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]

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.

[thearcfamily]

"That is very true...." Danny looked up from the gear he was placing into the back and studied Becker's face for a moment, seeing the worry in his eyes. "And Sarah will be fine. They will take care of her, and we will have coms on the entire time so she will be in your ear as usual," he said with a small grin as he put a reassuring hand on his friend's shoulder.

[thearcfamily]

Becker nodded, feeling a bit more reassured and gave a small smile back, "hopefully this is resolved quickly and it won't be long before we're back and we won't have to worry about it anymore," he said, trying to sound hopeful that it could be resolved without any kind of bloodshed but based on what he knew about Ethan he knew that might not be the case.

[thearcfamily]

Danny just nodded, knowing there wasn't much else to say and finished packing the bag, making sure the coms were charged and had extra batteries. The few handguns they would take were packed with the ammo, and as he zipped the bag closed, he looked at Beck and gave a small nod. "You want to drive or you want to ride shotgun?"

[thearcfamily]

"I might ride shotgun if that's alright?" Becker said as he double checked everything that they would need, "it might be a bit easier than having me drive after it's been a long day already," he said apologetically, knowing they had to be on their game for the stakeout.

[thearcfamily]

"Good point, good point" Danny nodded in agreement. "I think we have everything... as soon as the food gets here for us to pack up and take, we can head out. I think Lester said he was getting the usual for us....so burgers!"

[thearcfamily]

Becker did smile at that, "I could definitely go for burgers right now," he agreed, trying to remember what the last thing he ate was, "and I think we have everything as well, so we're as prepared as we're going to be for this," he nodded.

[thearcfamily]

"Then let's be on our way. Food should have been delivered to Lester by now so we can pick it up and then be on our way."

Danny slung the bag over his shoulder and started on their way down the hall.

-----

And less than 15 minutes later they were loaded into the black SUV and were pulling out of the ARC parking area and heading towards the house to get the stakeout started.

[thearcfamily]

Becker was trying not to feel nervous, he had been on plenty of stakeouts before but he knew this one could potentially be different, "I still can't believe we're going back to the house we're we first met," he mused, "so much has changed since that day,"

[thearcfamily]

A warm and loud laugh escaped from Danny at that as he made the turn off the main road and onto one of the back roads they were going to take.

"I know, I never would have believed any of it if someone told me where things would be...where I would be... now. It feels strange going back, almost like there's some unfinished business there we need to take care of. I just... I wish I had been able to stop all of this from happening in the first place... whatever happened to Ethan, is partly on me for not being able to help him back when I first started investigating the house..." Danny said, his voice dropping a little.

[thearcfamily]

"There's no way you could have known," Becker said gently, "you didn't know about the anomalies, none of us did back then, all we can do now is try and contain the fallout, stop there being further casualties from civilians falling through the anomalies," he said softly.

[thearcfamily]

Danny nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, clean up and damage control. Seems to be what we end up doing a lot of isnt it?" He asked with a chuckle.

"We're about 15 minutes out.... wanna get the coms out and give them a test? Can check in with Sarah and the others and see how things are going?" he asked, giving Becker a knowing smile.

[thearcfamily]

Becker nodded, giving a smile at that, "checking the comms will definitely help," he said as he got them out and paused, "and it would help being able to talk to Sarah as well, I know she understands but I didn't like that we had to leave so quickly, without saying goodbye," he admitted as he began to set up the comm channel.

[thearcfamily]

Sarah was back at the ARC, with Abby and Emily, watching the progress on the screen as they tracked where Danny and Becker were en route.

She was about to ask Abby something when she saw the light on the coms display light up, and she perked up immediately when she heard Becker's voice come through.

"Becker? Hey, everything ok?" she asked as she answered, glancing at Abby and Emily.

[thearcfamily]

Becker let out a sigh of relief when Sarah's voice came through, he had been worried that there would be something wrong with the comms, "everything's alright," he reassured her, "we're on our way to the house, we're checking to make sure the comms are working, which so far so good," he said, "how is everything at the ARC? are you all okay?"

[thearcfamily]

A smile spread over Sarah's face as she heard Becker's voice and she gave a small nod to Abby.

"We're all good here, too," she reassured him. "Got your position on the GPS tracker, and coms seem good on our end too. You just make sure Danny drives carefully, and you don't do anything too reckless," she said with a mock lecturing tone.

[thearcfamily]

Becker did look a little sheepish at that, "I'll try," he knew he couldn't make too many promises given the nature of their stakeout, "but we'll keep in contact when we can and let you know how everything is progressing," he promised, "hopefully this stakeout isn't going to take too long and we'll be back at the ARC before you know it,"

[thearcfamily]

"Good... and I hope so because I already miss you," Sarah said softly as Emily gave her a smile and Abby gave her a wink. "I'll be fine though, as long as you come back safe and sound when it's over."

Emily gave a smile and nodded to the com in her hands. "Emily wants to talk to you and Danny for a moment" she said as she handed the com over,

[thearcfamily]

Becker nodded, "I miss you too," he told Sarah, "and I'll see you as soon as I can," he said and then looked curiously at Danny for a moment, wondering what Emily wanted to say to them.

"sure, what did you want to talk about Emily?" he said.

[thearcfamily]

Danny glanced over and gave Becker a look as well as he listened.

"Just wanted to remind the two of you, Ethan knows more about this time period and all than you might think" Emily said. "He came through the anomaly with me from London...but he is from closer to this time than my time. Just.... be careful. He's not as clueless as he might seem."

[thearcfamily]

"We will," Becker assured her, "maybe he just wanted to go back to the house and see it after all this time?" he suggested, looking back at Danny, that would definitely make their job easier, if that was all he wanted, "but we're going to take every precaution," he reassured her.