Title: Silence

Author: little_profiler

Fandom: Primeval

Pairing: Becker/Jess

Rating: -T (just in case)

Disclaimer: Neither the show nor the characters belong to me, they belong to ITV1. Nonetheless, I love to borrow them from time to time. The idea of the story as well as the story itself – including all possible pre- or sequels published afterwards – are mine.

Summary: Written for just-kiss-her. The prompt was "You'd expect Becker to be the one to avoid his mandated medical exams. But in reality, it's Jess the medics keep having to hound to come in for her scheduled appointments..." by taraljc.

Warnings: not beta-read

Author notes: Once again, I couldn't resist. Besides, there's a little tidbit in it hopefully making up for the fact that I misread mercscilla's prompt for this week's tag. ;)

As to the plot, I really don't know where it came from. I just wanted to write some hurt/comfort, I guess – and this was what I came up with. Hope you enjoy it.

He had made her go after the medics had told him she hadn't shown up for her medical exam. When he got the call if he knew anything about her injuries, he had regretted it. Injuries. There had been a few creature incursions last week, and they had been far away from Jess and the ADD. There was no way she was hurt during any mission.

When he stormed around the corner, Becker stopped dead at the sight in front of him. There she was, sitting on the bed in the medical bay without a shirt.

He felt an unexpected heat rising in his stomach as his heart started to beat faster. He even felt himself blush, but was able to fight it back. He wasn't going to blush in front of other people – not even at the sight of Jess in just her bra, or the images this made pop up in his head.

And then he saw it, and his feelings turned from aroused to irate. Her shoulder was a mixture of green, blue and red as a bad bruise formed on it. So this was why she always avoided the medical exams.

"Jess?" he asked, carefully stepping closer.

"Becker," she burst out, her eyes quickly scanning the room for something to cover herself. But there was nothing. She looked down, not daring to look at him, not like this. "What are you doing here?"

He sat down next to her on the bed. "The medics called me," he said. "They thought… Well, apparently they thought you would tell me what happened."

"I just… tripped," she whispered.

"Yeah?" Becker asked, grabbing her face to make her look at him. There was another bruise forming under her right eye. "Into whose fist?"

"It's… not what you think," she replied, looking down again, back at her hands.

"Jess," he softly tried again. From her behaviour, the way she almost huddled up on the bed, he could tell that something bad had happened. Something that scared her. Something she didn't want to talk about.

"I can't tell you," she finally said, even though she desperately wanted to tell him. She wanted to tell him everything that had happened, but she couldn't. She knew if she told Becker what had happened, the other party involved wouldn't survive this day.

But she wanted to talk. She couldn't stand it any longer. The day before had shown that she couldn't avoid him forever. And this day had shown that she couldn't hide it forever. She wanted to tell Becker everything that had happened almost since the day she'd been working here. And yes, she even wanted him to act on it and take revenge for her. She just wanted him to make it stop.

Becker blinked at her. She couldn't tell him? So at least she admitted that there actually was something to tell.

Placing his hand on her cheek, he made her turn to him again. "Jess, tell me what happened," he softly pressed her.

He expected her to deny again, or avoid the question. But instead, she burst into tears.

"Hey," he whispered, softly pulling her into his arms, against his chest. "It's okay, Jess. It's going to be okay. I promise. Just tell me what happened."

"I want this to stop," she blurted out between sobs. "Please, make him stop!"

Feeling a fury directed at no one in particular rising in his chest, Becker asked, "Who? Who did this to you, Jess?"

But she shook her head, still refusing to open up.

"I can't help you if you don't tell me," he whispered, gently kissing her hair.

And then she told him. Everything. She didn't leave anything out. She told him how Wilcox, his second in command, had made some pretty obvious offers when he had checked in with the new field-coordinator the first time. How she had declined but he was obviously unable to take no for an answer.

She told him how he had more and more often watched for her in the car park after work, at first just trying to ask her out, but soon starting to molest her, groping her whenever they were alone.

"I… never dared to fight him," she whispered into his shirt. "I just… always was lucky that eventually someone went past us and I could… get away. I knew it couldn't go on like this forever, so I asked Abby to teach me some self-defence."

"And you tried to fight back," Becker concluded.

