Title: Victorian Beginnings

Author: Athar 'Gemini' Riordan

Series: Family of Time

Rating: Gen [K+]

Warnings: Angst

Spoilers: N/A

Summary: One-shot. On a rainy day in Victorian London, a traveller gives birth to a child who would one day help save the future...

Author's Note:
This is the first one-shot being posted from my series 'Family of Time' which I have begun writing on Live journal and is compliant with my other Primeval stories - A Life Unexpected (ALU) and Words of Innocence (WoI). Other pieces written for the series that are not posted in this piece will be posted at a later date when I have sorted out the timeline after Words of Innocence.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this collection of one-shots - and let me know what you think of them :)

Setting: London, 1840

The rain pattered on the cobbled street, as a figure with their hood drawn about them, clutched the underside of their swollen belly as they rested against a high wall. The figure's breathing was ragged, as another contraction hit more painfully than the one before. This was the first time they had come across that looked remotely capable of catering for the upcoming birth that loomed on the figure with each passing moment.

Helen Cutter cringed, as a low moan escaped her lips. She needed to find somewhere she could deliver the baby safely; a place that was preferrably dry and out of the way. Looking around the near deserted street, Helen noticed a set of doors similar to those used in the rural farm barns.

After discovering the anomaly leading here from the Jurassic, Helen had been glad that the era was close to her own. Victorian London was a place she could at least manouver, as it was mainly the buildings that had changed over the years rather than the overall layout of the city. After following back streets, and keeping to the shadows when she had learnt that her waters had broken, Helen recognised the building she was looking at now as a stables for the Horse drawn cabbies that were the preferred mode of transport of the time, as the motorcar was yet to be thought of.

Hissing, as a contraction caused her to double over in pain - just as thunder sounded in the distance- Helen didn't think and staggered over to the stables. Pulling the door open with one hand while the other remained clutching her belly, Helen quickly pulled the door shut and scanned the area. Seeing no other Human being, and only hearing the occassional sounds of hooves scuffling on the cobbled floor not covered in fresh hay, Helen quickly found a place hidden from view should anyone enter.

As the storm outside brewed, with flashes of lightning causing shadows to jump onto the wooden structures that made the stable, Helen Cutter let out an primal scream of pain, as her labour progressed, and the baby's head crowned. She had been in the quaint stables for nearly an hour, but because of the length of time it had taken her to find shelter, the delivery was moving quickly.

Punching the wall her head was resting against, as she panted while waiting for the next contraction that would aid in her delivery, Helen's mind wandered to her husband, Nick, who she had left behind after finding the gateway of light and going through it; to find herself in a new place (a different time). Neither Helen or Nick, had known about the pregnancy; Helen had only discovered the fact when her body began to change and some of the foods she had scavenged caused her to heave when she would have had no problem with them before.

Apart of her wondered, what would have happened if they had both known she had been pregnant before she had left.

Would she have stayed?

Would she now be with Nick in a modern hospital- surrounded by midwives and doctors- giving birth to their first child?

Helen didn't know- but what she did know, was that she didn't regret walking through the gateway; she didn't regret not returning through, but continuing on and seeing wonders humans in her home time could only dream of. She felt free, for the first time in a very long time. But with this newfound freedom, there had to be a small price to be paid...

The next contraction overwhelmed Helen, as she ground her teeth and felt her body tense at the baby making it's way through the birth canal. It's head was now peeking out and Helen moved back a little so that she could meet the baby's head as she pushed it out a few moment's later. Guiding the crying newborn between her legs and to her chest, Helen allowed her instincts to kick in as she wiped the newborn clean, and used a bootlace to tie of the umbilical and then proceeded to cut the chord with her hunting knife - mother and child now seperate beings.

"A girl.." she murmured, as she used one of the shirts she had pulled from her rucksack to wrap around the little girl, so she wouldn't catch cold. "You're beautiful," she smiled before looking around.

The rain had begun to ease off, and life, Helen knew, would soon return to the deserted streets. She didn't have long, and as much as she felt some flicker of love toward the newborn she now held securly in her arms, Helen knew she couldn't take the child with her to where she was going.

"Shh.. Shh, it's alright," she cooed, before planting a kiss on the little girl's forehead. "You're okay. You're going to be okay." she said, as she looked around.

After delivering the afterbirth and cleaning herself up, Helen took up the little girl where she had laid her on some hay while pulling on her rucksack. Walking slowly, due to the aches that now riddled the lower part of her body, Helen's brown eyes took in every detail of the stables - which, for the most part, was clean- before she moved deftly over to where the actual cabs were stationed. Opening the door to one of the shiny black carriages, Helen didn't enter the cabin herself, as she gently placed the little girl on the cushioned seats, where she now lay sleeping.

"I'm sorry, little one," Helen murmured softly, as she ran a hand through the small brown tuft on her daughter's head. "But it's safer for you to be here, than to be with me. I hope you understand."

Planting a kiss on her baby daughter's head, Helen exhaled a deep breath, as she straightened, stepped back, and gently closed the carriage door. Looking through the window to ensure the baby still slept, Helen pulled her hood up once more, and after finding another exit to the building, slipped out onto another street.

Her boots splashed as they hit puddles in the road, while the rain now fell as a drizzle. Helen felt moisture fall on her cheeks, but walked on - unawares that the moisture she felt was from her own tears.

A few hours later, a lone horse-drawn carriage stopped outside a white marble house situated in the area of South Kensington. The driver of the cab tipped his hat as he jumped down to open the door to his next passengers - a young couple, who seemed to be of a moderate living - and offered them a slight bow while they stepped up, into the cabin. As he was about to close the door fully, a gasp from the young woman caused Benjamin Brown to pull the door wider.

"Oh David," Abigail Merchant gasped, as she picked up a squirming bundle, wrapped in an unfamiliar item of clothing. "Good heavens..."

"Dear God Man, what is the meaning of this?" David Merchant asked the confused cabby, as he turned his grey eyes to the man.

"I-I-I dunno sir," Benjamin stuttered, as he removed his cap and brught it to his chest, almost in fear. "I didn't know it was there," he added dumbly.

"Don't you check your cabs before taking them out?" Merchant asked, as his wife bounced the baby girl in order to calm her down after the loud voices of her husband and cab driver disturbed her.

"We checked them before the rain, Sir, they was clean." Brown quickly explained, "This is the first time we've been out since, Sir,"

"Well-"

"David, please," Abigail spoke softly as the baby quietened in her arms. "You're unsettling the little one. Isn't he?" she cooed, as she tapped her finger lightly on the small nose, as it wrinkled. She looked back up at her husband. "We should take her inside."

David studied Abigail for a moment, before nodded. The couple had been having trouble concieving for a while now - they had been married for nearly two years - but seeing his wife with the orphan now (as that is what the child would be considered to be if taken to a workhouse), David Merchant knew the newborn and his wife had formed an attachment.

"Yes, My dear, quite right," he said, as he stepped out of the carriage and offered Abigail his hand as she stepped down and headed back toward the house.

The gentlemen waited until his wife had been met by the maid, and had gone into the house before turning to the cab driver that had been ignored throughout the marital exchange. "You will not be recieving any money for this, understood? And I shall be speaking to your employer."

Benjamin's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish several times before nodding silently, as the gentlemen turned on his heel and stalked back to the house as a watery sun broke through the grey storm clouds of hours before - just as David and Abigail Merchant, welcomed their new daughter, Emily, into the family.

Fin.

Author Note (2): First one-shot over... Thoughts?