Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.
Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.
0.4 Guarded
Abby couldn't remember much from her early childhood… or she wouldn't let herself remember much.
Her parents had married too young.
They'd had kids too young, when they weren't ready to be the adults in any relationship, let alone the parent child relationship.
Soon after Jack was born, her parents got divorced. All Abby knew is that Daddy wasn't at home anymore.
Sometimes, they got to see Daddy… but Mummy didn't like his new friends. Daddy didn't like Mummy's friends either.
Abby remembered the yelling.
One time, Mummy and Daddy yelled so much that they all had to go to the big stone building downtown and talk to the man there. The magistrate told Abby that Mummy's and Daddy's weren't really supposed to yell at each other, but she didn't believe him. The man told her parents they should meet in public places… whatever that meant.
So they began meeting Daddy at the bus stop. Mummy would put Jack in the pram, and Abby would get her coat on. Then they would walk down to the bus stop to wait for Daddy.
If Daddy came quickly and by himself, there wasn't too much arguing. Just a few sharp words, bitter twists into a dying relationship before a chance to go for a ride in Daddy's new car and maybe get ice cream.
But, if Daddy was late or came with one of his new friends, there was yelling. Lots of yelling.
The last day at the bus stop, Abby couldn't forget… even though she tried.
Mummy's new friend had helped button her coat while Mummy put Jack in the pram. Mummy and her friend strolled down the sidewalk laughing and giggling. Mummy was pushing the pram, while Abby held on to the side. She was a big girl, almost seven now, but still not allowed to walk by herself near the roadway. Mummy insisted, and Daddy agreed with Mummy on this.
"Stay out of the roadway Abby," said Daddy. Abby had to hold on to the pram or hold a grown ups hand.
It started sprinkling when they got to the bus stop, so Mummy wheeled the pram into the shelter of the bus stop.
"Abby," said Mummy, "sit on the bench, next to Jack so you will be out of the rain. Watch out for your baby brother now, yeah."
Abby sat, her little legs dangling off the bench, heels swinging back and forth. The woman on the other bench looked up from her paper to regard Abby seriously. Then she smiled, brown eyes warm and friendly, a small dimple showing in her cheek.
"Abby," said the woman "is that short for Abigail?"
Not supposed to talk to strangers, thought Abby. She stared suspiciously at the woman with her big blue eyes.
"My great-great-grandmother's name was Abigail," continued the woman.
Abby heard the woman, but before she could think of whether or not to respond, she heard her father's voice. He was yelling at Mummy again. And Mummy's friend was yelling. Then the woman in Daddy's car stuck her head out of the car window and started yelling too. Daddy had parked across the street, and now he opened the car door and came over to stand right in front of Mummy… yelling every step of the way.
Mummy's friend tried to step in between them, talking loud and fast… then somehow he was rolling on the ground clutching his stomach.
Mummy and Daddy were screeching, screaming louder, pushing and shoving at each other. They stepped into the roadway.
Then, the double decker bus… screeching brakes, screaming tires on wet pavement, the driver frantically pushing on the horn… shoving into her parents…
-x-x-x-x-x-x
The woman had known it was coming, she had been briefed, thoroughly. But still, the accident was worse than the reports had indicated. Looking at the two children, she thought the toddler sleeping in the pram had the better deal. He wouldn't remember any of this. She knelt down to the little girl, reaching her arms around her to turn her away from the sight.
"Abby," she whispered, "Don't look."
Abby looked up at the woman, her big brown eyes looking so sad. "Mummy… Daddy…" she whimpered. She looked down and stared at the woman's high heeled shoes instead.
-x-x-x-x-x-x
The emergency crew had taken away the bodies. And they had taken the bus driver who had collapsed, crying and carrying on, to the hospital. The constables were still taking notes from the witnesses, or trying to.
Daddy's friend was all of a sudden out of words and couldn't say anything.
Mummy's friend, on the other hand had talked an awful lot. Quick, fast words that sounded like he had offered to take the two children to their Auntie…
Abby wondered who he had meant, but it didn't happen. The woman, who stayed holding Abby with one arm wrapped around her and the other hand on Jack's pram, had turned her head to stare quite coldly at Mummy's friend. Abby thought, she might have even hissed at him. She had definitely said something that Abby hadn't heard to the young red haired constable and he was still talking angrily to Mummy's friend when the social services people came.
-x-x-x-x-x-x
No relatives to take them in, the courts had put Abby and Jack into care. They were lucky at first. The group home they were sent to allowed them to see each other, they were all the family they had now.
A few years later they were separated. Due to overcrowding in the care system, Abby was sent to live in a youth dormitory for teenage girls, while Jack was sent to live with a family in the suburbs. Seeing each other became more difficult, but Abby still tried to watch out for her baby brother.
-x-x-x-x-x-x
Years later, she was still trying to watch out for her baby brother.
"Connor," she whispered "he needs a place to stay and I am his sister."