The ARC
Disclaimer: I own nothing but Lorelei.
Chapter 4- Action man:
Lorelei followed Nick, Connor and Sarah into Nicks lab, her feet dragged as she walked slowly behind her three friends. She hadn't been sleeping, and on the off chance of a nap, she was constantly plagued by nightmares, mainly centering on Stephen and Helen. She walked into the lab and watched Connor fiddle with Nick's new contraption, to her it looked a lot like modern art, a small part of her wondered what it would look like in her apartment, her thoughts came to a sudden stop as Nick's voice filled the room,
"Connor if you touch that, you could be changing the entire destiny of the universe." The professor stated bluntly. Lorelei couldn't hide the smirk that was forming on her lips as she looked at Connors expression.
"I'm not gonna touch it." Connor pulled his hand away from the model as the two women in the room exchanged amused glances. Jenny soon walked in,
"Whoa!" she exclaimed, "Please tell me this all means something."
"It means," Lorelei spoke a seriously as she could, "That the professor here wants to take up modern art."
Jenny raised an eyebrow at her young friend and silently asked her question to a more sensible person in the room, she knew just how sarcastic and immature Lorelei could be when she had gotten no sleep. Lorelei turned to Connor as he spoke,
"This is a 3-D model representing all known anomalies throughout history." He sounded so proud, even though he hadn't built it, Jenny looked sceptical so Sarah went on to explain about Cutters theory on mythical beasts and how they might be linked to the anomalies. As she was speaking Cutter was adjusting the model, when Sarah had finished he spoke;
"I think we may have made our first prediction." All those in the room turned to Cutter, eager to know what to do next.
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It was a few hours later when Cutter, closely followed by Sarah, stormed into the main room where the rest of the team where. Lorelei was sitting at her desk, as far away as possible from Becker, it had been two days since the incident at the graveyard and she had been avoiding him since. She knew she was wrong to say what she did; she just wasn't good at admitting it. She stood up as Cutter voiced echoed around the room,
"Alright, listen up! We have analysed the most recent anomalies and put them into the model. The prediction is specific and local, but there's a problem. It could happen tomorrow, it could happen many years from now."
"That's helpful." Lorelei muttered under her breath, this remark was heard by Connor, who snorted quietly but said nothing.
Nick continued, "I want you to go and check it out, and take Sid and Nancy with you." He gestured to Connor and Abby.
Becker interrupted, typical bloke. Lorelei thought "I should handle this."
"Why?" Lorelei demanded.
"No, no, Cutter's right. We'll go." Jenny said, ignoring Lorelei's demand, she would grill her on her reaction to Becker later.
With that Cutter left calling over his shoulder for Sarah,
"Help," she joked, "I've been taken hostage by an obsessive scientist."
"Welcome to our world!" Connor called after her before turning to Lorelei, "You gonna be okay?" he asked, concerned.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"
Connor rolled his eyes and left the building, he wasn't happy about leaving her with Becker, it was bound to all end in tears, Becker's tears probably.
Lorelei watched her friends retreating figure before sighing and sitting back in her chair, closing her eyes. She could feel Becker's eyes on her, but she refused to look at him, or even open her eyes for that matter.
Sarah soon left the ARC to get some papers, meaning that Lorelei felt even more exposed to the Captain's questioning glares, she couldn't concentrate with him constantly looking at her, she had been trying to file some reports for Lester, but it wasn't happening. She cracked her knuckles, it had been a habit since she was about eleven, and shifted in her chair, praying silently that he would leave the room. Maybe she was being paranoid, maybe he wasn't even looking at her. She chanced it and looked in his direction, he wasn't even facing her. He was talking to another soldier with his back to her. He soon turned and flashed her a small smile, which she didn't return, instead she sighed and got up, heading to Nicks lab.
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She tapped on the door lightly and after hearing a faint "come in." she ventured in, Nick glanced up and put his pen down,
"Hi." He said gently, when Lorelei didn't answer he continued, "How're you holding up?"
At this Lorelei burst into tears, Nick was soon out of his chair and round the other side of his desk hugging her, "Shhh it's going to get better, I promise, it's going to be okay." She was holding onto his shirt as though it was a lifeline, he rubbed her back, trying to get her to calm down,
"They replaced him Nick. They replaced him so quickly." Her voice was muffled but Nick managed to make out what she had said,
"I know, I know." Tears were soon forming in his eyes as he watched the broken girl shiver as she cried. There was nothing he could do but let her get it out of her system. She soon calmed down a bit and let go of him, wiping her eyes,
"Sorry." She mumbled, motioning to his shirt.
"Its fine, go and clean yourself up, yeah?" the twenty year old nodded and left the room.
