The alarm brought my head up from my work as soon as I realised I had no idea what it was for.

Third time today.

This morning there'd been an intruder, sector 7. I'd heard the voices outside my door. And after that the Anomaly alert had sounded. I had no concept of the time between them.

I had a second thought that maybe that hadn't even been today, and it could have been yesterday for all I knew. I couldn't wear my watch anymore because the ticking was far too loud in the silence.

This was the third time I'd been distracted by a noise and I wasn't sure what it was.

'Oh,' he said from the corner of my office, 'that can't be good.'

'Yeah,' I agreed, 'the hell is that even for?' I tried to distinguish the differentiation of the siren's wail to work out what it. 'Is that the fire alarm?'

'No. That one's just a high pitched peeping like the smoke detector–'

'at home,' I finished knowingly. 'So what?'

'I don't know. Maybe you should go and check.'

The insinuation made me roll my eyes. If I went out the office now I'd have to deal with people, with the looks, the tones of voices that had started to drive me insane.

A moment later there was clattering right outside my office door, a thundering of footsteps and a deafening sort of slam. I got up from the stool.

'Maybe that's the bio–hazard alarm.'

Shit. Suddenly it seemed blindingly obvious.

There'd been a containment breach.

I made straight for the door and slid it open.

I stepped out into the hallway and turned towards the confluence of noises and saw a group of people crowded around the desks in the hub. Most of them were soldiers. Connor was among them in a biohazard suit, Sarah was at his side, and behind that I saw Lester with a woman I didn't recognise.

I didn't care enough to consider asking about it.

'The fuck is going on out here?'

At the sound of my voice they instantly prickled, descending into an awkward silence beneath the screeching of the siren, and they all turned both sort of towards me and away from me at the same time.

People had been doing that a lot lately.

Partially it was my fault.

The only times I'd been seen in public was the outburst in Lester's office and when the group had just come back from the airport and I'd been crying on the floor.

No one really knew how to behave in case I started crying, and no one really knew what to say to me in fear of making it worse.

And I could tell everyone was overwhelmed by grief– and not just their own when they were near me, like my very presence brought back that reassurance of everything they were trying to get over.

And while that wasn't entirely fair, I understood. I just didn't appreciate the sympathy. I hated the idea of people feeling sorry for me. I hated the idea of anyone thinking about me at all really– because of the attention. I wasn't good with attention.

Nobody answered. It wasn't until there was enough movement in the group that Danny Quinn became visible through the gaps. He was pulling up his own bio–hazard suit and had managed to wrestle it up to his waist and was about to push his arms in when he stopped upon hearing my voice.

His head snapped up, his eyes locked onto me, and a quick grin came and went from his face. 'Jesus, Ace,' he commented, almost in amusement, before he even said hello, 'you look like shit. What the hell happened to you?'

Connor's eyes widened beside him, and he looked somewhat worriedly down to the ground, clearing his throat.

Danny sensed the shift in atmosphere, and after quickly glancing at everyone he looked back to me.

'Are you okay…?' he questioned with sudden concern. Then his eyes fell to my stomach. My flat stomach. He paled. 'The baby…' he said.

'I lost it,' I told him.

I watched him swallow. 'And the dad…'

'Lost him too.'

'Fuck…'

And it brought my attention up to him, because that was my word, nobody else around me ever seemed to use it. I glanced to Connor, and saw him looking back at me with the same sort of expression.

Danny elbowed his way through the crowd, saying nothing as he reached me, threw his arms right around me and pulled me into a bone crushing hug.

I had no time to recognise the awkwardness of it, or even begin to question what he thought he was doing when I felt my hand slam down against his chest and force him back away from me.

The confusion was evident on my face, a natural mix of disapprobation and surprise in my eyes, and I turned my head from him to find Connor.

'What's going on?' I asked.

'Everything's fine,' he responded calmly, confidently, like he was taking charge of the situation so that I didn't have to.

I appreciated it.

Even if Lester passed a doubtful look in his direction just as Connor started towards the door.

'Miss Havisham,' Lester said, clearing his throat, and gesturing to the woman beside him, 'this is–'

'I don't care.'

And with a final weary glance at Danny, I turned back around and moved down the hallway to my office.

'So?' he asked, as I came back through the door.

'So, what?' I replied.

'You really believe Connor's got it under control?'

'Yeah,' I returned, as I made my way towards the stool and sat down at my desk again, 'Connor's a lot more capable than you ever gave him credit for.'

'Believing in Connor was your job sweetheart. I had to be realistic.'

'Pessimistic,' I corrected. 'It wasn't your nature to be trusting.'

'That's what I had you for. You're gonna have to be both those things now.'

'No,' I said, 'I just have to believe.' There was an almighty clatter, a deafening sort of smash from somewhere outside the door and I looked up again from the pages, somewhat exasperatedly. What now?

