Disclaimer: I don't own Primeval or its characters.

Summary: Becker's brother begins work at the ARC, upsetting the balance between two of the ARC's employees.

Genre: Romance/Humor

Rating: K+

Siblings

Jess was in the Hub. Lately, it had been feeling like that was where she spent all of her time. The ARC was getting a new lot of recruits for their military section and Jess had spent the last week working overtime, trying to get everything set up for their arrival today. It had been a time consuming task. First she had to add all their personal files to the ARC's database, then she had to program their ID bracelets with the correct clearance levels, before finally creating usernames and passwords so they could use the computer systems.

Yep, it had been a lot of work, and chances were it wasn't over yet. Jess had a feeling she would be spending this week explaining how the computer system and the ID bracelets work to them. Plus, Lester would no doubt have her give all the health and safety presentations. She's had to sit through so many of them she could probably give the presentation from memory by now.

At least she wasn't the only person whose workload had doubled as a result of this intake. Becker would have to spend this week preforming his normal duties, as well as; training the new soldiers on how to use the EMDs, assessing who was capable of being sent into the field, and who would require further training before receiving field clearance. He would definitely have his work cut out for him.

Jess knew she should feel bad for Becker. He was head of security and his job was already very demanding, he certainly didn't need the extra stress this week would put on him. But, like they say, misery loves company.

Currently Jess was with Clara—one of the administrators that worked in the Hub—seated at a work station as far away from the ADD as she could get without leaving the room. The pair were going over the report that would be sent to the Minister, detailing everything the ARC had accomplished in the last six months. Basically, just reassuring the Minister that this venture was still worthy of the funding it received.

"I think we need to change this paragraph here," Jess said, underlining the one she was referring to. "It's too wordy. It makes it hard to understand what we're trying to explain. What do you think?"

"Clara?" Jess said when she got no response from the other woman.

"Who. Is that?"

Jess followed Clara's gaze to see Becker and another man entering the Hub.

"That must be Becker's brother. He was one of the soldier that were recruited to join the ARC."

"There's another one? How did we get so lucky?"

Watching the two men, Jess could understand what Clara meant. Becker's younger brother was just as good looking as he was. They were both well over six feet tall, and both of their bodies had benefitted from the rigorous training regimes they're put through as a member of the military. Though the younger Becker was leaner than his older brother. They had the same thick, dark brown hair—Becker's slicked back in his usual style, his brother's stylishly messy—and Jess wondered if they shared the same hazel eyes. It was astounding, they looked like carbon copies of each other.

Seeing Jess, Becker threw her a smile before leading his brother across the open space and up the stairs to Lester's office.

"Okay," Jess said returning her attention to the report, drawing Clara with her. "I've written some suggestions in the margins and highlighted anything that I think needs to be changed. Most of it is grammatical errors and that sort of thing, I think you've included everything that the Minister needs to know. Maybe once the changes are made run it past Matt and see if he wants anything else added in, then bring it back to me and I'll give it a final proofread before it's submitted to Lester."

"Okay, thanks Jess. I'll get started on those changes now and then get it to Matt. Hopefully, I'll be able to have it done and ready for submission by the end of the day. Though, next time Lester's looking for someone to write up a report for the Minister, remind me not to bring up the fact that I did a double degree in administration and professional writing."

Jess laughed. "Sure."

As Clara returned to her work station, Jess decided it was probably time she did the same and reluctantly made her way back to the ADD. Sitting down in her custom chair, Jess began preparing for the health and safety presentations.

###

Jess slumped back in her chair, finished putting all the safety information into a PowerPoint presentation. It had only taken her half an hour to do this, which just went to show how frequently she had to sit through these types of talks.

"Hey Jess. Who's that in Lester's office with Becker?" Abby asked as she and Connor joined Jess at the ADD.

"His brother. He starts work at the ARC today."

"You mean we're gonna have to deal with two of 'em now." Connor groaned, not liking the idea of having another Becker around.

"I wonder what he's like?"

Jess shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't even know Becker had a brother until I got the list of new soldiers and his name was on it."

"Younger or older?"

"Younger. I think his file said he's twenty-three. I know it's not a big age difference, but I swear he looks like a younger version of Becker. The resemblance is uncanny."

