Chapter 6: Peaceful Moments

Set between episodes 1 and 2 of S3. Becker, Connor, Abby and Sarah are quickly becoming friends, hard not to when much of their day-to-day activities are around each other. Connor, Abby, and the team are on an anomaly call in the rain. Sometimes there can be perfect moments in the midst of chaos. (sort of? something like that at least)

It was raining. As far as desriptions of the weather went, Connor mused, that was a particularly dull one. And altogether too common lately. It wasn't outright pouring, the streets weren't completely swamped, and the majority of the ARC team was not utterly soaked in water. However, he was not the majority of the ARC team, so that was completely irrelevant. To be specific, the core team was pretty... damp to say the least. He shook his head, trying to get the water to stop running down his hair into his eyes. They were standing under an awning, one of those large ones that spans across the whole front of a building on metal supports. Rain was dripping down through tears and gaps in the fabric , cascading down a wall behind him like a miniature waterfall. Connor shifted uncomfortably in his wet clothes, glancing over at Abby, who was crouched near the edge of their shelter, looking out at the streets of London.

"You know we're not going to catch any dinosaurs if we just stand around here staring at the rain falling, Temple." Captain Becker spoke up dryly from the entrance to the store behind them, and Connor pivoted to look at him with raised eyebrows.

"We don't even know where they are!"

"Well, that's our job, isn't it?"

"Oh, piss off, Hilary." Connor froze after he'd said it, wincing. "Oops."

"Now you've done it, Conn." Abby laughed from where she was watching them. Connor looked back at Becker and bit his lip.

"Heh..."

"How did you...?" Becker looked mutinous. Connor attempted a grin, hands held palm-out towards the third member of their team.

"Captain, leave Temple alone. We've got a job to do here - threatening him can wait until later, alright?" Jenny showed up, and Connor slipped past Becker to her.

"Thank you, you're a lifesaver Jenny!" He told her. Jenny shook her head, rolling her eyes at their antics.

"Oh, you'll have to deal with him later. Just make sure you save his life or something today." She told him, chuckling. Connor's face fell, and he turned to smile at Becker again.

"Hey, fancy going out in the rain ta catch some dinosaurs?" Connor asked tentatively. Becker snorted, bumping his shoulder as he walked past him towards the street. Abby was laughing, and walked over to pat him on the shoulder.

"C'mon, Conn." She told him, smiling.

"Sarah, I'm sending you some data over the system, can ya add it to the input of the ADD for me?" Connor spoke into his mobile, holding it with one hand as he hit the enter key on his laptop and added an attachment full of codes and numbers to the data. He had a blanket wrapped around his shouldersand across his lap to protect the laptop from the water. They had gone out into the rainfall and tracked the creatures - which seemed not to be dinosaurs at all, but rather, some sort of mammal - and had gotten even more waterlogged in the proccess. To top it off the small cat-like creatures had evaded all capture, and they'd had to return to the temporary 'base' under the awning where some minor equipment was set up on tarps. He leaned forwards and added another attachment and hit send.

"Yeah, will do Connor. Oh, and by the way, those cables you asked Lester if you could order? They've arrived. I gave the poor deliveryman a towel, he looked soaked." Sarah's voice came over the line.

"Really! Great news! About the cables coming, tha' is. As for the being soaked bit, I'm sure me 'n Abbs have that guy beat on that. There's water everywhere, Sarah!" He couldn't avoid a slightly petulant tone from entering his voice. Sarah laughed.

"Hmm, everywhere?" She teased.

"Stuff it." He told her with a mock-scowl she obviously wouldn't be able to see.

"Oh! Abby told me you let slip about the Captain's name. Did he threaten to kill you?" Connor grimaced.

"I didn't mean to, honestly. He didn't get to - Jenny intervened temporarily, but I don't know; I'm probably doomed when we get back to the ARC." He said with a sigh, touching the keys on his keyboard lightly.

"Want me to talk to him?"

"No, no... that's okay. I'll figure it out." Connor told her.

"If you say so." A pause. "I've got the data, updating it now. Shouldn't be too hard, right?" Connor rolled his eyebrows.

"I'll let you get on with tha'. Cutter wants to regroup ta discuss how to catch these things." They said goodbye and he hung up, getting wearily to his feet and grimacing at the uncomfortability of wet clothes sticking and clinging to him.

