighed. "Fine, talk."
"Not here."
"Con-nor!"
"If you want to gripe at someone then gripe at Matt, all right?"
They all turned their heads to see Becker approach their table. "Jess,"
"Yes?" Jess replied with a grin.
His stern expression softened at her. He glanced at Connor and Abby and then faced Jess once again, "Can we talk?"
She smiled at him and nodded. "Sure! We'll finish our conversation later, Abby."
They got up and walked off and Connor looked at Abby irritated.
"Wha'?"
"Jess didn't ask any questions, did she?"
Abby rolled her eyes and stood up, pulling on his shirt to make him follow – of course Connor whining the whole way there.
"Matt, Becker said you needed to speak with me?" Emily spoke, stepping into the armory.
"Yeah, we need to talk," Matt replied.
Emily waited for a moment for him to continue and raised her eyebrows when he didn't.
"I mean, all of us. Connor and Abby, Becker and Jess."
"You say that as if they're the same person," she chuckled.
"Well, they pretty much are. You can't have one without the other. We're just lucky that we're not asking them to keep something in confidence from each other." He smiled.
"In confidence? You want to talk to us in confidence, away from Sarah and Danny?-"
"Why didn't you just say 'Matt needs to speak to us'?" Matt and Emily heard Abby as they entered the room.
"Bit of a secret, init?" Connor replied, walking in beside her.
"And why is that?-"
"Because I told him that," Matt spoke, making Abby and Connor pause.
"All right then." Abby nodded as she folded her arms across her chest. "Fair enough. What's this all about?"
"Let's wait for Becker and Jess, shall we?"
"They're not here already?" Connor said suspicious.
"No, they're not. Why?" Emily asked, finding the tone in his voice to be worried over.
"They just left before we did, is all," Abby answered for him.
Matt and Emily shared a look and Matt sighed.
"Maybe they got lost," Connor joked. Abby just gave an amused smile in return.
"Becker probably took it to him to take Jess to lunch, they're fine," Matt concluded.
"So, what are we here for then?" Abby questioned once again. "What's so important that you make Connor keep a secret?"
"Oi." Connor shot Abby a playful look and she immediately returned it.
"We asked you here because Matt needs your help," Emily replied.
Abby raised a brow. "For what?"
"Well, you two are Lester's special ones. So is Jess," Matt started in, "and I need the two of you to convince him to let me do something."
Connor scoffed. "A whole lot easier said than done, mate," he sighed. "What's all this convincing for?"
"I need to go back to the future. The one that Sarah came from."
With a brow raised Abby questioned him, "Why?"
"Cause I told myself I needed to."
Connor and Abby's looked at each other with a concerned look and back to them. "What?"
Sarah sat back in her seat, watching Becker and Jess walk by chatting.
"So why's it so important?" she overheard Jess say.
"Matt asked us to come by, that's all."
"But Connor and Abby were asked, too, apparently."
Becker nodded, "Yeah, they were."
"But why?" Jess sure was pushy.
"Jessica,-"
"Becker!" Sarah hollered, bringing their attention to her.
Becker paused, Jess doing whatever he did. "Hey, Sare. Something wrong?"
Sarah shrugged. "Wonderin' what you two were up to. I don't have much to do of late."
"Oh, well…" Jess started in but Becker placed his hand on her shoulder and gave her a stern look that clearly said 'don't tell her'.
"Just leaving from lunch," Becker lied.
"Oh, so you've ate? I can't find Danny anywhere and I'm starved myself."
Becker seemed to be in a testy mood but he still was nice to his long-lost Sarah Paige. "Would you want me to look for him?"
"Oh, well… if you wouldn't mind…" she sighed. "Oh, never mind. I can do it myself. Just the ARC is so different now."
"Oh, we'll help you, Sarah," Jess insisted, chiming into the conversation. "Couldn't have you get lost, could we? I'll just call him from the coms. Maybe he's still wearing his."
"Thank you so much, Jess." Sarah smiled graciously. "I'm going to go look through the armory, maybe he's there-"
"Not there!" Jess practically squealed. "Uhh, Becker was just there, weren't you Becker? I doubt he's made his way there so soon."
Her face fell, purposely. "I thought you two just left lunch…?"
Becker inwardly groaned. "Danny hardly ever goes to the armory, Sare. I'm sure he's in the lab with Connor or something."
"Right, forgot about the lab." Sarah smiled again. "Lord, just realized how often I spent my time in the lab. Maybe I should start spending more time in there again."
Jess nodded. "Emma, Pete and Mike still work here! They run the lab when Connor's in field work. Really they do most everything anymore 'less Connor's planning on some invention. I'm sure they'd love to have Sarah Page help them!"
