Hey, I got 3 reviews so far for the last chapter so this one is being dedicated to: juls124

HP Jungle Cat: Trust me, I did have a reason for comparing Jess' love life with the Holocaust. . . there is a reason this is an ANGST fic :) It is happy for the moment thought ... TREASURE THE HAPPINESS! I have a tendency to be excessively cruel to my favourite characters :P

Hope you enjoy this chapter ^.^

Over the next few days it happened like that. Jess would rush around, trying to keep busy and helpful and Darren would pop up a lot, usually after she had been thinking about him; which was weird, but she liked it. After two years of only seeing him once or twice, now he seemed to be wherever she was, and he always made her smile.

She liked him, Jess had realised one day; this thought had made her blush. He wasn't Becker, he wasn't devastatingly handsome and selfless or a workaholic. But he was kind and helpful and funny.

Besides, Jess thought as she let out a nervous giggle as she handed a surprised Lester his coffee. She was a sucker for a guy with a gun.

She went back to the ADD to direct the team to the anomaly. She wasn't worried. There was no sign of a creature incursion, and the team were already closing in

'Take the next right and its there' Jess instructed, patching through the CCTV feed to watch Connor lock the anomaly and high five Abby. Becker had his EMD ready, just in case. He was never idle, Jess mused, and he always had a purpose and knew what to do.

Jess sighed, wishing that she could be like that. She was too happy go lucky, she liked to go with the flow and see where it took her; she didn't always like to be in control. In her job she worked well under pressure, and she directed; but only directions. She just relayed the information given to her. Lester gave her any orders to distribute and Becker and Matt made the decisions, deciding whether to split the team up, or how to deal with any incursions. Jess was just … there ... to send backup or to hack into a computers mainframe so that she could watch and give an early warning if necessary. But Connor could handle computers better than she could. He had built the ADD after all.

Sometimes, Jess just felt inadequate. Every other member of the team had a vital role, Connor was the technical one, Abby knew about the creatures, Emily could give them insight on conditions through the anomalies, Becker was armed support and Matt was the team leader. . . Jess was just the observer really, she just watched and told them where they needed to be, which they could figure out anyway by using the signals from their handheld detectors.

'You have the most important job of all of them you know' Darren's voice spoke from behind her. Jess turned quickly, afraid she had spoken aloud

'What?'

'Sorry' he said, 'I just noticed that you seemed down, but it's true, they'd be a lot slower if it wasn't for you, and in this job, speed saves lives.'

He placed a coffee on her desk and walked away, looking back to smile at her. Jess blushed and looked down. Now that she was aware she liked him, she felt flustered whenever she saw him.

'Hey Jess?' She glanced back up, the team was just coming through the door but it wasn't them who had spoken, Darren had popped his head back around the corner

'Come out to dinner with me tonight?'

Jess hesitated for a second, her blue eyes wide, and she heard an awkward cough behind her

'Sure' she said at last, her face splitting into a huge smile that matched his

'Great' he beamed 'I'll pick you up at 7'

Jess nodded once and Darren disappeared again. She let out a small squeal of delight and spun in her chair, only to be faced with the entire team. Lester rolled his eyes and beckoned Matt and Emily into his office, Emily grinned at her before she followed. Connor gave her a wink before heading off to the Prospero lab (as it was still referred to, despite the fact that Prospero was dead and gone), but Abby only managed a small smile, and glanced back at Becker as she headed to the menagerie. Only Becker was left now, and the joy drained out of Jess as she saw his eyes, they seemed mildly amused, which hurt for no good reason but the hazel had hardened and he gave her a tight lipped nod and patted her shoulder as he walked past, in the direction of the shooting range

'Congrats Jess' he muttered as he did so.
'Thanks' she replied, with enthusiasm, trying not to make this awkward. Why did Becker care? He shouldn't. He doesn't. She thought to herself. He's just mad that he didn't get the chance to shoot a moving target today. Jess turned back to the ADD, nerves about that night filling up her stomach. She began mapping out an outfit; she had a dark purple strapless, knee length dress, it had netting that just peeked out from below the hem and very tasteful pleats in the fabric along the bust . . . that would do nicely with some black tights and black heels. Jess fidgeted in her chair, two CCTV images on her screen, one of Darren laughing with a co worker and one of Becker kicking a wall before putting on his ear protectors and proceeding to shoot down the firing range, hitting the target every time. Jess made a snap decision; she closed down the feed to the firing range and kept it up in the armoury. If tonight was a date, then she would be dating Darren (that thought sent a shiver down her spine) so it would therefore be classed as cheating if she kept pining after Becker. Jess was no cheat; so the pining would have to stop.

So ... Whatcha think? Please let me know ^.^ I know it's shorter than the first chapter but I wanted it to end there. Chapter 3 might take a little longer ...

I love feedback :P

Love you all

Love Tibbins xx