Hey everyone ^.^. This chapter is slightly shorter than usual but I thought that where I left it was a good place.

Thank you to everone who has reviewed so far. Your comments keep me writing ^.^

Disclaimer applies

Because I promised, I'm dedicating this chapter to Sarcastic-Bones :D I also highly reccommend her story 'Siblings' it's a sweet Jecker and it's really funny so go and read it :D

I would also like to specially mention:

SolarLunar who's answers were correct ;)
Elliesmile : because she called me original and that made me happy ^.^
And Heyarandomgal : Because she doesn't like chocolate D:

Here you go anyway,

Enjoy ^.^

The next day brought a whole new bout of nerves. Jess wore tights, which was unusual for work, but they covered the scratches on her legs. She also wore a long sleeved, emerald green jumper dress, despite it being summer and in the middle of a heat wave.

Everyone looked curiously at the Field Coordinator; trying to figure out what was off. It hit them all at different times. She wasn't smiling as much; she seemed to be stumbling through the day and she wore a heavy layer of make up that didn't suit her.

Eventually, around lunchtime, Becker pulled her aside. She had flinched when he touched her forearm and when she turned to look at him her smile didn't quite reach her eyes.

'Jess, are you all right?' He asked, concerned 'You haven't been yourself all day, everyone has noticed.'

'Yes, I'm fine' Jess answered quickly 'I think I'm getting a cold, that's all.' Becker noticed that her eyes didn't once meet his.

'Jess' he warned 'tell me'

Jess looked like a deer in headlights; she shook her head blinking rapidly

'It's nothing' she insisted 'honestly'

Becker sighed. He clearly wasn't getting anywhere, but he wasn't about to give up either

'Jess' he said softly 'you can trust me'

'I do trust you Becker, but there's nothing to tell'

'I don't believe you'

They stared at each other for a moment, Jess' eyes wide and frightened, Becker's frustrated and pleading. Eventually Becker let out a huff of breath, knowing that he wasn't going to win this one. He reached into his pocket and brought out the chocolate bar from yesterday; he held it between them steadily. Jess's eyes filled and Becker closed his for a moment and then he opened his mouth to speak

'Jess I –' what could he say? That he hated to see Jess upset? That he wanted her to always be happy? That he couldn't bear the thought of her not trusting him? That he wanted to fix whatever it was because he cared about her so much that to see her beautiful eyes fill with tears caused him a pain that was almost physical? … He didn't know. And he never found out because the rest of his sentence was drowned out by the screech of the anomaly alarm. Becker looked torn for a second, he needed to know what was going on with Jess, but he also had a duty to the ARC. Jess took the chocolate quickly and sighed in relief. Becker looked at her once more; eyes conflicted in the flashing red lighting and mouthed 'later' before sprinting off to the loading bay. Jess ran to the ADD, took a shaky breath and began to do her job.

It was nothing dangerous. Just a herd of Dodos in one of those maize mazes; rounding them all up was the only tricky part. It was time consuming but entertaining to watch, and Jess giggled as Connor almost sat on one as it darted between his legs. There wasn't much she could do here. She directed them to the Dodos and of course there was CCTV combing every inch of the maze in case people got lost, but … to be honest Jess wanted the team to stay out for as long as possible. She knew that as soon as they came back, Becker would force out of her the reason she wore a lot of make up today. She touched her cheek absent mindedly. It still stung. There hadn't been a bruise but there had been a large red mark. At least the cuts from the glass were easily covered up.

Darren had made her a coffee before and given her an apologetic smile that Jess had returned nervously, then he had blushed and backed away, avoiding her eyes by looking at the desk, then he paused, and for a fraction of a second a strange emotion flickered over his face; but then it was gone and so was he.

That night, they had arranged to meet at Jess's. Darren said that she might feel more comfortable in her own home rather than his. Connor and Abby were temporarily house-sitting as of last night when a friend of Abby's from the zoo went on holiday to Sri Lanka. They had left a note for Jess on the fridge that she hadn't seen until she went to dig out some breakfast. She was glad. She liked having them around of course, but sometimes she had been kept awake at night with mental images that she had to force herself to erase before breakfast the next morning … After she had wiped down the kitchen table with Dettol … twice.

Jess smiled to herself as she ate chocolate while watching Becker use his jacket to seemingly hypnotize one of the prehistoric birds and coax it back through the anomaly … which he now couldn't find. He ended up going the wrong way and Jess didn't correct him until she realised that they were heading towards the exit. The anomaly, ironically, was smack bang in the middle of the maze and Jess could hear the team's frustration as they got lost and ran into dead ends; although Connor was running around like an excitable child and Emily was sticking close to Matt, baffled by the high hedges and how making people feel like rats was considered fun nowadays.

It was a good few hours before Jess took pity on them and guided them to the last remaining birds before directing them to the exit; but it was good naturedly that they packed up their gear and piled into their cars.

As Jess tuned out their mundane chatter, Darren reappeared with another coffee. He placed it down on the desk and stood with a hand on the back of her chair as he stared at the screen

'I saw you talking to Captain Becker before' he said lightly 'tell him anything interesting?'

Jess heard the hard undertone to his voice and shook her head, knowing what he was really asking.

'Are you sure?' he pressed, attention still on the screen 'he looked pretty insistent'

Jess nodded and then squeaked a barely audible 'I'm sure'. Darren inclined his head once and straightened his back. 'Great' he said brightly, dropping one hand onto her shoulder; the other picked up something from her desk and then he was walking away, dropping whatever he had picked up into the bin. Jess glanced at her desk to see what he had taken, she was missing the chocolate. Jess knew right away what that meant … the subliminal message behind his act of throwing away the remaining few squares of a chocolate bar. And it wasn't that Darren had thought that the wrapper was empty.

Well there you are then ... I could have made it longer but I thought the suspense will keep you hooked ... hopefully :P

I hope you enjoyed that ^.^ let me know? What do you think Darren means? Will Becker find out? WHY IS THERE ONLY ONE SOCK LEFT AFTER THE WASHING IS DONE?
GAHHHH I NEED ANSWERS! Please give me answers ;)

Love you all

Love Tibbins xx