Fic: Retrograde Becker (3/3)
Jul. 13th, 2012 02:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tli_productionsHeader information and notes contained in Part 1.
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
3
It's early evening when the shit really hits the fan. Hilary is back in the medical wing – with Giles – while Dr Thomas runs an assortment of tests, when the alarm goes off.
It rips through the room, louder than anything Hilary's heard to date. It's impossible to think, but he moves on instinct, running out of the room and through various corridors, unaware of everything but the pressing need to act until he reaches the main operations room, where Jess is handing out little black boxes.
Hilary comes to an abrupt halt – not even a little bit out of breath – and watches as Matt, Connor and Abby take a complement of soldiers through a side door and out of sight.
The alarm stops as suddenly as it had started, and Hilary belatedly realises someone is breathing heavily behind him.
Giles is bent almost double, trying to catch his breath. “Give a bloke some bloody warning, why don't you,” he wheezes.
“Becker?” Jess asks. “What are you doing up here?”
“The alert went off,” Hilary says faintly.
“It wasn't calling you,” Jess says gently. “Not this time.” She turns away from him back to her monitors.
Hilary tugs at his clothing, uncomfortable in how wrong it feels to be wearing civvies instead of a uniform, to not have the comforting weight of the black box against his hip.
Giles says something but he ignores him and moves to stand behind Jess. To her credit she doesn't flinch, but it's clear from the way her muscles clench that she's not wholly comfortable with him there.
A route map pops up on one of the monitors. The road names mean nothing to Hilary, but Giles sucks in breath through his teeth.
“That's going to be a PR nightmare,” he mutters.
“Captain, Mr Becker.” Lester's voice cuts across the room. “What the hell do you both think you're doing in here?”
“I...” Hilary half turns from the monitors but his eyes stay fixed on the flow of data.
“I followed him,” Giles says unhelpfully.
Lester sighs loudly. “The two of you, my office – now.”
Hilary doesn't move. He glances over and sees Giles is staying put. He's even leaning in towards Jess, speaking softly. “You need to call ahead. Don't say you're anything to do with the civil service or government, they'll hang up without a second thought.”
Hilary frowns. “You know where they're going.” It isn't a question.
Giles glances up at him, then at a spot behind his right shoulder which Hilary realises is where Lester is now hovering. “The buildings are owned by a shell company. I know the names from when I was working press for the Lib Dems,” he explains. “I don't know the specifics, but I think I remember the right names to drop.”
Lester's eyes narrow for a split second. Then he glances at Jess, who shakes her head. “I can't find any contact details through the usual channels,” she tells him.
Hilary glances back at the monitors. There are grainy CCTV images on one screen, and flickers of radio static coming out of the speakers.
“Clear the building, I repeat – clear the building! Those things are everywhere!”
Another explosion propels Becker face forward onto a mound of rubble and broken glass. He rolls over and checks himself for lacerations before climbing to his feet and
“Hilary? Hilary?”
It's Giles. He sounds – and looks – worried. “You with me?”
“I...” Hilary shakes his head. He realises he's gripping the back of Jess' seat. “I'm fine. I just -”
“Police are locking down the perimeter,” Jess reports, typing at speed. “But it looks like -”
“We've got civilians still trapped!”
Becker curses long and loud. “Everyone retreat!” he snaps into his radio. Civilians or not, this is a disaster.
“Help me!” The sobbing call is faint, but Becker finds himself spinning on his heel, already moving
“There's a creature incursion!” Jess stares at one of the CCTV feeds before turning to another monitor. “Matt, be on guard!”
“Hook me up.” Giles points to a radio headset. “We don't have time to be subtle.”
She hesitates for a second, just long enough for Lester to sigh. “Do it,” he says, transfixed on the grainy pictures of the creature.
“Who does Matt have with him?” Giles asks.
“Team of six headed by Sergeant Emerson,” Jess says. She hands Giles a headset and points him to a keypad.
