Disclaimer: I don't own Primeval or its characters.

Secrets

Chapter 6 – Lost

Monday morning was quiet, something Jess was incredibly grateful for. Since she had gone to Lily's birthday on Saturday, Jess had spent Sunday doing all the errands she normally completed on Saturdays. The long day of running around was followed by going out to dinner with some old uni friends, which on its own was an exhausting affaire. They had gotten in late, which normally wasn't a problem for Jess, but when combined with a day of running around the city, and having to get up early for work the next morning, it made for one incredibly tired young woman. No amount of coffee seemed to help and she was thankful that they had made it to lunch without an alert.

Naturally, when Jess got up to go on her lunch break, her luck ran out and the alarms began to blare. Groaning she turned around and ran back to the ADD. As she worked on pinpointing a location, Becker appeared at her shoulder.

"What've we got Jess?"

"Give me…a minute…got it. Crap, it's a far one. The anomaly's located in the centre of what looks like an outdoor shopping plaza in a small town about an hour north of here."

"Well we better get going then," Matt said as the rest of the team reached the ADD. "Let us know if anything comes through Jess."

"Will do. Be careful." Jess called as they headed out.

"I'll even try to stay warm." Becker said turning back to her, causing Jess to blush.

By the time the team reached the location Jess had given them a creature had come through the anomaly. The dinosaur was parading around the plaza, thankfully causing minimal damage.

Jess sent an alert out to the local police, claiming that there was an escaped animal and asking them to alert all civilians to remain indoors until the creature was dealt with. The message had been relayed to the business owners in the area and once all civilians were off the streets their doors were locked.

"Stegosaurus," Connor said as they arrived on sight, immediately identifying the dinosaur. "A herbivore, so it won't try to eat us, but I'd still avoid making it angry."

Jess watched on through the CCTV connections as the team got to work sending the creature back home and closing the anomaly, offering whatever help she could.

"Right," Matt said as he began issuing orders. "Connor, go lock the anomaly, we don't need anything else coming through. The rest of us will try and heard that thing back down here. Once it's close enough open the anomaly back up and be ready to lock it again the moment it's through. Let's get to work."

Connor ran off in the direction of the anomaly, a locking device in his hand, and moments later the anomaly was closed.

Meanwhile the rest of the team had set about trying to get the dinosaur back to the anomaly. Two of the soldiers had driven a pair of SUVs around to the other end of the plaza, hoping to use them to push the stegosaurus back in the other direction. The plan was working, but it was slow as the large animal wasn't exactly scared of the two cars, so it moved at its own pace. Jess was sure there was a way they could get it to move faster.

"It looks hungry," Jess said thinking aloud.

"And how is that helpful?" asked an irritated Becker.

"I was just thinking, if it's hungry, maybe you can use food to lour it back through the anomaly."

"It's worth a try." Matt said, open to any plan at this point.

Working off Jess' idea, they started ripping the leaves off the fern trees that had been planted in the area. Getting as close as they dared to, they waved the leaves in front of the dinosaurs to get its attention, once they had it they begun to move back in the direction of the anomaly. Much to Jess' satisfaction the plan she had come up with was working far better than what they had tried originally.

With the stegosaurus close to the anomaly now, Connor turned the locking device off so it could go back through.

It was then that the dinosaur started to get a bit too interested in the leaves Emily was holding up, backing the woman into a parked car and setting its alarm off. The sudden loud noise spooked the creature, causing it to turn around quickly. It's tail hit Becker in the stomach as it turned, sending him flying across the plaza and through the unlocked anomaly, which blinked out of existence once he was on the other side.

"Becker!" Jess screamed having seen what happened over the CCTV.

Lester came running out of his office at the sound of the young woman's scream.

"What the bloody hell is going on? He demanded.

"Becker…Becker…he…he was…thrown through the anomaly. It…it closed behind him." Jess' voice shook as she spoke.

Lester lay his hand on Jess' shoulder in an attempt to comfort her, he—like everyone else—knew how the Field Coordinator felt about the Captain.

"Jess, we've got the stegosaurus sedated and loaded for transport. We're on our way back now."

"Copy that Matt." Jess was grateful she had had the foresight to send a clean-up team and transport truck with them when they left for the anomaly, as she was sure she wouldn't have been much help at the moment.

