I'm not sure what happened, but this chapter seemed to get pulled right out of me. I hope you like it!

Jess' POV

Jess walked quickly down the crowded hallway towards the ops room, still fuming from her argument with Becker. Why the hell would he do that? She asked herself wiping away a tear that threatened to mess up her makeup. She turned a blind corner too fast and was nearly knocked on her ass when she hit a solid wall. A pair of hand shot out and grabbed her arms before she could fall.

"Thank you," she said looking up at the soldier she's just run into. He was about as tall as Becker, which meant he was nearly a foot taller than her, "and sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going." The soldier, who looked like he was just a few years older than her, just shrugged and smiled brilliantly.

"It's not the first time that's happened," he said still grinning, "And if I couldn't take a hit like that, then I have no reason being in the SAS." Jess couldn't help but laugh at the young soldier's self-deprecating humor. He chuckled as well, his laugh starting deep in his belly. Once she'd stopped laughing she took a good look at him. With his light blond hair and laughing green eyes he looked like he could be a model, except for a thin scar that ran down the side of his face. He looked familiar, but she couldn't place him. Not that that was unusual in a work place of this size, there were plenty of people working here that Jess wouldn't know if they came up and smacked her across the face.

"Well, thank you again…" Jess trailed off when she realized she didn't know his name. He seemed to grasp why she stopped and grinned even wider.

"Sargent Frank Howell ma'am," he said holding out his hand. Jess took it and was pleased to find that he knew to temper his strength unlike some of the other soldiers she'd met. They always ended up blushing and apologizing when she'd winced from a mistakenly too strong grip.

"Jess Parker. No rank though," she said. Howell's eyes widened for a moment and Jess had to hold back a frown. She hoped her joke wasn't that bad. "Something wrong Sargent?" she asked. Howell shook his head, recovering his senses and he actually blushed, which Jess thought was adorable.

"No ma'am. I was actually just on my way to find you. I uh…" Howell dropped her hands and shifted his weight from foot to foot. Jess hesitated for a moment, torn between running and trying to figure out what was going on.

"Yes?" she said after a moment.

"I lost my access bracelet," Howell mumbled and Jess had to fight back another round of laughter at the young man's discomfort.

"It's not that bad," she told him, "I've had to replace four this week."

"I don't lose things," he said before blushing a little more at her arched eyebrow, "Not normally anyway."

"Don't worry about it. That's why we made them work for only one person." Jess smiled again and tilted her head in the direction of the ops room. "Let's go get you a new one."

They walked in silence for a moment, though it was slightly uneasy because Howell kept sneaking glances at her out of the corner of his eye. After about the sixth glance Jess had had enough.

"Is there something you need Sargent Howell." She asked stopping in the middle of the hallway making him stop if he wanted to continue the conversation. He walked a few more feet before turning around and walking back.

"I overheard Maitland and Temple talking about your situation," he said bluntly, catching Jess off guard. She felt the blood rush from her face, and from the look on Howell's he'd noticed it too.

"What…, what situation?" she stammered. She didn't think he'd be fooled since her voice hands had started shaking the minute she'd felt her face pale. Howell glanced both ways down the corridor and took a step closer to her when he saw no one was nearby.

"Your stalker," he said. She started to deny it but stopped when he held up a hand to silence her. "I won't tell anyone else if that's what you. Just let me know if you need anything. Okay?"

Jess stared at him for a minute, trying to figure out why the hell he'd be offering his help to a women he met five minutes ago.

"Why would you help me?" Howell smirked a little at her shocked tone.

"I don't think women should have to be scared because some idiot can't take no for an answer." Jess raised her eyebrow at him and he shrugged. "Okay so you remind me a little of my over protected baby sister," He said gesturing with his hand, indicating that they should continue and Jess started forward still a little confused.

"Plus if anything happens to you the Captain is gonna go insane, so there's some self-preservation mixed in with the gentlemanly behavior." Howell said leaning down so she could hear his quiet tone. The comment caught her off guard and she started laughing, earing some strange looks from people as the pair entered the ops room. Jess managed to pull herself together and tone the laugh down to a chuckle, especially when she saw Abby look at her with concern written all over her face. Jess cleared her throat and did her best to look like professional Jess.

"This way Sargent Howell," she said leading him towards the ADD. She sat down in the plush red chair and began pulling up his data to be imprinted on his access bracelet.

"Hey Jess," Abby said leaning against the side of the ADD.

