Bend It Like Becker
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Chapter 36 - EXTREME ERUPTIONS
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Becker spent the next few hours frantically searching for Jess. Abby hadn't understood why he was so concerned, but what could he have said? He couldn't explain about leaving Jess sobbing on the field without giving away her affair with Chas, and he didn't want to muddy the waters when their focus should be on finding her and making sure she was safe. Instead he'd merely told Abby that he and Jess had had a minor disagreement, and the last time he'd seen her was at the park, which wasn't exactly the whole truth but wasn't quite a lie either. Abby had tried to elicit more details, clearly upset that they hadn't gone on their date, but Becker'd kept her questions at bay by bringing the topic back to the search.
The moment he'd rung off with Abby, Chas had called back. The prat actually seemed genuinely concerned about Jess, which was somewhat reassuring - at least he wasn't simply using her but actually cared. Of course, clearly he didn't care much for Ghani or else he never would've cheated on her in the first place, but Becker decided not to dwell on that at present. And since neither Chas nor Ghani had any idea where Jess might be, Becker rung off quickly, eager to start ringing the others.
Matt was first on his list, but it was Emily who picked up his mobile. This momentarily threw Becker, so he ended up giving away more to her than he'd intended.
"So you raged at her and then walked out on her," Emily summarised. "That wasn't very gentlemanly, was it?"
Becker wanted to snap back defensively that Jess's behaviour hadn't been very ladylike, but he kept that to himself and rung off quickly.
Moving on to the next soldier on his list, Becker felt a knot in his stomach as he punched in Scott's number, since the flirtatious soldier seemed just the type to take advantage of a weeping girl. Luckily Scott hadn't seen her last night, though he'd apparently met her and Emily at the Dog and Pony a few nights previous. Becker frowned at this new information - Jess hadn't mentioned anything about going out for drinks with Scott, and Becker now wondered what else she'd kept from him. But then he reminded himself that the Jess he knew - the innocent girl who was obviously sweet on him and blathered on whenever she was nervous - no longer existed. Instead, a new Jess - a lying, cheating, manipulative one - had taken her place, and Becker was still having a hard time keeping that in mind.
After ringing the other soldiers - all to no avail, as no one had seen or heard from Jess since practice - Becker decided to go out and start physically searching for her, since he couldn't simply stay in his flat just waiting for bad news. He quickly got dressed in his football kit, not wanting to come back to his flat beforehand in case his search ran late. Before leaving, he retrieved the one photograph he had of Jess. It was a snapshot of the two of them, taken at the last Christmas party and then tacked up onto the canteen's bulletin board. Jess had looked so cute in her festive holiday frock that Becker had secured the photo for himself, burying it in the bottom of his sock drawer. Now he was thankful he had because he'd at least be able to show it when inquiring if anyone had seen her.
His first stop was the park. He wasn't quite sure what he expected to find - some clue, perhaps, as to where she'd disappeared to - but her car was no longer there and he was extremely grateful that at least he found no signs of a struggle. Of course, in the state she'd been in, she might've gone willingly with a stranger without leaving a trace behind, a thought that sent chills up Becker's spine.
He tried to think of where to check next. Abby and Connor had promised to stop by the cafe and off-license and other places near their flat, so Becker decided to try the French restaurant where he'd planned to take Jess on their date, since he knew how much she'd been looking forward to her chocolate souffle. The whole idea of their date now seemed so far away - even though not 18 hours had passed, Becker's whole world had turned upside-down in that short time.
Unfortunately the waitstaff didn't recall seeing her last night. "Non, monsieur, she was not here last night. I would have remembered such a belle jeune fille, certainement!" the maitre d' said as he handed the photo back to Becker.
After that, Becker simply started going to every place he could think of that Jess had ever mentioned - cafes, sweet shops, even shoe stores - but no one had seen her. He even tried the Dog and Pony, as a last resort, to no avail. Walking out of the pub, he glanced at his watch. It was getting late, and he realised he should be getting to the match - even with good traffic, he already wouldn't get out to Hillingdon before 1300. As he started heading out for the M4, it occurred to him there was one place he hadn't yet checked. He turned the car around and sped towards the ARC, feeling foolish that he hadn't thought of it before.
Driving into the underground carpark, he was relieved to see Jess's car near the lifts. However, his initial sense of relief was replaced almost instantly with anger. If she'd been here all this time, why hadn't she bothered to ring her flatmates and let them know her whereabouts so they wouldn't worry? The old Jess never would've been so inconsiderate, but clearly this new one - the one who lied and slept around with other people's boyfriends - would. And she needed to know that that simply wasn't okay.
Becker pulled his car to a screeching halt next to hers and sprinted up the stairs, too angry and impatient to wait for the lifts. He stormed into Ops, demanding, "Where's Jess?"
Ravi turned from his seat at the hub, shrugging. "No idea. She was here one moment, covering my shift, and the next she was gone. Didn't even say she was leaving."
Becker gave a frustrated sigh. How typical of the new Jess to be irresponsible as well. He made a quick sweep of the corridors to see if she was still in the building, but she was nowhere to be found. Finally he realised he simply couldn't waste any more time - as the coach, he couldn't afford to be late to the kick-off. So he returned to his car and sped off for Hillingdon, going over and over in his head all the things he planned to say to Jess when he finally found her.
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As Lester pulled his Jaguar into the carpark, Jess took a deep breath, steeling herself for what lay ahead. The ride had calmed her considerably, as had spilling her guts to Lester, though she doubted her heart-felt babbling had had a calming effect on her guv'nor. And while she was still apprehensive about seeing Becker again, she found it upsetting that she had not seen his car in the carpark, as it was nearly two o'clock.