"Well, actually, I have a project for Connor. I'm quite excited for it. I haven't seen Danny or Connor though, so I haven't been able to talk to either of them 'bout much today."
"Everyone's been on the down low today, haven't they?" Jess said cheerfully. "Monday's are always quiet 'round the ARC. C'mon, Becker, let's go find Danny."
"I'll check the labs," Sarah said as they walked off down the hall.
Sarah leaned back and sighed. Now where to find Connor…
Danny sat in the enclosed lab, the other side of the room stood three geeks who rambled on about science and ARC drama. He could hear them through the wall, but he preferred to stay quiet and listen to his own thoughts.
Suddenly his attention was brought to those three geeks though – hearing another voice pipe in.
"Hey, guys…?" a voice he knew as Sarah's spoke up.
"Holy fossil," Mike exclaimed. "Sarah! We heard you made it back but we haven't seen you around or anything…!"
"I know, I was just informed that you three still worked here, actually."
"Pretty pathetic, isn't it?" Pete, or Peter, joked.
"It's nice to see you again, Sarah," Emma's soft voice said, speaking up.
"You too, Emma… We should catch up soon, but right now I'm looking for Danny. Have you happened to see him?"
There was a moment of silence.
"No, don't think so. Sorry 'bout that," Peter replied.
"That's okay, thank you, Peter." She sighed. "Well, I'll be back later. I need to talk to Connor about something. Thanks, to all of you."
"See you later, Sarah," Emma said. He could just imagine Emma's sweet smile on her face. Danny then heard the door close and the trio start to go on about how different she looked and how crazy it was that she was alive.
They were right of course. It was crazy… But she was alive, here, and he had no good reason to be hiding from her. He just needed to think.
"Sarah!" Danny called, running after her.
"Yeah?" She turned around.
With a panting breath he smiled at her. "You got a minute?"
"Sure, what do you need?"
"Being hid from Becker and Lester would be nice," he chuckled, straightening himself up.
Sarah smirked. "What did you do this time, insult Jess?"
"Just about."
She raised her eyebrows.
"Well, not actually insult her. More like … ask her which one of them she'd rather get stuck in the past with… In front of them."
She laughed. "And how did Jess react to that?"
"She chuckled and watched as Becker and Lester grabbed the closest metal object and chase after me. I don't know why that'd set them off so much!" They exchanged knowing looks and giggled.
"Come on, Danny, I'll hide you." She grabbed his wrist and they walked down the halls, side by side.
"Thanks, Sare. I knew I could count on you." He gave her his lopsided grin and playfully smiled in return.
"Oh, you mean you didn't try Connor and Abby first?" Sarah teased.
"Well, you know how they'd react to that. Just like Jess."
"Lots of laughing?"
"Only more."
She softly smiled, though looking at him amused. "Right."
Suddenly Danny looked up at the door, hearing three knocks pound down on the wood. Seeing through the little window it was Connor. Danny just looked at him so Connor entered, seeing Danny in the dark.
"Mate," Connor turned on the lights, causing Danny to squint, "don't you know it's bad for your eyes to read without proper light?"
Danny smiled at him. "Not reading, though, am I?"
"Suppose not. But why else would you be in a quiet room all to yourself 'less you were trying to read a nice book?" Connor was clearly joking, but Danny just looked down at the cold metal counter. "Danny, can I ask you something?"
"Course you can, Connor."
Connor sat down beside him, the two little stools Connor remembered him and Sarah sitting at every day, looking at that Artifact. "Why are you in me lab?"
Danny glanced up at him and stifled through his nose. "Knew you were at lunch with Abby, needed somewhere to be by myself."
Connor nodded. "I see. Danny, has anyone ever told you about what happened when you were gone? With New Dawn?"
"No," Danny said thrown off by his randomness. "Just know that when someone mentions it the whole ARC flinches."
Connor let out scoff like chuckle. "Yeah, that would be my doing."
"How's that?" Danny asked with brow raised.
"I almost ended the world, mate. It can cause some flinching."
Danny laughed. "What'd you do? Melt all of Becker's guns?"
Connor smiled, but Danny realized he was serious. More serious than he'd ever even seen Connor become. "It wasn't the most…" Connor just let out a deep breath and looked at him. "I was an idiot, Danny. Everyone thought I'd gone rogue, really I was tricked but… I knew better, didn't I? I still did it. Somehow, the team managed to forgive me. Sometimes I wonder if I should have been forgiven, or if I even should forgive meself, or if I ever should be trusted again. They always say trust is hard to come by, and once you lose it, it takes a whole lot to earn it back. That's true. But trust also takes a lot to break."
