Prompt: Over?
Rating: K+

They could relax. Finally.

For now, Matt's expression added silently, but Becker was willing to overlook that for the moment.

Those from the future who'd survived the take back of the Arc were being detained as an injured but argumentative Lester debated what to do with them with the Minister's office. Officially, they didn't exist. Officially, making them the guests of Her Majesty's Prison Service was a risk that they weren't sure should be taken. It would only take one of them to open their mouth, to start blabbing about the future and anomalies, and the carefully constructed cover story that had been shaken but somehow had withstood the events of convergence would be blown to shreds.

Lester had suggested finding an anomaly and sending them through it; Becker suspected his boss was only half joking.

In the end, the decision was made for them when a fourth anomaly opened in the ARC. A small team from the future came through to take the prisoners into custody, and, as their team leader was a familiar young man without a haunted look in his eyes and a cheeky grin aimed at the two people who would one day be his parents, Lester was only too happy to let them go.

The ARC Director had been seen to shake his head as he poured himself another supposedly medicinal whiskey, and could be heard lamenting over the fact that someone had allowed Connor to reproduce.

"Something you want to share with the rest of us, Abby?" Matt teased as the anomaly to what appeared to be a happy future closed.

The blond woman blushed book shook her head. "Absolutely not."

"Not yet," Connor added, his grin every bit as cheeky as that of his future son. "Still got time, haven't we? Couple of years yet."

The couple exchanged a smile that could only be classed as sappy and Becker made a show of rolling his eyes as he left the team to go and find his own wife. He told himself, quite firmly, that it wasn't jealously he felt as he made his way through the familiar hallways towards the medical bay when Jess was still being seen.

He was happy for them, for all of them. For Connor and Abby and their future son and daughter. For Matt and Emily and the little boy the team leader was being extremely careful not to mention for all his teasing of his teammates.

He was happy for them.

He was.

Besides, he told himself, it didn't mean anything that there'd been no mention of children in his and Jess's future. For one thing, they'd both been dead in one of the timelines they'd visited. Blown up by the very bomb that could have killed them mere hours ago.

And in the other future, in the one they'd hopefully restored, they'd been together. Thankfully. And as long as they were together, whether they were blessed with children or not, Becker was sure they'd be happy. Content. As long as they stayed together.

With that thought in mind, he quickened his pace to the med bay, determined to find Jess and take her home. Lester had all but insisted they both take two weeks off and Becker was only too happy to oblige, determined to take advantage of single every second of it.

"Ah, Captain Becker." Doctor Ellis greeted him outside of the room he knew Jess to be in. Her smile was nervous, Becker thought, and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "We're almost done with Jess now. Ideally, I'd like her to stay at least overnight for observation but she's quite adamant that she be allowed to leave."

"Is that going to be a problem?" While he understood Jess's reluctance to stay overnight in the med bay – God knew he'd spent too much time in it himself – he would argue with her if the doctor thought a stay was really necessary. "Does she need to be kept in?"

"Not if she follows the instructions we've given her," Doctor Ellis answered after only a short pause. The brunette woman gave him another not entirely convincing smile. "Just keep a close eye on her, Captain. If she experiences any discomfort or complains of any pain, take her to the nearest A&E and have them call me."

Becker gave her a small nod, already planning to stay awake all night if he had to, willing to hold an overnight vigil over his wife it meant ensuring she was okay. "Can I see her now?"

The doctor hesitated again, and this time Becker was sure it wasn't his imagination. "She's asked for a few moments," Doctor Ellis said eventually. "She's been through quite an ordeal and..."

"And that's why she shouldn't be alone." He drew himself up to his full height, and gave the doctor a challenging glare. "I'm going to see her."

"Of course." With a glance over her shoulder at the room Jess was in, Doctor Ellis sighed and reluctantly moved aside.

