Nick was standing in the middle of the road when I came back, and I had just enough time to reaffirm to myself that he was okay before I stopped the car and climbed out over the seat.

'What've got?'

'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!'

'It is if it works.'

'It will.'

We weaving back through the vehicles towards the anomaly. 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 to where the anomaly had been a few mere seconds earlier, only now there was nothing but a big empty space behind us. 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 stared to look 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 but it felt like it was too soon and we hadn't gone as far as I remembered when we got here. I glanced up from the paperwork I was trying to complete- he mammoth would need to go somewhere when we got it back to the A.R.C- but Connor and Jake were sitting in the back of the car and had been talking so animatedly about Yu–Gi–Oh that it had taken a lot more effort than usual to focus on the forms.

I was half expecting to find Jensen staring back through the windscreen, the signature concerned expression on his face, but he was nowhere in sight and Instead, Stephen's car was pulled up across the road and he was leaning against it. I barely had the time to register my frustration at his impeccably poor timing before my attention flitted of its own accord to the person standing beside him.

Helen.

My blood ran cold.

It had been over 2 years since I'd seen her but who knows how long it had been since she'd last seen me. When I was out there, it didn't occur to me that I could have bumped into her- hunting in the Devonian or swimming through the streams in the Cretaceous- until a month had passed. And after that I was preempting it constantly. 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. That still didn't mean I was happy to see her.

Nick's seatbelt rattled back into the holder as he pulled it undone, startling me, and snapping me out of my own stream of consciousness. '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, but I was forced to take a second to grab all the pages of forms before the wind whipped them into disarray. I had pushed them up on the dashboard before I could undo my seatbelt and follow him out.

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

'Nick!' I called out after him. I knew that look, I'd seen the rage in his eyes before and I wasn't sure it was a good idea for him to stoking the flames by having a conversation with either of them before he had calmed down a bit.

'We could have been killed!'

'But 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 gaze off her for any longer. I turned my head. 'What are you doing here, Helen?'

'She can help us,' Stephen answered.

I didn't have time to summon my most disappointed looking expression to use on him before Nick was interrupting, 'you're fired.'

'What? No, wait– just listen to me.'

But Nick had already turned back to the car and started to walk away. 'If you think Helen's here to help then you're just as bad as she is.'

'Nick!' Stephen groaned.

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

Stephen looked taken aback. 'I am not in love with Helen.'

'Then what?'

His attention shifted, sheepish eyes flitted to me, and it was like he was expecting some sort of back–up. I reclined my head. 'Oh my god, Stephen.'

And I didn't need to say anything more because I knew he understood. My declarative statement was enough for him to realise the insanity of all of this, but it seemed to have come a few seconds too late.

He sighed. 'I know.'

'You think there's something I can say that's gonna help you out here?'

Stephen wisely shook his head. 'No.'

'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!'

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.

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

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.

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

I didn't bother to turn around towards the voice that proceeded the footsteps across the speckled floor towards the enclosure. 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?'

'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.'

I raised an eyebrow as I looked around at him, seriously questioning if we'd finally found his sense of humour. He raised his mug to his lips and took a sip. 'Careful,' I returned, 'it'll attack predators if it senses danger.'

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

I stared after him. Lester had always kept a careful distance from the creatures- part of me wondered if it was because of the incident with Rex and his favourite jacket on that first day, or because he hadn't wanted to get mud on his shoes. But it meant this was all 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 I'd stared into and rows of teeth that had all gnashed at me. Somewhere along the way the novelty had worn off, but credit to Lester; he'd managed to remind me: this was all still incredible.

'Wow.'

And now there was someone else here. I knew the voice and my body reacted to the sound of it, shoulders tense, hands balling up to fists inside my sleeves.

Stephen.

'Well... that's not something you see every day.'

My mouth soured, my jaw set tightly that when I tried to speak and say something venomous back to him, nothing could escape 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.'

'The fuck should I care?'

'Because I want you to know that I'm sorry, Anna.' Out the corner of my eye I saw 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 to keep him firmly out. I started walking back towards my lab in the hope that it would shake him off. He just followed after me. 'Why do you believe that?'

'Look at what we already do to the world, Stephen, 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 was a little off; 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. '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 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'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... it's 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 I saw him hit the ground. 'Now–' I unclenched my fist, knowing there'd be a bruise to come but in the moment not feeling any pain, '–you've had that coming for quite some time. 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 as he blinked at me.

'And you were fired, remember? 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 and rigid like the anger had set in his bones and made him immovable. Stephen stood up– the unstoppable force– and was suddenly so close 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.