"Still, he can't be as bad as Action Man."

"Who cannot be as bad as Captain Becker?" Emily asked as she and Matt joined the others.

Abby was about to answer, but before she could say anything the door to Lester's office opened and the Becker brothers exited, coming to join the rest of the team.

"This is the Alpha Team," Becker said to his brother as they approached the group. "Guys this is my brother, Private Edward Becker."

Jess looked at the other members of the team, who all had varying looks of surprise on their faces. They obviously hadn't believed her when she told them how much the brothers looked alike. Judging from their expressions they found it just as remarkable as she did.

Yep, same eyes as well. It's like he's a clone; though his face isn't as round as Becker's.

"Welcome to the ARC Private," Emily said, the first to recover her composure. "I'm- "

"Emily Merchant; historian," Private Becker said, interrupting her and giving the cover occupation Jess had come up with when the woman became a permanent resident of the twenty-first century. Jess had decided to pass Emily off as a historian in an attempt to explain why the woman had such intimate knowledge of the Victorian Era.

"Which must make the rest of you; Matthew Anderson, botanist and team leader, Connor Temple, head scientist and researcher, and Abigail Maitland, animal expert." The team stared at him, looks of surprise back on their faces. "My brother briefed me on the people I'll be working with as well as what to expect from this job. Which seems to be to expect the unexpected."

"Right," Matt said, recovering from his shock. "Well, welcome aboard. Seems like you know what you're getting yourself into. Sorry we didn't have a dossier prepared on you, but I'm sure Parker could have one up in a few minutes."

The group laughed, making everyone feel more at ease.

"Becker," Lester called from his office.

Both the private and the captain turned around.

"Right, this is going to get confusing," Lester commented, before clarifying who he meant. "Captain, can I speak with you for a moment,"

Becker strode over to Lester's office.

"You're not expecting us to call you 'Becker' are you?" Abby asked. "Because if you are, having two of you around is going to get annoying fast."

"Nah, I'm not like my brother. Edward's fine, or Eddy. Unless you can come up with something better."

"Action Man Jr it is."

Connor's nickname for the new soldier caused the group to roar with laughter.

"Lester is gazing our way," Emily said, the first to compose herself, as always. "He does not look pleased."

"Right, back to work. We've driven our boss crazy enough for one morning."

"Come with me Edward, I'll get you set up with everything you need."

"Right, I'm sorry, you were?"

Jess' chest tightened. He had no idea who she was. He was able to identify every other member of the team and list their job title, but he had no idea who she was or what she did. That meant Becker hadn't bothered to mention her in his briefing. He had told Edward about the others, going into enough detail for him to be able to identify them on sight. But he hadn't even mentioned her name.

Why would he do that? Does he not consider me an important enough member of the team? After the amount of times I've saved his life, do I not deserve to be mentioned?

"Jessica Parker; field coordinator," Jess said trying to hide how hurt she was. "But everyone calls me Jess."

"Wait. You're the field coordinator? You're Parker?"

"Yes. Is that a problem for you?" Jess knew that she was acting defensive because she was hurt by Becker's exclusion of her, but she had worked at the ARC for too long and helped save too many lives to be doubted by this newbie.

"No, not at all. It's just, from my brother's description of you, I was expecting someone…different."

"Well I can assure you, I may not look it, but I am more than capable at my job."

With that Jess spun her chair around and began typing furiously on her keyboard.

Becker let the door slam shut behind him as he entered his apartment. It had been a long day of introducing the new recruits to life at the ARC, and, naturally, one of them had managed to shoot himself while they were in EMD training, adding to the already large pile of paperwork on his desk. He'd had to stay well past the end of his shift to get it all done.

Walking further into the apartment, Becker found Edward—who was staying with him until he found a flat he could afford—on the couch watching TV, a beer in his hand.

"Hey bro, your home late." Edward said to him as Becker entered the room.

"Yeah, well, you should see the amount of paperwork I have to fill out every time one of my soldiers shoots themselves."

Edward laughed. "I take it today wasn't the first time that's happened."

"It happens every time there's a new intake of soldiers. It makes me wish for the days when the only idiot with a gun I had to worry about was Temple."

"Well, there's leftovers in the oven if you haven't eaten already."

