"Stephen, mate! Jeez," Connor couldn't quite get the words out. He just stuttered a bit and eventually gave up. He didn't care that Stephen was looking at him like he was a nutter; Connor just laughed and hugged him, which startled the soldier.

Connor pulled back, smiling. "Rahhh," he exclaimed animatedly, a cheeky smile on his face. He noticed the way Dian and Stephen were staring at him. His smile didn't fade, though; he just said, "What?" in the very typical Connor way.

"Dian, who is the man? And why did he just hug me?"

"1st Lieutenant Stephen Hart, this is Connor Temple," Dian introduced the two. She hobbled as best she could over to Connor's side, leaning against him for support. "Connor is a bit… affectionate." She laughed. "And, uh… he apologizes for hugging you. It's just, you obviously are someone he knew in this universe, you see?"

Stephen nodded. "Yes Ma'am; I understand. Permission to speak freely, ma'am?"

"Of course, Stephen." Although Stephen was one of the highest soldiers at area 51, he always thought of Dian as a much higher authority. Obviously because of her father and the position he held as a soldier… but Dian never liked the way the soldiers treated her as such.

"Thank you ma'am." He turned his attention to Connor. "If I might ask; what was your acquaintance with my alternate? Who was he, and why do you act as if you've not seen him for years?"

Connor's face turned solemn. "Well… ya know, let's just say he, uh… had an accident. He sacrificed his life to save someone he cared about…" His thoughts immediately went to Cutter, and as always, he thought about the day Cutter died in Connor's presence. He forced himself not to think about it. "Look, I don't want to talk about any of this. Um… we should fix Dian's arm and leg, anyway."

"Of course," the soldier succumbed. They walked Dian into the ARC's "Health care and management" room… or so Lester liked to call it. All it really was was a small room with a hospital bed shoved in the middle of it and a light stuck above that. They had a personal doctor hired for the team there, but it wasn't much.

"Ow!" Dian complained when Dr. Morgan Scott, the ARC's personal doctor, stuck a needle into her arm.

Connor stood in the corner, trying not to faint from seeing that needle. Stephen stayed next to the bed and watched over everything Dr. Scott was doing.

"Excuse me; could you not breathe down my neck please?" Dr. Scott directed at Stephen.

Connor looked pale when he turned and talked to them. "Stephen, why don't you go fill everyone in on what's happened? The next room over; talk to James Lester, yeah?"

Stephen looked directly to Dian. "Ma'am?"

She nodded. "Yes; go… I'll be fine."

He nodded once, reluctantly, and left the room. This obviously pleased Dr. Scott. "Connor, come hold Dian's hand… this is going to hurt her."

"What?" Connor's face went paler when he saw the large needle Dr. Scott pulled out and prepared.

"I need to give her a muscle relaxant; some of the damage done to her leg has torn the muscle and tissue. This should help to relax the muscle as well as relieve a bit of the pain." He finished preparing the liquid in the needle and motion for Connor to come to Dian's side, and he slowly did so. "This is going to hurt more than the last shot, I'm afraid, but it will quickly subside. Just, hold her hand, Connor… sometimes it comforts patients." He smiled reassuringly. "Now, drop your pants."

Dian laughed, but did as she was told. Connor automatically turned his head away awkwardly. But, he held her hand when she took his hand in hers.

Dr. Scott was just about to put the needle into her thigh when she grabbed his hand to stop him and yelled, "Wait!" which, in automatic reaction, made Connor look and he naturally blushed and looked down at the floor; he was still just as awkward as if they'd never done what they'd done, although that fact only made him blush more at the moment.

"What is it?" Dr. Scott inquired to Dian.

"Um…" She leaned forward and whispered in his ear; not wanting Connor to hear that she was making sure the medicine wouldn't harm her baby. Although she didn't know yet if she was pregnant, she wouldn't take the chance.

After she explained to Dr. Scott, he smiled and said, "Yes, yes it will be fine. And, congratulations to that."

Dian smiled slightly. "Thank you."

"Congratulations to what?" Connor said, not looking up from the floor. Obviously he'd seen Dian in her underwear around the flat all the time when she was living there… but having had intercourse with her had made it awkward for him. It was just a dorky, Connor thing.

"Nothing!" Dian said quickly. "Just… give me the shot and let's get this over with." She held Connor's hand again and Dr. Scott pushed the needle into her leg quickly. He was right; it did hurt, but not for long. Almost immediately she felt the effects.

"Sit down," Dr. Scott directed, helping her up on the bed's edge.

She pulled her trousers back on and sat on the edge of the bed. She laughed upon seeing Connor still looking at the floor. "Oi, Connor… it's okay, I'm decent again."

He looked at her and blushed again. "Sorry…"

Dr. Scott looked back and forth from them for a moment and then said, "Okay. I'll leave you two alone for a bit. I'll just go and get some raps and such for the wounds." He then left, and almost immediately after, was preceded by Stephen who came back into the room.