Connor appeared suddenly in the doorway, out of breath and with a panicked look in his eye that quickly made me straighten up. I waited for Connor to catch his breath before he could continue but apparently it took too long, because a second later he just lifted an arm to point down the hallway and simply managed 'Help.'

I stood up and followed him back down the corridor, back into the hub where the others were standing in front of the window to the lab opposite my own off the corridor.

I turned too, to face it.

I flinched.

Staring back at us through the glass was some sort of creature, a mixture of brown and grey and freckled all over its fungus infested body.

I realised quickly that there must have been something going on here for quite some time. 'What's all this then?' I asked suspiciously. 'Why didn't you tell me?'

When he laughed, I could feel his breath on my ear. 'Sweetheart…' I could hear the smirk in his Hebridean lull without even seeing the expression on his face. 'You haven't exactly been–'

'Shut up,' I interrupted.

Everyone else looked around at each other in confusion. 'We didn't say anything,' Connor responded.

'Not you,' I said. 'Why did no one tell me about this?'

'When was the last time you looked in a mirror?' Danny asked.

'I don't know.' I'd been covering them up. 'Why?'

'Well,' he replied, 'you, um, sort of look like you're dying, so…' And he frowned as he cut himself off.

So they hadn't wanted to bother me.

'Right. What's going on here?' Nobody wanted to tell me. That was why I didn't already know. And immediately the silence told me it was serious because otherwise why wouldn't they have told me by now.

'Fungus,' Danny's voice said cut through. 'That thing was a man two minutes ago.'

'This'll be tricky to explain to the next of kin,' Lester added unhelpfully, 'good news, he's not technically dead. Bad news, he's turned into a mushroom.'

'We think it came through an anomaly,' Connor continued.

'What are we going to do with it?' Lester asked.

'I don't know,' Connor replied, 'this all happened when it reacted with the saline solution.'

'Well, all fungi like damp environments, right?' Sarah suggested, 'so why don't we try drying it out.'

'Bake the hell out of it,' Connor agreed, moving forward to the thermostat on the wall outside the room. 'Let's see what happens.'

'I don't think…' I started before I even really knew what I was saying, '…that's a good idea.'

Connor snatched his hands back from the thermostat.

'Why not?' Lester asked.

'Well if it only coagulated when you added the saline solution then it either likes Hydrogen or Oxygen– and if you heat up the air the oxygens gonna expand it could make it much easier to spread.'

'And if it was the hydrogen?' Connor returned.

I had to shrug, 'then… we'll dry it out,' I conceded. 'But we need to understand the risks.'

Connor looked to Lester. 'Do it.'

He put his hands back on the thermostat, clicking the temperature up to 75°c. And we waited, almost hopefully, for something to happen.

After a minute of silence, Danny sighed. 'It's not responding…'

'So, come on,' Lester said, 'what's our plan B?' Connor turned to look at me over his shoulder with a matching wide–eyed expression of amusement. That's not how we did things around here. 'You know, just once,' Lester continued in complaint, 'just once would be nice!'

'Maybe it's just not hot enough.'

The voice in my ear had my head turning slightly, towards it, where he was standing at my side, bright eyed and smiling. My jaw gurned in contemplation. 'Turn it up,' I finally said. '100.'

Connor frowned, nervous eyes darting back to Lester as if he would be able to confirm if that was a good or bad idea.

I sighed. 'Oh, go on, why the hell not?' I continued in exasperation, 'it's already too late if it doesn't work, and if something happens we'll deal with it but it's better than nothing.'

Lester nodded, Connor raised the temperature again and we all stood back from the window to watch.

As the temperature inside the room began to climb, the creature's body started to shake, vibrating and expanding in the heat.

It didn't take long, only a second or two before the creature exploded, splattering against the glass and everyone jumped.

'Ah…' Connor sighed, as he placed a hand over his heat and tried to quell the aftereffects of the shock. 'Result…'

'Right,' Lester quickly continued, 'get the news to Jensen.'

'Jensen?' I repeated, confused, and looked around the hub like I'd expected him to be there.

'He's in the field,' Connor told me, like he could sense my confusion.

Right. 'Where's Becker,' I asked.

'He's with Jensen. They're tracing someone who may have been in contact with it when it came through the anomaly.'

'We need to call him.'

'We'll do one better,' Danny returned to Lester, 'Connor, let's get down there.'

'If you find anything, what are you going to do?' Lester asked, 'ask it to come with you to the closest oven?'

'If baking it worked, burning's going to be even better,' Connor stated. There was a glint excitement in his eye, because already he'd worked out what to do, and I could tell he was enjoying the idea way too much. 'We've got flamethrowers in the armoury, right?'