Well… I don't think a simple apology is going to suffice this time. I do have an excuse though – exams were Hell and then I was in Romania for 2 weeks working with Blythswood, so writing has been fairly low on my to-do list of late. But, thankfully, this is the final chapter, so I hope you have all enjoyed it and thank you for all your support! x
Becker loaded the gun in silence, enjoying the weight and coldness of it in his steady hands. He was a soldier, a husband and a father – it was a dangerous mixture considering his entire family was in danger, but it gave him the strength he needed to focus on saving them. He had never felt a greater desire to shoot someone as he did now, and Rowland would be his first target. If he had harmed her… either of them… He gripped the gun tighter, his finger stroking the trigger in a soothing motion before placing it on the table. First, he had to find Jess and Bella, then he could worry about killing the man who had taken them.
Returning to the Hub, he found a group of his men clustered together, going over the map Abby had brought for them to analyse. He strode over, knowing it was his responsibility to take charge, and they quickly separated to let him into the group.
"I want every man available in order to check the immediate vicinity of Rowland's flat. We're looking mainly for the two agents employed by him to take… Bella, but also for him directly. Go door-to-door to see if anyone has seen them or if they have noticed anything suspicious today or recently. Understood?" His voice was stern and the entire team nodded, knowing that to ask questions right now would be a bad idea.
Once they had dispersed, Becker rubbed his eyes and tried not to lose control yet. He had to save his fear and anger for when he found the man who had done this.
"Becker," Matt called, beckoning him over to Lester's office where Abby, Connor and Emily were already waiting. He nodded and jogged up the steps, already feeling drained from everything that had happened today. It hadn't been that long ago that he had said goodbye to Jess, and now he wondered whether it would be the last time he ever got to see her again. He winced at the thought and pushed it to the back of his mind. He couldn't afford to think like that right now.
"We've been trying to think of other possibilities – anything that Jess might have said or done before she disappeared. It might give us some clue as to where she went. You spoke to her, the past her, about how she had gone without warning?" Matt asked.
"Yes. She couldn't believe that she would ever leave us, and she promised that she would come back. That's it."
Matt nodded and frowned, his mind working overtime as he tried to think like Jess. Had she said anything unusual to him the last time they had spoken?
"A mother would never leave her child unprotected. Never," Emily mused, currently seated on the arm of the leather couch. They turned to look at her, but she was miles away, now considering what Jess could have done to save Bella if she wasn't around.
And then it hit her. "The bracelet. My God, Becker, it's the bracelet!"
She jumped to her feet before rushing out of the office, the rest of them following behind her.
"I was flicking through some photos, trying to build up a bigger picture of the days before Jess left. And now that I think about it, the last two photos before she went are different. Look."
She handed over two photos, both of Bella and Jess smiling at the camera. They had been taken only a couple of days apart, and as far as he could see, they were almost identical.
"It's the bracelet. In the first, Bella doesn't have it on. And in the second, she does. Don't you remember? Bella lost it when we were all at the park, and then it miraculously reappeared a week later. It's the bracelet!"
He saw it too, now that she mentioned it. "She did something to the bracelet," he whispered, giving a relieved laugh as he realised how clever his wife truly was.
Matt turned to Connor and told him to run a scan on all tracking devices owned by the team and see if any new ones had been added. The scientist, eager to redeem himself for having let Becker go through the anomaly, hurried off in the direction of the computer to do as he'd been asked.
"I think we're going to find them," Abby said, smiling at Emily and then at Becker, who gave her arm a quick squeeze.
"Me too," he replied, crossing his fingers in a silent prayer that his wish would come true.
xxx
Jess gasped as the stranger entered – a tall, dapper looking man carrying her darling daughter in his arms.
"Let me hold her," she whispered, taking an automatic step forwards. Rowland's gun pressed against her chest stopped her immediately.
"This isn't a reunion, Jessica. The only reason she's here is so that you know I have her. She's mine now."
Anger boiled in her blood, burning in her veins as she kept her eyes trained on his face rather than her child. If she looked at Bella again, she would never be able to focus on what she had to do. And she had to do it. She had to kill him.