"Action man's arguing with Cutter again." Abby said from behind him, making Connor start, and turn towards her with a smirk.

"That wasn't unexpected..."

"Yes, okay, you win that bet, okay? Now come on Conn!" Abby said, rolling her eyes and grabbing his wrist, pulling him along.

"Alright, alright!" He said with a laugh, following her meekly.

"Abby! It went that way!" Connor yelled over the sound of the rain, as one of the 2 foot long ferret-cat-things - that may have been fro mthe future or the past, they weren't quite sure which - slipped right through his rain-numbed fingers yet again. With a growl of annoyance he lost his balance and ended up lying on the ground.

"Got it! Cutter, go 'round the other side!" Abby, chasing after it, called out to the Professor, who pushed his tranquilizer gun into the hands of a nearby SF. On the ground, Connor groaned and propped himself up on his elbows, looking down over the edge of the curb at the gutter.

"We'll be able to corner it! This's road's a dead end!" Cutter said, following her swiftly.

"Need some help, Temple?" Connor turned on his side to peer up at Becker, blinking away rain falling into his face.

"You offering?"

"Yeah, why not?" Becker's voice was mild, which made Connor narrow his eyes for a moment before shrugging a little and taking the hand extended towards him. Becker easily pulled him to his feet, startling the ARC's resident geek for a moment.

"Erm... thanks. And I am sorry about that before. Didn't exactly intend to blurt it ta everyone." He told him. Becker smiled.

"Good enough for me."

"You're not mad? I thought you would be. Abby was sure you were going to at least threaten to kill me." Becker raised his eyebrows. "Right. Conversation over, I got it... I'll go... There! Another one of the creatures!"

Becker shook his head in amusement and took off after Connor and the ferret-cat creature.

Abby leaned against Connor, and he immediately put his arm around her shoulders, relaxing when she didn't shrug the arm off, only snuggled closer. They'd finally gotten all of the animals back through the anomaly, and the SFs were watching it until it closed, armed with tranquilizers as well as guns, at Abby's insistence.

Connor sighed. They might both be damp and icky, but this moment was perfect. Her head was in the crook of his neck and he tentatively let his head rest against the top of her's, smiling happily when she didn't protest that, either. He looked up in surprise when Cutter came by, smiling warmly at them, and lay a large blanket around them.

Perfect.

The rain was petering off, and they both had fallen asleep while they waited for the anomaly to close and all reports to come back in, making sure there were no more creatures and no-one had gotten hurt, that kind of thing. Connor stiffly lifted his head off of Abby's shoulder, and was met by a warm smile from her.

"Hi." He murmured softly, blinking to wake himself up. Abby chuckled quietly.

"Hello yourself. I don't know how long we were asleep for." She said, looking around in concern, now that they were both cognizant again.

"Hope they 'aven't all gone back without us." He said, grinning at her.

"If they have, you'll have to go and get the car."

"What?! Abby, how is that fair?!"

"You snore, Connor."

"Ah..." He processed that for a moment, and then looked at her, denying it. "Oi! I do not!"

"Yes, you do! I was awake for five minutes before you did, and you were definately snoring."

"Hmf." He pouted, and she grinned, poking him. He poked her back, and somehow they ended up tussling and Abby had him pinned for a moment before she sat to the side, laughing, as he slowly sat up. He was partly embarassed but also flushed for... other reasons. He glared at her, but grinned too, unable to really be annoyed at her at all. This was fun, moments like this didn't come about all that often.

Becker pulled up in one of the ARC vans suddenly, opened the window, and leaned out. "You two done playing, or would you rather walk to the ARC?" He asked dryly, raising an eyebrow in a look that was quickly becoming something he associated with 'becker' in Connor's mind.

"Oi!"

"Leave it, Conn, come on!" She laughed, and he got to his feet and Aby did too and then they were in the car, headed to the ARC, and then to home. The sun was now shining brightly - a few hours before the sun was going to set, ironically enough - they were all in rather soggy clothes, and they would probably have to expect an anomaly call at around midnight or something like that, but the moments like this made it all worth it. That, and the memory of one of the SFs with a squirming ferret-cat-thing sitting on top of his head.