Though the knife was no longer digging into her side, Jess was aware that it was far too close for comfort. Her neck stung where the blade had bit through her skin when Jason had tried to silence her but she kept repeating what she'd told Becker in her mind to keep the panic at bay: it's just a scratch, it's just a scratch.

Instead of leaving through the front doors where there were crowds of people staring up at the courthouse, no doubt expecting to see smoke billowing from a non-existent fire, Jason pushed her towards the back exits of the building. In her ear, Jess heard each of the team take turns at reassuring her, telling her they were close and speaking to various people – Simmons, Lester – about the situation, but the one voice she wanted to hear most was silent.

"Becker." His name was like a sigh and a plea rolled into one, and Jason tightened his grip on her arm in response.

"He's not going to take you away from me, Jessie," Jason told her vehemently. "No one is."

She ignored the man standing next to her, focusing instead on the voice in her ear. "I'm here, Jess. It's okay."

Tears sprung to her eyes and she found herself blinking furiously in an attempt at clearing her vision. She stumbled and tried to stifle a yelp when Jason's fingers dug painfully into her arm to keep her upright.

"Jess? Are you okay?" Abby's voice was worried. In the background, Jess could hear Matt talking on a phone and Connor half-pleading with Becker to take the corners a little easier.

"Stop pushing me," Jess said instead, turning her head to glare at Jason. "If you don't want me to keep falling over, you're going to have to slow down."

"Like I'm falling for that," Jason snorted. "You think I don't know that you were meant to be meeting someone here? I saw you waiting outside. For all I know, your solider boy is on his way here now."

"Soldier boy?" Jess repeated, a note of amusement in her tone despite the situation. "I think he'd prefer Connor's Action Man title to that."

"I'd prefer neither." Becker's dry tone made her smile; she knew he struggling to stay in control of his emotions and that staying silent was his way of coping with the situation but it helped her keep calm knowing he was close in some way when he couldn't be beside her physically. "We're coming into the city now."

"Lester's almost there," Matt chimed in. "And there's a backup team from the ARC on their way. You're doing great, Jess. You're going to be okay."

Jess took a deep breath and purposely stumbled again with the intention of delaying their departure for as long as possible. She bit back a cry when Jason dragged her to her feet, tasting blood where her teeth cut into her lip. His patience waning, the man who'd haunted her nightmares for five years slammed her back against the nearest wall, pinning her there with his weight and lifting the knife to her throat.

"Don't make me hurt you, Jessie," Jason warned, his grey eyes flashing dangerously. "We don't have time to play games."

Jess laughed bitterly; she couldn't help it. "Play games? Isn't that all you do? That's all this is, isn't it? One big, sick, twisted game?"

"Jess…"

"How can you say that? This isn't a game to me." Jason pressed against her, his expression confused as the blade at her throat trembled perilously close to her skin. "This is everything to me, Jessie. You've got no idea how long I've waited, how much I've wanted…"

"But I don't want you. I've never wanted you." Jess ignored the warning voices in her head – both the one that belonged to her and those of the team. "I'm tired of living my life constantly looking over my shoulder, wondering if you're going to be there. Whatever you think you feel for me is an illusion, Jason. It's not real. It can't be real."

"It is," Jason insisted, the blade pressing a little firmer against her throat. "If this isn't real, then why have I spent five years dreaming of this? Of being with you again? Why would I go to these lengths to get you back?"

Jess closed her eyes, a wave of calm washing over her. "You can't get back something that you never had to begin with."

"Don't be like this, Jessie. Why are you being like this?" He dug the blade in enough to draw a drop of blood, forcing her to open her eyes. Jason glared at her, his grey eyes growing darker with anger. "Is it soldier boy? Is he putting you up to this? You don't have to be with him now. I'm here, I'm back. We're going to go away, you and me, we're going to be together. We'll be free to love each other…"

"I don't love you, Jason. I never have." Pity shone in her eyes even as Matt warned her against telling Jason the truth. "Please. If you cared for me, even half as much as you claim to, you would let me go."

Jason stared at her in silence for several long, drawn out moments. His grip relaxed for a split second only to tighten again as he shook his head, an internal war waging within his mind. The blade dug in again and Jess gasped, feeling the bite of its serrated edge. "No. No, that's not true. You are mine, Jessie. You were born to be mine. And if I can't have you… If we can't be together…"

"Put the knife down and step away, Mr Keller." Jess looked over Jason's shoulder to find not only Lester standing there but her father and a uniformed security officer. Lester took half a step forward. "This will only end badly for you if you don't release Miss Parker now."

