'It is na, Jean, thy bonie face,

Nor shape that I admire,

Altho' thy beauty and thy grace

Might weel awauk desire.

...

Something in ilka part o' thee

To praise, to love, I find,

But dear as is thy form to me,

Still dearer is thy mind.

...

Nae mair ungen'rous wish I hae,

Nor stronger in my breast,

Than, if I canna mak thee sae,

At least to see thee blest.

...

Content am I, if Heaven shall give

But happiness to thee:

And as wi' thee I'd wish to live,

For thee I'd bear to die.'

I woke up with a jolt, sitting upright and looking around to search for Ryan in the water but all I could see was silver speckled concrete and the disorientation instantly brough about a swell of dizziness.

'Hey, hey, easy,' Stephen said as he leant over from the chair beside the bed to slam a hand down against mine. 'You're alright... you're okay Anna.'

I wasn't.

I could hear the gunshot ringing in my head still, I could see the grain of the mahogany floorboard, and quickly snapped my gaze to his trying to replace that harrowing image with something– anything– else.

'What happened?'

'You passed out on the way back here,' Stephen explained gently, 'the doctor said it could be concussion.' I started shaking my head. To my relief it didn't hurt anywhere near as bad as before. 'If it is, it's only mild. How are you feeling?'

'Thirsty.' He reached for a cup of water and passed it over to me.

I thought I was in bed. I thought I'd heard Nick reading whilst I was cocooned in our duvet and cuddled up to him with my eyes closed. The image was too real to be a dream and yet I had obviously come straight here from the dock.

I swallowed a couple of mouthfuls of water. 'Nick?'

Stephen gestured back to the hub–through the windows– on the floor below us. 'He's talking to Jensen,' he said.

Oh god, right. Jensen. 'Jensen's okay?'

'Yeah. He's pretty shaken up. He could have died if you hadn't got to him in time.'

I sighed in relief. 'And Connor?'

'He okay too, though I have no idea where he is. Don't worry, everyone's fine. Sorry; they should be here.'. And I hadn't realise how strange it was that they weren't until he'd said it.

I shrugged, 'why? Cause you're such good company?'

'I see you're feeling better.'

I smiled in response but the gesture didn't reach my eyes so the action was futile. I turned my head towards the window. So he was down there. He was down there and I was up here. 'Much better...' I shifted edging closer to the side of the bed so that I could get up.

'Oh. Um...' Stephen winced, 'shouldn't you probably stay there...'

'Didn't know you were a doctor, Stephen.'

'Pretty sure I don't need to be to know you weren't conscious.'

I paid no attention to him. I figured that was the best way to end the conversation without any sort of argument. Civil. That was the best way to describe me and Stephen. Civil –nearly– in the face of mutual distain. This might have been the longest we'd ever communicated without yelling at one another.

All despite all that I wasn't actually sure of my own ability to stand until after I had put my weight on my legs. It was only when I didn't fall I had to pretend I'd be confident about it the whole time. So I smiled again and took a few steps towards the door.

I could see him before I came through the double doors to the hub. Both him and Jensen were leaning against the railing on the ramp that led up to Lester's office.

And they were talking. I could see their mouths moving but I was much too far away still to attempt to read them.

As Stephen pushed the doors open for me and stepped through, Jensen's attention fell on me. And he must have said something to Cutter because a moment later his head snapped down and his eyes met mine.

But he wasn't the top of my list of interests.

The second I saw the shark suspended from the prongs of the forklift, I inhaled sharply.

And still standing beside me Stephen turned his head. 'What?' he asked. He studied my expression. 'Do you– have you seen this before?'

I nodded. 'Yeah.' And we were in serious trouble.

'What the hell is it?'

'Darwin in motion. A living phylogenetic tree of the evolution of what we know as Selachimorpha,' I explained.

'A shark?'

I nodded. 'Jaws himself. First signs of Chondrichthyes date back to the late Ordovician but what we recognise as modern sharks have been around since the Jurassic.'