"What's this about, Connor? You know I'm not gonna keep any grudge against you for almost ending the world."
"Exactly. For all you know, you have no idea who I am anymore, yet you still trust me. I still trust you, and you could have completely lost it and become some mad man who wants to kill us all. Doesn't mean I'm going to lose trust in you now though, it takes proof and a lot of yelling and beating for me to lose trust in you."
"Are you saying I shouldn't lose trust in Sarah?"
"Sarah's been good as dead for a long while now, yeah? But so were you. So were Abby and me, look how trusting Jess was."
Danny laughed, wagging his head. "It's different, Connor. Time changed on her."
"Does that make her a different person, though?"
Danny shrugged. "It easily could."
"Well how I see it, Danny, Sarah was a part of the team. And no matter the circumstances, you give a teammate the benefit of the doubt. You give a loved one a benefit of the doubt."
"Learn that from Cutter?"
Connor smiled. "Learned that from Abby. After everything I did, she never gave up on me."
"Guess you're worth it."
"Yeah… So, that would be the question to ask yourself, init?"
"What's that?"
"Is Sarah worth it?"
Danny chuckled and looked at him with a smile. "Course she is."
"Well then, bit silly to be taking up me lab when you have a Doctor Paige lookin' for ya."
Danny stood up, heading for the door. Before he opened it he paused. "Connor, how did you know it was about Sarah? The hiding?"
Connor smiled. "Peter, Mike and Emma told me they heard you talking to yourself in here."
Danny let out a laugh and nodded. "Gotta learn to keep my mouth shut."
"I know the feeling."
Danny smiled at Connor and walked out, knowing the 'thank you' was obvious between them. Now he had something else to ask. When did Connor get so… wise?
Jess reclined back in her chair and let out a sigh. Her view was the ADD, wide-screen monitors all set on one big empty wallpaper. The team should take a photo, then she could add some personal touch to the ADD.
Becker turned towards her, having his back face the ADD, and arched a brow. "Nowhere?"
"Danny turned off his com." Jess explained. "He didn't just take it off. I can only find him with GPS if he turns his back on."
"You can turn them off?" Becker said, pulling out his from his ear to look at it. "Where?"
"Not telling you," Jess said with a teasing grin, "then I'd have to find you manually, too."
"Jess," Becker smirked at her, "if you have to find me yourself, you don't have to call it 'manually'."
"Oh leave me alone." She playfully griped at him. She then stayed quiet for a minute as she looked back around to see if anyone was around to hear. The hub was clear, so she straightened up her back like she always sat and inched closer to Becker so he could hear her. "Becker?"
"Yes, Jessica?"
Jess pursed her lips at his response but went on. "Have you talked to Lester? Ya know, about Sarah?"
Becker let out a growling groan, "No Jess, I haven't."
"Be-cker," she whined, "you said you would."
"I haven't had the time, Jess. I will, okay?"
"You're the one who told me about your suspicion. I live with her, Becker. I don't exactly want to be killed while I'm sleeping."
"Hey," Becker clutched her wrist, looking her in the eyes, "you know I wouldn't let that happen."
Jess nodded, placing her hand over his gripped hand. "I know. I'm just a little nervous to even live at home right now."
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"
"-But I'm glad you told me. Besides, now I have an excuse for you to come over more." Jess grinned up at him and Becker smiled back, that was until Emma approached them.
"Hey, guys," Becker let go of Jess' hand and Jess twirled her chair around to see Emma's face.
"Yeah?" Jess asked, smiling at her.
"I was wondering, have either of you seen Abby? Connor asked me to ask you. I swear I'm just his messenger sometimes."
Becker snickered and Jess shrugged. "I haven't seen her, sorry Emm."
"It's fine, thanks. She probably just went out for a bit, yeah?"
Jess scrunched up her nose and looked at Becker, then back at Emma. "Could be, but Abby almost always tells Connor if she's going somewhere."
"That's very true." Emma sighed. "Well, thanks again."
"Course," Jess assured and smiled as Emma walked off. "Wonder where she is…"
Becker stood up and walked beside her swivel chair. "She's probably still at that meeting we were supposed to attend to."
"Connor wasn't invited?"
"There's some things Connor shouldn't fully be informed on, Jess."
Jess narrowed her brows. "Like what?"
"Like his good friend, Sarah Page, having anything to do with Helen Cutter."
