It was only when she followed him out of the room that she managed to identify this new feeling that had sprung up in side her.

Uncertainty.

For the first time she was just as clueless as everyone else.

Jess followed Becker out of the hospital and soon she found herself being driven in a car with two other soldiers. She looked out of the window as the scenery of dull, twilight suburbia flew past and revelled that in that moment, had she not have known otherwise, she could have been back in her own time. A time that she was pretty sure didn't exist anymore.

Neither Becker or the soldiers made any move to engage her in conversation but she didn't take offence. The soldiers had been nothing but courteous to her but she could almost see them trying to restrain their wary glances. As for Becker she could see the stress lines that marred his face and how fixedly he stared out of the windscreen as he drove and resolved to leave him be for the while.

In truth, she was in no condition to hold a conversation with anyone either. The news that two people had followed her into this time had shaken her. It brought home the fact that from now on she was as blind towards future events as everyone else around her. It was a feeling to which she had grown curiously unaccustomed.

~o~o~o~

The place it turned out that they were heading to was a small corner street shop. There they greeted a hysterical shop owner and his wife as they tried to explain how they had seen two people fall out of a golden light.

The wife was the first to calm down enough to properly explain what had happened. She said they'd just been closing up shop when they saw a strange light from the street corner and had gone out to investigate further. What they had seen had left them speechless.

A man and a woman had been thrown out from the anomaly and sprawled across the floor. Jess frowned at this part, she couldn't think of a time when she had ever see anyone be thrown out of an anomaly.

The woman continued her story tearfully. Apparently, the man and the woman had run into the coming night while the light blinkered out of existence.

"Am I mad?" She had asked eyes wide. Jess had hastened to assure her she wasn't. She was all too aware that the woman was talking to her while Becker organised his two men in the background. She couldn't hear their conversation but the occasional snippets made it back to her, "possible hostile" and "necessary force" were just a few. Strangely, they didn't make her feel better.

The woman, it seemed, was not reassured either. She started to shake and without thinking Jess put her arm around her. The woman turned to her mournfully, "They said you want to see the CCTV, though I'm not sure how much good it'll do you, the picture's terrible…"

Jess rubbed the woman's arm soothingly, "Can you remember what they look like at all?" She asked more out of a need to distract the trembling woman than any actual desire for information but she listened just the same.

The woman nodded vigorously though made no attempt to escape from Jess's comfort, "Yes. The woman…let's see, she had brown hair. Long and curly like she was going out somewhere…and she was pale! I remember thinking it was strange because of the nice weather we'd been having but she looked like a sheet of paper."

Jess's heart started beating faster. She knew lots of woman with curly brown hair there was no reason for this to be the one she was thinking of. There was nothing to suggest that this was Emily…except she was one of the palest people Jess had ever met. Emily had explained to her once that in her time it was the fashion to be pale not brown like it seemed to be so often the case here.

Emily had adapted remarkably well to the new century but she had kept many of her quirks with her and disdain of tanning was but one of them. Jess had never seen the Victorian woman avoid the sun but where other woman applied foundation Jess had always watched on in amusement as Emily applied sun screen.

She pushed these thoughts from her mind, there was no reason in getting her hopes up to be dashed, it was best to be sure after all.

"And what about the man?" Jess prodded gently.

The woman swallowed before speaking, "He was the one to get up first and he came over to me…"

"Did he speak to you?" Asked Jess urgently. The sudden change in her demeanour seemed to unsettle the lady as her eyes grew wide again.

"Yes," She all but whispered, "He asked me where they were and then they ran off."

"That's it?" Jess asked feeling the disappointment wash over her in waves, "You can't remember anything else?"

The woman rolled her eyes up to the ceiling as she searched her memory for any lost titbit of information, "No, I don't thin- wait yes! The man, he had an Irish accent!"

Jess paled but couldn't stop the wide smile that spread across her face.

~o~o~o~

The woman's husband had calmed down enough to see his wife and it was only after they'd both been foisted off onto the neighbour's that Jess approached Becker.

"I know who they are." She said confidently, "And you won't be needing those." She said with a pointed look towards the guns that had been carried out of the car once the shopkeepers were gone.

"Oh?" Said Becker raising an eyebrow, "So, who are they?"

He wasn't expecting the calculating and slightly appraising look he got from Jess. It was like she was trying to decide something and if he were quite honest it put his nerves on edge.

"Come with me." She said cryptically.

~o~o~o~

If Becker had felt uneasy before then it was nothing compared to how he felt now. The first of his qualms was how Jess had dismissed his men. She had done it with such authority that he saw the confusion flicker across their faces before he nodded at them and told them to help assist at whatever temporary base the ARC had managed to set up. He knew that it probably wasn't the best idea to disappear off with Jess at a time like this, especially after the last stunt she had just pulled, what with vanishing for a week, but he went with her anyway.

He trusted her.

But right now that that trust was pushed to its very limits. It wasn't enough that she wouldn't tell him where they were going or who these people were but she was driving. She was just about the least threatening person he had ever seen but every one of his military instincts was screaming at him to take over and not be led like this. But she had insisted and he had gone along with it. It was almost embarrassing how easy it was for her to convince him.

She had been talking, probably what was no doubt a very well constructed and reasonable argument but he hadn't heard a word of it. He had been to focussed on her. For the first time since he had seen her since she ran off she looked…happy. No maybe that was the wrong word for it, he thought, hopeful, he decided was a better one. Her eyes had been sparkling, her mouth talking a mile a minute and her hands flying everywhere as she tried to get him to agree. How could he disagree?

