As the taxi wove its way through the streets of London from Heathrow airport, Connor sat fidgeting impatiently in the back.
He had just returned home from a three week long trip to Vancouver to provide assistance to the newly formed anomaly team there. The experience had been stressful to say the least. For a start, the creatures that came out of the anomalies over there seemed to have even more gruesome killing methods than the ones he had seen in England (fortunately, Evan Cross and his team seemed more than capable of dealing with them). But worse than that was being so far away from his beloved Abby for so long. The timing of the trip had been especially bad as it had happened less than a week after they'd gotten back from their honeymoon in Majorca.
But at last, Connor was home again. And now he wanted nothing more in the world than to take his wife in his arms once again and tell her he loved her and how much he missed her.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, the taxi pulled up in front of their flat. Fishing a wad of pound notes out of his wallet, Connor paid the driver, took his luggage out of the boot and practically threw himself through the front door.
"Abs! Abby, I'm home baby!" he called.
"I'm in the bathroom, Con" she called back.
"Oh right. Do you want me to...give you some privacy then?" he said. "I can sit in the living room until you're ready."
"Actually, I'd quite like you to come in here."
"Alright" said Connor as he headed for the bathroom. "As long as you don't want me to fix a pipe."
"I think we'll leave that to the professionals, Connor. Don't you?"
Connor grinned. He loved his wife's sense of humour, even when she was taking the mick out of him. As he went into the bathroom, he saw her perched on the edge of the bath. Without thinking twice, he scooped her up in his arms and planted a passionate kiss right on her lips, followed by many more in quick succession.
"I love you, I love, I love you" he said between each kiss. "I missed you so much."
"I missed you too, Connor" said Abby. "Was the trip good."
"Yeah, not too bad" said Connor, trying as always to make light of things. "I'll tell you about it. First I-
"Actually, Connor. There's something I need to tell you first" said Abby. Connor released her from his arms and allowed her to back away a bit.
"What is it?" he asked. And then his eyes strayed to the freshly weed-on pregnancy stick that Abby was clutching in her right hand. His jaw dropped and he looked up at her with eyes wide open in wonder. He could barely believe what he was seeing.
"Abs, is it...is it..."
Abby broke out into a grin and flashed the two blue lines of the pregnancy test in front of Connor.
"Yes" she said excitedly. Connor let out a cry of sheer joy and crushed Abby to his body once again. Tears of joy trickled out his eyes and his laughter was the most wonderful sound in the world as far as Abby was concerned.
"Oh Abs, congratualtions. Congratulations. Oh my God, I can't believe it!" He pulled away from her and grinned from ear to ear. "You're gonna have a baby?" he squeaked.
"Yes" she said, smiling just as much as he was. Connor instinctively placed his hand on his wife's abdomen.
"Hello in there" he said. "You know who's talking to you right now? It's your daddy" he said.
"Con, I'm two months along. The baby won't have proper ears yet" said Abby.
"Yeah, well. It's never too late to start" he replied. He gave her another kiss.
"Oh my God, Abby. We've gotta tell everyone, everyone we know!" he cried. And the next thing Abby knew he was downstairs on the phone to everyone at the ARC telling them the good news. Listening to the excitement in his voice, she was reminded of a child telling everybody about a wonderful new Christmas present he'd been given. But Abby knew that to Connor and her, this baby was far better than any present they could ever have gotten. It was the most precious gift that either of them could have given the other. And although she knew that pregnancy would not be easy going, she wasn't afraid of it. Because she knew that through it all she would have Connor by her side, giving her support, smothering her with love and reaffirming what she had known all along: that this baby would be loved and cherished by its father.
Seven months later
Abby's agonised screams rang out around the maternity ward.
Three hours earlier, Abby and Connor had been sitting on the sofa watching a Star Wars movie (it was a toss up between that or one of Abby's chick flicks, and Connor had won this time). But while Connor's eyes had been transfixed on the scene where Princess Leia strangled Jabba the Hutt, Abby's had been on her very large, very round stomach. Gently, she had caressed it with one hand, imagining how things would be when it wasn't her belly she was stroking, but her baby's head when it was born.
And then, just as she thought that thought, and placed her hand on her belly for about the thirtieth time, it had happened. Something inside her gave way and suddenly the contractions began. Abby had yelped, bringing Connor out of his Star Wars induced trance. Instantly his head had spun in Abby's direction.
