He didn't know I was there. Not in a creepy way or anything, just I'd said I'd meet him for lunch and yet by midmorning I had already lost my concentration several times whilst trying to run an experiment in the lab, and decided it was better to quell the craving, knowing I would have to force myself to get on with the work later, rather than try to do it whilst I was distracted.

And so I stood in the doorway to his office, leaning back against the doorframe as I watched him line up the shot. He threw what looked like a femur bone over his shoulder in preparation for his backswing before he hit the golf ball, and the ball rolled across the carpet and into the mug.

I gently tapped a knuckle against the doorframe beside me and he turned.

'Anna Havisham,' he said with a smile. 'Hi!'

'Hi,' I replied. 'Spot of golf?'

'Just a little.'

'Having fun?'

'Yes.'

'Well it's good to see all that money I put into this project is going to good use,' I teased as I came down the steps and stood in front of him. 'Um...'

'Oh,' he said in realisation, suddenly turning to look for a clock among the mess on one of his desks, 'is it lunchtime already?'

'No, no,' I returned, 'it's not, I just...' I bit my lip. I shouldn't have tried to rehearse what I was going to say beforehand because none of it sounded right now. 'I wanted...' I said slowly, sort of edging on embarrassment because I never got flustered like this, 'to see you...' My eyes rolled. '...now,' I finished.

Nick smirked back at me, looped an arm around my waist and pulled me against him to kiss me.

Pulling back, he bit his lip. 'Mmm,' he noted, 'it's a lovely surprise.'

I put my hands against his chest and leant in. 'Mmm,' I echoed, against his lips, 'unlike this shirt.' I hadn't made it home last night, I'd been in the lab for almost 2 days straight at this point, and honestly I hadn't been expecting to see the shirt on him. It was ghastly. I slid my hands up to his shoulders and hooked a finger beneath the collar. 'Is this supposed to deter predators?'

I felt him groan from the bottom of his chest but his arms tightened around me. 'Well if it's so offensive–' he responded, interrupting himself momentarily to kiss me again, '–why don't you take if off?'

'Oh, I fully intend on doing that, don't worry,' I returned. I pecked his lips. 'And then I'm gonna burn it.' My finger trailed down from his collar to the top button. 'You don't have any complaints about that, do you?'

'I wouldn't dream of disappointing you, sweetheart.'

I shook my head. 'Never.'

'Never,' he repeated, before leant in to press a couple of kisses to my cheek and down my jaw to the junction of my neck beneath my ear.

'Nick.'

'Hmm?'

'I've been thinking about Helen.'

He made a noise like the powering down of an old computer. '–and that's killed the mood,' he noted instantaneously. His head dropped and I felt him rest his forehead against my shoulder.

'Sorry, its just...' I sighed. 'She saved my life again. And I don't really understand why she would do that.' I leant back against the edge of the desk behind me.

'Yeah,' Nick agreed, 'you know, I gave up trying to predict Helen's behaviour after she divorced me to swap our marriage for a package tour of the Permian era.'

'Maybe it was a cry for help.'

'Counselling would have been simpler.'

'Nick Cutter talking about his feelings? I thought the only way you could tell people stuff was by just blurting it out on a car ride.'

'And how do you do it?' he asked with a knowing smirk.

'You know, only when I'm dying like normal people.'

He laughed. 'Go on then, try me, ask me... anything you like...'

I thought for a second, not wanting to pass this opportunity on something stupid. Then something came to mind. I felt the smile slip from my lips as it accompanied the harrowing sense of fear. '... do you still love her?'

I watched him frown. 'What?'

'Do you-'

'-No,' he said, brow furrowed and lips parted slightly from the lingering confusion, 'of course not... you know that. You know that Anna, right?'

I rolled my eyes at my own stupidity and nodded. 'Yeah,' I said confidently, 'I just-' I stopped myself. 'I know,' I corrected, 'but- and it's not you-'

'Anna...' he interrupted. His thumb circled against my bicep and he squeezed my arm.

I nodded. 'Okay, I um... can I ask about before, after the Pteranodon? You never told me,' I said in reminder, 'about what I was saying when I was unconscious.'

And it wasn't as if I was worried about what I'd been saying, it's just there was this look in his eye as he'd told me about it that made me feel like I should know. It had been over two months since that anomaly but it was still playing on my mind.