Becker walked into the kitchen and opened the oven. Sure enough there was a tray with lasagne sitting inside it. Cutting out a slice, he put it in the microwave to heat it up.

That was one perk to having his bother around, dinners were no longer the few tasteless dishes he was able to throw together. Growing up, Edward had spent the evenings helping their mother prepare dinner, learning to cook in the process. Having him around was like having his mother there cooking for him, and Becker had always believed his mother cooked the best food.

Taking the now heated piece out of the microwave, he grabbed a beer and then went to join his brother in the living room.

"How did you find your first day?" Becker asked between mouthfuls.

"Good, for the most part."

"And the other part?"

Edward sighed. "I think I may have offended the field coordinator. Jess."

Becker tensed at Jess' name. He'd been trying to avoid talking about her since Edward had moved in with him, worried that his little brother would be able to see through his charade. The two of them had always been close as kids, and despite all the time they'd spent away from each other since he had joined the military, they were still able to tell when the other was hiding something.

Hoping to keep his reaction unnoticed, Becker stood up and took his now empty plate into the kitchen.

"Why do you think that?"

"I kinda insinuated that I thought she wasn't capable of doing her job." Edward told him, following Becker to the kitchen.

"Why would you do that? You haven't even worked with her yet."

"I didn't mean to. It's just, from everything you told me, I was expecting someone older, with more experience, and decidedly more…masculine."

"Masculine?"

"You always referred to her as 'Parker', I was expecting a guy. Not once did you mention that she…was a 'she'."

Becker shook his head. It was just like his idiotic brother to put his foot in his mouth like this. He didn't know anyone else who could manage to insult someone they had known for barely a day.

Well, Connor probably could.

"I wouldn't worry about it. Jess isn't one to hold a grudge."

He would check on Jess tomorrow when he got into work and make sure Edward hadn't upset her too much.

A block of her favourite chocolate should sooth any lingering hurt.

The next morning Jess sat at the ADD, using the super computer to go through the lines of code that made up the ARCs control systems. Something had caused the building to go into partial lockdown overnight, and Jess was determined to find out what had caused it. There hadn't been any creature incursions, nor had any of the ARCs security measures been breached, and when she logged on this morning she had seen that the lockdown hadn't been set manually. That meant the only other explanation was a glitch in one of the lines of code. Jess was going to find it, and fix it, even if it took her all day.

She was so absorbed in what she was doing that she didn't hear the heavy footsteps that were getting closer to her.

"Hey Jess."

Startled, she spun around to find Edward Becker standing beside her chair.

"Edward. What can I do for you?" She smiled politely at him. "You haven't lost your ID bracelet, have you? Don't feel too bad about it if you have, I've had to replace three just this morning. Though I don't understand how you've all manage to lose them already, you've only had them for a day."

God, do I have to start rambling around every Becker?

He smiled at her. "No. No, I haven't lost it. I, um, actually wanted to apologise to you. Yesterday, when you were getting me set up, I insulted you. You weren't what I was expecting of someone with such an important job, but I shouldn't have made a snap judgement about you. Especially since everyone around here has nothing but praise for you. My brother included, and he's a tough person to impress. I'm sorry if I made you believe I thought you were incapable of doing your job."

"Don't worry about it. People react the way you did, either because of my age or my appearance, all the time. I should be used to it by now."

"You shouldn't have to get used to people doubting your abilities. Especially if you're as good as everyone says you are."

"Thank you. People aren't often willing to admit they misjudged someone."

"You're welcome. I wanted to apologise properly, so I got you something." He handed Jess a small box. "There just milk chocolate, I hope you like that. I was going to get one of the boxes with fruit mixed in, that the somewhat pushy sales lady kept insisting where the most popular. But I couldn't bring myself to buy it, even if I wasn't going to be the one eating it. Fruit in chocolate is just too weird."

"I know! Finally, someone gets it."

"I take it you don't like fruit in your chocolate either."

"No, it's disgusting! Especially when it's orange in the chocolate." Jess shuddered at the thought. "Becker doesn't seem to get my aversion to it, he loves the stuff."

"My brother has weird tastes when it comes to food. He'll put mayo mixed with tomato sauce on chips, but suggest going to a new Turkish restaurant and it's like I told him we'll be eating crocodile."