"Morning Abby," Jess replied not looking away from the screens in front of her. She could see Abby throwing worried glances at Howell who, to his credit, didn't seem to be bothered by them. Either that or he hid it really well. Jess hated that all her friends had to be suspicious of everyone she met and she bit her lip to keep from snapping at Abby. Jess knew deep down that they were just looking out for her. Jess finished up loading all of Howell's info on to one of the extra bracelets she kept lying around just for this reason.

"Hold out your wrist," she told the young man standing next to her. He complied without a word and Jess snapped the bracelet in place.

"Try not to lose this one," she teased. Howell gave her a wry smile and nodded.

"I'll do my best Ms. Parker," he said. He turned his attention to Abby. "Ms. Maitland." He said with a nod. If he noticed Abby's return nod was a little stiff he didn't say anything.

Both women watched him walk out of the ops room, before Jess turned on Abby.

"Why were you so rude?" she asked her friend, more than a little annoyed.

"We don't know him, and we have to be careful." Abby said, clearly not understanding why Jess was so upset. Jess rolled her eyes.

"I know I have to be careful, but if I let him make me into some paranoid lunatic than he's won anyway." She said, trying to make Abby recognize that she still wanted to live her life, despite the danger from the stalker.

"Any idea where Becker is?" Abby asked, making Jess' mouth drop open. Why did people insist on ignoring her?

Becker's POV

Becker heard someone enter the Armory behind him and he spun around ready to fight, only to find Abby standing in the doorway.

"We need to talk," she said. Becker raised an eyebrow in questions and Abby shooed him father into the Armory before hopping up onto one of the counters, swinging her legs.

"How well do you know Sargent Howell?" she asked getting straight to the point. Becker looked at her in surprise.

"Not very well, he's relatively new to the ARC," he said.

"How new?"

"I don't know a few months maybe. What is this about Abby?" Becker asked, he was still on edge from the arguments earlier and he could feel his temper rising to the surface faster than usual. He started pacing to try and work off the excess energy coursing through his body.

"The calls started around the same time right?" Abby's words and Becker freezing mid stride.

"You think Howell is the one stalking Jess?" he growled. The reasonable side of his mind was telling him to wait for evidence, but another side was sorely tempted to grab a gun off the wall and hunt Howell down. Abby must have guessed what he was thinking because she was glancing nervously at the walls of weaponry surrounding them.

"Maybe telling you in here was a bad idea," she said edging a little farther away from one of the pistols sitting on the counter for cleaning. Becker was too busy thinking about Howell to really hear what she was saying. His record was good, but that didn't necessarily mean that there weren't some cracks beneath the surface. He whirled to face Abby.

"What makes you think it's Howell?" he said sharply, making Abby jump a little.

"He was with Jess when she came back into the ops room," she said. "They were laughing, so maybe she felt safe with him?" Abby didn't sound horribly convinced and Becker felt his heart clench. Just because she had been laughing with another guy didn't mean he screwed up so badly that he'd lost her did it. Becker shook his head at the directions his thoughts were taking. She'd said she loved him, so she wouldn't have moved on that fast. Holy shit!Becker thought suddenly, She loves me! He'd been so caught up in his fear and anger that the fact she'd said it hadn't even registered. He might be a bit of an idiot when it came to emotions, but he knew that if he lost her, be it to the stalker or his own stupidity, he wouldn't ever recover. If that's not love, he thought, I don't know what is.

"Are you even listening to me?" Abby's angry question brought him back to reality.

"Sorry. I was off in my own head for a second," he said sheepishly. Abby rolled her eyes with a disgusted sigh.

"Why don't men ever listen," she said. Becker figured it was safer to assume that was a rhetorical question and stayed silent.

"Do you think we should tell the Connor, Matt and Lester about Howell?"

"We don't know for sure it's him so we'll just tell them to keep an eye on him," Becker thought for a moment and frowned, "We should probably tell Jess to steer clear of him too."

"I don't think that's going to go over too well," Abby said.

"Why not?"

"I already tried she started defending him." She said. Becker's reply was cut short by his phone alerting him to a new message.

"Hold on," he said opening the message. He took one look at the screen and took off running for the ops room. People pressed themselves against the wall he flew past, their eyes going wide in surprise. Becker didn't slow down until he was standing next to the ADD and a very surprised Jess.

"Are you alright?" she asked concern etched in her features. Becker gulped down as much air as he could before speaking.

"You are not going anywhere without me," he stated.

"What's going on?" she asked him while handing him the bottle of water she kept stashed in her drawer.

"He sent me the picture this time," Becker said handing her the phone. Jess gasped as she saw the picture of her sitting at the ADD. She looked down at the pink dress she was wearing and back at the identical one in the picture.

"He was here." She said softly.