'You were calling out for Will.'

I felt my heart drop into my stomach. 'Oh, Nick. Shit. I am so sorry–'

'No, Anna,' he responded softly, 'it's fine. The way you were saying his name... Do you still feel bad about it?' I didn't respond and my silence was enough of an answer. 'Do you blame yourself?' he then continued, as though the idea were preposterous.

I stared at him. 'Of course I do,' I said. He gave me a look that I tried to decipher because he was trying to convey something without speaking, and the cynical part of myself told me he blamed me too, and it wouldn't be too long before he left me so that I didn't get him killed as well. But he stayed silent and the longer I looked back at him the more I started to understand that he wasn't looking at me in that way at all. I was so out of practise recognising the look that it took me a while to realise it was out of love.

'-And,' I heard myself continuing, 'the one thing I didn't feel guilty about was getting over him...' I said. I knew that I should have, but I didn't. '...until' I continued, 'I realised I liked you.'

'Oh Anna-'

'No, please, don't feel sorry for me. Not when I've only just stopped feeling sorry for myself. I love you,' I said, then took another deep breath and reached up to take his cheek in my hand, 'and I don't ever want to not feel that.'

'Okay,' he nodded, before the smile returned to his face. 'I love you too, Anna Havisham.'

I smiled. 'Oh... phew.'

He turned his head to kiss my palm. 'Anything else you want to tell me?' I thought for a second but didn't exactly know where to start. 'How's the experiment? It was an experiment that you've been doing in the lab these past few days, right?'

It was hard for him to keep up. 'Yes,' I said, 'well, we know that if we want to defend ourselves more effectively then we've got to do something more than just react.' Nick glanced back over his shoulder and quickly hooked a foot around the chair behind him. he pulled it over and sat down in front of me. and pulled it closer to sit down. 'We have to discover why these anomalies are opening and predict when the next one will appear. It all sounds insane right now, but I believe that one day we will be able to do that... To find out why this has happened. I don't think it'll be easy, especially considering that we're dealing with time fractures so it might all be for nought if the thing that's causing all this hasn't happened yet. By trying to understand these anomalies, all these machines I'm building, and experiments I'm doing... I'm more than a little bit concerned that we might inadvertently cause it. There's nothing we can do about that. We can't stop it because it would change the past- which is technically the present to us. And who knows what would happen if that were the case...'

'You know how to do all this?' He questioned.

I pursed my lips, 'um... I've got a few ideas.'

'Do you want to bother trying to tell me.'

'I need proof, evidence to support whatever theories first. I need more time.'

'I'm guessing this isn't a Monday morning thing?'

'I think it's going to take a little bit longer than that.' I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand. The thought of it all combined with that mornings exhaustion had given me a headache.

'Are you okay?'

'Yeah. I just... You know how I haven't been sleeping much...' He nodded. '... I'm not exactly sleeping all that well when I do.'

'... that's why you've been avoiding it.'

'Yeah,' I confirmed.

He flattened his palm against my thigh. 'Nightmares?'

'Not as such. Just images really. I keep getting this feeling of being trapped and I keep seeing the past... on the other side of the anomaly. I've got a bad feeling.'

'About...?'

I ran my fingertips over the back of his hand, tracing over his knuckles down the bones of his fingers. 'I have no idea.'

'You know you're gonna have to face it eventually, don't you? You can't keep going like this.'

The wave would break sooner or later, I knew that; it always did. I figured if we drank enough whiskey and had enough sex then I could pass out and be under for a good 12 hours. I wasn't going to mention that. 'Lucky for you I have to come home tonight. I've got a shirt to burn.'

He smiled. 'Sweetheart, you can burn all my clothes if that's what it takes to get you back there.'

'Don't tempt me,' I replied. 'At the moment I've really been noticing how much they just get in the way.'

At that second, Nick's office door swung open and Stephen came running in. His keen eyes found us quickly. 'Oh,' he said, as though he wasn't quite sure what he had barged in on, 'you're both here. Good.'

'Morning,' I responded with a smile. 'What's going on.'

'There's been a perimeter breach,' he explained and nodded his head for us to follow him.

'Where?' I asked.