Still, he was beginning to regret his decision as she turned into another side alley and pulled up the car. It was fully dark by now and night was fast approaching as emphasised by the rapidly dropping temperature. He saw Jess hug her arms to herself as she got out of the drivers side to the door and frowned. She only had a thin t-shirt on that she'd been wearing in the hospital it looked like it was doing nothing to keep her from the cold.

Without thinking about it he crossed to her side of the car, shrugged out of the heavy black jacket fatigue he'd been wearing and draped it across her shoulders. She looked up surprised but thankful at him and he awkwardly looked away.

He'd never been any good at things like this and the situation was stranger than any he'd been in before.

"So where is this place?" He asked to try and break the sudden tension.

"Just an old abandoned warehouse, I think." Said Jess staring at the looming building half hidden in the oppressive shadows.

"How'd you know about it?" He asked his voice lowering as he continued to stare at the building.

There was a pause that he wasn't expecting and when he turned to look at Jess he found her already staring at his profile, her gaze inscrutable, "This is where I stayed when I ran off," She said looking back up at the building, "My stuff should still be here and if I'm right so should they. Come on." With that she actually reached out and grabbed his hand to pull him inside.

The inside of the building turned out to be no less foreboding than the outside. It had obviously been abandoned for a great many years though there was little to show for it apart from peeling walls and hanging cobwebs.

"How did you know about this place before you ran off, then?" He asked, his voice unintentionally lowering further into a whisper.

Jess didn't answer for a moment, "We…erm,…well, I know this place because we came here once." She said and even in the poor light Becker could see her face darkening in a blush, "You were on a stakeout, I brought you Chinese and we ended up diffusing a bomb."

Becker gaped for a second, "We diffused a bomb? How on earth-"

"Because I'm brilliant." She said as she cut him off with a cheeky grin.

He would have retorted but from above them came the creaking of floor boards and what sounded to be incredibly muted voices. Becker was immediately on alert cataloguing every possible way to get both him and Jess out of the building unharmed but it seemed she had different ideas.

At the sound of the voices she had all but lit up and was now walking with more purpose than before. When they came to the end of the corridor and a long flight of stairs she began her ascent without hesitation.

Becker stayed close behind her, close enough to pull her out of harms way if need be.

He could tell the second that they were on the right floor as the voices of the two unexplained travellers drifted down the hallway to meet them.

"-there's no guarantee Emily, we don't know where we are let alone where!" The voice was definitely irate and if he wasn't mistaken Irish as well.

"Matt, look at this technology!" Becker noticed the use of the name, Matt, this must be the man who led the ARC in the future. He looked over to Jess for confirmation but only saw her wince at what he guessed was a reminder that her project had left behind, "Who else could have made such a thing? All of this and a bag of clothes for a woman her size, who else could it possibly be?"

The quieter male voice spoke again, "It could be her. That's all I'm saying because we can't get our hopes until we know a bit more, okay?"

There was silence in the conversation. Becker looked at Jess and was surprised to see that her eyes were surprisingly glassy, wait here she mouthed at him and before he could grab her she walked straight into the room.

There was another beat of silence.

Then all of a sudden a scream rent the air, "JESS!" It was the woman, Emily. Becker walked forward unobtrusively to stand in the doorway where he went unnoticed. From what he could see Jess was being all but smothered by another woman.

The woman in question matched the description that Jess had eventually shared with him. She was indeed pale with a head of fly away curls although that was where his information ended.

It was strange but she had an air about her that matched the stilted tone of her voice and the way she held herself. But the main thing was he didn't think she possessed any threat and so let his eyes naturally move on to evaluate the man.

He had the look of a leader about him, though Becker wasn't sure if he was letting his own limited knowledge of the man taint what he saw. His hair was cut close but he truly looked nothing out of the ordinary. Someone you could pass on the streets a hundred times and never learn to recognise.

Soon, he too, had walked over to the two woman.

Gently, he prised them apart and when he did so he could see that Emily, who was undoubtedly the older of the two woman, had tears running down her face despite the smile that threatened to light the entire room.

He held Jess at an arms length as though studying her for a second before he too pulled her into a tight hug. From the way Jess seemed at a loss of what to do it was apparent that this was not normal behaviour.

When he had released Jess both he and Emily seemed to burst into speech at once,

"Jess, we looked, honestly we looked everywhere-"

"We had two teams go through the anomalies but we still couldn't find you-"

"Connor feels absolutely wretched about the whole thing-"

"Abby's been going insane-"

"The Captain has been beside himself!"

"That's true actually, he won't talk to any of us, we were starting to get a bit worried-"

Jess cut them off and Becker could hear the suppressed laughter in her voice, "Guy's I'm fine! I've just missed you so much!"

The woman Emily made some sound as if to return the sentiment but Matt talked over her in what was a much more astute voice. "Jess that's not your coat." He said as his eyes took her in critically before looking up.

Jess opened her mouth as if to answer but no sound came out so Becker decided to help her out. He took a step forward and cleared his throat.

The reaction was instantaneous.

….

A/N- Hello again! I hoped you liked it and if you did (or didn't) please leave a review! This chapter was out fairly fast so here's to hoping for another regular chapter!

Well done to all of you who guessed that it was Matt and Emily and I assure that everything will eventually be explained,

All the best,

VE

Ps. I took some liberty in describing Emily but again if it wasn't explained this chapter it will be eventually J