'You think that's where this came from?'

'No.' I took a couple of steps towards it and crouched down in front of the creature. 'Modern sharks have adapted to make their teeth their main method for catching their pray. The shape of the teeth depends on the species' diet and they are in constant rotation, shedding the old teeth so the teeth growing behind move forward to take their place.' I ducked my head to look up into the rows of teeth in its mouth. There were no scraps of torn fabric or scraps of skin left behind. 'But...' I reached an arm up into the mouth. 'Friend here as evolved.' I wrapped a hand around the sharks tongue and pulled it out.

It hit the bottom of the drip tray with a loud thud and Stephen jumped. 'What the hell is that?'

'Proboscis,' I explained. I picked up one of the tendrils attached to the frenulum and rotated it to show him. 'Used to grab its victims pull them into its mouth.'

'Well that's new,' Stephen muttered in agreement. 'What does that mean– where's it come from.' I turned my head slowly around to him and raised an eyebrow; he wasn't stupid, he could work it out for himself. 'The future?' he asked. 'So it come through an anomaly from the future. There's one out there somewhere.'

'First one in our time.' That we knew of. 'What did the detector say?'

'Apparently it detected an anomaly down by the river but the signal was lost so they think it must have closed.' But we shared another look that told me he was just as doubtful of that as I was. 'Teething problems?' I stood up and took a step back as I turned my attention back to the creature. 'Do you think this is what took Lucien?'

'One way to find out.' I slipped my knife out its casing and reached up to push it into its softer underbelly. The skin was just as tough as I remembered. The flesh squelched around my hands and water started pouring out. The smell that came with it was pungent.

Stephen covered his nose and gipped. 'Uh!'

I dropped the knife back into the tray before I put both hands around the hole. I had to tug pretty hard to pull the skin back and once it was out the way I slipped my arm into the stomach.

It was soft.

Fleshy, and sort of gooey with the contents of partially digested fish guts. Which explained the smell. I felt around for whatever was in there and my hand met something spherical so I reached in further to get my arm around it to pull it out.

The basketball shot out, hitting the ground with a flat clanging sort of sound before it bounced away towards the A.D.D.

I pushed my hand back in, feeling methodically through the stomach from one side to the other. My hand closed around something else and I retracted my arm, wresting a red and white trainer through the gap.

I dropped it onto the floor.

'How long ago did Lucien go missing?'

Stephen half shrugged, 'few hours.'

I shook my head. 'Selachimorpha digestion is delayed; they have spiral valves in short intestines so food circulates until it is fully digested and they store the food in their stomachs but anything unwanted won't even reach it, it's either ejected it or vomited it back up.'

Stephen nodded. 'Lucien hasn't been gone long enough.'

'Not guilty.'

'So it was another one?' We both whipped our heads around at the sound Nick's voice behind us.

I caught his eye, holding his gaze for a fraction on a second before I turned away.

'Maybe.'

'Tell me some good news,' Lester said, as he pushed himself up out his chair and strode over towards the window.

'We still haven't found the boy,' Nick answered. I leant back, resting my head against the glass behind me and folded my arms over my chest.

'No...' Lester drawled in response, 'that's bad news. Good news makes people happy. Keep trying.'

I snagged my bottom lip between my teeth.

'We found the shark.'

'Now you're getting the hang of it.' Lester grinned. 'So then, problem solved.'

'Erm, no, not quite. There's another predator. Anna saw something. Another shark.'

'Could have been something else,' I interjected. Honestly I really hated when people spoke for me. I tried to consciously train my gaze to stay only on Lester and not get distracted by anyone else in the room. 'Evidence points to a marine mammal. Sheds its skin like a seal or a walrus. Boy was taken above ground, even if the shark could swim up the flooded drain how did it grab him?'

I saw Nick shrug his shoulder. 'Use that proboscis,' he suggested unhelpfully.