"She's not going anywhere." Jason spun them quickly, dragging her from the wall to stand in front of him, using her as a shield. One arm wrapped around her waist, the other held the knife at her throat. "Not without me. You need to back off and let us leave now."

"That isn't possible, I'm afraid, Mr Keller. I can't permit you to leave the premises with Miss Parker." Lester took another step towards them.

Jason glared at him over Jess's head. "What's it to you? Don't tell me you're sleeping with her, too?"

To Lester's credit, he barely reacted to the comment. "Miss Parker is a valuable employee of mine and someone I consider to be a friend. I will not allow you to hurt her any further, Mr Keller. I will ask you one more time to let her go and end this peacefully."

"I'm not letting her go." As if to prove his point, Jason pulled her tighter against him, causing her to gasp as the arm around her middle tightened. "You'll have to kill me first."

"That can be arranged." At first, Jess thought the voice was only in her ear. It was only when she felt Jason tense that she realised he'd heard it, too.

Turning her head as much as she dared, Jess saw Becker striding along the corridor towards them, Emily and Abby on his heels. Glancing in the opposite direction, Jess saw Matt and Connor. With a wall at his back, there was nowhere else for Jason to go. Jess felt a momentary sense of relief, knowing that no matter what happened, she wouldn't be going anywhere she didn't want to with the man clutching her to him like a lifeline.

"Let her go, Jason." It was her father who spoke, the imploring tone and look on his face surprising her. Lewis Parker stared at Jess, fear and apology mingling in his eyes. "Please. You've hurt her enough for one lifetime. Let my daughter go."

"Don't. Don't come any closer." Jason, sounding panicked, looked back and forth along the corridor, glaring at Matt and Becker when they kept advancing. "Come any closer and I'll kill her." He increased the pressure of the knife against her throat and Jess leaned her head back against his shoulder in attempt to ease the weight of the blade against her skin. "I mean it. I'll kill her."

"I won't let you do that." Becker's jaw tightened, his gaze cold where it landed on Jason. "Put the knife down, Jason, and you can live. Hurt her again and I will shoot you."

It was then Jess realised that it wasn't an EMD he was holding securely in his hand. Her eyes widened and she glanced at Matt, swallowing hard when she realised he, too, was holding a semi-automatic and not the non-lethal weapons she was used to.

"You can't shoot me without hurting her," Jason said, the bravado in his voice doing little to disguise the trembling in it.

"That's a risk we'll have to take." Matt joined the conversation, distracting Jason. "You don't want to do this, mate. Just let Jess go and we can all walk out of here."

"I'm not your mate," Jason spat. "This has got nothing to do with you. With any of you! This is between Jessie and me."

"Miss Parker has made it painfully clear that she wants nothing to do with you." Lester arched an eyebrow, sounding almost bored with the proceedings. If she didn't know him so well, Jess thought she might be upset that her boss didn't seem to care. In truth, though, she saw the strain on his face and promised herself that when it was all over, she'd make sure she did replace the whiskey in his desk drawer. "This is getting quite tiresome, Mr Keller. You're only making it worse for yourself the longer you drag this sorry charade on. I think -"

When first shot was fired, it surprised all of them. The security guard beside Lester saw a chance and took it, but missed. Jason ducked to avoid it, pulling Jess with him. The Field Co-ordinator cried out as the hand holding the knife jerked, slicing neatly into the flesh of her upper arm as she twisted away. Jess landed on the floor beside Jason and scrambled to get away from the man reaching for both her and the blade he'd dropped.

In an instant, Becker was beside her, helping her to her feet and pushing her behind him. He aimed his gun at Jason's head with a steady hand as Jason's managed to grasp the handle of the knife in a vice-like grip.

What possessed him to move, no one knew. With a scream of rage, Jason leapt from his position of being crouched on the floor, the blade in his hand as he lunged towards Becker and Jess. From her position behind Becker, Jess heard two shots ring out in the otherwise quiet courthouse, followed by a dull thump as Jason's lifeless body fell to the floor.

Lowering his gun, Becker spun and faced her. His face grew pale, his eyes worried as he saw the blood running from the cut on her arm. Still, he was able to reach out and catch her as her legs gave way, cradling her against his chest as he lowered them both to the floor.

