#livestrust

footsteps .  dr bukhari casts a glace at the clock on the wall .  hmm .  footsteps that are five minutes late .  pencil immediately finds its way to paper , the sound of furious scribbles is his only greeting .  a previous conversation had warned him against being late .  his tardiness is noted .       take a seat , captain . 

It was Murphy’s law, Abby decided, blowing into her hands to try to warm them, her visible breath curling out from between her fingers like smoke, illuminated by the floodlights and the gentle pulsing light of the Anomaly in front of them. It was Murphy’s law that things like this always happened when it was a cold night and she’d dressed for a spring afternoon. They were waiting for a new Anomaly Locking Device as the one they’d brought with them had been crushed by a charging Triceratops as they’d shooed it back through the Anomaly and because someone had forgotten to put the spare back in the truck after taking it out to run diagnostics, that someone was now sitting in a nice warm car on his way back to the ARC to pick up a new one. In the mean time, it was up to Abby and Becker and a few of Becker’s men to make sure nothing came back out again.

It almost felt like old time, before they could lock Anomalies and every alert eventually turned into a waiting game of indeterminate length to make sure there were no incursions. She kept half expecting Cutter to pop out from behind one of the trees, half way through explaining one of his crazy, brilliant ideas to a clearly confused Jenny. It made her sad every time she remembered that that would never happen again, but she clung to those thoughts anyways. It was better, after all, than giving in to the slightly more recent memories that still kept her up some nights. Better than remembering a different vast and impossibly dark forest teeming with predators that were waiting for her and Connor to finally slip up and make themselves an easy meal. Better than getting paranoid again... like she ever stopped.

𝟏 .  we begin with our dearest alexander case !   you knew it was coming ,  absolutely had to know ,  alexander case absolutely does get his prosthetics done to match his height . they help with the whole ,  get up a tree you dumbass vibes that his brand new , definitely kidnapped for , job enjoys throwing at him .  

𝟐 .  upon meeting one dr flora ryan ,  becker is unphased  (  to no one’s surprise ,  we know  ).  pastel blue hair ,  star shaped glasses with a pink tinge to the lenses ,  spotless white dr martens with a custom wedge / sole to add an extra five inches to her height ,  &  the man simply presses the elevator button as if it’s a normal week .  what does phase him is the picture on the id ,  this kid is military .  flora will note the extra blink with no other tell in his expression ,  &  she simply beams ,  you must be captain becker ,  what a genuine pleasure ,  we’re going to have a blast unpacking a single trauma this year . 

𝟑 .  as a whole extra bit ,  the day he gets a copy of her personnel file ,  absolutely comes  &  tosses it at sar ,  smug in his own way because finally a file for those responsible for the mental well being of staff that isn’t sprinkled with lies .  it’s the absolute first time he ever gets to hear sar say bite me , becker .  it is not the last . 

𝟒 .  captain ryan ,  in this definitely canon he never died world ,  keeps everyone absolutely far away from him ,  becker especially .  does not like looking at him  &  seeing own skeleton in the eyes of such a young man ,  does not like what he sees when seeing him ever ,  quite frankly .  it does not stop him from taking him under wing in his own way .  no ,  he is not anywhere the marksman becker is ,  but does not prevent him taking bets  &  trying anyway .  anytime he thinks becker is getting a little too big a head ,  will remind him that he is not the one that bowed to a crocodile . 

𝟓 .  becker is tasked with trying to figure out who cass is ,  &  finds a therapist .  not that he immediately u - turns ,  but -   he is absolutely left in charge of baby - sitting the cass they pulled from an anomaly ,  as she quite literally bites .  it takes many weeks of supervised therapy (  if he isn’t there ,  three guards are  )  to finally get her to calm down enough to not try to attack him just about every time she sees him .  it’s a trauma response ,  eventually will tell him what’s happened ,  but may never .  before a whole year passes ,  he’s letting her see the menagerie  &  trusting her enough to walk the hallways without hi constant eye  (  we all know he is watching anyway  ) .  he may be the only one to walk through one of her anomalies ,  but as a whole favor to him ,  she quickly gets him back before tossing the peace sign  &  taking off again . 

 𝟏 .     starting heavy by saying he simply never sees her dealing with her own trauma .  granted ,  it’s by her own design  (  here for your mental health ,  not the otherway round  ).  it’s fine until it isn’t ,  there’s at least three days where they skip official session to simply sit in an office while she weeps .  dog sits in his whole lap because he’s much too big to sit on sar’s ,  &  he ,  despite being equally bad with emotions ,  mostly listens to her .  gives her a whole hair pat a few times .  keeps her away from the scotch . 

𝟐 .     this one is something i am simply yeeting at you ,  but perhaps invited becker over the night previous to her attack .  just for dinner ,  maybe to go over files .  simply profesh .  even finds said files scattered round her place after she’s been transported to hospital .  there’s no ill will ,  &  despite never talking about it ever ,  tells him once & once only that it’d have been just as bad if he had been there .  immediately changes the subject by asking his thoughts on her tattoo ,  maybe add a stem ?  please share .

𝟑 .     note passing via dog  ,  cause no one stops him while he wears his little vest ,  &  becker knows if it were really an emergency that dog ain’t gonna walk all the way to his office about it .  simply see that tall lil man walking through the arc on a whole mission .  starts off as a way to get the other’s attention without being obvious ,  &  then it just takes a life of its own .  matt tries to get it to stop because he intercepts dog  &  finds a whole note about him ,  becker gets to shoot him about it if he likes .  for therapy purposes .  &  to teach him to mind his business . 

𝟒 .     sitting in huddled position under desk in her office triggers flashbacks so strong someone’s huddled beside her holding & keeping her silent the entire time predators have their day in the arc .  it helps absolutely none that due to philip’s intrusion hours before ,  she’s been in pain most of the day .  it helps the least  that the last person she truly talked to was her ex .  in fact of course sits there pleading with anything that’ll listen to make it through because she’d rather have her last words be with becker instead .  so when he does of course find her much later when everything’s settled ,  it’s still silent but at least this time he holds her while she loses her whole mind on him .  he doesn’t tell her about flora .