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

[thearcfamily]

"Good, you two deserve to be happy and I am glad to hear you are doing alright. This is a rough time for everyone, but if you got someone by your side, it makes it all the easier to get through things." Danny smiled at Cutter, remembering just how far they had come since their first meeting.

[itsananomaly]

Cutter returned that smile, "it definitely does help," he agreed, also thinking how far they had come since that first meeting, "if you had told me when we first met that we'd be having a conversation like this, I would have thought you were crazy," he admitted.

[thearcfamily]

"Yeah... going from trying to arrest the two of you and nearly coming to blows with Lester over it... to leading the team and seeing you both, and everyone else here, as a family." Danny shook his head and laughed. "Yeah I would have thought you were off your rocker back then if you said this is where we would be now."

[itsananomaly]

Cutter couldn't help but laugh at that, "we've definitely come a long way from that first meeting," he said with a grin, "but I'm glad things have worked out, I meant what I said earlier you are a great leader Danny and I'm glad that I've got you as a friend,"

[thearcfamily]

Danny laughed then stopped suddenly, his face going serious all of a sudden. "Nick...." he said, eyes going wide a little as a thought finally hit him. Did Lester get those files from the department yet? The ones from when I was on the force?"

[itsananomaly]

"I'm not sure," Cutter tilted his head slightly curiously, "depending on how soon he called the Commissioner, he may have the files," he paused, "do you think you've remembered something about Ethan?"

[thearcfamily]

"I can picture that name...on a case report. I can see it in my mind, I just... I can't remember what case it was," Danny said with a frustrated sigh. "If we had the records, I'd start going through them. I'm almost certain I know Ethan from one of my old cases!"

[itsananomaly]

"Maybe we could check with Lester see if he's had any luck with getting the records yet?" Cutter suggested, "if you said that you had were certain that it was connected to one of your cases, he might be able to get the reports faster?"

[thearcfamily]

"Good point there Cutter," Danny said with a nod. "I know he is as keen on getting to the bottom of this as we are. So Im sure he will pull every favor he can with the department. It will be good to know... one way or another... who this Ethan guy really is."

[itsananomaly]

Cutter nodded, "I know Lester will get the rest of the files here soon," he said, "if we can figure out who Ethan is, we can find out where he's going and what his plan is and if we need to, we can stop him,"

[thearcfamily]

Danny was about to say something when he gave a small jump as the com on his hip buzzed. He leaned over and clicked a few keys on the keyboard and looked at the computer screen.

"Ah good, they are here. Becker just pulled into the parking lot!"

[itsananomaly]

Cutter let out a sigh of relief at that, "oh that's good," he said, "I was getting worried about them," he said softly, "what happens now?" he asked, still not entirely sure about these new protocols and how briefings were handled.

[thearcfamily]

"Becker and Connor will come here and give us a brief run down of what they found out. Then we go and talk to Lester and see what he wants to do next and how he wants to proceed with what we uncovered..."

Danny glanced at the door to the office, waiting for them to get there. "I hope they found out something that can be useful to us in unraveling this annoying mystery."

[itsananomaly]

Cutter nodded, still a little nervous about these proceedings after how Lester had reacted earlier, "hopefully they have an idea of where Ethan is headed, that might also help narrow things down, especially if they're in the police files," he said, trying to remain optimistic that they would have something for Lester.

[thearcfamily]

"Anything is better than what we had to start off with, so hopefully we have something to report to Lester."

Danny looked to the door and stood as he heard the knob click and watched the door swing open as Becker and Connor walked in.

"Hey, you two, glad you made it back safe!" he said, the concern evident in his voice and on his face.

[itsananomaly]

"I'm glad you made it back," Cutter breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Becker and Connor come through the door, "how did it go?" he asked, looking from Becker to Connor to make sure they were alright.

[thearcfamily]

Danny knew the look of exhaustion on their faces- he'd worn similar more times than he could remember after long stakeouts and such. He turned to the small fridge in the corner of his office and grabbed two water bottles and handed them over to Becker and Connor, letting them sit and relax, for a little bit at least, before bombarding them with questions.

[thearcfamily]

Becker was grateful for the water bottle and took a long drink of his and for the chance to catch his breath, he took several deep breaths, "I think after tailing Ethan, we can definitely say that he is from our time, or close to it," he told them, "he seemed to know exactly where he was heading,"

[thearcfamily]

"And he wasn't like... gawking at technology and things the way Emily was," Connor added as he took a slow drink from his own bottle of water. "He knew what cars, and cell phones were..even seemed pretty familiar with the internet and all from what we could tell as well."

Danny listened and nodded. "Ok, so definitely someone from modern times who somehow fell through an anomaly and ended up in London... wonder if it was just one anomaly he went through or if he ping ponged around like we did?"

[thearcfamily]

Cutter was thoughtful for a moment, "Ethan didn't seem that confused about the anomaly when he and Emily first appeared, it's like he was almost expecting it, I think the only he would have been surprised about was that he ended up in the present time,"


Becker was quiet for a moment as he considered, "then that would explain why he didn't seem phased at all about anything, it did seem like he was heading towards the suburbs, somewhere out of the city,"

[thearcfamily]

danny listened and nodded and then he stopped and looked back at Becker. "Wait... the suburbs? Was he heading more towards the North or South end of the suburbs?" There was a curious look in Danny's eyes as if he was working on putting a puzzle together mentally.

[thearcfamily]

Becker looked curiously at Danny, wondering what he working out, "I'd say it was more south that he was heading to, I think he was familiar with the area, he didn't even try to stop for directions,"

[thearcfamily]

Danny closed his eyes and thought for a moment, then his eyes flew open and he stared at Cutter and Connor for a moment, shocked.

"The house! The abandoned one... where we first met! That's where I know that name from! He was one of the kids who had gone missing in the house... he's why I was investigating it when you two showed up that day!"

[thearcfamily]

Cutter looked at Danny and Connor, not quite believing that Ethan was connected to that house, “he disappeared from that house,” Cutter, surprised by how Ethan seemed connected to all of this, does that mean we go to Lester and tell him what we know?”

Becker nodded, “we’ll need to brief him and start a plan for how best to handle the Ethan situation, we’ll probably need to stakeout the house,” he considered, looking at Danny to double check.

[thearcfamily]

"Yeah, Lester is gonna want to know about this... and any stakeout or pursuit of Ethan is going to need his approval," Danny said, not wanting to get on his boss's bad side...again.. for rushing off and disregarding orders and protocols.