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]

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?"

[thearcfamily]

"Exactly.... if anyone's getting arrested, it will be Ethan when we get him back to the ARC so we can help him and figure out how to handle all this without desynchronizing the timeline....again."

Danny fell silent as he grabbed the binoculars and lifted them to his face.

"Speaking of which...."

[thearcfamily]

"Well at least we know he definitely headed here," Becker noted as he looked at Ethan through the window, "how did you want to play this, wait and see a bit before we confront him or go after now?" he asked as he weighed up the options.

[thearcfamily]

"I think we should move in" Danny said with a nod. "Even if he's not up to anything nefarious... I dont want to give him time to get into anything he shouldn't or get an upper hand if he is planning something."

"I'll head in and you can be my back up. Watch my back for me?"

[thearcfamily]

Becker nodded, "okay, I can do that," he assured him as he started getting his things ready, "with any luck Ethan's going to be in a cooperative mood and we can wrap this up pretty quickly,"

Even though he knew by now they didn't have that kind of luck but he could be optimistic.

[thearcfamily]

Danny bit back the 'tempting fate" comment before it fell off his tongue and got out of the car and headed for the house, moving as stealthily as he could, hearing Becker following behind him a few minutes later.

When he got to the door, he paused and tried to peek in the window to see if he could catch a glimpse of what Ethan was doing inside.

[thearcfamily]

Becker slowly followed Danny to the door, keeping his gun drawn and he was alert just in case Ethan had any surprises up his sleeve, "anything yet?" he whispered as he got close to Danny.

[thearcfamily]

"I can hear him moving around in there.... but I can't see anything," Danny whispered hoarsely as he tried to shift to get a better look into the window.

[thearcfamily]

Becker nodded as he kept his guard up, trying to keep his ear out as well.

Meanwhile Ethan was pacing the house up and down, now that he had gotten to the house, he wasn't entirely sure what his game plan was, he needed time to think. He knew there would be people after him, he couldn't go back.

He stopped close near the window Danny was at, not realising he already had company.

[thearcfamily]

"Head around the back" Danny whispered, as he glanced towards the front door. "I'm going to go in. Make sure he doesn't try to make a run for it."

Danny hesitated a moment, then slipped his gun into the holster at his belt. He knew it was a risk. The cop side of his brain was screaming at him that this was a bad idea. But he also knew that going in to confront Ethan with a gun drawn was not going to make him willing to talk at all.

[thearcfamily]

Becker nodded, "please be careful," he said softly and he headed around the back in case Ethan did have other plans.

At first Ethan wasn't sure if he was hearing noises, it was an old house but after a few minutes he was sure he could hear whispering, "who's there?" he said sharply, looking towards the door and window.

[thearcfamily]

Danny tried to keep still when he thought Ethan might have heard him and Becker, and he cursed under his breath when he called out. Taking a deep breath, Danny stood and walked to the door, opening it. He walked in with his hands raised.

"I don't mean you any harm, Ethan....I just... I just want to talk."

[thearcfamily]

Becker was by the back door, ready to go in if Danny was in danger. He kept his ear out in case he had to stop Ethan escaping or help Danny.

Ethan raised his eyebrow, “you’ve gone to a lot of trouble to just talk,” he said dryly, “I know you lot have been tracking me,” he didn’t know how but he was sure of it.

[thearcfamily]

"You're right. We have been following you" Danny said as he took a cautious step further inside, hands still held out to the side. "Because we want to talk... Ethan. We want to help you, if we can."

[thearcfamily]

Ethan narrowed his eyes, "help me," he scoffed, "I was helping myself, I wanted to go back to the anomaly, I wanted my life back and the anomaly's gone, how can you help me now?"

Becker was still listening by the door, in case things went badly.

[thearcfamily]

"We can try and get you an anomaly back to your time... my friends.." Danny paused, raising his voice enough so Becker could hear him "... and I can help you. Or we can help you get settled and adjusted here if..." Danny trailed off, having an idea Ethan didnt want to settle.

[thearcfamily]

Becker did hear that, he moved a bit closer inside but still close enough so that he was near the back door in case Ethan tried to make a run for it.

Ethan looked very skeptical at that, "I know how these anomalies work, I've been travelling through them a long time and this is the closest I've come to where I'm from, getting an exact anomaly back has been impossible," he raised an eyebrow at that last part, "I definitely don't want to stay here mate," he remarked, "I want to go home,"

[thearcfamily]

"Let us help you then, we have studied the anomalies and traveled through them a lot" Danny offered. "I know this isn't your time... but I do know it's close. You were one of the kids that dissapered... from this house... that day arent you, Ethan?"

[thearcfamily]

Ethan hesitated, "I never meant to go through the anomaly," he said softly, "it just ... it just appeared and we thought it would be fun to see what was there ... " he paused, looking in the direction of the stairs where they had found the anomaly, "I ... thought if I came back to the house it would be here,"

[thearcfamily]

"That's the thing about the anomalies..." Danny said with a small dip of his head. "They show up when they want to, most of the time. We still don't even know everything there is to know about them."

[thearcfamily]

Ethan sighed, this wasn't what he wanted and now he didn't know what to do, he didn't want to be stuck here but he didn't know where to run and he was pretty sure there would be someone blocking the back entrance, he took a couple of steps back anyway in case he could make it.

"I don't, this isn't supposed to happen!" he shouted.

Becker heard the shouts and moved in a little closer, ready to intercept in case Ethan took off again.