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]

"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.

[thearcfamily]

"Good- remember the check-ins every 3 hours," she said, trying to keep her voice level. "And let us know if anything happens and you engage with Ethan. If we find anything out on this end we will let you know right away!"

[thearcfamily]

Becker nodded, "thank you," he said, "and we'll keep you informed of anything that we find out," he added, "every 3 hours unless we find out something urgent," he said, "and we'll keep comms open at all time, if you need to reach us," he looked over at Danny to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything.

[thearcfamily]

Dannony nodded that everything was good on his end and he pulled them onto a small side street, and eventually parked under some trees, far enough from the house to not be too obvious but close enought to see what happened.

Then he started fiddling with some of the gear in this bag, giving Becker some semi-privacy to talk to Sarah if he wanted. As he half listened to Becker, he set out the two binoculars, the com base, and the food containers he set on the dashboard.

[thearcfamily]

Becker appreciated the gesture, as he spoke to Sarah for a few more moments, assuring her that they would check in and keep them updated as the stakeout progressed.

It was a few more moments before Sarah and Becker finished, saying quiet I love Yous before they ended the comms.

Becker tried to get back on task at hand, even though he still felt bad for worrying Sarah about going on this stakeout, "noticed anything unusual yet?" he asked as he looked towards the house to see if he could spot something.

[thearcfamily]

Danny gave a small smile to Beck when he set the coms down on the dashboard, not going to embarrass him or anything.

"Nothing yet, thought I saw a car about to pull in, but they kept on going- probably some tourist lost and trying to find their way back to the highway."

[thearcfamily]

Becker nodded as he picked up a pair of binoculars to take a look, "I think that's pretty likely," he agreed, "this place is pretty far out of the way, I suppose we should at least be glad that Lester bought the house from the real estate and we don't have to worry about potential buyers or real estate agents this time round," he considered.

[thearcfamily]

Danny chuckle and grabbed one of the water bottles fromt he cooler at his feet and took a swig.

"And no annypoing cops nosing around either uh?" he said, giving Becker a small wink at the callback to his first run-in with the rest of the team.

[thearcfamily]

Becker grinned at that, "you didn't turn out too badly," he said as he thought back to that first meeting, "at least we shouldn't have to worry about getting arrested this time though right?"