This is an old story that needed some editing, so I'm doing that.
Free of Guilt is a one shot. The Diary of Sarah Page is a separate 3-chapter story that I am uploading to the same file because it is so closely related that it's important to read the one-shot first.

Sometimes Sarah and Becker thought that their jet black hair was the only thing they had in common, but there was also the fact that they'd been hired on the same day. Regardless of their differences, Sarah and Becker had become fast friends, and they were more alike than they knew.

They'd been the newbies at the same time, and they'd bonded because of it. They'd shared their observations about the other team members, and then they'd shared pizza and drinks. They never could agree on the flavour. They also shared secrets. They both found the other person easy to trust.

At one point they spent enough time together that Abby asked if they were dating. They'd laughed and denied it and Becker had smartly kept his mouth shut about Sarah's date with Danny the night before. They were friends, plain and simple, and they were both content with that.

Nowadays they had something else in common though. Nowadays they shared their guilt. Only this time they didn't know it.

"Becker! Becker!" The voice calling him was distant and echoing, lost behind a pane of windshield glass, lost behind the emotions clouding him, and the sea of time that had swept them by. Becker woke up in a cold sweat from the dream that had haunted him for the last two years. A nightmare made a thousand times worse by the fact that it was true.

Sarah had died on the fourth excursion out. She shouldn't have been there, and it was his fault. He should've told her no. He should've made her stay back, but she was as stubborn as he was and that was something else they'd had in common.

He knew when he saw the future predator attacking the car she was in that she'd have no chance. He could try to save her, but it wouldn't do anything but get them both killed. If there weren't so many other people depending on him, he'd have preferred to die with her, really. The creature had growled and snarled and the screaming had stopped. From where he'd stood he could see the flesh and blood being tossed into the air. And then the guilt had overwhelmed him and he'd turned away, unable to watch.

It'd been too late. Her panicked shouts to Becker had attracted the future predator to them. There'd been nothing she could do and she knew that if she shouted again, it'd find her too. So she'd stayed quiet as the scene played out in front her. The creature had leapt at them and from where she hid she could see, smell even, the blood and the fresh flesh being ripped open. And then the guilt had overwhelmed her and she'd turned away, unable to watch.

Sarah woke in a cold sweat from the nightmare that had haunted her for years, made worse by the fact that it was true. She'd never forget the events of that day, and she was the only person alive that knew the full story. She glanced around at her surroundings and sighed. It was possible that she was only person alive at all.

When she'd hid from the future predator in that car, she'd been stunned to find him; the boy beside her couldn't have been older than seventeen. She didn't know how he'd gotten there, or if he lived in this desolate future world, but she knew that they had to get him out. She'd called for Becker to help her and realised her mistake a moment too late. The boy's wide and panicked eyes had told her that he knew it too. He still hadn't said a word. And then the creature had been on them and she'd panicked further. She'd rolled into the backseat while the creature was distracted, trying to get into the vehicle. The boy seemed to be frozen in fear.

She'd hid. She hadn't saved him. She couldn't have saved him, but she could have tried. She could've died with him. Instead she'd hid. She wasn't a trained soldier, she was an archaeologist. It'd never been part of her job description to risk her life for another, especially when she couldn't save either of them. Looking back she realised that in her panic she would have hid even if she could have saved the boy with her own life, because all other senses other than the one telling her to survive had failed. She wiped her tears but they continued to fall. She should have listened to Becker; he'd told her not to come on the mission and the boy was dead because of her. She never had learned his name.

After realising that she wasn't going to get back to sleep, Sarah finally got up and began to write in her journal, detailing her story in the off chance that someday someone would find it. It was something she'd always rather hoped for. As an archaeologist, she'd always loved uncovering ancient diaries and histories revealing the true lives of the people living in that time period. It might be silly, but she'd always kept a journal herself, wondering if someone might read it hundreds of years from now.