'The original anomaly site. It's reopened.' I immediately pushed myself off the desk. 'Ryan's men are searching the place now but, they won't know what they're looking for.'

'So, we need to be quick then?' Nick got up from the chair and reached for his jacket whilst I glanced down briefly at my own clothes to check I was adequately dressed for the forest of Dean. I knew it would be warmer than last we were there, I wouldn't need my coat this time. I hopped quickly up the steps and out of the office.

'Yeah,' Stephen finished, already halfway out the door behind me. 'Nice shirt.'

Nick groaned.

'No trail, no footprints, nothing!' Stephen said as he ducked back through the hole in the fence towards where Nick and I were standing.

Ryan was beside us, one arm poised on his rifle just in case. The anomaly wasn't far behind us, lurking, unassuming, making the hairs on my arm stand on end.

'You sure you didn't miss anything?' Nick questioned. He put his hands on his hips and the fabric of his plain grey tee stretched across the muscles in his chest.

I fidgeted with the pine cone I'd picked up off the floor to keep my hands busy in an attempt to quell this bad feeling beating inside me. It was ridiculous. I had no reason to feel this way. It was the same feeling I got back in the basement all those months ago just before we pulled Nick out of the water, unconscious and unresponsive. This time, when I looked at him standing there alive and well, I still couldn't shake it.

'If there was anything out there, we'd have found it by now.'

'Must have gone back,' Ryan said. I wasn't so sure. Nick turned and rubbed a frustrated hand through his hair. I could tell he was just as doubtful about it as I was.

We shared a look. 'We know it's the Permian era on the other side of that anomaly, right?'

'Right,' Stephen agreed.

'And we're more than likely looking for a Theropod, since anything else wouldn't have bothered breaking a hole in a fence but look at the size of it. It's only, what, six feet tall? Given, animals contract to create more momentum when they charge it's probably only seven, eight feet.' I conjected. 'That's... tiny, for a Permian era predator.'

'Is any of this making sense to you?' Nick asked.

'Not at all,' I replied. 'Unless it's something we don't know about?'

Stephen's head snapped up. 'You mean like a Cuttersauravus?' he said.

I shrugged. 'Given what we know of these animals, it seems so unlikely that something that broke out of the area would be able to find, or fit, back through that gap without being seriously intelligent,' I explained.

'Oo,' Stephen returned. 'A Havishamopsis?'

'I don't know about that... how does a Theropod leave no tracks?'

'Do you think we should take another look?' Stephen asked, 'you think it could be somewhere else outside the perimeter?'

I just shrugged, 'I have no idea. I actually want to talk to Connor about it, he's more likely to know what it could be.'

Nick nodded. 'You want to go get him?'

'Yeah. We'll be right back. Keep me updated.'

Despite my warning, he wasn't ready by the time I pulled up outside the house in my car and honked. After a few seconds a window opened, he stuck his head out and yelled 'not yet! Not yet!'

I put down my window to shout back. 'Con!'

'Can you come in for a minute?'

'You realise we're on a schedule, don't you?'

'I need you,' he returned. Then, he ducked his head back inside and I could hear him talking to Rex before he returned, sticking his little face back out. 'We'll be quick. I promise.'

Parking up and locking the car, I made for the apartment. He met me at the front door and as I stepped inside I was immediately grateful I didn't have any more layers on over my t-shirt. 'Oh, fuck,' I groaned, fanning myself with my hands as a wave of hot air hit me 'it seriously doesn't need to be this hot you know.'

'I know,' Connor replied casually, shutting the door behind me.

I eyed him. 'Is this another love shack thing or do I honestly not want to know?'

Connor stopped, wide eyed and blinked at me. 'How do you know about that?'

'Nick told me.' I made my way over to the table in the dining area and sat down. 'Don't worry, he thought it was funny.'

He groaned loudly, dragging his feet as he followed me to the table. 'That's what I mean!' he complained, dropping into a seat opposite me, 'nobody takes me seriously.'

'Connor,' I complained in response, 'you're supposed to be getting ready!'

'I need your help!' he whined. Then grabbing a hold of both ends of the tie around his neck, he looked down and started fiddling to try and tie it. 'And I don't just mean Cutter and Stephen, but Abby...'

I reached over and batted his hands out the way so that I could take a hold of the tie and tie it for him. 'Where is Abby?'