"Abby, what's wrong?" he had gasped. Abby had looked up at her husband, grimacing at the pain of the contraction, as she shifted towards him, she revealed a patch of moisture between her legs.
"Connor, I'm going into labour" she'd groaned. As soon as she said that, Connor had sprung straight into action. He gone straight to his and Abby's room and returned a few moments later with an overnight bag that he had been packing and unpacking almost every day for the past two weeks. Then, after throwing a towel on the damp patch of sofa, he'd immediately guided her to the car and driven her straight to the hospital.
Now she was lying on a bed in the maternity ward groaning with the effort to give birth, grimacing at the increasingly painful contractions. Next to her, Connor stood by the bed and held her hand, ignoring the pain of Abby's regular squeezings of it as she sought a way to distract herself from the agony she was in. The entire time he had encouraged her like a prize fighter, never letting her give in to the pain.
"Come on Abby. Just push. You can do this, I know you can!" Abby looked up at him with fear in her eyes.
"Connor, I'm afraid" she whimpered.
"Hey come on, babe. There's no reason to be scared. You're a trooper remember, you can deal with this easily."
"Perhaps you should try pushing a baby out through a narrow hole" said Abby in exasperation. And then in a calmer tone, she said "Connor, it's not the pain I'm afraid of. I knew it was going to be painful giving birth. There's something else."
"What's that?" asked Connor.
Abby paused for a moment as another contraction racked her body.
"Connor, I'm gonna be honest. I'm scared of being a mum."
"What? What are you scared of?"
"Connor, you know my mum was a complete witch to me and Jack. Shouting at us, locking us in our rooms, letting her boyfriends beat us up. Well, what if I'm like that? It's been proven that people who were abused by their parents become abusive parents themselves. I don't want to be like that, Con. I want this baby to have a mum who loves it and treats it nicely. But I'm just so scared that I'll end up being just as bad as my mum."
"Abby" said Connor. "You could never be like your mum. You're a kind, loving, wonderful person, and I know that you'll be an amazing mum. This baby is gonna have a mum to be proud of. There's no question about it in my mind."
Abby smiled in the interim between contractions. She knew that Connor could always say something to make her feel better.
"Thanks, Con" she said before she was seized by another bout of pain.
Watching his wife strain in agony, Connor whispered a string of encouraging words and stroked her forehead with his free hand. He'd never reveal it to Abby, especially not now when she was in labour, but he was also terrified. Not about being a dad, he was willing to jump into that with both feet, but rather of what was going on in front of him right now. Although he always tried to look on the bright side of things, several times in the past seven months, his mind had strayed to the possibility of anything that could go wrong during the birth. Abby could die, the baby could be stillborn, or worse they may both die. Connor knew he would not be able to carry on if any of those things happened. He kept telling himself he was silly to think that, that medical facilities in the UK were more than capable to keeping Abby alive during the birth, but sometimes that just wasn't enough to stop him from thinking it. And now that Abby was actually in labour, all of those fears were coming at him like a tidal wave. But he kept calm, he knew he couldn't reveal his fear to Abby. Because if she sense that he was scared, she'd lose her nerve. He needed to be strong for her, and for the baby.
"Come on, Mrs. Temple. Not much more to go now" said the midwife. "Just a couple more pushes now"
"OK" groaned Abby. When the next contraction came, she pushed. Then when the one after that came, she pushed again. She felt the baby's head being pushed out, it's shoulders hung and then after that-
"It's a boy" said the midwife. "It's a healthy little boy"
At that moment, both Abby and Connor fell apart completely. It was as if all the months of anxiety that had passed since Abby had discovered she was pregnant were suddenly drained out of them. Tears of sheer happiness cascaded down their faces as the midwife handed their new son, bundled up in blankets, to Abby. As with most newborns, he was small and slightly wrinkled, he had a round, boyish face not dissimilar to Abby's and a tuft of jet black hair like Connor's on his head. As he let out a cry in order to take his first breath, Connor had to sit down. He was that emotional.
Presently, the midwife took the baby away to clean him and give him a full check up. Ten minutes later, she came back and gave him back to Abby.
"Have you got a name for him?" she asked.
Abby looked at Connor and smiled, he smiled back at her and then they both faced the midwife.
"Nicholas" they said in unison. "Nicholas Temple. Nick for short."