"I am her mother. Nothing will ever change that," she replied, her mind numb and heart emotionless. A calm had come over her, and nothing mattered but the gun in his hand.
Rowland smiled and took Bella from the man's arms, his malicious smile now clearly evident as he tightened his grip on her daughter. Jess's heart ached seeing her so close, but she knew that unless she remained detached, she would never hold her daughter again.
"I truly wish you weren't a part of the ARC – I think you would have made just as valuable an asset as your daughter. But then again, without the ARC, you would never have met your charming husband, and this tiny miracle would never have occurred." He kissed the top of Bella's head, and the reigns Jess had been gripping so tightly began to fray rapidly. How dare he touch her daughter!
"Give her to me," she warned, feeling herself quickly letting go of all rationality as her desperation increased. She couldn't stand him holding her baby, no matter the danger she was placing them both in by ordering him to let Bella go.
He gave a cold laugh and lifted the gun again, but this time not at her, but at Bella. "Why don't you come and get her."
xxx
The motorbike revved as Becker turned on the ignition, and he pushed on his helmet quickly, watching the garage door rising slowly.
"Be careful!" Abby called, though she knew he would do anything to save them, even if it killed him in the process.
He gave a quick nod to her and then checked the co-ordinates of Bella's tracker on his mobile. Three miles away. He could make it; he had to. There was no way he was going to lose them now, not when they were so close to him. Not when he was the main reason for them being in danger in the first place.
He checked the flashing red dot on his map one last time before kicking off the concrete floor, and Abby watched him leave, knowing full well it could be the last time she saw him again.
Returning to the Hub, she was immediately welcomed by her husband's open arms which she gladly accepted, sighing as they enfolded around her. Connor was the only man on this planet who could single-handedly infuriate her one minute and calm her the next. She loved him, though, and it was only now that she realised just how important that truly was.
"Promise me you won't ever leave me?" she whispered into his t-shirt, feeling the warmth of his skin beneath the thin fabric and hearing his heart beat a little faster as she pressed in closer to him.
"You know I would never leave you unless it was for your own good," he replied, wrapping his arms tighter around her.
Abby looked up at him, a crease appearing between her eyebrows. "You leaving would never be for my own good. Never."
Connor kissed her forehead and smiled sadly. "I'm sure Jess and Becker would have thought the same, but sometimes you have to leave to make sure your loved ones are safe. If it had been me, how could I have lived with myself knowing that each second I was with you placed you in even more danger?"
"But being without you is even more dangerous! I would never be that strong, Connor. I couldn't cope without you…" Her voice trembled and she clamped her lips together, knowing that today had made her overly-emotional.
He brushed his hand against her cheek and sighed. "Abby Temple, I swear that I will always protect you, or die trying. You are the most important thing in my life, and nothing and no one will ever change that fact."
He dipped his head and kissed her gently on the mouth, smiling as she leant into him and deepened the kiss. If there was one thing he had in common with Becker, it was the love they each had for their wives.
xxx
Thirteen flights of stairs. Becker had no time even to punch the wall in frustration, so instead sprinted up them, three and four at a time, knowing each second that was lost could mean a second too late to save them. His heart was pounding, his mouth dry – he felt physically sick with fear. As he neared the floor he was looking for, his legs began to tremble uncontrollably, and it took everything he had not to collapse on the hard ground and cry. He didn't want to imagine what he would find when he crashed through the door. Would his wife be dead? Or his innocent daughter? Would they be injured or broken or bruised? Cruel, horrific images flashed before his eyes, making his head swim with terror, as he raced towards No. 52.
Rowland had paid for a flat using Lester's name over three months ago, and it matched the coordinates of the bracelet Jess was hopefully still wearing. Becker was just rounding the corner when he heard it – a gunshot. Not an EMD, but a bullet firing from an automatic pistol.
