The house was cold and dark. It looked abandoned, unloved, and sent a shiver down his spine as he wearily dismounted the horse he'd procured.

Quietly, exhaustion clinging to his limbs like leaden weights, Becker made his way to the front door, turning the handle slowly.

It opened without resistance, permitting him to enter the house.

He stepped over the threshold and waited, expecting Jess to appear any minute and throw herself at him. He frowned when there was no sign of her, not even a creak on a floorboard as she made her way through the house to see who her unannounced visitor was.

A cold fear spread through him, spiking when everything remained still around him. What if she'd had another visitor while he'd been gone? What if someone else had decided to take his place and had hurt her when she'd refused?

Forcing himself to move, he searched the small dwelling systematically, keeping their bedroom until last, not sure if he wanted to know what waited for him inside of it.

When there was no sign of her anywhere else, Becker swallowed the nausea that rose in his throat and forced himself to continue his search, pushing open the door of the bedroom that suddenly seemed a dozen times heavier than he knew it to be.

Whatever he'd been expecting to find, it wasn't to feel the point of a sword at his throat on entering the dark room.

"Who are you and what do you want?" The voice was hard, the hand that held the blade steady. Becker felt his knees go weak but it was with relief and not fear as he lifted a hand to gently push the sword away.

"It's me, Jess." His voice was quiet, gruff with emotion he was trying not to let consume him. "It's me."

"Oh, thank god." The sword fell to the floor with a clatter and she was in his arms in an instant. He could feel her trembling but had no time to mention it as she reached up to grasp his face, drawing him down so she could kiss him desperately. "I heard the horse and I hoped but I couldn't... Thank you. Thank you for coming back to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Lifting her easily, pushing his exhaustion aside, he carried her over to the bed as she peppered his face with kisses, fingers slipping under his clothes to get at the skin and muscles beneath. His own hands weren't idle once he'd settled her on the bed, nimble fingers deftly unlacing her dress as he claimed her mouth again and again.

"Wait, wait." Tearing her lips from his, Jess was breathing heavily, one of her hands tangled in his hair, the other under his shirt. "There's an anomaly," she said between gasps. "It opened just after you left and it's still there. Or was, earlier today. I've gone to check it every day since you left."

"What?" Pulling back to stare at her in the dim light of the room, Becker frowned as his brain slowly kicked in over his libido. "You didn't go through it?"

"No. Not without you." Her eyes found his and he saw her bit her lip. "I told you I'd be here waiting, Becker, and I meant it. My home is where you are. Whether that's here or through the anomaly or some godforsaken era with creatures that try to eat me, I don't care. I love you and I wasn't about to go anywhere without you."

Unable to think of what to say, Becker responded in the only way he knew how. He covered the gap between them, kissing her deeply, tongue duelling with hers as he fought to pour everything he felt for her into the gesture. "I love you," he murmured against her lips. "So bloody much. Jess, my lovely Jess."

He could taste her tears and it was that that caused him to draw back again. The mood between them shifted and he got off the bed, holding a hand out to help her up.

"If it's still there, we'll go through." There was a certain amount of anxiety involved in making the decision, fear of the unknown combining with a worry that they should stick with the lesser of two evils making them both nervous. "Pack everything. If we don't make it home, we can dump what we don't need."

Nodding, Jess tightened her grip on his hand for a few moments before letting go to do as he said.

A short time later, the couple stood in front of the flickering anomaly under the light of an almost full moon. Jess shivered in the coolness of the night and Becker moved closer, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

"We don't have to do this," he said quietly, his earlier confidence fading at the sight of the doorway that could either take them home or strand them in another time completely. "We could stay here, live out the rest of our lives."

"But we'd always wonder." She sighed softly. "We'd never know if this could have been our way home."

After staring at the anomaly for a few more moments, Becker moved his arm from around her shoulders only to take her hand, lacing their fingers together as he lifted it to his lips. "No matter what happens, we stay together."

"Even if we make it home?" Tilting her head to look at him, she bit her lip, hope and apprehension in her blue gaze. "I won't hold you to this, Becker. Not if you want out of it. I know you wouldn't have married me had the circumstances been different."

"I would." He answered quickly, and with a certainty that obviously surprised her. "Maybe not so soon," he admitted with a sheepish shrug. "I'd have liked to take you to dinner first but we're beyond that now and this is so much better than anything I'd imagined. You're stuck with me, Jess. For as long as you'll have me."

"Till death do us part it is, then." Her smile was shaky, her heart in her eyes. "I just wanted to be sure we were on the same page."