Jess made a face at the mayo and tomato sauce combination. "Do you mean that new restaurant? The one that opened up ten minutes from here?"

He nodded.

"I've been wanting to try that place! But every time I try to go, something comes up."

"Do you want to go one day on our lunch break? I'm never going to convince my brother to try it, and it's no fun eating alone."

"Sure, sounds fun."

"Cool. Let me know when you've got the time to take a full lunch break and we'll go."

Plans made Edward left and Jess returned to searching the lines of code, opening the box of chocolates and popping one in her mouth.

###

It took her the whole morning—and the entire box of chocolates—but Jess had finally found what had caused the partial lockdown. She traced it to a virus in the system that hadn't been detected during the last scan. With the issue located, it was now just a matter of removing it and restoring the system to before the virus was introduced. Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she set the necessary programs into motion.

"Hey Jess, I've got next month's rotation of soldiers for you."

"Thanks Becker," Jess took the file from him. "I'll input it into the system as soon as I'm done fixing this problem."

She swung her chair around and, putting the file on her desk, got back to fixing the computer glitch.

"Working on anything interesting?"

"Not really. I spent the morning trying to work out what caused the lockdown last night. I finally traced it to a virus in the system, and now I'm just trying to set everything back to before it was introduced."

"How did a virus even get in?"

"It could've been a number of ways. If someone opened a spam email, or plugged in a USB that had a corrupt file on it, that could've allowed a virus into the system. Our defences are good, top of the line, but nothing's impenetrable."

"Well then it's good we've got you."

Jess smiled at him brightly. "Flatterer."

He chuckled. "I think I'm falling down on the job though. You had to buy your own chocolate."

"I didn't, Edward gave them to me."

"My brother?"

"Mm hmm. He was worried that he'd insulted me yesterday, so he got them for me to apologise. It was sweet of him."

"He didn't upset you too much did he?"

"No, and I may have over reacted."

Especially since it was you I was upset with, not him.

"Well, I'm glad everything worked out between you."

She smiled at him, then turned her attention to the now beeping ADD, the first program had finished running and the second needed authorisation before it could start.

Letting her get back to her work, Becker left the Hub, happy that his brother had been smart enough to apologise to Jess. No one liked dealing with Jess when she was in a bad mood. But were the chocolates really necessary?

It had been chaos at the ARC since the new soldiers had arrived. Normally they only ever got one or two new recruits at a time, but this intake the Minister had sent enough to form an additional response team. Which made preparing them to do their job incredibly hard. Becker felt like he had been running training sessions nonstop ever since they arrived on Monday.

Of course they still had the anomalies to deal with, and the last few alerts hadn't gone particularly well. Becker had been taking one or two of the new soldiers out on each alert, in an attempt to assess their response to the creatures. So far it wasn't inspiring confidence.

A lot of them froze up or became trigger happy upon seeing a creature. Not an unusual response and one that should be fixed with some more training. But if it wasn't he would have to recommend that they be removed from the ARC and positioned elsewhere. In their line of work, they couldn't afford to have anyone around that wasn't able to keep a level head.

Abby had been particularly annoyed at the soldiers that decided that the best way to deal with the creatures was to shoot at them consistently. The fact that all the creatures they had dealt with in the past week had been herbivores hadn't helped either. They generally avoided shooting at the plant eaters if they could, it made it easier to get them back through the anomalies.

It had been a long week, and Becker was in desperate need of some time away from the other soldiers. Which was how he found himself on his way to the Hub, to see if Jess wanted to get lunch with him.

He'd been so busy lately that he hadn't had the time to have a proper conversation with her since he had spoken to her about his brother a few days ago, and he found that he missed her company.

"Hey Jess," he said as he approached the ADD, knowing how much she hated it when he snuck up on her. "You planning to take a lunch break today? Or are you going to work through like you have been all week?"

"There is no way I am working through lunch, without there being an anomaly, ever again. I've spent so much time sitting in this chair over the last couple of weeks, I'm beginning to hate the sight of the ADD."

He laughed. "You've summed up my feelings of the armoury, the gym, and my office. Do you want to grab something to eat with me?"

"I'd love too, but I have plans with Eddy. You should come with us; we're going to this new restaurant ten minutes from here."

