Disclaimer: Don't Own, Don't Sue! ;D

A/N: Bitten by the plot bunny once again! Will continue this if people want me too! ^^

Chapter 1: Room to Breathe

"Little voice inside my head said

'Don't look back,

You can never look back'"

-"Boys of Summer" by Don Henley

The drive back to the ARC was a silent one. Matt drove by himself, leaving the remaining ARC soldiers to load everything.

He kept the windows up and the radio off, despite it being a somewhat warm day. Today was filled with too many revelations for Matt to handle. Ethan turned out to be innocent, well, innocent as far as what suspicions Matt was investigating.

Danny's words kept running through Matt's head as he pulled into the garage of the ARC.

"Burton is not to be trusted."

Matt was on a somewhat right path at the beginning when he'd narrowed it down to Burton or Connor.

Then again, Matt didn't know Danny that well. He didn't know whether or not he could even trust Danny.

"You have to treat them all as equally dangerous. It could be any one of them." His father had told him.

Abby walked into the Main Operations Room. She was looking for Jess, because she hadn't seen Connor since he'd darted off to the office that Phillip had given him. Abby was absolutely baffled and terrified about what had happened at the prison and was anxious to know if Connor had figured out what was going on.

She had snuck into the office, but didn't find Connor there. If anyone knew or had the slightest idea of Connor's current whereabouts, it would be Jess.

Abby found Jess at her terminal typing furiously, but it was obvious that all was not right. Jess was not emitting her usual cheerfulness. Something had happened while she and Connor were away from the ARC.

"Jess," Abby spoke cautiously, causing the younger girl to jump.

"Oh, Abby." Jess greeted with a nervous laugh.

"What's wrong?"

"Ethan, or Patrick, whatever his real name is, managed to escape the holding cells. He took Emily hostage and EMDed Becker twice, before stealing one of the trucks. Danny and Matt went after him."

Abby processed all this, while trying not to think of any worst-case scenarios.

"Is Becker all right?" Abby asked worriedly.

"I don't know," Jess replied frantically. "I've been watching the CCTV for the medical bay, but he's hasn't woken up yet and I need to keep an eye on things before I can go check on him."

Abby suddenly remembered what she needed to ask Jess.

"Have you seen Connor? Or know where I can find him?"

Jess nodded. "He came running through here about twenty minutes ago looking for Phillip. He seemed really freaked out. He was running for the garage to try and catch Phillip on his way out and I think he left with Phillip."

Abby swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to push her attitude toward Phillip to the back of her mind before turning to Jess.

"I can watch things here for a bit. You go check on Becker." Abby offered.

"Really? You'd do that?"

"Yeah, I mean, if there's an anomaly, I can just call you back here. I'll watch the CCTV for a while. Go look after Becker." Abby smiled.

"Thank you Abby! I owe you!" Jess beamed as she turned and fled the Main Operations Room toward the Medical bay to check on Becker.

Matt walked into the Main Operations Room, looking around to see how many people were left now that the day was winding down.

There were maybe a few researchers and Abby sitting at the terminal and Lester in his office, looking as though he's about to have a heart attack.

Wait—Abby at the terminal?

Matt walked over to the terminal, trying to mentally set aside his mission for a few seconds of curiosity.

"I thought Jess doesn't let anyone near her terminal." Matt smirked.

Abby turned around, slightly inexpressive.

"She went to go check on Becker. He's not doing well, to my knowledge, since Ethan shot him twice with one of the EMDs." Abby explained.

"So, she left you in charge of the terminal?" In all the commotion, Matt had completely forgotten that Becker had been double tagged by the EMD.

Abby shrugged. "I offered. Besides, someone's gotta keep an eye on things."

"Guess so. I've gotta go check on some things." Matt excused himself and continued to walk toward the stairs that passed Lester's office.

Abby noticed that neither Danny nor Emily had come back with Matt; and neither had Ethan/Patrick.

"Matt?" Abby called.

"Yeah?" Matt turned around.

"Where are Danny, Emily and Ethan?"

"The anomalies." Was all Matt said as he turned and walked passed Lester office.

"Matt? A word?" Lester called from his office.

Matt withheld a sigh as he turned and poked his head in Lester's office.

"Yeah?"

"I suppose it's safe to say that Danny's not returned with you?"

Matt shook his head. "No, he went after his brother through an anomaly."

"Great." Lester rejoiced cynically. "Family feud: Anomaly edition. I can only hope that Quinn will catch him and that you came back with at least Emily? No?"

Matt shook whatever the strange feeling was that tried to overcome him as he answered Lester.

"No. No, she went back to her own time. It's what she thought was best."

"Well, I guess I can kiss this little pet project goodbye and cross off another thing from my to-do list." Lester shrugged as he tossed a small pile of paperwork in the trash bin to be shredded later.

Matt didn't need to question what the paperwork was: Emily's forged life that Lester had been working diligently on.

"I'm just gonna go now." Matt said as he ducked out of the office before Lester could ask about anything else.

However, Matt heard Lester mumble something about, "so much for Claudia Brown."

Presumably what Emily's alias would've become.

Matt sat in his office.

It now dawned on him that he was completely alone in his mission.

His father was dead. Emily was gone.

No one else really knew what his true purpose was. No one to converse his possible suspects with.

"Harden your heart, Matthew. Do your job. Nothing else matters."

Maybe his father was right. Maybe it was better if he stopped thinking so much about everything else and worried more about the anomalies and who was going to alter the gateways, as Emily had referred to them.

Emily no longer mattered. Nothing but the mission mattered now.

The kiss and the hug at the anomaly site was a parting of ways and nothing more; which was why he had stayed behind a while longer: to ensure the anomaly closed and Emily hadn't come back through.

She was too much of a distraction.

Connor tried to calm his breathing down as Phillip's car closed in on what Connor presumed was Prospero.

"We keep this between ourselves, for now." Burton had told him back at the garage.

Now that he thought a bit about it, it didn't seem entirely fair to keep it to themselves; but Connor did see where Phillip was coming from: he didn't want to panic the others until they were absolutely certain.

"Connor." Phillip spoke, snapping Connor out of his thoughts and causing him to jump.

"Yeah?" He asked, nervously.

"Breathe." Burton ordered as the car pulled up in front of Prospero. "I'd hate to have to call an ambulance during such a crucial time."

Connor let out a deep breath and smiled " Right, lots of work to do."

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