"We are." Squeezing her hand, he took a deep breath and moved closer to the anomaly. "Time to go home. Wherever that is."

Falling into step beside him, Jess didn't hesitate in walking through the anomaly, side by side with her husband.

The security team that greeted them did so with enthusiasm. The soldiers were obviously pleased to see both their Captain and their Field Co-ordinator, and wasted no time in announcing their return to the rest of the ARC via the comms.

In what felt like no time at all, the newly returned couple were ushered into a car and driven back to the ARC, where they were greeted with smiles and the occasional hug (mostly for Jess) and pats on the back (mostly for Becker) and were hurried through the corridors to the control room, where the core team waited impatiently.

Once there, there were more hugs and manly back pats. Jess found herself swept off her feet – quite literally – by Connor, moments after being released by Abby and glanced over the scientists shoulder to see a scowl momentarily arrange Becker's features before it vanished. She met his gaze and smiled at him, satisfied when he smiled back somewhat sheepishly and turned to accept the cautious hug Sarah was waiting to bestow on him.

After Connor let her go and moved to greet Becker, Jess found herself standing face-to-face with Lester, who studied her seriously before sighing as he, too, pulled her into an embrace.

Tears stung her eyes at the "welcome home" her boss whispered in her ear, and she blinked them away rapidly as he released her and Becker moved to stand at her side, taking her hand even as their beaming teammates stood around them.

"So I hear congratulations are in order," Connor said after a short pause of everyone just staring at each other. "Lady Becker now, ain't it? And Sir Hilary?"

The couple exchanged a look before Becker wrapped his arm around Jess's waist, drawing her closer to his side. "You'd be right on both accounts. Though I think we'll just stick with Jess and Becker for now. No need to stand on ceremony, Temple."

"So how does it feel to be approaching your 512th wedding anniversary?" Abby asked mischievously. "That's quite a feat, you know. Think you'll be making the record books for sure."

"For now, though, I'm sure you both like to get reacclimatised, readjust to the twenty-first century?" Lester glanced at their attire, arching an eyebrow. "I'm not sure swords would be much use when hunting dinosaurs, Captain."

Becker merely shrugged while Jess blushed as she looked down at herself and remembered how the old style dress accentuated her figure. "A change of clothes would be nice. And a shower," she added, wrinkling her nose at the thought of the luke warm baths she'd had to endure.

"And a good night's sleep," Becker chimed in. "It was probably somewhere close to midnight when we left."

"How long were you there?" Matt asked curiously, wrapping his arm easily around Emily's shoulders as she moved to stand at his side.

"It has been five weeks for us," Emily answered before they could ask. "But Sarah and Danny explained that time is different through the anomalies so we are unsure as to how long it has been for you."

"Six months, give or take a few days," Jess answered quietly. "It's been six months for us."

Six months that neither would change for anything if the look they exchanged was anything to go by.

Having said their hellos and welcome backs, the couple were allowed to head to the locker room, where their twenty-first century belongings waited for them in their lockers. As Jess struggled to undo the lacing of her dress, Becker moved to stand behind her, helping to loosen the bodice and then lingering when it was done.

"Are you okay?" He asked quietly, moving his hand to rest on her hip as she leaned against him.

"We're home and we're together," Jess murmured, tilting her head back to look at him. "How could I be anything other than okay?"

Giving her a fond look, he kissed her softly before letting her go, moving over to his own locker. Jess watched him, a soft smile curling her lips.

Every cloud did have a silver lining, she thought to herself, and hers happened to come in the shape of her very own knight in shining armour.

End

And there we have the end of this story – the full, uncut version will be up on AO3 very shortly. There will be a one-shot with Danny and Sarah coming to a screen near you soon and, as I know there are a couple of scenes people might've wanted to see but haven't, I thought I'd open up the floor for people to let me know if there are any one-shots/scenes in this 'verse that you'd like me to write as prompts - either now they're back in the present or when they were in the past.

I can't say when I'll get them done but promise I'll get to them eventually. Already on my 'to write list' is Milestones IV (and eventually V) as well as another story involving Danny & Sarah's return (that's not a spoiler – it happens in the first chapter! :)) Not to mention the original fiction I've been neglecting as of late – oops! (Jess, Becker et al are far too addictive to ignore, it seems!)

Thank you as always for all of the reviews/follows/favourites! There's been a slight issue with my email so I've only just seen some of the reviews sent over the last few days but they've all made me smile and I'm sorry I don't have the time to thank you all individually at the moment! Please know that every single one really does mean the world to me, though :)