'Work,' he said. I let go. 'Thanks.'

'You're welcome. So how's it going with you two?' I asked. He shrugged. 'Connor.'

'I can't talk to her. She's friend zoned me.'

'You can't talk to her?

'No- I don't have any experience with girls.' I frowned, gesturing to myself without trying to look offended, and he sighed. 'Well, you're a girl-'

'I'm so glad you noticed Connor...'

'But you don't count...'

I frowned again. 'Why not?'

'Well because.' And he gestured to me without a good answer. 'You just don't, alright? I can't talk to girls. I don't know how.'

'Okay,' I resolved, leaning back in my chair. The anomaly could wait, this was a serious crisis. 'So... pretend I'm a stranger and practice it with me. If I was a girl at a bar, what would you say?'

'No idea.'

'Right, so maybe tell me I look nice.' And I posed, tucking my chin down and sucking my cheeks in to pout half flirtatiously, half to make myself look cuter. He stared at me. 'Connor...'

'Sorry,' he said, 'its just... it's been a while since you've done that expression.'

I used to do it sarcastically in bars or pubs when we were all pissing around and I was 18 because I used to be *quirky*. There were parts of my personality from back then that I didn't miss.

'Tell me I look nice,' I repeated.

He shuffled his chair further around the table towards me. 'You look nice.'

'Make it more personal,' I whispered

'I personally feel you look nice.' And then he gave me a goofy smile.

This was hopeless. Somehow he was actually worse at this than I thought. I swallowed. 'Okay,' I said in realisation. 'A compliment,' I proposed.

'Why? Compliments make you itchy, you can't take them.'

'You don't know that; I'm a stranger, remember?'

'Right.'

'Pick something about me and be specific.'

'You've got nice eyes.'

'Oi. We have the same eyes.'

'No, you're a stranger in a bar. For all you know you're a blue-eyed blonde.'

'Oh for gods- okay. If i'm a generic woman, who's definitely not related to you in any way, and I'm exactly your type, what are you going to say to me?'

'Well you've got lovely legs... and fantastic br-'

'Hey! I'm a woman not a roast chicken, don't talk about my–' I cut myself off with a short sigh. 'Small talk' I suggested. 'Flirty, just not too flirty. Yeah?'

He clicked in realisation. 'I've seen you here before, haven't I?'

'Better!' I smiled.

'Oh, your glass is empty. Let me get you another.'

'I'll have a mojito,' I deadpanned.

'Two mojitos' coming up. Barman.' He snapped his fingers at Rex, who was sitting atop a nearby enclosure. He blinked back at the two of us, as Connor continued to grin at me and my façade started to melt away into my own skewwhiff smile. Connor leant forward. 'Who do you think would win in a fight between Wolverine and Spiderman?'

'I said flirty not nerdy... Anyway they wouldn't even be fighting, you know those two are blood brothers. The whole "I just ain't as good with words as you are, kid", it's beautiful.'

'And its entry level comic book. It's sly. It's fun.'

'Girls don't talk comic books.' But he pulled his expression down into a frown and I held up my hands to admit 'I'm an exception and that's your fault. If you want to be successful with women you've got to learn to compromise a bit,' I told him. 'Find out what they like.'

'And pretend I'm interested, until they wanna snog me.'

'Or be your friend. Because you're better when people get to know you. No offence.'

'Offence,' he inferred, 'I have been very much offended.'

'Sorry, but, you know, I think it's always better to be friends with someone first. You get to know them better as a person.'

'I wouldn't know,' he argued, 'I've never had a girlfriend. Or even a girl friend.'

I frowned. 'What about Sakura Ichika?' I asked encouragingly.

Connor sighed. 'She was just a pen pal, Anna.' Then he groaned again, louder, and threw himself back in his seat. 'I'm going to die alone!'

'Listen to me,' I said, 'you are not going to die alone. You are going to find someone- someone who loves you so much. And I'll even let you die first so you never have to be without me, hey?'

Still pouting, he looked up at me through his eyelashes. 'Thanks.'

'You're welcome.' I sat back in my chair. 'Now, come on. You like Abby, right?'

'Yes.'

