Chapter Five – Fit for Duty

6.35am

Jenny woke up early the next morning, it took her a few minutes to feel remotely human enough to get out of bed and make herself a coffee. Once the kettle had boiled and she had made a strong mug of black coffee, she carefully and quietly made her way into the living room making sure she didn't wake Becker up as she entered. She checked her phone and saw a message from the ARC, specifically from the night shift coordinator. There had been an incursion in a primary school during the night and some substantial damage had been caused, they had left Jenny's contact details with the caretaker. Jenny sighed; she knew she would need to get to the ARC extra early that morning.

Jenny sat down on the sofa in the living room, which was already filled with light from the sun flooding through the curtains, when she realised that one of her house guests wasn't where he should have been. Confused, she placed her mug on the coffee table and stood up, making her way to the spare room, slowly opening the door before smiling at the sight that met her.

Both Danny and Becker were lying in the bed, the light breathing from each of them in sync with each other. Danny was on the side closet the wall whilst Becker was on the other, they were both on their sides, but back to back, Jenny silently took a picture on her iPhone just as one of the men spoke.

"Show anyone that Jenny, I will poison Verity" Becker mumbled as his eyes slowly flickered open and he sat up in the bed, looking at Jenny through bleary eyes. Jenny raised an eyebrow at him, knowing the military captain wouldn't dare touch her favourite orchid.

"Who the hell is Verity?" Danny asked, having been woken up by the pairs conversation, Becker grinned as he climbed out of the bed.

"Just a plant Jenny has in her office, she's had it since she's been back" Becker replied as Danny also sat up.

"Wait, you named a plant? That's a bit weird" Danny stated as he stretched his arms out in front of him.

"Enough about Verity, its 6.50am, we have an hour to get ready and then we need to be at the ARC" Jenny said, before disappearing into the bathroom whilst Becker and Danny their morning coffee.

8.30am

Jenny pulled her car into her space in the underground car park of the Anomaly Research Centre, closely followed by Becker and Danny, the latter having decided to drive with the military captain. Jenny turned off the ignition and climbed out of her car, she then opened the boot and lifted out her paperwork before she locked the doors and waited for Danny and Becker to reach her.

"What's the plan for today then Jen?" Danny asked as the three of them made there towards the lifts that would take them up into the ARC.

"You have a meeting with Lester this morning, and then you're having a full medical before your psych evaluation with Doctor Andrews, Lester will be in there with you though so you won't be on your own" Jenny said as they walked into the lift and it began moving upwards.

"I thought it might be nice if we all had lunch together, you can catch up with Abby and Connor and meet Jess, Matt and Emily properly" Becker said, giving Jenny a smile.

"What about Sarah, will she be there?" Danny asked, just as the lift came to a stop and the door slowly slid open. Both Jenny and Becker just looked at each other; they thought Lester may have told Danny about Sarah yesterday. Becker gave Jenny a nod and she knew he was okay with telling Danny what had happened to their former colleague.

"I have to go Danny, but call me if you need me at all?" Jenny said quickly as she began walking away, Danny watched her until she rounded a corner and disappeared from view; he then turned to look at Becker.

"What's happened Becker, where's Sarah?" Danny asked, he could feel something had happened. Becker took a deep breath before silently leading the former team leader into the ARC armoury, which was located just off the main Hub, thankfully the large room was empty. Becker slowly shut the door behind them, looking Danny in the eye for a moment before finally starting to speak.

"Sarah's gone mate" Becker said simply as he leant against the wall of the room, Danny just looked at him.

"What do you mean gone? Like she quit?" Danny replied, although deep down he somehow he knew this wasn't the case, he could see Becker's eyes had glassed over.

"She's dead Danny. She was killed four years ago, when we tried to rescue you" Becker said, deciding to leave out the bit that it was because of Philip Burton that Sarah had died, that was a story for a different day.

"How…I mean what happened?" Danny asked numbly, sitting down on the bench at the side of the room, Becker took a deep breath before sitting down next to Danny.

"After you, Connor and Abby didn't return from the Future, we knew something must have happened to you. Lester authorised missions through the anomaly at the racetrack to try and find you. They didn't work, we found no sign of you in the search area, and I lost a lot of good men to the Predators. It was during the fourth mission, only me and Sarah went through, I couldn't risk taking anyone else with me. Sarah only came because she argued it with Lester" Becker sighed, and then a small smile found its way to his lips "You know how stubborn she was, she would have just followed me through anyway" he paused and Danny noticed the change in the military captain face.

"We expanded the search area and Sarah and I found a building that seemed to be the ARC but a future version of it. We found the main control room and I left Sarah there to check out the rest of the building. It was all clear" Becker stopped and took a moment to compose himself; Danny placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a small squeeze.