'Wouldn't explain the singing,' I pointed out in return, 'shark couldn't make that sound. Has no vocal cords.'

'So,' Lester sighed, as he made his way back to his chair and dropped somewhat melodramatically into it. 'To sum up then we're looking for a deadly aquatic predator with a neat line and Charlotte Church impressions. Well, the marketing possibilities are endless. What do we do?'

'Drag the canal.' I looked to Stephen- who had been suspiciously quiet up till now- and immediately started to wish he'd stayed that way. 'Whatever it is it's got to be in there.'

I shook my head. 'Or not. Mammals can leave the water. Should widen the search.'

Lester leant forward. He shifted his gaze purposely back and forth between Nick and I as he made a strange sort of whining whilst he sucked his tongue in thought. 'You know,' he said, 'it used to be so annoying when you two came in here together, always finishing each other's sentences... but at least we actually got stuff done. Now it seems we can't make a single decision.'

I bit down on the inside of my cheek and glared for a second at the back of Nick's head. 'Aye,' Nick agreed, 'go on, you should probably listen to her, she's had encounters with these creatures before.'

I kept my gaze down on the floor but quirked an eyebrow. 'Ate one once,' I said. Well... 'Some of one.' My nose crinkled at the thought of it. 'Mainly blubber.'

Lester stared at me questioningly for a couple of seconds, before he nodded at Nick. 'Start the search in canal again in the morning. If nothing turns up then we can consider the options.'

Nick turned, and without another word strode back through the doors and off down towards the hub. A moment later he was out of sight. 'Does he know that he just got his away again?' Stephen asked in confusion.

I shrugged my eyebrows. 'That's his happy face.'

'Unbelievable,' Stephen muttered, shaking his head.

I resisted the urge to tell him to shut up and pushed myself off the window, walking off in the same direction.

Half an hour later, Stephen appeared in front of my desk.

I pretended not to notice. Instead I kept flicking through the pages of my report; since getting back from being marooned I'd had quite some time to sit down and splurge everything from my brain onto paper. I was trying to remember every detail. To begin with, I hadn't known where to start until I sat down with Nick and tried to recount the basic order of the eras I'd passed through and how long I thought I'd stayed there. It was much easier to go back after that and add all the detail in. Even now stuff was coming back to me and I was trying to pinpoint which other events it came between.

And since getting it all out my head it had been somewhat easier to let it go. I knew I had a page in here somewhere about these creatures. I'd need to add a couple of notes because already a few things had come back to me that I hadn't written down before. Stephen cleared his throat.

'What?'

He reached out and pushed the pages in my hands down onto my desk. 'Come on,' he said.

'What?' I repeated.

'It's half 11, you need to get some sleep.'

'Don't sleep,' I shrugged. I had a couple of hours last night I think – if you put it all together– I'd be good for a day or two.

'You don't say,' he mimicked sarcastically, 'you look so well rested.' I glared at him. So he wanted to insult my appearance now? Fuck him. 'When was the last time you ate?'

This morning. And then I threw up. 'Stir fry. Teatime ' I lied.

'Oh,' he said like it was a genuine surprise. 'Like a... satay?'

'Was just sort of... plain,' I replied.

'Nice. Well, that means you just need to get some rest.'

I didn't want to admit that I could have just laid my head down on my desk; then my rouse would have been discovered. Half the time I told the others I was going to tie up a few loose ends before promising to go home to bed. Usually they would turn up in the morning before I'd had chance to make it home. Truth was it had never been my intention. I suspected they were catching on. There was only so many times I could feign surprised that it had happened again.

In all honestly Stephen was probably doing it because he knew it annoyed me. Unfortunately it didn't make him any less right.

I conceded. 'Okay.'

He grinned victoriously. 'Want a lift?'

And even though it would give me no chance to escape, I nodded. 'That alright?'

'I suppose so.'

We didn't speak as we made our way down to the car park, which was probably safer.