Without anyone standing between him and his wife, Becker wanted no time in pushing through the door into Jess's room. He stopped when she looked up from staring at the bandages adorning her wrists, alarmed and pained by the tears he could see shimmering in her eyes.

"Jess." Quickly crossing the room to stand in front of her, he touched her bruised cheek tenderly and tilted her face upwards. "Sweetheart, what's wrong?"

She didn't answer at first, instead shaking her head before leaning into his touch. "Can we leave now?" She asked quietly, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Of course." He leaned down and brushed his lips against hers softly. "We can go wherever you want."

"Home." She climbed down from the bed carefully but kept a tight grip of his hand. "I just want to go home."

Home was the same Edwardian house her parents had lived in, the home of Jess's childhood, and the place they'd gotten both engaged and later married in. It was their sanctuary, the perfect place to escape to at the end of a long day, the one place they could go and happily shut out the rest of the world as soon as the doors were closed behind them.

Becker took a moment to lock it, turning back to see Jess standing at the bottom of the staircase leading up to the first floor of the house. She wore an odd expression on her face, one he couldn't identify nor could he remember having seen it before.

When she held her hand out for him, he wasted no time in taking it and let her lead him silently through the quiet house.

As he'd expected, she didn't stop on the first floor, bypassing the two bedrooms that were used by family and friends when they stayed over and the smaller room that had been turned into a small home office-come-library. Without saying a word, Jess led him to the top of the house but surprised him by walking past the door to the master bedroom and instead led him to the rarely used spare room their room shared a landing with.

She didn't let go of his hand as she opened the door. In fact, her grip seemed to tighten as she gently tugged him with her to stand at the window overlooking the small front garden and quiet street beyond it.

They stood in silence for a while, with Jess staring out of the window and Becker staring worriedly at Jess.

"Do you think it'll be too noisy?" Jess asked eventually, tearing her gaze away from the window to look at him. His confusion must have shown on his face because she smiled at him softly. "I know it's quiet with the window closed but in summer, we might need to keep the top ones open a little and I'm not sure if the traffic will be too loud."

"It's not a busy street," Becker pointed out, his brow furrowed as he tried to make sense of the conversation. "I can't imagine there'll be that much noise but Jess... Why would we need to open the windows? We're never in this room."

"So she doesn't get too hot, of course. Or he. This room's a sun trap in summer, and that'll probably be around the time the baby moves out of our room and into this one. I thought this would be a better place for the nursery, keep the baby close. And then when she or he is older, they can choose... Hil!" A gasp escaped her as he reached out suddenly and grabbed her shoulders.

Mindful of the injuries her clothes were hiding, Becker turned her to face him fully and stooped a little so they were standing eye-to-eye. His heart was pounding, his palms felt damp. Heck, his knees felt weak and the last time he could remember feeling like that was on his wedding day to Jess.

"Jess, are you tell me...? Are we...?"

"Having a baby? Yes." A small, shy but undeniably happy smile slowly curled the corners of Jess's mouth. Her cheeks flushed prettily beneath the bruises. "Well, I'll be having it, I suppose. You can't exactly help out there but we're both going to be parents. I thought... I suspected I might be but I was worried I might have... I thought something might have happened when Cartwright hurt me. Doctor Ellis did some tests, though, and she confirmed it. I'm pregnant, Hil. We're going to have a baby. Is that... Is that okay?"

"Okay?" Stunned that she even needed to ask, Becker wrapped his arms around her in a hug as tight as he dared, pressing his face into the crook of her neck as tears stung his eyes. "It's far more than okay, Jessica."

He moved away just enough to be able to lift his head, gazing down at her in wonder before closing the gap between them, claiming her lips in a sweet and tender kiss.

The nightmare was over and something good was about to begin.

And that brings us to the end of Milestones IV - bonus points and Jecker kisses for those who guessed ;)
Coming hopefully to a screen at some point in 2014: Milestones V aka Return of the Fluff. Hopefully... *innocent*