A/N This is my first fanfic for Primeval. Please be kind. I dont own Primeval. If I did Stephen would still be alive and Helen would have been shot a long time ago. Mind you I love Stephens replacement. Go Becker!

So close.

In her more poetic moments Dr Sarah Page had been known to work out metaphors for the anomalies that she now worked on.

Shining stars in the dark night she could call her life.

The candle in the window on a winter night.

Neither of these seemed to accurately describe her situation. Ah…

The light at the end of her own personal tunnel. That seemed about right.

Because no matter what predators lay beyond the anomaly, no matter how many teeth or tentacles or even how many Helen Cutters there could be out there, behind every anomaly lay hope.

"Sarah, run!" The cry brought her out of her reverie and back to reality with a jolt. She realized with horror she was slowing down and redoubled her sprint.

So close. Twenty meters.

She could swear she could feel hot breath on her back.

Ten

Ahead the anomaly shone like a shattered star.

Five

A shadow rose ahead of her.

Two

One Giant leap through, landing in a heap on the stone flagons that paved the abandoned church they had found the anomaly in.

A church that now looked like…hell was the only word to describe it.

Well a herd of rampaging Stegosaurus will do that to a building.

"Seal it Sam! Seal it!" A flustered young woman hit the button and a globe encased the anomaly.

"Everyone alive then? No one a dinosaur chew toy? Jolly Good!"

In the truck on the way back to the ARC there was a frosty silence. She may have the front seat these days but she could feel the weight of Becker's anger physically crushing her. Sneaking a look at him she could see his knuckles were white on the steering wheel. She sighed. This hadn't been easy on him.

It was three months since Abby, Conner and Danny had gone missing. When they had realized something was wrong, Lester had authorized a massive search. All of the ARC resources were concentrated on tracking them down. After a month when it became obvious they weren't going to be found the search was scaled back dramatically. Reluctantly the two remaining team members had agreed to leave the hunt and form a new team. She knew Becker felt guilty for letting them go. He had been charged with protecting the team and he had let them go into probably the most dangerous period of time ever, unprotected.

The noise of the handbrake shook her out of her reverie. They were back at the ARC. The team, correction, the new team, filed out of the back row. As Sarah made to follow Becker's hand on her wrist stopped her.

"Sarah, Wait" The severity in her voice made her wince. She waited until all the others were back in the main building before turning to face the angry man in the driver's seat. The last thing they needed was to let the new team see them fighting.

"Yes? What is it?" She asked, trying to inject as much innocence into her voice as humanly possible.

"You know damn well what it is. That was a routine job. There was no need to go through that anomaly!" His voice was quiet but deadly, full of barely contained anger.

"We needed more information about the era. We could only get that by going through!" She felt her defenses rise.

"Sarah, I'm no paleontologist but I'm fairly sure that Stegosaurus only comes from one era of history! This isn't the first time you've jumped through an anomaly either."

"I just thought we ought to check, that's all." She said, studiously ignoring his last remark.

"So why did you run off from the rest of us? Were you trying to get yourself killed?" His voice shook with anger.

"No I was-"She bit down on the sentence before it betrayed her.

"You were what?" When she didn't answer he sighed "Are you looking for them?" Her silence confirmed it. He sounded more resigned than angry now. "Why Sarah? The chances of finding them are-"

"Yes, Miniscule. I know!" She was shouting now. "But I have to do something! I can't just leave them."

"Sarah we have to. We have to carry on their work"

"You're talking like they're dead!"

"Sarah I don't like this any more than you, but they probably are dead! "

"Don't you feel at all guilty for leaving them?" Her voice was quiet but the question snapped through the air like a whip.

"Of course I do. But we can't keep throwing ourselves through anomalies to try and find them." His voice softened a little "Sarah. I've lost so many people on this job. I can't lose you as well."

"I'm sorry" She said feeling guiltier than ever."I'll be more careful" If they had been dogs their hackles would have been settling.

"Thank you" he replied in a grim voice "If I see one more person turned into dinosaur fodder…"

"Okay. Look I've got a couple of things I need to do so I'll see you later. Okay?"

