The ARC - London

[itsananomaly]

It had been a very long and busy several days once Cutter and Connor had returned to London. Even though they were no longer involved with the field work, there was still a lot of research to be done both with the ARC and Prospero.

Cutter and Connor had been given an office to work out of while they were back for the summer, since Cutter’s old office now belonged to Danny ,and there were papers and books all over the office. Cutter was still trying to figure out what some of the numbers from the anomaly prediction model before they had left Fandom and the numbers and data was starting to blur together and he rubbed his eyes tiredly.

“I’m starting to think we might need a break,” he remarked with a sheepish smile from where he had taken a spot on the floor, surrounded by a pile of papers and notebooks.

[for Connor and SP! NFB due to distance]

Comments

[anomaly_research_nerd]

Connor looked up from where he stood as he had been pacing the office, book in hand, studying the notes and findings Philip had left for him to go over. Prospero had definitely been busy with their research and there was a LOT to go through!

"I think you might be right there, Nick" he said with a tired laugh as he walked over to his desk and put the notebook and papers down and then leaned against the edge and looked at Cutter. "I think we have earned a break!"

[itsananomaly]

Cutter smiled as he yawned and stretched, putting his notes on the floor and carefully stood up, “a break is definitely well deserved,” he agreed and then his stomach started rumbling, “I do think getting some food is in order as well, I can’t remember the last time we actually ate,” he realised.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"I don't think we've had a real meal since the welcome-back dinner Lester had for us," Connor said, his stomach beginning to rumble as well. I think we need some Chinese. We can't very well do research on empty stomachs now, can we?" he asked with a wink as he fished his phone out of his pocket.

[itsananomaly]

Cutter did look a little sheepish at that, "yeah we definitely need to fill our stomachs," he agrees, "and Chinese food is definitely in order, I think we need some food and then maybe hang out in the break room for a bit, see if anyone's about. I feel like we haven't seen everyone since the welcome dinner," he added.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Aye. Ya know what they say about all work and no play..." Connor added with a laugh. "I'm sure Danny is around and we can see who else is here today."

Connor looked at his phone and pulled up their favorite Chinese place. "Think we should order double and take everything to the break room? Can eat with whoever stops by!"

[itsananomaly]

After they had finished talking to Becker and Danny and worked out what their next tasks would be over the next few days, Cutter and Connor decided to stop by the lab on their way back to the office, "I hope Connor is alright," he remarked as they headed towards the lab, "I know it's been a while since we've talked, hopefully he'll be okay to talk to us,"

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"I know...I'm worried about it too" Connor admitted as they walked down the hallways of the ARC and headed out. "Philip can be very persuasive when he wants to be. It might take some time but I hope he opens up to us and still trusts us."

[itsananomaly]

"Hopefully if we approach him now and can get him to talk to us, we might be able to slow down whatever is going on in this timeline," Cutter said softly, "I know we've been so caught up in the research and haven't had a chance to talk, maybe this will help,"

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Can't hurt" Connor agreed. "I do need to get his thoughts on something anyway, outside the whole Prospero side of things so this might be a good chance to start talking again."

[itsananomaly]

Cutter nodded, "maybe letting him know that he can talk to us if he needs help, will be enough," he said, "maybe if we can even convince him to get out of his lab for a while that will help to, have a break from what's he working on" he considered.

[itsananomaly]

It was a few days later, Cutter and Connor had checked in with Duncan and it had turned out that the disappearances were anomaly related so once they had confirmed that, Danny and Becker and the rest of the security team had taken care of it.

In that time they were also getting as much evidence as they needed so that they could talk to Lester about their worries about Phillip, Cutter looked over Helen's notebook for what felt like the hundredth time, "I really hope this evidence is going to convince James that we need to look more closely at Phillip," he said worriedly.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"If nothing else... it might not convince him outright but should be enough for him to give us some more time and resources to look into it" Connor said as he checked a few data points and added some sheets to the files they were going to give Lester. "I mean, we have come through in the past, I think he will trust us this time."