Giles takes a deep breath and grins at nobody in particular. “Mr Chakrabarti? This is Giles Becker, I'm an acquaintance of Anna Parr. Yes, that's right. You've got something going on in one of your warehouses, right? Listen carefully; this is what's going to happen.”
A future predator clambers out of a second-floor window. Becker freezes, but it's too late. The creature's sensed his body heat, and it's leaping across rubble and ruin, closer and closer
It hurts. Ithurtsithurtsithurts. Hilary's head is breaking apart with the onslaught of memories. It's difficult to concentrate and the monitors are wailing.
“Matt, how long have I got?”
“How does twenty seconds sound?”
“Not the greatest news I've heard all day.”
“All right, well, I'll give you thirty.”
Lester squeezes Hilary's shoulder, his fingers digging in painfully. It's enough to snap him back into the room. “Now is not the time to lose your head, Captain,” he murmurs, his gaze flickering between him, Jess and Giles.
He's right. Hilary forces himself to take several deep breaths. He focuses on a single monitor until it comes into focus. It's the CCTV he's staring at, flashes of a creature and even briefer glimpses of the ARC team, trying but failing to contain it.
He doesn't question the knowledge, or the instinct to act on it. “Headset,” he says, tapping Jess lightly on her shoulder. She frowns up at him, but hands him a radio. “Emerson, this is Becker. Confirm number of creatures through the anomaly.”
“Just the – just the one, sir.”
“You need to herd it. The more it runs around in circles the angrier it's going to get.” Hilary squints at blueprints on the monitor adjacent to the CCTV feeds. “Ground floor, south-west of your current position. There's a hallway. Get it in there and tranq it.”
It's Abby who replies. “You were freaking out thirty seconds ago. Are you sure -”
“Just do it,” Becker orders.
It's immensely gratifying to see the appropriate dots moving to obey his orders alongside visual confirmation of shadowy figures moving around on CCTV.
Giles spares a split second in his harassed phone call to glance at Hilary.
Hilary's shaking. He can feel himself trembling with shock, adrenaline and the return of at least part of his memory. But the tactics, the planning... he knows this. This is what he does. Whatever Giles sees in his expression is enough, and he turns his full attention back to the phone call.
“I've got it!... It's not going down!”
“Shoot it again,” Becker shouts down the radio.
A few tense seconds later, and then: “It's down!”
“Get it back through the anomaly,” Becker directs.
“Becker.” It's Abby again, though she sounds amused this time. “It's okay, we can take it from here.”
Becker forces himself to let to of Jess' chair. Lester says something that he ignores. Lester rolls his eyes and pushes him onto a spare computer chair, but he immediately swaps positions with Giles, who hands him his radio without comment.
Giles takes one look at Becker and then pushes his head down between his knees. “Keep breathing,” he says, sounding unreasonably cheerful.
o o o o o
Two days later
Hilary Becker leaned back in the armchair and wallowed. It was an unusual feeling, but one he had decided he was more than entitled to.
He and Giles had high-tailed it up the M1 as soon as Doctor Thomas had cleared him for R&R; they'd made good enough time for Mum to make it dinner for four. Any doubt Becker had had about not being able to connect to his parents had dissipated the instant Dad had opened the door, pipe in one hand, a newspaper tucked under his arm, eyeballed his sons and said: “I am overcome with honour and pride; my two boys and it's neither of your birthdays.”
Becker had laughed, pulled his dad in for a hug, and gone in search of the kettle, leaving Dad and Giles to stare dumbly in his wake.
“Hilary! Elspeth's here!” Giles yelled, his voice damaging Becker's calm.
Becker looked longingly at the battered copy of Dune resting on the arm of the chair and then pushed himself upright. He shuffled into the hallway just in time for his sister, with Penny in her arms, to burst through the door.
