CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Emily ran over to the still figure of Carl Evigan, who was sprawled inelegantly on the floor of the temporary hub. She needed to see that he was completely incapacitated before she turned her attention to Jess. Grabbing an extra cable from one of the displays she quickly patted him down to discern if he was carrying any other weapons or explosive devices and tied his hands tightly behind his back. She thought it might make her feel better if she made it very uncomfortable for the greedy cretin laying in front of her. As she turned her attention to her semi-conscious friend laying on the floor a clatter from the entrance of the room had her reaching for her weapon and raising it at the ready. Becker charged into the room, breathing heavily, and swearing under his breath. His eyes took in the prone form of the unconscious and now secured Carl Evigan as he began to breath easier, but suddenly realized that it was Emily, not Jess standing in front of him. He began to look around the room wildly.

"Where's Jess?...I heard a shot?...What?!...How?," the words tumbled from his lips. Emily had no chance to reassure him as his eyes landed upon the still form of Jess, laying on her back on the cold floor with one arm thrown across her face and her eyes closed tightly.

"Oh, God….no, Jess!" Becker ran over to the incapacitated field coordinator and began to check her head and body for any evidence of a wound. Emily tried to reassure him.

"Becker…..it's okay….she's…"

The soldier quickly cut her off. "Call an ambulance! What are you doing, Emily? Where was she shot? I can't find an exit wound!"

Emily watched the consummate military man come completely undone over the fate of the woman lying on the floor in front of him. She gazed at him sympathetically knowing that in that moment, his usually guarded demeanor was complete gone and in its place was his emotional attachment to the woman he was obviously in love with.

Emily walked over to the soldier and put her hand on his soldier forcing him to look away from Jess for one second.

"Becker….she's going to be fine…she was standing next to this man when I shot him with the EMD….He took the brunt of it. She knew it was coming and wanted me to take the shot. "She looked into his eyes to make sure he got the message as she said again slowly. "She WILL be fine. She's only stunned."

Becker looked at Emily and blinked as if he was just hearing her voice. At the same moment a moan came from the woman on the floor as she opened her eyes and tried to sit up. The rest of the team came barreling through the door and made the same assumption as Becker and rushed over to Jess. Emily quickly explained as Becker helped her sit up. Abby, who at first had rushed to Jess' side, quickly saw that Becker was helping her and, with a knowing smile, discreetly moved to help Matt and Connor make sure that Carl Evigan was completely incapacitated and that they had possession of the anomaly creating device.

Jess gazed at Becker who had his arm around her shoulders and was looking deeply into her eyes. She gave him a half smile as he helped her sit up.

"So this is how getting shot with an EMD feels…..This really wasn't an experience I had on my bucket list…." She murmured.

Becker looked at her with wide eyes, his face completely devoid of the usual stoic expression he wore.

"I thought I'd lost you," he whispered as he stared at her intently. "I mean, I thought we'd lost you…." he quickly added. "Jess…..I…."

Jess gazed back and quickly cut him off. "Becker?" she breathed, "Could you go away and have Abby come over here and bring the trash bin because I think I'm going to throw up!"

Abby, from the other side of the room, rolled her eyes as her plan to bring her two friends together was once again foiled, and began looking for a waste bin. Becker jumped up, quickly finding one, and brought it back to the pale field coordinator as he tenderly grasped her long hair, which had fallen out of the upswept hairstyle he had worn earlier, and held it for her while she emptied the contents of her stomach into the waste bin.

Jess leaned back to lay down on the floor again but Becker sat her up with her back against him to support and stroked her hair. Jess groaned.

"Well that was really attractive, wasn't it? I think I'd like to go hide in my room now. Abby can go with me. You don't have to take care of me Becker, I know you have "security stuff" to do," she said with a slight smirk.

Becker gave her a wry smile as he helped her stand up and began to lean down to pick her up in his arms.

Connor who had been talking with Matt, walked over to Jess and Becker. "Hey, mate, you probably want to take our anomaly creator back to the ARC. Abby and I can make sure Jess gets to her room."

Abby began madly gesturing for Connor to look at her behind Becker's back but finally gave up and walked over to the other side of Jess.

Becker looked at both Abby and Connor and then back at Jess and stepped away from the now standing woman. "Yea, okay, um….Jess, you sure you can make it up to your room okay?"

Jess smiled at him and nodded as he stood in front of her for a moment. "I'll check on you as soon as I get back from the ARC," he said and then quickly strode over to the now conscious Carl Evigan to push him unceremoniously out of the room and to the transport vehicle. Abby and Connor stood on either side of Jess as they headed toward the lifts that would take them to the hotel rooms on the upper floors. Abby gave Connor a disgusted look. He looked back confused. "What?...What did I do," he whispered back. Abby just rolled her eyes. "Never mind, Con…..I'll explain later.

Abby sat with Jess for a bit before the field coordinator assured her she was fine and just needed a good night's sleep. Abby, Emily, Matt, and Connor decided that the fact that it was one o'clock in the morning would make it impossible for anyone to get anything done that night and the best thing to do would be get a good night's rest in their rooms and tackle analyzing the anomaly device and breaking down their display the next day. Becker joined them as he returned from the ARC to assure them that Carl Evigan was secured in a cell in their facility and the anomaly creation device was locked in the labs for safety. Abby assured him that Jess was feeling much better and was fast asleep last time she checked as each of them walked the halls to their rooms.

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One more chapter to go! I had to break this chapter into two parts since I would not have access to this computer until after Christmas…I will try to get that chapter up fairly quickly!