His stomach lurched, he grabbed the railing, and the entire world tipped. He swayed where he stood, clutching his stomach and groaning as the sheer agony of the situation took hold. But even if she was dead; even if they were both dead, he had to see them. He had to at least say goodbye.
Tears pricked behind his eyes but he was too frantic with grief and pain to care now. He stumbled towards the door, shoulder braced ready to break it down, and found it ajar. There was silence from within, no screams or cries, and it was almost worse to hear nothing. It confirmed his worst imaginings. He was too late. He hadn't saved them in time.
A sob tore from within him as he pushed the door open, his eyes scanning the hallway for the bodies he knew he would see. It was empty. Knowing instinctively that they would be round the corner, Becker carefully crept down the hallway to what he assumed was the living-room, his gun ready to kill the bastard who had shot his wife and child. A white hot rage coursed through his veins, burning like fire as he rolled his shoulders and raised his gun.
He kicked open the door, storming into the room with his finger ready to squeeze the trigger. And for the second time in the space of 5 minutes, the world tilted violently. On the floor of the living-room were three bodies, all of them men. And standing behind them, with her own gun raised at him, was his wife, their child in her arms.
Before he knew what he was doing, Becker had dropped the gun, clambered across the bodies and pulled Jess into his arms, unable to stand the excrutiatingly short distance between them. She dropped her own gun and allowed one arm to loop around his waist, while the other still held her daughter close.
They were still embraced when the rest of the team arrived with the police, and no one dared break apart the family reunion just yet, knowing they entire Becker family needed time on their own.
xxx
"Higher! Higher!" Bella squealed as Connor and Abby pushed her swing up into even more dizzying heights. She giggled and wriggled in her seat, her arms outstretched and her head back, those soft, auburn ringlets dancing in the breeze.
The rest of the team were seated on the array of picnic blankets spread across the lawn, laughing and joking as they watched Bella give another shriek of excitement.
It had been almost two months since Becker had crashed into flat No. 52 to find his wife and daughter very much alive, and since that day they had been trying to piece their family back together.
Once both Jess and Bella had been checked over by the medics, she could finally explain everything to the team, most importantly how she had thrown herself at Rowland and managed to grab his gun before he could shoot either Bella or her. It was a risk she could no longer believe she had taken, but was sincerely glad her desperation and courage had allowed her to make the right choice at the time.
Becker, although overjoyed to have them both safely back in his arms, still struggled with the fact that he had caused all of this to happen, through his utter selfishness at wanting to see Jess again. No amount of soothing on her part could alter the truth – he had broken every rule by taking the past Jess through an anomaly, and by allowing his own desires to take over, he had created this beautiful, unique little girl that could easily have been killed. Because of him. Jess watched as his frown deepened and quickly took his hand, knowing just how much it hurt him to look at his daughter, knowing she could have died.
"Are you two ever coming back to the ARC?" Matt enquired, receiving a sharp elbow to the ribs from Emily who gave an apologetic look at Jess.
She simply smiled and turned to her husband for an answer.
Becker wrapped a protective arm around her waist and pulled her closer. "Maybe. Bella's young and I think we need to spend some time with her."
"Well that's going to be tricky, then. You and Jess gone. Abby and Connor away on an actual honeymoon. And Emily on maternity leave…"
Jess's head shot up and Abby gasped as everyone turned to look at a blushing Emily.
"Oh my God!" Jess squealed, climbing over the picnic blanket to give her best friend a bone-crushing hug. They giggled together, and Connor gave Abby's shoulders a squeeze.
"It'll be us next," he whispered, unable to keep the smile from his face as he imagined a little boy or girl calling him 'Daddy'.
Abby raised her eyebrows at him. "Why don't we start with the honeymoon first," she replied though she was also hiding a smile.
As the couple came over to join the rest of the team, it seemed as though, finally, things were going back to the way they had been, before all the death and fear consumed their lives. Jess looked at her husband and daughter, safely beside her, and at her friends smiling and laughing around her, and realised her life couldn't get any better.
As she pulled Bella onto her lap and held her close, Becker's arm tight around her waist, she thought with a smile: this is what home feels like.