It felt like we'd pushed our luck already today. I suspected it would undoubtedly end in an argument if we had to communicate further.

I had no idea how right I had been about that until we got into the car. Stephen started the engine and must have decided he didn't want the awkward silence so he cleared his throat.

'–Oh.' I sighed exasperatedly 'don't.'

'Oh what?' he responded, feathers suddenly ruffling. 'What, Anna, god forbid I should want to talk to you about something!' He pulled out his parking space, turning quickly towards the exit of the building that led out onto the street.

I rolled my eyes. 'Here we go.'

'What the hell does that mean?'

'Meddling,' I clarified, 'in my life. Per. Don't have anything better to do?'

'I do not meddle, Anna,' he responded. 'But of course, it doesn't surprise me that you see it that way. No one can do anything for you without it being considered that way, can they? Some one can't help you without being condescending, right?'

I didn't care that his question was rhetorical, I answered anyway. 'Would assume I need help?'

'Your life is falling apart around you!' I opened my mouth to respond but he wasn't finished. 'I don't know what you've done Anna, but Connor won't speak to you. Nick wont even look at you, without looking like he's about to burst into tears, and they didn't even come and see you when you were unconscious. You had catastrophic PTSD before any of this started and since then you've have been kidnapped, and drugged, and raped, and permanently marooned on your own for years in a place where anything could have caught you and killed you. You don't sleep, you don't eat, and you don't deal with any of it.'

I didn't want people to feel sorry for me. I hated the idea. I hated it so much I rarely told anyone anything about me that didn't paint a pretty picture of me.

'Look,' I hissed, 'just cause you don't see it... doesn't mean I don't deal with it.'

'Oh!' he groaned. His grip on the steering wheel tightened until I could see the whites of his knuckles. 'Come on! Come on of course you don't! Because if people knew how bad it really was, they wouldn't let you do the things you do. Nick wouldn't let you out his sight!'

'Nick trusts me!'

'He shouldn't.'

I glowered at him. 'The fuck not?'

'Because you're a goddamn liability. Just take a look at today. Look at what happened to you. Whenever someone– anyone gets hurt, it's always you.'

'Because I do it to protect the rest of you.'

'And everyone lets you! No one is trying to stop that! How many more times do you think you're gonna escape needing just a few stitches? No one has learnt their lesson. Or at least I hope they haven't, because otherwise it just means they don't care.'

'Wrong,' I informed him, shaking my head. 'Others have totally grasped something that you just can't seem to get your head around.'

'Oh yeah, what?'

'My life, Stephen.'

He sighed furiously. 'Yeah but it's not you who would get to miss it when you're gone! One day something bad is gonna happen to you, Anna, something you won't come back from.'

'Think I don't know that?' I wasn't delusion. One of these days I'd be out for the count. I had been expecting it since that day in the house on the hill. 'Everything dies, Stephen. One day everyone you know will be dead and it's just a matter of time.'

'But you can't go like this! It's not fair.'

'It's not your decision to make.'

'Can you honestly tell me that you don't care? That Nick and Connor wouldn't be devasted.'

'Nick understands.'

'Then you have to leave him.'

I gasped. My head turned, wide eyes focusing in him. 'The hell do you mean by telling me that?'

'Anyone who doesn't care about your safety doesn't care about you! How many times do I have to say it?'

'Course he cared,' I spat back.

'You got knocked out.'

'...Passed out...'

'Anna you were unconscious,' he said.

'Was asleep.'

'He didn't come!'

In front of us the traffic light changed from green to amber but there wasn't enough time to slow down. The light went red, the truck went through, and the camera beside it flashed.

As he groaned, I felt a twinge of smugness in my chest that I wasn't proud of but made me feel better none the less.

I couldn't let it go. 'Think you're driving too fast,' I told him.

'Yes, thank you!' he seethed. Then he punched a hand against the wheel. 'Great, now I've got another ticket!'

