Okay, well, this is a bit of a fix-it story. I haven't seen season three, but I've read about the new characters and Storyline, so this AU branches off somewhere before 3x03!

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"Maybe nothing's going to come through."

"Don't say things like that! You'll jinx us!"

"Oh, come on, it's been here for hours and nothing. Becker and his boys went in and poked around. Nothing."

"You had to go there, didn't you, Abby. Fine. Don't blame me when a T-Rex comes charging through."

Professor Nick Cutter heaved a sigh and turned away from his younger colleagues, allowing Abby Maitland and Connor Temple to continue bickering. Nearby, Captain Becker and his team of soldiers stood nearby, cautious and alert, their eyes and weapons trained on the reason they were standing in the middle of the woods on a damp Sunday afternoon.

The ARC's anomaly detector had begun wailing at about 3am that morning and the team had been on sight less than two hours later. The anomalies, which had the appearance of floating, glowing, moving pieces of shattered glass that hung in mid-air, allowed people, objects and animals to travel through time. Often times, extinct, dangerous animals found their way through theses doorway and it was Nick and his teams job to handle such occurrences. It was a dangerous job, they had lost friends and been injured on countless occasions, but it needed doing.

So they waited, hoping this anomaly would prove benign, but ready should that not be the case.

Nick looked around the area. Jenny Lewis, the ARC's public relations officer stood beyond the group of soldiers, her cell phone glued to her ear. She was probably speaking with James Lester, the teams administrator. Sarah Page and Danny Quinn, were still new enough to the team to remain on edge when confronted by a new anomaly, hovered together by a big tree, obviously listening to Jenny's conversation.

Taking a break from his conversation with Abby, Connor held up his compass and announced, "Looks like it's getting weaker."

There were murmured sounds of relief from all parties, as people shifted about, hoping this event would end without anything huge and fangy appearing through the portal.

It wasn't more than two minutes later that a figure came rolling through. All the special forces soldiers trained their weapons, but it soon became clear that it was a woman, not a creature. This did nothing to ease their worries, as Nick's psychotic wife Helen often wove her way through time using the anomalies.

The woman was not Helen, however. She was young and slim, with long brown hair caught up in a braid and blue eyes that flashed from her muddy face. Covered in muck though she was, her clothing was clearly modern, olive cargo pants, black tank top and boots, an ugly teal and cream plaid flannel sticking out of her canvas backpack. There was a Sig Sauer P226 strapped to her thigh and a Sub-machine gun clutched in her hands.

She didn't seem startled to see them there, just whirled around, aiming her own HK MP5 at the anomaly, and announcing, "There's a bloody great Carcharodontosaur right behind us!"

As she spoke, two more people came hurtling through the anomaly, landing hard on the ground and tumbling to a halt by the young woman, groaning. They too were covered from head to toe in grime and mud.

One of the men wore the kit typical of Special Forces assigned to the ARC. The other had muddy olive cargos and a maroon t-shirt, the Leeds logo barely visible through the dirt. The first man was fair, light brown or dark blond hair, 6" tall with a broad, muscular build, the man second darker, nearly black hair, and a leaner slightly taller frame.

They too scrambled into defensive positions, weapons aimed at the anomaly, which flickered shut behind them. The clearing was silent until the young woman spoke again. "Woohoo!" she exclaimed happily, jostling the dark haired man with her shoulder. "That one had to be about 12 meters long, maybe three tons."

"At least," the man laughed, causing many of the people in the field who had begun to approach to stop dead in their tracks, which in turn caused their colleagues to turn and stare at them. "Though it was gonna make a snack out of you mate."

The lighter man snorted and rose to his knees. "Not all of us are built for speed," he joked, giving the other man a shove into the woman, who let out an amused squeal.

It was Nick who first approached them, and breathed, "My God…How…."

Connor, pale and unsteady, staggered to Nicks side, clutching at Abby's arm, as the girl let out a choking noise, one hand pressed to her mouth. Jenny showed less shock as she mutely joined their group.

The three people an the ground turned to look at them, messy faces openly happy and guileless. Captain Tom Ryan was still in low crouch over the other two, trained eyes flicking over Nick and the others and obviously not finding them a threat. The young woman was vaguely familiar to Nick, perhaps from around the University, Kathy or Katie…something.

But it was the man reclining against the woman that really drew Nick's attention. As they stared, the light smile dropped off of the handsome face, replaced by a sad, hurt, troubled look that was too familiar. It was the look Stephen Hart had worn for much of the last few months of his life, before being torn apart by the creatures in Leek's menagerie when he sacrificed himself to save Nick and countless others.

But there Stephen was, a filthy mess, but very much alive. And in the company of at least one other person Nick knew to be dead.

He obviously noted their distress as well, focusing on Abby, who was, by this point, crying quietly. "What's wrong?" Stephen asked, rolling gracefully to his feet and looking from Abby to Connor to Nick and back. "Oh God, what's happened? Is everyone all right?"

Ryan pulled the woman to her feet and then looked to the group of soldiers. "Sit Rep!" he barked, causing the soldier to look startled and turn hopeful gazes at Nick.

How am I going to explain this? Cutter wondered, wishing for a change that someone else was the one with the answers.

TBC

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