"Somebody get some medics in here, now!" Lester ordered, advancing on the couple with the rest of the team. Their boss crouched on the floor beside them, either not noticing or not caring about the blood staining the material of the expensive suit trousers he wore. "Jess? Are you still with us?"

Not trusting herself to speak, Jess could only nod as Becker's hand moved over hers to press against the bleeding wound. She let her head fall back against his shoulder, tears stinging her eyes at the sight of the familiar faces crowded around them.

It was over, she told herself, allowing her eyes to slide shut. She wanted to open them again when she heard Becker calling her name, desperation in his tone, but her body refused to listen to her demands.

It was finally all over.

When Jess woke up, it was to find herself in a sterile white room of a local hospital. She wondered for a moment why she'd been taken there instead of to the ARC's medical bay but her question was answered as soon as she realised that her father was sitting in one of the two occupied chairs at her bedside. Beside him, Becker sat with Sophia on his lap, both appearing sound asleep though Jess suspected it may have been an act on Becker's part to avoid speaking to her father.

"Jessica." Lewis sat forward in his seat when he noticed she was awake, the relief on his face surprising her. "How are you, darling? Does it hurt?"

It didn't, no doubt thanks to the painkillers being administered through the IV in the back of her hand. "It's fine. It's just a scratch."

"A scratch that needed nine stitches," her father told her gravely. "I hadn't realised… I didn't think…"

"That Jason would really come after me or that he really is as obsessed as I told you? Or was," Jess corrected herself softly. "He's dead, isn't he?"

Lewis gave her a short nod of confirmation. "Your friend here had no choice, nor did his colleague. If they hadn't…" Her father shuddered, his features contorting into a pained expression. "I'm sorry, Jessica."

Jess struggled to move into an upright position, biting back a curse when she put too much pressure on her injured arm, tugging the tender skin of the wound. Eventually settling into a comfortable position against the pillows, she turned her attention to her father. "What are you apologising for, Dad? For not believing me when I tried telling you how crazy he was or for taking the one good thing I had to focus on away from me when I needed her most?"

"Both." Lewis swallowed reflexively and leaned forward. His hand edged towards hers but he drew it back, unsure if the gesture would be welcomed. "I've told Maria we're not pursuing custody of Sophia." Her father glanced towards the little girl where she cuddled contentedly into Becker's chest, the soldier's arm wrapped protectively around her. "She's clearly happy where she is."

Following her father's line of sight, Jess smiled softly, warmth spreading through her. "She is. We both are."

"Good. I'm glad to hear that." Lewis cleared his throat awkwardly and stared down at his hands. "I've been a very poor father to you, Jessica. Ever since your mother left…"

"You never wanted me, I know. Mum was the one who wanted a daughter." Her tone was more accepting than accusing; it was something she'd realised at a young age after hearing her father demand that her mother take Jess with her. "It's okay. You don't have to explain."

"I did want you." The honesty in her father's voice made her look at him. "I do. But I've never raised a daughter, Jessica, especially not one who looks so much like the woman who left me and broke my heart." His smile was sad and self-depreciating. "You look so much like your mother at times, Jessica. I let that affect the way I treated you and for that, I am truly sorry."

"But I heard… You called mum and demanded she come and get me." Jess stared at him, her brow furrowed. "I thought that meant…"

"That I didn't want you," Lewis finished with a sigh. "That's not true. When your mother first left, I called and asked – begged – her to come home. I used you as a bargaining chip. I thought if I appealed to her maternal instincts, she'd come back to me. To us. I hadn't realised just how miserable being married to me made her."

"It wasn't being married to you that made her miserable," Jess protested, swallowing the lump that rose in her throat. "Mum was happy until you started working long hours and Aunt Lisa started spending so much time at our house. She thought you were having an affair, that's what Aunt Lisa said."

Her father's jaw dropped. "Lisa said your mother thought I was having an affair?"

"No, Dad, Aunt Lisa told mum you were having an affair. Mum told me, last year when I went to visit her. She got really drunk and kept saying sorry for leaving us but that she couldn't stay."

"I would never…" Lewis broke off, his jaw clenched and eyes narrowing. "I wondered. Harry left Lisa three months before your mother left me and I wondered…" His shoulders slumped and Jess thought he suddenly looked defeated and old. "It's too late now. We can't change the past, no matter how much we might want to."

