A/N: I wasn't planning on posting this so soon, but after the way I ended the last chapter, I thought it was only fair. Only 2 more chapters to go after this, and then maybe on to another story hidden in the vault...?

Becker and Matt stumbled out of the anomaly as it quickly shut down behind them. "I guess Connor designed it so that it didn't give anyone else a chance to get through," Becker commented to himself as he straightened up, drawing Matt with him. They saw a red light flash twice before their eyes before it went dark.

"Where are we?" Matt asked as his eyes grew accustomed to the sudden darkness around them.

Becker squinted his eyes to see if he could make them adjust faster. "I think we're in the ARC," he replied hoarsely as he looked to his right and saw Lester's office, along with the lift doors in front of them. "We're in Ops."

"So where's everybody else?" Matt asked. Becker went to reply, but was stopped by a familiar sound.

The sound of an EMD charging up as it was aimed. He froze as a confident voice spoke from a fair distance behind him.

"Don't move." Becker's heart clenched at the sound, but fought the urge to whip around to see the speaker.

"Bloody hell, how did we end up with an EMD trained on our backs again?" Matt muttered quietly.

"We're a bit off our game, it seems," Becker replied softly with a chuckle.

"Turn around, slowly," the voice commanded. The men carefully spun around to face their assailant, both already knowing who they would see there.

Jess stood next to the ADD, a large EMD clutched tightly in her hands. Her right hand was poised over the trigger, but her eyes widened as she recognized them. Becker drank in the sight of her, living, breathing. His eyes travelled her figure, taking in the high red heels, the bare legs, the short yellow dress, his dogtags around her neck and the long red hair. But as he gazed at her happily, he saw something that caused him alarm.

A diamond ring and matching silver band rested on the ring finger of her left hand which was currently supporting the EMD. It was only visible for a second before she lowered her weapon, but he instantly knew that they weren't at all familiar.

"Oh, you two! What on earth are you doing, scaring me like that?" She put the EMD down on her chair, and moved towards them. "I thought you were down in the armoury. Did you see the anomaly that was just here? I've never seen one that close before!" She had reached the stairs by the time she stopped speaking, but suddenly she looked at them closely. "What happened to you? You're a fright! You look like…"

Becker said absolutely nothing, simply shocked to both see her alive and to see the ring set she wore. He watched her face as her eyes examined them both up and down. A few seconds later, as her eyes landed on the hand holding the anomaly device, her eyes widened again as she raised her them to meet his. "You're not supposed to be here!" she cried.

"Jess?" Matt asked, confused.

"You need to go, now!" She ran the last few steps to meet them, reaching for the device. "What's gone wrong?" she asked herself as she looked at it closely. "Of course!" she commented, playing with the knobs on top. "You've set it to the wrong year. You've just gone a bit too far ahead." She handed it back to Becker, raising her eyes to meet his with a gentle smile. "There."

"Jess," he whispered, his mind clouding as he gazed at her.

"Jess!" a pair of voices shouted from down the hall. She whipped her head around towards the sound before quickly turning back. "You have to leave," she told them, pushing them towards the lift.

"Jess, what's going on?" Matt asked, wincing as Becker pulled him with him.

"You'll find out soon enough, but now is not the time." She reached out and squeezed Matt's hand as she reached up and laid her palm on Becker's cheek. Not caring about the rings anymore, he leaned into her hand and kissed it. "Now go."

Wordlessly, Becker hit the switch on the device, creating the anomaly again. The alarm lights in the ARC went off as he let his gaze linger on her for another few seconds before running through the light with Matt. A split second later, the anomaly was gone, and the alarm lights went off.

Jess breathed a sigh of relief as she stared at where they had just been. She heard voices and pounding footsteps behind her, but didn't move until a gentle hand took her arm. She turned around and found herself looking into a warm yet concerned pair of hazel eyes. "Are you ok?" Becker asked as he shouldered his EMD and raised his other hand to her cheek. She nodded, giving him a smile.

"Did anything come out of the anomaly?" Connor asked as he lowered his EMD. Her eyes flickered to him briefly, before turning back to Becker and staring into his eyes knowingly. His eyes widened a bit in realization. He glanced down at what she was wearing, and everything clicked in his head. She nodded in response to his unasked question.

"That's right," he whispered, suddenly lost in memories. "But how did you know it wasn't me? This me, I mean. It's not like the uniform's changed, and I haven't got any grey in my lovely hair in the past year," he commented sarcastically, looking down at his black t-shirt and fatigues.

She giggled and blushed as she looked down. Composing herself, she looked back up into his eyes and gave him a beautiful smile. "You mean other than the fact that you were dirty, bloodied and looked like you'd just been through the ringer?" she joked. He smirked and her smile widened. "He wasn't wearing this," she finished.

It was only then that he realized that she had grasped his left hand, and was running her fingers along the band on his ring finger. He didn't need to look down to know what she was talking about, but instead gave her a knowing smile as his memory kicked in again.

"What?" she asked, curious about the sparkle that was now in his eyes. He lowered the hand that had been on her elbow to take her left hand, and brought her closer to him.

"Now I remember where I got the inspiration for this," he answered as he ran his thumb over the diamond. Her smile was luminous as she leaned up and kissed him. "Did you tell him how far ahead they'd gone?"

"No," she replied. "I knew you'd find out eventually," she told him. He leaned over and kissed her sweetly. "Now come on," she said, turning to move towards the ADD. "I have some paperwork to fill out for Lester about this before we can go home." He laughed lightly as he and Connor followed her back down the stairs.