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As she walked up the corridor to the locker room, she prayed that Becker didn't see her like this; Lorelei didn't want him to think she was weak. She hurried past many scientists and techies, mumbling her apologies to those she walked into. She shuffled into the small locker room and began to unlock hers, looking for a compact mirror and a makeup wipe, with this job it always help to come prepared. She began to wipe the mascara from her face and apply some more foundation when she heard movement behind her. She turned, expecting to see Nick or Becker. No such luck. A large, fair skinned man glared at her, motioning his head to the side of the room,
"Stand over there." Lorelei tilted her head at the man, she vaguely recognised him, but from where? When she didn't move he pulled out a gun, "Now." He said sternly. Lorelei nodded slowly and moved to the other side of the room, her eyes were wide and she didn't blink. The man pulled out a small knife from his other pocked and began picking the lock of Cutters locker,
"Hey, what are you do-"Lorelei stopped speaking mid-sentence as he aimed his gun at her. She inhaled sharply, she didn't believe it but she actually wanted Becker to show up. The intruder alarm sounded and Lorelei breathed a sigh of relief, the man was not fazed and continued to rifle through Nick's belongings, what was he doing? And why did she recognise him? Becker's voice quickly brought her back down to earth,
"Don't move! Turn around slowly and drop your weapon." The man just smirked and cocked his pistol in her direction, Lorelei let out a small squeak of fear and shot a nervous look at Becker, who seemed to get angry very quickly,
"Drop your weapon and get down on the ground now!" he called moving further into the room. The man just laughed and prepared to fire. Lorelei closed her eyes and prepared herself for the emense pain that would follow. A loud gunshot was heard, but to her surprise, it wasn't her that fell to the ground. She opened her eyes slowly and stared at the man on the floor, a bullet hole in his head. Lorelei let out a shaky breath as she slid down the wall; she took several deep breaths before standing up again,
"Thanks." She said her voice barely above a whisper. Becker nodded but said no more as Nick quickly made his way into the room,
"I know this man." His Scottish accent filled the room, he looked down at the dead man, "that's impossible."
"Why?" Becker asked quietly,
"Because I watched him die in the Silurian desert millions of years ago."
"When you and Stephen went through the anomaly in the pipe?" Lorelei asked, more confident now. Nick nodded and gave her a look, silently asking if she was alright, Lorelei nodded in response and closed her eyes as she sighed.
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"Cutter, this guy was eaten by a giant scorpion in the Silurian desert. I'd say that makes him fairly dead." Sarah sounded apprehensive after Nick had told her that he recognised the man. At this moment Lorelei was sat on the edge of the desk with a hot cup of coffee, she was still a little shaken up and hadn't spoken since the incident.
"I didn't say it made sense." Nick defended himself.
"Yeah," Lorelei spoke up, "but I recognised him too I just didn't know where from. How's that possible, cause I wasn't at work when you and Stephen went to the Silurian."
"Alright," Becker tried to make sense of the situation, "it's his identical twin."
Nick sounded sceptical, "So what's he doing here then, going through my laundry?"
Becker shrugged, "You killed his brother, so he steals your shirt." He was smirking as he finished his sentence; Lorelei rolled her eyes at his poor attempt at a joke. The Captain continued, "Look, you said it yourself. It doesn't make sense."
"There's another option-"Nick spoke but was cut off by Lorelei,
"Helen." She spoke softly, "You really think she's behind this?"
"She must be scarier than I thought." Becker stated thoughtfully.
"You can't even begin to guess." Lorelei said bluntly.
Nick tried to explain, "Rule number one. If something inexplicable happens, Helen's usually behind it. Trust me. She's back." Lorelei shivered at the thought of Helen being able to have access to the ARC, Becker noticed this, but said nothing, knowing she would only snap at him.
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Lorelei left that evening, still freaked out by the fact that Helen could infiltrate the ARC so easily. She was sat at some traffic lights and began to go through the scenes of the day in her mind, she noted the fact that Becker was there, when she needed him, much like Stephen used to be, she could have died today, but she didn't, and it was because of him, he had saved her life. The lights turned green and she drove home in silence, going over the day's events in her head.
She arrived home at about eight, she threw her keys in the bowl and turned on the lights, her apartment was open plan, and seemed empty, she had bought it after her dad had died, she had a boyfriend back then, so it didn't seem nearly as empty, she cast her mind back to five months ago, when she would come home and be greeted with the smell of dinner cooking, Shaun was almost always in the kitchen, creating new and exciting meals, he had always wanted to be a chef. He had got his big break when he was called out to Paris, they had ended their relationship on good terms, and spoke regularly, he now owned his own restaurant and was engaged to another chef he had met out there. The apartment seemed to big and unnecessary without him.
Lorelei sighed as she picked up her phone, she should really apologise to Becker and say thank you properly, she dialled his number and waited for him to pick up,
"Hello?"
"Hi," she didn't really know what to say, "It's Lorelei."
"Oh. Hi. What's wrong?" he sounded unsure, and who wouldn't be, she had spent every minute that she was in the same room as him either ignoring him or snapping at him,
"Nothing's wrong, I was just calling to say thank you for today, properly."
"oh." He seemed genuinely surprised that she was saying thank you, "It's fine, honestly." The conversation was getting very awkward, very quickly,
"And I really wanted to apologise for the way I have been acting, I've been an idiot, you probably hate me, I would hate me-"she began to ramble and was soon cut off by Becker,
"Lorelei?"
"Yeah?"
"You could've stopped at sorry."
Lorelei let out a weak laugh, "Yeah, I know. Well I am, really."
"Apology accepted."
"Good, I'll erm see you tomorrow?"
"Yeah. See you then." The line went dead and Lorelei sighed and went to pour herself a glass of wine.
R+R please.