Walking across the grass towards where the others were gathered, Jess couldn't help but smile seeing them all in their matching red shirts - they actually looked like a real team.
"There you are," Abby said cheerfully as Jess approached. "Where were you? You okay?"
Jess nodded, wondering why they might think she wasn't. Her tears had dried on the drive, and a quick glance at her reflection as she was getting out of the car showed her eyes were no longer particularly red. "I'm fine," she said tentatively, not wanting to give too much away.
"Becker will be relieved to hear that," Connor said.
Jess stared blankly at her flatmate. Clearly Becker hadn't cared much about her well-being when he'd verbally assaulted her in the park, so why care now? But before she could comment, she heard Emily's voice calling out.
"Jess, I'm glad you're safe. Are you...well?" Her question seemed pointed, as if she knew something had happened. But even if she did, Jess couldn't discuss it here, with the others around.
Instead, Jess gestured to her friend's blue and white goalkeeper jersey and gushed, "Love the uniform."
The former Victorian smiled. "Since the rest of the team was in red, I thought I'd go the patriotic route."
Jess nodded. "I approve." Just being surrounded by her friends again was making her feel better.
Though that feeling didn't last long.
"Where are the other footballs?" Matt asked patiently, nodding towards the field were Duggan and O'Rourke were currently practicing with the one football Emily had brought.
"Oh no!" Jess exclaimed, suddenly realising why the rest of the team had just been milling about instead of practicing. "They're back in the boot of my car. I didn't even think to bring them!"
"Don't worry about that," Neela said. "We have a bigger problem - the match is about to start, and we're one man - more specifically, one coach - down."
"S'okay," Connor said, nodding towards the carpark. "Here he comes."
His words practically made Jess's heart stop. She braced herself, not knowing what to expect - from him OR from her - and turned to find the soldier storming across the grass.
"Where the hell have you been, Jessica?"
Jess merely stared blankly at him as he approached. Ever since last night, she had imagined a million different scenarios about how their first meeting might go - she had pictured him sullen and rude, or blatantly giving her the cold shoulder, or perhaps simply ignoring her all together. But she certainly hadn't expected him to immediately start yelling at her again, especially about her whereabouts - what difference should it make to him where she'd been?
"I've been worried out of my head looking for you," he went on angrily as he reached her side. "I called everyone, but NO one had heard from you. I checked the park and that stupid French restaurant of yours and even the Dog and Pony, but not a single person had-"
"The Dog and Pony?" Jess repeated, surprised that he even knew the pub. "Why on earth would you look for me there?"
"Oh right, because that's another secret you thought you were keeping from me," Becker said snidely. "However, Scott blew the whistle on his little rendezvous with you and Emily on Thursday night."
"You were with Scott at the pub?" Matt asked Emily, frowning, obviously not having heard mention of Scott in the equation before.
"No," Emily said shortly, frowning back. "We merely saw him there."
Jess rolled her eyes. "What is it with the jealousy and suspicion with you boys recently?" First Becker, and now Matt - really, what was their problem?
"Well, it seems MY suspicions were well-founded," Becker said pointedly.
"Omigod!" Jess exclaimed angrily, all the frustration finally catching up with her. "First of all, I am NOT having an affair with Chas! And second, I'd think it was bloody obvious to anyone with a brain that Scott is the last person on earth Emily or I would EVER sleep with!"
"Uh, thanks," Scott mumbled under his breath as Neela turned on Jess, asking, "Wait, you and Chas?"
But before Jess could respond to either of them, Emily turned to Matt to comment, "Jess is correct in my intentions regarding Mr. Scott. However, I don't believe that I'm required to account for every moment I spend away from you, Matt - you're not my husband...nor anything else, at present, other than merely a flatmate," she said pointedly.
"Um, guys?" Connor tentatively interceded, sounding uncomfortable with all the dirty laundry that was being aired.
"Oh, so it's not an affair then?" Becker went on sarcastically to Jess, as if the others had never spoken. "So snogging in his car doesn't count?"
"I was NOT snogging ANYONE!" Jess insisted.
"Which you MIGHT have found out," Lester admonished, "if you hadn't jumped to ridiculous conclusions and left Jess sobbing in the middle of the park."
"Wait!" Abby said, turning towards Becker. "You left her WHAT? You said you two had a minor disagreement."
Jess gave a snort of derision. "Is that what he called it? A 'minor disagreement'?"
"You were SNOGGING Chas in the middle of the carpark!" Becker insisted. "I saw you! What was I supposed to do - just pretend it'd never happened and go ahead and take you out on our date?"
"Date?" NOW what was he talking about?
"Um, guys?" Connor repeated.
"Just use some common sense, Becker," Lester said. "Now why on earth would Jess be snogging Chas when he just got engaged to Neela?"
Ghani looked to her guv'nor, thoroughly surprised. "What? We're not engaged."
Lester spun back towards Jess, looking somewhat like a deer in the headlights. "But I thought you said..."
Jess frantically shook her head, horrified. "No! Not until tonight."
"Oh," Lester responded, clearly as sick as Jess over what he'd just done.
"Um, guys?"
"WHAT, Connor?" Abby snapped impatiently.
Cringing at his fiance's tone, he pointed across the pitch. "Have you taken a look at our competition?"
Everyone turned to watch the RSID team warming up. Every player had their own football and was kicking it around in such a way that Beckham himself would've been envious. It was clear that every single one of them was not only a true athlete but an actual footy player.
The ARC team, however, didn't have much time to dwell on their imminent slaughter for the referee blew his whistle, letting them know it was time to start the game.
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to be continued