Becker frowned.

She's going to lunch with my brother? I hadn't realised they got on that well. Are they going on a date? But then why would she invite me?

Reassured by the fact that she wouldn't be inviting him if it was meant to be a date, Becker tried to push his sudden feelings of jealousy aside. But this wasn't something easily done.

"I can't. I have a meeting with Lester and Matt in half an hour, I don't have the time to leave the ARC."

"Okay. But next time you're coming with us. Promise?"

He smiled, her insistence that they all go to lunch making him feel better. "Sure."

Jess gave control of the ADD to one of the techs and left to go to the locker room. Becker lingered in the Hub for a moment, before deciding to grab his book from his locker and then have lunch in the cafeteria. At least this way he'll be away from his office.

Claiming a corner table, Becker flicked to the page he was up to and began to read as he ate.

Just as he was becoming absorbed in the story, something said at the table behind him captured his interest.

"…she's gone out to lunch with one of the new soldiers." Said a female voice.

Are they talking about Jess and Edward?

"Really?" Exclaimed a deep voice, this person clearly male. "I never thought she'd get over her crush on the captain."

"I know! But he asked her to go to lunch and she said yes. I was as surprised as you are when I found out. It'll be good for her though. There's less of an age difference, and this guy obviously likes her. He even bought her chocolates."

They are talking about Jess and Edward. But I thought it wasn't a date. Why didn't either of them tell me about it. Why would Edward ask her out? Doesn't he realise how I feel about Jess? How I thought we felt about each other. Everyone else seems to know.

"Well I'm happy for her," the man said. "And I'm glad she's finally realised the captain doesn't return her feelings. All that pining was starting to get a bit pathetic."

I do return her feelings! Fuck. What have I done? I've waited too long and now I've lost her. To my own brother!

Becker was pulled away from his thoughts as Abby and Connor joined him at the table.

"Hey Action Man, whatcha readin'?"

Not in the mood to talk, Becker lifted the book so they could see the title.

"I thought ya said ya didn't like Game of Thrones."

"No. I said I don't watch the show."

"But ya read the books?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'll be damned. Action Man's a book nerd."

Becker rolled his eyes at the statement.

"Are you okay Becker?" Abby asked, sensing that something was bothering the soldier.

"Fine. It's nothing. I've got work to do."

Gathering his things, Becker pushed his chair back and left the cafeteria, suddenly craving the solitude his office would provide him with.

Edward followed the other soldiers into the locker room, trying to stretch out his sore arm muscles. They had just finished a particularly gruelling training session. Edward knew his brother took his job seriously and wanted to ensure that there were as few injuries as possible, which meant making sure his soldiers were up to the task. But this was getting ridiculous.

In the two weeks that Edward had worked at the ARC his brother had always had them complete strict training sessions. But ever since he had got back from lunch with Jess last Thursday the training sessions had gone from strict to pushing them close to their breaking points. This had been going on for a week now and Edward was determined to work out what had caused the change in his big brother.

As the more seasoned soldiers collapsed onto the benches groaning, Edward pulled his locker open to change into his civilian clothing.

"Why's the captain working us so hard all of a sudden?" Asked one of the soldiers that had been recruited along with Edward.

"He doesn't usually train us so hard. He's stressed about something and trying to work through it. He's incapable of realising that the rest of us don't have the extra adrenaline to burn off." Amelia Johnson said, a soldier that had been with the ARC since it had reopened.

"That's just like him. He's miserable so he wants everyone else to be as well. I don't suppose anyone knows what's put my brother in such a foul mood for the past week? Cause I'm getting nowhere trying to figure it out."

"In all my years at the ARC, I've only ever seen one thing that can work the captain up this much." Said Mickey, a.k.a Corporal McKinnon, one of the older soldiers.

"Parker," the seasoned soldiers groaned simultaneously.

"Do you mean Jess?"

Amelia nodded. "Trust us, if Becker's in this bad of a mood, it has something to do with her."

"What do you mean?"

"She means," Mickey began. "That everyone 'round here knows how those two feel about each other. Everyone, that is, except the two o' 'em."

"It's so obvious, that there's a pool goin' on when they're gonna finally make it official." Blake spoke up. "If ya wanna get in on it, go speak to Temple."