There was chatter coming in over the radios as Jess tried to process what had just happened. Two of the soldier were arguing about whether they should put some plants in the truck in case the dinosaur came to. They continued to argue until Abby came and put an end to it, telling them that even if they were to do that, the plants they had gathered were useless as stegosauruses didn't eat lilies.

The words caught at something in Jess' mind and she gasped. Turing her earpiece off she turned to Lester, who was still standing behind her.

"Becker's girls! What are we going to do?"

After the rest of the team retuned, their black box data was downloaded, and the stegosaurus was put in an enclosure in the menagerie, Jess was called into Lester's office. She spent most of the afternoon in there, discussing with Lester what they would do about Becker's daughters. Neither of them wanted to leave the girls to fend for themselves, but they didn't have a clue as to what they could do for them.

After a lot of discussion, it was decided that Jess would tell them what happened; they both thought it would be better if it came from someone the girls knew. Then in the morning they would contact Becker's parents and proceed from there.

Which was why, at the end of her shift, Jess found herself driving to Lily's childcare centre to collect the four-year-old.

Arriving, Jess found the girl waiting in reception with her bag packed. She broke out into a toothy grin when she saw Jess come in.

"Jessie, are you picking me up today?"

"Sure am sweetie," Jess tried not to let on that anything was wrong.

No one tried to stop Jess as she left with Lily, Becker had added her name to the list of people that could pick the girl up weeks ago. Which Jess was grateful for, as she didn't know what she would do if someone had tried to stop her. Jess would have hated it if she had to explain to Lily that her father wasn't coming home in the middle of such a public place.

Jess helped Lily into the car seat she had taken out of Becker's car—where it was buried in the boot—then went around and got in the driver's side.

Lily filled the silence as they drove, regaling Jess with tales of her day, a welcome distraction from the thoughts that had been plaguing her mind since Becker had gone flying through the anomaly. But all to soon they were at the Becker household, where Jess knew Maddie would be waiting, and her worries descended on her again.

Jess let them in and when Maddie saw the woman instead of her father she instantly grew wary.

"Where's Dad?"

"Um…that's what I need to talk to you about." Jess said as she went to sit on the couch, pulling Lily onto her lap. Maddie sat next to her, looking up with wide eyes, and Jess had to fight back tears.

"You guys know your dad's a soldier, right?" Jess continued, happy her voice wasn't shaking.

Both girls nodded.

"Right, well, as a solider, his job can be dangerous, and he often has to go into dangerous situations."

Maddie's eyes widened as she begun to understand Jess' words. "He hasn't died, has he?"

Lily's head whipped around to look at Jess, tears already in her eyes.

"No, he hasn't," at least I hope he hasn't, Jess added silently to herself. "But, this morning he went out on a mission with the rest of our team. And…well…he, um…he hasn't come back yet."

"When will be back?" Lily asked, not understanding why Jess and Maddie looked so upset.

"No sweetie, what I mean is everyone has already come back, expect for your Dad. He's missing and we don't know where he is."

"Daddy's not coming home?" Lily's eyes filled with tears again as she looked at Jess.

"Oh honey, we don't know that. He could still find his way back; and in the mean time we've got our best people trying to find him."

Which was true, Connor had lock himself in his lab with the data from the day's anomaly as soon as they got back. He was determined to find a way to reopen the anomaly and bring Becker back. Jess had a feeling that if he knew about Lily and Maddie, Connor would end up working day and night.

Lily flung her arms around Jess' neck and buried her head in her shoulder. Jess could tell by the way her body shook that the little girl was crying, and she wrapped her arms around her, pulling the four-year-old close, offering what comfort she could.

Maddie, on the other hand, moved as far away from them as possible and curled up into herself. Jess wasn't sure, but it looked like the older girl was crying as well.

Well why wouldn't she be, she just learnt that she may never see her dad again.

She waited patiently as the two girls grieved the loss of their father. Once they seemed to be doing better Jess told them that they would spend the night at her place tonight and they went to pack each of them an overnight bag.

That night passed in silence, all three of them grieved for Becker. Though Jess tried to hide how upset she truly was. She had two little girls that needed her to be strong and take care of them that night, and that was what she was going to do, it was what Becker would want her to do.

Tomorrow, her and Lester would speak to Becker's parents and the girls would then have a new home, but until then it was Jess' job to look after them.

They all went to bed early that night, exhausted by how emotional that day had been.