"Stephen. Did you fill Lester in on everything?" Dian asked.

"I did. His men are cleaning up right now, from the predator's attack." He paused for moment, looking at Connor and then he looked back to Dian. "Might I have a word with you, ma'am… alone?"

"Oh… yeah, yeah. Uh, Connor, you don't mind, do you?"

"No, that's fine… I'll just go…" He gestured to the door but didn't finish the sentence, just walked out the door.

Stephen walked to the bed. "Permission to-"

"Yes," she interrupted, knowing what he was going to say.

He nodded once. "Ma'am, I would like to know if it's true… what Mr. Winchester told me yesterday."

She didn't understand. "And what did Alex tell you?"

"That… you were… pregnant, ma'am."

She froze. "What?" she whispered. "How… how did he know?"

"So… it's true?"

"How did he know?" she repeated.

"He told me the doctor called your flat and told him, ma'am."

She was upset that Alex knew, but at the same time she was excited about the fact that her suspicions had been confirmed. She was pregnant. But, what really made things complicated, was that it couldn't possibly be Alex's… which meant it was Connor's. How was she going to tell him? The whole reason she'd left was so he could be with Abby… but how was that going to work if Dian was carrying his child? So… maybe she shouldn't tell him. She swallowed hard, her face evidently worried.

"Are you alright, Dian?" Stephen asked.

"Fine," she lied. But she defiantly wasn't fine… she had a lot to sort out.

"Cutter! Cutter, snap out of it!" Jason was yelling, trying to get Cutter back to reality as he zoned out when Alex told him Dian was pregnant.

"She was pregnant… and now she's gone…"

Jason couldn't stand to see Cutter like this. "Maybe she's not, Nick. Perhaps she managed to get through an anomaly that wasn't overrun by predators."

"And what are the chances of that, Jason? Slim to NONE! Stop being a fool! There's no way she could have survived that!" He tried not to cry, but there was no stopping it; he'd just lost his daughter.

Jason was willing to suggest anything to make Cutter feel better. "Nick… I've had successful DNA construction before. Perhaps… perhaps I could take-"

Cutter grabbed him by the shirt in anger. "What are you suggesting, Jason! That we make a clone of my daughter! Don't you dare bring your scientific shit into this! Leave it be, Jason… just don't! Alright?" He dropped him and sat on the brick wall that lined the pavement and the grass. He wanted to get his mind thinking about something else; anything else. "What do you mean you've had successful DNA construction before? When?"

"A while back… about 16 years ago, when I helped Abby Maitland and Connor Temple with their problem."

"What?" The mere mention of Connor's name angered Cutter, but he didn't understand what Jason was talking about.

"Well… they came to me 16 years ago. Mr. Temple and I had once been friends and he knew he could trust me. They said they couldn't conceive a child. Or rather… Ms. Maitland couldn't. So I took DNA from both of them and did an experimental construction of the two DNA's. For the most part it worked perfectly. Only… something went a bit wrong. Not that it had much effect on the child, but…"

"What?" Cutter prodded.

"Well, didn't you ever notice how Michael Temple had green eyes?"

"So…?"

"Well, Nick… Connor had Brown and Abby had Blue; it's not scientifically possible for their child to have green eyes. I suspected it was a bit of genetic mutation, but it didn't seem to have an adverse affect on the child, so I made no bother of it…"

"But, you're saying that you basically created Mike Temple?"

"In a way… yes. But, he's still flesh and blood human, at any rate."

Cutter was thinking about the whole thing when he heard a gun cock and a lot of rustling as Alex armed himself. "What are you doing, Winchester?"

"Fixing what I created. I won't sit around while my doing destroys the rest of the human race." He paused and then held a gun to Jason's head. "But first… you tell me why I did this. You did this to my head; so you must know why the hell I would do something like this!"

"I-I Don't know. I would guess that there is something in Area 51's database that would have shown something to do with the future anomalies and how we were working with them. And something must have triggered your reaction to do what you did… but I honestly have no idea!"

A growl formed deep in Alex's throat and he cocked the gun. "Alex!" Cutter yelled at him. "This will not solve anything."

"No… but it'll make me feel a hell of a lot better…" His finger instinctively pulled back on the trigger a little. "Don't worry… you'll be next."

"Alex!" Cutter grabbed his arm, attempting to pull the gun away, but Alex shifted the gun to his head, instead.

"Or maybe you'd like to be first!" His eyes turned white, his finger sliding back to pull the trigger… and nothing, not even his conscience now, to stop him from killing Cutter right then and there…

The anomaly shimmered, exposing her to the cold and damp elements of present-day London. Her long hair blew in the cold wind. "Well, well… looks like we made back after all," she said in a menacing and familiar voice. "Back to where it all starts…" She walked a little ways, heading to the large building in front of her… heading to the ARC…

TBC in Chapter 5!

Please Review... review are gold!

Can anyone guess who the mysterious "she" is that just got the ending cliff-hanger all to herself? Hmm? Anyone? Anyone at all? :)