"Yes, go ahead" He said sounding distracted. Sarah slid out of her chair and headed to her office leaving one defeated looking soldier behind her.

Becker leaned back in his seat, exhaust etched into every line on his face. It was harder than it looked being team leader. Especially when his second-in-command kept throwing herself through any and every anomaly she could find.

He hadn't wanted to be team leader. He didn't feel able to step into the shoes of Nick Cutter or Danny Quinn. Or even Jenny Lewis, brief as her leadership had been. They all had…flair. They managed to contain anomalies without sacrificing anyone. He had been ready to close off anomalies with people on the other side more than once now. He was too military for the job. He saw defensive and offensive points, targets and acceptable losses. He wasn't right for this job.

He had frequently found himself wishing that his special forces training had included a "how to take over a team when your superior has just been killed" unit. Actually it had but the assumption had been that it would be a) on some godforsaken battlefield where all you had to concentrate on was survival and b) temporary. Not in a well appointed, high tech, research centre just outside London where you spent all day stopping monsters from rampaging over the country.

Perhaps he could suggest it be included.

The thought made him smile for the first time in days. Jumping out of the cab of the ARC van, he headed for his office, his mind on the day he had been made team leader.

A month after Danny, Abby and Conner had disappeared; Lester had called Becker and Sarah into his office.

"Look" He had said "We can't keep this up. We have to deal with the anomalies; we can't keep looking for them"

"But Sir-"Becker tried to cut in

"No Captain, listen to me. I didn't want to do this but were giving up the search. "This time it was Sarah that interrupted him.

"Sir you can't! We can't just give up!"

"Yes Dr. Page we can and we are. I had hoped not to have to do this yet again, but…Captain Becker, I am making you team leader. Dr Page will be your second. I want the two of you to form a new team. I have left the relevant files in Mr. Qui-Your office Captain. "Lester had sighed. "Don't get too comfortable Captain. It doesn't seem to be a job with a long life expectancy. "

Assembling a team hadn't taken long. He and Sarah had spent a couple of days perusing Lester's possibilities, eventually choosing three people to replace their friends.

Connors role as "Techspert" had been easiest to fill. Samantha Mewner was an experienced
twenty-something computer programmer and technology enthusiast. She had already improved the anomaly detector, allowing them to get to the site even faster. She wore thick glasses that seemed to filter out everything except hard drives and gigabytes. Sometimes Becker wondered if the fact that they chased prehistoric monsters around had even registered with Sam.

Abby had been harder to replace. Very few people had her level of skill with animals and sufficient discretion to keep the secret. Eventually they had settled on Derek Lewel who combined incredible animal handling skills with sarcasm that rivaled Lester. Thirty, Bitter and Bearded, he didn't seem to care about anything except his animals.

Filling his own role as team security, Becker had selected an old friend from basic training. Captain Ryan Stuartson had long been known for his excellent service record and so far under his careful eye no one had died. Amazing considering the trouble Sarah kept throwing herself into.

They were good. They were efficient. But that was all.

There was none of the camaraderie that had bound the others together. None of the friendship or little feuds. No Conner to make them laugh. No Abby to smack Conner when he got too boisterous. No Danny to make crass comments or try heroics.

On paper he knew his new team was much better but…He and Sarah still missed the old team.

It had been a long day for Sarah. She had been trying to research the origins of the Kelpie, a Scottish legend, when the anomaly alert had gone off. After playing sheepdog to a herd of Stegosaurus', nearly getting eaten back in the Jurassic and having an argument with Becker, she was well ready to go home and soak in a long bath. With cake.

Mmmh…that sounded good. Cake and a bath. Massaging her aching shoulders with one hand she began to pack up. She loved her job but some days it just got too stressful.

Funny. There seemed to be more of those days since they had lost Abby, Conner and Danny.

Keys and bag in hand she headed for her car. This was when the Anomaly detector went off. Sighing she turned around and headed for the main room.

Sam was sitting on the stool, trying to track it to its source.

"Nearly…just triangulating…got it!" She turned to face the team triumphantly. "Forest of Dean!"