'Then take her out. Show her what an amazing person you are, and if she doesn't want to be with you then her loss. Look, it might just not be the right time right now, or maybe it is but you won't know unless you take that chance. It's not as scary as it seems, I promise.'

'It's easy for you to say, Anna. Literally everyonefancies you.'

'That's not true,' I responded.

'How would you know?'

'Well, Ben Cooper didn't– he rejected me in front of the entire class.'

'You were 5.'

'It was still embarrassing, alright?'

'But this side of the millennium,' he returned, 'It's not like you've had much to worry about when it comes to guys not liking you back. You've never needed to be scared,' Connor stressed.

'I'm scared right now,' I admitted. I quickly swallowed the lump in my throat. 'And it's not the same, but I am afraid. Not that Nick doesn't love me back, but that he does and it'll get him hurt too, if not worse. And not just afraid, but sort of guilty. I don't want to be right about this.'

'Right about what?'

'I've got, like, a feeling. A bad feeling. And I'm trying not to worry about a feeling now. I'm not talking about that impression we had when we knew Stephen was lying, this is an ache and painkillers won't touch it.' I sighed. 'I don't know. Maybe it's weird–'

'No. That's not weird. I've had it too.'

'Really?' I asked. 'When?'

'The day you got shot,' he said. 'The police were there to stop him was because I called before he'd even fired. I didn't even say anything. I just dialled, the line connected and that's when I heard the first gunshot.'

'And then you saved my life again in the hospital when you gave me your kidney.'

'If I hadn't been hiding then I could have stopped you going into that room.'

'If you hadn't have stayed well out the way we both could have been dead right now. You saved my life, Connor. You're my hero.'

He smiled sheepishly, 'any chance you'd be willing to come out with me and tell some other girls that?'

'Anytime.'

'Thanks.' He smiled. 'By the way I'm Facebook friends with Ben Cooper now, and he's totally gay.'

'Really?'

At that moment my phone started to vibrate with the notification of an incoming text, rattling against the top of the table and I turned my head down to it. 'Who is it?' Connor asked, trying to peer at it from across the table.

I frowned. 'It's Abby.'

'Of course she text you.'

'It's not a social call; something's up at the zoo, she thinks we should check it out.' I lowered the phone a little and caught his gaze. My eyebrow quirked. 'Are you in?'

It seemed like forever since I'd seen her last. Abby used to come over all the time when we still lived in the house on the hill, but now I never left the university labs and we never got round to seeing each other.

'Why does it feel like I haven't seen you for years,' Abby said as she gave me a hug. We hadn't crossed paths since Connor had told her about Tom and what happened to me. There wasn't a hint of sympathy in the way she looked back at me and I was eternally grateful for it.

'Oh, I know right,' I returned, 'how are you?'

'Good. Sorry I had to text you, it's just none of us seem to have any idea what could have possibly happened here, so you seemed like a good port of call.'

'Yeah,' I agreed, 'what's going on?'

'I don't even know where to start.'

'See,' she said, as we ducked through the doorway into the lion enclosure, 'at first we thought the lions had been fighting but none of them were wounded. Then we realised we'd lost one.'

'Put it down somewhere, forgot where you left it, happens all the time,' Connor commented.

I side eyed him, reaching out to squeeze his elbow before I pointed at the ground. 'Looks like something got wounded.'

'Is that blood?' Connor continued.

We both crouched down beside a small, upturned leaf containing a pool of blood. I reached into Connor's jacket and pulled out a swab from the inside pocket.

'Could it be a creature attack?' Abby asked.

'I don't know...' I replied. 'there's no proof that any creature was ever here. All you've got is the missing lion... and that.' I pointed up to the roof.

'The hole?' Connor clarified.

'Yeah...'

'Well surely you want to be asking how the lion got out?' Abby said.

'Or what came in and took it?'

'Maybe it just ran away to join the circus.'

I turned my head to Connor, amused and annoyed in equal measure. I gave him a shove and he toppled back onto his ass but managed to somehow catch a hold of my wrist and pull me down with him.

'Oi!' I said.

His nose crinkled. 'What do you mean oi? You started it.'

'Alright, you two, break it up,' Abby said.

Still laughing, I turned my head from Connor to look up at her. 'Honestly, Abs, there's been weird shit happening all morning. It's one of those days. I'm not discounting the circus theory just yet.'