'Oh dear...' I mocked. He turned his head, took his eyes off the road to glare at me and when he didn't quickly look back, I bit down, not scared of what he was doing, just infuriated. 'Stephen,' I said slowly.

He turned to look back to the road.

'You can't seriously be thinking of staying with him?' he said plainly.

'Not that simple,' I replied, 'wish it was.'

He blinked a couple of times, presumably trying to work it out what the hell I was talking about. He turned his head back and looked at me this time in concern. 'What's going on?'

'Eyes on the road.'

'Anna,' he started again, more firmly, 'what's going on?'

I took a deep breath, eyes locking with his as I opened my mouth to reply when my phone suddenly started blearing out a ringtone set only for Connor. I searched for it, glad of the distraction. 'There.' I followed the direction Stephen was pointing in, before I found the phone in the footwell and answered.

'Anna!' Connor immediately cried from the other end. Immediately I thought something terrible had happened to him because the stress in his voice– the sheer level of panic that seeped out of him made my heart race. 'I need you! Anna, please you have to help me!'

'Connor, what's wrong? Where are you?'

'Home. I'm – I'm okay, it's Rex!'

I looked up to see where we were and saw the turning for Connor's flat fast approached. 'Turn.' I instructed as I pointed to the approaching road. Stephen shot a look of confusion back at me. He was going to miss it. 'Turn! Now!'

He swerved the truck, careening us around the corner.

'Something's wrong!'

'Connor? Okay. On our way.'

'Connor!' My voice was frantic and strained even in my own ears, as I threw his front door open and sprinted up the stairs. Stephen came in behind me. He slammed the door shut before he took the steps two maybe three at a time to race up to the kitchen after me.

Caroline was standing in the doorway, I didn't even look at her as I lunged forward, peaking past the hoodie Connor had put down on the kitchen island, to see Rex underneath.

He was grey. Every tinge of green hue had vanished from his skin and even his blue eyes looked a lot more just white than the vibrant colour they usually were. Stephen brushed past Caroline, I lifted Rex quickly into my arms as he stopped right behind me and brought his arm around us both to cup the back of Rex's head. 'Oh my god,' he said.

'I'll get some towels!' Connor mumbled hurriedly. He rounded the island to the cupboard and pulled all the kitchen towels out. Before he could come back to me with them, Stephen reached out and took them from his hands.

Caroline gestured politely to him. 'You must be Anna's boyfriend,' she said quickly. 'Can I just say you two look amazing together. It's Nick, right?'

Stephen and I barely had a chance to glance at one another before Connor stepped back to stand beside her. 'This is Stephen,' he corrected, 'he works with us.'

'Right,' she instantly replied, 'at the zoo?'

I kept my attention down on Rex as Stephen worked at wrapping the towels somewhat carefully around him without needing to pull him out my arms. 'Yeah,' Connor said. 'He looks after...' the pause was almost too long not to be suspicious. 'The bats...'

Stephen ran out of towels and finally stepped back and looked over to at the very least acknowledge her. 'Yeah,' he said simply, 'I'm the bat man.' And I should have been funny. But Rex was still shivering and when he chirped a second later the noise was soft, gravelly, like the effort alone was too much.

'Connor,' I growled, 'how did this happen?'

'I have no idea,' Caroline answered for him. I knew immediately –somehow– she'd had something to do with it. So it wasn't Connor's fault– not entirely– but he'd still abetted willing or not. 'He was in the fridge; he must have crawled in while I was putting stuff away...'

Rex chirped again and my face fell in distress. 'Shhh...' I comforted him, holding him tighter around my body.

'I'll call a vet!' Caroline continued.

We all flinched, 'No!' we cried simultaneously. 'Know what I'm–' I paused, even now still covering for my cousin, 'we know what we're doing.' I said in reminder. 'Get me some tinfoil,' I told Stephen.

'Tin foil?' he repeated.