“Hello!” Elspeth called out, ruthlessly kicking aside one of Giles' shoes. “We're here!” She thrust Penny into Becker's arms. “Here Penny, say hello to Uncle Hilary!”
Becker quickly got hold of the squirming child that was his niece and tried to not look as flustered as he felt. “Hi Pen.”
Penny offered him a beaming smile and the world felt instantly wonderful again.
“Remember,” Giles whispered in his ear, as a vaguely familiar man trampled through the front door carrying a truly enormous nappy bag. “That's Peter, El's husband.”
Becker nodded and adjusted his grip on Penny. “Peter, it's good to see you,” he said holding his hand out.
Everyone froze.
Then his mother nimbly leant across and smacked Giles around the back of the head.
Becker laughed. Had Giles seriously expected him to forget the masses of wedding photos he'd shown him? “Sorry about that, Pat.”
Giles shot him a dirty look, but Pat just looked amused.
“I'm glad you're okay,” he said seriously – and not a little awkwardly.
“Me too,” Becker admitted.
Elspeth harrumphed. “I thought security was supposed to be boring and injury-free. Mind you, that's what you get for living in London,” she said with a knowing look at Pat. “Bloody dangerous place.”
Becker was pretty sure she didn't know the half of it.
the end
3
It's early evening when the shit really hits the fan. Hilary is back in the medical wing – with Giles – while Dr Thomas runs an assortment of tests, when the alarm goes off.
It rips through the room, louder than anything Hilary's heard to date. It's impossible to think, but he moves on instinct, running out of the room and through various corridors, unaware of everything but the pressing need to act until he reaches the main operations room, where Jess is handing out little black boxes.
Hilary comes to an abrupt halt – not even a little bit out of breath – and watches as Matt, Connor and Abby take a complement of soldiers through a side door and out of sight.
The alarm stops as suddenly as it had started, and Hilary belatedly realises someone is breathing heavily behind him.
Giles is bent almost double, trying to catch his breath. “Give a bloke some bloody warning, why don't you,” he wheezes.
“Becker?” Jess asks. “What are you doing up here?”
“The alert went off,” Hilary says faintly.
“It wasn't calling you,” Jess says gently. “Not this time.” She turns away from him back to her monitors.
Hilary tugs at his clothing, uncomfortable in how wrong it feels to be wearing civvies instead of a uniform, to not have the comforting weight of the black box against his hip.
Giles says something but he ignores him and moves to stand behind Jess. To her credit she doesn't flinch, but it's clear from the way her muscles clench that she's not wholly comfortable with him there.
A route map pops up on one of the monitors. The road names mean nothing to Hilary, but Giles sucks in breath through his teeth.
“That's going to be a PR nightmare,” he mutters.
“Captain, Mr Becker.” Lester's voice cuts across the room. “What the hell do you both think you're doing in here?”
“I...” Hilary half turns from the monitors but his eyes stay fixed on the flow of data.
“I followed him,” Giles says unhelpfully.
Lester sighs loudly. “The two of you, my office – now.”
Hilary doesn't move. He glances over and sees Giles is staying put. He's even leaning in towards Jess, speaking softly. “You need to call ahead. Don't say you're anything to do with the civil service or government, they'll hang up without a second thought.”
Hilary frowns. “You know where they're going.” It isn't a question.
Giles glances up at him, then at a spot behind his right shoulder which Hilary realises is where Lester is now hovering. “The buildings are owned by a shell company. I know the names from when I was working press for the Lib Dems,” he explains. “I don't know the specifics, but I think I remember the right names to drop.”
Lester's eyes narrow for a split second. Then he glances at Jess, who shakes her head. “I can't find any contact details through the usual channels,” she tells him.
Hilary glances back at the monitors. There are grainy CCTV images on one screen, and flickers of radio static coming out of the speakers.
“Clear the building, I repeat – clear the building! Those things are everywhere!”