Edward was shocked, he hadn't realised his brother felt that way about Jess, and normally he was pretty good at reading him.

Though, it would explain why he never mentioned her first name. Or the fact that 'Parker' wasn't the old man I assumed he was.

He knew his older brother was never the best when it came to dealing with emotions, but this was ridiculous. If their feelings were so obvious that Connor's started a betting pool, why hadn't he told her how he felt? Unless it wasn't true.

Either way, I think it's time someone set my big brother straight.

"I wonder who the idiot was," Blake continued, "that tried to make a move on Parker."

"Dunno. But if I find out who it was, I'm gonna make 'em regret it."

"Jess hasn't mentioned anybody asking her out. And we've been hanging out all week."

Blake, Mickey, and Amelia groaned.

"It's you," Amelia exclaimed.

"What? There's nothing going on between us. I took Jess out to lunch to apologise for being a jerk, and it turns out we have a fair bit in common. We've been hanging out ever since. End of story."

"Yeah, but to the captain it looks like you're dating."

"No wonder he's in such a bad mood," Blake groaned. "He thinks he's lost his girl, and to his own brother no less."

"You're being ridiculous. He knows there's nothing going on between us."

Or at least I hope he knows. Though I guess it would explain the cold shoulder he's been giving me. Well, there's only one way to find out.

"Don't worry, I'll talk to him. Though if any of you have taken part in that pool, you might want to change your bets. I don't think you'll be waiting much longer for them to become official."

###

That night, when the brothers arrived home, Edward decided to confront Becker about what he had learnt that day. But he would have to be tactical about his approach. He knew his brother well, and he wasn't going to get this kind of information out of him without tricking him into letting something slip.

"So," Edward said as he closed the front door. "You gonna tell me what's crawled up your arse and died? Or you gonna keep moping about like a pissed off teenager."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh come on Hil. Everyone can see you're in a bad mood, and have been for the past week. What I wanna know is why?"

"It's nothing. I've just…got a lot on my mind. In case you haven't noticed, I just had twenty new soldiers put under my command that I need to get trained so they can case after dinosaurs; and so far that hasn't been going so well. At the moment, a good day is one where no one shoots themselves. It's frustrating. So if you're wondering why I'm moping, that's why."

Okay, so that's how you're going to play it.

"Yeah, that's what Jess said when I asked her what she thought it could be. I guess I should have listened to her."

"Jess?" Edward watched as Becker's body went ridged, Jess' name had definitely triggered a response.

"Yeah, I asked her for her opinion when we went for coffee after you'd finished killing us with your training sessions."

"You two are spending a lot of time together." Becker's voice was tight as he spoke, and Edward struggled to hide a smirk.

Now, we're getting somewhere.

"Yeah," Edward shrugged. "I like her. She's sweet and kind, and she understands people. She keeps telling me you and I need to talk more."

Edward didn't miss how Becker's fists clenched when he said he liked Jess.

Gotcha! So you do have feelings for Jess. Huh. How did I miss that?

"What could we possibly need to talk about?"

"I dunno. She just thinks we don't talk about the important things enough. You know, relationships and that stuff."

"You know I'm not seeing anyone. Why? Is there something you need to tell me about your relationships?"

Becker crossed his arms, and Edward could see traces of anger and…something else—sadness? —in his eyes.

Oh brother, you make this too easy.

"Nothing urgent, it can wait until you've got less on your plate."

Edward clapped his brother on the back as he made his way past him to his bedroom.

That should give you plenty to think about. I reckon by tomorrow you'll be dying to know the truth.

Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.

People moved out of the way as Becker strode through the corridors of the ARC. After the conversation he had with his brother last night, he was now more convinced than ever that Edward and Jess were in a relationship, and he planned to confront them about it. He didn't understand why Jess hadn't told him about it, they told each other practically everything, she was his best friend.

As for Edward, he was surprised he hadn't realised how Becker felt about Jess. Everyone was always telling him his feelings were easy to see when it came to Jess. Heck, even Lester knew how he felt about her. How had Edward not seen it? Unless he didn't care that Becker was practically in love with her.

No. Eddy's not like that. He wouldn't do that to me.