If there were people left to read it. She hadn't ever made it home from this place. When the horror of the attack had been over, Becker had been gone and the anomaly had been locked. She waited for them to come back, but they never did and eventually the anomaly had closed altogether. She was stuck. She'd thought then that she was as good as dead anyway, and she'd almost have welcomed death, but somehow she'd survived. She'd remained as quiet as a mouse, and eventually she'd learned to find underground shelters stocked with food and water.

Sometimes the shelters showed signs of a hurried escape, and these were the best kind because food and little jars of fresh water remained untouched for her benefit. When she ran out, she'd go in search of another. Sometimes the shelters she found had been abandoned because they'd run out of stores. These ones gave her protection for the night, but if she didn't want to starve she always had to move on quickly.

And yet all the shelters showed signs of human life. So far she hadn't found any herself, but it seemed that, maybe somewhere, people were living still in the dark underground tunnels. It became her focus, her hope, and her one goal to eventually find them. More than anything, she was lonely.

Three years now. That's how long Sarah'd lived in the future for. That's how long it'd been since she'd had a shower. That's how long it'd been since she'd seen a human soul, and that's when it happened. It took her a long time to react. She felt it first more than anything. The pen she was writing with started to tug away from her hand, and at first she was confused. Then the mobile beside her, the one that hadn't worked since she'd stepped into this time but which she always kept with her because it was a little piece of home, suddenly lifted into the air of its own accord and shot away from her. It was too bizarre for her to even register that this was wrong and out of the normal. She leapt for it and realised that the room was brighter than before. It must have been a trick of her mind telling her what she should be seeing instead of what she was, because a minute or two went by before she realised that she was standing directly in front of the anomaly.

And then she'd smiled and darted through.

She didn't find present-day London on the other side. In fact, she didn't find anything at first as she collided headfirst with someone running through on the other end.

Danny looked as shocked to see her as she was him.

"Ow," she said, rubbing her head, too overwhelmed for anything else and not entirely sure this was real yet.

Danny seemed to react quicker than she did, instantly pulling her into his arms and asking if she was okay and telling her how good it was to see her and letting his tears flow freely.

She nodded back toward the anomaly, "Not that one, Danny. It doesn't go home. It's worse than any place you can imagine: the future."

Danny shrugged and didn't say anything for a moment as they clung to each other. Neither were sure how much time had passed but they both suddenly started speaking at once.

They were back, Danny assured Sarah. He'd been back, once, himself and seen them there. Connor and Abby were safe and at home. He'd gone back through after his brother who had eventually been eaten by a creature. Now he'd been stuck here alone again. He wasn't even sure where here was. It didn't matter now that Sarah was with him.

Sarah told him her story, how she'd come looking for them, for him, and what had happened. Then they'd fallen silent again, tears flowing, arms clinging, their eyes speaking the volumes that neither had words for. Sarah wouldn't ever remember who moved first, would never remember how the slow, desperate kiss began. She only knew they'd been kissing for awhile before she realised it, and before she remembered the danger behind the anomaly they sat beside. She broke it off first, reluctantly, and they moved from the area to the tree fort that Danny was living in.

There were dinosaurs here, he informed her, but nothing he couldn't handle and there weren't many of them. There was growing fruit, a stream with fish, and it didn't get too cold at night. Sarah thought it sounded like paradise and suddenly it didn't matter if she ever made it back or not.

Something had changed. The dreams, when he had them, didn't give him the same cold chill that they had before, Becker realised. He didn't know why, he didn't understand it, because everything logical told him that Sarah's death should always be just as horrifying as it had been the day it happened. They'd been so close before, that they'd started to sense when something was wrong with the other, and when everything was okay.

And now suddenly as he replayed the scene in his mind, he felt at peace with it. But how was that possible? How could she suddenly be okay three years after her death? The thought puzzled him and he wondered if it had anything to do with the gentle words that a certain field co-ordinator named Jessica had been drilling into his head for years. Words of encouragement, two and a half years of her telling him that it wasn't his fault, that he wasn't to blame, and that she was glad he hadn't died because she and the rest of the team needed him. Whatever the reason, the peace he felt was enough to bring a smile to his face as he slept deeply for the rest of the night. Maybe tomorrow he'd get up the nerves to ask Jess out and thank her.