[itsananomaly]

Cutter nodded, "I hope so," he said softly, "I mean it's not just as us, it's Danny and Becker as well, surely between everything this has to mean something, at least enough so that James doesn't just outright dismiss us," he said softly.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"I know back before... in my original timeline... Lester wasn't a believer in the alternate times and everything. But he came around eventually when he started seeing things for himself. Hopefully, Lester now has some of that openness to him." Connor gave Nick a small nod and a hopefully reassuring smile. "And with Danny and Becker voicing similar concerns, it will definitely count for something! When do you think we can get some time to talk to him?"

[itsananomaly]

"Hopefully we'll be able to talk to him later today," Cutter said as he felt a bit more reassured and gave Connor a smile in return, "I think Danny said he would be in later this afternoon, hopefully we can go over our evidence and then go talk to James, see what he thinks about it,"

[itsananomaly]

Cutter had been hanging out in his ... no it was Danny's office now for the last few hours, it had been nice just catching up and talking and staying distracted from worrying about Becker and Connor but at the same time, it felt like it had been a while since they had last seen them and that they should have checked in right now.

"I hope we hear from Becker and Connor soon," Cutter said softly as he started to pace around the room, he had been sitting down but he was getting to anxious the longer they didn't hear anything.

[thearcfamily]

Danny looked up from the file he had opened and laid on the desk in front of him. It had been nice talking to Cutter for the last hour or so, but he kept finding his focus drifting back to Ethan and why that name was so familiar yet so strange to him.

"Aye... we should hear from them soon" he said as he nodded and closed the file. "I'll give them another quarter hour or so....then try and raise Becker on the Coms and see how they are doing."

[itsananomaly]

Cutter nodded, still trying to not worry, "I just would have thought we'd have heard from them by now," he said softly, "especially after everything we've heard about Ethan, I hope they're alright,"

[thearcfamily]

Danny was about to say something when the com unit clipped to his belt started to buzz. He grabbed his phone off the desk and looked at the number and gave Cutter a nod as he answered it.

"Becker? Hey yeah I'm here. Whats going on? You and Connor ok?" he asked as he watched Cutter and realized he too was holding his breath waiting for the update.

[itsananomaly]

Cutter leaned closer, anxious to hear news about how Becker and Connor were doing.

"We're okay," came Becker's voice on the other end, "we're still tailing Ethan, we had to keep up with him as he's showing no signs of slowing down, that's why it took us longer to check in, but he's also not causing any trouble at this stage,"

Cutter breathed out a sign of relief at that. They were okay, this was a good sign, everything was going to be alright.

[thearcfamily]

After meeting with Lester and explaining what they planned to do, Lester had given them approval for a stakeout.

“That went a lot easier than I thought it would,” Becker admitted as they left the office so that they could begin setting up the stakeout.

[thearcfamily]

"Honestly, I think boss man is just glad we consulted him first...and I know he wants this Ethan issues dealt with as soon as possible as well" Danny said as they headed to the supply room to get the gear and everything else they would need.

[thearcfamily]

Becker nodded, "that was definitely one of our smoothest meetings," he admitted, "and we do need to stop Ethan from doing whatever it is he is planning to do, I think we need to prepare for the possibility that we might not be able to bring Ethan in, that we'll have to stop him at the house,"

[thearcfamily]

Danny bit his lip slightly and nodded... even after all the dealings with Helen, Christine, Wilder, and the likes... he still hated when things had to resort to extreme measures. "Hopefully, he will cooperate once we get him to where we can talk and see what his plans are and what he wants to accomplish by being here."

Danny was silent for a moment, then he hooked his head, reached for one of the duffel bags, and started packing what they would need. "Think Connor and Cutter are going to be ok staying behind here and helping Sarah and Abby with things?"

[thearcfamily]

Becker nodded, "it would be nice if just once, things went easy for us with one of these missions," he sighed and then hesitated, he didn't like the idea of leaving Sarah to go on what could potentially be a dangerous stakeout, even though he knew she understood that this was necessary, "I think they will be," he said softly, "I'm sure, they'll give them a rundown of what's been happening and I'm sure Emily will have valuable insight as well since she travelled with Ethan for so long," he considered.