Disclaimer: Not mine, no copyright intended

A/N: Finally got my A/C mojo back! ... Please feed the plot bunnies with lovely comments, it helps them to multiply!

Abby always felt a strange mix of emotions when they went out to an anomaly. It was the unknown that both thrilled her and scared her at the same time. The thrill of seeing these amazing creatures in action never lessened; in fact the more she saw, the more she wanted to see, but the fear also increased. She had lost two colleagues already, witnessed the deaths of other people and almost become a victim herself. There were many who probably would have left the job by now, but Abby couldn't picture herself doing anything other than this.

She took a moment to compose herself, using a yoga technique to focus her mind and body for the task ahead. Sarah was nervously chewing her bottom lip in the seat next to her and in the two front seats Connor was navigating whilst Danny drove. Becker was on the radio, telling them to hurry up – the anomaly was close to a residential area, and an eye witness had claimed they had seen "one of them dinosaur things from Jurassic Park." Abby raised a tiny smile as she saw Connor's face twitch. He hated how most people's knowledge of dinosaurs stemmed from a fictional movie that wasn't, in his opinion, that accurate.

"What have we got?" Danny said as he got out of the 4x4 and walked towards Becker. The others followed close behind.

"The eye witness described it as being like a T-Rex, only a lot smaller." Becker said. "I've got a couple of my men trying to track it now."

"What sort of size are we talking about?" Abby said.

"He said it was probably about 7 feet tall."

"OK, I think we're going to need more than just the darts." Abby said, heading back towards the 4x4 and indicating for Sarah to help her.

"Could be a juvenile T-Rex." Connor said. "Or maybe it's a Raptorex, difficult to say without seeing it. Either way, we could be in trouble. Both are serious carnivores."

Abby was handing out large tranquiliser guns to the team, but Becker refused his. "I prefer to stick to my own weapon, thanks." he said, patting his rifle.

"Whatever." Abby said in disgust. She turned to Danny, who was loading bullets into his pistol. Abby stared at him.

"I know what you're thinking, Abby, but we should all carry proper firearms as well as the tranquilisers. You heard what Connor said, we could be looking at a killer here. I'm not taking any chances." Danny said to her.

Abby sighed. It was times like this she really missed Cutter. He felt the same as her; the creatures shouldn't be harmed. Connor was the only one on the team who sympathised with her now, but at the same time he also sided with Becker and Danny if things got a bit tough. She smiled as Connor took the final tranquiliser gun from her, remembering a certain incident in a shopping mall not so long ago. He'd had a few lessons from Becker since then, and his aim had improved greatly. He pushed it into his belt alongside the small handgun he was now allowed to carry.

"Ok, we split up – we have to find this thing before it makes a meal out of someone." Danny said. "Connor, Abby ... you two go with Becker in that direction. Sarah and I will go with the rest of the Special Forces guys over there. Stay in radio contact at all times." He tapped the microphone that was attached to the side of his face.

Despite her many clashes of opinion with Becker, Abby had to admit he was damn good at his job. Nothing got past his keen eyes and he often heard things no-one else had. He had gone on slightly ahead, leaving Connor and Abby feeling almost surplus to requirements. Connor was twirling his handgun around in his fingers and whistling the theme music to "The good, the bad and the ugly." Abby nudged him and told him to be quiet. He pouted at her like a naughty schoolboy, then grinned. "Lighten up, Abby! This is pretty cool." he said.

"You can't just mess about with those things, Connor. If that accidentally goes off, it won't be like when you shot me with the tranquiliser dart you know. That has real bullets that kill." Abby said. "If you want to play cowboys, do it with the tranquiliser gun, not that one."

Connor was about to respond, when they both realised Becker had stopped and was motioning for them to be quiet and stand back. There was a rustling in the trees and Becker pushed himself back against a tree. Moments later, a creature crashed through between the trees in front of them. Abby heard Connor gasp and she turned to look at him. His mouth was open and his eyes wide in awe.

"What is it?" Abby whispered.

"Raptorex." he replied. "Early Cretaceous. You can see why that guy thought it might be a T-Rex, but these existed thousands of years before the T-Rex."

Abby nodded. It always amazed her how Connor could pluck a fact out of the air like that, especially when their lives could potentially be in danger. "We have to try and lure it back towards the anomaly." She said, motioning to Becker.

"I've radioed for back up." He said. "Danny and the others are on the way. No heroics!"

The three watched the Raptorex in silence, all trying to hold their breaths so the creature wouldn't hear them. It stood and seemed to be sniffing the air, then turned and began to head towards the nearby housing estate. "We have to stop it!" Connor said.

Becker raised his rifle, but Abby grabbed it and forced him to put it down. "How do you propose we stop it then, Abigail!" Becker hissed at her. "If that thing gets into the street..."

"We get it to chase us." Abby said.

"Abby! Are you mad! Do you know how fast that thing can run?" Connor said. Abby was already moving from the safety of her hiding place into the open, and directly into the eyeline of the creature. Connor and Becker exchanged glances of fear, and Connor moved to try and drag Abby back.

"It may be fast, Connor. But it's got to negotiate the trees. It'll be slowed down considerably, whilst I can dodge in and out." She said. Before either Connor or Becker could stop her, Abby was waving at the creature to get its attention and then running through the trees towards the anomaly.

