I saw Nick standing in the middle of the road as I came back and I had just enough time to reaffirm to myself that he was okay before I stopped the car and climbed up onto the top of the seat.

I grabbed the tank and passed it over to him.

'What's this?'

'Elephant piss,' I responded, 'it's female, with a bit of luck he'll follow the scent.' I swung my legs down out the side of the car and jumped down. 'There's a safari park one junction down. Connor and I went there for his birthday every year from his 8th until he turned 24. We went to Guadeloupe that year.'

Nick grinned back at me, leaning in to smack a kiss onto my forehead. 'Brilliant!' he said.

We ran back towards the anomaly, weaving through the vehicles before we stopped and Nick pointed the hose down at the road and sprayed the urine on the ground.

The mammoth was downwind of us. It didn't take long for the mammoth to catch the scent and a moment later he turned.

'Okay,' Nick said, 'alright, come on. Let's get you back–'

I grabbed his arm, head turned back behind us where the anomaly had been a few mere seconds earlier. Only now there was just a big empty space. And we hadn't even seen it close, we hadn't even noticed before we'd called the attention of the animal and now it was coming towards us.

'Shit,' Nick noted under his breath. 'Now what?'

Wide eyed, I continued to stare at him for a moment or two longer before my eyes darted around.

The truck.

I pointed quickly in explanation and nodded Nick took off towards it.

'Connor's in that truck!' I called after him, stepping down the embankment of the hard shoulder to jump over the barrier.

'Connor!' Nick continued towards it, the nozzle of the hose still pointed at the ground and spritzing a calculating path of urine onto the road, among piece of broken glass and smashed headlamps. 'Pull up the ramp!'

Nick chucked the tank inside, diving out the way at the very last moment before the mammoth chased the scent up into the truck after it.

The ramp went up, the doors clicked shut, and I shut my eyes as I exhaled a long breath of relief.

'We caught a mammoth,' Nick stated. I climbed back over the barrier and made my way towards him. 'We caught a mammoth, Miss Havisham!' he said.

I returned his joyous smile. 'What a day at the office,' I noted.

I didn't realise at first why we were slowing down; I knew we'd be coming back up to the police tape at some point, and Connor and Jake were sitting in the back of the car talking so animatedly about Yu–Gi–Oh it had taken a lot more effort than usual to focus on the report I was already writing– because the mammoth would need to go somewhere when we got it back to the A.R.C, so it was a good idea that I had the papers ready by the time we got back ahead of it, so the preparations could be made.

I had the file in my lap, one leg up and draped across the dashboard so that the file could rest against my thigh and the papers didn't concave when I put my pen against it.

I wouldn't sit like this normally in a moving vehicle but being on a closed motorway with literally no other traffic and no way to cause an accident there wasn't much risk of anything bad happening.

I looked up, half expecting to see Jensen's concerned expression staring back at us through the windscreen as he waited on the other side of the tape, but Jensen was nowhere in sight. Instead, Stephen's car was parked across the road and he was standing in front of it. My eyes barely washed over him before they flitted across of their own accord and saw her standing there.

Helen.

My blood turned cold.

For me, it had been 2 years at least since I'd seen her last. It could have been longer for her.

When I was out there, it didn't cross my mind that I could have bumped into her hunting in the Devonian or swimming through the streams in the cretaceous for about a month. And after that I was half expecting to see her whenever I went anywhere.

I started to get paranoid about the twigs snapping behind me– especially when I'd turn around and find there was nothing there.

I'd soon reminded myself that I technically didn't have any reason to worry about her following me anyway. Because Helen had been somewhat of an unlikely ally so far.

But that didn't mean I was happy to see her.

The seatbelt rattled back into the holder as Nick pulled it undone and it startled me, tearing me out of my own stream of consciousness and bringing my gaze back around to him.

'Hey, what's…' the words died in Connor's mouth as he peered between the front seats and saw them both through the window.

Nick threw his door open and I had to quickly collect all the pages of notes to ensure they didn't blow away before I could follow. I pushed them up the dashboard as I undid my seatbelt and slid down.

'So where the hell have you been!' Nick demanded as he closed in on Stephen.

'Nick!' I called quickly after him.

'We could have been killed.'

'You weren't.'

'Not this time.'

'Is she with you?' Nick questioned.

'Not how you think,' Stephen replied.

'You been seeing her?'

'A couple of times but not like that. This is important.'