Another explosion propels Becker face forward onto a mound of rubble and broken glass. He rolls over and checks himself for lacerations before climbing to his feet and
“Hilary? Hilary?”
It's Giles. He sounds – and looks – worried. “You with me?”
“I...” Hilary shakes his head. He realises he's gripping the back of Jess' seat. “I'm fine. I just -”
“Police are locking down the perimeter,” Jess reports, typing at speed. “But it looks like -”
“We've got civilians still trapped!”
Becker curses long and loud. “Everyone retreat!” he snaps into his radio. Civilians or not, this is a disaster.
“Help me!” The sobbing call is faint, but Becker finds himself spinning on his heel, already moving
“There's a creature incursion!” Jess stares at one of the CCTV feeds before turning to another monitor. “Matt, be on guard!”
“Hook me up.” Giles points to a radio headset. “We don't have time to be subtle.”
She hesitates for a second, just long enough for Lester to sigh. “Do it,” he says, transfixed on the grainy pictures of the creature.
“Who does Matt have with him?” Giles asks.
“Team of six headed by Sergeant Emerson,” Jess says. She hands Giles a headset and points him to a keypad.
Giles takes a deep breath and grins at nobody in particular. “Mr Chakrabarti? This is Giles Becker, I'm an acquaintance of Anna Parr. Yes, that's right. You've got something going on in one of your warehouses, right? Listen carefully; this is what's going to happen.”
A future predator clambers out of a second-floor window. Becker freezes, but it's too late. The creature's sensed his body heat, and it's leaping across rubble and ruin, closer and closer
It hurts. Ithurtsithurtsithurts. Hilary's head is breaking apart with the onslaught of memories. It's difficult to concentrate and the monitors are wailing.
“Matt, how long have I got?”
“How does twenty seconds sound?”
“Not the greatest news I've heard all day.”
“All right, well, I'll give you thirty.”
Lester squeezes Hilary's shoulder, his fingers digging in painfully. It's enough to snap him back into the room. “Now is not the time to lose your head, Captain,” he murmurs, his gaze flickering between him, Jess and Giles.
He's right. Hilary forces himself to take several deep breaths. He focuses on a single monitor until it comes into focus. It's the CCTV he's staring at, flashes of a creature and even briefer glimpses of the ARC team, trying but failing to contain it.
He doesn't question the knowledge, or the instinct to act on it. “Headset,” he says, tapping Jess lightly on her shoulder. She frowns up at him, but hands him a radio. “Emerson, this is Becker. Confirm number of creatures through the anomaly.”
“Just the – just the one, sir.”
“You need to herd it. The more it runs around in circles the angrier it's going to get.” Hilary squints at blueprints on the monitor adjacent to the CCTV feeds. “Ground floor, south-west of your current position. There's a hallway. Get it in there and tranq it.”
It's Abby who replies. “You were freaking out thirty seconds ago. Are you sure -”
“Just do it,” Becker orders.
It's immensely gratifying to see the appropriate dots moving to obey his orders alongside visual confirmation of shadowy figures moving around on CCTV.
Giles spares a split second in his harassed phone call to glance at Hilary.
Hilary's shaking. He can feel himself trembling with shock, adrenaline and the return of at least part of his memory. But the tactics, the planning... he knows this. This is what he does. Whatever Giles sees in his expression is enough, and he turns his full attention back to the phone call.
“I've got it!... It's not going down!”
“Shoot it again,” Becker shouts down the radio.
A few tense seconds later, and then: “It's down!”
“Get it back through the anomaly,” Becker directs.
“Becker.” It's Abby again, though she sounds amused this time. “It's okay, we can take it from here.”
Becker forces himself to let to of Jess' chair. Lester says something that he ignores. Lester rolls his eyes and pushes him onto a spare computer chair, but he immediately swaps positions with Giles, who hands him his radio without comment.
Giles takes one look at Becker and then pushes his head down between his knees. “Keep breathing,” he says, sounding unreasonably cheerful.