Abby fidgeted with her nails, picking at the cuticles and the tips and the clear polish and… Anything to occupy her time, really. She watched as Matt talked to Emily, seeming to be discussing something pretty important. Abby's guess was it was about this going back to the future business. Matt seemed pretty fixed on his decision but Emily didn't seem too keen on it herself.
Emily left the plant habitation, passing Abby and offering a smile. "Something wrong, Abby?" she asked.
Abby shook her head. "Nah, just need to talk to Matt about some things."
"Okay," Emily looked concerned, but she already looked concerned, "he's right in there."
"Thanks."
Emily nodded and walked out of the menagerie. Abby's eyes followed her until she finally exited and she entered the plant habitation to see Matt sitting on his computer.
"You know, they say the computers are bad for the plants."
Matt looked up at her and closed up the laptop, "They say that. But then again, I've seen plants go through a lot worse and survive."
"Matt," Abby sat down beside him on the tall ARC stools that lined up along the counter, "what is this all about? Really?"
"I really think the plants will survive."
Abby arched a brow. "That's not what I meant."
"Listen, Abby… This is more about … I saw someone, and they told me… they told me I had to go back."
"Oka-y," Abby nodded, "who was this 'someone'?"
Matt sighed. "Myself."
"Yeah, you made that comment earlier."
"I don't know for sure, Abby, but I think it was me from the future Sarah came back from. Sarah hasn't said much, but it sounds like it was pretty similar to being the same hell as it was before… He told me I had to go back and I ignored it for as long as I could, but I can't push it away anymore. This… This is my family. For all I know they're still alive somehow. You know I've made my home here with all of you, but if there's a chance I could save them somehow… I need to go back."
"I understand. If I saw myself – or even another Connor – and they were telling me to go back? I would," Abby assured. "So, seeing Sarah is why you decided to go back? Not because of Sarah in any other way…?"
Matt furrowed his brows. "Just that… Is there something you're not saying?"
"I…" Abby exhaled, thinking over it again. "I'm worried for Connor's safety, Matt. And not just Connor, Danny's too, the whole team, to be honest."
"Why? Abby, what's wrong?"
"I have no proof but…" Abby sighed, once again. "I'm afraid Sarah isn't the Sarah we all knew."
"No proof, you say?"
"It's just the things she says… It's not right."
"Abby, she was stuck in the future by herself for years. You can't expect her to be the same person who walked through that anomaly."
"I know."
"Being on your own does things to a person."
"I know. That's exactly what doesn't make sense. She's too normal for a person who should have lost it after a year, not to mention, what, almost three now?"
"You're saying it's an act? That none of it is true?"
Abby thought about it for a moment, thinking over a conversation her and Sarah had when she first joined the ARC team.
"Why don't you ever use normal sayings?" Abby said as she slid beside her, Sarah upset over spilling coffee on her blouse. "I mean, most people would be yelling profanity or using God's name in vain."
Sarah shrugged and finished wiping it off, though it would most definitely stain. "I hate using words like that. It's… idiotic. Mankind can think of something more intelligent than a name of a god or a word to describe a very dirty and horrendous situation to express their feelings."
Abby arched a brow and tweaked a smile. "I like that. I'm thinking Cutter made a wise choice in hiring you, Sarah Page."
Sarah smiled at her. "I agree."
"Besides, now I have another girl around. I can actually talk to someone who understands my problems."
"Jenny's no help, then?"
"Jenny's too busy with Cutter to give me any friendly advice. When she isn't with the Professor, she is talking to me. About how I should tell Connor how I feel."
Sarah raised a brow as Abby paused. "Go on."
Abby smirked at her. "Well…"
"Abby?" Matt said to catch her attention.
Abby looked at him and nodded. "Yes. Yes because, how could any of it be the truth?"
Sarah stood at the counter of the small ARC kitchen, waiting for her microwaved meal to finish with a ding.
"Lord, Sarah, why don't you lighten up a bit? It's not that bad."
Sarah tried to shake away her thoughts and memories but was defeated by them.
"Harder than you'd think, thank you."
"Nonsense, I'm never tense. Just relax! You have the same problem my husband always had."
"I could care less."
Sarah closed her eyes and breathed in deep, trying to calm herself. She had no reason to be tense.
"Sarah!" she turned to see Danny entering the room. "I've been looking for you everywhere."
"Really? Sure it's not the other way around?" She smugly smiled at him.
"Sorry, I've been … don't matter. I need to tell you something."
Sarah leaned back to the counter and gestured for him to tell her. "Go on."
Danny was now standing directly in front of her, so instead of saying anything, he clasped her face with his hands and kissed her gently on the lips.
Sarah's shoulders relaxed and she returned the kiss without needing any explanation.