'Are you just going to ignore me?' Helen's voice echoed over. She cut into an apple with her knife. 'Are you, Princess? I understand it's been a while since we last met. You look different.'

I couldn't keep my attention away any longer. I turned my head to her. 'What are you doing here, Helen?'

'She can help us,' Stephen answered.

I didn't even have time to summon my most disappointed expression to use on him before Nick interrupted. 'You're fired,' he said.

'Wait– Just listen to me,' Stephen tried to argue–

but Nick had already turned towards Jensen and the police tape and started to walk away. 'If you think Helens here to help then you're just as bad as she is.'

'Nick!' Stephen groaned.

Nick stopped suddenly and spun around, eyes drawn in apprehension. 'Are you still in love with her?' He asked. 'Is that why you still trust her.'

Stephen looked taken aback. 'I am not in love with Helen,' he stressed in response.

'Then what?'

Stephen looked to me for some sort of back–up, but I reclined my head. 'Oh my god, Stephen.'

I didn't need to expand on my statement; it was already complete.

To my surprise, he just sighed. 'I know.'

'What?' I asked, 'you think there's something I can say that's gonna help you here?'

Stephen wisely shook his head. 'No,' he said.

'No,' I repeated in agreement. 'Then what is it? What's worth the betrayal? I really hope you've got everything you wanted for this.'

'I didn't betray– Helen isn't the enemy here!'

Nick rolled his eyes. 'No, you know what, do what you want!'

Nick walked away again, and hesitating for only a moment as I decided whether or not I should go back to Connor and the truck or after him, Stephen took a step towards me. 'Anna–'

I whipped my head around to him. 'Don't come crawling to me, Stephen, there isn't anything I can say to save you. You're way too late,' I told him. 'He doesn't trust you anymore–'

'I tried to warn you,' Helen interjected.

'Well good for you!' I finished. I reeled back around, heading back to the truck to rescue Connor and Jake, because Nick needed the space to cool off. Helen Cutter was a monster, I'd known that before, but seeing her now had told me something new: she was somehow– even if it was just a tiny bit–involved in all of this.

'Well don't get attached, you can't keep him.'

I didn't bother to turn around to the voice that proceeded the footsteps across the shiny speckled floor towards the enclosure we'd put Manny in.

Jake had apparently given him the name, Connor had passed it on to me, and the very least I had to admit that it suited him.

I reached into the bucket at my feet for another apple and held it out in my open palm for Manny's trunk to reach down and grab.

'What?' I returned, 'is there something wrong with my paperwork?'

Lester sighed. 'Is there ever, Miss Havisham?'

It was the only time he ever spoke to me. And not necessarily because there was a problem, he just usually read the files in the evenings and there was a lot of scientific jargon and calculations in my reports that he couldn't understand, so at that time of night when there was no one around to ask he had to come and find me himself.

'Did you know a Colombian mammoth's trunk is over 5 times more dextrous than an elephants'?'

'Why is everyone telling me facts about Mammoths today? Do I look interested?'

'Trust me, you'll be interested if it ever finds its way wrapped around you. Good luck trying to wiggle out that one.'

Lester hummed. 'Actually, I thought those tusks might well be worth something.'

As I turned my head to look at him, seriously questioning if we'd finally found his sense of humour, I saw him quirk an eyebrow at me as he raised his mug to his lips and took a sip.

'Careful,' I returned, 'it'll attack predators if it senses danger.'

He inclined his head. 'Really?'

I nodded. 'What did you come for then,' I continued, 'if it wasn't for me to explain toroidal electromagnetism to you?' Again.

He genuinely smiled at me. 'Promise you won't tell the others… I just wanted to look at it.' He passed one final look back up to the mammoth in the enclosure before he turned on his heel and walked away.

I stared after him, head tilted. Lester hadn't ever seen one of these creatures in person before. He'd stayed away right from the beginning because he hadn't wanted to get mud on his shoes, but even since I'd been back he'd kept a safe and careful distance from all that.

So this was new to him.

I'd lost count of the number of dinosaurs I'd seen up close and personal, how many deadly pairs of eyes and rows of teeth that had all gnashed at me. And somewhere along the way the novelty had worn off but Lester had reminded me: this was still incredible.

'Wow.'

I knew the voice, my shoulders tensed up, and immediately I felt my hands balling up inside my sleeves.

Stephen.

'That's not something you see every day.'