"There was nothing I could do to save her" Becker mumbled out as a stray tear slowly fell down his cheek, Danny could feel the tears pricking in his eyes and he didn't want to cry in front of Becker. The two men sat in silence for a moment, until a knock on the armoury door interrupted them.

"Sorry to disturb you guys" Matt said awkwardly "but Lester wants to see Danny" he told them, Becker quickly wiped his eyes and stood up, followed by Danny.

"Come on then Quinn, let's get to you Lester before he comes down here" Becker said, as the two men followed Matt of the armoury.

15.50pm

"So what is it Connor? Why did you call me down here?" Matt asked as he walked in Connors lab, she saw the younger man sat at his desk in front of piles of papers, he also had two ARC laptops in front of him that seemed to be running the same program. A light layer of stubble was growing on his cheeks and chin, and Matt noticed he was wearing the same outfit he had been wearing the previous day. Connor didn't reply, he just beckoned the ARC team leader to come over to where he was sat.

"Have you even been home Connor?" Matt questioned as Connor finally looked up at him.

"Nope, I've been analysing Danny's clothes. It took a while so I began tinkering with the data I was able to recover from New Dawn and the figures of the anomaly data that Burton had collected" Connor said as he searched through the papers for one particular sheet, he found it and passed it to Matt, who looked at it closely, frowning as he placed it on the desk.

"What exactly am I supposed to be looking at Connor?" the team leader asked.

"It's the data of the opening of every known anomaly the ARC has encountered since we began back in 2006, it eight years of data we have. Well I created an algorithm and began running the data through the program I designed that could possibly predict a rise or fall in the anomalies" Connor began as he typed on one of the laptops in front of him before he pressed enter on the keyboard to project the image onto the blank wall behind him. He then pointed to one set of graphs on the wall; the computer geek glanced over at Matt, who looked as impassive as he always did.

"The data shows that since Burton manipulated with the anomalies at New Dawn we've had a spike in the number that have been appearing, which has been increasing over the past five months. The predictions also show that at some point in the near future, hundreds of anomalies are going to open at the same time, everywhere" Connor finished, looking Matt in the eye, and for the first time, Connor saw a slight look of worry in the team leaders eyes.

"Who else have you told about this Connor?" Matt asked as he slowly closed the door behind him and sat down at the desk, Connor shook his head.

"Okay, I think we need to keep it that way, at least for now. We need confirm your findings and make sure we are absolutely sure we have got it right before we go to Lester" Matt said quietly to Connor, who gave him a small nod.

"This is strictly off the record Connor, I need you to back your data onto an external hard drive and delete it from the ARC network, make it completely untraceable. Can you do that?" Matt ordered.

"Yeah, it will take me a few minutes, there's hell of a lot of data on the system" Connor replied as he set to work on the ARC laptop.

21.20pm

Lester opened his office door and Doctor Mark Andrews, the ARC's head doctor and psychiatrist walked in holding a large file of papers in a folder, he sat down in the chair opposite Lester's side of the desk and waited for the ARC director to take his seat.

"So what's the verdict Doctor?" Lester asked bluntly and he opened his desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of whisky and two expensive looking tumblers. He filled the two glasses a quarter of the way and then passed one to the doctor, who left it untouched on the desk.

"Physically he is fine, slightly underweight but that is understandable for what he has been through. He has a couple of injuries which seemed to have healed okay, two chipped ribs and a deep wound on his left shin, and his bloods came back okay, no harmful antibodies that we can find" the doctor replied, giving Lester a concerned look.

"What about his mental state mind Andrews?" Lester said, getting to the point as he drained the contents of his glass and gave the doctor a stern look.

"Danny has been trapped on the other side of the anomalies for the past four years, although from his perspective it has only been two years of his life. We talked for a long time about the things he had seen and what he had experienced, but we have only touched the surface" Doctor Andrews replied, finally lifting the glass from the desk and downing it in one.

"What do you recommend, is he fit for duty?" Lester asked as he leant forward in his seat and crossing his hands resting on the desk.

"I want to have counselling sessions with him twice a week for the foreseeable future until I am happy to say otherwise. As for his role at the ARC, I'm not even sure he wants to be here, that's something you and him will have to discuss. If you do want to employ him, there is no way he is fit for field work, however if you were to find something in the building under which he would have close supervision then I would be reluctant but happy to clear him for duty" the doctor answered before standing up and placing the file on Lester's desk "It's going to be a long road until he is 100 percent fine, but with his friends around him and the right support network I'm confident he will be fine" he finished as Lester stood up and held out his hand, the doctor shook it before opening the office door.

"Thank you Andrews, where is Quinn now?" Lester asked.

"I sent him home around an hour ago, he went with Miss Lewis and Captain Becker" he replied, before walking away from Lester and disappearing round the corner. Lester let the door close and he turned back to the large file Doctor Andrews had left on his desk, letting out a loud sigh, he silently poured himself another drink, knowing it was going to be a long, long night.