Jess nodded. "Yesterday. But I… overestimated myself. He was much stronger than I was and… When I fought back he was… somehow… losing it. He was furious, and he… he said that he would… teach me manners. And then he… ripped my shirt and… If Abby hadn't come in…"

Becker slowly exhaled, basically not to hit something – or someone – in front of Jess. Processing what he'd just heard, he tried to stay calm enough to offer the comfort she needed at the moment. Taking revenge for her was for later.

When she stopped shaking, and her sobs slowly subsided, Becker made her look at him again. Gently brushing the tears from her cheeks, he quietly said, "I promise he will never touch you again. I'll make sure of that. By tomorrow he'll be gone."

She nodded, relieved that he didn't seem to be mad at her for not telling him or for being so weak. She was too weak for this team, for this job. She couldn't even defend herself against a soldier molesting her.

"Once you're cleared to go home, I'll pick you up," he promised, his voice brooking no argument.

Jess nodded. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

Becker frowned at her. She was sorry? She shouldn't be. But somebody else should – and he would make sure by the end of the day Wilcox would be very sorry.

"I'm sorry, I can't… protect myself," she added, her voice almost not understandable.

"You shouldn't have to protect yourself," Becker told her. "Not like this, anyway."

She nodded, looking down again. He was so sweet, and she felt terrible for being such a bother.

"Hey." He made her look at him again. "I'll teach you some moves to defend yourself in situations like this, okay? You're much stronger than you think you are."

Again she just nodded, not sure what to say to that.

He reluctantly left her behind in the medical bay. The doctor came in wanting to do an X-ray, so he would have been thrown out, anyway. Still, he didn't like leaving her alone.

But there was something he had to do before he could get back to her.

When Jess returned from the tests revealing that her shoulder was just bruised and not broken, Becker was already waiting on the bed.

"Hey," he greeted.

"Hey," she clumsily replied, blushing again just due to the fact that he'd come back to check on her.

"So, what does the X-ray say?" he asked.

"It's just a big bruise," Jess told him as she sat down on the bed. "I'll be cleared to go home in a minute or two, I guess."

He just nodded.

Fidgeting with her medical gown, she mumbled. "You know, I really don't like these things. Too bad I don't have another shirt with me."

She wanted to ask him where he had been, what he had done, and if Wilcox had survived it. But she didn't dare. She wasn't sure she really wanted to know.

Without saying a word, Becker took off his shirt, making her gasp, and handed it over to her. "Here," he softly said. "I have another shirt in my locker."

She blushed again, took the shirt from him and examined it for a while. "Thanks," she mumbled. Not sure what else to say to that.

He turned around, even though every ounce of him wanted to watch her as she changed. When he turned back, he smiled at the sight in front of him. His shirt was, of course, too big for her slim figure. But it suited her well. As a matter of fact, it looked much better on her than it had ever looked on him.

Jess enjoyed the feeling of the warm piece of clothing on her skin that so purely smelled of Becker. Maybe she enjoyed it too much, but she'd had a crappy day, so she allowed herself to fully indulge in the feeling of Becker taking such a good care of her, and of letting her mind imagine that maybe, maybe this meant that he had feelings for her.

She was pulled from her little daydream back to reality, when the medical team rushed a solder into the medical bay.

"He's been hit by several charges from an EMD," one of the medics said. "Has been unconscious for at least half an hour."

Jess turned back to Becker, her eyes widened in shock.

He just shrugged, giving her one of his rare, charming smiles.

"Do you happen to know why Lieutenant Wilcox was hit by an EMD even more than once while just cleaning weapons in the armoury?" they heard Lester's voice ask from the doorway.

Becker, knowing the question was directed at him, shrugged again, giving his boss an innocent look.

Lester thought about it for a moment, before exclaiming, "He'll survive. At least that's what the medics say. Good thing it wasn't a real gun. Certainly another accident caused by carelessness." He could sense that Becker knew more about the incident.

"Certainly," Becker said, nodding in agreement. He knew where this was supposed to go. But he wouldn't take the bait. Not this time.

Frowning at Jess and the bruise that was forming above her eye, it dawned upon Lester. "Was he responsible for this?"

Jess bit her lip, then nodded.

Lester grimaced, finding a new urge to kill one of his soon-to-be former subordinates. "I suppose the EMD was adapted to low voltage?"

"Medium, I guess," Becker replied with a shrug.

Jess's eyes widened again.

"Good," Lester mumbled, turning to leave them alone. "I hope it really hurt."