The Raptorex started after her, and as Abby had predicted, it was slowed down as it tried to weave its large body and long tail through the trees. Becker gave chase, his rifle raised, closely followed by Connor. He hardly dare look, and he prayed Abby wouldn't stumble over.

As Abby reached the clearing where the anomaly was, she could see Danny and Sarah. "What the hell are you doing?" Danny yelled, realising that she was being chased.

"I have to get it to follow me through the anomaly!" She yelled back. "It's the only way."

The creature was almost upon her, and she heard the unmistakeable sounds of rifles being cocked. "Tell your men to back off, Becker! We do this my way!"

"No!" Becker called back. "It's my job to protect you."

"And it's my job to make sure these creatures get back home unharmed." She snapped back. She moved towards the anomaly and stumbled slightly on a rock. The next few seconds happened so fast it was difficult to determine exactly what happened. The creature had made a lunge towards Abby and three gunshots rang out in rapid succession. Then there was silence as the creature slumped to the ground.

Everyone stood, just staring at each other, completely stunned. Abby was the first to move. Her heart was pounding hard in her chest and she felt a sudden surge of anger. She rushed at Becker, slamming her fists against his chest. "I told you to back off!" she yelled. "I had it under control. It was following me through the anomaly! But you had to go and shoot it!"

"It wasn't me." Becker said, grabbing her wrists and looking her straight in the eyes. "It wasn't me."

"Then who?" Abby spun around, about to launch an angry attack at Danny, when she saw who had shot the creature. His arms were still outstretched; gun still pointing straight ahead. His entire body was shaking and tears streaming down his face.

"Connor!" Abby shouted. "You!... it was you!" Connor just nodded, frozen to the spot. "You idiot!" she spat, shoving him. Tears of anger stung her eyes – of all the people, Connor was the last one she expected to go against her.

"It was going to..." Connor managed to say before Abby shoved him again.

"I can't believe you did that, Connor! Everything Cutter ever stood for obviously means nothing to you." Abby hissed. She saw Connor's face crumple, and she knew her words had hurt him more than anything physical she could inflict on him. She felt betrayed in the worst possible way; Connor hadn't trusted her instinct, and that hurt. She turned and stomped off towards the waiting vehicles, shaking her head and trying to fight against the tears she could feel threatening to fall any moment.

"I'll go after her." Sarah said. Danny nodded and Sarah ran to catch Abby up.

"We should get this back to the ARC." Danny said to the gathered Special Forces men. "Can I leave that with you?" The men nodded and sprang into action. Then Danny turned to Connor, who was still shaking. He placed his hand on his shoulder. "If it's any consolation, my finger was on my trigger too. You beat me to it by a millisecond."

"Mine too." Becker said. "We were all thinking exactly the same, Connor."

"But it was me that killed it, wasn't it?" Connor said through his tears. "She'll never forgive me."

"You did it for the right reasons, Connor. When she calms down, she'll realise that too." Danny said.

Connor shook his head. He wished Danny was right, but he knew Abby wouldn't see it like that. She was always hard on him over even the slightest things; this was going to take a lot to put right. He followed Danny back to the 4x4 and silently slipped into his seat at the front. As Danny drove off, Connor glanced behind and tried to catch Abby's eye, needing to know that she was OK. She was sat with her arms folded and her eyes closed, leaning back.

"I think we should take Abby straight home." Sarah said. "She's had quite a shock."

"I'm fine." Abby said. "I just want to go back to the ARC and make sure that poor creature is dealt with properly and not just dumped in one of the holding pens."

"That 'poor creature' was about to rip your body to shreds, Abby!" Connor snapped.

"It was following me through the anomaly, Connor. Once it was home, it would have been calmer."

"You don't know that!" Connor said.

"And you don't know that it was going to kill me either. We'll never know, thanks to you. You're just as bad as that meathead Becker!"

Danny slammed on the brakes and the vehicle screeched to a halt. "That's enough! Not one more word about this. What's done is done and we can't change it. Now either you two stop arguing, or you can both get out and walk."

"Sorry, Danny." Connor muttered.

"Yeah, sorry Danny." Abby said. She sighed and stared out of the side window.

Danny started the 4x4 up again, and turned on the radio to try and lighten the mood. He almost wished Becker was with them, at least he could start a conversation about football or something. Sarah must have read his mind because she began talking about some police drama she'd seen and wanted to know if Danny thought it was an accurate portrayal of life in the British police force. Abby and Connor remained silent for the remainder of the journey, lost in their own thoughts.

After what felt like an eternity, they finally pulled up at the ARC and began to unload the equipment. Once or twice, Connor raised a nervous smile as he passed Abby, hoping she'd say something – but she ignored him; concentrating on getting her things from the boot ready to take back to the weapons store. When everything was unloaded, Danny turned to Abby and Connor. "I'm going to have to give Lester a full account of what happened today, and justify why we have a dead dinosaur on our hands." Abby glared at Connor. "I need both of you to sit down and give serious thought to what you did and the reasons behind it. Might do you good to analyse your behaviour. I want a written report first thing tomorrow morning so I have time to go over it before my meeting with Lester." He walked away, leaving the pair of them standing looking at each other awkwardly.

-o-