Ok, so anyone who has read my other story will realise I feel the ARC is probably ridden with paperwork; it's a Government facility (at least in part) after all. But it got me thinking: How would Becker react to it?
Disclaimer: I own Primeval... only joking, I don't.
"...And that is how you contain a small dinosaur. Any questions?"
A couple of hands flew up in order to express a concern over the demonstration, using a willing Rex with a protective Abby looking on, about how to capture a small dinosaur. The procedure had been formalised after Matt made the note that if a swarm of dinosaurs came through, having only a couple of people with the skills to catch them wasn't going to be a lot of help; it was a wonder this hadn't been done after the diictodon incident, but the leader supposed that there was too much going on that day for anyone to look back and complicate things with another set of instructions to follow.
"Sir." Lilton stood up. "What if they're poisonous?"
"I refer you to my starting comment of 'don't touch until Temple has IDed them'. If anything should come up after that, we'll send out word to drop them, then take a sample to construct an antidote, but we're pretty certain that this is highly unlikely."
"Because 'highly unlikely' never happens in this job," came a sarcastic voice from somewhere to Becker's right. A female voice.
"Jess?" The small woman stepped out into the demo area and Becker could sense all the men craning to see what was about to happen between their Captain and the Field Co-ordinator, which could only be entertaining.
"I'll tell you what else is 'highly unlikely'." Becker inwardly flinched at her tone. "You filling in your paperwork properly!" A snicker arose from someone.
"I did on time!" protested Becker, feeling rather puzzled.
"I said properly! And by properly, I do not mean you putting the following under the 'Details' heading. 'Temple was faffing around, so I shot it before it could eat him."
"That's what happened!" stated the Captain.
"I'm pretty sure you could add some more. What are you? A twelve year-old getting out of homework."
"Excuse me..." Jess looked expectantly for the excuse that Becker knew he was going to completely fail to provide; he just didn't get on with paperwork and though normally he tried his best, this one was a routine call-out, if such a thing existed, and he couldn't be bothered. Not while there were more pressing things. "I was busy," he finished, lamely.
"You were busy! What about me, going through your half done reports?" cried Jess. She chucked the pages over the Captain and stormed out. Becker grabbed them all up and hurried after her.
Lilton leaned across to Abby.
"Well?" Abby smiled as she cuddled Rex.
"The sooner they get it together, the better." There was a murmur of agreement.
Feedback would be appreciated.