Entering the brake room, he found Jess and Edward by the coffee maker, their backs to him. They were standing so close to each other that every time one of them reached for something on the bench, their arm would brush against the others. Edward said something and Jess laughed, slapping his shoulder lightly, before looking away. Becker's chest tightened. He was normally the one to elicit that response out of Jess.

That's it. I've missed my chance. I waited too long.

Jealousy surged through Becker as he watched Edward lean over and kiss Jess on the cheek, before leaving the break room through the opposite door.

Jess turned to get the milk from the fridge and noticed Becker lurking in the door way.

"Morning Becker," she said cheerfully. "How was your night?"

"Fine." He grunted, instantly altering Jess of the fact that something was bothering him.

She frowned at him. "What the matter?"

"Nothing."

"Oh come on, don't give me that. We both know I know you well enough to know when somethings really bothering you."

"Do you Jessica? Do you really? Because it seems to me that no one around here has a bloody clue about anyone else."

"Becker, what's wrong? Talk to me."

"What's going on between you and my brother?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why didn't either of you tell me you were dating?"

"We're not! Even if we were, it's not like it's any of your business."

Becker could tell that Jess was getting angry, and that he probably hadn't handled the situation in the best way. But he found that now that he'd started, it was hard to stop. Everything just came pouring out of him.

"It is! He's my brother and you're one of my closest friends. How would you like it if I started dating your sister?"

"It'd be weird, but I wouldn't try to stop you from being together! So long as the two of you were happy, that's all that would matter. I'd just have to learn to live with how it made me feel."

"Well I'm sorry we can't all be as mature as you Jess, because for me, it's just too weird."

"Fine! I won't go out with him" Jess shouted, throwing her hands in the air. "Not that I was ever planning to."

Becker thought he heard Jess mumble something that sounded like 'I'm not his type.' But right then Becker didn't care what type of women his brother was attracted to, so long as he and Jess weren't in a relationship.

"I'll just die alone, with a bunch of cats. I'll be a crazy cat lady."

"What? Why would you say that?" All of Becker's anger faded away at her words. She sounded so forlorn, and a sad Jess was not something Becker wanted to see. Every time she was in a bad mood, he always made it his personal mission to cheer her up.

"I don't know if you've noticed Becker, but men don't seem to take a lot of interest in me. I've work here two, going on three, years and no one's ever asked me out, and yet all around us our co-workers are coupling up. So it's not like the fact that I'm a co-worker would be deterring anyone. It's the same when we go out, men seem to keep five meters between us at all times. You might of thought there was something going on between me and Eddy, but nothing is further from the truth. So what am I supposed to do? Beside buy a bunch of cats."

Becker hadn't realised this upset Jess so much. Which was stupid. No matter how much someone enjoyed being single, eventually they were bound to wonder if there was something wrong with them when everyone around them was in relationships. But all he'd been able to focus on was the fact that it meant he still had a chance. If he was ever able to work up the courage to ask her out that is.

"You could, go out with me." He muttered, unable to look at her.

"What was that?"

He sighed, then meeting her eyes he continued. "I care about you Jess. I care about you a lot. More than I can remember ever caring for anyone. I'd like to try and have a relationship with you. A proper one. If you'd be willing."

"Are you asking me on a date?" She asked warily.

He nodded.

The next thing he knew, Jess had stepped close to him and was using the front of his vest to pull him down to her, pressing her lips against his. The kiss grew in intensity, and Becker wrapped his arms around her waist as Jess' hands moved up his chest to the nape of his neck, where she promptly began running her fingers through his hair.

They pulled apart, both of them breathing heavily.

"You have no idea; how long I have wanted to do that." Jess told him.

Becker laughed and pulled her back to him, kissing her again.

Edward, Matt, Connor, Abby, Emily, Amelia, Mickey, and Blake stood around the ADD. They had pulled up the CCTV feed for the break room and had been watching the exchange as it happened.

The group let out a cheer as they watched Jess pull Becker to her and kiss him passionately.

"What the bloody hell is going on out here?" Lester demanded, drawn out of his office by the noise and quickly crossing the space to the ADD.

Connor gestured at the screen displaying the couple kissing for the second time.

"Well it's about blood time." Lester mutter, before sliding his stern boss façade back into place. "Right. Everyone back to business. And someone go remind the lovebirds that this is a place of work."