'Yeah.' I pointed to the draw and he jumped over the island to reach it just a few seconds quicker. The action must have made her realise that this was a lot more serious that she thought. I put Rex down on the table and caught a roll of tinfoil Stephen tossed to me. We both started wrapping them around him.

'Maybe I should go?' Caroline suggested.

'Good idea.'

'Anna!'

I hadn't even realised I'd said it. Stephen lifted his head for a moment, as though surprised, but didn't say anything and quickly turned his attention down.

'I'm sorry... I hope he makes it.'

'Look you don't need to go...' Connor's response was just a little too late. I ran out of tinfoil and Stephen tucked the last of his into the bottom of the cradle we'd built around Rex. I glanced coldly at Connor and my expression must have spooked him because he stepped forward. 'He's going to be okay, isn't he?' He reached a hand out towards him and something inside me snapped.

'Don't touch him Connor!' I slammed both hands down hard against the island and he jumped. 'You don't know what you're doing!'

I had never known anger like it. Not directed at him anyway. I was barely ever annoyed with him, let alone frustrated. Connor was the type of person who did stuff that I could just laugh off. I would smile and shake my head and roll my eyes.

This wasn't one of those times. He looked back at me, wide eyed.

'Keep your fucking girlfriend away from him.'

He nodded slowly, his lip trembled and he blinked away the glassiness shining in his eyes. 'Sorry...'

I waited for Stephen to start the engine, back in the car, but he just paused, one hand on the wheel and the other on the keys.

I was too quiet.

I was too held up in my own thoughts that I was barely blinking. I felt terrible. The image of Connor staring back at me with those big sad eyes was burnt into my brain and it was haunting me.

He had to hate me now.

Surely.

I wasn't sure how to come back from this.

I sighed, slowly shutting my eyes as I brought my hands up to my face and pressed my palms over my eyelids.

Stephen swallowed. 'You know you just saved that creature's life right?' he said gently, before he reached out somewhat tentatively and put a hand on my shoulder. 'Well done.'

I felt my mouth begin to quiver. I tried to fight it, I tried to focus on just my breathing and block everything else out, all my emotion, all my thoughts. I couldn't. My eyes quickly flooded and as the first few tears came out, I trapped them against my cheeks with my hands.

'Hey...' Stephen said softly, 'Anna...' But everything he'd been saying that evening was ringing in my head. And before I'd been sure enough of myself to not consider any of it but now, defeated and deflated, some it started to trickle through. 'Are you okay?'

I shook my head.

He wrapped his arms around me, one hand on the back of my neck to guide my head across and against his chest.

I could help it. I started to cry and I couldn't stop the tears.

They seemed to keep falling forever.

He didn't complain. He didn't try to say anything and in a way it was more of comforting than anything he might have said. He kept his arms firmly round me and just held me until, eventually, they subsided.

I could feel his eyes on me, watching me as I pulled back and wiped my cheeks with the back of my sleeve. It made me so very aware of myself so I tried to ignore it because I was already flushed with embarrassment and I didn't want to have to have to say anything.

'Home?' he asked. His voice was quiet but it had been so long since either of us spoke that it felt loud.

I sighed and leant my head back against the window and tried to dry my cheeks.

He sensed it. He sensed it all.

I looked out the window to the street where we were parked outside Connor's flat. I'd been staying here. There was no way I was going back in there.

Nick wasn't expecting me. I'd told him I wouldn't be home until the bug had cleared up but he knew I'd thrown up just this morning.

'Anna?'

I glanced across at him, lifting my shoulders so that I could partially hide my face and the numb expression on it.

'Do you want to stay at mine for a few nights?' he offered.

'Can't,' I replied.

'You can,' he replied, 'if you want to. It's up to you.'

I nodded. 'Thank you.'

'Okay, okay, let's go. Come on, let's get you to bed.' When I didn't say anything again in return his hand hit my thigh and he patted before pulling back. 'It's gonna be alright.'