"There's always the future." Jess bit her lip and shrugged a shoulder when he looked at her. "I know you're with Maria now but there's no reason you and mum can't be friends at some point in the future. It'd be nice for Sophia to be able to have her grandparents in the same room for a change."

Her father smiled at her hopeful tone and reached out to her. This time, he made contact, patting her hand lightly before grasping it in his. "I am proud of you, Jessica. Your mother and I might have failed abysmally at raising you but you've turned out wonderfully regardless."

Lewis remained for a few minutes longer, making his exit when Jess began to yawn. They would never be as close as they could have been, Jess knew, but she was hopeful they'd be able to maintain some form of relationship once the dust settled and everything calmed down.

Settling against the pillows, her attention drifted to Becker and Sophia, a smile lighting her face at sight of her new family, safe and sound and relatively unscathed.

"You can stop pretending to be asleep now," she said quietly, arching an eyebrow when Becker's eyes opened immediately. "I knew you were faking."

"I wasn't for all of it," Becker protested quietly, conscious of the little girl still dozing against him. "I just thought it was better if I didn't interrupt. You needed to talk."

"We did." Her smile brightened as she remembered the first part of her conversation with her father. "He's not contesting custody. Sophia's not going anywhere."

Becker glanced down at the girl wrapped in his arms and smirked. "I could've told you that." The smirk dropped when his gaze returned to her mother. "Neither are you. Going anywhere, I mean."

"Well, no." Jess glanced at the bandage covering her arm and then back at him. "It's just a scratch. You've had worse."

"That's not what I meant." Shifting in his seat, careful not to disturbed Sophia, he leaned forward and took her hand, lifting it to his lips. "I thought we were going to lose you. That I was going to lose you."

"That's not going to happen." Freeing her hand so she could rest her palm against his cheek, Jess smiled softly. "If you think I'm going to let you go now I finally have you where I want you, Captain Becker, you've got another thing coming. I'm staying for as long as you want me."

For a moment, it looked to Jess as if Becker was going to say something but he changed his mind, choosing to turn his face into her palm and press a kiss to its centre instead. They sat holding hands in silence until a doctor came in, announcing she was free to leave and waking Sophia in the process.

Half an hour later, the family of three left the hospital and completed the short journey needed to get them home.

Two weeks after the first anomaly to the future opened, a third opened in the control room of the ARC. Even though they'd been expecting it to open somewhere, the team weren't expecting it to be right on their doorstep. As the alarms blared and the gold light appeared, Jess moved hurriedly towards Lester's office, getting halfway there before the team descended on the hub.

"Should we lock it?" Connor wondered aloud, skidding to a halt beside Abby. "I mean, we've changed things, right? So we don't need to worry about Simpson coming through and firing us?"

Lester's eyes narrowed at the mention of his would-be replacement. "If anyone's doing any firing around here, Mr Temple, I assure you it will be me."

"Maybe we should wait." Abby stared at the gold light, biting her lip. She glanced at Jess, who Becker had immediately moved in front of protectively. "They could always lock it from their end if they wanted…"

No sooner had she finished speaking, a small ball was rolled through the anomaly. They all tensed at first, relaxing only when they realised it was a harmless plastic ball with a sheet of paper wrapped around it, secured with an elastic band. As Matt approached it cautiously, the anomaly it came out of locked before disappearing entirely.

Becker relaxed his stance but still hovered beside Jess, watching the team leader pull the paper from around the ball. A small item that had been tucked between the ball and the paper fell to the floor. Matt bent down to pick it up before glancing at the paper, a small grin playing on his lips.

"Think it's for you, mate."

Taking the paper and the item – a photograph, Becker realised - he scanned the neatly written message before glancing at the picture that accompanied it. A nineteen year old Sophia beamed at him from between an older version of himself and Jess.

Wordlessly, he handed both items to the woman at his side, watching as she first read the note, tracing a fingertip over Sophia's unfamiliar handwriting and then stared at the photograph, blinking her suspiciously bright eyes as she pulled her gaze away to smile up at him.

The note was short and sweet, three words that told them everything would work out the way they wanted it to, at least as far as the immediate future was concerned.

'Thank you, Daddy.'

End

And there we have it. I'm leaving it up to your own imaginations to decide whether Sophia is an only child and if any more children have been born to the rest of the team (Edward Anderson, perhaps?)

Thank you all for your support during my first multi-part story in this fandom; I've already started planning the next!