I couldn't even bring myself to turn my head. My mouth soured, my jaw set tightly, and when I tried to speak and say something venomous back to him, nothing came out my mouth. I squeezed the button on the remote in my hand and the hangar doors swung closed.

'Look. I'm sorry… about what happened back there,' he said.

'The fuck should I care?' I replied.

'Because I want you to know that I'm sorry, Anna,' he explained. Out the corner of my eye I watched him huff frustratedly. 'Do you really think what we're doing here is right? Keeping all of it secret...'

'Yes.'

'Really?' he took a step towards me, trying to make it into my line of vision, but I just turned again, keeping him firmly out, and started walking back towards my lab in the hope that it would shake him off. But he just followed after me. 'Why do you believe that?'

'Look at what we already do to the world, Stephen,' I said angrily, 'species disappear every day. We can't truly protect them if everyone knows they exist. They would be hunted and killed and that could have monumental consequences.'

'This isn't just about the creatures,' he said.

It was for me.

I pushed through the double doors to exit the hub and turned the immediate right into my office. The blinds were open, the bright lights of the walls shone out through the x–ray sketches hanging beside my whiteboards.

He followed me in. 'This is about our future.'

I finally looked round at him. Something about his tone made me wonder; he sounded a lot more pained than I ever would have expected from him, and I didn't know how to respond except to stare questioningly because I hoped he would say something else. 'What future?' I asked. 'I've seen what happens, I've been there, that possibility of pure terror. I've been stuck there.' I tried not to let the images of that theoretical and physical outcome overwhelm my mind. 'Anyone who doesn't think people are the problem are the paradox.'

'We don't have the right to decide what people should know.'

'Don't you see? Whichever way it happens we can't stop it. We do something; we cause it, we do nothing; we didn't stop it and it happened anyway.'

'Then how do we stop it?'

'We can't. Not in any certain way. Because it's in the future and we can't know that.'

'But we do know it!' Stephen returned, 'you just said you've seen what happened.'

'What could happen, it's still just a possibility. We could go through another one tomorrow back to that same time and everything could be star trek because something's changed now. And in a month it could be back to what I saw again. It's the future, it is constantly fluid and changing and evolving and we can't stop that so we can't stop it!'

'I don't understand any of this!' he replied in outrage, 'but, Anna… the thing is, I don't even really care because it doesn't change what I believe is the right thing to do.'

'I don't care what you think is right and wrong,' I said, 'I don't give one fuck. But… any argument you had to make lost all credibility when you joined up with Helen.'

'She predicted this.'

'No,' I returned, 'she caused it.'

'She said he wouldn't listen. That he was too arrogant to face reality.'

'Reality?' I repeated. 'You don't even know what that means. The world changed and we don't know why and we can't protect anyone until we know why these anomalies appear and what they mean.'

'So it's Cutter's way?' He sighed in frustration and started shaking his head. 'Of course it is; it's always his way, or nothing–'

'Bottom line, ' I interrupted, 'I'm with him. Not just because I love him, but because he's a good man with a good heart and that's how he makes decisions. And I can't convince him to change his mind; I don't want to.'

'Oh my god! This is what he does.' He shook his head again. I didn't know what he meant; I didn't know what he was talking about. 'This is what he does!' He threw his head back and laughed. 'You know, its no wonder Helen came to me.'

Something happened. In all the times I'd thought about punching Stephen, I had rarely been angry enough to actually do it. Had I known it would be so satisfying I'd have done it much sooner. I only realised the blow had landed and knocked him so far off–balance when he hit the ground.

'Now–' I unclenched my fist, quite sure there'd be a bruise but not really feeling any pain, '–you've had that coming for quite some time,' I told him. 'If you can't see that this is what she wants, that she's been trying to drag you two apart from the second she came back through that anomaly and talked about that stupid affair, then I should hit you again.'

He slowly pushed himself up onto his knees, one hand holding his reddening cheek and blinked at me.

'You got fired, remember? So you should probably get out of here before Nick sees you.'

'Too late.'

I whipped my head around to the doorway. And there he was. I'd never seen him so red–faced and furious. The remained there with a sort of stiffness like the anger had set in his bones and made him immovable.

Stephen stood up– the unstoppable force– so close in front of me that I tried to step back but I bumped into the desk and instead had to lift my head to look at him. 'I never slept with Helen,' he hissed malevolently.

I didn't even have time to consider whether or not I believed him before he was gone, jostling past Nick and storming down the hallway.