Two days later
Hilary Becker leaned back in the armchair and wallowed. It was an unusual feeling, but one he had decided he was more than entitled to.
He and Giles had high-tailed it up the M1 as soon as Doctor Thomas had cleared him for R&R; they'd made good enough time for Mum to make it dinner for four. Any doubt Becker had had about not being able to connect to his parents had dissipated the instant Dad had opened the door, pipe in one hand, a newspaper tucked under his arm, eyeballed his sons and said: “I am overcome with honour and pride; my two boys and it's neither of your birthdays.”
Becker had laughed, pulled his dad in for a hug, and gone in search of the kettle, leaving Dad and Giles to stare dumbly in his wake.
“Hilary! Elspeth's here!” Giles yelled, his voice damaging Becker's calm.
Becker looked longingly at the battered copy of Dune resting on the arm of the chair and then pushed himself upright. He shuffled into the hallway just in time for his sister, with Penny in her arms, to burst through the door.
“Hello!” Elspeth called out, ruthlessly kicking aside one of Giles' shoes. “We're here!” She thrust Penny into Becker's arms. “Here Penny, say hello to Uncle Hilary!”
Becker quickly got hold of the squirming child that was his niece and tried to not look as flustered as he felt. “Hi Pen.”
Penny offered him a beaming smile and the world felt instantly wonderful again.
“Remember,” Giles whispered in his ear, as a vaguely familiar man trampled through the front door carrying a truly enormous nappy bag. “That's Peter, El's husband.”
Becker nodded and adjusted his grip on Penny. “Peter, it's good to see you,” he said holding his hand out.
Everyone froze.
Then his mother nimbly leant across and smacked Giles around the back of the head.
Becker laughed. Had Giles seriously expected him to forget the masses of wedding photos he'd shown him? “Sorry about that, Pat.”
Giles shot him a dirty look, but Pat just looked amused.
“I'm glad you're okay,” he said seriously – and not a little awkwardly.
“Me too,” Becker admitted.
Elspeth harrumphed. “I thought security was supposed to be boring and injury-free. Mind you, that's what you get for living in London,” she said with a knowing look at Pat. “Bloody dangerous place.”
Becker was pretty sure she didn't know the half of it.
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Date: 2012-07-13 01:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-13 03:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-13 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-13 01:26 pm (UTC)I've enjoyed this from start to finish, thank you so much for sharing. :-)
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Date: 2012-07-13 03:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-13 10:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-13 02:17 pm (UTC)Wonderful fic!
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Date: 2012-07-13 03:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-07-13 03:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-13 03:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-07-13 03:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-13 10:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-07-13 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-13 10:08 pm (UTC)Thanks for the comment!
(no subject)
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Date: 2012-07-13 05:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-13 10:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-07-13 06:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-13 10:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-07-13 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-13 10:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-07-13 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-13 10:10 pm (UTC)Also your icon is awesome!
(no subject)
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Date: 2012-07-13 08:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-13 10:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-07-13 08:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-13 10:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2012-07-13 09:08 pm (UTC)That's a pretty nice ending to a great story! Thanks so much for sharing this!
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Date: 2012-07-13 10:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-07-13 09:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-13 10:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-07-13 10:25 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2012-07-13 11:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-14 06:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-07-14 02:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-14 06:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2012-07-15 04:01 am (UTC)The part where he remembered Sarah's death was heartbreaking.
It was fun to see some interaction with his family. Giles is a formidable character.
Love how he was able to remember and help the team on the mission.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-15 10:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2012-07-18 06:53 am (UTC)Wow. The action (remote) was so intense, loved it! Yay Giles! he can be useful sometimes *g*
Wonderful fic, thank you!
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Date: 2012-07-18 10:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-08-05 11:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 08:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2014-03-02 01:21 pm (UTC)Wonderful re-read, thanks!
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Date: 2014-03-04 05:14 pm (UTC)